Month: November 2009

Yes. That Lamont primary challenge worked out *so* well.

Erick Erickson over at RedState covered this already:

Lieberman Digs In on Public Option
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: “I’m going to be stubborn on this.”

Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a “public option,” or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won’t vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included.

…but I cannot resist asking: does anybody over on the Other Side sometimes, ah, regret, aiming at a king – and missing?  I ask because this is the second time that Lieberman has been the grit in the gears for progressives: the last time was during the pre-Surge period, of course.  His mere presence in the 110th Congress meant that  Harry Reid couldn’t shut down the war before we could implement the standard American victory strategy*.  And now he seems happy to do it for government-option health care.  There’s obviously sound reasons for it – he goes into them – but, really, there’s a certain amount of blood-soaked revenge going on here.

I’ll spare you the lie about how I’m not enjoying this.  I am.  Even though I know that we’re still on track to get a no-public-option, no-abortion-funding monstrosity of a health care bill; honestly at this point there’s a certain fascination to seeing how much excrement that Congressional Democrats can dump on the sandwich and still be able to get its base to eat it.

Moe Lane

*Systematically flail about until we come across a working solution, then throw our essentially infinite logistics behind said solution and descend upon the enemy like an asteroid from orbit.  It’s not the most elegant strategy out there, but it works.

Crossposted to RedState.

Big Government: Hey, guess who dumped 20K documents in a dumpster?

Nine days after there was an announcement that their group was going to be investigated?  Yup, that’s right: ACORN.  San Diego office – just before California AG Jerry Brown came to visit.  Alas, if only somebody had had the foresight to wait for this sort of thing to happen, and retrieve the documents…

Oh.  Right.

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Photo41

They didn’t shred, they didn’t redact, and they threw out people’s sensitive and personal information – including things like copies of Social Security cards, W-4 forms, and driver’s licenses. I’m not a lawyer, but apparently that’s grounds for legal action right there; document disposal requirements are very, very strict.  Which is why the local ACORN branch is trying the novel ‘Oops, fall cleaning‘ excuse.

Which almost might be believable, except of course for the underage El Salvadoran illegal immigrant brothel thing.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Governor-elects Christie, McDonnell fib at the RGA shindig.

They were asked why they didn’t bring in former Governor Sarah Palin to campaign for them in Virginia & New Jersey, and both of them made what are entirely excusable fibs about scheduling conflicts and the need to stay focused on state-specific problems.  Come, I will hide nothing from you: they didn’t bring her in because both of them concluded that her reputation had taken a hit and had not recovered enough.

Yet.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Three new races to look at.

Drawing on and expanding from Jim Geraghty’s summary:

  • IA-03. D+1.  Leonard Boswell is the incumbent (first elected 1997); Cook currently does not list the district as in play (Likely Democratic).  Former wrestler Jim Gibbons (no campaign website yet) has just announced; he’ll be facing former National Guard chopper pilot Dave Funk in the primary.
  • MN-01. R+1. Tim Walz is the incumbent (first elected in 2006); Cook currently does not list the district as in play (probably because the Congressman won handily in 2008).  Former state legislator (and lightning rod) Allen Quist has declared; he’ll be hammering Walz on the latter’s support of the ‘stimulus,’ cap-and-trade, and health care rationing.
  • CT-04. D+5.  Jim Hines is the incumbent (freshman); Cook currently lists the district as in play (Likely Democratic).  Rick Torres (no campaign website yet) joins Rob Russo, Dan Debicella, Rob Merkle, & Will Gregory as competing for the Republican nomination.

Yup, the 2010 campaign season’s started. Time to start paying attention to your own, local races…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Meet Grant Bosse (CAND, NH-00).

On the principle that if a Congressional District that doesn’t exist can still generate 2,800 jobs (which also don’t exist) thanks to a ‘stimulus’ (which really doesn’t exist), it can generate a Congressman:

See also here. Congressional hopeful Bosse has also called for a national Phantom Congress Movement. There’s already been several people joining up; somebody should start an official website. Or run for their state’s own phantom CDs.

Or, heck, run for real ones.

Moe Lane

PS: Feel free to provide links to you, or somebody else, jumping on this particular bandwagon. The more creative, the better.

Crossposted to RedState.

Book of the Week: Take Back Your Government.

This one via Instapundit, and I’ve heard of it in the past:Take Back Your Government, by Bob Heinlein. I’d say “Yes, the Bob Heinlein” – except that nobody would dare write under the same name. It’s a practical treatise on local electoral politics that I suspect a bunch of people would like to read right now.

And, it being Sunday, we say goodbye to Destroyer of Worlds.