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Kerry Bentivolio (R-Cand MI-11) is a Ronulon

By: Kyle-MI (Diary)  |  July 26th, 2012 at 08:31 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

After McCotter (R-MI11) made a serious mess of the this congressional district race, I was initially pleasantly surprised to find RedState endorsing his little known opponent in the primary. I was surprised that someone had already been challenging even before the whole mess with invalid petition signatures. While McCotter hasn’t been perfect, he has been fairly popular in the district. He has a decently conservative voting record and did sign up for the earmark ban. While we could do better, he was hardly a RINO. However the RedState endorsement did state that the primary challenger, Kerry Bentivolio, was a Tea Party guy looking to take on the establishment. All of that sounded good until I dug a little deeper.

Turns out that Kerry Bentivolio is a hard core Ronulon. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, he is a strong supporter of Ron Paul. In fact, according to Conservatives4Congress, Bentivolio was lobbying to be a Ron Paul delegate at the 2012 GOP Convention. The Washington Times reports that he is not just a casual fan of Paul, but he supports, “… especially the Texas congressman’s ideas on closing overseas American military bases.”
And more disturbing, here are Bentivolio’s foreign policy positions according to Young Americans for Liberty:
Believes only Congress can declare war
Opposes War in Iraq
Opposes War in Afghanistan
Opposed Obama’s intervention in Libya
Opposes Nation Building
Supports a non-interventionist foreign policy that puts America first

Some of those positions sound good on the surface, but for others, like the last one, the details matter. For example, I would be very interested in what is his opinion on U.S. support of Israel as well as what he thinks of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is interesting that there are no foreign policies issues listed on Bentivolio’s website nor any mention of Ron Paul.

Like his idol, Ron Paul, Bentivolio has lots of good position, at least on paper. But do we really need more Ron Paul groupies in the House? I cannot, in good conscience, vote for the guy. I hope we get a decent placeholder and get another try at this seat in 2014.

COMMENTS

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  • funwithknives

    He lives in Milford Township and is in the book.
    West Oakland TPP can put you in touch with him.
    Ask for Ben DiPonio, Chairman.
    They’re endorsing him and they’re right around the corner from him.
    They’re not “Ronulans” by any stretch and have interviewed and backrounded him. …and endorsed him BTW.

    “A Placeholder” amounts to Nancy (Covert) Cassis.
    A walking amoeba with 1/2 the brains. She’ll get elected and bail.
    Count on it. No way she does the 2 years.
    Why do you think the O C R P is not giving her anything?
    She’s doing it out of pocket…….and she’s got ‘The Pocket’, rest assured.

    • Kyle-MI

      Although it would not surprise me if a lot of those organizations don’t care about that aspect. (They should.)

      I am surprise that a site like RedState with its animosity toward Ron Paul acolytes would turn around and endorse one of his biggest fans.

      At this point I am unenthusiastic about any of the GOP candidates for MI 11. Thank you McCotter for leaving this big stinking mess.

      • funwithknives

        to contact Kerry directly and get it up front and personal.
        (This was a two part/two paragraph comment, BTW)

        You say ‘you would not be surprised’,about endorsers, but it’s ‘crickets’ here, too.
        Rand Paul endorsed him yesterday. He’s a naif, too?

        You think RS didn’t look into any of this beforehand? Start the questions rolling, and let’s get the answers posted.

        I suppose it ‘s hard ‘ to be enthusiastic ‘ ,iffin’ all you do is throw little mudballs and do (effectively) Zilch to get fully informed.

        Knowing Kerry with some familiarity, know I am in his corner. Please go out and get his side.

        • Kyle-MI

          I am less than impressed with the vetting process. And there is no mention of foreign policy on either Bentovolio’s website or any of the endorsements.

          I did send an email to the campaign and am still waiting to hear back. I don’t have time to play phone tag.

          If you are so confident about the guy, you tell me what his foreign policy positions are.

          I am not his campaign manager. I am a voter in the MI 11th district. I am the type of person who, you would think, he would want to reach out to.

          • funwithknives

            YOU simply do not want to do much of anything, in the way of self-discovery.

            That’s how you learn long lasting lessons.

            Elsewhere in various posts you can find Kerry’s manager’s phone #.
            Ring him up and get a fricken’ answer.

            A coupla’ clicks and a phone call.

            As far as me telling you anything, this is what I will state: If Kerry is good for the 80% most would consider acceptable for voting yes, he’s got mine.

            I’m done looking for perfection, or a higher number. If his votes don’t always square up, think back on all McCotter’s Pro-Union yes-es, and see just a mite of where I come from.

            I’ve had Peters for 6 years now, and 80% of perfection is one gamble I’ll take.

          • Kyle-MI

            I was under the funny impression that Congressmen worked for us, the voters, not the other way around.

            And I am deeply, deeply suspicious of politicians hiding their positions.

          • funwithknives

            are mesmorized by, render you funny to witness, but not much more.

            One of a voters’ responsibilities is to ‘find out stuff’ and really work at it, at least some.
            Websites,mailers, and handouts are not research, just you accepting a preconcieved notion, embracing same, and posting drivel.
            {…and mindless drivel at that.}

            What you do not retort to here is just as telling as what you do respond to.

          • Kyle-MI

            No candidate is entitled to anyone’s vote. They work for the voters, not vise-versa.

            I am still waiting for the email from Bontivolio’s campaign, and I have notice that you have not answered any of my concerns about your object of affection.

            And, by the way, I hope your candidate is better at personal relations than you are. As an advocate you are suppose to be attracting voters, not ticking them off. Good luck with that.

          • funwithknives

            and got sufficient info, from your minimal responses.
            You advance that Politicians simply ‘work for you’ and that is it. {for you.}
            Here we have a disagreement, and it just stays that way.
            {toMAYto……toMAHto…etc….}

            Did I ever claim to be in P R for Kerry? Nope.

            Did I ever offer to do your looking for you? Nope.

            Did I ever directly ‘advocate’ for You, specifically, to get in Kerry’s Korner? “Neinen”, there too. Suggested you to do something productive, and you made your choices.

            Gave you a source for a Campaign Manager’s phone # and you go to your e/mail, but won’t dial up. Another choice, you alone made.

            In regard to ‘your concerns’, they do not concern me all that much, hence the seeming ‘uncaring’ on my part.
            I know him from repeated coincidental meet-ups, and trust him as much as I trust any politician.

            McCotter proved to me, at least, you never get what you expect as a 100% certainty, and ‘that is that’ over here at 483XX.
            This is some of why ‘your concerns’ are not mine.
            There are more, but it max-no-difference.
            {See-Yah…!}

          • Kyle-MI

            And it is not just me you should be worried about. We should be hashing out these issues in the primaries. If Bentivolio is a nut, it is very possible his nuttiness will come out in the general election. Do you really think that the press and the Democratic candidate won’t push for an answer on these questions? And if Bentivolio starts spewing idiocy, where do you think swing voters will go (not to mention a good chunk of the casual GOP voters)? This race has potential disaster written all over it.

  • acat

    Charges of impropriety by Bentivolio’s competitor .. and now this.

    The special election is Sep. 5. I’d like to see, instead of this “Bentivolio’s-a-Paulistine” and that “Bentivolio’s opponent cheated” diary, perhaps a discussion of where they stand on issues that matter to MI-11.

    Mew

    p.s. Only Congress can declare war, the War Powers Act does not abrogate the constitution, it simply gives the White House the ability to act first and consult after.

    p.p.s. Calling what we’re doing in Iraq or Afghanistan “nation-building” is silly – we’re not cracking nearly enough eggs to make a nation in either place.

  • http://llphsecondrevolution.wordpress.com/ spoasteph97

    Sorry. I have to disagree with this post.

    The fights in Washington D.C. will mostly be over fiscal policy, balanced budgets, and decreasing our national debt.

    Bentivolio’s opponent is a known tax-raiser, big spender. She will not fight for fiscal responsibility.

    Whatever concerns you have about him being a Ron Paul supporter (I don’t have a problem with who he supports) should be put aside because the last thing we need is another go along, get along establishment Republican. Kerry WILL FIGHT FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY! He supports ending wasteful departments like the Department of Education. He’s been endorsed by conservative Senator Rand Paul.