The New York Post has an interesting piece on Rudy Giuliani’s recent speech on energy policy at the Manhattan Institute. It’s looking increasingly likely that Giuliani intends to run in 2008, and if he’s showing some real vision on the question of energy policy:
Drawing on his experience managing New York City’s power problems, Giuliani spoke of the government red tape that makes it virtually impossible to build power plants, oil refineries and (especially) nuclear-power facilities.
Summing up U.S. energy policy since the 1970s, he was blunt: “We haven’t done anything.” We haven’t drilled in Alaska. We haven’t built oil refineries. We haven’t ordered a nuclear power plant since 1978.
We need to start doing these things, he said, to diversify. Energy independence, he said, is simply the “wrong paradigm,” despite the idea’s popularity in quarters of both the Left and the Right. Instead, in a global economy, “We have to diversify, that’s our strength . . . You can be independent by being diversified.”
Giuliani’s exactly right on the necessity of not only energy independence, but energy diversity. The only way we can have a 21st Century economy is with 21st Century sources of power – that means combinations of solar where appropriate, wind where appropriate, and a much, much, much stronger emphasis on nuclear technologies for power generation. “Clean coal” can only go so far, and further deepening our dependence on fossil fuels isn’t a wise option over the long term. Nuclear power is the only reliable source of power we have that can be used nationwide in all weather conditions that doesn’t dump pollutants into the atmosphere.
Giuliani also talked about education:
The red meat for conservatives, however, came in the Q&A: An audience member asked Giuliani what he would do on education as president.
Without deflecting the loaded premise of the question (no announcement yet, folks), the former mayor launched into an impassioned brief for school choice. “A president has to know the role” of the federal government, he said. “It’s more of a leadership role.” But as that leader, he would emphasize, “choice and vouchers.”
As mayor, he said, he thought he could do for the schools what he did for the police department and other city agencies. But he learned he was wrong. The education bureaucracy and the teachers unions were too deeply entrenched. What’s needed, he said, “is to go to a choice system and break up the monopoly.”
Even if they believe it, “most Democrats can’t say to you what I just said,” he told the crowd. “They’re not allowed to.”
If Giuliani can court conservative voters who would be wary of his social positions, he is probably the single strongest candidate of any party for the Presidency in 2008. Against nearly any competitor, Giuliani looms large – he has more credence with conservatives than John McCain, he would wipe the floor with Hillary, and even a strong Democratic candidate like Mark Warner would have a very difficult time with Rudy’s name recognition and strong policy background.
Giuliani is showing some real policy chops, and isn’t afraid to stand strongly on his positions. His personal life may have been a mess, but the Clinton years showed that isn’t such a political negative as it once was. The Republican Party badly needs someone who can strengthen ties with fiscal conservatives and help forge a stronger set of policies on key issues like energy and education. Giuliani seems uniquely poised to do that.
Even social conservatives seem to like Giuliani, and he’s outpolling nearly every challenger for the Republican field in 2008. Politics is nothing but fickle, but if Giuliani can continue to impress audiences and craft a strong policy portfolio, his chances of reaching the Oval Office seem quite high.
No serious person believes Rudy Giuliani can secure the GOP nomination in 2008. He’s unapologetically pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, anti-gun, and a serial adulterer to boot. He oozes New York arrogance every time he opens his mouth and would have ended his political career in disgrace had he not been the first guy to grab a bullhorn at Ground Zero, which apparently gives him carte blanche gravitas on all matter of political discourse in the eyes of some.
While we’re on the subject of unelectable Presidential candidates, watch out for the two Toms on the Democratic side, Vilsack and Daschle. They may only have a 0.1% margin of support for their Presidential candidacies among primary voters, but still have better chances of being their party’s nominees than Giuliani does getting past an increasingly unhinged Republican base.
And just in case you missed it last night….
Markos Moulitsas-endorsed underdog Senate candidate Jim Webb just upset establishment candidate Harris Miller in the Virginia primary….just like netroots-endorsed Senate candidate Jon Tester beat establishment Dem John Morrison in Montana. Looks like 2006 is gonna be “The Year of Kosâ€!
Also hitching his wagon to Kos’ boat is Larry Sabato who just commented that Webb’s victory represents the worst nightmare of incumbent Republican and Presidential candidate George Allen. All of the sudden, with Virginia in the mix on top of the five most vulnerable Senate seats in the country held by the GOP (MO, MT, OH, PA, and RI), the prospect of a Democratic Senate takeover is no longer out of the question.
Odd then how Giulani keeps winning in straw polls. Last I checked, Hugh Hewitt’s readership was pretty representative of the Republican mainstream, and yet Giuliani won his straw poll by a significant margin.
Giuliani has a very good shot at the GOP nomination – he’d wipe the floor with any Democratic candidate out there, and he has plenty of time to moderate his views on social issues during the primary season (which he’s already doing).
If Giuliani gets the nod, his next step is picking the color of the drapes in the Oval Office.
As for your other comment (which is as silly now as it was the last time you posted it), Webb’s a better candidate than Miller would have been, but Allen has the money, the gravitas, and the skill to beat him. It will be closer, but Allen will still win.
Burns should be sending roses to Kos – Tester is the sort of candidate that is the exact opposite of the political culture in Montana. Unless the left thinks that “Brokeback Mountain” is representative of the Western states, they’ve just pissed a competitive race down their legs.
PA is a likely GOP loss, unless Santorum really gets his act together. The GOP has a strong shot at picking up MN, and a decent shot at picking up NJ. The other races will be close, but predicting a Democratic pickup in the Senate is way, way, way too premature right now.
Oh please, please, please let that be true. (And weren’t you just arguing that Kos makes absolutely no difference to the Democrats.) The radical Kossacks and their difficient social skills alienate everyone who doesn’t drink their particular brand of Kool-Aid. Sending those rabidly partisan nut-jobs loose will replicate their great successes in Iowa – and by “successes” I mean “catastrophic failures.”
Mark doesn’t like Rudy–I knew Rudy was a winner.
Look for the candidates the Left hates–or says ‘can’t win’. That’s a good place to start from. I seem to recall the left said similar things about Reagan.
And, while we’re at it, Mark, let’s get as many candidates as we can hooked to the “Kos’ boat”–with Kos perfect record for backing losers, it’s a sure thing.
“Odd then how Giulani keeps winning in straw polls”
Has there ever been a case in the history of long-distance Presidential straw polls where the frontrunner ends up getting the nomination? Or even deciding to run for that matter? I can’t find many citings in American history books regarding the Mario Cuomo or Colin Powell adminstrations…just as future history books will have no chapters about the Giuliani Presidency as his fate is in the hands of voters who favor the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and banning books from libraries that were written by homosexual authors.
“Giuliani has a very good shot at the GOP nomination”
About the same as I do. I’m actually closer to the evangelical position on some of their key issues than Rudy is.
“and he has plenty of time to moderate his views on social issues during the primary season (which he’s already doing).”
Translation: flip-flop. Always a political winner.
“Webb’s a better candidate than Miller would have been, but Allen has the money, the gravitas, and the skill to beat him. It will be closer, but Allen will still win.”
Don’t take my word for it. Take Larry Sabato’s…. http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/062006/06042006/196289
“Burns should be sending roses to Kos – Tester is the sort of candidate that is the exact opposite of the political culture in Montana”
Tester is the political mirror image of popular Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, another “unelectable liberal extremist” who just happened to get elected. Add that to the fact that Tester is a perennial landslide winner in one of Montana’s most Republican state Senate seat and it proves that arrogant Republicans plan to play completely within the 2004 electoral map playbook, refusing to accept the premise that any Democrat can compete in any section of that map previously painted red despite profound changes in the priorities of the electorate. Tester should be sending people like you roses for underestimating him.
“The GOP has a strong shot at picking up MN, and a decent shot at picking up NJ”
Given the disgust with Republicans in the Twin Cities and its first two rings of suburbs, I can’t imagine a scenario where Kennedy can win. Klobuchar’s likely margin in her native Hennepin County alone will probably push her over the top. Kennedy’s ties to exurbia and outstate Minnesota will probably keep things interesting, but if this is your best hope for a GOP gain, you don’t have much reason to hope. Just as New Jerseyians always do, often is far less toxic political environments than now, they’ll move towards the Democrat at the end of the day. Jon Corzine was able to destroy Doug Forrester in a GOVERNOR’s race by tying him to Bush. If that works in a Governor’s race, it’ll definitely work in a Senate race.
“(And weren’t you just arguing that Kos makes absolutely no difference to the Democrats.)”
And I stand by that as the Daily Kos is probably familiar to a maximum of 3% of the electorate. My “Year of Kos” comment was very obviously in jest, meant to shoot holes in your theory that a Kos endorsement is the equivalent to a kiss of death.
Jack, with candidates like James Webb, a former Reagan aide, on the “Kos Boat”, you’re gonna find it increasingly difficult to make the “rabidly left, pinko, Marxist moonbat liberal” tag stick. I really hope the Republicans’ 2006 campaign is based upon the demonization of a soft-spoken San Francisco grandmother and a baby-faced blogger with a funny name who nobody’s heard of. An electorate hearing the Republican message that America’s worst domestic enemies are people with single-digit name recognition will not only vote you guys out, but seek out padded rooms for you to hopefully shake off your dementia.
I can’t think of one, but Giuliani seems poised for a run. If I were going for pie-in-the-sky idealism, I’d be talking about President Rice in 2009… sadly, she could win, but won’t run.
That depends.
Not necessarily. All Giuliani has to do is say that he’s for states deciding the gay marriage issue, that he’ll defend the Second Amendment and will push for tougher prosecutions of existing laws rather than new ones, and say he’ll nominate strict constructionists to the Supreme Court if an opening comes up. That’s not inconsistant with his prior positions, nor is it inconsistant with what social conservatives will accept.
We heard the same thing about Busby and Hackett too. It wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now. Tester is still in the pockets of the radical Kossite fringe running in a state that is extremely conservative. Tester doesn’t have the fundraising (the same problem Webb has), nor does winning a state Senate seat equate to winning a statewide office. Just the association with a nutjob like Kos is enough to sink Tester.
That depends if there are any voters left alive in Hennepin County by the time the A-Klo crime wave is over. When even “safe” areas of downtown Minneapolis are starting to like like Fallujah on the Mississippi, that doesn’t exactly show a great deal of leadership from Klobuchar. Combine that with the fact that she’s an atrocious candidate who can’t campaign worth a damn, it’s clear that Kennedy will have a rough ride, but counting him out is far too premature. I don’t think that “disgust with Republicans” idea is remotely true. There may be a dislike of Bush, but last I checked, he was staying in Washington and not running in Minnesota.
Perhaps, but Kean is one of the strongest candidates the GOP has put up in the state, and Forrester was weak in comparison. Plus, Corzine bought his Senate seat at $30+ per head, something that the Democrats won’t do again.
So far Kos has gotten 2 wins – both in Democratic primaries with light turnout. That’s hardly anything to crow about. Kos’ radical nutjob followers turn off more voters than they attract, which is why the more attention a candidate gets from Kos/MoveOn.org/etc. the greater the chance they’ll go down in flames.
“I’d be talking about President Rice in 2009… sadly, she could win, but won’t run.”
Even if we assume the country who decides its Presidents based on their “cultural connections” to the electorate would elect an unmarried African-American woman, two quotes permanently seal her fate as the face of Bush administration incompetence….”Who could have ever imagined terrorists would fly planes into the World Trade Center?”….and “I think the Presidential Daily Briefing read ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack United States'”.
“All Giuliani has to do is say that he’s for states deciding the gay marriage issue”
Wasn’t that John Kerry’s position? And the position of Congressional Democrats now? The very position that is patently unacceptable to Republicans today (and that the GOP swears will result in the defeat of Dem candidates like Jon Tester) is gonna become magically acceptable to the GOP base in 18 short months when coming from the mouth of Giuliani?
“We heard the same thing about Busby and Hackett too. It wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now.”
Busby was a horrible candidate. Hackett got 48% in a district where John Kerry got 35%. Not exactly a case-closed condemnation of the ineffectiveness of the Netroots.
“Tester is still in the pockets of the radical Kossite fringe running in a state that is extremely conservative.”
This “extremely conservative” state now has an unapologetically liberal Democratic Governor with a 70% approval rating, a Democrat-controlled state Senate and a state House that is tied, a Democratic senior U.S. Senator, and a Republican junior Senator with the worst approval rating in the country and trailing Tester (and Morrison before that) in every poll. Burns better have a helluva rabbit to pull out of his hat.
“Tester doesn’t have the fundraising”
This is freakin’ Montana….where a 30-second TV spot costs about as much as a used DVD player. He doesn’t need much money to run a solid campaign. And do you really believe the money isn’t gonna roll in at a more-than-sufficient level now that Tester in the nominee? Or for Webb for that matter either if polls show him within striking distance of Allen?
“That depends if there are any voters left alive in Hennepin County by the time the A-Klo crime wave is over. When even “safe†areas of downtown Minneapolis are starting to like like Fallujah on the Mississippi, that doesn’t exactly show a great deal of leadership from Klobuchar”
You’re really hard up for an angle here. If this is the kind of campaign Kennedy chooses to run in of the least violent urban/suburban counties in the country, he’ll be destroyed. I even saw a fringe-right radical poster from the Free Republic saying Klobuchar “wasn’t doing half bad” as the Hennepin County Attorney. She’s wildly popular, and will win not only Minneapolis and the inner-ring of suburbs, but also former GOP strongholds like Plymouth and Edina in Hennepin County.
“Combine that with the fact that she’s an atrocious candidate who can’t campaign worth a damn,”
Again, you’re alone even among Republicans in that opinion. Perhaps you haven’t seen her on the stump. She’s very effective. Minnesota’s Republican faithful from Sarah Janecek to Taxpayer’s League clown David Strom concede she’s a strong candidate.
“it’s clear that Kennedy will have a rough ride, but counting him out is far too premature”
I’ll go along with that since Kennedy has been the representative for most of exurbia and a good chunk of western Minnesota in the past six years. But even with this statewide name-ID advantage, he still hasn’t managed a lead in a single Minnesota poll this year. Couple that with his sleazeball campaign against Patty Wetterling in 2004 and his corresponding rating as “the least trusted Minnesota politician” and he has alot to overcome. Plus, do you really think a center-left state like Minnesota will choose in favor of a second rubber stamp for the Bush administration in the Senate THIS YEAR?
“I don’t think that “disgust with Republicans†idea is remotely true.”
In special elections last year, two out of three seats held by Republicans turned over for Democrats by landslide margins while the Republican won in the other one with 50% of the vote. When the moderate Republican mayor of Plymouth manages only 51% in her hometown against a political neophyte from a neighboring town, it’s not a good sign for the Republican party.
“but Kean is one of the strongest candidates the GOP has put up in the state”
And it’s all based on his dad’s reputation. Once put on the hot seat and forced to defend the actions of the national Republican party, his numbers have nowhere to go but down.
“Plus, Corzine bought his Senate seat at $30+ per head, something that the Democrats won’t do again.”
If it comes down to paying $30 per head or losing this seat to Kean (and the polls are unlikely to bear that out come fall), then the Dems will pay $30 per head on Menendez’s behalf.
“Kos’ radical nutjob followers turn off more voters than they attract”
Start talking about the Daily Kos to the ranchers of Montana or the coal miners of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and they’ll fit you for a straitjacket.
“When even “safe†areas of downtown Minneapolis are starting to like like Fallujah on the Mississippi”
For future reference, when you’re attempting to elect a Bush ally to the U.S. Senate, citing post-invasion Fallujah as the benchmark for lawlessness may not be the best weapon in your arsenal.
Which just shows how strong a candidate she would be, if that’s the best people can do to attack her. Had Secretary Rice ordered all Muslims boarding aircraft in US airspace to be thoroughly searched in August of 2001, what would the reaction have been? Anyone who actually read the August 6, 2001 PDB beyond the headline can see that there’s no actionable intelligence there. The whole argument is typical of liberal argumentation – take a silly talking point and beat it to death.
Bush and Kerry had the same basic position on civil unions in 2006. The only difference is that Bush would have defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Giuliani doesn’t support the FMA, but neither do many Republicans. His position is pretty much the same as everyone else’s on that particular issue – let the states decide.
Busby was a horrible candidate – but still was expected to win by many “netroots activists”. Hackett lost to an absolutely appalling candidate in large part because he alienated enough of the swing voters that should have put him over the top.
In the end, the only thing that matters is winning elections. Saying how great it is that you came close doesn’t mean a damn thing.
In 1994 Burns had an approval rating of 33%, and still whipped the living hell of Jack Mudd in the general election. He’s done it once before, and poll numbers now are basically meaningless – Burns hasn’t had a serious primary challenge, and hasn’t begun to fight. Once he does, those poll numbers can change dramatically.
And that’s the issue. Kossacks hate moderate Democrats, and both Webb and Tester can’t run as leftist ideologues in red states. Either they piss off the netroots in order to hold their funding or they go down in defeat. Either way it puts them at a disadvantage.
They do have computers in those places. Furthermore, they do have televisions. All it takes is a few campaign ads featuring Kos’ vile rhetoric and swing voters are going to start wondering about the company these candidates keep.
Strange how you keep talking about how Democrats are going to win all these races, and it hasn’t happened yet. Then again, one of the advantages of being divorced from reality is never having to change your mind.
BTW, Larry Sabato says that Webb has only a small chance of winning:
“Which just shows how strong a candidate she would be, if that’s the best people can do to attack her.”
This from a guy who just attacked Amy Klobuchar over a manufactured crime wave based on one incident in downtown Minneapolis. Condoleeza Rice is one of the primary faces of 9/11 incompetence and a defender of an unpopular war. As interested as some are in toying with the prospect of her Presidency, the aggregate of her policies, her race, her gender, her lifestyle, and her complete lack of experience in elected office would prevent that from happening.
“His position is pretty much the same as everyone else’s on that particular issue – let the states decide.”
You mean aside from the 47 Republican Senators who voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage? And the Republican President who heartily endorsed the would-be amendment before the vote?
“Busby was a horrible candidate – but still was expected to win by many “netroots activistsâ€.”
It was mostly restrained optimism, as most of us bring to elections when our side has a longshot chance of victory (remember when you called Hawaii for Bush in 2004?). I predicted Bilbray by two. I was off by two points.
“Hackett lost to an absolutely appalling candidate in large part because he alienated enough of the swing voters that should have put him over the top.”
You can’t seriously believe your own spin half of the time. This district is 64% REPUBLICAN! Hackett not only swept the “swing voters”, but peeled off a sizeable share of Republican voters. Nearly all of the targeted red districts are less partisan than this one, meaning if the GOP falls short of Bush’s margin by 12 points as Jean Schmidt did, the GOP loses in a landslide this November.
“In 1994 Burns had an approval rating of 33%, and still whipped the living hell of Jack Mudd in the general election.”
“In 1994” being the operative words in that sentence.
“Once he does, those poll numbers can change dramatically”
Of course they CAN, but only blind faith in everyone being a loyal GOP soldier, and aider-and-abeter of criminal behavior, as you are is all that you’re basing that prediction upon.
“Kossacks hate moderate Democrats”
No they don’t. Unless Tester and Webb specifically undermine the Democratic Party’s standing as Joe Lieberman is doing (and by the way, I don’t support the Netroots-sponsored primary challenge against Lieberman), they’ll be okay. Considering that Tester and Webb both voice opposition to the war in Iraq, that seems like an unlikely development.
“Either they piss off the netroots in order to hold their funding or they go down in defeat”
Or they get their funding from the party and from non-Kossacks….and win.
“All it takes is a few campaign ads featuring Kos’ vile rhetoric and swing voters are going to start wondering about the company these candidates keep”
Again, I hope you run against The Daily Kos in Montana and Virginia. It might work to run against Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy in these red states, but when the GOP starts warning Montanans about the desperate need to stop Markos Moulitsas’ preferred candidate from winning a Senate seat, voters will think the party is batshit crazy.
One? Minneapolis is turning into a shooting gallery, and the cops are sick of busting one punk only to have them right back out on the street the next day. Rambix has the MSP crime beat covered, and it isn’t pretty.
I guess some people can’t stomach the idea of an unmarried black female President. Except most of those people aren’t Republicans, apparently. Then again, what can one expect from the party of Grand Wizard Robert Byrd?
As tepid a defense as it is, I don’t think the President particularly cared for the FMA and was pandering to his base. The FMA wouldn’t ban civil unions, and both Kerry and Bush tepidly supported that concept in 2004.
Except not all candidates in those districts are as atrocious as Schmidt was. The turnout was relatively low, and more Democrats were energized than Republicans. By the numbers, Hackett should have won that race, but he didn’t. If a Democratic candidate can’t pick up a plum contest like that, they’d better not get cocky in November.
True enough. However, Burns hasn’t begun to fight. It’s easy to beat a man when he’s down. What remains to be seen is if Tester can defeat Burns when Burns starts fighting back. Given the politics of the region, I don’t see that happening, even if it will be a close race. Incumbency is a very powerful thing in American politics.
So pretty much the only thing that unites the Democrats is hating Bush and wanting to surrender in Iraq – a war they supported. That’s not enough to win, and that doesn’t make a coherent party.
If the Republicans weren’t nearly as bad, this would be a slaughter.
Does the phrase “lie with dogs, wake up with fleas” ring a bell? Hopping into bed with liberal extremists when you’re running in a red state is a politically dangerous move, as both Tester and Webb will soon find out.
“Minneapolis is turning into a shooting gallery,”
Yet curiously the number of murders is going DOWN in Minneapolis. Perhaps if a certain Republican Governor hadn’t cut spending for every effective youth program in the city, Minneapolis teens would have more to do than shoot each other on the streets.
“I guess some people can’t stomach the idea of an unmarried black female President”
Exactly. Racists….sexists….homophobes…..basically groups that represented two-thirds of Bush’s votes in 2004.
“what can one expect from the party of Grand Wizard Robert Byrd?”
They can expect Senate offices decorated with a lynch mob noose. Oh wait….wrong Virginia…and wrong party!
“By the numbers, Hackett should have won that race, but he didn’t. If a Democratic candidate can’t pick up a plum contest like that, they’d better not get cocky in November.”
A plum contest in red Ohio’s reddest district? Had the election been held a week later, Hackett’s momentum probably would have won it for him. Had it not been for the DSCC’s disgusting betrayal of Hackett and his Senate run, I’m convinced he’d be going for a rematch with Jean Schmidt in OH-02 this year and beating her.
“Incumbency is a very powerful thing in American politics.”
One notable exception to that theory is when you’re an incumbent under indictment.
“Hopping into bed with liberal extremists when you’re running in a red state is a politically dangerous move, as both Tester and Webb will soon find out”
How can you look at a group that endorsed Brad Carson, about as conservative of a Democrat as you’ll ever find, and suggest they’re left-wing extremists who hate moderates? While misguided, the Kossacks attempts to derail Lieberman are based on his verbal sabotage of the Democratic Party and his knee-jerk defense of Bush administration foreign policy at every turn. Again, I don’t agree with the challenge, but if Lieberman went about being a moderate without providing deliberate comfort to the administration, he wouldn’t be on their hit list.
No it isn’t. The murder rate in Minneapolis increased by six times the national average. Furthermore, the Pawlenty administration removed the transit tax cap for local governments, which means the Minneapolis has plenty of funding – they just choose to waste it.
Yes, and Communists, sodomites, and space aliens represented 99% of Kerry’s votes. See, silly ad hominems are fun!
What an idiotic slur. Senator Wellstone had pictures of battered women in his office in DC. Did that mean that Wellstone was pro-wife beating or that he was using it as reminder about injustice? Senator Allen in fact sponsored the first formal government apology for lynching while in the Senate.
Typical of the infantile Democratic smear machine…
Given that Hackett went off the deep end, the DSCC was smart in letting him go before he embarrassed himself and the party any further.
Except Burns isn’t being indicted for anything, and is unlikely to be. Given that several prominent Democrats, including Harry Reid, were also in bed with Abramoff, the Democrat’s “culture of corruption” meme is likely to bite them in the ass if they’re not careful.
Besides, I don’t see many Republicans with $90,000 in bribes in the freezer…
Of course, Lieberman is “proving comfort” to Bush rather than acting out of conviction. Odd how someone of his faith might not want to contribute to a second Holocaust by allowing Iraq to fall into the hands of those who’d want to ethnically cleanse the country – finishing the bloody work Saddam started. (Ethnic cleansing which would still be going in if the anti-war side had their way. Apparently the only dead Iraqis they care about are the ones they can try to lay at the feet of their political adversaries.)
“The murder rate in Minneapolis increased by six times the national average”
Not according to paragraph three of the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial published this very day. http://www.startribune.com/561/story/490963.html While they acknowledge that crime is up, they add it’s well below mid-90’s levels and that murders actually declined last year. I assume if their data is false, a letter writer will rise to the occasion to discredit them. Until then, your figures against mine….
“What an idiotic slur….Senator Allen in fact sponsored the first formal government apology for lynching while in the Senate.”
Idiotic slur kind of like this one….”Then again, what can one expect from the party of Grand Wizard Robert Byrd?” See, silly ad hominems are fun!
“Except Burns isn’t being indicted for anything, and is unlikely to be”
What’s your source?
“Given that several prominent Democrats, including Harry Reid, were also in bed with Abramoff, the Democrat’s “culture of corruption†meme is likely to bite them in the ass if they’re not careful.”
The culture of corruption theme won’t work outside of districts where corrupt Republicans actually live, but what will work even less is the desperate Republican suggestion that perfectly legal campaign contributions to Democrats from Abramoff’s former clients is one and the same as taking bribes from Abramoff himself.
“Besides, I don’t see many Republicans with $90,000 in bribes in the freezer…”
And Democrats respond to corruption in our midst with requests from party leadership for said crooked Congressman to step down from committees until indictments are either served or not. Republicans, on the other hand, stand by their crooks to the bitter end, disrespecting the gravity of the charges against them and rabidly seeking the crook’s re-election until the second Federal agents haul him/her away in leg shackles. Keeping as many Republican fannies as possible in the halls of Congress will always be priority #1 above and beyond a basic respect for the law.
“Odd how someone of his faith might not want to contribute to a second Holocaust by allowing Iraq to fall into the hands of those who’d want to ethnically cleanse the country – finishing the bloody work Saddam started.”
Please, you Christian righties, keep up with the Holocaust references. Rubbing the noses of overwhelmingly anti-Iraq War Jews in gratuitous rhetoric comparing a civil war in Iraq with the largest genocide in human history will really boost support of the Republican Party in the Jewish community. As for Lieberman, I’m willing to accept his misguided support for the war so long as he’s a committed Democrat on the majority of issues. He’s not my favorite Democrat, but I’d vote for him over Lamont if I lived in Connecticut.
Do you listen to yourself? You’re the one who put forward the notion that Kos support would bring a benefit–all I did was point out his record at choosing losers. No “demonisation”, just a simple fact.
The Republicans won’t campaign based on doing anything to lefty bloggers–but the savvy might grin while watching Dems hook themselves to the moonbatosphere.
“An electorate hearing the Republican message that America’s worst domestic enemies are people with single-digit name recognition will not only vote you guys out, but seek out padded rooms for you to hopefully shake off your dementia.”
And, not for nothing, but it appears that Democrats are more likely to fall into this–take a look at their conniptions over Ann Coulter, over ‘hate radio’, and even over websites and blogs(remember the Swifties site?)
Republicans, on the other hand, seem focused more on the people who are trying to kill us.
Go figure…
Jack, Dems won’t win any elections running against Ann Coulter or Pat Robertson just as Republicans won’t win by running against Markos Moulitsas. The difference is that the Democratic bogeymen would at least have name recognition above 2-3%.