Because of the resignation of Hillary Clinton from the U S Senate and the subsequent appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York’s U.S. Senate seats are on the ballot this fall. While most of the focus has been on a potential dust up between the Junior Senator and former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., no one has emerged as a potential candidate to oppose Senator Chuck Schumer, who’s campaign coffers contain more than $30 million.

But a candidate might emerge. New York Tea Party leaders are talking up the potential candidacy of CNBC Talking Head and former Reagan Advisor Larry Kudlow. A graduate of the University of Rochester, Kudlow is one of the architects of the Reagan tax-cuts that sparked one of the great economic boom in modern times. Kudlow who also worked for New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is recognized as a leading anti-tax supply side economist. Kudlow is also know as one of the most effective debaters on the Right.

Kudlow is  known to have beaten an addiction to cocaine which almost derailed his career. Kudlow was addicted to coke and he beat it, Schumer is addicted to special interest campaign contribution and that’s a bigger problem today. Kudlow is the kind of candidate who could raise tea party money across America . Kudlow could also command the Republican and Conservative nominations and might even be able to petition his way on the ballot as the Libertarian party nominee.
(more…)

The 2010 elections represent an enormous opportunity for Congressional Republicans.  As I pointed out in Part I of this series,  The Lessons of ’66 and ’94 Loom Over the Democrats, the average loss for the President’s Party, when the President’s approval rating is below 50%, is 40+ House seats. The past, however, is no guarantee of the future – just a possible guide.  If Republicans are to realize the full potential of this election, they will need to overhaul their recent election strategies.

The Top 4 changes they should employ are:

4.  Oppose.  It has long been said that the first duty of the opposition is to oppose.  Given that the outset of 2010 will be dominated by the health care bill which will then give way to a pork barrel “jobs” (read government jobs) bill and then on to cap and trade, immigration/amnesty and then taxes – Congressional Republicans will have ample opportunity to oppose the Democrats’ bad policies.  More than merely oppose them, however, the magnitude of the “Change” being pushed by the Democrats requires the Congressional Republicans to demonstrate valor and determination in defeating those measures as if the Constitution depended upon it – because it does.

(more…)

It has begun…

Earlier today, two independent reporters in Springfield, Massachusetts attended a Martha Coakley for Senate event. Prior to the candidates arrival, several union members surrounded the two reporters. From one of the reporters, Erich Heyssel:

The mood when we arrived was tense. They seemed to be an unhappy group of people. Dour, even. There were about 100 people outside the Teamster’s Local 404 building and, another 100 or so inside. We started trying to film the gathering and asked some basic questions. We were told we had to leave.

(more…)

When I heard that Brown had been within reaching distance of Coakley, and that Brown would be the 41st vote to stop Obamacare. I got together with a good friend of mine and said “We need to be there.”

Knowing how huge this election was and how important it was to me, we got on the our local radio station last Friday and said “We are going to Massachusetts to defeat Martha Coakley in one of 2010s most important elections. Who is coming?”

Being from California, and with such last minute notice, we didn’t think we could get anyone to come. To our surprise, 6 strangers come forward to help us for an election on the other side of the country. I have created a video blog of what is has been like since we have been here, and what it is like to work on a campaign, to try and make a difference, show people how important it is to be involved in politics, for it is the future of our country.

Tomorrow is a historic election for Senate in Massachusetts.

(more…)

“I certainly didn’t realize that this was a rally for Martha and I thought it was inappropriate that she was starting to ask for other people’s votes when we were trying to remember Martin Luther King Jr.”

Scott Brown
2010 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast
Boston, MA

Martha Coakley told attendees at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast this morning that, “Dr. King would be standing with me if he was alive today.” Scott Brown answered reporters while leaving the breakfast:

“I thought it was inappropriate to be politicking when we are trying to honor Martin Luther King today. I don’t have any comments on what it says about her. Right now I am not going to comment on anything political right now, we’re going to start campaigning in about a half hour… I certainly didn’t realize that this was a rally for Martha and I thought it was inappropriate that she was starting to ask for other people’s votes when we were trying to remember Martin Luther King Jr. …I don’t remember hearing anything about Martin Luther King except for minor references. “

Scott Brown attended the breakfast this morning but was not asked to speak.

(more…)

The Democrat Party’s “40 year majority” will come to a close 38 years early. The unbearable trinity of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama has managed to alienate a nation desperate to support new leadership. They accomplished this by an insistence on unwanted quasi-Socialist policies and an irritating propensity to lead with their chin in foreign policy. The era of Obama is over, even as his Health Care proposal will likely pass. But does this mean a new era of Republican leadership is about to begin? This remains to be seen.

Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speechwriter who supported Obama, has views similar to many who consider themselves centrist. She now realizes her support for Barack Obama was misguided. Yet she is tempted to take a “pox on both your houses” approach. She remains skeptical of the Republican Party, as I imagine many voters do. In her recent opinion essay in the Wall Street Journal she states:

“The question isn’t whether they’ll win seats in the House and Senate this year, and the question isn’t even how many. The question is whether the party will be worthy of victory, whether it learned from its losses in 2006 and ‘08, whether it deserves leadership. Whether Republicans are a worthy alternative. Whether, in short, they are serious.”

I had grown weary of many of Ms. Noonan’s commentaries. Her support for Obama was predicated on an obvious misunderstanding of his politics, nature, and ideology. But her implicit challenge to the GOP is spot on. While the critique premised in her comment is not completely fair, without question Republicans are viewed with skepticism. After all, it was a Republican administration which brought us bailouts, supported expansionary and unsustainable housing policies, expanded domestic spending, proposed an immigration policy as unpopular as the Democrat’s current Health Care Bill and made “earmarks” a household name. Worst of all, the party seemed to lose any sense of foundational principles. Just what do Republicans stand for?

(more…)

Originally published December 9, 2009.

In Tuesday’s primary election, Massachusetts Democrats chose as their Senate nominee a woman who kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career.

Martha Coakley isn’t even fit for the late Teddy Kennedy’s old seat. (What is it about this particular Senate seat?)

During the daycare/child molestation hysteria of the ’80s, Gerald Amirault, his mother, Violet, and sister, Cheryl, were accused of raping children at the family’s preschool in Malden, Mass., in what came to be known as the second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history.

The allegations against the Amiraults were preposterous on their face. Children made claims of robots abusing them, a “bad clown” who took the children to a “magic room” for sex play, rape with a 2-foot butcher knife, other acts of sodomy with a “magic wand,” naked children tied to trees within view of a highway, and — standard fare in the child abuse hysteria era — animal sacrifices.

(more…)

President Obama traveled to Boston to help stop the bleeding of Martha Coakley’s campaign from several self-inflicted wounds. There are many critiques of the speech, with some pundits saying Obama was flat, uninteresting, and full of the usual drive-by campaign rhetoric that we have all become able to recite ad nauseum.

As most of us are aware, Obama–without his teleprompter–rambles, is at times incoherent, and goes on and on to answer a yes or no question. He needs his teleprompter. It’s not like an addiction need, it’s more like ‘I really need my teleprompter, because I don’t want to say what you don’t want to hear’ type of issue.

Obama and his compliant press have tried to manufacture him as a centrist; however, that cover has been blown as of today.

What was stated in the Coakley cheerleading campaign speech in Boston, I don’t think Obama meant to say. He’s been off the campaign trail for so long, that he’s not on his game; I think the misstatement by Obama was a huge gaffe. At about 4:28 during the speech, Obama states:

“…you will carry on the best progressive, forward-looking values…”

(more…)

Consider this irony: Democrats and their special interest allies are in the fight of their lives to keep the seat formerly held by the champion of socialized medicine in the bluest of states.  Democrats should be tap dancing on the foreheads of Republicans in Massachusetts.  But instead, they’re racing against the clock for a deal on health care reform because they run the risk of losing their critical 60^th vote in just a few days.

So the Democrats strategy is clear:  seek forgiveness of American voters in November instead of permission now because the probable message from Tuesday’s election will not be in favor of ObamaCare.  Democrats are “hoping” to have an overall deal on health care reform, the tax-dodging Ways and Means committee chairman Charlie Rangel told NationalJournal.com, just in time to avoid the Tuesday Massachusetts vote.

The Huffington Post quoted SEIU vice president Anna Burger as saying, “Let’s go on and actually pass this bill.”  Anna’s wish is, of course, this White House’s command.

The special election this week in Massachusetts can easily be viewed as a referendum on Obama, his policies and specifically government-run health care.  And in a state that is navy blue, it’s a dog fight, with SEIU stepping in to plop down over $600,000 for TV ads savaging Republican candidate Scott Brown.  And RedState.com reported House Democrats are spending beaucoup bucks to elect a Democrat to the Senate.  It’s pure panic time for Democrats in Washington.

(more…)

Republican Scott Brown has been running ads in Massachusetts where he is out driving around in his old pickup truck while campaigning for US Senator something Marcia Martha Coakley refuses to do.

On Sunday Barack Obama slammed Scott Brown and his truck several times in his Bush-bashing campaign speech for Martha Coakley.

(more…)

Neil Cavuto of Fox News had a visit with former Vice President Dan Qualyle on Jan 13. Ostensibly the interview was about the earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that Quayle was saying needed to be made for the victims there, but Cavuto also asked the former veep about his feelings about the Tea Party movement. Quayle’s reply was revealing in that he proved that he really didn’t know how to think about the Tea Partiers. I think that Quayle is in exactly the same confused state that most of the old guard GOP is. They just don’t get it.

Cavuto asked what Quayle thought of the Tea Party movement and what it portended for the Republican Party and Quayle’s reply was that the GOP had to “co-opt” the Tea Partiers back into the GOP.

Sorry, Dan old pal, but that is wrong, wrong, wrong. The GOP had better understand that it is the Tea Partiers that have the upper hand here and the party also better understand that THEY must be the ones to become “co-opted.” It ain’t the other way ’round, Danny!

(more…)

Today, in 1943, was the first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The uprising would last until May.

Thank you very much.  What a privilege it is to share the stage with John Ratzenberger, Lenny Clarke, Doug Flutie, Curt Schilling, Fred Smerlas, Steve DeOssie, and many, many others – and my favorite singer, Ayla Brown.

As you know, Curt Schilling made the news just a couple of days ago when my opponent didn’t recognize his name.  Of all the many false accusations she’s made in this campaign, one of the strangest was to call Curt Schilling a Yankee fan.  Let me properly identify the guy she’s been smearing on the radio: His name is Curt Schilling, formerly of the World Champion Red Sox – you know, a baseball team that plays at Fenway Park.

Doug Flutie, what can I say, great guy, great career, and I am proud you are here.  John Ratzenberger, a wonderful actor, you brought a lot of laughs to us during your many years with Cheers.  Fred and Steve, you are legends and good friends. Ayla, thank you for again sharing your beautiful voice.  Millions have seen her on national TV, and going through this campaign I’ve got an idea of what Ayla went through on “American Idol.”  She had to deal with Simon Cowell, and I had to deal with David Gergen.

(more…)

Beyond a pleasing sight for the heart, what would Ted Kennedy’s seat going Republican really mean?

A lot.

First, there would be the psychological effect.

On Democratic donors — it would discourage them from opening their checkbooks. On Republican donors — the impact would be electric in kindling their interest and generosity. On Democratic incumbents seeking re-election — it would make the beaches and golf courses that await them in their Florida retirement homes (and the lucrative lobbying jobs in Washington) infinitely more attractive. On Republicans considering running for the House and the Senate — it will help them see the truth: That their time is at hand! (It might even help our esteemed Party Chairman Michael Steele, realize that we can capture both houses this year!)

But in the Senate itself, it would really signal the end of Obama’s legislative dominance. He’ll probably be able to pass health care either by Democratic dithering in certifying Brown’s election or by ramming through the bill while he’s en route to Washington on the shuttle.

But, beyond that, the prospects of getting 60 votes on the remaining items in Obama’s legislative agenda: cap and trade, union card check, and immigration reform would slip away with the Massachusetts result.

(more…)

While the earthquake death toll in Haiti will likely be very high, in part because of lax building codes and underfunded infrastructure, the disaster has had the peculiar effect of drawing out the immoral moralist preachers (and their apologists) on both sides of America’s spectrum:

Pat Robertson makes an ass out of himself.
Danny Glover channels Pat Robertson.

Their cheap opportunism raises a few questions:

What percentage of Conservatives do you think agree with Pat Robertson?

What percentage of Progressives do you think agree with Danny Glover?

What percentage of this country do you think rejects BOTH the moralists of the right, in this case Pat Robertson, and the moralists of the left, in this case Danny Glover?

(more…)

For years we’ve repeatedly heard the falsehood that most Americans want government to regulate the Internet.  We’ve also heard that the Left is supposedly miles ahead of the Right when it comes to online organizing and technological expertise.  Well, late last week, both of those myths have been exposed.

The Federal Communications Commission asked the public to submit comments on its plan to implement so-called net neutrality regulations that would allow government bureaucrats to tinker with the Internet.  The vaunted NetRoots expected to carry the day so much that they simply ignored the facts, claimed victory, and showed themselves to be fools.

It is still hard to understand why we need to regulate something that has been the most successful economic, informational and organizational tool of the past two decades.  But no matter.  On Thursday, the FCC’s comment period closed and the verdict is in. Limited government and free market activists crushed big government fans on the Left.

(more…)

New Jersey’s State Constitution is unconstitutional.  That’s apparently what one New Jersey election official seems to think.

A committee seeking approval from the state to petition registered voters on whether to move forward with a special election to recall US Senator Robert Menendez was denied that request, in a letter on January 11^th which stated that the US Constitution does not provide for such a proceeding.

But in 1993, the people of New Jersey overwhelmingly voted to reserve for themselves “the power to recall, after at least one year of service, any elected official in this State or representing this State in the United States Congress” (emphasis added), and in 1995 made this amendment to their state constitution under Article I, 2b.

This has left many New Jersey voters wondering why Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, a member of the Executive Branch, not the Judicial Branch, would take it upon herself and her position to declare the NJ state Constitution unconstitutional.  After reviewing the committee’s preliminary appeal statement, a judge in the Superior Court of NJ Appellate Division has just issued an order allowing a motion to accelerate the appeal.

(more…)