TERMINATOR TAKES DOWN EITHER DEMOCRAT
There are a lot of articles today on the release of the Field Poll, and the startling amount of undecided Democratic voters (26%!), I found the best news of the poll to be that whether you are Phil Angelides or Steve Westly, you are LOSING to Arnold Schwarzenegger this November. Now who knows what the fall will bring, but the survey shows that undecided voters are increasingly supporting Schwarzenegger. As FR State Capitol Correspondent Karen Hanretty points out — perhaps this will now create an incentive for the Governor’s campaign to focus on issues to drive up (and equally as importantly TURN OUT) conservative voters.
JERRY LEWIS IS NO CONSERVATIVE, BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE HIM A CROOK
Congressman Jerry Lewis is famously moderate. He is very comfortable, apparently, presiding over the unprecedented growth we have seen in government spending. I only draw this conclusion based on the profligate spending by the Republican Congress, and the lack of any word coming from Washington that appropriators are making serious cuts. As a matter of fact, on the important vote on the Republican Study Committee’s substitute budget which called for a modest 5% cut in discretionary spending, Lewis not only voted no, but was lobbying others to do the same. I’m happy to hear another point of view on the Congressman — but until then, I have to lump him into the category of those Republicans who are threatening our majority due to the chasm between our spending-cut rhetoric, and the meteoric rise in federal spending under the reign of the GOP. You can read more about this in the Golden Pen selection today, that I talk about below.
Anyways, this Lewis-rant came up as I read several articles in Inland Empire papers today about an FBI probe-ectomy taking place of Lewis and his close relationship with his former colleague, now uber-lobbyist Bill Lowery. I couldn’t say if anything inappropriate took place — and I certainly err on the side of giving the Congressman the benefit of the doubt! Just because he is comfortable voting like a Democrat a lot of the time doesn’t mean he is a criminal.
STRICKLAND IN THE NEWS
The Ventura County Star today features a last-minute (relative to election day) story looking at former Assemblyman Tony Strickland and the fact that he started his short stint as a lobbyist just a few months BEFORE leaving the Assembly. I don’t think it is a big deal, but you can be sure that Strickland’s opponent, Senator Abel Maldonado, will try to make a big deal out of it. Yet, he and Strickland are pretty much in the same boat as most down-ticket primary battles — lack of funds to do any meaningful direct voter contact! So we all get pounded with emails and press releases as they all seek to spin the media in the final days of the campaign!
LET’S NOT CONFUSE "NEW" REPUBLICANISM WITH CONSERVATISM
Today’s Golden Pen winner is Andrew Cline, who is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader (you know, that paper that becomes a big deal once ever four years). Anyways, Cline pens an OUTSTANDING piece from which I reprint an excerpt below. Make sure you read the whole piece on the main page:
HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES of the Republicans’ betrayal of those who voted for them:
* Republicans promised never to waste taxpayer dollars, to return control of numerous programs to the states, and never to let domestic politics dictate military decision-making. They did the opposite. Non-defense discretionary spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush as it did under President Clinton. According to research by Heritage Foundation analyst Brian Riedl, under President Bush and the GOP Congress education spending has risen 62 percent, Medicare 54 percent, highways and mass transit 30 percent, community and regional development 137 percent. And, of course, all of that was done with borrowed money.
* Republican tax cuts flooded the treasury with ready cash, and Republicans used that to buy loyalty — exactly what the people booted Democrats from office for doing. They tried to buy seniors with Medicare Part D, farmers with agriculture subsidies, parents with No Child Left Behind, and small pockets of voters everywhere with local pork barrel projects. They used the U.S. Treasury as a political slush fund, just as they had attacked the Democrats for doing.
* After promising to shrink the federal bureaucracy, Republicans vastly increased the federal role in education, enormously expanded Medicare, and created an entirely new and gigantic federal bureaucracy, which, when needed, functioned exactly as conservatives have always said huge federal bureaucracies will function: poorly."
There’s a lot to read on the main page (including the "Golden Pen" piece, and on the FR Weblog – so check them out.
Coming Monday, a piece from the FR’s choice for State Superintendent of Public Instruction (hint: It’s NOT the incumbent!)
Take care!
Jon
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