In the most recent polling in Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum is trailing his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., by ten-percent. According to CNN, a poll conducted September 14-20 by Temple University and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bob Casey Jr. has 49 percent of the vote to Santorum’s 39 percent with 3 percent voting for the Green Party candidate.

Keep your eye on this race. The Republicants are desperate to keep this seat and we should see all of the stops pulled for this one. This race, and a few others, should give Democrats a taste of what 2008 will be like. I say that somewhere in the October 15-21 period we will see some mud flying from Santorum and Rove and that some bombshell revelation will turn the election upside down.

As if on cue, the price of oil is steadily falling. Many bloggers around the country are noting the irony that prices are dropping just in time for the November elections. I believe firmly that there is no such thing as a coincidence.

It is no secret the closeness of the GOP and the oil companies, so there should be little to question. The GOP needed help in this election and turned to their good friends in the oil fields and refineries, it’s as simple as that. It just goes to show how the party in control can remain in control through social engineering at its finest.

According to a piece in the Houston Chronicle today, less than 125 donors account for 40% of all money raised in the Texas governor’s race so far, with those contributions ranging between $50,000 and $850,000. This astonishing figure highlights how influential just a few people are how only the rich get a chance to control elections and what legislative agendas are set.  Who stands to gain the most from these contributions? 

The governor [Rick Perry] has raised nearly $13 million over the past two years. About one-third of that came from 75 donors who gave $50,000 or more. This year’s legislative and gubernatorial elections in Texas are pivotal for the average Texan, simply because so much is at stake when it comes to healthcare, product and company liability, and property rights as they relate to land-grabs for the TransTexas Corridor highway. For the GLBT community, this election is critical since same-sex couples wishing to adopt children will most likely see their rights stripped further in the next legislative session. Who stands to profit the most from this agenda? Fewer than 125 people apparently. 

Chris Bell, the Democratic candidate for governor has raised a paltry $2 million with seven individuals or committees accounting for roughly one-third of that amount. (Naturally democrats represent the forgotten who can barely afford to buy gas and groceries, so contributing to the expensive political process is out of the question.) 

In a speech delivered on Friday to the gathering of Christian political operatives at the “Values Voter Summit”, Jerry Falwell said that he hoped Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. According to the L.A. Times, Falwell says that no other candidate could mobilize the GOP “base” (the neo-conservative religious base) like Clinton. Falwell went on to say that Clinton has a “war chest” of $300 million (a complete exageration, she has $47 million according to recent filings), and that Republicans should be prepared to give until it hurts.

“I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate,” Falwell said, according to the recording. “She has $300 million so far. But I hope she’s the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton.”

Cheers and laughter filled the room as Falwell continued: “If Lucifer ran, he wouldn’t.”

At that moment in the recording, Falwell’s voice is drowned out by hoots of approval. But two in attendance, including a Falwell staff member, confirmed that Falwell said that even Lucifer, the fallen angel synonymous with Satan in Christian theology, would not mobilize his followers as much as the New York senator and former first lady would.

And there it is — the GOP strategy for 2008 and beyond. It is a very simple plan, one that has been in the works for decades — Christians vs. non-Christians (perceived or real). Drawing the connection between someone who has diligently served others to the devil.

And what does Falwell say about the 2006 mid-term elections and the challenges facing Republicans across the country?

Falwell predicted that this year’s midterm elections would go in the GOP’s favor, despite polls showing Democrats in position to make gains.

“I think we’re going to keep the House and the Senate,” he said. “I think the Lord will take care of that.”

I am so sick and tired of hearing someone say that the Lord will do this or that, or has done this or that to punish anyone not aligning themselves with the neo-conservative Kool-Aid brigade. Do people really believe this stuff? I mean, doesn’t the Lord have more important things to worry about than who wins a congressional election?

So I was listening to a recent edition of the DOT show podcast and heard a troubling tale of yet another Republican from Texas that is as arrogant as the day is long. John Carter from the 31st congressional district (essentially his district is north and west of Austin) is reportedly refusing to debate his opponent by saying “I will decide who is worthy of debating me”. Well, curiosity got the best of me and I had to research this fellow a little.

What did I find? Well, just look at the money trail and then decide whether you think this guy is really concerned about Texans and Texas issues. (Thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics for the data!)

Mr. Carter has recevied $585,955 in contributions during the 2005-06 election cycle, with Dell Computer as his single largest contributor with $17,000. During this same period his campaign has spent $440,131.

There is a $2,000 donation to the Round Rock School District, which is a smart move for any politician. But then Carter donates $2,000 each to the “Fitzpatrick for Congress” campaign in Doylestown, PA, the “Max Burns for Congress” camp in Sylvania, GA, and the “Porter for Congress” campaign in Las Vegas, NV. But most troubling is the fact that on January 31, 2006 Carter gave $5,000 to the “Tom DeLay Legal Expense Fund”.

Carter obviously views the needs of local school districts right in his own backyard as equal to the needs of Republican candidates in other states, and way below his need to help defend an indicted criminal that packed his bags and fled the state as soon as he was exposed for the fraud that everyone has known that he is.

(BTW – Carter currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee. Gee, I wonder how much he has appropriated to “education”?)

From AMERICAblog comes word tonight of a shift in Rick Santorum’s line of thinking with regard to women in the workplace. In his 2005 book “It Takes a Family” Santorum hinted that working mothers were at the root of the decline in American values over the last five decades.

Yet, when questioned about that stance at a recent political banquet Santorum explains his position through claiming that women were forced to into the workplace thanks, in part, to the American family struggling to pay higher income taxes.

Wow! That is an interesting take on the social implications of high taxes. So the way to strengthening American values would be through a course of reduced taxes for the working class, investment by the federal government in alternative fuels thus applying price preasures on gas prices thereby helping Americans stretch their dollars, passing a new minimum wage bill to help those who cannot keep up with inflation, and budgetary restraint when it comes to spending our future generations into insurmountable debt? The problem is Rick Santorum and George Bush have never supported any of those ideas, instead opting to reduce taxes for the wealthiest among their constituents and never giving serious consideration to any other piece of legislation that would actually benefit the working class.

So why does Rick Santorum hate working women? It’s simple, really. He doesn’t hate working women, he hates the working class.

On Friday we learned that the school district in Rick Santorum’s neighborhood had been ordered to pay school tution for home schooling of Santorum’s children, even though they clearly live in Virgnia and not Pennsylvania.

Today, Tim Russert pressed Santorum to discuss where he presently lives. In typical Santorum style, he scrunches his face, shrugs his shoulders and acts as though it was a stupid question. And while I agree that it is not a question about his ethics (or lack thereof), or about his lock-step voting record with W, it is an important question since Santorum made it an issue in the 1994 election questioning why his Democratic opponent spent so much time outisde or Pennsylvania.

Catch the Santorum response here: