Day: April 24, 2008

Senate Panel: McCain is an American, Can Run for Prez

Buck Banks

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a resolution today that brands Sen. John McCain a “natural-born” U.S. citizen even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone where his father served in the military. The Constitution requires presidents to be “natural born,” which is why we won’t be subjected to a President Schwarzenegger, but the Founding Fathers were not very specific about what that meant. Other than you can’t have been born in Austria.

Both senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were cosponsors of the resolution, demonstrating what good sports they are.

Fla. Dems Mount Feeble Feeney Fight

Buck Banks

It is always with a sense of trepidation, if not outright dread, that I open an e-mail from Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman. One cringes just imagining what stupid stuff the FDP has come up with this time. Today’s electro-missive from Tallahassee was a doozy.

Seems the party is going after Republican Rep. Tom Feeney who represents District 24, which covers a broad swath of Central Florida, including Orlando and Brevard County, where it is illegal — illegal — to wear a thong bikini on the beach.

You might remember Feeney for his association with jailed uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Jack took Tom and a bunch of buddies in a chartered plane to Scotland to play golf at the venerable St. Andrews course. The always-generous Abramoff paid for Feeney’s expenses, including lavish dinners and accommodations with fistfuls of tainted lobby dollars. The House Ethics Committee eventually made Feeney pay nearly $6,000 to cover his expenses for the trip.

In September 2006, Feeney was named one of the 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The organization said Feeney’s ethics issues arise from trips he has taken in violation of House travel and gift rules, and his failure to disclose his ownership of rental property.

OK, so Feeney is an appropriate target for political action and he really needs to be run out of Congress on a rail. But puh-leeze, Karen and krew, can’t you mount an intelligent, savvy, effective campaign against him? Apparently not.

First, they create an on-line advertisement that is sophomoric and ineffectual.

feeney-ad.jpg

Then they put up an anti-Feeney Web site that is poorly designed and ineffectual.

Then they fill the Web site with ineffectual content in the form of seven “questions.” These”questions” are in the form of badly written press releases that, well here’s a sample:

“Can we trust Florida’s most corrupt politician to be honest about his golf score at St. Andrews? Or did Abramoff let Feeney get away with a few mulligans, gimme-putts, and lost balls?” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. “Other than illicit relationships with crooks, we still don’t know Tom Feeney’s handicap. But we hope he enjoyed his golf trip, since those 18 rounds in Scotland may prove to be the fatal stroke of his career in Congress.”

That appears to be an attempt at snarkiness, but instead it devolved into a kind of dumb-sounding playground-level taunt. Maybe that kind of discourse is effective in Talla-sassy, but that dog won’t hunt in more sophisticated parts of Florida. Like Apopka.

Maybe there will come a time when the Florida Democratic Party gets savvy and sophisticated, and really figures out this politics thing and becomes a true force against the Republicans in Florida. Yeah, I should live so long.

McCain’s Spiritual Adviser Confirms His Belief That God ‘Cursed’ New Orleans Because of Gay Event

Jon Ponder

Video: Hagee says the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon

There is no bigot like a proud bigot, and the televangelist John Hagee is unabashedly proud of the fact that he hates Catholics and gays.

On Sunday’s ABC News political show, John McCain was asked whether he still welcomed Hagee’s endorsement:

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., admitted … that it was a mistake to accept the endorsement of evangelical pastor Rev. John Hagee. When asked in an exclusive “This Week” interview with George Stephanopoulos if it was “a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement”, McCain replied “oh, probably, sure.” Despite admitting his error, McCain made clear he’s still “glad to have his endorsement.”

(Few, if any, politcians other than McCain — and certainly no Democratica pols — could get away with a 180-degree flipflop in the same sentence. )

About Catholics, in the video above, Hagee says he believes the Catholic Church is the Great Whore of Babylon mentioned in Revelation. He also says that Adolph Hitler was a Catholic, whose plan to exterminate the Jews was just a continuation of the church’s centuries-old persecution.

About gays, in September 2006, Hagee said Hurricane Katrina was a curse from God because New Orleans was the vene for an annual gay event:

“I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades.” He later added, “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Two days ago, Hagee reaffirmed his belief that New Orleans brought Katrina’s destruction on itself:

HAGEE: The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. Moses taught in the book of Deuteronomy that everything in life is either a blessing or a curse. There are days that things happen that at the time look like a curse. In the passing of time, they may become what appears to be a blessing. An illustration is Joseph, when he was sold into slavery it looked like a curse, it looked like the worse day of his life. When his brothers came into Egypt looking for food, what looked like a bad day 13 years before turned out to be a blessed day. What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

As Media Matters and others have pointed out, it is very interesting that the “liberal” media has soft peddled Hagee’s outrageous comments while at the same time beating the drum over controversial statements by Barack Obama’s minister, Jeremiah Wright.

A Smart Bush? Jenna Says She Might Vote for a Democrat This Year

Jon Ponder

Appearing with her mother on Larry King’s show this week, first daughter Jenna Bush left open the possibility that she might not vote for John McCain in November:

KING: Do you have a favorite between the two, the two Democrats?

LAURA BUSH: My favorite is the Republican.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Yours, too, I would imagine.

JENNA BUSH: I don’t know.

KING: A-ha. J. BUSH: But, I mean, you know —

KING: Are you open to —

J. BUSH: Yes, of course. I mean, who isn’t open to learning about the candidates? But, I mean, and I’m sure everybody is like that. But I really — I honestly have been too busy with books to really pay that much attention.

If Jenna were to support a Democrat this year, she would be the second daughter of a Republican president to switch parties so far. Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of GOP Pres. Richard Nixon, had donated $2,300, the legal limit, to Barack Obama.

Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of GOP Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, is also an Obama supporter.

Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, came over from the dark side long ago but if she has announced whom she is supporting this year we missed it. However, she did write an article that was published in Newsweek last December, requesting that the midgets who were seeking the Republican nomination stop comparing themselves to her father.