Morning Briefing for June 11, 2009
1. We Can Stop the European Bank Bailout
Call Congress
2. US News: GOP Spanking Democrats in Recruiting
But the GOP is dying. The media told us so.
3. Congress Pays For “Las Vegas Is So Gay” Ad Campaign
Your tax dollars at work thanks to Disney.
4. Fred Malek: Why Bob McDonnell Will Win Virginia
What it Can Mean for the Republican Party
5. Blood for Blood. Ashes for Ashes.
The left is already cheering the shooting at the Holocaust Museum
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1. We Can Stop the European Bank Bailout
Call Congress
Barry Obama wants to bail out European banks.
No, it is no joke. He really wants to. He is going to send the International Monetary Fund billions of dollars that will then be used to do in Europe what Obama has done here.
We can stop it.
House Republicans are going to vote in a block to oppose this, which means around thirty Democrats are needed. The Blue Dog Democrats are logical targets. Those Democrats who represent districts that tilt Republican can be pressured. And among them, the freshman Blue Dogs can really be pressured.
Call 202-224-3121. Ask for the members of Congress below and tell them to oppose H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Bobby Bright AL-02
Parker Griffith AL-05
Ann Kirkpatrick AZ-01
Suzanne Kosmos FL-24
Walt Mitnick ID-01
Frank Kratovil MD-01
Glenn Nye VA-02
Tom Perriello VA-05
Once you’ve called these people, use the same number and call these members, all of whom are in heavy Republican districts:
Travis Childers (MS-01)
Harry Mitchell (AZ-05)
Gabby Giffords (AZ-08)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Bill Foster (IL-14)
Baron Hill (IN-09)
2. US News: GOP Spanking Democrats in Recruiting
But the GOP is dying. The media told us so.
Growing up in New York, I recall an old commercial for the lottery that sought to sucker in the math-challenged by telling them ‘you gotta be in it to win it.’ While I still consider that an indefensible way for a state to get people to throw away their money, it’s undoubtedly true when it comes to political campaigns. You may be unable to predict the political climate months before election day (or even days before). But if you hope to have any chance of winning seats that may be unexpectedly within reach, you have to have credible candidates. So far this cycle, it’s the Republican campaign committees that are winning the race to find strong candidates for potentially-winnable races.
There are good reasons that the NRCC and NRSC are having more success in recruiting strong candidates. Chairmen Sessions and Cornyn have made it a top priority, for one thing. Both recognize for example, that strong candidates are a boon not just in winnable races, but also in longshot campaign and near-hopeless districts. You never know when lightning might strike and make a seemingly strong incumbent vulnerable to a credible challenger. And even in hopeless races, a strong candidate can force the Democrats to spend more time and money defending what ought to be ’safe seats.’
Furthermore, there are undoubtedly ambitious Republicans who have kept their powder dry the last few cycles, and waited for a better climate to run. The reverse is true for Democrats, who know they had their best chances in 2006 and 2008, and if they did not run in the last few cycles there may not be much reason to now.
Further, good recruiting can be part of a virtuous circle. Strong recruits help build confidence that a good year is ahead; that can aid both fundraising and other recruiting. Success begets success.
3. Congress Pays For “Las Vegas Is So Gay” Ad Campaign
Your tax dollars at work thanks to Disney.
Disney, unhappy with a drop off in tourism, has come up with a novel idea to get people to go see the rat and his minion in Florida: tax them.
Jeff Birnbaum, writing in the Washington Post last year, did a stunning job capturing just what an astroturf campaign the tourism industry has created in Congress.
It is widely accepted at Disney — if not empirically proved — that one of every 15 visitors to the United States ends up at a Disney park. Leveraging the power of the federal government to bring more tourists from overseas, therefore, would wind up filling the pockets of the Mouse.
After gaining a consensus among his colleagues at Disney, and talking to people at the Travel Industry Association and the Roundtable, Gluck drafted his boss’s “Apollo speech.” It was meant to be Rasulo’s call to arms. A big lobbying push was needed for a big Ask — the term lobbyists use to describe what they are pleading for from Congress. Rasulo would not say so publicly, but he told colleagues privately that his Ask would be for at least $200 million a year in advertising funds — four times what the Commerce Department had previously been directed to spend.
So Disney and the travel industry has convinced Congress to impose a $10.00 tax . . . “fee” . . . on visitors into the United States to pay for a handout to the travel and tourism industry — in addition to already allocated American tax dollars. The Senate is going to be working on this legislation shortly. It is called the Travel Promotion Act. One of the typical ad campaigns that could be funded? “Las Vegas Is So Gay.” We’ve even got a picture of it.
4. Fred Malek: Why Bob McDonnell Will Win Virginia
What it Can Mean for the Republican Party
Bob McDonnell is a young polished lawyer and an Army veteran who grew up in liberal (though much less liberal back in the day) Northern Virginia and lives with his family in conservative Virginia Beach, so he can connect with young suburban families in a way that Jerry Kilgore had trouble doing in 2005. McDonnell is a great example of the kind of candidate who doesn’t have to “choose” between sticking to his values and appealing to moderate voters.
That gives him a real advantage over Creigh Deeds, whose economic platform is more of a populist shtick targeted to the United Mine Workers than a sensible roads and schools plan for I-95 commuters. McDonnell cares about the issues Virginians care about, like transportation funding, college tuition costs, energy policy, taxes, and, of course, job creation. So Northern Virginia will be something it hasn’t been in recent elections: A battleground leaning Republican.
And Republicans will be more excited about McDonnell than the Democrats are about Deeds. It’s clear where he stands on the issues that are important to the Republicans Party, including taxes, religion and honoring our troops. Deeds, on the other hand, is going to have to activate his base and crank up the turn out better than he did last time around. In doing so, he is going have to walk the line between Prius drivers in Arlington and NASCAR fans in Bristol. He’s not an anti-gun zealot, which won’t please pastors in Hampton, and wants to soak the entrepreneurs and businesses on taxes, which won’t impress technology executives in Reston. And there should be no forgetting that Virginia is the new battle ground in big labor’s battle to expand its power. In a state that appreciates the right to work and still tilts conservative, the advantage goes to Bob.
5. Blood for Blood. Ashes for Ashes.
The left is already cheering the shooting at the Holocaust Museum
You only thought leftists got excited when American soldiers got killed. As I’ve written before, leftists celebrate each and every death of each and every American solider because they view the loss of life as a vindication of their belief that they are right.
Well, I didn’t think it was possible, but the gunning down of guards outside the Holocaust Museum in Washington has Markos Moulitsas and his band of leftist brothers positively demanding a ticker tape parade for the deranged shooter.
Kos, best known for celebrating the deaths of American contractors in Iraq and saying “screw them,” is now declaring the right is to blame for the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.
Let me make just three quick points:
1. It is the leftists like Kos’s acolytes that perpetuate anti-Semitism under the guise of “if only we wouldn’t defend Israel this wouldn’t happen.” Nazism, like Communism, and the neo-nazis disease that stems from the former, share the common foundation of socialism that these same leftists now agitate for.
2. If the right were to blame for the tragedy at the Holocaust Museum, Markos Moulitsas, Keith Olbermann, Harry Reid, and Barry Obama must be positively scrubbing the blood off their hands after the tragic murder of Pvt. Long in Arkansas last week and wounding of Pvt. Quentin Ezeagwula. I’m surprised leftwing bloggers can type with all the blood on their hands.
3. Kos and the lunatic gunman today and the lunatic gunman who killed Pvt. Long share more in common that the rest of us — their world view is centered on contempt for what this nation stands for and are consumed with an abiding hatred of George W. Bush and the “neocons.”
