August 2008

I have been struggling for the last couple of days with the question of whether #dontGo is important. I am genuinely undecided. Here is some thinking on the positives, but also why it is not nearly enough and we need to keep our eye on the ball.

#DontGo is really important because Republican activists are feeling energized. There is something to fight for. This is new. People are chatting. But that doesn’t make a movement.

#DontGo also changes the focus to Congress. The Democrats’ strategy right now is to focus everything on Bush and the Presidential race. If Congress and its single-to-low-teens is the focus, even for a little, that helps Republican Congressional candidates.

But these are defensive actions. Republican candidates are coming to town and getting local press for fighting for something. That’s great, but it is defense.

Where is the offense?

The only robocalls I know of are going into Colorado because Mark Udall skipped a vote. I asked Tom Cole about more … and he ducked. I have not seen stories of people crashing townhalls demanding House Democrats do something.

Where are the existing groups? The American Family Association has a 3.3m email list and has emailed on this issue. Have they sent something out about charging townhalls? No. What about Newt Gingrich, American Solutions, and their 1.5m? No.

In general, it is not clear what exactly #dontGo would do to put points on the scoreboard. There are three options.

First, Congress could pass a bipartisan energy bill in September. There are now bills in bvoth the House and the Senate that would suffice, although the House bill is substantially better. We need Nancy Pelosi’s buy-in to bring stuff to the floor. And to do that, we need to pressure Democrats. And no one is doing that.

Second, Congress could just let the OCS and shale ban expire. This is the premise of the "Energy Freedom Day" proposals. Some argue that this is better than a bipartisan bill. Here, we need either 40 votes in the Senate against a Continuing Resolution or a majority in the House willing to block legislation that contains an extended OCS ban.

Third, we can polarize the environment on this issue.

What I don’t understand is how #dontGo is directly on the path to any of these. We need to actually win something. This is improtant. And I see more motion than movement.

Lou Barletta is up over crooked, machine Democrat Paul Kanjorski in a new internal poll that they released.

Paul Kanjorski (D-inc): 41 (42)
Lou Barletta (R): 45 (47)

Normally, we wouldn’t discuss internal polls, but it is all we have, and, as the left-leaning Swing State Project notes, it is all that we have:

although the numbers are probably best served with a grain of salt, it’s sort of telling that we haven’t seen rival numbers from Kanjorski or the DCCC. In fact, Kanjorski’s response to the poll doesn’t exactly inspire confidence:

A Kanjorski campaign spokesman declined to comment on the poll.

That’s the exact same response that Kanjorski’s camp gave in June. Weak, sir.

We are going to win this one. As I previously noted, the Dems are runnign scared. So give Lou Barletta some money.

With Barack Obama, you have to be careful with the facts. You
see, he and his factually impaired friends at the DNC, insist that
John McCain is the candidate of Big Oil. But perhaps the finger
ought to be pointed another way…

First, of all, John McCain makes the point most clearly. It is
Barack Obama who voted for George Bush’s energy bill and the
disgusting Farm Bill, not John McCain, who voted against both.
Today, McCain said:

Now, I want to take a minute here on this issue, because I think
Senator Obama is a little confused. Yesterday he accused me
of having President Bush’s policies on energy. That’s odd, because
he voted for the President’s energy bill and I voted against it. I
voted against it because it had 2.8 billion dollars in corporate
welfare to oil companies that are already making record
profits. Senator Obama voted for that bill and its big oil
giveaways. I know he hasn’t been in the Senate that long, but even
in the real world voting for something means you support it, and
voting against something means you oppose it.

Jake Tapper noticed this today and wrote
a story entitled “Exxon [Hearts] Obama”.

That right-wing organization, the
Center for Responsive Politics, gives the details:

CRP was surprised to notice that it’s actually Obama who has
received more from the pockets of employees at several of Big Oil’s
biggest and most recognizable companies. Tallying contributions by
employees in the industry and their families, we found that Exxon,
Chevron and BP have all contributed more money to Obama than to
McCain.

Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to
McCain’s $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and
Obama edges out McCain with BP $16,046 vs. $11,500.

Not only oil companies that seem to prefer Obama. I was trading
emails with a friend who is now lobbying for the ethanol industry.
What did he say?

Right now I’m lobbying for ethanol, and the industry is
generally supporting Obama.

So remind me why Barack Obama is talking about John McCain being
in the pockets of “Big Oil” and the energy lobby when he voted for
their corporate welfare, he is getting their money, and the corrupt
ethanol industry is working for him?

Earlier, I wrote about how Steny Hoyer tried to give cover to Mark Udall for skipping the vote on the adjournment resolution in the House. Earlier, I had also argued that the whole #dontGo thing — before it was a thing — was a major strategic victory for the Congressional Republicans.

Well, the hammer is beginning to fall on Udall — and hopefully others.

Today, Freedom’s Watch dropped a web video and a robocall. First the video:

The robocall script is after the jump.

<!–break–>

Hello, I’m calling from Freedom’s Watch with a Mark Udall vacation update.

Last week, Mark Udall promised to vote to keep Congress from going on vacation without passing a bill to lower gas prices.

Two days later, he broke that promise. 

Congress voted to go on vacation without passing an energy bill.

And Mark Udall?

He was too busy hobnobbing it with his campaign fundraisers to even show up for the vote. 

Now Congress is on a five-week vacation, and we’re still paying an arm-and-a-leg for gas.

Call Mark Udall at (303) 650 7820 and tell him we expect him to stay on the job and fight for lower gas prices and energy independence… 

…Just like he promised he would. 

Paid for by Freedom’s Watch.  (202) 379 3742.

Publishes lies. Mosk and editors should resign

Matthew Mosk writes
a front page story in the Washington Post based on demonstrably
false facts. This is a firing offense. Amanda
Carpenter over at Townhall has the story.

Mosk wrote:

The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into
Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came
from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from
D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy
No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in
Fullerton.

The catch is that 3 out of those 4 people did not donate to
McCain. As Amanda notes:

The donation record for Rite Aid General Manager
Ibrahim Marabeh, who gave to Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani in
2007 and … the donation record for a man and a woman with the
last name Abdalla who both manage a Twilight Lounge. But Twilight
Lounge managers Nadia Abdalla and Hisham Abdalla gave money to
Clinton and Giuliani, too.

This is a front-page story. You would think that (1) Mosk would
check his facts and (2) his editors would recheck facts on a
front-page story.

These guys need to go. These aren’t journalists. These aren’t
even advocates. They are just liars.

UPDATE: The Post says:

The first name of McCain donor Faisal Abdullah was
misspelled in some versions of this story, including in the print
edition of The Washington Post. Also, the article incorrectly
identified a Rite Aide manager and two Twilight Hookah Lounge
owners as being among the donors Sargeant solicited on behalf of
McCain. Those donors – Rite Aid manager Ibrahim Marabeh, and the
lounge owners, Nadia and Shawn Abdalla – wrote checks to Giuliani
and Clinton, not McCain.

Note that this was a front-page story with names and dates and a
picture of John McCain. And all of the operative facts were
completely false. This is inexcusable.

This is a public service announcement.

Did you register to vote recently near Albuquerque? If so, you might have given your Social Security number, indeed all the information necessary to commit identity theft, to a child rapist. In particular, this guy.

You see, New Mexico ACORN hired this guy, along with a bunch of other criminals to register voters. In New Mexico, according to the Bernallilo County Clerk, where this happened, this is the infromation needed:

Name, gender, birth date, social security number, residence address, mailing address (if different from your residence) party affiliation, telephone number (optional), date and signature.  

Would you trust this information with a child rapist or any other kind of felon? No.

Then why does ACORN pay them? What the story on the evening news last night:

Note that one of these guys has actually been convicted on two counts of credit card fraud. Shouldn’t there be some sort of background check for people who are paid to collect this information?

H/T to Election Journal.

What about a convicted identity thief?

This is a public service announcement.

Did
you register to vote recently near Albuquerque? If so, you might
have given your Social Security number, indeed all the information
necessary to commit identity theft, to a child rapist. In
particular, this guy.

You see, New Mexico ACORN hired this guy, along with a bunch of
other criminals to register voters. In New Mexico, according to the

Bernallilo County Clerk, where this happened, this is the
infromation needed:

Name, gender, birth date, social security number, residence
address, mailing address (if different from your residence) party
affiliation, telephone number (optional), date and
signature.  

Would you trust this information with a child rapist or any
other kind of felon? No.

Then why does ACORN pay them? What the story on the evening news
last night:

Note that one of these guys has actually been convicted on two
counts of credit card fraud. Shouldn’t there be some sort of
background check for people who are paid to collect this
information?

H/T to
Election Journal.

Cross-posted from,
The Next Right

For your Kansas results, I recommend the Secretary of State’s site. With 373/819 in, Jenkins is up by 4%, Topeka is not in.

In Missouri, I recommend the Secretary of State’s office also. In MO-09, it looks like Luetkemeyer won going away. It looks like the Governor’s office primary is closer, but it looks like Kenny Hulshof is pulling it off.

In Michigan, it is not as easy. In the MI-07 primary, State Sen. Mark Schauer, the DCCC’s recruit, won the primary. In MI-13, it looks like Kilpatrick will survive, but be a squeaker. FreeP has the details.

What else?

UPDATE at 11:52EST:

MO-GOV has been called for Kenny Hulshof. Congrats to Congressman Hulshof.

KS-02 is looking very close, but currently with 644/819 in, Jenkins is up over Ryun by 2000. Don’t know which precincts and/or counties are not in yet.