Road Report from Ted Chiodo:

25 Days Left and John Kerry just rocked the house at tonight’s Jefferson Jackson dinner in Manchester New Hampshire.

It was a crisp fall New Hampshire night and John Kerry’s words were equally crisp, precise and to the point. The Armory Ball Room (as Joliet Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers, would say a “real barn”) was filled to the brim with excited and fired up Democrats. These are the same brave men and women who stood up, fought back and turned the state blue in 2004. Tonight was a blast and it was a real honor to be part of this effort to make sure the Granite State stays blue in 2006. Let me give you a full account of tonight’s speech because it was quite a sight to behold.

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry arrived at the Radisson in Manchester around 4:30 PM. By that time I’d already said hello to some of the nicest, well informed and hard working members of this online community. Marvin Nicholson gave me a ring and informed me that he had run into a Johnkerry.com blogger in the unusually trendy Radisson lobby. <!-more-> I immediately put down my Sony pod casting owners manual (wonderful reading by the way) and rode the elevator down (with LeBron James, no less, in town for a Cavaliers Exhibition Game, I wished him luck with the game and asked if he was voting, he said yes - yes, it is a weird and wild world that I inhabit) to meet Terri and Ann who had assembled some of the local and not so local Johnkerry.com community members to attend the speech. Well, we got to chatting about 06 and Johnkerry.com and before you know it Terri and Ann had to find their seats before the JJ began without them. Before I go any further I want to say to all the Johnkerry.com community members that I met tonight (Terri, Cathie, Kirsten, Ann and forgive me if I forgot anyone) that your kind words mean a lot to me. Your hard work and intelligence are the life blood of this community. In simpler terms - you rock.

So I said my good byes to Terri and Ann, and I headed out to the Armory room to check my perch on the press riser (the place where all the MSM media guys set up their cameras and hang out). The room, which looks like a super sized high school basketball court, was brimming with excitement as the New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair started off the festivities with the pledge of allegiance.

After the pledge, fired up Democrats Carol Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes and Gov John Lynch took the floor and put the decision before the audience.

This year we face a choice. Do we want to send this Congress back to DC or have we had enough of it? Have we had enough of the Republican internet sock puppetry against Paul Hodes, have we had enough of the Ken Mehlman-connected phone jamming? Have we had enough of this war?

Well let me tell it to you straight. That crowd in that hall on that night had had enough of this Republican Congress. The stage was well set for John Kerry, who was introduced to a standing ovation from the people who helped make him the Democratic nominee in 04. Love and hope were tangible as the crowd rose to their feet in appreciation.

John Kerry waved, took a breath and began what was a hell of a speech. Sharp, clear, hitting back decisively at the fear-and-loathing administration that divides rather than unites and preys on fears instead of inspiring the better angels of our nature. We’ll have the text and video later today. Take a look…

Mahalo!

UPDATE: The full transcript of JK’s speech is now available here.

John Kerry will speaking later tonight at the New Hampshire’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire. We’ll have the full text and a video of the event later on, but here are some excerpts to chew on until then:

They tell us we’re making progress in Iraq and that there is no civil war. That is a lie. There is a civil war and it is costing American and Iraqi lives every single day and we must change course in Iraq….

They tell us the Congressional Page scandal is a Democratic plot to win the mid term elections. That is a lie. This issue is here because of a Republican cover-up. And those from the Party that preaches moral values that covered this up, have no right to preach moral values any more….

They say we must support the war in order to support the troops. I say the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, oppose a course that dishonors their sacrifice, and oppose a course that disserves our principles. They say we would dishonor the lives that have been lost by changing course in Iraq. How immoral and shameful to use lives already given as an excuse to take even more. How immoral to say that more must die because others already have. When soldiers suffer and die on the altar of an Administration’s stubborn pride, when they lose limbs because of the incompetence and arrogance of mere politicians, then the only patriotic choice is to take back the moral authority abused by those in high office – take it back and throw them out….

In New Hampshire, Congressmen Bass and Congressman Bradley have failed to ask the tough questions, failed to demand the answers, and rubberstamped a willful president’s wrongful course. That failure demands the independent voice of New Hampshire be represented by the independent voices of Paul Hodes and Carol Shea Porter! ...

Let me tell you, presidents and politicians may worry about losing face, or losing votes, or losing legacy – I believe we ought to worry about young Americans who are losing their lives….

It’s immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work – on a mission that has not weakened terrorism but worsened it….

Well I think Americans see through this charade. Americans now know the truth:

We have a Katrina foreign policy -blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it….

We deserve leaders who know we have “nothing to fear but fear itself” not politicians who have nothing to offer but fear itself….

No Democrat should be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan, a do nothing policy in North Korea and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq. We need to stand up to them because staying the course isn’t far-sighted; it’s blind. Leaving our troops in the middle of a civil war isn’t resolute; it’s reckless. Remember: half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America’s leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion….

We need to once again start treating our moral authority as a national asset that does not tie our hands but extends our reach. We must never excuse an Abu Ghraib or a Guantanamo. And let me say it plainly: No American president should be for torture before he’s against it….

So more than anything, we need to make America, America again -we need to restore America’s moral authority in the world and the United States needs to make some friends on this planet….

There are more Katrinas. Take health care – health care is a slow-motion Katrina that’s ruining lives and bankrupting families all over the country. In the almost six Bush years, health insurance premiums have gone up 73 percent….

You want a test of family values? Here’s a really simple test: Instead of people earning a million dollars a year getting another tax cut, give every child in America health care – now!...

So our job as Democrats is to fight until we stop allowing the richest country on the face of the planet to be the only one that doesn’t have health care for every man, woman, and child. The Democratic Party must stand for health care for all Americans-or we don’t stand for anything at all….

[Editor’s Note: John Kerry’s in New Hampshire today for the state party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. We’re happy to have a guest blog from Carol Shea-Porter, the Democratic challenger who’s out to oust the Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley (NH-01). For more on the dinner, check out these video podcasts too:  Theo Yedinsky interviews State Senators Maggie Hassan and Sylvia Larsen and political strategist Judy Reardon as they preview the New Hampshire Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.]

Hi, thank you for allowing me to be a guest blogger here with all of you. It’s a busy day here with the preparations for the Jefferson Jackson dinner but I wanted to take some time to share a little bit about my background and my plans to represent NH-01 in Congress.

Within twelve hours of my victory in September’s Democratic Congressional Primary, my Republican opponent began launching attacks. Jeb Bradley tried the plays from the same outdated playbook, claiming I was weak on defense and that I would endanger the troops. The White House used these lines against John Kerry in 2004, but New Hampshire voters didn’t buy it. They knew the truth and they voted for Senator Kerry.

I have fought back against these attacks. My husband was born and lived on military bases for the first eighteen years of his life, then went into ROTC and served his country for four years. I was proud to be a military spouse and I understand what soldiers and their families go through. That is why I have to speak up and tell the truth about the Iraq war and how the Bush Administration has failed our country and our soldiers. <!-more-> When we ask our soldiers to go to war, we have to be able to tell them and their loved ones what their mission is, and that their government will make sure that they have whatever they need to fight. But the Bush administration has put our brave troops into war without a clear mission and without the armor or equipment they need. Their families have had to scrounge for armor and have been forced to send needed supplies to their soldiers. This is a moral outrage. The Republican leadership has tried to save money on troops while giving tax breaks to the richest Americans.

My opponent agrees with the President’s bewildering claim that we are making the world safer. He has chosen to ignore all of the evidence to the contrary. The National Intelligence Estimate reveals that the war in Iraq is inflaming anti-American sentiment worldwide and that it has become a recruiting tool for terrorist organizations. We are in much greater danger today than we were on September 12th. John Kerry knows this and has spoken out against the war, but my opponent blindly follows George Bush.

What can we do to change direction in Iraq? We fire the people who refuse to believe the overwhelming evidence that this is a bungled mess. We elect representatives who have the courage to tell the truth and who will protect the soldiers and the families.

I am ready for the fight. We can change Washington and reverse the tragic course we have taken for the past six years. Senator Kerry proved that New Hampshire is ready to turn blue. With your help, we can make that happen. Thank you.

  -- Carol Shea-Porter
     Candidate for US Congress

More information on Carol Shea-Porter is available at her website.

[Editor’s Note: John Kerry’s in New Hampshire today for the state party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. We’re happy to have a guest blog from Paul Hodes, the Democratic challenger who’s out to oust the Republican incumbent Charlie Bass (NH-02). For more on the dinner, check out these video podcasts too:  Theo Yedinsky interviews State Senators Maggie Hassan and Sylvia Larsen and political strategist Judy Reardon as they preview the New Hampshire Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.]

 

My name is Paul Hodes and I’m running against Rep. Charlie Bass in New Hampshire’s Second District, which encompasses the western and northern regions of New Hampshire. Voters across the country know that we need change in Washington. Everywhere you look, people are expressing outrage and disgust at the failure of this Congress, and expressing a strong preference for Democrats’ ideas and values.

The American public yearns for a Democratic victory in November, but if we’re going to win the House back, we have to beat entrenched incumbents in districts like mine. The national mood alone does not win an election—a tough fight on the ground does. And a tough fight is exactly what we’re bringing to Charlie Bass. <!-more-> I’ve served the people of New Hampshire as an Assistant Attorney General, as a community leader in Concord, and as an attorney in private practice. I’m running because my family and my community need leadership that works for us, a truly independent voice who will put people first. In this changing world, our leaders need to be tough, smart, and fearless. With Charlie Bass in office, all we’ll get is more of the same failure.

Bass comes from an established New Hampshire Republican family, and he rode into office in 1994 largely on the strength of his last name. But in the twelve years that Bass has been in Washington, he’s done nothing but serve as a rubberstamp to the GOP congressional leadership and, for the last six years, President Bush.

Well, Bass’s inaction is finally catching up with him. Everywhere I go around the district, people are telling me how desperate they are for change. When New Hampshire most needs a voice to speak out against the failed policies of the Bush Administration, when seniors and working families most need an advocate in Washington, Bass is nowhere to be found.

We’ve got a tight race on our hands, but the momentum is on our side. It’s time to say goodbye to this broken Congress and set a new direction for America.

  -- Paul Hodes
     Candidate for US Congress

Road Report from Ted Chiodo:

With 26 days to go, greetings from New Hampshire, the Granite State.

The leaves are beginning to turn here and it is quite the sight.  Today, I drove around the state with the ever interesting and very well named Theodore “Theo” Yedinsky capturing interviews with key leaders and strategists in the New Hampshire Democratic Party.  We stopped by the imposing New Hampshire State House and snapped a couple shots.

State Senator Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire political strategist Judy Reardon, and Democratic leader Sylvia B. Larsen all were kind enough to give us a small chunk of time out of their busy day. We talked about tomorrow’s important New Hampshire Jefferson Jackson Dinner (JJ in the political vernacular), policy issues affecting New Hampshire, and the potential for Democratic candidates in 2006.  

These leaders are definitely worth listening to even if you aren’t a policy wonk.  Each of them is wonderfully kind, witty and determined to keep NH blue in 06. The interview with Maggie Hassan is already posted and the other two will be available shortly for your viewing pleasure on the multimedia page. Take a look….

And, yes, it was a bit confusing to have two Theodores traveling together.  Even my spell check thinks that having plural numbers of Theodore is impossible if not grammatically incorrect.  That is why I use the shortened form, Ted, and Theo clearly uses Theo.

26 Days Left …Time to tighten your shoe laces and Get to it.

Mahalo.

[Editor’s Note: A warm welcome for guest blogger Catherine Haluschak, a resident of Pennsylvania and a long-time JK supporter, who’s working hard like JK is, to see that Bob Casey joins John Kerry in the Senate. She attended the Casey-Santorum debate and sent us this report along with some great pictures.]

On an absolutely brilliant fall day in the City of Pittsburgh, a match-up was held between challenger Bob Casey and Senator Rick “How do you get to Pittsburgh, again?” Santorum.  The air was biting as the energized band of Casey supporters made our way from the Pittsburgh Hilton to the KDKA studios, just a short distance away, where the debate would be taped.

Amid chants of “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Rick Santorum’s got to go” and “What time is it? CASEY TIME!”, we waited for the next Senator from PA to arrive, holding up signs and waving at passing cars, many of whose occupants returned our greeting with an approving beep and thumbs up. <!-more-> Soon, our guy arrived and greeted his cheering supporters. Speaking of brilliant, how about this smile?

Good luck Mr. Casey. We’ll be watching you tonight as you work to rid the Senate of scourge of Rick Santorum, known to many of us here in the ‘burgh as one of the great minds of the 16th century (among other things).

The debate can be seen on KDKA in Pittsburgh at 7:00 p.m. tonight, at various times across Pennsylvania on PCN and on C-Span for everyone else. Check here for more details.

I should add that a grand total of three Santorum supporters showed up to support their candidate, but two were in costume (to keep from being recognized?) and all three arrived after their candidate had entered the building. I would post a picture, but it’s just too sad.

—Catherine Haluschak

Road Report from Ted Chiodo:

Mahalo!  A final report on doings this week from the neon wonderment that is Las Vegas.   Tuesday night, John Kerry, the traveling crew and I went to a fundraiser for Tessa Hafen, a first-time candidate running for Congress in Nevada’s 3rd District.

Tessa’s campaign is a case study for what is at stake this year.  She is a smart and talented third-generation southern Nevadan who was born and raised in Henderson.  Tessa spent the last eight years of her life working for the state’s senior senator, Harry Reid.  She offers voters a real alternative to her Bush rubber stamp opponent, Jon Porter.  Tessa’s drive, determination and hard working staff have already shown that a campaign run on ideas can take it to even a much-better funded opponent.  Tessa is now within striking distance of winning this House seat, and with support from Democrats like you, she will.

John Kerry and Tessa Hafen, Democratic candidate for NV-03
<!-more-> John Kerry and the traveling road show arrived at 6 pm Nevada time at the boutique Artisan Hotel on Sahara Avenue.  Nice place—definitely worth a look on the web.  Its lobby and bar are 100% Vegas.  And for your always hungry correspondent, they had some class-A appetizers that I snagged off of a tray going around.

John Kerry was met by a smiling Tessa Hafen, who introduced him to Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (NV-01) and a group of 50-60 Democratic young professionals.  After 20 minutes of picture taking and chatting, soon-to-be Congresswoman Hafen got things rolling, asking “doesn’t it feel good to not be a Republican today?”

The crowd was gracious and enthusiastic while Tessa chronicled her start in the race, when no one gave her a chance against a well funded Jon Porter.  Against the apparently long odds, Tessa Hafen has been fighting hard, and is getting through to people dissatisfied with Porter’s lack of leadership in Washington.

Hafen finished by introducing John Kerry, who spoke about the fear and loathing of the Republican slime attacks against veterans like Patrick Murphy.  (See Murphy’s guest blog about his race.)  John told the crowd that the only card the Republicans have left to play, in Nevada and in the rest of the country, was the fear card.

I’m in DC for a quick layover now, and then off to the great state of New Hampshire on Thursday.

      --Ted

Four years ago today, the United States Senate voted to give President Bush the authority to use force in Iraq. There’s nothing – nothing – in my life in public service I regret more, nothing even close. We should all be willing to say: I was wrong, I should not have voted for the Iraq War Resolution. It’s not enough to talk about the incompetence and immorality of this Administration in the conduct of this war. It is not enough to point out that we were grossly misled.

But it is also not enough just to look backwards. The question today is whether leaders will take responsibility for fixing a Katrina foreign policy that kills and maims our soldiers and weakens America in the fight against terror. We must change course in Iraq.

That’s why I have proposed a deadline for Iraq and a comprehensive plan to end the civil war. That’s why Russ Feingold and I forced a vote on it in the Senate. That’s why I keep on making the case wherever I go— today in Nevada.

My plan is the opposite of the administration’s stand-still-and-lose strategy. It’s pretty simple: every time President Bush tells the Iraqis we will “stay as long as it takes,” he is giving squabbling politicians there an excuse to take as long as they want. <!-more-> At each step along the way, the Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines. So why not a deadline to extricate our troops?

We also desperately need something else this administration disdains: diplomacy. Real diplomacy—a Dayton-like summit of Iraq and the countries bordering it, the Arab League, NATO, and the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. Guess what? That will only happen with a deadline to push and prod Iraqis and their neighbors to the bargaining table. Why would any other nation put itself on the line if the United States was willing to stay forever?

Today of all days, we should be having this debate, openly, honestly, and in a way that honors America’s troops and our best traditions. One of the things I feel most personally is that a Congress that shares responsibility for getting us into Iraq needs to take responsibility for getting us out the right way.

The truth is that America is imprisoned in a failed policy. And as in Vietnam, we’re being told that admitting mistakes, not the mistakes themselves, will provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory. Well, that too is a lie.

Next time you’re here in Washington, take a moment to walk down to the Vietnam War Memorial, if you haven’t done it. As you walk down that path into the center of the V and you stand in the V, you can look up one end and you’ll see 1960 - earlier, 1959 - all the way through parts of 1968, and then the other side of the all brings us toward the end. And half the names on that wall, half the names - stand in the center of it and look up at tens of thousands of young Americans - half the names on that wall were lost after America’s leaders knew and later acknowledged our strategy would not succeed. It was immoral then and it is immoral now to be quiet or equivocal in the face of that kind of delusion. Just think about what that Wall might look like for Iraq. Mistakes are no excuse for their own perpetuation.

UPDATE: The Kerry-Feingold plan is available in the Initiatives section of the website.

Cross-posted at Huffington Post

Ed Schultz is a progressive radio talk show host whose show is heard on Sirius, XM and Air America radio stations from 3-6 pm (EST).

UPDATE: JK’s time slot with Ed has been changed to 4:05 pm EST

JK will be chatting with Ed today starting at 3:30 4:05 pm EST. You can listen via radio (locate station here) or via internet streaming. The podcast is now available here.

JK and Ed will be discussing the current state of W’s Katrina foreign policy, the four year anniversary of the vote on Iraq, and North Korea.

Please add your thoughts to the discussion by commenting below. <!-more-> Background on Ed:

For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, Ed’s a pretty interesting character who describes his journey from a more conservative view of things to a progressive talk show host as an education that started with meeting his wife-to-be for lunch at the Salvation Army shelter where she worked so that he could meet “the “bums” he so often chastised on his show.”

Per Schultz, he’s now “the dominant progressive radio voice of the nation” and per wikipedia, is described by Talker Magazine as “the 9th most listened to talk program in the United States, with 2.5 million listeners a week”.

Today, rather than bring together Americans to face the reality of the civil war in Iraq, President Bush chose to attack John Kerry’s Iraq plan, arguing: “I would cite my opponent in the 2004 campaign, when he said there needs to be a date certain from which to withdraw from Iraq. I characterize that as cut and run, because I believe it is cut and run.”

Senator Kerry responded with the following statement:

“Today we heard more hollow attacks from a president acting like campaigner in chief rather than being commander in chief.

President Bush continues to be profoundly wrong about Iraq. He wraps my strategy in slogans because he’s afraid to take responsibility for his Katrina foreign policy that kills and maims our soldiers and weakens America in the fight against terror. Every day we continue the President’s failed stay-the-course strategy is another day we play into the hands of the terrorists.

We must change course in Iraq. This is why I have proposed a deadline for Iraq and a comprehensive plan to end the civil war. We must refocus our military efforts from the failed occupation of Iraq to what we should have been doing all along: tracking down and killing members of al Qaeda.

This is the opposite of President Bush’s stand-still-and-lose strategy. It’s a clear alternative from a broken policy of “more of the same.” Every time President Bush tells the Iraqis we will “stay as long as it takes,” he is giving squabbling politicians there an excuse to take as long as they want.

At each step along the way, the Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines. So we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet—a clear deadline of July, 2007 to redeploy our combat troops.

We also desperately need something else this president disdains: diplomacy. Real diplomacy—a Dayton-like summit of Iraq and the countries bordering it, the Arab League, NATO, and the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. This too will only happen with a deadline to push and prod Iraqis and their neighbors to the bargaining table.

Today of all days, on the four year anniversary of the vote on the use of force in Iraq, we should be having this debate, openly, honestly, and in a way that honors America’s troops and our best traditions.”