Tag: Republicans

On Trey Radel’s resignation

Some interesting news to wake up to today:

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.

Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility. He returned to Congress after the winter recess.

Radel sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announcing his resignation, saying it “is my belief that professionally I cannot fully and effectively serve as a United States Representative to the place I love and call home, Southwest Florida.” He said that 2014 has already “been tremendously positive as I focus on my health, family and faith.”

via Trey Radel to resign House seat – POLITICO.com.

Of course, some bloggers are griping about it. Gateway Pundit:

Democrats may be found guilty of perjury, statutory rape or running a prostitution ring from their home – yet they never resign.

Republicans, on the other hand, are expected to resign for their sins.

HotAir’s Ed Morrissey has the answer to that:

Most Republicans wanted him gone after the arrest. Instead, Radel insisted that he would hold his seat after going through rehab. Unless I missed a memo, there hasn’t been any unusual events surrounding his return this month. Perhaps Radel found his welcome back to the caucus chillier than Polar Vortex I or II.

[….]

I’m still not sure what changed Radel’s mind. His return was about as uneventful as he might have hoped. Unless more revelations are on their way, he had a pretty smooth glide path to obscurity in 2014 already.

Furthermore, let me add to that to answer Hoft’s complaint; who is Anthony Weiner, chopped liver?!?!? He resigned his office, after the revelations about him. This is why I am not a regular reader of Gateway Pundit or Breitbart; because:

  1. Both are confirmed neoconservative blogs that are not above propaganda
  2. Both sensationalize their headlines to the point of fudging the truth

This is why you do not see them in my blogroll or in my rss feeds in the sidebar. Some people believe that there is no difference between paleoconservatism and neoconservatism; I disagree and the above is a perfect example why.

Now back to the matter of Radel; he most likely went back to Florida and was greeted with the icy reception from hell; and quickly decided that his future in politics was basically over. There is a reason for this, it is because Conservatives, especially social conservatives, do not want some coke headed buffoon representing them in Congress. Unlike the Democrats who could honestly care less about such things. It is called morality; and some Republicans and Conservatives, at least some of them anyhow; still care about such things.

So, to the bloggers on the right; no there is no conspiracy here. Nor is there any sort of double standard. It is simple the Republican base wanting a true, moral, Conservative in D.C. and not some two-bit coke head living a lie.

…and that, is all.

Others:  CNN, Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, New York Times, BizPac Review, Scared Monkeys, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Roll Call, Taylor Marsh, Business Insider,  Talking Points Memo, NBCNews, Tampa Bay Times, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, National Review

John Podhoretz gets exposed for the intolerant Trotskyite that he truly is

This is great;  a Trotskyite Zionist goes for a debate; and the minute he sees that he is losing the debate — he storms off the stage, takes his marbles and goes home.

I am referring to the greatest Trotskyite, Zionist, Neoconservative of them all — John Podhoretz.

See here, here, here and here.

Money quote:

Bottom line: I’d had a long day and I didn’t see the point in spending more of it getting booed and shushed. So I left. So sue me.

If only we could sue you and your family for all the trillions of dollars — and the 4000+ lives that were  wasted in the Iraq War —- which you and your satanic Father were cheerleaders for, after 9/11. Actually, I would very much like to see criminal charges filed against you and few of your Trotskyite friends as well. However, as we realists know; that will never happened to a protected class as yourself.

You want to know what got wrong with Conservatism? You want to know why the GOP is in the shape that it is in? Look no further than this man here and his idiotic Trotskyite magazine that he runs. They are the true enemies of America; they are the ones who put us in the war that almost broke this Nation and ruined its standing in the world.

It is a pity that there is not true justice in this Nation of ours; otherwise, this man and his friends would be sitting in jail cells.

 

BudgetGate 2013

I apologize for a lack of output today. I just didn’t see anything worth wasting time over. I did post one thing; But nothing political.

Anyhow, Senate leaders hashed out a budget deal; and the Dems hate it, although some do like it; and not shockingly, the right is not to happy with it either. Which means, it might just be a decent deal. Believe it or not, Rep. John Boehner makes a valid point here: (H/T HotAir.com)

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The point he makes at 1:30 in this video is legit; and we all know whom that little remark is aimed at! (Ted Cruz) Boehner has a point; Cruz took the House into the ditch and did not have a plan to come out of the ditch at all. Which is not good politics. I’ve written all about this before, so I am not going to repeat all that again! 🙄

Either way, the roundup on this huge story over at Memeoradum is huge and worth a read.

A perfect example of why I am not a huge fan of the GOP

Before you get any ideas about this, read what I write, before you pass judgement.

But first, the story:

LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder has added his voice to the chorus of criticism directed at Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema over his latest antigay remarks.

Agema, in a speech at a Republican meeting in Berrien County on Thursday, said that gay people manipulate the system to get free health insurance because they are dying from AIDS at a young age.

Agema cited his experience as a pilot with American Airlines, according to a transcript of his remarks published by the Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor.

“I’m a flight attendant,” Agema said. “You have AIDS. You come to me and say, ‘Hey, tell them I’m your lover for the last six months.’ You get on our health care.

“American Airlines spends $400,000 before you die of AIDS. And he goes on to the next, and the next, and that’s what was happening.

“Folks, they want free medical because they’re dying between 38 and 44 years old. It’s a biggie. So, to me it’s a moral issue. It’s a biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and that is in our platform, so people that are opposed on that issue within our party are wrong.”

Media reports about Agema’s comments brought a storm of criticism and calls for Agema’s resignation. Last March, Agema came under fire for approvingly posting on Facebook an article that said gay people were sexually promiscuous, rife with sexually transmitted diseases and responsible for “half the murders in large cities.”

Snyder condemns such remarks as “extreme and discriminatory,” Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel told the Free Press this morning.

via Gov. Snyder: Dave Agema’s antigay remarks ‘extreme and discriminatory’  – Detroit Free Press 

Okay, first off; Since when did the GOP became the political party that coddles homosexuals? Second of all, I was under the impression that the Republican Party was the party of moral Christian values.  At least they were back in the 1980’s, when Reagan was in office. The truth is, if it had not been for the Christian Right in America; Reagan would have never been elected at all. The problem is that the Republican Party establishment is now really pushing the Christian Right out of the party, in favor of an fiscal, Libertarian, Secularist forum of Conservatism. I can tell you this, if they continue to do this; the Republican Party will never win another election.

Do not get me wrong here, I am not in favor of a Christian version of Sharia law or anything silly like that; but good grief, can the Republican Party at least stand for something other than being the party of no? Are we that far gone as a society that even the party that supposedly believes in Conservative values, now is hostile to anyone, who happens to express any sort of Conservative Christian values?

As for the man’s comments, were they offensive? To a homosexual, yes, they were. But, that is the point! Christian moral values are always offensive to those who partake in immorality. Yes, Homosexuality is immoral. The Bible plainly says this in the Old and New Testaments.

It galls me that Snyder and his political correct friends in the GOP have taken this sort of cowardly stand against someone, who dares to speak his convictions against something that Biblically, is considered an abomination to the living God. Shame on Snyder and may he lose his reelection bid. I voted for the idiot; and first he stabbed my Father in the back, and now, he is stabbing the Christian Right in the back. For this, he should not be reelected.

 

If Harry Reid goes with the nuclear option, the Dems will be finished

That’s right folks, if Harry Reid is serious about pulling an overreach of this magnitude; the Democrats will face a setback that would last a very long time.

The Story:

Senator Harry Reid appears set to go nuclear — before Thanksgiving.

With Senate Republicans blocking a third Obama nomination to the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me Reid is now all but certain to move to change the Senate rules by simple majority — doing away with the filibuster on executive and judicial nominations, with the exception of the Supreme Court – as early as this week.

At a presser today, Reid told reporters he was taking another look at rules reform, but didn’t give a timeline. The senior leadership aide goes further, saying it’s hard to envision circumstances under which Reid doesn’t act.

“Reid has become personally invested in the idea that Dems have no choice other than to change the rules if the Senate is going to remain a viable and functioning institution,” the aide says. That’s a long journey from where Reid was only 10 months ago, when he agreed to a toothless filibuster reform deal out of a real reluctance to change the rules by simple majority. Asked to explain the evolution, the aide said: “It’s been a long process. But this is the only thing we can do to keep the Senate performing its basic duties.”

Asked if Reid would drop the threat to go nuclear if Republicans green-lighted one or two of Obama’s judicial nominations, the aide said: “I don’t think that’s going to fly.”

via Harry Reid is set to go nuclear. – Greg Sargent / The Plum Line

Well, I can tell you this; if Reid thinks that this “will fly” with the American people, he is wrong and the Democrats will pay the price for this one. If you think that the Republican Party will not exploit this little boneheaded move for political purposes; you are crazy. This will be seen by many as a power grab by the Conservative movement; and they will use it against the Democrats in 2014 and 2016.

Not only that; what happens if the Democrats lose the majority in both houses of Congress? Then, the Republicans will use that relaxed power to stack the courts with people who, of course, the Democrats will not like and then you would have state Christian statism in a horrible form; and you have to know the Democrats will not like that one bit. Now, if I were a partisan type, I would think this would be awesome. However, I believe in divided Government and I happen to believe that one party acts as a check and balance to the other. It keeps one party from holding a monopoly on Government.

It all goes back to that airplane analogy that I like to use: If a plane flies in circles; whether clockwise or counterclockwise, it does not really go anywhere and sooner or later, it will crash. However, if that same plane flies level, it always gets where it is going.  The same goes for the Government; a Government that is controlled by one party, is doomed to failure and will eventually crash. However, a Nation with divided Government always gets where it is going.

Hopefully, Harry Reid has more sense than to pull a stunt like this one.

Others, mostly Democrats; your mileage may vary: The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA, Booman Tribune, Balloon Juice,Lawyers, Guns & Money, A plain blog about politics, Daily Kos, National Review, The Reality-Based Community and Hullabaloo (Via Memeorandum)

From the “You gotta be kidding me” file: House just voted on 2 bills that would undercut new financial regulations

This one somehow snuck past me.

I happen to read on Populist Jim Hightower’s website about this one here and I went and looked it up and sure enough; there it was in black and white:

The story:

WASHINGTON –– To Wall Street, this town might seem like enemy territory. But even as federal regulators and prosecutors extract multibillion-dollar penalties from the nation’s biggest banks, Wall Street can rely on at least one ally here: the House of Representatives.

The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation.

The bills are part of a broader campaign in the House, among Republicans and business-friendly Democrats, to roll back elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the Depression. Of 10 recent bills that alter Dodd-Frank or other financial regulation, six have passed the House this year. This week, if the House approves Citigroup’s legislation and another bill that would delay heightened standards for firms that offer investment advice to retirees, the tally would rise to eight.

Both the Treasury Department and consumer groups have urged lawmakers to reject the bills, warning that they could leave the nation vulnerable again to excessive financial risk taking. The House proposals stand little chance of becoming law, having received a much chillier reception in the Senate and at the White Ho

via House, Set to Vote on 2 Bills, Is Seen as an Ally of Wall St. – NYTimes.com.

You believe those greedy bastards? Jim Hightower is not amused and rightly so:

Audio:

[podcast]

Partial Quote:

On the day before Halloween, the ethically-challenged members of our lobbyist-haunted House of Representatives did a perverse imitation of “Profiles in Courage,” turning that body into “Profiles in Spinelessness.”

In particular, they cravenly caved in to an outrageous and dangerous demand by Wall Street whiners. Such financial powerhouses as Citigroup just hate having their profiteering recklessness restrained by the regulatory reforms passed after their 2008 financial meltdown. Even though the shockwaves from that Wall Street collapse continue to devastate America’s middle class, the banking elite have completely recovered – including recovering their swaggering arrogance and ability to sway money-hungry congress critters with rich campaign donations. — Read the rest at Jim Hightower’s site

I am shocked that more Conservatives are not swinging from the trees on this one here! To their credit, there are some Democrat Party house members that are opposed to this bill and rightly so. This is the same idiotic crap that brought down the stock market and killed our economy; thank goodness there is some semblance of sanity up on the hill.

Sure enough the Bill passed the house, But it is not expected to make it through the Senate and the White House has said that they would veto the thing, if it made it to the President’s desk. Which in this instance is a very good thing. However, this is not the point. What is the point is this: Those same bastards who caused the great meltdown of 2008, are now lobbying our Government to put things back as they were, so that this sort of thing could happy again. That my friends is enough to make an economic populist, like myself, to want to bite a nail in two! 😡

The people that caused the Wall Street meltdown and downturn in our economy ought to be brought up on treason charges, and lined up against a wall and shot! 😡 But, instead, they are trying to buy their way back to lawlessness. This my friends, is an outrage.

The problem with Derek Hunter is…

The problem with Derek Hunter is, that he is an idiot.

At the link above this idiot goes on a rant about libertarianism and how it’s no longer truly defined and how they don’t seem to change policy. Which is true in some respects, but then he proceeds to compare the Libertarian Party to the Republican establishment and blames them for the loss in Virginia. Which in my opinion is quite stupid.

Reason why the guy up in Virginia lost is because not everyone is down with the extremist wing of the GOP which is represented by Ted Cruz. Some people believe that causing the government to default on its debt obligations is not always the smart idea.

Furthermore, why the guy up in Virginia lost is because he was a social conservative and now in the GOP social conservatism is not a real big priority.

One of the biggest mistakes I believe that the GOP could make now is to go off on a tangent of social conservatism. Folks whether we like it or not we lost that battle. The 1980’s as Dr. James Dobson correctly observed was simply a holding action and in the internet came in and killed any chances of that actually succeeding.

Not to mention that George H.W. Bush came in with his new world order and went soft on taxes and destroyed the Reagan Revolution.

So,I think we really need to get off of the social conservatism kick and concentrate on what’s truly important and that’s the financial state of the United States.

Not everyone thinks like the Tea Party and furthermore not everyone thinks that Ted Cruz is some sort of a rock star. There are some of us who actually believe the Ted Cruz is done more to damage the brand of the GOP then he has done to help it.

Update: Just thought I would let everyone know. Mr. Hunter wrote me on twitter and posted a link to my blog entry with a rather condescending and sarcastic remark. Well, I am all for political discussion; but I am not for ad-hominem attacks. I posted a legit criticism of his column and he responded with a personal attack. So, for this; I blocked him on twitter. Therefore, I am shutting off the comments and trackbacks on this blog entry. Because Mr. Hunter wants to turn this into a spit ball contest and I am a bit old for that sort of a thing. So to Mr. Hunter I simply say this: Grow up. If you cannot handle dissenting opinions; then stop writing on TownHall.com. Furthermore, stop writing whining columns about how your candidate did not win.

Update #2: I think this speaks for itself:

Smart move by David Barton

I wrote about this before and it appears that David Barton has conceded to reality.

Via the Corner over at NRO:

Controversial Evangelical author David Barton just announced that he won’t challenge Senator John Cornyn in the 2014 Texas Senate primary. On Glenn Beck’s radio show this morning, he told Beck’s listeners that, though the primary is “winnable,” the timing isn’t right for him.

“What can I do to talk you into this?” asked Beck, disappointed.

Texas tea-party activists had been hankering for Cornyn to get a primary challenger ever since he removed his name from Mike Lee’s letter urging his Senate colleagues to refuse to support a CR that funded the Affordable Care Act. But finding a candidate with the requisite name recognition, connections, and willingness was a tall order. Enter Barton, former vice chairman of the Texas Republican party, who’s well-connected in the Evangelical movement and has deep ties with the Texas conservative grassroots. Barton is a lightning rod for controversy: The publisher of his most recent book, The Jefferson Lies, pulled it because of concerns over numerous factual inaccuracies. (Beck wrote the foreword for that work and has promised to continue publishing it.)

Barton told Beck’s listeners that he had done polling to investigate his odds in the race, and believed it would have been easy for him to raise the first $3 to 4 million.

“Has Louie ruled it out?” Beck asked, hoping Representative Louie Gohmert would challenge the senator. The Texas congressman did reject the idea in July, and it’s ultimately unlikely Cornyn will get a competitive primary challenger.

I believe this to be a very smart move by David Barton. Because quite frankly, Barton would be a lightening rod for the left to attack the GOP as an extremist party. Furthermore, it would cost the GOP a important seat in the Senate. The plain truth is that while Barton might have some noble intentions; he is simply unelectable and his campaign would be unwinnable.

It simply boils down to credibility and Barton has a credibility problem; his book was pulled because of issues with accuracy. Those sort of things are not exactly a feather in ones cap, when it comes to politics. Either way, I am glad to see that Barton did not try and run; because in his case, the Republican Party simply did not need someone of his ilk trying to run for office.