(Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

They’ve secreted themselves amongst our troops, even at the senior officer levels.  They look just like everyone else.  But they have an agenda, and they want to impose it on their comrades and their subordinates, no matter how uncomfortable it might make them feel, no matter how much it might disrupt morale and unit cohesion.

I am speaking, of course, of the evangelical Christians who proselytize non-Christian cadets at the Air Force Academy, who schedule Christian concerts at army bases with the express goal of recruiting new church members, and even punish troops for refusing to attend Christian concerts.  This is absolutely unacceptable, and the Department of Defense should put a stop to it at once and immediately discharge all those responsible.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against Christians per se – some of my best friends are Christians.  But I don’t like it when they flaunt their lifestyle choice all over the place, trying to push their evangelical agenda on other people.  They don’t have the common decency to keep it to themselves, and that’s just… unseemly.  I mean, my hypothetical kids might see it!  What do you tell your little girl when she looks up at you and says, “Daddy, what’s a Stryper?”

Lanny Davis appearing on panel in Oct. 2006 while supporting Sen. Joe Lieberman. (photo: matthewnstoller via Flickr)

The most heated policy battle over higher education today concerns the Department of Education’s effort to create rules that protect students and taxpayers from well-documented abuses and shortcomings by for-profit schools. To help lead an army of lobbyists and consultants working to block these rules, key members of the for-profit industry have selected as their general Lanny Davis, who served as a White House lawyer for President Bill Clinton. Davis’s new client is the Coalition for Educational Success (CES), an umbrella group of for-profits, which includes the well-known Art Institutes as well as the more obscure Golf Academy of America and Marinello School of Beauty. Recent lobbying documents show that that CES has already spent $40,000 this year for lobbying on their behalf.

The Education Department issued its new regulations on Thursday, addressing many of the key issues but deferring for several months the most important matter—the final “gainful employment” rules aimed at cutting off federal financial aid to educational programs that produce high rates of student debt and low hiring rates for students. Yesterday, Davis held forth on a call with reporters and claimed the new regulations were “rushed” and that the Department should take more time to evaluate the more than 90,000 comments received during the comment period.

But Davis’s clients won a partial victory in this round. The Department dropped a proposed rule that would have required schools seeking to start new programs to obtain prior approval in order to be eligible for federal aid; instead, schools will be required to notify the Department, which can then seek more information if it has concerns. Davis, it seems, was pleased. The Washington Post noted that Davis thought the updated regulations were a “step in the right direction.” [Disclosure: Campus Progress’ advocacy team is working actively for enactment of regulations imposing tough accountability standards on the for-profits.]

When Davis first joined this debate, it was as a commentator, writing what looked like an opinion piece on June 23 for the newspaper The Hill. Davis attacked “a noted Wall Street short-seller, Steve Eisman” for criticizing for-profit schools without disclosing that he (Eisman) had made financial bets against the schools. But did Davis himself have a disclosure issue here? Perhaps he had not yet entered into discussions with the for-profits to be their paid advocate. Perhaps he was simply auditioning for the lucrative assignment. Or perhaps in a world of critical policy issues on which he could comment, Davis acted solely out of conviction in penning this tribute to schools that have left many students deeply in debt and without marketable skills. In any case, Davis registered as a lobbyist for CES on Sept. 17.

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald once wrote that Davis “deceitfully inserts the phrase ‘full disclosure’ into the middle of his rant– and then proceeds to ‘disclose’ nothing….”

Davis is well-known in Washington, probably reaching the height of his fame when he helped defend President Bill Clinton during his impeachment battle. For most of his career, he has worked at law firms, lobbying on behalf of numerous clients and some questionable causes. Here are some examples of his work. . . .

It's getting hot out there.... (photo: Anosmia)

The number of contests close enough to watch continues to grow daily. As a result, I’m adding RI-01 because new polling shows the race effectively tied.

RI-01: (Open, currently held by Democrats) (Update 10/29: The NBC 10-Quest Research poll has Democrat David Cicilline at 42 percent, Republican John Loughlin at 40 percent.)

There are also updates in four other races, based on new polling:

CT-04: Jim Himes (D), Dan Debicella (R). Himes only has $669,731 on hand to Debicella’s $447,488. Merriman River Group/CT Capitol Report: Himes 49 – Debicella 47. (Update 10/29: New Merriman River Group/CT Capitol Report poll found it Himes 46.1 – Debicella 48.)

CT-05: Chris Murphy (D), Sam Caliguri (R). Merriman River Group/CT Capitol Report: Caligiuri 50 – Murphy 44, (10/3-5). (Update 10/29: New Merriman River Group/CT Capitol Report poll shows Murphy 45.5 – Caliguri 46.9.)

IN-02: Joe Donnelly (D), Jackie Walorski (R). EPIC-MRA: Donnelly 48 – Walorksi 39 (10/3). Donnelly’s powerful GOTV operation, aided by the UAW, will be an indication of how much early field organizing pays off for the Democrats. (Update 10/29: Most recent EPIC-MRA poll shows some modest tightening. Donnelly 48 – Walorksi 43.)

NC-02: Bob Etheridge (D), Renee Ellmers (R). (Update 10/29: This is not good news for Democrats. A new Civitas Poll reads Etheridge 41 – Ellmers 46.)

The full list–which has grown to 105 hot congressional races–follows after the jump. . . .