See, it's that easy.

On Thursday, I said that the short term goal of this blog was to raise the profile of the race in OH-12.

Today, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designated the race as "emerging," which does not put it into the realm of the 3 "waves" of targeted races, but places it on the official radar of the big guns in D.C.

Radar bounces. The Red-2-Blue announcement by the DCCC has been front-paged by Kos and Chris Bowers at MyDD, and the specific news that Shamansky is in line for DCCC support has been noted by many of the usual suspects.

4 days. I'm that good.

Anyway, now that the narrative has become "Dems think OH-12 is a winnable race," it's time to start letting people know why they might prefer Bob Shamansky to Pa(rro)t Tiberi. I'll go on the record saying that I don't think Tiberi is a Christian Reconstructionist, although I'll oh-so- innocently provide a link to this story from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (blogged by Tiberi-watch veterans LiCoPAC, and revived today by BSB), which has led some to insinuate a relationship.

The fact is that truly extreme religious leaders are an important constituency for the Republican Party, nowhere moreso than here in Ohio. Would Pat stand up and refuse to carry water for religious extremists? Or would he vote against stem-cells and for feeding tubes? Would he stand up against any high profile right-wing special interest? I haven't seen it.

Am I worried that Bob Shamansky will be the puppet of special interests? Nope. And I'm not alone.