The DCCC wants Meehan's $5 million.

With Rep. Marty Meehan's appointment as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, many Democrats are wondering how he will spend the $5.12 million in his campaign account -- or if he'll spend it at all [...]

Under federal campaign finance laws, Meehan is allowed to transfer all of his campaign cash to a party committee or donate it to charity. He could also stockpile the money in preparation for a future statewide bid. He had previously considered running for governor and likely would have run for Senate had Sen. John F. Kerry won the presidency in 2004.

The DCCC could be a leading recipient of Meehan's ample funds.

"We would like to sit down with Congressman Meehan and soon discuss the ways he can be helpful to the committee," said DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell. "Obviously, it's an issue we'd like to broach with him."

Meehan had a busy last couple of years -- first working overtime to try and destroy blogs like this one by spreading FUD about what we do.

As the debate moved forward, and especially as Congress began considering legislation to circumvent or shape the FEC proceedings, almost everyone in the political universe reached out to us to seek the netroots imprimatur or advice on their proposed fixes -- Democratic and Republican members of the House, libertarians, law professors . . . everyone except the reform community, which steadfastly avoided us at best, and generally treated us with hostility. A joint "Dear Colleague" letter sent by DailyKos and RedState was responded to by Reps. Shays and Meehan with hostility and lies, and the atmosphere never improved. Despite all their talk of claiming to protect free speech, they refused to answer at every point whether they believed sites like DailyKos should be regulated. They refused to deal with us honestly.

Then, last year, Meehan sat on his $5.12 million and refused to give more than the required DCCC dues ($125,250) even as Democrats scrambled for cash to compete and take control of the House. While many of his colleagues dug deep on behalf of a new Democratic majority, Meehan gave them the finger and plotted his ascension to the Senate. There were even rumors that Meehan was one of the people pressuring Kerry to run for president -- not necessarily because he thought Kerry could win, but because it would open up that Senate seat.

Once Kerry decided to stick around, Meehan decided to take his ball and go home. In Massachusetts, politicos end up in charge of universities, and that's where Meehan is headed.

So the question, now, is whether Meehan decides to give that $5 million to charity, to the DCCC, a combination thereof, or if he'll keep it in case one of the state's Senate seats open up.

Given how much of an ass he is, I bet he keeps it.

I want a progressive majority in Congress.  That means a progressive Democratic majority in Congress.  Building this type of majority is a long term project and over the next three or four cycles, it has no chance of completion as basic political reality will have the progressive Democrats being led about by conservative Democrats as the conservative Democrats have a longer demonstrated history of being willing to strategically flip their votes.

Congressman Marty Meehan is resigning his congressional seat this July to become the new chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.  His desire to succeed John Kerry as Senator has now been thwarted by Kerry not running for president in 2008 and running for reelection instead in 2008. Meehan is the most assiduous fundraiser in Congress ...a talent that commended him to the UMASS-Lowell board.  

Indeed Meehan leaves ...at the moment anyway...5.2 million or so in his campaign account. Money that we all asked him to donate in 2006 so we could get more Democrats elected.

We should all remember his name from the "Use it or Lose It" campaign.  To update people this was a campaign begun by Chris Bowers of MyDD in the fall of 2006 to get Democrats with large warchests in very safe seats to donate to party committees when it became apparent that we could not only win but win big.

Yesterday, Edwards released a statement on the so-called military policy, "Don't Ask Don't Tell". I've always thought what Clinton put into action was a way to allow gays to be active in the military as long as they didn't tell anybody about their orientation. It seemed pretty ridiculous to me but I've heard other people say how they believe it's a good policy.
My boyfriend is one of those people who believes the don't ask don't tell policy is good one because it protects gay men and women from what repercussions they could face from their military brothers and sisters. He does have a point, I would be worried about how gays would be treated if they were open about their sexuality.
On the other hand, at some point we have to get beyond what could happen and keep progressing forward no matter the consequences. Nearly every human rights struggle had to deal with human consequences before society as a whole could progress.

Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Marty Meehan, Christopher Shays and David Price have introduced legislation to fix the current presidential public financing system, that would take effect in 2009 if it passes.

From Senator Feingold's press release:

The front-loading of decisive primaries, and the emergence of candidates able to raise money far in excess of the primary election spending limits, have exposed the weaknesses of the current system. The legislation improves the system by increasing matching funds, increasing spending limits for candidates who participate in the system, raising the amount individuals can contribute via the tax form check-off, among other provisions.

Follow me in for a more in-depth look at how the system works, and what the proposal to fix it looks like.

According to the Boston Globe, Marty Meehan (MA-05) is considering taking a position as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

The opportunity to become chancellor, however, could pose a difficult choice for Meehan, with Democrats in control of the US House and Senate after a dozen years of Republican rule. Meehan, as the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, is hiring a new staff and laying the groundwork for investigations and hearings into fraud and abuse in the spending of Iraq reconstruction funds. He is scheduled to lead a delegation of its members to Iraq in mid-February.

On the other hand, Meehan, who leads most other incumbent congressmen with a $4.9 million campaign war chest, saw one of his political ambitions fade last week, when John F. Kerry dropped out of the 2008 presidential race and announced he would seek reelection to his Senate seat, which many members of the delegation had hoped to pursue. There has not been a US Senate vacancy in Massachusetts since 1984.

It seems incomprehensible that someone would leave an important House subcommittee chairship to be chancellor of UMass-Lowell,  but, well, what if?

Remember that Meehan was one of the notable misers of the House back before the elections, when we were trying to get members of Congress without meaningful opponents to give some of their campaign funds to the DCCC so that it could support more candidates and get more Democrats elected to Congress.  At the time he was presumed to be saving his money for a Senate run should Kerry run for president, but that didn't stop Barney Frank, who was believed to have the same ambition and had less cash on hand, from giving 30% of what he did have.

While Meehan is a Democrat and would almost certainly be replaced by a Democrat, therefore, what kind of Democrat he's replaced by could be interesting.  (And hey, special elections are always mid-cycle fun for us junkies, right?)

According to the Boston Globe :

Two leading House Democrats said yesterday that they intend to reverse the 13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and lesbians in the military when Congress comes under Democratic control in January.

Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat, said he plans to hold congressional hearings early next year of the House Armed Services Subcommittee, which he is likely to chair, on a bill that would allow homosexuals to serve in the armed forces...

Meehan's proposed change was backed yesterday by Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat who is openly gay.

First, I would like to thank Representatives Meehan and Frank for treating us gays and lesbians with respect and dignity and for looking out for our best interests.

Yeah, like Big Gov doesn't already have a Mr. Burns-style sunblocker over it, but that's besides the point.