Playing catch-up on DNC photos: Wednesday, part one

Better late than never, as I always say ... have a look at some images from Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Blue Dog Democratic congressman Allen Boyd speaks to the Florida delegation breakfast.

Joe Garcia, congressional candidate from Florida's 25th District, addresses the delegates' breakfast.

18th District congressional candidate Annette Taddeo waits for her turn to speak to the delegates' breakfast.

Following breakfast, the Florida delegates cast their votes for the presidential nomination.

Not that you needed to see more pictures of this sucky blogger, but I just had to post this one of me with my all-time political hero, former Florida governor and U.S. senator Bob Graham.

Later, at a special lunch for Florida officeholders at the federal and state levels, Sen. Graham introduced us to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

At the Florida luncheon: (l-r) Florida Progressive Coalition blogger and Progress Florida webmaster Ray Seaman, Sen. Bob Graham, Florida House Minority Leader and state Senate candidate Dan Gelber, state Rep. Loranne Ausley, and Ausley's husband Bill Hollimon.

Never let it be said that Kos (Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, pictured here) can't even give away his latest book. He gave stacks of them out to us at the Big Tent. (And he's wearing that button I liked so well, but never obtained.)

Cool senator, sucky blogger. Here I am with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

The "security theatre" strategy was omnipresent in Denver -- police in full riot gear were everywhere, presumably to scare us out of protesting or utilizing our First Amendment rights. You can't tell from this picture, unfortunately, but the vehicle on which they are standing was decorated like a birthday cake and it said "Eat Me" on the side.

Cuba libre?

Well, not quite, but if Democratic strategist Jeff Garcia is right, Florida might be freed from the clutches of the batshit crazy wingnut Cuban-American-hyphenated contingent in Congress.

Republicans Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his brother Mario Diaz-Balart, and documented liar Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have enjoyed a stranglehold on Miami's congressional districts in recent years, but they've also marched in lockstep with Drunky McStagger, which finally may prove to be their political downfall ... and not a moment too soon.

In the past six weeks, three Democrats have thrown their hats into the ring:

• Annette Taddeo, 40, a Colombian-American businesswoman, will challenge 18th District U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a 19-year congressional veteran.


• Former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, 58, is running in the 21st District against Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a 15-year congressman.


• Joe Garcia, 44, former [chairman] of the Florida Public Service Commission and of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party, is up against Mario Diaz-Balart, who is gunning for his fourth term in the relatively new 25th District.

The names Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen are iconic in Cuban Miami, and challenging them will be a chore.

"Running against any incumbent is hard, and running against an incumbent family is even harder," Joe Garcia says of the Diaz-Balart brothers, descendants of a powerful political family in pre-Castro Cuba.

But that brings Jeff Garcia - no relation - back to the numbers.

According to the Democrats, a poll conducted last July revealed that 75 percent of registered voters in District 21 said the Republicans had mismanaged the war in Iraq. In District 25, that figure was 76 percent.

In a separate poll conducted last fall in District 18, 73 percent of potential voters said they opposed the war, according to the Democrats.

All three GOP incumbents have backed President Bush's Iraq policy even as public support for the war has waned. The three challengers say the next president must find a way to end major U.S. military involvement relatively soon.

The economy is tanking, America's global reputation is shot to hell, and corruption pervades Drunky's maladministration, but I believe it's still going to come down to the war. Just as Huggy Bear is inextricably tied to his BFF Drunky's position on the illegal and unnecessary war (despite what some alleged experts say), so too are many on the GOP side in Congress ... and nowhere is that more true than right here in America's Glans™.

I'm not ready to declare schadenfreude on Miami's Three Hyphenated Stooges just yet ... but this is the best chance Democrats have had in a long time to unseat them.