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).
[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.
…65, is it? Well, that’s a little early. Still, being in a condition where you have to have your aides physically intervene every time you get asked a perfectly reasonable question about government waste is a little, ah, problematical:
Hot Air has more; Jason Mattera, of course, is the new editor over at Human Events (and welcome, by the way). He also seems to have a bit of a talent at finding Congressmen who don’t want to talk about the health care bill…
Moe Lane
PS: Both Matthew Berry and Patrick Murray are eager to help Jim Moran reach some sort of closure with both his anger issues, and his self-evident sense of resentment towards those fools that will not recognize Jim Moran’s genius. I imagine that both would be equally eager to hear from you.
Crossposted to RedState.
I’m going to miss laughing at that notion, starting January 2011.
Forget ‘outraged’: if anyone is surprised, then they haven’t been paying attention.
Lobbyists and corporate officials talked bluntly in e-mail exchanges about connections between making generous campaign donations and securing federal funds through members of an important House Appropriations subcommittee, according to not-yet-public documents reviewed by ethics investigators.
In summer 2007, for example, senior executives at [Innovative Concepts] tried to figure out which of them would buy a ticket to a wine-tasting fundraiser for Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense. At the time, the company sought help from Moran’s office in securing contracts through special earmarks added to the defense bill.
[snip]
The fundraiser was hosted by the PMA Group, a powerful lobbying firm whose unusual success in obtaining “earmarked” contracts from members of the military subcommittee was a key focus of a recent House ethics investigation.
Moran raked in $91,900 in campaign checks to his personal campaign and leadership PAC that day. He secured an $800,000 earmark for Innovative Concepts in the 2008 defense appropriations bill.
Or they don’t really want to. Which I can sort of understand; after all, the revelation that one has not only been lied too, but that one has enthusiastically participated in being lied to in order to get… nothing at all? Yes, that would strike someone squarely in the self-worth. I’d feel sorry for that, except that I have to live in the same corrupt political atmosphere.
At any rate, feel free to read the whole article, particularly the bits where the Democratic-run legislature let off the all-but-one Democratic appropriators, despite the fairly clear understanding that money was expected, and that money would be taken. Also, note that Jim Moran has at least two people on the GOP ready to replace him: Matthew Berry, who just picked up the uber-critical Volokh Conspiracy endorsement (via Instapundit); and Patrick Murray, who I just missed interviewing at CPAC. I would say that they’d both be superior to having Moran in that seat, and it’d be true: it’d also be implicitly insulting to either to suggest that they wouldn’t automatically clear that particular bar anyway.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
[UPDATE] Welcome, Campaign Spot readers.
Said caveats are: Internal poll, D+16 district, and Moran’s still ahead by three. But a 44/41 Moran/Berry split at this stage is still noteworthy: add five points to Moran’s total and he still polls under 50% – which means that he’s vulnerable. I don’t mind seeing a 40/38 split on ‘try somebody new’/’keep Moran,’ either.
Post-Massachusetts, it’s no longer reasonable to assume that anybody on the Democratic side is too safe to be defeated: so keep an eye on this race. I’ve mentioned Matthew Berry before: if I was in his district I’d probably be supporting him in the primary right now, not least because he’s been engaging the new social media (which is a pretentious way of saying ‘he’s actively working to get support’). And I can’t [expletive deleted] stand Jim [expletive deleted] Moran. Watching that particular corrupt, anti-Semitic suckweasel go down in flames on Election Night would be a better present than a pony, and I’ve always wanted a pony.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.
(This post has been updated to reflect a conversation with Matthew.)
Matthew Berry. Not the ESPN guy: the former Clarence Thomas clerk/DoJ/FCC guy. He’s running on a fiscal conservatism/national security/ethics platform; and opposing the infamous Jim Moran, believer in Israeli conspiracies. His statement about Moran’s blathering* on the NYC show trials works for me:
“It is wrong for Congressman Moran to question the patriotism of the millions of Americans who believe that terrorists such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried by military commissions rather than in civilian courtrooms. Furthermore, Congressman Moran’s comment reflects a basic ignorance of American history. Military commissions were used to try war crimes during the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War II. The use of a military commission to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would have been entirely in keeping with American history and tradition.”
For those wondering: VA-08 is a D+16 district that includes Arlington, Virginia, which makes Matthew’s oppositional stance on the hot-button topics of the stimulus, cap and trade, and the health care rationing bill all the more notable. He’s also supportive of the Tea Party’s objectives of more citizen involvement in government, particularly from a fiscal point of view. Lastly; Matthew happens to be gay, and is making no attempt to hide his sexual orientation. Which, given the way that minority conservatives routinely get viciously targeted by the Other Side, deserves particular mention.
The race itself is in its early days; Matthew appears to be the first candidate to declare for the primary (the VA GOP**, while not involving itself in primaries, did note that “it would be of great benefit to the Commonwealth of Virginia if Jim Moran were to lose his seat;” they look forward to supporting the eventual candidate). All in all, a fiscon and natsec hawk sounds like a definite trade-up to the guy that we have in there now.
Moe Lane
*Apparently, objecting to show trials in NYC is now somehow un-American. I’d note the irony, except that I’m more bemused at the irony that a ‘show trial’ has become the best possible outcome for this administration.
**Who did a nice job with the last election, by the way.
Crossposted to RedState.
[UPDATE]: I’ve had a copy of the image sent to me that includes the URL. The Google cache for the site is here; as you can see, not only did the image originate from the site, but the author him/herself was present at the Reston Town Hall, writing posts about it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think that we’ve established that the flier found below represents a deliberate attempt by the Left to incite racially-motivated hate against the Right.
I apologize in advance for the ugly and graphic nature of the image that will be available for viewing after the fold: I would prefer not to show it, but unfortunately somebody decided that it was suitable for distribution after the Reston, VA Town Hall – and I can’t actually talk about it without showing it. Continue reading This is how they see you (image may be NSFW).
You know, this admission may have justified the entire town hall thing, right there:
Here’s the quote:
“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician. Here’s why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put in it, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on. And that is the plain and simple truth.”
Not that Dean’s being completely truthful: the various health care rationing bills share a distressing lack of taking anybody on. And he neglected to mention that the problem wasn’t so much ‘taking on’ the trial lawyers as it was ‘losing the money‘ from them. But this is still more truth than we’ve grown accustomed to from a Democratic politician: no doubt one reason that they packed Dean off to American Samoa right after the election.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Trying to ensure that Brian Moran’s bid for Virginia Governor isn’t overshadowed by his brother going to jail is as good an explanation as any for the Democrats’ unwillingness to throw a few of their own to the wolves. Although Chris Stirewalt’s theory (H/T: Instapundit):
Americans generally have low ethical expectations for their politicians. A little double-talking or some womanizing or an oversized ego have long been considered pretty normal for elected officials. Bill Clinton wasn’t the first of his kind, just the apotheosis.
And despite the worshipful tone taken by many toward President Barack Obama, most Americans still know better than to take politicians too seriously.
But there is an invisible, shifting line that anyone in public life mustn’t cross.
What keeps politics interesting, though, is that no one ever seems to learn the lesson.
…does have the virtue of simplicity, and you can take that any way that you like.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Jennifer Rubin, who also commented on that Jim Moran column I raised an eybrow at earlier, reminds us that the subject has come up before…
It seems Jim Moran’s hometown spoke out on this issue a couple of months ago, according to this news report. Residents were apparently “decidedly unfriendly to news that the Obama administration might move some detainees from their highly controlled military fortress at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Alexandria.” The rest of the political establishment is not nearly as excited as Moran about being a “host city”…
As the WaPo article notes, a couple of years ago Alexandria had to play ‘host’ for Zacarias Moussaoui and some other terrorist suspects going through the criminal justice system, and they didn’t enjoy the situation in the slightest. Which is why city officials made it clear in said article that they were not interested in having Gitmo detainees show up in their locale now; and which is why both Jen and I are wondering whether Rep Moran bothered to actually check with anybody before he volunteered his district for the ‘honor.’
Probably not: it’s funny how often statements like “But that’s not the Alexandria I know and have represented in Congress for nearly 20 years” turn out to be, well, untrue…
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Oh, how I will get yelled at for this.
[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. You may find this lighter fare on vamprirism studies amusing.
I understand that the PMA thing requires a distraction; but this?
In each case, Alexandria demonstrated the kind of courage and patriotism that can be traced to the city’s roots as the home town of George Washington and Robert E. Lee.
“Courage” I will grant for General Lee, readily enough. I even think that he did what he thought was the right thing. However, speaking as someone whose home states contributed the 69th New York Infantry, the 1st New Jersey Brigade, and the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry to the Army of the Potomac… I feel that we should reserve the designation of “patriotism” for those individuals who, generally speaking, do not enter into armed rebellion against the duly constituted government of the United States of America.
Although I must admit: it almost obscures the fact that the man has just volunteered his Congressional District to hold a bunch of vicious terrorists indefinitely. As I said before, that’s one heck of a distraction.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
