John Beug, the widowed husband of Carolyn Beug, a former vice president at Walt Disney Records who was on the plane that slammed into 1 World Trade Center, has written a letter to Disney chief Bob Iger pleading with him not to run the film. A source provided us with a copy of the letter.

It reads, in part: "I am writing to express my concern and deep reservations about this film and to ask you, out of respect for the victims of 9/11 and their families, not to air it...I strongly and respectfully urge you not to air this film."

Reached by phone, Beug confirmed the letter was his and verified its accuracy. "I think it's unfortunate that people are sensationalizing the story for whatever reason they're doing it," Beug said. "It shouldn't be politicized." Soon after her death, Carolyn Beug was described by U.S.A. Today as a "former Walt Disney Records executive" who "won acclaim for her work on the Pocahontas film soundtrack."

ABC has said that judgments of the film are premature. "No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing … is not yet complete, so criticisms of film's specifics are premature and irresponsible," a recent ABC statement said.

The full text of the letter follows after the jump.

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On Friday evening, Bill Clinton's lawyers sent a new letter to Disney chief Bob Iger demanding that ABC yank "The Path to 9/11." We've obtained a copy of the letter, and it reads in part: "As a nation, we need to be focused on preventing another attack, not fictionalizing the last one for television ratings. `The Path to 9/11' not only tarnishes the work of the 9/11 Commission, but also cheapens the fith anniversary of what was a very painful moment in history for all Americans. We expect that you will make the responsible decision to not air this film." Full text of the letter after the jump.

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We've just obtained a letter that Madeleine Albright and Samuel Berger have just sent to 9/11 Commission chair Tom Kean, demanding that Kean use his pull with ABC to get the network to kill "The Path to 9/11." "Actors portraying us do contemptible things we never did, and say things we neither said nor believed," the letter says. "And what's more, in many instances these portrayals are contradicted by your Commission's own findings...And so we ask that you use your influence to persuade ABC to withdraw the broadcast altogether." The full letter -- which can be viewed in the TPM Document Collection -- -- after the jump.

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Citing incumbent Tim Pawlenty's (R) slipping poll numbers, Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza has moved the Governor’s race into his Line rankings of the 15 closest electoral races. A recent Gallup poll had Pawlenty trailing Dem. frontrunner Mike Hatch by one point.

State Rep. Bill Sali, the GOP nominee for Congress, is among those conservatives who say we found the WMD's in Iraq. And check out his precise sourcing:

But, Sali insisted weapons were recently discovered and that early in the war weapons were spirited away to Syria. "I know that I saw it on the TV station," Sali said. "It might have only been on FOX, come to think of it."

Is anyone surprised by this? Sali had been widely cited as something of a loose cannon and possibly the only Republican who could lose this seat, so maybe it's true what Al Franken says: watching Fox News really is bad for your mental health.

Earlier today we reported that a grieving father is furious with the National Republican Congressional Committee for putting his murdered daughter in a political ad attacking Dem candidate Brad Ellsworth -- who's challenging GOP Rep. John Hostettler -- as soft on crime. Now a video of local news WFIE-TV interviewing the angry father -- and showing a bit of the ad -- has landed in our in-box. The callousness of the NRCC -- which is totally unrepentant about the fact that they're exacerbating the grief of a bereft parent -- just defies belief. Don't miss it.

Charlie Cook has just changed his ratings on a half-dozen House races -- two "Lean Republicans" have become "Toss Ups," while a pair of "Lean Republicans" became "Likely Republicans." Details after the jump.

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The father of a murdered young girl is furious with GOP Rep. John Hostettler and national Republicans for using his daughter in a TV attack ad which paints Hostettler's Dem opponent, local sherriff Brad Ellsworth, as soft on crime. The father, Jimmy Jenkins of Evansville, Indiana, says: "I've got politicians using this for political gain, which upsets me every time I hear it." Though the ad's since been pulled, an NRCC rep was completely unrepentant, saying: "The ad spoke for itself." More details here.

We've just received a copy of a scathing letter that Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Princeton's Sean Wilentz, Georgetown's Michael Kazin and a few other historians and professors have written to Disney chief Robert Iger. It demands that ABC yank the broadcast, labeling the network's explanations "disingenuous" and "dangerous": "A responsible broadcast network should have nothing to do with the falsification of history, except to expose it. We strongly urge you to halt the show’s broadcast and prevent misinforming Americans about their history." The full text of the letter after the jump.

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Here's yet another eerie similarity between the Rhode Island and Connecticut Senate races: GOP incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee is claiming his campaign web site was hacked, just as Joe Lieberman's was. And the FBI is getting involved, too. One difference: Chafee's people aren't blaming the hack attack on supporters of his primary opponent -- Steve Laffey -- as Lieberman's people were so quick to do. We'll see how far the similarities between the two races go on primary day this coming Tuesday.

Cynthia McKinney was defeated in a Georgia Democratic primary a month ago and has since been completely cut off by mainstream Dems -- but that inconvenient fact hasn't stopped Republicans from tying current Dem candidates to the long-gone McKinney as a scare tactic. A new ad by the Republican 527 group The Economic Freedom Fund likens moderate Dem Rep. Jim Marshall to Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton ... and McKinney. Coming next: An EFF ad in which their staffers beat a dead horse. View the ad below.

Over at TPMmuckraker, Justin Rood says he won't lose much sleep over the latest "scandal" in the New Jersey Senate race.

In a sign that the GOP implosion continues in Ohio, University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato has changed the Governor's race from "Leaning Democratic" to "Likely Democratic" in his "Crystal Ball" report, which isn't all that surprising, given Ted Strickland's double digit lead over GOP candidate Ken Blackwell in polls. Sabato says Blackwell now has “too many burdens that are too heavy to prevail in this year, absent a miracle.”

Bush is coming to Michigan to raise money for GOP Senate candidate Mike Bouchard. A year or two ago this would have been a banner event for the state GOP candidates, but the nominee for governor, Dick Devos, is opting not to show up and be photographed with Bush. DeVos will instead be doing his own separate events elsewhere in the state. It could be there's a simple reason for this: DeVos wants to win in Michigan.

A few days back, Washington GOP Senate candidate Mike McGavick dumped thousands of dollars in contributions from VECO, the Alaskan company which is currently the target of an influence-peddling investigation by the FBI. But another GOP pol doesn't see any problem at all with keeping VECO's money: California Rep. Richard Pombo, who's keeping $18,000 in VECO contributions. The investigation has so far targeted VECO for attempting to influence figures in Alaska state government, and may expand to cover federal officials. But when asked whether Pombo will give the money to charity, Pombo spokesman Carl Fogliani says: "We don't know enough at this point to make any decision."

The Harris and Nelson campaigns have agreed to two debates in the lead up to the November election.  The first will be at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, the second will be at the University of Central Florida, and will be moderated by NBC’s Tim Russert and will be featured on Florida’s NBC affiliates.

GOP candidate for Governor, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey has no qualms about taking money raised by Dick Cheney at a closed-door fund-raiser, but please, just don’t take their picture together. Running as a moderate Republican in one of the most heavily Democratic states in the country, Healey has opted to neither greet the Vice-President at Logan International Airport nor bid him farewell, instead heading straight to the Harvard Club in Boston for the $2,500 ticket event, the biggest of the year for the state Republican Party. Healey has previously greeted national GOP leaders at the airport such as President Bush in 2004.

You really have to see this one to believe it. A right-wing group called "Progress for America" has just taken the Bush "national security" strategy to a ridiculously lurid extreme: It's running a new TV ad just in time for the Sept. 11 anniversary which is almost comically desperate in its efforts to scare voters. The ad is running in Missouri -- where GOP Senator Jim Talent is fending off a tough challenge from Claire McCatskill. But get this: The ad doesn't say anything at all specific to Missouri. It just says that "these people want to kill us" (meaning terrorists) and that "some" want to "cut and run" from the Middle East. View it here.

A 6-0 unanimous vote by the Ohio Elections Commission has cleared Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) of false statement charges levied against her by write-in candidate Nathan Noy. The Commission is now considering whether Noy should be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case and ordered to pay all legal fees of the proceedings. Noy was scolded by Commission members for lacking evidence and witnesses to support his case.

“Progress for America”—a front for the Republican party--has launched a new TV spot, which will run on national cable and Missouri in particular, just in time to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Curiously, the ad does not mention a single candidate, party, or the president by name, it just makes it clear that you will be killed by terrorists should you vote for “those” or “some” who want to “cut and run” from the Middle East. Despite the President’s recent efforts to distance himself from the notion that there was ever any collusion between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, the ad clearly reinforces the idea that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. Ironically, the ad states that the terrorists want to kill anyone who doesn’t submit to a system where “women have no rights” and “innocent civilians are political pawns”, but enough about Karl Rove, what about those terrorists?

According to today's Times, GOP candidates facing tough races don't think President Bush's midterm election strategy of beating the national security drum relentlessly will help them:

"It just doesn’t help me; the things he says or does in my district don’t really help," said Representative Rob Simmons of Connecticut...

Representative Chris Chocola, Republican of Indiana, said the war in Iraq had not played a central role in his campaign. “I don’t think it will change the environment,” Mr. Chocola said.

The Republican National Committee has a new feature on its web site, a quasi-satirical "news" site which imagines the headlines a year from now in an America when Dems control Congress. It's called America Weakly (Get it? Weak-ly.) One item is rather curious: a daybook listing for a fictional seminar to promote “A Government Without God.” So we guess that means that the GOP agenda officially includes a government of God -- i.e., a theocracy. We have only one question: which party is really being caricatured by this site?

Yesterday I spoke to 9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey about "The Path to 9/11," and he warned ABC to be "respectful" of the story of 9/11, but was generally unwilling to pass judgment. This morning, however, we spoke again, and after having read the Times's review of the film today, he went much further in his criticism. He said the network had a responsibility to fix the historical inaccuracies and to get "as close to the facts as possible," adding: "If you're saying this is based on the 9/11 Commission report, there are substantial factual discrepancies," Kerrey said, speaking of ABC. "You need to get [them] out."

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RI-SEN: Chafee Gets Burned Over Bolton Vote

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In his first interview on the controversy over ABC's "The Path to 9/11" miniseries, 9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey said that both the Clinton and Bush administrations had committeed misteps, said that a miniseries on 9/11 risked "feeding people's distrust" and called on ABC to "be careful" and "respectful" of what happened leading up to 9/11.

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New Hampshirans in the first district are reporting a suspiciously high number of calls which sound like polling but tell listeners a supsiciously high number of positive things about GOP incumbent Rep. Jeb Bradley and a suspiciously high number of negative things about Dem challenger Jim Craig. Dirty tricks? TPM muckraker's Paul Kiel has all the filthy details.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is either doing serious work shoring up the conservative base, or he really thinks there's nothing wrong with homphobia in public schools. He has just "vetoed a Democratic bill that would have prohibited schools from teaching anything that `reflects advserely' on people because of their sexual orientation," the L.A. Times reports. The move appears to be designed to bolster conservative support at a time when he has been compromising with Democrats on everything from the minimum wage to global warming, but Arnold's campaign manager denies that's the reason behind the veto.

President Clinton's office has just sent over the following statement from Clinton spokesman Jay Carson about ABC's planned airing of the docudrama "The Path to 9/11":

"ABC/Disney acknowledges this show is fiction and in direct contradiction of the 9-11 commission report and the facts, and it is despicable that ABC/Disney would insist on airing a fictional version of what is a serious and emotional event for our country. No reputable organization should dramatize 9-11 for a profit at the expense of the truth."

UPDATE: MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell is now saying that Clinton lawyer Bruce Lindsey told her that the Clinton camp will only be satisfied with a complete yanking of the series.

UPDATE II: MSNBC is also reporting that ABC says criticism of the film is "irresponsible."

MSNBC has just reported that ABC has released a statement saying the network has decided to kill "The Path to 9/11." More coming.

Charlie Cook's outlook for Congressional Republicans is not so bright, predicting heavy Dem gains:

Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial beginning of the fall campaigns. And if the political climate remains as it is today -- a very big "if" -- Republicans will likely lose the House and their dominance of the nation's governorships but hang on to the Senate by a thread. Every sign points to a reappearance of the "time for a change" dynamic that has hit one or both chambers of Congress in five of the last six midterm "six-year-itch" elections -- those held during a president's second term.

Cooks outlines the various poll ratings going against Bush, including a 46% "strongly disapprove" for Bush, and what he calls a lack of voter motivation on the GOP side. "When a party's voters are disillusioned and disinclined to participate, candidates' leads in pre-election polls can disappear in the blink of an eye. And some who appeared headed toward victory end up giving concession speeches."

Ned Lamont's campaign has just released a new ad in which Lamont -- not a narrator -- asks: "Why do we listen when George Bush and Joe Lieberman tell us they know how to fight terrorism? How have they made us safer? What have they been right about so far?" View it here.

GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker has turned down an invitation to debate Dem Harold Ford Jr. on "Meet the Press." MTP's executive producer, Betsy Fischer, has just told Election Central that they got the news from Corker this morning. "The campaign called us a little while ago and said that they were not going to be participating," Fischer says. "They did not give a reason." MTP is hosting six Senate debates this fall. Fischer tells us that Corker was "the only Republican to decline."

GOP Senator Rick Santorum has enlisted some new surrogates to attack his Dem challenger Bob Casey in a new TV ad: Santorum's own kids. In the ad, titled "Important Job," Santorum's children respond to Casey's recent criticism that their dad lives out of state while the kids attend a Pennsylvania public school over the internet. Johnny and Daniel Santorum gripe that Casey criticized "us" for moving to D.C so "he could spend more time with us." Elizabeth Santorum explains that Dad votes 40 weeks a year. But all the kids agree that Rick’s most important job is still "being our dad." View the ad here.

In a laughably awful new campaign ad, titled “Important Job,” Rick Santorum features several of his biggest supporters, his kids.  The ad is a response to Casey’s criticisms that Santorum lives out of state, and that his kids attend PA public school over the internet. Johnny and Daniel Santorum intone that their dad’s opponent criticized “us” for moving to Washington, so “he could spend more time with us.”  Eldest daughter Elizabeth Santorum explains—as she pops out the headphones of her iPod—that Dad has to vote almost 40 weeks a year.  Then young Patrick and Peter inform us about their dad’s hectic travel schedule.  However, according to his children, Rick’s most important job is still “being our dad.”<p>

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We've just obtained the full text of a blistering letter that Bill Clinton's attorney, Bruce Lindsey, has written to Disney chief Bob Iger protesting ABC's forthcoming 9/11 docudrama, "The Path to 9/11." The letter demands that the network pull the miniseries unless it corrects all its errors: "The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely. It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known." The full text of the letter -- which was first written about in today's New York Post -- after the jump.

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Not wanting to disappoint Bill Nelson supporters in the wake of yesterday’s fundraising e-mail warning of the coming influx of negative campaigning from Katherine Harris, Ms. Harris has made it clear that the theme of her campaign will be attacks on the “ultra-liberal” Bill Nelson.  She referred to Nelson as a “liberal” no less than four times in a speech that clocked in at just less than four minutes.  Harris cites the usual Republican boilerplate about partial birth abortion, gay marriage, and tax cuts as evidence of Nelson’s out of touch, liberal policies.  Leading by 25 points in the polls, Nelson has yet to mention Ms. Harris in any official capacity.

GOP Senate hopeful Bob Corker is refusing to say whether he'll debate Dem candidate Harold Ford Jr. before a national audience on Meet the Press on Oct. 22. Ford has agreed to debate, but an NBC spokesperson, Betsy Fischer, told the Commercial Appeal that the network is "still waiting for a commitment" from Corker.

CT-SEN: Welcome Back, Loser!

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President Bill Clinton has finally broken his silence and weighed in on the controversy over the forthcoming docudrama on the attacks on the Twin Towers, "The Path to 9/11." In response to our resquest for a comment on President Clinton's opinion of the docudrama, Clinton spokesman Jay Carson emailed us a statement questioning the film's depiction of Clinton's record and suggesting that it wasn't a "serious treatment" of the facts.

"The record shows that President Clinton was committed to and focused on stopping terrorism every day," Carson emailed us, "and that his administration had many significant successes on this front, and he expects that any serious treatment of history would reflect that."

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GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue -- until now widely favored in polls -- may be about to come under heavy fire over a change to state tax law that saved him $100,000 on a land deal. The bill had a pair of last-minute additions seemingly tailor-made for his own land deal -- just in time to file his taxes. If this gets sufficient media play, Perdue's re-election could suddenly look a lot less certain. More from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

For a good while it seemed certain that GOPer Marilyn Musgrave would coast to reelection in her 40 percent Republican, 25 percent Dem district -- but all of a sudden, Musgrave is widely seen as being in trouble. Her seat's now been ranked as vulnerable by the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Her backing for an anti-gay-marriage initiative has solidified her image as too far to the right, and her staunch backing of Bush is dragging her down daily. And while she's far better funded than Dem challenger Angie Paccione, the DCCC has reserved $630,000 in TV for the race. This is one to watch.

From a new poll just in from CNN:

Fifty-five percent of 1,004 Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who has supported Bush administration policies, according to the poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of CNN. Forty percent said they would be more likely.

Asked a similar question in 1994 regarding President Clinton, 51 percent of Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who had supported the Democratic administration.

And you remember what happened in 1994, of course.

Barely hours after Katherine Harris had secured the GOP nomination for Senate, the campaign of Dem incumbent Senator Bill Nelson fired off a fundraising email telling them to brace for an "increase in the level of distortions and negativity" from the oddball GOP nominee. (Harris? Negative? Naah.) But Harris probably won't have much help going after Nelson from from the state GOP. Florida GOP chair Carol Jean Jordan has already issued statements congratulating Charlie Crist on his victory in the GOP gubernatorial primary. But about Harris, not a single word.

That recent decision by the state Elections Board against Rep. Mark Green -- where he was ordered to return $400,000 dollars from out-of-state PACs -- has just become the subject of a political ad. It declares: "Congressman Mark Green -- just found breaking the law, illegally accepting donations from the special interests he votes for in Congress."

Green's counterattack after the jump.

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Four GOP candidates for Congress in Arizona's eighth, including frontrunner Randy Graf, have taken the extraordinary step of releasing a joint statement blasting Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman for breaking his vow to stay out of their race. The statement -- prompted by a recent RNC $122,000 ad buy for candidate Steve Huffman, who the RNC thinks is the only one who can win -- describes a meeting between the candidates and the RNC chair at which Mehlman supposedly promised to keep the national GOP out of the race: "Sadly, the promises that were made have been broken." Full statement here.

A moderate Republican who felt the wrath of the religious right and lost his race as a result has just blasted back at his tormentors. Moderate GOP Rep. Joe Schwarz -- who was defeated for re-election in the August 8 primary -- has told the Detroit News that "right wing indimidators" are "driving moderates out of the party." Schwarz adds that some of his friends and supporters have told him that his loss was enough to drive them from the GOP -- and that he may follow.

GOP Senate candidate Mike McGavick is returning some $14,000 in campaign contributions from employees of VECO Corp., an Alaskan oil services firm which is stuck in the middle of a bribery probe. TPM muckraker's Justin Rood has the details, and wonders whether other candidates will follow.

The DSCC has finally gotten around to spending some of the $6 million they promised to dump into the race between GOP Senator Jim Talent and challenger Claire McCatskill. It has just launched its first ad -- titled "Gas" -- slamming Talent for his votes supporting billions in tax breaks for oil companies. The ad is a counterattack against the negative ads Talent released over the weekend attacking Ms. McCaskill for supporting the “death tax”, calling Howard Dean “her hero”, and voting against the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. View the new McCatskill ad here.

The Kirsten Gillibrand campaign has just released an internal poll which claims she's closing in on GOP Rep. John Sweeney. The campaign's polling memo claims that Sweeney is leading Gillibrand by only eight points, 47% to 39% -- far less than a previous poll. Pollster Jefrey Pollock concludes: "All data points are headed in the right direction for this campaign...there is no reason to think that she can’t pull even with or ahead of Sweeney in the next 45-60 days." More from the memo after the jump.

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How's this for a campaign ad: Ted Strickland will add you as his friend, but Ken Blackwell never will. Odd as this may sound, it's somewhat true, at least in the online world of MySpace, where Rep. Strickland (OH-6) has made his virtual presence known in an effort to attract young voters. Blackwell on the other hand has not only refused to join the social networking site, but a spokesman for his campaign has mocked Strickland for using it, saying "If we were running for senior class president, we'd be the first with a MySpace page, but we're running for governor, and we're actually trying to convey a message."

This happened a few days back, but it didn't get any attention and really deserves a look. GOP gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil has long been a big backer of abstinence-only education. But it turns out that Munsil is not exactly a good spokesman on the issue: Late last week he