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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Ted Cruz to discuss his race for the US Senate, his ideas for entitlement reform, and how he would fix the economy.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

A Test for the Tea Party in Texas Senate Race
Ted Cruz: on a mission to save the country
Coffee and Markets Archive: Ted Cruz on His Race for the Senate in Texas
TedCruz.org

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Elizabeth Blackney are joined by Craig James to discuss American exceptionalism, the rise of the Tea Party and we’ll ask him whether or not he’s running for the U.S. Senate in 2012.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Craig James and Texans For A Better America
Texans for a Better America
The End of American Exceptionalism?
FATCA: the End of American Exceptionalism or Merely the Next Chapter?
Tea party influence on debt debate stirs heat from political left

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That recently announced U.S. Senate Candidate Adam Hasner (FL) has already been attacked with what looks to be a dubious, politically motivated ethics complaint by Democrats suggests he’s seen as a serious threat to win and that one of at least two other factors may be in play.

The ethics complaint against Hasner was filed by Diana Demarest, former secretary of the Palm Beach County Democratic party. “I didn’t like Adam Hasner when he was in the Florida House. I certainly don’t want him as my senator. He’s a right-wing zealot,’’ Demarest said.

Either one of his opponents, perhaps Charlie Crist protege, George LeMieux, is stealing a page from his mentor, co-operating with Democrats in hopes of hurting a GOP opponent to win an election, or Florida Democrats see the Tea Party-aligned Hasner as the more serious threat and are already trying to soften him up for the General election.

LeMieux was deputy attorney general when Crist was Florida AG. He masterminded the campaign that put Crist in the Governor’s Mansion. He served as Crist’s first gubernatorial chief of staff.

The latter is more likely. A Democrat calling a GOP primary candidate a “right-wing zealot” while filing a politically motivated ethics complaint, isn’t much of a criticism for now; nor is it likely to hold up in November 2012. While a Conservative, Hasner has managed to repeatedly win re-election in a Democrat-controlled county. More on Hasner here.

As a state representative from Democratic-controlled Palm Beach County, Adam successfully won re-election three times without ever sacrificing his bedrock conservative principles. Adam served alongside Marco Rubio for six years, and in 2007 was tapped by then-Speaker Rubio to serve as Majority Leader for the Republican caucus.

When asked how he consistently achieved re-election under the circumstances, Hasner cited the need for aggressive, effective communication of his principled conservativism, even to moderates, during a recent one-on-one phone interview. With the nation, including Florida, shifting somewhat Right in 2010 and a GOP base increasingly convinced that accomplished conservatives can win espousing their ideology, as opposed to running away from it, Hasner’s message has a good chance of resonating with Florida Republicans in the primary.

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From The Associated Press:

The six have met in private for several months, even as House Republicans and Obama developed more partisan plans that have little chance of being enacted into law because of Washington’s divided government.

House Republicans passed a nonbinding plan in April that calls for reducing annual deficits by a total of $6.2 trillion over the next decade. It includes no tax increases but calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes the purchase of private insurance plans.

Obama has outlined a plan to reduce borrowing by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. His plan includes $1 trillion in tax increases and is less specific about how he would cut benefit programs.

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So, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill ‘forgot’ to pay property taxes on her private jet. (There are at least three things wrong with that sentence.) But, her ‘oversight’ in ‘forgetting’ about a $300,000 tax bill is just the latest example of her pattern of tax problems and obfuscation. The document below details a multi-decade pattern of an apparent belief that laws are for ‘the other people’, not important elected officials like herself. (Oh, and did we mention that one of her husband’s properties was used repeatedly as a crack house?) Behold what has become of the stewards of our Republic.

McCaskill Pre-Shepard Personal and Finance Section

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Ted Cruz to talk about his race to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the US Senate.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

My Candidate in Texas
Ted Cruz Makes it a New Game for U.S. Senate in Texas
Ted Cruz for US Senate
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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke to discuss the Tea Party movement, budget cuts needed in Washington and much more.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Jamie Radtke for US Senate
Restore the Founders’ Vision
Radtke Responds to Inquiries Regarding Allen’s Potential Candidacy
Don’t count Jamie Radtke out
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Today Coffee and Markets is proud to be joined by Senator-elect Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The new year will bring with it a new House and Senate, one populated with several members whose approach to the job stands to be a unique departure from politics as usual. Foremost among these is Paul, the Kentucky eye doctor who won a contentious primary over a handpicked Republican candidate, and whose first elected political office will be that of United States Senator. How will being in the Senate effect Paul’s anti-establishment approach? What does he think of former rival Mitch McConnell’s leadership during a contentious the lame duck session? And what are his priorities for the next two years? We’ll hear the answers to those questions from Senator elect Paul today.

We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. You can find our iTunes feed at CoffeeandMarkets.com. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.
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From the Associated Press:

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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From The Hill:

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has been admitted to a Washington-area hospital and is in “seriously ill” condition, his office said in a news release Sunday.

The statement said that Byrd, 92, “was admitted to the hospital late last week suffering from what was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the extreme temperatures.” The region has experienced a stretch of temperatures in the 90s with high humidity.

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When politicians are free from the demands of reelection, they often find their true, inner voice. They often speak with an honesty that eludes them on the campaign trail. Retiring Senator Evan Bayh provides the latest example with this quote:

“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

Ouch

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To the People of the State of New York:

HAVING examined the constitution of the House of Representatives, and answered such of the objections against it as seemed to merit notice, I enter next on the examination of the Senate.

The heads into which this member of the government may be considered are: I. The qualification of senators; II. The appointment of them by the State legislatures; III. The equality of representation in the Senate; IV. The number of senators, and the term for which they are to be elected; V. The powers vested in the Senate.

I. The qualifications proposed for senators, as distinguished from those of representatives, consist in a more advanced age and a longer period of citizenship. A senator must be thirty years of age at least; as a representative must be twenty-five. And the former must have been a citizen nine years; as seven years are required for the latter. The propriety of these distinctions is explained by the nature of the senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and ability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages; and which, participating immediately in transactions with foreign nations, ought to be exercised by none who are not thoroughly weaned from the prepossessions and habits incident to foreign birth and education. The term of nine years appears to be a prudent mediocrity between a total exclusion of adopted citizens, whose merits and talents may claim a share in the public confidence, and an indiscriminate and hasty admission of them, which might create a channel for foreign influence on the national councils.

II. It is equally unnecessary to dilate on the appointment of senators by the State legislatures. Among the various modes which might have been devised for constituting this branch of the government, that which has been proposed by the convention is probably the most congenial with the public opinion. It is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the two systems.

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Wait, what was that? Did Martha Coakley actually say that? Yes she did.  Here is the quote for those who have not heard or read it,

“You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.”

She was saying that about devout Catholics on Boston’s WBSM to Kevin Pittman. But it is not where she said it, or to whom she said it. It is the words she chose to use.

Where to start? The sheer arrogance is mind boggling.  Is she so full of hubris that she thinks that everyone in Massachusetts from Uxbridge to Cambridge agrees with her? This is what she says off the top of her head in an interview? This sentiment is so close to the surface of her consciousness that it spills out under routine questioning? How does one pick from such a plethora of goodies that Martha has given us during this campaign.

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