The leaders of the the NRCC blew it.  Instead of supporting a conservative republican in a district that was winnable for a conservative, they supported a “republican” that was…

1. more liberal than the conservative republican (who led in a 3 way race), and

2. more liberal than even the democrat she faced.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, after she dropped out she threw her support behind the democrat and NOT the republican that was beating her.  This, AFTER she received $900,000 in support from the GOP.

Not mad yet?  Read what the chair of the NY GOP said after Ms. Scozzafava dropped out.

“As Election Day approaches, it is critical that we come together to elect a candidate who will fight the damaging policies of Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in Congress. Doug Hoffman is a Republican who has pledged to protect the taxpayer and support policies that will turn our economy around. With unemployment in the North Country in double digits and hard-working people being burdened by the excesses of government, the people of the 23rd District need that Republican representation now more than ever. That must be our focus in the final days of this campaign.

Dede Scozzafava has placed her Party and her principles over politics and position for years. For those who know her, her actions today come as no surprise because they show real leadership. It is testament to her character and strength under difficult circumstances. Throughout her career, she has built a record of standing up for the people of the North County. This move demonstrates her commitment to ensuring that those people have a Republican, fiscally conservative voice in Congress. As an elected official that has been her driving force and she will continue to serve her constituents and all New Yorkers with great distinction for many years to come.”

So yes, we need to fire the national leadership for failing us and Mr. Hoffman so badly in the race.  But we need to look at the state leadership too.  Their cluelessness was evident as recently as only a few hours ago.

Will the NRSC be as dense with the Florida race?  Should some firings happen there too?  Stay tuned.

While you’re at it, send a message.  Send as much as you can to candidates who need our help - but not a penny to the groups that waste our money on losing, liberal candidates (such as the NRCC and the NY-GOP).  Obama and the current congress are digging themselves into a hole, but the GOP leadership is doing everything they can to snatch defeat from victory.  We need conservative leadership for this party to win in 2010 and 2012.  Let’s leave losing and liberalism to the democrats, ok?

I love Obama’s pick for SCOTUS, Judge Sotomayor.  As a conservative, how can I love what is certainly an unqualified, combative, leftist, anti-business, reverse discrimination loving judicial appointment?

There are many, many reasons.

1) Judge Sotomayor is not an intellectual giant (that’s the nice way of putting it).  Sure, she’s going to be a dependable liberal vote (as was Souter, the justice she is going to replace).  But the decisions she has written have been so poor that they leave liberal opinions open to being overturned by subsequent SCOTUS justices.  Even liberal court watchers have commented that Sotomayor is a political pick, designed to gain support from potential Hispanic voters, and NOT a true pick for “progressive” movement of the Supreme Court.  A real intellectual pick would have been Kagen, or Wood, or any other very accomplished jurist who is respected for their written legal opinions, even if conservatives might disagree with those.  Sotomayor just doesn’t have that kind of heft.  In other words, she is a liberal replacing a liberal, but she won’t write opinions or make arguments in session that will help her cause like a Kagen or Wood might have.  (Some have even gone so far as to call Sotomayor a liberal Harriet Miers).

Her rate of being overturned by higher courts (even a 5-4 liberal SCOTUS) are legend, including a 9-0 decision that overturned an opinion that she authored.

2) Sotomayor is a dependable vote on every liberal issue, except for one.  Surprisingly, liberals in the pro-abortion camp are worried about her views on abortion.  She has avoided any major rulings on the issue, but her minor rulings have all leaned pro-life!  She wrote an opinion that the Mexico City policy (the elder President Bush’s executive order to prevent funds from funding abortions overseas) was correct under the law.  In another ruling, she upheld the right of a school district to require parental notification for students that might be refered to an abortion counselor or clinic (she even added that the pro-abortion schools’ teachers had no standing in the case). 

3) The democrats have lost any moral authority to attack republicans as being anti-Hispanic.  While their memory is short, mine isn’t (and neither is that of Karl Rove’s).  Recall that Miguel Estrada (a conservative judge) was attacked and fillibustered by democrats, and a memo was uncovered that democrats were doing it because they feared that a Hispanic would rise from the federal bench to the SCOTUS under the republicans!  Let the dems try to raise the racism argument during confirmation hearings.

4) Sotomayor runs at the mouth like our current vice president.  She has made comments that Latino women are more judicial than white males, and has a track record of other strange comments.  She is very combative with her co-workers and the lawyers who argue in front of her, and is known as bully.

From The New Republic (a lefty read) comes this less than flattering assesment:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court. Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.

 

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was “not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench,” as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. “She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue.” (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, “Will you please stop talking and let them talk?”)

And that’s her friends on the left!  You should read the whole thing.

In short, I hope that some GOP senators grow a spine and use this appointment to ridicule the democrats and their advocacy for judicial activism.  But I also hope that they stop there and let Sotomayor on the bench.  She’s not going to move the court to the left like a strong appointment could have.  In fact, she’ll cause her fellow liberal justices to have more headaches.

That’s what you get when a president makes a pick for political reasons and not sound ones.   

I’ve always had a soft spot for Juan Williams.  Sure, I disagree with his lefty rants on NPR and Fox, but he’s an honest debator even if he’s misguided.  That’s what makes this story so good.

You see, Juan wants what every parent wants.  Juan wants a good education for his children.  As an African-American who is big on civil rights, he wants educational chances for minority children in particular.  Fine.  So when President Obama (do we get to call him “Mr. Obama” as the left did with President Bush?) goes back on his word and rips a better education away from poor, minority children who were succeeding in private schools, Juan just…

Well, read for yourself.  Any more anger, and I think we might have a conversion in the making.  Juan has some choice word for everyone involved, including the teachers’ union, the education secretary, and yes, The One himself.  As a former public school teacher (scraping together every penny to send my own child to a private school), I salute Juan for waking up.  I think he’s starting to understand.

We all know about the race between Senator Coleman (R) and his challenger, former SNL comedy writer Al Franken (D).  Probably all of us know how Senator Coleman has been ahead in the count by some 700 votes, and we know how these votes keep getting chipped away at.  We probably all know that the MN Sec of State is “one of those” (read - ACORN).  But you likely haven’t heard it all yet. 

Please read the following story from FoxNews.com.  Really, PLEASE read it.  It shows just how badly the recount is being handled.  Included in the story are pictures of ballots that show a clear vote for Coleman, and the board has given the votes to Franken.  You have to see it to believe it.  Also included is photographic evidence of rules being changed to suit Franken, but rules being completely ignored if they would help Coleman.

The presidential race is over, and the next set of races are still far off.  But this is a race that is happening right now, and it is important.  Franken is a potty mouthed, extreme leftist and would harm not only the interests of MN and the country, but bring great discredit on the US Senate (I know; it’s hard to discredit the Senate any worse than it already has been).  Coleman is a key vote to protect our ability to filibuster, because we can’t count on every republican to vote against cloture.  But more importantly, as the photographic evidence clearly shows, this is another attempt by the democrats to steal an election that a republican has led in every recount.  The democrats believe they can win any election if the keep getting recounts until they find one to agree with (WA Sen, Bush/Gore, etc).

Are we going to let this happen?

I suggest the following plan.

1. E-mail the Fox News story to anyone you know.
2. E-Mail the story to your elected officials.  Ask them what they are doing to stop this injustice.
3. Write your local newspaper about this issue.
4. Write to Sen Coleman.  Ask his office what can be done to help.
5. E-Mail the MN Governor’s office.  Ask the governor if the state of MN should be more in line with MN values or if they plan on devolving into the IL way of doing things (read - corruption).

Perhaps the RS leadership can put together a better action plan.  This is a fight we must win, and not one we can afford to ignore.

Some time ago I was a pretty active member at RedState. Perhaps my journey down the path of apathy began when I saw some of the spending that my own party was engaged in, or some of the corruption, or the failure to stand up and fight for the reasons that we are engaged in a war against terror in Iraq. Any of those planted the seeds, but the real killer was at RedState.

I wrote a diary (during the bitter primary battles) where I commented that I just could not support a candidate from any party who was pro-choice. By this, I meant Rudy. Seeing the inter-party fighting that was common at the time, I asked if anyone was seriously going to ask those of us pro-lifers to leave the party because some of us could not vote pro-abortion. I was shocked at the answer. Someone wrote a diary doing just that. Worse, several members (and even a few editors) seemed to support that view. That was the day I figured my party (and my favorite website) had left me. That was the day that I (and perhaps many others in the party nationwide) became less than enthused about politics. For a time, many republicans stopped caring as they saw their party getting torn to shreds. (Those who remained did the right thing. Rudy didn’t make it to the head of the party where the pro-life voters would have been lost for good).

Enter Sarah Palin. (Read on…)

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