Archive for February, 2010
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If congressional Democrats decide to pass fixes to the Senate health care bill through reconciliation, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is one of the most important people to bring on board with the plan.
But Conrad threw some doubt Wednesday on the plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pushing, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he could accept — to pass the sidecar reconciliation bill with the fixes before the House takes up the Senate bill, as a way to mollify House members who strongly oppose the more conservative Senate measure.
Conrad, who has been open to reconciliation as long as the fixes are limited, said the order must be reversed. The House must pass the Senate bill first — before either chamber considers the reconciliation package, he said.
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Tough to pass a reconcilation bill before the bill it is meant to reconcile passes…..DUH
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Over at the New Ledger, Pejman Yousefzadeh has a lengthy interview with Tom Campbell, in which he's asked to respond directly to some of what I've written on this blog about his background on Israel and terrorism. There's a lot there, so I wanted to focus mainly on the misleading statements and outright lying.
As a general rule, I don't like to use the word "lying." But it's hard to come to a different conclusion in this case. Asked about the $1,300 in donations he received from Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who subsequently pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Campbell denied it.
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Wow!
Tom Campbell intentionally misstates the facts
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Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job.
That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.
Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.
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Not a shock at all…..
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Russia will not support "crippling" sanctions against Iran, including any that may be slapped on the Islamic Republic's banking or energy sectors, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow last week to press the Kremlin to back tougher sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons project.
This week, Netanyahu called for an immediate embargo on Iran's energy sector.
"We are not got going to work on sanctions or measures which could lead to the political or economic or financial isolation of this country," Oleg Rozhkov, deputy director of the security affairs and disarmament department at Russia's Foreign Ministry, told reporters.
"What relation to non-proliferation is there in forbidding banking activities with Iran? This is a financial blockade. And oil and gas. These sanctions are aimed only at paralyzing the country and paralyzing the regime."
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Shocker – NOT
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Commercial banks and high-flying investment firms have shifted their political contributions toward Republicans in recent months amid harsh rhetoric from Democrats about fat bank profits, generous bonuses and stingy lending policies on Wall Street.
The wealthy securities and investment industry, for example, went from giving 2 to 1 to Democrats at the start of 2009 to providing almost half of its donations to Republicans by the end of the year, according to new data compiled for The Washington Post by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Commercial banks and their employees also returned to their traditional tilt in favor of the GOP after a brief dalliance with Democrats, giving nearly twice as much to Republicans during the last three months of 2009, the data show
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A month after being crowned the darling of national conservatives, Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts is being branded "Benedict Brown" for siding with Democrats in favor of a jobs bill endorsed by the Obama administration.
Like the four other GOP senators who joined him, the man who won the late Democrat Edward Kennedy's seat says it's about jobs, not party politics. And that may be good politics, too.
The four other GOP senators who broke ranks – Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, George Voinovich of Ohio and Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri – also were criticized on Tuesday. But Brown was the big target on conservative Web sites, talk shows and even the Facebook page his campaign has promoted as an example of his new-media savvy.
"We campaigned for you. We donated to your campaign. And you turned on us like every other RINO," said one writer, using the initials for "Republican-In-Name-Only."
Drudge Report colored a photo of Brown on its home page in scarlet.
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Congressman Ron Paul, R- Texas questioning Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Note around 3:20 or so when Bernanke calls Paul’s specific allegations “absolutely bizarre.”
I thought we got rid of the KOOK, Ron Paul, after the 2008 Presidential election. I guess the young folks at CPAC did not get the message when they voted for Ron Paul for the 2012 GOP Presidential nod. Maybe they should have seen today’s display in the Congress before casting those ballots.
Make no mistake Ron Paul is NOT a serious politician and is as nutty as a fruitcake.
Plus, there is an interesting piece today minimizing Ron Paul’s import to the future of the conservative movement.
Does that mean we need Paul?
“Congressman Paul is committed to bringing the conservative movement back to its traditional platform of limited government, balanced budgets and a foreign policy of nonintervention,” claims Jesse Benton, Paul’s spokesman.
If only it stopped there. Paul isn’t a traditional conservative. His obsession with long-decided monetary policy and isolationism are not his only half-baked crusades. Paul’s newsletters of the ’80s and ’90s were filled with anti-Semitic and racist rants, proving his slumming in the ugliest corners of conspiracyland today is no mistake.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Paul is that thousands of intellectually curious young people will have read his silly books, including End the Fed, as serious manifestoes. Though you wouldn’t know it by listening to Paul or reading his words, libertarians do have genuine ideas that conservatives might embrace.
I discussed those silly newsletters that Ron Paul either wrote or edited (published under his name but not edited, who knows?) many months ago. But, there is more than just the newsletters and it all points to out of the mainstream political extremism, racism and anti-Semitism.
Again, I thought we put Ron Paul and his nutsoid rants to bed in 2008.
Time for him to go now…….actually, it is embarassing……
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
America has definitely awoken from the fantasies of President Barack Obama. Hope and Change, my posterior. Obama has delivered on BIG GOVERNMENT and redistribution – spreading the wealth around – just like he told Joe the Plumber.
But, in the meantime, the President has begun to plot his re-election strategy while his poll numbers are in the dumpster.
President Barack Obama’s top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.
The planning for now consists entirely of private conversations, with Obama aides at all levels indulging occasionally in closed-door 2012 discussions while focusing ferociously on the midterm elections and health care reform, the Democratic sources said. “The gathering storm is the 2010 elections,†one top official said.
But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again, and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.
Watch the health care summit on Thursday for the latest themes of fantasy from the Obama re-election team.
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Seasoned new media veterans Michael Turk, Jon Henke and Matthew Dybwad have signed on to the budding GOP media firm Craft Media Digital, which launched less than two months ago.
The firm's two founding partners, Brian Donahue and Justin Germany, count among their clients Republican Reps. Joe Wilson (S.C.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), and Thad McCotter ((Mich.).
The firm also reports that it consults for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Republican National Committee and congressional candidates in Kentucky, Wisconsin and Utah.
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In the House, Campbell led the opposition to the Kosovo war. He pushed for de-linking economic sanctions from the military embargo of Iraq and campaigned on easing sanctions against Iraq in his 2000 Senate campaign.
Campbell did did defend the initial U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he was also calling for U.S. withdrawal by 2004. "The day we found Hussein in his spider hole," Campbell wrote, "is the day we should have announced our phased withdrawal." And he always opposed nation-building by the U.S. military: "When police arrest a criminal, they don't occupy a neighborhood for as long as it takes to remedy the social conditions that led to the rise of criminals. Important as that goal might be, it is not the police officers' role."
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Tom Campbell is soft on Israel and soft on terrorism.
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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) remains committed to tackling energy and climate legislation.
"He affirmed he wants a bill and wants a bill soon," Kerry told a climate change conference at the National Press Club.
Kerry said the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), which ended Democrats' filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, doesn't change the landscape for the climate bill.
"It was always going to take more than just Democrats to do this," Kerry said.
The comments come amid uncertainty about whether a controversial measure to limit greenhouse gas emissions can gain traction in the Senate.
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Note: No mention of Barbara Boxer whose Cap and Trade Bill is her pet project.
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Among the tax measures that Campbell endorsed was Proposition 1A on the May special election ballot, which was rejected by nearly two-thirds of voters. It would have extended a series of temporary taxes for an additional year or two and created a new "rainy day" fund to hedge against future downturns. Conservative antipathy toward the measure ran so high that one Republican legislator who supported it, Anthony Adams, faced an attempted recall before opting not to run for re-election.
Campbell also proposed a one-year, 32-cents-per-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax to help bridge the deficit.
Campbell, a former Stanford law professor and onetime state finance director, says he has nothing to apologize for.
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The tax issue will punish Campbell in the last weeks of May leading up to the June GOP primary election
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Campbell now professes to be a great supporter of Israel and to favor stringent sanctions against Iran. Fair enough, but his opponents have raised serious questions about his past record. It stands out among mainstream Republicans, both in his voting record opposing aid to Israel and in his cozy relationship with CAIR. California voters will have to decide whether they believe his current campaign rhetoric or whether his past record is a more telling reflection of his actual views. One thing is certain: the Democrats will use each and every vote of Campbell’s and each and every campaign donation and association with Muslim fundamentalists as fodder in the general election, should Campbell be the nominee.
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Tom Campbell will be beat up on his past anti-Israel record like a bad dog…..
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Mitt Romney is endorsing former rival John McCain as the 2008 Republican presidential nominee faces a fight to keep his Senate seat.
Romney said in a statement Tuesday that the Arizona senator's "record of service and sacrifice for America is honored by all."
The former Massachusetts governor adds that it's "hard to imagine the U.S. Senate without John McCain."
McCain is facing a Republican primary challenge from former House member J.D. Hayworth.
McCain and Romney clashed bitterly at time in the 2008 race for the GOP nomination. After McCain pulled ahead, Romney not only endorsed him but energetically campaigned for him.
McCain's former running mate, Sarah Palin, is also backing him. She and Romney are potential rivals in the 2012 presidential race.
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Not a surprise here.
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+++++Scroll down for Update+++++
Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and former Congressman and United States Senate candidate Tom Campbell
Jennifer Rubin has the story over at Commentary.
Read it all but pay special attention to this:
Oops. A top official with a pro-Israel organization in Washington tells me, “During his time in the House, Tom Campbell distinguished himself as no friend of Israel or the pro-Israel community. To suggest otherwise would be dishonest.â€
Part of the reason his opponents are having a field day is that Campbell has taken money ($2,000 in his Senate race in 2000, for example) from some very extreme characters, like Nihad Awad, the co-founder of CAIR, who has said things like “I’m in support of the Hamas movement†and (while speaking to the 1999 Islamic Association of Palestine convention) â€Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam.†Most mainstream politicians professing support for Israel wouldn’t take money from such a person or go to the CAIR-headquarters opening.
Here are the contribution records from the Federal Election Commission:
And…….
Tom Campbell so far has offered explanations from a dead California Congressman and David Frum. Pretty weak sauce if you ask me.
Since Campbell already took the money and has been seen hob nobbing with terrorist sympathizers, perhaps he can turn to explain the following:
While campaigning in 2000, U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell called for a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem, said that Israel received too much funding from the United States, argued that President Clinton was too pro-Israel, and recalled receiving a condolence phone call from Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat after he injured himself during a visit to the region.
The revelations come from an article that appeared in the October/November 2000 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs about Campbell’s run for Senate in 2000 against Dianne Feinstein.
Tom, you have alot of explaining to do…….and Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore are not both wrong in calling you out on your abysmal record toward Israel.
Just admit it.
Update:
Jennifer Rubin has EVEN more and certainly read it all.
A Jewish official who works on Capitol Hill sums it up:
“I am hard pressed to remember any member of Congress who targeted Israel’s aid to cut, voted the wrong way in an overwhelming bipartisan vote on Jerusalem, supported Hamas terrorist Same Al-Arian and others convicted of supporting Islamic Jihad terrorists – even appearing at rallies with Al-Aryian and others as the spewed their anti-Israel bile, took campaign cash from them, wrote letters on Al Ariyan’s behalf, spoke at CAIR events – a group notoriously hostile to Israel and which is at the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts in America, and publicly supports Alison Wier – lately a purveyor of the organ harvesting blood libel against Israel. That is quite a public record. Now maybe Tom Campbell has become more pro-Israel than the Chief Rabbi on Minsk, but that would truly be the world’s most miraculous conversion. The facts are the facts. Mr. Campbell’s record speaks for itself and no amount of lipstik can pretty up this pig.â€
Back over to Tom Campbell for more explaining……..
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Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell, Sami al-Arian and Political Access
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