(updated below - Update II)

In July, I enumerated just some of the instances of complicity by the Democratic Congress with the worst abuses of the Republican agenda from the time they took over control of Congress in 2006. As part of doing so, I wrote about the creation of Accountability Now, designed to address that overarching problem, which I defined this way:

What is the best course for those who want to battle against these civil-liberties-destroying, rule-of-law-trampling, war-making policies that the GOP leadership pushes and the Democratic Party leadership supports, enables, and/or passively accepts? In a two-party system where blind support for either party will do nothing but perpetuate these policies, how can they be undermined?

Going back to March of this year, the campaign to raise funds for these efforts by a handful of blogs has generated more than $500,000, and the campaigns that have been sponsored thus far have been profiled in The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, and numerous other publications.

Today, Accountability Now is launching a major new project devoted to compelling real accountability within the political class and forcing behavioral changes in Congress that will ensure the existence of an actual opposition party in Washington. AN is creating a new organization to recruit, coordinate, and support primary challenges against vulnerable Congressional incumbents who deserve defeat. A vast, diverse and very well-funded coalition has been assembled to participate in the initial research phase of Accountability Now's new campaign, which includes Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Color of Change, Daily Kos, Steve Rosenthal and They Work For Us (who spent $1.5 million in an issue advocacy campaign that resulted in the removal of Democratic incumbent Al Wynn from Congress, replaced by Donna Edwards), MoveOn, BlogPAC (Matt Stoller), and others.

Today on Salon Radio, I spoke with FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher, who assembled the coalition for Accountability Now, about how this new primary challenge campaign will function, the reasons why it is the optimal means for achieving AN's objectives, and the benefits of this coalition. The discussion is roughly 25 minutes long and can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below. A transcript will be posted shortly. Later this afternoon, my discussion with Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas about this campaign will be posted here as well. I believe this new campaign is potentially quite consequential for the reasons I discuss with Hamsher and Moulitsas. Those wishing to help fund this new campaign can do so at the general Accountability Now page here.

UPDATE: The discussion with Moultisas, roughly 10 minutes in length, is now posted and can be heard by clicking PLAY on the top recorder, below.

UPDATE II: The transcript for my discussion with Moulitsas is here; the transcript for my discussion with Hamsher is here.