I received my Democratic primary ballot in the mail and I was pleased to see right there at the top of page 1 these fateful words: "NONPARTISAN VOTERS ARE NO LONGER REQUIRED TO MARK AN ADDITIONAL BUBBLE TO CROSSOVER."

Check it:

The Courage Campaign led the charge not only to educate DTS voters in LA County about the bizarre requirement to fill out the "Democratic Party" bubble in addition to requesting a Democratic ballot but then faught hard to get the LA County Registrar of Voters to count the votes of DTS voters in February 5th's primary. Thanks to that effort, acting LA County Registrar Dean Logan reversed himself and ended up counting 50,000 or so Democratic presidential votes where the intent of unaffiliated voters was clear.

What's great about the disclaimer at the top of the LA County Democratic ballot is that it signals that the victory was not fleeting and it was not merely putting a bandaid on a wound. Thanks to the mobilization of progressives by the Courage Campaign and Secretary of State Debra Bowen's leadership, thousands of DTS voters will no longer have to fear being disenfranchised because of a stupid rule and a poorly designed ballot.

Back in December, I announced with some caution that the CA Dirty Tricks Initiative had been "delayed." Indeed, the CA right-wing's best bet at passage, i.e. getting on the June ballot, was not going to happen, but I still was taking nothing for granted. As I wrote at the time:

...if we've learned one thing about right-wing dirty tricksters, it's that they're not to be underestimated. So chalk this up as one battle won, but not yet the war. I expect we'll see plenty of dirty tricks to come.

Well, we just won the war.

Proponents of a controversial proposed ballot measure that would have reallocated California's electoral college votes by congressional district -- instead of the current winner-take-all system -- have abandoned their effort.

 "It's not going to make the ballot this year," said David Gilliard, a Republican political strategist organizing the campaign. "The money never materialized to put it on the ballot."

The deadline to get the signatures in to the Secretary of State's office was Monday and let's just say they didn't. It's sort of an anti-climactic end to what could have been a dramatic twist in this already dramatic election season but the Republicans saw the writing on the wall; with the excitement generated by the Democratic candidates, there was no way they'd ever pass this thing in California on the November ballot.

This is great news and a real testament to the grassroots/netroots rapid response instigated by The Courage Campaign. Our No Dirty Tricks campaign should really serve as a model for how local netroots working outside of the establishment party system can provide much needed pushback to the right-wing dirty trick machine that used to be so effective.

Used to be.

Money drying up...signature gathering falling short...it seems the Republicans are slowly realizing that, thanks to the proliferation of organizations like The Courage Campaign, these tactics are simply no longer viable.

Chalk another one up for the good guys.

There's been some discussion on the left as to whether a partisan primary should be influenced by voters who don't belong to either party. No matter where you come down on that issue, in my mind, if election laws allow an open primary, we should be encouraging all voters to take advantage of the opportunity to make their voice heard in the Democratic primary, since, as Rick Jacobs puts it at The Huffington Post:

With literally hundreds of thousands of young first time voters getting into the fray this year, we have an ideal opportunity to get them to vote Democratic. And if they vote this time, as Governor Dean says, they'll likely vote for Democrats in the future.

In California, unaffiliated voters can register as Decline To State (or DTS.) This is an important voting bloc in California as their numbers are the only ones that are steadily rising. According to the California Secretary of State's website, DTS voters make up just over 19% of all registered voters in the state, double their percentage from 1992. During that same period, Democratic registration has dropped about 6% and Republican registration has dropped 5%. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows what incumbency rackets the state parties run.

Now, the reason these voters are important in terms of our primary on February 5th is that, while DTS voters are not allowed to vote in the Republican primary, they are permitted to vote in the Democratic primary. The problem is, DTS voters don't seem to know this, or at least they don't seem to know how to go about doing it. According to Jacobs, in the 2004 Democratic primary, 30% of DTS voters cast ballots but only 8% voted in the presidential primary.

How can this be? California law states that DTS voters may vote in the Dem primary but to do so must request a Democratic ballot. This may sound simple, but the thing is, if DTS voters don't make this request on Tuesday, they will be handed a non-partisan ballot, which will have everything but the presidential contest on it.

This is why The Courage Campaign, a California grassroots progressive organization (for whom I do part time work) is launching a DTS education campaign to reach 300,000 DTS voters over the coming week via telephone and e-mail to let them know that they are able to vote in the Democratic primary in California but they must ASK FOR A DEMOCRATIC BALLOT.

If you are a California DTS voter or who have friends or family who are, I highly recommend the Courage Campaign's excellent FAQ page with all the information you could possibly need to make your voice heard on Tuesday. It's no accident that it's the Democratic Party that allows DTS voters to vote in our primary, we are after all the party of inclusion, so I'm glad the Courage Campaign is launching this campaign to encourage participation in Tuesday's primary and to reduce the barriers that are in place that would prevent our being yet another state with off the charts Democratic primary turnout.

(cross-posted at MyDD)

We may have gotten beaten in the two congressional special elections that were held yesterday, but there was one little election here in California where the good guys won...and won big.

Private mercenary firm Blackwater USA is best known for the private armies it has deployed in Iraq and the lack of accountability and oversight that have come with that. But less is known about their activities here in the US, for instance, where this private army is trained.

Right now, Blackwater has two training facilities, one in Moyock, North Carolina -- the home of their headquarters, as well as 100 miles west of Chicago, a facility referred to creepily as Blackwater North. Well guess what, Blackwater is expanding...or at least they'd like to.

Starting around the middle of last year, Blackwater began to lay the groundwork for building a third training camp in the tiny rural town of Potrero in San Diego County, California. The proposed facility would be housed on 824 acres in the pristine Round Potrero Valley and is in danger of turning this peaceful wilderness into a private army training zone.

Well, their plans may have just gotten a little more difficult.

Late last year, after Blackwater had spent months stealthily lobbying local officials, the local planning group (an advisory body) approved the Blackwater West proposal. Once local residents and activists got wind of Blackwater's infiltration into their tiny peaceful town, they launched a grassroots effort to block Blackwater. First they circulated a petition to the fewer than 500 registered voters in Potrero to keep Blackwater out and even launched recall of the members of the planning board who voted in favor of Blackwater. Last night the returns came in and the results were overwhelming.

Julia at calitics has the details:

The recall was an overwhelming success.  All five members of the Planning Group who voted to approve Blackwater's plans were recalled by unbelievable margins.  The election will be certified within two days and the Save Potero slate will take office, hopefully in time for their Thursday meeting.

Keep in mind that Bush won by 25.8% in 2008.  Everybody was recalled by over 60% of the vote.  Gordon Hammers, who has been the most vocal Blackwater supporter and served as chair of the group, was recalled by nearly 70% of the vote.

Just an incredible victory.  They did a phenomenal job on GOTV, getting 160 or so out of the 190 who signed the original petition against Blackwater to turn in their ballots.

My friends at the Courage Campaign (for whom I do part time work) headed up the GOTV effort and have been instrumental in getting the word out and building support for this local effort. From this little people-powered revolution has come the first electoral referendum on Blackwater, and the vote is clear: Blackwater, get the hell out!

Yesterday's recall was only the first step. Another vote on Blackwater West will be held, but as it is only advisory, a resounding NO! from the local board will not be able in itself to block the facility; that lies in the hands of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. From what I've heard, as of right now, the board would approve the facility, but the vote won't be until some time next year as Blackwater jumps through more re-zoning and environmental impact report hoops. In the meantime, Courage Campaign has set its sights on the Board of Supes and you can be sure they're taking note of the fact that every pro-Blackwater planning group member was recalled yesterday.

To find out more about this effort and to join the fight to keep Blackwater out of California's pristine wilderness, head on over to BlockBlackwater.com where you can also watch a great video featuring accidental activist and, as of yesterday, new chair of the Potrero Planning Group, Carl Meyer.

The right-wingers pushing the Dirty Tricks initiative here in California are desperate. They've been making a final fundraising and signature gathering push over the past month in hopes of getting the initiative, which, if passed, would deliver 20 or so of California's 55 electoral votes to the Republican candidate, onto the June 2008 ballot. But looks like it's not going quite as planned.

On Saturday, the LA Times reported that they had missed a deadline set by the Secretary of State for turning in signatures because they still lacked enough money to pay all of their signature gatherers and they didn't want to turn in fewer than 700,000 or so for fear that the final count would result in fewer than the 434,000 valid signatures required by law. The actual deadline to qualify for the ballot is January 24 but now that they've missed their submission date, as yesterday's Sacramento Bee explains (h/t calitics):

...backers of an initiative to change how California's electoral votes are counted are at risk of missing the June ballot because it will be difficult to finish counting signatures by a state deadline next month.

Of course, if they do miss the June ballot deadline, they'll still shoot for the November ballot, but in the meantime they're in desperation mode and the tricks they've been resorting to in order to qualify for June have gotten dirtier and dirtier.

As I wrote last week, my colleagues at The Courage Campaign (for whom I do part-time work) caught some Dirty Tricks signature gatherers on tape luring unsuspecting signers with a petition funding children's cancer research. As Courage's intrepid investigative blogger Erik Love reported at the time:

the petitioners said that their petition would "help children with cancer," and then proceeded to instruct well-meaning students to sign several petitions that were attached together on a single clipboard.  The petitioners clearly tried to obscure the language on the petitions, using a rubber band to make it difficult for anyone signing to read beyond the first page.  When pressed, the petitioners described some of the other issues (besides curing cancer) they were advocating, but their descriptions of the petition language on eminent domain and presidential election reform was unclear or inaccurate.

Based on the video footage Erik took, Courage Campaign has requested a formal investigation into the right-wingers' signature gathering practices and now CBS news has picked up the story using the actual footage Erik took.

Watch the report below:

This is a great example of the local netroots taking a local story and pushing it up, not only through the netroots but into traditional media and having a real world impact. This is really at the heart of the power and influence of the netroots. Too bad we weren't around to push back against the recall back in 2003. Of course, we haven't won yet. The Courage Campaign will continue to fight this right-wing power grab (is there any other kind?) and you can join the effort over at NoDirtyTricks.com or help build the CA progressive infrastructure by giving a little to them over at ActBlue.

This is outrageous.

Anti-war vets have been banned from marching in the 11th Veterans Day Parade in Long Beach.

A participation application filed by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out was turned down because organizers want Saturday's parade free from politics.

"They do not fit the spirit of the parade, the spirit being one of gratitude for what the veterans have done," said Martha Thuente, coordinator for the nonprofit Veterans Day Parade Committee.

"We do not want groups of a political nature, advocating the troops' withdrawal from Iraq," she added.

Banning veterans from a Veterans Day parade? Really? Yet pro-war veterans from VFW and the American Legion were allowed to march. Perhaps this should come as little surprise considering the ongoing effort to marginalize the voices of veterans or members of the military who want to end the war ("phony soldiers" anyone?) when those are the very voices we should be heeding. This sentiment was crystallized for me in an e-mail blast I received today from DFA:

Veterans Day is an important day to reflect on our veterans, and their sacrifices. I've done some reflecting myself.

My name is Elliot Anderson, I'm a marine Afghanistan vet and I first started volunteering with Democracy for America when I attended the Nevada training in February of this year.

I think it's high time we stop making combat veterans and disabled veterans unnecessarily. In Iraq, it's high time to let the civil war we are mediating run its course, and get our troops out of the crossfire. Here at home it's high time to stop the drum beat of war with Iran.  It isn't helping veterans to send them overseas into un-just wars.

The best way to pay tribute to our veterans is to make sure "we stop making combat veterans and disabled veterans unnecessarily." It's so simple. In addition, it's imperative that we honor their service by taking care of them upon their return. Those forces who think paying tribute to our veterans means cheerleading war have let down our veterans. Again, from Anderson.

For a lot of our homeless veterans they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are unemployable.  In the meantime because of the neglect of the veterans administration there is a backlog for claims which can take up to 6 months to fix. So what is an unemployable veteran supposed to do for 6 months? The answer, of course, is end up on the streets.

Let's resolve this Veterans Day to remember our veterans 365 days a year and unlike the right wing, continue to put our money where our mouth is. Everyday you can make a difference in a veteran's life. May I suggest a fantastic organization which gets vets off the streets and rehabilitates them?

You can help today at:

http://www.usvetsinc.org

I hope today and over the weekend you were able to pay tribute to those who are serving and who have served. Anderson offers us a reminder of the importance of listening to our veterans and paying tribute to them not just one day a year, but every day.

As I wrote last week, the Dirty Trick initiative to steal 20+ of California's electoral votes for the Republican candidate is back from the dead, and with just 2 weeks left to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures, they've got a funder lined up in Rep. Darrell Issa, the man behind the recall.

Lucas O'Connor provides some background over at Calitics:

Issa, who represents the 49th Congressional District, is one of the richest people in Congress, making a fortune off the Viper car alarm (step back, you are too close to the vehicle).  Issa is a veteran of throwing gobs of personal money into campaigns.  He dropped $12 million of his own money to lose the Republican Senate primary in 1998.  He was a bit more successful in 2003 when he dug into his wallet for $1.6 million in personal cash to fund the signature gathering for the Gray Davis recall which, when asked if it was worth it earlier this month, he said "Yes, of course."  Well, Rep. Issa is ponying up the big bucks again, lining up behind Dirty Tricks in its hour of need.

According to the Riverside Press Enterprise, the amount of money Issa is donating remains "fluid" but will likely be well under the $1.6 million he gave to the recall effort. But no matter how much he donates to this latest scheme, if we've learned one thing since 2003 it's not to underestimate the right-wing's capacity for dirty tricks.

So this time we're ready, because if there's one thing Issa didn't have to deal with in the recall effort it was an organized opposition; things are different now. Thanks to my colleagues at the Courage Campaign, the California netroots is mobilized against this initiative, no matter how many lives it has. We killed it once, we'll kill it again and we have Bradley Whitford on board to help us.

Check out his latest video in support of our effort:

But we are going to need some help. If this thing gets on the ballot, it's going to take millions of dollars to defeat it, money and effort that should be going to electing and re-electing California Democrats. That's why it's so important to help our early effort to keep the initiative off the ballot in the first place. If you can, contribute at the Courage Campaign's ActBlue page and as always check out NoDirtyTricks.com for ongoing updates.

Update [2007-10-31 22:11:20 by Todd Beeton]: Ahh, was just alerted to this article in The Hill, in which Issa claims his donation isn't terribly large at all.

"I have made a small contribution [to the campaign behind the proposal]," said Issa, who refused to disclose exactly how much he gave. He did say the amount was in the tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Issa also confirmed that he would additionally provide access to his own extensive fundraising network, which includes e-mails, as well as home addresses, of those who helped out in the 2003 recall.

Getting this on the ballot is going to require at least $2 million. What do they have up their sleeve?

A message from Rick Jacobs on what each of us can do to stop the Republican attempt to steal the White House in 2008 - Todd

A few weeks ago, a scathing New York Times editorial told you about how Republicans were springing another "elaborate dirty trick" on us — an unbelievable California ballot initiative to steal 20 electoral college votes for the Republican presidential nominee, thus hijacking the White House for four more disastrous years.

You're outraged. And so are we. That's why the Courage Campaign has decided enough is enough. No more dirty tricks. Not in California. Not in America.

Over 7,000 of you signed a pledge to fight this dirty trick. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger played dumb, saying he hadn’t read the ballot initiative, you sent over 2,000 copies of the initiative to him to read over the Labor Day weekend.

Now, you have a chance to send Arnold and the entire California Republican Party a loud and clear message before their convention starts this Friday: No more excuses. No more dirty tricks. No more partisan power-grabs.

To build our people-powered campaign to kill this dirty trick dead, we need you to support our 20/20 vision by this Friday's convention: Can you contribute $20 to Courage to save 20 California electoral votes right now?

http://www.couragecampaign.org/20for20onActBlue

What will twenty dollars — the price of a movie, popcorn and a soda — get you? A campaign of, by and for the netroots and grassroots.

At the YearlyKos blogger convention last month, I talked with an amazing group of online leaders — including several folks from the Calitics blogging community — about how we could defeat this dirty trick together. I left Chicago inspired and days later, we formed a "No Dirty Tricks" netroots advisory team driven by California online organizers and bloggers like Eden James, Miles Kurland, Julia Rosen, Bob Brigham, Julie Bergman Sender and Todd Beeton. Endorsements came pouring in as well from national leaders like Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Sherry Lansing, Jane Hamsher, Eleanor Smeal and Bradley Whitford (click here to see the powerful lineup of bloggers and leaders endorsing our "No Dirty Tricks" campaign).

Courage Campaign is uniting netroots and grassroots progressives to build a people-powered online infrastructure in California that will defeat this initiative in June even as we build a winning progressive agenda. One way we’re building online infrastructure is by using and supporting ActBlue, an exciting web community tool that empowers anyone — individuals, local groups, and national organizations — to raise funds online for their favorite candidate or cause. ActBlue is campaign finance reform because it empowers each of us to democratize politics from the bottom up.

By helping the Courage Campaign defeat this dirty trick, you can also help ActBlue empower us to change the role of money in American politics. After you contribute $20 to Courage to save 20 California electoral votes, you'll be given an option to add a small "tip" for ActBlue. A few dollars can make a big difference:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/20for20onActBlue

On Wednesday, we'll tell you much more about our plans to use ActBlue to help us build a transformative team that can turn online activism into offline action, kill this dirty trick dead, and take back the White House in 2008.

If you care deeply about building a people-powered movement to end politics as usual, we need your support right now. By contributing "20 for 20" through ActBlue, you can help us build a progressive netroots-driven organization in California that is a model for America. This is your moment.

This is your movement. Please join with us by acting now to support Courage Campaign before Friday's California Republican Party convention.

Rick Jacobs Courage Campaign

P.S. Yes, our team is working on Labor Day. I’m sure you noticed that President Bush is as well, this time in Iraq. That's why we won’t rest until we put an end to the dirty tricks. With that in mind, I recorded this one-minute YouTube video over the weekend to talk with you about how the "Sons of Nixon" dirty tricksters are trying to steal the presidency. I hope you enjoy it.

As the fight against the right-wing electoral vote stealing initiative here in California gains steam, it has begun to take on a national profile, as it should considering that if it passes it could mean that a low turnout June election in California determines who becomes president in 2008.

Since The New York Times weighed in with their editorial slamming the initiative as a right-wing "dirty trick," it's begun to gain the attention of the presidential candidates. FairElectionReform.com has launched a petition urging the presidential candidates of both parties to publicly oppose  the measure. The first to do so was Chris Dodd, who called the initiative a "blatant power grab" saying:

"The process of elections should be above partisanship and I hope all Presidential candidates - Democrats and Republicans alike - will join me in standing up for fair and honest elections."

Next, John Edwards not only came out against the measure but sent his own e-mail blast urging us to do the same:

Help us send a message to these political operatives that their Karl Rove tactics will not work. We, the people, will not allow you to get away with this naked partisan power grab.

As a result, momentum against the measure is growing back here in California, even among local Republicans. The vice-chair of the CA Republican Party Thomas del Baccaro came out against the measure on his blog; in addition The OC Register, no liberal rag they, in an editorial called the initiative a "nakedly partisan and profoundly subversive of our constitutional system;" and when asked about the initiative, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed unenthusiastic at best, likening the measure to "changing the rules in the middle of the game." Schwarzenegger refused to officially comment, however, as he claimed not to have read the initiative yet. Well, let's help him out with that, shall we?

The next step in opposing this measure is to force Schwarzenegger to comment publicly. Surely such a post-partisan as he would have nothing to do with such a partisan dirty trick as this, so my colleagues at Courage Campaign have launched a new effort to "Educate Arnold" and send him one copy of the 3 page initiative for every person who signs up.

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party has joined with the Courage Campaign and Progressive Democrats of America in supporting Secretary Bowen’s review of California’s electronic voting systems. LA County Democratic Party Chair Eric C. Bauman has signed the Courage Campaign's petition in support of Secretary of State Debra Bowen as she secured the vote, putting strict new requirements for voting machines.

Speaking out against county officials who apparently don't want to take the time to do their most basic job right, Bauman wrote, "This is pretty simple: if we have time to vote, we damn well want those [county election] officials to make the time to count our votes."

Sign the petition now to show your support for Secretary Bowen in her courageous actions to make sure our votes count! 

Secretary of State Bowen has done exactly what she said she would do when we elected her in November.  She conducted the nation's first full, "top-to-bottom" independent review of electronic voting machines.  After finding serious flaws with the system, she decertified them.  And now there are strict new security measures in place to reassure all Californians that we will not be the next Florida or Ohio.

Despite heavy opposition from county elections officials, who didn't want to lose face with their constituents (and apparently wouldn't mind getting a job with Diebold's PR department), Secretary Bowen has acted with courage and done the right thing.

But we need to have her back going forward.  As progressive activist David Dayen said today, "Bowen is going up against some really powerful forces and needs our support.  The registrars are going to scream holy hell about this, and we'll hear that we don't have the money to up and change everything now.  That dog shouldn't hunt."

Thank you, Secretary Bowen, for making sure our votes count.  We've got your back.

Yearlykos, the annual convention of progressive bloggers hosted by the good people at DailyKos.com, is in full swing in Chicago right now. This year, labor is well represented at the convention with SEIU and UHW leaders speaking about the urgent need for universal healthcare.

Sal Rosselli, president of UHW, told Earthtimes.org: ""Our members are committed to achieving quality healthcare reform, and we have seen how effective the online community can be at bringing attention to this and other vital causes."

Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs added: "Labor and the online communities usually have common agendas. Communication between us is key to more victories."

Stay with CourageCampaign.org in the coming weeks for a major announcement toward making universal healthcare a reality.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff praised the pact as an "essential screening tool for detecting potentially dangerous transatlantic travelers." If available at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Chertoff said, such information would have, "within a matter of moments, helped to identify many of the 19 hijackers by linking their methods of payment, phone numbers and seat assignments."

Although Homeland Security has said it will move passenger information to "dormant" status after seven years and "expects" to erase it after 15 years, it notified the E.U. that expiration of data will be subject to "further discussions."

The speaker said she had "no hesitation" criticizing the president about his handling of the war, but said there were more important priorities for lawmakers -- such as health care and creating jobs -- than the divisive pursuit of impeachment.

"Look, it's hard enough for us to end the war. I don't know how we would be successful in impeaching the president," Pelosi said.

She did note that calls for the president's removal are not coming just from San Francisco.

"I'm not unsympathetic to the concern people have -- I hear it all over the country. People here have said to me, 'Well, people on the left want the president to be impeached.' I hear it across the board across the country. It's not just the left," Pelosi said.

I've heard over and over and over again that the Democrats should impeach the President and Vice President.  Many of my friends - both on the left and in the "center" - say that the Congress is a failure if they don't impeach the President.  My response has always been that unless there's a way to somehow convince 67 United States Senators to vote for a conviction (and remember that only 49 of them are Democrats), then the Congress is better off spending its time on other issues like getting the troops out of Iraq, improving education, making it easier to join a union, and so on.  Still, fervent calls to "Impeach!!" continue, and there's a lot of frustration that the Congress isn't listening.

Well, you know what, the Congress is working on impeachment, and they're working on it hard.  For months now, both the House and Senate have been digging deeper and deeper on the Attorneygate scandal, trying to see just how involved the President and Vice President were in the decision to fire US attorneys in an act of unabashed political cronyism.  Testimony at the ongoing hearings, coupled with unprecedented use of "Executive Privilege" to compel former White House counsel not to speak with Congress, all suggest a huge and probably criminal cover-up.  (Speaking of cover-up, this week, Democrats in Congress will open hearings into the Libby commutation, which looks like yet another unprecedented abuse of presidential power.)

In order to successfully impeach, there needs to be solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing - the kind of smoking gun that Nixon faced during Watergate.  The CIA leak, the Libby commutation, and the Attorneygate scandals might provide that smoking gun after the investigation runs its course.  The Democrats, particularly Judiciary Committee Chairs John Conyers in the House and Patrick Leahy in the Senate, continue to run their investigations despite finding little public acclaim or reward for churning in minutiae.  If you're looking for impeachment, it might be best to show support for these stalwart Democratic investigators.

Even though Bush and Cheney clearly did lie to the American people to get us into the Iraq War, I really don't see 67 Senators voting to convict Bush and Cheney on charges of lying and fabricating intelligence.  But the ongoing investigations on Capitol Hill have the White House scared and stonewalling in desperation.  If the Democrats find impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors - and have evidence to prove it - then impeachment over Attorneygate and the criminal cover-ups surrounding it might become very possible.  Those of you crying out "Impeach!!" it looks like the Democrats are listening.