The tired old man of the race, Fred Thompson showed some fire and spark last night in South Carolina. While everyone else intently tries to give the most intelligent answers to the questions posed, Thompson took a moment to describe the real essence of the current struggle in the Republican primary race:
HUME: Carl Cameron has the next round of questions.
Carl?
CAMERON: Thanks, Brit.
Good evening, Gentlemen.
As you all well know, no Republicans ever won the presidency without winning the first in the south, South Carolina, primary.
Governor Huckabee, a question for you.
Your adviser, Ed Rollins, recently said that the Reagan Coalition of Economic, Social and National Security Conservatives is gone and you've been quoted as saying that you're not running for another Reagan term.
Tell us, sir, what part of that coalition is gone and what has it been replaced by?
....THOMPSON: Can I answer that?
CAMERON: Senator Thompson, a 30-second rebuttal.
THOMPSON: Well, it's not a response. I mean, you asked a minute or a minute-and-a-half question of these gentlemen on the Reagan revolution. Could I address that?
CAMERON: Sure.
THOMPSON: It's an important issue, because I think it demonstrates what we're about here today. I think that Governor Huckabee's campaign manager said it accurately in terms of what they believe. They believe that it is over.
This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future. On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution. You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security.
On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies.
THOMPSON: He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy and the tradition of, blame America first.
He believes that Guantanamo should be closed down and those enemy combatants brought here to the United States to find their way into the court system eventually.
He believes in taxpayer-funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas.
He has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers.
He said he would sign a bill that would ban smoking nationwide. So much for federalism. So much for states' rights. So much for individual rights.
That's not the model of the Reagan coalition, that's the model of the Democratic Party.
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The overarching question that Republicans must answer and the candidates must decide is whether they are Bush RNC Republicans or Reagan Republicans. The Republican party is at a cross-roads; They can continue on as they have for the past eight years as big-spending Democrats Lite or they can return to the core conservative, small government beliefs of the traditional Republican party. As soon as a candidate figures out that the base is hungry for one of them to champion Reagan ideals and a return to sanity, he will emerge as the leader.
I saw the debate. Fred was better than he has been, but it did not look to be enough to make the argument in the purple states, but there is a lot of time if he can get to the convention.
ReplyDeleteThe breech developing between the blacks and Clinton could be a problem for the Democrats. It could be solved if Hillary and Obama agree to join the ticket in the number two slot if they come in second.
Hillary on the campaign trail--(in a poorer part of Vegas)
ReplyDeleteThere was nobody who didn't know who the Democratic presidential candidate and former first lady was, even if they didn't speak English or weren't old enough to vote. They flocked to her for camera-phone pictures, and she posed in tableaux of adorable multicultural children.
But Clinton is in the final heat of an intense race for the Democratic nomination, and Nevada, which holds the Democrats' next contest, on Jan. 19, is ground zero for that cold, hard fight.
After leaving the Santanas' house, Clinton walked across the street and took questions from a few of the dozens of reporters, standing in front of a faded American flag pinned to a dingy garage door. (good touch, reporter-bob)
Today, Clinton is scheduled to travel to Los Angeles, where she will give a policy speech about the economy and what kind of stimulus she believes it needs.
"I think we're slipping toward a recession," she said. "A couple of people that I met on the street, they work in construction. They tell me it's slowed down."
She reiterated her doubts about the caucus process, which requires in-person, on-time participation.
"That is troubling to me," she said. "People who work during that amount of time, they're disenfranchised. People who can't be in the state or are in the military, they cannot be present. ... If people feel like there's no reason to participate or they can't, then that's the same thing. So I think it's a problem."
Clinton and her busload of traveling press moved from there to the popular local Mexican restaurant Lindo Michoacan, where a "roundtable" that was actually square passed a microphone around to tell her people's concerns about the mortgage crisis and foreclosures. She took notes and munched on tortilla chips.
In broken English, one woman told Clinton how she wasn't making money as a broker anymore.
"I have no income at all," she said. "So how will I survive?"
Choking up with emotion, the woman said, "In my neighborhood, there are brand-new homes, but the value is nothing. I'm glad you are here so I can tell you, because you're going to be the president, I know."
A man shouted through an opening in the wall that his wife was illegal.
"No woman is illegal," Clinton said, to cheers.
Viva!!
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deuce, Hillary isn't any Numero Dos, but I'd bet Obama would jump at it. It's scary, a winning combination, I do think.
No woman a foreigner! All mujeres are welcome!
ReplyDeleteFred's got just two weeks to turn it around. Thompson Article
ReplyDeleteHEAR YEA; HEAR YEA POLITICIANS FOR SALE
ReplyDeleteAMERICAS LEADERSHIP FOR SALE 2-FOR THE SINGLE PRICE OF WHAT ONE WOULD COST JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO.
HURRY; HURRY THIS PRICE CANNOT REMAIN THIS LOW FOR LONG
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007
Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly repeatedly violated the law and House ethics rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets and campaign workers while on the government payroll. While the House Ethics Committee investigated these allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number of the accusations against Conyers, the committee blamed the staff and required additional administrative record-keeping and employee training. Judicial Watch obtained documentation in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds new light on the activities and conduct on the part of the Michigan congressman, which appear to be at a minimum inappropriate and likely unlawful. Judicial Watch called on the Attorney General in 2007 to investigate the matter.
3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In one of the most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a Minneapolis International Airport men’s bathroom during the summer. Senator Craig reportedly “sent signals” to a police officer in an adjacent stall that he wanted to engage in sexual activity. When the police officer showed Craig his police identification under the bathroom stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the senator reportedly exclaimed 'No!'” When asked to produce identification, Craig presented police his U.S. Senate business card and said, “What do you think of that?” The power play didn’t work. Craig was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea. Despite enormous pressure from his Republican colleagues to resign from the Senate, Craig refused.
4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate's subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process. Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty. Judicial Watch’s investigation into this matter is ongoing.
5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…” ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.
6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press: “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.” And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations? Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.
7. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation. Libby was found guilty of four felonies -- two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to the FBI and one count of obstructing justice – all serious crimes. Unfortunately, Libby was largely let off the hook. In an appalling lack of judgment, President Bush issued “Executive Clemency” to Libby and commuted the sentence.
8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.
9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress. The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi's home base of San Francisco. Pelosi just happens to own apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, and will almost certainly experience a significant boost in property value as a result of Pelosi's earmark. Earlier in the year, Pelosi found herself in hot water for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, in unprecedented request which was wisely rejected by the Pentagon. And under Pelosi’s leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down – which protects members in both parties from accountability.
10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different. According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal. As the project advanced, the Times reported, “Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore.” Whittemore also hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials. Leif Reid even called his father’s office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.
Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Judicial Watch neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office. For more information, visit www.judicialwatch.org.
Everyone of them has a skeleton or two in the closet.
ReplyDeleteOr they wouldn't be where they are.
Charlie Wilson, drunk driving, w/ a hit & run accident.
John McCain, the Keating Five scandal, his wife's drug theft and use cover up.
Obama and his land deal
Hastert and his exit ramp
Fred Thompson, a K Street lobbiest for abortionists
Some more overt than others, but favors and skirting the law, par for the course.
Is This Workable? Nay, not for long.
ReplyDeleteA Brave New World:
ReplyDeleteThe Club of Rome
http://www.softsphereconsulting.com/gselzler/blog/Huxley1962.aspx
Listen to audio links, or read the transcript. Aldous Huxley almost sounds prophetic of the times we now live in. And I doubt that is by chance.
The Daily Kos is urging its members, as there is no meaningful democratic primary in Michigan, to vote for Mitt Romney, to keep him in the race. In Idaho here the pubs are working to close the primary to certified republicans only, which seems like a reasonable proposal to me, putting an end to all this cross over voting.
ReplyDeleteHow'd you find that wacko's site, Mat?
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't know what Huxley is arguing, always looking for the worst from his vantage point of ignorance!
Guess he never read the book!
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Huxley:
"But, as, I think it was (sounds like Mettenicht) said many years ago, you can do everything with {garbled} except sit on them. If you are going to control any population for any length of time, you must have some measure of consent, it's exceedingly difficult to see how pure terrorism can function indefinitely. It can function for a fairly long time, but I think sooner or later you have to bring in an element of persuasion an element of getting people to consent to what is happening to them.
It seems to me that the nature of the ultimate revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: That we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.
This is the, it seems to me, the ultimate in malevolent revolutions shall we say, and this is a problem which has interested me many years and about which I wrote thirty years ago, a fable, Brave New World"
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Seems rather obvious what his argument is, but then I read the book 50 years ago, so maybe I was too young to understand.
Not really, the above is rather self-explanatory if you're not a terminal paranoid like this guy.