Erick Erickson's Blog, page 207

Morning Briefing for November 12, 2010

RedState Morning Briefing

For November 12, 2010

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

1. CALL YOUR REPUBLICAN SENATOR NOW: Support Senator Jim DeMint's Earmark Ban

2. Malicious Mendacity in the Tea Party Movement

3. Senators Secretive on DeMint Earmark Ban

4. Campaign Finance Law 120: Recount restrictions.

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1. CALL YOUR REPUBLICAN SENATOR NOW: Support Senator Jim DeMint's Earmark Ban

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is offering an resolution next Tuesday during the first meeting of Senators serving in the 102nd Congress. The DeMint Resolution would be a statement that the Senate Republican Conference will not take earmarks for the next two years. RedState readers could be the difference between this resolution passing or failing. Consider this your call to action.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) is opposing this measure and whipping his members to beat back the effort by DeMint for a two year earmark moratorium. McConnell isn't the only Senator calling other members to oppose this new conference resolution. Just look at the roster of Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee to see members working the phones to defeat this measure.

Here is what I need you to do. Call your Republican Senator at 202-224-3121and ask him or her if she is going to vote for the DeMint resolution. If you don't have a Republican Senator in your state and you want to help, adopt a Senator. If you want to call one of the new members, look up the phone number on the Senate website and give them a call.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Malicious Mendacity in the Tea Party Movement

Here's a rule of thumb — if engaging the tea party movement, focus on the local groups, not the big groups. Tea Party Express has one heck of an impressive track record this year at the national level and they need to be commended for that, but all things being equal it is the local groups that have the volunteers, get out the vote efforts, phone bankers, etc. And I think a number of the national group leaders would tend to agree.

But here is another case in point for bypassing a lot of the national tea party groups. The Claremont Institute, a well respected organization that has one heck of a constitutional history course, is hosting an event for new members of Congress.

The organization is being attacked by a tea party group as being filled with and held by "Washington Insiders."

For the record, the Claremont Institute is on the opposite coast of the United States from Washington and composed of some of the wingiest wingers in the entire wing-o-sphere.

This handwringing about "Washington Insiders" is verging on paranoid.

One tea party group is giving out the private cell phone numbers of freshmen congressmen to pressure them to avoid competing orientation programs, etc.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Senators Secretive on DeMint Earmark Ban

Next Tuesday, the Senate Republican Conference will vote on Senator Jim DeMint's (R-SC) amendment to the conference rules to ban earmarks for two years. Some Senators are saying that they are going to hold their powder dry until they look at all the options on the table at the Conference next week. That is not what the rules of the Republican Conference envision and allow. All amendments to the rules must be shared a week before the meeting pursuant to conference rules. It is important to note that there is no rule that prohibits members from publicly announcing support or opposition to DeMint's idea.

According to Politico, the current vote total is very close with many members wavering.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Campaign Finance Law 120: Recount restrictions.

Executive summary: the setup and funding of election recounts is affected, like virtually everything else in politics involving money, by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (otherwise known as the BCRA, otherwise known as McCain-Feingold*). The Federal Election Committee (FEC) has advised that aid by the national committees in the recount efforts be administered as per the following . . .

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Malicious Mendacity in the Tea Party Movement [UPDATED]

Here's a rule of thumb — if engaging the tea party movement, focus on the local groups, not the big groups. Tea Party Express has one heck of an impressive track record this year at the national level and they need to be commended for that, but all things being equal it is the local groups that have the volunteers, get out the vote efforts, phone bankers, etc. And I think a number of the national group leaders would tend to agree.

But here is another case in point for bypassing a lot of the national tea party groups. The Claremont Institute, a well respected organization that has one heck of a constitutional history course, is hosting an event for new members of Congress.

The organization is being attacked by a tea party group as being filled with and held by "Washington Insiders."

For the record, the Claremont Institute is on the opposite coast of the United States from Washington and composed of some of the wingiest wingers in the entire wing-o-sphere.

This handwringing about "Washington Insiders" is verging on paranoid.

One tea party group is giving out the private cell phone numbers of freshmen congressmen to pressure them to avoid competing orientation programs, etc.

Certainly there are legitimate concerns and there must be caution, but Good Lord people, by the time all the cards are on the table we're going to have all the tea party groups labeling their competitors as Washington Insiders.

This is nuts.

——————-

UPDATED: Just got off the phone with a friend of mine who tells me that the tea party event in question had actually been an event set up by Congressman John Shadegg and others. The tea party group was invited to participate because it had scheduled an event on the same day. The groups merged.

Then the Claremont event invitation went out three days after the announcement of the Shadegg/Tea Party event. Shadegg's group invited the Claremont group to share facilities, etc. since everyone would be there together. Chip Saltsman and the others involved refused, instead trying to pitch their even as somehow more official.

It sounds like Satlsman and the rest really were trying to do some not-quite-authentic event filled with the types of Washingtonians you wouldn't want, but ultimately the tea party group handing out the private cell phone numbers of members of Congress remains out of line in my book.

Trust me, as a guy who has no hesitation putting up phone numbers and asking people to call, I would never give out someone's cell phone number. That's just wrong and, frankly, creates ill will.

Malicious Mendacity in the Tea Party Movement

Here's a rule of thumb — if engaging the tea party movement, focus on the local groups, not the big groups. Tea Party Express has one heck of an impressive track record this year at the national level and they need to be commended for that, but all things being equal it is the local groups that have the volunteers, get out the vote efforts, phone bankers, etc. And I think a number of the national group leaders would tend to agree.

But here is another case in point for bypassing a lot of the national tea party groups. The Claremont Institute, a well respected organization that has one heck of a constitutional history course, is hosting an event for new members of Congress.

The organization is being attacked by a tea party group as being filled with and held by "Washington Insiders."

For the record, the Claremont Institute is on the opposite coast of the United States from Washington and composed of some of the wingiest wingers in the entire wing-o-sphere.

This handwringing about "Washington Insiders" is verging on paranoid.

One tea party group is giving out the private cell phone numbers of freshmen congressmen to pressure them to avoid competing orientation programs, etc.

Certainly there are legitimate concerns and there must be caution, but Good Lord people, by the time all the cards are on the table we're going to have all the tea party groups labeling their competitors as Washington Insiders.

This is nuts.

Dan Mitchell Has All You Need to Know About the Debt Commission

I realize for the front page this should probably be a longer post, but this must be your must read of the day.

Dan Mitchell from the CATO Institute has everything you need to know about the Debt Commission report.

If you read through their report, it sounds like there are lots of spending cuts. But they never explain that these supposed cuts are really just reductions in previously-planned increases. . . .

[T]he Fiscal Commission is asking us to pay higher taxes so that government spending can grow at twice the rate of inflation. That's not a good deal.

It's not a long post and not wonky at all. You must go read the whole thing.

CALL YOUR REPUBLICAN SENATOR NOW: Support Senator Jim DeMint's Earmark Ban

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is offering an resolution next Tuesday during the first meeting of Senators serving in the 102nd Congress.  The DeMint Resolution would be a statement that the Senate Republican Conference will not take earmarks for the next two years.  RedState readers could be the difference between this resolution passing or failing.  Consider this your call to action.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) is opposing this measure and whipping his members to beat back the effort by DeMint for a two year earmark moratorium.  McConnell isn't the only Senator calling other members to oppose this new conference resolution.  Just look at the roster of Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee to see members working the phones to defeat this measure. 

Here is what I need you to do.  Call your Republican Senator at 202-224-3121and ask him or her if she is going to vote for the DeMint resolution.  If you don't have a Republican Senator in your state and you want to help, adopt a Senator.  If you want to call one of the new members, look up the phone number on the Senate website and give them a call.

Next, ask for the staffer that handles appropriations.  You sound like an insider if you say: "Can I talk to the LA that handles approps for the Senator?"  This line will not work for campaigns, but will work well for Senators.

Next, ask specifically if the Senator is supporting Senator DeMint's resolution to ban earmarks for two years for the Senate Republican Conference.  If they dodge, ask for their name and get a specific statement whether they are a Yes, No or Undecided.

Next, log onto RedState and publish a comment to this post with your report.  Who you spoke to.  What they said and any other relevant information. 

Here is what we know right now.  Senators who we know are supporting this effort are the Republican cosponsors of the DeMint resolution and they are the following:

Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma)
Senator Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming)
Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada)
Senator-Elect Marco Rubio (R-Florida)
Senator-Elect Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania)
Senator-Elect Mike Lee (R-Utah)
Senator-Elect Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire)
Senator-Elect Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
Senator-Elect Rand Paul (R-Kentucky)
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina)
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)
Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee)

Those are the good guys. Here are the bad guys:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi)
Senator-Elect John Hoeven (R-North Dakota)
Senator-Elect Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia)
Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina)
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
Senator-Elect Jerry Moran and Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas)
Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts)
Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana)
Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota)
Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama)
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)
Senator Richard Lugar and Senator-Elect Dan Coats (R-Indiana)
Senator-Elect Roy Blunt (R-Missouri)
Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah)

Right now Republican Leadership and Appropriators are bragging that they have this won.  RedState has other plans.  Let's see if we can win this one for all taxpayers.

On the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month, the Guns of August Fell Silent

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

The Debt Commission Report

As you wake up this morning, there is a lot of talk about the leaked report of the Debt Commission. Keep in mind that this is not the final report, but a draft passed out by the co-chairs.

What you need to know is pretty straight forward.

Yes, the plan ends the deficit. It does so with lots and lots of spending cuts across the board. There are actually some good suggestions in the plan, but there is one inescapable fact — the proposal has buried in it one trillion dollars in tax increases.

Some of what are defined as tax increases are, in fact, closing loopholes in the tax code that lobbyists have inserted on behalf of clients. But also included is getting rid of the home mortgage deduction. That would amount to a massive, massive tax increase on the middle class.

The reforms suggested for social security are out and out garbage. It is not means tested. It is not "lock boxed". Payments are cut. Retirement is increased.

This proposal is dead on arrival.

But there is another point that must be made — even were all the proposals, plans, and points adopted it would do no good. Why? Because until Washington admits that it has exceeded the powers given to it under the constitution the same problems will continue to occur over and over.

The Leviathan knows no bounds and, left to itself to check its own growth it will continue growing. Until we are willing to admit that Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives limited powers to Congress, we are wasting our time.

Morning Briefing for November 11, 2010

RedState Morning Briefing

For November 11, 2010

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

1. The Debt Commission Report

2. Why Does Tim Geithner Still Have A Job?

3. The Obama Earmark Trap

4. Carol Browner behind Interior moratorium lie?

5. Tea Party Beats the Average in Competitive Races.

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1. The Debt Commission Report

As you wake up this morning, there is a lot of talk about the leaked report of the Debt Commission. Keep in mind that this is not the final report, but a draft passed out by the co-chairs.

What you need to know is pretty straight forward.

Yes, the plan ends the deficit. It does so with lots and lots of spending cuts across the board. There are actually some good suggestions in the plan, but there is one inescapable fact — the proposal has buried in it one trillion dollars in tax increases.

Some of what are defined as tax increases are, in fact, closing loopholes in the tax code that lobbyists have inserted on behalf of clients. But also included is getting rid of the home mortgage deduction. That would amount to a massive, massive tax increase on the middle class.

The reforms suggested for social security are out and out garbage. It is not means tested. It is not "lock boxed". Payments are cut. Retirement is increased.

This proposal is dead on arrival.

But there is another point that must be made.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Why Does Tim Geithner Still Have A Job?

One week before the midterm elections in 2006, George W. Bush publicly said he would stand by Donald Rumsfeld. The day after the election, Donald Rumsfeld was out the door.

The President, Republicans, and virtually everyone else blamed the war for the GOP midterm disaster. Rumsfeld was the head that rolled.

The day after the election.

Tim Geithner's head remains in Washington. Why? The President says it was the economy, not his policies. The Democrats say it was the economy, not their policies.

Why then does the Treasury Secretary remain?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The Obama Earmark Trap

President Obama is sitting over at the White House praying that Republican Leadership in the Senate defeats Senator Jim DeMint's (R-SC) earmark ban. Remember when Republicans were hit hard for voting against the Stimulus Plan, then some of them sent letters to the Obama Administration requesting projects? The current earmark debate is turning into a similar political trap and some Senate Republicans are falling for it hook, line and sinker.

This debate is going down the same road of the Simulus debate where many Republicans and Democrats who voted against the Stimulus were painted as hypocrites for requesting projects.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Carol Browner behind Interior moratorium lie?

Back in June reports came out suggesting that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar had lied in a report on the Gulf Coast spill by claiming that a panel of outside exports had peer-reviewed the report's conclusions, which included a job-killing moratorium on offshore drilling. After this came out, the Interior Secretary had to retract and disavow any nefarious intent on the administration's behalf; and you could have believed as much of that disavowal as you liked. Given that this White House purely hates offshore drilling and jumped at the chance to reverse course on the topic, it was reasonable enough not to believe a word of it.

Well, it's now confirmed, via an Inspector General's investigation, that the language in question was actually changed by a staffer to White House energy adviser Carol Browner.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Tea Party Beats the Average in Competitive Races.

n the wake of last Tuesday's election there has been much debate on the effect that the Tea Party label had on candidates for office.

Last week, MSNBC's First Read came out with an analysis of Tea Party candidates showing they only managed to win 32% of their races. Unfortunately, the approach taken by MSNBC, by looking at all races without regard to the competitiveness of the district, has the potential to misrepresent the impact of attaching one's candidacy to the Tea Party movement.

In order to get a better handle on the true impact of the Tea Party label it is useful to restrict our discussion to a list of Tea Party candidates in races that were considered competitive leading up to the election. The following analysis is based on the list of 138 Tea Party affiliated candidates from the New York Times. In the interest of leaving out sure winners and sure losers, races rated as "Solid Democrat" or "Solid Republican" were excluded from the analysis (67 solid 'D' races were dropped and 8 solid 'R'). This leaves 30 races rated as "Leaning Democrat," 23 races rated as "Tossup" and 10 races rated as "Leaning Republican".

In order to get at the central question of whether Tea Partiers were underperforming what a "normal" Republican would have done in the district their performance, it is then useful to compare the performance of the Tea Partiers on the ballot with the Cook Partisan Voting Index of the district.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

John Thune Is Not Running For President. Orrin Hatch is Retiring.

Sources in the United States Senate tell me John Thune has thrown in the towel on a 2012 run for President.

How do they know?

Thune is whipping votes for Mitch McConnell in order to defeat the Coburn-DeMint earmarks moratorium. There is no way Thune would so blatantly defy the grassroots of the GOP, the tea party movement, and virtually every major conservative group in Washington if he had any interest in being President in 2012.

Well, with Thune's Presidential political suicide that makes the 2012 list shorter by one.

By the way, Orrin Hatch looks like he'll be retiring. In addition to recently replacing his Chief of Staff, Hatch has come out against the earmarks moratorium making the odds increasingly likely that he won't be back in 2012.

He'll either be retired or beaten in a GOP primary by Utah tea party activists — just like they did to Bob Bennett.

Why Does Tim Geithner Still Have A Job?

One week before the midterm elections in 2006, George W. Bush publicly said he would stand by Donald Rumsfeld. The day after the election, Donald Rumsfeld was out the door.

The President, Republicans, and virtually everyone else blamed the war for the GOP midterm disaster. Rumsfeld was the head that rolled.

The day after the election.

Tim Geithner's head remains in Washington. Why? The President says it was the economy, not his policies. The Democrats say it was the economy, not their policies.

Why then does the Treasury Secretary remain?