Tag: Congress

2008 Senate Races: 12 Dem Seats Vs. 21 GOP Seats Up for Grabs

Jon Ponder

Bob Geiger has put together this list of U.S. Senate candidates up for reelection in 2008. My very early handicapping is on the right:

Democrats (12) Handicap
Max Baucus (D-MT) Vulnerable:Isn’t Baucus retiring? If so, a Republican could take it.
Joseph Biden (D-DE) Safe Dem: Even if Biden drops out to campaign for president full time.
Richard Durbin (D-IL) Safe Dem.
Tom Harkin (D-IA) Safe Dem.
Tim Johnson (D-SD) Vulnerable: Unless the senator makes a full recovery.
John Kerry (D-MA) Safe Dem. Kerry won’t give up his seat even if he runs for president again.
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Vulnerable: As Bob Geiger pointed out, Landrieu’s base may have been expatriated from Louisiana by Katrina.
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Vulnerable: Because Jersey was so weird this year. (Lautenberg might retire again.)
Carl Levin (D-MI) Safe Dem.
Mark Pryor (D-AR) Vulnerable:It’s Arkansas.
Jack Reed (D-RI) Safe Dem.
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) Safe Dem.

Safe Dems: 7 – Vulnerable: 5

Republicans (21) Handicap
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Vulnerable: He just is.
Wayne Allard (R-CO) Vulnerable: He’s a rank ideologue and Colorado is in play for Dems.
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) Safe GOP.
Thad Cochran (R-MS) Safe GOP.
Norm Coleman (R-MN) Vulnerable: Al Franken could take him out, as could any decent candidate.
Susan Collins (R-ME) Safe GOP.
John Cornyn (R-TX) Safe GOP: It’s Texas.
Larry Craig (R-ID) Safe GOP: Despite gay rumors.
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) Safe GOP: John Edwards should run against Liddy, but he is running for President of Never Gonna Happen instead.
Pete Domenici (R-NM) Safe GOP.
Michael Enzi (R-WY) Safe: Admittedly, Enzi is a cipher to me, but it’s Wyoming.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Safe GOP: Even if Graham becomes McCain’s running mate.
Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Safe: Even if Hagel runs for president.
James Inhofe (R-OK) Safe GOP: And more’s the pity.
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Safe GOP.
Pat Roberts (R-KS) Safe GOP.
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) Safe GOP.
Gordon Smith (R-OR) Vulnerable: Smith’s come-to-Jesus on the war was a smart move.
Ted Stevens (R-AK) Safe GOP.
John Sununu (R-NH) Vulnerable: It’s New Hampshire, and John Jr. won by a sliver last time.
John Warner (R-VA) Safe GOP: Even though Warner will be 80 in February.

Safe GOP: 15 – Vulnerable: 6

Miami is to Third World as Tancredo is to Ass

Buck Banks

Second World wannabes: Okay, so in a lot of ways Miami is like a Third World country. I mean, we have lots of undocumented workers, illegal immigrants from all over the world, high crime, high unemployment, we’re in a housing construction bust, cops are shooting civilians, there’s poops in the bay and on the beach, and traffic is horrendous. But I’m allowed to say that because I live here. I’m allowed to drive a car with a bumper sticker that refers to my city as a banana republic.

But Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo can’t, not on mine and Gov. Jeb Bush’s watch, no sirree Bob — or Tom.

Here’s what happened, according to the Miami Herald:

Tancredo, who has championed building a fence along the border with Mexico, pointed to Miami as an example of what could happen to the United States if immigration policies are not tightened. He said of Miami in an interview with a conservative on-line news site, “You would never know you’re in the United States of America. You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.”

How do you reason with a guy whose supporters make Genghis Khan look like Gandhi?

Gov. Jeb was quick to come to our defense:

”The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult,” Bush said in the letter addressed to Tancredo’s Washington office. “Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January.”

Of course, Jeb’s not. Returning to Miami in January, that is. No, he just bought a million-dollar condo in Coral Gables, which technically is near Miami, though legally a sovereign city unto itself, without virtually any Third Worldliness about it at all.

I, on the other hand, live in the City of Miami, and therefore I can call Miami Third World because I have seen the chickens running in the streets and I’ve also seen them lying in the road, hapless victims of a Santeria ritual intended to give Tio Santos good luck on his traffic court hearing.

But even I cannot top Ana Menendez, star columnist for the Herald whose column on Tancredo’s “naivete,” as Jeb so boldly characterized it, appeared today in the same edition as the article on Tancredo’s name-calling. She asks the age-old question that we here at Pensito Review pose at least several times an hour:

[…]

Norquist: Sherwood Lost Because His Mistress ‘Whined’ about Being Strangled

Jon Ponder
Sherwood’s seat would have been overwhelmingly ours, if his mistress hadn’t whined about being throttled.”
— Grover Norquist

Grover Norqist, the GOP operative who has been best pals with Jack Abramoff since college, is in denial about the message sent by voters in the midterm elections last week.

Norquist believes the heavy Republican losses were not caused by discontent with the Iraq war but rather by voters’ fits of pique over the foibles of various members of Congress. For example, Rep. Sherwood’s loss in Pennsylvania, Norquist says, was a result of Sherwood’s mistress whining about his abusive behavior:

“Bob Sherwood’s seat would have been overwhelmingly ours, if his mistress hadn’t whined about being throttled,” said Mr Norquist.

This is wrong on so many levels, the least of which is the fact that Sherwood’s name is Don, not Bob.

Despite running a campaign ad in which he apologized for committing adultery but denied the allegations of abuse, Sherwood lost to Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak, his Democratic opponent.

Ted Haggard Fired

Jon Ponder

Ted Haggard has been fired by the megachurch he founded in Colorado Springs. After an investigation, the board of the New Life Church found him “guilty of sexually immoral conduct.”

He should have been fired for looking into the camera and lying — badly: Mike Jones had only given him a massage, not sex. He bought the meth but threw it away.

Meanwhile, as he’s delivering this bullshit into a reporter’s camera, he’s behind the wheel of his car, with his wife beside him and his kids in the backseat.

This guy is a head case.

Scandals Render Partisan Voting Key to Republican Victories

Trish

Never has it been more important for Republicans to vote partisan than this year. In race after race, Candidate A has resigned in shame and been replaced by Candidate B, but Candidate A’s name is still on the ballot.

Democrats tend to actually pay attention when voting so if a ballot read, say, “Mark Foley,” we might flinch from touching the corresponding grimy spot on the screen. But Republicans don’t read the names anyway.

If this were happening to Democrats, we’d have a problem. Democrats tend to actually pay attention when voting so if a ballot read, say, “Mark Foley,” we might flinch from touching the corresponding grimy spot on the screen. But Republicans don’t read the names anyway. They just look for the little “R” that follows, and viola!

This quality will be especially handy in these races:

    Texas U.S. House District 22 – Voters will need to overlook the “Tom DeLay” part and write in another Repug instead.

    Florida U.S House District 16 – Rebooblicans will need to steel themselves to ignore the name “Mark Foley,” relying on the “R” to supply them with Joe Negron.

    Ohio U.S. House District 18 – Remember Ohioans, it’s not really Bob Ney, who plead guilty to conspiracy charges in the Jack Abramoff case too recently to be replaced on the ballot. C’mon, you can do it! Vote Ney!

    Florida House Dist. 102 – Ralph Arza, though released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Facility in Miami on felony charges of interfering with a witness – specifically by calling his house in a drunken tirade and calling him a “nigger” and a “bitch” – won’t be up for re-election after all. It will be Arza’s name on the ballot but his votes will go to Eduardo Gonzalez.

Don’t let the names fool you, voters. Just look for the “R” on the label, and we can almost guarantee you’ll get exactly what you’re expecting.

Did I miss one? Leave a comment if there’s a similar race in your area.

Pastor Who Resigned over Gay Hooker Claims Is Bush’s ‘Spiritual Consigliere‘

Jon Ponder

Rev. Ted Haggard, who counsels Pres. Bush on a weekly basis and has been called his spiritual consigliere,” resigned today as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and as pastor of the megachurch he founded in Colorado Springs because a gay prostitute says he’s been having sex for pay with Haggard for more than three years.

Rev. Haggard is closer to the president than his better-known rival, Dr. James Dobson, head of the anti-gay nonprofit group, Focus on the Family, which is also headquartered in Colorado Springs:

The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal.

Whereas Dobson plays the part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of acquiescence required to save face.

He doesn’t strut, like Dobson; he gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted regaled his whole congregation with the story via email.

“Well, on Monday I was in the World Prayer Center,” New Life’s high-tech, 24 hour-a-day prayer chapel, — and my cell phone rang. It was a presidential aide; “the President,” says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

Pastor Ted was on a plane the next morning and in the President’s office the following afternoon.

“It was incredible,” wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the press to note that Dobson wasn’t there.

Mike Jones, the male escort, says he did not know Haggard’s identity until he saw him on television. Jones says he has voicemails and other proof of his relationship with Haggard and will release them tomorrow.

In an interview excerpted on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Jones also said that Rev. Haggard used methamphetamines during their sexual encounters.

Haggard was in the news in September when he disavowed his appearance in the controversial documentary “Jesus Camp,” which exposed the indoctrination of children into Christian nationalism at a summer camp in the Midwest.

Annals of Gay Republicans

Jon Ponder

Is that a pistol in your pants, pilgrim?

This photo of John Wayne is authentic and has not been photoshopped.

To the Duke’s credit, hotpants were very stylish. Unfortunately, however, they didn’t come into fashion for a decade or two after this photo was taken — and they have never really been that hot on men.

Okay, I’m not saying John Wayne was gay — just that he dressed that way from time to time.

 

 

 

Foley, Gannon Gay GOP Scandals Are Minor Compared with 1989 Call Boy Sex Ring with Ties Inside Bush White House

Jon Ponder

(Via BuzzFlash.net and The Law Party)

In a February 1989 raid on a gay escort service, the Secret Service showed up and confiscated key evidence. Law enforcement officials said that involvement of the Secret Service in a local operation was highly unusual and had never happened before.

Forget Mark Foley’s electronic dalliances with underage pages and the dozens of White House visits by gay GOP prostitute, Jeff “Bulldog” Gannon — the biggest gay Republican scandal to date was the uncovering in 1989 of multiple gay prostitution services that billed tens of thousands of dollars to credit cards belonging to powerful men inside the Bush and Reagan administrations — including top staffers, military officers and lobbyists. The scandal was revealed in late June 1989, and then just as quickly was swept under the rug and has barely been mentioned since.

If you think this sounds outlandish, consider the original source: The story was broken on June 29, 1989, by the ultraconservative Washington Times newspaper, which is of course owned by Korean rightwing cult leader, Rev. Sun Yung Moon. The lead reporter on the story was Paul M. Rodriguez, who is known for the rightwing slant of his reporting.

The article was edited by Wesley Pruden, then the Times’ managing editor, now its editor-in-chief. In it, Pruden, who makes on secret of his conservative, even neo-Confederate, views, made it clear that higher-ups in the Reagan and Bush administrations would be protected — the paper would only reveal the names of subordinates:

“There is no intention of publishing names or facts about the operation merely for titillation,” said [Pruden].

The Times ran the story above the fold, with a banner headline that read, “Homosexual prostitution inquiry ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush,” with the subheading, “‘Call boys’ took midnight tour of White House.”

Reading through the story (which we have transcribed, in part, below), it appears that the investigation into the call boy sex ring had begun about nine months earlier, arising from an attempted blackmail and charges of credit card fraud. Apparently the gay prostitutes routinely videotaped and photographed their encounters with their clients, especially those who had powerful positions in the government, which meant there was plenty of fodder for extorting money.

In February 1989, as Washington D.C. police were conducting a raid on an out-call center operated by several gay escort services in a residence on 34th Place NW, the Secret Service made a surprise appearance and confiscated some of the evidence, according to The Times:

Although the confiscated material was turned over to District police on the scene, witnesses and law enforcement agents say the Secret Service kept one box containing names and other information about high-level government officials who were clients of the male escort business.

District police officials say that, to their knowledge, this is the first time the Secret Service has ever become involved in such a raid in this area.

Initially, the Secret Service denied it was involved in the raid, but after a second raid of the 34th Place house on May 18 [1989], the agency acknowledged its involvement in the investigation.

Secret Service spokesman Bob Snow said the agency participated in the search and seizure operation because of its jurisdiction over credit card fraud. “We come into such operations usually at the request of a U.S. attorney … if the fraud involves $10,000 or more … We are not involved in any local prostitution investigation,” said Mr. Snow.

GOP lobbyist Craig Spence spent upwards of $20,000 per month on gay prostitutes.

The paper named Craig J. Spence as a central figure in the sex ring:

One of the ring’s big spending clients is Craig J. Spence, Washington socialite and international trade consultant, according to documents and interviews with operators and prostitutes who say they engaged in sexual activities with Mr. Spence.

Mr. Spence spent upwards of $20,000 a month for male prostitutes who provided sex to him and his friends, said to include military personnel who also acted as his “bodyguards.” It was Mr. Spence who arranged the nocturnal tour of the Reagan White House. Repeated attempts to reach Mr. Spence by telephone, fax machine and personal visits to his home, were unsuccessful.

Credit card vouchers confirm that Mr. Spence charged thousands of dollars on American Express and Visa cards, sometimes making $600 charges against his cards several times a day, drawn in behalf of an escort service called Professional Services Inc.

A few months after the story broke, Spence committed suicide, but in an interview with the Washington Times (which we have not yet located), he allegedly told the paper that he was given access to the White House that night by Donald Gregg, who was a top Bush adviser.

Other underlings named by the newspaper included Charles K. Dutcher, former associate director of presidential personnel in the Reagan administration; Paul R. Balach, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole’s political personnel liaison to the White House; and Todd A. Blodgett, a former assistant to President Reagan.

[…]

UK Guardian: Bush Purchase of 100k Acres in Paraguay Has Country in a Spin

Jon Ponder

The U.S. media is all but silent on reports that President Bush has purchased 100,000 acres of ranchland in Paraguay. Thankfully, the Brits aren’t so timid:

Last week the Paraguayan news group Neike suggested that [Jenna] Bush was in Paraguay to “visit the land acquired by her father – relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves.”

The rumours, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush’s supposed interest in the “chaco,” a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay’s north, might be.

Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.

Rumours of Mr Bush’s supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay, although officially she travelled with the UN children’s agency Unicef to visit social projects. Photographers from the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color tracked her down to one restaurant in Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, where she was seen flanked by 10 security guards, and was also reported to have met Paraguay’s president, Nicanor Duarte, and the US ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family “mission” to tie up the land purchase in the “chaco.”

Erasmo Rodriguez Acosta, the governor of the Alto Paraguay region where Mr Bush’s new acquisition supposedly lies, told one Paraguayan news agency there were indications that Mr Bush had bought land in Paso de Patria, near the border with Brazil and Bolivia. He was, however, unable to prove this, he added.

Last week the Paraguayan news group Neike suggested that Ms Bush was in Paraguay to “visit the land acquired by her father – relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves.”

The US presence in Paraguay has been under scrutiny since May 2005 when the country’s Congress agreed to allow 400 American marines to operate there for 18 months in exchange for financial aid.