DOMA and DODT aren’t just gay issues, they’re progressive issues. And the problem with pushing the progressive agenda with the White House is always the same: they have bought the entire progressive infrastructure off for the price of a few cocktail parties and and the opportunity to be on the “inside.”

They’ll run that play again and again until progressives make that situation uncomfortable for everyone involved at the grassroots level.

The campaign that John and Joe Sudbay are waging to stop people from attending the $1000 a head DNC gay fundraiser has been impressive. Movements that start at the grassroots create the space for everyone to operate in, and aren’t succeptible to being squelched because people at the top decide to put the screws to a few key people.

It’s great that Jim Himes has such close relationships with Goldman executives. As someone who sponsored legislation to make sure that the bonus packages of all TARP recipients were tied to company performance, I’m sure Jim will be the first to call for transparency on Goldman’s part and make sure their “surging revenues” are legitimate before they start shelling out these fat chunks of taxpayer dollars during a recession.

I was more than a little amused yesterday when Fred Hiatt invoked “viewership data” as an excuse for sacking Dan Froomkin, considering they’ve been doing their level best to destroy his readership by burying him in outer blogistan.

Rayne sent along some info on the Washington Post’s online traffic for the past five years, relative to the Huffington Post and the New York Times.  The graph above is a Quantcast comparison, which indicates that the Huffingotn Post is eating the WaPo’s lunch, and on its way to eclipsing the New York Times as well.

The Post has been trying to kill off Froomkin’s audience for a while. Anyone who writes for a web site knows that if you get no main page exposure — or in this case, even a link on the Politics page — your traffic is going to take a huge hit, regardless of the quality of your writing. It’s like taking a baseball bat to someone’s knees and then firing them because they can’t walk.

Hiatt doesn’t need to produce Froomkin’s traffic figures — he needs to explain why they have been actively trying to eradicate Froomkin’s readership such that disingenuous arguments about “viewership data” could ultimately be made to justify sacking him.

US Representatives are much more susceptible to public pressure than Senators because they have to face re-election every two years. But in the fourth year of their terms, every Senator becomes a Representative for two years. Blanche Lincoln is running for re-election in 2010. If she’s ever going to be persuadable, now is the time.

Ted Kennedy helped Hagan get elected last year. His Committee for a Democratic Majority gave Hagan critical early support. So did Emily’s List, for that matter — they gave her about a bazillion dollars. Where are they?

Prerna in DC – June 17 from Dream Activist on Vimeo. I met Prerna yesterday at a Campaign to Reform Immigration for America training.  She described her trip to DC: Then I come to the hotel room and I have this staring at me — Fiji water.  With a pricetag, $7.  Globalization is so amazing [...]

Glenn Greenwald says most of what needs to be said about the Washington Post’s firing of Dan Froomkin. But having been involved in the early rounds of this battle and watched it ferment over the years, I thought I’d add a few notes of context.

Jim Himes bristles at the notion that he’s a corporatist, or that his statistics come from wingnuts like Pete Peterson who cherry pick them for the purpose of dismantling Social Security.