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Republican Victories Would Lay Bare Internal Democratic Conflicts
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2009 Comment (7)By Doug Heye, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
"I do think that if the results show Republicans have a pretty good night, that probably is going to lead some Democrats to think that, going into next year, we need to take a second look at the way we've done a lot of bills we've addressed up to this point," Rep. Jason Altmire, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, told the Fox Business Network last night.
Given the media's obsession with how the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District affects the Republican Party outside of NY-23, it's of note to see a Democrat openly talking about his party's own internal conflicts.
Altmire, an outspoken congressman in his second term, is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition made up of conservative and centrist Democrats.
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NRA Official: People Arming In Case Politicians 'Attack'
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2009 Comment (28)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's Washington Post has an interesting piece on skyrocketing sales of guns and ammo (12 billion—that's billion, with a b—rounds sold in the last year, up from 7 to 10 billion in an ordinary year). Whichever side you're on in the gun control debate, it's an interesting read. And buried deep in the piece is this arresting explanation for the phenomenon:
"I think it's Katrina. I think it's terrorism. I think it's crime. And I also think that it's people worrying about [whether] they'll be attacked by politicians," said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. "They're suspicious, and justifiably so."
Attacked by politicians? Now presumably he means that people think politicians are going to push gun control laws, and so "attack" their right to bear arms. But presumably as a long-time participant in this particular debate LaPierre understands the importance of picking the right words (especially since every other example he gives involves a real, physical threat). Couple LaPierre's comment with the assertion by North Carolina GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx that healthcare reform is a greater threat to the United States than "any terrorist right now in any country."
The message all around? Be scared.
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Obama's Dithering Dims Americans' View on Afghanistan and the War on Terror
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2009 Comment (24)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Obama's deliberations over U.S policy toward Afghanistan are not helping the American electorate maintain confidence in his leadership. A new Rasmussen Reports national survey indicates that only 34 percent of American voters say the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, a decline of nine points since October and 21 percent since January, when Obama was inaugurated.
Rasmussen also found that 29 percent of those surveyed "believe terrorists are winning that war" while 31 percent say it is a draw. "As recently as April," Rasmussen said, "28 percent said the terrorists were on top, but numbers consistently at that level haven't been seen since late 2007. The belief by 31 percent that neither side is winning is the highest such finding in at least three years."
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Hey Pawlenty: Is George W. Bush a Republican?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2009 Comment (8)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
GOP12 has some interesting video where the Morning Joe gang tries to nail Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty down on whether Olympia Snowe is welcome in his Republican Party (that, GOP12 smartly argues, should be a 2012 Republican debate question: Do you want Snowe in your party?). Pawlenty dodges and weaves, repeating a mantra about what disqualifies one as a Republican. The list includes being for tax increases "repeatedly" (one can, apparently increase taxes if you don't inhale while doing it), being for card-check, being a friend of ACORN, being for the stimulus bill and being for bank bailouts.
But ... weren't the bank bailouts an idea originated by Republican President George W. Bush? The answer is that Pawlenty says that being wrong on these issues in totality is a sign of non-Republicanism. But it's striking that in his mind one of the signature domestic policy initiatives of the last Republican president is a bright line litmus test for ideological purity for Republicanism. Not conservatism, mind you, but Republicanism.
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American Mainstream Is Looking More Like Republican Mainstream
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2009 Comment (85)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Is what's going on in New York's 23rd Congressional District a GOP civil war or not? If you ask me, it's not.
The media and their friends on the left, including White House adviser Valerie Jarrett on ABC News, are doing their best to turn Dede Scozzafava's withdrawal from the race and endorsement of her Democratic opponent into another example of Republican feuding over "litmus tests." They just can't help themselves. In fact, Jarrett calls Republicans "more and more extreme," yet it's the liberals who have worked themselves into a hissy fit of angry rhetoric. Take a look at Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times—far more extreme than anything being said on the right: "The riotous and bloody national GOP civil war" has devolved into a "wacky paranoid cult" that is "re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode." It's not the people on the right—the ones who've been "outed" as moderates, supposedly—who are calling each other Stalinists. Ironically, it's the left who are upset about the Republican base.
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Waning Anti-Bush Sentiment Frays President Obama's Popularity
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2009 Comment (26)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Tomorrow, two states, including my own, will elect governors. President Obama has campaigned for both Democratic candidates, and the question is whether his efforts will pay off for them. At least in Virginia, there's not much hope for Creigh Deeds. According to the Associated Press, even GOP experts agree that Tuesday's elections are hardly an Obama bellwether:
"It's a great overstatement to say this is a referendum on President Obama, but his policies have had a lot of effect on people's thinking," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the chairman of the Republican Governor's Association, told CNN on Sunday. "People are worried about jobs. ... Most Americans can't understand why the government keeps spending so much money. They don't see much effect from it."
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Extending Daylight Savings Was Bush's Best Domestic Achievement
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2009 Comment (18)By Julia Piscitelli, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Through the darkness I have seen the light of the policies of George W. Bush.
Last Friday, my husband told me that he mowed the front lawn—his beloved obsession—after work. I also realized that I wore my sunglasses in the car on my commute home that day. How could that be on the last Friday of October? I remember how much I hated when I was a kid that by late fall, it would already be dark soon after I got home from school. But thanks to President George W. Bush signing into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005, he extended daylight savings time by four weeks.
Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with the barrage of criticism from conservatives on the right about President Obama's accomplishments in his first nine months in office—heck, he's barely been in office longer than a full-term pregnancy and you'd swear he's getting blamed for the common cold.
