CAF In The News

— John McCain weighs in on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which Isaiah pithily describes here, and demonstrates the utter inadequacy of E. coli conservatism to grasp, well, reality:

"I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems," the expected GOP presidential nominee told reporters. "This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system."... "They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else," McCain said. "And it's hard for them to leave their families when they don't have somebody to take care of them.

Of course, as this document shows, average educational attainment has been higher for women than for men for ten years now. Read here for the definitive demonstration that, yes, women make less than men for the same jobs, and yes, the only possible way to explain that is discrimination.

Doesn't matter. The Senate's conservative minority just filibustered fair pay for women—or, as the AP laundered this shameful action, "killed the bill Wednesday night on a 56-42 vote that denied the measure the 60 votes needed to advance it to full debate and a vote."

inthesetimes.com — Take Back America 2008 was, as usual, rousing and inspirational. The keynote speeches that stood out for me were those given by Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future (the group that convenes the conference each year); Van Jones, a young and dynamic leader in the environmental movement; and Donna Edwards, the newly elected, soon-to-be, congresswoman from Maryland’s 4th district.

afp.google.com — A US liberal group Friday released an advertisement that rails on Republican White House nominee John McCain for backing a US Air Force decision to award a huge contract to Europe's Airbus.

"A message of thanks to John McCain from the French people," says the video ad, which is in French with English subtitles and was issued by the Campaign for America's Future, a self-described "progressive" think tank.

weblogs.baltimoresun.com — Sometimes, the pursuit of political partisanship carries a sheer entertainment value.

Such is the case with this political committee that is none too happy about Sen. John McCain supporting a military contract that takes a lucrative flying fuel-tanker contract away from Boeing and hands it to a French consortium that includes the Airbus aircraft.

blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com — In a new tongue-in-cheek video ad, Campaign for America's Future uses Sen. John McCain's ties to the Air Force tanker contract awarded to a group that includes European jetmaker Airbus over The Boeing Co. to attack the presumptive Republican nominee.

The video zeroes in on the contract's foreign ties, painting a caricature of a senator more loyal to France's economy than America's without much context. But thus is politics. You be the judge.

politico.com — MoveOn and the other groups participating in this week’s “Take Back America” conference are trying like never before to avoid stepping on each others’ toes — and messages — as they gear up for an intense general election battle.

On Tuesday, they presented Election Day 2008 as a historic opportunity thanks to the lessons they’ve learned from past efforts, loosened election rules, an electoral landscape tilted in Democrats’ favor and grass-roots networks that they say rival those mobilized by Republicans in past elections.

Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, which is hosting the conference, floated the possibility of $400 million in combined spending during a telephone interview with Politico after the news conference.

The exact size and shape of the spending remain unclear, though, partly because the Democratic presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is far from settled, and also because the groups behind the plan — and their legal structures — vary widely.

Borosage included in his calculation Rock the Vote and Women Voices-Women Vote, which promote voting by young people and unmarried women, respectively; ACORN, which advocates for expanded housing opportunities; and the National Council of La Raza, which backs Hispanic causes.

thehill.com — Leaders from six progressive groups participating in the “Take Back America” conference this week announced Tuesday that they would undertake the largest and most expensive effort in history to push progressively minded Americans to the polls.

“2008 has the potential to be a ‘sea-change' election,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, the organization that hosts the annual conference. Borosage predicted a political transformation on the order of the conservative realignments that swept through the nation following Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

ap.google.com — Activists who gathered at a Washington hotel this week said Obama and Clinton have energized the electorate with their prolonged contest, but several warned that a convention fight could be fractious and leave little time to mount a general election campaign against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.

washingtonpost.com — A broad range of liberal interest groups yesterday announced plans for a costly independent drive to mobilize left-leaning voters for the 2008 election, much of it targeting younger and minority voters.

Leaders from the loose coalition of groups predicted a combined spending effort that will total more than $350 million.

During a news conference describing the endeavor, leaders from several of the groups made it clear that the effort is aimed at taking on presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. McCain is already the target of an independent ad paid for by the Fund for America, a group financed by wealthy financier George Soros, and by the Service Employees International Union.

time-blog.com — Not unsurprisingly, Obama won the Take Back America straw poll. The progressives today finish their annual three-day conference here in DC. A whopping 72% were for Obama, compared to 16% for Clinton, with just 12% saying they’d be happy with either. And 69% said Obama was better equipped to beat McCain versus 15% for Clinton. (See Politico story here.)