Politics

Here are some quick general reflections on the presidential race.

Whenever I hear politicians talk about change I think change is what is left in my pocket from my paycheck by the time they get done.

When I hear Sen. Hillary talking about President Johnson passing the Civil Rights act I remember the final Senate vote.

The original House version:

* Democratic Party: 164-96 (64%-39%)
* Republican Party: 138-34 (80%-20%)

The Senate version:

* Democratic Party: 46-22 (68%-32%)
* Republican Party: 27-6 (82%-18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:

* Democratic Party: 153-91 (63%-37%)
* Republican Party: 186-35 (80%-20%)

Including in the nea for the Democrats was Al Gore’s father.

The Hillary crying incident doesn’t bother me since if she is elected President I might cry also.

I wish that a half-Black half-Spanish lesbian was elected president. We could get so many firsts out of the way so that people can get back to voting based on a candidates position vice other attributes.

Edwards responded sharply to a Clinton aide’s criticism today, intensifying a back-and-forth that began at last night’s debate, after Clinton said Nataline Sarkisyan could be alive if the patients bill of rights, which he’d boasted of championing, had passed.

“The Clinton campaign has no conscience,” Edwards said, after Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said Edwards does no more than “read articles about people who need help and talk about them.”

I found this rather funny considering what John Edwards said four years ago.

Edwards said Reeve, who died Sunday, “was a powerful voice for the need to do stem cell research and change the lives of people like him.

“If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again,” Edwards said.

I wonder how in the world anybody at a Catholic High School would think it would be a good idea to rent out their gymnasium for a Sen. Obama campaign stop. But Newman Catholic High School in Mason City, Iowa must have thought so. Here is a senator as pro-abortion as they come who as a state senator did what he could to block a Illinois state version of the born alive infants act. He voted to block the partial birth abortion ban and is in favor of embryonic stem-cell research. He is also in favor of homosexual marriage. So you have a Senator in favor of not only abortion but infanticide once the child is born and yet he is allowed to boost his campaign at a Catholic High School.

Though I am also not in favor of any candidates at any level of office speaking either in Catholic churches or Catholic schools.

As a side note I do wonder what the Obama banner covers up on the knight’s shield and especially wonder if it might be a cross?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas conservative who struggled to raise money and gain recognition in the 2008 presidential campaign, will drop out on Friday, people close to him said Thursday.

Money was a main reason for his decision, said one person close to Brownback who requested anonymity because the candidate had not yet announced his plans. Brownback is expected announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.

It’s widely anticipated Brownback will run for Kansas governor in 2010, when his term — his second — expires. He had promised in his first Senate campaign to serve no more than two terms.

Well this is certainly no surprise. He has run a campaign that makes Katherine Harris’s Senate campaign in Florida look inspired. I will though be sad to see him leave the Senate after his current term since he has been for the most part an excellent senator, and probably the most pro-life senator there currently is and also one who is the best on social issues.

In a phone interview with the Huffington Post, NARAL’s political director Elizabeth Shipp acknowledged it “would help” the pro-choice movement if a Republican proved it was possible to win the presidency while still supporting abortion rights.
“The Republican Party used to be about the conservative principles of limited government intervention in private life,” Shipp said. “It seems to me if they went back to that and stood out from the rigid mainstream, anti-choice agenda, I think yeah, it would be good for the movement.”
Could Giuliani be the candidate to take the Republican Party down that road? And would NARAL support him?
“I don’t know yet,” said Shipp. “He has said some very concerning things since getting into this race. If you have to grade him compared to everyone else you have to give him an incomplete.”

The Republican Party is facing a "Mondale moment" where 1984 became the year that a pro-abortion candidate became acceptable for Democrats and it has been ardently pro-abortion ever since.

Pro-life supporters of Giuliani and NARAL are both hopeful about Giuliani in regards to abortion. One thinks he will appoint judges that will lead to the defeat of Roe v. Wade and the other that he will enable it to remain. They obviously both can’t be right, but for me an candidate that doesn’t put NARAL into the screaming memos is quite dangerous. NARAL is not exactly quaking in their boots at Giuliani appointing "strict constructionalists."

Giuliani supporters often note that he is the best candidate to defeat Sen. Hillary. Maybe that is because there is very little difference between them – at least on important social issues. I think it is quite laughable to think that the base’s desires will keep the mayor in line as president. Exactly what is the evidence that he can be swayed. Though as I have said it before it is quite odd that people want a candidate that will go against his own conscience.

I also find the "If you had to pick between Giuliani an Hillary" argument to be not a very good one. This is not the question now – the primaries have not even started. We can prevent such a choice from occurring in the first place by making sure he doesn’t get that far.

You put your right foot out,
You tap your right foot then.
You put your luggage forward,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hanky-Panky,
And you hook up around.
That’s what it’s all about!

Senator Craig wanted to cop a feel he didn’t mean to feel a cop.

Senator Craig also flubbed his recent line and should have said "I am not a gay American" to reverse Gov. McGreevey’s precedence.

Now I realize the whole subject is in poor taste but for one thing the media seems to be concentrating on Craig’s hypocrisy and has hardly commented on the homosexual hook up culture. When Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle took up the cause against public bathrooms being used for homosexual sex the media roundly attacked him. Yet this is obviously a national phenomenon that has a well established code to conduct these hook ups to the point of airport police sitting in stalls to stop this behavior, yet this has gotten just about zero coverage.

..What exactly is going on here? Sure, Mitt Romney’s Latter Day Sainthood is creeping out some of the base and so makes for an irresistible target. But what of the heavy breathing over Thompson’s Jesus credentials or, weirder still, Brownback’s–a man so ostentatiously devout I feel the urge to genuflect every time I see him on C-SPAN. The answer to this puzzle lies in who most notably is not getting tarred in this religious war: Rudy Giuliani. I mean, if Thompson’s degree of protestant zeal is of concern to a single soul, one might reasonably expect the serially unfaithful, thrice-wed, pro-gay, proudly pro-choice New Yorker–quite possibly the shabbiest Catholic in the history of the modern church–to be burned in effigy daily by the party’s wingnuts.

But for now, it seems the ideologically heretical Giuliani is regarded as an entirely different animal, and so the rest of the pack is busy jockeying to be the base-friendly non-Rudy in this race. I mean, why bother picking on Giuliani’s spiritual shortcomings when America’s Mayor is already taking a beating for the full range of his noxiously liberal views on conservative websites like Redstate.com and RightWingNews.com? Best to set yourself up as the conservative alternative and hope that eventually Rudy goes the way of the once formidable, now barely conscious McCain campaign…

Well I will not be crossing the Rudy con.

The New Republic’s rhetoric is pretty much over the top since Rudy in pretty much a GOP version of John Kerry. Though as I have said before I find it quite sad that Giuliani can even be considered a front running candidate considering both this Republican and personal failings.

For one you can’t trust anybody who has to appoint a committee to help him pick out ahead of time potential Supreme Court appointees. This is like telling voters that you can’t trust him to appoint what they see as a good justice and he has to hand it over to others to make voters more confident in this. Though this is exactly the reality of the situation and if we couldn’t trust him to pick out Supreme Court justices, how in the world would you want him running the Country?

Now as a pessimistic-optimist I do hope that as people realling learn how far Mayor Giuliani is from the base of the party that they will start to realize what a disaster his nomination would be.

Jay Anderson

The Catholics Against Rudy website has been officially launched now. It also applies to real conservatives against Rudy. Rudy’s Catholicism is a side issue to the disaster Rudy would be for the country. You can learn a lot about somebody by what hey are willing to overlook and the fact that Rudy still leads for the most part in the polls show a real problem. Hey if you are strong on the War on Terror we will overlook the fact that on social issues you are indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton.

The political problem with now having lived with the legality of abortion for so long is that people are getting complacent and not seeing it as the number one evil of our times. If Rudy Giuliani was a racist, but strong on the War on Terror would he be leading in the polls. If he said he would select judges who were not racist, but at the same time said that a strict constructionalist might find racism being allowed in the Constitution he would have been figuratively run out of town by now. Yet this is basically what he says about abortion. As evil as racism is, abortion is several magnitudes higher on the moral scale. Plus the idea the Giuliani thinks that a strict constructionalist can find abortion in the Constitution hiding there in privacy rights shows he has no idea what the term means. The excuse that he will pick good judges to appease the base is nonsense since he has been quite confrontational on the subject in his primary campaign. I am glad that he has been honest on this and has not flip-flopped just to get elected, though why should we believe that he will flip-flop once he does get elected and vote for what the base wants on abortion and other social issues? Rudy is telegraphing all of his punches and they seem to be directed at pro-lifers and other social conservatives.

I think if I hear the use of the world "big tent" in regards to Mayor Giuliani one more time I will scream. The idea that the GOP is a big tent is an idea that only goes so far. Circuses are also in big tents and considering Rudy’s three marriages I guess that would make it a "three ring" circus. Either the GOP’s platform means something or it is totally empty and the idea that a front runner candidate could select no on so much of it shows that it must mean nothing. The cry of the GOP during the Clinton years was "Character matters!" which I guess should have been "Character matters, unless we perceive you would be strong on defense."

The other argument that I detest is that he could win again Hillary. Hey lets just throw out all of our values so we can win! Wow that would be a great victory! What’s the difference between a New York Conservative and a New York Democrat? I don’t know either.

Then for Catholics there is of course the issue is the Rudy is just the GOP’s version of John Kerry as far as the faith goes. From one report I read is that the Mayor does not receive Communion even though the does go to Mass. His first marriage was annulled, but not his second. So at least there won’t be that issue to contend with as during the Kerry campaign.

I had hopped by now that Giuliani’s campaign would be taking the same dive as John McCain’s. Sen. McCain is a least somewhat pro-life, but he has annoyed the base by his contrary stands which really aren’t much different that what Rudy has done with the base. They are also both strong on national defense so I don’t see why Giuliani can be perceived so much better than McCain when the Senator’s record is much more conservative. I just hope that it is because many have a positive idea of America’s Mayor and don’t realize just how much of a liberal he really is. Now as for John McCain I am certainly not in his camp either and am quite glad he is falling by the wayside.

In
an article about Catholics in opposition to Rudy Giuliani.

…A separate effort from another group of Catholic activists—to
operate under the admirably straightforward title of Catholics Against Rudy—will
also take aim at Mr. Giuliani’s record on social issues. It’s the
brainchild of Georgia lawyer Steve Dillard, best known as the formerly anonymous
voice of Southern Appeal, a conservative Catholic legal blog that drew a wide-ranging,
fiercely loyal audience until Mr. Dillard outed himself and subsequently retired
the site five months ago.

Mr. Dillard, along with other bloggers, commentators and activists
who are planning to participate in the effort, are modeling their project on
the headline-grabbing Catholics Against Kerry site that targeted the Democratic
nominee three years ago. (Organizers say that none of the individuals involved
in that operation are principals in the new effort.)

“It’s not a vast right-wing conspiracy,” said
Mr. Dillard, “but if you’re active on these issues, you build up
networks of people who share your concerns, who are very involved, and who have
very significant followings. These aren’t just ‘likely voters’—these
are very serious, die-hard activists. And they all have readers and supporters.”

Visitors to the new site, he said, will find themselves at a one-stop
shop of anti-Rudy messaging, material and merchandise, including anti-Rudy bumper
stickers, T-shirts and other assorted items. (They will be sold at cost to avoid
any kind of potential profit—and the F.E.C. scrutiny that would undoubtedly
bring.)

The website catholicsagainstrudy.com will be up sometime after July 1st.

On May 7, Rev. Al Sharpton debated author Christopher Hitchens at the New York Public Library on the question of God’s existence. In the course of the debate, Hitchens made a snide reference to a Mormon candidate for the Republican nomination (Governor Mitt Romney). When Sharpton had an opportunity to respond, he said, “As for the Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don’t worry about that; that’s a temporary situation.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“Rev. Al Sharpton says he has been preaching for 48 of his 52 years and that he was ordained a minister at the ripe old age of nine. Therefore, he should know better than to insult people of faith, independent of religious affiliation. What he said about Gov. Romney is reprehensible.

“Applying the same standard of justice Sharpton invoked against Imus for his racist quip, this should finish Sharpton’s career. But will it? It is up to Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards to denounce Sharpton. After all, they all condemned Imus and all of them recently spoke at Sharpton’s National Action Network convention in New York City.

“Sharpton is more than a man of the cloth. He is a former presidential contender who is integrally tied to the Democratic party. Therefore, it is incumbent that he be held accountable for his bigoted outburst.”

I won’t be holding my breath for Democrat Majority Leader and Mormon Harry Reid to condemn Sharpton’s comments. Though you have to wonder if Romney defeated Hillary or Obama would Sharpton have to criticized them for not believing in God?