Category: Congress

Why David Frum is Crapping his Pants

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So, David Frum just wrote an article in the Washington Post throwing John McCain’s presidential bid overboard, suggesting that all Republican Party efforts should be directed towards the Congress, particularly the Senate, so as to prevent a filibuster proof majority.

He notes, correctly, that the RNC is the only place where the ‘Phants are raising good money, and that they are wasting it on his doomed campaign.

He’s concerned about how a “conservative free” management of the financial meltdown will be handled, and he wrings his hands over the, “fierce new anger among many liberal Democrats,” by which he means that their refrain is, “Thank you sir, can I have another.”

But then, he gets to the bit where he actually really gives a damn:

Unchecked, this angry new wing of the Democratic Party will seek to stifle opposition by changing the rules of the political game. Some will want to silence conservative talk radio by tightening regulation of the airwaves via the misleadingly named “fairness doctrine”; others may seek to police the activities of right-leaning think tanks by a stricter interpretation of what is tax-deductible and what is not.

(emphasis mine)

Between punditry on fox, and his think-tank gigs, he is afraid that he will actually have to work for a living.

I guess that trumps ideology for him.

I incorporated a 501(c)3 tax exempt org, it was, and is, a completely bogus registration, though it is technically legal and in accordance with all laws and regulations. (no names here, I don’t want do give them grief*) It puts on SF conventions, and running a SF convention should not get tax exempt status, with deductible contributions (In truth, it went 501(c)3 for the cheap mailing rates anyway).

Neither should the right wing pundit full employment welfare programs, like the AEI, where David Frum works. They are playthings of rich people who never had to work for their money, and want to manipulate public policy for their benefit.

They are not charities, they are lobbying organizations.

*And I don’t want to give them anything else. Any contact between me and this organization is very bad for me, which I suppose is more of a reflection on me than it is on them.

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!!!!!

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Sen. Ted Stevens guilty on all seven counts.

So Governor Palin, will you do right by the people of Alaska and appoint Begich to the Senate in November?

A few days extra seniority make a big difference in that body.

One note, the Jurors had to start from square one on deliberations today, because a juror was released because of a death in the family, so they pretty much settled this in the hallway.

I believe that GB Trudeau says it all in the attached Doonesbury cartoon from 1973.

This guy has been a gleeful cancer on the US senate for decades, and a little time for him in club Fed will do the American people a world of good.

Bachmann Now Behind Tinklenberg

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SurveyUSA has the numbers:
Michele Bachmann(Insane ‘Phant): 44%
Elwyn Tinklenberg* (D): 47%
Bob Anderson (I) 6%.

There is a 4% margin of error, so it’s still too close to call. There is only about 2% undecided, and so the 2:1 undecideds breaking against the incumbent does not mean much here.

It will be close.

*I know that it’s not nice to make fun of someone’s name, but his name still sounds like a character from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone.

Jury Out on Uncle Ted

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Let’s be clear about this: the facts as they exist really should be enough to send him down the river for bribery, but it’s easier to show that he took, and did not report gifts.

We have disinterested parties like a contractor testifying that Veco specifically told a contractor to avoid sending a 13 grand bill:

Mr. Paone said Mr. Allen told him to “eat” the final bill and suggested that he “should look at it as a political contribution.”

Mr. Paone said he never alerted Sen. Stevens to the incident because he was concerned it would be “business suicide” to cross Mr. Allen, who was a powerful businessman in Alaska.

We also have his friend who managed the renovations of his chalet that Stevens never asked for a bill or invoice.

Stevens should not be a particularly sympathetic figure, what with his claiming that if anything was done wrong, it was his wife who screwed up, and his decision, because no lawyer in his right mind would put him up there, which showed, as Dana Milbank says:

Ted Stevens once told his Senate colleagues that he’s “a mean, miserable SOB.” Yesterday, he set out to prove it.

(See also here, here, here, and here)

Considering the degree to which the reports all agree that he was contemptuous, evasive, and just plain awful as a witness, I have to conclude that his testifying was Stevens’ and not his Attorney’s idea.

In closing arguments, the prosecutor got to the most damning evidence in the case, the fact that Stevens acknowledged what he was doing could get him into legal trouble.

That pretty much shoots down the argument that it was an “innocent mistake”.

Of course, considering how badly the prosecution has handled this, I get the sense that the judge wants to slap them silly for good cause, there are no guarantees,

In any case, the jury is deliberating now.

Making a Bad Situation Even Worse

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It looks like Hank Paulson and his bully boys at the US Treasury will be actively encouraging banks to merge with government money.

So, because some banks have to be bailed out, at taxpayer expense, because they are too big to fail, we should have even more really big banks, because it benefits the guys that Secretary Paulson plays golf with.

Well, it appears that some Senators have not viewed this development positively, and they just sent Paulson a “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” letter regarding this.

Me Bad

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I have been talking politics, and have neglected to mention two races in our back yard:

  • Frank Kravotil running for Congress in MD-1
  • Jennifer Dougherty, who is running for Congress in MD-6

Kravotil is running against Fred Flintstone (he is positively antediluvian), Andy Harris, who defeated the moderate (when it didn’t count) Republican in the primary, and Dougherty is running against Roscoe Bartlet, who…Well….He lives up to the name “Roscoe”.

In any case, they ar both on Matthew Saroff’s Act Blue Page.

Show them some love.

Bachmann-Turnoff Overdrive

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I make no apologies for the pun.

What’s more, I call out all the Liberal Blogosphere….This one was pretty obvious.

Well, Michele Bachmann, the lady who started her political career keeping the Disney Movie Alladin out of town, “feeling that it endorsed magic/witchcraft and promoted paganism” is still experiencing blow-back from her outrageous and un-American outburst on Chris Matthews’ show, where she accused most of the country of being “anti-American”

It now appears that her primary opponent, Aubrey Immelman, will run a write-in campaign against her, because, as he states, “We cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism in our midst.”

Good for him, and bad for her. She has now generated something north of $700K in donations for Elwyn Tinklenberg, her Democratic Opponent, who has a real chance of pulling this out now, particularly now that the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) has stopped funding their ads for her.

Bummer of a birth mark, Miche.

*I know that it’s not nice to make fun of someone’s name, but his name still sounds like a character from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone.

It Was Only a Matter of Time

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As the Minnesota Independent so eloquently stated, “putting Bachmann in front of a live microphone is like handing an excitable 15-year-old a bottle of gin and a loaded gun. The only question is when something unspeakable is going to happen.”

Heh….In any case, if you’ve followed her career, and things like accusations of attempted lesbian kidnapping, secret plans to give Iraq to Iran, and lord know what else that I’ve missed, we now see this missive:

On Friday, Bachmann, R-Minn., told MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews she thought Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle “may have anti-American views” and said the media should investigate whether members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.”

Seriously, this woman is flat out nuts, and within 24 hours of her latest deranged outburst, her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg* got more than $450,000.00 in campaign contributions in the next 24 hours.

Heh.

*I know that it’s not nice to make fun of someone’s name, but he sounds like a character from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone.

This is What Happens When You Allow Republicans to Reflag as Democrats

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Rep. Tim Mahoney (“D”-Fla.) has been accused of using the threat of firing to maintain an affair with a subordinate.

What’s more, he’s released a statement that seems to confirm the affair, if not the sexual harrassment.

Here is the small story with the big lesson: He’s a reflagged Republithug.

What’s more, Rahm Emmanuel and His Evil Minions™, made sure he won the primary to run for Mark Foley’s seat, beating out a real Democrat in the primary, who would also have won once Foley’s hitting on Congressional pages was revealed.

Damn.

They Have Emails

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And the US Attorney prosecuting Ted Stevens wants them:

Even as Sen. Ted Stevens’ corruption trial nears an end, federal prosecutors are still asking for correspondence between the Alaska senator and his wife, Catherine, as well as e-mails she may have sent to 37 people connected to the couple’s home renovation and other gifts the senator may have received.

Stevens’ legal team filed a motion over the weekend asking that a judge intervene and prohibit the government from subpoenaing thousands of documents from Catherine Stevens’ law firm, Mayer Brown. They’re looking for conversations between her and anyone with a U.S. Senate e-mail address, as well as documents relating to anything of value given or provided to Stevens, his wife or his daughter, Lily. That includes “any documents relating to diamond earrings,” according to the motion.

Yeah, this guy is as pure as the driven snow.

That being said, the prosecutors are lucky that Stevens is not just guilty, but unbelievably guilty, because they have run a piss poor case.

While We Are Talking About Republican Incumbents in Trouble

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We can add the contemptible Mitch McConnell to the list.

We have two polls, Mason-Dixon showing McConnell ahead of Lunsford by 45-44, and SurveyUSA having McConnell ahead 49-46:

Those numbers have so encouraged Democrats that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee this week went up with its first TV ad against McConnell — something that even DSCC Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) acknowledged was unthinkable a few weeks ago.

Schumer said Wednesday that Kentucky and Georgia — where GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss is in an unexpectedly tough race — are now on his radar as potential pickups given recent polling.

I’m sure that it doesn’t help McConnell that his wife, Elaine Chao, is Bush’s secretary of labor and hates the working man.

Heh.

Couldn’t happen to a couple of nicer guys.

Put a Fork in Him, Ted “Hulk” Stevens is Done

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Even though the judge excluded some evidence and will notify the jury that the prosecutors were untruthful, I think that he’s done.

He will be convicted.

This because they have “Uncle Ted” on tape saying that they might go to jail for what they had done:

In the three conversations between Mr. Stevens and Mr. Allen played for a federal jury on Monday, Mr. Stevens repeatedly says he believes they did nothing wrong, but also raises the possibility they could go to jail if they are not careful.

“They’re not going to shoot us,” Mr. Stevens reassured Mr. Allen on Oct. 18, 2006. “It’s not Iraq.” At worst, he said, “we might have to pay a fine and serve a little time in jail.”

Mr. Stevens added, “I hope to Christ it never gets to that, but I don’t think it will.”

It doesn’t matter how stupid the prosecution is, Stevens admitted that he was doing something illegal on tape.

It doesn’t matter how many character witnesses there are, and the list includes Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, and champion dog mushers, and “Hobo Bob.”

The man has been a cancer on good governance for a very long time, and while his exit may not serve the Alaskan people, it will serve the American people.