• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2010-03-12

    • Fiorina sent mailers to the 1,366 convention delegates as well as likely GOP voters that criticized Campbell’s tax record, such as his refusal to sign the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” his support for temporary state tax increases and the 2005 state budget that he crafted as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s finance director.

      Pitching the battle as “Conservative Carly Fiorina vs. Taxin’ Tom Campbell,” the mailer concludes, “Carly Fiorina is a proven business leader who will stand up for you against the tax-hungry special interests who have kept Barbara Boxer in Washington for almost 28 years.”
      +++++++++
      Tom Campbell is a career politician who associates with Islamic terrorist supporters.

    • Giving money to a left-wing group like the Center for Constitutional Rights is just another example of Campbell making excuses for why he had to help the Left. We saw it 1992, and we're seeing it again in 2010. Hopefully, the primary election outcome will be the same.
      +++++++
      Tom Campbell's left wing support illustrated again.
      (tags: tom_campbell)
    • One of the first predictions offered me about the 2010 governor’s race in California came late last year from Patrick Reddy, a former Assembly Democratic staffer who had just written a book about the state’s current political landscape.

      His prediction: At some point, a Republican candidate would start talking tough about illegal immigration.

      “Republican consultants can’t resist it,” Reddy told me. “It’s in their DNA.”

      It didn’t take long for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to pick up the playbook. It his first television commercial, released last week, two of the three specific policy proposals he cites for dealing with California’s economic woes have to do with illegal immigrants: cutting off all government services and requiring police officers to check the residency status of everyone they arrest.
      ++++++
      Meg Whitman while contrating herself with Poizner has been floating the same policy positions

  • Sami al-Arian,  Tom Campbell

    Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Apologizes for Associating with Convicted Islamic Terrorist Supporter Sami Al-Arian

    +++++Update+++++

    The Carly Fiorina campaign says NOT SO FAST Tom…….. From the press release:

    Last Friday Tom Campbell declared his interest in stopping what he called the “silent slander.” Unfortunately for him this week the sound of the truth has proved deafening.
     
    Today, his tactic seemed to be to apologize for not getting his facts straight about statements and actions he took as a candidate
    for U.S. Senate in 2000 and as Professor. But even in the midst of his apology he failed to get his facts straight—yet again.

    For those of you who were not there, Tom said that he would not have written his letter in support of Al-Arian had he known that Al-Arian had made the statement “death to Israel.” The thing is that in the letter itself, Tom Campbell in 2002 specifically and explicitly states that he read the  transcript of the O’Reilly interview that caused the whole dust up for Al-Arian in the first place.
     
    You can read the transcript of the interview Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly conducted with Sami Al-Arian on September 26, 2001, and which Campbell said in 2002 that he had read, here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61096,00.html
     
     And here is a link to download the Campbell letter:  http://www.investigativeproject.org/1834/the-letter-dogging-tom-campbell
     
    Campbell also claims that he didn’t know about the ties that another one of his 2000 donors, Alamoudi, had to terrorist groups. But the public record that was available at the time tells a different story.
     
    On October 28, 2000, before Election Day, Mr. Alamoudi participated in a rally at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC where he
    riled up their support for Hamas and Hezbollah – two organizations not exactly known for their peaceful and non-violent approach to advancing their goals. Here is a link to the clip of the rally. It is worth the watch:
    http://www.investigativeproject.org/218/rally-at-lafayette-park-alamoudi
    <http://www.investigativeproject.org/218/rally-at-lafayette-park-alamoudi>

    Just a few days later, on November 4, 2000, at the end of Campbell’s second bid for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein he told the San Jose Mercury News that he was “comfortable” with Mr. Alamoudi’s position on terror and violence. (Barry Witt,
    “Campbell Defends Muslim Groups Organizations Have Right To Make Political Donations, Candidate Says,” San Jose Mercury
    News
    , 11/4/00)


    At the same time, Hillary Clinton and George Bush returned donations made by Alamoudi and his associates and disavowed his comments. This was well publicized and Tom Campbell was directly asked about these donations in the 2000 campaign precisely because these other politicians had the wisdom to return Alamoudi donations.

    Things got even more interesting when a question from the press came about what his failure to thoroughly research the record before accepting money from, and writing letters on behalf of terrorist sympathizers says to voters about how he will take action as a U.S. Senator. Tom’s answer: “The errors that I made were as a professor and as a candidate in the last weekend of the last campaign. None of these errors related to anything in my official capacity as a United States congressman. None at all.”

    Let me get this straight – what you do when you are not in elective office does not matter when you are running for U.S. Senate? Great, we’ll take that to mean that Tom and his campaign staff retract every statement they have made about Carly’s record when she was not serving in elected office…in other words, every attack they have ever made.Live by the rules, die by the rules, Tom.

    campbell-and-al-arian CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Admits Receiving Terrorist-Linked Sami Al-Arians Donation

    Former California Congressman Tom Campbell who has accepted campaign contributions from prominent Muslim activist Sami al-Arian who is alleged to have formed with others a terrorist support network across the United States and who pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad

    Well, Tom Campbell finally makes the connection that, just maybe, association with Sami al-Arian may not be such a great idea and that maybe he should say he is sorry.

    Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell apologized Friday for defending a professor at the University of South Florida in 2002 who had called for the “death” of Israel and promoted “jihad.”

    At a press conference held at the start of California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara, Campbell said he had made an error in protesting the suspension of Sami Al-Arian to the university’s president.

    “That was an error and I deeply regret it,” Campbell said. “I saw only the material relevant to the question of whether he was misrepresenting himself as speaking on behalf of that university. I did not see other things he had said but I could have and should have and I regret the error.”

    Campbell said he had also erred in not returning donations from Al-Arian.

    Well, too little said and way too late, Tom.

    This apology is not going to fly – you already flunked the Sami al-Arian test. You wrote the letter and you took al-Arian’s money (although at first you denied that, too).

    Previous:

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FLUNKS the Sami Al-Arian Test

    CA-Sen: What Does Tom Campbell Have to Say About Sami Al-Arian?

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Muslim Alliance One Month After 9/11

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Admits Receiving Terrorist-Linked Sami Al-Arian’s Donation

    Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell and the Growing Storm Over His Anti-Israel Record

    Updated:CA-Sen: Tom Campbell, Sami al-Arian and Political Access


  • Sami al-Arian,  Tom Campbell

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Apologizes for Associating with Convicted Islamic Terrorist Supporter Sami Al-Arian

    campbell-and-al-arian CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Admits Receiving Terrorist-Linked Sami Al-Arians Donation

    Former California Congressman Tom Campbell who has accepted campaign contributions from prominent Muslim activist Sami al-Arian who is alleged to have formed with others a terrorist support network across the United States and who pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad

    Well, Tom Campbell finally makes the connection that, just maybe, association with Sami al-Arian may not be such a great idea and that maybe he should say he is sorry.

    Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell apologized Friday for defending a professor at the University of South Florida in 2002 who had called for the “death” of Israel and promoted “jihad.”

    At a press conference held at the start of California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara, Campbell said he had made an error in protesting the suspension of Sami Al-Arian to the university’s president.

    “That was an error and I deeply regret it,” Campbell said. “I saw only the material relevant to the question of whether he was misrepresenting himself as speaking on behalf of that university. I did not see other things he had said but I could have and should have and I regret the error.”

    Campbell said he had also erred in not returning donations from Al-Arian.

    Well, too little said and way too late, Tom.

    This apology is not going to fly – you already flunked the Sami al-Arian test. You wrote the letter and you took al-Arian’s money (although at first you denied that, too).

    Previous:

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FLUNKS the Sami Al-Arian Test

    CA-Sen: What Does Tom Campbell Have to Say About Sami Al-Arian?

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Muslim Alliance One Month After 9/11

    CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Admits Receiving Terrorist-Linked Sami Al-Arian’s Donation

    Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell and the Growing Storm Over His Anti-Israel Record

    Updated:CA-Sen: Tom Campbell, Sami al-Arian and Political Access


  • Carly Fiorina,  Chuck DeVore,  Josh Trevino

    CA-Sen: Chuck DeVore Communications Director a NO SHOW at California GOP Convention?

    Joshua Trevino (L), Communications Director for U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore

    I remember last Fall, when Joshua Trevino, Chuck DeVore’s spokeshole ravaged Carly Fiorina for not attending the California Republican Convention because she was finishing up her treatment for breast cancer.

    Remember?

    I saw this today on Twitter and really could not believe it. A spokesman and a paid one at that for California Republican Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, Joshua Trevino,  mocking fellow Republican Carly Fiorina for not attending this past weekend’s California GOP Convention in Indian Wells.

    James Richardson has the FLAP.

    And, today is the start of the Spring California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara, California. Carly Fiorina will address a Saturday luncheon.

    But, where is spokeshole Trevino?

    Apparently, Trevino is not even in California but in Texas.

    I guess with his candidate Chuck DeVore’s poor showing in the polls (7 per cent in the last one), there is no need for DeVore have a campaign team in place at the GOP convention.

    So, has Trevino already given up on Chuck and trolling for a new gig at SWSX?

    Looks like it……

    Josh why aren’t you in Santa Clara with your candidate?


  • Carly Fiorina,  Meg Whitman,  Tom Campbell

    CA-Sen: Anti-Israel Claims Hurting Tom Campbell Fundraising or Did Meg Whitman Pull the Plug?

    Former e-Bay CEO Meg Whitman, running for California Governor and former Congressman Tom Campbell formerly a candidate for Governor and now a U.S. Senate candidate

    The case for the anti-Israel cause for Tom Campbell’s fundraising failures is made over at the Frum Forum.

    Now that Campbell has switched over to the Senate race, his current level of fundraising puts him on par with primary opponents Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore, who have both raised similar amounts despite having four or five more months to fundraise.

    On the other hand, the latest fundraising numbers may be an indicator of how donors feel about the anti-Israel allegations lobbed at him in early February.

    Campbell’s campaign announced in February that they had raised $700,000 in one month. It’s taken them an additional month to raise the remaining $300,000 needed to hit the million dollar mark, which means that fundraising dropped by more than half in February.

    Actually, Carly Fiorina has ONLY been fundraising since the first week of November while Chuck DeVore has been at it for over fifteen months. And, remember, that Fiiorina loaned her campaign an additional $2.5 million from her personal wealth at the end of December. The cash on hand comparisons even at this point, place Fiorina far ahead in cash available to mail ads and go on television.

    But, there has been a fall off in Tom Campbell fundraising. Look at the conflicting statements from the Campbell campaign.

    Reached for comment, Campbell spokesman James Fisfis said that their fundraising target was still set at $5 million. Fisfis also dismissed the suggestion that the drop-off had anything to do with the anti-Israel allegations…”

    At his current fundraising pace, Campbell is on track to raise about $1.5 million total for the primary, and instead I point out that in an AP story on January 29, Fisfis pegged Campbell’s fundraising goal a little higher…like $2 to $5 million higher:

    “Campbell is prohibited from transferring any of the money he had raised for the governor’s race but estimated he would raise between $7 million and $10 million during the GOP Senate primary.

    “’And based on our initial fundraising response, we’re sticking with that,’ Fisfis said.”

    And, in February, Team Campbell told the SF Chron that they were sticking by that $7 to $10 million figure…

    So, why the fall-off in campaign cash?

    Was it Tom Campbell’s association with convicted Islamic terrorists like Sami Al-Arian?

    Or was it something more local – like his donor sponsor sugar mommy California Governor Meg Whitman who is the uber-rich former CEO of e-Bay pulling the plug?

    Remember it was Meg Whitman who persuaded Tom Campbell to leave his year-long campaign for California Governor and in January switch to the United States Senate race. And, remember there were plenty of rumors as to the political machinations behind the switch.

    Bill Bradley has the poop.

    While Whitman’s operatives employed coercion in their backfiring bid to get Poizner out of the race, they employed persuasion to remove Campbell from the equation. While consultant Mike Murphy played the heavy with Poizner, several sources say that another former consigliere for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob White, the longtime chief of staff to former Governor and Senator Pete Wilson who now heads a powerful corporate consulting firm in the state capital, played the lead role for Whitman on the Campbell project. Wilson is Whitman’s campaign chair.

    In December, according to well-informed sources, Whitman operatives began trying to influence people in the orbit around Schwarzenegger to persuade Campbell to switch out of the governor’s race and into the Senate race. Campbell, whose varied career has included stints as a Stanford law professor and head of the UC Berkeley business school, had been the state finance director in the Schwarzenegger Administration.

    The blandishments for Campbell included the promise of new backing and help with fundraising.

    Campbell, though running relatively well in the polls for governor — and probably the most dangerous candidate for presumptive Democratic nominee Jerry Brown in a debate — had raised barely a million dollars. His only realistic hope of winning the Republican gubernatorial primary was to slide through if Whitman and Poizner savaged one another.

    In the Senate primary, he could start off in the lead with residual name ID from two earlier Senate runs. There he would face only one rich candidate, ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and far right Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

    Campbell listened to this and began seriously mulling the prospect of switching races. He did just that last month.

    And when he made the move, he had newfound support.

    George Shultz, secretary of state in the Reagan Administration and secretary of the treasury in the Nixon Administration, was suddenly Campbell’s new campaign chair. Shultz put aside his differences with Campbell on abortion, gay rights, and the Middle East (Campbell is far less pro-Israel) in making the move.

    Campbell picked up a fundraiser, too. Kristin Hueter, a top Whitman fundraiser, made the move to the new Team Campbell. Hueter had previously worked for Schwarzenegger.

    When I reached him, Bob White acknowledged that he was involved in the effort to get Campbell to switch from the governor’s race to the Senate race. But he said that his role wasn’t as central as other sources said it was.

    White had been very involved in bringing former Secretary of State Shultz, now ensconced at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, into the Schwarzenegger orbit when the action movie superstar mounted his swiftly jury-rigged campaign for governor in the 2003 California recall election.

    White and his old boss, former Governor Wilson, who like Shultz is a Hoover Institution fellow, played a major role in bringing Shultz into one of the seminal events of Schwarzenegger’s career, his ballyhooed economic “summit” at an LA airport hotel. Schwarzenegger already had his longtime friend, Democrat Warren Buffett, on board, but needed a big name Republican. Shultz and Buffett co-chaired Schwarzenegger’s economic task force meeting behind closed doors, then played good-natured sidekicks on stage after at Schwarzenegger’s massively attended press conference, allowing themselves to be publicly dominated by the Hollywood showman. (That was the event at which Schwarzenegger chastised his longtime friend Buffett for musing in the Wall Street Journal that California’s Prop 13 needed to be changed, telling him next time that happened he’d have to do 500 sit-ups.)

    As a congressman, Campbell was an ally of then Senator Pete Wilson. As a state senator following his first race for the U.S. Senate in 1992, he was an ally of then Governor Pete Wilson. And, naturally, of Wilson chief of staff White.

    After Bill Bradley’s story broke and Steve Poizner started beating Meg over the head with her attempt to force him from the race, Tom Campbell’s money suddenly dries up.

    Fancy that.

    But, it makes sense, doesn’t it that Meg Whitman told her donors to ratchet back the association with Campbell – at least until the last minute where reporting would not be as visible to disclosure? I mean she doesn’t want to look like a uber-rich bully king-maker, does she?

    Now, we have to wait and watch.

    Has Tom Campbell’s fundraising dried up because Whitman pulled the plug, have donors become uncomfortable with an anti-Israel candidate who associates with Islamic terrorists or has Meg Whitman temporarily suspended funraising for her boy, Campbell, until late in May when disclosure will be hopefully lost in the fray of television ads and campaign hoopla?

    California voters will be watching.

  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day,  Obamacare

    Day By Day March 12, 2010 – Morning Constiutional

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    You may click on this link if you wish to embed Day by Day on your own blog

    The machinations continue by President Obama and Congressional Democrats to pass health reform legilsation, Obamacare. It is obvious that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not have the votes to pass this massive government takeover of American health care.

    But, whether these parliamentary manuvers will stand up in a court challenge is another matter.

    The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

    The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

    House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.

    Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.

    The biggest challenge though for the Democrats will be the negative political fallout from ramming this legislation through without any sense of bipartisan consensus. The fallout will mean massive Democrat Pary losses at the November midterm Congressional elections with a concomitant reversal of the legislation.

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