pork – Moe Lane

Pass your own line-item veto, Axelrod.

Oh, Davey. I know that it’s all mean and stuff that his man-god is going to have to run as a mere mortal in ’12, but that doesn’t excuse amateur tactics on David Axelrod’s part, right? If he wants the line-item veto so badly in order to combat all that nasty pork that the President supposedly doesn’t want to approve, then Obama should dust off H.R.4890, have it resubmitted to the House, and tell the Senate to pass it this time. The Democrats have huge majorities in Congress –

– at least, for the next two months –

…so they’d have plenty of time to get the bill passed. They could do it in a week. If they really wanted to; which they don’t, which is why they’re trying to foist this off on Republicans. Of course, as Ed Morrissey notes, this is all really about how President Obama is panicking over the thought of us getting our hands on the budget that the Democrats were too gutless to pass in an election year. Much better to get one last session at the trough before the grownups take charge in January.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Meet Rick Crawford (R-Candidate, AR-01).

Starting with the background: AR-01 is one of those districts that is… interesting. It is currently rated as R +8 in the Cook Political Report, but is held by a soi-disant ‘Blue Dog Democrat’: in this case, Marion Berry. Berry has been in that seat since 1997: he won the 2006 election with 69% of the vote; and he was unopposed in 2008.

However, he will not be unopposed this term. Rick Crawford is going to be challenging him; it’s reported that the NRCC is looking at him as part of their planned campaign against selected ‘Blue Dogs’ that did not get challenged in the last election cycle. Rick is a business owner (AG Watch, a radio agricultural network) and military veteran (Army, bomb disposal) with strong roots in the area; he’s pro-life, pro-Tea Party, ready to run on an agricultural platform and is just as exceptionally happy to see the back of Arlen Specter as most of the people reading this, particularly after what Specter did to Kemp’s memory.

The NRCC is taking a challenge to this district seriously, and it’s no surprise why: while Barry has been comfortably winning elections lately – and didn’t have a challenger last cycle – the district itself has shifted on the national level (Gore in ’00, Bush in ’04, McCain in ’08). Plus there’s the entire agricultural subsidy thing, which Berry is notorious for (and, apparently, has set up an arrangement to allow himself to continue to benefit from personally). Then there’s the ongoing neutering of the Blue Dogs in general; as this NRCC radio ad (H/T: ARRA News Service) points out, Barry’s voting for what Pelosi’s proposing.

As noted above, Rick’s website is here, this is his current donation link, and here’s his Facebook page. We will no doubt see more campaign-related items as time goes on.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Need to fly somewhere?

But you can’t afford a flight, these days? Well, Jack Murtha is ready to help! – At least, the NRCC takes the attitude that he should be making the offer, and it’s hard to fault their logic. Actually, it’s impossible to fault their logic: Murtha did funnel all that money to ‘his’ airport for his own convenience, so the least he can do is give you some, too.

(See also The Sundries Shack for more background)

Crossposted to RedState.

Schumer video bragging about cutting pandemic fund surfaces.

Hey, who here thinks that the Nation, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, and the rest of the Journolist stenographers are going to reference this?

(For those who can’t see it: it shows Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer bragging about cutting out the very funding that a good number of ostensibly-unrelated Left-bloggers and writers are trying to pin on the GOP, in the person of Senator Susan Collins. And never mind the fact that the cutting was done as a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to bribe the GOP into signing on to the Democrats’ debt bill; or that it was an incredibly tacky unsuccessful bribe in the first place. Reality-based thinking is somewhat… flexible for the Online Left.)

Yes, neither did I. Even the ones that aren’t overtly obediently writing whatever they get told to write are busy with their uncritical willingness to accept Democratic talking points as gospel truth (as if it’s our fault that it takes a Cabinet appointment to make a Democrat pay his taxes). So it’s almost certainly foolish to expect that the dogs linked above will even dare bark at their masters. Never a good idea to make those who feed you angry, right?

Anyway, see Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Protein Wisdom, The Sundries Shack, Legal Insurrection, Q & O, AoSHQ, Hot Air, and my unworthy self for more details of what is proving to be all the evidence that you need that not only is the Left-sphere being fed its points: it’s being fed its points sloppily. Frankly, any of the above could have done a better hit job, even if you assume (as well you should) that we’d be intending to sabotage it…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Flake’s second call for ethics probe defeated by Democrats.

Anybody still surprised?

Well, Rep. Flake tried to get the Democrats to vote in favor of ethical behavior again, and again they voted him down. Via Instapundit:

House turns back call for PMA probe

The House on Thursday night turned back another call to investigate the PMA Group, a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha (D).

Twenty-one Democrats, including nine freshmen, voted to proceed with debate on the measure offered by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) calling for an investigation of the lobbying firm. Most of the Democrats represent fiscally conservative districts.

Continue reading Flake’s second call for ethics probe defeated by Democrats.

Senate Budget Bill held up in Congress, delayed until Monday.

We may be at wafer-thin mint time.

Repeat: “may.” Congress has an impressive talent at somehow managing to find new and exciting ways to spend your money.

Senate bogs down over $410 billion spending bill

WASHINGTON – The Senate, tied up in a fight over a huge omnibus appropriations bill, will have to pass a stopgap spending measure Friday in order to avoid a partial government shutdown.

[snip]

The huge, 1,132-page spending bill awards big increases to domestic programs and is stuffed with pet projects sought by lawmakers in both parties. The measure has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

The measure was written mostly over the course of last year, before projected deficits quadrupled and Obama’s economic recovery bill left many of the same spending accounts swimming in cash.

And, to the embarrassment of Obama — who promised during last year’s campaign to force Congress to curb its pork-barrel ways — the bill contains 7,991 pet projects totaling $5.5 billion, according to calculations by the GOP staff of the House Appropriations Committee.

Continue reading Senate Budget Bill held up in Congress, delayed until Monday.

Peter Visclosky’s (D IN-01) links to PMA pay-for-play?

NAME!
THAT!
PARTY!

“Troubled.” How droll. It’s Pete Visclosky (D, IN-01), by the way. I repeat it because the AP can’t seem to.

Visclosky’s ties to troubled PMA Group run deep.

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky has promised to return money from donors with ties to a troubled lobbying group, but critics say his ties to PMA Group run deep.

The northwest Indiana congressman’s former chief of staff worked as a lobbyist for the firm, and Federal Election Commission reports show he received at least $100,000 in contributions from donors tied to PMA Group between 2006 and 2008. PMA Group was the top donor to Visclosky’s 2008 re-election campaign.

Continue reading Peter Visclosky’s (D IN-01) links to PMA pay-for-play?

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) must now repair jobs-destroying mistake.

Tell me again about how the American people don’t care about pork. Chuck.

You know, like you did here:

…because you just realized that they actually do care when it comes to keeping their existing jobs, huh? Continue reading Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) must now repair jobs-destroying mistake.