When incumbent GOP Representative Wayne Gilchrest lost his primary to a "Club for Growth" backed extremist, Maryland's First Congressional District became competitive -- and with help, could actually favor the Democratic candidate, Frank Kratovil.  When Blue Catapult PAC held an event for Frank, we learned that not only is he a great candidate, but that the dynamics of the district make it ripe for a Democratic pickup.

Frank is a Great Candidate. He is the current State's Attorney for Queen Anne's County, and he is in court in the morning and campaigns later in the day. Unlike his opponent, he is a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, which comprises about half the voters and are very protective of their congressional representation. Frank is a lifelong Democrat and was President of Maryland Young Democrats when he was younger. He is outspoken against the War and supports a sane fiscal policy.

Frank Kratovil is the Democrat running for the seat currently held by GOP moderate Wayne Gilchrest who lost his primary. The current GOP nominee, Andy Harris, is an extreme right-wing, Club for Growth backed candidate who had hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on his behalf. Frank is a great candidate who is a solid Democrat -- and with support can definitely win this district.

Tonight (Tuesday, May 13) Blue Catapult PAC and WNDC Pac will cohost a fundraiser for Frank Kratovil.  We are asking for minimum contributions of $35 -- with the open wine/beer bar and food, it is a great deal.  Plus Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin are expected to join us after votes.

Tuesday, May 13
6:30PM to 8:00PM
at the Woman's National Democratic Club
1526 New Hampshire Ave, NW
Washington, DC 200036On the corner of Q Street and New Hampshire Ave, NW--about 3 blocks east of the DuPont Circle North Metro Exit

If you might attend, please email frankevent [at] bluecatapult.com

If you can't come, please consider a contribution to Frank's campaign here:

http://www.actblue.com/page/bluecatapult forkratovil

Our PAC, Blue Catapult, is holding its first fundraiser next Tuesday in Washington, DC.  We support Democratic congressional candidates who are challenging incumbent Republicans or Republican-held open seats.  The idea is that incumbents should do well on their own in raising money, but if we want to expand the Democrats' majority in Congress, then we need to help emerging Democratic challengers in their campaigns.

So we need some help right now in identifying good Democratic challengers, and we are hoping that you can provide some nominations.  Here are our criteria:

There has been a lot of criticism of Harry Reid (D-NV) since the Washington Post reported about an interview they had with him regarding the upcoming debates over Iraq in Congress -- however it seems to me that Reid is just taking an honest view of the legislative reality regarding possible success in Congress.  The question for progressives is to ask whether it is more important to stay principled and accept little less than timelines for withdrawal, or should we allow Reid and Pelosi to explore the Art of the Possible.

Reid's main points in the interview accept the current political environment:

    1.    The demand for a firm withdrawal deadline was an obstacle to gaining GOP votes for limitations on the war.
    2.    While he still supports withdrawal as soon as possible, and he has no regrets about his uncompromising strategy in july, in his view, now is the time to work with the Republicans to find possible solutions.
    3.    To  this end, Reid is encouraging"new coalitions to develop" that result in more bipartisan cooperation.

I have been attending a lot of documentaries at the  Sundance Film Festival, but the one that has gotten the biggest response so far is No End in Sight which is about the critical decisions made by those running the Iraq operation that almost ensured that the occupaion, stabilization and reconstruction plans would be failures.  First-time filmmaker Charles Ferguson has focused mostly on the 2 months before the invasion and the six months after -- using archival footage, original footage and interviews with key players such as Richard Armitage, Lawrence Wilkerson and others, he illustrates that every step of the way the powers that be, mostly Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bremer, were not only arrogant, but they refused to listen to true experts and people on the ground who knew the consequences of the decisions being made by the ideological desk jockeys in DC.

While there is some new information in the doc about what was being told to the Pentagon and how they decided to ignore the information, what the film does brilliantly is to piece together the news items we hae seen for four years into a comprehensible account of not only what went wrong but, piece by piece, why it did so.  From not beginning the planning for Iraqi reconstruction until just 60 days before the invasion, to disbanding the army, debaathification and taking power away from the soldier on the ground, No End In Sight deftly illustrates each piece.  As one interviewee says, "We were told that there were 2 or 3 ways it could work and 500 ways it could fail -- who knew that we would make all 500 mistakes."

I would love to try to get a screening of the film in DC if anyone has any ideas -- also for a more detailed description of the film and some other write-ups of films I have seen at Sundance, I am blogging at www.punditry.com

So on their second day in Power, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi send a letter to Bush basically warn him that his possible "strategy" of a troop surge for Iraq doesn't make sense considering that 1) It has been tried in the past and failed, and 2) it does nothing for the political solution that is needed to ensure the long-term stabilization of the country.

The key Paragraph of the letter:

Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed.  Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake.  They, like us, believe there is no purely military solution in Iraq .  There is only a political solution.  Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.  And it would undermine our efforts to get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future.  We are well past the point of more troops for Iraq.

The letter contains no threats, merely a message to warn the president of the their concerns before his big Iraq speech next week, explaining their "appreciation" for his consideration of their views.

Complete Text after the Jump.

While Bush may have come to Greeley, CO to try to save the seat of Marilyn Musgrave on Saturday, the candidates here in Colorado who can speak before a crowd without the need of a script rallied today, Sunday, in this battleground city of the 4th CD.

Senator Ken Salazar, Gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter and Democratic congressional challenger Angie Paccione took the stage before about 500 enthusiatic citizens to explain why this is such an important election.  When Angie took the microphone to cheers of "Angie!  Angie!  Angie!"  She presented the simple, obvious reasons why the Democrats must take back Congress and why Musgrave must go.

More after the jump.

I left Washington, DC Friday and flew to Colorado to help out on the Angie Paccione congressional campaign, arriving at campaign HQ in Fort Collins around 9PM. The staff here is psyched and energetic and the field operation has gone full throttle with several hundred volunteers this weekend knocking on doors of both Democrats and Independents making sure that they get to the polls. Just today, Saturday, about 30,000 doors were knocked on by canvassers, with many people telling us they had already voted for Angie through absentee or early voting -- they have a very good early voting system in Colorado. What is great about being in the field is that you can really get a feel for the energy and momentum of a campaign -- and Angie's team has it.

Three members of Congress were here to help rev up the troops -- Diana DeGette (CO), Diane Watson (CA), and Barbara Lee (CA). At the meeting point for canvassers in Longmont, Diane Watson gave a stirring talk about why this election was so critically important just before everyone went to walk their assigned precincts.

A few points I've learned after the jump.