Posts filed under 'Congress'
Its sponsored by a conservative group, but still rather fascinating given that the sample was 41% Democrat and 25% GOP:
The contest between Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg and Republican ex-Rep. Dick Zimmer is neck and neck, according to a new poll sponsored by the Club for Growth. It’s no surprise coming out of the Garden State, though, where voters never seem to make up their mind until the very end of an election.
In the good news for the GOP side, only 26% of respondents figure Lautenberg deserved re-election - and its good to keep in mind that Laugtenberg was inserted into the 2002 race after Toricelli was bounced from the Democratic nomination for committing the worst crime of all - being at risk of losing a Democratic seat (all that corruption stuff which got him into trouble was nothing, after all; only the risk of loss motivated the Democrats to take the highly illegal step of switching candidates late in the race). Real Clear politics points out that another poll showed Lautenberg up by 7 percentage points…but tied or +7 for the Democrats, its still good news for the GOP that in very blue NJ in a very tough year for Republicans that we’re within striking distance of a major Senatorial upset.
As I keep saying, this is going to be an interesting year - and throw out all those ideas you had of predicting the outcome. Its really all up in the air, from top of the ticket to bottom.
Tags: Dick Zimmer, Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey, Polls, Senate
August 15th, 2008
He might be the Obamessiah to his kook left supporters, but he’s political kryptonite in Louisiana, it would seem - from Political Punch:
The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the only Senate Democrat in a competitive race this year, was listed as a co-host for a $100-per-person DC fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, until suddenly, she wasn’t.
The event, “Girls Night Out: Lipstick, Laughter and Libations,” (you can see the cached version which includes Landrieu’s name HERE) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, August 18.
Landrieu campaign spokesman Scott Schneider told the Advocate that she was never supposed to be listed as a co-host.
“I believe it was a clerical mistake where some finance assistant confused who was going to the event with who was hosting the event,” Schneider said.
Yeah, right - whatever.
This is a sign of Obama’s weakness - his inability to really expand beyond African-American and upper-class white voters. It seems that Obama is so unpopular in Louisiana with everyone other than hard core Democrats that Landrieu made the calculation that “Obama who?” is the best way to save her political hide.
Thing for the GOP to do? Tie her as tightly as possible to Obama and his Democrats.
Tags: Louisiana, Senate
August 12th, 2008
Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi, certainly the very worst Speaker in American history:
House Republicans, who insist that Speaker Nancy Pelosi call the House back from its summer recess so votes can be taken on their energy legislation, continued for a third day to make speeches to GOP staff members and Capitol Hill tourists.
They did so in the dimly-lit chamber of the House of Representatives, without the aid of working television cameras or a public address system.
The Republicans became miffed last Friday when Democrats abruptly adjourned the House until September 8 without giving them a chance to speak on the floor about their energy plan, which includes exploring for oil in ANWR and more off-shore drilling.
Even though the House had officially gone out of session, some Republicans stayed on the floor and made speeches anyway.
After taking the weekend off, the guerrilla oratory continued Monday, with organizers of the talk-in estimating that 24 of the 199 House Republicans participated…
…With the House not in session, the chambers’ televisions cameras have been turned off for the three days of speeches. The lights in the chamber have been dimmed, which is normally the case when the House is not session. Also the public address system is off, forcing the Republicans to speak up so they can be heard in the large chamber.
Lucky tourists, many of whom just happened to be touring the Capitol, have been given the rare opportunity of sitting on the House floor. Wearing t-shirt and shorts, they became an impromptu audience for the speechmakers.
Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement on Monday saying, “This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence.”
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., referred to GOP tactics as “stunts” by a “smattering of House Republicans”.
But Republicans claim their unofficial floor sessions are gaining traction with voters who are wondering why Congress is taking a five week vacation while gasoline prices remain so high.
They vow to continue speaking out on the House floor rest of this week and during the weeks ahead.
Its fine for Nancy to say we need a serious debate, but having such a debate is rather impossible if the Democrats cut and run from DC and head for the hills rather than be forced to vote in favor of energy measures popular with everyone except the money-bags of the kook left. That is the thing, you see? Any floor vote on the GOP energy measures will result in a lopsided vote in favor of the proposals - only those Democrats in absolutely safe Democratic seats would dare defy common sense on energy, and so the vote in favor would probably approach 300.
But, its all good: Nancy and Co have handed we GOPers a fine “kitchen table” issue for the fall. We’re willing to do the hard work of getting things rolling towards American energy independence while the Nancy-boy Democrats hide. Come the election, we’ll be able to point out our willingness to make the hard decisions contrasted with the Democrats stark, yellow-bellied fear of doing the same.
Tags: John Shadegg, Nancy Pelosi, oil price, Steny Hoyer
August 6th, 2008
We were wondering just how we were going to get some traction for the House races this fall:
Do-Nothing Democrats Vote to Adjourn House of Representatives Without Taking Action to Lower Gas Prices
Putnam: “It’s Time Democrats Put Their Boarding Passes Back in Their Pockets”
WASHINGTON – Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement shortly after the House of Representatives voted 213-212 – with no Republicans voting in the affirmative – to adjourn for five weeks in August and September without taking action to lower gas prices and break our dependence on foreign oil:
“The Democratic Congress should be held in contempt for voting to skip town without dealing with America’s energy crisis.
“Democrats are out of touch, out of excuses, out of support and out of time. Americans are hurting. Independent polls show they overwhelmingly support House Republicans’ all-of-the-above energy solutions.
“It’s time Democrats put their boarding passes back in their pockets and get to work by voting on the American Energy Act.”
As NRO points out, this is a Godsend to the GOP - its the perfect “kitchen table” issue and the GOP is entirely on the side of Joe and Jane Average on this issue. As with the Obama campaign, the only thing I can figure is that Pelosi and Co figure they’ve got their House majority sewn up and there’s no worry about what might happen in November. Of course, just as with the Obama campaign, we have to rate the Democrats as having the advantage in keeping their majority in November’s election…but there’s nothing for sure, and the GOP only needs a net of 19 to take an absolute majority…but even a GOP gain of 10 would give the GOP de-facto control over the House (with the remaining conservative and centrist Democrats scared to death of crossing the GOP). Meanwhile, if there was ever a year for Democrats to expand a majority, 2008 is it…so even a one seat gain by the GOP would be a crushing loss for the Democrats, given the political circumstances at the dawn of Campaign ‘08.
I’ve been observing politics for a long time now, and I’ve never seen a party so sure of themselves as the Democrats are. We’ll find out in November if its well-founded, or whether hubris and arrogance turned likely victory into defeat.
Tags: Do-Nothing Democrats, energy policy, House Democrats, House GOP, Nancy Pelosi, oil price
July 31st, 2008
Perhaps the Democrats are worried they don’t have enough voters for November?
E-Verify (the effective program to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs) now is facing danger in the Senate, as well as the House.
The NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team has been told that Sen. Menendez (D-N.J.) has put a “hold” on legislation to reauthorize the E-Verify workplace verification program. That means the Senate is barred from voting to keep it alive. Without a vote, E-Verify will die in November.
Our understanding is that Sen. Menendez is blocking the most effective tool against illegal immigration in order to get something else that he wants. He will allow an E-Verify vote if he is allowed to give hundreds of thousands of skilled American jobs permanently to hundreds of thousands of additional immigrants.
At a time when skilled Americans and students aspiring to those jobs are finding a depressed job market, Sen. Menendez is insisting on flooding their occupations with even more foreign workers. And if he doesn’t get his way, he will take away the best tool that employers have to keep illegal foreign workers from taking jobs at every rung of the ladder, but especially at the lower-skilled job level.
Our liberals have it that they are the selfless defenders of the Little Guy against Big Corporation but what they fail to understand is that Big Corporation is in many ways just like Big Government. Human life is properly lived at human-scale - smaller communties of people who know each other; bound to a larger community through ties of nationality and affection, but fundamentally looking after their own affairs through family, church and social group. We see in this action by Menedez what happens when people become mere cogs in a socio-economic machine. Menedez wants more guest-workers to please part of his constituency and thus is blocking the enforcement of a law which prevents the ruthless exploitation of illegal immigrants as well as protects the wage levels of legal residents - a lot of people are happy with Menedez’ action: people who are de-facto advocates for illegal immigration, large corporations looking for maximised profits, the national Democratic party which wants hispanic support. Who isn’t happy? The guy trying to have a stay-at-home wife to raise his three children but can’t do it because wage levels are depressed due to the importation of cheap labor. The small business trying to do the right thing by the community but being forced out by his competitors who exploit cheap, illegal labor. The local community suddenly burdened with an influx of people who don’t speak the language, are prey to gangsters, have no insurance (health, auto, life, home) and who use emergency rooms as their primary health care providers. And, of course, the illegals, themselves, who’s skills are not being used to build up their homeland but which are being used to provide a slightly higher corporate profit and a little extra political clout in the United States.
Here, also, we see the arrogance of liberalism - an arrogance bred of the conviction, largely correct, that no one will ever call a liberal to account. Any Republican who points this out? He’ll be called a racist and the MSM will go along with the accusation. Will the people of New Jersey force him out? The people of New Jersey elected him in the first place even though he had ethical troubles going in. Will his fellow Senate Democrats call him to account? The same Democrats who gave William “Cold Cash” Jefferson (D-LA) a standing ovation? Yeah, right.
Tags: E-Verify, illegal immigration, New Jersey, Senator Menedez
July 27th, 2008
Courtesy of the Democrats:
Congress has relaxed rules that would have required public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists, narrowing the scope of new ethics rules intended to draw back the veil on Washington’s influence game.
New guidance released by Congress late Wednesday exempts lobbyists from reporting their financing of an array of political and charitable contributions, events and parties at political conventions.
What? You expected something different? If you did, its because you still haven’t purchased Caucus of Corruption.
I know, I know - you liberals out there think Matt and I just wrote a book blaming corruption on Democrats, but that isn’t what we wrote at all. What we wrote is a book detailing how the Democrats are locked into corruption because no one ever holds them accountable - not the MSM, not rank-and-file Democrats and most certainly not other elected Democrats. People are people, and that means that a certain percentage of them will sin - and for a politician, the sin usually revolves around abuse of power by various means. We can’t get all corruption out of politics because we can’t get all people out of it. But we can lessen it greatly if we hold everyone accountable for their actions. By one means or another, Republicans are held accountable…so Cunningham goes to jail, while Jefferson is set to be re-elected, again. So Foley resigns, while Frank is a powerful member of the Democratic caucus. So Rowland is threatened with impeachment by his fellow GOPers to force him out, while Blagojevich is still in office even though he figures prominently in myriad corruption scandals. On and on it goes like that.
Look, Democrats, its not for us to tell you what you must do, but we will tell you what you should do - and what you should do is start to understand that good intentions don’t excuse crimes. It doesn’t matter that these are all good liberals who are reliably on your side on the issues - they are poisoning our politics and contributing to the contempt government is held in. They have to go - but only you, on your side, can actually make them go. Do you really want to be a party which is ok with corruption? Don’t you want to be honest as you can be?
Tags: Caucus of Corruption, liberal lies, lobbyists
July 19th, 2008
So says this Newsmax report:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dropped a bombshell by reversing course and suggesting that the Judiciary Committee might take up the issue of impeaching President Bush.
Pelosi’s change of heart comes after Rep. Dennis Kucinich moved a “privileged resolution” to force the House to consider whether Bush should be impeached for, according to the Ohio Democrat, lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq.
Pelosi had previously declared impeachment to be “off the table” before the 2006 election. But she now believes hearings on the impeachment issue are “a distinct possibility,” according to The Nation magazine.
Pelosi told reporters on Thursday: “My expectation is that there will be some review of that in the committee. This is a Judiciary Committee matter, and I believe we will see some attention being paid to it by the Judiciary Committee.”
Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the committee, has said he is reviewing the articles of impeachment Kucinich has proposed. Previously he had felt constrained by the Speaker’s “off the table” comment.
This is either a sop to the kook left - a means of keeping them occupied by smoke and mirrors (they are rather gullible, after all) while Obama shifts right for the fall election…or its a desperate attempt to make people hate President Bush enough to carry Obama over the finish line in November (this would be the case if internal Democratic polling shows that only a tremendously and continuously unpopular Bush gives Obama an edge over McCain). In either case, its a dishonorable thing to do…and, of course, real hearings will never happen, nor will articles of impeachment be passed by the House, because a trial in the Senate would expose that each and every criticism of President Bush vis a vis Iraq is massively overstated, at best, or an outright lie, at worst. The last thing Democrats want is a full airing of the Iraq issue prior to the November election.
Tags: Defeaticrats, Dennis Kucinich, impeachment, Iraq, John Conyers, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi
July 12th, 2008
Nancy Pelosi’s House and Harry Reid’s Senate have hit an historic low approval rating of single digits,
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.
Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.
The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month.
Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.
Just 12% of voters think Congress has passed any legislation to improve life in this country over the past six months. That number has ranged from 11% to 13% throughout 2008. The majority of voters (62%) say Congress has not passed any legislation to improve life in America.
These numbers demonstrate the failure of the Democrats to lead Congress. They came into power promising results and a new era of bipartisanship. Instead, they delivered incompetence and increased partisan bickering, and higher gas prices.
While many are quick to predict increased Democrat majorities in both Houses of Congress, it’s clear that the American people are rejecting the so-called leadership of elected Democrats.
Tags: Democrat incompetence, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi
July 8th, 2008
As I write this, Lieberman Must Go has 35,000+ signatures on this petition:
We CANNOT tolerate a leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus who supports George Bush and McCain’s War in Iraq. We CANNOT tolerate a Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee who endorses and stumps for McCain. We call on the Senate Democratic Steering Committee to strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship and his leadership role.
Which action, of course, would also probably strip the Democrats of their Senate majority, at least until January - either the petitioners don’t realise this, or they are supremely confident in picking up a net of at least one Senate seat in November. Still, it is a bit arrogant for them to make that presumption - the time to strip Lieberman, if that is to be done, would be in January, and then only if the Democrats have 51 seats without him. I’ll bet they get to 350,000 signatures in short order, so great is the leftwing hatred of President Bush and of anyone who doesn’t hate him as the left does.
Please note that they are calling it “George Bush and McCain’s War in Iraq” - it is, of course, America’s campaign in Iraq, part of America’s fight in the War on Terrorism, but so hatefilled is the left these days that they are not animated by a desire of what is best for America, but by a desire of what is most harmful to President Bush and his possible GOP successor, John McCain. There is also the rank moral cowardice of making such a statement - it is the left saying, “its not me!”; as if one can be a true and loyal American citizen and not be morally responsible for all of the acts of the United States of America. Only a traitor can really say of Iraq that it is not his campaign - but it remains America’s campaign, even if a traitor eschews it; a traitor, or someone so hate filled that they don’t understand what they are actually doing.
And before anyone out there says I’m exaggerating about the hate, herewith some samples from the signatures:
Awful person…He is among the biggest scumbags on the planet…He’s is worsre than a traitor…Lieberman has set the reality of self serving, despicable politicians at a new plateau…His country is Israel not the USA.
How many of our young men and women must die to defend Israel and the powerful AIPAC?…Are peoplle like him mindless idiots or hellbent on destroying America?…A totally classless jerk…Joe Liberman’s position is more in line with Israel’s than US’s…AIPAC is his allegiance. He takes his orders from them…He is a traiter, but more than that, he is such a non human…Not only must he go, strip him of his citizenship…This man is a menace to society…Joe belongs in the GOP-aipac section…Joe go live in Israel now. You are a war monger supreme…more loyal to Israel than to our country…
I think that pretty much says it all - fanatic hatred destroying the souls of those on the left to the point where they don’t even realise they’re slipping into anti-Semitism…
Tags: Iraq, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, liberal anti-Semitism, liberal lies
June 27th, 2008
From NRO’s The Corner:
A friend on the Hill writes:
Today marked a new low for the way congressional Democrats deal with national security. This morning, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a joint hearing on a “National Intelligence Assessment” on global climate change. This analysis was ordered by the Democratic Congress last year and was issued a few weeks ago. Some highlights (or low-lights) from the hearing:
1) In response to a question by Global Warming Committee member Greg Walden (R-OR), the Intelligence Community admitted they had “low to medium confidence” in the accuracy of this estimate because intelligence officers lack the expertise to write such an estimate (it was mostly contracted out to other organizations) and climate change science is so uncertain. As Walden started to ask about why an analysis of such low reliability was issued, Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), the Global Warming Committee Chairman, cut him off and told him he was out of time even though Markey let all the previous Democrats speak substantially past their time limits.
2) Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter asked what intelligence was used for this estimate and whether intelligence collection requirements were prepared. National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar said no clandestine intelligence was used and that intelligence officers extrapolated what would happen if the “mid-level estimates” by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were correct. When Hoekstra asked why the U.S. Intelligence Community would write an major analysis of low to medium confidence that contained no intelligence, Fingar answered, “because you [Congress] told us to.”
3) Hoekstra noted that intelligence assessments of high confidence have proven to be wrong and he wondered why an intelligence assessment of low to medium confidence would even be published. In an attempt to dispel the debate over confidence, Intelligence Committee member Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) responded by noting that the 2002 Iraq WMD NIE had high confidence in its findings. Some Republicans thought Rep. Eshoo’s statement actually made their case about the futility of issuing an intelligence assessment that intelligence officers cannot fully back.
If Obama gets in, we can expect mountains of nonsense like this - a whole slew of laws, hearings, regulations and campaigns which sound like they’re about something, but are really about liberals burnishing their own self-image. One of the many problems with liberals is that their ranks are heavily laced with bureaucrats, lawyers, judges, activists, community organizers…people who, in short, don’t actually do anything in the sense of actually producing an end product usable by Joe Average. Of course there is an intelligence estimate on global warming…because it is the biggest threat we face, and we’re going to really go after it, including the CIA! And liberals who thought this up will pat themselves on the back and thing they’ve done something - just as they do after they recycle, or vote for a guy who will increase government spending.
The irrationality here is astounding, but not actually surprising - given that the Democrats (who absurdly call themselves “the reality based community” on the strength of their rejection of Christian teaching on abortion and sexuality) have cut themselves off from the source of reason and are adrift on a sea of inconsequential, mental cobweb spinning. The more one thinks about it, the more silly the whole concept of allowing a Democrat to run the show becomes - they just don’t have what it takes to run a government…heck, they don’t have what it takes to run a boy scout troop (that does take some personal responsibility, ya know?).
Tags: Climate Change, global warming, liberal lies
June 26th, 2008
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