Moe Lane

Well… if by ‘racist’ you mean ‘insufficiently respectful towards the President,’ which I understand is how the Democrats define the term these days.  Caprio is a little upset that President Obama isn’t endorsing him in what is turning out to be a very close gubernatorial election between him and ‘independent’ Lincoln Chafee.  So in classic sour-grapes fashion Caprio has decided that he doesn’t want Obama’s help, after all: “[Obama] can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I am concerned.”

…which is, of course, utter nonsense: the race is currently in free-fall, and the Democrat needs all the help that he can get.  Caprio’s problem is that the President would rather have a reliable ‘independent’ in RI to burnish the President’s ‘centrist’ street credit in 2012; and Chafee’s certainly more reliably Obama’s creature than he ever was a reliable Republican.  Actually, Caprio has two problems: the second is that Obama’s traveling to Rhode Island to fundraise for the DCCC (and maybe try to keep John Loughlin from taking RI-01)… and in the house of a Chafee supporter, no less.

I’d be sympathetic, except that Caprio’s a Democratic politician, so I don’t feel like it.  Still: regretting those Clinton connections yet, Frank?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: John Robitaille is the Republican nominee in this race, and he could use your help.  And it’s surprising that more national-level Chafee-loathers aren’t helping out John, here…

…relax, it’s cool: he’s made a deal with the RI GOP. They’re supporting his candidacy, which is single issue: Robert Healey wants to… eliminate the position of Rhode Island Lt Governor, on the grounds that it’s an absolutely useless position that costs the taxpayers millions.  It’ll require a constitutional amendment, but (assuming he wins) Healey won’t generate a budget or staff.  As Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion notes (H/T, btw), probably nobody will even notice.  Which is kind of the point.

No, really: the Rhode Island GOP is actively supporting this. The winner of the primary (Heidi Rogers) withdrew and endorsed Healey.  Likewise, the state party refused to pick a replacement and is supporting Healey*, much to the fury of the Republican who came in second (who I will be kind to, and not name).  This immediately elevates the Rhode Island GOP to the semifinals of the Coolest State Republican Party in 2010 contest; it’s nice to see a state party actually take this ‘smaller government’ thing seriously.

Moe Lane

*As Rogers’s own press release indicates, the original plan was for the RI GOP not put up anybody at all; but, of course, there’s always somebody who doesn’t want to play nice with others, and a couple of those somebodies ran for Lt Governor.  Hence, Rogers’s run; and hence, her withdrawal.

Seriously, the way that they did this is the only way I’d sign off on it: I’m pretty hard-nosed about ‘support the Republican candidate.’  But this is pretty clearly how the local Republican candidate and group want to play things, and it’s also pretty clearly freaking out the Democrats…

John Loughlin, candidate for RI-01 (Patrick Kennedy’s seat). His website is here:

We have more on the way from CPAC.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Was it something we said?

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

That’s the word that’s going down on the street:

A Democratic official says Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election for his seat representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Congress.

The official spoke to The Associated Press only on the condition that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak ahead of the official announcement.

[snip]

Patrick Kennedy has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse since crashing his car outside the U.S Capitol in 2006.

Interesting that the Kennedy name is no longer sufficient to protect its holders from premature leaks like this. Also interesting that this is happening; then again, his numbers were abysmal. They were so abysmal that GOP challenger John Loughlin might even be disappointed about this, although… no, I doubt it.

More here: apparently, Kennedy felt the need to take his life in a ‘different direction.’ I would be cruel about my suggestions of where that different direction might end up going – but I just noticed something about this video I did a while back:

The Democrats are starting to run out of sitting Congressmen featured in it who’ll still be sitting Congressmen, starting next January.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I have to call this ‘taking a shot from Patrick Kennedy.’  If I took one at him he’d probably just drink it.

(H/T: Hot Air & JammieWearingFool) A lot of the focus of this article is on the abysmal performance of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D, RI) in it – when asked if he deserved re-election, only 35% of his constituents said ‘yes’; 28% said ‘no,’ and 31% asked ‘what are our options?’ – and we’ll get back to it (and John Loughlin, who’s running for the job) in a moment.  But I would like to highlight these two paragraphs about Sheldon Whitehouse:

Just 33 percent approved of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s job performance, down 11 points from a mid-December Brown University poll.

Fleming said a factor may have been the senator’s controversial December statement that floor opponents of health-care reform were fueled by fanatics, “right-wing militia” and Aryan support groups that hate President Obama.

The NRSC would be well-advised to start atoning for its error in 2006 by finding an acceptable candidate to oppose this fellow in 2012.  And by ‘acceptable’ I don’t mean ‘acceptable to the NRSC.’

(more…)

At least, he’s claiming that he’s been forbidden it by Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese, and Bishop Tobin hasn’t denied it – and Tobin has denied that he’s ordered priest under his authority to actually deny Kennedy the Sacrament.  Bishop Tobin’s office has also released a letter indicating that the bishop has chastised the Congressman on the subject of abortion since at least 2007; which will call into question the accuracy of Kennedy’s accusation that this is all about the Church’s firm line on abortion funding.  It’s probably a factor, and it’s certainly true that Rep. Kennedy has been obdurate in his heresy* for some time, so this is merely the latest salvo.

Still, it’d be nice if we didn’t have to deal with this particular legacy Congressman. There’s actually a serious candidate this go-round: John Loughlin.   State legislator, business owner, former military; not to be unkind, but Kennedy really hasn’t worked a day in his [expletive deleted] life, and it shows. Like, for example, in Kennedy’s ability to get himself sufficiently in trouble with the Church on this issue so as to actually be denied the Sacrament.

That takes skill.

Moe Lane

*The fact that the Church has neither the ability nor the particular desire to punish Rep. Kennedy (or other avowedly pro-abortion Catholics) for their shared heresy does not make it any less of one.

Crossposted to RedState.

Yes, I know: you’re looking at the screen and nodding slowly, as you would towards somebody who has blurted out an ‘insight’ that everyone else in the room had had five minutes ago.

(CNSNews.com) –  When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he “would have to check the specific sections” but said that it was like making people “sign up for the draft.”

And in fact I had already worked said insight out a while ago.  But… sometimes you just have to come out and repeat the obvious, dammit.

Via Dan Collins‘ Twitter.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

It was originally expected to pass, no problem. But then a bunch of people showed up and… well. 6-1 for became 4-3 against.

WOONSOCKET — Faced with a heavy outpouring of opposition from property owners, the City Council last night narrowly defeated a supplemental tax bill to wipe out a School Department deficit of $3.7 million.

[snip]

The measure would have given the city authority to hike all classes of taxes — residential, business and business equipment — about 10 percent. The average homeowner would have paid roughly an extra $231 this fiscal year.

Though the hike would have been about the same on small businesses percentage-wise, they would have paid significantly more since they are already taxed at a higher rate.

(H/T: Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, and check out this Jim Geraghty piece). (more…)