Why is John McCain sending me emails?

[Black Lazerus]

I get these

Dear Laz,

It's like a meeting of the "no accountability" caucus of the Republican Party. Tonight in Chicago, George W. Bush and House Speaker Denny Hastert will appear side-by-side campaigning for Republican candidates.

And, if you think Republicans can't dance, wait until you see 2006 candidates waltz away from the dreaded prospect of being caught in a photo op between the President and the Speaker of the House.
"Woulda. Shoulda. Coulda."

That was Denny Hastert's instinctive response to questions about why the Republican leadership hadn't done more to protect young congressional pages in the Mark Foley scandal. Those are the words of a politician and a party who have made a habit of ignoring the facts, ducking responsibility, and avoiding accountability.

Woulda stopped the corruption of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, and Duke Cunningham. Coulda forced President Bush to abandon his destructive "stay the course" policy in Iraq. Shoulda cared about something other than cynically holding onto power.

Too late now, Denny. We've had enough. That's why we've added John Laesch, your Democratic opponent and a former Navy intelligence analyst, to our October slate of veterans running for Congress.

Rush a contribution to our veteran candidates right now.

What better way to respond to the Bush-Hastert get-together in Chicago than rushing contributions to five veterans running in races that can finally break the Republican grip on power. This isn't the October Denny Hastert and George Bush had in mind.

They thought they'd have Democratic candidates on the run... burying our hopes in an avalanche of special interest money... stealing our momentum with bogus "soft on terrorism" charges.

Speaker Hastert was planning a victory march from one congressional district to another. That's until one Republican candidate after another begged him to stay home and not bring the debate about his shameful failures of leadership into their races.

Now, with your help, John Laesch can bring that debate into Hastert's own congressional race. Make Denny Hastert explain himself to the people of Illinois' 14th District. And help our four other veterans running in some of the closest, must-win races in the country.

Rush a contribution to our veteran candidates right now.

Don't just support John Laesch's run against Hastert. Tell Patrick Murphy in Pennsylvania that you won't tolerate Republican attempts to "swift-boat" him by disparaging his service to our country.

Tell Leonard Boswell in Iowa that you won't let him be thrown off course by hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads funded by the Texas millionaire who was behind the Republicans' 2004 "swift-boat" attack strategy.

Help Lee Ballenger in South Carolina stand up to the flood of special interest money pouring into his opponent's campaign from powerful oil and gas interests. And help Colonel Mike Weaver continue his surge in Kentucky with a campaign that tells the truth about the Bush fiasco in Iraq.

Rush a contribution to our veteran candidates right now.

Denny Hastert has been the longest-running Republican speaker in history. But in 25 days, we can take the gavel out of his hands -- and the smirk off George W. Bush's face. Don't back down. Don't stop working.

Rush your support now to as many of our five veteran candidates as you possibly can.

Together we'll win.

John Kerry