The Republican establishment in Washington is bracing itself for an influx of fiscally conservative insurgents this fall, as Tea Party candidates from Utah, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada and other states have either secured their party's Senate nominations or are running strong. Bemoaning the earthquake their arrival on Capitol Hill portends, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told The Post this past weekend, "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples" in the Senate, adding "as soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."Jim DeMint can rest easy. It is unlikely that folks like Mike Lee, Ron Johnson or Sharron Angle will be co-opted if they win. But come November there may be some new Republican senators eager to join the club. While the media has focused on the rise of the Tea Party movement and the success of conservative insurgents in GOP primaries, there is another smaller insurgency taking place under the radar screen -- a quiet insurgency of more moderate Republicans for whom fiscal discipline is not a top priority.With the departure of Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party, it seemed as if Republican moderates were a dying breed. All that was left of the troika that put President Obama's $787 billion stimulus over the top were the women from Maine -- Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe. But then Sen. Scott Brown arrived in January, and he has hewed a centrist course -- recently joining Collins and Snowe in providing the GOP votes needed to pass both President Obama's big spending "jobs" bill (a.k.a. "son of stimulus") and his financial regulation bill filled with budget gimmicks that will eventually add more than $5 billion to the deficit. Judging from the comments on Brown's Facebook page, many Tea Party activists believe they were duped. But the Republican senator from Massachusetts is simply voting like, well, a Massachusetts Republican.Others may soon join the big-spending ranks. In Delaware, one of the most liberal Republicans in the House, Rep. Mike Castle, is the favorite to become the state's next senator. And in Illinois, moderate Republican Rep. Mark Kirk holds a narrow lead in the Illinois Senate race for Obama's seat. Both have weak records on fiscal issues. Castle rates a lowly "C" from the National Taxpayers Union, while Kirk gets a slightly better "C+" rating.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The GOP's counterinsurgency by spenders
From Marc A. Thiessen of The Washington Post on July 20:
Barney Frank: We need more government intervention
Normally, I insert a quote here,
but I can't understand Barney Frank when he moves his lips.
British comedian Pat Condell on Ground Zero mosque
Is it possible to be astonished but not surprised?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Upcoming Palm Beach County Republican events
Fourth Biennial Old-Fashioned Political Jamboree
Because the elephants are on the march again!
Meet local office candidates at a catered barbecue featuring food, face-painting, souvenirs and music by singer Lou Galterio and the New Young Patriots. Tickets are $15, and children younger than 8 are admitted free.
When: July 17, from noon to 4 p.m.
Where: South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach.
For more information: Click here, or contact Rosemary O'Mara at (561) 997-9381.
Grand opening of the GOP Action Center
Enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, music by Lou Galterio and conversation with candidates and officials at the open of the center.
When: July 23, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Regions Financial Tower, 1555 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., suite 650, West Palm Beach.
For more information: RSVP no later than July 21 by calling (561) 683-4575 or (561) 655-5545.
NAACP: Never called tea party 'racist'
From Andy Barr of Politico on July 15:
NAACP President Ben Jealous said Thursday that the resolution passed by the group on Wednesday does not call the tea party "racist."The resolution the NAACP approved Wednesday at its annual conference in Kansas City, Mo., alleges that the tea party has used racial epithets against President Barack Obama and has verbally and physically abused African-American members of Congress.A portion of the resolution does indeed characterize the behavior as “racist,” but Jealous said Thursday during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the resolution was not intended to condemn the entire movement as such.“We aren’t saying that the tea party is racist,” Jealous said. “What we’re saying is that with their increasing power comes an increasing responsibility to act responsibly ... and to call out when they see those things on those signs.”
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Fla. Republican rep: U.S. gov't, businesses shouldn't apologize for employing illegal aliens
Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., believes that America would collapse without the support of illegal aliens -- who apparently do all the jobs Americans don't want to do, like cleaning houses and being nannies.
"We should not apologize for U.S. businesses and the U.S. government's deficiencies in enforcing immigration laws," he says.
Really?
What about non-border states? Don't they have nannies and lawn care companies and clean hotels?
GOP's Scott Brown to vote for
financial regulation overhaul
From Michael Muskal of the Los Angeles Times on July 12:
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said on Monday that he will support the financial regulation overhaul, becoming one of the Republicans needed to moved one of the Obama administration’s key pieces of legislation into law.Brown had announced that he would oppose the compromise bill that had been negotiated by the House and Senate, but shifted his support after bargainers went back to the table and restructured about $19 billion in payments that was opposed by banks in Brown’s state. A final Senate vote could come this week.“I appreciate the efforts to improve the bill, especially the removal of the $19-billion bank tax. As a result, it is a better bill than it was when this whole process started. While it isn't perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote,” Brown said in a prepared statement.Brown joined Sen. Susan Collins of Maine as two crucial Republican votes for the legislation.Democrats need 60 votes to prevent a GOP filibuster. Even with Brown and Collins, the vote is expected to be close. The death of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has costs the Democrats a sure yes vote, and at least two Democrats have said they were unhappy with the final form of the bill, though at least one said she is likely to vote for it.Two other Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Charles Grassley of Iowa, are possible yes votes. The two supported an earlier version of the bill.The bill is one of the Obama administration’s legislative goals as it heads into the midterm elections. The bill includes new regulations to make derivative trading more transparent and includes a consumer agency.In his statement, Brown warned that there was more work to be done.“Further reforms are still needed to address the government’s role in the financial crisis, including significant changes to the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate,” he said. Seeking new regulations on the agencies that handle mortgages is a GOP talking point.
Professor's 13 keys predict Obama will get re-elected
From Andrea Stone on AOL News on July 12:
WASHINGTON (July 12) -- Never mind that President Barack Obama's job approval ratings can't break the 50 percent mark. Or that the tea party movement owes its very existence to a rising tide of anti-Obama fervor. Or even that the next presidential election is 28 months away.Obama, says a previously prescient professor, already holds the keys to another four years in the White House.American University history professor Allan Lichtman said Monday that according to his "13 Keys" formula, which predicts popular vote based on party performance instead of polls or campaign tactics, Obama is headed for a second term.While former Republican House speaker and possible presidential contender Newt Gingrich has predicted that Obama has just a 20 percent chance of winning in 2012, Lichtman said that "nothing that a candidate has said or done during a campaign, when the public discounts everything as political, has changed his prospects at the polls. Debates, advertising, television appearances, news coverage and campaign strategies -- the usual grist for the punditry mills -- count for virtually nothing on Election Day."In an interview with AOL News, Lichtman said he devised his formula after studying election outcomes from 1860 to 1980 and has correctly predicted the outcomes of the last seven presidential contests. "No other system has come close to that record," he said."Politicians hate the keys because you can't manipulate them," Lichtman said. "It's not campaigning that counts. It's governing that countUsing the formula he laid out in his book, "Keys to the White House," Lichtman bases his prediction on 13 conditions, or keys. When five or fewer are false, the incumbent party candidate wins. When six or more are false, the other party candidate wins.Lichtman considers passage of health care reform a positive key for Democrats, one of nine he said that favor the incumbent party and its president. He said Obama has four keys turned against him, two short of the "fatal six negative keys" that would doom a second term. In his rating, he assumes Democrats will lose seats in Congress this fall, the economy will remain sluggish and there will be no cataclysmic setbacks in Afghanistan.Here's how Lichtman breaks down the keys to Obama's political future:
Progressives form 'One Nation' coalition
to compete with Tea Party
Sorry for the monthlong delay in blogging. I have no excuses -- other than I've been lazy.
I'll pick it up again starting ... now!
Progressives have launched the left's version of the Tea Party movement.Dubbed "One Nation," it's a grassroots coalition of 170 liberal and civil rights groups that organizers hope will help the progressive cause regain its voice two years after the election of Barack Obama and "counter the Tea Party narrative," The Washington Post reported."Having been confronted with the specter of the Tea Party . . . we felt it urgent to organize the majority of this country, which voted in 2008 and has gone back to the couch," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, one of the movement's members. "We've been split off in different directions."Among the groups involved are the National Council of La Raza, the Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the United States Student Association.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Videos: Soldiers surprising their loved ones,
Parts I and II
Try to get through these without crying -- I dare you!
Find more videos at Welcome Home: a celebratory blog.
What is the greatest threat to America?
We have not passed on what it means to be American to this generation.
-- Dennis Prager
Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid
From Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post on June 13:
President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.The letter comes as rising concern about the national debt is undermining congressional support for additional spending to bolster the economy. Many economists say more spending could help bring down persistently high unemployment, but with Republicans making an issue of the record deficits run up during the recession, many Democratic lawmakers are eager to turn off the stimulus tap."I think there is spending fatigue," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said recently. "It's tough in both houses to get votes."Democrats, particularly in the House, have voted for politically costly initiatives at Obama's insistence, most notably health-care and climate-change legislation. But faced with an electorate widely viewed as angry and hostile to incumbents, many are increasingly reluctant to take politically unpopular positions.The House last month stripped Obama's request for $24 billion in state aid from a bill that would extend emergency benefits for jobless workers. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to restore that funding but with debate in that chamber set to resume this week, he acknowledges that he has yet to assemble the votes for final passage. Obama's request for $23 billion to avert the layoffs of as many as 300,000 public school teachers has not won support in either chamber.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
10 things you can do to help
the gulf coast clean the oil spill
Not quite political, I know, but still a national concern.
P.S. It's an oil leak, not an oil spill. Get it right, media ...
From Maura Judkis of U.S. News & World Report on May 3:
Alarming photos of dead sea turtles washed ashore — as well as satellite images of an ever-spreading oil slick — demonstrate that a serious ordeal is ahead for the Gulf Coast. The April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused a spill that has spread more than 130 miles so far. The spill has reached land in Louisiana, and is expected to reach Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. If it continues, it will surpass the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill as the worst in history. Here's how you can help:
Do you support Arizona's tough new law
on illegal immigration?
In July, Arizona will begin enforcing a new law that requires law enforcement officers to check someone’s immigration status if they have reason to suspect that he or she is in the country illegally. Do you think this is a good idea?
Click here to vote.
The Democrats’ Job Killing Policies Kill Jobs
From Newt Gingrich on Human Events on June 9:
The latest jobs report is solid evidence that Obama's big government, high tax, Washington-centered, bureaucratic, politician-dominated system is going to kill jobs and extend the current economic problems far longer than what is normal for a recession.
None of this should come as a surprise. Job-killing policies kill jobs. It is that simple and direct.
In my new book To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine (#5 last week and #2 next Sunday on the New York Times bestseller list) and in a keynote speech to the Detroit Chamber of Commerce last week, I outline the concept that 2+2=4 is the most important political and governmental slogan of the next 25 years.
2+2=4 matters because it reminds us that facts and basic principles are real and cannot be avoided even by the most articulate orators and demagogues.
The numbers from last week’s report on job creation were truly sobering.
In April, the private sector added 218,000 jobs.
In May, the private sector added only 41,000 jobs. That is exactly the opposite pattern from a normal economic recovery.
Normally, in the depths of a severe recession, the recovery accelerates month by month as confidence recovers, businesses invest and consumers come back into the market.
The shocking numbers for May (an over 80% decline in new private-sector job creation) combined with the fallout from the European fiscal crisis and the economic costs of the BP-Obama oil disaster in the Gulf will further slow down the economy.
These indicators suggest that there is a real danger of a second downward leg in the recession.
The fact is that of 431,000 nonfarm jobs added in May, 412,000 are temporary government jobs for the 2010 census, whose layoff in the fall will send unemployment rates up. Furthermore, the unemployment rate came down from 9.9% to 9.7% only because 322,000 Americans dropped out of the job market and quit looking for work.
Amazingly, the President actually adopted the position that these dismal economic numbers were encouraging, saying “The economy’s getting stronger by the day,” and a sign his policies are working.
The President is either being willfully dishonest or is ideologically blind to reality, seeing no difference between stable private-sector jobs and temporary government jobs.
To be clear, it will take 292,000 new jobs added every month until 2015 to get back to 5% unemployment. For the economy to remain flat, it would need to add 125,000 jobs a month.
Considering that these census jobs are all temporary, the data suggests that the economy became weaker in May, not stronger, as the President claimed.
This blindness to reality is dangerous because it is a sign the Democrats will continue to follow job-killing policies.
(If you are wondering how 41,000 private sector jobs could have been created when 412,000 of the 431,000 jobs added in May were federal government jobs (for a difference of 19,000), it is because 22,000 state and local government jobs were lost. For a full breakdown, click here).
South Florida Tea Party to host
AG Bill McCollum on June 30
The Boca Raton chapter of the South Florida Tea Party is proud to present its first gathering, featuring Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, candidate for governor.
Come hear McCollum's stance on Florida's future regarding immigration, health care, education, taxes, energy, fiscal responsibility and more.
What: South Florida Tea Party hosts Bill McCollum.
When: June 30, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach.
Health overhaul to force changes in employer plans
From Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press, as printed on Breitbart.com on June 11:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Over and over in the health care debate, President Barack Obama said people who like their current coverage would be able to keep it.But an early draft of an administration regulation estimates that many employers will be forced to make changes to their health plans under the new law. In just three years, a majority of workers—51 percent—will be in plans subject to new federal requirements, according to the draft.
Employers say it's more evidence that the law will drive up costs. Republicans say Obama broke his promise. But some experts believe increased regulation will lead to improved benefits for consumers.
"On the face of it, having consumer protections apply to all insurance plans could be a good thing for employees," said Alex Vachon, an independent health policy consultant. "Technically, it's actually improved coverage."
The types of changes that employers would be forced to make include offering preventive care without copayments and instituting an appeals process for disputed claims that follows new federal guidelines. The law already requires all health plans to extend coverage to young adult children until they turn 26. But such changes also nudge costs up.
The Obama administration said the draft regulation is an early version undergoing revision. Nonetheless, the leaked document was getting widespread interest Friday in lobbying firms that represent employers and insurance companies and on Capitol Hill.
"What we are getting here is a clear indication that most plans will have to change," said James Gelfand,health policy director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "From an employer's point of view that's a bad thing. These changes, whether or not they're good for consumers, are most certainly accompanied by a cost."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said it showed that Obama's assurance that Americans would be able to keep the plans they currently have was "a myth" all along.
"Since its passage, Republican arguments against the bill have been repeatedly vindicated, even as the administration's many promises about the bill have been called into question again and again," McConnell said. "So Democrats may have passed this bill, but the debate is far from over."
Dems launch $125M health campaign
From Mike Allen of Politico on June 7:
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Victoria Kennedy — widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) — are expected to be named co-chairmen of a $125 million campaign that White House allies are rolling out to defend health care reform amid growing signs Democrats are failing to get political traction on the issue.
The extraordinary campaign, which could provide an unprecedented amount of cover for a White House in a policy debate, reflects urgency among Democrats to explain, defend and depoliticize health care reform now that people are beginning to feel the new law’s effects.
The Health Information Center is being started by Andrew Grossman, a veteran Democratic operative who founded Wal-Mart Watch, a labor-backed group to challenge the world’s largest retailer on employee relations and other fronts.
Grossman told POLITICO that the lessons of Wal-Mart Watch will be helpful on health reform. “When you treat people with respect and try to understand how they interact with businesses and politics, you can move them,” he explained.
The estimated budget is $25 million a year for five years. And Grossman has already begun raising money from unions, foundations and corporations.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday will kick off a series of high-profile health care reform events ahead of the November elections. The job will continue as long as he’s president, because the biggest provisions don’t kick in until 2014.
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