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Two Candidates Challenge Harris, One Picked by Rove; Meanwhile Katherine Gets Her Gun

Trish

In literally the final hour before today’s qualifying deadline, two candidates surfaced to challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) for the opportunity to beat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) this fall.

The president kept so far away from Harris, “it could have been a public-service announcement on bird-flu-greeting protocol.”

Jeb’s first choice, Speaker of the House Rep. Allan Bense (R), kept everyone guessing wrong until the last minute that he would decide to run. The seat is just too coveted — and the Bush brothers just too contemptuous of the woman who prostituted herself to put W. in power — to let it go without a fight.

Indeed, the president’s visit to Florida earlier this week should have provided Harris a photo opp to counter the governor’s constantly voiced doubts about her ability to beat Nelson. Instead, as Orlando Sentinel Columnist Mike Thomas put it, the president kept so far away from Harris, “it could have been a public-service announcement on bird-flu-greeting protocol.”

Today two dark horses appeared, one hand-picked by Karl Rove. According to the Lakeland Ledger, Harris’ hometown newspaper, they are William McBride, an Orlando personal injury lawyer, and Peter Monroe, a developer. McBride — a family friend — is Rove’s choice.

Meanwhile, Harris grabbed the spotlight back with her oddly timed announcement that she will spend the weekend in a class to renew her concealed weapons permit, lapsed after she first obtained it in the wake of death threats during the 2000 election theft.

“For me, I just want to have a permit in an overabundance of caution,” she said. “I want to go ahead with getting it for practical purposes.”

…The visit to the gun range will double as a photo op, with media invited to broadcast images of Harris that could play well with gun rights advocates.

The range is at the aptly named Hallelujahland Ranch, “owned by James F. Griffin III, a member of the local Republican Executive Committee.”

Don’t let Harris’ firepower scare you, boys. I doubt she’ll pull down on you unless it looks like you’re going to shoot first. Or win.

Florida GOP Pol Who Could Beat Katherine Harris Opts Not to Run

Buck Banks

Dodging the bullet: Florida House Speaker Allan Bense announced today that he would not run against Katherine Harris in the Republican primary to determine the challenger for Democrat Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat from Florida. Many Republican leaders, including the hapless Jeb Bush (who can’t even get a pet bill passed in the Florida legislature, let alone influence a Senate race), have been trying for weeks to draft Bense into the race as Harris’ campaign stumbles, bumbles and fumbles toward almost certain, ignominious defeat.

In a statement published by the “St. Petersburg Times,” Bense gave the trusty and prosaic excuse of not wanting to be separated from his family for many years to serve in the Senate.

‘After much thought and prayer, I realized the answer to that question is “No.” ‘

While the challenge of running a successful campaign over the next several months was exciting, and while I am confident we would have been successful, ultimately my decision came down to the fundamental question of whether I was willing to spend the next six, 12 or possibly 18 years of my life away from my family and my home serving Florida in the U.S. Senate. After much thought and prayer, I realized the answer to that question is “No.”

I do think Bense would have been “successful” in a run against Harris, but Nelson looks almost unbeatable at this point. He’s got money, a moderate track record and is running a pretty clean campaign. Basically, all he has to do is sit back and watch Harris self-destruct.

Bense might have made a difference insofar as he could have hastened Harris’ exit from the political stage and maybe given Nelson a run for his money. But perhaps he was put off by the prospect of being drafted into a campaign by a party that didn’t necessarily want HIM, but absolutely doesn’t want HER. It would have been a politically weak position from which to campaign, and while the state’s rabid Repugs probably would have backed him in support of the party, Bill Nelson still would have won.

Hillary Schmillary

Jon Ponder

On Friday I happened to catch a cable newsreader interviewing a reporter for a Rhode Island newspaper in Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s district discussing the congressman’s non-arrest for erratic driving near the Capitol. Back home, the reporter said, Kennedy was “sort of like Hillary Clinton — people either love him or hate him.”

Sen. Clinton would probably make as good a president as any other politician but I don’t find her to be inspirational or exceptional leader on any level.

This reflects the conventional wisdom about Sen. Clinton. Rightwingers hate her, and we liberals love her. There’s no middle ground.

Sorry, but that just doesn’t square with reality on the ground, at least the reality here in the Los Angeles liberal enclave. I don’t know any liberals who “love” Hillary Clinton. Some of us respect her and admire her, but I just don’t see the fanatical love for the senator that the conventional wisdom says is out there.

In particular, I haven’t seen even a hint of a groundswell of support for her presidency here. I suspect she does well in the early polling simply because as a former First Lady she has extremely high name recognition and because even Republicans are now wistful for the good old days of the Clinton Era.

In an editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas explains Clinton’s lack of connection on the left as part of her husband’s political legacy of moving the Democratic Party away from the left toward the center.

Moulitsas also says that Clinton’s failure to provide leadership on national issues has hurt her with DailyKos members, and points out that in a recent presidential straw poll on the site, she only got 2 percent of the vote.

In fact, I’m ambivalent about Clinton — and not because she’s not liberal enough. (She’s more liberal than Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whom I admire a lot more than Hillary.) Clinton would probably make as good a president as any other politician but I don’t find her to be inspirational or exceptional leader on any level.

Moving Toward Midterms — Yesterday’s Primary Results

Buck Banks

Primary Results: Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina held primaries yesterday, several of which set up highly competitive general election contests. Here are the highlights, courtesy Congressional Quarterly:

  • Ohio 18: Republican Rep. Bob Ney won his primary, but ethics controversies appear to have cost him support.
  • Ohio 2: Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt narrowly avoided defeat in her primary, but remains favored for re-election.
  • Ohio 4: Jim Jordan is effectively on his way to Congress after winning the GOP primary in a conservative district.
  • Ohio 13: Betty Sutton’s Democratic primary win makes her a slight favorite in this open-seat race.
  • Ohio 6: State Sen. Charlie Wilson’s write-in campaign produced a Democratic primary victory.
  • North Carolina: Three competitive House races were set, though the challengers still face uphill battles.
  • Ohio Governor, Senate: Primaries in these races went as expected, though they serve only as a calm prelude to what should be two lively contests.
  • Indiana: Two of the year’s hottest House races are now officially on, with primaries producing the expected outcomes.

Common Cause Wants Justice Department to Investigate Katherine Harris

Trish

This shouldn’t take long.

Common Cause, pain-in-the-GOP-ass extraordinaire group that Jeb once referred to as a bunch of “secret squirrels” is at it again. This time, they’re going after beleaguered Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), asking the Justice Department to do its job and investigate the skanky ho bag.

“Bribery takes two…We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’

Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner — which cost Wade up to $2,800 — Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money…

“Bribery takes two,” said [Common Cause Director of Ethics Campaign’s Mike] Surrusco. “We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’ “

It’s a violation of Congressional ethics codes to accept anything worth more than $50. Harris didn’t do too well recently explaining this whole $2,800 dinner deal to reporters. One can only imagine how she’ll hold up under Justice Department questioning.

In her interview Wednesday, Harris acknowledged for the first time that Wade had paid for the dinner at Citronelle, reversing a statement from her congressional spokeswoman earlier this year.

But in the interview, Harris also said her campaign had, at some point, “reimbursed” the restaurant.

When asked how she could have reimbursed a business that was owed no money — Wade paid the bill that evening — she abruptly ended the interview and walked off. […]

CA Gov: Westly Leads Angelides and Schwarzenegger

Jon Ponder

State Controller Steve Westly is in the lead in the California governor’s race against both Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic primary and Gov. Schwarzenegger in the general election, according to the new Los Angeles Times Poll.

If the election were held today Westly would beat the governor 48 percent to 39 percent.

Westly leads Angelides 33 percent to 20 percent, and would beat the governor 48 percent to 39 percent. Angelides would tie Schwarzenegger with 43 percent.

While Schwarzenegger’s approval rating has climbed from 37 percent last fall to 44 percent, his disapproval rate is 53 percent — and 48 percent say they definitely or probably will not vote for him in the fall.

Among Democrats, a whopping 45 percent of us are undecided. Many people have yet to focus on the June 6 primary. But others who are focused on the race are genuinely undecided, including yours truly. I’d be happy with either candidate, but I’m leaning toward Westly because, well, he’s winning. That could change.

For Schwarzenneger, the most ominous news in the poll is the fact that 61 percent believe California is seriously on the wrong track. This was precisely the percentage who believed the same thing in 2003 when Gov. Gray Davis was ousted by Schwarzenegger in the recall election.

Poll: Public Suffering ‘Bush Fatigue’

Buck Banks

Sooooo tired: A savvy Pensito Review reader coined the expression “outrage fatigue” a while back, which aptly expressed the ennui many of us feel when we are confronted with the most recent outrageous antics of Bush Co. Well, apparently, about two-thirds of Americans are feeling “Bush fatigue,” according to an April Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey.

The survey found that 62 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “I am tired of all the problems associated with the Bush administration.” In comparison, during the latter part of the Clinton administration 71 percent expressed a similar sentiment in August 1999, and 72 percent in September 2000).

‘I am tired of all the problems associated with the Bush administration.’
— America

Of course, “Bush fatigue” varies by party affiliation. Most Democrats (82 percent) and independents (69 percent) expressed weariness with the administration, compared with just 30 percent of Republicans.

The survey indicated that the sense of a need for change crosses party lines: Nearly half of moderate and liberal Republicans (48 percent) and about a third of conservative Republicans (31 percent) say they want the next president to offer policies that are different from Bush Co.’s. Overwhelming numbers of independents (81 percent) and conservative and moderate Democrats (91 percent), as well as virtually all liberal Democrats (98 percent), want the next president to set a new policy course.

The real danger of Bush fatigue, of course, is that once one slips into the sticky morass of political ennui, it’s hard to pull oneself out of the tar pit of indifference (I love to mix metaphors!). “Tired of Bush” could develop into “tired of politics,” which would spell trouble for the potential policy change that many of us are wearily hoping for.

Democratic Weak Spots In the Midterms

Buck Banks

Ripples in the “wave”: While it seems that most commentators have been focused on the opportunities for the Democratic Party to gain House congressional seats in the midterms, Nathan L. Gonzales notes in the Rothenberg Political Report that in the past 50 years, no party has won seats without losing at least one. If that’s the case, argues Gonzales, then rather than the 15 seats the Dems need to gain a majority in the House, they might need 16 or 17 — or maybe 26!

Gonzales notes: “In the last 50 years, no party has been completely shutout in the takeover columns in the House. That means, that even in ‘wave’ elections including 1994, the party bearing the majority of the losses has managed to pick off at least one incumbent or one open seat from the other side.”

‘In the last 50 years, no party has been completely shutout in the takeover columns in the House.’

Here’s Gonzales’ analysis of the weak points in the Democratic Party’s armor in the midterms:

1. Ohio 6 (Open). Democrats hit a severe bump in the road when state Sen. Charlie Wilson (D) failed to garner the 50 valid signatures necessary to qualify for the primary ballot. Now, Wilson is running an expensive write-in campaign in the May 2 primary. State Rep. Chuck Blasdel is the likely GOP nominee, but he is still recovering from a hit he took for owing back-taxes. If Wilson doesn’t get the nomination, Republican prospects improve dramatically. If he is the nominee, it’s a very competitive race.

2. West Virginia 1 (Alan Mollohan). Cong. Mollohan is under pressure from Republicans and now the editorial boards of the New York Times and Washington Post to step down from his role as ranking member of the House Ethics Committee. [Note: Mollohan did step down from the committee on Friday.] Under scrutiny is the dramatic increase in his personal wealth over the last four years and money he directed to a handful of non-profit companies he helped set up, back in the state. State Delegate Chris Wakim (R), a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, showed $118,463 in the bank on March 31 and could take advantage if Mollohan’s political situation becomes more dire.

3. Georgia 8 (Jim Marshall). Former Cong. Mac Collins (R) is running a rejuvenated campaign against Democrat Jim Marshall in a redrawn district. Marshall had over $1 million on hand through the first quarter of the year compared to almost $700,000 for Collins. President Bush carried the 8th District in both 2000 (58%) and 2004 (61%).
[…]

Former ‘U.S. Mayor’ Giuiliani Stumps for Ultra Rightwingers Santorum and Reed

Jon Ponder

The media dubbed Giuiliani “Mayor the United States” after the 9/11 attacks because he showed up and did his job instead of hiding under his desk.

Following the lead of his rival for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain — who recently forfeited his straight-talking maverick persona to court the likes of Jerry Falwell — former “Mayor of the United States” Rudolph Giuiliani, who has close friends who are gay, campaigned yesterday in Pennsylvania for Sen. Rick Santorum, a virulent homophobe whose chief of staff is gay, and who once declared there was no distinction between homosexuality and bestiality:

Giuliani said Santorum had “taken many positions. Most of them I agree with.”

Now we learn that Giuiliani will campaign with Abramoff-scandal figure, and former head of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed who is running as a Republican for Georgia’s lieutenant governor.

Giuiliani is a former U.S prosecutor but now apparently has no problem appearing on stage with Reed, a longtime friend and political associate of prison-bound GOP corruption figure Jack Abramoff. Reed is alleged to have helped Abramoff bilk Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.

The media dubbed Giuiliani “Mayor the United States” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which ocurred when he was mayor of New York City — apparently because he showed up and did his job instead of hiding under a desk.