If the Democrats do not win and least one branch of government, there will be no investigations into the high crimes and misdemeanors fo the current administration.

Last Election? September 1 2006

It's 871 days, 11 hours, 24 minutes and nine seconds before the constitution mandates that George W. Bush must leave office, although frankly, if you look at the high crimes and misdemeanors and treasonous acts he's committed in office, I'd say he should be out now, but that would require impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate and that ain't gong to happen unless enough of us get active, get mobilized and get out there to elect Democrats to the House and Senate this fall.

This is probably the last election. I really, those of you have listened to me for years, for the four years we've been doing this program, or read my writings over the years, you know I am not one prone to exaggeration beyond the occasional, you know, joke or theater, whatever. I mean this just dead serious.

These guys are willing to subvert the Constitution; not just willing - gleeful, not just gleeful - they brag of 'It's the terrorist surveillance program - we don't need no stinking judges'. They're willing to subvert the Constitution. They are willing to convert the public commons into private gain. They are willing to literally kill people, watch people die, proactively take steps that cause the death of over 100,000 people in order to gain political advantage, just pure simple political advantage. They clearly are willing to go all the way to the Supreme Court to block the vote from being counted. We saw that happen in 2000. They're willing to steal and rig elections; we saw that happen in Ohio and several other states in 2004.

This may be the last opportunity that we have. Now, that doesn't mean on November 8th 2006 that if the Democrats have not taken control the House and Senate, I'm going to go away. I'm going to stay here and keep, well, as long as, you know, radio stations will have us, I'm going to stay here and keep talking about these issues and continue talking about it, but regardless of who wins, I am so concerned that if at least one branch of government is not taken by the Democrats this year, so that the Republicans can continue to prevent there been any investigations of the very real crimes, and impeachable offenses frankly, of this administration.

And a lot of this stuff is being done by people who were there long before George Bush came along. I mean, the guys working out of Orrin Hatch's office hacking into Ted Kennedy's computer back in 2002 so they could figure out what the Democratic strategy was going to be to try and block be the appointment, the confirmation of right wing extremist judges, for example. They were hacked into Democrats' computers in the Senate for over a year and pulling information out and feeding it to the Washington Times and other right wing sources just in time to sabotage the strategies of the Democrats. The same people who are spying on you and me without a warrant. I am so concerned about these guys that if at least one branch of the House or Senate isn't taken, and frankly the Democrats in place held, even those with whom I have a lot of disagreements, that I think we're in big trouble; I really think we're in big trouble.

I mean, yes, there are some Democrats out there that, what can I say? For example, Maria Cantwell; I disagree with her about some of her votes, particularly on the so called Free Trade, and if I lived in Washington State I would vote for her in a heartbeat because we need a Democrat in the Senate. Christine Gregoire, the Governor; she's not running for reelection here but I mean, it's the same kind of thing. I mean she, their office contacted us and said 'Hey, do you want to have the Governor on? She's at the DLC event.' and David's response, our producer, was 'You don't want her to go on and talk to Thom about the DLC, because he will not be nice to her.' I mean, I'd be nice to her, but it would not be the kind of conversation you want to have happen.

So, I thought afterwards, you know, I really should make it clear that outside of that, I think Christine Gregoire is a pretty decent person and a very good governor for the state of Washington, and so I called up her press office and said, 'Hi, this is Thom Hartmann, and I just want to let you know the reason why we didn't put the governor on the air today is 'cause I really thought it really would be a bad thing. It wouldn't have worked out. You know, you don't want, I'll have a discussion about the DLC with anybody who wants to come on, but they have to know in advance what my position is, 'cause I'm just not going to blind side somebody - even right wingers: I'm not going to blind side - it's just not fair. It might make good theatrical radio, or something, but, so anyhow, I called up the press office, and they're like, 'Yeah, OK, thanks'. Click. I'm sitting here feeling like majorly dissed, you know. But, so what? Right, get over it; come on, grow up, be a big boy, right?

Ultimately, right now it's about if there isn't somebody in power to stand up to the Republicans, this Republic, this nation, is toast. And so whether we have a personal problem, you know, personal irritations with the staffs of particular politicians, or whether we have policy differences with particular Democratic politicians, we need to, and frankly I am saying this as somebody who is not registered as a Democrat; I'm registered as an independent. In the year 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader for president of the United States. Now, I did it knowing that I was living in Vermont and there was no chance that Nader would carry Vermont and I just wanted, you know, his Party to get that 5% so that they'd qualify for money in the future. I thought, I'm a big supporter of the Green Party.

And right, now because we have a two Party system in the United States, even those of us who consider ourselves more progressive than the mainstream Democratic Party need to be out there supporting and frankly infiltrating and taking over the Democratic Party, because it really is the only Party that can stand up to the Republicans right now at the national level and that means calling your local Democratic Party and saying, 'How can I help?' And you don't have to walk away from the Green Party in order to do that, or the Progressive Party or whatever other form of politics you want to be participating in. Or going to the website of these folks and saying, 'Here, here's 25 bucks or supporting independent organizations that by and large are supporting Democratic candidates like DemocracyForAmerica.com (http://www.democracyforamerica.com), Jim Dean's organization. They are doing great work. Twice, two years in a row I spoke at their conference here in Oregon, the DemocracyForOregon.com folks or dfo.com - it's probably both [no - ed.]. Every state has one of these organizations. There's an absolute 50 state strategy out there.

We need to get out there and we need to get active. Because, 60 some odd days; I mean, you heard the hysteria in Sean Hannity's voice yesterday, you know. He's willing to die, he's willing to die to prevent Nancy Pelosi from becoming the Speaker, or he's willing for somebody to die. These are serious times. The Republicans are running scared; we should be, frankly, too, and holding the vision of restoring democracy to the United States and saying, 'No, Franklin Roosevelt was a good guy and what he did was right and did save capitalism from the itself and he did bring greatness to this country, no matter what Limbaugh says: "Roosevelt is dead. His policies may live on, but we're in the process of doing something about that as well." Yeah, and we're going to pull that out of your mouth and stomp on it, Mr. Limbaugh. I'm telling you, the American people are not, are not on the side of the hard core right wingers and their control of Congress is not going to stand.

And the only way ultimately over the next 2, 4, 6 years that they're going to be able to hold it is by means that are way beyond legal. I mean, right now it's illegal, many of the things that they're doing. We're gone way beyond legal. Talking about coup d'état in America and I don't want to see it go that far and I really believe we can stop it if we can get Democrats elected, enough Democrats elected to the House and Senate this time that we can provide a strong counterweight to the crimes of the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress.