There's a primary brewing the 26th Congressional District that Democrats should avoid.

The contenders are Jon Powers, an Iraq War veteran and teacher, and Jack Davis, a local businessman who ran for this seat in 2006, narrowly losing to republican incumbent Tom Reynolds. Some background on the race is sketched out by Robert Harding of The Albany Project, here.

The reason this primary should be avoided is this: it would take away resources better used elsewhere, would damage the Democratic brand, and might result in an outcome, a Davis victory, that would likely lead to defeat in November.

Why, over the fold.

One of Hillary Clinton's arguments that she should be the party's nominee is that she is winning all (or almost all) of the "big states." Fortunately, this argument is falling flat, because it is a sure recipe for continued Democratic failure.

Those small states that Barack Obama is winning are exactly those states Democrats have ignored for decades, to the party's detriment. Many of us enthusiastically support Howard Dean's "50-state strategy" for gaining and maintaining a long-term Democratic majority. We believe that the answer to "you fight the fights you can win" is "you can only win the fights you fight."

Democrats have made significant gains in the mountain states, and now have five governors (out of nine states), and a few state legislatures. Both U.S. Senators from theoretically "red" states like Montana and North Dakota are Democrats, and Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico could soon join that club.

If you look up the word “mulligan” in the dictionary, you would find that it is a re-taken golf shot; or better still: a shot that- against the rules- a golfer allows an opponent to take again. Bill Clinton is known to take many mulligans when playing friendly games of golf; his wife (Hillary Rodham Clinton) seems to have learned this bad habit quite well. It is all about changing the rules in mid game, especially when things aren’t going their way. It’s about refining techniques that give them an unfair advantage in any competitive event. It is cheap, low and crass.

If Billary were to go to any toy store to purchase a device for their pleasure, what they would find is that in near all devices sold: “batteries are not included”. So after Tuesday’s primaries (Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont), all rational Democrats need to emphatically make the case- to both Bill and Hillary Clinton- that mulligans (just like batteries) are not included in the rules of this year’s primary elections.

I must admit that I have been having big fun during this election cycle. I have been amused when watching the many “Clintonistas”, running around the talk shows, spinning deluded tales of audacious hopes for best case scenarios, while seemingly oblivious to the harsher reality: Billary’s candidacy is dead; long live the dead.

So yeah, like I said, people aren't happy about the developing primary in the Third Senatorial District between Democrat Dahroug and republican Bodkin. At least one person was unhappy enough to sit down and go through Newsday's archives, apparently.

Which is where one can find this letter to the editor, penned on the passing of Richard Nixon, by one Christopher D. Bodkin of Islip, published on May 1st, 1994 (Nixon died on April 22nd, 1994):

I met Richard Nixon three times. Each time he was sitting behind the Mets dugout at Shea Stadium. My seats were always close by, and between innings small groups of people would go over to him to ask if he would autograph their programs or to just shake his hand and say hello. He always wore a jacket and tie, no matter how hot it was, and he was always gracious and friendly and only too happy to chat, mostly about baseball.

While I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, there was never a time when his name was not a household word.

To me, he was a man who appeared to be unexciting, yet he kept doing exciting, even extraordinary things. Nixon the politician was much like Hamlet the prince. Unexplainable character flaws created an atmosphere, an environment, that led to the tragic, needless and mysterious felony that was called Watergate. It was his undoing.

Yet, all of us are much more than the total of our mistakes. I believe that, in the fullness of time, Richard Nixon will be seen as the great man he was. In the meantime, it will be hard to think of political life in this country without him.

More immediately, it will be hard for me to go to Shea Stadium and look over to the Mets dugout and know that he will never be there again. I will miss him. [Emph. added]

Because nothing says "more and better Democrats" like paeans to Richard freaking Nixon, I suppose.

...there's a revolution happening in the Democratic Party. The grassroots and the rank and file - the little people, in short - are in full revolt against The Way Things Are, as Hillary Clinton's campaign can attest. Last night, in the Fourth District of Maryland, a genuine people-powered, grassroots candidate, Donna Edwards, shellacked eight-term incumbent Congressman Al Wynn. In what was billed as the Potomac Primary, Barack Obama wiped out - such was the scale of the revolt - the establishment's anointed choice for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, to the point where her continued viability in the race is coming under question on the front page of the New York Times.

This rebellion is being driven by several factors, one of which is the astonishing campaign of Barack Obama. Another is simple sick-and-tiredness of Things As They Are; it's a national moment of Network, a collective "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore". An apathetic electorate is becoming aware of itself, and discovering that it has power.

Nowhere beyond the Washington Beltway is such a Great Awakening more desperately needed than in the toothache of a disgrace that is the government of the State of New York. This is an opportunity.

Below is a link to a story positioning Steve Harrison as the candidate of the people and Domenic Recchia as the Brooklyn machine's choice in City Hall News.

The article mentions the Daily Gotham, but the reporter didn't contact Bouldin and Mole as I suggested when he was writing the piece.

http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/1316/2007-11-12.html

I heard Senator Schumer speak at the NYSDC Fall Meeting; the speech, to summarize, was one long glowing exposition of how wonderfully the Congressional Democrats were doing, and how, if we're just patient, give them a bigger majority and wait until 2009, everything will come up roses, and pretty pink ponies will fly through the sky.

The audience, of course, clapped enthusiastically, as we bloggers simply stood there and shook our heads in amazement.

Today, The New York Times editorial page took issue with Schumer and his capitulation caucus.

Abdicate and Capitulate

It is extraordinary how President Bush has streamlined the Senate confirmation process. As we have seen most recently with the vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, about all that is left of “advice and consent” is the “consent” part...

Dear Democrats, we need to have a talk. The subject of that talk is going to be just how much of a disappointment you are. And face it, you are a disappointment. Your poll numbers don't lie.

The newest installment of your chronicle of disappointments is one that is especially bitter, because it illustrates with startling clarity just how deeply, how irretrievably, you don't get it. I'm talking, of course, about the MoveOn.org censure vote.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to condemn the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org for a recent advertisement attacking the top U.S. general in Iraq.

By a 341-79 vote, the House passed a resolution praising the patriotism Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Petraeus as "General Betray Us."

Fine job, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, you have been played like patsies. In New York, you are: Arcuri, Bishop, Engel, Gillibrand, Hall, Israel, Maloney, McCarthy, Meeks and Rangel.

Here's why this is so bad: ignore the disputed ad for a second. MoveOn.org is your ally. From now on, every time they're mentioned in either the lamestream or the rightwing media, presumably in a context that accrues to your benefit, it will be with an asterisk, as follows:

*MoveOn.org was condemned by the United States Congress. They're bad people.

Joe Mondello, who seems not to have quite grasped the basics of the English language yet, issued a statement today. Here's the relevant part, slightly edited for clarity:

Blah blah Democrat State Committee blah Senate Democrats blah just blah detract blah critical blah investigation blah Troopergate scandal.

The people of New York State overwhelmingly demand blah blah blah come clean blah blah under oath blah. Blah blah muddy the waters blah confuse blah partisan rhetoric blah political subterfuge blah the people of this state will not accept blah.

Joe, old man, it's Democratic. Not Democrat. You have so much to say about us, you might choose to get the basics right.

I emailed the release over to June O'Neill, the Chair of the Democrat State Committee, and here's her on-the-record response:

"There they go again! The State Republican Party, Joe Bruno and his Senate Republicans have now shown their true colors.

They are not the least bit interested in doing anything except holding on to their razor thin majority in the state Senate.

Adhering to Roger Stone's playbook, they continue their partisan, political witch hunt.

With the Attorney General's finding that no laws were broken and credible investigations in progress by the Albany county D.A. And State Ethics Commission, their "show trials" are a joke.

Their antics would be almost laughable if they weren't wasting time and the taxpayers money while refusing to deal with the real issues of importance to New York's working families.

It's past time for the GOP to stop trying to make a molehill into a mountain and get back to work."