Paul Kane writes in the Washington Post that even if Democrats keep the House after the elections, Nancy Pelosi may have a hard time keeping the Speaker’s chair because of the promises Democrats are making to the voters on the campaign trail;
With House Democrats already bracing for steep losses in the midterm elections, at least five of Pelosi’s colleagues have announced in the past two weeks that they would not support her remaining as speaker, should Democrats retain the majority. More than a dozen others have told local and national media that they would consider backing a different Democrat.
Seriously? Is there anyone out there who believes Democrats will vote against Nancy Pelosi in the House next January? I mean, think about it for a minute. Remember how smug they were for the last two years, bragging that they can shove any damn legislation down our throats that they want because of their mandate – irrespective of how the voters feel? That “We won” smugness. Remember how instead of facing their constituents at town hall meetings they just canceled the meetings so they would have to answer questions…hoping the questions would go away. Remember how angry you were?
The first thing they’ll all do is celebrate how they fooled the electorate once again with their lies and vote Pelosi back to the Chair just to stick their fat, greasy fingers in your eye. And then they’ll make you pay for forcing them to make a promise they knew they wouldn’t keep. They just want that job security for two years so they can throw your money at their pet projects – and then make some more promises in 2012.
Anyway, you’ll be mad at Nancy Pelosi, not the cork smoker what brung her.
Thanks to Claymore, we were privy to the Democratic Underground’s live blog session with Alan Grayson, the bullying braggart Congressman from the Bronx who represents Florida’s 8th district in Orlando. During that live blog session we were able to see Grayson’s response to such deep, hard-hitting and topical questions as “…why did you shave off the goatee? You looked so awesome-scary.”
Well, according to the Washington Times, Grayson is in danger of being retired;
“It’s over – Alan Grayson is the surest loser in the House right now,” said David Wasserman, who covers House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
“Grayson has rubbed the voters of his district the wrong way. He misread his win in 2008 as an affirmation of his candidacy and his principles.”
Apparently, nationwide Leftist support for Grayson’s irritating behavior hasn’t influenced Orlando voters’ opinion of him (kind of the like the Right’s dislike of Nancy Pelosi doesn’t affect California voters).
While Mr. Grayson’s take-no-prisoners approach may endear him to his liberal base, it may not play so well with the 24 percent of his Orlando district who are registered independents. Many of those unaffiliated voters who sided with President Obama – and Mr. Grayson – in 2008 appear ready to vote Republican this year.
I may have to stock up on liquor for November 2d. I haven’t done a live blog session since the last election when TAH readers commiserated with us as we watched the inevitable outcome of that night. I may do it again, if there’s any interest.
Most of you remember Richard Blumenthal who was discovered to have spent years lying about his service in Vietnam to attract the veteran vote to his campaigns for Connecticut’s Attorney General. You probably also remember his non-apology from a pirated meeting hall of the Marine Corps League with a phony soldier standing behind him.
Not surprisingly, he’s also been caught lying about political things, too.
His opponent, Linda McMahon has finally begun to attack Blumenthal’s apparent inability to be truthful with his constituents;
I don’t know, me personally, I wouldn’t pull the lever for a candidate who can’t be proud of his service without embellishing his record. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.
Armed services chairman Carl Levin, who has never spent a day of his life in the military, is pressuring the president to stand fast on the withdrawal date for Afghanistan set for July irrespective of the conditions on the ground;
“The president is now under pressure from inside and outside the military to build flexibility into that July 2011 date,” Levin said in prepared remarks he’s set to deliver to the Council on Foreign Relations. “I want to tell you why I believe sticking to that date is essential to success, and why President Obama should not, and I believe will not, modify the July 2011 date.”
Levin, an opponent of the original surge of troops into Afghanistan that Obama ordered last fall, said that sticking to the date was critical to “strengthen Afghan resolve” to build its own internal military and policing systems to fend off Taliban-led insurgents once the U.S. leaves the country.
Of course we’ve all seen the deterioration of the relationship we’ve had with the Pakistan government in the last few years – burning of 27 fuel trucks yesterday and another deadly attack today is a good example. The withdrawal won’t happen overnight, so some troops will be left behind and vulnerable if the Afghanis don’t have enough “resolve” as Levin hopes.
Odds are that Levin’s statement will only strengthen the resolve of the Taliban and improve their recruiting efforts – especially if they institute a delayed entry program. Everything has a political solution to these people. They stopped us from finishing the job in Iraq in 1991, they stopped us from finishing what they started in Somalia, the future of Iraq is in question. Haven’t they learned the lessons of the last generation?
We haven’t heard much about surprise Senate nominee Alvin Greene lately, so I went looking for new stories about him today. I guess he tried his hand at golf…once…last week;
In July, the AP reported Greene received adequate marks for performing basic tasks and complying with training requirements. But reviewers marked Greene as an ineffective leader who lacked organization and received multiple disciplinary actions for failing to perform his duties.
Yet, he’s the best candidate to represent South Carolina according to Democrat primary voters.
Oh, one last thing. That thing that IVAW and Matthis and Bobby are always bitching about that the Army is always deploying “injured” soldiers? Well, they didn’t think that Greene was well enough to deploy when his unit left for the war last year. I guess the Army will deploy everyone except border-line retards, huh?
Our buddy, Val Prieto at Babalu Blog wrote to ask me about the background of the nine generals who wrote a letter to Congress to lift the travel ban to Cuba. Those generals included one colonel, but here are the signatories to the letter;
…retired generals Paul Eaton, Robert Gard, John Castellaw, John Hutson, David Irvine, John Johns, Stephen Xenakis, and retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson…
I didn’t recongnize any of the names so I did a cursory search of their bios and this is what i mailed to Val;
As far as the generals go, I have no substantive information on any of them, however I suspect that they have a vested interest in lifting travel bans to Cuba.
The first one mentioned, Paul Eaton, works for the “progressive” National Security Network which run articles about how the Democrats are real good on national security.
The next one, Robert Gard, works for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where he has advocated for withdrawal from Iraq since the beginning.
John Castellaw works for Pictsweet, the frozen vegetable company – I’d guess his motivations are related to agriculture.
John Hutson is a dean at Franklin Pierce Law School. Despite being a Republican, he spoke at the 2008 DNC and announced he was switching parties.
David Irvine lobbied for the anti-torture bill and writes for leftist Talking Point Memo.
John H. Johns retired in 1978 that’s all I know about him.
Stephen Xenakis works for Physcians for Human Rights and opposes “psycological torture” whatever that is.
Lawrence Wilkerson has been a critic of the Iraq War from the opening shot.
I guess that’s why the list is so short – they’re all liberals (and call themselves “progressives”). The lifting of the Travel Ban is hypocritical – the only thing it will accomplish is lining the pockets of the Castro brothers with hard tourist dollars and it’ll do nothing for the Cuban people.
But it gives US Democrats a chance to act like they’re compassionate – but really they’re doing nothing constructive. Not new to them or their supporters who are just looking for a political win.
I’m sure many of you remember TSO’s dismantling of VoteVets last year. He showed how disingenuous they are when dealing with an inexperienced public when using their ad campaigns to attack Republicans. The flak vest story was all about Republican candidates supposedly voted against giving the troops modern body armor. The vote that they cited in several campaigns in 2006 never had a thing to do with body armor, FactCheck.org confirmed this. The that little whiney bitch, Jon Soltz accused FactCheck of abandoning the troops.
dicksmith wants us to look at the player screen for this single slide;
dicksmith claims that the last entry, vote #330 on May 15, 2008, was a vote “for the troops” because it contained the new GI Bill.
Here’s vote #330 from thomas.loc.gov;
330 15-May H R 2642 On Agreeing to the Senate Amendment With Amendment No. 3 P Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act
Wanna know what was in it besides the new GI Bill? Again from thomas.loc.gov;
Appropriations for FY2008 to the Department of Agriculture for the Foreign Agricultural Service for grants under the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (P.L. 480) for emergency and nonemergency food assistance to foreign countries.
Appropriations to the Department of Justice for: (1) the Office of Inspector General; (2) general legal activities; (3) the U.S. Marshals Service; (4) the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); (5) the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); (6) the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and (7) the Federal Prison System.
Appropriations for the Broadcasting Board of Governors for international broadcasting operations.
Appropriations for the Economic Support Fund.
Appropriations to the President for: (1) global health and child survival; (2) development assistance; (3) international disaster assistance; (4) USAID for operating expenses and for the Office of Inspector General; (5) the foreign military financing program; and (6) peacekeeping operations.
Appropriations for: (1) the Bureau of the Census (Department of Commerce) for periodic censuses and programs; and (2) the federal prison system (Department of Justice) for salaries and expenses.
Additional appropriations for the Department of Energy (DOE) for science and defense environmental cleanup.
Appropriations for: (1) Department of Labor state unemployment insurance and employment service operations; and (2) the Department of Health and Human Services for the National Institutes of Health.
Appropriations for FY2008 for the Department of Agriculture for: (1) the Farm Service Agency’s Emergency Conservation Program; and (2) the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program.
Need I go on? I can – there look to be dozens more “appropriations” for things that aren’t related to defense.
Oh, yeah the troops are in there, way down at the bottom underneath all of that pork. I doubt anyone that had the intention to vote against higher taxes as Ben Chandler said would ever vote for this pork-laden turd. So I think Grover and his boys had every right to stick it to Chandler for lying to voters. Oh, yeah, dicksmith’s source for the bill? IAVA’s scorecard. Bedfellows.
And thanks, dicksmith, for reminding us that the Veterans Affairs Department has yet to pay ALL vets on time for their new GI Bill benefits. Even though it’s going on it’s third semester. A good idea works.
