November 5, 2008

Whither Joe?

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WHITHER JOE?….So what happens to Joe Lieberman now? If Dems had gotten to 59 or 60 seats in the Senate, it would be really tough to kick him out of the caucus. But at 56 or 57, Lieberman is a lot less important. Sure, every vote counts, but needing four or five GOP votes to break a filibuster instead of three or four — well, that’s just not such a big deal.

On the other hand, politics makes for strange bedfellows, and political leaders swallow hard and make compromises for the greater good all the time.

On the third hand, dumping Lieberman, especially if Obama were behind it, would be a very dramatic way of encouraging party loyalty from the rest of the Democratic caucus in the future, wouldn’t it?

So….I dunno. What do you all think happens to Holy Joe? Stay in the caucus on condition of good behavior? Stay in the caucus but lose his committee chair. Get kicked out completely? Something else?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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