September 2006

Florida Republican representative Mark Foley has just resigned after nasty sexual emails to underage male interns were revealed. Speaking of dirty laundry (the post below), one of the emails I saw on the evening news was about how he would love to slip off the shorts a 16 year old boy was wearing. Yick!

To make matters worse, Foley is the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, according to a WaPo online story from Reuters. Here’a another gem – Foley was “author of the key sexual predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which Bush signed in July.”

I absolutely cannot stand hypocrites and Foley seems to be a poster child. This was a safe Republican seat which will certainly be in play now. How lovely.

Not sure about the rest of the regular readers of the blogosphere…but I am getting sick of the negative dirt  coming from both parties this election cycle, not just in Virginia but across the Country.

Bearing Drift has now “dug up” information that Democratic challenger nPhil Kellam was convicted of assult.As a blogger, I know how these things go….this was likely a calcuated leaking of information about a month out from the election to seal Kellam’s fate.

While I understand this is politics, and don’t believe people should enter the arena with dirty laundry…..these races have become anything BUT about the people. Issues are pushed aside for “racist” , “adultering”, and “assault” charges, and the people are left out of the equation.

I commend leaders like Frank Wolf, and Tom Davis for always staying above the fray. Candidates should win with dignity. For me…it’s all about character.

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The Prince William County GOP Committee Continues to rip itself apart.

At the recent meeting, the committee voted for a resolution condemning Congressman Davis’ D.C. proposal, before voting on how to use the 10K he gave the committee.

I have heard Operations Chairman Steve Jiminez spoke out against the resolution.

It has also been reported that the committee had to re-vote on a moderate Democrat who wanted to join with the party, and uphold republican values.

Bert Buscher also aparently fired one of his precinct captains for not “towing the party line”.

I hope Congressman Davis learns from this, and doesn’t give the committee more money.

Message to PWCGOP: Dont bite the hand that feeds you.

I’ve been travelling the past ten days on business and family matters. The latter requirements took me off my usual pathways to the Midwest where it was fascinating to observe Congressional and statewide races in the Heartland. A number of congressional races in what I thought would be solid Republican areas do indeed seem to be hotly contested, with polls giving Democratic challengers either small leads or putting them within the margin of error. Talking to cousins and friends who haven’t voted other than Republican in their lifetimes (and, for that matter, whose ancestors never voted anything but Republican) indicates that the general problem is concern about Iraq. Virginia, with its substantial military presence in our communities, certainly sees casualty lists almost daily. What I didn’t fully appreciate is the degree to which even small communities in Indiana and Ohio are also feeling the pain of loss of their youngsters. Everyone seems to know someone who has died or has been horribly wounded in Iraq, even out in the farmlands and in small county seat towns. (Part of this is explained by the fairly common experience of enlistment of high school graduates from these areas in the all-volunteer military and the high degree to which the U.S. has been using National Guard and Reserve units in Iraq.)

 You can have a reasonable and informed discussion with people about the demands of combatting international terrorism, but I heard more people than I expected (especially from this demographic) vehemently rejecting the premise that the initial invasion of Iraq was a necessary element of anti-terrorist policy. This obviously is a totally unscientific, tiny sampling, but I report it here just to say that there’s no denying that foreign policy issues are playing in the middle of the country more perceptibly than usual. Many of these people never wavered in their support for Viet Nam and rarely express much political interest in foreign policy (unless it affects agricultural exports, a subject about which they are far more sophisticated than most Northern Virginians I know). Â

What offsets this is that the Democrats (God bless ‘em) have not connected with my random, teeny-tiny sample in terms of having any answers. One of my childhood friends, a prosperous farmer and Viet Nam veteran, said: “A lot of us may vote Democrat just to send a warning shot that we’re tired of the messand the ass-covering BS, but we don’t hear any Democrat with better ideas than Republicans about what to do about it now that we’ve gotten into it. In two years, we’ll probably go back to being Republicans if they run anyone with half a brain.” This “warning shot” theme was repeated several times over five days, sometimes using the same phrase.Â

Not sure this has any grand political meaning, but I found it interesting. Â

“Drop is first in 11 years as supply swells” – WaPo

Not only does this raise questions about the continued push for more housing in Loudoun and elsewhere in NoVA, it will turn into a very hot political potato as assessments drop and property tax revenues fall. According to a recent National Association of Realtors report, prices are down 4 percent from a year ago in the northeast and sales are down 12 percent in the same span.

I liken the last couple years of the housing boom to the earlier tech stock boom. Prices rose at an unsustainable pace, largely fueled by market speculators. At one point I saw that one third of new housing sales were for non-primary residences, with a high proportion of investment buyers. Many of these buyers may now dump their properties, further dropping prices and hurting any average homeowner wanting or needing to sell. This further strengthens my opinion that dumping additional excess housing capacity into Loudoun is counter-productive.Â

Democrats are one-trick-ponies this fall – all they do is attack, attack, attack – while offering no solutions or original ideas. It’s pathetic and I think bound to backfire. Virginia constituents crave vision and leadership, not canned, negative sound-bite rhetoric.

The Democrat/MoveOn “energy debate” is a great example. Instead of looking at root causes for high gas prices last year or offering solutions, Democrats and their henchmen went on offense early this year, attacking oil companies and anybody they could “tar” with their “Red Hand” campaign—whether Thelma Drake in Virginia Beach or Frank Wolf in Loudoun. Never mind that Wolf is the “conscience of the Congress” or that Drake is a first termer—I guess anything makes them targets for the screaming Deaniacs.Â

And what was the result of all the noise? Not much. Gas prices came down on their own (it’s called supply and demand folks) and the knee-jerk Democratic effort to vilify everyone they could has quieted…well, kind of.

Here in Virginia though, groups are still running issue ads and waiving “Grand Oil Party” signs, trying to tie elected officials to “big oil.”Â

But did they have a point? Are oil companies to blame for energy pricing? Falling prices would seem to say no, yet the Dems press on, yelling “record profits” all the way.

Here’s what I understand: at the end of the day, oil companies aren’t very different from the rest of corporate America. No industry is perfect, nor do I agree with everything corporate America does, but it’s interesting how most people don’t consider the basics – how company profits compare to tax payments and other economic benefits, how much money they reinvest in infrastructure and research, how many people they employ, etc. – when attacking Big Business. The Democrat’s “case” against Wal-Mart comes to mind here too. Maybe it’s natural to cherry-pick facts when criticizing, but it’s pretty lazy.

Folks have the right to attack whoever they want, but they owe it to people they are trying to influence to do it responsibly and at least be in the vicinity of the truth. But I guess that might be “Inconvenient.” I know, lame Al Gore joke…I couldn’t help myself.

When all is said and done, supply and demand (News Alert: It’s NOT a good thing that countries like Iran and Venezuela—can you say “devil”?—play a key role in the energy market! Talk about a good argument for more domestic production and drilling in Alaska…) and our homegrown hefty gas taxes are still the heaviest hands in gas prices. Does anybody notice the state and local government thumb on those scale stickers at the pump?Â

Kudos to Senator Allen and Congresswoman Drake for being leaders on energy issues in the face of relentless attacks. Senator Allen has recently released a real energy plan (great commercial too) and Thelma Drake is very vocal and specific about her positions. Both leaders call for more efficiency, maximizing domestic resources and using alternative fuels…prudent steps that with a strong foreign policy could create long-term results for America.Â

So where do the critics stand? Where are their plans? Ask those questions and you’ll only hear crickets.

Let’s hope that leaders and candidates put more thoughtful proposals on the table before November. We’re overdue for an honest debate on the facts. The attacks, empty rhetoric, and endless search for scapegoats instead of actual solutions should stop. We deserve better.

Please leave your comments.

Sometimes Raising Kaine goes over the edge….

a contributor named pitin has a post up bashing Congressman Tom Davis, who spoke at the Log Cabin Republican meeting last night.

About 1/2 hour later, Tom Davis and Jean-Marie show up, Tom Refuses to shake my hand (though Jean-Marie smiled and said hello), then Tom just freaks out and yells “I RAISED $50,000 DOLLARS TODAY AND WAS ON THREE CHANNELS (I assume he means his ads)”. I responded by saying “you must be really proud of yourself brother”, at this point Tom’s face starts to turn red (literally), and Jean-Marie sensing an on coming confrontation, grabs Tom’s arm and pulls him into the fundraiser.

My point here is, if you can get under the skin of a 12 year incumbent that easily, is he really fit for office? If a grown man, who should be a statesman yells at 20-somethings, is he really fit for office?

I am not sure who this contributor believes they are…but I’ve been around people SCREAMING at Congressman Davis, and he does not get flustered.

The liberals are fighting the wrong man here…..Davis was speaking to the group, when many GOPers wouldn’t be caught dead being associated with them.

Come on guys….

After reading on RK about a possible demotion of Dick Wadhams, I made a few calls, and found the story to have some roots.

I’ve heard from sources in Richmond that more will be released soon.

This would be bad news for our incumbent Senator.

I know what a lot of you are saying – no s**t Sherlock! I just cleaned out our spam file for the umpteenth time and am absolutely amazed that this stuff continues seemingly unabated. Has anyone been temporarily stupid or bored enough to fall for any of this crap?

This was sent to me by a faithful reader:

From Northern Virginia Daily, Sept. 15, 2006:

When asked “how are you possibly going to beat Frank Wolf?” at the Frederick County Democratic Committee at Shenandoah University, Judy Feder replied, “A moment of silence for Pluto”. She said “if we can eliminate a planet, we can get rid of Frank Wolf”.

This woman is definitely in orbit – she is not playing well in the majority of the district.