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("A loving relationship between two people, entailing rights and responsibilities recognized by the state." No charge, Sean. - promoted by elwood)
I kind of like Sean Mahoney, personally. We've only talked a couple of brief times, but I've followed his career and the things he's done, and I think he's an okay guy. Of course, it takes a lot for me not to like someone because I appreciate most people. I wouldn't vote for him for Congress -- certainly not against Carol Shea-Porter -- but wouldn't mind seeing him on something, like, perhaps Portsmouth City Council someday. Maybe.
I did like his father a lot, who I would talk with frequently about business matters when I was in the NH State Senate. I forget exactly what specific issue it was that we first discussed, but I remember we disagreed rather heavily. But after that we teamed up frequently on some things, and had three or four lunches -- he paid, in those days I didn't have to fill out any forms about who took me to lunch. He was a pleasant fellow who was widely respected.
I've disagreed with Sean Mahoney on many of his views, which I find kind of poll-oriented in his effort to get elected to something. I mean, he has all this money in his bank account, but he probably feels a little unfulfilled at this point of his life, so he wants to get a new title. So, he's hired his pollsters, some staff, filed a few forms, put a lot of ads on TV and radio, and now he stands a chance to join the Washington Republican Club. That would be even better than owning a golf course for young up-and-coming millionaires.
The Seacoast Republican Women hosted a candidate forum last night in Portsmouth. The doubleheader began with the six GOP candidates for the 1st Congressional District seat, followed by 90 minutes with the six GOP U.S. Senatorial candidates. My observations and impressions follow.
General
Atmosphere: Large, enthusiastic audience. The moderator stressed the event was "educational and informational" in nature and discouraged confrontation. The candidates followed her orders. No fireworks.
Format: The questions were provided to candidates prior to the event, eliminating rude surprises. No questions from the audience. Included a "lightning round" featuring litmus test questions, limited to almost unanimous simple yes/no answers.
The candidates: The lesser known candidates (Congressional candidates Peter Bearse and Rick Parent; Senate candidates Dennis Lamare and Gerard Beloin) were more spontaneous, more thoughtful, less guarded, and less scripted. They, of course, have no chance to win.
(Bumped, because you know it drives the UL crazy. - promoted by Dean Barker)
It's UNH, but I'll take it. Our Carol is showing significant gains, and currently beating every credible challenger. She's ahead of Guinta by 5, ahead of Ashooh by 8, ahead of Mahoney by 9, and ahead of Bestani by 11.
But of course, the pollster can't help himself from punditry:
It's a dramatic change from April, when the poll showed Shea-Porter trailing every major Republican candidate.
"Carol Shea-Porter seems to have benefited from staying out of the limelight for the last several months," said Andy Smith of the UNH Survey Center.
That's completely wrong.
Carol's House work has been extremely active, and the false hit jobs run against her by her rivals and their media enablers have been non-stop in her district. What's been out of the limelight, mostly, is her actual campaigning, which is par for the course for her at this time of year. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what the numbers show when her campaign is in full gear.
Adding: What's so funny about the timing of this is that I literally have seven or eight different, and positive, items about CSP in my to-do box, and am so behind on them I was going to put them in a round-up tonight. But now I'm going to let these numbers sit for a while, and post the roundup tomorrow.
Two local newspapers recently carried reader commentary about Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, to which I responded with letters to the editor. I thought it would be useful to share these with readers of www.BlueHampshire.com in case similar issues are mentioned in newspapers elsewhere in the state.
TO THE PORTSMOUTH HERALD ABOUT PAUL HODES:
"In a recent letter to The Portsmouth Herald, a writer from Greenland criticized the position taken by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hodes in opposing New England offshore oil drilling. I'd like to offer a different point of view in favor of Hodes position, on which he is joined by Congressperson Carol Shea-Porter and Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
"It wasn't too long ago that a rich man wanted to build an oil refinery in New Hampshire's Seacoast. I remember it well, because I was in the Legislature at the time and saw the immense and intense efforts to make his plan a reality.
"Aristotle Onassis had a vast oil shipping fleet, and he wanted more sales in the United States market. He came up with a grand idea that potentially would include a tanker terminal at the Isles of Shoals, and a refinery at Durham Point. Pipelines would flow the oil to and from his refinery to nearby truck depots, and roads would be widened for his vast fleets that would then deliver his product north and south, east and west.
"Then-Governor Meldrim Thomson strongly supported the idea. He thought it was just great. So did many others, and I'm not being partisan in saying this because it's true -- so did many Republicans. The opposition primarily came from Democrats. Sometimes, there really is a partisan divide on business and environmental approaches.
This puts NH-01 Republican congressional candidate Bob Bestani further out than Carol Shea-Porter on Af-Pak, who herself is openly critical of the Obama Administration's strategy:
As in Vietnam, we tell ourselves we dare not leave even when it is clear we can not win. But, the time has now come for us to admit that the cost in terms of lives and treasure is no longer worth the effort.
Over 1,000 American soldiers have now died in Afghanistan and an additional 6,000 have been wounded. We may never know the cost in Afghanistan lives. In fiscal year 2011 Afghanistan is projected to cost $117 billion up from $105 billion in 2010. Between Afghanistan and Iraq the U.S. has already spent over $1 trillion at a time when our federal deficit has exceeded $14 trillion. The Afghan economy is now in ruins. It is hard to see what benefit we or the Afghan people have derived.
What it tells me is that Afghanistan is, ever more swiftly, moving outside of the realm of left-right, and opinions are shifting rapidly.
I still have some, probably naive, belief that the mission there still bears some resemblance to finding the guy who murdered 3,000 innocent Americans. But at the same time that belief is fueled chiefly by the regret I feel over W.'s second war that had nothing to do with 9/11 and which probably did permanent damage to the hunt for bin Laden. And regret is not a valid reason to stay in a war. So maybe it's time for me to take another look too.
Charlie Bass (temporarily out of hiding, to file for his run):
Repeal the health care bill,
Bob Bestani:
But repealing ObamaCare will take time and a massive political change in Washington. The Republican Party will need to win back the White House and take back both houses of Congress, with a substantial filibuster-proof margin in the Senate. Both of those are unlikely in the short and medium term. Let's not make a promise we cannot keep.
Charlie Bass:
"We should repeal the stimulus, and use the balance, which is quite substantial, to temporarily cut taxes on earned income, which will produce real jobs, quickly.
Bob Bestani:
Secondly, there is the promise to roll back of the stimulus package. No one has been more publicly critical of the stimulus package than this author. But there is little left of the stimulus package to roll back. By the time the next Congress is sworn in over 90% of the 2009 stimulus package will have been spent. There is precious little that can be repealed. That horse has left the barn.
Finally, there is the promise of tax cuts. Of course, everyone wants to see tax cuts. But, with massive budget deficits running at every level of government, this promise is nothing short of a lie.
Marc Ambinder writes perceptively about "the slow mainstreaming of wacky ideas. Call it the victory of the heckler's vetoers or attribute it to the dynamics of the way groups are formed, but more and more outre ideas are finding their way into politics these days."
His wacky idea du jour is the tea party-backed call to repeal the 17th Amendment which provides for the direct election of U.S. senators in lieu of having them selected by state legislatures. Supporters of repeal blame the amendment for creating excessive federal control by removing checks and balances previously available to the states to control Congress.
In a debate last week, the Republican CD-1 candidates were asked if they supported repeal. To their credit, each stated opposition to repeal -- "for now". But in follow-up interviews with Granite Grok, they stumbled all over themselves to lend credence to the idea of repeal and its supporters.
Frank Guinta: "There are pros and cons. We need to weigh this one very carefully." Rich Ashooh: "I'm not sure exactly what the answer is, whether it is full out repeal (or) a different kind of amendment..." Bob Bestani: "There needs to be a discussion about it."
As the campaign heats up and competition for the tea party votes intensifies, watch for more tea party dog whistles. And let's hear what Charlie "Their Agenda is Exactly the Same as Mine" Bass has to say about this one.
At least Senator Carson could claim that because she linked to Cline, who does not quote in full, she didn't know it was a Republican statement.
But Bob Bestani is being willfully misleading in his release, which links to FAUXHampshire (email, in part):
"Over the weekend at one of her town hall meetings, Carol Shea-Porter was taped saying that "if only we could send the men (in the U.S. Congress) home, we could pass the health care package."
I admit I am surprised. I thought Mr. Bestani was supposed to be the earnest economist Republican alternative, compared to the more partisan and cartoonish former mayor of Manchester.
But this latest release is unserious.
In other news, while the figures in the state GOP try to bring her down with misleading attacks, Carol Shea-Porter is helping many thousands of seniors by closing the prescription drug donut hole and keeping our men and women in uniform safe from toxic burn pits.
* Tuesday is an exciting day for BH for another reason as well. Stay tuned!
* Uh-oh, Charlie. In a move that seems absolutely appropriate, the Club for Growth, previously reported to be interested NH-Senate, is thinking about wading into the NH-02 race:
Connolly said the group could also consider endorsing in the 2nd District House race, which includes Republicans Charlie Bass and Jennifer Horn, and Democrats Ann McLane Kuster, John DeJoie and possibly Katrina Swett. "I think some candidates already reached out to us, and by the time the primary comes around we'll have spoken to them," Connolly said. He would not say which candidates.
I liked it a whole lot better when Bob Bestani stuck to his home base of economics (email release, in part)
The decision today of the Obama Administration and Attorney General Holder to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and four other men accused in the September 11 attacks in New York is a serious mistake and establishes a very dangerous president [sic]. These trials should have been tried in a military court as was originally planned.
...We will undoubtedly come to regret this decision. At the end of the process, when multi-millions of dollars are spent on scores of taxpayer funded trial lawyers who will tie this case up in knots and make a mockery of our judicial system, we will wish that these cases had been tried in military courts where they belong. How fitting it is that this announcement was made on Friday the 13th.
Bestani's misspelling of "precedent" is thought-provoking.
And those thoughts are: I can't believe how weak today's Republican party is. How little faith they have in bedrock American values like the rule of law and our judicial system.
One of the biggest lies, perhaps the biggest, that King George peddled in order to get his way on, well, everything, was to constantly refrain "9/11 changed everything."
Um, no, it didn't.
The only thing that changed was one political party using 9/11 to undercut basic American principles.
The news today that some of the people behind 9/11 will be facing justice in a court of law in New York City was met with joy be me.
The legal limbo that BushCo engaged in led to nothing except confusion and perversion.
Eight long years later, we are left without Osama bin Laden captured or killed. Instead we are left with a war that never had to be, and built on lies. An invasion not having to do with 9/11 that prematurely ended hundreds of thousands of lives.
Eight long years later, the words "America" and "torture" have become one.
Today's news from the Obama Administration felt, for the first time in a long time, as if we are slowly climbing out of the moral abyss that the Republican party threw our country into. A glimpse into the "great restoration of American values" which Howard Dean campaigned for back in the darkest days of the Bush years.
UPDATE: Bob Bestani responds - good for him for reaching out to us. Email reply in full below the fold...
Oh, dear. It looks like Plan B is not working out.
Republican Congressional candidate Robert Bestani, of Newmarket, raised $7,910 in the last three months.
...For context former Republican Congressional candidate John Stephen raised $8400 last quarter just to pay off campaign debt from last year.
The NRCC wanted Mayor Guinta, and that's what they got. Kathy:
Last week, The Washington Post described Mayor Frank Guinta's campaign as a "disappointment," an apt description. It is surprising that anyone even remembers that the mayor is in the race. There have been no rousing announcement rallies, no press releases issuing glowing reports on fundraising, no weekly lists of prominent endorsements. His few public outings have cemented his position in the far right wing of his party, a losing proposition in moderate New Hampshire.
What publicity he has received in the last two or three weeks has been unfavorable. It has focused on his presence at a private Manchester social club during an altercation. When running for Congress, having your name in the same story as the words "bar brawl" is a bad thing.
Bob Bestani will not go gently into that good night. Looks like the NRCC will have to make good on its new policy of pretending to be Rahmbo's 2006 D-Trip and endorse the Mayor pre-primary:
Dear Frank,
First let me welcome you to the race for the Republican nomination for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional. It can only help the party and the state to have a vigorous contest for the seat. As the old saying goes, "you are only as good as your competition forces you to be."
But now that the announcement hoopla has died down, I would like to make a suggestion in this public letter. I would like to propose that over the next few months we set up a regularly scheduled series of meetings at the various county GOP gatherings and other open public forums to discuss the leading issues that will be on the national agenda...
...I am sure you will agree with me that we owe it to the New Hampshire electorate to discuss these issues openly and in depth. It would be a real pity if this campaign ended up like so many in the past, being just about superficial platitudes and sound bites. Let's help educate the electorate on the issues and force our Democratic opponent to do the same. We will all be far better off for it.
