“Cui Bono?” from keeping the Pill a prescription drug? …Why, Planned Parenthood, of course.

If you’re wondering why the Left is going ballistic over current proposed legislation by Senators Kelly Ayotte (R, NH) and Cory Gardner (R, CO) that would effectively make oral contraceptives an over-the-counter medicine, why, here you go: “Planned Parenthood alone makes around $1.2 billion each year from contraceptive services.”  It really does just come down to this: money.  There’s a lot of money on the table. You tell an industry that it’s about to lose that huge a chunk of its revenue stream, and it’s going to react.  You almost can’t even blame them for it: effective monopolies always look different from the inside.  In fact, they may not even consider themselves to have an effective monopoly*, insane as that sounds.

Continue reading “Cui Bono?” from keeping the Pill a prescription drug? …Why, Planned Parenthood, of course.

The fatally flawed Democratic Senate retention campaign, in crystallized form.

This shouldn’t have worked.

Rachel Maddow’s producer had a question: “Does Cory Gardner even have a campaign headquarters?”

He did, but Colorado Democrats were confounded that they had no idea where it was located, which is why I frequently got asked, “Is there a headquarters?” and “Have you been there?” Yes and yes.

Here’s the scoop: Gardner’s campaign was located across the hall from the Colorado Republican Party headquarters in the Denver Tech Center, making it easy for operatives in both groups to run back and forth. The only sign outside Gardner’s office was the one left by the previous tenant, which read, “Building Maintenance Company.” The campaign decided to keep it.

Continue reading The fatally flawed Democratic Senate retention campaign, in crystallized form.

Mark Udall calls Cory Gardner ‘Senator’ at yesterday’s Colorado debate.

Man. Mark Udall’s internal polling must be awful.

If this election was anything except a fully mail-in ballot election, that would be DOOM right there. Heck, if it was Colorado’s second mail-in ballot election it’d be DOOM.  But between this, yesterday’s absolute disaster of an attempted hit piece against Gardner, and of course the polling… Cory Gardner is nicely in the glide path for winning in two and a half weeks.  There are some things that the margin of fraud* can do nothing for.

But no sense being complacent. Cory Gardner for Senate.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*I do believe in it; I merely think that the percentages involved are a lot narrower than do many of my colleagues.  I suspect that it is mostly used to make sure that the ‘right’ people win Democratic primaries.  Not as many people looking at those races and in many cases winning the primary = winning the election.

…That was an amazingly messed-up partisan own-goal by the Left over Cory Gardner.

Twitchy has the gory details: suffice it to say, Deadspin tried to pitch a story (that Cory Gardner never played high school football) into a game changer for Colorado’s Senate race, and ended up probably guaranteeing Gardner’s election (because Gardner actually played high school football, and has the pictures to prove it).  In the process Deadspin has managed to make at least several dozen Lefty journalists and activists look like chumps, and that promises to keep going on for a little while longer.

Lots of fun, but I should have kept better notes. Or any notes at all.

Moe Lane

Mark Udall: standing up for Planned Parenthood’s Taxpayer-Funded Contraceptive Racket.

Oh, man, that was embarrassing for Mark Udall.

Short version: Cory Gardner supports making birth control pills available OTC. Mark Udall opposes everything Cory Gardner does, because of the way that Cory Gardner does it. So Cory Gardner asked Udall whether Udall supported making birth control pills available OTC at all… and Mark Udall declined to answer. Because Mark Udall is counting on Planned Parenthood’s support, and since Planned Parenthood is making a nice hunk of change out of the current regulatory system (courtesy of the American taxpayer), well…

#protip for Sen. Mark Udall (D, Colorado): if you’re gonna brag that your dad ran for President…

…as you did here:

It’s then OK for your opponent (Cory Gardner) to also bring up that your dad ran for President.

(The Udall campaign has gone absolutely INSANE over this ad, by the way. It’s remarkable, how much so.)
Continue reading #protip for Sen. Mark Udall (D, Colorado): if you’re gonna brag that your dad ran for President…

Tweet of the Day, And Cory Gardner Breathes A Sigh Of Relief edition.

I have to agree with Iowapundit, here:

…John McCain would do Gardner more harm than good.

Five House races to look at.

There’s no unifying theme to these choices: they’re merely five candidates for the House of Representatives that the GOP has recruited, supported, or at least working with. There are more – there are, in fact, a good deal more – but these will do for a start. And so, in no particular order:

  • Cory Gardner (CO-04). State legislator.  One of three candidates  for this R+6 seat.  The seat is currently held by Betsy Markey, who not only voted for Cap and Trade; she pretended that she had read it. Gardner is a Tea Party participant, and doing very well in fundraising. Donate here.
  • Charles Djou (HI-01).  City Councilman, Army Reservist.  Candidate for this D+11 seat.  Neil Abercrombie is not seeking re-election, as he is planning to run for Governor of Hawaii: the lack of an incumbent and the general reaction to Djou has this race on a lot of dark horse lists.  Everything needs to work out just right, which is pretty much what we said about Cao down in Louisiana.  Besides, you make ’em fight everywhere.  Donate here.
  • Martha Roby (AL-02).  City Councilwoman with a track record of winning minority votes. Candidate for this R+16 seat.  Bobby Bright is a freshman hanging onto his fingernails, as witnessed by the fact that he was given permission to vote against both the stimulus AND cap and trade.  Martha’s running as a clear conservative, and it’s increasingly looking like she’ll be running in a clear field.  Donate here.
  • Van Tran (CA-47).  State Assemblyman, political refugee.  Candidate for this D+4 seat.  Loretta Sanchez looks untouchable… on paper; but the district went for Bush in 2004, Sanchez has tax and appropriation votes (she’s one of the PMA Porkers) to answer for, and – most importantly – both the GOP and Tran are eager to have a race here.  The Democrats really don’t want to have to fight for this seat.  Donate here.
  • Rick Crawford (AR-01).  Businessman, military veteran.  Candidate for this R+8 seat.  He’s up against Marion Berry, who did not have any opposition last election cycle; Berry also seems to be the type who likes to have creative income disclosures, which I believe that Crawford and the NRCC will be happy to bring up.  As I’ve noted before, Crawford’s pro Tea-Party; and he’s got solid connections with the community.  Donate here.

…and that should get you started.  As I’ve said, these aren’t the only five candidates that the GOP is running; merely five more or less representative ones.  And note that the Republican party is not playing the 2010 elections not to lose; it’s making aggressive moves, and in places where it perhaps was too quick to concede in 2006 and 2008.

This should be an interesting election cycle.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.