DPVA Could Learn From My Old State Senate District in NY

There has been a lot of talk about how New York passed marriage equality. The major talk has been about how several Republican state Senators (including my former Senator, Jim Alesi) voted in favor of legalizing same sex unions. While I'm definitely happy about the news that more Americans will be having their basic civil rights recognized, recent polling has shown that we still have a lot of work left to do.

A Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday, for instance, shows that Virginians oppose same sex marriage by a margin of 52 to 41. There is some good news, however, as this represents fewer people being opposed to same sex marriage since the Newman Marshall Amendment passed in 2006 by a margin of 57 to 43. Furthermore, the polling also shows that there is support for other gay rights such as same-sex couples being able to adopt.

As Claire Guthrie Gastanga from Equality Virginia told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Public support for gay rights is trending upwards in a consistently straight line on workplace rights, adoption and marriage. The General Assembly is behind the voters on this."

When you combine Claire's observations with the fact that a Washington Post poll from back in May actually showed 47 percent of Virginians supporting same sex marriage, with 43 percent against, it's definitely worth continuing to educate the public. A prime example of how this could pay off can be seen with the vote in New York.

A few weeks before I moved back to Virginia, I attended a strategy meeting in Rochester about how we could approach Jim Alesi. The thought was that he probably wouldn't vote for the measure, but it was worth a chance just in case. By having a strong coalition of groups working to put pressure on Alesi, he not only ended up voting for the same sex marriage bill but actually came out in support of it relatively early. This gave other Republicans cover to vote in favor of the legislation. More importantly, however, it gave momentum to the grassroots and showed how having a good public education effort on the topic could actually change some minds.

I bring this up because although New York is more progressive than Virginia, the district that Alesi represents is a moderate one -- much like districts in Virginia that are represented by vulnerable Republicans. As a result, we could see some progress on issues like LGBT equality if we see DPVA and the grassroots step up the pressure on the GOP and let the public know why we need progressive legislation.

Michelle Obama Will Be At Nats Park Honoring Military Families on July 5

Anyone who has been to a Nationals' game is probably aware of the tradition they have of recognizing members of the military during the third inning every game. While blasting "I'm proud to be an American," soldiers who received tickets in the section right behind homeplate are recognized and receive a standing ovation -- often times even from the players. So it shouldn't be too surprising that the Nationals have decided to take yet another step in the direction of honoring our military families by declaring July 5 "Joining Forces with the Washington Nationals - Honoring Our Military Families."

The Nats are joining efforts with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden on their Joining Forces initiative, which focuses on military families and the sacrifices that they make towards our country. As part of the effort, Michelle Obama will be at Nats Park on July 5 for the first of a three game series between the Nats and the Cubs.

In addition to visiting with the military members who are recognized at the game, Obama will participate in the pregame ceremonies. Part of that will include her being escorted to the mound by military children as one of them throws out the first pitch.

I'm glad to see that the Nats are taking up this project as I have always associated baseball with patriotism during this time of year. One of my favorite traditions, after all, is to go to the ball park during the Fourth of July weekend to take in a ball game and fireworks (this year, there's a double header at Nats Park on the 2nd, which will include fireworks after the second game).

Dems Use GOP's Plan to End Medicare in Fundraising Emails

As we’re approaching a fundraising deadline tonight, candidates are sending out email blasts like crazy asking for money. One of the major themes that I’m seeing from Democrats is that they’re going after the Republicans for supporting Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as we know it. In Virginia’s 11th District, Gerry Connolly is making the point that we were less than a thousand votes away from electing someone who would have voted for the legislation.

In April, House Republicans voted nearly unanimously to end Medicare as we know it. For more than 40 years, Medicare has made health care affordable for tens of millions of older Americans. Instead of guaranteed coverage for all Americans over the age of 65, the Republicans want to give out a voucher to buy private insurance -- vouchers that will not cover the full cost of private insurance, forcing seniors to pay thousands of dollars a year out of pocket.

I will fight to protect Medicare, but I'm going to need your help. John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the Republican leadership want to replace me with someone who will vote in lock-step with their radical right-wing agenda. The 11th District was only 981 votes away from electing someone in 2010 who would have voted for the Ryan Plan. We need to make sure that whomever the Republicans nominate in 2012 never gets a chance to vote for the Ryan Plan.

When we were in the middle of the debates over the health care reform bill back in 2009, I covered many of Gerry’s health care town halls and medicare was almost always the main topic. This was especially the case at the one held at Greenspring, which is a retirement community that has a high voter turnout is heavily sought after by members of both parties. As was the case back then, folks are once again concerned about losing their healthcare and it’s up to the Democrats to educate the public about what’s going on. And the more people realize that the Republicans are trying to do away with a crucial program just to give the profits to the insurance companies that are already responsible for millions of people being uninsured or going bankrupt due to the rising costs of healthcare.

So as much as I tend to ignore the literally hundreds of fundraising emails I get in the final hours before a fundraising emails, I’m glad to see that Democrats are strongly standing against the GOP’s plan to end medicare. It will be extremely interesting to see if this messaging has helped them once the quarterly financial numbers are reported.

Why is NBC Still Staking Out Anthony Weiner's Office?

Whenever I’m up on Capitol Hill, I usually walk by Anthony Weiner's old office because it's literally right next door to one of the press work rooms. For the last couple weeks, it was fairly common to see about a dozen or so reporters camped out in front of his office. While I personally thought there were a lot more important things that deserved attention, the way he handled the situation caused it to become a huge story (even though sex scandals seem to always get attention anyways) and I wasn’t surprised that news outlets wanted to make sure they were there immediately in case Weiner decided to give interviews while going to and from his office. Considering how most of the reporters were simply reading books or chit-chatting while waiting for a glimpse of Weiner, however, I couldn’t help but think how much more valuable for the public it would be if they were actually sent to cover some of the dozens of Congressional hearings that happen everyday on the Hill that usually receive little attention.

Since Weiner’s no longer a member of Congress, it seemed like commonsense to me that networks wouldn’t be spending money to pay folks to sit outside his office. After all, we are constantly hearing about how news organizations can’t cover as many stories now because they’re losing money and are being forced to layoff reporters. When I walked by Weiner’s office on my way to the press workroom yesterday, however, I noticed that there were still reporters staked out in front of his office. There was a video camera operator from NBC and a still photographer whose affiliation I didn’t catch.

As I said, I understand that in the height of the scandal news organizations were competing over getting the latest developments in the story. But now that it’s over and the only things these reporters will see is staffers occasionally opening and closing the door while on their way to meetings, it’s time for NBC and other news outlets to move on and have their reporters cover some of the more pressing issues of the day -- like the budget negotiations, the charter school legislation that passed House Education and Workforce Committee, or how the Chairwoman of the FDIC was testifying about how banking regulations are important to our economic recovery. All of these events were taking place yesterday, after all, while there were reporters staked outside Weiner’s old office.

Is Tom Perriello More Valuable Outside of Congress?

There's no doubt that I would rather see Tom Perriello representing Virginia's 5th District than Robert Hurt. Hurt is yet another vote for the Republican agenda and has illustrated this by supporting things like Paul Ryan's plan to end medicare. With that being said, Perriello's voting record wasn't that great either (he scored a 70 on ADA's report card in 2009 and a 75 in 2010). And that is a major reason why I wasn't dissapointed when he implied that he probably wouldn't be running for Congress in 2012.

Another reason I wasn't dissapointed was the reasoning he gave for not running. According to the Daily Progress, Perriello said "I' just trying to figure out places to make a difference." He then added, “I think there’s a big chance in the Middle East right now.” This makes since when you consider that Perriello has been involved in Middle East issues long before the recent uprisings. In fact, some of you might remember that Tom was actually overseas doing work to help locals in other countries when his name was floated as a potential candidate to replace Tim Kaine, which is why he didn't initially respond to questions about whether or not he'd be running.

The fact that he didn't rush home early to take advantage of what was a lot of interest in his potential candidacy tells me that he is more interested in actually making a difference than simply advancing his political career. When you combine this with the fact that he said that he wants to get as far away from Washington as possible and that he would still be a relatively junior member of the minority party in the House of Representatives if he had been reelected, it looks like Perriello's passions and personality could make him more effective outside of Congress. As a result, I'm not only not dissapointed Perriello's not running, but I'm actually happy and look forward to seeing what he does regarding issues in the Middle East.

Romney Jokes About How He's Unemployed

The Republicans love to go after Obama about the high unemployment rate and try to paint him as being out of touch with the realities of the economic recovery. While I think everyone agrees the economy could be a lot better, it is the GOP's proposals to end medicare and other crucial programs while maintaining tax cuts for multimillionaires that makes it Republicans who are actually out of touch with reality. A prime example of how many GOP leaders simply don't understand what the average joe is going through came in the form of Mitt Romney joking about how he's unemployed.

Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.

That's right, after weeks of making the economy the main part of his campaign, Mitt Romney's making jokes about being unemployed. Pundits frequently claim that a presidential campaign is the toughest job interview you'll ever have, which is probably true. But that still doesn't mean that a business executive worth $200 million has any idea what it's like to be unemployed and worried about how you're going to put the next meal on the table. While he obviously didn't mean this as a way to insult to people he was talking with, the situation did deminish their struggles and provided a glimpse into how many GOP leaders are willing to put large corporations and the uber wealthy before the needs who are just barely getting by.

GOP Tries to Censor Gerry Connolly's Mailer on GOP Medicare Proposal

With all the polling that’s available and the extremely poor reaction that they’ve received during town hall meetings, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have to know that their plan to end medicare as we know it is extremely unpopular. As a result, it looks like they’re not even willing to let their Democratic colleagues send mailers to their constituents about why they oppose the legislation – something that is frequently done on important issues – unless they change the language to make the GOP look good.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, five Democrats charge that approval of their mailings has been delayed. The lawmakers said that in some cases Republican staff members on the commission have suggested revisions that the Democrats say “are inconsistent with previous approvals and, in fact, disallow specific statements and language that have been approved in previous submissions.”

“Given this abrupt and inconsistent new interpretation of the established Franking Guidelines, we must surmise that there is a deliberate, strategic attempt to censor any Member communication that echoes the widespread public criticism of the Republican Plan for Medicare,” the members wrote.

Rep. Gerry Connolly was one of the members who signed onto the letter and even provided some examples of what type of steps the GOP is taking to prevent word from getting out about their plan. In a mailer he recently wanted to send out, for instance, the GOP staffers said that Connolly couldn’t refer to Paul Ryan’s budget proposal as “The Ryan plan” even though it is, in fact, Paul Ryan’s plan. Furthermore, they wouldn’t let him refer to Ryan’s proposal on medicare as a “voucher system” – even though that is also exactly what it is. If the Democrats were trying to send out factually incorrect mailings, the Republicans would actually have a case here. But the things they rejected from Connolly’s mailers are a prime example of how they simply are trying to censor anything that doesn’t sing their praises.

Since mailers have a history of being approved with little resistance, one has to wonder why all of a sudden we’re seeing things change. Gerry appears to have hit it right on the nail when he spoke to the Post about the change in attitude.

“So, what in the world changed?” Connolly asked in an interview Tuesday night. “What changed? Well, what changed was an election. So now we’re in the thought police with the majority side of the aisle.”

With the Republicans trying to claim that they are the party that would stand up for individual rights and are against big government, it should be noted here that what they’re doing is very Orwellian. When the Democrats propose the government take on a project, it’s usually to do things like provide an economic stimulus or another program that will help folks get back on their feet while facing tough times. As this case helps to show, the GOP appears to like government solutions, but perhaps only on a limited basis like when it comes to finding ways to censor the truth.