Pete Domenici: Running Scared

According to the scuttlebutt that's making the rounds, Commander Bush will be in Albuquerque on August 27th to squeeze wealthy Repubs to donate cash to Sen. Pete Domenici's campaign coffers. The usual Repub contribution requirements will apply: $1000 to eat lunch in the same room as King George. $5000 to have  your picture taken with The Decider. Everything's "private." No ordinary citizens allowed.

Very telling that Domenici's campaign is willing to risk a visit by the incredibly unpopular president in order to drum up funds. Obviously, they're worried about Pete's drooping approval ratings, his ethics problems connected to the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and his chances in the 2008 election. Why else would they bring in a failed president with an Iraq occupation strategy so misbegotten that even Domenici himself has been critical? After all, it's difficult and essentially hypocritical to be distancing yourself from Bush's dismal and damaging position on Iraq while welcoming an appearance by The Decider on your behalf.

Pundits and Repubs alike are poo-pooing the Dems' chances at winning Domenici's Senate seat come November 2008, but I think they're dead wrong. The throw-the-Repub-bums-out mood of New Mexicans matches the strong backlash against Bush rubberstamps that characterizes the mood nationally. This will be what's called a "change election" -- the kind of presidential contest year where the policies of a failed chief executive and his bootlickers are rejected wholesale, and the opposition party's favored presidential candidate can be expected to have long coat-tails indeed.

Big sweeps are often the norm in such years -- and the anger and profound disapproval erupting against Bush, his party and his apologists are at record levels with no end in sight. Anything is possible, especially when an aging, long-time incumbent Senator like Domenici has clearly lost his edge and much of his clout on The Hill with a Dem takeover of Congress. Moreover, there's a growing anti-politics as usual movement that favors creative, common sense candidates ready to challenge the status quo over Beltway insider, conventional wisdom politicos.

If you want to help get Domenici out of the way of our forward progress, a good place to start is supporting one of the candidates for the Dem nomination who want to take him on in 2008. Sign on as a supporter and/or give a few bucks to the New Mexico Dem Senate campaign of your choosing:

• Don Wiviott
• Jim Hannan
• Leland Lehrman

See our previous post on Bush's trip to New Mexico on behalf of Domenici. For more on the 2008 race for the Senate in New Mexico, visit our archive of posts on the topic.