Political promises

Since we're heading to the polls in 2 days, this seems fitting.



(via)

Well, it's official...I'm a socialist

That's according to the guy running for governor as a Libertarian. He's had a comment dialogue going with me for over a month. Here's an example of his political finesse:

I said your Ideas were socialist, but if that is an attack on you, then grow a thicker skin.

Funny thing is, I never even accused him of attacking me. I'm not a fan of political correctness, and I'd prefer that politicians just tell it like it is more often. Still, this is probably going a bit too far.

You can read the entire dialogue between us here. I've tried to respect him and take his candidacy seriously, but it's becoming increasingly difficult.

Reagan quote

This is good to know. It is also sadly true.

“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards. If you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”

Please do yourself a favor and never buy a book by a disgraced politician. Chances are more of it was written by the guy whose name is underneath the politician's name. Like, "(font 180) MISTAKES, HURDLES, VICTORY (font 400) A memoir by Patrick Kennedy (font 8) with Spencer Adams"

Not worth your time.

I'd like to thank the Dane County Democrats...

...for being so good as to support Peg Lautenschlager.

Lautenschlager's big claim to fame - other than suing the federal government to release Plan B, suing cranberry farmers, suing...well, a lot of other innocent people - is her conviction for drunk driving. Not just any old drunk driving. Drunk driving in a state-owned vehicle. While being the sitting Wisconsin Attorney General.

I thought Dane County would be solidly behind their own County Executive, Kathleen Falk, who - despite no previous law enforcement experience - is challenging Lautenschlager in the Democratic primary.

I guess I was wrong.

Lukewarm reception

Party faithful ask Falk why she's taking on AG

Members of the Dane County Democratic Party didn't turn cartwheels for Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk the same way they did for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager when she spoke to the group six months ago.

And even though Falk addressed why she is running for Wisconsin attorney general during her 15-minute stump speech before Wednesday night's membership meeting - "Democrats around the state encouraged me to run because this office is just too important to lose" - a number of audience members politely challenged her decision to force a primary in the race.

Richard Russell told Falk she made a good case to run against the Republican candidates but not against an incumbent attorney general who essentially stands for the same things.
...
Falk responded that the party's strongest candidate needs to go up against the Republicans and the primary will determine who that person is.

Second, she said, there needs to be leadership in the attorney general's office on issues of the environment as well as economic and social justice.

Third, she said, was "the practical reality of the vulnerability of my friend and your friend and why Democratic leaders all across the state urged me to run."
...
Afterward, Russell called Falk's response "kind of wishy-washy."

"Basically what she said was that Peg's drunk driving problems would be an electoral liability. I think she needs to hang out at the State Street Halloween party," Russell said, chuckling. "Being drunk in Wisconsin is not that big a problem."

"Being drunk" may not be a problem to most people in Wisconsin, but "drunk driving" is.

If Lautenschlager wins the primary, I can't imagine she'd win the general. Wisconsinites would be crazy to elect her. But then, I've seen stranger things.

Also, "issues of the environment" and "economic and social justice" issues are NOT number one on the list of priorities in the AG's office. I'm all for prosecuting white collar crime. I'm all for prosecuting crime in general. But I'd rather see the meth dealers in Western Wisconsin put away where they can't ruin another life than see a cranberry farmer prosecuted for supposedly violating a watershed requirement.

But, maybe that's just me.

Nagin remains incompetent

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is running for re-election, and will likely face a run-off against either Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu or Ron Forman, unless he can get 50%.

He has a quote in this article today that speaks for itself in showing why he must be replaced.

"I did the tough things. I fussed. I cussed. I got on the president, the governor, got things moving," Nagin said Friday.

So, his last words to voters before they go to the polls is, "I got on other people [to do the job I was incapable of doing]!"

Pathetic.

Congressman Tom DeLay

Tom Delay is resigning his seat.

Former House Leader DeLay Won't Seek Re-Election to Congress

In interviews today with The Galveston County Daily News and Time magazine, DeLay said his decision was best for his district.

He says the decision is based on troubling internal polling numbers.

DeLay was indicted last year by a Travis County grand jury on charges of conspiracy and money laundering. A judge dismissed some counts. But the Sugar Land Republican still faces a charge of money laundering —- a first-degree felony.

DeLay has denied any wrongdoing, but the charges cost him his majority leader post.

The charges stem from accusations that DeLay funneled illegal corporate donations to Republican candidates for the Texas House during 2002 campaigns. The Republicans went on to win control of the Legislature. They pushed through a DeLay-engineered redistricting plan that helped Texas send more Republicans to Congress in 2004.

Good move.

Much better voting system

If only it were this easy.

Gerrymandering fun

For those who don't know, gerrymandering is the division of a geographical area into voting districts to give one party an unfair disadvantage.

The controversy over this was brought to the forefront a few years ago when the Texas state legislature - controlled by Republicans - redrew the state's congressional districts. Democrats accused Tom Delay of arranging the whole deal.

I already knew about that, though.

I didn't know this

The current controversy in Texas dates to the period just after the 1990 census, when Democrats still controlled both houses of the Texas legislature. Even though Texas was by that time trending strongly Republican in statewide and Presidential races, the Democrats drew district lines that enabled their party to win twenty-one seats in the House in 1992, compared with just nine for the Republicans.
...
By 2000, Republicans controlled the governorship and the State Senate, but Democrats still had a majority in the Texas House. A deadlock between the two legislative bodies prevented Texas from adopting any redistricting plan, and the conflict ended up in federal court. The following year, a three-judge panel, ill-disposed to take sides in a political fight, ratified a modified version of the 1991 map, with two new seats awarded to high-growth districts. “The court essentially carried forward the 1991 Democratic gerrymander of Texas, which is increasingly problematic, given the over-all Republican tilt of the state,” Samuel Issacharoff, a professor at New York University School of Law, told me. “The status-quo ante looked like a distortion.”
...
On October 4, 2002, the DeLay PAC known as Texans for a Republican Majority sent a hundred and ninety thousand dollars to seven candidates for the State House. The following month, all seven were elected, and Republicans became the majority party in the Texas House.

“After the 2000 census, we never had a chance to vote on a congressional redistricting plan, because the court did it,” Tom Craddick, a close ally of DeLay’s, who became Speaker of the Texas House after the 2002 election, told me.

I'm not a big fan of gerrymandering either way, but it's important for people to know that it goes both ways with the political parties.

Oh, and I had to laugh at this part of the article (and something I didn't know).

In the late seventeen-eighties, there were claims that Patrick Henry had tried to gerrymander [James] Madison himself out of the First Congress. The term was coined during Madison’s Presidency, to mock Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, who in 1811 approved an election district that was said to look like a salamander.

Oh, don't you just love politics?

“It used to be that the idea was, once every two years voters elected their representatives, and now, instead, it’s every ten years the representatives choose their constituents,” Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School, told me.

If only...

Wouldn't you like to see Judge Alito and Chief Justice Roberts questioning the DemocratIC Senators to determine their qualifications for Public office? Just imagine matching the responses of the Senators with those of the Judges!

The questions might go like this.....

Judge Alito (JA): "Senator Kennedy, I see from your official resume that you attended Harvard University...

Senator Kennedy (SK): "Yes, your honor, I certainly did.

JA: "Did you graduate?"

SK: "Your honor, I respectfully ask that you not pry into my personal life..."

JA: "Is it not true that you were expelled from Harvard for violating the honor code, to wit, you hired someone to take an exam for you?"

SK: "Mr. Chairman, I want to go on record that I disagree with this line of questioning. I ask the chair to order the Judge to refrain from asking questions about my private matters.."

Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee: "Answer the Judge's questions. He answered all of yours.."

JA: "Senator Kennedy, we have on hand a transcript of the session of the university's honor council attesting to your fraudulent examination and subsequent expulsion from the university..."

SK: "I have had all I can take of this line of unreasonable questioning."

JA: "Wait, Senator Kennedy, I want to ask you about the 26 phone calls you made from a motel room the night Mary Jo Kopecne drowned in your car at Chappaquidik, when you said you were asleep all night..." [Kennedy leaves the hearing room]

Senator Specter: "Chief Justice Roberts [CJR] will now interrogate Senator Joe Biden [SB], Democrat from Delaware..."

CJR: "Senator Biden, is it not true that you were expelled from law school for plagiarizing another student's work?"

SB: "Wait, Ted, I am going with you..." [Biden leaves the hearing room]

Senator Specter: "Judge Alito will now interrogate Senator Feinstein, Democrat of California..."

JA: "Senator Feinstein [SF], why did you vote for the former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan of West Virginia [Robert Byrd] to be the Democrat Senate Majority Leader in 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1992?"

SF: "Wait, boys, I am going with you..." [Feinstein flees the hearing room ]

[end of hearing]

Cleaning up in Madison

It's about time this guy saw jail time.

Chvala starts his nine-month term in jail on Monday

Once one of the most powerful men in state government, former State Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala will begin a nine-month jail term Monday for his role in the Capitol corruption scandal.

Chvala is due to check in to jail early Monday morning, but unlike his colleague and fellow disgraced senator Brian Burke of Milwaukee, he will not immediately be released to home detention with electronic monitoring.

"Not here," said Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin. "He will be booked in and assigned to a housing unit, either in the Public Safety Building or the Huber Center," said Hamblin.

...Chvala [will be allowed} to leave jail every day to tend to affairs in his law office and real estate interests.
...
Chvala was charged with 20 felony counts in October 2002, more than a year after Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard began an investigation into how legislative caucus staffs were being used illegally to run partisan political campaigns. That investigation quickly mushroomed into more serious allegations, however, that Chvala and other legislative leaders were essentially shaking down lobbyists for campaign contributions in exchange for getting their bills scheduled.

Eventually Chvala entered guilty pleas to counts of misconduct in public office for using staff for partisan campaigns, and of violating campaign finance laws.

This proves something that many have known for a while: if Republicans simply sit back and watch the Democrats self-destruct, they usually win (I cite the Republican majority in the Wisconsin state senate since the Chvala scandal as evidence). Unfortunately, all too often they're just as guilty.