Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Meanwhile in Ca-36

Posted: February 24, 2011 by datechguy in congress, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , ,

I thought that politics in Massachusetts was Byzantine, then I read this piece by Ladd Ehlinger Jr. on the special election in the 36th. A sample:

They are professional politicos, and make their living off both sides of the aisle. Ordinarily they screw things up for local constituencies in California, but they’ve got their beady eyes turned to the 36th district, too.

As you may know, Ron Nehring was (supposedly) the California Republican Party fifth columnist Chairman last year. He helped lead the Republicans to utter defeat and shame in California in 2010, with help from the Willie-Brown run database PDI.

Databases are crucial to running campaigns. Voter outreach and communications are key. You want your information to be good, and you don’t want your opposition finding out who your volunteers are, or even what sort of queries you are running on the database. So naturally, you wouldn’t want your database to be run by Willie Brown political hacks, the very people who want you defeated. Unless, of course, you are Ron Nehring.

No, if you’re Ron, instead you work with Meg Whitman to force as many local, state and federal Republican candidates in November 2010 to use the opposition’s database, so you can be damned sure everyone gets lost in the fog of war and is defeated.

Thanks Ron! You’re a true chum to liberty.

Read the whole thing to try to untie the knot that is California.

this is it:

Just a couple of quick comments and that’s really all I’ll make. First of all, just to affirm, the activities of today are perfectly legitimate part of the process. Even the smallest minority – and that’s what we’ve heard from the last couple days – has every right to express the strength of its views and I salute those who do.

Nothing like a republicans who covers for fleeing democrats against his own party, it always makes the heart of the no labels heart beat faster.

Little Miss Attila? Not so much.

My latest for Examiner.com Anger and Loathing in Boston reports on the dueling Union/Tea Party rallies in Boston: a peek:

As the day progressed the Union forces got more and more agitated particularly when Radio Host Graham handed out fake “doctor of love” notes parodying the events of Wisconsin. His presence seemed to drive the union people wild, even stranger was the reaction to State Rep Rich Bastien (R Gardner) who mingled with the crowd to try to hear them out but was greeted by Nazi salutes by a self-proclaimed Jewish woman in between vulgar epithets.

The final irony of the protest is on display here:

I’ll have a post with all my videos from the rallies up before I leave the house today.

Four days ago Politico highlighted the involvement of the DNC was and OFA in Wisconsin:

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America arm — the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign — is playing an active role in organizing protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marriage, but it’s riding to the aide of the public sector unions who hoping to persuade some Republican legislators to oppose Walker’s plan. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA’s engagement with the fight — and Obama’s own clear stance against Walker — mean that he’s remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

OfA Wisconsin’s field efforts include filling buses and building turnout for the rallies this week in Madison, organizing 15 rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said.

The @OFA_WI twitter account has published 54 tweets promoting the rallies, which the group has also plugged on its blog.

During my interview with Andrew Breitbart on Sunday morning he commented on their presence saying the following:

I’ve sensed that any time when Obama’s Organizing for America gets involved they are up to no good. So when I see them go up against the people I try to be there.

Now in the surest sign that the White House has figured out where this is going to end up, there is some serious backtracking going on:

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets.

And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.

Because we all know how Politico is really a house organ of the Republican Party, that’s why they are always being quoted on MSNBC

I think the White House has seen these polls and is getting cold feet BIGTIME:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

And as Captain Ed Morrissey at Hotair reports the details are even more damning:

No one will be shocked to find Democrats opposed to Walker’s plan, 21/68, although the opposition seems a little weak, under the circumstances. Also, no one will be surprised to see almost the mirror image among Republicans, 68/15. Independents across the nation give a strong endorsement to Walker, 56/31. Among income demographics, only those earning under $20K per year support the unions (30/54), while Walker gains a plurality or majority in every other income demographic, including a 62/27 among the $60-75K demo. Interestingly, unions only barely edge Walker among government employees, 44/46. (bolding mine)

I put this down to Bill Daily. He is a man of the left and a big supporter of these same unions but he knows politics and sees where this is going. His job is to minimize the damage to the white house. He also understands that if Democrats shut down Wisconsin with the White House behind them it will be harder to blame republicans for a shutdown here.