Counterbalance for Fri 3 Nov.
The buzz inside the Beltway outside the mainstream:
- The editors at The Washington Post note that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would bring to the office a level of left-wing liberalism that will be unprecedented. In the National Journal's 2005 ideological ratings, which were based on scores of votes, Mrs. Pelosi was ranked more liberal than 91 percent of her House colleagues on economic issues, 96 percent on social matters and 82 percent on foreign-policy issues. Here are her relative rankings (economic, social, foreign) for 2004 (93, 88, 81), 2003 (92, 89, 70), 2002 (88, 84, 90) and 2001 (94, 83, 93). Read it.
- Ronald Griffin, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says John Kerry picked the wrong people to insult.
I missed the joke. You must forgive me, for there just is not a lot of room in my life for even good jokes--and there is absolutely no room for "botched jokes"--when the subject of the joke is my son who was killed in Iraq. I know exactly what came out of Sen. John Kerry's mouth, and in those words there is no interpretation required. His attempt to convince us--and, I believe, to convince himself that that there was really a botched joke buried deep within his insult is in fact a reaffirmation of his ever-present condescending nature. He actually believes that we are stupid enough to agree with him and start laughing simply because he said it was a joke. Mr. Kerry said exactly what he meant and meant exactly what he said. In those words Mr. Kerry did in fact wash completely away the facade of his support of our magnificent troops and revealed for all to see his true colors.
John Kerry stands alone, to be judged by his words. He has given us the rare opportunity to look into the soul of a politician, and he has shown himself wanting, especially in view of the fact that he asked us to allow him the honor and privilege of leading our gallant military at a time of war. It is rare in life to be able to know the consequences of both sides of a decision. Mr. Kerry has clearly demonstrated what manner of president he would have been. Fortunately the American electorate denied him that high honor.
- The left consumes their own. Charles Hurt, writing in The Washington Times, notes that the left bloggers are ripping the Democrats for abandoning Ned Lamont, the anti-war Senate candidate in Connecticut. Lamont now trails Sen. Joe Lieberman by 10 points or more, and the highly energized bloggers who helped win him the nomination in August blame the national party.
Liberal vitriol in recent weeks has been directed at some of the Democratic Party's most beloved figures, such as former President Bill Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York and even rising star Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
- It would be a naive mistake to think this election will not change the way terrorists behave. The terrorists think they are on the verge of victory. The Counterterrorism Blog reports the As Sahab arm of Al Qaeda has released a new video of Abu Yahya al Libi.
"In this seventeen minute video announced on November 1, 2006, on various jihadi message boards, al Libi eulogizes his fellow Bagram escapee Farouq al Iraqi, who was killed several weeks ago in Iraq. He calls upon Islamic scholars to join in on the battlefield of Jihad, chastising them for their lack of participation. He claims victory over the Americans is near.
Visit the blog, read the transcript and watch the video.
- The Democratic Party's "New Direction for America" might attempt to steer government toward a sounder financial footing, but its course leads to $79.1 billion in new annual federal spending, according to a line-by-line analysis by a non-partisan taxpayers' group, according to CNSNews.
"Americans should take note that proposals containing many political promises are likely to contain many tax dollars as well," said Demian Brady, senior policy analyst for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), the research affiliate of the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union, a non-profit citizen group founded in 1969.
Citing a Treasury Department analysis, House Speaker Dennis Hastert stated that the Democrats' inaction would reduce economic growth by about $93 billion a year.
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posted by Steven Moyer at 8:31 PM
2 Comments:
You mentioned the GOP eating their own. Check out this commentary:
Presidential Candidate Cox Calls Duncan Hunter a Pork Barrel Spender
by Nathan Tabor
Congressman Duncan Hunter (R- CA) chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced today that he is exploring a presidential run in 2008.
Rep. Hunter has served in Congress for 13 terms now, and has a proven record of wasteful, pork barrel spending in Washington. He does not deserve a promotion to the White House.
While he evokes Ronald Reagan today, for the past 26 years, he has spent and regulated like a Lyndon Johnson Democrat.
Earlier this month, Hunter, in a behind-closed-doors meeting, killed an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have required a Department of Defense spending bill report card revealing to the public all pork barrel spending in Congressional bills, along with the names of their sponsors.
Was he worried his name would appear often on those report cards? His Website brags about "helping local companies obtain defense contracts."
But his spending spree doesn't stop there.
He also voted for the largest expansion of Medicare since its creation, and voted to support a 2005 highway bill which was filled with tens of thousands of earmarks for Congressional spending projects, many unrelated to highways or even roads.
Hunter also:
along with Ted Kennedy and John McCain, voted for the Federal takeover of education known as No Child Left Behind.
voted to impose Sarbanes-Oxley accounting regulations on American businesses, making it difficult for many small businesses to cope with these new red tape.
voted to support restrictions on free speech in political campaigns (McCain-Feingold) after first voting against it.
The Club for Growth says "he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last six years," and gave Hunter a 49% rating on its 2005 scorecard, that's 187th out of 230 Republicans in the House GOP Conference.
While he had higher ratings from the National Taxpayers Union earlier in his career, the group now routinely gives Hunter "C" ratings.
We don't need another big-spending, career politician in the race for president. We need a true outsider who will end the corruption in our tax code, who will stop the Washington spending spree and veto the kind of deficit-hiking budgets Congressmen like Duncan Hunter have been sending to Pres. Bush's desk year in and year out.
Chicago businessman and political activist John Cox is a fiscal conservative and an outsider who can go to Washington and send the big spenders a message: THE SPENDING SPREE IS OVER!
Cox, the first announced candidate for president, has campaign committees in 16 states, and over 100 counties are organized across the nation. www.cox2008.com
I actually said something about the left eating their own. The article in the post is about how folks like Markos Moulitsas and followers viciously turn upon their own DNC interests when the politics don't work out the way the netroots folks would like.
Probably the best documented example of this was chronicled in a rather backhanded piece written by ex-Clintonista and political hack Lanny Davis:
My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman
This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.
I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.
I feel the media has contributed greatly to the idea that traditional conservatives would fall upon their swords and not vote just because they are dissatisfied with compassionate conservatism. However, unlike the netroots folks, conservatives tend to voice their concerns without an all out slime attack.
But to your point, I also believe we are looking for true Reagan Republicans. But I am also a pragmatist and I understand we had to spend to rebuild our military and intelligence services left crippled by the Democrats in order to fight the growing global jihad.
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