DCDL

On Thursday November 3, we are pleased and proud to host Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations for the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

She will be discussing the Miers nomination, and taking your questions. Free apetizers (we’ve worked out a pretty impressive spread with Timberlake’s), and the happy hour prices (basically, $1 off all drinks) will apply for the whole evening.

More on Lisa Maatz and AAUW after the jump
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Yesterday afternoon, Keith and I participated on a conference call from Drinking Liberally chapters all over the country. We counted 30 cities, and multiple representatives from each city on this call. I wanted to give just a couple of quick impressions .

• Drinking Liberally is turning into a big deal on a national basis. The group as a whole may incorporate, and the details are under discussion.
• One topic of the call was a reminder that Drinking Liberally is a social organization. We work with other organizations that promote political aims. Drinking Liberally doesn’t promote a particular candidate. As Cindy Lauper might have put it: DL’ers just want to have fun.
• Lots of ideas about promoting events, that we’ll include with promotions for Thursday nights at Timberlake’s.

I know I/we tend to think of Drinking Liberally in terms of the local chapter, but it’s nice to know there’s a national organization with an eye towards the future. I know I’m excited, and hope you are, too.

A couple of times in the past day or two I’ve caught a snippet of a news story talking about someone being charged with a crime and disputing the authority of those charging him, and each time for a split second I think it’s a story about Tom DeLay. Of course, it’s always really about Saddam Hussein. Easy mistake to make.

How can it be acceptable for a politician charged with a crime to be running ads to smear the prosecutor? But then what Ronnie Earle is experiencing is nothing compared to what will be coming down on Patrick Fitzgerald if he has the audacity to indict anyone in the White House for outing Valerie Plame or impeding his investigation.

Look, it can be a great advantage to have people in your party who push the boundaries and dance close to the line of illegal behavior. But if you want to reap the benefits from that, you also suffer the consequences when the dancers aren’t quite as skilled as they think they are and a misstep sends them into illegal territory.

The current Republican leadership apparently wants the United States to be the sort of country where the laws apply to everyone except members of the ruling party. Fortunately, I don’t think they’ve managed to degrade us quite that far yet, but we’ll see.

Steve Clemons has a post up at TPMCafe that I’d have to rate as one of the most important things I’ve read recently. Steve is reporting on a talk that former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson gave at the New America foundation yesterday.

Wilkerson is saying that the framer’s of US foreign policy in the era after WWII wanted to avoid another Roosevelt. Nothing against FDR, it’s just that the notion of power concentrated in the Executive branch could lead to the situation that Eisenhower warned us about: where the country is run by the military-industrial complex.

As Wilkerson puts it:
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DC for Democracy is holding an Oktoberfest fundraiser this Friday, October 21, to raise money and recruit volunteers for the five candidates they’ve endorsed for the Virginia House of Delegates:

• David Englin
• David Marsden
• David Poisson
• Steve Shannon
• Bruce Roemmelt

The sausagy, cheesy, beery, winy fun begins at 6:30 at Christ Church Parish Hall, 620 G Street SE. The cost is $35, but there’s a special rate of $25 for people who pledge to volunteer.

DC4D’s Charles Allen has a few words of encouragement:

As you may know, DC for Democracy targeted 5 northern Virginia House of Delegate candidates. Each is a progressive voice. And each took time to understand our issues, the need for DC voting rights, and will become good neighbors to the District. But it is crunch time now. Only 3 weeks remain until the November elections. You’ve probably seen the polls where Democratic candidate Tim Kaine is now tied or leading in the Governor’s race (you may even have seen some of the disgusting ads put on TV by his Republican opponent). We need to make sure we can beat them in every race — up and down the ticket.

Details and RSVP

For those of you who are on the mailing list I wanted to add some clarifications about DCDL on Thursdays.

First, the time and the place are the same as they ever were. Second, Keith and I are also in the process of lining up speakers for Thursdays, optimally on a once-a-month basis. Between the two of us we’ll coordinate Thursday nights starting, well… now. Cory will be coordinating Wednesday nights at Mark&Orlando’s.

I also wanted to emphasize in case there was any confusion, we’re very happy with Timberlake’s. I understand that Cory wanted to try something different, thus the new location. Actually, if we ever want to do a screening on a Thursday, Mark&Orlando is an ideal place for it, so we may go there for an evening on occassion.

See you at Timberlake’s Thursday! (Oh, and don’t forget to sign up on the new mailing list)

There’s been a flurry of excitement in the blogosphere about rumors that Dick Cheney might resign. Before you overbuy champagne (and popcorn), a word of caution is in order, and Tim Grieve at Salon has one for you:

As stories pushing the Plame investigation higher up the chain of command swirl about — Cheney’s face is on CNN right now — perhaps it would be wise to remember this. The Bush White House is full of masterful spinners, and they’re good at playing the expectations game. Maybe they’re really concerned that Cheney will be indicted or at least implicated in Plame’s outing. But maybe they know that, if they get enough people thinking that Cheney may face charges, the indictment of a Karl Rove or a Scooter Libby might suddenly come off as no big thing.

I’m not going to speculate on who is going to be indicted by Fitzgerald, or what the charges will be. Instead, I plan to use the time more productively: browsing for popcorn recipes.

Between the forthcoming indictiments and the prospect of seeing Delay’s mug shot after he gets booked this weekend, I want to make sure I have the right snack foods on hand.

Something odd about that Delay thing by the way. This morning I read this in the Washington Post: (emphasis mine)
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I stayed up late tonight to watch the first Colbert Report, and thought things went very well. I don’t know how long Comedy Central can keep it up, but this appears to be the beginning of something promising.

Now, anyone who has been part of the theater scene knows this, but I can imagine that some were confused by the Stone Phillips headline of: “What a to-do to do today at a quarter or two to two…”

That line is a standard vocal warmup for actors, particularly in the New York area, where the t’s approximate the Dutch d’s.

I believe the point was that news is not distinct from theater, at least not the way it is now.

If you’re looking for a way to celebrate Tom DeLay’s troubles and add to them at the same time, here’s the latest message from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, about a low-cost fundraiser:

Over the past few weeks, stories have been streaming out about Tom DeLay’s vulnerability in the 2006 elections. It’s in this environment that we will be kicking off Lampson Victory 2006 — the DCCC’s joint effort with Nick Lampson’s campaign, the man who will help unseat the most powerful Republican in the history of Congress. The media is getting the message that the 2006 elections will be a whole new ball game, that no Republican — no matter how powerful or how comfortable — will be safe.

This is why we are celebrating tomorrow night, and I hope you will join Nick Lampson, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC for the beginning of a new day for America. Help us kickoff our new joint effort with Lampson for Congress, Lampson Victory 2006, and enjoy a night of food and drink with the Democrats leading our charge for change.

Lampson Victory 2006 Kick-Off
Date: October 18, 2005
Time: 5-7pm
Address: Democratic Headquarters, 430 South Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
RSVP and Donate

I truly hope you can join us.

Sincerely,
John Lapp
Executive Director, DCCC