Politics Blog

I love trips down memory lane…

The arrival of additional forces in Iraq comes a day after leading Democrats said they would back legislation that would block funding to pay for additional military forces.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who, Tuesday, urgently called for Congress to vote on - and reject - the proposed surge, told ABC News that the arrival of additional soldiers “underscores Sen. Kennedy’s point that Congress must act immediately.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-N.M., also responded to the report, calling the troops’ arrival “deeply disappointing.”

Reid has said that Americans don’t want to see additional forces in Iraq, and that he has been considering plans offered by his congressional colleagues.

More:

Rep. Jack Murtha (D) says that he has figured out a way to stop Bush’s so-called troop “surge” before it is completed

More:

Rep. Ike Skelton, the Missouri Democrat who will become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee next month, echoed those sentiments Tuesday. “I’m convinced the Army and the Marines are near the breaking point,” Skelton said, while expressing skepticism that a big troop surge would be worth the trouble.

More:

The new leaders of Congress on Friday urged President Bush not to pour more U.S. troops into the war in Iraq, calling the idea “a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed.”

Finally,

Top US congressional Democrats bluntly told President George W. Bush Wednesday that his Iraq troop “surge” policy was a failure.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the president over Iraq by sending him a letter, ahead of a White House meeting later on Wednesday.

“As many had forseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results,” the two leaders wrote.

The Democrats obviously have no credibility on Iraq, or really after the Cold War should have none on foreign policy at all as they were rooting and working for the other side, and therefore their thoughts on these matters should be dismissed.

— The Ace

More liberal admissions on the issue,

Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased

Just likeso many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.

Democrats are not only favored in the tone of the coverage. They get more coverage period. This is particularly evident on morning news shows, which “produced almost twice as many stories (51% to 27%) focused on Democratic candidates than on Republicans.”

The most flagrant bias, however, was found in newspapers. In reviewing front-page coverage in 11 newspapers, the study found the tone positive in nearly six times as many stories about Democrats as it was negative.

But don’t you worry, some managing editor at a liberal paper told the staff they were bad when they clapped when Karl Rove made public he was leaving!

— The Ace

Bush 41 and Newt Gingrich change their predictions about Hillary’s chance of locking up the nomination for the Democrats:

“Well, look, if she’s the nominee, I obviously will be for her opponent. I thought a few weeks ago that she was almost a ‘gimme’, as we say in golf, for the nomination. I’m not sure I feel that way now. Well, there seems to be more kind of internal — in her own party there seems to be more willingness to take her on and to argue about stuff. But she’s a formidable opponent and she’s done very well, in my view. Now would I be for her? No.”

“I’m not sure that — you know, again, I want to be on record as just saying I don’t necessarily believe Hillary is going to win the primary, to say nothing of the general election. But the American people have a way of sorting these things out. And they go to caucuses or go to the primaries and just work, grind your way up the — to whatever lies ahead, and that’s what’s happened. There hasn’t been any anointing in the process.”

Newt thinks that on to many issues, Hillary has either contradicted herself or is just plain on the wrong side of things:

“Her performance in that debate was so bad, on issues that matter so much, she may not be able to recover from it… This issue ofSpitzer trying to give out driver’s licenses to people at a time when your driver’s license allows you to vote — for her to trap herself into saying that creates a big wound…

The fact that she said she’s basically sympathetic with Rangel’s trillion-dollar-tax increase — that’s going to arouse some deep opposition. The huge Democratic tax increase allowed us to win in 1994… Then, I saw in a ticker on Fox News, when Sen. Edwards said nominating her would be ‘a victory for a corruption machine’… it brings back a lot of memories of the Chinese funding scandals of 1996… It takes her winning the nomination from an 80 percent likelihood to a 50 percent. It’s even money. If she doesn’t turn this around quick, I may have to call back in and take it even lower.”

So an opporunity has presented itself to allow Obama to gain some ground on Hillary and possibly for Edwards to get on track. The problem I see is that Hillary has been running the most centrist campaign, at least as centrist as a liberal can be, especially compared to Obama and Edwards. Do these other candidates, to take advantage of the poor debate performance, run to her right or even further left?

— ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

Some extremely interesting numbers from a Democrat poll:

notice some surprising numbers from a poll conducted by Democracy Corps and Democratic pollsters/strategists Stan Greenberg, Al Quinlan, and James Carville:

They asked independents their top two reasons why America is on the wrong track from a list of seven.

“Bogged down and spending billions in Iraq” came in next to last at 23 percent; “Government failed on Katrina” came in last at 13 percent.

The tops for independents? “Borders left unprotected,” way ahead at 40 percent.

Illegal immigration could be the winning issue for Fred Thompson and the GOP. Especially given Hillary’s record of anti-American votes on the issue.

In fact, illegal immigration might be the only issue that can save the GOP in 2008.

(link via Kausfiles)

— PoliPundit

Democrat Presidential hopeful, and hopefully, never President, Barack Obama gets tough with Iran. He wants to talk to them:

If elected president, Senator Barack Obama would meet with Iran’s leaders and offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek “regime change” if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.

In an hour-long interview on Wednesday, Obama made clear that forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of a broad effort to stabilize Iraq. And he vowed to engage in “aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran and other regional powers as he withdrew American combat forces in Iraq.

And all they have to do is start playing nice in the sandbox:

Obama said that Iran had been “acting irresponsibly” by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also stressed that Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for “terrorist activities” were serious concerns and that “we expect them to desist from those actions.”

And if they comply, what do they get in return:

But Obama said that “changes in behavior” by Iran should be met with gestures by the United States, beginning with possible membership in the World Trade Organization.

“We are willing to talk about certain assurances in the context of them showing some good faith,” he said. “I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hell bent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behavior. And there are both carrots and there are sticks available to them for those changes in behavior.”

What does a dictator have to do to be denounced by this guy. This terrorist wants to kill US, wants to wipe Israel off the map and this idiot liberal wants to offer him carrots!!!!!!

— ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

The Democratic party crime wave continues,

Over the past several months, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has issued two grand jury subpoenas to former clients of Kay LiCausi, a lobbyist and former aide to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). The investigation, of course, is no secret, but after a controversy raged over subpoenas issued shortly before the 2006 election, the investigation has shifted direction entirely. Now the focus seems to be whether Menendez steered lobbying contracts to his former girlfriend and then delivered government funds to those client once they’d hired her.

No matter, the residents of New Jersey will still flock to the polls and vote for a Democrat.

— The Ace

Fascinating to read,

Private wealth specialists Lewis Schiff and Russ Alan Prince found the number of Americans with $1 million to$10 million had risen to 8.4 million households – or 7.6 percent of U.S. households – and was growing at 15 percent a year.

But instead of entering the echelons of the elite, these new millionaires adhere to middle-class values, earning their money rather than inheriting it, working 70 hours a week, and choosing neighborhoods based on the quality of schools.

“These are middle class people who are in the community and don’t insulate themselves but they are different because they have managed to accumulate wealth,” said Schiff, the president of private wealth consultant Advanced Planning Group.

Funny, and here I thought everyone was falling behind in the Bush economy! More,

Schiff and Prince surveyed about 3,600 people – 600 millionaires and 3,000 middle-class people – to research their book “The Middle Class Millionaire: The Rise of the New Rich and How they are Changing America” due out next February.

They found that 89 percent of middle-class millionaires believed anyone could attain wealth through hard work.

Don’t tell that to the Teddy Kennedy’s (multi-millionaire through no work what so ever) of the world!

Middle-class millionaires are almost three times as likely as the average middle-class person to choose a career based on its likely earnings, three times as likely to belong to a networking group, and five times more likely to say they are always available for work by phone or email.

Nearly eight out of 10 – or 77 percent – choose their neighborhood based on the quality of the school system.

Remember when a million was a lot of money? God Bless America!

— The Ace

Good news from NumbersUSA’s latest e-mail:

DEAR OPPONENTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD NEWS,

I want to bring you several pieces of breaking and recent good news. Many things are moving in the right direction. Some of them have action items. Please note and enjoy.

REPUBLICANS BEGINNING TO GET EXCITED ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC ‘SAVE ACT’

Many Republicans have been cautious about a Democratic “Enforcement-Only” bill being promoted by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and gaining dozens of Democratic original co-sponsors before its introduction next week.

With nearly all the top leaders of the Democratic Party promoting amnesty and other rewards for illegal immigration, the question among Republicans has been whether the “SAVE Act” that comes from mostly lower-level Democratic Members of Congress can be trusted to truly combat illegal immigration?

Key Republican leaders of the anti-illegal movement have been giving the SAVE Act close scrutiny this week.

Doubts began to melt with the enthusiastic endorsement of the SAVE Act by California Republican Brian Bilbray, who earlier this year replaced Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) as chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (when Tancredo began running for President).

Bilbray promoted the SAVE Act at a key meeting of House Republicans today. And Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) was reported to have received a strongly positive reception from his fellow Republicans after walking them through the details of the bill.

You can read a lot more about the SAVE ACT (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement) at:
www.numbersusa.com/interests/attrition.html

Our Capitol Hill Team has been in the offices of our best Republican allies against illegal immigration all day. The report from the team is that these Republicans, after looking it over, believe in Shuler’s bill.

So do dozens of Democrats whose offices we’ve visited recently.

The fact is that this is becoming an incredible bi-partisan bill that represents the will of the American people to finally turn the tide on illegal immigration.

…

WOULD DEMOCRATIC LEADERS POSSIBLY ALLOW AN ENFORCEMENT-ONLY BILL TO COME TO FLOOR FOR A VOTE?

Even a month ago, that seemed highly unlikely. After all, the career immigration record of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rates at only 3% in our grading system! Only 11 of the 435 Members of the House are worse.

But all of you and many other Americans have made so much noise about illegal immigration that we are hearing some slight openness among Democratic leaders to allowing concerned Democrats to make their case.

Democratic leadership this week sent around this quote:

Democrats are reviewing poll after poll showing sagging popularity not only of Congress but also of their congressional leaders. So, some lawmakers have begun to argue, it just might be in everyone’s interest to show that Washington can actually tackle a serious issue without all of the theatrics and games.
–”New Congress at War Over Everything,” The Politico, 10/30/07

Real enforcement against illegal immigration sounds like just the issue, doesn’t it? Keep up the pressure.

SENATE AG CHAIRMAN STRONGLY OPPOSES ANY VOTE ON AgJOBS AMNESTY ON HIS FARM BILL NEXT WEEK

Chances of a giant amnesty for ag workers and their dependents diminished significantly this morning at the National Press Club.

Sen. Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told a group of reporters that he is adamently opposed to the Democratic leadership allowing the AgJOBS amnesty to be introduced as an amendment to “his” Farm Spending Bill.

Harkin noted that he is an original co-sponsor for the amnesty for illegal aliens working in agriculture. But he said immigration should not be legislated in the Farm Bill.

In fact, he said, immigration policy should not be taken up again until after “the next election.” That would be 2009!

Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team is noticing intense friction among Senate Democrats behind the scenes. Some are determined to keep trying to find a way to get some kind of amnesty through for at least some of the country’s illegal aliens. But many other Democratic Senators are saying that they just can’t stand the thought of another bruising battle over amnesty. They believe their losing battles so far this year have hurt them with swing voters and hurt morale among their base.

…

YOUR PHONE CALLS & FAXES THIS WEEK CREATED AN IMMEDIATE STIR – AND SURPRISE

Late Sunday night, I alerted you to the possibility of an introduction of Rep. Shuler’s SAVE Act. I suggested that some of you might want to start calling your Representative to ask them to take a look at the bill.

By late Monday morning, Shuler’s office was being pounded with phone calls from other congressional offices in the Capitol.

The staffers were asking Shuler’s staffers, “What is this immigration bill that our constituents are calling us about this morning?”

Most of them hadn’t heard a thing about Shuler’s SAVE Actto keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs. So, they were really startled when NumbersUSA members started calling them as soon as they arrived at the office Monday and kept calling all day.

After three days of tens of thousands of faxes and thousands of phone calls, every office in the U.S. House (if not every staffer) has now heard about the SAVE Act from NumbersUSA constituents.

You have achieved your first task of moving this into the radar of nearly every office.

I’m sure your calls helped create more receptivity among Republicans who discussed the bill at their big meeting today.

…

REPUBLICAN VOTERS ARE WEEDING OUT THE OPEN-BORDERS TYPES IN THE PARTY

Pro-amnesty and open-borders views are taking a heavy toll on major Republican leaders this year.

Last spring, Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) lost his front-runner status for the Republican Presidential nomination – and plummeted almost to single-digit polling – largely because of his highly public leadership pushing amnesties for illegal aliens. His staff admitted then and again recently that his small-donor contributions just dried up once the Senate amnesty battle began earlier this year.

Now, I am so proud of all you Republicans who have knocked Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) out of thePresidential race. He had staked his hopes for the last two year on having a large core base of evangelical and conservative Catholic voters. He criss-crossed the country speaking to large religious conventions of these voters. Two years ago, I was hearing from many of these voters that they were enthralled with Sen. Brownback. When I would tell them about his aggressively pro-amnesty work, people reacted in disbelief.

But eventually the truth got out about Sen. Brownback’s immigration positions.

Most of his other positions were almost perfectly in line with the religious base he was seeking. But, like McCain, he totally blew it with an immigration position at odds with that base. Polls show that evangelicals, for example, oppose amnesties and rewards for illegal aliens by a higher margin than almost any demographic group.

NumbersUSA participated in advertising throughout Kansas starting years ago in efforts to make sure that voters there understood the leadership role Sen. Brownback was taking for open borders positions. We have looked for opportunities wherever we could to expose him during his Presidential run.

Along with defeated Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) and defeated Rep. Dick Chrysler (R-Mich.) and firmly ensconced Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Brownback played the key role in working with Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1996 in killing the immigration-reduction recommendations of the bi-partisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by the late Barbara Jordan.

We are most pleased to see Sen. Brownback give up the race – and plan to leave the Senate after this term.

We are ecstatic to see Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) announce that he will soon be resigning as the head of the national Republican Party.

All news reports about his departure have noted that his constant leadership for amnesty this year has seriously hurt Republicans’ ability to raise money from small donors.

I am so thankful to the thousands of you who began faxing and phoning campaigns of protest as soon as Sen. Martinez was nominated for the Party leadership. This is a reminder that even when you don’t think you are having an effect at first, your pressure can eventually have results.

Thanks to all of you who have told us of returning every Republican solicitation for funds with a note that you won’t give another dollar until the Party has leaders who support immigration enforcement. You are having a real effect in gradually purging the Party of supporters of illegal immigration.

I hope all of you who are Democrats are paying attention. Many of you have been doing the same thing with Democratic fund-raising letters. Let’s put a lot more pressure on Howard Dean and the pro-amnesty leaders of the Party. It is not an impossible dream that these leaders will start to feel the heat and see the light, as national Republican leaders are starting to do.

THANKS FOR ALL THE MANY WAYS THAT YOU ARE SHIFTING THE POLITICAL BALANCE IN THIS COUNTRY.

— PoliPundit

Some good news on the immigration front, from NumbersUSA’s web site:

Rep. Shuler to Introduce Enforcement-Only Bill Soon

(October 31) A new immigration enforcement bill that would remove the jobs magnet for illegal immigration is expected to be introduced in the House very soon. The SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification Enforcement) will be sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and is expected to have bi-partisan support. NumbersUSA believes this bill originating on the Democratic side of the House is just the vehicle to give us a chance to actually pass immigration legislation through a Democratic-controlled Congress that would significantly improve the lives of most Americans. Specifically, The SAVE Act would eventually require every employee in America to go through the E-Verify system, identifying all illegal aliens and removing any “glitches” that once allowed them to pass through the system and into the workforce undetected.

Click here for more information about the SAVE Act.

This is the simple plan I’ve been touting for almost two years now; it would effectively end illegal immigration by making it almost impossible for illegals to get jobs. Now, sponsored by a Democrat freshman Congressman, it may have a very good chance of passing the Democrat-controlled House. Join NumbersUSA today and help make it happen.

— PoliPundit