Tag: senate

TX-SEN: DSCC recruiting Abu Ghraib commander?

It certainly looks that way: the word is that Patty Murray is really and truly thinking that the best way to rally Texas Democrats to victory in 2012 is to recruit Ricardo Sanchez, the Army general who commanded coalition forces during the worst of the abuses done at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.  This, of course, blighted Sanchez’s career; while no formal charges were ever made, the general was essentially passed over for promotion until Sanchez took the hint.  Due perhaps to this lack of formal charges, Sanchez’s full culpability has never been established: reports indicate that the general’s authorization of interrogation techniques gave wide latitude to interrogators that was later horribly abused, but no credible evidence of his actual complicity in torture has been found.

Which (even if true) will never happen now, of course.  If Sanchez runs as a Democrat, the groups that would have been most likely to push for further investigation at this late date – the antiwar Left – will not be interested in pursuing the issue.  The antiwar Left will, in fact, enthusiastically support the man who was their head devil in their designated Hell on Earth… because to do otherwise would be to show some elementary sense of self-worth and dignity, and the antiwar Left has neither. Continue reading TX-SEN: DSCC recruiting Abu Ghraib commander?

Tim Kaine running for VA-SEN, because God loves me.

Jim Geraghty has the report.

And it is my devout hope that Tim Kaine brings the same competence and drive to the upcoming Senate election in Virginia that Tim Kaine previously brought to the Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Scott Brown, Martha Roby, Mo Brooks, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin, Steve Womack, Paul Gosar, Ben Quayle, David Schweikert, Jeff Denham, Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner, Steve Southerland, Rich Nugent, Daniel Webster, Dennis A. Ross, Allen West, Sandy Adams, David Rivera, Rob Woodall, Austin Scott, Raúl Labrador, Joe Walsh, Robert Dold, Adam Kinzinger, Randy Hultgren, Bobby Schilling, Todd Rokita, Larry Bucshon, Todd Young, Tim Huelskamp, Kevin Yoder, Mike Pompeo, Jeff Landry, Andy Harris, Dan Benishek, Bill Huizenga, Justin Amash, Tim Walberg, Chip Cravaack, Alan Nunnelee, Steven Palazzo, Vicky Hartzler, Billy Long, Joe Heck, Frank Guinta, Charles Bass, Jon Runyan, Steve Pearce, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Chris Gibson, Richard Hanna, Ann Marie Buerkle, Renee Ellmers, Rick Berg, Steve Chabot, Bill Johnson, Steve Stivers, Jim Renacci, Bob Gibbs, James Lankford, Mike Kelly, Pat Meehan, Mike Fitzpatrick, Tom Marino, Lou Barletta, Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Kristi Noem, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlais, Diane Black, Stephen Fincher, Bill Flores, Quico Canseco, Blake Farenthold, Scott Rigell, Robert Hurt, Morgan Griffith, Jaime Herrera Beutler, David McKinley, Sean Duffy, Reid Ribble, John Boozman, Marco Rubio, Dan Coats, Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, Roy Blunt, Kelly Ayotte, John Hoeven, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, Mark Kirk, Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, Terry Branstad, Sam Brownback, Paul LePage, Rick Snyder, Susana Martinez, John Kasich, Mary Fallin, Tom Corbett, Bill Halsam, Matt Mead, and Scott Walker races.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Jeff Bingaman (D, NM) cuts and runs.

Five terms is apparently enough*.  Frankly, it’s more than enough for a lot of Senators out there, but that’s just my opinion.

Contra Chris Cizzilla, though, Obama’s 15 point victory in 2008 is not the only thing to consider about New Mexico: it’s that in 2010 the GOP took the governorship and lieutenant governorship, flipped a House seat, and came pretty close to getting another one (the state legislature was a wash).  New Mexico is a swing state, and if recent history is any predictor it’s busy swinging back the other way right now.

Mind you, this is good news for Tom Udall, who won’t be up for re-election until 2014; and by then the pendulum may have swung back yet again.  In the meantime, we’ll have to see who gets bitten by the Senatorial bug…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Jeff Bingaman (D, NM) cuts and runs.

Jimmy Webb (D, VA) cuts and runs.

Just couldn’t handle the thought of running again for VA-SEN, apparently – although I’m sure that the lack of money didn’t help much there, either.  Or the fact that Webb was practically guaranteed a messy primary, thanks to his race-related thoughtcrime last year.  What ever it was, this isn’t a surprise, of course: it was obvious last week that Webb didn’t have the right stuff to run again in a year where things weren’t guaranteed to go his way.  I wonder whether enabling the extremist agenda of the exact same people who spit on his troops was worth it to the man?

…Actually, no, I really could care less whether it did or not.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Please run Tim Kaine for VA-SEN, Democrats. Please, please, please, please, please, please run Tim Kaine.

Re-Meet Ted Cruz (R-CAND, TX-SEN Primary).

Ted is the former Solicitor General of Texas and should be familiar to long-term readers of RedState: he was one of our featured speakers at the first RedState Gathering in Atlanta.  These days he’s one of the candidates running to replace retiring Senator Kay Hutchison.  We spoke about the campaign yesterday:

Obviously, given Ted’s background the conversation included his reaction to Obamacare’s recent drubbing in the courts.  His Senate campaign site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Re-Meet Michael Williams (R CAND, SEN-TX Primary).

Long-time readers of RedState are familiar with Michael Williams, of course: he was of the candidates for replacing Senator Hutchison, back when she looked ready to vacate her Senate seat. Now that she’s retiring, Michael is officially running for Senate. We talked last week:

Michael was until quite recently a Texas Railroad Commissioner, which (as Texas Railroad Commissioners soon learn to explain, over and over and over again) has nothing to do with Texas railroads; it actually oversees Texas energy policy, which is why it’s an elected position. His Senate campaign site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)



Alec Baldwin politics Senate taxes (placeholder post)

Just on the off chance that Alec Baldwin ever runs for political office in the near future… whoever is researching this, be sure to have your boss ask Alec how that residential status tax audit turned out.  Or why he fought it in the first place, seeing as Baldwin was for raising taxes on… well, people as rich as him… back in 2006.

Deceiver.com.  Doesn’t always have stuff that you can use – but when they do, it’s usually tasty.  And they have the saving grace of bipartisan finger-pointing.

‘I will not be shaking his hand tonight…’

That will probably be the most quoted line from the Rand Paul / Jack Conway debate last night, and for good reason: it represents a rather drastic line in the sand drawn against the scurrilous and vituperative wave of attacks made by progressive Democrats desperate to keep their tottering Congressional majorities.  The video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz53WkDY8H4&feature=player_embedded

What Dr. Paul is referring to is this exceptionally offensive and cynical attempt by the Conway campaign to provoke religious bigotry in Kentucky voters.  As Ed Morrissey noted at the link, one of the things that made said ad so… pettily nasty… was that Conway not only attacked Paul’s personal religious beliefs; he went after Paul’s opposition to funding faith-based initiatives.  Given the way that progressives in the last decade had gone after such things hammer and tongs themselves – at least, when there was a Republican in office – I think that we can safely assume then that their opposition was a flat-out lie. Continue reading ‘I will not be shaking his hand tonight…’