Erick Erickson's Blog, page 95
November 3, 2011
The Horserace for November 3, 2011
I had several talks with a number of highly regarded political analysts, pollsters, and others this past week. There was a common thread in all the conversations that surprised me. They said this was not a race between Romney vs. Perry or Romney vs. Cain. They said this is a race between Rick Perry and Herman Cain, with Newt Gingrich as a wild card.
Now, all this was before the Cain story really got going. That certainly changes things a bit. I think some more settling is going to happen in Mitt Romney's favor and he may finally break through the 25% ceiling in national polls.
Herman Cain's attack on Rick Perry is going to turn off people toward Perry. Cain's campaign seems to have decided that if Cain goes down, he's going to take out everybody not named Romney as well.
This is an ugly, sordid mess. I'll get into the implications and who could benefit in today's horserace.
Michele Bachmann
Ed Rollins, Bachmann's former campaign manager, says the congresswoman is out of money and out of ideas. I agree. She has not changed her message or rebranded herself. Her time is up.
Herman Cain
Herman Cain will not be the nominee now. His campaign has so bungled this disaster I find it hard to see him recovering. If he is somehow able to, he'll be a much stronger nominee.
But given his campaign's ridiculous attack on Rick Perry and Mark Block saying definitely the campaign would not support letting the women speak, the campaign has done nothing but let this wound fester. The campaign is going to get gangrene from it.
And the women will eventually speak one way or another. When that happens we'll have moved from blame to merit. Cain, already behind with women, is doing himself no favors.
Newt Gingrich
Newt was already going after Herman's 999 plan pretty aggressively. They'll do their Lincoln-Douglas debate in Texas. Everyone will take a second look at Newt. In fact, in my mind Newt Gingrich stands the best chance of benefiting from Herman's implosion.
There's a bit of irony here in that the man on his third wife could benefit from the guy who taken out by a sexual harassment scandal, but hey, this is America!
The big question though is if Newt has the capital to survive. Money will be a problem.
Jon Huntsman
Who?
Ron Paul
Ron Paul will not be the nominee.
Rick Perry
Herman Cain purposefully decided to engage in a murder-suicide with the Perry campaign. I have no doubt Cain really believes Curt Anderson is to blame, but that doesn't mean Anderson really is to blame.
Cain burned up a lot of good will in blaming Perry, but it still hurts Perry. There will now be Cain supporters who, when Cain's campaign collapses, will not go to Perry. They'll go Gingrich or Romney.
Is it fatal to Perry? He has too much money, as do the Super PAC's helping him, for it to be fatal. But — and this is a big but — Perry only has a limited window to reassure voters of both his drive and, more importantly, his competence. He'll need to pull off some good debate performances.
At this point, we've gone from Perry just not having to lose a debate to Perry really needing a solid debate win, even if graded on a curve.
As to the opening statement that this is a Cain v. Perry race, consider that only Cain and Perry right now have the money to compete with Romney. Newt may. He is a wild card right now. But cash on hand goes to Cain and Perry. With Cain going after Perry with this scandal chasing Cain, it hurts them both. If the Perry camp can get their collective mind around what's happening quickly, they can right the ship and gain some momentum headed into tho holidays. But, they're going to have to start spending some big money, which they are already doing.
Mitt Romney
Contrast Herman Cain's handling of this business with Mitt Romney's. Silence. No reason to do anything when Herman Cain is busy killing himself and taking out Rick Perry with him.
75% of the Republican Primary wants someone other than Romney and at this rate Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee. That makes him a weaker general election candidate going into it and combined with all his flip-flops kind of defeats the idea that this is the Republicans' race to lose.
Cain cannot now be the nominee. But the genius of Cain staying in the race bleeding from a sexual harassment scandal is that, given the Cain camp's actions, it keeps consolidation from happening behind a strong anti-Romney candidate.
The odds of Romney being the nominee grow daily. If, however, this Cain business resolves itself quickly, Romney might see the race consolidate against him.
Rick Santorum
Santorum will not be the nominee.
A Couple of Problems With Blaming Curt Anderson
First, you should know that yesterday, well before the blame game started, a buddy of mine called me and said he was hearing from people close to Cain that they thought Curt Anderson was behind this.
That was preceded and followed by calls from several reporters who'd seen my piece saying it was probably another campaign's opposition research. The reporters were telling me they are hearing this leak happened from someone within the National Restaurant Association, not from a campaign. There was apparently a meeting of the board, referenced by the Politico, about throwing its support behind Herman. A few days after that meeting, the story got to the Politico — at least that's the story I'm hearing.
The problem with blaming Anderson is two fold. First, he's worked for Cain, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry. He's a professional campaign consultant. Like him or hate him, he's not going to directly leak something like this or be the source of it, particularly if he knows Herman Cain knows Anderson knows because Cain told him. When you're that much of a professional politico, you at least have to have some modicum of decent reputation for the big guys to want to hire you.
But the larger problem comes from our own Moe Lane on twitter. He notes, "Anderson denying TO POLITICO that he leaked *to* Politico *does* clear him. Unless Politico *wants* to self-destruct. If Politico prints a denial that they KNOW is a lie, they're in deep trouble when that gets out."Regardless of the editorial standards of the Politico, they most likely would not first make an inquiry to Curt Anderson and then run that inquiry by Curt Anderson as a denial if Curt Anderson were the source.
I realize the Cain camp's emotions are raw right now and they are angry and they want to beat someone up. But the optics of beating up Perry aren't good for Cain who, in 2008 endorsed Romney, whose campaign manager has ties to Romney, and who has spent the better part of this campaign making sure everyone knows he'd never support Rick Perry if Rick Perry were the nominee and while everyone else was defending Perry about that magical, mythical rock no one can seem to get a picture of was out beating Perry up about that rock.
In addition to raising additional questions about the inconsistency of his statements, the time he had to have known this was coming out, etc., it makes Cain look as petty and ridiculous as the Politico running something so wholly unsubstantiated. It also keeps the story alive, going in new directions, and does nothing to begin reeling in the story. This is precisely how you do not do damage control.
The problem, of course, is that as this has gone on and the Cain camp has resorted to lashing out at Rick Perry, it is more evident that there is no there there with regards to Curt Anderson, but that there was a there there with the Politico story.
And it additionally does not help Herman Cain that his campaign manager went on Fox News and said the campaign would not agree or support the women involved being released from their non-disclosure agreements. The only way for this story to start going away is to let the women speak and judge on the merits what they claim was harassment.
Mark Block saying, in effect, "no chance," not only affirms the "victim" status of the women in the mind of the media, it takes the story to a new level and broadens the scope of the media inquiry.
The Herman Cain Campaign Is Stuck on Stupid
If I were allowed to use the word retarded these days, I'd use it to describe the Herman Cain campaign these days. But it is another word we've axed on the list for some legitimate reasons. Truth be told, I sometimes still use it and I think it might fit here.
Nonetheless, I'll go with stupid.
The Cain Campaign has made it official. It believes the Rick Perry campaign is behind the allegations about the women. This is stupid, if not retarded, for a number of reasons, chief among them is that if the Cain campaign believes Curt Anderson is responsible (something Anderson denies even to the Politico, which would give the Politico reason to out him if it were him, and they have not done so), then the Cain campaign has known about these accusations since the campaign started and still bungled the response.
Bizarrely, by the end of the day, the Cain camp was not only blaming Rick Perry, but sources close to Cain were claiming the Democratic Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, relayed the story to the Perry campaign, though somehow Curt Anderson is also involved. Huh?
More troubling, the Cain Campaign statement was sent out by its press secretary who himself has sexual harassment issues while at the Pentagon. Thus far, all we know about that is he bizarrely accused a female reporter of sexually harassing him.
Even more troubling, in blaming the Perry campaign with no more evidence than those blaming Romney have (several National Restaurant Association current or former executives are Romney supporters), the Cain campaign has managed to take a unified front in defense of him, divide it up, and come off looking like he'd be perfectly okay with Mitt Romney as the nominee so long as no one else but him could be the alternative.
A friend of mine tells me the Cain campaign thinks that so many have gone out on a limb defending Cain, claiming it was the Democrats, that now to save their own credibility these people will have to turn on Rick Perry and finish him off. I don't see that actually happens. But think about the number of people who rushed to his defense, claimed only the Democrats would do such a thing, and now have Herman Cain claiming Rick Perry did it. Talk about putting these people in an awkward position.
As I have said, the Politico went to Cain with a nothingburger of a story and only ran it after Cain reacted badly to it. They knew by his reaction they had something, though they did not really know what they had. We know more now. We know the Politico went to Cain with a muddied story the campaign could not even respond to.
But it also seems clear the Cain campaign had no more evidence to go after Rick Perry than the Politico had in forming its story.
There is also the most troubling bit of the whole story. If we believe Herman Cain — that it was Curt Anderson who is now with Perry and that Herman Cain told Curt Anderson about it in 2003 — then we are left with two great puzzles, both of which are vastly more destructive to the Cain campaign than the original story.
First, how is it that the Herman Cain campaign knew this was coming since at least 2003 and had no plan in place to deal with it.
Second, in Herman Cain's own words, Cain told Curt Anderson about it and said there was one woman who claimed Cain harassed her and it was dismissed. If that is so, why are we now on the third woman?
The Cain campaign seems stuck on stupid, should never have engaged in the blame game when everyone was defending him, and now is not only going to further harm his own credibility, but will potentially hurt the credibility of a lot of other good people when the women start speaking.
And they will start speaking.
Morning Briefing for November 3, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 3, 2011
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Grow the RedState radio empire. Please support Ben Howe today.
2. The Herman Cain Campaign Is Stuck on Stupid
3. The Rick Perry Statement on Herman Cain
4. Why It Doesn't Matter Who Leaked The Cain Sex Scandal
5. Frank Lautenberg/Rush Holt paid out race-tinged hush money?
———————————————————————-
1. Grow the RedState radio empire. Please support Ben Howe today.
Ben Howe. You may know him from such RedState posts as Attacking Attack Watch's Attack on my Attack on the Auto Bailouts and Happy Birthday President Obama!
What you may not know though is that he's in the running to have his own radio show on WBT in Charlotte. Please consider going to the WBT website today and clicking the "Like" button (this isn't a Facebook thing) on that webpage toward the bottom to vote for Ben Howe in the WBT's Next Talker event.
Ben's a good guy. I've met him a couple of times. The man can tell a story and I think he'd be great on radio.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. The Herman Cain Campaign Is Stuck on Stupid
If I were allowed to use the word retarded these days, I'd use it to describe the Herman Cain campaign these days. But it is another word we've axed on the list for some legitimate reasons. Truth be told, I sometimes still use it and I think it might fit here.
Nonetheless, I'll go with stupid.
The Cain Campaign has made it official. It believes the Rick Perry campaign is behind the allegations about the women. This is stupid, if not retarded, for a number of reasons, chief among them is that if the Cain campaign believes Curt Anderson is responsible (something Anderson denies even to the Politico, which would give the Politico reason to out him if it were him, and they have not done so), then the Cain campaign has known about these accusations since the campaign started and still bungled the response.
Bizarrely, by the end of the day, the Cain camp was not only blaming Rick Perry, but sources close to Cain were claiming the Democratic Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, relayed the story to the Perry campaign, though somehow Curt Anderson is also involved. Huh?
More troubling, the Cain Campaign statement was sent out by its press secretary who himself has sexual harassment issues while at the Pentagon. Thus far, all we know about that is he bizarrely accused a female reporter of sexually harassing him.
Even more troubling, in blaming the Perry campaign with no more evidence than those blaming Romney have (several National Restaurant Association current or former executives are Romney supporters), the Cain campaign has managed to take a unified front in defense of him, divide it up, and come off looking like he'd be perfectly okay with Mitt Romney as the nominee so long as no one else but him could be the alternative.
A friend of mine tells me the Cain campaign thinks that so many have gone out on a limb defending Cain, claiming it was the Democrats, that now to save their own credibility these people will have to turn on Rick Perry and finish him off. I don't see that actually happens. But think about the number of people who rushed to his defense, claimed only the Democrats would do such a thing, and now have Herman Cain claiming Rick Perry did it. Talk about putting these people in an awkward position.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. The Rick Perry Statement on Herman Cain
It is here. Just interviewed him.
More later with video.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Why It Doesn't Matter Who Leaked The Cain Sex Scandal
Sure it's fun trying to figure this out, but in the end it really doesn't matter because Herman Cain has been accused of some variety of sexual harassment by at least three former employees. And unless we're going to play the part of Lanny Davis and James Carville in 1996, Herman Cain owes everyone some answers.
For the record, despite the pathetic mewling by Cain and his campaign manager Mark Block blaming the Perry camp for pointing Politico towards the Cain sex scandal story, I don't see anything there more substantive than some enmity Cain obviously holds for Perry. I say enmity because of his egregious pile-on of the nothingburger "N*****head Rock" story and his statement that he would not support a Perry candidacy. Personally, I think the preponderance of evidence points to Romney.
Having said that, I don't care. Whomever pointed this story out to Politico did the GOP a great service. I can't imagine what the landscape would look like if Cain had won several primaries, or Heaven forfend, the nomination and then had this drop.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. Frank Lautenberg/Rush Holt paid out race-tinged hush money?
I believe that the word that both the senior Democratic Senator from NJ, and the Democratic Congressman from NJ-12, would insist on seeing here would be allegedly. As in, allegedly former canvass worker Christopher Nastuk was told that it would be, ah, "demographically undesirable" to use African-American canvassers in Holt's lily-white district. Or, allegedly the minority canvassers that Nastuk did hire were fired anyway "and replaced by white canvassers whose names were provided by e-mail in a text document titled "nobrolists" — which Nastuk said he took to mean "no bro-thers," in a disparaging slang." Not to mention, allegedly Nastuk got fired after raising a stink about this. And, finally, allegedly Nastuk and four other plaintiffs took this to court and got a 40K settlement out of Lautenberg and Holt.
November 2, 2011
This Actually Makes the Cain Campaign Look Worse
We have the response from the Cain campaign. It's all Rick Perry's fault. Or rather, it is Rick Perry's consultant Curt Anderson who is to blame.
And Chris Wilson, who says he knows about it because of his time at the National Restaurant Association, works for a Perry Super PAC.
Curt Anderson was Herman Cain's strategist when he ran for the Senate.
So let's get this straight.
Herman Cain has at least ten days notice from the Politico. Curt Anderson was only hired by Perry in the last week, i.e. after the Politico had the story.
He also knows his former strategist was a Romney guy in 2008 and now is definitely not on Team Cain for 2012.
He also knows that Anderson knows about this stuff.
And he still can't come up with a measurable response when the story finally comes out?
Even more damaging, I think, is when people tie it all together. Herman Cain's consultant from 2004 uncovered it in 2004 and Cain launched a Presidential bid in 2011 without coming up with a damage control plan on a major issue that could destroy his campaign?
(Never mind that Herman Cain says he only told Curt Anderson about one woman)
And now there is a third woman?!?
What. The. Hell.
UPDATE:
In response to Cain calling him the source of the story, Curt Anderson made this statement:
"I've known Herman Cain for about 7 years. I was one of several consultants on his Senate race in 2004 and was proud to help him. I'd never heard any of these allegations until I read them in Politico, nor does anything I read in the press change my opinion that Herman is an upstanding man and a gentleman. I have great respect for Herman and his character and I would never speak ill of him, on the record or off the record. That's true today and it's not going to change."
Regarding Herman Cain: It's Not Racism. It's Opposition Research.
I have had fun with it too. I think it is hilarious that the same day the Politico's Roger Simon claims being racist gives you an advantage within the GOP, the Politico does a hit job on the black Republican running for office. It is kind of humorous.
I know the left accuses the right of racism at the drop of a hat, but I think we should resist actually buying into the Politico hit job being racist. Race has nothing to do with it. Opposition research does.
Below is all informed speculation on my part. I could be off base. But re-reading everything so far, looking at the timeline, and drawing on my past experience as a lawyer doing sexual harassment cases, I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened and what the ramifications are.
The short answer is that this is an opposition research hit by another Republican candidate against Herman Cain, it is not fatal in and of itself, but the Cain response will probably make for self-destruction. And there is one big question — even if this is a nothingburger, which I suspect it is for reasons I'll go into, can Herman Cain survive a crying victim of sexual harassment on television? Probably not well.
The Facts Behind the Story
On Monday, Ken Vogel of the Politico told Wolf Blitzer that about ten days prior to that interview the Politico approached Herman Cain and inquired about the sexual harassment. He said Cain had ten days.
Ten days? Why, that would be a few days after the CNN debate in Nevada where everyone piled on Herman Cain trying to take him out. And it failed. Cain weathered the storm well, even the devastating take down by Mitt Romney about Nevadans paying a bushel of taxes.
So the opposition does not take out Cain and the post debate polling shows Cain not just in the lead, but locking in a lead due to high likability.
Within days, someone leaks a sexual harassment story to the Politico.
Now, a word about the Politico. The Politico is a hack organization. The paper would much rather be first than right. They can always correct later. From John Edwards dropping out of the race in 2008 when he did not to Hillary Clinton not doing well in Pennsylvania despite the Politico's polling showing otherwise to whether John McCain is senile, the Politico is a merry band of largely Democrat leaning reporters who are spoon fed hit pieces. See also the Politico reporting Fred Thompson would drop out in Iowa in 2008. The Politico's goal is traffic to its website, not accuracy.
So, here's what I'm guessing happened. A Republican opponent to Herman Cain fed the Politico a story. Pay attention here. The Politico approached Herman Cain with nothing to go on. Herman Cain's reaction to their inquiry convinced them there was something.
That's why the Politico approached Cain ten days ago. The Politico never gives someone ten days when they want to do a hit job. But they had nothing until they got Herman Cain's reaction and only then they started digging. It took ten days to get everything together and run the story — timed for a Sunday night so they could ride the story a full week if possible, or longer. Again: the Politico is all about traffic, not accuracy.
What Happened?
This is all speculation on my part and I readily admit I could be completely wrong. Do not stop after reading this section, but go to the "Wild Card" heading because there is a huge, huge caveat to all of this. But if we assume that no one is lying, we have this situation:
Herman Cain really could not remember anything about an eleven year old incident.
The Chairman of the Board at the time and other senior board members had no knowledge of it.
Several senior executives had no knowledge of it.
The Director of Human Resources had no knowledge of it.
We have a lot of people who have no knowledge of the sexual harassment, but we also have two documented cases of sexual harassment. How is that possible?
Remember — this is 1999. Bill Clinton has just been impeached over sexual harassment related issues and lying about it. The left that fell in line and pretended it didn't matter was in a redemptive kick taking any and all allegations of sexual harassment seriously to repent.
Herman Cain is the CEO of one of the top 25 trade associations in Washington, D.C.
Had he sexually harassed someone, the victim would stand to make a killing.
And yet, despite the climate that existed in 1999, the Human Resources Director of the National Restaurant Association does not even recall investigating.
So what happened? Again, it is all informed speculation on my part, but what I think happened is that Herman Cain did, in fact, pass the buck to the association's counsel because he was conflicted out. The counsel looked into it, decided it was a nothing burger, decided a settlement was the cost of doing business, and didn't even run it up the flag pole. The association's counsel with another executive or two would have had the power to do that. They probably gave Herman Cain an executive summary of what happened and over eleven years it faded from memory.
The lawyer and executives who handled it deemed it so insignificant that Human Resources was not called in and the matter was disposed of. Eleven years later everybody forgot about it except a handful of people, including someone who was on the Board of Directors and heard the rumors, backed another Republican in the 2012 race, and decided it could be a useful hammer to use against Herman Cain if needed. So that person told their preferred candidate and, when Herman rose to glory and couldn't get taken out in mid-October's CNN debate, that campaign leaked it to the Politico.
Because eleven years had passed, people's memories were fuzzy and Herman has such an upstart campaign the Politico could run the story, sensationalize the hell out of the Cain campaign's flat footed response, and get huge traffic to their website.
And that flat-footed response? It was due to a rather insignificant matter eleven years ago that few people even remembered. The change in Cain's story from no settlement to there being a settlement? He no doubt called the general counsel of the association, who had worked for Cain back in 1999, and had his memory refreshed.
The settlement? $35,000.00.
When you file sexual harassment against the head of one of the top 25 trade associations in Washington the year after Bill Clinton is impeached for sexual harassment related lies, you're going to get more than $35,000.00 if you have a real claim, even if that is your entire year's salary.
The Wild Card
Here's the wild card.
There are two complaints. My guess is we know about the one Cain described where he said the woman was as high as his wife and did his hand in such a way under his chin.
But there is also the lady who claims he made sexual advances in a hotel room.
There are still lots of facts we don't know. More certain, how will Cain handle a crying victim on television giving her side of the story. The media will take the victim much more seriously than they take the alleged victimizer. Remember, in the news business today, news coverage can best be viewed not as left v. right, but victim vs. victimizer. The media loves a sympathetic victim.
More troubling is this by Chris Wilson. I know and respect Chris Wilson. He is not easily dismissed. Note though that Hot Air points out he works with a pro-Perry super PAC.
Interviewed today on KTOK's Mullins in the Morning, Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. "I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up."
Wilson described the woman as a low level staffer who was maybe two years out of college. "This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it," he continued. "It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left—everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up."
UPDATE at 4:20 p.m. ET: Now there is a third woman.
The Cain Response
The Cain response is going to destroy his campaign if they don't act quick. There are reports out today that Cain refused questions, asking the media if it understands the word "no." That's not exactly something to say when the issue is sexual harassment and no meaning no. More troubling, his staff began pushing reporters.
Also, J.D. Gordon calling into Geraldo on Sunday night kept the story going in a bad direction a lot longer. Virtually every news story that came out Monday started with Gordon refusing to deny there was anything there. That hurt.
If the crying victim has a credible story, Cain's camp is going to have to be on its best A game. And there's going to be some serious behind the scenes undermining of Herman Cain within the GOP.
Remember, the establishment already has its preferred candidate. They want this race wrapped up ASAP. It's time to settle in the minds of the powers that be. With polling suggesting a Cain implosion just might help begin the shift toward settling for Romney, expect Cain to get little help from within the GOP establishment on this.
This is a make or break time for Herman Cain. It probably won't take him out unless the crying victim on television seems very credible, but it will slowly bleed his campaign if they don't handle it well.
Remember again please, Herman Cain had ten days to get in gear and prepare a response. He did not do it. Regardless of the facts or merit of the case, that's a problem.
Morning Briefing for November 2, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 2, 2011
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. FBI arrests 8 in Florida for absentee ballot fraud
2. While Left Tells Assaulted Women Hush Up, SC Sheriff Empowers Saying 'Ladies, Arm Yourselves'
3. Republicans Must Oppose Reid's Minibus Bill
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1. FBI arrests 8 in Florida for absentee ballot fraud
I have been writing up a storm about absentee ballot fraud in various places around the country. Today, the FBI arrested eight people in Florida who appear to have committed some pretty severe fraud in a 2010 School Board election in Madison,. The violations are pretty straight-forward, but also pretty brazen.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. While Left Tells Assaulted Women Hush Up, SC Sheriff Empowers Saying 'Ladies, Arm Yourselves'
The Sheriff of Spartanburg County in South Carolina gave a news conference yesterday wherein he offered reason number 7,283 why I am a Conservative. You see, while the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement is making those pesky women who've been sexually assaulted and raped 'hush up'(they aren't good for The Cause ™), Sheriff Chuck Wright is walking the talk of true empowerment by encouraging women to arm themselves to prevent being violently assaulted.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. Republicans Must Oppose Reid's Minibus Bill
Last week, we noted that Harry Reid, with the help of Republican leadership, is attempting to come late to the 2012 budget game and commandeer the entire process through a series of 'minibus' bills. They are using House-passed appropriations bills as vehicles to tack on at least two additional disparate spending bills. Such a maneuver will allow the Senate to force a conference committee vote on spending measures and policies that the House never amended. Although the topline discretionary spending figure is already set, Reid is wagering that his fast track minibus strategy will allow him to override House-passed policies, while inserting his own policies into the bills. Thus far, he has been successful.
November 1, 2011
Welcome to the Family, Cathy Taylor
As some of you know, RedState is owed by Eagle Publishing, Inc. One of our sister publications within the Eagle Publishing family is Human Events, Ronald Reagan's favorite newspaper.
Today Eagle Publishing, Inc. announced that Cathy Taylor is set to be the new print and digital editor of Human Events.
From the press release:
Ms. Taylor has served as the Orange County Register's Opinion and Commentary Editor since 1996. In addition, she has also been a member of the Register's senior leadership and executive teams. Previously, Taylor had a distinguished career as a business reporter, columnist, and editor with the Register. She worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal before joining the Register. Ms. Taylor holds degrees in journalism and political science from USC where, as Editor of The Daily Trojan, she got an early start on her career in journalism.
Noting the outside-Washington choice, Guerriero commented, "Ours are national publications. They aren't written just for Capitol Hill staffers or political pundits. Our readers across America want conservative news and commentary on events both in and outside Washington. Of course we have many influential Capitol Hill readers, too—Human Events is read by leading congressmen, senators, and their staffers—but they read Human Events to stay in touch with genuine, unvarnished conservative sentiment from across the country."
In a day and age when the Washington conservative movement has bunkered down inside the beltway with recirculated hands, young and old, filling various positions within the movement, I am personally really proud of Eagle Publishing, Inc. for going not just outside the beltway, but to the other coast, to find Cathy.
Welcome aboard.
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