The left is, collectively, ecstatic over the news that Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter has decided to challenge Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., in this year’s Democratic primary. Lincoln was very vulnerable even without a primary fight, and she’s far too conservative for some Democrats’ taste — those two factors combined mean liberals have been hoping for some time that Halter would get in the race.

So it’s not too surprising that progressive groups like MoveOn.org would immediately jump on the Halter bandwagon. MoveOn did so Monday with an e-mail to members asking for donations to Halter. The e-mail is reproduced below — all emphases are in the original.

Dear MoveOn member,

For the past year, a small handful of conservative Democrats in Congress has obstructed progress at every turn—but starting today, we’ve got a huge opportunity to stop one of the worst of them.

That’s because just this morning Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter announced that he’s challenging Senator Blanche Lincoln in the Democratic primary there.

Sen. Lincoln stood with insurance companies to kill the public option, with coal companies to roll back the Clean Air Act, and with big banks to kill legislation that would have helped families stay in their homes.

If we can replace her with progressive Bill Halter, it’ll put every conservative Democrat in Washington on notice that siding with corporate interests has a heavy political price.

But Halter needs to quickly raise enough money to compete with Lincoln, who has over $5 million in the bank, much of it raised from corporate interests.3

So a major coalition of progressive groups has set a goal of raising $500,000 for Bill Halter this week. That’d make headlines, but it’ll take 314 donations from New York to meet the goal—can you chip in $5?

Just how bad is Blanche Lincoln?

She promised to filibuster any health care bill that included a public option after taking more than $866,000 from insurance and HMO interests.4 She’s the #1 recipient of campaign contributions from Big Oil in the last year, and now she’s sponsoring a bill to roll back the Clean Air Act.5 And she accepted more than $1.3 million over her career from Wall Street banks and financial interests, and then voted to kill legislation that would’ve allowed struggling homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages and stay in their homes.

Here’s how MoveOn member Jennifer P. from Little Rock put it: “Lincoln never met a special interest she didn’t like. It’s hard to express just how awful she has been as a senator. I don’t know of anyone who will vote for her if she shows up on the November ballot.” That’s why MoveOn members in Arkansas voted 92% to support Halter’s campaign to replace her.

Fortunately, we’ve got a much better alternative. Bill Halter has a progressive record as lieutenant governor and he’s willing to take on big corporations when he gets to Washington.

In announcing his candidacy today, Halter said: “Washington is broken. Bailing out Wall Street with no strings attached while leaving middle-class Arkansas taxpayers with the bill. Protecting insurance company profits instead of protecting patients and lowering health costs. Gridlock, bickering, and partisan games while unemployment is at a 25-year high. Enough is enough.”

Halter’s well-positioned to beat Lincoln, and her approval ratings are so low that he has a much better chance of keeping the seat Democratic—but only if he can quickly raise enough money to compete. And given her unpopularity, Lincoln’s likely strategy is to flood the air immediately with attack ads to keep him from building the momentum he needs to win.

So we need to get Bill Halter’s campaign off to a huge start. Can you chip in $5 towards our goal of 314 donations from New York to his campaign this week?

Thanks for all you do.

–Adam, Wes, Nita, Michael, and the rest of the team

Liberal group MoveOn.org isn’t really endorsing House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. The group doesn’t usually back Republicans, and it’s not exactly about to make an exception for someone like Boehner.

But in a new ad, Move On is at least mockingly pretending to endorse Boehner — on behalf of insurance companies.

“As House minority leader, and a favorite of the insurance industry, John showed the courage to stand up for the big guy,” the ad’s narrator says. The spot concludes with the narrator saying, “John Boehner: The right choice for Ohio — I mean, uh, health insurance companies.”

This is, by the way, yet another sign of just how much populist messages are likely to dominate this election season.

When they’re not attacking the White House over it, liberal groups are celebrating the return of the public option, as seen in a campaign that has gotten more than 20 senators to sign on to a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation to pass a bill that includes the government-run insurance plan.

MoveOn.org, for one, released an updated version of its ad on the issue that starred Heather Graham. In this new iteration, the narrator says, “When a majority of Americans support something, it’s hard to keep a good idea down. Because the public option is back. The public option is making a comeback. Over 20 senators and over 100 House members have endorsed putting the public option back on the table.” (The ad is at the bottom of this post.)

MoveOn claims to already have raised $1 million on the backs of this very creative and frankly hysterical “Lieberman Socks” ad: 

I want a pony! Good stuff….

The liberal advocacy group MoveOn has a fairly spotty record when it comes to its advertising. Some of the organization’s ads have been very effective; others fall flat — and they’ve gotten in trouble over a contest they held to come up with one ad, too. The group’s latest ad is one of the flatter ones, a puzzling choice that doesn’t seem to be all that effective — even if it does feature Heather Graham.

The idea of the spot, which the group is telling its members “could be the funniest and most memorable ad we’ve ever produced,” is that Graham represents the public option, and is preparing for a running race against private insurers, who are lazy and don’t want to compete. It’s not a bad idea, but the ad doesn’t stick closely enough to the metaphor, and the message gets muddled. Plus, while Graham’s presence may draw some headlines, it will also distract viewers — there doesn’t seem to be much point to it, except maybe to suggest that the public option will have plenty of cleavage.

Remember 2002 and 2003? Those were some pretty good times. Rudy Giuliani was knighted. “A Beautiful Mind” won Best Picture. The U.S. invaded Iraq.

In case you’d forgotten the basic tenor of the arguments of those years, Afghanistan is here to help you remember. As the Taliban has regained strength and the White House weighs sending thousands more troops, Afghanistan has lost its status as “the Good War.” Instead, the conflict is beginning to polarize American politics in a way that’s all too familiar.