Erick Erickson's Blog, page 155

Turns Out Grover Norquist Lobbied For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

While heading Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist founded the lobbying firm of Janus-Meritt Strategies with David Safavian, the former Chief of Staff of the General Services Administration (GSA) who was convicted of lying to prosecutors during the Abramoff scandal and sentenced to prison. Safavian's conviction was recently upheld.

One of the more interesting clients for Mr. Norquist was Fannie Mae. In 2000, Janus Merit received $120,000 in lobbying fees from Fannie Mae. Mr. Norquist, along with Safavian, was listed as one of the main lobbyists on the Fannie Mae account.

In disclosure records, Janus-Meritt says its lobbying activities related to a "Home ownership tax." It appears this lobbying work was designed to protect the homeownership tax credit, which Franklin Raines described as key to "increase homeownership in urban and rural areas." As many conservatives believe, this credit, which Mr. Norquist and Safavian apparently defended, was a major contributing factor in the housing bubble and mortgage crisis.

After lobbying on behalf of Franklin Raines and Fannie Mae, Mr. Norquist sang a different tune in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. On October 21, 2010, Mr. Norquist told CNN's Eliot Spitzer, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac brought us this collapse … This was criminal negligence on the part of Barney Frank and Dodd."

Mr. Norquist, of course, granted himself immunity from his role in this "criminal negligence."

The Gang of Six Becomes Five. Coburn Bolts. Chambliss Stays.

The "Gang of Six", which is the group in the Senate trying to come up with bipartisan tax increases and tax restructuring to implement the Deficit Commission's plans, is collapsing. Late yesterday, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn bolted from the group because the Democrats are unwilling to deal with restructuring entitlements in their quest to raise taxes.

Two Republicans remain, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. The Washington Post reports Chambliss is now leading the GOP down a path toward supporting tax increases without serious entitlement reform.

Chambliss, his friends say, doesn't care about the political cost. He's decided the voters are too stupid to know what to do, but he does know what to do. And doggoneit, Saxby is going to do what Saxby wants to do with his good friend and drinking buddy, Democrat Mark Warner.

Together, their bipartisan plan will raise Americans taxes massively over the next few years and do nothing to solve the very real crisis of social security and medicare. At best, they'll put a bandaid on the entitlement crisis.

Every once is a while the stupid party and evil party get together and do something both stupid and evil. They call it bipartisanship. It looks pretty much like what Saxby Chambliss is orchestrating. And it just became too stupid and evil for Senator Tom Coburn.

That should tell you just how bad it is. But Saxby will keep plugging away while hiding behind his American Conservative Union rating.

Morning Briefing for May 18, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For May 17, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. The Gang of Six Becomes Five. Coburn Bolts. Chambliss Stays.

2. Lee Fang and Center For American Progress Use Foreign Money to Influence American Elections

3. The Senate Republicans Get Ready to Suck on Energy

4. Jon Huntsman for Mike Bloomberg's Vice President!

5. Salon's Joan Walsh: Predictable and Racist Buffoon

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1. The Gang of Six Becomes Five. Coburn Bolts. Chambliss Stays.

The "Gang of Six", which is the group in the Senate trying to come up with bipartisan tax increases and tax restructuring to implement the Deficit Commission's plans, is collapsing. Late yesterday, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn bolted from the group because the Democrats are unwilling to deal with restructuring entitlements in their quest to raise taxes.

Two Republicans remain, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. The Washington Post reports Chambliss is now leading the GOP down a path toward supporting tax increases without serious entitlement reform.

Chambliss, his friends say, doesn't care about the political cost. He's decided the voters are too stupid to know what to do, but he does know what to do. And doggoneit, Saxby is going to do what Saxby wants to do with his good friend and drinking buddy, Democrat Mark Warner.

Together, their bipartisan plan will raise Americans taxes massively over the next few years and do nothing to solve the very real crisis of social security and medicare. At best, they'll put a bandaid on the entitlement crisis.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Lee Fang and Center For American Progress Use Foreign Money to Influence American Elections

Remember in 2010, Barack Obama, the Center for American Progress ("CAP"), and little Lee Fang over at CAP, were in high dudgeons about the United States Chamber of Commerce and "foreign money." The irony here is that Lee Fang and CAP are largely funded by a convicted criminal named George Soros whose conviction for insider traded was upheld way back in 2006 in France. But that's another story.

It was the big talking point when the left ran out of all their other talking points. Never mind that the Chamber of Commerce could definitively show that no foreign dollars were going to influence American elections. Little Lee Fang sank his fangs into the story, ignored the facts, and fluffed up controversy where there wasn't any on the Center for American Progress's web site. Lefties seized on every salacious distortion and omitted fact.

Turns out that it was not the United States Chamber of Commerce using foreign money to influence American elections. It was and is the Center for American Progress using foreign money to influence elections. Little Lee Fang is kind of sort of paid with foreign dollars.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The Senate Republicans Get Ready to Suck on Energy

This is really pitiful. The Senate will most likely vote on Senator Menendez's legislation today to punish the American people, drive up the cost of gasoline, and do so in the name of sticking it to oil companies.

Tomorrow, Senator McConnell is going to offer a Republican alternative that doesn't suck as bad, but will still punish consumers, oil drillers, and the free market. The legislation is S. 953 Offshore Production and Safety Act of 2011.

This is another example of the Senate GOP deciding its legislative strategy is to be "Democrat-lite" to win the hearts and minds of the New York Times editorial page.

Under Mitch McConnell's proposal, the government would add yet another hurdle to obtain a drilling permit beyond the burdensome regulatory hurdles already put in place by the Obama Administration. In fact, this particularly onerous part of the legislation comes from Diane Feinstein and Scott Brown.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Jon Huntsman for Mike Bloomberg's Vice President!

Around election time, conservatives are always confronted with the arduous task of sifting through candidates who propagate meretricious right wing talking points in an effort to conceal their faux conservative record. Thankfully, this election cycle, to a certain extent, has given rise to an anomalous level of veracity. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are unambiguously communicating to conservatives that they are not 'one of the guys'. There is simply no mystery how they would govern or negotiate with Democrats if elected President in 2012. Thanks for the candor, guys.

Former Utah Governor and Obama-embracing, yet, backstabbing Ambassador Jon Huntsman is taking this approach to a new level-a level of candor that can only mean that he is seeking the VP nomination for a Mike Bloomberg ticket.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Salon's Joan Walsh: Predictable and Racist Buffoon

Joan Walsh is nothing if not predictable and super tiring. Oh yeah, and totally racist. Her true racist colors showed once again in her latest article at Salon. The article was meant to attack Newt Gingrich for a statement he made at the Georgia Republican Convention and defended - rightly - afterward on Meet The Press, which further goes to show what an absolute oaf Walsh is. There are plenty of valid and honest reasons to question statements made by Newt. As Big Journalism points out, this is not one of them.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Lee Fang and Center For American Progress Use Foreign Money to Influence American Elections

Remember in 2010, Barack Obama, the Center for American Progress ("CAP"), and little Lee Fang over at CAP, were in high dudgeons about the United States Chamber of Commerce and "foreign money." The irony here is that Lee Fang and CAP are largely funded by a convicted criminal named George Soros whose conviction for insider traded was upheld way back in 2006 in France. But that's another story.

It was the big talking point when the left ran out of all their other talking points. Never mind that the Chamber of Commerce could definitively show that no foreign dollars were going to influence American elections. Little Lee Fang sank his fangs into the story, ignored the facts, and fluffed up controversy where there wasn't any on the Center for American Progress's web site. Lefties seized on every salacious distortion and omitted fact.

Turns out that it was not the United States Chamber of Commerce using foreign money to influence American elections. It was and is the Center for American Progress using foreign money to influence elections. Little Lee Fang is kind of sort of paid with foreign dollars.

So, which U.S. based organizations do the foreign-based and foreign-funded Atlantic Philanthropies support? The foundation helpfully provides a list and a searchable database, and it turns out that the highly political Center for American Progress (CAP) and Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) received $1,653,000 in five separate grants in 2008 and 2009, most of that going to CAPAF.

CAPAF is not only a 501(c)4 organization able to run political ads, it is the home of ThinkProgress and Lee Fang.

That's right. Lee Fang and the Center for American Progress are hypocrites. Not that it matters. See, there really can't be hypocrites on the left. To be a hypocrite you have to fall short of a principle. They have none.

It's worth noting that much of what Barack Obama does policy wise originates at the Center for American Progress. So while he may not be a foreign born manchurian candidate, his public policy proposals derive from Bermuda dollars spent over at CAP.

Someone needs to page Dinesh D'Souza to see what he thinks Barack Obama' reaction will be to the idea that his big public policy proposals are vetted via a British territory, given Obama's antipathy for the Brits.

Tonight on the show: Is Herman Cain A Serious Candidate? #EERS

Is Herman Cain a serious candidate? On the right, Hugh Hewitt thinks Herman Cain should be excluded from future debates. On the left, Jay Bookman says Cain is not Presidential material.

I'll break it down for you tonight on the Erick Erickson Show on WSB starting at 7:05 p.m. ET. You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

I'll also be talking about the debt ceiling, the Gang of Six becoming the Gang of Five, etc.

Consider this an open thread.

Lee Fang and Center For American Progress Use Foreign Money to Influence American Elections

Remember in 2010, Barack Obama, the Center for American Progress ("CAP"), and little Lee Fang over at CAP, were "CAPping" in their shorts over the United States Chamber of Commerce and "foreign money." The irony here is that Lee Fang and CAP are largely funded by a convicted criminal named George Soros whose conviction for insider traded was upheld way back in 2006 in France. But that's another story.

It was the big talking point when the left ran out of all their other talking points. Never mind that the Chamber of Commerce could definitively show that no foreign dollars were going to influence American elections. Little Lee Fang sank his fangs into the story, ignored the facts, and fluffed up controversy where there wasn't any on the Center for American Progress's web site. Lefties seized on every salacious distortion and omitted fact.

Turns out that it was not the United States Chamber of Commerce using foreign money to influence American elections. It was and is the Center for American Progress using foreign money to influence elections. Little Lee Fang is kind of sort of paid with foreign dollars.

So, which U.S. based organizations do the foreign-based and foreign-funded Atlantic Philanthropies support? The foundation helpfully provides a list and a searchable database, and it turns out that the highly political Center for American Progress (CAP) and Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) received $1,653,000 in five separate grants in 2008 and 2009, most of that going to CAPAF.

CAPAF is not only a 501(c)4 organization able to run political ads, it is the home of ThinkProgress and Lee Fang.

That's right. Lee Fang and the Center for American Progress are hypocrites. Not that it matters. See, there really can't be hypocrites on the left. To be a hypocrite you have to fall short of a principle. They have none.

It's worth noting that much of what Barack Obama does policy wise originates at the Center for American Progress. So while he may not be a foreign born manchurian candidate, his public policy proposals derive from Bermuda dollars spent over at CAP.

Someone needs to page Dinesh D'Souza to see what he thinks Barack Obama' reaction will be to the idea that his big public policy proposals are vetted via a British territory, given Obama's antipathy for the Brits.

The Senate Republicans Get Ready to Suck on Energy

This is really pitiful. The Senate will most likely vote on Senator Menendez's legislation today to punish the American people, drive up the cost of gasoline, and do so in the name of sticking it to oil companies.

Tomorrow, Senator McConnell is going to offer a Republican alternative that doesn't suck as bad, but will still punish consumers, oil drillers, and the free market. The legislation is S. 953 Offshore Production and Safety Act of 2011.

This is another example of the Senate GOP deciding its legislative strategy is to be "Democrat-lite" to win the hearts and minds of the New York Times editorial page.

Under Mitch McConnell's proposal, the government would add yet another hurdle to obtain a drilling permit beyond the burdensome regulatory hurdles already put in place by the Obama Administration. In fact, this particularly onerous part of the legislation comes from Diane Feinstein and Scott Brown.

The GOP plan also adds new burdens on spill containment going beyond the already burdensome Obama regulations. Oh, and even better, it'd let the Obama Administration's regulators define all the GOP's requirements for the GOP.

Unfortunately, while the GOP's legislation would expand the regulatory burdens on drilling, it would not much allow for expanded access to drilling. The Gulf of Mexico? Barely. Pacific Coast? Hardly? The Atlantic Coast? Not Exactly. Inland shale reserves? Hahaha. So much for increasing domestic production.

In other words, while Senator Menendez's plan is bad, the GOP's version will be bad too — only slightly less bad.

I'd suggest you call your Senator and tell him or her to oppose both the Menendez and the McConnell Energy Plans. You can use our action center to make the call.

Morning Briefing for May 17, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For May 17, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Natural Constituiences

2. The Silver Lining to L'Affair DSK

3. Tell the White House We're Running on Empty

4. In A Statement That Surprised No One. Now With More Words Than Necessary to Explain it All.

5. Jan Schakowsky (D, IL): SEALs are criminals!

6. Obama's Oil Drilling Subterfuge

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1. Natural Constituiences

I have thought a lot more about Mike Huckabee's departure from the race on Saturday and then Newt Gingrich's Meet the Press appearance Sunday. They raise a few questions in my mind that I want to explore here. Admittedly, a post like this pulls from my own biases in how I see the candidates, but I'm going to do my best to be as objective as possible, even when dealing with a guy like Huntsman.

I just think it is helpful to explore natural constituencies to see who is fighting over what.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Silver Lining to L'Affair DSK

The abrupt arrest of IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault against an employee at the New York hotel where he was staying are being treated as shocking in France. This is a "coup de tonnerre," a bolt from the blue, not to mention a body blow to the socialist party he was to represent in the upcoming elections. Everyone in Paris claims to be amazed, shaken–and doing some soul searching this Monday morning.

Very few, however, are protesting "DSK"'s innocence. But if the news really came as such a jarring surprise, shouldn't there be a clamour of disbelief? The shameful fact is that this news was not so much a shock as a long time coming.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Tell the White House We're Running on Empty

The summer of 2010 was supposed to be the Summer of Recovery. That's what President Obama told us. It wasn't and now nearly a year later, unemployment remains unacceptably high. With gas prices at nearly $4.00 a gallon and on the rise, the forecast for the summer of 2011 isn't looking much better.

America is $14 trillion in debt. We're running trillion dollar deficits which President Obama says are necessary to dig us out of the recession. The problem is Hope Isn't Hiring and the unemployment rate recently ticked back up to 9.0%.

Today, the number of unemployed Americans stands at nearly 14 million. Finding a job in the Obama Economy is tough enough as it is, but with gas at nearly $4.00 a gallon, even getting to the interview has become a challenge.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. In A Statement That Surprised No One. Now With More Words Than Necessary to Explain it All.

In a statement that surprised absolutely no one, Donald Trump decided not to run for President. Now here are more words than are necessary to explain it all.

Few took it seriously, though I was happy to participate in an interview with him tomorrow that he abruptly canceled Friday.

In any event, I actually do think he took the idea to run seriously. We can all say that we knew he wasn't going to run, but in gearing up for tomorrow's cancelled interview I talked to several people close to him and all of them were convinced Trump was actually taking the prospect of running seriously.

Several things happened over the last week though that I think got him to the conclusion we all knew he'd arrive at quicker than I or probably he thought he'd arrive.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Jan Schakowsky (D, IL): SEALs are criminals!

Rep. Schakowsky, attempting to explain why photos of the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden would not be released, had this to say:

"These are pictures of a violent crime scene. This is a dead person. A dead Osama bin Laden," she said.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Obama's Oil Drilling Subterfuge

Many liberals in the media are expressing shock over Obama's apparent willingness to increase oil production. We all know that he is full of …, I mean ethanol, and they do too.

Those of you who were befuddled at the news that Obama will 'expand drilling' in Alaska are not missing anything. Obama has pulled this political chicanery a number of times. Whenever a specific proposal that he so adamantly opposes becomes too popular to ignore, he announces his support for it by promising to implement inconsequential reforms. To that end, he declared during his Saturday radio address that he is "directing the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic".

So we are to believe that the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and ANWR, all of which are impounded from drilling leases by the administration, are more sensitive than Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve? Caribou, baby, Caribou in ANWR; drill, baby, drill in ANPR? Think again.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Charter Schools, Trump, Huckabee, and Newt #EERS

Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show, I'm going to spend some time up front talking about a landmark Georgia Supreme Court case today that largely destroys charter school efforts in Georgia.

Also, I'll get into Newt, Trump, Huckabee, and, of course, the debt ceiling.

You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

In A Statement That Surprised No One. Now With More Words Than Necessary to Explain it All.

In a statement that surprised absolutely no one, Donald Trump decided not to run for President. Now here are more words than are necessary to explain it all.

Few took it seriously, though I was happy to participate in an interview with him tomorrow that he abruptly canceled Friday.

In any event, I actually do think he took the idea to run seriously. We can all say that we knew he wasn't going to run, but in gearing up for tomorrow's cancelled interview I talked to several people close to him and all of them were convinced Trump was actually taking the prospect of running seriously.

Several things happened over the last week though that I think got him to the conclusion we all knew he'd arrive at quicker than I or probably he thought he'd arrive.

First, in a little noticed Reuters wire story at the beginning of last week — so little noticed I first noticed it in a South African newspaper — Trump said he was surprised by the public scorn related to his consideration of a Presidential bid.

Second, the New York Times and others started piling on last week about the lawsuits involving Trump. This escalated to a meltdown on CNBC on Friday morning.

Third, he had the prospect of facing me tomorrow with a no-limits Q&A for an entire hour that would be broadcast live.* Then he abruptly canceled late Friday afternoon.

By the weekend, I think Donald Trump finally had to take seriously the fact that many didn't take his bid for the Presidency seriously and he was either going to have to change some minds or change his mind. It's a lot easier to change one mind than many. Likewise, for the first time in a very long time, the maestro of media spin let a story spin out ahead of him beyond his control.

Trump does not like story lines he cannot control.

*why of course I'm going to shamelessly take credit for something I had nothing to do with.