Gordon Smith has his story, and he's sticking to it, no matter that it's, well, a lie.

A few weeks ago, I posted on Gordon Smith's deceptive ad, in which he tried to claim that he was just like Barack Obama. He's a little like Charlie Crist who becomes completely heterosexual just before every election, but Gordon Smith miraculously becomes a Democrat before every election.

Local news programs have called him on it more than once. The latest is from a Eugene station, in which Smith once again claims the mantle of Obama-ism for his own.

This appears to be the Obama press release Smith is saying proves that he's just like the Democratic nominee for President.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation that would reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by nearly half a trillion gallons by 2028 and greatly decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

Yup, Smith really is singled out there, isn't he. He's in pretty good WINO company there, with Lugar who can never quite make up his mind to actually vote against the president, and Coleman, who's just as desperate to keep his day job as Smith.

Here's a reminder for Oregon voters, and especially for Gordon Smith:

Here's the Obama campaign's response to the ad:

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

And when he was actually in Oregon in May, here's what he had to say about Gordon Smith:

"Gordon Smith's problem is that he rarely breaks away from George Bush and the Republican agenda that I think has done this country great damage."

Just to set the record straight. The actual Democrat in the race is Jeff Merkley, who also happened to post here today on his opposition to the FISA bill.

Race tracker wiki: OR-Sen

If the Senate had to be associated with a political color, IMO, it would be purple. We have a 51-49 Democratic majority, which doesn't even feel like much of a majority. Without a strong progressive Democratic majority in the Senate, we witness milquetoast bills being championed and real reforms being shelved. If there is one candidate running for the Senate that can influence our Democratic Senators to move to the left, it's Jeff Merkley.

Full disclosure, I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

Gordon Smith (R, OR-Sen) is advertising as being in line with Obama in Oregon.  Lincoln Chafee (who lost his Republican RI Senate seat in the 2006 midterm) has left his party.  Today he published a short piece on TPM today which got me thinking of 1980.

Democrats in Congress developed their "Stockholm Syndrome" after Reagan swept to power, caving to him on issue after issue.  It was infuriating.  Chafee's got me thinking that maybe that pendulum is swinging the other way.  President Obama's gonna get bipartisan votes passed in Congress.  The Republicans are going to get thrashed with Obama's coattails.  Mitch McConnell's not going to get iron-fisted discipline out of his caucus any more.  Even if he's still got 42 or 43, I'm thinking filibusters are going to decline dramatically.

I think we've got signs of some really good news here.

Gordon Smith, a Republican from Oregon, has made a commercial where he points out his ability to cooperate with Barack Obama. Check it out below...

Many of my fellow Kossacks are most likely aware of Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's work in the House on equal rights, workers' rights and combating climate change. Jeff Merkley was the director of Habitat for Humanity and became one of the most effective progressive legislators my state has ever seen. He has a very impressive record on domestic issues, but I'm not sure my fellow bloggers know that Jeff Merkley is one of the strongest national security candidates we've had in a long time. Follow me below the fold to learn about the progressive legislator from Oregon who has serious foreign policy chops.....

Full disclosure, I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

This is how shameless Gordon Smith can get. He's trying to tell the people of Oregon that he's Barack Obama's choice for the Senate in Oregon.

"Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment?" the ad asks. "Barack Obama! He joined with Gordon and broke through a 20-year deadlock to pass new laws which increase gas mileage for automobiles."

In addition to that ad, his campaign sent out this e-mail (via e-mail, no link):

Gordon Smith: Setting the Record Straight on Energy Independence
Smith teams with Barack Obama to raise gas mileage standard earning praise from Governor Kulongoski
Lake Oswego - Senator Gordon Smith responded to the false attacks from Jeff Merkley's special interest allies today, releasing a new ad setting the record straight on Smith's energy record. Smith teamed with Senator Barack Obama to craft a new and innovative approach to increase fuel mileage standards, reduce foreign oil consumption and protect the environment.

"Gordon Smith and Barack Obama joined forces to protect the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. That's a reality that Jeff Merkley and his special interest allies would like to ignore," Smith campaign spokesperson Lindsay Gilbride said. "The truth: Gordon Smith is a leader in the fight for energy independence."

While campaigning in Oregon during the May Presidential primary, Obama declared their plan "won the support of lawmakers who had never supported raising fuel standards before" in the Salem Statesman Journal. Governor Ted Kulongoski issued a press release praising Smith and Obama for their bipartisan leadership on such a critical issue. Their innovative plan led to a new law (PL #110-140) raising fuel standards by 100 percent.

Here's the Obama campaign's response to the ad:

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

And when he was actually in Oregon in May, here's what he had to say about Gordon Smith:

"Gordon Smith's problem is that he rarely breaks away from George Bush and the Republican agenda that I think has done this country great damage."

Just to set the record straight. The actual Democrat in the race is Jeff Merkley, who also happened to post here today on his opposition to the FISA bill.

Race tracker wiki: OR-Sen

As you probably heard, last week the Obama campaign began the general election with an 18-state ad buy

In addition to the presence of 6 red states Kerry never advertised in (AK,  GA, IN, MT, NC, ND), many of us noted that the ad isn't running in 4 blue states where Kerry ran ads.

Kerry won Maine by 9 points, and Obama has a 22 point lead in the latest poll.

Since the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party was founded in 1944, only 3 times has Minnesota failed to vote for its nominee (still McGovern's 2nd best state after MA in 1972, and Stevenson's best non-former slave state in 1956), and most pollsters have shown Obama up by double digits.

Washington went for Kerry by 7 points and nearly every poll has Obama up by double digits, so that's explained.

But most Oregon polls have him up by only by single digits; Kerry won by only 4 points, and Oregon was one of 4 states (along with IA, NM and WI) that Gore won by only half a point; had he lost them all, Florida would have been irrelevant.

It turns out that he is advertising there after all.

He's just contracted it out ... to Republican Senator Gordon Smith

Greetings Daily Kos,

Last Friday, the House of Representatives passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. It was the wrong move and I urge Congress and the President to reverse course.

Now this is something. Gordon Smith has been doing his damnedest for the past two years--knowing how much of a target his Senate seat was going to be--to pretend like he's the Democrat in the race.

And now, here's this ad, with Smith claiming to have been "one of the first to stand up to George Bush and other Republicans to end this war."

(Hint to Democrats--think the Iraq war still doesn't strongly resonate with voters? Obviously, Gordon Smith and the Republicans do.)

Let's just set the record straight. Smith might have been the first Republicans in the Senate to oppose the war, but that was an obvious political calculation, as pointed out in this story by Oregon political report Jeff Mapes:

[Former Oregon representative] Furse might have been accurate if she called Smith one of the first Republicans to oppose the war. But Smith backed the war for more than three years before first speaking out against it days after the 2006 election.

In contrast, all four Democrats in the House delegation voted in 2002 against giving Bush the authorization to go to war. [emphasis mine]

In fact, we saw this coming. Markos, in December, 2006.

Iraq seemed like a great idea to Gordon Smith, until he realized he had to run for reelection.

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Sen Gordon Smith, a moderate Republican from Oregon who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore."

Smith said he is at, "the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up the same bombs, day after day....

"I, for one, am tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let's cut and run or cut and walk, but let us fight the way on terror more intelligently that we have because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way," he said.

Whoever runs against Smith in 2008, and we have good options who will make this a top-tier race, needs to remind voters that Smith enabled the Bush/Lieberman/McCain war until it was time for his job evaluation.

Jeff Merkley is the candidate making this race top-tier, and he is also on top of Smith's false claims. He's joined by a number of Oregon's high profile Dems, and, happily, local news.

Race tracker wiki: OR-Sen

Don't you just love it when you can take what was really said on the Senate (or House) floor and tell the real truth to counter some of the lies and misrepresentations put out against our progressive candidates?

Talk about talent!  This guy has been able to simultaneously alienate gay marriage advocates, the Mormon Church, and the fundamentalist polygamous Mormon sects unaffiliated with the current LDS church; not to mention any people who have been troubled by the recent news about these polygamous sects.

It all started on June 11 with Gordon Smith's answer to a question about his position on gay marriage, DOMA, etc.:

Part of what I fear, as you start defining marriage -- we have a long history of doing that in this country, and my Mormon pioneer ancestors were the victims of that. They were literally driven from the United States in the dead of winter for following their religious beliefs. I don't want that coming back.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...

June Update
Senate gains looking solid. Dems have a lot of work to do to go from solid gains of 4-5 seats to huge gains of 7-9 seats.

Current Senate: 49 Dems, 1 Socialist, 1 Lieberman, 49 GOP.

Rasmussen. 6/11. Likely voters. MoE 4% (5/7 results)

Merkeley's post-primary bump has faded a bit, but Smith remains in serious danger.

In the presidential race:

While McCain remains mired below 40 percent, Obama's support is fluxuating a bit. Could be float in the sample or something else, but Obama remains in the driver's seat. Remember, Oregon is traditionally a tight state. Kerry won it in 2004 by only four points. Obama has threatened to put this away (like he has Washington, another traditional swing state), but as of now, Oregon bears some watching. It certainly can't be taken for granted, even if the Pollster.com composite poll average still gives Obama a double-digit 48.7-38 lead.

Race tracker wiki: OR-Sen

The following is a review of Oregon's primary and a preview of Oregon's fall elections now that the primary results (with the exception of Ballot Measure 53) are certified.

GOP Senator Gordon Smith is from my home state of Oregon.  TPM posted this yesterday:

Take a look at this video of Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon -- a Republican who has supported both the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment and anti-discrimination laws and domestic partner benefits -- struggling pretty hard to clarify his position on gay marriage and equal rights for individuals.

Smith appeared to be likening discrimination against gays to the persecution faced by his Mormon ancestors for their views on marriage:

I know, I know...it's not likely, but a brother can dream can't he?

Following up on my post from yesterday and incorporating some of the suggestions/corrections from the comments made there, let's take a look at our best case scenario in the November Senate elections.

Right now, we're at 49 Ds, 49 Rs and 2 I's.  When the smoke clears on election night in November we'll be at 62 Ds, 37 Rs and 1 I.
Here's how it's going to happen....

Here’s how the Dems can win a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the U.S. Senate.  It’s not going to be easy, but it can happen.

Right now, there are 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats and 2 Independents (Sanders-VT & Lieberman-CT) who both caucus with the Dems.

In November of 2008, there will be 33 Senate seats up for election AND one special election - to replace the retired Trent Lott-MS.  For the Dems to achieve a 60 seat super-majority they will need to win 9 seats that are now held by a Republican.  Here are the 9 seats that are in reach:

Gordon Smith is getting desperate these days.

Not only is Smith spending $ on TV ads trying to paint himself as a moderate (which is laughable), while Jeff Merkley is not spending a dime, he is commiting trademark infringement  and trying to capitalize on an implied endorsement while doing so.