Erick Erickson's Blog, page 27

Why Won’t Eric Hovde Sign the ‘No New Tax’ Pledge?

It is one area where Eric Hovde is to the left of Tommy Thompson. He will not sign Americans for Tax Reform’s “No New Tax” pledge.

Hovde has, instead, launched a broadside attack on ATR and Grover Norquist claiming that Norquist is in the pocket of corporate interests. Pot, meet kettle.

In fact, I have well documented concerns about ATR and Norquist, but the pledge itself is a no brainer. Hovde is trying to out think the pledge. He is already playing to the DC media elite that hate Republicans unwilling to raise taxes.

Hovde, in not only opposing the “No New Tax” pledge, but actively demagoguing it, puts him well outside the conservative movement and even outside the center of the Republican Party.

If we cannot trust Eric Hovde on not raising taxes — and never trust a politician unwilling to put his word in writing — we cannot trust him to stand up and do what is right in the Senate.

Mark Neumann remains the only answer for conservatives in Wisconsin intent on stopping Tommy Thompson.

Morning Briefing for August 9, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

August 9, 2012

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

1. Collusion between Obama for America and Priorities USA on ‘their’ lying Soptic ads.

2. Housebreaking Romney: The Importance of Being Vocal

3. MUST SEE: Senior Obama Campaign Advisor Robert Gibbs Refuses to Condemn Ad Calling Romney Murderer

4. Why Won’t Eric Hovde Sign the ‘No New Tax’ Pledge?

5. Report: Fast and Furious Weapon Linked to Assassination Plot

6. The Con$ultant Cla$$

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1. Collusion between Obama for America and Priorities USA on ‘their’ lying Soptic ads.

The Story So Far: two days ago, the Obama administration – using the fig-leaf/cutout of Super PAC Priorities USA – accused Mitt Romney of being a murderer because a company that Romney used to own closed down a steel mill (several years after Romney left that company) and that meant that the wife of the husband who lost his job at that steel mill (one Joe Soptic) didn’t have any insurance after the wife left her job several years after the layoff and several years after all of that the wife was diagnosed with cancer and then died. As Erick notes in the link above: if that’s an acceptable logic chain that legitimately leads one to a charge of murder, then (to give just one example) this administration murdered US Border Agent Brian Terry and Eric Holder needs to give himself up right now.

But wait! It gets even more convoluted. You see, the Media is balking – absolutely balking – at taking this line of attack seriously, and the Obama administration has already done its best to distance itself from the Priorities USA ad, to the point where Obama for America (OfA) spokesman Stephanie Cutter denied that they had any knowledge of Soptic’s story.

So… who’s that voice at the end of this conference call, Stephanie? Your evil twin?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Housebreaking Romney: The Importance of Being Vocal

Mitt Romney’s ardent supporters are fit to be tied today. Andrea Saul cited Romneycare approvingly, conservatives rightly piled on, and Romney supporters are defending the guy.

“You’re hurting him,” cried one.

“Thanks for making this the big story of the day, Jackass,” cried another.

Andrea Saul made this the big story of the day. She is hurting Romney. She is an official voice of the campaign. This was an unforced error of monumental idiocy and the blowback is deserved, appropriate, and — most importantly — absolutely necessary.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. MUST SEE: Senior Obama Campaign Advisor Robert Gibbs Refuses to Condemn Ad Calling Romney Murderer

Let me warn you up front that this is a 9 minute video. Let me further warn you that it is from this morning’s edition of Morning Joe on MSNBC. But let me urge you to watch anyway so you can see the depths with which the Obama campaign is unwilling to condemn something as blatantly outrageous as accusing Mitt Romney of being responsible for the death of a cancer victim.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Why Won’t Eric Hovde Sign the ‘No New Tax’ Pledge?

It is one area where Eric Hovde is to the left of Tommy Thompson. He will not sign Americans for Tax Reform’s “No New Tax” pledge.

Hovde has, instead, launched a broadside attack on ATR and Grover Norquist claiming that Norquist is in the pocket of corporate interests. Pot, meet kettle.

In fact, I have well documented concerns about ATR and Norquist, but the pledge itself is a no brainer. Hovde is trying to out think the pledge. He is already playing to the DC media elite that hate Republicans unwilling to raise taxes.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Report: Fast and Furious Weapon Linked to Assassination Plot

The details surrounding failed gunwalking operation Fast and Furious just keep getting worse and worse. We’re already aware that the guns involved were involved in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican citizens and in the deaths of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, but now it has been reported that they might also have been involved in a plot to assassinate the police chief of Tijuana.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. The Con$ultant Cla$$

I await the GOP getting Brian Terry’s family on film to respond to the ridiculous Priorities USA advertisement that Romney killed some guy’s wife.

In the meantime, the GOP Super PAC ads continue to be mostly forgettable while the Super PAC’s themselves continue to raid the pockets of GOP multi-millionaires.

Now add two more data points.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Housebreaking Romney: The Importance of Being Vocal

“The very same American press corps that calls both small government conservatives and white supremacists ‘far right,’ will call Mitt Romney a conservative whether he is or is not. ”

Mitt Romney’s ardent supporters are fit to be tied today. Andrea Saul cited Romneycare approvingly, conservatives rightly piled on, and Romney supporters are defending the guy.

“You’re hurting him,” cried one.

“Thanks for making this the big story of the day, Jackass,” cried another.

Andrea Saul made this the big story of the day. She is hurting Romney. She is an official voice of the campaign. This was an unforced error of monumental idiocy and the blowback is deserved, appropriate, and — most importantly — absolutely necessary.

As Dan McLaughlin noted on twitter

What conservatives are doing re Andrea Saul’s comment is the same as how you housebreak your dog. Romney needs to know not to go there.

Precisely.

The reaction should come quickly and be vocal or the Romney campaign, which is not conservative, will take it as a tacit admission from conservatives that it is safe to let their hair down on these issues.

Many will say this should wait until after the campaign is over. But we’ve seen this play out before. Once George Bush was elected, we had to keep the fragile coalition together. Then it was the war. Then it was re-election. We got to TARP and the GM bailout and people were still yelling that we could not criticize the Bush Administration lest we help Barack Obama.

These supporters are enablers of the $16 trillion debt we presently have. If we cannot vocally and forcefully hold Mitt Romney accountable now, there will be a new excuse after the election for why we cannot hold him accountable, just as there always has been up to $16 trillion.

Last year, while many of us were telling the GOP to hold the line on raising the debt ceiling, the very same people who today are telling us to shut up about Mitt Romney were telling us to shut up about not raising the debt ceiling. What did we get? A super committee and possible sequestration in exchange for two extra trillion dollars in debt.

Now many of these same people are telling us, with the super committee’s failure that so many of predicted would fail by design, we must scrap sequestration because of defense cuts. So we’ll get several trillion dollars more in debt with no cuts. This is exactly what I and others were warning about and it came to pass exactly as we said it would.

Still the Republican enablers would have us say nothing because . . . campaign season.

Should Mitt Romney be elected President of the United States, the very same American press corps that calls both small government conservatives and white supremacists “far right,” will call Mitt Romney a conservative whether he is or is not. The press corps is either too stupid or too liberal to be nuanced on these issues. [Note: embrace the healing power of "and"]

Therefore, if we are not vocally on the record now that it is madness for the Romney camp to praise a failed healthcare regime in Massachusetts, between the press and Romney’s present enablers, we’ll surrender that right after the election.

No one doubts we must beat Barack Obama. No one doubts Mitt Romney is the only vehicle with which we can beat Barack Obama. But I doubt we can if the Romney camp makes unforced errors and those errors — not being vocal about those errors — shake the fragile truce conservatives have with him in the name of beating Obama.

You and I may go vote for Mitt Romney, but there are some in the center-right coalition who lean toward the libertarian end of the spectrum who will just sit it out. There are independents who will sit it out. They need to know Romney has seen the error of his ways and is not, as so many of the candidates in the primary season said he was, not very different from the man he is trying to beat.

Also, it is worth noting as some of you forget, I carry water for no candidate, including for Mitt Romney. I’m not willing to sacrifice intellectual honesty or integrity to see him head into office thinking he can get a pass from the right on a destructive healthcare policy he still refuses to admit is economically damaging.

The Moment All the Doubts About Romney Resurfaced on the Right

Priorities USA was damaging itself and Barack Obama over its mind numbingly insane ad painting Mitt Romney as a killer.

Then the Romney campaign decided to sabotage itself with a mind numbingly bit of spin that may mark the day the Romney campaign died.

Defending Romney and combatting the ad, Romney spokesman Andrea Saul . . . let’s go to the quotes

“To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Andrea Saul, Romney’s campaign press secretary, said during an appearance on Fox News. “There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their health care in President [Barack] Obama’s economy.”

Conservatives have put aside their distrust of Romney on this issue in the name of beating Barack Obama. They thought he and his campaign team had gotten the message and the hints. Consider the scab picked, the wound opened, and the distrust trickling out again.

About the only thing more stupid in terms of building bridges with the right would be to say something nice about fetal stem cell research.

Start your watches for that one!

The Con$ultant Cla$$

A few weeks ago I wrote this about the GOP’s consultant class:

can I just say what a bunch of charlatans and grifters most GOP consultants are. We have all these GOP Super PACs sucking up millions and millions of dollars to help Mitt Romney and now in the summer lull? Nothing. But I bet some consultants are getting rich. It’s like the GOP consultant class learned all the wrong lessons from Bob Shrum.

I await the GOP getting Brian Terry’s family on film to respond to the ridiculous Priorities USA advertisement that Romney killed some guy’s wife.

In the meantime, the GOP Super PAC ads continue to be mostly forgettable while the Super PAC’s themselves continue to raid the pockets of GOP multi-millionaires.

Now add two more data points.

David Dewhurst of Texas spent $25 million of his own money to lose badly to an upstart named Ted Cruz who only a year ago was polling at 3% in the polls. It was reminiscent of Charlie Crist’s collapse.

Last night in Missouri, Todd Akin, a man with a congressional record with much to go after, beat John Brunner. Brunner spent $8 million.

Note to GOP multi-millionaires: when consultants are circling you, plying you with compliments, and telling you how awesome you are, understand that what is going on is that you are roadkill and they are vultures. They will pick your carcass clean.

Also, the rest of us should understand that Democrat multi-millionaires seem to do quite well in electoral politics. What’s the difference? More often than not, they are running because they believe in a cause. Most Republican multi-millionaires seem to run because they believe in themselves.

Causes always translate better with voters than egos do.

Barack Obama is a Murderer

The Obama supporting Super PAC Priorities USA yesterday introduced us to Joe Soptic. Mitt Romney killed his wife. Except it is complete and utter crap.

Mitt Romney and Bain Capital bought GST Steel at some point. Romney left day to day operations of Bain in 1999. Thereafter, Bain offered Joe Soptic a buy out and he refused. Eventually the steel plant went out of business and Joe went on the unemployment line. That happened in 2001.

In 2002 or 2003, Mrs. Soptic injured her rotator cuff and left her job. She lost her insurance. In 2006, she was diagnosed with cancer and died a few days later. It is a terrible tragedy that Mitt Romney had nothing to do with.

It seems Mr. Soptic chose poorly on the buy out offer, lost his job, and would prefer to blame Mitt Romney than anyone else. Priorities USA has set a new standard — Mitt Romney killed a woman, despite being removed from both time of death and decision making.

We need far less than the convoluted logic of Priorities USA to conclude that Barack Obama is a murderer.

He is covered in Brian Terry’s blood.

Brian Terry was a border patrol agent.

Barack Obama’s Administration — while Obama was serving as President — started Operation Fast and Furious. An American fire arms dealer, working with the Obama Administration, sold a fire arm to a Mexican gun runner who took the gun into Mexico to use in the ongoing drug/civil war.

That gun came back across the border in the hands of someone who used it to kill Brian Terry.

There is a much more direct link between Barack Obama and Brian Terry’s murder than between Mitt Romney and Ilyona Soptic’s death from cancer.

If we are playing by Priorities USA’s rules, from here on out we can refer to Barack Obama as a murderer, considering his administration made the decisions that led to Brian Terry’s murder at a time period when Barack Obama was still on the job.

Morning Briefing for August 8, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

August 8, 2012

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

1. Barack Obama is a Murderer

2. Nine percent of Obama voters now support Romney

3. The Finance Committee’s Special Interest Tax Extenders

4. Obama: The Gold Medalist in Debt Race

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1. Barack Obama is a Murderer

The Obama supporting Super PAC Priorities USA yesterday introduced us to Joe Soptic. Mitt Romney killed his wife. Except it is complete and utter crap.

Mitt Romney and Bain Capital bought GST Steel at some point. Romney left day to day operations of Bain in 1999. Thereafter, Bain offered Joe Soptic a buy out and he refused. Eventually the steel plant went out of business and Joe went on the unemployment line. That happened in 2001.

In 2002 or 2003, Mrs. Soptic injured her rotator cuff and left her job. She lost her insurance. In 2006, she was diagnosed with cancer and died a few days later. It is a terrible tragedy that Mitt Romney had nothing to do with.

It seems Mr. Soptic chose poorly on the buy out offer, lost his job, and would prefer to blame Mitt Romney than anyone else. Priorities USA has set a new standard — Mitt Romney killed a woman, despite being removed from both time of death and decision making.

We need far less than the convoluted logic of Priorities USA to conclude that Barack Obama is a murderer.

He is covered in Brian Terry’s blood.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Nine percent of Obama voters now support Romney

Gallup reports that 9 percent of 2008 Obama voters have switched and now support Romney, while only 5 percent of McCain voters support President Obama.

Worse for Obama, only 86 percent of voters who say they voted for Obama in 2008 are backing Obama again this year, while 92 percent of McCain voters are supporting Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The Finance Committee’s Special Interest Tax Extenders

Last week, with the help of Senator Orrin Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee voted to extend dozens of special interest tax preferences for green energy – preferences that are nothing more than subsidies and market distorters. Included in the $205 billion package is the Production Tax Credit, which subsidizes up to 80% of wind energy production. Score one for Big Wind!

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Obama: The Gold Medalist in Debt Race

Well, Obama is approaching another milestone. In addition to breaching the $16 trillion debt mark, Obama will earn another gold medal in the Greek Olympics for fiscal insanity. According to CBO, we will definitely incur another $1 trillion debt this year, ensuring that Obama will become not only the only president to rack up a trillion dollar debt, but the only one to ever do so during every year of his tenure.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

In Wisconsin, Conservatives Should Rally for Mark Neumann

I have supported Mark Neumann’s candidacy in the Wisconsin Senate race, but was also somewhat ambivalent about Eric Hovde. Above all else, I did not want to get in a situation where conservatives were divided and Tommy Thompson won.

Goal number one in Wisconsin must be to stop Tommy Thompson.

But it is time to set the ambivalence aside. With one week to go we should not mince words — if Eric Hovde is the nominee it is pretty doggone clear he will be returning home to Washington and dabble too much in the ways of Washington that conservatives are unanimously opposed to.

As this campaign enters its final week, there is no more need for clarity on Eric Hovde. He, like the other candidates, has a record and it is one conservatives should reject in favor of Mark Neumann’s conservative record.

Hovde is a donor to Democratic politicos. He gave money to Jim Doyle, the former liberal Wisconsin governor. He gave money to a left-wing activist turned legislator in the Pennsylvania State House.

Hovde’s business took in stimulus funds from Washington. Hovde advocated for stimulus funds for high speed rail and green energy subsidies. He even said one of the benefits of green energy subsidies would be to combat “global warming.”

Hovde has denied taking TARP money, but his company urged investors to profit off a shift in U.S. tax law. Ironic given he advocates for closing corporate loopholes.

While Hovde says he opposed how TARP was structured, that’s just nuanced bull shiitake mushrooms. Hovde is perfectly comfortable with taxpayer funded bailouts. He just would have done TARP differently. It’s like getting someone pregnant, just not via the missionary position.

It gets worse. Eric Hovde is a person who played Washington to improve his fortunes.

Let’s be clear here — there is nothing wrong with that per se. It is perfectly legal. The problem is both the left and right agree the deck is stacked against small businesses who can no longer compete in Washington, DC for the attention of politicians fixated on businesses too big to fail.

And that is where Eric Hovde is wrong. He shows no willingness to fix the world from which he profited. We don’t need more of the same in Washington, DC and Hovde would be just another pretty face content in the status quo.

Mark Neumann is the only Republican running in Wisconsin who understands that Washington is out of touch with America. He will not succumb to the status quo and, most importantly, won’t be returning home.

Ultimately, Eric Hovde won’t fight Washington because Washington is where he lives and makes his fortune. No man storms and demolishes his own castle, even when that castle is the source of all our ills in this country.

Wisconsin conservatives no longer need be ambivalent. We must stop Tommy Thompson. Mark Neumann is the only choice to stop him.

Morning Briefing for August 7, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

August 7, 2012

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

1. RedState Gathering 2012: The Agenda #RSG12

2. The Establishment’s Near Sexual Advances on Ted Cruz Are About to Begin

3. The Department of Labor’s attempt to cover for Obama

4. Brilliant, Ohio coal plant closes: guess why?

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1. In Wisconsin, Conservatives Should Rally for Mark Neumann

I have supported Mark Neumann’s candidacy in the Wisconsin Senate race, but was also somewhat ambivalent about Eric Hovde. Above all else, I did not want to get in a situation where conservatives were divided and Tommy Thompson won.

Goal number one in Wisconsin must be to stop Tommy Thompson.

But it is time to set the ambivalence aside. With one week to go we should not mince words — if Eric Hovde is the nominee it is pretty doggone clear he will be returning home to Washington and dabble too much in the ways of Washington that conservatives are unanimously opposed to.

As this campaign enters its final week, there is no more need for clarity on Eric Hovde. He, like the other candidates, has a record and it is one conservatives should reject in favor of Mark Neumann’s conservative record.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Retirement is Profitable for University of Colorado Regent Irene Griego

A top member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents is receiving a near six-figure paycheck in addition to being eligible for a six-figure pension for state employees, both paid for by Colorado taxpayers. Irene Griego, who was sworn in to her position as a regent in December of 2011, spent 38 years as a public educator prior to joining the board, according to her public biography. Griego’s collection of full pension benefits and a near-six-figure salary raises questions about whether she is improperly “double-dipping” into state funds.

Griego worked for the Denver public school system for 18 years before moving to Jefferson County in 1989, where she worked as a community superintendent directly under district superintendent Cindy Stevenson. Griego’s annual salary when she retired in 2009 totaled $136,923. Because she was 58-years-old at retirement, she was immediately eligible to receive at least 38 years worth of combined retirement benefits from the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA), the public pension fund for state and local employees.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Harry Reid’s Pants Are on Fire

Doubtless you have all heard of Senator Reid’s comments on July 31st that he’s heard from a Bain investor that Romney hadn’t paid any taxes for 10 years. Then, on August 2nd, he doubled down, even in absence of any actual evidence, and he repeated those allegations on the Senate floor. On August 3rd, he tripled down. I think the title from the HotAir post says it all: “My source on Romney’s taxes is so incredibly credible that I won’t say who he is,”…Rrright.

Politifact has finally weighed in on the subject, and it’s not good for Reid.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Thank You Steve Penley

If you attended the RedState Gathering last year in Charleston, SC or this year in Jacksonville, FL you would have seen some very beautiful paintings of Presidents and scenes from American history.

My dear friend Steve Penley from Carrollton, GA is one of the best American artists alive today. For two years he has brought over the paintings. This year, though he was at the Olympics, he sent down 8 absolutely gorgeous paintings to flank both sides of the stage.

Steve would not let us cover the cost of transporting the paintings down. It was his gift to the RedState Gathering and we really appreciate it.

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for how to track him down to buy his paintings. All of those on display at the RedState Gathering are for sale and he does stunning work. If you are interested in an original painting or a print, go to www.penleyartco.com for more information.