Conventions, tactics and resolutions

Madison's WKOW-DT 27 News reports Falk Cites Straw Poll As She Looks To AG Race:

Falk prevailed over Lautenschlager in a straw poll of nearly 100 attendees at the (Wisconsin) state democratic party convention. "That's a place and a base where you would presume the Attorney General would do very well," said Falk. "And I think the results are consistent with what I've been describing as what people are telling me."

Labor's Influence in Trouble in American Politics - Paul M. Weyrich provides some valuable insight on the internal struggles of the labor union movement, noting the declining influence of the AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education (COPE), which began in the late 1950s under the direction of Wisconsinite, Andrew Biemiller. Weyrich explains the battle to reelect 71 year-old President of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney.

In 2004 he doubled union dues so he could spend more on the Democratic Presidential and Congressional campaigns... But... the President was re-elected. Republicans increased their margin in the Senate by four seats and increased their margin in the House by three seats.

Sweeney’s opponents charge that he has spent too much time and money on non-productive politics and not enough on organizing...

Currently five unions, consisting of 40% of the AFL-CIO membership, threaten to desert the AFL-CIO if Sweeney, as expected, is re-elected."

But most important is Sweeney's problem with the following wedge issue...

Approximately 144 pro-family organizations sent a letter to Sweeney asking him to reverse the AFL-CIO position on the Federal Marriage Amendment and the various state marriage amendments. In an unreported move, Sweeney formed a coalition with Gays and Lesbians and had the AFL-CIO Executive Committee approve a resolution against traditional marriage. Without coverage in homosexual publications the resolution might have been unnoticed.

The pro-family groups told Sweeney that they would do everything possible to see that rank and file union workers knew about this resolution before the AFL-CIO Annual Convention in Chicago in July. The AFL-CIO resolution concludes with a broad endorsement of homosexuals. It reads, “The AFL-CIO reiterates its long standing support for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the workplace and in society."

Youthful voters on both sides have upcoming national conventions...
with the YDA meeting in San Francisco August 3 - 7 and the YRs in Las Vegas, July 6-7. Gavin Leonard, 24 year-old co-founder of CONTROL, a Cincinnati Copwatch and director of Elementz, a hip hop youth arts center thinks Democrats need to acknowledge The Political Power of the Midwest.

We need somebody to care more than just once every four years. There are more towns like Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Detroit than there are San Francisco's and New York's. As increasing amounts of financial and human resources flow to the coasts, the Midwest is falling further behind.

Midwestern progressives continue fleeing to the coasts, and foundation dollars grow scarcer in the heartland. The nearly non-existent non-profit job market here makes it extremely tough to develop leadership and skills in our communities and among our youth.

Nonetheless, teen spirit is alive and well as evidenced by Operation Yellow Elephant... "to recruit College Republicans and Young Republicans to serve as infantry. They demanded this war and now viciously support it. It's only right that they also experience it."

Feingold, Clinton, Edwards and...

Today Maureen Groppe reports in the Indiana Star:

Bayh didn't break into top of straw poll
Tracking the possible presidential bid of the Democratic senator from Indiana:

It's not that anyone expected Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., to beat Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., in a straw poll asking Wisconsin Democrats to name their preferred 2008 presidential candidate.

But given that Bayh was keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Democratic Party's state convention earlier this month, a few thought he'd do better than fourth.

Bayh, however, ranked behind Feingold, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards. He did get 15 more votes than John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

Perhaps most people participating in the voluntary survey -- conducted by WisPolitics.com, a political news service that had a table off the convention floor -- voted before listening to Bayh, who spoke at the end of the night and is not as well-known as Clinton or Edwards.

Burythehatchet, a regular on the The Democratic Underground forum, provides an Uplifting sign of the country waking up, as observed outside Atlanta, GA:

I went to go hit a bucket of golf balls today. (Beautiful day, 85 and sunny). The place I go to is inhabited by crusty old men who scratch a lot and talk shit all day long. This is their retirement. I know this place to be pretty conservative so I just go to hit a bucket and not chew the fat.

Today I'm walking in to get my bucket and I hear one dude telling another in his heavy southern drawl "did you see the thing on C-SPAN with this COnyers feller?" That's all I needed. I spent the next 45 minutes telling them about the petition, the work that's been going on for weeks, and so on. They had a lot of questions and I was able to fill in some gaps in their information. There were other people listening and chiming in. Out of the 6 or 7 people there NOT ONE defended Bushit. Not one. Even guys who by looking at them you know are Republicans were piling on. They didn't know how much Halliburton has stolen, as an example of information that they still don't have. When I started to walk away and start hitting golf balls...

...Here it comes.....

The guy I originally started talking to says "I think there's gonna be an impeachment".!!! EVERYONE ELSE WAS NODDING THEIR HEADS IN AGREEMENT.

I was floored...and then I was giddy...then I nailed 80 out of 90 golf swings.