October 21-22, 2007
Oct 21 01:16 Jindal Officially Gov-Elect of Louisiana Oct 21 03:56 Game 7: King's Bosox vs. Hugh's Indians Oct 21 09:03 Another Day, Another Ammo Dump Detonated Oct 21 12:34 Rudy Makes His Pitch Oct 22 02:26 Rudy, Thompson, Huckabee Impress, Romney Looked Tentative Oct 22 08:50 King, You Can Exhale Now Oct 22 09:56 It Isn't 2006 Anymore Oct 22 17:07 Corruption At the Highest Levels
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Prior Years: 2006
Jindal Officially Gov-Elect of Louisiana
It's been a strong week for the Republican Party as a whole. They upheld President Bush's veto of the SCHIP program . they won on the FISA issue, getting Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller to agree to all of President Bush's demands. Nancy Pelosi threw in the towel on Iraq for all intents and purposes. They capped the week off with a flourish when Bobby Jindal won the Louisiana governor's seat by getting above 50 percent in the primary:
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, won the Louisiana governor's race Saturday, carrying more than half the vote against 11 opponents to become the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.This is great news for Republicans. Bobby Jindal led wire to wire. The only question left by Election Day was whether Jindal would win the seat outright today or if he'd win it in the runoff. That question was quickly resolved :
"Bobby" Jindal, R 54%When every ballot was counted, Bobby Jindal won 699,672 votes; his challengers got 598,271 votes, a whopping 101,401 votes margin.
Walter J. Boasso, D 17%
Congratulations to Louisiana making that decision. Your long nightmare under Kathleen Blanco is all but officially over. You've made a wise decision, one that should make for a brighter future for Louisiana. Finally, you won't have a governor too intimidated and unprepared to make a decision.
Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come for the GOP in 2008.
Posted Sunday, October 21, 2007 1:17 AM
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Game 7: King's Bosox vs. Hugh's Indians
One Northern Alliance baseball fan will be heartbroken Sunday night. That's because King's Red Sox will face off against Hugh's Cleveland Indiansin the hopes of winning Game 7 in front of their beloved Fenway Fans. The pitching matchup will be Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. Cleveland's Jake Westbrook.
The conventional wisdom held that a Game 7 wouldn't likely be needed when Cleveland ran out to a 3-1 series lead, especially with C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona ready to win the clincher. The bad news for Hugh and other Indians fans was that Boston was able to send the best big game pitcher in the majors to the mound in Game 5 in Josh Beckett. The other bad news for Hugh's Crew was that Fausto Carmona was lackluster again in Game 6.
Before everyone starts giving Carmona grief, it should be noted that this is his first full year in the majors. It's also worth noting that he's got nasty stuff.
Now all that's left is to see which team is the last team standing. There is one other thing worth tuning in for: Will Terry Francona turn to Mr. Beckett if Matsuzaka falters?
If Boston's hitters stay disciplined like they did last night, the answer will be immaterial. Boston's lineup came alive last night. More correctly, the bottom of the Boston lineup came alive. J.D. Drew hit a first inning grand slam. The 6-9 hitters went a solid 5 for 17 with 8 RBI's. If they get half that production Sunday night, Boston will be in great position to win another trip to the World Series.
The only other question for Sunday night is whether King and Hugh will be switching between the game and the debate. A little birdie says that both gentlemen will be like a cat on a hot tin roof.
May the best team (and blogger) win.
Posted Sunday, October 21, 2007 3:56 AM
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Another Day, Another Ammo Dump Detonated
According to this article , another terrorist group has had their firepower greatly diminished.
U.S. forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The cache was discovered west of Tarmiya, some 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in Salahuddin province where Sunni Arab militants have a strong presence. The find was made up of 41,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate and 35 mortar bombs. U.S. forces destroyed the cache.I wonder if Charlie Gibson considers this news.
"It's a crippling blow against the enemy, it's really huge," said Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq.
Posted Sunday, October 21, 2007 9:04 AM
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Rudy Makes His Pitch
Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani made his case to Christian conservatives at the Values Voters Summit. According to Fred Barnes , Giuliani's speech was "politely received." After watching the video or Mayor Giuliani's speech, I'd respectfully disagree with that assessment.
When Rudy talked about ridding Time Square of all pornography establishments, I heard enthusiastic applause. When Giuliani talked about turning welfare offices into employment offices, I heard enthusiastic applause. When Rudy talked about taking on the museum displaying a dung-covered statue of "the Virgin Mary" and winning, I heard enthusiastic applause. When he talked about his commitment to appointing strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court, I heard enthusiastic applause.
More importantly, I heard him explain why he believed what he believed. That type of thing goes a long ways toward convincing people that you believe something and that you aren't just saying something that they want to hear. Still, there are skeptics. Chief among them is James Dobson. Also included in that group are Gary Bauer and Richard Land.
I'd suggest to the Giuliani campaign to put together a meeting with these gentlemen so that they could measure Giuliani up close and personal. Such a meeting will go a long ways towards proving that Giuliani, though he isn't with them on everything, is with them on the majority of things. Bauer doesn't sound like he's convinced that Rudy will appoint strict constructionist judges. To him, I'd just point out who leads his legal advisory team. no less a strict constructionist than Ted Olson.
It's worth noting that Giuliani's talking about school choice, including home schooling, came from the heart, not from a wonk's perspective. The audience enthusiastically applauded that section of his speech.
I haven't been bashful in my support for Fred Thompson. He's still my first choice. That said, Rudy is my second choice. The rest of the candidates are decent men but Fred and Rudy are my 1 and 1a candidates.
Conservatives have a great opportunity this election. If we enthusiastically get behind Sen. Thompson or Mayor Giuliani, we'll be able to put more strict constructionists on the courts while killing off the jihadists. That works for me.
Posted Sunday, October 21, 2007 12:35 PM
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Rudy, Thompson, Huckabee Impress, Romney Looked Tentative
Tonight's debate was fun to watch because they really took the gloves off. I thought it was a clash of true titans when Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani squared off against each other. Both were specific in their criticisms without getting personal. They both connected on their points. Most impressively, they gave straightforward answers to the questions.
On the other hand, I thought that Mitt Romney made a terrible first impression. His hair being out of place made him look juvenile. It isn't that I wanted to dwell on that but it really got on my nerves. Romney didn't give a responsive answer to Chris Wallace's question about Fred Thompson's conservatism. Basically, I thought he gave a politician's answer. That isn't how you win over conservative voters.
Instead of answering Chris Wallace's question, he gave a meandering, evasive answer about rebuilding Reagan's coalition and appealing to Republicans, Democrats and independents. It's just a hunch but I think Romney didn't engage in hitting Fred Thompson because he tried that in the Detroit debate and got whacked hard over it. It's quite possible that Sen. Thompson intimidated Romney with that back-and-forth in Detroit.
As others have said, John McCain had the best line of the night about Hillary wanting to spend $1 million on the Woodstock museum, saying that "I'm sure it was a historic, pharmaceutical event", then saying that he couldn't attend because he "was tied up at the time", an obvious reference to his POW time in the Hanoi Hilton.
Mike Huckabee continues his strong showing while Ron Paul is downright scary. Huckabee's great sense of humor is disarming but his answer on health care nailed it. He whacked Romney by saying that it didn't matter what type of health insurance plan we had if we didn't make wellness the cornerstone of health insurance reform. It was so common sense that everyone was nodding in agreement with it.
Duncan Hunter was a non-entity tonight, which is unfortunate. I've enjoyed his participation in these debates. On a positive note, Tom Tancredo is sounding more mainstream and in control than he had in the past.
I thought it was difficult to say that anyone was a clear winner tonight, although some things are worth noting. Sen. Thompson and Mayor Giuliani's responses were direct and honest without getting personal. Those types of qualities will be needed if they square off against Clinton Inc.
One last thing: I think Fred's saying that he'd been a Republican ever since reading Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative when he was in college and that he'd started the first Young Republicans chapter shortly thereafter are big selling points to conservatives.
Posted Monday, October 22, 2007 2:28 AM
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King, You Can Exhale Now
Yesterday, I said that Sunday night's game pitted King's Red Sox against Hugh's Indians. Now the dust has cleared and King's Bosox are still standing. King, feel free to exhale now.
The final score of 11-2 isn't indicative of how close this game was. Cleveland could've folded when they got down 3-0 in the third but they didn't. Instead, they battled back to make it a 3-2 game which lasted until the 7th, when Dustin Pedroia homered with Jacoby Ellsbury aboard.
The Indians battled right back getting their first two hitters on in the 8th, meaning that Travis Hafner came to the plate as the tying run. Francona brought in Jonathan Papelbon to get a 6-out save. He didn't disappoint, striking out Hafner on a no-chance 98 mph fastball for the first out before setting the Indians down without a run.
Then the Red Sox scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 8th, sealing their second trip to the World Series in Manager Terry Francona's 4th year of managing the team. The lsat time the Red Sox made it into the World Series, they had to come back from a 3-0 series deficit against the vaunted Yankees. That's the only time in MLB history that a team has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series.
This time the task wasn't nearly as daunting, only having to come back from a 3-1 series deficit, especially with the best money pitcher pitching Game 5.
For the record, Mr. Beckett won the ALCS MVP award, an honor I thought might be going to Kevin Youkilis. Beckett won Game 5 in Cleveland in dominant fashion. right now, he's the best big game pitcher in baseball. He'll start Wednesday night's World Series opener against the Colorado Rockies. That's a game I won't miss.
Perhaps by then, the Red Sox win will have sunk in to King. Perhaps by then, the Rockies will have returned to human status. We'll see. That's what makes baseball so much fun.
Posted Monday, October 22, 2007 8:51 AM
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It Isn't 2006 Anymore
That's the admonition Michael Barone gives Democrats in his latest column . The Democratic leadership doesn't seem willing to accept that freely. It appears as though they're being forced to agree with it bit by bit:
The congressional Democrats got ready for one more push in September. But the testimony of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker cut the ground from under their feet. Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (who declared last spring that the war was lost) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem to have thrown in the towel. The Democratic Congress will not use its power to appropriate to end the surge or to bring the soldiers home.I'd argue one subtle but important thing with Mr. Barone. It isn't that "Democrats suffered from a lack of imagination." It's that they can't afford to admit that President Bush has finally changed course and that that's resulted in a dramatic change of conditions on the ground. I say that they can't afford to admit that President Bush's new strategy is working because their campaign contributions will instantly vaporize if they admitted that.
That leaves the left wing of the party angry at its leaders and the party split on the war, much as it was in 2002, when about half of congressional Democrats voted to authorize military action. The Democrats here suffered from a lack of imagination. They could not imagine that the United States military could perform more effectively in 2007 than it did in 2005 and 2006.
Last Wedneday, Patrick Ruffini wrote that the lesson from Jim Ogonowski's strong challenge in the MA-5 special election was that Republicans can compete if they run as true reformers:
But there is a clear way forward for the Republican Party out of tonight. It's one that we didn't have last night. Or last month. Or a year ago.I said it then and I'll repeat it now: A conservative, reform-minded campaign is still very appealing to the average voter. There isn't a need for another fetal position campaign in 2008. In fact, activists should insist that candidates have a plan of attack to counter the negativity of the Democratic opponent.
It's simple: the change message works. America is anti-Washington, anti-Congress, and anti-corruption. When that's where Republicans are, they win. Jim Ogonowski showed us that. Maybe not in an overwhelmingly Democratic district like MA-5. But what about in a 7 Democrat district? Or in purple seats?
Nor do we need the usual suspects to deliver this message. You don't need to recruit a risk-averse State Senator who talks to his consultants and waits for "his time" to run. All you need is a plain-spoken veteran with an extraordinary life story. We need more citizen-candidates like Jim Ogonowski. We need them to pick off Democrats in blue and purple seats. We need them as primary challengers to corrupt incumbents. In "safe" Democrat-held districts, we need to run people who can get 45% of the vote, and then be in a position to finish the job in 2010. In 2006, the average second-time Democratic challenger who won received 43% of the vote their last time out.
Activists should insist on seeing an outline of our candidates' agenda, too. If they don't have an agenda beyond "We can't afford to have Nancy Pelosi leading the House" or "We can't afford to have Al Franken in the Senate", we should tell that candidate that they need an agenda.
Partisan sniping isn't an agenda, either. Telling me about Al Franken is repetitive at best. It doesn't create separation. Franken has already defined himself. Move onto something useful. With all due respect to the Washington strategists, talking about winning in Iraq or keeping taxes low or fixing immigration would rally people to the conservative cause and start rebuilding the Republican Party. People wouldn't have to say that they're holding their nose when they vote.
The Democrats have found themselves on the defensive on other issues, as well. Last week, the House Democrats were forced to delay a vote on their version of the revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which among other things would have prohibited surveillance of communications between suspected terrorists abroad and persons in the United States without a court warrant.The Democrats should be on the defensive. They don't have a positive agenda that appeals to the masses. They have a message that appeals to the most dogmatic Nutroots activists. Let's hope that they think that they can win with that. Let's see them win by repeating the line about shifting troops away from what should be our main focus, Osama bin Laden.
The House Democrats were responsive to left-wingers' theoretical concerns about abusive surveillance and unconcerned that most voters don't want the National Security Agency to hang up when Osama bin Laden calls the United States. In any case, they were undercut when Senate Democrats agreed to a revision that did not contain that provision and others unacceptable to the Bush administration.
Voters don't buy into that. They're happy to see Saddam gone. They think that liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan is a good thing. Mr. Barone makes an astute observation here:
Democrats are coming face to face with the fact that there's a war on, and that Americans prefer success to failure. If the choice is between stalemate and withdrawal , as it seemed to be in November 2006, they may favor withdrawal ; but if the choice is between victory and withdrawal, they don't want to quit , or to undermine the effort.Americans definitely love winners. This isn't a nation of defeatists. By and large, it's a nation of achievers. Now that Gen. Petraeus has given us the blueprint for winning in Iraq, the American people's opinions are changing.
It's time for Republicans to start acting confident again. It's time that we told voters that we're on their side because we want them to keep as much of their money as possible while properly funding our nation's highest priorities. It's time that we told them that we're on their side because we want parents to have the greatest say in their children's educations.
These issues are winners for Republicans. Now it's important that we let everyone in on our secret.
Posted Monday, October 22, 2007 9:58 AM
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Corruption At the Highest Levels
I've written alot about the Pennsylvania House Democratic Office of Legislative Research scandal . Tracie Mauriello is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter who's uncovered alot of this information. Here's Ms. Mauriello's latest article on the subject. It's the most damaging article yet. Here's what I'm talking about:
Brett Cott, a high-ranking policy analyst in the state House of Representatives, spent 11 weeks straight in Beaver Falls last year working on former House Democratic Whip Michael Veon's unsuccessful re-election campaign. Patrick Grill, also a policy analyst, squeezed in at least 10 trips from Harrisburg to Waynesburg to campaign for Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese.Bill DeWeese is now the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was asked whether the $1.8 million in bonuses to House Democratic staffers was for their work on Democrats' campaigns. In fact, Rep. DeWeese denied a connection between the bonuses and campaign work:
Both continued to draw their state salaries while they campaigned, according to records obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mr. Cott's annual salary is $87,412 and Mr. Grill's is $67,552. Altogether, at least 45 House Democratic employees campaigned on weekdays last year but never left the state payroll and still received bonuses as a reward for their state work, the records show.
Mr. Cott received a $25,065 bonus and Mr. Grill received $12,685. They were among 717 House Democratic staffers who received taxpayer-fund bonuses worth $1.9 million.
House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, has denied any tie between the bonuses and campaign work.Here's one of the things that initially set off red flags for me:
Some recipients already were making six-figure salaries and got five-figure bonuses on top of that. House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese of Waynesburg urged his bonus recipients not to tell anyone, but unhappy legislative employees, who didn't get the extra money, leaked word to the Harrisburg Patriot-News and then other newspapers.As I said then, why would DeWeese tell the bonus recipients not to tell anyone about these disbursements? After all, they were part of the public record. The most logical answer is that they wanted to cover this up. Here's another thing that caught my attention:
Contents of the 20 boxes were "overwhelmingly and patently non-legislative in nature," said Judge Barry Feudale , who allowed the documents to be considered in a grand jury investigation into whether taxpayer-funded resources were used to run elections. The grand jury also is looking into whether state employees received substantial state bonuses for work on political campaigns.Let's sum this all up. State Sen. John Eichelberger heard about the bonuses and started checking into it further. Sen. Eichelberger contacted Tom Corbett, the Pennsylvania Attorney General, asking him to investigate. Corbett eventually sought and received search warrants for the House Democratic Office of Legislative Research, where they found file folders labeled "opposition research", "incumbent protection plan" and "memo on challenger in election. "
It is illegal for campaign work to be done in state offices, on state equipment or by state employees on work time.
The boxes, taken by search warrant from the House Democratic Office of Legislative Research on Aug. 23, included files with labels such as "opposition research," "incumbent protection plan" and "memo on challenger in election."
Tom Corbett eventually impaneled a grand jury investigation for this emerging scandal. At that point, Robert Graci, attorney for the Democrats, argued that the boxes contained privileged legislative information. He also argued that the execution of the search warrant violated the constitutional provision for separation of powers.
Judge Feudale ruled against Mr. Graci's motion. Now Democrats are appealing that ruling. As I said, "I find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe that the career politicians in the Pennsylvania Democratic Party didn't know about this opposition research office."
That was confirmed by a contact in Pennsylvania. My contact confirmed my suspicion that Speaker DeWeese is in this deep. Consdiering his public statements and his once-private admonitions to staffers, that seemed utterly logical. That isn't the only confirmation I got about Rep. DeWeese's involvement in this scandal. Tracie Mauriello's own article verifies my suspicions, too:
Patrick Grill, also a policy analyst, squeezed in at least 10 trips from Harrisburg to Waynesburg to campaign for Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese.I did a search on Mapquest to see the distance between Harrisburg and Waynesburg. Here's what I found :
Total Est. Time: 3 hours, 52 minutes Total Est. Distance: 228.69 milesIt's safe to assume that Grill's travels to Rep. DeWeese's district were fairly expensive and time-consuming. Rep. DeWeese must've known about Grill's travels. According to my contact, Grill was compensated for his travels by either the state Democratic Party or the House Democratic campaign committee. That still leaves the bonus question unanswered.
Here's something else that jumped out at me in Ms. Mauriello's Sunday's article:
Legislative leaders insist the bonuses were rewards for exemplary legislative work, not for campaigning. However records show that many who received them were away from their state jobs for extended periods in 2006 , a crucial election year in which incumbents faced voters for the first time since the 2005 pay-raise debacle.Frankly, this reeks. In addition to this raising the question of whether the bonuses were paid for campaigning, it also begs the question of how much staff Pennsylvania legislators need. After all, if staffers are gone 2-3 months at a time, how indespensible are they?
House Democrats saw it as their chance to seize control of the chamber after spending 12 years in the minority. They accomplished the feat by a one-seat margin that came down to the narrowest of victories in Chester County.
This is just a hunch but it sounds like this scandal has alot more moving parts than has been reported thus far. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the tip of this scandal's iceberg. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the scandal that bubbles into a national disgrace for the Democrats.
With the nation in an anti-incumbent mood, I don't think that they'll differentiate between Democrats at the state or federal level. It wouldn't surprise me if they just cleaned house and sorted things out later.
Either way, I suspect that Bill DeWeese is feeling the heat. The bad news for him is that his troubles are just beginning.
Technnorati: Scandal , Bill DeWeese , Patrick Grill , Jonathan Price , Brett Cott , Analysts , Investigation , John Eichelberger , Tom Corbett , Attorney General , Grand Jury , Legislative Bonuses , Election 2006 , Election 2008
Cross-posted at California Conservative
Originally posted Monday, October 22, 2007, revised 13-Jul 1:50 PM
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