The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

So … How Was Your Monday?

Posted on | November 8, 2011 | 103 Comments

Mine could have been better, as I was compelled to endure the mortification of reading these sidebar headlines at AOSHQ:

Iowa social conservatives, who are practically Kos diarists, urge Cain to clear the air.

Haley Barbour, who only became a conservative, like, this morning, advises Cain to get all the facts out.

Johnny-come-lately conservative Bill Bennett, who is just seeking liberal approval, urges Cain to come clean

The predicate of those gags, of course, was Ace’s previous assault on Rush Limbaugh for having asserted that all rock-ribbed True Conservatives are standing strong with Herman Cain. So Ace is in the Gloat Zone, which isn’t exactly good news for Herman Cain and therefore was also enough to make my Monday especially Monday-ish.

So . . . what are we to make of this weird little story?

A former employee of the United States Agency for International Development says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain asked her to help arrange a dinner date for him with a female audience member following a speech he delivered nine years ago. . . .
“I couldn’t swear that he had some untoward intentions, but we all thought his tone was suspect and we didn’t feel comfortable putting him in touch with that woman,” Donella recalled.
“I think [Cain] should not be a serious candidate for the presidential nomination because of what I’ve seen,” said Donella, an independent who said she voted for President Obama in 2008 and probably will again next year. “He’s not a person I would want running the country.”

You see how the Penumbra of Suspicion envelops everything at this point, and causes us to ask how the shadow can possibly be lifted. Whereas last week, I could shrug at the Cain critics who were carping about what they saw as the ineptitude of Team Cain’s response, now I’m wondering: What would a “good” response look like, given the changed nature of the story? Is any “good” response really possible?

See, it was one thing to hear people criticize Team Cain’s media strategy, because there isn’t a Republican operative above the rank of intern who doesn’t consider himself an expert on media strategy. That kind of carping is therefore routine and expected, and I could play the same game, if I wanted to degrade myself to the status of Wannabe GOP “Media Strategist.”

Squawking from a bunch of dime-a-dozen assholes doesn’t bother me much. What started bothering me late last week, however, was the hunch that all the clever media strategy in the world might be futile, and that the fate of Cain’s campaign was really not contingent on “strategy” at all. If I were in a position to advise Cain at this moment, the only thing I could advise him is to pray.

Pray real hard. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.08.11

Posted on | November 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Harassment Allegations Haven’t Hurt Cain’s Support Yet

Cain accuser has history of financial troubles and legal squabbles

Israel Hoping IAEA Report Will Stir West To Action On Iran
Proof that Russians help Iranians achieve nukes?

Romney Loyalists, Plant Workers Turn Out For Dubuque Speech
Second appearance of the day after speech in Davenport



POLITICS
State Department IG To Investigate Keystone XL Decision

Anti-pipeline protesters doing dumb street theater at the White House Sunday

Allegations of improper pressure and conflicts of interest

Texas State Court Halts Execution Pending DNA Appeal




Senate Finds Common Ground On Jobs Bill For Veterans

Supremes To Hear Downed Livestock Case

Exhibit In 4th Amendment Privacy Cases: Technology

Democrats Rally In Last-Ditch Effort To Hold Virginia Senate



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Dollar Strengthens On Italian Debt Woes
Italy’s High Bond Yields May Cost Berlusconi His Job
Bank Backlash Benefits Credit Unions
SEC Says Investors Lost $700 Million In Citigroup Deal
BofA To Sell Largest Pizza Hut Franchisee To Olympus Group
Warren Buffett Goes On $20 Million Stock-Buying Spree
Nook vs. iPad: FIGHT!
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Goes On Sale
Key Samsung Exec Jumps Ship To Join Windows Phone Team
Panasonic Toughpad Tablets Revealed



SPORTS
Boxing Champion Joe Frazier Dies, 67

Joe Frazier, 1944-2011, RIP

One loss, one tie and one win against Muhammad Ali

Penn State’s Paterno Hands Off Responsibility
Penn State President Faces Calls For Resignation

Rask Gets First Win As Bruins Top Islanders

Bears Outlast Eagles 30-24, Now 5-3

Giants Trade Jonathan Sanchez To Royals For Melky Cabrera

Cuban Defector Yoenis Cespedes Is On Nationals’ Radar



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Michael Jackson’s Doctor Convicted

Dr. Conrad Murray

Physician found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Lindsay Out Of Jail, Strips Down For Playboy

Justin Bieber To Take DNA Test Over Fangirl’s Paternity Claim


“Ebert Presents At The Movies” May Go Dark At Month’s End

How Carrie Fisher Lost Fifty Pounds And Got Her Life Back

Doc Says Adele’s Prognosis After Throat Surgery Is Good

Australian Broadcasting Pulls Funding For Mini-Series Because It Stars A US Actress



FOREIGNERS
Slow Pace Of Greek Talks Spurs Fears About Italy
Violence, Boycott Cast Gloom Over Liberia’s Runoff Election
Nicaragua’s Ortega Wins In A Landslide
Strong Quake Hits Okinawa, No Tusnami Expected
Australian Senate Passes Carbon Tax, Breaking PM’s Vow
Are Nigeria’s Boko Haram Jihadis In It For The Money?
Israeli Foreign Minister Rebuffs Germany’s Request To Free Up Palestinian Tax Money



BLOGS & STUFF
Leather Penguin: Media Battlezone Prep – Eyesight To The Blind
Gallup: Cain Ties Romney Atop GOP Field
Michelle Malkin: Circus Circus – Gloria Allred Jumps On The Cain Train
Atlas Shrugs: Obama Caught On Hot Mic Trashing Netanyahu
Pat Dollard: Andrea Mitchell, Jonathan Martin Scoff At Code Of Ethics For Journalists
Mark Steyn: The Coming Of Age Wars
Via Meadia: Argentina – Tick, Tick, Tick
Ed Morrissey: Judge Blocks Disease Pics On Cigarette Packs
The Lonely Conservative: Obama’s Lost Generation
Don Surber: SEALs Speak Out On Obama Killing
The Conservatory: Anonymous’ Call To Interrupt Iowa Caucuses


SOTD: Electric Avenue

Category: Live at Five

Soon, Most Of The Federal Budget Will Be A Blend Of ‘Disastrous’ And ‘Emergency’

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

If I may scrape attention briefly away from contestant #753 on the Herman Cain Allegation Show, Heritage reports the following cheery bit about the Budget Control Act:

Then there is Loophole No. 2: In addition to the “disaster” funds [loophole #1], the BCA still retains the uncapped “emergency” credit card. So Congress could obligate all the $11.3 billion for “disasters” and still spend without limit later in the year on other “emergencies”—making a total mockery of the BCA spending caps.

That global warming you feel running down your back? Ain’t rain, mister. I was contending a bit with a colleague a couple years back. “They’ve got to pass the emergency extension to unemployment benefits,” he said. I tried to explain that, if everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency. If you reward disastrous situations, you will, oddly, perversely, create more disastrous situations.

These two flagrant gimmicks are among six spending limits exemptions in the BCA. The others are overseas military activities, technical changes in concepts and definitions, continuing Social Security disability reviews, and efforts to control health care fraud and abuse. But the disaster and emergency maneuvers are worse than the others, because they are so easy to abuse and because lifting the spending caps for them leaves more room to maintain status quo spending levels for everything else. Congress can pretend to be disciplined and claim austerity, but never really cut spending and reduce the size of government—demonstrating flagrant disregard for the budget crisis that the debt ceiling confrontation was supposed to address.

Neither the Democrat, nor the Democrat-lite party has shred #1 of any interest in driving the Progress bus anywhere other than off the cliff. So, in lieu of leadership, we get brinksmanship. Per the Wikipedia link:

If Congress fails to produce a deficit reduction bill with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts, then Congress can grant a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling but this would trigger across-the-board cuts (“sequestration”) of spending equally split between security and non-security programs. The across-the-board cuts would apply to mandatory and discretionary spending in the years 2013 to 2021 and be in an amount equal to the difference between $1.2 trillion and the amount of deficit reduction enacted from the joint committee. The sequestration mechanism is the same as the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. There are exemptions—across the board cuts would apply to Medicare providers, but not to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare beneficiaries, civil and military employee pay, or veterans. Security programs include the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Nuclear Security Administration, some management functions of the intelligence community, and international affairs from the U.S. State Department.

Well, ain’t that just ducky? #OccupyResoluteDesk just loves him some crisis, and that’s exactly what this will be by the 23 November deadline for crisis maximization. Boehner and Reid, both old-school pols, will engage in ballet on finger-point, rather than just put it to the American people: the infinite pockets of Progress have hit bottom. It’s time to just admit it’s freaking over, deal with the fallout, and move on to real recovery.

Which may help explain why contestant #754 is up. Something to do with shrink tubing and a hair dryer. Shiny!

Category: Budget

Michelle Fields, Paulbot?
UPDATE: Denial!

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 47 Comments

She doesn’t go for neocon Beta males, IYKWIMAITYD

Allahpundit would probably headline this story “Heartache.”

You guys remember Michelle Fields, the Daily Caller reporter whom I interviewed Saturday about her being harassed by the OccupyDC mob. After I’d posted that interview, I called her back and suggested she should ask the Daily Caller’s promotional department to pitch her story to Fox News. She was like, “Yeah, I guess.”

(Career memo for Miss Fields: Welcome to the world of D.C. media. If you don’t promote yourself, you’re going to miss out on opportunities because it’s a zero-sum game and everybody else in town is relentlessly self-promoting themselves. Your failure to self-promote will be interpreted as demonstrating naïveté, weakness and/or lack of ambition. Therefore, be confidently shameless and shamelessly confident.)

Anyway, today Michelle was on Eric Bolling’s Fox News show, which confirmed my instinct about the news value of her story. I was Googling to see if I could find video of her Fox appearance and . . .

Oh, my goodness: “Development Manager” for Students for Liberty?

SFL’s “history” page doesn’t convey the organization’s reputation (back in the day) of being a hive of Ron Paul supporters. And this 2010 interview with ReasonTV’s Tim Cavanaugh — when Fields was SFL’s LA regional campus coordinator — further establishes her politics as libertarian rather than conservative:

“Well, actually, gay marriage is one of the biggest issues when I’m talking to conservatives and trying to get them to be more receptive to pro-liberty ideas. They’re not for gay marriage, so it’s really sort of a struggle still.”

Well . . . NTTAWWT. But Allahpundit is sure to be heartachin’ over this.

UPDATE: Miss Fields just e-mailed me:

For the record, I’m not a paulbot.

That sound you just heard was squishy neocon RINO betas everywhere high-fiving each other.

Category: Libertarians, Video

GLORIA ALLRED PRESS CONFERENCE WITH NEW HERMAN CAIN ACCUSER UPDATE: VIDEO, HEADLINES ADDED UPDATE II: CAIN CAMPAIGN: ‘ALL ALLEGATIONS … COMPLETELY FALSE’

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 140 Comments

UPDATE 3:18 p.m. ET: Video via Nice Deb:

A quick sample of headlines:

Woman: Herman Cain put hand up my skirt
— USA Today

Herman Cain and Sharon Bialek: How it came about
— Washington Post

Cain accuser says candidate groped her in 1997
— CNN

UPDATE 3:35 p.m. ET: The Anchoress speaks:

The MSM will do its “penance” for ignoring Juanita Brodderick by conferring absolute moral authority upon Sharon Bialek, who (again, if its all true, and we really will never know) has had the good luck of experiencing such a sickening encounter at the hands of a Republican candidate for president, and not a Democrat. She will be believed, at least, and she will not be trashed. And for her sake and her son’s I’m glad of that.

Will conservatives passively accept the power of the media (and Gloria Allred) to choose the GOP’s presidential candidate? Will there be no pushback from conservatives against this?

This presumption would seem to ignore the possibility that Cain’s supporters might react by saying, “To hell with this! We don’t give a damn what happened in 1997! We’re tired of these kinds of sleazy games and we’re sticking with Herman Cain!”

UPDATE 3:53 p.m. ET: Press release from Cain campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon:

Just as the country finally begins to refocus on our crippling $15 trillion national debt and the unacceptably high unemployment rate, now activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman Cain.
All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cain’s bold “9-9-9 Plan”, clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks.

UPDATE 4:10 p.m. ET: Michelle Malkin seems skeptical of the accuser:

She didn’t report the incident because she was “embarrassed.”
Bialek saw Cain at a Tea Party event last month and asked “Do you remember me?”
“I really didn’t want to be here today.”
At end of her statement, she giggled. She talked about her new hairdo.
Allred confirms that Bialek did not notify NRA about the incident. Bialek smiled. Won’t comment when asked about the “emotional trauma” of the incident.
So Bialek is single with a teenage child, with no discernible means of income, and employing a top Democrat hit woman celebrity attorney and her employment law partner.

Over the weekend at the AFP conference, several people told me that they had reason to believe this story was coming from Chicago. IYKWIMAITYD. And while this kind of suspicion has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of the accusation, it is certainly interesting. While I have always suspected Team Perry of pushing the story, the idea that Team Obama might be responsible cannot be ruled out.

UPDATE 4:30 p.m. ET: Cornell University Law Professor William Jacobson:

Summary of press conference: Woman alleges that in 1997 after her employment terminated with a National Restaurant Association affiliate, Cain made a single sexual advance at her which she rebuffed and which he stopped after she said no. So the allegation is not one of workplace “sexual harassment” but of an alleged attempt at infidelity.
A variety of people on Twitter are characterizing this as a “serious sexual assualt,” but that is farfetched. Assuming what she says is true, he stopped when she said to stop and she did not allege any actual sexual touching, only an attempt. She says she mentioned to two people at the time that Cain was sexually inappropriate, but did not mention to details to them.

Allahpundit points out that the lawyer for another accuser has claimed Bialek’s account as corroboration:

In an interview after Ms. Bialek’s news conference, Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer for one of Mr. Cain’s anonymous accusers, said that Ms. Bialek’s claims were “very similar” in nature to the incident that occurred between his client and Mr. Cain…
“It corroborates the claim,” Mr. Bennett said of Ms. Bialek’s allegation. Asked whether that meant that Mr. Cain had physically touched his client inappropriately, Mr. Bennett said “I can’t get more specific” but added that “I can say it is corroborating.”

EXPECT FURTHER UPDATES . . .

UPDATE 2:38 p.m. ET: The press conference is over and so we now must think about what we’ve just heard.

Did Sharon Bialek’s account of events seem plausible? Yes.

If you had 14 years to develop a narrative of an event that happened in 1997, would your account of that event be plausible? Also, yes.

We have here the basic “he-said, she-said” problem involved in such cases. What Bialek says happened would be very bad if it actually happened as she describes it. But there were no witnesses, there is no evidence, and the affidavits of two people to whom Bialek told her story in 1997 are inadmissable as hearsay. You could not convict Herman Cain in court based on such evidence, and yet the behavior described, if it is not criminal, certainly does fit within the category of “sexual harassment.” However . . .

There is no need to minimize the seriousness of sexual harassment in order to understand the difficulties that arise from trying to reach the hurdle of “beyond a reasonable doubt” involving private behavior where witnesses and evidence are lacking, and where the rights of the accused are derided as irrelevant. Liberals who hold candlelight vigils for condemned cop-killers will, without any sense of irony, insist that whenever a man is accused of sexual misconduct by a woman, the man must automatically be presumed guilty.

Well, it is not for me to decide how people react to this accusation, and so I will cease to offer my own reaction, except to say: Why wait 14 years? Oh. That’s right: The accused is leading the GOP field for president.

So if you make a pass at a woman, and are rejected, you can kiss good-bye whatever plans you had for becoming president — as a Republican.

I’ll be back to aggregate the headlines and blog reaction.

UPDATE 2:08 p.m. ET: Cain allegedly fondled her leg and tried to kiss her while they were alone in a car, Bialek says. When she said stop, he did. And so your headline is:

DISGRUNTLED FORMER EMPLOYEE SAYS
HERMAN CAIN MADE A PASS AT HER

UPDATE 2:01 p.m. ET: Bialek “reached out” to Cain after being terminated from her job. He met her at the Capitol Hilton in July 1997, where he had arranged for her to have the presidential suite. Bialek and Cain met at the lobby bar, then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant.

UPDATE 1:57 p.m. ET: The accuser is Sharon Bialek.

UPDATE 1:40 p.m. ET: Either the press conference is late in beginning or else the cable news networks aren’t carrying it live. Will update as soon as facts are available.

* * * PREVIOUSLY 1:15 p.m. ET * * *

Gloria Allred will hold a 1:30 p.m. press conference at the Friars Club in New York. I’ll blog updates live. Greta Van Susteren has the press release:

Herman Cain and Sexual Harassment
New Woman Who Alleges Sexual Harassment By Cain
To Hold News Conference With Her Attorney Gloria Allred.

A woman who alleges that she was sexually harassed by Presidential hopeful, Herman Cain, when she sought his help with an employment issue when he was President of the National Restaurant Association will hold a news conference with her Attorney, Gloria Allred on Monday, November 7th, at 1:30 p.m. (e.s.t.) at the Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street New York, NY 10022.
The woman is not one of the three women who have previously been reported to have alleged sexual harassment by Cain.
Ms. Allred’s client will be the first to give her name and to speak out about details of what she alleges occurred between her and Cain.
Note: Credentialed Press Only – Cameras may begin to set up at 12:30 p.m. at the Friars Club.
Note: There will be no interviews or questions answered before the news conference.

My personal feeling is that this is the best thing that can happen to Herman Cain in this situation. He cannot refute vague accusations, and the credibility of his accusers cannot be assessed so long as the accusers remain anonymous. So for a woman to come forward, under her own name, and make her accusations under the glare of the Klieg lights — this is good news if Cain is innocent, as he has insisted. More headlines:

New Cain accuser to discuss sexual harassment claims
— The Hill

Herman Cain sexual harassment accuser will
break silence at Gloria Allred press conference
— NY Daily News

Lawyer: 4th Cain accuser will speak publicly Monday
— Washington Post

Because I was out running “honey-do” errands this morning, I missed the initial announcement. Smitty posted the first alert and then called to tell me about it. Smitty’s “zombie/brains” metaphor is clever.

Perhaps at some future flesh-time meeting, Smitty and I can have a discussion about the factors involved in deciding whether a breaking news development should be headlined with clever metaphors, puns, allusions, etc. At any rate — spilled milk, water under the bridge, hindsight 20/20 — our cleverness quota having already been amply fulfilled on this story, I decided to go with the Joe Friday just-the-facts-ma’am headline on this follow-up, which will be the live-blog report.


Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Scandal

Conservatives Launch NotMittRomney.com

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 40 Comments

New Media genius Ali Akbar strikes again with NotMittRomney.com, a petition endorsed by many familiar names — including John Hawkins and Pamela Geller — and gets a write-up from Zeke Miller at Business Insider:

A coalition of conservatives have launched a campaign against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s candidacy to prevent him from becoming the GOP nominee next year.
The group’s website, NotMittRomney.com, already features a web ad against the former Massachusetts governor — and they plan more “aggressive” steps in the coming months. …

Read the whole thing. Here’s their first 30-second video:

Here’s their press release:

Coalition of Conservatives Launches
“Not Mitt Romney” Effort in Early States
New Web Site with Petition, Web Ad
and Publishes Iowa and NH Op Eds
MYRTLE BEACH, SC — Today conservative activists, operatives and bloggers are announcing the formation of a new “Not Mitt Romney” (NMR) coalition dedicated to preventing Romney from winning the Republican nomination.
Three of the coalition’s cofounders had a guest column published in the Des Moines Register on Sunday, “Conservative Iowans owe it to Nation to Reject Mitt.” They also had a guest column published in today’s New Hampshire Union Leader.
NMR Coalition co-founder Ali Akbar, a Republican communications consultant and Vice President, Digital Strategy, at Vice and Victory Agency, said, “Primaries are a good place to vet and try a candidate. Mitt Romney is that candidate and this primary is far from over. A nominee, worse a President, whom we have no idea where he stands on the issues presents a danger to our Party’s brand and this unique time in history where true reforms can actually happen. The American people want truth and the Republican Party would do well to offer it, lest we snatch defeat from victory’s jaws again.”
NMR Coalition co-founder John Hawkins, a professional blogger who runs Right Wing News, said, “In 2008, conservatives let the GOP Establishment and the mainstream media select our nominee for us. How did that work out? Does anybody really have the slightest idea what Mitt Romney would do as President? Nobody can even reasonably predict where he’ll be on any issue six months from now, much less what he’d do if he became the leader of the free world.”
NMR Coalition co-founder Matt Mackowiak, President of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC, said, “Mitt Romney is an honorable man, but he is not a conservative that we can trust. America faces greater challenges today than at any time in the last 70 years. Nominating a candidate whose history has shown a commitment to opportunism rather than conservative principles is a recipe for electoral disaster next year. Nominating a candidate for whom the base has zero enthusiasm is also a recipe for electoral disaster next year, as it was in 2008. I desperately want to defeat President Obama for reelection and absolutely believe that this coalition effort is helping achieve that. We need bold colors, not pale pastels.”
The coalition, which was publicly created by 20 individuals, launched http://www.NotMittRomney.com on November 6, 2011, the one year anniversary of Election Day 2012. On the site, the public may sign an online petition agreeing that “Mitt Romney should NOT be OUR nominee,” access information about Romney’s career of flip flopping on major issues and invite others to join the effort.
In addition to the website, the Not Mitt Romney coalition launched a twitter account (@MittFlipFlops) and twitter hash tag: #NotMitt. . . .
This coalition campaign will include targeted voter contact in early states, which will include phone and door to door contact, email marketing, paid and earned media and online targeting.
This coalition is not paid for by any candidate campaign or Super PAC, but rather is organized solely by its creators, who include supporters of many of the other conservative candidates who are running and some who remain undecided.

I was asked by Ali to endorse the petition, but of course I am strictly a neutral objective journalist, so I can merely report on the existence of the petition, which cannot be considered an endorsement.

NotMittRomney.com

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney

Zombie Allegation Against Herman Cain Hopes Gloria Allred Can Give It Brains

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 31 Comments

by Smitty

Via Drudge, Radar Online reports that Gloria Allred will lend her considerable legal credibility to the search for the first substantial allegation against Herman Cain:

A new woman alleging sexual harassment by presidential hopeful Herman Cain will break her silence at a news conference with her powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred Monday afternoon in New York City, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.
The embattled GOP nominee has admitted that several women who worked at the National Restaurant Association during his tenure as president of the organization received settlements. Politico has reported that the settlements were given because of sexual harassment allegations.

It would nearly be a relief if something other than rent seeking went on and the National Restaurant Association. Unfortunately, it appears to have been rent seeking then, and rent seeking now, with a political twist.

Helen Thomas could not be reached for comment. One hopes that does not mean she is the accuser.

Expect that this story will absorb a few more rounds from the ol’ pump action before it stays down.

Update: Now a Memeorandum thread. Michelle Malkin has more, asking:

Exit question: Is the addition of ambulance-chaser Allred more boon than bane to Cain?

Well, it’s a bane in the sense that the media will re-inflate the flatus fable bubble. However, it’s a boon in the sense that, the longer the factual vacuum goes on, the more it appears that the women who brought allegations forward at NRA were rent seekers.

It would also be cool if we could find a way to strike a blow against the Bogus Lawsuit Industry. We must pursue justice and try to minimize the market for frivolous allegations, which these certainly appear to be.

Update II: Hot Air offers some background on the all-wet Allred. Peanut salesmen at the press conference will rejoice at the fine circus.

Update III: Linked by Don Surber and Daily Pundit.

Category: Herman Cain

Dear Governor McDonnell: #OccupyRichmond Is A Great
Leadership Opportunity

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Dear Governor McDonnell,

I submit that it may be time to call ‘nonsense’ on the #OccupyRichmond protest.

The Occupy Richmond group, however, as well as many other Occupy groups across America, are not only demanding to be exempted from the rigorous requirements met by any other group before them, they are being given that exemption in city after city — by politicians either too weak or agenda-focused to do their jobs for all their citizenry.
Richmond City Councilman E. Martin Jewell even wanted a resolution that would make the Occupiers’ illegal actions legal — and surely would have done so except for the inconvenient requirement that he actually act within the rules.

Everything about our country is predicated upon the Rule of Law. No one, least of all those of us who’ve voted legally and participated in lawful Tea Party events, wants to see the right of assembly infringed.

Yet, as with illegal immigration, we see what is a slow erosion of the Rule of Law. Thus, it would worth considering having Virginia lead the way by revisiting laws for lawful public assembly, and re-assuring everybody that, in this country, all of our revolutions are conducted in a positive, peaceful way, by valid ballot, at a ballot box.

Let us not kid ourselves, sir: this #Occupy nonsense is nothing short of a prophecy of where the country is headed, on this current ideological course. No, no, no, a thousand no’s, and again: forget this noise.

Yours in service of the Constitution,

Chris Smith

P.S. I suggest that readers of this post also ping their state governors. It is crucial that some executive leadership be located in this country which supports our Constitution.

via Instapundit

Related:

Category: #Occupy, Constitution
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