Month: June 2010

Job Offer Might Be Ethical Problem for Nevada’s Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Sandoval

Buck Banks

Brian Sandoval
Brian Sandoval
All the big kids know it — both political parties engage in back-room deals for everything from dogcatcher to cabinet posts to influence the outcome of elections. It’s called politics, people.

Much political hay has been made by the GOP over the Obama administration’s alleged offer of a White House position to U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) in exchange for his dropping out of a close Senate primary race to boost his opponent’s chances of winning, which supposedly were better than Sestak’s. The job, if indeed offered, was not accepted, and Sestak went on to win the primary.

The GOP, of course, howled for Rahm Emanuel’s and President Obama’s heads, drawing parallels with disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempts to sell Obama’s empty Senate seat to the highest bidder.

But the Republican Party apparently has been holding its own version of a political job fair, though its ethical problems might be worse than your typical smoke-filled-room wheeling and dealing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

A short paragraph buried deep in an article published last weekend by Politico caught the attention of sharp-eyed critics of Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval.

It was an article about the Republican Party’s efforts to field a more diverse slate of candidates and mentioned that “leaders of the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and executive director Nick Ayers, met and called” Sandoval in an effort to recruit him to challenge incumbent Gov. Jim Gibbons.

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Verbatim

Buck Banks

The only thing worse than a torrid affair with sweet, sweet Nancy would be a torrid affair with Helen Thomas. If those were my only options, I’d probably be FOR same-sex marriage!

— Mike Huckabee, in an email to the New Yorker, joking about having an affair with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, proving that when it comes to comedy, he’s no George Will, and when it comes to tact, he’s no Joe Barton.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

There is a choice that Joe Barton has offered the American people, a philosophy for the Republican Party, which is that BP is the aggrieved party. That’s a governing philosophy. In the coming weeks you’ll see the president speak to the country about these competing different philosophies. That is, do you have only the energy executives in the room, or do you have energy executives, environmentalists and other people from the venture capital community to come to a consensus on energy policy? Do you think that BP is the aggrieved party here? Do you think that Wall Street should be left alone and not have any reforms? Elections are about choices.

— White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, on ABC, making it clear that Democrats would use GOP Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP, as well as his criticism of the oil company’s $20 billion escrow account, against the Republicans in the fall.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

No, it’s not the end of this. We heard what his statement was right at the outset. That was heartfelt; that’s what he believes.

— Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), quoted by the Washington Post, saying Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology for apologizing to oil giant BP will continue to haunt Republicans through the midterm elections.

KY Sen: Rand Paul, Medicare Millionaire, Opposes Extending Benefits of Longterm Unemployed

Jon Ponder

Rand Paul
Rand Paul
Doctors who are sons of doctors, as is Dr. Rand Paul, the gaffe-prone tea bagger Republican Senate candidate, are the elite of the middle class. In an interview last Friday, Dr. Paul showed how the privileged view people facing hard times when he voiced his support for Senate Republicans who are fillibustering an extension of benefits for the longterm unemployed.

But first, a little context:

[Paul has] said approximately 50 percent of his income is Medicare and 5 percent is Medicaid. According to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Paul has been paid $130,461 over the last five years through Medicaid. If that represents 5 percent of his income, then Paul’s Medicare payments over the same period would be more than $1.3 million or about $260,000 a year.

A self-proclaimed tea bagger who is also a libertarian and a Medicare millionaire? Imagine that.

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Issa to Double Staff, Barrage White House with Subpoenas If He Becomes Oversight Chair

Jon Ponder

Issa
Issa
Outside his Camp Pendleton-adjacent district north of San Diego, which he has served since 2001, GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is considered a laughingstock in California — mostly because he broke down in sobs in front of local television cameras after Arnold Schwarzenegger bigfooted him out of the governor’s race during the 2003 recall election. (But really, who didn’t see that coming?) Which is why Californians are amazed that this buffoon is on track to becoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the committee Dan Burton of Indiana chaired during the Clinton era, if Republicans win control of the House in November.

Cynical GOP-watchers, including yours truly, are predicting that if the GOP wins Congress in November Speaker Boehner will greenlight multiple, simultaneous investigations into the White House with the ultimate goal of impeaching Pres. Obama at any cost. There’s no surer sign of Boehner’s intent than the choice of a nutbag like Issa to chair the Oversight Committee. Anyone familiar with Issa’s record knows that he will devote whatever time and government resources it takes to find a pretext — any bogus reason — to impeach the president.

If you think this is too Chicken Little-ish or an alarmist attempt to scare the bejesus out of fans of the president who are complacent about the midterms, a new report in right-leaning Politico.com might give you pause: Issa has been boasting that he has requested a doubling of the committee’s staff in order to handle the volume of subpoenas he’ll be issuing to the White House, if he becomes chairman:

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Barton’s ‘Shakedown’ in BP Apology Echoed Stance of Committee of 117 Out of 178 House GOP Reps

Jon Ponder

Republican Study Committee photos of members including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., second from left in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Republican Study Committee photos of members from its website, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Despite his claims otherwise, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was not speaking only for himself when he apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a hearing on BP’s Gulf oil disaster on Thursday.

The Obama administration “appears not to respect fundamental American principles.”
-RSC press release

On Wednesday, the day before the hearing, the Republican Study Committee, which claims as members 117 of the 178 of the most partisan Republicans in the House — including Barton Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, and Virginia’s Rep. Eric Cantor, who will likely become majority leader if Republicans win control of the House in November, as well as Barton — issued a press release in which they smeared the Obama administration by inferring that the Obama White House is un-American and referring to the BP Gulf victims’ fund as a “Chicago-style shakedown”:

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Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans

Jon Ponder

I missed this Fox News poll from last month:

Democrats in Congress continue to garner better ratings than Republicans. Some 37 percent of voters approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, little changed from 36 percent about six months ago. For Congressional Republicans, 31 percent approve, up slightly from 29 percent.

Fully 70 percent of Democrats approve of the job their representatives are doing on Capitol Hill, compared to 52 percent of Republicans who approve of theirs. About twice as many Republicans (40 percent) disapprove of the job their party is doing in Congress as Democrats disapprove of their party (19 percent).

A majority of independents disapproves of Democrats (60 percent) and Republicans in Congress (66 percent).

The same poll found that Pres. Obama has a 53 percent favorable rating overall, including a 91 percent favorability among Democrats.