Today is Saturday, February 04, 2012

Politics

Attempt to persecute Gale Norton hits dead end

Former Interior Secretary and Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton no longer faces ethics charges by Obama Democrats, the U.S. Justice Dept. announced. The announcement deserves more attention than it will get from the media. LINK: Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton won't face charges, by Dan Berman.

Democrats continue to demand more spending in deal to avert Obama tax hikes

President Obama and Colorado's Democrats in Congress apparently will agree to extend the Bush tax cuts and avert more Obama tax hikes only if Republicans agree to higher spending on extended unemployment benefits.

 Extending the unemployment benefits will ensure high levels of unemployment for years to come. Too many of the unemployed make more by avoiding low-paying jobs and staying on the dole. If the benefits were cut, unemployment rates would soon dip. How much they would drop if benefits weren't extended is hard to predict. At least I haven't seen any predictions on what would happen if benefits weren't extended.

Both Democrats and Republicans are playing to their bases in the deal that Obama announced last night, which is subject to approval by hard left Democrats who control Congress until next year.

Republicans are reasonably assuming that averting the Obama Democrats' tax hikes and new tax cuts that will be part of the deal will help the economy more than the additional spending will hurt it.

The tentative agreement to exempt estate, or death taxes, on the first $5 million in an estate and then tax the balance at 35% looks like a pretty good compromise, too. Of course, it would be smarter to completely eliminate estate taxes, but the redistributionists make that politically impossible.

Compromise has made America the wealthiest country in the world, and it's good to see a little compromise after two years of Obama's way or the highway.

Mark Udall, Michael Bennet vote for Obama tax hikes; Republicans and 5 Dems kill the bill

Mark Udall and Michael Bennet voted for higher income taxes for those who make over $250,000, putting their belief in wealth redistribution out there for all to see. The two Colorado Democrats joined 51 other Senate Dems in voting for a prolonged recession when they voted on a bill that would extend tax cuts only for those who earn less than $250,000 a year. 60 votes were needed to pass the bill. Now the Dems and President Obama are settling down to wring as many concessions out of Republicans as they can before they vote to extend the tax cuts for everyone as demanded by voters on Nov. 2. Top priority for the Dems is extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. Distasteful as that will be for conservatives, they'll cave on the unemployment benefits to prevent the Obama tax hikes. That's politics, and if extending unemployment benefits will preserve the Bush tax cuts, so be it.

Dick Wadhams 50/50 on running for re-election as Colorado GOP state chair

Colorado Republicans should read the Colorado Statesman's strong interview with Dick Wadhams, chair of the Colorado Republican Party. He says he's 50/50 on running for a third term. This interview looks like the beginning of his campaign for re-election, but it also could be the beginning of his a 2012 campaign manager's job search. InnerView with Dick Wadhams, by Ernest Luning and Jody Hope Strogoff.

Tom Tancredo wants Dick Wadhams to try to unite Republicans, fringe liberty groups

Tom Tancredo says in a note posted on Facebook that he would be happy to register as a Republican in an effort to bring the Colorado GOP and fringe liberty groups together.

He suggests that Dick Wadhams, the chair of the Colorado GOP, and leaders of the liberty groups meet and try to seek common grounds. This strikes me as an exercise in futility. There always will be fringe groups, the major parties' candidates always will try to appeal to them up to a point, and both parties already are led and governed by politicians whose views are on the fringes of the mainstream voting public.

Rather than appeal to the small fringe groups, the parties are seeking to bring in the much large groups of independents. In 2010, the GOP won back a majority of independents after losing them in 2008. In 2012 both parties will fight over the independents, not the extremists.

Al Gore admits corn ethanol a big mistake; will Mark Udall, Michael Bennet vote accordingly?

Some $7 billion in wasted corn ethanol subsidies will expire Dec. 31, and one of the chief supporters of those subsidies, Al Gore, says those subsidies are a huge mistake that will be politically difficult to fix. Because there are corn ethanol plants in Colorado, its Congressional delegation has voted to impose ethanol subsidies and taxes on voters and force drivers to buy gasoline that is 10% ethanol. This reduces milelage by 12% to 15%. Will Senators Mark Udall, Michael Bennet and the rest of the state's delegation do the fiscally and ethically responsible thing and vote against extending the subsidies and forcing drivers to buy ethanol? Don't bet your farm on it. LINK: U.S. corn ethanol was not a good policy—Gore, by Gerard Wynn.

Mark Udall, Michael Bennet still AWOL on TSA groping, molestation, dangerous body scanners

We're still waiting for Colorado's Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet to speak out against the TSA's sexual molestation and use of dangerous body scanners at the nation's airports. The TSA's scanning and molestation scandal  is turning into a war that is pitting the Left's  insistence on political correctness and universal screening against Americans' demands for profiling, personal privacy and liberty.

In addition to the AWOL Udall and Bennet, we have yet to hear from Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter, Jared Polis, John Salazar, Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn. I just checked the web sites of the incumbents who will be in the 112th Congress. None have issued press releases on the TSA scandal. They're hunkering down. These big government types appear to be hoping the controversy will just go away.

It won't. It will only grow as more Americans experience what cya politicians and bureaucrats have dreamed up for them. What the Obama administration is telling us that more terrorists' attacks are expected.

If they aren't stopped, it won't be because the politicians didn't try to stop them. If you're worried about being blown out of the air, don't fly. If you object to Big Brother And Big Sister getting in your pants, don't fly. If you think it will happen to someone else, fly.

LINKS:

Getting touchy at the airport, by Tobin Harshaw. Biochemist says 'naked" X-ray scanner may be unsafe, by Declan McCullagh. Researchers: TSA misleads public on scanner safety, by AVweb staff. Don't touch my junk, by Charles Krauthammer. The T S of A takes control, by George Will. Enduring the bare necessities in airport screening, by Kathleen Parker. How to think about the tiny cancer risks posed by airport scanners, by Michael C. Dorf. TSA terrifies, too, by Al Lewis. $11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs, by John Lantigua. TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine, by Harriet Baskas.

Where is the Denver Post’s ‘new Michael Bennet’ on earmarks, spending?

When the Denver Post endorsed Michael Bennet for the U.S. Senate over Ken Buck, it said that not only is he a friend of the Post's, but he's not really the Obama Democrat that his votes showed he was before the election.

Mark Udall wants to put Colorado coal and petroleum industries out of business

Sen. Mark Udall wants to put Colorado's coal and petroleum producers out of business. He wants to send consumers' utility bill even higher. And he wants to pick winners and losers among developers of new businesses in the energy and other industries.

He thinks he knows what's best for Colorado, and he won't listen to anybody who disagrees, including voters who almost defeated Sen. Michael Bennet and sent three Colorado Obama Democrat members of the U.S.House packing.

Just how out-of-touch with Colorado economics and economic reality in general Udall is can be seen in this article that he recently co-authored with a couple of other Obama Democrats in the Senate. LINK: Clean energy: Economic key to 21st Century, by Debbie Stabenow, Kay Hagan & Mark Udall.

Mike Coffman, Doug Lamborn vote no on budget deficit, 5 Dems vote to extend unemployment benefits

Both of Colorado's House Republicans voted for fiscal responsibility on the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act (HR 6419). All five Colorado House Democreats continued to vote for spend and tax Obama Democratic policies when they voted for the bill, which failed 258 to 154. A two-thirds super majority was needed to pass the bill.

Diana DeGette didn’t hear Colorado’s voters; she thinks independents are stupid

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette writes that the Nancy Pelosi and Obama Democrats' problem is that independents didn't get the memo. She thinks that if she screams louder, more often and more repetitively, voters will buy her big lies. No, Diana, you can't sell today's very well informed independent voters your bad policies on health care, climate, energy, education, financial reforms and amnesty for illegal immigrants. You have to listen to voters and change your policies. But you won't do that, so you'll be in the minority in the U.S. House for a very long time.

Ken Buck’s anti-female principles and beliefs made him unelectable in 2010

As long as Colorado Republicans nominate candidates who don't believe in women's rights or small government when it comes to social issues, they will lose to Big Government Democrats who will spend and tax them into poverty. People have a right to believe what they believe, but they don't have a right to impose immoral restrictions on women, gays or anyone else, and they should and will be defeated as Ken Buck was in 2010. Yes, I voted for him because other issues are more important to me this year, but I have been a single-issue voter in previous elections. Buck's loss of the women's votes to Sen. Michael Bennet by a 56% to 40% margin shows that a lot of other people still are single-issue voters, and that issue is women's rights. While Buck won the men's vote, he lost a lot of men who voted with their loved ones. Richard Stacy makes the point in his op-ed piece, The Ken Buck Lesson. And, Was abortion a wave stopper for Democrats in 2010? By Alexander Burns.

R Block Party, Tea Party trying to take over Arapahoe County and Colorado Republican parties

The conservative R Block Party had a party last night. I attended in response to an email invitation that the R Block sent to its list of followers. Then I learned that the organizers didn't want me to cover the political event. This probably is because they didn't want me to report on their campaigns to take over the Arapahoe County and Colorado Republican parties.

Ken Buck disagrees with Dick Wadhams on Republicans’ get-out-the-vote effectiveness

Ken Buck says in an interview with the Denver Post that he lost the U.S. Senate campaign because Republicans we not able to match the Democrats' get-out-the-vote (GOTV) ground game that allowed Sen. Michael Bennet  to beat him by only 20,000 votes out of about 1.5 million cast. Buck's assertion that conservative groups were not as effective as the Democrats' is in direct contrast to Dick Wadhams' claim that the state GOP's mounted a strong GOTV campaign. Wadhams is chair of the Colorado GOP, and he's under attack because the GOP didn't win big in Colorado this year.   America Votes, the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA) and other left wing groups and unions mounted a huge GOTV effort during the final days of the 2010 election campaign and stopped the anti-Obama tide in its tracks in many Colorado legislative races as well as in the gubernatorial and senate contests. The Colorado Democratic Party was mostly a bystander during the campaign. The state parties' roles have been marginalized by onerous campaign finance laws that have put secretive independent groups in charge of raising money, organizing GOTV drives and winning elections.  LINKS: Buck says Colorado GOP outmatched by Dems' tactics, by Michael Booth. Dick Wadhams says Michael Bennet's dishonest ads beat Ken Buck, by Donald E. L. Johnson.

John Ransom creates survey on what Colorado Republicans want in a state party chair

John Ransom of Ransom Creative, a political consultant, has emailed me that he created a survey written to find out what conservatives think they want in a chair of the Colorado Republican Party. References to the survey are being posted on Facebook without attributing it to Ransom, and that has created some confusion about what it's all about. Ransom explains what he's doing in the email below. The survey is here. The Facebook thread that is promoting the survey is here.