FAIR GAME

"Rick, I'm shocked, just shocked that gambling is going on here."

Karl Rove is squealing like a stuck pig with the new ads the Democrats are running against the anonymous donors of the Rove/Chamber of Commerce network. Ads linking him to efforts to steal the election are drawing blood and have become woven in the Democratic talking points at every stop.

President Obama is busy on the hustings to stop the Great White Male riot. So far this week, he is drawing paltry crowds of 18,000 with overflow in the parking lots. President Obama has ramped up his charges against the Chamber of Commerce and the threat of foreign money in the election. And it's beginning to work.

The Washington Post and the MSM are expressing concerns about the tone of the President's attacks. I guess he's not being polite enough. Karl Rove says that Obama has an enemy list of Nixon. I find it ironic he said this on Fox News, whose audience probably thinks Richard Nixon was great. As far as I remember, Richard Nixon didn't have any corporations or wealthy people on his enemies' list and was the past master at secret corporate funding.

For full public disclosure, Obama has outsourced his enemies' list. I'm compiling it. And ,yes, Karl, you are on it--more for your role in destroying the Republican Party than any attacks on the present Administration.

The Wall Street Journal tried to come to the defense of corporations by invoking the moral equivalence argument. They point out that Labor Unions are also "internationals" and we don't know how much foreign money they pump into the elections. Unfortunately, for them, unions openly disclose their contributions and they expenditures on elections. Right now, the Chamber and Karl Rove do not. Sorry, Charlie, bad cop, no donut.

Bob Schieffer challenged David Axelrod about whether he had evidence the Chamber was using foreign money. He pushed back by saying, "it's up to the Chamber to reveal where their money is coming from to assure the public." Quite right.

This is all fair game. The Rove/Chamber money nexus represents nearly 60% of all anonymous monies in the race, the rest being used for shadowy conservative front-groups, whom no one even knows their directors.

The American people really don't care how much money is spent on the elections. They want to know where it comes from. And here the Democrats have pushed a hot button and .I think, it will pay off.

The Wall Street Journal whined that the Administration was trying to silence America's corporations. How many billions did American corporations spend to lobby against everything the Administration has been trying to do? Did anyone do anything about that?

The New York Times ran a few editorials on the need for more campiagn disclosure but they are getting a little fussy. They are saying that China is now being used as a scapegoat by the Democrats and worry about the implications of this. The Democrats have quite yet gotten into the "Yellow Peril" territory. I think a more fruitful approach would be to accent theMiddle Eastern banks and oil companies.

The Chamber actually ran an ad posting a Democratic congresswoman's home phone. I think , depending on the results on the election, there should be an effort against sitting Republican congressmen to say,"Rep. Boehner wants to pass tax cuts for the very rich, Call his boss Tom Donoghue. " Then list the President of the Chamber's home phone. This should be the M.O. following the election for the One Nation crowd. Don't even bother calling congress, just the business lobby. Make them regret their foray into covert politics.

The Onion gave me a great idea. They ran a satirical piece that someone from Patton, Boggs, a Washington law firm, was registering as a lobbyist for the American people. The fictitious person said that he thought Americans should have input in the proceedings in Congress. Great idea, I think there should be a group formed to actually register as agents of the American people.

Bill Clinton has been campaigning around the country. I caught his speech on behalf of Jack Conway in Kentucky. While never my favorite, he is a great campaigner and probably has a clearer speech on everyday talking points than even Obama. He drew out the implications of this election for the audience and pointed to the utter nonsense about Republicans being fiscally responsible. He pointed out that from Day 1 of W's administration, Republicans opened the door to massive debt by repealing the Pay-Go rules. As Clinton pointed out, that we wom't have any debt if this had been observed. He even pointed out that his Administration had paid down the national debt by $600 billion during his administration and that we would have been debt-free by 2015--the first time since Andrew Jackson. He also pointed out the utter folly of extending the tax cuts for the wealthy. But he made a better case than Obama. He pointed out that the tax cuts for those earning over 3 million a year would range from $300,000 to 800,000 and add enormous amounts to the debt.

The other major point he made was that America does have the money to make the necessary changes to compete in the world and provide a decent living for everyone. He also pointed out to the students that they have a personal stake in this election because of the changes in the student loan programs, which caps the % you must pay your debt back to your annual salary. So you will be able to pay back your loans no matter what job you take. He also made the point that the low fixed rate loans were only possible because Obama cut out the banks from administering them. The intrusion of the private banks in this business only occurred during the last Administration.

Then Clinton went after Rand Paul and stated the obvious--he has no track record and all his ideas have been tried and been catastrophic failures so why would you vote for him. He urged voters not to be "had", don't be hoodwinked by the anonymous ads. Then he ramped up about the Repubican sponsored ad campaign.

The weekend has been basically positive for the Democrats. Finally, they have hit on points that make thier case--maybe too late-- but at least they are fighting back. They are not willing to be swift-boated and Willy Horton'ed again. For the first time in a while, I feel Democrats are not being defensive but going on the offense.

Republicans are stepping in dog-poop as Nancy Pelosi said. One of their candidates, who is given the term "Contender", the second tier after "Top Gun", was caught playing WWII enactment dressed in a Waffen SS uniform. A millionaire from Ohio, he likes to be a member of the Waffen unit that defended Hitler's bunker and his enactment group is connected to a European white supremacist group that honors Germany during WWII. He had the uncanny knack of playing Waffen SS on a campaign weekend. Nice timing. Nice uniform.

Democratic Governor Manchin is fighting back in spades against Raese's "hick" ads in West Virgina. He calls the Republican out on using Philadelphia actors for portraying West Virginians and says that Raese doesn't respect you. Maybe because he lives in Florida and his wife is registered in Florida and can't vote for him. "Why should we vote for him?" The second aid starts with Governor Manchin's NRA endorsement and shows him shooting a bulls-eye and reverting to a more Blue Dog stance, citing that he sued the Obama's EPA for his enforcement of clean air standards that affect the coal industry.

Observers are saying that Sharron Angle and Diaper Dave Vitter are running the most racist ads on the campaign. But in Nevada, this is backfiring. A poll released over the weekend seemed to back up John Ralston's claim that Harry Reid is walking away with the election. This runs counter to the media narrative.

Roxeanne Conlin in Iowa is running against Grassley, the Republican, and is not considered a competitive candidate, although she is a good one. However, she reports what observers are noticing that early voting in Iowa and the rest of the Midwest indicate large Democratic leads, which is a positive note. We are talking in terms of 2-3 to 1 leads in small states. This runs contrary to the larger East Coast media's stories. This may not help Conlin but it may be decisive in House races.

A Race which one should watch is Pennsylvania's Senate race between Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey. Joe Sestak is painting Toomey as identical to Rick Santorum, the ultra-right social conservative. But the thing to look for here is the stealth GOTV campaign by the Obama people among the black community. I have yet to read anything about how this was done during the 2008 campaign. Barack Obama, fighting the race card then, conducted a massive campaign among the black media and radio stations that never surfaced in the major media. From the rally yesterday in Philadelphia, I got a hint that this was revving up against.

Will the millenials vote? In the 2006 elections, only 25% of them voted, while 51% voted in 2008. Republican strategists have written them off this year, but even if they bump the 25 to 30%, this will make a difference in close elections.

The same is true with Hispanics. The Hispanic vote will become crucial in Nevada, Colorado, California and even in Illinois, where a sizable Hispanic community lives. It looks like anti-immigration positions by Republicans in Colorado, Nevada and California will hurt the GOP.

The Washington Post wrote about Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign in Alaska. The portrait is of a Senate candidate finally freed from constraint and enjoying her campaign. The more Alaskans see Joe Miller they distrust him and fear that the state will lose out on all the federal goodies they received. Alaska is the most subsidized state in terms of Federal aid in the union. Murkowski is openly running on the earmarks she has brought in. The Washington Post has her tied or leading in polls but Mudflats website showed that the write-in process will make it hard for her to win. Receiving no coverage anywhere is the Democratic candidate, who was tied with Murkowski the polls.

One problem race for Democrats looks like the Patty Murray-Dino Rossi contest in Washington state. For reasons that are unknown--Dino Rossi has pulled in the lead. However, Murray is playing hard-hitting ads on Rossi's dubious business practices.

Alex Sink is ramping up her attack ads on Rick Scott for his role in Medicare fraud and his dubious business career. Lamentably she is only a few points in the lead, given the fact her opponent really should be in jail.

Some of the major networks are claiming the Democrats are being McCarthyite in their attacks on the business interests behind the Republicans. I thought the teabaggers liked Joe McCarthy. Certainly Fox News and Sarah Palin do.

For the next few weeks, it's going to be rock'em-sock'em. If the GOP manages to take back the House, don't expect them to have an easy time of it once the secret money theme sticks. I can't imagine Democratic and labor activists are going to stop hitting them when they try to repeal the legislation of the past 18 months.

Remember Vote Early and Often.