Category — 2006 Election

Democrats spent a lot of time complaining about the “Culture of Corruption” during the 2006 election and made plenty of promises to clean up Congress if they won. So I am sure that we won’t have to wait long for them to do something about this:

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum’s ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband’s companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp. …

As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum’s financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

* Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.

* Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent non-competitively awarded.

* CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.

Of course, they won’t do anything about this because the mainstream media won’t hold their feet to the fire like they would if Feinstein were a Republican. For an example of this hypocrisy, just look at how the media breathlessly covers the Bush Administration’s legal firing of a few prosecutors and compare that coverage to the Feinstein story.

Throughout the 2006 election, voters were warned that Democrats would cut and run from Iraq as well as raise taxes. After one day in office they are already pushing that agenda.

Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid sent a letter to President Bush urging him not to raise troop levels in Iraq. Oh, and if he ignores them, they’ll just try and legislate a cap on troops. So much for that whole Commander in Chief responsibility.

On the subject of taxes, John Fund reports that:

new Pelosi House has opened the door to tax hikes.  Yesterday’s package of new rules to govern the lower chamber erases the three-fifths majority that was required to raise taxes under the old Republican House rules.  The new rules allow tax hikes through a simple majority vote.

It’s going to be a long (and expensive) two years.

The Lowell Sun endorsed Kerry Healey today:

We have no doubt that Kerry Healey is the best candidate in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. She is intelligent, articulate, thoughtful and exceptionally qualified to lead the Bay State toward a bright future.

Unfortunately, Healey’s qualities have been blurred by a campaign that did well to expose Patrick’s weaknesses on key issues but did not work hard enough to highlight Healey’s many strengths. Healey the governor will be far superior to Healey the candidate.

Her 50-point plan is a detailed blueprint for how she will govern, while her Democratic opponent, Deval Patrick, has been evasive about what he will actually do and how he means to do it. He speaks generally of bringing “hope,” but we can’t help but wonder how expensive that hope will be to the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

On education, Healey supports merit pay for the best teachers, particularly for those working in underperforming schools and those teaching math and science. She wants to lift the cap on charter schools to give parents and students more options, raise the mandatory age of school attendance to 18 to keep kids from dropping out, and retain the MCAS as a graduation requirement.

Unlike other candidates, Healey won’t water down public education in Massachusetts. She understands that a solid academic foundation will allow students to attend college, excel in their careers and boost the state’s economic growth.

Healey supports rolling back the income tax to 5 percent, as approved by voters in 2000. She took a no-new-taxes pledge, will work to reform the state’s pension system to eliminate fraud and abuse, will penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants and will push to allow municipalities to purchase health-care insurance through the state, a move that would save struggling communities millions.

It is clear Healey understands the concerns and needs of Massachusetts taxpayers and municipalities. She knows residents need good schools, lower taxes and safe neighborhoods, and she will strive to provide those necessities.

Healey would fight for lifetime parole for Level 2 sex offenders, to reinstate the death penalty for felons convicted of killing law-enforcement personnel, provide loan forgiveness for students pursuing in-demand careers like engineering and forensic sciences, and to make housing more affordable for first-time home buyers. Unlike Patrick, Healey has concrete plans that, with the support of the Legislature, will allow such changes to occur without piling more taxes on overburdened residents.

There’s a lot to be said for checks and balances in government. It’s the reason the GOP has held a lock on the corner office for 16 years. The people of Massachusetts know that the Democrat-dominated Legislature is less inclined to bust open the piggy bank and reach for the taxpayers’ wallets with a Republican governor standing guard.

Taking office amid a recession in 2002, Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Healey refused to tax their way out of a fiscal crisis, and for the past two years the state budget has included a $1 billion surplus.

Although Patrick claims that the state has lost 148,000 jobs under Romney-Healey, his numbers are just plain wrong. The state has 148,000 fewer jobs now than when the state reached its peak, but that peak was reached in February 2001 — nearly two years before Romney and Healey took office. According to the Department of Workforce Development, the state’s job market has rebounded by 61,000 jobs since it bottomed out in December 2003.

A moderate Republican, Healey will continue to halt some of the Legislature’s financial extravagance while reaching out across party lines to get things done and unify our polarized political arena.

The Sun is pleased to endorse Kerry Healey to be Massachusetts’ next governor.

I voted for Healey today since I will be at a conference in Edmonton on election day.

I urge everyone to vote for her on Tuesday so that we can have some check on the Democratic legislature. Without that check, you might as well just hand over your wallet at the polls.

PLEASE don’t waste your vote on Mihos!!! He has no chance of winning and anyone who votes for him is effectively voting for four years of Deval Patrick.

Dean Barnett:

“While we’re on the subject of polls, here’s the thing that some know but few are saying: Our side is going to turn out like it’s a presidential year. The Democrats and unenrolled will turn out like it’s a midterm. You do the math.”

I sure hope he’s right.

Deval Patrick thinks Mike Dukakis was a good governor:

I think that Mike Dukakis was a good governor in many ways, and that we had challenges then.

Mike Dukakis can’t get arrested at most Democratic Conventions. Democratic politicians, although sympathetic to his causes, know that people understand how disastrous that brand of liberalism was for the state. The last thing they want is to be branded a Dukakis liberal, but Deval Patrick thinks that he was a “good governor” with “challenges”.

I wasn’t a resident of the state during the Dukakis era, but not many who were pine for its return. Help us ensure the Dukakis/Patrick era does not resurface by voting for Kerry Healey on Election Day.

John Kerry published a so called apology on his website yesterday. Interesting how a man who loves cameras couldn’t find one to read his apology on the air.

As Dean Barnett says, I guess “he was against apologizing before he was for it”.

As a courtesy to our readers I’ve provided a between the lines translation of John Kerry’s statement:

As a combat veteran,

Translation: Do you know who I am?!?

I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop.

Translation: I wasn’t trying to insult the troops, I was only trying to publicly ridicule their Commander in Chief while our nation is at war.

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.

Translation: I’m sorry you’re too stupid to understand my botched joke.

It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.

Translation: Republicans are the devil. You should have voted for me you idiots. No wonder you morons ended up in Iraq!

A wave of the chuck’s tail to Paul Spera of MA., a Viet Nam veteran and a Past National Commander of the VFW.

[snip]
From his baseless and despicable remarks in 1971 about Viet Nam veterans, to his comments last year accusing American troops of “terrorizing Iraqi civilians, to his latest contemptible attack on our troops Senator Kerry continuously displays his disdain for them.
[snip]

Senator Kerry’s attack on them puts to rest the lie that he and others like him “support the troops.” Where is the outcry from the other Democrats? Where are the statements denouncing his remarks from Senator Kennedy and the rest of the Democrats in Congress? By their silence do they give tacit approval? Is it true that Democrat leaders only want him to be quiet until the election is over? Is that the attitude America will face if there is a shift in leadership in Congress? I wonder how many of these “silent” political leaders will lie to us in 11 days as they extol the virtues of those who wear the uniforms of this nation on Veterans Day.

Senator Kerry should apologize, but he won’t and his refusal makes me wonder if maybe the Swift Boat Veterans might know what they are talking about.

Since I received this e-mail, Kerry apologized under duress from the democrats. I believe he wouldn’t have except to try to get this off the front pages.

Not even the MSM could bury this story, thanks to the Internet and talk radio.

Some troops in Iraq have a great sense of humor and have this message for Senator Kerry:

HT: Drudge Report

Here is today’s Boston Herald editorial:

Memo to John Kerry: The best defense isn’t a good offense.

As he stumped for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College Monday, the junior senator from Massachusetts said the following:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The remark, which first aired on a California TV station (with friends like Kerry, Angelides might as well pack it in now) was offensive beyond belief, not to mention simply wrong.

Kerry should have taken the advice of his one-time friend, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who yesterday said Kerry “owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country’s call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education.”

An apology would have been the way to go, but sometimes Kerry just can’t help himself. And so he issued one of his very special non-denial denials saying, “I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.”

Huh? The film clip, now up on YouTube, speaks for itself.

The real shame is that while John Kerry stumps around the country, building up chits for his own possible presidential campaign rerun, he still has that D-Mass. after his name. And that’s an embarrassment to the good people of this state who sent him to the U.S. Senate.

Herald Columnist Joe Fitzgerald also gets a few jabs in. Here are a couple of quotes:

The most amazing thing about John Kerry is that anyone with half a brain would still take him half as seriously as he obviously takes himself. [snip]

But since he’s so hot on education, it says here, Kerry would do himself a favor by turning this into a learning experience, heeding the advice of yet another Republican, Abe Lincoln: “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”

Read the full column here.

Senator Kerry refuses to apologize for his slander against American troops even as Democratic candidates try and distance themselves from him.

If he had just apologized yesterday, this story would be old news already. Instead he foolishly released a statement that looked like it was written by the moonbats at Daily Kos.

Meanwhile, the number of people demanding an apology from Kerry continues to grow. Here is President Bush on the campaign trail yesterday:

In the mist of a heated campaign season, there are somethings we should all be able to agree on, and one of the most important is that every one of our troops deserves our respect and our gratitude.

Yesterday, my opponent in 2004 presidential race, Senator Kerry, was speaking to a group of young people in California. I want you to listen to what he said. He said, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The senator’s suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and it is shameful. The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology.

More statements from Governor Romney, Senator Frist, and the head of the American Legion can be found in the extended section.

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It looks like lawyers and not voters will decide elections from now on. Democrats have 7,000 lawyers ready to challenge the November election at the slightest hint of a problem. This is the legacy Al Gore left us when he decided to put his own interests before those of the country in 2000 by heading to court.

I have to say I’m really surprised that this proposed amendment on abolishing gay marriage will go up for an actual vote in the Senate. Of course, I doubt that it will pass, but stranger things have happened. As far as I’m concerned, I’m all for civil unions that have the same benefits as marriage as far as the government is concerned. The real part of the debate that irks me is when liberals go about getting their way on this issue the same way they won the abortion issue in the 70’s – if democracy fails, just have the courts make up laws. It is an absolute travesty of our governmental system that if a certain group of people can’t get a law passed in Congress, then they can get an appointed group of judges just make them up by quoting freedoms not even enumerated in the Constitution.

Regardless, I’m not convinced as to how effective a move this will be toward regaining the losses in public opinion that the GOP has lost in the past year. At least by appealing to their base it’s a start. I remain convinced that only about half of the Republicans in the federal government realize that they are in real danger of losing their hold on power; and those people are mostly in the House. We’re still half a year away from elections, and a lot can happen. This will perhaps be the most interesting mid-term election in a long time simple because no one is truly sure what will happen to the makeup of our government. Republicans are as unpopular as they’ve been since I was born, but Democrats still aren’t showing viable alternatives to the problems most people see right now. Could this mean the rise of the third party in American politics? Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one even now.

I’ve ranted in the past about the accuracy of most polls touted by the media. The media never spends the money necessary to obtain the more accurate polls of “likely voters”, they always settle for the less accurate polls of “adults” or “registered voters”. Historically Democrats fare better in generic polls rather than ones limited to likely voters because voters registered as Republicans are more likely to vote on Election day than their Democratic counterparts.

Well now Gallup has analyzed past polling data and come to the same conclusion.

“A review of historical generic ballot data shows that Democrats almost always lead on the generic ballot among registered voters, even in elections in which Republicans eventually win a majority of the overall vote for the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jones wrote.

The reason has to do with a different turnout for various groups of voters: registered voters, regular voters and, the most accurate of all, “likely voters.” Notably, “In midterm elections, fewer than half of eligible voters usually turn out to vote and Republicans are more likely to turn out than Democrats,” Mr. Jones said.

Such generic polling results, which are given broad distribution in newspapers throughout the country, have fed a growing public perception that Democrats are poised to make major gains in the House races this fall and could possibly win control of the House.

But election watchers who monitor the relatively small number of competitive House races that are up for grabs say that major gains will be an uphill climb for Democrats and a takeover is very unlikely.

“In the House, where Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats, only about three dozen are truly in play today. So far, 17 Republicans and 10 Democrats have announced their retirements. Ten of those Republicans serve in safe GOP districts, where Democrats stand little chance of winning,” writes veteran elections analyst Charlie Cook in the National Journal.

While I’ll admit that Republicans aren’t in great shape right now, I think we need to keep the accuracy of these generic polls in mind. The good news is these polls tend to make Democrats over confident.

As Robert Novak points out, the Democrats have a much bigger hill to climb than the media lets on:

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The MSM’s efforts to paint doom and gloom in America have had some unintended consequences in the Great Lakes State:

“The [Democratic] governor [Jennifer Granholm] has lost the political advantage in Michigan because of the economy, at least in the voters’ mind right now, saying ‘Who’s leading us?’” said Ed Sarpolus, the man who conducted the poll.

Rasmussen confirms:

The latest Ramussen Reports poll in the race for governor of Michigan shows Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm and Republican Dick DeVos tied, 44% to 44%.

While Granholm may still have a powerful counter-attack in an unpopular President Bush, Michigan is still a swing-state. It has potential for Republicans, especially if the economy swings against the incumbent governor. Democrats have to wonder if DeVos’ money machine and voter angst could spill over into the Democratic senate incumbent, Debbie Stabenow’s, re-election bid. With a pro-parital-birth abortion, pro-Alito filibuster, and anti-war voting record in centrist Michigan, they should be…

John Fund, as usual, has a great article on GOP vote turnout in the 2006 midterms:

“My firm conviction is that Republicans are going to show up at a lower rate” this November, Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told Investor’s Business Daily.

Will GOP voters sit out the 2006 elections? I have a distinct feeling it could happen. National Republicans have abandoned the core principles of the party: smaller government, respect for the law, and defending the country in the forms of record budgets, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and the Dubai Ports deal.

Some are trying to draw a link between the 1994 revolution that swept Democrats from office in unprecedented numbers and the upcoming elections. If Republicans lose the House or Senate though, the reasons could not be more different. Democrats lost because they were liberals while Republicans will be punished for not being conservatives.

Many chastise Republican conservatives for their disenchantment and urge them to run to the polls like mindless automatons to pull Republican levers in the fall. This argument has merit. If you dislike big government, what will a Democratic Congress bring? The only real debate over prescription drugs for seniors was how much and not if. You can draw your own conclusions about which side wanted to spend more although this quote from Senator Arlen Specter makes even me wonder:

“The Republican Party is now principally moderate, if not liberal” on spending, Mr. Specter told reporters after a majority of GOP senators voted for his proposals last month.

Senator Specter’s party may pay a very dear price for being moderates because fear of what Democrats will do can only drive the base so far. Senator Kerry, who never really gave voters a reason to vote for him, lost to President Bush running primarily as the anti-Bush. At the end of the day, the party has a responsibility to provide the electorate with more than just a reason not to vote for the other guy. Can you really blame the voters for being confused when they are presented with 6 of one and a half dozen of another?