Meet Matthew Berry (R CAND, VA-08).

You might remember that I’ve talked with him before: but thanks to the new audio rig I can do a somewhat more proper job of an interview. The Virginia primaries are coming up: if Matthew gets the nomination he’ll be up against Jim Moran, who is rapidly moving up my list of People I Don’t Want To See In The 112th Congress*.

Matthew’s site is here.

Moe Lane Continue reading Meet Matthew Berry (R CAND, VA-08).

Ah, Robin Carnahan? Nothing ever goes away.

(All links via 24thState, which is pretty much your go-to site for Missouri politics these days.)

On the Internet, that is. So, when the Blunt campaign (accurately) notes that you were ““a banking executive” in Washington at the government’s Export-Import Bank,” and you argue instead that your “position in the 1990s was assistant to the chairman” – thus suggesting that you were in fact not a real “banking executive” – here’s some places that you should try to get sanitized:

Continue reading Ah, Robin Carnahan? Nothing ever goes away.

#rsrh Sad news on Traficant*.

He will not be running for Congress in multiple OH districts.  A shame: I had a glorious post planned for it, too.

Ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. filed nominating petitions today as an independent candidate for the 17th Congressional District on a platform of repealing the 16th Amendment.

After filing his petitions in the 17th district, Traficant said he was going to to the Columbiana County Board of Elections at about noon.

However, Traficant ended up not filing in the 6th, apparently he believed he could not run in both districts. However, an Ohio secretary of state spokesman said there was nothing in state law to prohibit Traficant for running for both seats in the same election.

(Italics mine) Now they tell us.  As to what effect that it has on OH-17… beats me; but people are going to report more on that particular race.  Jim Traficant is good copy, bless his heart.

Moe Lane

*NAME! THAT! PARTY!

Somebody tattled on the Democratic whine party!

Possibly the most important bit in this article (via Hot Air) is the bit I put in bold:

President Barack Obama’s Washington-bashing could boomerang on his party in Congress if he’s not careful, House Democratic leaders have warned White House senior adviser David Axelrod.

The fear — raised by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, campaign chief Chris Van Hollen and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn in a closed-door meeting Thursday — is that Democrats have more to lose if anti-Washington sentiment is not directed at one party or the other.

“If the president is going to go out and talk about how Washington’s broken, he’s got to include a strong contrast with congressional Republicans, or else we’re going to get blamed for it,” one meeting participant said later.

I note this because I’m pretty sure that the President had an expectation that the meeting was going to be free of leaks – and not only was it leaked, it was leaked by somebody who spent that meeting yelling at David Axelrod.  Which is how that meeting probably went in the first place. Continue reading Somebody tattled on the Democratic whine party!

#rsrh Jonas Brothers/Obama showdown!

Yeah. Actually… yeah. I could see where this might be seen as being a bit much.

Obama’s writers may have thought their quip about the Jonas Brothers during White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was a nod to the boy band and their star power, but the brothers saw it as a jab.

Nick and Joe Jonas were spotted sulking in the corner at the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair after-party when Yeas & Nays asked what they thought of the joke.

“We’re not that old,” Nick Jonas told Yeas.

“Seriously, we’re not pedophiles,” Joe jumped in.

That being said – and it also being said that, yeah, the President needs to start learning how to laugh at himself* – we are talking about the Jonas Brothers, here. Considering that their mission statement is “Be heartthrobs to America’s tweens…” well, my sympathies are muted.

Moe Lane

*Because he’d be better off doing it himself, rather than having us do it for him.

‘One (hundred) seat at a time…’

House Minority Leader John Boehner made a comment late last week that raised an eyebrow or two:

When pressed for a number, Boehner said he believed the GOP could win as many as 100 seats in this fall’s elections.

“At least 100 seats,” Boehner said when asked how wide the playing field for districts is. “I do,” the top House Republican answered when asked if he thinks there are 100 seats in the U.S. “that could change hands.”

Much as I hate to contradict Rep. Boehner, we must fight inaccuracy in all its forms.  There are not currently one hundred Democratic-held seats that could change hands, and he should have known better than to claim that in this media atmosphere.

There are currently only ninety-nine. Continue reading ‘One (hundred) seat at a time…’

‘The Bully Party.’

Funny thing about bullies: when they fall, they tend to fall hard.

Matthew Continetti (H/T Instapundit) says in print what I – and probably a lot of the VRWC – have been thinking:

The Democratic response to dissent is a lot like their governing style: partisan, arrogant, and self-righteous. In recent weeks, various Democratic factotums have lectured the public about “extreme” rhetoric, insinuating that the Tea Party takes its cues from The Turner Diaries. Some liberals suffer from a pathological inability to refer to the Tea Party by its name, preferring a crude and infantile sexual epithet. The folks waving signs and holding peaceful rallies have been insulted as fakes, wackos, ignoramuses, racists, nihilists, and hicks suffering from status anxiety. But when a poll revealed the Tea Party movement is better educated and wealthier than the electorate at large, a prominent Washington Post columnist summarily dismissed the movement as the “populism of the privileged.” The lines of attack change, but the message is always the same: Go home. Shut up. Let us do what we want.

There’s a word for this sort of overbearing, priggish intimidation: bullying. And like a lot of bullying, the Democrats’ behavior seems to stem from deep-seated insecurities. Maybe the Democrats are not as confident in government as they appear. Maybe they worry about the massive deficits and the hemorrhaging public debt. Maybe they read the same polls we do, the ones showing the public shifting right, Republicans leading the generic ballot, Republican-leaning independents returning to the GOP, congressional approval and support for incumbents at record lows, and the conservative base in a state of wild enthusiasm.

Continue reading ‘The Bully Party.’

#rsrh @jaketapper wins Merriman Smith Award.

Very cool.

ABC News president David Westin toasted Jake Tapper last night as the ABC News White House correspondent was honored with the Merriman Smith Award for presidential news coverage at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

I like Jake: he’s a good reporter.  In fact, he’d deserve the award even if pretty much everybody else eligible for it in the mainstream media didn’t suck utterly at covering this administration.

Oops, did I just type that out?

Moe Lane