Blake Rutherford cites Nate Silver, the best in his business mind you, in his analysis of Lincoln’s chances in November:

Our model now shows Blanche Lincoln’s chances to be close to zero (technically, about 0.3 percent, which rounds down to zero). Bypassing an esoteric debate about whether the probability distribution should be more fat-tailed than we have it (if I could get 300:1 on Blanche Lincoln, I’d definitely take it), it’s not hard to see why she’s in trouble. She’s way behind, her approval ratings are terrible, the polling is robust, the GOP nominated a competent challenger, Arkansas is a red state, and the numbers in races with incumbents tend to be less amenable to dramatic last-minute comebacks than those with two newbies. If Democrats spend much money on her, they are potentially costing themselves a win somewhere like Missouri or North Carolina, or a hold in an Illinois or a Washington.

0.3 percent chance of winning. I’ve been down on Lincoln’s chances, and even I didn’t think things were that bad. It’s sad-she and the party establishment created this situation for themselves. Blake echoes what I’ve been saying for awhile:

What does it mean? Exactly what Mr. Silver says it does. Resources – from cash to surrogate appearances – disappear. The enthusiasm gap, which currently favors Republicans, widens. The DSCC writes it off, opting instead to focus on preserving other seats.

Those effects will trickle down. If Democrats perceive the Lincoln campaign as a lost cause and Gov. Mike Beebe as a slam dunk, it’s going to be difficult to drive Democratic turnout, something that both Chad Causey and Joyce Elliott will need to win.

Democrats have a problem on their hands-a self made one. We tried our best to get an electable candidate through the primary and the party establishment from the state on up to the national level did everything they could to stomp that one out. Now, for the sake of our down ballot races, we have to figure out how to fix this.

I still don’t think this is set in stone. If Lincoln can A) pull her base back together and B) cast Boozman as an unappealing choice, then she win, though it would be a very narrow one. Shaking up her staff isn’t a bad idea either. Still, the burden is on Lincoln and her team to do this-no one else can. And mark my words, if they drag the Democratic party to defeat in November, then the people that worked for Senator Lincoln will have a seriously hard time getting a job in Democratic politics after this. Still, if they fail to reach out, we have to find another way to bolster our down ballot candidates and to cut Lincoln off from the rest of the ticket to minimize the damage.

The next time Republicans are mouthing about Obama and the deficit, show them this:

Just a reminder, we’re calling Mark Pryor this week and telling him to get tough on BP. Specifically, we’re telling him to sign on to the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010.

Here’s the number for his office: (202) 224-2353

Call him and tell us in the comments what his staff said.

I’ve been privy to some interesting conversations of late among Arkansas progressives regarding the U.S. senate race post Lincoln vs. Halter.  Right now, the progressive community in this state is splitting into two camps.  One camp is rightfully angry over some of the Lincoln camp’s dirty tricks and tactics in the primary and over Lincoln’s running to the right.  As such, that camp is threatening to vote in mass for a third party candidate, likely Green candidate John Gray, or just leave the ballot blank.  On the other side, there are progressives who are so repulsed by the idea of having John Boozman as our senator that they’re willing to hold their nose and vote and are encouraging others to do the same.  Which side is going to win out?

I see both sides of this one.  I don’t want Boozman as my senator, and I’d freely admit that even after all that’s been said and done I’d still prefer Lincoln.  However, I also have to way the arugment that conservative Democrats may, as they’ve shown themselves to be over the last year and a half, present a greater threat to progressive policy than Republicans, so long as Democrats maintain their majorities, something that is, itself, up in the air.  At the same time, there’s the fear of Lincoln becoming a drag on the ticket for our federal candidates and I’m not sure if the best approach is to try and help her shape up or find a way to cut her loose.

Personally, I can see vulnerabilities that could bring down Boozman, but Lincoln’s only way forward here is by a slim victory in November, and she’s going to need to mend fences if that is to happen.  She needs to reach back out to the progressive base and make nice.  Someone asked me recently if I’d be willing to interview Senator Lincoln if the offer were extended.  Sure, of course I would.  Anyone can talk to us at Blue Arkansas and I would always make an effort to be fair and respectful to whomever I was interviewing.  So yeah, if someone from Lincoln’s staff approached me and said they wanted to talk to us to reach out to our readers, I’d gladly sit down and give them that chance.  Whether the readership responds or not is totally out of our hands though.

If Lincoln’s going to pull an upset in this race she needs to do two big things.  One, she has to pull together the fractured base.  Two, she has to cast Boozman as an unthinkable option.  She still has time yet to do that, but it’s jut a little time.  If she fails to even try though, well, it’s a sign that her campaign has bigger problems then simply a fractured base and a tough political climate.

The DCCC apparently didn’t get the memo that Tim Griffin was supposed to be coronated in the second district. They’re calling for him to say where he stands on the DISCLOSE Act:

Career DC insider Tim Griffin, who is best known as a backroom political operative in Washington, owes it to Arkansas voters to reveal how he would have voted on the DISCLOSE ACT, a bipartisan plan which requires transparency and disclosure in campaign spending by the Big Special Interests – including Wall Street banks and foreign companies.

“Tim Griffin made a career out of protecting special interests in Washington,” said Jesse Ferguson, Southern Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Tim Griffin now needs to tell voters if he thinks these same Wall Street Interests and foreign companies should be able to spend unlimited money without any accountability to influence his race and others across the country. Arkansas voters certainly don’t think the CEOs on Wall Street or companies from China and India should be telling them how to vote, does Griffin disagree?”

That’s not the only thing that Griffin, and John Boozman, Rick Crawford, and Steve Womack for that matter, need to come clean on. Day after day after day we see how corporations are out of control in this country and they have allies in the form of the Republican Party (and conservative Democrats). The DISCLOSE Act barely passed the House and Wall Street Reform may be in jeopardy now. Boozman, Crawford, Griffin, and Womack all need to say where they stand on DISCLOSE, Wall Street Reform, and the Citizens United decision. It’s a simple question, do they stand with the American people or with big business. Yeah, we know the answer to that one…

Mark Pryor made one of his constituents a promise:

I cornered Senator Mark Pryor immediately after and asked him what he was going to do as our representative to see that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico never happened again. I would not let him go even though he looked a might uncomfortable with my questions. I figured it was cheaper than flying to Washington to see him so I might as well take advantage of the situation.

I explained that I had many years experience from the early ’80s through the 90’s with the oil industry working in exploration, worldwide and domestically. I told him that I went to many OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) meetings in Houston. The industry was seriously working to protect the environment and to prove that they could drill in deep water safely. Since then, the impetus for that research had dried up (as BP stated that the technology they were using was at least 20 years old).

I asked him to please instigate and put forth the legislation that would return those safeguards to the industry and even toughen them up in light of the BP fiasco. He said the first thing was to get the oil flow controlled at the well. I countered with that was a given, we needed legislation NOW to keep it from happening again. He said he would do that. I guess being put on the spot and having witnesses to his response was the cause of his look of discomfiture.

Emphasis mine. Senator Pryor made a promise to one of his constituents here to take on an important problem. In the old days, he could get away with saying one thing and doing another. Now the blogs are here to keep tabs on what our elected leaders say and do, so he can’t get away with that sort of thing. What’s more, he doesn’t have to make something from scratch here. There’s already a bill in Congress to do this, the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010 being authored by Senator Jeff Bingaman. It’s a solid bill that already has some bipartisan support that will bring new regulation and updated rules to the drilling industry to help make sure that this mess in the Gulf never happens again. Dailykos diariest RLMiller has a great analysis of what’s in the bill and calls it an example of Democrats going big. Read that analysis, and then call up Senator Pryor and tell him to stand for more regulation of BP. I’m going to as soon as I get done writing this, and you guys should too and keep it up through the week.

So go ahead, call his office and tell Senator Pryor to stand up for regulating BP as he promised one of his constituents. Here’s the number:

(202) 224-2353

Oh, and don’t let ‘em swindel you with talk about how we have to stop the oil first blah blah blah or anything like that. Tell Pryor it’s this simple-he stands up and leads on this issue or he faces electoral consequences in 2014.

Update:Just got off the phone with Senator Pryor’s office. The aide I spoke to, “Hank”, was very knowledgeable of the matter and, I’m happy to say, very responsive and helpful. I expressed my disappointment with Senator Pryor’s votes and representation in the past and said he needed to step up, and told him that we at Blue Arkansas would be watching and holding him accountable. It’s that painless to make this call, and holding them accountable is a part of our democratic process. So yeah, make the call:

(202) 224-2353

Today the United Food and Commercial Workers are staging informational rallies at grocery stores all over the country (including Little Rock).  The message is that the owners of the Motts plant in Williamson, New York are asking for cuts from the workers after posting one of the most profitable years in their history.  The cuts are not based on low sales, the cuts are based on the owners desire to just not give the workers what they are demanding.  It is a direct impact of high unemployment and a strained economy. 

This is the perfect time for employers everywhere to force their employees to accept cuts and givebacks…the fear of being fired or losing jobs is a very potent friend of the Boss.  And Motts is taking full advantage of it. 

Here is how I want to draw the connection between what is happening in New York and what is happening in Arkansas.  UFCW is not a large union.  They represent grocery workers, bus drivers, medical professionals and in some cases public employees.  They don’t have density in any of those fields so they are relatively weak when it comes to making demands.  In most cases the employers they bargain with can call their bluff and show just how weak they are.  The result of this is that they lose at the bargaining table.   In Arkansas, because we are a “right to work” state, no union has density or strength in any area and struggles to protect their workers.  (Now all that would change with the Employee Free Choice Act. )  The result is workers who can’t demand that the employer pay a fair wage or even keep their companies in Arkansas (Whirlpool).  There is no balance of power –the employer/BOSS has it ALL. 

For years there has been polling done to ask the general public how they feel about unions.  The majority alway say that given the opportunity they would like to be in a union.  The reality is they won’t get the opportunity. 

Unions aren’t about union bosses smokin’ fat stogies taking advantage of poor workers, it is about workers getting together to demand equity in their work space. 

I am going to support the UFCW efforts by joining the boycot of Mott’s foods and their list of products that are produced.

The NRA officially runs the government. Long story short, the individual right to bear arms, an interpretation I have no problem with at the federal level, has been extended to the states and local governments through the process of incorporation by the Supreme Court. So where does it stop? Can states ban cop killing bullets? Does it mean that we can’t keep guns out of the hands of felons or the mentally ill? Do you have the right to own a bazooka?

We have an individual right to keep and bear arms, sure. I get that and I’m for that. When I was growing up, there were many times when we’d hear a noise and my stepdad would head outside with the gun to check it out-that right is there for a reason. However, there have to be limits on any right, and how far this is going is beginning to scare me.

And let’s be serious…if the gun industry wasn’t worth billions, the folks running the NRA and the other gun rights organizations wouldn’t give spit about it.

Just a quick note here. I’m watching the Kagan hearings at work and, frankly, I really, really, really want to see shorter opening statements, even from the guys I like. The funny thing is Kagan, who if I recall correctly once called for Supreme Court confirmation hearings to be more substantial, looks as if she’s struggling not to show her disgust with the idiocy these senators, Democrats and Republicans alike. Lol, I have to say that makes me feel a little better about her.

Oh, and I’ve got to say, it’s bad when the most real and substantive conversation on the role of the Courts comes from none other than Crazy Coburn from Oklahoma…

By the way:Media matters has a nice little take down of all the myths that have been thrown at Kagan by the right. Hat tip to Max Brantley.

Update:I’ve got to say, while I’m not much on long winded speeches in these things, Senators Whitehouse and Klobuchar (Ds from Rhode Island and Minnesota respectively) really came across as true statesmen in their speeches.

God I love Al Franken.

Again, one more bit of anti-Obama dribble that we haven’t done a good enough job getting out in front of is the criticism he’s recieved for the handling of the BP disaster.  The reason I bring this up now is that I’ve had two conversations in the course of the weekend that got me thinking more and more about this.  One was with a Republican who kicked the conversation off with “Even you have to admit that Obama hasn’t handled this well.”  The other was with one member of the Blue Arkansas team who made the point to me that, like it or not, Obama is the figurehead of the Democratic party and, as President, when people get upset he’s going to be the first person to point a finger at.

Frankly though, I don’t see how anyone could have handled this situation any better.  Sure the President could have used a more aggressive press strategy, but as far as the handling of the actual crisis I don’t see how anything different could be done.  He’s authorized 17,000 National Guard members to deal with the disaster in the Gulf, but that’s run into obstruction courtesy of the Gulf’s GOP Governor’s like wonder boy Bobby Jindal who decided to deploy a handful of troops solely to block media access to the disaster area and to the agencies handling the problem.  Sarah Palin made a buffoon out of herself (yeah, I know that’s old knews)  on the O’Reilly Factor and actually had O’Reilly skewering her over her assertions that the President should do things like call in the Dutch.  You know, because they’re so good at plugging holes with the fingers of small children…Oh and no, the President couldn’t just magically contruct islands around Louisiana to block off the oil either.

Seriously, this is a hole in a pipe thousands of feet below sea level and everything that’s being tried is, sadly, failing.  The President can’t fly down to the bottom of the ocean and seal the hole with laser vision, much as I’m sure he’d like to.  But on the other hand, his efforts to get BP to set up an escrow fund proved to be a “ mind-boggling accomplishment“, and while the talking heads panned Obama’s speech on the disaster, his message seems to have gotten through to the general public.

There is one thing the President deserves criticism for.  Before this, he was willing to push for more offshore drilling, and that was bad judgement.  However, he was pushing that strategy to get more votes from Republicans and conservative Democrats, and as we’ve seen in the past both camps are bought and paid for by big oil and countless other industries.  When all is said and done though, it was the President that stood firm and made BP pay for the spill while Tim Griffin’s buddies in the Republican Party apologized to the company’s CEO.  That should tell you everything you need to know about this mess.

One year ago today, a “sandwich artist” working at a Subway started a blog.  It started off as just a little blogspot site, a way to rant about all that was going on in the country.  Namely, it started as a way to vent about how Mike Ross and Blanche Lincoln and the rest of the Blue Dogs were messing things up for the President, the party, and the country.  Honestly, I have expected to do it for awhile and then just fizzle out.  Trust me, no one is more suprised than I am by how this has worked out.  Our tech guy, Matt, put together a great new site for us.  Jsamuel and poladdict joined the crew.  People started reading, posting feedback, and sending us emails.  And folks started listening to what we had to say.

In the course of a year, we have: launched a site that has become a major force for the progressive movement in the Democratic party here, helped draft Bill Halter into the Senate race and fight tooth and nail through the primary to beat Blanche Lincoln, falling just short in the end, worked to derail Tim Wooldridge in AR-01, helped give Joyce Elliott cover and stuck up for her when others were saying an African American couldn’t win, helped L.J. Bryant overcome a potentially damaging news story, and shined light on all the ugly details of voter suppression and illegal activity in Garland County.  On top of that, we’ve given progressives a way to break through the establishment and conservative noise machines.  We’ve shaken things up here and changed things forever, and we’ve done our fair share of both ticking people off and giving a good number of folks reason to believe that they are not alone and that they can make a difference.  Not bad for a bunch of average joes huh?  (And an average jane.)

We’ve made our share of mistakes too.  And we’ll make plenty more.  That’s all in a day’s work.  But we’ve also got plenty of big things planned for down the road, and I think you guys are like what we’re going to be rolling out over the next couple of years.  Yeah, that’s right, I said “years”.  We’re thinking long term here and we’re never going away.  I set this blog up where we could recruit new people to it and build a community, one that would persist and live on whether I was around or not.  And Blue Arkansas has a great team here and we’ll be looking to grow some more soon.  A big part of why this site has been so great is because of John, Sarah, and Matt.  On top of that there are countless other people who have contributed, shared info, sent along encouragement, or provided some sort of material support.  Roby especially deserves credit for all the help he’s given us.  Without him, this site probably wouldn’t even exist right now.

There are some things I want us to improve upon though as time goes on.  We have an outstanding readership and we’re one of the top political blogs in Arkansas according to our stats, second only to major news sites like the Arkansas Times and Arkansas News that we really can’t compete with.  But we have comparatively little reader participation.  Some of you guys leave comments and that’s great-we want that to continue and we’d like more of you to join in.  But we also have the diaries page where you can write about whatever’s on your mind, and having that is a big part of building a progressive community that can network with each other.  I’d also like to see us get more use out of the ActBlue page.  ActBlue is a great way for Democratic candidates to raise money, and it’s all safe and done completely electronically.  Someone once asked if we were taking the money and the answer is no-ActBlue is handled by a reliable and established outside organzation and no on here ever touches a dime of the money that passes through (and we’ll never be making any money off this site, I can assure you).  Anyway, that’s just the stuff I’d like to build upon in the year to come.

So yeah, a full year.  In some ways it seems like only yesterday that I started this.  In others it seems like an eternity has passed since then.  So much has changed and yet there’s still so much work to be done.  One thing is clear though, we’ve left our mark on state politics already, and you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Tolbert got some video this week of Joyce Elliott speaking to the Political Animals Club in Little Rock.  Now, truth be known, when I originally skimmed the account on it in the course of my busy day I thought I was going to have to write a completely different post than this, but more on that later.  When I actually watched the video though, I have to say I was wowed by what I saw:

Yeah, whatever it is that gives people that thing called charisma, Senator Elliott’s got it, and she really seems to have wowed the crowd.

Now, Republicans are going to take just one thing away from that whole moment. This:

They’re already crowing about it. That’s why I was afraid I was going to have to write a post on how Senator Elliott might need to get better as messaging…mercifully I was wrong. No matter what Senator Elliott says or does, Republicans are going to take it out of context.  Right after she said that Senator Elliott explained that saying Washington is broken is “like saying rain is wet”, and yeah, any pinhead can say that because it’s true and a common realization.  However, the distinction Elliott drew was that it took a real public servant to get things done, and it went over well with the crowd.  Through the whole thing she sounded incredibly optimistic and inspiring, and gave a nice account of who she was and what makes her tick.  And I loved the line about the fire fighter!  The whole “I’m not a politician” line always bugged me.  If you run for office, you’re a politician, that’s how it works, and Elliott made a long overdue distinction that we needed someone who was a “good politician” in the sense that they make good promises, deliver on them, and never forget about the people they represent.  It was a good speech, and Republicans are learning fast that the only way they’ll be able to draw blood is by cutting her with quotes taken out of context.  That’s where we come in by setting the record straight.

After the speech came the Q&A session:

Again, there are a lot of Republicans that are clutching the pearls over her response about American exceptionalism.  You know, because she didn’t say that America was the best place ever ordained for glory by Jesus Christ himself with no flaws worth mentioning whatsoever.  But again, she didn’t say anything all that bad.  In fact, she gave a pretty good response, saying America is different because of the ideas the country was born from while stressing that it could be taken to extremes.  (By the way, for those that don’t know, chauvinism is defined as- excessive or blind patriotism or  undue partiality or attachment to a group or place to which one belongs or has belonged as well as : an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex by Webster’s dictionary.)  They’re also fretting over her defense of beneficial earmarks, but again, her response makes sense.  It’s one thing when you’re funding a needed highway or a hospital in a district that can’t get funding some other way.  It’s another thing when you’re building the “Bridge to Nowhere”.

All in all, Joyce Elliott gave a good account of herself, and she even got a good swing in at Tim Griffin’s horrible economic philosophy.  I’m glad Senator Elliott made it clear that she will swing a punch when she has to.  In her interview with Politico for instance, she nailed his attachment to Karl Rove, and that’s not the only unsavory connection Griffin has to hit.  Tim Griffin has Joe Barton and BP, along with any half truth or lie the Republicans can up with.  Joyce Elliott has us.  The Republicans are counting on us backing down to them and not calling them to the mat, but Senator Elliott isn’t backing down and neither are we.  So show Senator Elliott that you’ve got her back.  Make a contribution to her on our ActBlue page.

Yesterday, Wall Street Reform made it out of conference.  Think Progress has a nice little chart illustrating how the differences between the House and Senate bill were ironed out.  Blanche Lincoln got her derivatives legislation passed through mostly unchanged with only some minor tweaking on the edge.  Scott Brown got his loophole for the Volker rule pushed through, but as a trade off it looks like Levin and Merkley got an even stronger version of the rule affecting propriety trading.  The Consumer Protection Area passed through safely, but ended up being housed in the Federal Reserve, unfortuneatly.  It would have been better to see it as a strong, independent agency, but having one is better than nothing.  The auto dealers however were able to buy an exemption from the agency’s oversite.  So, overall, far from perfect and with a handfull of loopholes, but still better than nothing and worth passing I think.

I’m still looking for confirmation on whether or not Lincoln’s push to get the Walton’s bank exempted from regulation made it into law or not.  So far, no confirmation is, to me, confirmation that it failed.  However, if I’m wrong, then team Lincoln is going to have more reason not to like me than they already do.  Although, just trying to get that passed was bad enough, and frankly just plain stupid.  It did nothing but increase the distrust and loathing on Lincoln’s left flank that she’s made no active effort to patch up.  But anyway, I’m getting off topic.

The bill now goes back to the House and Senate again for the final time.  Marion Berry and Mike Ross both voted against it last time around.  Can Lincoln use her new involvement with the bill to push them to vote yes this time around?  And really, does Mike Ross want to vote for Wall Street robber barons in an election year?  I know his opponent’s a joke, but seriously?  In the Senate, Lincoln’s vote is assurred, and it’s becoming more and more obvious that Pryor is just a tool, so I’m pretty confident he’s not going to vote differently from Lincoln.  And if Democrats manage to pass this, we’ll actually be at a point where we can say we’ve had a productive 111th Congress, even from a progressive standpoint.  Think about it-the Lilly Ledbetter Act, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the SCHIP expansion, the new credit card regulations, health care reform, the Matthew Shephard Act…feels like I’m forgetting something.  Anyway, add Wall Street Reform to that and we’ll have gotten a pretty good deal out of a Democratic Congress and President Obama.  Sure, it hasn’t been perfect and there’s a lot to gripe about but contrary to popular belief things are getting done.  And while it hasn’t been easy (and a lot of blame for that rests on the shoulders of conservadems like Lincoln and Ross) it was never going to be.  We’ve been left with a huge mess by George Bush and the Republicans and we’re still nowhere near digging ourselves out.  But yeah, there’s plenty of reason to be happy with what Congress and the President are doing now and plenty of reasons not to let either chamber go back to the Republicans.  If it had been up to them, Wall Street Reform would never have happened.  And if they make a comeback, then there’s plenty of awful things that will happen far worse than anything that might come out of a Democratically controlled Congress.

The New Republic has a nice little bit of polling info on the President’s health care reform passed earlier this year.  Brantley sums the findings up nicely:

 It now enjoys solid support, except among those over 65, who are WAY negative. You know. The people who don’t want government health care.

There’s a lot of reasons for the lack of support among voters over 65, ranging from the scare tactics Republicans have used about death panels and Medicare cuts to distrust of Obama (And yes, I am implying that the reason for that is what you think I’m implying.)

That said, this is shaping out much as those of us on the left who were fighting for health care reform predicted.  As time went on and people got to see that it wasn’t the bad thing it was made out to be, support would increase.  And if Democrats get on the ball with it and defend it loundly and strongly without backing down then support will only increase further.  The only sad thing here is we could have had a much better deal to support and defend if Blanche Lincoln and co. hadn’t done everything they could to kill the public option, but I have a hunch we’ll be revisiting that fight in the years to come.

So that aside, what’s this entail for Jim Keet, Rick Crawford, and all the rest of the Republicans running on the repeal line?  It means they can shove it.  Arkansas politics doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  To the extent that it seems that way, it’s because establishment Democrats have run scared and run right.  By framing the message and standing firm, they can win while defending health care reform.  Will they do that?  We’ll see.  But they need to remember that the left isn’t being so quiet or complacent this cycle and our move into the general election hasn’t changed that.

This is why we have bloggers:

I cornered Senator Mark Pryor immediately after and asked him what he was going to do as our representative to see that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico never happened again. I would not let him go even though he looked a might uncomfortable with my questions. I figured it was cheaper than flying to Washington to see him so I might as well take advantage of the situation.

I explained that I had many years experience from the early ’80s through the 90’s with the oil industry working in exploration, worldwide and domestically. I told him that I went to many OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) meetings in Houston. The industry was seriously working to protect the environment and to prove that they could drill in deep water safely. Since then, the impetus for that research had dried up (as BP stated that the technology they were using was at least 20 years old).

I asked him to please instigate and put forth the legislation that would return those safeguards to the industry and even toughen them up in light of the BP fiasco. He said the first thing was to get the oil flow controlled at the well. I countered with that was a given, we needed legislation NOW to keep it from happening again. He said he would do that. I guess being put on the spot and having witnesses to his response was the cause of his look of discomfiture.

Emphasis mine. Mark Pryor made a promise to his constituents here and it was recorded for all of us to see. His job now is to keep that promise.

It’s no secret that Pryor needs to seriously shape up his representation of Arkansas. It’s bad when Blanche Lincoln has the reputation as our “good” Senator. This is a way Pryor can deliver, by cracking down on BP. If he fails, he may well find himself in the position Lincoln found herself in this year or worse.

So next week, let’s call Senator Pryor’s office and demand that he keep this promise. Remind him that he made it in front of witnesses at the Clinton Library. Remind him that with the internet around and with bloggers now ascendant in Arkansas he won’t be allowed to forget that promise. And we’re going to keep that action going all through next week.