The Other McCain

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

Your All-Dan-Riehl Daily Delaware Republican Senate Primary Update

Posted on | September 8, 2010 | 30 Comments

Dan Riehl has been been on the warpath against Mike Castle and Castle’s “conservative” supporters:

And finally, Dan links Tammy Bruce’s interview with Christine O’Donnell:

Think about this: Tammy Bruce is a Jewish lesbian and a former NOW official. Christine O’Donnell is a Catholic social conservative. Yet Tammy is supporting Christine because Tammy understands that when you’re in a fight, you need fighters.

Sometimes you don’t get to choose the battlefield, and you have to go to war with the army you’ve got. And I still say that, among the 700,000 residents of Delaware, there must be at least 50,000 pro-life voters. That’s about twice what O’Donnell needs to win this GOP primary against the biggest RINO in Congress.

If only these hard-core pro-lifers will stand strong and go to the polls next Tuesday, Christine wins that battle. 

Such a stunning upset — just seven weeks ahead of Nov. 2 — will make her an overnight cause célèbre for conservatives nationwide and give her overwhelming momentum against her no-name Democrat opponent. Pray hard and do not give up hope: Sarah Palin re-Tweeted a pro-O’Donnell message today.

Don’t listen to the smears. Don’t listen to the pollsters. Don’t listen to the pundits. Listen to your heart.

Stand up and fight! WOLVERINES!

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Dan Riehl, Delaware, Election, Republicans, Senate

Will One In Four Go To One In Five?

Posted on | September 8, 2010 | 51 Comments

by Smitty (the Corner)

The notion of ‘tax cuts’ seems worth revisiting. The idea that the Federal government has eminent domain over all US wallets, while enshrined in the 16th Amendment, is increasingly repugnant. Now we have a President, of whom roughly one in four strongly approve, talking about even further wrong-headed action against the economy:

It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.

In a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will also make a case for the package of roughly $180 billion in expanded business tax cuts and infrastructure spending disclosed by the White House in bits and pieces over the past few days. He would offset the cost by closing other tax breaks for multinational corporations, oil and gas companies and others.

What isn’t clear is whether continuing to pillage the public wallet will drive the approval rating to around 20% immediately, or whether seeing the pink slips and diminished pay stubs in January will do the trick.

Borrowing a DoD term, we need a zero-based review of all the crap that Washington DC (Distributor of Cash) is doing. The discussion about ‘cutting’ taxes gives too much ground outright to the government. Let’s discuss cutting services, insofar as existing government activities serve anyone but the Federal government itself.

Related, via Insty, we have Veronique de Rugy pointing out that the CBO estimates are AFU, FYI.  WTF?  They use only the finest polyhedral dice.  That’s it. Johnny Lang, do your thing:

And then there is this awesome Doug Powers title: “The Barack Obama Experience — Taxes: Bold as Love” I am so not worthy, in a Wayne’s World context. This is a variation on the #ObamiHendrix hash tag started, I think, by that Iowahawk character. More info on the context from the Saintly Camper.

Category: Barack Obama, Instapundit

Obligatory Charlie Crist TV Ad

Posted on | September 8, 2010 | 12 Comments

Totally poached from Hot Air:

“At the end of the day, there’s only one party I work for . . . Charlie Crist” — which pretty much sums up the selfishness of these unprincipled backstabbing closet-case RINO types. But why bring Mike Castle into this?

Category: Florida, Senate, Video

For the First Time Ever, Rush is Wrong

Posted on | September 8, 2010 | 44 Comments

“I’m not going to do Twitter. There’s no way to make any money on Twitter. Twitter is just fad type stuff.”
— Rush Limbaugh

Twitter is a communication tool. Millions of people — including Alyssa Milano’s 1,038,358 followers — use Twitter to communicate. And you can’t communicate with those people if you’re not on Twitter.

Think about it, Rush: In the time it takes to type 140 characters and hit “Tweet,” you can send your thoughts to however many people follow you. (Which would be a lot of people. Maybe even Alyssa Milano.)

And you know what else, Rush? That Tweet can include a link to an item on your Web page, which is of course loaded with obscene profit opportunities. As a shameless capitalist blogger, I saw from the outset how useful Twitter could be in terms of promoting my site.

While your radio audience is vastly larger than my blog readership, there are nevertheless people on Twitter who don’t have an opportunity to listen to you regularly, and might benefit from getting the El Rushbo’s timeless insights via Twitter.

The communication on Twitter is two-way, of course. The people you follow on Twitter can send you tips on breaking news, and so forth. And you can actually have conversations via Twitter that are pretty cool, since anyone who follows your feed can jump in and add their two cents.

Hey, Mark Levin’s using Twitter. If you’re going to be on the cutting edge of societal evolution, Rush, don’t you think you should ask F. Lee Levin why he’s active in this new medium?

All this stuff may seem like an Internet version of the CB radio craze, but it’s not. And if you’re going to be on Facebook, you definitely need to be on Twitter.

Trust me, Rush: Join Twitter.

And please re-Tweet me sometime.

I’ve almost given up on Alyssa Milano. Almost.

(Hat-tip: Kathy Shaidle.)

Category: Alyssa Milano Should Re-Tweet Me, Rush Limbaugh

Lisa’s LP ‘Lifeboat’ Bid?

Posted on | September 8, 2010 | 41 Comments

In the comments of yesterday’s post about Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s continuing push for the Alaska Libertarian Party nomination, commenter “Carl” offered a theory that libertarian blogger Thomas Knapp finds sensible:

What she’s looking for is a lifeboat — a nice, lucrative job as a corporate lobbyist, VP of a “defense” contractor firm, something like that that keeps her well-paid and down south.
The bluff — aimed at the Republican establishment higher-ups who can summon that kind of lifeboat for her with a few words in the right ears — is “hook me up or I hand this seat to the Democrats.”

To quote Allahpundit, “Hmmmmm.” But I’m invoking Occam’s Razor here and sticking with the simplest explanation: Murkowski is just another D.C. power-junkie addicted to having a bunch of staffers who call her “Senator” as they jump to satisfy her every whim.

“She doesn’t want to give up power, even though she lost,” as Dan Riehl says. That’s your Single Bullet Theory, and any speculation beyond that takes you into Grassy Knoll territory.

Meanwhile, Sean Cockerham of the Anchorage Daily News reports:

For Murkowski to run as a Libertarian, [LP Senate candidate] Haase would have to step aside and the party would need to reverse its vote barring her from the ticket.
“It would be a serious flip-flop,” party chairman [Scott] Kohlhaas said. “And I don’t think it’s happening.” . . .
Haase said Murkowski does have Libertarian tendencies but that her support for the war on drugs is a problem.

Maybe Lisa could talk to 2008 LP presidential candidate Bob Barr about the drug issue. Bob used to be hardcore against drugs when he was a Republican, but has mellowed out as a Libertarian. Not quite Cheech and Chong, but no longer Sgt. Stadanko.

As I noted yesterday, Murkowski isn’t the only Republican talking to the LP. Bill Walker, who placed third in the GOP gubernatorial primary (challenging Gov. Sean Parnell), reached out to the Libertarians after being turned down by the Alaska Independence Party. 

Pattie Epler of Alaska Dispatch points out that these party-switch shenanigans can’t last much longer:

Still, time is running short. The current candidates would have to write a letter to the state Division of Elections withdrawing their names and the party would have to agree to substitute the new candidates as the official nominees. And the elections office must have the new nominations by Sept. 15.

So this storyline can only continue for another week and, as Epler explains, the prospect of Murkowski attempting a write-in candidacy is remote. The practical effect of the continuing shenanigans at this point is to give the media an excuse to ignore the guy who actually won the Republican nomination.

JOE MILLER for U.S. SENATE

Category: Alaska, Election, Joe Miller, Senate

Texas Burning

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 13 Comments

Charges of vote fraud in the Lone Star State:

On Tuesday, August 24, Harris County’s tax assessor-collector, Leo Vasquez, held a press conference in which he detailed what he called systematic and organized voter registration fraud across the county. . . .
What happened next is what threatens everything. In the overnight/early morning hours of Saturday, August 28, a warehouse in Houston burned down. . . .

There’s an ACORN angle here, so read the whole thing. I’ll point out that it’s writtten by our old blog buddy Bryan Preston, who left a job as communication director for the Texas GOP to rejoin the blog world at Pajamas Media. Welcome back, Bry!

Category: Corruption, Crime, Election, Texas

EXCLUSIVE: Lisa Murkowski Meets Personally With Alaska LP Officials UPDATE: Bitney, Halcro Behind Push

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 63 Comments

Alaska Republican sources confirm the report by Eric Dondero that Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski had lunch in Anchorage today with Libertarian Party senatorial candidate Dave Haase and state LP chairman Scott Kohlhaas.

One source said that when Haase was asked about the meeting afterwards, he indicated that he had made no decision about Murkowski’s effort to replace him as the Libertarian candidate, even though the state LP executive committee had previously rejected Murkowski.

Murkowski was defeated by Tea Party challenger Joe Miller in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, but refused to concede until after absentee ballots were counted.

After Murkowski’s concession speech last week, I warned that “shenanigans” are still afoot in Alaska, and her top supporters have continued pushing her bid to get the LP slot.

Now, Dondero and other sources say that Republican Bill Walker, who mounted an unsuccessful GOP primary challenger to Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, has made an effort to secure the LP gubernatorial nomination (replacing Billy Toien). Walker had previously been rebuffed by the Alaska Independence Party.

UPDATE: At least one top national GOP official has contacted the Alaska LP to discuss the latest developments. LP officials have not changed their determination to stick with their party’s current nominees.

UPDATE II: I’m going to have to put the squeeze on my sources, as it appears that these exclusive tips aren’t quite as exclusive as I’d been led to believe. When Allah and Ace both beat me on this kind of story — my home field, as it were — it’s kinda embarrassing.

Well, exclusive: Lisa and her new BFFs at the Alaska LP had barbecued ribs for lunch.

UPDATE III: I reported Aug. 27 that longtime Palin-hater Andrew Halcro was the first to promote the Murkowksi-Libertarian idea, but Scott Conroy at Real Clear Politics now gets Murkowski campaign manager John Bitney on the record:

“If she wants to stay in the race, I’ll support her 100 percent.”
Reached by phone from Murkowski’s campaign office, which has remained up and running as staffers complete administrative tasks, Bitney sounded like someone who was itching to jump back into the fight.
“It is a campaign office that is just ready to launch at a moment’s notice,” he said.

Maybe you don’t know who Bitney is, but he’s a favorite “anonymous” source for anti-Palin journalists.

Why? Because he was on her 2006 gubernatorial campaign staff and subsequently became her legislative director until he developed what one Republican source in Alaska described as a “zipper problem.” The married Bitney had an affair with another man’s wife and was fired by Palin. He has been badmouthing her ever since.

Bitney has presented himself as the strategic genius behind Palin’s gubernatorial campaign but, as my source said last week in reference to Bitney’s handling of Murkowski’s campaign, “You go from 40 points ahead to losing by 1,600 votes? Some genius.”

Another source in Alaska suggests that business supporters of Murkowksi have also been promoting her effort to get the Libertarian nomination. They’re probably concerned about losing their influence in GOP politics.

UPDATE IV: Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican now gives background, including the fact that “at least one former staffer for US Congressman Ron Paul” has been talking to LP candidate Dave Haase. So there’s a Paulista angle here that ought to make things interesting.

UPDATE V: Welcome, Instapundit readers! As for Professor Reynolds’ theory that Murkowski would not risk “the enmity of Tea Party folks nationwide,” I frankly don’t think she gives a rip about anyone but herself and her precious power.

Being called “senator” seems to be powerfully addictive. Note how Arlen Specter desperately tried to hang on. I’d be interested in knowing what percentage of U.S. Senators have voluntarily retired in the past 50 years.

UPDATE VI: A reader writes to correct the record. As explained in Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue, although Bitney has claimed that he was fired for the affair, he was actually fired for incompetence — including one occasion when he forgot to bring a bill to the bill-signing ceremony. As the reader says, “Bitney uses that false story in order to exonerate himself for being fired for incompetence and to make Sarah Palin look like a religious zealot out to punish adulterers.”

UPDATE VII: Dan Riehl points out that in a debate last month with Miller, “Murkowski said she respects the electorate and would support whoever wins.”

UPDATE VIII: Examining the “lifeboat” theory.

Category: Alaska, Election, Senate

Because Fedoras Are Sexy: Ed Driscoll Has a ‘Hot American-Cuban Wife’

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 29 Comments

He reveals this by way of pushing back at this fear-mongering outburst by Cynthia Tucker:

Our long, hot summer needed another ingredient to induce a fever-like madness in the national psyche: demographic change. Over the last year and a half, many Americans have begun to see a deeper message in President Obama’s inauguration — the end of the white majority. For some, especially those who are middle-aged and older, it’s a jarring and unwelcome message.

To which Driscoll replies:

Yeah, I was just saying the same thing to my hot American-Cuban wife – thinking about how them for’ners has got me all riled up, by cracky. . . .
But Cynthia wants to make sure that you know that just because she is calling you a racist doesn’t mean that she thinks you’re a racist, though you most certainly are a racist. . . .

Ms. Tucker previously aired her nonsensical claims on The Weekly Chris Matthews Show Nobody Actually Watches, so that’s kind of old news. But this is the first time our friend Ed has called our attention to the hotness of Mrs. Driscoll.

We demand photographic proof, Ed. A bikini shot, at least, although lingerie would be acceptable.

Category: Rule 5
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