In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms.  But so far, it's been all over the map.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

In the past 3 months, Democrats have increased their House majority as they picked up a remarkable 3 seats in a series of special elections organized in Illinois's 14th district, Louisiana's 6th district, Mississippi's 1st district. What is particularly remarkable is that all three of these districts leaned heavily Republican; in 2004, George Bush had won them respectively with 55%, 59% and 62%. Each defeat increased the chaos of the Republican caucus as the NRCC started to settle in panic mode. After the loss of MS-01 on May 13th, Tom Cole, the chairman of the NRCC, issued a remarkable statement calling on Republican incumbents to brace for the worse and find individual ways to deal with the onslaught.

And Republicans have reason to fear a second November debacle. First, Republicans are now three more seats away from the majority and it is hard to find a GOP operative willing to suggest their party has any hope of reducing that margin in November. Second, the party continues to be at a significant financial disadvantage while the DCCC has a huge pile of cash that it will use in dozens of districts in the coming months, testing any Republican seat that shows any sign of being vulnerable. While the GOP was able to respond in the special elections, they will not have the money to do the same in the fall and will be forced to make some painful choices.

These rankings are posted on Campaign Diaries.

The Big News in NY-29 today is the fourth quarter fundraising by Netroots Superstar Eric Massa.  He outraised his opponent Randy Kuhl for the third straight quarter.  Both NY state blog The Albany Project and local blogs like Rochester Turning have this part of the story.  From October 1st to December 31st, 2007, Massa raised a total of $267,960.18, bringing his campaign war chest of cash on hand to $414,603.90.  Kuhl raised $156,736 in Q4 and has $326,513 cash on hand.  More on the flip.

Senate Majority Leader Reid:

"Freedom of speech is one of our country's most cherished values.  Nothing sets us further apart than the countries and regimes we oppose than our belief that everyone's opinion matters, and everyone has the right to express it.  That is why, when we hear things on the radio that are offensive, by and large, we tolerate them.

But last week, Rush Limbaugh went way over the line - and while we respect his right to say anything he likes, his unpatriotic comments cannot be ignored.

I'm sorry Senator, but your dead wrong -- we cannot spend a single minute of time more on useless letters or legislation about what conservative talk show hosts or what 527s put in newspapers.

I disagree with Kos, It is not time to score 'cheap political points' -- what it is time for is action and purposeful legislation.
More quotes, links, info below.

Though he is trying to deny it (link), Rush Limbaugh clearly said that veterans who are opposed to the way President Bush is running the Iraq War are "Phony Soldiers."  Well, I have a dear friend who is a 24 year Navy Veteran and who has loudly and incessantly criticized President Bush's handling of Iraq.  And there isn't anything phony about him.  In fact, my friend, who is a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor running for congress, has been warned by his doctor that the stress on his body could literally kill him.  I was taken aback when I found this out while reading a profile Esquire Magazine did on him here.

Here is the quote that almost knocked me out of my chair when I read it:

Friends,

As you already know, today is the last day of the all important 3rd quarter filing deadline for campaigns and I'm sure your inbox has been filled up with requests for donations and support. I want to take a moment to first thank everyone at DailyKos, Openleft, MyDD, and the Swing State Project for deciding to add my race to their Blue Majority page as well those of you who have decided to support my race and the other Blue Majority candidates. The support of bloggers is incredibly valuable and we simply cannot win without your help. Today, I want to take a moment to address you in video which is something I haven't been able to do as often as I like (though your contributions are helping us build out our staff and increase our capabilities):

The next addition to the Blue Majority page is a candidate returning from 2006: Eric Massa, who is running against Shotgun Randy Kuhl in the NY-29.. Please, give to Eric Massa today.

Eric is a true netroots favorite, evidenced by the tags NY-29 and Eric Massa being the most common tags for a congressional race and congressional candidate respectively, on MyDD. Eric is extremely energetic and hard working, as I have seen upclose in my visits to the district on several occasions. His energy rubs off on his grassroots supporters, who were able to close off a corporate Democratic primary challenger this past summer through relentless blog pressure, securing the support of virtually every local precinct captain in the district (including two family members of mine who joined the silent revolution in Update New York), and lots of small-donor, in-district fundraising. Now, he is set to take on Randy Kuhl who, separate occasions, has threatened both his ex-wife and his constituents with firearms, even though he claims he was just joking about the later. But he seriously doesn't like his constituents:

That is, he doesn't like his constituents unless they are Republican donors trying to build new bowling alleys in the district.

This is the "reddest" district in New York, which Bush won with about 56% of the vote in 2004. However, is it turning blue, like the rest of New York state. But Eric Massa is not your typical red-district Democrat who will let you down. As a progressive, he will fight for you, pledging to oppose FISA and watered-down withdrawal from Iraq, something few Democrats from a district this "red" have done. After losing by only 4% in 2006 despite no help from national committees, Massa is well poised to take the seat in 2008.

Support Eric Massa for Congress on Blue Majority. He is another example of more and better Democrats.

Crossposted from dKos

Friends,

It has been an absolute whirlwind week for our campaign over the last 10 days and there are a number of things I'd like to touch on today. In the last 10 days, our momentum has grown exponentially. Today, I'd like to take the time to review four major developments in our race.

YearlyKos

First - I want to thank all of you for another wonderful experience at the Yearly Kos convention last week in Chicago. I apologize for not posting last Sunday as I usually do, however I was on an airplane flying back to Western NY at the time. During the convention I was scheduled to speak at the Future Leaders panel with a number of netroots candidates. However on Saturday morning at 7 am I received an urgent call from one of my staffers. Apparently Arianna Huffington had just broken her ankle and as such was unable to make it to the "Left behind by the Right" panel (If you're reading this, I hope you're feeling better Arianna). As such, I was asked to step in since I too am a former Republican.