Category: National politics

Political items from around the country or world.

WCRC meeting – September 2007 (Straw Poll)

Last night I posted the results of the Straw Poll; tonight I go into what was said.

Unfortunately I didn’t get quite the participation or attendance I expected; then again, this was a first-time event and we have competition from hundreds of other organizations – not to mention we’re not located in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina. Maryland is the primary backwater state once again despite moving up to mid-February.

On a personal level, I am pleased that the event went off well despite the lower than expected crowd. It’s the first time I attempted putting together an event like this and insofar as anything we made last night from the purchase of ballots was “free” money, $300 (plus $100 in 50/50 money, plus signing up one new member) is nothing to sneeze at whatsoever. And I managed not to sound too stupid at the podium, either in handling the event as it went on or my presentation advocating Duncan Hunter for President. I actually thought I did that pretty well, four minutes off the cuff without notes or reading. Just wish I’d convinced another few voters.

We had four local speakers who exhorted the gathering to vote for their guy. As you’ve likely guessed, I was one on Duncan Hunter’s behalf. But I’d also like to thank BJ Corbin for his support of Mike Huckabee, Ryan Hohman for advocating Ron Paul, and Bonnie Luna coming up to press Fred Thompson’s candidacy. Obviously she was the big winner given the results. We also found out that Bonnie is Fred Thompson’s Wicomico County coordinator, so I guess she’s really the first to step up to assisting on a national campaign to that extent. Finally, from a message standpoint I thought each of us were well-received so that was a nice experience. I was getting a thumbs-up from Joe Arminio in the back on a couple points regarding Congressman Hunter (as did BJ with Mike Huckabee) so I made a little impact.

The four of us were a pretty good opening act for the remaining four speakers.

First to speak was Congressional candidate and Arnold resident Joe Arminio. This gives you a little idea of the crowd as well.

Joe Arminio drew first blood. The author, consultant, and newspaper publisher from Anne Arundel County began his ten minutes by referring to what he termed “colossal developments” in our economy, particularly the devaluation of the dollar against the euro. (He refers to it farther in this recent press release from his website. I received it but hadn’t had an opportunity to post it yet – so here you go.) Arminio even raised the specter of a possible depression since so many of our dollars are held overseas. Joe continued by stating that our country was “on fumes” in many economic respects.

His solutions lay in going back to an era before America hit its “apogee” as he put it; or to an era before 1972 when real wages peaked for the American worker. A return to something akin to the gold standard to discourage borrowing and increasing tariffs on imports to preserve our industry were just two parts of the cure, along with a sharp decrease in immigration. Arminio did not have kind things to say about the prospect of a North American Union, either. (I edited the above slightly based on Dr. Arminio’s comment below.)

Another idea I found intriguing in what Joe said was the idea of creating committees of voters to assist him and give feedback on how he’s doing. In a respect, Arminio wants to create democracy within the republic, although he didn’t go into many specifics on the idea.

Cathy Bassett, District and Communications Director, served as the pinch-hitter for Congressman Wayne Gilchrest.

Cathy Bassett was a late fill-in for Congressman Gilchrest but did a good job in his stead. She termed Wayne as the “most electable” of the four, claiming that he gets a lot of crossover Democrat votes that the others might not get because the Democrats will “run hard” for the seat. She also alluded that out-of-district interests are out to “buy” (my term) a Congressman as opponents are taking PAC money that Wayne does not.

Saying that Congressman Gilchrest supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent, Bassett also made a jab at Gilchrest’s opponents by talking about earmarks in a positive light, couching it in terms of bringing home the bacon. Wayne would pursue “certain” earmarks, ostensibly those bound for the First District. One example she gave was the dualization of U.S. 113 in Worcester County.

If there’s one thing Cathy said that troubled me a bit, it was when she talked about corruption and bad behavior in Congress. She gave four names out, and while I did not write down the names, if my memory serves she cited Duke Cunningham, Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, and Larry Craig – it may not have been that specific four, but I’m positive all four she called by name were Republicans. I’m not saying the Congressional GOP is clean and pure as wind-driven snow, but what about William Jefferson or Alan Mollohan?

Congressional hopeful John Leo Walter makes his point during his remarks at the Wicomico County Republican Straw Poll.

In my remarks about the recent WCRC Crab Feast, I said that John Leo Walter was “probably the most ‘average Joe’ in the race (but was) facing a pretty steep learning curve as far as running a race goes”. Well, Joe did two smart things for this Straw Poll. One, he brought a big family and other supporters down from Centreville and they must have had a few dollars for the paid ballot portion of the Straw Poll. Secondly, he quoted what I said on my website as part of his remarks. And yes, he began by talking about his family.

John didn’t really go into specifics as far as policies go, except to brand himself as “similar to Fred Thompson.” (Given the Straw Poll results, another shrewd move.) He stressed instead his thought that Congressmen go to Washington and after a time “lose their way”, whereas in Walter’s mind he shared the idea of the Founding Fathers – a person going to serve for a few terms then returning to his business or farm. (He didn’t come out and impose a term limit on himself, though.) John also described himself as full of youth, enthusiasm, optimism (in the mold of Reagan), and energy. Also he made a key point of his daily experience in dealing with the law and Constitution as a practicing attorney.

As the Political Director for the Andy Harris campaign, Chris Meekins came down to talk in Andy's place.

Unfortunately, Andy Harris could not be with us last night as we had the misfortune of scheduling our event on top of another he was committed to. But we arguably had the next best person to describe him in his Political Director, Chris Meekins.

Meekins talked a little bit about Andy’s family and active-duty military background (Operation Desert Shield/Storm). He also touched on the support Andy has from his fellows in the General Assembly (7 of 8 district Senators and over 10 Delegates), and termed Harris a “principled conservative.” In terms of policy, that translated into a hard line on illegal immigration (the idea of in-state tuition for illegals was “ludicrous”), taxes (Harris would oppose “all new taxes”, while Meekins claimed that Gilchrest voted for $15 billion in new taxes via the farm bill), and the Ahmadinejad visit (Harris would move to cut off federal funds to Columbia for inviting the Iranian despot.)

Another issue raised by Cathy Bassett was addressed by Meekins. Disputing the claim that Gilchrest was the most electable, Meekins pointed out that the Democrats redistricted the state in such a way that all of the Republicans were lumped into two Congressional seats (1st and 6th Districts.) So the Democrats conceded these two districts in order to solidify six seats in Maryland’s delegation.

All in all it was quite informative for the people who made it out. There is one more polling list I wanted to mention though.

I found it interesting to see how many “paid” votes a candidate got per “raw” vote. If you divide the two numbers you see who supposedly has the deepest support (or the deepest pockets). On the Presidential side it worked out this way:

  1. Sam Brownback – infinity (1 divided by zero)
  2. Duncan Hunter – 19.0 (19/1)
  3. Ron Paul – 13.5 (54/4)
  4. Fred Thompson – 7.27 (160/22)
  5. Alan Keyes – 3.0 (3/1)
  6. Mitt Romney – 2.5 (15/6)
  7. Rudy Giuliani – 2.0 (12/6)
  8. Mike Huckabee – 0.67 (4/6)
  9. John McCain – no votes in either poll
  10. Tom Tancredo – no votes in either poll

The average was 5.82 paid votes per raw vote.

Congress:

  1. John Leo Walter – 11.36 (125/11)
  2. Joe Arminio – 7.4 (37/5)
  3. Andy Harris – 4.14 (91/22)
  4. Wayne Gilchrest – 2.25 (18/8)

In this case, the average was 5.89 paid votes per ballot.

I also want to point out that I got promotional items from just two campaigns – Ron Paul’s and Mitt Romney’s. (You can see some of it in the photo backgrounds.) I also made up a few Tom Tancredo items since his handout was readily available on his website. For the record, Ron Paul’s campaign was also the most responsive about sending someone down but backed out toward the end. I also got a late reply from Alan Keyes’s camapign but having started so late I didn’t figure on getting anything there.

By the way, I still have a boatload of items so the next time you see a GOP table most of the items are leftovers!

Finally, the thanklist:

My fellow WCRC officers: George, Marc, Brad, Helen, Dave, and Tom – couldn’t have done it without you. I had the easy job standing in front of everyone.

Those speakers representing Presidential candidates: BJ, Ryan, Bonnie – thanks for sticking your neck out for a person you believe in. I may not agree with them but you argued for your people well.

The Congressional candidates and their seconds: Joe, John, Cathy, and Chris – most of you came a long way to speak to us and we wish you all the best. Let’s make it a good, hard-fought, and clean campaign that discusses issues.

Finally and most obviously thanks to all of you who participated in the audience. It was a complete crapshoot how this would turn out. It may be I was shooting for the farthest of stars, but I got pretty far past the moon nonetheless. And I did find out tonight at the WNC meeting that Joe Gidjunis will post the results on his Daily Times blog so we’ll get a little bit of pixels besides me anyway.

Here’s hoping we don’t have to do this Presidential Straw Poll thing for another 8 years!

Wicomico GOP Straw Poll Results

I’ll have more on the actual event and what was said tomorrow. For tonight, here are the results of the “raw” ballots, filled out by each of the 46 people attending:

Presidential:

  1. Fred Thompson, 22 votes – 47.8%
  2. Rudy Giuliani, 6 votes – 13.0%
  3. Mike Huckabee, 6 votes – 13.0%
  4. Mitt Romney, 6 votes – 13.0%
  5. Ron Paul, 4 votes – 8.7%
  6. Duncan Hunter, 1 vote – 2.2%
  7. Alan Keyes, 1 vote – 2.2%
  8. Sam Brownback, no votes
  9. John McCain, no votes
  10. Tom Tancredo, no votes

For 1st District Congress:

  1. Andy Harris, 22 votes – 47.8%
  2. John Leo Walter, 11 votes – 23.9%
  3. Wayne Gilchrest, 8 votes – 17.4%
  4. Joe Arminio, 5 votes – 10.9%

Club members also had the opportunity to purchase votes for a separate ballot for $1 apiece. This raised over $300 for the club and made that set of results a little different. I added this feature to see the depth of support for each candidate, and it also allowed people to split tickets, as it were. I know I did.

Presidential:

  1. Fred Thompson, 160 votes – 57.6%
  2. Ron Paul, 54 votes – 19.8%
  3. Duncan Hunter, 19 votes – 7.0%
  4. Mitt Romney, 15 votes – 5.5%
  5. Rudy Giuliani, 12 votes – 4.4%
  6. Mike Huckabee, 4 votes – 1.5%
  7. Alan Keyes, 3 votes – 1.1%
  8. Sam Brownback, 1 vote – 0.0%
  9. John McCain, no votes
  10. Tom Tancredo, no votes

For 1st District Congress:

  1. John Leo Walter, 125 votes – 46.1%
  2. Andy Harris, 91 votes – 33.6%
  3. Joe Arminio, 37 votes – 13.7%
  4. Wayne Gilchrest, 18 votes – 6.6%

Tomorrow night after I attend the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress inaugural meeting I’ll post more on tonight’s Straw Poll – what the candidates said and other interesting items. I got pictures and text of tonight’s event so look forward to it.

Crossposted on RedMaryland.

Harris out to clean up earmarks

Yes, I got the same press release other outlets did. I’m guessing eight blogs got them because Andy links to eight blogs on his site (including monoblogue). But here’s what the Harris campaign has to say:

Harris Calls on Gilchrest to Join Republican Efforts to Clean Up Earmark Process

After watching Democrats add billions of dollars in wasteful pork-barrel government spending in the form of earmarks to appropriations bills in recent months, Andy Harris today called on Wayne Gilchrest to join the House Republican leadership in their attempts to clean up earmarks. “Earmarks waste taxpayer dollars and breed corruption in government.” said Harris. “To clean up Washington, we must first reform the earmark process, with the goal of eventually eliminating them.”

Republican Minority Leader John Boehner introduced H. Res. 559, which would require consideration by the House of H. Res. 479. H. Res. 479 would require all earmarks to be clearly disclosed regardless of where they are found. “H. Res. 479 is the first salvo of the process to end earmarks. By shedding daylight on all earmarks, it gives Americans a chance to see just how corrupt earmarks like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ have become. And when they see, they will demand an end to earmarks,” Harris added.

At the time of this release, 142 Republican members of Congress have signed the discharge petition, but not Wayne Gilchrest. “By not pursuing action to stop the backroom ‘earmarks’ process, Gilchrest is showing he supports the Democrat status quo,” said Chris Meekins, Political Director for the campaign.

An article in Roll Call on September 19, 2007 titled “Mr. Murtha’s Money” explains the dirty side of earmarks. The article uncovered that Representative Murtha received campaign donations from EVERY ONE of the companies receiving earmarks he placed into bills. Murtha received over $410,000 in campaign contributions from the PACs and employees of the companies receiving the earmarks he placed into legislation.

“Apparently Gilchrest sees no problem with Congressmen blatantly using the earmark process to bolster their campaign coffers,” said Meekins. “We sent Wayne to change Washington, but with his opposition to REAL earmark reform, it is obvious that Washington changed Wayne.”

“If elected to Congress, I will support real earmark reforms, and work to end earmarks althogether.  If the government has enough money to waste on pork-barrel earmark spending, the government simply has too much money,” Harris said. (Editor note: links added to original.)

One item in the release that can be questioned by Congressman Gilchrest and his supporters is the implication of using Murtha’s PAC money as an example in the release. The campaign finance site opensecrets.org shows that typically Gilchrest receives 1% or less of his money from political action committees. (I haven’t seen data yet on the 2008 campaign but it’s probably similar.)

And honestly, even if Andy is elected it would be an uphill battle to enact true earmark reform as the vast majority of the electorate looks to their Congressman and says, “what can you get us in our district?” It’s almost like we need about 250 Republican Study Committee types (just in the House, plus 60 Senators) who want to stop earmarks before anything could be done, with Democrats still kicking and screaming about it even afterward. While I think Harris would be a good Congressman (moreso than the incumbent) we have to look toward instilling a sea change in attitude through education as part of the process, too.

Crossposted on RedMaryland.

Is Wayne Gilchrest a liberal?

Now I can delete the tease part, I’m actually writing this article up. As I stated last night, this website says Wayne Gilchrest is a liberal. While one would think it’s a creation of the Andy Harris campaign, it’s actually funded not by his campaign but by a known Harris supporter group, the Club for Growth PAC.

I looked through the site today and checked out the votes the group cites here and here. While the evidence is damning in a number of cases, I was sort of surprised and disappointed to find that there were many other GOP voters with Gilchrest on a number of issues, including all 46 earmarks noted in the “Porker” post. Those amendments tended to fail with just the true GOP fiscal conservatives in the House voting to kill the earmark. Meanwhile, the “sampling” post took into account a small number of votes over the last 7 years. Of those 12 votes, the GOP voted in the majority on 6 of them so the Club For Growth’s complaint shouldn’t just be with Gilchrest on a number of those.

While I did not verify yesterday’s claim, that “Gilchrest votes more often with Democratic leadership than with GOP leadership. So far this year (as of Sunday), he has voted with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer 514 out of 866 times. Conversely, he’s voted with Boehner 470 times out of 866,” it’s very plausible given a CQ Politics survey I posted on in July (about halfway down) that showed Gilchrest voted with the Democrats 48% of the time on key issues.

However, I did decide to link to the site on my sidebar so you can check it out for yourself anytime.

In other First District race news…

Andy Harris’s campaign did let me know about an article by Aaron Blake in The Hill Tuesday that talks about the First District battle for endorsements and fundraising.

Also, I found out today that another Gilchrest challenger has signed on to appear at the Wicomico County GOP Straw Poll Monday night, that challenger being John Leo Walter. He’ll join Joe Arminio at the event. I’m still awaiting word on who will be representing both Harris and Gilchrest at the Straw Poll.

Finally, an interesting Arminio aside. On his website under “The Campaign in the News” he has two links – a link to a WJZ-TV article and a “local blog”. It’s my post I did on his entering the campaign back in July. Hey Joe, at least properly cite the source will you?

Can Ron Paul help Wicomico Republicans?

On Monday I got an interesting letter in my mailbox. As most of you should be aware, I’m the driving force behind the Wicomico County Republican Straw Poll being held this coming Monday (which helps to explain the busy week in my last post.) The letter in question was hand-addressed from Ron Paul’s campaign.

I had contacted all of the campaigns regarding sending a representative to the event, and Ron Paul’s workers had gotten back to me regarding doing just that. So I thought this was a confirmation, but instead the note was a little different. This is what it read:

Dear Wicomico County Republican:

While the Republican primary election is still several months away, you have a change (sic) to indicate your support for the GOP nomination at the Monday, September 24, 2007 Wicomico County Republican Club straw poll. Club members and guests are welcome. It will occur at the monthly club meeting in the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce building at 144 E. Main Street in downtown Salisbury. The social period begins at 7:00 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7:30. Representative (sic) of Presidential and Congressional candidates will make presentations and then you’ll have a chance to register your preference. And you can purchase additional votes with the money going to the club’s efforts to get Republicans elected.

As you think about the best candidate and the best person to be the next president, give serious consideration to Dr. Ron Paul, a ten term Texas Congressman, who believes in liberty and freedom. Who? Dr. Ron Paul, the only true conservative whose philosophy follows true Republican thinking. Smaller government, adherence to the Constitution, avoiding foreign entanglements, and individual liberty.

Well, you may be saying he hasn’t got a chance and he’s not even showing up in the poll numbers. It’s true that he’s not showing up in the mainstream polls but most polls rely upon land-line telephones and not on cell phones like many Ron Paul supporters use. Additionally, the traditional news media are not providing coverage to Ron Paul’s campaign and therefore he is not well known and therefore is showing up poorly in the polls. The news media won’t cover him until he shows up higher in the polls but he won’t show up high in the polls until the news media give him coverage. It’s a vicious cycle. But among Internet users and freedom believing Americans, Dr. Paul is a champion. And in many recent straw polls he is the leader. Check out the enclosed sheet (website).

Dr. Paul is the man. Momentum is building. Yesterday (which would have been September 13th – editor) was the most successful fundraising day in the campaign’s history. If you believe in traditional Republican values and smaller government and getting out of Iraq and stopping American intervention in foreign nations and individual liberty, then we seek your support for Ron Paul. Cast your vote at the Wicomico County Republican Club meeting on September 24.

I believe you need a couple commas in that last paragraph and a proofreader – not necessarily a spell-checker because the wrong words were spelled correctly. And doesn’t that paragraph about being so low in the polls sound just a little bit like a conspiracy theory? Anyway, it’s obvious they got the information on the event I sent to each campaign, so a plus for them. Moreover, they’ve been by far the most responsive campaign since they also sent me a package with 300 palm cards and other items. It’s more than I’ll ever need for this event but we have others coming up.

Also, as I sit here I recall that I had placed in my original note to the Presidential campaigns that we were having our recent Crab Feast as another event where plenty of GOP supporters would be. Guess whose signs were there bright and early?

What also surprised me about it was that apparently someone hand-addressed a number of similar letters to others in the club. We had an officers’ meeting tonight where I was told about them getting a similar letter. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I suppose it just looks less professional.

With all that said there is one question that bears asking. Given the response my requests received from the Paul campaign, along with what is apparently passionate support from the true believers in the Congressman from Texas, what kind of turnout and results will he get in our version of the GOP Straw Poll? We’ll all find out Monday night.

Crossposted on RedMaryland.

2007 WCRC Crab Feast in pictures

It was a perfect day for a picnic that overlooked this pond.

We had a great turnout for our event today. The early morning clouds and rain exited and it was a awesome day weather-wise for the event. The walkup number turned out pretty good.

I got there about 11:00 for a 1:00 event to help set up, but the early-arriving crew were pretty much done. And someone else beat me there too:

While the 'establishment' Republicans call his supporters 'Paulbots' I have to say that someone was on the ball getting his signs to the event. They were the only Presidental signs there. More on Ron Paul in a little while.

Of course, I got a little bit of an early start on the eating and drinking. It also gave me an opportunity to check out the silent auction items. Wonder of wonders, I actually brought my checkbook!

This was one of the two silent auction tables. We had about 30 items donated from supporters, including myself.

This is the book I bought, naturally it's on one of my political heroes.

A little before 1:00 the crabs arrived and so did the real crowd. I have a couple shots taken during the day that give you an idea of the turnout we had.

A long-range shot taken of the entire picnic setup.

This was the scene at the outside tent we set up because the pavilion wasn't large enough.

While the food and fellowship was fun enough (not to mention the silent auction, door prize, and 50/50 raffle) the political junkies also wanted the opportunity to meet at least two of the challengers to incumbent Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. In this case, I’m going to work in chronological order of arrival. And as you’ll see in the next shot I wasn’t the only local blogging correspondent there.

Local blogger Joe Albero talks shop with Lower Shore coordinator Dustin Mills of the Harris campaign.

While Andy Harris had some advance personnel there, in reality the first Congressional candidate to arrive was John Leo Walter. He took the prudent step upon meeting me of praising my work on monoblogue. Complements aside, I did speak to him for a few minutes and he certainly came across to me as planted squarely in the conservative camp and probably the most “average Joe” in the race. John’s facing a pretty steep learning curve as far as running a race goes, though.

Congressional hopeful John Leo Walter (right, in red) enjoys his lunch with family and friends.

John Leo Walter gives brief remarks to those assembled at the Crab Feast.

As I mentioned earlier, Andy Harris had a little more of an entourage. Also I was told this was stop number three of six today. But the yard signs were plentiful and in place and Andy was warmly greeted by a number of folks there today.

State Senator Andy Harris arrives at the Crab Feast.

Harris and Wicomico County Republican chair Dr. John Bartkovich share a conversation.

Andy Harris speaks to the diners at the Crab Feast.

Andy Harris campaigning the good old-fashioned way, one to one.

Last night I wondered aloud if the change in Wayne Gilchrest’s Bull Roast to the fourth Saturday in September (which, by the way, conflicts with Yom Kippur) wasn’t made to allow him to make it to the Crab Feast. Sure enough, the Congressman made it down.

Congressman Wayne Gilchrest speaking to Wicomico County Republicans.

The Congressman makes a point in his remarks.

I must say that in maybe a five minute timespan Wayne managed to talk about heading down to our traditional Crab Feast (although he’s missed at least the previous two I attended), the Canadian geese heading south, and evoke the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. among other things. Very philosophical. I did get to speak to him a little bit as well since I’d never met the man, so I did mention the upcoming Wicomico County Straw Poll. Still disagree on him on a bunch of things, but I can’t say he’s not a pleasant sort of guy.

In discussing the Straw Poll, I kidded Wayne saying “if you can come, see if you can bring (Tom) Tancredo and (Ron) Paul with you.” (Sheesh, I forgot Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, and John McCain.) But Wayne noted that he liked Rep. Paul and, while stopping short of an outright endorsement, stated that Paul was probably the one in the race most well-read on the issues, even including Newt Gingrich if he were to enter the fray.

We also had a number of the local GOP politicians in attendance who weren’t running this year, including State Senator Lowell Stoltzfus, Delegates Page Elmore and Addie Eckardt, Wicomico County Council representatives Gail Bartkovich and Joe Holloway, Sheriff Mike Lewis, and Orphans’ Court Judge Bill Smith.

Overall we were pleased with the attendance albeit maybe a little disappointed by the silent auction take. Since this event is a main fundraiser of ours, that’s the bread and butter for us. However next week’s Straw Poll will hopefully make up all of the difference and more.

And it didn’t rain for once!

You know, I wrote this and forgot one other thing I wanted to mention. I finally got to meet the blogger Karen, who writes out of Delmar. She has a nice website that I encourage you to read so I wanted to make sure I gave her a shout. Karen wasn’t there to write about the goings-on but to have a nice time, which I’m sure she, hubby, and kids did!

From retirement to campaign

Crossposted at RedMaryland.

I just happened to catch this on the Daily Times website. While it doesn’t fall within the area I use to do my Election Calendar, next Saturday the 22nd will be the annual Bull Roast hosted by Wayne Gilchrest up in Queen Anne’s County. (I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not that he finally shifted the event off the day the Wicomico County Republican Club holds it annual Crab Feast – will this mean a Gilchrest sighting there tomorrow the 15th?)

Anyway, Wayne got as a Bull Roast special guest another of the candidates the bull-slinging Democrat front group VoteVets.org was running campaign ads for until he decided to up and retire – Nebraska’s “Republican” U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. So it’s going to be the peaceniks on parade up there next Saturday.

In other Gilchrest news, he was a telephone guest Thursday morning on the AM Salisbury radio show. In the conversation with host Bill Reddish, Gilchrest praised General Petraeus as “stunningly competent” and the “essence of integrity” but also opined that our ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, should be talking more to Iran and Syria, a country Wayne termed as more free than our ally Saudi Arabia. The Congressman disdainfully noted that Crocker had only talked to Iran twice during his tenure. Further, Gilchrest spoke out in favor of a broader policy that included direct conversations with Iran and Syria. And regarding his cohort Dennis Kucinich’s trip to Syria, Gilchrest termed it “irrelevant” while most on the right have been up in arms about Kucinich’s trip.

Gilchrest is a regular guest on the WICO-AM morning radio show, alternating with Sen. Ben Cardin on Thursdays when Congress is in session. It’s quite informative radio if you’re in the Salisbury area at 7:40 a.m.

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On a personal note, I was honored to be asked by the folks at RedMaryland to become one of their contributors and tonight’s post will be the first one I humbly submit and crosspost for inclusion.

Posts worth mentioning

Just a short post this morning to point out a few things I found that were worth checking out…sort of like a mini-Carnival of Maryland. (By the way, I’m hosting CofM’s edition #17 coming up in October.)

Mike Netherland, on his appropriately-named Mike’s Nether Land site, goes into the recent power struggle in the Anne Arundel GOP and also talks about another political pet issue of mine, one reason I ran for my WCRCC post. It’s excellent reading, even though I didn’t catch it until last night and it was posted Sunday.

Streiff at Red Maryland calls Wayne Gilchrest out on the carpet. One thing I like about the blogosphere is its collective memory. For good or bad, having many voices out there ensures things said will not be as easily forgotten. If you have never read Red Maryland, it’s well worth the time; moreover, it’s updated frequently because of its nine contributors.

Aptly, Gunpowder at Gunpowder Chronicle rates this post TV-MA. As he says, you have been warned. I just enjoyed the Deadwood reference because I remember the character well. I also like the point because he’s dead on with it and his passion shows.

So a few things for your morning reading (as I allocate a phrase from Duvafiles) in order to give props to some of my favorite blogs.

Another case of mistaken identity?

Now this one is interesting. Today I got a press release from State Senator Nancy Jacobs:

“Gilchrest Campaign Misleads Voters”

The Gilchrest campaign recently issued a misleading statement implying that Senator Nancy Jacobs supports Wayne Gilchrest’s re-election.

In the statement, the former title of Jeff Griffin, who at one time worked in Senator Nancy Jacobs Annapolis office, was used to imply there was a connection between Senator Jacobs and the Gilchrest campaign.

While quick to point out Griffin’s ties to Senator Jacobs, the statement failed to mention that Griffin was now a paid employee of the Gilchrest campaign.

At no time has Senator Jacobs given permission to associate or use her name in conjunction with the Gilchrest campaign.

Senator Jacobs requests the Gilchrest campaign publish a public apology for attempting to intentionally mislead the voters of the first congressional district.

Senator Jacobs released the follow statement concerning Gilchrest’s misleading campaign tactics:

“I have always considered Mr. Gilchrest a friend, and it saddens me to see my trust in him and the trust of voters betrayed for political purposes.

I resolutely stand beside and endorse my conservative colleague Andy Harris for Congress. Andy is a committed to our Republican values and will work hard for voters of the 1st Congressional District.”

Obviously, most of the Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly would stand behind their cohort in the race as Andy has seemingly worked well with them. (Both Senator Colburn and Senator Stoltzfus are among Andy’s local cadre of supporters.) It’s the second time a situation like this has occurred, the other having to do with a Gilchrest fundraiser where a couple sponsors backed away.

This race is promising to be a little dirty by GOP standards as both sides have leveled charges and countercharges against each other, some previously detailed on monoblogue.

In addition I feel the contest holds an interesting dynamic. If Gilchrest wins, the local GOP turnout may be less on Election Day 2008 as Maryland statewide will almost certainly go for the Democrat Presidential nominee. This knowledge of Maryland’s typical recent voting pattern will unfortunately give Republicans less incentive to show up at the polls. Also lower Eastern Shore GOP participation would help the early voting ballot issue that will be on the 2008 docket since Republicans tend not to favor early (and often) voting. (Oh – did I say that?)

Conversely, a Harris victory in February (or if one of the other two challengers makes it to the top) would get the conservatives in the GOP to the polls but runs a risk of Democrats who like Gilchrest’s moderate stance voting for the Democrat primary survivor and switching the seat over to a Pelosi supporter that may actually vote far left of what Eastern Shore voters would prefer. Again, I point to a statistic I cited back in July where the least loyal (or considered most “conservative”) Democrat still votes the party line 70% of the time.

Finally, it looks to me like a race on the GOP side (and possibly on the Democrat side if more people get in) that will be won by a plurality of the primary vote rather than a majority. In that case, there may be a whole lot of disappointed people on the right side of the GOP who will regret their votes for the two bottom-feeders in the primary.

Observation on progress

Tonight I’m not going to dip into the news too much nor am I going to write a lot. This was just a thought I had about the political process.

Over the last two days General David Petraeus testified in front of Congress and late today it was learned President Bush is expected to announce troop cuts on Thursday to reduce the forward force in Iraq by 30,000. At that point we would be back to “pre-surge” levels as far as staffing goes. Of course as one would expect, Nancy Pelosi and company bitched and whined about not getting out immediately. Anyone who reads monoblogue on a regular basis knows my position, so I’ll not restate it here.

Most of the 110th Congress has been spent arguing over how many troops we have in Iraq anyway, so what’s a few more months of caterwauling on that? Never mind that most of the appropriations bills aren’t done yet. I suppose as far as the Democrats are concerned the less time spent on figuring out where the money goes the higher chance that some devious way of expanding government can be slipped into the budget bills.

With primary elections now spanning a time period 8 to 10 months before the general election, the traditional moratorium on big issues being tackled during an election year makes the next 16 months until we swear in the winner of the 2008 Presidential election a period where little good will come out of Congress. All of the domestic issues that have been eclipsed by the constant bidding by the legislative branch to do the executive’s job and run the military aren’t going to go away, or worse, they’ll simply have more money shoved at them without getting the badly needed reforms in return.

I hear a lot about a lack of interest in politics, particularly on the Republican side. Pundits have all but written off the chances Republicans will win back Congress and look at whoever the GOP nominee will be as just a sacrificial lamb, simply getting in the way of a triumphant Clinton return to the White House. Sometimes I wonder if this Bataan Death March of a campaign isn’t contributing to the apathy on our side. We’ve heard about Election 2008 for months already because of the absurdly early primary schedule. (It’s a good thing I write about other stuff too because I’d be completely burned out by now otherwise.)

A good way of summing up my thought about how the next year of Congress will play out is this: should Wayne Gilchrest lose in the GOP primary he will be a lame duck for almost half his elected term, 10 1/2 months. But I suppose one bright side to this process is that people with nothing to lose and knowing they have a limited time may decide to show true leadership on issues to create a legacy.

Ok, I’m dreaming. But it is nice to do so once in awhile because in reality we’re going to remember the 110th Congress as a do-nothing Congress that if anything made our situation worse. Don’t look for a change on that in the next year either.

Support our troops and their mission!

You should definitely notice the eye-catching link to the left of the screen. Today I got an e-mail that went like this:

Folks:

Wanted to reach out to you on an effort I’m working on with Victory Caucus and a coalition of other support-the-surge type groups. (Apologies to those of you who are already aware of this effort). We’ve put together a petition that allows signatories to declare their support for General Petraeus and the surge, and calls on the nation’s leaders to resist calls for a premature withdrawal.

The unique aspect of this project is that there is a single petition, but any website or blog can host a copy of it. The code has been developed so that it is a simple matter of pasting a small chunk of HTML on a website page. Because of this approach, each site hosting the petition can track and collect the names/email addresses of people signing on their version, while at the same time all signatures are aggregated centrally in a combined list that will ultimately be presented to Congress.

An example of the petition hosted on the Victory Caucus here:

http://victorycaucus.com/standbythemission

Supporters include pro-victory groups such as Vets for Freedom, Gathering of Eagles, Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Victory Caucus; blogs such as Captain’s Quarters, Wizbang and Instapundit; and media outlets like Pajamas Media, FrontPageMag and Redstate.com — with many more in progress.

Please consider this an open invitation to put the petition on your blog. We’ve got a bunch of options for doing so, including posting it ‘inline’ within a blog post or a new page on your site, and a method of placing a DHTML pop-up link that pops up the petition when the reader requests it. You can see exact HTML for using all the options on this page:

http://victorycaucus.com/hostthepetition

…including just a simple graphic link-button that can be used if you don’t want to host the petition but would like to link to it on someone else’s blog.

If you’re game, you can use the code on that page to try it out. But if you really want to get serious, drop me an email and I can set your blog up with its own unique ID, which will allow you to track and keep the signatures / emails coming from your version as well as tailor the petition to match your site design.

Hope this is of interest, and best regards…

NZ Bear
The Victory Caucus
http://victorycaucus.com

Obviously with the pitched battles I’ve gone through with Congressman Gilchrest you know where I stand, so this was a good way to allow others to express their support as well. Since I’m not that “game” at computers, I’ll just link to someone else’s blog but the signatures add up nonetheless. With the way General Petraeus was trashed today by the Democrats (actually MoveOn.org but they’re one and the same) the battle lines continue to become sharper and sharper. And a great quote by Duncan Hunter from the FOX story:

White House hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., issued a statement calling MoveOn.org a “left wing anti-military organization,” and called on Democratic leaders to rein in the group.

“General Petraeus is an American soldier. His professional life is a reflection of adherence to duty, honor and country. For the Democrat leadership to allow this slur by their ‘Move On’ allies to stand would be a slap in the face of every member of the Armed Forces. I call on the leadership of the Democrat Party to denounce this advertisement and disassociate themselves from it,” said Hunter, who is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

I know, if you think the Democrats really will do this I have a bridge I’d like to sell you too.

So it may not be a lot, but placing the link to the Support Our Troops petition is a step in showing that I’m on the right side in this.

Sloganeering redux

I’m sort of bummed because I took too long to write this post and those Democrats picked their winning slogan. But it wasn’t my favorite, which was simply “About DEM Time”. That had just SO many possibilities…

  • About DEM Time…we let al-Qaeda win
  • About DEM Time…your taxes get raised
  • About DEM Time…we suck up to the special interests

I could have had a field day with that one. But no, the Democrats picked this lame slogan:

“Sorry W, I’m the Decider…Dems in ’08”

What the heck are you going to decide as far as President Bush goes? Earth to Democrats – he’s not on the ballot. Hello?

I guess this goes back to the whole 2000 election decided by the Supreme Court thing. They still aren’t over it – meanwhile their last President never got a majority of the votes either. Perhaps if the electoral rules were like those in some places there would’ve been a runoff between the top two and the results could have been different.

The group sponsoring the slogan contest was the DSCC, those who want to extend the slim majority the Democrats have in the Senate. Essentially the Democrats got their Senatorial majority last year because of one word – “macaca.” And for most of the time since, they only had 50 Senators with the illness of South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson (who by the way has recovered and is back at work.) Obviously they tout the advantage they have of only defending 12 seats in 2008 while the GOP defends 22. These would be the Senators elected in 2002, right after 9/11 and just before the Long War began.

I suppose my question for the Democrats is what they have to offer “deciders” like the California man who entered that particular slogan. So far the Democrats inhabiting Congress have decided that the Long War isn’t worth fighting, it’s not worth saving the tax cuts that ushered in our latest round of prosperity (despite the cooling of the housing market, unemployment is still under 5%), and that the ethics reform they campaigned on isn’t all that important after all. Further, we all know what their ilk in the Free State have up their sleeve, digging deeper into the citizens’ pockets instead of making tough choices about where to cut the budget.

In response to their slogan let me say this: the approval rating of Congress is at a historic low, so maybe America should decide that it’s time to send Harry Reid and the Democrat majority back to Searchlight, Nevada. Putting a true majority in Congress interested in reforming and cutting the size and scope of our federal government would be a decision we could all live and prosper with.