Here’s a clip from Matt Stoler’s interview of Democratic Congressional candidate Kevin Powell (who is trying to unseat Representative Ed Towns of Brooklyn), where the two discuss the FISA bill that recently passed both houses on Congress, and which many on the left opposed. (Barack Obama faced criticism from progressives over the bill, which he voted for.)

About halfway through, Powell says, “We’ve lost our backbone.” He adds later, “A lot of us have become spineless Democrats.”

Towns voted against FISA.

In case you’re wondering, Democratic members of Congress from New York who supported FISA include Tim Bishop and Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island; Gary Ackerman, Greg Meeks and Joe Crowley of Queens; Eliot Engel of the Bronx; Nita Lowey of Westchester; Kirsten Gillibrand of Albany; and upstate's Mike Arcuri and Brian Higgins.  read more »

Representatives Greg Meeks, Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns put out a joint statement just now endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

They are planning a 1 p.m. press conference at City Hall on Friday. There's another press conference happening in D.C. at 1 p.m. today.

All of them they previously endorsed home-state Senator Hillary Clinton, although Obama won their districts on the February 5 primary.

According to an aide for Meeks, Charlie Rangel, Bill Thompson, Helen Marshall, Malcolm Smith and Adolfo Carrion, Jr. will also be there.

Here’s the statement:  read more »

I just asked Representative (and Clinton superdelegate) Carolyn Maloney which is a better indicator to determine the Democratic nominee: the popular vote--which the Clinton campaign says it is winning--or the delegate count.  read more »

Representative Anthony Weiner’s call to get rid of earmarks may work out well for him in next year's mayoral race, but it isn’t gaining much traction with his colleagues in Congress.  read more »

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here is a list of what some members from New York, and a few from elsewhere, brought their districts, according to the list. (It's in numbers of millions):  read more »

The Clinton campaign gathered Congress members Nita Lowey, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gregory Meeks on a conference call this morning to demand that Barack Obama sever his campaign's ties to senior adviser and Pulitzer-prize-winning academic Samantha Power after she called Hillary Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.

Congresswoman Lowey of New York opened by saying, “We feel so strongly that this is a long way that we have to go in this campaign, and it's likely to go all the way to Denver. Personal attacks are not the way to go.” She went on, “We’re calling on Senator Obama to make it clear that Samantha Power should not be part of this campaign.”

Lowey later said, “This is an important test for Senator Obama….it’s really a test of character. This comment set a tone.” She then added, “I think Senator Obama has to make a public statement and separate himself from Samantha Power.”  read more »

The race for the City Council seat in Queens that Leroy Comrie is vacating because of term limits in 2009 is turning contentious unusually early.

Running for the seat are Ruben Wills, executive chief of staff to Democratic state Senator Shirley Huntley, Brian Simon, chief of staff to Representative Greg Meeks, and Democratic operative Joan Flowers.  read more »

Charlie Rangel, a major supporter of Hillary Clinton, is joining Chuck Schumer and a growing number of superdelegates who think the Democratic nominee should reflect the popular vote, not the will of the superdelegates.

From Newsday:  read more »

An interesting detail from that Roll Call story (highlighted moments ago by Liz) about an audit of Greg Meeks' use of campaign funds: The reason his office reportedly gave for one expenditure--for a personal trainer--was that said trainer “was necessary to alleviate stress brought on by the candidate’s duties.”

The audit, for your interest, is here.

How unusual is this?

She had worked on David Paterson's [corrected] last campaign, according to the comptroller's spokesman Jeff Simmons, and did a "fantastic job."

According to Simmons, two other people applied for the job after seeing it advertised on the comptroller's web site, but unlike Meeks, they had not worked on the campaign and weren't as well qualified.