I had a chance to talk today with Rebecca Wales, Communications Director of Smart Girl Politics. We discussed their publicity blitz, the nature and needs of activism among conservatives, and of course how cool Nikki Haley is.
Check it out.
Crossposted to RedState.
A. I’ve read Arizona’s immigration bill:
REPRESENTATIVE TED POE, (R-TEXAS): …Have you read the Arizona law?
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have not had a chance to, I’ve glanced at it. I have not read it.
POE: It’s ten pages. It’s a lot shorter than the healthcare bill which was 2,000 pages long. I’ll give you my copy of it if you would like to have a copy. Even though you haven’t read the law, do you have an opinion as to whether it’s Constitutional?
HOLDER: I have not really, I have not been briefed yet.
And AG Holder is being paid to do that, too. He’s not being paid to opine on it as a top administration official without thoroughly researching it first.
[pause]
Or is he?
Via Newsbusters; see also The Corner, Hot Air, Moonbattery, Instapundit, and just about everybody else at this point.
Moe Lane
PS: Rep. Ted Poe just wasn’t having any of that, was he?
I’ve been trying to do this post for a few days (Rasmussen usually puts these numbers up before it does a formal article). Short version: eight out of ten for the GOP, but the Democrats made up lost territory across the board.
| Apr-10 | Mar-10 | ||||||
| Issue | Dem | GOP | Diff | Dem | GOP | Diff | Shift |
| Health Care | 41% | 48% | (7) | 37% | 53% | (16) | 9 |
| Education | 43% | 39% | 4 | 40% | 43% | (3) | 7 |
| Social Security | 40% | 42% | (2) | 36% | 48% | (12) | 10 |
| Abortion | 40% | 42% | (2) | 32% | 47% | (15) | 13 |
| Economy | 39% | 43% | (4) | 37% | 49% | (12) | 8 |
| Taxes | 36% | 51% | (15) | 34% | 52% | (18) | 3 |
| Iraq | 41% | 44% | (3) | 39% | 47% | (8) | 5 |
| Nat’l Security | 40% | 42% | (2) | 36% | 51% | (15) | 13 |
| Gov’t Ethics | 34% | 30% | 4 | 35% | 33% | 2 | 2 |
| Immigration | 38% | 41% | (3) | 34% | 47% | (13) | 10 |
Their best? Many would argue.
As you’ve no doubt read by now, several people have been arrested, likely in connection with the Faisal Shahzad case. There’s something about this case that I don’t particularly want to highlight – in the sense that I don’t want it to be an issue – but that I sort of have to:
One of the men arrested near Boston on Thursday has been charged with overstaying his visa, and the other, identified as Pir Khan, was already the subject of proceedings to remove him from the country, according to one source.
The third man was arrested in Maine, also allegedly for overstaying his visa, a source said.
Folks, that right there is an example of why the Arizona legislature decided to explicitly implement federal immigration law on the state level; it’s not being enforced on the federal one. Do as many boycotts, protests, and/or primal screams as you like, but immigration control is a national-security issue. Yes, I’m being a big meanie by bringing up what appears to be an illegal-immigrant shadow economy that’s independent of the one that Mexican illegals use; the point is that these networks exist, and even if these three guys were merely part of a system to avoid showing up on the radar they were still apparently used by a terrorist to launder money. Sort of like how drug smugglers are doing the same thing, yes?
Sorry, but that’s what’s happening.
Moe Lane
Because I was having one: long story, but it involved wondering what I’ve been doing lately. Then I see this:
| Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his ‘confrontational tone’ |
…and I realize that one thing I’ve been doing lately is helping people like Chris Christie get elected.
You’re welcome.
Moe Lane
PS: No. Get your own.
Crossposted to RedState.
Rotten mood. Here. Have some of the Ludwig van.
This is good news…
Gov. Charlie Crist told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on April 30 that he would “probably” give refunds to donors who don’t approve of him leaving the GOP. Some donors to his U.S. Senate campaign were told before the switch that they would get their money back or pro-rated refunds.
No more. A couple of hours before Crist officially becomes an NPA voter, campaign spokeswoman Michelle Todd said there will be no refunds. Asked whether that amounts to a flip-flop, she said, “We have never made an official statement before. It is now the official statement. They donated to the Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate Campaign, and it’s still the Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate Campaign.”
…for three reasons: Continue reading Good news: Crist isn’t giving that money back.
The House Rules Committee. People usually call this one of the most important House committees out there, which is in my opinion untrue: it simply is the most important House committee. The reason that I say that is because the Rules committee has ultimate control over how and in what way a bill is presented and debated; add that to its ability to dictate appropriate amendments leads to an effective result of Rules being the gatekeeper for House legislation. The membership is deliberately skewed heavily in favor of the majority party (currently over two-to-one), and majority party membership on that Committee is at the discretion of the Speaker of the House. In other words, if a Member of Congress disapproves of the way that the Rules Committee operates, the only way to show disapproval is to vote for somebody else for Speaker of the House.
The Democratic vote to re-elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House for the 111th Congress was 255 For, 1 Not Voting. Every action – and every flawed piece of legislation – that made it past the Rules Committee since then is thus the responsibility of those 255 Members of Congress who authorized giving control of the American legislative agenda to Speaker Pelosi.
And that is why there is no such thing as a “conservative” Democratic politician. That first vote defines all the rest.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Said dilemma being, as Jim Geraghty put it, that the organization will have to make some hard choices this election on whether to endorse Republicans or Democrats: fortunately, it’s actually easy to solve. All you have to do is remember this:
Glad to help!
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