Politics Blog

Interesting conversation on yesterday’s Rush Limbaugh show on where Rush talked about the article in the NY Times about how John McCain, not once, but twice threatened to bolt the Republican Party, and also the 2004 talk of running as Kerry’s VP in a “dream ticket” scenario:

“Senator John McCain never fails to call himself a conservative Republican as he campaigns as his party’s presumptive presidential nominee. He often adds that he was a ‘foot soldier’ in the Reagan revolution and that he believes in the bedrock conservative principles of small government, low taxes and the rights of the unborn. What Mr. McCain almost never mentions are two extraordinary moments in his political past that are at odds with the candidate of the present: His discussions in 2001 with Democrats about leaving the Republican Party, and his conversations in 2004 with Senator John Kerry,” the haughty Senator Kerry, who served in Vietnam, “about becoming Mr. Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket. There are wildly divergent versions of both episodes, depending on whether Democrats or Mr. McCain and his advisers are telling the story. The Democrats, including Mr. Kerry, say that not only did Mr. McCain express interest but that it was his camp that initially reached out to them” about being Kerry’s vice president, and McCain’s denying that.

But the Kerry camp says, “No, we got a call from McCain,” and you know that Kerry very publicly, proudly said that he was considering McCain. This 2001 business, I had forgotten that, but this is a result of how steamed he was over the South Carolina primary and losing the nomination to Bush in 2000. Remember, he had the Straight Talk Express? It was heading on down the highway? The reporters on it were having the best time, and so was McCain. Then the New Hampshire primary came along, and McCain aced it, but the whole thing got derailed in South Carolina over Bob Jones University and a couple of rumors some people put out about McCain. The point is, he was livid. He was fit to be tied. This is why some people still to this day think he’s got it in for the Republican Party. That’s why he crosses the aisle and makes deals with Democrats.

I think the point is more what the Democrats plan to focus on once they choose their nominee, more than Rush attacking McCain, as he alludes to here:

They better be aware what’s in store for them. Once the Democrats have their nominee and so forth, this is just a little, little bitty tidbit of… (interruption) Yeah, I know. There are stories about the Keating Five out there today, too. This is just a little heads-up about what’s coming Senator McCain’s way once the Democrats iron out their stuff and Operation Chaos has come to a conclusion.

And of course, he is right on the money with this comment:

But it’s still, all of this stuns me. It literally stuns me that a guy, Senator McCain, who spent years criticizing his own party and thought seriously about leaving his own party, is now the leader of it.

I’m with you Rush, I am still stunned that McCain was the last man standing and will be the nominee. I can just see the commercials now from the DNC, “John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, thought so much of the Democrat party, he almost became one.. twice and asked to be considered as a VP candidate in 2004.” UGH!

The useless United Nations and one of it’s premier departments, the UN Human Rights Council, has turned a blind eye and kept silent on offering any statement regarding the Chinese crackdown in Tibet:

(CNSNews.com) - China’s crackdown on dissent in Tibet has made headlines around the world and sparked calls in some quarters for a full or partial boycott of the Beijing Olympics, but the U.N.’s top human rights body remains silent on the issue.

The Human Rights Council has been in session in Geneva since March 3, but it has issued no formal statement on Tibet, despite calls by dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for it to take up the issue in a special session. The 47-member HRC’s four-week meeting ends on Friday.

Protests in the Himalayan region marking the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against communist rule began on March 10, reportedly turned violent in places, and spread to Tibetan communities in three neighboring Chinese provinces. Foreign journalists have been banned from Tibet, but the Tibetan government-in-exile says about 140 people have been killed in clashes. Chinese officials have put the figure at around 20.

The Council, which has been chaired during its rotation schedule, by Countries that still practice major human rights violations, is not so quiet when it comes to the US or Israel:

The HRC was established in 2006 to replace the 60-year-old U.N. Commission for Human Rights, a body widely seen as ineffectual and constrained by the presence of countries considered to be among the worst human rights abusers.

In the less than two years since, the council has held seven regular sessions, during which it has condemned Israel more than a dozen times, most recently in the early days of the current session.

This current makeup of the Council and it’s predecessor serves only to defame and attack Israel and the United States.

The lawyer turned actor turned politician turned actor turned politician will return to the screen just months after his political comeback ended with his campaign to become President:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson is returning to his career as an actor and signed a deal to be represented by the William Morris Agency, the talent group said on Monday.

Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, is best known in the entertainment world for portraying New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on the television crime drama “Law & Order,” but has appeared in numerous films and TV shows over the years.

I think this is a lot better venue for him as scripts seem to work better then speeches. We wish Fred Thompson all the best in his Hollywood endeavors.

Hillary Clinton: “He would not have been my pastor.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

A spokesman for the Obama campaign: “After originally refusing to play politics with this issue, it’s disappointing to see Hillary Clinton’s campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia.”

Can’t post – dodging sniper fire in Bosnia.

This thread’s for you.

With the news last week that NY GOP Congressman Tom Reynolds was calling it quits and not seeking reelection, the NY GOP has been searching for a viable candidate to run and hold the seat. The Democrats have also targeted this seat for their own.

The list of names mentioned within the political rank and file include a sitting Assemblyman and a former New York State Assembly minority leader, currently retired.

But the NY GOP is giddy with delight at the prospect of former NFL Quarterback from the Buffalo Bills Jim Kelly making a run for it:

He led the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls, and in 2002 was inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame. Could Jim Kelly soon add “Congressman” to his resume? Why not? Political office worked out pretty well for another former Bills quarterback named Jack Kemp.

Congressman Tom Reynolds’ decision not to seek a 6th term is leading to a lot of speculation over which Republicans may run. The short list includes Assemblyman Jim Hayes, and former New York State Assembly minority leader Charles Nesbitt who is retired, but wanting to get back into the game.

So they want Kelly, but does Kelly want them:

Two years ago, Kelly told 13 WHAM News that Republicans had approached him to run for Erie County Executive. But he said, County politics was not for him. ‘Nah, I ain’t going small, I’m going to go right to the top,” Kelly said. “No, if I’m going to do anything it’s either Senator or Congressman.” Turns out he didn’t run for either, at that time.

Big name and lots of money to be sure, but what positions does he hold? Does he have the knowledge about current events to be able to pull this off and be considered a viable candidate?

Does the name Jack Kemp ring a bell?, former Quarterback for the same Buffalo Bills.

Jack Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death for his role in assisting patients to commit suicide, has decided on a new career now that he is done serving time in jail for murder:

Jack Kevorkian, who spent eight years in prison for his role in an assisted suicide, will take on another crusade Monday: a race for Congress. He has planned a 10 a.m. news conference in Southfield to discuss his decision to run for Congress. He lives in the 9th Congressional District, which is represented by U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, a Bloomfield Township Republican.

Kevorkian, 79, is expected to run as an independent. He was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder in the Sept. 17, 1998, death of Thomas Youk, 52, of Waterford. Youk had Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian has said he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides during the 1990s. He was released from prison in June.

I don’t expect him to do to well, he probably murdered to many of his likely supporters!!

At the start of this presidential primary season, it looked like Hillary Clinton would easily be the Democrat nominee, and the likely next president. Meanwhile, we expected the Republican nomination fight to drag on for months.

Instead, the Republican party has picked perhaps the strongest nominee it could, while the Democrats are engaged in a bloody, protracted struggle that is tearing their party apart along racial and demographic lines.

The RCP general election poll averages now show John McCain leading Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, despite a faltering economy and various other headwinds for McCain.

Who woulda thunk it?? Click Comments and discuss.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton earlier this week on the snooping of Obama’s passport files:

“This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years.

“Our government’s duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes,” Mr Burton said.

“This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama’s passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach,” he said.

Fortunately, we have an answer for Mr. Burton. Survey says… Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser

While Barack Obama has had probably the worst week in his political life, and certainly of this presidential primary season,John McCain has had a few more downs then ups that have caused frustration amongst Conservatives, the GOP, (not necessarily the same thing these days), and has given worried Democrat leadership something to focus on.

John McCain’s biggest “sell” to apprehensive Conservatives about his candidacy has been his strength on foreign policy and the Iraq War. But apparently a trip this week to Iraq, a trip GOP critics were against even before the mistake, has created some controversy when McCain got mixed up:

Even before Sen. John McCain got mixed up by saying Sunni al-Qaida terrorists have been brought out of Iraq to be trained in Shiite Iran, Republican insiders felt he was in the wrong place at the wrong time on his visit to the war zone.

GOP critics disapproved of McCain even making the trip to Iraq accompanied by two of his closest Senate colleagues, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. They felt that no political purpose was served by the prospective Republican presidential nominee going halfway around the world to praise President Bush’s troop surge.

Democrats, disheartened by the bitterness of the Clinton-Obama struggle, seized on McCain’s mistake as good news. They say he messed up a key play in his strong suit.

How big is this in the grand scheme of things? Not that big, because Mr. & Mrs. Joe Voter will probably never hear of this, but for insiders, this is getting some play and giving Democrats something new to focus on against McCain’s biggest strength and has given the GOP something to go “uh-oh” about.

The second problem was more internal with McCain’s team vs. Conservatives. Always a concern to the base was McCain’s history, a history that shows McCain to be not so friendly to Conservative initiatives. By inserting a huge liberal Republican in charge of running the National Convention in September, McCain’s campaign continues to poke their finger in the eye of Conservatives:

John McCain’s team that is taking over the Republican Party has decided on Bobbie Greene Kilberg, a liberal Republican from Virginia long detested by conservatives, to run the party’s national convention in St. Paul, Minn., in August.

Kilberg, as an aide to President George H.W. Bush in 1990, promoted White House overtures to gay activists. She won an internal power struggle over gay politics with fellow Bush assistant R. Douglas Wead, who was fired as White House liaison to religious conservatives.

When Kilberg appeared on television by McCain’s side the night of Feb. 12 after he won the Virginia primary, her presence was resented by conservatives as a sign of contempt for them.

One time occurrence or an indicator of things to come and the way Team McCain will be treating Conservatives. McCain’s language says the former, his history and his actions say the latter.