Several friends have been urging me to support the Republican challenger in New York’s 25th District. She’s awesome:
The 25th District around Syracuse has sent Republicans to Congress since the 1970s. In 2008, eight-term Republican Rep. Jim Walsh retired and, in that year’s Obama-led surge, Democrat Dan Maffei got elected. Now the latest poll shows the district is swinging back to the GOP, and Ann Marie Buerkle is a fine candidate. Go give her $20.
Private sector unions would seem a simple application of the First Amendment. Fine. The government needs unions about like the US Navy, in my opinion. Particularly in the light of tripe like this:
Do we need to call in Mr. Wolf, The Cleaner, from over at BlackFive? Hardly. We’re only talking about “Gentleman” Jim Moran here. As, according to Wikipedia, Moran was beavering away in school during Vietnam, we couldn’t expect him to shoot for a VFW endorsement. The Military Officers Association of America, MOAA, on the other hand? I’ve just seen an email to MOAA members objecting to this campaign literature (click image for full size .pdf), along with what could be called a rather curt memo. Oops:
The reason for the objection? MOAA has a strict no-endorsement policy, for tax reasons. Probably just an administrative oversight. Let’s envision the staff meeting, shall we?:
I’m looking at this pamphlet, Kleinewimper, and I don’t see any military endorsements. We need something to paper over my pasty beaurocratic flesh and make me appear patriotic. I’m beginning to get just a little worried about Patrick Murray.
Too much scrutiny. We have to make sure that the usual people do the standard thing and rebury that zombie scandal. Who at the VFW owes us a solid?
K:
Uh. . . uh. . .Boss, there is some blowback building over the VFW endorsing cretins over veterans. . .
M:
Are you saying I’m a cretin? *whack*
K:
Owwwww! No, please don’t hit me, boss! I meant that some of the other VFW edorsements went to cretins.
M:
Well! See that you remain respectful. Who should we get? Find some reservist association, I don’t care. All I want is this pamphlet to have a bit of military flavor. What’s so hard about that?
K:
My neighbor is in MOAA. I’ll talk to him.
M:
Yeah, sure, NOAA. I don’t care. Just get my stupid pamphlet filled in. If NOAA squawks, I’ll have Gore tell them to lay by their dish.
Thanks for doing the right thing, MOAA. This blog is fairly sure which way the organization would break between a tool like Moran and a veteran like Murray, were it to offer endorsements. Moran and his ilk represent the worst of a century of Progressivism. VA-8 does not need someone committed to Murtha-ism (i.e. dying in office), who thinks that the country exists to serve a few like him and his cronies. Rather, someone with a proven track record of serving the country.
Now, there are a couple of things we need to point out here: First, the host Jim Braude is about as neutral and objective as John Kerry. You’ll notice that Barney is allowed to ramble on and on without any apparent limit. Second, Barney has an awful habit of describing his opponent’s position in tendentious ways: “What he wants to do is so-and-so” — a complete distortion, but when Bielat tries to point out the distortion, Barney gets all offended, as if Bielat has no right to speak for himself.
Barney comes off as bossy, thin-skinned and arrogant. Partisan Democrats, of course, perceive this as Barney being tough — He’s not going to let that stupid Republican push him around! — as if a hectoring self-righteous manner of argument were synonymous with “toughness.”
In any other year, Barney would be cruising to re-election, but when unemployment in some 4th District towns is at 14 percent, all that talk, talk, talk starts getting on people’s nerves.
BOSTON — As everyone knows, this unprecedented effort to defeat Barney Frank really caught fire Sept. 22 when Ace of Spades coined the Official Campaign Slogan:
Although this slogan hasn’t yet appeared on billboards in Massachusetts’ 4th District, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Meanwhile, while the candidate has been busy killing terrorists, building robots and debating Barney Frank, his campaign staff and volunteers keep working hard. Here’s a brief video tour of the Newton office that is main HQ for the Bielat campaign:
The encounter with the fired-up Bielat supporter coming to pick up his yard sign was completely unplanned, by the way, but it certainly is solid proof that there are hard-core conservative voters even in a liberal district like this.
Here you see volunteers manning the phone banks. This photo was taken about noon Sunday, and I’m told that the phone-canvassing operation doesn’t really start cranking up until after 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
Campaign signs adorn the partition inside the office.
This whiteboard shows the phone call totals from Friday. Notice that they called more than 14,000 voters last week from the Newton office, which is one of three Bielat campaign offices in the district. By Election Day, the campaign will probably have made more than 100,000 calls. If you’re in the area and would like to volunteer to help, here are the addresses:
Freetown Office 1 Chace Plaza
Freetown, MA 02717
Norton Office 250 E Main Street
Norton, MA 02070
Newton Office 381 Elliot Street
Newton, MA 02464
Some Bielat campaign swag, with Sunday’s Boston Globe.
No, the campaign isn’t hiring winos to wave signs. This is New Media consultant John LaRosa, who does cool things like running the “Bye Bye Barney” money-bomb.
And this is Terri, the volunteer receptionist who was featured in my American Spectator article Monday. Terri remembers meeting me in Boston’s North End back in January when I was covering the Scott Brown campaign.
Hey, it’s Sean Bielat! He was at WRKO studios for his Monday morning radio debate with Barney Frank, which was pretty cool. But not as cool as killing terrorists or building robots.
UPDATE: Not sure how to read Belvedere’s cluebats, except to say that I understood the photo he sent was not for publication. Instead, let me link Pat, who is doubtless more attractive in any case.
Celebrating this, it seemed useful to separate out this cadre of doughty bloggers from the regular blogroll, into the ‘Axis of Fedorables’ section. This is the penultimate stop in the middle column of the page.
If you’re a member, and my lousy memory has omitted you, please drop a URL/cluebat in the comments.
Ruth McClung is the smart choice for Congress in southwestern Arizona. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that our country is on the wrong track under the leadership of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid; but Ruth actually is a rocket scientist! Ruth’s commonsense fiscal approach to job creation and reining in reckless government spending is in sharp contrast to her opponent’s liberal record. In fact, Ruth is running against a four term incumbent who is so out of touch that he actually called for a boycott of his own constituents. It’s simple: The people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District deserve better. Please visit Ruth’s website at www.ruth4az.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter. . . .
There’s a lot of talk about the race in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. Dr. Dan Benishek is the kind of commonsense voice we need in Washington to replace the retiring Bart Stupak. As a physician, he understands why Obamacare must be repealed and replaced with true health care reform. Dan is determined to work to get our country’s fiscal house in order. As a self-described “hunter and fisherman and proud member of the NRA,” he’s great for Michigan 1st District, which like Alaska, is home to outdoor enthusiasts who love their hunting and fishing. Please visit Dan’s website at www.benishekforcongress.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. . . .
Knowing people involved in these campaigns, I know what a huge breakthrough it is for them to get Sarah’s “you betcha.” Congratulations to them, and to the other six candidates on Governor Palin’s list.
This is the second large-scale national endorsement for McKinney in recent weeks. Late last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich endorsed his campaign.
“People in this country are tired of watching the Democratic Party spend our money and over-regulate our businesses,” McKinney said. “People in the 12th District are tired of watching John Barrow help. Although I am proud that national figures such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich support my vision for America, I am much more excited about the many, many people I meet here in Georgia who say they’re going to vote for me on Nov. 2.”
Grijalva said the endorsement further distinguishes the two candidates.
“It will bring her more money, but it creates an urgency among people who don’t want that philosophy in office,” he said. He said he’s comfortable being one of Palin’s targets.
Grijlava’s “philosophy in office” = boycotting his own state!
Charlie Cook just added five seats — including Grijalva’s — to his list of competitive districts, and the New York Times reports that Democrats are pulling out resources from three lost-cause districts. The battlefield appears to be shifting in the GOP’s favor, and a big factor is these Tea Party-backed candidates who had the guts to stick it out against long odds and push “safe” Democrats onto the defensive.
Celebrating this, it seemed useful to separate out this cadre of doughty bloggers from the regular blogroll, into the ‘Axis of Fedorables’ section. This is the penultimate stop in the middle column of the page.