Capitol Confidential makes note of a controversy brewing between The Working Families Party and the old socialists and 9/11 tinfoil-hatters of the green party.

At issue is the mailer above, on the reverse of which is the entire WFP slate; however, the green Senate candidate claims to have been endorsed by Cindy Sheehan and is accusing the WFP of deliberate deception right before the election. Gatemouth agrees.

Here's the problem with that assessment: all of the people pictured on the mailer provided statements and express permission for these to be used. To quote the WFP's Alex Navarro:

“Cindy Sheehan is a courageous American, who along with Michael Moore and Pete Seeger, has been an important force in changing public opinion about the war in Iraq,” Navarro said. “The Working Families Party is grateful for the support they’ve given to the party’s ‘Bring ‘em Home’ campaign and for the quotations they authorized for our direct mail.”

“We hope New Yorkers who reject the Nader-ite spoiler approach to electoral politics that elected George W. Bush president will vote Working Families on Tuesday to send a message about the war.”

The green party is pushing hard this year to get votes for its gubernatorial candidate, whom I usually refer to as Affable Green Irish Guy (with no disrespect intended to the Irish, who are blameless in this).

The reason for this is not a desire to aid and abet the republican candidate, as is their habitual practice - in the current cycle, see Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington State - perhaps because republican gubernatorial candidate whatshisname is so feeble that he is unable to benefit from green assistance. Rather, the goal is to secure automatic ballot access for future races, which under state law is conditional on receiving 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial race. On one of their own web sites, which I won't link to out of principle, they acknowledge this:

The Green Party of New York State needs to get 50,000 votes for Governor in order to regain automatic ballot status. Being a ballot status party allows us to run many more candidates. With ballot status in 2001, we ran over 200 candidates. Without ballot status in 2005, we ran only 20 candidates.

An automatic ballot line for the green party in this state will have strongly negative implications for the present and future electoral goals of the New York State Progressive movement.

You know DEM stands for Democratic Party, and REP for Republican. Maybe you know about IND (Independent Party), CON (Conservative Party), WOR (Working Families Party) and that, since you are not voting for lesbian bisexual transexuals, LBT stands for Libertarian Party.

Do you know though, there's such a thing as the Rent Too High Party (RTH), not to be confused with the wretched humanoids of the Right To Life Party?

Here's the rest of the list of New York State's political parties to be expected in a ballot near you this coming Tuesday:

Freedom (FRE)
Green (GRE)
Growth (GRP)
Integrity (ITG)
North Contry Reform (NCR)
Rising Voices Coalition (RVC)
School Tax Relief (STR)
Socialist Workers (SWP)
Socialist Equality (SEP)
Taxpayer's Relief (TPR)
Unity (UNT)

'Stay the course' has become political poison, reports the New York Times.

Somebody really should tell Joe Lieberman – but wait, his opponents already are. Is there really a pro-war majority in Connecticut? Somehow, one doubts it. By the way, because Lamont just isn't good enough, there's a Green in that race, too.

Constituents of an indicted former Assemblyman in Queens profess to be 'shocked' at his malfeasance, says the Times. This because, presumably, the outer-borough Democratic machines are known for their transparency and ethics.

Disgraced Rep. John Sweeney is seeking 'guidance' from his House committee on how to declare his trip to the Marianas with Jack Abramoff in 2001, according to The Albany Times-Union. As we reported yesterday, Sweeney, along with other New York republicans, is facing collapsing support from the electorate, and now trails his Democratic challenger Kristen Gillibrand 54% to 41%.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says 'hell, no!' to legislative pay raises. The logic being that they should fix some of the state's problems, such as escalating debt, before increasing their own pay. Can't really argue with that.

The Washington Post keeps tabs on the resurgent Democratic Party of... Kansas.

Also in WaPo, President Clinton lays out the stark differences between the parties, for the benefit, perhaps, of people who claim that there are no such differences, or those that have bought the tired Limbaugh talking point that 'Democrats don't stand for anything'. Here's a quote:

"I long for the day when we will return to a debate that is not about who's a good person and who's a slug, not about who represents the religious truth and who is basically running for office on his or her way to hell," he said. "I long for the day when Republicans and Democrats will sit around and have these raucous, exciting arguments and actually love learning from one another and we create the common good out of the dynamic center."

In this installment of my ongoing series on the Green Party – prior posts are here and here - I’ll look at the most baseless Green claim, which is that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between the two major parties. This claim betrays, at best, a breathtaking naïveté about the republican party, and at worst deliberate dishonesty.

Let’s review:

Via MyDD:

The race for the congressional seat in New York's 26th Congressional district between Congressman Tom Reynolds and businessman Jack Davis is neck and neck according to new scientific polling information.

The survey was commissioned by Channel 2 News and was completed by Survey USA. It breaks down as the following:

45% Tom Reynolds (R)
43% Jack Davis (D)
8% Christine Murphy (G)
4% Undecided

Thanks a lot, guys. Just vote for the republican and save yourself the bother.

[Update]: Alrighty, the Green is off the ballot, and not of her own volition, either. Still, you have to wonder what drives a candidacy in a swing district. And with the Green gone, we have a chance to take out the chair of the NRCC - sweet.