Month: October 2005
Repugs Bailing From Mid-Terms
Bloody Monday: Yesterday saw the ongoing exits of Republican candidates and potential candidates from major mid-term election contests.
In West Virginia, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R) announced she would seek re-election next year instead of challenging US Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D), despite White House attempts to recruit Capito into the race.
In Maine, RNC member and former State Rep. Peter Cianchette — the 2002 GOP nominee for governor and viewed as the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2006 — unexpectedly abandoned his previously announced candidacy against Gov. John Baldacci (D) for “personal reasons.”
In North Dakota, the weekend decision by Gov. John Hoeven (R) not to challenge US Sen. Kent Conrad (D) next year caused just about every top Repug in the state — including former Gov. Ed Schafer, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, State PSC Chair Tony Clark, Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman, State House Majority Leader Rick Berg, State Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem and US Attorney Drew Wrigley — to all announce they would also not run against Conrad.
Roy Moore — Please, Lord, Call Him Home Before Alabama’s Gubernatorial Election
According to the Associated Press, Roy Moore, known as the ‘Ten Commandments Judge,” has declared his intention to run for governor of Alabama.
GADSDEN, Ala. — Roy Moore, who became a hero to the religious right after being ousted as Alabama’s chief justice for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse, announced Monday that he is running for governor in 2006.
Moore’s candidacy could set up a showdown with Gov. Bob Riley, a fellow Republican, and turn the Ten Commandments dispute into a central campaign issue in this Bible Belt state.
Two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley and former Gov. Don Siegelman, are already running. The Republican and Democratic primaries are June 6.
Moore, 58, said that if elected, he has no plans to relocate the Ten Commandments monument from its new home at a church in Gadsden.
“But I’ll tell you what I will do. I will defend the right of every citizen of this state — including judges, coaches, teachers, city, county and state officials — to acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty and government,” he said.
[…]
In Memory of Nipsy
Nipsy Russell died of cancer yesterday at age 80. In remembrance, here’s one of his many poems:
The opposite of pro is con,
That fact is clearly seen.
If “progress” means move forward,
Then what does “Congress” mean?
Text of the Iraq Constitution
Following is the preamble to the Iraq constitution. To read the full text, as translated from the Arabic by the Associated Press, go here. Millions of copies have been printed by the United Nations and are being distributed throughout Iraq. A total of $25.4 million has been provided by the European Union, Canada, Denmark, Britain and the United States to support constitutional activities, including printing and distribution.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
“Verily we have honored the children of Adam” (Quran 17:70)
We the sons of Mesopotamia, land of the prophets, resting place of the holy imams, the leaders of civilization and the creators of the alphabet, the cradle of arithmetic: on our land, the first law put in place by mankind was written; in our nation, the most noble era of justice in the politics of nations was laid down; on our soil, the followers of the prophet and the saints prayed, the philosophers and the scientists theorized and the writers and poets created.
Recognizing God’s right upon us; obeying the call of our nation and our citizens; responding to the call of our religious and national leaders and the insistence of our great religious authorities and our leaders and our reformers, we went by the millions for the first time in our history to the ballot box, men and women, young and old, on Jan. 30, 2005, remembering the pains of the despotic band’s sectarian oppression of the majority; inspired by the suffering of Iraq’s martyrs — Sunni and Shiite, Arab, Kurd and Turkomen, and the remaining brethren in all communities — inspired by the injustice against the holy cities in the popular uprising and against the marshes and other places; recalling the agonies of the national oppression in the massacres of Halabja, Barzan, Anfal and against the Faili Kurds; inspired by the tragedies of the Turkomen in Bashir and the suffering of the people of the western region, whom the terrorists and their allies sought to take hostage and prevent from participating in the elections and the establishment of a society of peace and brotherhood and cooperation so we can create a new Iraq, Iraq of the future, without sectarianism, racial strife, regionalism, discrimination or isolation.
[…]
Conservative Crybabies Decry Miers Nomination
Wingnut whiners: Sometimes it pays to monitor the Dark Side, if for nothing else than for the humor in it. I subscribe to ConservativeHeadquarters.com, “hosted by Richard Viguerie.” This nutjob just put out what appears to be a press release wherein he quotes himself in full lamentation over Harriett Miers’ nomination:
Conservatives Feel Betrayed
“President Bush Blinks on Supreme Court Nominees”“Congratulations are due to Ralph Neas, Nan Aron, and Chuck Schumer for going toe-to-toe with President Bush and forcing him to blink,” said conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie. “Liberals have successfully cowed President Bush by scaring him off from nominating a known conservative, strict constructionist to the Court, leaving conservatives fearful of which direction the Court will go.”
“President Bush desperately needed to have an ideological fight with the Left to redefine himself and re-energize his political base, which is in shock and dismay over his big government policies,” Viguerie added.
“With their lack of strong, identifiable records, President Bush’s choices for Supreme Court nominees seem designed more to avoid a fight with the extreme Left than to appeal to his conservative base,” lamented Viguerie.
Many conservatives worry that without verifiable records, President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees will be more like the liberal Justice Souter than the conservative, strict constructionists Scalia and Thomas.
Crystal Ball: Dems Could Take Senate in 2006
Larry J. Sabato’ s Crystal Ball:
How could Democrats do it? First, they must hold all of their open seats (MD, MN, and possibly NJ). None of the three is an absolute slam-dunk for the Democrats, but Maryland and New Jersey are likely Democratic in the end. Minnesota’s situation is unclear, given the lack of a solid Democratic frontrunner, and Congressman Mark Kennedy has a fair-to-good chance to steal this seat from the Democrats. Yet if there is a national breeze blowing for the Democrats in November 2006, it will probably be felt in Democratic-leaning Minnesota.
Second, the Democrats must keep all endangered incumbents in the winners’ circle: Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, and the “Nelson Twins” (Bill of Florida and Ben of Nebraska–not Matthew and Gunnar). Conrad will be the most endangered if Governor John Hoeven (R) decides to challenge him. The other Democratic senators in this category are at least slight favorites to win another term currently.
OH-Sen: Hackett to Take on DeWine
War vet: With Coin-gate and the myriad scandals generated from it, the Ohio Republican Party is in complete disarray. (Gop Gov. Taft’s approval is at 15 percent!) And two-termer Mike DeWine is considered to be one of the most vulnerable senators running for reelection next year. Paul Hackett could be the candidate to do it:
Paul Hackett, the Iraq War veteran from Cincinnati who was hailed by national Democrats for his narrow loss this summer in a heavily Republican House district, has decided to challenge Mike DeWine for U.S. Senate in 2006.
Com’n, Mikey, just throw in the towel!!
What We Always Suspected about Fox News Is True
“At the time I started at Fox, I thought, this is a great news organization to let me be very aggressive with a sitting president of the United States (Bill Clinton)… With the change of administration in Washington, I wanted to do the same kind of reporting, holding the (Bush) administration accountable, and that was not something that Fox was interested in doing.
“Editorially, I had issues with story selection. But the bigger issue was that there wasn’t a tradition or track record of honoring journalistic integrity. I found some reporters at Fox would cut corners or steal information from other sources or in some cases, just make things up. Management would either look the other way or just wouldn’t care to take a closer look. I had serious issues with that.”
— David Schuster, MSNBC reporter, discussing his time as a reporter for Fox News Channel
Liddy Dole Is Whiffing on Senate Recruitment
Invitations declined : In her role as the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) is getting less than stellar results in both her main tasks: Raising money for GOP senatorial candidates and recruiting Republican candidates out in the states.
Maybe it’s the national mood. Or perhaps Dole is completely clueless. Or both.
The Senate Democrats, headed by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, are well ahead of Dole and her group in fundraising, and there has been a string of lost recruitment opportunities on the Republican side. Most recently, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-VW)
opted out of running against Sen. Robert Byrd, the venerable West Virginia Democrat:
Capito’s decision comes on the heels of North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven’s decision to pass on a race against Dem Kent Conrad. Vermont’s Republican Governor Jim Douglas refused to take on Bernie Sanders. And so on. In fact, the NRSC’s only high-profile challenger is one they wish would go away — Florida’s Katherine Harris. (The GOP has a strong candidate in the open Minnesota seat.)
Maybe it’s the national mood — we’re seeing strong Democratic challengers arise in the House as well as Democrats sense a change in fortune. Or perhaps Dole is completely clueless. Or both. But in any case, we can rest assured that in the early going, our Chuck Schumer has beat the crap out of Dole — in both money and candidate recruitment.
