Archive for December, 2010
Palin stresses her electability as a reason to run for president in 2012
Over the past month, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has quietly altered her case for the presidency in a savvy shift of rhetoric.
The lofty goal? Turning the main reason a Republican might oppose her into the primary reason for voting for her. If she can pull it off, the nomination might be hers, but she is up against a tough set of barriers.
Every candidate must have a compelling reason for running, and until one month ago, Palin’s was simple.
In October, she told “Entertainment Tonight” that she would only run if the field were missing a candidate who had “common sense” and “pro-Constitution passion.”
It there were such a candidate, Palin would opt out of a race and be “their biggest supporter and biggest help-mate.”
That answer boxed Palin in considerably, because the field will likely include at least a few candidates who fit those criteria. For example, Palin gave a ringing endorsement to Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), a possible 2012 candidate, in his reelection bid earlier this year.
“He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative. And he sticks to his guns — and you know how I feel about guns!” she said of him at the time.
And there are other names closely associated with the Tea Party movement, of which Palin is a prominent member, who might run: Rep. Mike Pence (R) of Indiana, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
If the economy does not improve substantially and President Obama continues to sink in the polls, Sarah Palin will run for President. But, she will enter the race late. In the meantime, she will do events, raise money and keep in the public eye – on Fox News.
The Big 4 candidates in the race, other than Sarah Palin, will be Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. I don’t think Newt Gingrich will be a factor. In a multi-way GOP primary Sarah Palin will definitely be a top tier candidate. But, the attack ads of Romney and the others might be brutal and sink her candidacy.
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
When former President Bill Clinton took over the presser for President Obama the other day, I think America breathed a collective sigh of relief. Whether the Obama-GOP tax cut deal is good for the country will be decided by the financial markets in the months ahead. But, having Bubba there, the successful President, is reassuring since Obama has been a colossal failure.
Will journalists now be asking: What would Bill Clinton do – on every issue?
Or rather, is Hillary NOW available to run in 2012?
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The Day By Day Archive Tags: Bill_Clinton
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It is obvious the Congressional Democrats did NOT understand the last election and/or they will do as they damn well please anyway – voters be damned.
Senate Democrats have filed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through fiscal year 2011, according to Senate GOP sources.
The 1,924-page bill includes funding to implement the sweeping healthcare reform bill Congress passed earlier this year as well as additional funds for Internal Revenue Service agents, according to a senior GOP aide familiar with the legislation.
The package drew a swift rebuke from Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
“The attempt by Democrat leadership to rush through a nearly 2,000-page spending bill in the final days of the lame-duck session ignores the clear will expressed by the voters this past election,” Thune said in a statement. “This bill is loaded up with pork projects and should not get a vote. Congress should listen to the American people and stop this reckless spending.”
Thune has called for a short-term funding measure free of earmarks to keep the government operating beyond Dec. 18, when the current continuing resolution expires.
Despite strong opposition from Thune and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), several Senate Republicans are considering voting for the bill.
Well, retiring GOP Senator Bob Bennett of Utah who was thrown out of office by Republican Mike Lee who was supported by the Tea Party will be the TURD in the punch bowl and vote for it, maybe the retiring Ohio Senator Voinovich and perhaps will the Maine RINO sisters. The alternative to voting for the Omnibus Bill as Reid has submitted is to either filibuster it or substitute a temporary short-term measure stripped of the massive spending and earmarks.
I don’t think the GOP Senate leadership or the Tea Party will go away very quietly on this massive display of PORKULUS type spending.
Senator Jim DeMint also has an idea.
Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee and member of the Joint Economic Committee, made the following statement after Senate Democrats released a 1,924 page omnibus spending bill with thousands of earmarks attached.
“President Obama and Democrats have apparently learned nothing from this November’s election. This nearly 2,000-page omnibus filled with thousands of earmarks shows they are still determined to ram through as much big-government spending as they can in this lame duck session. Americans loudly demanded an end to the runaway spending, but Democrats are intent on raiding every taxpayer dollar that they can grab from the Treasury on their way out of power. This bill also funds the unconstitutional Obamacare law that Americans oppose and have asked Congress to fully repeal. Democrats haven’t given Republicans or the American people time to read the bill, but I’ll join with other Republican colleagues to force them to read it on the Senate floor.”
Stay tuned……
Tags: Omnibus_Spending_Bill
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Ohio always a battleground state (at least in the past few Presidential cycles) is looking for a change. In the latest PPP poll, President Obama has two key contenders, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney within the margin of error.
Public Policy Polling (D)
12/10-12/10; 510 likely voters, 4.3% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
PPP release
Ohio
2012 President
47% Obama, 41% Gingrich
45% Obama, 44% Huckabee
49% Obama, 42% Palin
44% Obama, 42% Romney
The full poll is here in pdf format.
This is NOT good news for the incumbent President.
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
Michael Copps of the Federal Communications Commission is indeed a threat to “free speech” and liberty. What is this crapola about a “public value test?”
American journalism is in “grave peril,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps says, and to bolster “traditional media,” he said the Federal Communications Commission should conduct a “public value test” of every commercial broadcast station at relicensing time.
In a speech at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York on Thursday, Copps also said station relicensing should happen every four years instead of the current eight.
“If a station passes the Public Value Test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people’s airwaves,” Copps said. “If not, it goes on probation for a year, renewable for an additional year if it demonstrates measurable progress. If the station fails again, give the license to someone who will use it to serve the public interest.”
Ever since Barack Obama became president, prominent conservatives have warned about liberal efforts to squelch conservative and Christian talk-radio.
Although Copps has said the FCC will not reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, his prescription for “testing” commercial broadcast stations (see below) will alarm defenders of free speech and free enterprise.
According to Copps, the FCC’s Public Value Test would include seven areas — and most of the following text is taken verbatim from his speech:
Read it all.
Now, I see. Michael Copps wants to regulate speech – HIS WAY.
Pretty standard for the FAR LEFT = say one thing, do another and mean your ideology.
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The final tally of today's tax vote in the Senate was 83 ayes to 15 nays. The only Republicans to vote nay: Coburn (Okla.), DeMint (S.C.), Ensign (Nev.), Voinovich (Ohio), and Sessions (Ala.).
The ball is now in Pelosi's court, and McConnell is warning House Democrats that if they make changes to the bill, "they will ensure that every American taxpayer will see a job-killing tax hike on January 1st."
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If many House Dems abandon Obama, there will be Republicans following suit and the deal will die.
We can only hope.
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Death and taxes, it is said, are life's only two certainties. But in the wake of President Obama's tax compromise with congressional Republicans, only death retains the status of certainty: The future for taxes has been left up in the air. And uncertainty is not a friend of investment, growth and job creation.
The deal has several key features. It reduces payroll taxes, extends unemployment benefits and keeps current tax rates intact. So far, so good. But intermixed with the benefits are considerable costs of consequence. Given the unambiguous message that the American people sent to Washington in November, it is difficult to understand how our political leaders could have reached such a disappointing agreement. The new, more conservative Congress should reach a better solution.
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Agree.
But, Mitt, Sarah Palin led on this and in any case it looks like a done deal.
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President Obama's tax package easily cleared its first hurdle Monday, with the Senate voting overwhelmingly to move forward with the bill. But the real battle awaits in the House.
The final Senate vote will not be known until at least Monday evening, because the vote is being kept open for several hours to accommodate senators whose travel was delayed by a Midwestern snowstorm. But with about two-thirds of the chamber voting, the measure had already passed the 60-vote threshold late Monday afternoon.
The procedural vote clears the way for a final vote Tuesday on the package, which Obama negotiated with Republicans and which would prevent tax rate increases from hitting most American workers starting Jan. 1.
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And, unless the House messes around with the package, it will pass. Then ,on to the Omnibus Reconciliation bill which will end the lameduc session – probably.
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Controversial Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who last month presided over the GOP's biggest electoral gains since 1938, will announce tonight that he is running for re-election, Fox News has learned from two RNC members.
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Now, this is surprising.
Steele will have to make a good argument about the RNC debt though and his lack of funraising.
Ending weeks of rumors that he would not seek a second term, Steele plans to throw his hat into the ring during a conference call with RNC members at 7:30 p.m. ET, the sources said. Steele is said to be amused by false reports of his retirement and intentionally kept his plans secret for the last month in order to flush out competitors for the post, Fox has learned.
During Steele's tenure, Republicans picked up 63 House seats in last month's elections, the biggest gain in more than seven decades. But Steele has been dogged by criticism from some Republicans who see him as prone to missteps.
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Former Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle is angling to lead the tea party movement heading into 2012.
Angle over the weekend unveiled the Patriot Caucus, a PAC that she says has the support of tea party organizers in 15 states and which will "organize a ground game across most battleground states for the 2012 election cycle." The group plans to open offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada – states with early presidential primaries and caucuses – in early 2011.
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Yes and since she will probably not run for Senate in 2012, she can be ready to run for Harry Reid's seat in 6 years or for Congress.
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Fixing California's budget mess would be a three-stage, multiyear process. The first would be cutting spending to close the current gap and doing so in a way that convinces voters that Brown and legislators are serious about the new reality.
Stage two would be a 2011-12 budget that continues the spending cuts and asks voters for more revenues, possibly a limited extension of the $8 billion-plus in last year's temporary tax hikes that will soon expire.
Were those two steps to avert fiscal disaster and improve voter confidence, stage three would be a massive restructuring of public finances, including a much-discussed "realignment" of state-local responsibilities to, bring governmental activities … closer to the people."
We should, for instance, find out why, with 12 percent of the nation's population, we have 32 percent of its welfare cases, and why we're spending three times as much on prisons as Texas, which has almost as many inmates.
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Good luck with that, Jerry
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With the uncertainty surrounding Virginia Sen. Jim Webb’s intentions and former Republican Sen. George Allen firing his first direct shot last week, Roll Call Politics has moved the Democratic seat into the more competitive Tossup category.
When the politics team first ranked the race, it was in the Leans Democratic category. See all of our rankings here.
Democrats could have a difficult time holding this seat even if Webb decides to run. In the past year, Republicans ended a streak of disappointing election cycles. The GOP swept the statewide offices in 2009 and won back three House seats in 2010.
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Another possible GOP gain in 2012
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Norm Coleman — former U.S. senator from Minnesota, and now chairman of American Action Network and Forum, a key outside GOP group – is likely to enter the race for Republican National Committee chairman now that Michael Steele is expected to announce he will not seek reelection.
“Norm is leaning towards running, based on his ability to raise money and act as a national surrogate,” a close source said.
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Certainly, the highest profile candidate so far.
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Based on that record alone, one might think that Steele would be a shoo-in for another term. After all, few chairmen in history have seen their party's fortunes reverse in such a staggeringly short amount of time. But the fight against Steele, which began the minute he took office over other establishment favorites, has never been about results, or even necessarily what is best for the GOP. Instead it is another skirmish in a Republican civil war that still rages just underneath the party's cheerful veneer.
Steele has done much to contribute to his bumpy, error-filled, sometimes embarrassing tenure. Fundraising problems and allegations of financial mismanagement have plagued him. Then came the various gaffes, about Rush Limbaugh, abortion, whether the GOP welcomed minorities.
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Michael Steele was successful but his time has come to move on.
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Posted by Flap in START
Looks like it.
The Obama White House has the votes to ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, with the Senate preparing for a vote this week, the Sun-Times has learned. The vote could come as early as Wednesday, after the vote on the tax package Obama negotiated with the Republicans. The Senate on Monday was advancing the tax legislation, with enough votes to end debate.
The New START vote will proceed because of a loophole in the Nov. 29 letter all 42 Republicans signed not to advance legislation until the tax deal and government funding bills are passed. The Senate is tentatively set to take up the funding measure at the end of the week.
No Cloture vote will need to be taken on a treaty as per Senate rules -as it goes up directly for a vote. But, the treaty must pass with 67 Senators voting in the affirmative.
My best bet is that this story is posturing (Obama does not have the votes yet) and that Senator Jim DeMint has some obstruction in mind – he opposes the treaty as negoatiated by President Obama.
Stay tuned…..
Tags: START
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