Congressional candidate Robert Daskas today confirmed that he is not — we repeat, not — in a band. Well, that pretty much means his upstart campaign against U.S. Rep. Jon Porter is over. Porter, you may know, is in two bands. One of his bands is made up of fellow members of Congress. So how the band-less Daskas thinks he can challenge Porter is beyond us.

But whatever: It’s not our job to decide who should run. It’s our job to ask them tough questions once they do. (First question: “Are you in a band?”)

Daskas may not be musically inclined, but he totally gave a little talk on taxes today at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades building this morning. There, he railed against the tax policies of “George Bush and Jon Porter,” clearly implying the two are somehow connected, like, say, through a voting record or something.

The would-be congressman especially targeted the president’s soon-to-expire tax cuts, noting they affect the wealthiest 1 percent of America, people who’s average incomes are $1.5 million a year. “When did it become OK to fight for 1 percent?” he asked. (Note to Daskas: Right around the time the Republicans took over.)

If he’s elected, Daskas promised to let the Bush tax cuts expire, repeal oil company subsidies and use the proceeds to fund research into alternative energy and give tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States, rather than those that send jobs to foreign countries. He’d also favor a child care tax credit, tuition tax deduction, home ownership tax deduction and preserving the sales tax deduction.

“We cannot afford two more years of Jon Porter,” Daskas said. “I’m asking you to send me to Congress because I know a good deal from a Halliburton deal.” (That’s Halliburton, as in oil field services and not high-end briefcases.)

Later, chatting with reporters, Daskas said he supports beginning to bring troops home immediately, but he refused to set a date for when all the soldiers would return to the United States. And he ruled out getting troops home by refusing to fund more wars in Iraq.

He refused to call allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire a “tax increase,” as Republicans argue. (Their reasoning: People will be paying more once the temporary cuts go away.) He also refused to say anything along the lines of, “yeah, but they’re rich, they can afford it so fuck them.” We, however, have no problem saying that, given that our income isn’t $1.5 million per year. (At least not yet!)

On health care, Daskas said he supports affordable health care for everybody, but not “universal health care,” because — we’re paraphrasing again — some slimy GOP consultant A-hole might claim he’s for “socialized medicine.” But he does support allowing all Americans to buy into a plan similar to the one congressmen enjoy; reimporting prescription drugs from Canada; allowing the government to negotiate for prescription drug prices and stressing preventative care.

Hey, you know, that’s funny, because Porter voted not to let Medicare negotiate for prescription drug prices or re-import drugs from Canada. Hey, maybe that will be a campaign issue, huh?

We forgot to ask Daskas if he supports allowing Americans to grow their own all-natural drugs, say in backyards or basement rooms with grow lights. We’ve got to remember to ask that one, although the dude was a prosecutor for 12 years who put murderers on death row, so we’re guessing no.

Oh, and Daskas wouldn’t say who he’s supporting for president, but he did make the radical suggestion that whoever wins the popular vote should get the nomination. So that means “Obama, baby!” Besides, if Hillary Clinton steals the election from Barack Obama, say by use of superdelegates, the clear winner would be … Jon Porter, since many disappointed Obama fans might very well sit the 2008 elections out. And even though Daskas enjoys a registration lead today of 77,278 active voters, he still needs everybody to turn out.

But again, we must stress, Daskas is not in a band. “I’m too busy to be in a band,” he said.

Hey! Do you think that might have been a shot at Porter? We think it could.