The liberal bloggers who worked so hard to promote Darcy Buner in the 8th Congressional District last year are back in the game. News here yesterday that state Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, is expected to soon challenge Burner for the Democratic nomination brought quick responses from bloggers for Burner. It's clear there will be plenty of reminders through the primary next year that Tom has only recently become a Democrat.

Here's Andrew at the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog:

We're confident the 8th District is ready for an authentic progressive, and we know we have a stellar candidate in Darcy Burner - a smart, savvy campaigner who will stand up to the attacks from the right wing.

As for Rodney Tom, he is free to run if he wishes. He will discover that running for Congress is not the same as running for state legislature. He won't be able to defeat Darcy, but perhaps he will do her a favor in keeping her on top of her game.

Earlier he wrote about Burner, with a jab at Tom:

She believes, as we do, that politics is a team sport, and she is a team player, not an opportunist looking to advance her career.

And of course, she is a wonderful person - intelligent, caring, good humored, well intentioned.

(Andrew's earlier post about the 8th is a long one that proposes that "there is no such thing as a moderate." He says that's a myth. He quotes from George Lakoff's book, "Thinking Points," and says the book was "a huge inspiration for this post, which I have borrowed phrasing from." It's good that he credits Lakoff. But it'd probably be better to just put Lakoff's stuff in quotes and not "borrow" someone else's words.)

David Goldstein, meanwhile, has a new take on why Burner lost to Congressman Dave Reichert last year. It was all part of a plan.

Burner, like the other second-tier Democratic challengers, was a sacrificial lamb in a grand strategy in which all of the first-tier and most of the third-tier Democrats won. She played an instrumental role in the Democrats taking control of Congress, drawing heavy Republican fire in a district the R's hadn't planned on seriously defending. And yet she came within a few thousand votes, and a couple tactical decisions, of winning.

Goldstein writes that Tom is running for the "Republican Democratic nomination" and he's ready to go after the convert.

As for Tom, the presumed "Democratic" challenger, he's in for a shock. In 2006 my fellow bloggers and I took great joy in launching withering attacks on Tom's opponent, the much-hated state Sen. Luke Esser. Tom didn't ask for our support back then, and he shouldn't this time around either, because he ain't gonna get squat. No doubt, he's a nice enough guy, and a helluva lot better than Esser, but he has a voting record as a Republican legislator that's not going to endear himself to many 8th CD Democratic primary voters. Talk about great blog fodder.

Goldstein must have been surprised to learn that Tom will soon get in the race. He wrote the other day about Burner:

With $185,000 cash on hand, a 16,000-strong contributor list, the unwavering support of the local netroots, and a top-notch campaign team forming around her, I can't imagine why another Democrat would attempt to challenge her for the opportunity to face-off against Sheriff Reichert.

Of course, Goldstein has been surprised before by Tom's ability to attract primary voters. When Tom switched parties last year to run against Esser, he first had to face Democrat Debi Golden, the liberals' choice who was already in the primary. Goldstein wrote then:

Given the choice between a progressive Democrat like Golden or a moderate ex-Republican like Tom, I'm choosing Golden. And I'm guessing that in a closed primary, 48th district Democrats will choose Golden as well.

Golden dropped out of the race two weeks later.

ALSO: A "party unity" study by CQPolitics.com lists Reichert with the 14th lowest party unity score. That means in the first half of this year only 13 Republicans voted against Republican leadership more often that Reichert.

CQ says "there still are a number of House Republicans seeking to strike independent postures — which contrast with the still-strongly conservative demeanor of their overall caucus."

And the analysis shows that these members appear more and more willing to distance themselves from President George W. Bush and other Republican leaders who are suffering from very low public approval ratings