Jack of All Trades

Looks like somebody took my idea, and ran with it.

Global Warming Skepticism

There have been a flurry of articles lately attempting to define the “Tea Party”.   These articles range from Glen Reynolds “What I Saw at the Tea Party Convention“  in the Wall Street Journal, to David Barstow’s disgusting smear job “Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right“, and back to sanity again with Lloyd Marcus’s “Tea Party Movement Untamed“.   Each attempts to define what “is” the Tea Party.    While that is an important question, and probably impossible to answer.  The more important question is “What will the Tea Party become?”.

Hints of the Tea Party becoming a 3rd party have me terrified, for the sake of the GOP, for the sake of the Tea Partiers, and for the sake of our country.

In a new CNN poll, released today Wednesday Feb 17, 2010.  One of the questions revealed the real danger of a Tea Party 3rd Party.

In a three way election, which party would win?    Only if  Republicans and Tea Partiers unite can we take back the country.

The good news in this CNN survey is that many (44%) of self identified Tea Partiers are also self identified Republicans, so we’re nearly half way there.

UPDATE:  Apparently, somebody’s listening to me.

From CNN

Karin Hoffman, the founder of a Florida Tea Party chapter called DC Works for Us, is echoing Sarah Palin’s recent comments that the organization should not field third-party candidates.

“Until a third party would actually pull away from both sides of the equation, it really would be disruptive and kind of diminish what we’re trying to do,”

From NPR

NPR Poll: Republicans vs. Democrats

“If the 2010 elections for United States Congress were being held today, for whom would you vote?”

Please, gather your Republican friends, and Republican neighbors and come to the Republican caucus on Feb 2, to help Republicans nominate, endorse, and support quality Republican candidates.

Alaska is home to another female news maker.

From the New York Times:

In a direct challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, introduced a resolution on Thursday to prevent the agency from taking any action to regulate carbon dioxide and other climate-altering gases.

Senator Murkowski is the daughter of former Senator and Governor Frank Murkowski. I’ve never been much of a fan of Frank Murkowski, but his daughter is beginning to grow on me. She was appointed to fill Senator Murkowski’s senate seat when he was elected Governor of Alaska, but later she won the seat out right. Considered a “moderate” Republican because of her pro-choice position, she’s not a favorite on the environmentalist left because of her position in favor of increased oil exploration and production from Alaska, including drilling in ANWAR.

Raised in an elite Alaskan family, with degrees from elite schools, her path to prominence was very different than Sarah Palin’s. But both are products of the great state of Alaska.

As I reported, here and here,  DFL Congressional candidate wannabe Dr. Maureen Hackett isn’t quite sure what party her heart belongs to (or her checkbook).  Now, it’s being reported in the Star Tribune. that it’s not completely clear she knows who she’s running against.

While Bachmann’s extremism has won her great reviews from her right-wing base, it’s not acceptable here in the 3rd District.

Trying to compare Michelle Bachman to Erik Paulsen is a tactic that failed miserably in 2008, and it is doomed to failure in 2010 for one very good reason.  Paulsen has been very smart in putting together a voting record that is differentiated enough from Bachmann’s yet stays true to Republican core values. Paulsen’s votes against the stimulus, health care reform, and cap and trade not only place him solidly in the fiscally conservative camp, they also happen to be on the winning side of public opinion polls.   But, on some smaller issues, extension of SCHIP and funding for solar energy, for example, Congressman Paulsen moderated his voting record and went against the Republican grain.  Enough so that even some local chants of “RINO” have emerged from right wing political types with no experience in winning elections.

While Paulsen has stuck with his party on many of the largest votes this year, his record isn’t quite as partisan as Bachmann’s. Paulsen voted with Republicans 89 percent of the time on largely party-line votes, whereas Bachmann stands at 97 percent, according to Congressional Quarterly.

Even if Hackett is successful in tying Paulsen to Bachmann, I’m not so sure that would be as big of an albatross as Hackett envisions. Bachmann’s approval ratings in her district are quite high for all of the negative attacks thrown at her

From the Talking Points Memo:

Bachmann’s approval rating is 53%, with 41% disapproval. She leads both of her Democratic opponents by substantial margins, ahead of state Sen. Tarryl Clark by 55%-37%, and leading former University of Minnesota regent Maureen Reed by 53%-37%.

If Dr. Hackett makes it through the endorsement process with her history of party disloyalty, she’s going to have to find a different strategy of attack.

In my earlier post “A Different Kind Of Democrat”, I revealed a number of campaign donations that Dr. Maureen Hackett made to non-Democrats. Ms. Hackett is the forensic psychiatrist that recently announced her intention to seek the DFL endorsement for Congressman in the 3rd Congressional District.   Outside of my post, and the dozens of comments I left on just about every website I could find that announced her candidacy, very little attention was being paid to these unusual donations,  until Tom Sheck, of Polinaut had the gumption to question her.

When I noted that she gave to Nader after 2000, she said “he was paying off his debts” and “I like Ralph Naders’ ideas.” But it looks like he may have been contributing to his 2004 campaign.

Sheck also mentioned her donations to the NRCC, and to Independent candidate David Dillon.  It wasn’t until I read a comment in the blog post titled “Marueen Hackett’s Political Contribution Problem” on the blog MinnePoliti, that I fully grasped the problem with the donation to David Dillon.

From anonymous

According to the Fec.gov, she also gave $1,500 to David Dillion less than a month before the election, 10-16-2008. This may even be harder to explain than the RNC contributions, because it means that she was working directly against us in the last election, and now she is seeking our endorsement in the 3rd. Yea, good luck with that.

If you recall the details of the race between Erik Paulsen and Ashwin Madia,  around October, polling showed the race was very tight, with a slight lead to Paulsen.    So what does a good Democrat do at such a crucial time?    I don’t think the answer is to whip out the checkbook and write a $1,500 check to the third party spoiler in the race.   Couple that with the her NRCC donations,  and Maureen has some splainin’ to do.

From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
( a nearly daily read for me).

I link to this because I graduated from Eielson High School, and the Eielson A.F.B. Base Exchange (BX) is where I got my first full time job.

The biggest event prior to Palin’s appearance occurred in 1974.

A couple of people had some feedback on my previous post concerning affiliation status for the Republican Liberty Caucus of Minnesota (RLCMN).   I’ll try to briefly address their concerns.     In the end, the RLCMN got their affiliation status despite my position.   I welcome RLCMN members participation in the Republican party and I look forward to them fulfilling their requirements as an affiliated group.

2 questions asked by email

Q:  “Do you think that the RLCMN shouldn’t be part of the MNGOP?  ”

A:   I probably agree with the positions of the RLC about 80% to 90% of the time.   I would never call somebody “not a Republican” or a “Republican in Name Only”, as I believe in a very inclusive “large tent” party.   That being said, the RLC seems to have a narrow view of who a true Republican is, and that may not include me, or politicians I support.    But, as I said earlier, I welcome RLCMN members participation in the Republican party, I just didn’t feel it merited affiliate status

Q;  ” I’m sorry that you consider the RLC to be a “Ron Paul” faction. “  [ed -- not a quesition, but you get the point].

A:  The RLCMN chair and secretary are both Ron Paul 2008 Campaign chairs.   Ron Paul is a previous RLC national chairman and currently sits on the RLC Advisory Board.    I don’t think it is much of a stretch to assume that the RLCMN is a very pro Ron Paul organization.    ( If you don’t believe this, I’ve got a bridge over the NAFTA superhighway that I’ll sell to you for a few million Ameros. )

During this weeks RPM State Central Meeting  in St. Cloud,  the Republican Liberty Caucus of Minnesota (RLCMN) will try to get affiliate status with the MNGOP.   This sounds innocuous enough, but a close look at this issue is in order.

In the Party By Laws, the term “Affiliate” is defined

SECTION 1: Purpose and Organization.
The right of special organizations having Republican affiliations to exist and carry on their activities as they see fit, consistent with the object, platforms, and principles of the party shall be recognized. The organization of permanent local clubs and organizations of party members for the purpose of holding meetings and carrying on other activities in furtherance of party and public welfare shall be permitted and encouraged. The activities of all such organizations during the election campaigns shall be coordinated with authorized party activities and subject to the direction of the regularly constituted party organizations.

Does anybody believe that the RLCMN will allow the MNGOP leadership to direct its activities?

So why does the RLCMN even want to be an affiliate?

From the party constitution.

SECTION 1: Composition.
State conventions shall be composed of the following:
A. Delegates from various BPOUs …

B. Subject to Article V, Section 5, B., two Delegates and two Alternates elected by each of the statewide Republican Party affiliate organizations as listed in the party bylaws.

Affiliates get two delegates!!!

It’s pretty obvious to me that the RLCMN sees being an affiliate as just another way to load up the delegates with additional Ron Paul Liberty Caucus supporters.

I urge the GOP  delegates to vote against giving the RLCMN affiliate status.