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Just because this lousy "deal" on the American people is likely inevitable does not mean we should sugar coat the failure of message and strategy that preceded it and caused it to happen in the first place.
Nor should we be under any illusion on how the other side views our president now as a result:
Kelly Ayotte: The reported account of her tension with Gov. Sununu written up by a half-time blogger missed the bigger story about what really happened between Ayotte and Sununu. That would be "the phone call" between the two when, as one Republican described it, "Ayotte rolled like Obama" and Paul Young got dropped.
The red team understands they can hold the other 98% hostage to get what the 2% want.
There is no doubt in my mind that electoral realities will cause the Bush (and now Obama) tax giveaways to the richest to extend past 2012. I don't know what we can do at this point to stop that massive and ongoing theft from the commonweal.
But it's the least we can do to push the president in the other direction to make this bad deal a little less bad. There is still time to save Social Security.
For some reason, though, I see 83 items in Google News about Ayotte, who will be a senator next month, and 528 items about O'Donnell, who will not. Why is this? "Lazy assignment editors" is a good temporary answer, but there's got to be something else, right?
John Gregg, Valley News, on the "deal":
The office of U.S. Sen.-elect Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., which has refused to answer questions from the Valley News for two months, again did not respond to a request for comment. Ayotte raised more than $1 million from corporate and Republican leadership PACs this fall and ran in support of the cuts for taxpayers earning more than $250,000 a year.
This is kind of unfair to Weigel, who is making a point about how the lazy nat'l tradmed are attracted to O'Donnell with the same linkbait fervor as that of Facebook Governor Palin.
But Ayotte was the wrong example to use. She was impossible to pin down during the campaign with her occasional cardboard platitudes, and she's basically become a ghost post-election.
Of course, when Joe Miller didn't immediately glorify a Palin POTUS run he was attacked by the first dude, so I expect that despite Palin's election eve snub of Ayotte, one of the few high-profile candidate endorsements that worked out for her, the reverse will not be tolerated.
The earmark ban supported by New Hampshire's newly elected Republican congressional members would eliminate $156 million in federal funding for New Hampshire projects. The funding is included in 69 earmarks contained in current drafts of congressional spending bills.
New Hampshire projects benefiting from the earmarks include the Dover Teen Center and its programs for at-risk teenagers ($240,000), the University of New Hampshire's "Inclusive Education Initiative" for students with autism and related disabilities ($500,000) and the New Hampshire Food Bank ($1,250,000).
It is unclear whether any appropriations bills will be passed during the current lame-duck session of Congress. If, as expected, Congress passes a continuing resolution rather than an appropriations bill, no earmark spending would be approved. And it will be much harder for organizations to renew their earmark requests next session.
New Hampshire's newly elected incoming members of Congress -- Kelly Ayotte, Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass -- have all said they oppose earmarks.
[Sen. Jeanne] Shaheen said smaller states like New Hampshire are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to the federal funding formulas used to distribute tax dollars. "Congressionally directed spending is one way to level the playing field," Shaheen said. "It allows us to make a case for worthwhile projects like enhancing the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, expanding the New Hampshire Food Bank, and helping our local police departments purchase the equipment they need."
The American people speak to Frank, Charlie, and Kelly, according to a new PPP poll:
Just 28% of Republican respondents said that new anti-reform members should take their federal benefits, while a whopping 58% said they shouldn't. Among independents -- who voted for the GOP in big numbers on Nov. 2 -- 56% say politicians who made health care repeal a cornerstone of their campaigns should deny themselves their government benefits. Only 27% said they should take them.
...Overall, the poll shows the electorate is not interested in paying for health care benefits for politicians who opposed government-funded health care on the campaign trail. Just 33% said anti-health care politicians should take their government benefits, while 53% said they should burn their government care cards.
Uh-oh. All three of our shiny new GOP winners ran on repealing RomneyCare "ObamaCare." Looks like another job for Mystery Bank Accounts.
In related news from a different polling outfit, a majority of Americans favor either keeping or expanding the new health care law.
...When her public career is judged in its entirety, we believe Ayotte has demonstrated she has the intelligence, character and leadership skills necessary to become an outstanding member of the U.S. Senate.
Nashua Telegraph, November 21, 2010:
Political posturing hurting U.S. security
The Obama administration's efforts to scale back dangerous vestiges of the old Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union were undermined this week by the new partisan Cold War boiling up on Capitol Hill.
...If the Senate votes this year, the treaty needs the support of nine Republicans and all 58 Democrats to achieve the required two-thirds majority. When the new Congress meets beginning in January, the president will need 14 Republican votes, the likelihood of which prompted a White House official to conclude the treaty "could be delayed indefinitely."
It will be a sad day for America if Republican political greed trumps common sense and national security.
Adding: The Telegraph made a big deal in their endorsement over who would be more Rudman-like as a Senator. Would they like to revisit that assessment now?
(Sad and Completely Predictable, Pt. I)
"Without ratification this year, the United States will have no inspectors on the ground, and no ability to verify Russian nuclear activities," Obama said in his weekly radio address.
"Without ratification, we put at risk the coalition that we have built to put pressure on Iran, and the transit route through Russia that we use to equip our troops in Afghanistan," the president continued.
"And without ratification, we risk undoing decades of American leadership on nuclear security, and decades of bipartisanship on this issue. Our security and our position in the world are at stake."
All kinds of Very Important Foreign Policy people from administrations of both parties have endorsed ratifying the START treaty.
As Republican numbers go up, the chances of the treaty's ratification go down. We all know this. This isn't a choice between ratifying in December and ratifying in January. It is a choice between voting on the treaty, and delaying consideration of the treaty on the Senate floor for months or even longer. If the treaty is worth supporting and should be ratified, it really does matter that this happen now. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs describes the treaty as "essential" to national security. Maybe he's exaggerating for effect, but I don't think that's true in this case. I don't know of other things that are deemed "essential" to national security that can be put off until much later and perhaps indefinitely.
Kelly Ayotte: provided Sarah or some Republican is in the White House, happy to be a member of the America Last crowd.
(Shocker - took her all of two weeks to become a mindless pawn of the DC GOP. Defeating Obama is more important to Kelly Ayotte than America winning. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Senator-elect Kelly Ayotte signed a letter along with some other Republican Senators-elect calling for the critical New START Treaty (on nuclear arms control) not to be voted on until the 112th Congress convenes in January with a larger Republican minority in the Senate.
I reject the idea that lame ducks lose the responsibility to govern before their successors take office, but there's a more pressing issue here:
If the vote is delayed as she wants, will Kelly Ayotte vote to ratify the New START Treaty?
Some in her party think this is a good opportunity to deny President Obama a political victory. It can be. But killing this treaty would be a horrifyingly selfish act by a party so hell-bent on winning the next election that they would truly live up to Jon Stewart's hyperbolic suggestion: they hate Obama more than they love America.
Senator-elect Ayotte, I implore you to do here what is clearly in the vital interest of all mankind.
I don't think you'll ever get my vote, but if you do the right thing on this, you will have my respect.
Maybe this is why former Reagan speech writer, Peggy Noonan, felt compelled to put a hitch in Endorser In Chief Sarah Palin's giddy-up.
Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, "an actor." She was defending her form of political celebrity-reality show, "Dancing With the Stars," etc. This is how she did it: "Wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor."
Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. ...
-snip
The point is not "He was a great man and you are a nincompoop," though that is true. The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn't in search of fame; he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world.
Ouch. Can Kelly Ayotte can see that political bruise from her house? You bet'cha!
Kelly Ayotte has chosen sides in the civil war for the soul of the Republican party. She's going with the Tea Party.
Ayotte, Judd Gregg's hand-picked successor, has been eyed by the Senate GOP leadership as a "political asset," a moderate who could broaden Republicans' appeal to women and independents. Apparently, it's a suit that doesn't fit.
Monday, Ayotte won an endorsement from FreedomWorks, the Wall Street front group led by Dick Armey that helped launch the Tea Party movement. It was an endorsement she aggressively pursued.
"We only get into races when we are asked,” said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon, indicating that Ayotte sought out the group's support. Brandon said FreedomWorks made the endorsement only after gaining "consensus from our guys on the ground -- we can’t endorse if our activists’ membership is spilt."
So now we know. But before she remakes the Republican party, there's that small matter of an election next Tuesday. New Hampshire voters have a habit of rebelling when our vote is taken for granted.
But Philip McLaughlin, the then-attorney general who first hired Ayotte as a prosecutor in 1998, said in an interview last week that while he thinks Ayotte is a "fine attorney," he was troubled by the e-mails.
"When you get on the attorney general e-mail and have those exchanges, it seems to me to be obvious that you have jeopardized the public's right to believe you do things completely apolitically," McLaughlin said.
"I don't know how any adult could read those e-mails and conclude that there was no political consideration. It bothered me to the core when I read it," McLaughlin added.
But really, read the whole thing. Fair use keeps me from quoting so many other key grafs.
The Motion for Recusal/Reconsideration overnighted yesterday prompting the immediate hearing instead of a 17 Nov date.
http://www.wepapers.com/Papers...
The video with Judge Lynn prompting the Motion to Recuse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Republican Nashua City Chair Dennis Hogan, who just got reprimanded the same time Judge Lynn was reprimanded this year, actually told the Telegraph that I "left voluntarily."
The pictures from other journalists present prove otherwise:
http://christopher-king.blogsp...
What planet are the GOP inhabiting?
Nashua Republican City Chair Dennis Hogan actually stated:
"He left voluntarily. I know that from his own video," Hogan said.
Here's today's story by Patrick Meighan.
Let's start with Kelly Ayotte media man Jeff Grappone and my response:
This is baseless and we will file a motion to dismiss," said Jeff Grappone, spokesman for the Ayotte campaign.
.....Yeah Jeff, the same way that you said the ALT+CONTROL+ DELETE email production lawsuit was an "election year stunt."
You guys just hate the First Amendment, that much is clear. And of course with Judge Lynn on the bench who thinks my activities are "nonsense" you have a fighting chance of winning, I'm just here to convey all of the relevant facts to the public.
That's what journalists do, whether you like it or not, my friend.
[So Jeff, let's see just how far you and a reprimanded Judge who thinks KingCast is "nonsense" will go to set back the First Amendment, and to show the World just what's it's like to practice journalism in the "Live Free or Die" State..... I'm just here to expose each and every step of our journey to the World Public. See you in Court.]
*************
And I almost always win First Amendment cases and I push it hard against Dems and Repblicans, watch Democratic County Commish Mary Jo Kilroy get an earful from Columbus School Board member Loretta Heard back in 1998, and watch Judge Lynn's nasty attitude toward me in 2006 all in one video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
*********
Now, then, on to the substance, Dennis Hogan, you are crazy. Have you forgotten that I have the audio of our conversation that day?
You say I was not forcibly removed, have you seen the pictures taken by other media with three police officers running me out the door, and on video you can hear them stating that I am going to be arrested both at Arpaio and at VFW. And at VFW the cop clearly says I will be arrested if I try to go in, THAT is what is on the video Man, what planet are you on?
http://i54.tinypic.com/33njh55...
And of course they threatened to call the police
Mexican Standoff video with all 3 violations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Ayotte public Facebook rally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Arpaio public rally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Wow Counselor, if that is the best you can do it's no small surprise that you didn't know you can't represent both husband and wife in a divorce proceeding.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com...
You really should have kept your mouth shut like the other GOP mook because a Jury will find you entirely disingenuous, but thanks for the public statements Counselor.
Very Truly Yours,
KingCast.net -- Reel News for Real People
posted by Christopher King at 5:47 AM | 0 comments
According to state law, the Supreme Court must decide if the death sentence was imposed "under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor" and whether it "is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases," among other issues.
Professor Albert Scherr of the University of New Hampshire School of Law and attorney Andru Volinsky of Bernstein Shur both said the defense could argue Ayotte's e-mail introduces an "arbitrary factor" into the decision to seek the death penalty. Scherr, who is not connected to either campaign, said the defense could ask the state Supreme Court to re-examine whether the punishment was disproportionate compared with other cases or if it was politically motivated.
"If the defense can show that the only reason this was brought as a capital case and other similar cases in the state were not, simply by virtue of the fact that the attorney general's office at the time saw political advantage to bringing this as a capital case, arguably that could impact the decision," Scherr said.
The Tea Party is coming to town. Yesterday, Sarah Palin--Kelly Ayotte's biggest supporter--kicked off the Tea Party Express' national tour.
The Tea Party's final stop on their tour will be on the steps of our state house in Concord the night before the election.
Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and their friends on the Tea Party Express are working hard on Kelly Ayotte's behalf. Ayotte proudly accepted Palin's endorsement and groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Glenn Beck-backed Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to boost her campaign
"Prosecutors are always studiously careful to refrain from making any comment on these cases or their positions on them,'' Volinsky said.
"Now that these e-mails are out in the public domain, I'd be amazed if the public defender's office doesn't try to use them in their appeals in this case.''
Andy Volinsky has done an analysis of the Kelly Ayotte/Rob Varsalona e mail exchange regarding the Offioer Briggs murder for New Hampshire Business Review. You need to read the whole piece, but here is the conclusion:
By intertwining the decision to seek the death penalty with talk of politics, Ms. Ayotte may have given the defense evidence that she improperly considered her political ambition in making her decision to seek the death penalty. Evidence of the political considerations support the defense team's claim that Mr. Addison was denied the due process of law. The State's Supreme Court is also charged by statute to search for the influence of improper factors when reviewing Mr. Addison's sentence of death. Race and politics are two factors likely to be considered. In the long run, Ms. Ayotte's zeal to use the death penalty for political gain may jeopardize the conviction and sentence she so coveted.
