I am wondering if anybody on here lives in New Hampshire's first Congressional district represented by Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.  The reason I am asking is that new polls out show her beating one candidate(John Stephen), but trailing the other(former Rep. Jeb Bradley).  
http://www.politico.com/...

I am thinking that anyone who lives in this district should grab a Republican primary ballot on September 9th and vote for John Stephen, who is almost certainly the weaker candidate.  

I received the following solicitation from my congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand, this morning:

12pm tonight is the final deadline for the 2nd quarter of the year, and we are $17,000 short of goal.  This quarter is an extremely important indicator of the strength of our campaign heading into the election season.  Our team will be available all day and night from now until our midnight deadline!  Please donate on www.kirstengillibrand.com/Main or call Ross at 718-344-8025.

No matter who the opponent is, if they spend $5,000,000 on tv ads it is going to have an impact.  One of my opponents has pledged to do just that and has already put in well over $300,000 this month alone.  Your support is crucial to our efforts.

Again every contribution counts from $46 to $4,600!

Warmest Rgds,

Kirsten
Sent via Blackberry by AT&T

My response below the fold.

DISCLOSURE: Before I begin, a little disclosure. First off, I'm a former Clinton supporter; now I'm an Obama supporter, as of June 4th. Second, I'm a Jew and I support our government's support of the State of Israel. Third, like millions of Jews in the U.S. and Israel, I'm strongly against the Israeli government's hardline approach as far as its dealings with the Arab community--and the Palestinian issues in general--are concerned. Fourth, my father-in-law, who passed away in 2005, ran the Mideast desk of the U.S. Army's Defense Logistics Command during the Yom Kippur War. As a result of that--as you'll read in more detail below--he was very much on the front line of Operation Nickel Grass in 1973. So, please be clear here when I say I am in favor of our country's ongoing support of Israel as far as military materiel assistance is concerned.

It's been a while since my last House diary, and I just know you've been sitting there wondering "when will Nathaniel publish his next House roundup diary? I can't live without my fix, and he's just so...incisive...and brilliant...and downright Lincolnesque." (h/t to Stephen Colbert for that.)

Well, pine no more! As always, seats are ranked by flippability, but since House races are so numerous (at 435), I eventually switch to alphabetical order after the first 18 races. I figured 18 was a convenient number...and I also got lazy after writing about Alaska At Large.

Read below the fold, if you dare...

In the past 3 months, Democrats have increased their House majority as they picked up a remarkable 3 seats in a series of special elections organized in Illinois’s 14th district, Louisiana’s 6th district, Mississippi’s 1st district. What is particularly remarkable is that all three of these districts leaned heavily Republican; in 2004, George Bush had won them respectively with 55%, 59% and 62%. Each defeat increased the chaos of the Republican caucus as the NRCC started to settle in panic mode. After the loss of MS-01 on May 13th, Tom Cole, the chairman of the NRCC, issued a remarkable statement calling on Republican incumbents to brace for the worse and find individual ways to deal with the onslaught.

These rankings were first posted on Campaign Diaries.

Dear Hillary Clinton supporters, in particular the women:

Let me be the among the voices who say "I know exactly how you feel." Or, to be more properly respectful, let me say that I probably don't know exactly how you feel. I may have delusions of suffered indignities, but being a white upper-middle-class guy, there's only so many you can take seriously. It's apparent, no matter the punditry, that there are a lot of very angry women in this country, and if there's a way I can say "AND RIGHTLY SO" without sounding patronizing, then this is it...

I am fortunate enough to be represented by Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, to whom I am eternally grateful for offing the repugnant John Sweeney in the 06 congressional elections.

In a strongly-leaning republican district, that feat was commendable, for sure. Now to add to that, Ms. Gillibrand has become the sixth woman to give birth while serving in congress.

It was shortly after 5am yesterday that she delivered a boy, Henry Nelson, weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces.

According to the Albany Times Union, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY-20) gave birth to a baby boy Thursday morning.

Gillibrand is only the sixth member of Congress to give birth while in office.

Follow for a little more info.

Seriously, why don't people in the media just write headlines like:
"Obama Supporters Are Batshit Insane"
"Rally For Obama Felt Like Jonestown"
and
"Area Woman Sees Barack's Face in Grilled Cheese Sandwich; Pilgrimage Imminent"

Add Hillary's mantra "I've got sound solutions instead of sound bites" and it's making me want to claw my face off. Thus, I'd like to formally invite everyone complaining about the passion of Barack Obama's supporters to kindly follow Eric Cartman's advice and suck my balls...

(Cross-Posted at Upstate Blue)

In keeping with Republican faux populism a la George W. Bush "the rancher," in recent campaign advertisements GE trust fund multi-millionaire Alexander "Sandy" Treadwell is now attempting to portray himself as "the farmer."

Additionally, Sandy appears to be quite far out of touch when it comes to the Iraq War and security issues. Listen to comments he made during a 2004 interview at the Republican National Convention.

Sounds like nothing more than your classic GOP party hack...

Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY-20) held her sixteenth town hall this past Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Livingston Town Hall in Columbia County.

In just her first year Congresswoman Gillibrand honored her pledge to hold a town hall meeting in each of the ten counties she represents.  This will be her sixteenth town hall since January of 2007.   In addition to her town hall meetings, Congresswoman Gillibrand regularly holds Congress At Your Corner events at local hot spots, such as grocery and book stores, to bring her office out in to the community she serves.

Gillibrand added, "I believe accountability and accessibility to the families of our community is very important to being an effective representative and I am committed to both."

The topic of the forum was Rising Costs of Taxes on Upstate Families...

Kirsten Gillibrand, NY-20, delivered the Democratic national radio response Saturday, and talked up the Congressional Democrats' accomplishments.

Like most here, Gillibrand is aware that much of what happened this year, with the Senate blocking/dumbing-down many good House bills, and Bush vetoing several that got through, was disappointing.

But she found a way to describe the glass as half-full.

Like this:

We have fixed the alternative minimum tax to protect middle-class families, raised the minimum wage, and funded small business tax cuts to address the pressures of high fuel prices, increasing health care costs, and rising property taxes.

This is an important meme -- Congressional Democrats accomplished quite a bit this year, and a lot more than the previous three Republican-dominated Congresses --  that the Republicans and their media are fighting 24/7.

Gillibrand got a few minutes on national radio to counteract Republican/media propaganda.

And did a pretty good job.

Hard-to-find details, below.

Cross-posted from The Albany Project

They write letters...

From the Glens Falls Post Star (third letter down) via Judith Hope of The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee...

A wing nut tells what is and is "Not Suitable for Women?!?!"

No, not of cash (though she's been fundraising at a might clip), but rather a second child.  The Albany Times Union reported this evening that freshman Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20) is pregnant and expecting the baby to come along next May.  (Cue cheeky headlines, of which I suspect there will be more than a few.)  I'm fairly certain that as of right now, she's the only pregnant member of Congress out of the 90 or so women currently serving -- I'm guessing that we don't need to inquire about the men for this question.

Gillibrand and her husband, Jonathan, say they always wanted a second child -- they already have a four year-old son -- and that she'll continue to commute between Washington and her Greenport, NY, home until the doctors tell her to stay put.

    Here in NY-20 we have had the great good fortunate to see one of Bush's sleaziest enablers in congress, John Sweeney, replaced by an enthusiastic and very capable young congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand.
    Ms. Gillibrand, however, is like nearly all other elected Democrats in that she seems to see climate change as one issue among many, something we'll get to eventually when and if her great supporter Hillary is elected.
   Back in January I spoke to her personally at the local grocery store and gave her a packet of information on climate change. I also urged her to work with our neighboring congressman, John Olver, one of the few real scientists in our party and one whose lead Kirsten should follow on this issue.
  Today I sent her the following letter and informed her I was posting it on Daily Kos. I urge fellow residents of NY-20 to join in pressuring this otherwise excellent new congresswoman into providing more than the the usual Democratic lip service on this overriding issue of our time.

Pataki hack Sandy Treadwell, a former NY secretary of state and chairman of the state Republican party, is evidently the GOP establishment's favorite in what is, so far, a four-way race for the right to get creamed by the excellent Kirsten Gillibrand.

A sign of that is that House Minority Leader John Boehner will host a lobbyists' fund-raiser for Treadwell next month in D.C.

Treadwell will raise a few thousand net at this event, but the real reason he is the GOP establishment's favorite is that he is filthy rich, and can self-fund a general election campaign that will, remarkably, probably exceed $6 million total on both sides.

For Treadwell, it's a good thing that he's independently wealthy, thanks to a grandfather who was a "founding executive" at GE, because he's essentially on his own in this race, despite Boehner's little party next month.

Why, below.  

Also at The Albany Project

Kirsten Gillibrand, NY-20, has been off to an excellent start in Congress after decisively defeating Miami Mob Leader John Sweeney, a four-term incumbent often mentioned as a possible statewide candidate, last year.

She has held more than 10 issues forums and more than 20 Congress at Your Corner meet-and-greet events, working at such events almost every weekend.

Her voting record is near-perfect, and her constituent service is top-notch.

In that regard, the Albany Times-Union has a story about her today that deserves wider attention.

Which it will get here.

Details, below, plus a bonus Miami Mob Leader update.

(Cross-Posted at Upstate Blue)