progressive involvement

Abused by priest?

The Huffington Post reports that Leeland Eisenberg, the person who allegedly held hostages at Hillary Clinton's Rochester, NY campaign office, may be the same Leeland Eisenberg who, in 2002, filed a lawsuit against Cardinal Law, then Archbishop of Boston, claiming that he had been sexually abused in the 1980's by one of the diocese's priests.

On at least one occasion, Eisenberg awoke after drunkenly passing out in Father Buntel's car "to find himself being raped by Father Buntel in the driveway of St. Catherine's rectory," the suit said. At the time, Eisenberg, 21, was "in a state of desperation" over his "homelessness, the loss of his mother, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his violent, alcoholic father."

Cardinal Law resigned in December, 2002 over sexual abuse scandals in his archdiocese, just three months after Eisenberg filed the lawsuit.

I hope we can have a bit of compassion for this person.  It doesn't sound as though life has treated him very well.  Initial reports indicate mental illness and alcoholism. 

It also appears that the state police of New Hampshire did an excellent job in handling the situation.  See, government can work.  Feds take note.

The Iowa Independent has an insightful take on the GOP debate

Story here.

Talk about unintentionally revealing...

Joe Klein watched the Republican debate with a focus group, one that was hooked up to those little dials that measures their response to what the candidates say in real time--kind of like a GPS tracker for a person's emotions.  Read the whole thing.  Snippet:

In the next segment--the debate between Romney and Mike Huckabee over Huckabee's college scholarships for the deserving children of illegal immigrants--I noticed something really distressing: When Huckabee said, "After all, these are children of God," the dials plummeted. And that happened time and again through the evening: Any time any candidate proposed doing anything nice for anyone poor, the dials plummeted (30s). These Republicans were hard.

An ad that's likely to back-fire

Pro-choice Republicans are running this ad in Iowa as a way of helping Giuliani.  It won't.  It's going to help Mike Huckabee.  Iowa Republicans, of which about half are closely affiliated with the religious right, are already dumping the poseur, Mitt Romney for the real thing.  This ad will only help accelerate that. 

Like something right out of the 80's

Check out the RNC fundraising video, which is so over-the-top that it's hilarious.  For one thing, Sen. Jon Ensign just looks so Republican.  I'm enjoying the Republican use of "Democrat Party."  For political insiders, this is supposed to be a calculated insult, which it is, but we Democrats could care less.  If your opponent wants to reveal himself or herself as so small-minded that they think using schoolyard-level taunts is a good idea, we'll even help them do it.  The rockets going off is unintentionally revealing as well.

RFK, Jr. endorses Clinton

Source.

Makes you proud to be a Lutheran, by golly

Click here to see a clip Michael Moore did not put in "Sicko."

Edwards takes on Obama

Obama's healthcare plan is not quite universal, and John Edwards today echoed Hillary Clinton's earlier criticism.  This is an interesting move.  The conventional wisdom is to avoid a one-on-one spat in the Iowa caucuses because of what happened in 2004.  Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, leading at the time, started hitting at each other, which resulted in them taking themselves down, while John Kerry and John Edwards flew buy on the outside to finish one and two.

I'm not sure that is the best lesson to draw from 2004.  Howard Dean's vaunted ground game turned out to be weaker than people thought.  His people seemed like "outsiders" to Iowa, so it is said, and Dick Gephardt's Iowa support was weaker than might have been thought.  He had done well there in 1988, but it turned out that 1988 was a long way from 2004. 

Obama has a boomlet going at the moment, and Edwards may figure that he has to keep it a three-way race.  He doesn't want to let Obama get in the position of being Clinton's primary challenger in Iowa.  Edwards has a real chance in Iowa.  People on the ground say that he has a good organization, and can deliver his people to the caucuses. 

Washington Post prints every available rumor about Obama, but ignores Giuliani's taxpayer-financed booty calls

Here's the real laugher.  Most people still seem to think that the mainstream press is "too liberal." 

 

Quote of the Day

[The priest] told me killing is OK, for a purpose. Where in the bible does it say that? Where did Jesus say you can kill people for a purpose? As soon as the priest told me I could kill with a purpose, there was nothing he could tell me after that, because he lost all credibility with me. 

Sergeant Antonio Espera