Had a blogger conference call today with Sue Lowden of Nevada, the Republican front runner to take down Harry Reid in 2010. I had looked her over some when I did this post on the hypocritical attacks already being launched against her. Lowden spoke of knowing she’s in for a tough fight and claims to be prepared for it.

At one point, Fausta Wertz brought up the Palin treatment. Lowden appreciated the comparison, saying she was a fan of Palin, seeing herself as similar in many ways, including on political views.

In what I thought was a great idea, Lowden held an event outside a Reid fund raiser attended by Joe Biden this morning. Several hundred people showed up for the meet and greet while bringing along donations for a local food bank. Inside, Reid and Biden chowed down at a $2400 a plate fund raiser with reserved seating for 20 people in total. Slam!

She also acknowledged that it’s going to be an expensive race but said her campaign is up to the task. I liked what I saw when I posted on her previously. If you do, too and dislike Harry Reid as much as I do, you might consider offering her whatever support you can. I don’t have to tell you that beating Reid would be absolutely sweet!

She’s not a career politician, despite heading the state Republicans at one point and having won at the ballot box before. The race will involve local issues. Lowden pointed out that pre-Reid, out of every dollar Nevada sent to Washington, 90 cents came back. Now it’s down to 65 cents. Obviously Reid has become a careerist and a creature of Washington after all these years.

It does seem odd that Nevada is at the very bottom of Federal dollars coming back to the state from taxes when he’s supposedly such a powerful Democrat. It suggests he’s more interested in growing the Federal Government, than he is acting as a representative of his alleged home state.

This race should be as much fun as it will be brutal. I doubt it’s one that will leave the headlines come election time. Stay tuned.

I’m not sure what’s more troubling here, the incredible hypocrisy underlying Democrat attacks on potential Harry Reid challenger, Sue Lowden of Nevada, or the fact that, every time a Republican woman raises her head she’s unfairly attacked. And leave it to liberal Rachel Maddow to lead the charge. No air time for a bit on Charlie Rangel, I’d bet. As you’ll see from links and video below, they want desperately to link Lowden to John Ensign, all in an effort to protect the oh so vulnerable Harry Reid.

So, what has Reid himself had to say about Ensign, regardless of what you want to make of his troubles? Nada, zilch!

It was part of an ongoing attempt by Democrats to tie Ensign, the Nevada Republican embroiled in an ongoing scandal, to Lowden, who is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

But Ensign still has at least one other friend in Nevada — Reid.

Through a spokesman Reid said that Ensign’s affair with the wife of a staff member, who also worked for him, is a “personal matter.” That despite a report in The New York Times last week raising allegations that Ensign helped secure employment for Doug Hampton, a former top aide, who apparently went on to lobby the senator’s office in possible violation of the federal one-year lobbying ban. Ensign had been having an affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia.

You got that? Reid, being a part of the old boys club, well, he’s allowed to remain silent. None of the members of the party for the most part protecting Charlie Rangel even care. But a Republican woman and former GOP chair who looks like she could beat Reid? Well, they simply can’t allow that. She’s expected to denounce Ensign right out of the gate, even though she’s more focused on her own challenges in beating Harry Reid. Real nice. So much for fairness and equality, I guess.

And leave it to the Washington Post to spout the party line without making much noise about Harry Reid … or Charlie Rangel. I looked at this race because I want to see Reid go down in flames. It looks to me as though Lowden might be just the gal to burn him. Keep an eye on this race.

Former Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden entered the race against Sen. Harry Reid (D) last week to much fanfare from national operatives who saw her as the strongest candidate in what almost certainly would be a referendum on the Senate Majority Leader.

But, Lowden is already running into trouble for her willingness to stand behind embattled Sen. John Ensign (R) and Gov. Jim Gibbons (R).

“I never called on them to resign,” Lowden said in an interview with the Fix last week. “I am supportive of both of them.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has seized on those words of support in the wake of revelations — first reported by the New York Times — that Ensign pulled strings to find his mistress’s husband a job without disclosing all of the details of that relationship.

“Sue Lowden’s support of John Ensign may have fundraising value to her, but it is a reflection of her own character and fitness for office,” said DSCC communications director Eric Schultz. “She has shown more fidelity to him, than he has shown to his own wife.”

YOUCH!

“Youch!” Nothing says that quite like Rachel Maddow, assuming you can stand to watch, of course. Hypocrite.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

There’s a tight race shaping up in a special election on Nov 3 for CA – 10. It pits Republican David Harmer against Pelosi Democrat and CA Lt. Gov. John Garamendi. The race has national implications for several reasons.

Not only is Garamendi a tax man, he has been one of the main players in stopping oil drillingoff the CA coast. The alternate plan simply relied on raising taxes on all current oil production. That’s not smart, especially with the economy such as it is. And we don’t need more votes like that in Congress. Nanacy Pelosi does.

His luck could swing the other way early next year if there is a change in the political makeup of the State Lands Commission. One of its three members — Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat — is expected to win a November special election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garamendi had cast one of two “no” votes that shot down the proposed drilling. The governor’s representative provided the sole “yes” vote.

Recently, Bill Clinton took a break from the golf course to stump for him. That means this seat is vulnerable, as polls suggest. Garamendi is a liberal ideologue.

But if the South San Francisco location was far from ideal, Clinton delivered a pitch-perfect public testimonial for Garamendi, describing the Californian as an ideological ally on key issues such as energy, jobs and health care.

Then-state Insurance Commissioner Garamendi met Clinton during the former president’s 1992 presidential campaign, where the men turned a scheduled 15-minute chat into a two-hour discussion on health care reform.

The pair became friends and Clinton would later hire Garamendi as deputy secretary at the Department of the Interior.

Here’s Harmer’s site, again. In a close race every little bit can help put someone over the top. It looks like defeating Garamendi is worth it. He’ll be a reliable vote for Pelosi every time out.

My friends at ProjectVirginia have a non-partisan effort going to get absentee ballots into the hands of military personnel who want them. The deadline is approaching. Consider this a guest post they put together.

For all the attention paid to the recent voting in Iraq and Afghanistan, one would think that the process for getting absentee ballots to our own service men and women should be simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, it’s a rather convoluted process and easy to miss the deadlines – especially if you’re deployed in a war zone.

For service personnel who claim residence in Virginia and New Jersey, this is a pressing issue, as the deadlines for requesting ballots for the statewide elections this November are fast approaching. A couple of organizations in Virginia, the Dominion Leadership Trust and ProjectVirginia are working to publicize how service men and women can vote in these two states’ 2009 elections.

The important first step of this process is to alert military personnel that they are eligible to vote absentee and give them the information to navigate the process for requesting a ballot. While both of these organizations are supporting Republican candidates, the information they are providing is a non-partisan step-by-step guide to navigating the process. They are simply asking everyone who knows someone in the military or a military family to email them this information – a small request to support our men and women in uniform.  You can use the links below:

Virginia: http://www.ProjectVirginia.com/military-vote

New Jersey: http://www.ProjectVirginia.com/military-vote-nj

The voting difficulties faced by deployed military personnel are not new – and cut across federal, state and local elections. As Peter Roff of US News & World Report wrote in May 2009, the PEW Center on the States found that only 26 percent of the absentee ballots requested by military personnel were ever actually counted in 2006. The widespread difficulties with military absentee voting in 2008 led Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mark Beigich (D-AK) to sponsor a bipartisan bill, the Military Voting Protection Act, earlier this year. While this legislation is a worthwhile effort, it is aimed at 2010 – so the rest of us need to step up just a little in 2009 and help spread the word to the troops and their families today.

I realize the Club for Growth has no love for Bennett, the problem is, they aren’t in Utah, don’t know likely alternative, AG Mark Shurtleff the way they know Pat Toomey – and once one digs into the details surrounding Shurtleff and his campaign, a genuinely troubling image for conservatives begins to emerge.

First, it appears that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff may well be violating FEC regulations, while failing to attract the kind of broad support he would need in the Fall if he manages to knock off Bennett in a potential run-off. And it’s far from the first instance of Shurtleff playing fast and loose with money, while squandering taxpayer dollars pandering to illegal immigrants when he was supposed to be doing his job.

At issue is where Shurtleff’s money is coming from. Gee, lawyers and payday lenders who often serve the illegal immigrant community … who woulda thunk? Those aren’t folks who normally support conservative politicians, but then, Shurtleff has a history of being soft on illegal immigration, what with his pandering to illegal immigrants on the taxpayer’s dime and his ‘Aguila Azteca’ award, see second and third graphs below.

Back in 2006, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff addressed a rally of thousands of illegal immigrants. “Many of my fellow Republicans will criticize me for being here,” he said. “They’ll tell me instead of speaking to you, that as the chief law enforcement [officer] of Utah I should be arresting you. [That's] not going to happen.”

For years, Shurtleff has supported amnesty, opposed English-only legislation and has been known to break Utah’s Official English law by speaking in an official capacity in Spanish. [Shurtleff and Latinos Share a 'Pretend' Meeting, March 10, By Frank Curreri, The Salt Lake Tribune]

Vicente Fox is so pleased with Shurtleffthat he is planning to award the Utah Attorney General with the ‘Aguila Azteca’, Mexico’s highest award for foreigners. [Order of the Aztec Eagle, a very different bird from the American one.] [Pedira Fox Condecorar a Procurador de Utah Por su Apoyo a Migrantes, Hector Alvarez Fernandez Notimex, May 24th, 2006]

Here’s the heart of his latest financial woes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.

Bennett told reporters that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff “appears” to be using state funds for a federal race.

“It appears that there has been comingling, and if there has been it’s illegal,” Bennett said. “The fundamental question is, he’s announced that he’s not running for re-election as attorney general, but he’s still raising money for his race for attorney general. What is he going to do with that money?”

Shurtleff received much of his money through huge donations (much larger than allowed by federal law in Senate races) from corporations, which by law cannot give directly to federal candidates. The cash usually came from local groups interested in his local work as attorney general, ranging from local law firms to payday lenders.

Shurtleff already remains under suspicion of taking cash for favors given his prominent Koeber Pass issues. So, where is this so called conservative going to come down on any immigration vote? Has he aleady been bought off? One might argue the case, as opposed to Shurtleffwho, as with Koeber, doesn’t seem to want to argue any case when there’s a potential deep pocket for him involved.

Of course, not every thing has such serious implications where Shurtleffis involved. If nothing else, having him in Washington should provide some comic relief. Besides his well known bumbling, also see Utah to fight on line sex sales, and  Shurtleff’s penchant for call girls on his Twitter feed.

Still large, potentially illegal corporate campaign donations, bought off prosecutions and call girls mixed in with the perpetual screw up Shurtleff  might not be the next change we need in Washington right now.

You can say what you want about Bennett, what he hasn’t done is embarrass us, or ever delivered a loss in the election booth. Yes, I’m a conservative, there’s no doubt of that. But given the incredible need we have to retain and take every seat in 2010 to stop this atrocity in the White House just now, I’ll take a guy I can count on, as opposed to one who very well might blow up in my face and lose a race he never should because he can’t keep his hands out of the cookie jar as a state DA.

He’d have the opportunity to rake it in if he makes it to the Senate and I’ve never known Bennett’s vote to be up for sale. As a Reagan conservative, I still believe there’s a lot to be said for principle. And we have too damned little of it today in politics as is.

Make up your own mind as you will, but I have serious concerns this guy Shurtleff is just more bad news after bad news. And that’s not an opinion, it’s straight from the headlines of the Salt Lake City Tribune.

So, I get an email invite to a conference call on EFCA with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) I’d very much like to do. Sounds good, right? It did to me, anyway.

But what good is a conference call without some well known, high flying Democrat turned Republican consultant who knows so much about the issues. Sounds good to me!

The problem is, I recently interviewed Rep. Joe Wilson and also made this post: I Am Joe Wilson. Oh, and I also found time to note this item, as well:

Make Joe Wilson pay. And by pay, I mean beat his sorry ass at the polls and send him to the private sector. That is the only way to change the political discourse in America today. Because as long as louts like Joe Wilson can spout off and call the president a liar and get rewarded with re-election, then louts will continue to spout off. And we will continue to claw our way to the very bottom of the political swamp.

That was in this post, by the way: McCain Adviser, Gurly Man, Punk, Mark McKinnon

You might recall this otherwise un-noteworthy McCain adviser Mark McKinnon. He’s the one who threatened to quit McCain early on if he attacked Obama. I would have fired him on the spot and had one of the secretaries beat his azz before he left. It’s the losers like this we have to throw out of the GOP, not Joe Wilson. The silly sumbitch probably cries at weddings, I bet. Mark McKinnon … the Republican most likely to make you throw up in your mouth.

So, ah, … I don’t know. Should I call in, or not?

Good Morning – Given the news about the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act today at the AFL-CIO convention, I wanted to invite you on a call today with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the ranking Republican member on the HELP Subcommittee, and Mark McKinnon, Workforce Fairness Institute representative, to discuss the implications of any “compromise” version of the bill. Would you like to join us at 2:45 pm ET today?

Workforce Fairness Institute

Personnel

Mark McKinnon

Mark McKinnon, former media adviser for President George W. Bush, is a founding member of the new online political and social networking community HOTSOUP.com, which is debuted in October 2006.

In 2006, McKinnon started working on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. In January 2007 he said he would quit if the general election pitted McCain against Barack Obama. “I will, however, still support and vote for John McCain,” he told the Austin American-Statesman. “I just don’t want to work against an Obama candidacy.

Sure, why should he care? He gets paid either way. Unfortunately, I don’t. I actually give a damn about more than just a six figure salary, Mark. Go feather your nest somewhere else, jerk. And the Republicans that continue to do this to us can go to Hell, too.

Insulting us by expecting us to carry your water no matter which way it flows is not the best way to make friends and build trust. Is it raining? Or, is someone just whizzin’ down our backs?

Just got this in email, can’t find a link, yet. It’s official.

New York, NY (September 15, 2009) – Louise Burke, Threshold Editions’ Executive Vice President and Publisher, announced today that Mark R. Levin’s clarion call to conservative America, LIBERTY & TYRANNY: A Conservative Manifesto, has sold one million copies, a rare publishing milestone.  Published six months ago on March 24th, 2009, LIBERTY & TYRANNY debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, spent twelve weeks in the #1 position, and has remained in the top ten ever since.

Just as Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative articulated conservative principles in the 1960s, LIBERTY AND TYRANNY is the modern conservative movement’s roadmap back to its principled roots, and an action plan for returning conservatives to elective office in the years to come.  As provocative, well-reasoned, robust, and informed as his on-air commentary, Levin’s narrative has galvanized readers to begin a new era in conservative thinking and action. 

Louise Burke also announced the acquisition of world rights to Mark R. Levin’s next book, which will again be political in theme, through his attorney, David Limbaugh.  Pocket Books Vice President and Senior Editor Mitchell Ivers, Levin’s longtime editor, will edit.

Mark R. Levin, host of one of the country’s largest nationally syndicated talk-radio programs, is president of Landmark Legal Foundation.  His previous books, MEN IN BLACK: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America and RESCUING SPRITE: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish, both reached #3 on the New York Times bestseller list.  He has worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan’s cabinet.  He holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. 

LIBERTY AND TRYANNY:  A Conservative Manifesto
By Mark R. Levin
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Publication Date: March 24, 2009
ISBN: 1-4165-6285-0

Quite a professional Dodd employs, he even manages to work in the usual pathetic sexual inuendo while on the attack. Rob Simmons responds to Dodd below.

Dodd’s campaign manager, Jay Howser, said that the tea-baggers have nothing to offer.

“The great thing about the far right wing, extreme group of tea-baggers who have entertained us throughout the summer is that their idea of free speech is akin to shouting down opposition, drowning out debate, and in Connecticut, encouraging Sen. Dodd to commit suicide with painkillers and alcohol,” Howser said. “No responsible American, regardless of their political beliefs, thinks that this fringe element has anything valuable to offer to our country’s discourse or debate.”

Yes, he did it on his site where he also raises funds. But in some cases I’m going to stop shying away from such links as I did in previous years. Face it, the Left uses blogs to raise campaign cash. And worst than that in Dodd’s case, we know the type of corrupt big guns he has behind him. Frankly, I’d rather see him defeated with the 5 and 10 dollars donations as much as possible. We can’t win if we don’t start playing the game. I don’t make the rules. But I’m tired of watching guys like Dodd returned to Congress term after term. There isn’t much satisfaction in that. If you want to help out, it’s up to you.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of patriotic Americans gathered on the National Mall and in cities across the country to protest rampant overspending, high taxes, and a government-run health plan that would bankrupt the next generation.

Senator Chris Dodd’s response? He sent his campaign manager to insult Tea Party patriots with a lewd pornographic reference the extreme Left has popularized to disparage the Tea Party movement:

Seriously, whose interests do these people serve anymore? They write complex bills no one can understand. They don’t even read them themselves. Then they have a WH that goes out and scares the American people so they can rush it through overnight and bankrupt the Nation. It’s always there can be no delaywhen Obama, Reid, Democrat Specter and crew are paying off the unions, or the SEIU. But when one of them needs to raise cash … well, forget all that. It’s time to stop everything!!

This is total BS! No wonder Specter says he’s willing to ram through ObaCare no matter what. A friend sent this along in email via the Toomey camp.

You can support him here if you want, so we can take Specter, or Sestak, who’s worse, out.

The Senate has been ordered, by Reid, to hold no votes after 3pm tomorrow, September, 15 so as not to disrupt the high-dollar fundraiser for Republican-turned-Democrat, Specter.

According to an e-mail sent to supporters from organizer David L. Cohen, the event features a $1,000 cocktail reception, another VIP reception for those who raise at least $10,000, and a dinner for which “an individual must write (not raise) a minimum of $10,000 or raise $50,000″ to attend.

The majority party’s move to cut out of work tomorrow delays progress on next year’s transportation spending bill and health care reform. If senate leadership is so willing to make room on its schedule for one senator’s fundraiser you have to ask, Where exactly do the priorities of this Democrat-led senate lie?

Okay, Snarlin’ Arlen still has a primary to navigate, but don’t let Sleeze-stak’s military resume fool you, he’s the real darling of the Nutroots. And you know what that means. He’s a died in the wool liberal with a D after his name.

Pat Toomey has a fund raising drive going on for September and it has realistic numbers. If we don’t start competing with the Left on line across the board, including supporting our guys, we’re going to pay an even bigger cost with Obama, Pelosi and possibly Reid running wild after 2010. The time to put an end to this nonsense is now.

At least take a look and consider doing what you can do. Like it or not, as with anything else, money talks and BS walks in politics. Do you want to talk BS, or play the game to win? It’s up to you.

Check it out. And it has a share page here with widgets and such. At least consider spreading the word.