Here’s what it means for Wright to be running as a “citizen’s candidate”: Instead of the standard procedure for the selection of a congressional candidate, in which a self-centered politician gathers resources for the power to orchestrate a top-down campaign, Claudia Wright was democratically chosen by a group of committed citizens who had organized around a selfless purpose: The replacement of Jim Matheson as Democratic congressional candidate with a progressive candidate.

As a Blue Dog, working with Republicans to block Democratic legislation, Jim Matheson has gained the strong opposition of his district’s progressive candidates. In spite of his claims that he doesn’t need liberal help to win re-election, Matheson looks vulnerable this time, and his campaign is struggling to figure out a good way to deal with the rebellion on the Left. So far, they haven’t come up with a reasonable response.

Win or lose, 2010 may well be remembered as he year of Claudia Wright. Utahn Democrats are tired of the Blue Dog nonsense.

This year, once again, Democratic voters are being asked to plug their noses, never mind the stench of betrayal, and give their support to members the right wing Blue Dog Coalition. Those Blue Dogs are Democrats, but they vote with the Republicans, wrecking Democratic Party attempts to to pass progressive legislation on issues like health care and climate change, over and over again.

Democratic voters have been asking themselves: What’s the point of having a Democratic majority in Congress, when it’s made up of creeps like the Blue Dogs? This year, the discontent is out in the open, with bumper stickers like this one, declaring, I’ll never give my vote to a mangy old Blue Dog – featuring a graphic of a blue dog, slinking away.

A Blue Dog Democrat is nothing more than a GOP elephant trying to make an ass out of itself.

Mainstream progressive Democrats are joining liberal activists in nearing a full scale revolt against their own party’s leadership, demanding that the Blue Dogs’ destructive activities finally be brought under control.

U.S. Representative Maxine Waters spoke for many when she said of the Blue Dogs, “Now the chickens have come home to roost.”

You can show your participation in the progressive campaign to challenge the Blue Dog Democrats with progressive primary campaigns by placing the bumper sticker you see here on your car – with an evocative graphic blue dog and a simple, clear message: No Blue Dogs.

In 2009, however, it’s become clear that the Blue Dogs are not really independent at all. They’re dependent – upon the Republican Party.

In the 2008 elections, voters gave Democrats the White House and both houses of Congress because they wanted change from the years of failure under George W. Bush, but the Blue Dogs have been fighting against change. Jim Costa and the other Blue Dogs have been working to scuttle climate change legislation and health care reform.

Jim Costa himself has earned a progressive rating of just 19 out of a possible 100 for the 111th Congress. The Democrats of California’s 20th district have watched Costa pal around with the Republicans over and over again this year, and cringed.

That’s why this bumper sticker has been created as a protest against Jim Costa – not from a Republican perspective, but on behalf of the Democrats in Costa’s district. Democrats, we can do better than Jim Costa.

The last phrase of this famous refrain from children’s television seems to be something that right wing Democrats in the U.S. Congress have a special identification with. Members of the Blue Dog Coalition seems to believe that they can do anything that they want to do, and still get the support of Democratic voters.

The Blue Dogs play a rather nasty political game of running for office as members of the Democratic Party, but then turning coat in office to work against the Democratic Party, helping congressional Republicans instead. The Blue Dogs in Congress have blocked legislation on the very issues that gained the Democratic Party its majority in the first place: Climate change, health care reform, equal rights, and restoration of the Constitution are all 2008 issues that the Blue Dogs have joined with Republicans to deny.

The progressive majority of the Democratic Party has had enough. We didn’t suffer through the Bush years just to have the Democratic-controlled government promote the same awful regressive policies all over again. That’s why, in 2010, the rallying cry for progressives is: Blue dogs belong on children’s TV, not in our Congress.

Well, the national emergency has come and gone, but the Patriot Act remains. It was renewed, in spite of previous promises, in 2005, and now, in 2009, it’s the Senate Democrats who are leading the charge to renew the Patriot Act. They’re trying to pass S. 1692, a bill to put off the sunset yet again.

Like the original Patriot Act, S. 1692 fails to protect Americans’ constitutional rights. Good senators like Russ Feingold and Dick Durbin supported an amendment that would have at least guaranteed that the Patriot Act’s worst powers would only be used in cases of suspected terrorism or foreign spying, but their amendment was dismissed. Worse yet, it was other Democrats who made up the deciding votes to kill the reform. The following Democrats voted no to reforming the Patriot Act:

Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Al Franken
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Ted Kaufman
Herb Kohl

It’s time to talk back to these Democratic leaders. They were elected to take a stand against the abuses of the Bush era, not to extend them! This bumper sticker gives a direct message about what’s at stake: Patriots Against the Patriot Act

This video contains more explanation of the problems with the new Patriot Act extension:

Now is the time for Democrats who have supported Hillary Clinton for President to reconcile themselves to the fact that their favorite candidate will not be the Democratic presidential nominee. Barack Obama will be.

Clinton supporters of good will can now help in the effort to ensure that John McCain does not become the next President of the United States. It’s time for a show of support for Barack Obama by people who have supported Hillary Clinton. Putting this Clinton Supporters for Obama in 2008 bumper sticker on your car can help.

You also might encourage the Clinton Supporters for Obama blog to continue its efforts.