Erick Erickson's Blog, page 47

Cleaning Up the GOP Moves to Texas

Late last evening came word that House Republicans intend to keep parts of Obamacare. Even if the United States Supreme Court throws the whole law out, House Republicans intend to resurrect portions of Obamacare. House Republicans publicly say the story is wrong. I’ve talked to several House Republicans who tell me the story is actually on the money and the Republicans now denying it are really playing at semantics.

These House Republicans tell me these denials about the accuracy of the story are equivalent to the House GOP semantically arguing it was living up to its Pledge to Nowhere requirement for $100 billion in cuts that actually amounted to something like $34 billion. Conservatives in the House of Representatives tell me explicitly to go with Politico on this and be very wary of the House GOP Leadership when it comes to repeal.

It is a sad time for the Republican Party. The base must treat its leaders as if they are Soviets — trust but verify their statements. And lately, it is harder and harder to verify their statements. The work of the Tea Party must continue or within a decade I honestly do not believe the GOP will be one political party.

In both Indiana and Nebraska, the Tea Party has continued to make gains. People have flat out rejected the establishment favorites for U.S. Senate – Dick Lugar and Jon Bruning, respectively – in favor of candidates who offer a challenge to the status quo.

Will Texans prove what they’re made of and do the same?

I love Texas. But let’s face it – the Texas congressional delegation is mediocre at best and leaves much to be desired.

Now, Texas has the chance to get it right – by sending Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate. But will they? Maybe. But we have a lot to do and the Republican Primary in Texas is only 2 weeks from today.

But the payoff would be worth it – this is Texas for crying out loud. We’ve been given the opportunity to replace long time thorn in our side, Kay Bailey Hutchison, with an actual honest-to-goodness conservative. Ted Cruz is that conservative. David Dewhurst is not.

The first step is to prevent Dewhurst from getting to 50% on May 29th so that there is a head-to-head run-off between Dewhurst and Cruz in July.

The good news is that last week, Sarah Palin endorsed Cruz – adding to an already impressive list of solid conservatives like Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ed Meese, Mark Levin, the Club for Growth, the Madison Project, Gun Owners of America, RedState, and numerous others. These are not “DC insiders” as Dewhurst would have you believe, but strong conservatives who are fighting hard against the status quo and who know that Ted will join with them rather than the establishment.

Given Dewhurst’s rather paltry and almost embarrassing list of endorsements, it was not surprising that his response was to up the ante on spending – increasing his own ad buys, while his SuperPac launched another $1 million ad buy in Houston targeting Ted directly. In fact, while Dewhurst has spent just over $5 million on positive ads about himself – he or his SuperPacs have spent over $4 million on ads specifically going after Ted.

Why? It’s pretty simple – Dewhurst has been polling below 50% consistently despite having statewide name ID for over almost 15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around. And, he simply has no conservative record to run on. In fact, he would like people to ignore his record of proposed tax increases, higher spending and general incompetence as Lt. Governor. So, they are focusing on lies and distortions about Ted’s record.

The lies are extraordinary and should be ignored. The biggest lie – and one that sadly gained some traction – is that Ted is a “trial lawyer” who represented a Chinese company against an American company, and thus harmed American manufacturing jobs. This is facially absurd. Ted is an appellate lawyer – as Dewhurst well knows because Ted was the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, often fighting for the people of Texas in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. But even more, Ted represented one side of a dispute between two businesses – and the guy Dewhurst claims is an American manufacturer moved his business to China years ago.

The truth is simple. Everyone – and I mean absolutely everyone – in Austin who follows politics knows that David Dewhurst is a squishy moderate. They know he has been a major impediment – along with Joe Straus – to moving conservative reforms. They know he is boring and entirely unpersuasive. They know he is hiding behind the overall record of Governor Perry, who sadly is the lone conservative of any note who has supported Dewhurst… entirely out of loyalty to the man who has served as his Lt. Governor for some 12 years (in other words, don’t make anything of that support).

Meanwhile, Ted has a track record of fighting for conservatism. He has fought against ceding U.S. sovereignty to some unaccountable, leftist World Court… he has fought for religious freedom by successfully defending the placement of the 10 Commandments on the Texas Capitol grounds… and countless other efforts as a lawyer and a fighter for conservative principles.

Most importantly – Ted has sent a clear signal that he will work with conservatives in Washington to fight the establishment. Dewhurst not only will join the establishment – he is the establishment personified.

Texans have a chance to actually do something to change the direction of this country. They should do it, or perhaps we should stop looking to Texas as a leader of conservatism…

Will the South Carolina Democrats Tolerate This Racism?

Phil Bailey sat next to South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts when Knotts called Governor Nikki Haley, then a candidate for Governor, a “raghead.”

Phil Bailey did nothing.

Phil Bailey is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus. It seems he is now intent on one upping Jake Knotts.

Bailey, who had no problem with Knotts’ “raghead” comment when even the First Vice Chairman of the State GOP, Patrick Haddon, was calling for Knotts’s resignation, seems determined to one up Knotts with racism.

Bailey has been on twitter referring to Nikki Haley, a Methodist of Indian descent, as the “Sikh Jesus.” Governor Haley’s parents are sikh, but she and her husband attend a Methodist Church.

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Not content to do it just once, Phil Bailey did it a second time, complete with a picture of a dog.

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I know the South Carolina Democrats have low standards. But do they really want one of their employees to first be cool with the Governor of their state being called a “raghead” and then himself calling her a “sikh Jesus”?

The Club For Growth’s Depressing Study: Failure and Lies of the Tea Party Congresscritters

“If the tea party is not much more successful in primarying Republican candidates and then having those guys practice what they preach, the GOP is within a decade of going the way of the Whigs.”

There have been many studies out on the “tea party congress” and just how tea party it actually is. One study last year noted that 70% of candidates who went to Congress under the tea party banner were voting just like the Republican Leaders they ran against.

Probably one of the best places to get a sense of this is the Club for Growth. Why? The Club ignores social votes and focuses only on fiscal votes — spending issues more than anything else. The tea party candidates went to Congress not just to repeal Obamacare, but were really motivated by out of control government spending, bailouts, etc. Remember, it was Rick Santelli of CNBC on February 19, 2009, who predicted this grassroots army of activists would rise up and say enough to out of control government spending and bailouts. Santelli said, in part,

The government is promoting bad behavior. Because we certainly don’t want to put stimulus forth and give people a whopping $8 or $10 in their check, and think that they ought to save it, and in terms of modifications… I’ll tell you what, I have an idea.

You know, the new administration’s big on computers and technology– How about this, President and new administration? Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages; or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road, and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water?

…

We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing.

Things sort of spiraled from there sending a wave of candidates to Washington embracing the concerns of the activists who showed up to the tea party.

They wanted to cut spending because of out of control debt, stop Barack Obama, end Obamacare, and they were willing to primary Republicans to do it. A number of Republicans lost. In some open primaries, the candidates who were supported by the GOP out of Washington went down in flames.

But what of the candidates who actually went to DC on a wave of tea party support. Turns out some of them were liars and a lot of them behaved like the pigs in Animal Farm with some of them deciding they were more equal than others.

The Club for Growth’s new study of this Tea Party Congress paints a rather depressing picture. You can see how the freshman of the Tea Party Class of 2010 preformed by clicking right here.

If you want a more in depth look at the Congress as a whole, one of the best places to go is Heritage Action for America’s comprehensive score card. What you’ll find is not much better there.

I’m afraid if the tea party is not much more successful in primarying Republican candidates and then having those guys practice what they preach, the GOP is within a decade of going the way of the Whigs.

Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

The Federal Reserve is not my issue. Audit it if you want, I’m with you. But it’s not something that drives me crazy or makes me passionate. But there is one issue that really gets me and the Fed has been at the center of it lately — crony capitalism.

Barack Obama has nominated Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for six years each. Senator David Vitter (R-LA — HAFA Score 85%) placed a hold on both men. They are creatures of Wall Street and, in the biggest red flag of the day, both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been pressuring Senator Vitter to drop his hold.

The issue here is bailouts. Mark Calabria notes the Federal Reserve has bailout powers, but it needs the support of five Federal Reserve governors. Stein and Powell are both in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing to bailout banks and other entities with little oversight.

Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to.

Conservatives in the Senate and outside the Congress are deeply worried that Mitch McConnell will cut a deal with Reid to undercut David Vitter’s hold. We potentially could delay the appointments until after the November election if Mitch McConnell will side with David Vitter and Senate conservatives by objecting to Harry Reid’s cloture motion.

Please call Senator McConnell’s office today and encourage him to stand with David Vitter and object to cloture on Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell. His office number is (202) 224-2541. Then call your own Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose Stein and Powell.

Morning Briefing for May 16, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 16, 2012

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

1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford)

3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties

4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall.

5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments

———————————————————————-

1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

The Federal Reserve is not my issue. Audit it if you want, I’m with you. But it’s not something that drives me crazy or makes me passionate. But there is one issue that really gets me and the Fed has been at the center of it lately — crony capitalism.

Barack Obama has nominated Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for six years each. Senator David Vitter (R-LA — HAFA Score 85%) placed a hold on both men. They are creatures of Wall Street and, in the biggest red flag of the day, both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been pressuring Senator Vitter to drop his hold.

The issue here is bailouts. Mark Calabria notes the Federal Reserve has bailout powers, but it needs the support of five Federal Reserve governors. Stein and Powell are both in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing to bailout banks and other entities with little oversight.

Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford)

Many have called President Obama’s election historic, and rightly so. His presidency however, is another matter entirely. It’s historic in a lot of senses be it his record breaking debt accumulation & spending or his being the first president to have a rainbow halo placed on his head. But compared to the historic achievements of other presidents that did things like ending slavery or saving the planet, he falls woefully short.

Unless you ask him.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties

This week, the House will fulfill our most important constitutional duty by debating the FY 13 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In accordance with the framer’s intent, this act is the primary check that Congress can apply to the Executive Branch on defense and national security policy.

Last year, constitutional conservatives raised the alarm bell about some provisions in the FY 12 NDAA; provisions that many were concerned would grant President Obama far reaching powers to detain American citizens without trial. The bill ultimately passed, but has become the subject of countless town hall meetings, tweets, and Facebook posts in the months since.

The debate has become so heated that many believe that the NDAA is a bill that deals strictly with detaining terrorists. It is much more than that. Aside from dictating how the military can handle any al Qaeda terrorists they capture, the FY13 NDAA deals with the full scope of national security issues. There is much in it, from a rejection of the Obama administration’s effort to raise health care fees on military retirees; to making sure the President doesn’t trade our missile defenses away to the Russians, that Conservatives can be proud of.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall.

You know, when I saw this secondhand whine from Wisconsin Democrats upset that the DNC apparently wasn’t prepared to throw half a million dollars at the general recall election, I assumed that this would be resolved. I mean, really: the Left has already thrown away tens of millions of dollars; what’s a bit more? Admittedly, not throwing utterly horrible money after bad (we’ve passed the ‘throwing good money after bad’ stage already) would be the right answer, in a strictly utilitarian sense; but the state party is in a bad way right now. They sort of need an indication that the President cares for more than his own election, right?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

Last week, the House passed H.R. 5326, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, by a vote of 247-163, providing $51.131 billion in discretionary appropriations for fiscal year 2013. That’s $1.61 billion or 3% below the amount of funding provided for these programs in fiscal year 2012–and $731 million or 1.4% below the amount requested by the president for fiscal year 2013.

Not terrible, but clearly there was room to cut more spending, right? Surely House Republicans realized that Americans want them to cut more spending than 3%–and be more than 1.4% below where President Obama is, right?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments

Ezra Klein at the Washington Post put out a piece promoting Common Cause’s lawsuit to have the Senate filibuster declared unconstitutional. Klein repeats myth after myth about the filibuster. This piece should commence an interesting national debate finally putting the argument to bed that the filibuster is somehow unconstitutional. Abolition of the filibuster will lead to a Senate with less time for debate and limited transparency for the American people.

It is interesting to note that these short sighted leftists may be laying the table for an easy repeal of ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank and extending the Bush tax cuts. Clearly, Republicans control of the Senate is within reach (see RCP analysis of Senate polls). There is also a 50-50 chance that Republicans win the presidency. Liberals are trying to get rid of the one tool they would have to stop Republicans from dismantling the Obama legacy of higher taxes and more regulation.

I have to imagine that some Republicans will want to take liberals up on the offer of ridding the Senate of the filibuster in January of 2013.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

Last week, the House passed H.R. 5326, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, by a vote of 247-163, providing $51.131 billion in discretionary appropriations for fiscal year 2013. That’s $1.61 billion or 3% below the amount of funding provided for these programs in fiscal year 2012–and $731 million or 1.4% below the amount requested by the president for fiscal year 2013.

Not terrible, but clearly there was room to cut more spending, right? Surely House Republicans realized that Americans want them to cut more spending than 3%–and be more than 1.4% below where President Obama is, right?

Right?

Well, some conservative amendments did indeed pass. See these, for example:

Diane Black (R-TN) – Prohibits the use of funds by the Attorney General to sue states over their immigration laws. Passed 238-173.
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – Prohibits DOJ from using funds to defend Obamacare. Passed 229-194.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – Cuts $181,000 from the Marine Mammal Commission. Passed by voice vote.
Bill Flores (R-TX) – Prohibits funding to continue the ban on federal procurement of unconventional fuels. Passed 250-173.
Trey Gowdy (R-SC) – Cut $1 million from the DOJ Administrative Account for Fast and Furious Program. Passed by voice vote.
Rep Andy Harris (R-MD) – Cut $542,000 from NOAA Climate Website. Passed 219-189.
Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) – Prohibits the use of funds by DOJ in contravention of the Defense of Marriage Act. Passed 245-171.
Ben Quayle (R-AZ) – Blocks Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance that limits employers from looking at criminal records. Passed by voice vote.
David Schweikert (R-AZ) – Prohibits the use of funds by the Attorney General to sue states over their voter ID laws. Passed 232-190.
Joe Walsh (R-IL) – Prohibits funding for sanctuary cities. Passed by voice vote.
Daniel Webster (R-FL) – Prohibits funding for the American Community Survey. Passed 232-190.

But check out these conservative amendments that failed–and by how much they failed:

Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – 1% across-the-board cut to discretionary spending. Defeated 160-251.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – A 3% cut to all salaries and expenses—as well as administrative costs—in the bill, for a total savings of $847 million. Defeated 137-270.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – 12.2% across-the-board cut, exempting US Marshals, FBI, and NASA. Defeated 105-307.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – Cuts $15 million from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery program. Defeated 168-239.
Jeff Flake (R-AZ) – Cuts the National Science Foundation to fiscal year 2008 levels, for a total savings of $1.2 billion. Defeated 121-291.
Bill Huizenga (R-MI) – Strikes the provision that bans public-private sector competition within the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Prison Industries. Defeated 199-211.
Tom McClintock (R-CA) – Cuts $277.8 million from the International Trade Administration. Defeated 121-287.
Mike Pompeo (R-KS) – Eliminates all funding for the Economic Development Agency (EDA), for a total savings of $219.5 million. Defeated 129-279.
Ben Quayle (R-AZ) – Eliminates funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia, for a total savings of $21 million. Defeated 147-259.
Steve Scalise (R-LA) – Reduces Economic Development Administration funding to fiscal year 2008 levels, for a total savings of $18.2 million. Defeated 174-233.
Austin Scott (R-GA) – Eliminates all funding for the Legal Services Corporation, for a total savings of $328 million. Defeated 122-289.
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) – Cuts $128 million from the Legal Services Corporation. Defeated 165-246.

Are you kidding me?

House Republicans can’t come together to cut an additional 1%? Not $128 million from the much-hated Legal Services Corporation? Not $15 million from a salmon program?

House Republicans are still deaf to your requests to cut more spending. Make sure they hear you.

The Democrats Train to be Race Baiters #EERS

The Democrats have been taking professional training on how to be race baiters in this election cycle. I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten significant coverage.

I’ll get into it tonight and the logical outcomes of Obamacare start to kick in as Obama starts inserting himself into other Presidents’ biographies.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream from 6:05 pm to 10pm and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread. Also, please consider going to http://wsbradio.com to find out how you can help Amy Copeland.

If you are in the Atlanta area and can give blood, please click here right now to register for a spot at the blood donation drive.

Whether It’s Deb Fischer or Don Stenberg, It’s About Jon Bruning

I like Don Stenberg. He’s a friend. He’s been a great leader in Nebraska. I’d like to see him in the Senate. But over the past month, as Stenberg and Bruning have gone nuclear with each other, Deb Fischer has run up the middle and may very well win the Nebraska Primary today.

I’d gladly support her.

It seems that in the withering back and forth fight with Bruning, Stenberg has lost momentum. Sarah Palin came in and endorsed Deb Fischer. Several anti-earmark groups joined in. And she is in a prime position today to win.

The Nebraska race has always been about beating Jon Bruning. He got rich in office, has a volatile temper, and sure evolved into a conservative quickly when he wanted his next office. If it can’t be Stenberg, I hope it will be Fischer.

I don’t think Fischer will be as conservative as Stenberg, but given the pedigree of Nebraska Senators, she’ll be far better than either a Chuck Hagel or a Jon Brunning. And Fischer, unlike Bruning, would never, ever support Eric Holder.

May 6, 2012: The Day Obama Lost

If there is a day to finger for Barack Obama losing the Presidency in 2012, it will be Sunday, May 6, 2012.

On that day, Joe Biden* went on national television and proclaimed himself in favor of gay marriage. It started a media spiral for the President. Two days after Biden spoke, North Carolina voters voted by overwhelming margins to leave marriage alone. The next day, Barack Obama went on national television to devolve back to the position he held prior to running for President.

To a majority of Americans, Barack Obama’s devolution back to earlier years makes no difference. But this is a fifty-fifty nation. Every vote counts. And of those whose are concerned about this issue, at least 20 percent and maybe as high as 25 percent of people say it makes them less likely to vote for Barack Obama — that’s more than those who will be more likely to vote for Barack Obama (and who are probably going to vote for him anyway).

The most recent CBS News – New York Times poll suggests 67% of voters believe the economy is “fairly” or “very” bad and Barack Obama would rather talk about gay marriage and wars on women than the economy. This does not bode well for him.

I have long maintained that Mitt Romney has no prayer without a flailing economy. The public thinks it is flailing. Greece is about to cause a cataclysmic chain reaction. Barack Obama will need every vote he can get. He just took a sizable portion of votes off the table for himself.

Listen to this audio my radio producer put together from the past few weeks of news. The media and the White House would love to talk about anything and everything other than the economy. This is a sign that they all are in on the joke of what a bad economy we are in right now. The President’s team wants to ignore it. After years of accusing the GOP of focusing on cultural issues instead of other issues, the President and press are single minded on cultural issues.

And the one they’ve spent the most time on lately? In most polls it polls at majority support. But those are opinion polls. In actual polls (as in people voting), it loses every time. And all thanks to Joe Biden, Barack Obama, in a very close election, decided to come out on the side that loses every time.

*Okay, in fairness, we could arguably say August 23, 2008, was the day Obama lost his re-election. That’s the day he chose Biden to be veep and we all knew it was only a matter of time . . .

Morning Briefing for May 15, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 15, 2012

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

1. May 6, 2012: The Day Obama Lost

2. CBS/NYT: Romney 46, Obama 43 Among Registered Voters

3. On Fairness & Moral Cases

4. In Response to Obama Attack Ad, Romney to Tackle Economy & Entitlements

5. Spouse of WI Gubernatorial Recall Candidate Breaks Rules

———————————————————————-

1. May 6, 2012: The Day Obama Lost

If there is a day to finger for Barack Obama losing the Presidency in 2012, it will be Sunday, May 6, 2012.

On that day, Joe Biden* went on national television and proclaimed himself in favor of gay marriage. It started a media spiral for the President. Two days after Biden spoke, North Carolina voters voted by overwhelming margins to leave marriage alone. The next day, Barack Obama went on national television to devolve back to the position he held prior to running for President.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. CBS/NYT: Romney 46, Obama 43 Among Registered Voters

In a long election season, it’s never wise to get too high or too low over any one poll. Presidential elections are won at the state level, but statewide polling is fairly sporadic at this stage of the race, so we’re stuck reading national polls a lot. But the latest poll is bad news for President Obama.

We all know the major issues by now to look for with individual polls: some polls are adults, and are totally useless, because only registered voters can vote. Polls of likely voters, in turn, are vastly more accurate and less Democratic-biased than polls of registered voters, many of whom also don’t show up to vote. Most polls are also reported after weighting to achieve some guesstimate of the partisan breakdown of the general electorate among Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Even polls that don’t feature egregious hackery are an inexact science, because they rest on the pollster’s current assumptions about the D/R/I split and the ‘screen’ they use to decide who is a likely voter. If the shape of the electorate is not as projected, the poll will be wrong.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. On Fairness & Moral Cases

Another day, another socialist takes to the New York Times to denounce capitalism. With his criticism — he is a professional critic, which is a job no socialist society would really see value in except as an agenda of propaganda, but he thrives in the capitalist society he condemns — he premises it on some sort of morality. He mocks Christians for embracing capitalism with no understanding of Christianity or even a real understanding of capitalism.

But his critique is filled with the usual, and totally unoriginal leftist pablum about the evils of profit motive, etc. while ignoring arms length transactions, how the free market, unlike any other economic system, has elevated so many out of poverty, etc.

Along the way, we keep hearing something from these leftists, whether it be Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, or the Hollywood crowd is that the rich need to “give back” and “pay their fair share.”

They’re just as happy to quote a secular philosopher as they are the Bible. Elizabeth Warren famously said that the factory owner wants us to ignore the people who built the roads or ran the phone lines, etc. She, however, wants to ignore the factory owner’s idea, success, and hiring record — providing jobs to people to build his product.

But all of that misses the larger point.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. In Response to Obama Attack Ad, Romney to Tackle Economy & Entitlements

Obama has decided that he’d like to tussle with Romney in the economic playground this week, releasing an ad that has echoes of Gingrich’s SuperPAC spots but with even less factual basis. It’s cleverly named “Steel.”

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Spouse of WI Gubernatorial Recall Candidate Breaks Rules

Kris Barrett, the politically active spouse of Tom Barrett, current mayor of Milwaukee and the Democratic nominee running against Gov. Scott Walker, has been caught using her taxpayer funded e-mail account to lobby and campaign for Democratic candidates and causes. Mrs. Barrett is a public school teacher and last year she was employed by Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin’s largest school district. The district has two policies that prohibit employees from using any government resources, including e-mail addresses, for political purposes.

Please click here for the rest of the post.