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Fergus Cullen: Peddling More Baloney

by: Chaz Proulx

Fri Sep 14, 2007 at 12:30:23 PM EDT
Republican party chair, Fergus Cullen has posted another "comments off" press release  (at NH INSIDER)  so I'll respond wherever I can.

Fergus' Republican wordprocessor defaults to phrases like left wing extremists, tax and spenders and the usual thread bare Republican talking points. Where are the new ideas?

Today Mr. Cullen has attacked Jean Shaheen on her supposed record, but he includes the same talking point that he is trying very hard to sell. You know, the Democratic party has been taken over by extremists.

Here's the quote: The extreme left wing has taken over the New Hampshire Democratic party. Pragmatic centrists like Jim Craig are being purged in a party now dominated by left-wing extremists like Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.

My response. This is just baloney. During last years' election I got to know just about everyone in the Democratic party, both "new"
and "establishment" Dems.  I also became good friends with Jim Craig by the way.  I came away convinced that ideologically Democrates are on the same page across New Hampshire. There is NO rift on that one.  I started preaching that to coastal Democrats as a revelation.

Honestly, there really aren't major ideological differences. The substantial differences are simply georgraphical differences--the political Cultures of say Manchester and Portsmouth are different, but those are being sorted out and we learned last year that we work very well together. That's been a personal project of mine and we've come a long way.

If anything Carol Shea Porter and other "newcomers" have preserved the best of Democratic values that got a little lost a ways back. Progressives in NH always stress fiscal responsibility. And its not just words, Representative Shea-Porter has adheared strictly to a pay-go policy in Congress. I don't speak for her, but that is public record.

Fergus, I guess you didn't read my column on pragmatic progressives. Follow this link if you want to see what you are up against. http://www.nhinsider...

So keep firing away with the old ideas and we'll keep working on solutions to the mess the Republican Party has gotten us into.
Chaz Proulx :: Fergus Cullen: Peddling More Baloney
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Fergus Cullen: Peddling More Baloney | 10 comments
Nanny Cullen also claims (0.00 / 0)
that Shaheen was an unsuccessful Governor because she didn't address school funding.

The GOP had full control of the legislature and executive branch for six years after Claremont, between Merrill and Benson, and they did nothing except stall. Shaheen faced a Republican legislature that wanted to undermine her.

We finally threw the rascals out in 2006. With Democratic majorities in the House, Senate, and Council we finally have the authority that the GOP failed to use for six years.

The NHDP is blessed (0.00 / 0)
The NHDP is blessed to have Fergus Cullen as the Republican Party chair.  He has really bad political skills. And I'm not saying that just to take a partisan swipe at the guy.  We are in a state where independent voters are dominant.  And you've got the Republican Party chair saying that Jeanne Shaheen is a pragmatic centrist.  Double Duh. 


"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt   [I'm an advisor to the NHDP Coordinated Campaign]
Good Point. . . . (0.00 / 0)
Fergie weaned his political skills as a flack for Gov. Rowland in Connecticut, who wound up doing time for political corruption and assorted felonies.  Guess he didn't learn much!
Same Old Stuff (0.00 / 0)
Repubs love the whole "guilt by assocation" thing and "extremist" label these days. The vast majority of voters couldn't care less, and make their voting decisions more on a candidates' likeability and stances on important issues. The Republicans can't really attack on issues since we're squarely in the mainstream here in NH.

We definitely are lucky the NHGOP is so out of touch and inept.

It's the GOP (0.00 / 0)
that's extremist. Wars based on lies costing billions a day. Suspension of habeas corpus, ID cards with computer chips, protecting fetuses (but not their mothers) while letting children die (non support of SCHIP, support of poverty), billions, if not trillions in no-bid contacts to offshore conglomerates like Halliburton...

Sometimes I think it's we Dems who don't point out how frighteningly extreme to the right the GOP has become under the influence of CheneyBushRove.

[ Parent ]
The thing to keep in mind is (0.00 / 0)
the opposite of right is wrong.  That's the reality Republicans don't want to confront--that the thing they fear most of all, being wrong, has happened on their watch.  And their leader refuses to take the blame.

Indeed, he's fixin' to pass the buck.

Poor Fergus (4.00 / 1)
I feel sorry for the guy. No matter how many times he repeats those silly talking points the people of NH just aren't buying that stuff anymore.  Poor guy. LOL.

NHGOP: Too wrong for too long.

[ Parent ]
Bush, Sununu, Gregg (0.00 / 0)
are all daddy's boys. They've never had to take consequences for any of their actions. I see Bush give his at best simian like speeches and wonder: This is a Yale graduate.

He got their by the grace of the immorality of his ancestors. At least as far back as Prescott and his support of the Third Reich, the Bushes have been, well, not much different than they are today. And Judd had daddy Hugh and John E has daddy John whatever. I'm so sick of daddy's boys. It's unhealthy to have people who never had to grow up "leading" a country.

[ Parent ]
Daddy may well be at fault, (0.00 / 0)
but I'm more inclined to think it was a bad, rather than a good father/son relationship.  A good parent is authoritative, but not authoritarian.  The difference might be expressed as the difference between "do this because it will be good for you" and "do this because I say so."

I was struck by the information in a recent profile of Giulliani that not only was his father a mafia-connected fellow who went to prison for a time, but he sent his little son out into a partisan neighborhood in an outfit that led to him getting beaten up.  Fathers denigrating their sons seems not to be a good predicate for developing a sense of personal responsibility.

Though, taking credit for things that others have achieved is another matter.

[ Parent ]
Helping out Tom Rath (0.00 / 0)
From today's UL:

Rath said Shaheen is "a formidable candidate and a good person, but there will be things that she has to explain," including, he said, her inability to solve the state's school funding crisis as governor. Shaheen advocated a 2.5 percent sales tax for education funding soon after taking the oath for her third term in 2001. Her plan was rejected by lawmakers.

Here's the explanation, Tom: in 2001, the New Hampshire Legislature was still completely controlled by Roadblock Republicans.

Fergus Cullen: Peddling More Baloney | 10 comments
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