Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Think Progress: The Minutemen group and its leadership are having internal problems over financial accountability and their ‘Minuteman Border Fence’.

- Think Progess: The Bush White House is not even trying to find competent people to fill important positions anymore.

- The Carpetbagger Report: House Conservatives continue to make fool out of themselves. During hour-long memorial for the late Rev. Jerry Falwell on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Eric Cantor called Falwell a ‘true patriot’. If Jerry Falwell is called a patriot then the word lose all meaning.

- The Carpetbagger Report: As always, the Bush White House is full of it.

- Crooks and Liars: Keith Olbermann scathing rips into the Democratic Party over compromise on the war supplemental. Trust me, they deserve it.

And yet when faced with the prospect of someone calling you on your stubbornness–your stubbornness which has cost 3,431 Americans their lives and thousands more their limbs–you, Mr. Bush, imply that if the Democrats don't give you the money and give it to you entirely on your terms, the troops in Iraq will be stranded, or forced to serve longer, or have to throw bullets at the enemy with their bare hands. How transcendentally, how historically, pathetic.

The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions - Stop The War - have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.

Mitt Romney vs. Massachusetts

Mitt Romney is shameless.

So shameless that he is my second favorite Republican running for President, my first favorite is still Newt Gingrich. The ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is turning on this state to appease the Conservative base which hates all things Massachusetts and liberal.

The attack ad is typical GOP rhetoric. It hits on all the issue which gets Conservatives all warm and fuzzy inside. But, what makes it so brazen is that Mitt Romney during this failed 1994 Senate campaign versus Senator Ted Kennedy ran as a Massachusetts liberal. Now running for Republican nomination for President, Mitt Romney decides that he is a true-blue Conservative and all of this past liberal position can be explained away for this political gain.

It might just work. Republicans love shameless politicians.

Pay-to-Play

It is time for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones to let the will of the Congress proceed. The House pass has pay-to-play bill with a 116-0 vote.

The proposed legislation would prohibit any individual or business with more than $25,000 in state contracts from contributing to the officeholder who awarded those contracts. Bidders also would have to disclose how much they had given to the officeholder awarding the contract in the previous two years. The contribution ban would be in effect for two years past the completion of the contract, or for the length of the officeholder's term.

More than 35 state Senators have singed on as co-sponsors to the pay-to-play bill, which is enough votes to send the bill to Governor Rod Blagojevich for this signature. Lets us not be naive, this bill will not end the practice of pay-to-play politics between elected officials and state contractors. But, it is a good and necessary first step. Democratic Senate President Emil Jones should not use the Rules Committee to kill off this bill.

The bill is assigned to the Rules Committee in the Senate, which is the committee where many good bills go to die. The decision on whether the bill gets considered rests with Jones. Often when Jones assigns a bill to the Rules Committee, that means it will never receive a hearing in the Senate.

There are only a few reasons Jones wouldn't allow the bill to be called. One may be that he's sure the bill would pass, and he doesn't want to put his ally, Blagojevich, in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to sign it. Blagojevich has indicated little zeal for ending the practice of pay to play.

Obviously, the Governor Blagojevich does not want to see his prolific funding raising capabilities come to an end.

"The one person who has an interest in bottling this 'pay-to-play' legislation up is the governor, because this would be unilateral disarmament for the governor's fundraising operation," said the chief House sponsor, Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago).

I never was shy to criticize Governor Blagojevich over the years. Blagojevich has been very progressive governor, but not on the issue of corruption. Governor Blagojevich is under investigation and Federal prosecutors just subpoenaed his campaign records. I’m willing to give the Governor the benefit of doubt, but now it is not the time for Blagojevich and Jones to playing games over the pay-to-play bill. Let the bill come up for a vote in the Senate and send it to the Governor’s desk.

Quote of the Day

Al Gore responds to White House press secretary Tony Snow criticism of this new book, The Assault on Reason.

Unlike the President’s State of the Union address, this book was actually fact checked.

Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Sirotablog: Will someone please step up and run against Democratic Rep. James Moran in the 2008 primary. I’m all for unity, but this fool has to go.

- Daily Kos: The good people of Kentucky had a primary for Governor yesterday. The Democrats choose the progressive candidate Steve Beshear over DLC shill Brian Lundsford. On the Republican side, they had a choice between a corrupted Gov. Fletcher versus Conservative Anne Northup. In a choice between two conservatives, the Kentucky GOP picked the corrupted Governor.

- Political Wire: All signs are pointing towards Fred Thompson candidacy. I’m still on the Newt Gingrich bandwagon, but a Gingrich/Thompson ticket does sound good.

- Political Insider: Arizona Republican State Rep. Russell Pearce calls for Senator John McCain’s resignation, “We need a senator...I think if McCain wants to be a full-time candidate and not be at the Senate, he ought to consider resigning”.

- Sportable: If you ever wanted to know who are the top ten video athletes of all time, here is your chance.

Toothless Benchmarks

Senator Russ Feingold:

“Under the President’s Iraq policies, our military has been over-burdened, our national security has been jeopardized, and thousands of Americans have been killed or injured. Despite these realities, and the support of a majority of Americans for ending the President’s open-ended mission in Iraq, congressional leaders now propose a supplemental appropriations bill that does nothing to end this disastrous war. I cannot support a bill that contains nothing more than toothless benchmarks and that allows the President to continue what may be the greatest foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history. There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political comfort won out over real action. Congress should have stood strong, acknowledged the will of the American people, and insisted on a bill requiring a real change of course in Iraq.”

Indeed Senator.

The Democratic Party should not give President Bush failed Iraq policies another blank check. The House and Senate should have kept on sending President Bush the same Iraq bill funding bill with withdrawal timelines and daring him to veto yet again funding for our military. President Bush would be denying our troops vital funding. The American people want a chance in policy and if this bill passes, the Democratic Party would have failed to give it to them.

Sigh.

Newt Gingrich for President

I’m dead serious.

I fully support disgrace former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich campaign for the Republican nomination. He is the prefect Republican to carry the GOP banner in 2008. Newt Gingrich is in the mainstream of this party on the Iraq war, economic and social policies. He also has two fundamental qualities of Republicanism, no shame and no limit of hypocrisy.

I expect Newt Gingrich and his massive ego are going to bless the Republican Party with his entry in the Presidential primary and if God is willing he is going to win the nomination.