What would you say if I told you that in less than two weeks, FlashReport readers have an opportunity to defeat a liberal in Congress?
His name is Joe Schwarz and along with other liberals in the House of Representatives, he is standing firmly in the way of moving our conservative Republican agenda in Congress. Actually, Schwarz is uniquely situated to sabotage the GOP agenda, and I will explain why in a moment.
But first let me take a moment to tell you just how liberal Schwarz is… Schwarz (pictured to the right):
- Has repeatedly advocated higher income, business, property and gas taxes.
- Has suggested suspending or rescinding the President’s income, capitol gains and dividend tax cuts to pay for more government spending.
- Voted against a proposal to reduce non-security spending by 2%.
- Opposed slowing the rate of mandatory spending increases to 6.1%.
- Also voted against a 1% across-the-board spending reduction, but sadly voted for taxpayer-funded Viagra purchases.
- Joined the Democrat leadership in their call for President Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.
- Does not believe the Second Amendment of the Constitution gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms.
- Called his state’s right-to-carry law "nuts"
- Voted against Alaska oil drilling even announced he would oppose the Republican budget if Congress approved Alaska oil drilling.
- Sent a letter to the House Rules Committee opposing Republican efforts to provide school vouchers to low-income families hit by Hurricane Katrina.
- Voted to make it easier for local government to take private property from one landowner and give it to private landowner, under the law of eminent domain.
- Voted against the federal legislation to overdue the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision.
I could go on at length – I haven’t even gotten to Schwarz anti-life stands or his opposition to the federal marriage amendment.
"But Jon," you ask, "why is this particular liberal, Schwarz, any more of a threat to our Republican agenda than any of the other liberals in Congress like Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Lee, Henry Waxman?"
The answer is simple, and unbelievable. Joe Schwarz is a registered REPUBLICAN. That’s right, all of those liberal positions I have outlined above belong to one of the most liberal Republicans in Washington, making Schwarz much effectively situated to stop a conservative agenda on Capitol Hill than any Democrat in Congress!
If you aren’t amazed at how "anti-Republican" Schwarz is from the points above, here are a few more, taken from the Joe Schwarz is a Liberal website:
- The National Taxpayers Union rated him a dismal 47%, which was more than 20% below the average of all House Republicans
- He voted to fund the National Endowment for the Arts
- He voted to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- He even voted for the infamous pork-barrel Alaska "Bridge to Nowhere."
- Schwarz is exactly the kind of big-government politician that we don’t want in Congress.
One of America’s premiere conservative activist groups, The Club for Growth, has declared Schwarz to be the most vulnerable liberal in Congress. You see, Schwarz, who is from Michigan, is facing a primary challenge in less than two weeks from conservative former long-time State Legislator Tim Walberg. I learned about this whole issue because, on behalf of the FlashReport, I participate (via phone) in a weekly conservative bloggers national meeting hosted by The Heritage Foundation and Human Events. The Club for Growth’s main blogger, Andy Roth, participates in these meetings as well. And in one recent meeting, CfG President Pat Toomey (a great conservative former Congressman) specifically called upon bloggers around the nation to carry a message — (to paraphrase…) ‘if you believe like we do that liberal Republicans are keeping us from key achievements like making the Bush tax cuts permanent, reforming social security, and reigning in federal spending, you need to be part of our effort to target Schwarz for defeat.’
Here is some great news. According to Andy Roth whom I just spoke with recently on this race — Schwarz is in the political battle of his life. One political expert in the district said, “The Schwarz people are running scared”. How is this possible? When you look at Schwarz record, imagine the opportunity for an articulate, values-oriented conservative candidate to really draw a contrast to the voters. And Walberg is doing just that.
The Club for Growth has this to say about Walberg:
**There is more – click the link**