The GOP has resorted to outright lies in this campaign – and it’s only May.

The primary process isn’t even officially over yet, and prominent GOP officials – members of the leadership of the House – are already distorting Barack Obama’s words beyond any boundaries of truthfulness.

But --  as we saw last night in Mississippi -- if the GOP thinks they can steal this election with the old playbook of fears and smears, they have another thing coming.

Details below ...

Like me, I know you’ll be following the election returns today – but it’s imperative that we not lose focus on some of the issues in play that may be obscured by the election – and I can tell you that if you’re watching the returns on television news, there’s one story you’re almost guaranteed not to see tonight.

It’s now been two weeks since the New York Times published their story on the Pentagon Pundits.

I wanted to call out the cavalry here because we still don’t know exactly what was going on and exactly what steps were taken to try to shape the news. You can help make sure we find out.

It's good to be back here on Daily Kos - it's been a little while - and I understand you all are pretty interested in a vote happening in Pennsylvania tomorrow. Not surprisingly, I'm focused on that, too – I spent Saturday in Pennsylvania for Barack - but there's a very important event happening tomorrow which we can't afford to have lost in the shuffle.

The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on the future of the Internet, and a big part of that equation is net neutrality. I know net neutrality is important to a lot of you here, but Senators haven't heard from you in a while on the issue, and I want to make sure we keep this front and center - it's that important.

I’m heading off to Pakistan with Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel this weekend to observe their long awaited elections and make it very clear that the United States and the world are watching what happens there – but before I leave, I wanted to report back to you a few thoughts on the other election the world is watching, right here at home.

No denying that this election has been personally exciting – in my travels for Barack I’ve seen general election sized crowds (and I know something about what those look like!) coming out because so many people – and so many new people – are looking for something different.

But momentum’s a funny thing; you have it until, well, until you don’t have it. So, you bet things are going well, you bet there’s a head of steam – but Barack Obama also needs a big push and he needs it now: the next 3 weeks can be decisive in this campaign if you make it so.  (Wisconsin is close, and as yesterday’s public polls underscore, he’s the underdog in Ohio and Texas.) So today, I'm asking for your help.

I know there are a lot of diaries here detailing more powerfully than I can just how amazing Barack Obama’s campaign events have been. Especially in some places folks thought would’ve been unlikely - - hello Boise! – but then again if there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that nothing is ordinary about this campaign.

The last days, I’ve been on the road for Barack, and I’ve seen 1,600 people come to a town hall meeting with me in San Francisco to talk about Barack, seen hundreds standing in the driving rain in San Jose, and seen a hundred people shivering in a driveway in New Haven just yesterday – every one of them energized by this movement. Something’s happening out there. Half way through my day in California, knowing I had the pleasure of a red eye flight coming up, it was enough to make me call my guy in Chicago and tell him I wanted to be in Connecticut on Superbowl Sunday to try and do some more events.

We’ve got another event together tonight, and you’ll be able to watch. Details of that and how you can help the Obama campaign from home below ...

I hate the term “Swiftboating.” I hate how the name of the boats we honored when we were in uniform in Vietnam has become a verb for the twisted politics of Karl Rove.

But today we need to fight the right wing’s tactics not just to reclaim a word, but to reclaim our democracy.

And for anyone who thinks, “we don’t even have a nominee yet, are the Republicans really attacking Democratic presidential candidates already?” – the answer is not just yes, but it matters (and, yes, some people are really asking that)

OK, enough double-talk and obfuscations from the Republicans. Let’s get it out in the open: who believes the United States should never use torture, and who does not?

No more statements like the typical Republican response, “We won’t comment on specific procedures we may or may not do.” Let’s get specific and show everyone what makes America America: We don’t torture, and waterboarding is torture.

I opposed Judge Mukasey’s nomination because of his refusal to take a stand on whether or not waterboarding is torture.

But he said that if Congress passed a law that made it clear where we stood on this reprehensible practice, he’d enforce it. So, here we go: let’s define waterboarding as torture once and for all.

{cross-posted at JohnKerry.com}

I think we all know it - next year the Republican Party is going to run as dirty an election campaign as we've ever seen in this country. I've seen it first hand, and their shadowy front-groups are going to be out in force.

And it won't just be the Presidential race, but the entire apparatus of the Republican Party will use the same right wing “Swift-Boat” style attack tactics in every race at every level.

And in the run-up to 08, it's already happening in a state legislative race in New Jersey.

I don’t have to tell you the difference special elections can make in setting the tone for national politics: the netroots has been there and done that in special elections over the years, from helping push Stephanie Herseth across the finish line in South Dakota a few years back to pushing the Iraq debate forward by making a powerful statement for change in a so-called rock-ribbed Republican district with Paul Hackett’s campaign.

Well, we’ve got another special election on our hands – only this time it’s the Republicans who are pushing to sneak one under the radar screen in Massachusetts next week. The Republicans are desperate to make the case – any way they can -- that they’re not in for a very long 2008, and believe me, when I say “any way they can” I know what I’m talking about, but with those scars come lessons learned.

I’ll give you the details below the flip:

{cross-posted at JohnKerry.com blog}

If there’s anybody left who doubts that “compassionate conservatism” is an Orwellian smokescreen for the same old Republican policies, the President's actions around SCHIP should put that to rest.  

After promising he’d work on “expanding health care for children,” the President has now unilaterally declared war on a successful, wildly popular program that gives health care to millions of low-income kids.  

Democrats see a successful program, S-CHIP, and they see 11 million kids still uninsured in the richest country in the world, and they want to build on what works and expand it.  Makes sense, right?  But this White House is so hell-bent on denying the Democratic Congress a victory, the President’s threatening to veto health care for kids

The escalation failed to do the one and only thing it was supposed to do. The entire Iraq policy of George W. Bush has failed since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad. No amount of parsing  or spinning can change those simple facts: the escalation is and was the wrong answer.  

I chaired a hearing on the GAO Report yesterday, the report that stated that Iraqi civilians overall aren’t any safer, that the political benchmarks aren’t being met in Iraq, that, in short, none of the rationales for the escalation in Iraq have come to pass. It unfolds with maddening, enraging regularity: the Administration claims goals for their policy, they gradually back off of those goals and substitute smaller, less easily measured goals, and then muddy the waters hopelessly on whether even those modest new goals have been met. Time and again we’ve been through this.

{cross-posted at the johnkerry.com blog}

I’m here today because I don’t think this is a time for us to just join a debating society or echo chamber where we talk exclusively to each other; Republicans are denying the Senate a chance to find a new course in Iraq, so what are we going to do about it?

I think we need to run radio ads in the states of the most vulnerable of the Roadblock Republicans who stand in the way, making it clear to everyone that those Senators don’t deserve to be reelected because of their continued support for the Bush Doctrine of escalation without end.

And I want you to make the ad.

{cross-posted at Firedoglake}

Today, you may have noticed, is the fourth annual Blogosphere Day, with a whole set of different voices of the blogosphere coming together to fundraise for a specific cause. I want to chime in here and do my part.

The blogosphere, the netroots, the online activists, however you want to name it, the overall change brought about by the activism online has already been enormous. Using these new communications tools, all of us, whether it’s Senators or everyday citizen activists, are able to pool our efforts to greatly enhance the power and effectiveness of grassroots action.

And today is a day for that collective action ...

I just wanted to drop by Daily Kos to give all of you an update on the energy bill. To no one’s surprise, the Republicans are throwing sand in the gears and trying to block any meaningful progress. The energy bill, as it stands, is not nearly strong enough, so there are a number of amendments that must be adopted to give us a bill that actually gets us started on that path of dealing with our energy crisis and our climate crisis.

When we tried to bring up the Bingaman amendment last night that requires the use of alternative energy sources, the Republicans in the Senate simply refused to vote up-or-down on it, essentially demanding that the amendment get 60 votes to even be considered. They were trying to put everything on hold and block progress. The procedural details of what they’re doing and our responses gets pretty arcane pretty quickly, but, as I type this, we’re locked in a battle to move all of this forward.

Let’s be really clear about the Iraq vote coming down the pike in Congress this week.

I’m voting no on this bill. I’m tired of the false choices of Republicans and all the recycled spin of old battles and the political calculations that do nothing for our troops who bear the real costs of this war. Bottom line: we support the troops by getting the policy right, and this bill doesn’t do that. I’ve said it again and again and I’m not about to stop: we need a deadline to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, not watered down benchmarks and blank check waivers for this President. We support the troops by funding the right mission, not with a White House that opposes a pay raise for our brave men and women in uniform. Do we need to bring out the hand puppets and make the case again?

Today is another big day on the step by step, vote by vote fight to set a new course in Iraq. We’ve come a long, long way from the days where Russ Feingold and I could only get 13 votes to set a deadline to redeploy American troops from Iraq and make Iraqis stand up for their own country.

But we still have a long way to go. And this is one of those “we’ve just begun to fight” moments.

I came here last week to ask you to join me in defending Harry Reid from the attacks of the right. And it’s important to do that because our party needs us to stick up for each other.

But it’s not enough to defend. I used to always say that I was tired of life in the minority in the Senate because I was tired of just stopping bad things from happening, I wanted to make things happen that reflected the hopes and aspirations of the people I cared about.

So now we have this Democratic Majority which a lot of folks fought and scrapped and gave their all to build – so I know I’m not alone here when I say: it’s time to go on offense—not just fight back but lead the fight for what’s important.

{cross-posted from Huffington Post}

They’re at it again. When I came here to Daily Kos and supported Speaker Pelosi when she was attacked by the right-in, I said, “They thrive on destroying our leaders – we can’t let them.” I take no pride in my prognostication.

Now they’re going after my friend and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

And once again, it’s up to us to defend him.