[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 Jeb Bradley tried the plays from the same outdated playbook, claiming I was weak on defense and that I would endanger the troops.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.”

From Ted, on the road in Nevada:

Hi everyone, with 28 days left to Election Day I’m posting from the great state of Nevada, where John Kerry campaigned for Jack Carter’s campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Today I accompanied Senator John Kerry, Elizabeth Carter (wife of Nevada Senate candidate Jack Carter, son of President Jimmy Carter) and their daughter, Sarah Carter, on a stop at the Nevada State Veterans Home in Boulder City.  Gary Bermeosol, the administrator of the facility and his great staff have 169 veterans (including spouses) in their care.  In the cafeteria, Senator Kerry spoke to a group of vets who gathered around crowded tables and chairs.

Elizabeth Carter, wife of Nevada Senate candidate Jack Carter, John Kerry
and Sarah Carter, Jack & Elizabeth’s daughter at the Nevada State Veterans Home

Kerry stressed that electing Jack Carter to the U.S. Senate was important for veterans everywhere.  Kerry said Carter believed that providing health care for America’s heroes is more important that giving more tax breaks to millionaires. <!-more-> Elizabeth Carter spoke briefly, and then she and Kerry went table to table talking with the veterans.  Robert Hudson, a 1970-76 Vietnam army veteran originally from Michigan, thanked Kerry for coming and for supporting more funding for the VA.

“We need leadership in Washington who understands that VA funding is critical for those who gave so much for there country,” Hudson said.  Hudson also told Kerry he was looking for real leadership in Washington to change the course in Iraq.

<img alt=”10-9nvcarterevent.jpg” src=”http://blog.johnkerry.com/10-9nvcarterevent.jpg” width=”282” height=”259” /> John Kerry talks with Army veteran Robert Hudson
After the talk, Gary Bermeosol took Kerry and the Carters on a tour.  I got a chance to talk with Sarah Carter, who’s been doing a great job as a blogger on her father’s campaign site, and I’m hoping to pass along a guest blog from her later about what she’s been learning about blogging and politics.

[Editor’s Note: Just a heads-up that if your comment isn’t visible during the late-night/early morning hours, it’s because the blog will have comments set to delayed-posting during that time so our moderators can get their beauty sleep. All of your comments are welcome and will be available for viewing in the morning.]

[Editor’s Note: A warm welcome for our first guest blogger: Iraq War veteran Pat Murphy, who’s running for Congress in the 8th district in Pennsylvania, shares his thoughts on fighting back against Republican “swift boat” smear campaigns.]

They told me it was coming. We saw them do it to Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs on the front lines in Vietnam. We saw them do to Senator John Kerry in 2004. They even did it to one of their own, Senator John McCain in 2000.

Patrick Murphy and former Georgia Senator Max Cleland

When I decided to run for Congress last year I knew it was only a matter of time until the Republicans tried to do it to me. But no amount of warning can prepare a soldier to watch as his service is publicly smeared by vicious attacks and boldfaced lies.

My parents taught me the importance of hard work, sacrifice and loyalty – values that spurred me to join the Army in 1993. Over the next 11 years I earned my commission as an officer, eventually taught constitutional law to the next generation of military leaders at West Point, and post 9/11 served a tour of duty in Bosnia and deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. There I witnessed firsthand the consequences of our failed policy in Iraq. I felt that I had a duty as a witness to our failed foreign policy to work for a change of direction in our country. <!-more->
Baghdad-2003: Captain Murphy instructing a new class of recruits for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps

That’s why, after I returned from Iraq, I volunteered my time to help John Kerry for President in Pennsylvania. When they tried to swift boat Senator Kerry at the Philadelphia Vietnam veteran’s memorial, I proudly defended his honor and service. Senator Kerry’s courage, leadership, and commitment to our country helped inspire me to keep up the fight for change by running for Congress.

Now, with one month left in that fight, it’s become apparent that my opponent will let nothing, not even the truth, get in the way of his campaign to protect the status quo. This final month will be the most critical of the campaign, but I will prevail because of the hard work and passion of my friends and family.

The voters of the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania are tired of the failed Bush agenda and the politics of personal destruction. With the help of volunteers, donors, and people like Senator Kerry, I will win this fight and help change the direction of our country.

Patrick J. Murphy

[To learn more about Patrick Murphy and find out how you can help, visit www.murphy06.com ]

And for more information about what the Republicans are doing to smear Patrick Murphy, check out “John Kerry Fights for Patrick Murphy” by Taylor Marsh on huffingtonpost.com, and mcjoan’s “PA-08: On Swiftboating Patrick Murphy” on Daily Kos (Monday, 7:09 PDT).