Just a rumor of course, but it’s out there. It would be hard to think of a more direct way to put Obama back in for four more years.
Carly Fiorina, the Republican challenging Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in November, told the GOP faithful this weekend that, if voters send her to Washington, she plans to fight for congressional term limits — 12 years maximum for both senators and House members.
“Changing Washington starts with changing the people we send there,” Fiorina said Saturday to supporters gathered in San Diego for the state GOP convention. “We must not only put a limit on how long people can serve in Washington, but also end the system of guaranteed re-election once they get there.
Term limits were a condition of the Contract with America in 1994. The change was voted on, but failed, and was never brought up again after that. I’m skeptical that with a Republican take over of Congress this time we’d see any different result, but I’m somewhat skeptical of term limits in general.
You see, the American people are supposed to be the mechanism for term limits and if we were doing our job we wouldn’t need to make it the law. For that reason, a part of me opposes the idea of mandated term limits. On the other hand, Fiorina points out a real problem and that is lifetime politicians who get a special district carved out just for them to keep them there for 30 years allowing them to use and abuse their office for their own empowerment. Since it’s the clear the American people aren’t up to the task, maybe legal term limits are the only option.
Looks like former Senator Santorum (R-PA) is testing the presidential waters.
Thanks to my man at GrassrootsPA for the link.
I guess if they just keep repeating it every single year, they will eventually be right.
WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) – The Atlantic storm season may be the most intense since 2005 when Hurricane Katrina killed over a thousand and disrupted oil production by crashing through Gulf of Mexico energy facilities, the U.S. government’s top weather agency predicted on Thursday.
Former Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi (R) will enter the U.S. Senate race against Senator Patty Murray (D). Murray has been polling under 50 and speculative polling between her and Rossi has shown it to be anybody’s race. Sometimes Murray leads, sometimes Rossi. This will be another competitive race that will force the Democrats to spend money in a normally safe state for them.
In Connecticut, former Congressman Rob Simmons (R) has dropped his bid for the Senate race. Linda McMahon, wife of WWF founder Vince McMahon, received the blessing from the State Republican Committee last week. In the wake of Dick Blumenthal getting caught puffing up his military service record, a poll showed McMahon only trailing him by three points, putting a state that everybody wrote off as being a sure hold for the Democrats as being back in play.
The Republicans have finally caught a break in a special election. Charles Djou emerged the victor yesterday in a three way primary for Hawaii’s First Congressional District. Djou received 40% of the vote beating Democrats Colleen Hanabusa with 31% and former Congressman Ed Case with 28%.
A couple of things here. One, the GOP got lucky. This was kind of a reverse NY-23 where in this case the Democrats were the ones fighting between a very liberal candidate and one that was somewhat moderate. They split the vote allowing the outsider, in this case Djou, win in a district tilted in the other party’s direction. Of course the Republicans are going to make big hay out of this because Djou is the first Republican to win the seat in 20 years and it’s President Obama’s home district, but let’s be realistic. Djou wouldn’t have won in a two way race and he’s got a tough battle when it comes to winning his own term in November.
On a positive note, my expectations of the GOP being able to hold this seat have risen somewhat based on the percentage Djou received. He got 40% of the vote. That’s better than what was projected so if the GOP doesn’t find some way to screw this up Djou could realistically win his own term later this year. After all, a Republican has held this seat before.
It just amazes me how members of Congress can watch their colleagues and remember their predecessors going down in flames due to sex scandals, bribery, kick backs, etc, and yet still believe that they somehow will not get caught in their own malfeasance. Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN-03) is the latest hypocrite to get caught being a naughty boy.
Mark Souder’s extramarital affair is nothing short of shocking and hypercritical. The representative has built a career characterized by family values, conservatism, and morality.
According to On The Issues, The Rep. of Indiana’s 3rd congressional district has taken staunch conservative stances on issues like abortion and online gambling. During his term he has clearly stated his opposition on both controversial issues.
Yes, another moral, family values conservative getting caught with his pants down.
Democrat Mark Critz appears to be the victor in the special election for the late Jack Murtha’s seat. CNN has called the race. With 70% in, Critz is leading 53% to 44%.
Politico has called Joe Sestak the winner in the Pennsylvania Democrat primary for U.S. Senate. With 70.3% of the votes in, Sestak leads with 52.8% of the vote over Arlen Specter. To me that’s still a small margin, but they must be seeing projections from precincts not yet officially reported that enable them to make the call.
I am happy to report that in a devastating blow to the D.C. Republican establishment, Rand Paul has soundly defeated the GOP hand picked candidate Trey Grayson.
Hah. And all the political pundits wrote off the Republicans’ chances of picking this seat up after Dodd decided to retire.
At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.
“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”
There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.
The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.
Either Rob Simmons or Linda McMahon will be the Republican nominee after the August primary to run against Blumenthal in November. Does this help them? It’s hard to say. Connecticut is pretty firmly in the Democrats’ camp most of the time and this gaffe may not be enough to sink him. After all, Bill Clinton was a draft dodger and he still got elected President, winning Connecticut both times. Nevertheless, the Democrats cannot afford to make mistakes like these. They are already an endangered species heading into November.
There are several primary elections taking place on Tuesday which could have significant ramifications for the political class. Some involve the political future of a few incumbents, others are a referendum on the establishment. Based on the results we are likely to see some big changes going forward.
I already discussed Pennsylvania earlier today. Senator Arlen Specter is facing an unexpectedly tough reelection fight that he thought he would avoid by changing parties. Specter switched from Republican to Democrat (having switched from D to R over 30 years ago) several months ago when early polling showed him losing handily to a primary challenge by Pat Toomey. Specter thought he was saving himself by switching back to his Democrat roots, but Congressman Joe Sestak who decided to challenge him for the party’s nomination has gained significant momentum over the past month. While trailing Specter 20 to 30 points for most of the election season, Sestak now holds a slight lead over Specter in most polls. My prediction is that Specter will be singing his swan song Tuesday night.
In Arkansas, Senator Blanche Lincoln is also facing a tougher than expected challenge from within her party, though she is not in as dire straits as Specter. Lincoln has held onto a decent lead over Lt Gov. Bill Halter, her challenger, though that lead has been shrinking. I think that Lincoln will prevail on Tuesday, but she is only buying herself a few more months. The polling for the general election has been abysmal for her. She trails every possible Republican opponent in most polls, even the ones hardly anybody has heard of. Unfortunately for her, her strongest challenger, Congressman John Boozman, has been leading her by double digits and is expected to win the Republican primary. Incumbents never make up a deficit like that.
The Kentucky primary is a race in which the grassroots appear to be shutting down the establishment. On the Republican side, Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul, looks to be the favorite on Tuesday. He has been handily polling ahead of Trey Grayson, Mitch McConnell’s hand picked candidate, an indication that the voters of Kentucky may be holding up a big middle finger to Washington politics as usual. On the Democrat side, Dan Mongiardo looks to be the one who will gain the nomination. He ran unsuccessfully against Senator Jim Bunning in 2004.
Finally in Oregon, it seems that former Governor John Kitzhaber (D) and former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley (R) have a clear path to victory and will likely face off in November. The Republicans haven’t won the Governor’s seat in Oregon since the Reagan administration, but Dudley might be the one to break the curse. A Rasmussen poll taken in late April showed them neck and neck in the general.
There are also two special elections taking place this week. On Tuesday, voters in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District will elect a replacement for the late Congressman Jack Murtha. The Republicans haven’t won the 12th since the 1930s and it is one of the worst gerrymanders in the country, drawn especially to reassure Murtha’s reelection over and over. Despite that the race could go either way. Polls taken have shown both Tim Burns (R) and Mark Critz (D) trading leads back and forth. Ultimately, it will be decided by who gets their base to turn out the most.
Additionally, the special election for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District is schedule for Saturday, but this is a strange one.
The election will be conducted as a Vote-By-Mail election. All registered voters as of the voter registration deadline will automatically be mailed a packet containing the Vote-By-Mail ballot and return envelopes. No polling places will be open on May 22, 2010. Ballots will be mailed approximately 20 days prior to the election. Voted ballots must be received by the State of Hawaii Office of Elections no later than 6:00 p.m., May 22, 2010 in the return envelopes provided.
The GOP is catching a break on this one. It’s kind of a reverse NY-23. There are two Democrats running and they are evenly splitting the vote, so polling has shown that Republican Charles Djou is likely going to win because of that. The DCCC evidently agrees as they have pulled out of the race this week. Had that not been the case, this race would probably have not gotten much attention. A Republican has held this seat in the past, but these days it’s pretty solidly in the Democrats’ camp. If Djou does win it will be interesting to see if he is able to win his own full term in November. It will be an uphill battle, but not at all impossible. We’ve seen some very unpredictable election results over the past year and a half.
On a positive note, there is a slight possibility that the GOP establishment might finally be hearing and listening to the grassroots. Don’t get your hopes up. We’ve been there before, but this Wall Street Journal article at least sheds a few rays of sunlight.
GOP leaders in Washington, responding to an angry and demanding Republican electorate, are adopting more populist economic policies, lambasting a wider swath of Obama administration policies as “government takeovers” and vowing dramatic fiscal changes.
They are responding, in part, to primary election voters of both parties who are showing themselves to be in a prickly, anti-incumbent mood. The next sign of the public’s feelings about Washington comes Tuesday, with sitting senators facing challenges in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, and a hand-picked Republican establishment candidate in danger of losing in Kentucky.
Five months before November’s midterm elections, those forces are already reshaping the GOP, altering the tone and focus of its leadership and the composition of its senior ranks.
It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve wondered that. Specter had a really close call in 2004 back in his Republican days when he experienced a primary challenge from Pat Toomey. Specter ended up squeaking it out by a 1.5% margin. The difference between now and then, however, are that in 2004 polling showed Toomey tied with Specter on Election Day while trailing up until that point. Today, polling began showing challenger Joe Sestak ahead of Specter a couple of weeks ago.
| Poll | Date | Specter | Sestak |
| Morning Call | 5/12 – 5/15 | 44 | 44 |
| Suffolk | 5/11 – 5/13 | 40 | 49 |
| Daily Kos | 5/10 – 5/12 | 43 | 45 |
| Quinnipiac | 05/05 – 05/10 | 44 | 42 |
| Franklin & Marshall | 05/03 -05/09 | 36 | 38 |
| Rasmussen | 05/06 | 42 | 47 |
So how does this race affect Pat Toomey? It’s hard to say. The polls have been mixed regarding how he fairs depending upon who he faces. I personally think that Toomey has a better shot at facing Specter in November than Sestak, but some polls have shown Toomey ahead of Sestak by more than Specter, others less, but he still seems to lead regardless. We’ll get a much more clear picture after Tuesday when the primary is held in Pennsylvania. If the momentum stays behind the GOP going in November then I do believe Toomey will win the election.
Whoever thought the media would stand up for a Republican? WPGH-TV has pulled an ad run by the DCCC that blatantly lies and misleads voters on Republican Tim Burns’s positions regarding taxation and the loss of jobs overseas. Burns is running for the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, formerly held by the late Jack Murtha, and the DCCC has been running deceptive ads on behalf of his Democrat opponent Mark Critz.
FactCheck breaks it all down.
In the latest ad, Democrat Mark Critz levels the false accusation against Republican candidate Tim Burns. They are both running in a tight race to fill the Pennsylvania seat left vacant by the death of veteran Democratic Rep. John Murtha. In the Critz ad, the narrator says, “Tim Burns wants to keep tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.” The point is underlined by a picture of a container ship, presumably filled with foreign-made goods coming to the U.S.A.
But this claim isn’t backed up. As justification, an on-screen graphic cites Burns’ signing of a no-tax-increase pledge sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform. But as we noted before, that pledge wouldn’t be violated by overhauling the tax code to remove any incentive for locating jobs abroad, so long as the overall rate of corporate taxation was not increased. For full details, see our April 9 article, “A False Tax Attack.”
And here is the second ad.
This is just as deceiving as it is a half truth. Burns is a supporter of the Fair Tax which would impose a 23% sales tax on all new goods and services in lieu of having the Federal Income Tax, Social Security, or Medicare taxes. The DCCC ad neglects to mention that these taxes would no longer exist and instead intentionally makes people believe that Burns would support this sales tax on top of all taxes we currently pay. In 2004 Democrat Inez Tenenbaum made the same deceiving claims against Senator Jim DeMint here in South Carolina.
This is the very definition of negative campaigning. It’s not negative to expose an opponent’s record, but when you flat out lie about it then it fits the bill. I am fairly confident that Burns is going to win on Tuesday when the special election is held. I think the DCCC knows that as well which is why they are desperately throwing anything they can at Burns in the hopes that something will stick.
A bill introduced this month in Congress would put the federal and state governments in the business of tracking how fat, or skinny, American children are.
States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. The grant-receiving states would be required to mandate that all health care providers in the state determine the Body Mass Index of all their patients in the 2-to-18 age bracket and then report that information to the state government. The state government, in turn, would be required to report the information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for analysis.
The Healthy Choices Act–introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee–would establish and fund a wide range of programs and regulations aimed at reducing obesity rates by such means as putting nutritional labels on the front of food products, subsidizing businesses that provide fresh fruits and vegetables, and collecting BMI measurements of patients and counseling those that are overweight or obese.
All actions of which are unconstitutional. The Federal government has no legal authority to collect this information nor do they have the authority to use our tax dollars to subsidize providers of certain food or provide obesity counseling. It is yet another intrusion into the lives of the American people. The only people whose concern it is of a child’s weight are the child’s parents.
Having this information also opens the door to further government regulation over our lives. What if they are alarmed by the results they get back once this information is received and tabulated? What if it is a “crisis” of endemic proportions? (It’s always a crisis to the Feds after all) Thanks to the passage of ObamaCare, the Federal government now has control over our health care so what’s to stop them from forcing people to abide by a life style they feel is acceptable and eventually controlling how we nurture our children? It’s not far-fetched. You already see some companies and local and state governments refusing to hire people that smoke. This bill should be stopped.
In my opinion, the primary cause of childhood obesity is technology. Technology has allowed kids to entertain themselves without a whole lot of physical activity today and I believe that has played the largest role in higher obesity rates. This bill will not change that.
Recent Comments