February 2008 – Page 4

Romney to stop in Maryland

I have a source who tells me that Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is to attend the Baltimore County Lincoln Day dinner on Thursday night at 7 p.m., along with the three major Congressional candidates (Pipkin, Harris, Gilchrest.) Probably Banks and Arminio will show too since they’re from that side of the bay.

What this naturally brings up is whether we’ll have another speaker at our own Wicomico County Lincoln Day Dinner this Saturday night. One reason we placed the date as we did was the possibility of getting a Presidential candidate to appear and obviously if I find out about one, you find out. At this moment, nothing has been confirmed with any Presidential campaign for a Wicomico County stop, or anywhere else on the Eastern Shore for that matter. (But I’ll keep checking.) In the meantime, we do have two-time candidate for governor Ellen Sauerbrey as our speaker – by the way, she announced her support for Andy Harris late last week. Tickets are selling briskly, so if you’d like one I can steer you in the right direction.

Update: PolitickerMD has the actual location of the Baltimore County dinner.

Is reality setting in for Ron Paul?

Well, it’s good to know he has a backup plan:

Loyal Ron Paul supporters,

Here is another way you can help Ron Paul continue to defend freedom and keep the movement alive. Under Texas law Ron Paul can run for President and Congress at the same time and he is doing just that. If you have already given to help elect Ron Paul President, you can also help him by giving to his reelection campaign to Congress. Go to his congressional web site starting TODAY and donate to make sure Ron also wins his reelection campaign for Congress. Let’s help reelect Ron to Congress and elect him President at the same time. Let the Establishment know that the movement will continue, whether in Congress or in the White House. The Texas Primary election is March 4, so time is short for Ron to fund this campaign.

Our goal is to raise $400,000 for Ron’s congressional campaign within the next week or two. Early voting starts in Texas soon and Ron’s congressional campaign needs the money TODAY to pay for TV and radio and mailings.

Federal election laws make it impossible for Congressman Paul to use any of his presidential funds for his congressional race so long as he remains a candidate for president. That creates a real problem because as long as Ron Paul continues to have success running for President, he will have a hard time securing funds for his congressional reelection.

So get online now at http://www.ronpaulforcongress.com and make your maximum donation. Watch the donation counter soar to help keep the Revolution alive. And send this email alert to all of your friends and contacts.

Let’s show Ron Paul exactly how much we love, appreciate and support him.

Yours for Freedom,

Mark Elam
Ron Paul Congressional Campaign Manager

While Ron has secured a huge amount of money from the Internet, the fact is that he’s only getting single digits in each state election and polling a similar number in most of the Super Tuesday states. Thus he has a whopping four delegates out of the 197 allocated thus far, lagging far behind frontrunner John McCain or even second place contestant Mitt Romney. While there are true believers in his message of limited government combined with a noninterventionist foreign policy, most rank-and-file Republicans (myself included) take issue with his stance on the war in Iraq and projection of military power to defend our national interests. (Diehard Paul supporters feel that we’re protecting corporate interests moreso than our nation’s.)

Thus, it looks like his campaign has made the transition from a Presidential one to a Congressional one. He may hang on for awhile nationally in an effort to influence the debate but at this point it appears that Ron Paul is slowly conceding the race to the more mainline hopefuls of the Republican Party. It would be nice if the others picked up on his limited-government views though.

A small victory for Romney

Mitt Romney won a slim majority of the caucus preference votes in Maine today, securing most if not all of the state’s 18 GOP delegates when the process finishes in coming weeks. Today’s heavily attended vote was the first part of a multistep process but gives Romney a victory he can take into his Super Tuesday battles with fellow officeseeker John McCain, who had 21 percent of caucusgoers’ support. Ron Paul was third at 19 percent while Mike Huckabee was lagging with 6 percent of caucus preference.

However, McCain holds a clear polling lead in many of the Super Tuesday states, including some, according to a New York Times article by Michael Luo, that Romney apparently has largely abandoned. (Consider the source, as the Times endorsed John McCain for the GOP nod. Part of that “sense of inevitability.”)

All this leads to an exciting night Tuesday, although with a string of McCain wins it may turn depressing for a number of GOP stalwarts.

A response to a comment

Back on Tuesday night, I detailed the latest Wicomico Neighborhood Congress meeting where the subject was crime. In a lengthy response, commenter “Outraged Richard” stated his case:

Fact is, the parents and law enforcement are the problem, along with the criminal youth.

Fact is, poor quality parents – those defined as unmarried, obese, criminal, and unable to afford children, for starters – should be ridiculed by the community first, next fined, and then imprisoned.

Law enforcement supervisors should be fired – the whole department if necessary – for not actively fining parents and not aggressively breaking up and punishing the criminal youth.

Then there is the problem of racism in the Transchoptankia Realm – an extremely important issue which no one will touch. I will.

Prevent newspapers from printing the typical “first black to do so and so” crap.

Pass a resolution to ban Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton from the Transchoptankia Realm.

Furthermore, and most importantly, town planning should be based on TND which promotes a dense urban core that allows people of all races to intermingle.

Get rid of the “White Side, Black Side” of town mentality! Bulldoze the dead ended urban sprawl developments and bulldoze the “hood”!

Problem people should not be allowed to live in the town. Many current citizens should be banned. How about that? To live in a proper town community you have to show responsibility and good will.

Bam! That’s how we do it!

Michael, what do you think? Are these not the proper answers?

Perhaps. But the whole subject placed me deep in thought because there is a reality out there that brings with it its own questions, one of them being whether one person can even make a difference in this debate.

Rare are the moments where the actions of one man change the course of history unalterably. While there are cases like Gavrilo Princip firing the shot which began a world war or Thomas Edison striking on the right combination of materials to produce artificial light, most of us live our day-to-day lives making a number of decisions that affect a thousand other events – but simultaneously the remainder of humankind places into motion their own event chains that generally have the effect of working anywhere from completely opposite to practically parallel to our intentions. The end result then is that more often than not society changes at a glacial, almost imperceptible rate.

So it is with all of these proposals. Certainly they all can be argued on whatever merits they have, but maybe a better way to look at the issue is to ask how we got to the point of even asking the questions in the first place. Where was it that the actions Outraged Richard decries in his rant gained acceptability or at least a tacit admission that it wasn’t an issue worth bothering with in the first place? Somewhere the myriad actions of our society pushed the ball over the goal line.

In this case, it’s unclear where that moment was but it could be that there were (and still are) some in American society who thought it best to act in a manner that may have been contrary to the common good. Edmund Burke was absolutely correct in saying, “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

Unfortunately, this particular case of looking at things beyond the obvious won’t reach a vast number of people, and to many it does reach it’ll be forgotten by the time the next article is read since we all have MTV-induced short attention spans now. But those dreamers like I am from time to time will keep trying for that moment of clarity when the answers do come.

Presidential candidate love for the First State

Insofar as I know this is the first campaign stop featuring a Presidential candidate on the Eastern Shore or Delaware, but it’s not someone for whom I can vote.

As a courtesy to those on the opposite side who want to make a road trip Sunday to see Barack Obama in Wilmington, the information is here.

Hopefully after Super Tuesday the remaining candidates will make an effort to visit our region since we’ll be the only game in town for February 12th. I did notice that the McCain campaign also had rallies today in Delaware that featured Tom Ridge and Mike Castle but not John McCain himself. Seeing that Delaware has the fewest delegates at stake of any Super Tuesday state that’s not surprising but it would be nice to see a swing through our area by someone in the GOP before the 12th.

If I find out I’ll be sure to spread the word!

Big money on more than one side

Thus far in the 2008 GOP primary election here in the First of Maryland we’ve had a number of complaints and cross-complaints, including a pair of insinuations of illegalities by Andy Harris’s campaign. One is guilt by association because Harris uses a media consultant company called Jamestown Associates, while the other is an FEC suit brought by attorney and E.J. Pipkin backer James Braswell. For his part, Braswell claims that he’s not necessarily against the Club For Growth philsophically, but doesn’t condone their attempts to influence the primary and “buy” a Congressman. Quoting from Braswell’s website, The Bully Pulpit:

In my opinion, Andy Harris is being bought by the Club for Growth. If it wasn’t for the Club for Growth, Andy would not stand a chance in this race. If Andy goes to Congress, he will just be another typical politician who will put the best interests of his campaign slush fund ahead of the citizens he represents.

Fair enough – obviously this post is my opinion as well. And yesterday I received word that the group Republicans Who Care received a big contribution from an interesting source to run a new commercial calling both Harris and Pipkin big spenders. In a press release the group claims:

Today, the Republicans Who Care Fund unveiled a new television advertising campaign in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District (the ad can be seen on the Republicans Who Care website – www.republicanswhocare.com). “Andy Harris and E.J. Pipkin have voted to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on wasteful projects, and the voters deserve to know the truth about their dismal legislative records,” said Kirk Walder of Republicans Who Care.

Harris and Pipkin are Maryland State Senators currently challenging Congressman Wayne Gilchrest in the Republican primary.

The new television ad, entitled “Can’t Afford Him,” is on the air in the Baltimore and Salisbury, Maryland markets. The ad points out that Harris and Pipkin voted for millions in wasteful spending in the state legislature – including money for a cow museum, money for a dance hall in Montgomery County, and money to redecorate offices in Annapolis. “Talk is cheap, especially from politicians in the middle of a political campaign. The truth is that neither Andy Harris nor E.J. Pipkin are committed to reigning in wasteful spending, indeed their records make it clear that they are responsible for millions in wasteful spending,” said Walder.

“With politicians like Harris and Pipkin in Annapolis, it’s no wonder that Maryland voters are faced with an ever increasing tax burden,” continued Walder.

“The message of our ad is clear – Andy Harris and E.J. Pipkin have done enough damage already to the taxpayers of Maryland. Maryland taxpayers can’t afford to be represented by politicians like Harris and Pipkin,” concluded Walder.

Obviously the RWC group backs Gilchrest in the race, which is fine. I’d love to see the citations on these accusations – more likely than not they’re simply because Harris and Pipkin have voted in favor of the overall state budget in the past. Be that as it may, it looks like someone at the Club For Growth (yep, those guys again) did a little digging in the FEC files, and here’s what they found. I also have the .pdf file documenting the transfer here. Pay attention to pages 4 and 5 for the phrases that pay.

So why is a union that doesn’t even have a local unit on the Eastern Shore interested in this race? Perhaps they see Harris and Pipkin (particularly Harris) as a threat to their major goal of health care “reform” (read: HillaryCare.) The SEIU also has an “independent” health care site where they extol their legislative victories, chief among them Maryland’s infamous “Fair Share” bill. This is the group who is backing Gilchrest in the primary – I’m not holding my breath they maintain the stance in the general election even if Gilchrest wins. Check out some of the First District Democrats’ stances on health care and you’ll see how they all align much closer to the SEIU’s stand.

While Pipkin was a subject of the RWC attack ad he’s chosen to take it to Harris in his response, part of which was detailed on the PolitickerMD site today. (I must have made the Pipkin camp mad, I didn’t get that press release. Generally they’ve put me on the list.)

It’s also worthy of mention that the Chris Meekins quote in the post about Pipkin’s self-financed campaign is borne out by the FEC – most of E.J.’s funds come courtesy of a loan from himself. One may argue that by Pipkin risking his own capital he’s not beholden to anyone; on the other hand, both Gilchrest and Harris can boast of hundreds of individual donors showing their support.

Regardless, using just the three main GOP contenders as a yardstick, through last week almost $1.7 million had been spent pursuing the seat and there was almost $900,000 left in their coffers – not counting the $180,000 going to the Gilchrest-backing RWC or any additional Harris cash from the Club For Growth. It shows why we have the most-watched GOP primary race in the country.

Crossposted on Red Maryland.