Buchanan the Loose Cannon

Former White House aide, three-time presidential candidate, commentator and magazine publisher Pat Buchanan told “The Washington Times” that “the conservative movement has passed into history. It doesn’t exist anymore as a unifying force.”

Buchanan’s definition of the term “conservative” is somewhere well to the right of Karl Rove’s. Here are a few choice quotes from the interview that illuminate Buchanan’s brand of radical conservatism.

“There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself.”

“American culture has become toxic and poisonous. Take a look at what Hollywood produces today and what it produced in the 1950s. The alteration is dramatic.”

“We say we won a great victory by defeating gay marriage in 11 state-ballot referenda in November. But I think in the long run, that will be seen as a victory in defense of a citadel that eventually fell.”

“Frankly, you would not have a cultural war in this country if the Supreme Court had said, ‘Look, free speech is one thing, but pornography is not covered by the First Amendment. If the justices had stayed away from forced busing, if they had let the states decide abortion and gay rights, you would not have had the cultural war — and probably not have had the victories that the Republican Party had in the 1970s and ’80s.”

“Both major parties agreed that they would do nothing to defend the borders and that we ought to have amnesty for those who break in illegally. There was no choice. The president has abdicated his responsibility to defend America from a foreign invasion. We add half a million illegals to our population each year, most of whom come to work, some to commit crimes against American citizens. I say, look, the kind of immigrants we want are people who want to come here and become part of the American family … not just to work and then go back home.”

“Look, you’re going to have 100 million people of Hispanic, primarily Mexican, descent in the American Southwest by the middle of this century, and I think you are in danger of losing the American Southwest, de facto. I think this country is risking coming apart, like other countries in the world, over issues of language, culture and ethnicity.”

Another California Hand Out

Seems like when California politicians needs money, they fly over to Florida. Witness recent L.A. mayoral candidate (and winner this week) Antonio Villaraigosa, who paid a visit to South Florida and went home with a full coffer. The word is out that Florida has big bucks to give, especially if you’re a Republican. And a Republican named Arnold has to be worth major bling.

Orlando Sentinel:

Gov. Jeb Bush will join Schwarzenegger at fund-raisers in Florida this weekend to raise cash for ballot measures aimed at side-stepping the Democratic-controlled Legislature of California.

In doing so, Bush is drawing criticism from both coasts for helping out with Schwarzenegger’s initiative campaigns.

This is funny, since Jeb and the Florida Legislature just spent considerable time and energy figuring out how to keep the “citizen” out of citizen initiatives.

“I think there is a certain bit of irony there,” said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Florida Common Cause, which has fought Bush and Florida’s Republican-led Legislature over efforts to restrict ballot measures.

“It always seems that people don’t like the citizens’ initiative process, unless their initiative is in play.”

Arnold is leaving no cash cow unmilked, with at least three events in three cities in three days.

The Orlando fund-raiser will take place at the Isleworth home of time-share magnate David Siegel, where seats are priced from $5,000 to $25,000.

Co-host is Robert Earl, chief executive officer of Planet Hollywood. Schwarzenegger, the former Mr. Universe and star of the Terminator films, is a past investor who promoted the restaurant chain in the 1990s.

So what’s in it for Jeb? Just trying to help those poor lost souls on the Left Coast.

“I am helping Gov. Schwarzenegger because I support his efforts to bring California out of its morass,” Bush said in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel.

Jeb would probably throw one of his trusted aides in front of a high-speed bullet train (you didn’t think he’d leap himself, did you?) to stop what Arnold wants if anyone tried it here.

In Florida, Bush has said repeatedly that he opposes the concept behind one of Schwarzenegger’s measures — having an independent commission draw voting district lines.

While Schwarzenegger is looking to take redistricting out of Democratic hands, Bush prefers that it stay with the Republican-dominated Legislature in Florida.

DeLay’s Pocket

Great web site to accompany the DeLay article that follows.

indelayspocket.com

You can click on your state and get a dollar-for-dollar breakdown of which of your Congressional representatives gave to the DeLay Legal Fund (ARMPAC), took from the DeLay PAC, and how your person voted vis-à-vis Tommy. The whole thing is summed up into a handy DeLay ranking score.

In Florida, no Democrats gave or received but some voted with Tom more often than others. Some Republicans evidently tried to stay clean, giving or taking only $20 or so, while Rep. Clay “Gimme Gimme” Shaw helped himself to $30,020.

Away with DeLay

From the Public Campaign Action Fund, top 10 reasons Tom DeLay should be kicked out of Congress:

1. Tom DeLay violates ethics rules at will, making him a national embarrassment. Indeed, he has earned four formal ethics violations, a truly rare achievement, as only five Members of Congress have been chastised by the committee in the last six years..

• In May 1999, the House Ethics Committee issued a rare private rebuke to DeLay, for “badgering a lobbying organization over its hiring of a Democrat as its president.” DeLay had complained to the Electronic Industries Alliance and the GOP House leadership the October before about its hiring of a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma, Dave McCurdy. After DeLay voiced his complaint, House leaders showed their displeasure with the group by postponing votes on an international treaty that the association wanted. (The New York Times, 5/14/99)

• In October 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct admonished DeLay, saying he had gone too far, and violated rules on three separate occasions: “The promise of political support for a relative of a member goes beyond the boundaries of maintaining party discipline, and should not be used as the basis of a bargain for members to achieve their respective goals,” the House Ethics committee wrote in its report. The Committee also admonished him for using federal resources, the FAA, for political purposes and for the appearance of conflict of interest by raising money at a golf tournament from Westar while considering legislation that would impact the energy company. (House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct; The New York Times, 10/1/04)

2. Tom DeLay embodies the worst of pay-to-play politics – he puts big donors like Enron ahead of the rest of us.

• DeLay’s rise in politics was fueled by Enron. The rogue company hosted the first fundraiser for his leadership PAC, raising $280,000 for him at the event. And DeLay fought hard for the company’s agenda of regulatory relief. Not only did Enron reward Delay with $32,700 over his years in Congress (making him its #8 top beneficiary overall), it gave two of his top aides a $750,000 consulting contract to do a “grassroots” campaign for the deregulation of energy markets, and paid his wife Christine $40,000 for a no-show job.

[…]

Gay GOP Candidate Wins Mayoral Election Despite Attacks from GOP Wingnuts

Talk about Republicans eating their own. On Tuesday, Mike Gin won election as mayor of Redondo Beach, CA, in a landslide despite an attempt by an outside GOP extremist group to throw the election to his opponent, another Republican.

Gin, a two-term city Redondo Beach councilman and member of the Log Cabin Republicans, received 61 percent of the vote among voters in the beach town of 65,000 south of Los Angeles.

An Orange County based wingnut organization calling itself the California Republican Assembly sent a mailer to voters in the Los Angeles County city noting that Gin took donations from a national gay group and accusing him of having a stealth agenda of promoting gay marriage.

News of the contents of the mailer late last week apparently turned tide in the election toward Gin. His opponent, another Republican city councilman, Gerard Bisignano, tried to disavow himself from the hate-filled Republican mailer.

“I’m extremely disappointed that CRA would do an anti-Mike Gin mailer that by inference would be pro-Gerard Bisignano,” he said. “I was frankly disgusted with it.”

Leaving aside our puzzlement that anyone – gay or straight – would want to be a member of group that despised them, we can rack this one up as another defeat for the Talibani’s attempts at hand-to-hand combat in the political battles here in California.

Porn Star Invited to White House

AVN News:

Porn star and former gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey will be joining her boss, Kick Ass Pictures president Mark Kulkis, in attending a dinner with President Bush in Washington, D.C. on June 14.

Kulkis was invited to attend the event by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which is organizing the event. Over a two-day course of NRCC events preceding the dinner, Carey and Kulkis will be attending a meeting with presidential advisor Karl Rove, giving their recommendations on important national issues.

“I’m hoping to run as Lieutenant Governor of California next year,” Carey said. “Since Arnold {Schwarzenegger} is a Republican, I thought this dinner would be a great networking opportunity for me.”

“I’m honored to be invited to this event,” Kulkis said. “Republicans bill themselves as the pro-business party. Well, you won’t find a group of people more pro-business than pornographers. We contributed over $10 billion to the national economy last year.”

“I’m especially looking forward to meeting Karl Rove,” Carey added. “Smart men like him are so sexy. I know that he’s against gay marriage, but I think I can convince him that a little girl-on-girl action now and then isn’t so bad!”

Kulkis serves as an Honorary Chairman on the NRCC’s Business Advisory Council, a group of business people who advocate a progressive, pro-business agenda. His company produces hardcore adult videos with a guarantee of “No Fake Boobs & No Condoms.” Carey ran for Governor in the 2003 California Recall Election, while Kulkis served as her campaign manager.

(Via AmericaBlog.)