I wanted to stop by and thank everyone here for their support and good wishes as I made my decision about challenging Mitch McConnell here in Kentucky.  The outpouring of support coming from the Netroots was one of the factors that led me to believe we have a real shot at "Daschling" the biggest obstructionist the Senate has ever known.

So I’m in, and I’m in this to win.

Our Louisville headquarters is open for business, and our Online HQ is now up and running.  You can read my first blog post here, and we’ll be updating our blog regularly to let you know how our campaign is doing.

Franklin Roosevelt once observed that the deepest problems we face as Americans are human ones.  I think he called that one right.  Whether we’re talking about the lack of resources in our schools, or the inability of over 47 million Americans to acquire health coverage, or the seemingly endless war in Iraq, we’re talking about problems that are very real, and very human.  Moreover, these are being preserved by unscrupulous men and women who would rather not be proven wrong than confront the challenges facing us.

Let’s face it – Mitch McConnell isn’t just part of the problem in Washington, he is the problem.

In launching a record-shattering number of filibusters last year and helping President Bush to sustain his cold-hearted vetoes, McConnell delayed our efforts to pass a long-overdue raise in the minimum wage by a month, he killed Jim Webb’s and Chuck Hagel’s bill to provide adequate rest for our soldiers after deployments, and he stopped efforts to create a responsible exit strategy for Iraq…SEVEN TIMES!

And those are just the big ones.  In fact, if we add up all the time the Senate wasted on procedural motions and unnecessary cloture votes on just the non-controversial, bipartisan bills it handled last year, Mitch McConnell’s obstructionism cost the Senate 300 hours of taxpayers’ time.  Mind you, we’re just talking about bills with overwhelming, bipartisan support, like raising the minimum wage and reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  300 hours – that translates into about 25 work days wasted by Mitch McConnell in 2007.

The hard truth is that there is no greater roadblock to progress in Congress than Mitch McConnell.

It has to stop.  We have to stop him.

And since there is no more tenacious force in politics today than the Netroots, I need your help to win.

Right now, the biggest problem facing our campaign is money.  The DSCC wants to sit this race out, either by supporting a self-funder (because, when you’re running against a guy with as many big-money donors as McConnell, the first thing you want to do is trigger the Millionaire’s Amendment and raise his contribution limits!), or by simply ignoring this race and giving McConnell a pass.  

We need to show that we can stay competitive with McConnell if we want any help at all from the national party.  So I’ve set an ambitious goal: we’re going to raise $100,000 from 1000 donors by the end of the month. 512 of you have already stepped up to support this campaign without even being asked, and I am truly grateful, but now we need your friends, family and co-workers to match your generosity.  We need another 488 people to join our fight in the next thirteen days to meet our goal.  

Please contribute what you can.

Second thing we need is to organize our supporters.  We’re facing one hell of a fight, and we need to marshal our strength and focus our energies if we’re going to succeed.  To that end, I’ve brought on two Kossacks to help with that effort, Colin Bishopp and JR Lentini.  The first thing they wanted me to do is ask those of you who want to help us beat McConnell to join our new Google Group, Netroots for Horne.  This will allow us to quickly contact our supporters and, more importantly, will allow you to engage in self-directed activism.  This campaign is about grassroots strength, and giving you the tools to organize independent of the campaign is a critical component of our strategy.

Mitch McConnell is well-funded.  He has the Republican establishment, the big-money donors, and the power of incumbency behind him.  We need every ounce of help you can give if we’re going to succeed in slaying the dragon.

We do have a challenger in the primary, and we’re going to have a difficult campaign in the general.  It’s a long, hard road between now and November, and we’re only starting out.  So let’s start out right, by showing the doubters in DC that we’re going to fight like hell to stop Mitch McConnell from preventing real progress for America any longer.

I was a Marine for 27 years, and I’m always ready for a fight.  I hope you are, too.

Semper Fi.