Pushing my analysis farther

I was happy to see that G.A. Harrison of Delmarva Dealings is paying attention and put together an excellent look into his crystal ball to see what would happen if Frank Kratovil were elected to represent the First District in November. He actually puts some of the points I’ve been making all along into a nicely tied set of paragraphs. Honestly, we really don’t know what Frank stands for, just who he stands against.

Actually, it gives me a chance to point out that I caught Frank in a case of doublespeak the other day and didn’t realize it until yesterday.

During his radio interview Friday Frank alluded that while he wouldn’t vote straight down the Democrat line on a number of issues, Andy Harris would vote strictly Republican. It was meant to imply that he would be anti-worker and pro-big business, contrary to the populist that Kratovil is attempting to portray himself as. But then Frank chastised Andy for voting against his Republican governor on the “flush tax”; meanwhile Andy has spoken of not voting for Governor Ehrlich’s final budget because it was too large. Obviously these are two examples where Harris voted more as a conservative than a Republican.

As I attempt to do, in his post G.A. is using his observations guided by years of experience to predict what may happen if Frank Kratovil is elected. Have you ever noticed that, while John McCain is a “maverick” Republican because he works with Democrats on some issues, there’s not really a “maverick” Democrat? Sure, you could cite Senator Lieberman as an example but remember the Democrats in Connecticut drummed him out of the party and he won his last election as an Independent. Former Senator Zell Miller from Georgia is another example.

The truth is that 99% of the time people are loyal to their party allegiance, so what elections tend to boil down to is whose party platform you favor. Given the Democrats’ tendency to tax more, spend more, restrict more, and stick up for America on foreign soil less, the better candidate is the conservative one.

The First District has a choice. They can vote for talking the conservative talk or for walking the conservative walk. As some conservative commentators have warned Republicans, given a choice between liberal and faux-liberal those on the left of center will go for the real thing. Those of us in our conservative area should also go for the real thing, not just one who talks about it.

By the way, I notice that G.A. didn’t crosspost this to Salisbury News. Wonder whose decision that was?

Show me a Supreme decision, I’ll show you good voting law

Legislators in Missouri took two steps in the right direction by working to adopt election reform requiring voters to present voter ID at the polling place and those who register to vote to supply proof of citizenship. Both of these are steps Maryland should take as well, but we all know who’s blocking this common-sense legislation. (Hint: their party name starts with a D, and they’re famous for having a lot of deceased voters in cities like Chicago.)

Of course, naysayers called these measures too onerous despite the fact that the state of Missouri would provide the photo identification in question to those who can’t afford the nominal cost to receive one. According to a New York Times story by Ian Urbina, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan estimated that 240,000 Missourians would be disenfranchised; however it’s not clear she arrived at this figure, which would represent about 6% of Missouri’s 4 million registered voters if her estimates were true. Most residents of Missouri would qualify simply by holding a driver’s license which also showed proof of citizenship.

Much like Maryland, Missouri’s legislative session is not full-time and time ran out on the voter ID proposal when their session ended last Friday. While the Missouri House of Representatives passed the voter ID bill, the Missouri Senate did not take the time to consider it as minority Democrats threatened to filibuster the bill and hold up other priority items for Republicans, including Governor Matt Blunt.

So common sense is thwarted again as Democrats fight tooth and nail to protect their voter base of illegal immigrants and cemetery residents.