BILBO: Every Democrat Should be Thankful for Bill Halter

Tyler Bilbo, Yellow Dog Democrat

Blanche Lincoln’s vulnerability transcends the ideological preferences of Arkansas’s conservative electorate. For the sake of keeping Lincoln’s seat in Democratic hands, Bill Halter cannot afford to feed into an ideological dichotomy that distracts voters from Lincoln’s corrupt presence in Washington. Even if Halter does play into this liberal vs. conservative game, however, his primary will ultimately help Lincoln by making her appear more conservative in the general election.

HOLLINSHEAD: Dems Need Their Own Attack Machine

Kevin Hollinshead, Progressive

The Democrats need to go on the offensive on health care reform.

PETERSON: California’s Catch-22

Tim Peterson, Independent

Unfortunately for Californians, the current politicians would rather be elected than effectively solve the budget problem, and cater to voters’ conflicting wants as opposed to serving up their own menu.

BARON: What Progressive Strategy?

Noah Baron, Religious Progressive

I would much rather have one more moderate Democrat in the Senate and a Democratic majority than a failed progressive Democratic candidate, and no majority at all.

HOLLINSHEAD: Boy’s Health Insurance Company a Real ‘Death Panel’

Kevin Hollinshead, Progressive

Five year-old Kyler VanNocker of Edgewater Park, NJ has neuroblastoma, a rare and deadly type of childhood cancer that attacks the nervous system, leaving his body riddling his body with tumors. But Kyler’s health insurance company denied him the proven-effective treatment and decided to place their profits above a doctor’s opinion. To deny Kyler coverage was to prescribe his death.

BARON: Wake Up, Internet Generation!

Noah Baron, Religious Progressive

If the many progressives of the internet generation do not make it a point to log off of Facebook and actually show up to the meetings of the groups they joined there, we are going to be in serious trouble, starting with the elections coming later this year.

CUEVAS: Justice on Trial

Jesse-Justin Cuevas, Independent

Trying Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in a criminal court would send a clear message of pride and certainty to the rest of the world – a distinguished belief in our system and our country’s dependence on and commitment to due process. Certainly 9/11 was an act of war rather than a “mere” felony, but that does not legitimize the subversion of one of the pillars supporting this government. Instead of subverting due process, we should sublimate it.

BILBO: Carly Fiorina and the Corporate Republican Experience

Tyler Bilbo, Democrat

Though the Tea Party is the most oft-cited faction in the GOP, it is really the super-wealthy, out of touch class of Republicans that are the most likely to cause an internal implosion of the party. Carly Fiorina’s candidacy for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat is an instructive microcosm of this dynamic.

FULHAM: A Bigoted Last Stand

Peter W. Fulham, Democrat

If there was ever a point in the last year when Congressional Republicans appeared unshakably determined to walk on the wrong side of history, it was last week, during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, which bars gays from serving openly in the military.

PETERSON: The National Security Implications of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Debut column from NYU graduate Tim Peterson on why “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a threat to national security and should be repealed.