Much like last year, Netroots Nation will again be hosting a low-dollar, grassroots fundraiser in Washington, DC.

And much like last year netroots champion Senator Russ Feingold will be attending!!!

Details below the fold....

Let me start out by saying that Senator Feingold is a good progressive senator and has done a lot of good over the years. But his recent comments about Senator Edwards are just wrong-headed and a little ridiculous given that the man is guilty of some of the same things.

PLEASE FORWARD

1.  Meet Sen. Russ Feingold/YearlyKos, Tuesday, April 17

An OBJECTIVE Look At Where The Democratic Party Is Now

Because the Republican leadership  has been further out of touch with voters than the Democratic leadership, many Beltway Democrats don't seem to realize that the Democrats didn't win the 2006 election  --  the Republicans lost it.

For many months, voters have made it increasingly clear that they desperately want the United States to take action on withdrawing our troops from Iraq. Certainly an orderly redeployment  --  protecting,  to the greatest extent possible, the safety of the troops leaving Iraq and those remaining  until they can be redeployed. That's what the November election was all about.

Amidst all the White House 2008 polls flying around, I wanted to do one purely for fun that tests the withdrawn or foregone Democratic candidacies (Evan Bayh, Russ Feingold, John Kerry, Tom Vilsack, and Mark Warner--so far--I'm omitting Gore since that still appears to be controversial).  You can register your vote here.

An invitation to the first round of voting for a 2008 Progressive Patriot to receive some cash support from Russ Feingold's PAC is in our "In" boxes today. This first slate for the new electoral cycle consists of Democratic freshmen whom Russ Feingold expects may face stiff challenges.

The roster is below the fold.

I'm a Johnny-Come-Lately on these things; but the Daily Digest really is indispensable for those trying to follow the Congressional circus.

(That URL brings up the latest DD. If you want the DD for a particular date, you need to go here).

The DD for yesterday tells us that cloture on the Biden nonbinding Iraq res (S Con Res 2) had become unneccesary (but, under the rules, had to be taken).

Cloture on HR 2 (the minimum wage bill) passed yesterday, so Senate decks are cleared for battle next week on the various texts of nonbinding Iraq resolutions.

According to the papers this morning (the Post, for instance), Biden (S Con Res 2) has been benched in favor of Warner (S Con Res 4).

But Warner with a twist:

The revised resolution would express the Senate's opposition to the troop increase but would vow to protect funding for the troops. The resolution does not include the Democratic language saying the Bush plan is against the national interest, but it also drops an earlier provision by Warner suggesting Senate support for some additional troops.