The Washington Times is reporting here that the Republicans are starting to chisel away at the Democrat lead.

I’ve been in Michigan the last few days and will be here most of the week. This weekend is spent in Detroit and lounging at my parent’s farmhouse about 40 minutes south in the middle-of-nowhere near Ohio. Throughout the coming week I’ll be working in Flint, Saginaw, and Lansing as well before heading back to Pennsylvania so I’ll be getting the grand tour of the state.

It’s been non-stop political ads on TV for both governor and senator. The Republicans are pouncing on the Democrats up here hard and the Democrats are taking no chances. Every fifteen minutes I see an ad for Jennifer Granholm or Dick De Vos, and Debbie Stabenow or Mike Bouchard. The Republicans are capitalizing on the massive layoffs going on throughout the state from The Big Three and Ford didn’t do the D’s any favor on Friday when they announced another 10,000.

There is potential, a lot of potential, here in Michigan for big Republican pickups. The Democrat Governor is very unpopular and polls have her and Republican challenger De Vos in a dead heat. Bouchard is trailing Stabenow still for the Senate but he has been gaining ground. The question is, will the people of Michigan seriously embrace change or will these heavily Democrat voters behave like those in my own city of Pittsburgh, like lambs to the slaughter, reelecting a failed governor and a do nothing Senator with a disdain for Slim Fast all because their arms might turn gangrenous and fall off if they even graze the Republican lever.

My prediction:

De Vos picks off Granholm in a very close race. Bouchard gives Stabenow a major run for her money but barely misses the brass ring.

Talent’s numbers have been on the up and up suddenly and a recent USA Today/Gallup poll has him 6 points over Atilla McCaskill. Of course, Talent recently received a gift so pure it could have only come from heaven itself when his Marxist opponent made the following remarks:

“George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black.”

Open mouth, insert foot, Claire?

I just got back from my Republican Committee meeting and there was a lot of casual talk about all kinds of issues, but someone brought up the prospect of Santorum running for President in 2008. Actually, it was more than a prospect as far as this individual was concerned. I have heard rumors that Rick is considering a run, but apparently it is more than just a rumor. In fact, according to the individual that brought up the subject, if Hillary jumps into the race then Rick is almost definitely going to run. Of course, he has to get over his first hurdle which is to get reelected to the Senate first. If he loses that then I think any hopes for the White House are shattered. Furthermore, I do recall earlier this year at a Young Republicans meeting where Rick’s State Director was speaking and someone asked him that, if reelected, would Santorum pledge to serve a full term and not seek another “opportunity”. The gentleman, without hesitation, said no. Interesting gossip among the talking heads here in Allegheny County.

The House race in Arizona for a seat left open by retiring moderate GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe (news, bio, voting record) also has drawn national money and interest. Eleven major-party candidates for the seat that stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border were entered in the party primaries.

National GOP leaders angered Republican candidates when they jumped into the race to support state Rep. Steve Huffman, a moderate who in a recent poll was trailing a former state lawmaker, Randy Graf.

Party officials have expressed concerns Graf may be too conservative to win the seat in November.

Yahoo! News

I know very well what it is like to have the national party interfere with local elections. See Toomey vs. Specter, 2004. Like they did in Pennsylvania two years ago, they are trying to do what they can to scare voters into thinking they need a moderate (which is code word for Democrat Lite) in order to win the seat rather than select a truly principled Republican. I can almost understand that logic in Rhode Island, but in a fairly right wing state like Arizona it’s just bunk.

Good luck to Randy Graf today. Tom Tancredo is behind him and that is all I need to know.

Today is a big day for the Republican Party. In a little over four hours the polls in Rhode Island will close and we will see whether principle or power prevail. It’s been no secret that Senator Dole has poured well over a million dollars into Chafee’s survival. From her perspective, keeping the seat in Rhode Island keeps the Republicans in power, but to what consequence? In four years of complete GOP control we have not seen tax code reform, Social Security private accounts, responsible spending, and limited government and that is because the Republicans continue to harbor individuals like Lincoln Chafee and others who do n0t believe in these things. It makes you wonder why Chafee is even a Republican considering he seems to disagree on just about every principle the party was built on. How is he any different than a Democrat?

I’m just as aware as the next guy that the probability of Laffey keeping the seat in the most Democrat state in the country is slim, but that is not really what this primary is about. This is about sending a message to D.C. that we don’t all get out there and bust our butts to keep Republicans in the majority so that they can stumble over their own feet by defending those who thwart the very agenda we put them in there for.

Good luck tonight, Steve!

1) Rally doesn’t have an “E”
2) An ethnic rally, I mean come on…

Totally unrelated:The girl on the left is a GW CR, so kudos to the GW CRs for getting out there and campaigning, they can’t help it if Team Allen chooses an incredibly ridiculous way to use their man power.

I cannot honestly believe that five years have gone by since my generation’s “Pearl Harbor”. I watched the Flight 93 movie Saturday night, which I had no intention of doing, but I was flipping through the channels and it happened to be just starting so I kind of got sucked in. I thought they did a good job of it and while I am generally not an emotional guy I found myself teary-eyed several times throughout the movie and even felt my heart racing at some spots.

It’s amazing how clear I remember that day five years ago and yet can barely recollect what I did last week. I was at the Bradford School on the third floor of the Gulf Tower in downtown Pittsburgh, a few months shy of finishing up my programming degree. I started at 8am and went through the first class and moved to the next one at 9. A few minutes afterwards I remember one of the guys coming in late laughing about how “some idiot flew a plane into the World Trade Center”. Everyone kind of laughed about it because we had no idea how serious it was. We all had the impression that it was some jackass trying to do a stunt or something in a little prop plane and he got too close to one of the buildings and grazed it. We just went right back to the class subject at hand and then a few minutes later another person came in and said, “You guys have got to see this.”

We all got up and went down the hall to another room where they had a television and saw the devastation. By this time both towers were hit and only a few minutes had gone by when they suddenly announced that another plane had hit the Pentagon. I remember calling my mother on the phone and I was actually able to get through the first time. She was watching it as well. I told her I was going to go home shortly (I was becoming nervous about being in one of the tallest buildings in Pittsburgh) and I would call her back later. As soon as I hung up the phone an administrative staff member came in and told us that the FBI was giving evacuation orders to leave the building immediately. We were right nextdoor to the Federal Building so they were probably being cautious but sometimes I think back and wonder if they knew that Flight 93 was heading in our direction.

We all filed out of the building and everyone was standing out on the sidewalks and even into the streets looking up into the sky to see if they could see anything. I remember my buddy, Justin, was standing with me and I told him I wasn’t going to hang around and was heading straight to my car to get out of the city as soon as possible. I was worried about something happening downtown and also about being stuck in a lot of traffic and people getting panicky if things got worse. He said he was going to go to where his mother was working a few blocks away and I told him that he should probably just get of the city and that I would be more than willing to take him home if he wanted, but he insisted on going to his mother’s workplace. I remember telling him to be careful, I headed straight for my car. I called my older sister and told her to turn on the TV. She hadn’t been watching it so she had no clue yet what was happening. I also placed a call to my roommate, Jason, because I knew he delivered all over downtown for his job. I got his voice mail and told him to stay away from the city if he hadn’t come down yet.

I got in my car and surprisingly traffic was not bad yet at all. I didn’t go home because our satellite was out of commission for a few days so I went down to the Waterfront area to Cap City, the restaurant that I worked at in the evenings. They weren’t open yet, but I knew people would be there getting ready to open up. When I got there they were all in the bar watching the TV. I remember Danielle was crying because her boyfriend lived in New York and she couldn’t get ahold of him. I looked up at the television and saw that the South Tower had collapsed since the time I had left downtown.

Only a few moments after I started watching a CNN banner suddenly went across the top of the TV that said another plane had crashed in Pittsburgh. I almost freaked when they said that, but at the same time something inside me said that didn’t make sense. I had just came from downtown and definitely would have seen something. I walked outside of the restaurant and looked to the northwest at the city skyline and didn’t see any smoke or anything. I was afraid that my parents would hear about the “Pittsburgh crash” and start panicking, so I began to try and call them. It took several attempts because the phone circuits across the country were being overloaded. I reached my dad and told him about what they just said on the news, but that I was looking at downtown now and couldn’t see anything wrong.

I went back inside with everyone else and continued to watch and suddenly the North Tower fell. We were all just in absolute awe. I couldn’t believe I was watching a 100 story building collapse to the ground on live television. The news anchors not long after that corrected the fourth plane as crashing outside of Pittsburgh and not in it, but they still didn’t say where. We got word from headquarters that the restaurant was not going to open so everyone began to leave and I headed back home.

For a few days afterwards there was a lot of nervousness in the city because a lot of people were wondering if Flight 93 was actually meant to hit us in Pittsburgh. I remember being nervous about going to class the next day. I think it was Thursday that the mayor came on TV and gave reassurances that there was no evidence that the fourth plane was meant to hit our city and today we now know that was correct.

So that is my “Where were you on 9-11″ story. I didn’t know any of the victims of September 11th and even though I guess I was never in any real danger that day I didn’t know that at the time and thinking back to how frightening it was just for me I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for the people in New York and those who had a connection with someone that died that day. It had to have been my mental distress times ten.

Everyone has a story to tell about what they were doing when they found out and how their day continued. That’s what a leviathan this event was. It temporarily swallowed the lives of every one in the nation that day and for a few it was permanent. Hopefully we as a people have learned from the events that day and will be ready for the next one which I do believe will come and will be worse than the last.

The latest Zogby poll out for this week shows Swann cutting down Rendell’s double digit lead to 9.5% over the former Steeler. Coincidentally, the Swann campaign has finally started running TV ads over the past week so I’m sure that had something to do with it. With a little less than two months left until Election Day there is still plenty of time for Swann to pull off an upset win and be the first man in history to oust an incumbent Pennsylvania governor, but I still remain skeptical.

The most devastating piece of ammunition that Swann could be using has been left stored in the armoury. I am speaking of last year’s infamous pay raise, which resulted in 17 incumbent State legislators being ousted during the May primaries and another couple dozen State legislators retiring so that they would not have to face the wrath of the voters. Rendell supported and signed this pay raise, which was eventually repealed due to an onslaught of voter backlash, and yet, Swann has yet to open this gift from God.

The problem is he really can’t. He backed himself into a corner on this one. Not only did Swann continue to show his support for the Senate President and Senate Majority Leader, who orchestrated this pay raise, during their primaries (they both ended up being defeated in landslides by their more conservative challengers), Swann also stated publically that they should be able remain in their leadership positions until the end of the legislative session in December.

It is these types of blunders among others that I believe keeps Swann 10 points behind Rendell rather than 10 points up and sours his chances of having a historical win.

The Cato Institute makes several good points in regards to Newt’s 11-point 2006 Republican strategy/personal Presidential platform planks. I, too noticed the disturbing expansion he would seek for NCLB with nationwide teachers’ standards and the big-government nationwide “voter-ID card” and increased subsidies to solve the energy problem (as opposed to, oh I don’t know, giving more freedom to the private market).

Cato also has this to say about Gingrich’s proposed 7-year balanced budget idea:

Gingrich does call for Congress to cut spending. Well, not exactly. He does not actually call for any specific spending cuts. What he proposes is budget legislation that would lead to a balanced budget in seven years. Perhaps balancing the budget takes so long because he wants to spend so much more on a national energy policy. Gingrich proposes an array of subsidies to every conceivable energy interest group and project from ethanol to hydrogen-powered cars. Of course, there’s nothing in Gingrich’s manifesto about reforming entitlement programs. That’s hardly surprising—Gingrich supported the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

I think, that while Gingrich does make several good points (enhancing border security, making English the official language, repealing death tax, etc.), these are points that most Republican candidates would embrace in 2008 anyways. What we need is to break away from Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” and embrace more free-market, limited government, and Federalist principles. Gingrich looks to be strong on issues that essentially every Presidential Candidate is going to be strong on: national defense, tax cuts, property rights, et al; it is the candidate who will embrace the Republican Study Committee principles more than mainstream Republicans who will garner my support and hopefully primary voters’ support.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich lays out 11 values-based issues that the GOP can use to retain a majority. Gingrich calls for the GOP to return to the Reagan model that won them the majority in the first place.

1. Make English the Official Language of Government.
2. Control the Borders.
3. Keep God in the Pledge.
4. Require a Voter ID Card.
5. Repeal the Death Tax, for Good.
6. Restore Property Rights.
7. Achieve Sustainable Energy Independence.
8. Control Spending and Balance the Budget.
9. Tie Education Funding to Teacher Accountability.
10. Defend America From the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam.
11. Focus on Iran and North Korea.

More details can be found in Newt’s article here.

Governor Mitt Romney declared yesterday he would not allow any state resources to be used to protect a former Iranian president during his visit to the Boston area this weekend, and he sharply criticized Harvard University for inviting Mohammed Khatami to speak on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Boston.com

Good for Mitt. These are one of the things I don’t understand about the Bush administration. If I were the President I would find out who in the State Department authorized this whack job to have a visa to come to our country for a few weeks and I would have them fired immediately and the visa revoked. What’s the problem?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders are giving up on broad immigration legislation that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants and instead will concentrate on border security ahead of the elections, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday.

“I think it would be next to impossible to pass a comprehensive bill that includes dealing with the diversity of 12 million people here in the next three weeks,” the Tennessee Republican told reporters.

President George W. Bush backs comprehensive immigration legislation along the lines passed by the U.S. Senate. That bill would have created a guest worker program and put millions of illegal immigrants on a path toward U.S. citizenship.

But the Senate bill faced stiff opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives from a number of Republicans who preferred the House bill, which focused on border security and work place enforcement.

House Republicans held a series of hearings over the summer to highlight their concerns with the Senate bill. House leaders plan to meet on Thursday to discuss how to push border security legislation through Congress before lawmakers break at the end of the month to campaign for November 7 congressional elections.

“Congress will put legislation on the president’s desk this fall that will strengthen our borders,” House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters on Tuesday.

Reuters

Looks like they finally figured it out. Passing a stiff border security bill is exactly what the Republicans need to do, not just for the sake of our nation’s safety and livelihood, but for the party’s longevity after November. Passing the McCain-Kennedy amnesty would have been devastating to the Republican party in the mid-term elections coming up. Securing the border, however, and actually being serious about it, could be the very thing that keeps the GOP in power for another two years.

Facebook , an on-line program that allows people to connect with high school and college friends, now allows its users to publically show which candidates for office they support. Unfortunately, it’s not sophisticated enough to include candidates for state legislature and local office (sorry Mark), but it’s a start.

Edit your profile and click on the “Election” tab.

Meanwhile, I added a new picture to my profile. The Philadelphia Ward Leaders had an opportunity to get a photo op with Lynn Swann a couple weeks ago.

I don’t care what the pundits say about his chances, he’d make a hell of a better governor in Pennsylvania than Ed Rendell.

Expanding on their success this election cycle for several conservative House candidates, the Club for Growth boldy announced that they will now be backing three more conservative candidates for Senate in addition to their support for incumbent Jon Kyl. The three candidates are Mike Bouchard in Michigan against incumbent Sen. Stabenow (D), Michael Steele in Maryland for the open seat, and Mike McGavick in Washington, who’s numbers against incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) have been encouraging as we’ve noted before on this blog.

The Club for Growth never ceases to amaze me. These guys are good. Really good.

Gotta love a state where this man can be governor.

UPDATE: Oh yeah and he has bumper stickers like this…

MSNBC’s Meet the Press aired the first debate between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey Jr. Putting my bias aside, I honestly think that Santorum came out looking like a rock star. Bob Casey Jr. should go into the business of making cassette tapes for insomniacs. He’ll put anybody to sleep.

Tim Russert was fair. He nailed both candidates equally with some tough questions, heavily weighted with just the right ingredients to make them both squirm. Again, Santorum outshined Junior. He was direct and confident with his answers, no stumbling or back tracking. Junior definitely appeared uneasy in some of his answers.

No contest. Santorum won the debate handily. If the rest of them go the same way I think Rick keeps his jobs.

vs.
Tickets are now going for over $200.00.