Conservatives Monitoring The Liberal Left
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Palin Endorses Conservative in Divisive New York Race
Oct 24th
By NADIA TAHA
Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has dipped into New York State politics by endorsing a third-party candidate in a divisive congressional race.
Mrs. Palin backed Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee, in the traditionally Republican 23rd District. The Republican nominee, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, is a moderate who has broken with the G.O.P. by supporting same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
The seat was vacated by John McHugh, a Republican, when President Obama tapped him to become Army secretary, forcing a special election on Nov. 3.
The Republican Party’s selection of Ms. Scozzafava has alarmed some more conservative Republicans, who feel the party is selling out its ideals to retain the seat. In selecting Ms. Scozzafava, state Republican leaders may have been mindful that Mr. Obama carried the traditionally Republican district. And Mr. Obama recently hosted a fund-raiser for the Democratic nominee, Bill Owens.
Mrs. Palin announced her endorsement on her Facebook page, writing that in an election in which “there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican,” “Doug Hoffman has not been anointed by any political machine.”
While Mrs. Palin’s endorsement could anger some New York State Republicans, it could also help her in appealing to her conservative base as she considers a presidential run in 2012.
The endorsement comes just a week after a Gallup poll found that Mrs. Palin’s favorability had dipped to its lowest point since she became Senator John McCain’s vice presidential nominee. According to the poll, her approval rating took a hit when she abruptly resigned as governor in July, and has not recovered during her relative absence from the political scene.
Source: The New York Times
Vote for Conservative in N.Y. is a vote for Dems, says Rep. King – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room
Oct 19th
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) endorsed GOP special-election candidate Dede Scozzafava on Monday, saying a vote for her Conservative Party opponent is tantamount to a vote for the Democrats in the close 23rd Congressional District race in New York.
King, who is one of just two Republicans in the New York delegation, is the latest to step forward and back the centrist Scozzafava, who faces losing support to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Last week, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) backed Scozzafava as well.
In a statement, King made the case that voting for Hoffman will only help Democrat Bill Owens win.
“Dede is the only Republican candidate in this race, and the only candidate with a proven record that Republicans can trust in Washington,” King said. “A vote for either of her opponents is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and her far-left, radical agenda.”
New Source: TheHill.com
Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership
Oct 11th
While the energy of the anti-tax and anti-Big Government tea party movement may yet haunt Democrats in 2010, the first order of business appears to be remaking the Republican Party.
Whether it’s the loose confederation of Washington-oriented groups that have played an organizational role or the state-level activists who are channeling grass-roots anger into action back home, tea party forces are confronting the Republican establishment by backing insurgent conservatives and generating their own candidates — even if it means taking on GOP incumbents.
“We will be a headache for anyone who believes the Constitution of the United States … isn’t to be protected,” said Dick Armey, chairman of the anti-tax and limited government advocacy group FreedomWorks, which helped plan and promote the tea parties, town hall protests and the September ‘Taxpayer March’ in Washington. “If you can’t take it seriously, we will look for places of other employment for you.”
“We’re not a partisan organization, and I think many Republicans are disappointed we are not,” added Armey, a former GOP congressman.
In Florida, where the national party has signaled its preference for centrist Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary, tea party activists are lining up behind former state House Speaker Marco Rubio in reaction to Crist’s public backing for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
“We were very disappointed with Gov. Charlie Crist when he supported the stimulus, the bailout, and he appeared publicly with President Obama,” said Everett Wilkinson, a South Florida-based organizer for Tea Party Patriots. “The opposition comes from Crist’s support for the largest spending plan ever and the environmental policies he’s pushing on the American people.”
Rubio has already made appearances at Florida tea parties, and protesters have been seen waving signs declaring, “Anybody but Charlie Crist.” He also has Armey’s endorsement, and Armey headlined a Dallas fundraiser for him several weeks ago.
Wilkinson said that the tax status of his Florida-based group limits what it can do to assist Rubio in the August 2010 primary. But he said the organization would launch an aggressive get-out-the-vote operation and issue a report card grading each candidate appearing on the ballot.
Tea party activists are also lining up behind challengers to GOP establishment-backed Senate candidates in Colorado and Connecticut. In California, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina — like Crist, another National Republican Senatorial Committee-favored Senate contender — is the target of tea party animus in her primary against conservative state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.
“My impression is that the support among tea partyers for DeVore is high,” said Mark Meckler, a California-based organizer for Tea Party Patriots. “I hear nothing but praise for the guy.”
Tea party organizers say their resistance to Republican Party-backed primary candidates has much to do with what they perceive as the GOP’s stubborn insistence on embracing candidates who don’t abide by a small government, anti-tax conservative philosophy.
“It’s an outgrowth of the frustration people have had with the Republican Party,” said Andrew Moylan, director of governmental affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, another group that has played a large role in organizing the tea party movement. “I think a lot of people have been angry at Republicans for betraying our trust.”
“I think the GOP establishment has ignored their constituents and the feelings of their constituents for years,” added Meckler.
It’s an unusual predicament for the Republican Party, since the conservative-oriented issues that animate Tea Party activists once seemed destined to make the movement a valuable auxiliary to the Republican Party.
While there’s little evidence of tea party activist support for Democratic candidates, the specific notion of electing a GOP majority hasn’t ranked high on their agenda either.
At the recent “Defending the American Dream Summit,” a conservative event held in Arlington, Va., a breakout session featuring tea party organizers saw panelists peppered with questions ranging from how to start up political action committees and 501(c)(3) organizations to whether it was necessary to hire lawyers.
“Nothing is going to change unless we can get politicians elected who can implement fiscally conservative policies,” Teri Adams of the Philadelphia-based Independence Hall Tea Party Association, which will be launching a political arm, told those in attendance.
In a handful of states, tea party activists have zeroed in on House Republican incumbents and have launched primary challenges in protest of their past support for the controversial Wall Street bank bailout.
One of those activists, Canyon Clowdus, an Army veteran who is taking on third-term conservative Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), has blasted the incumbent for making “a horrible mistake” in voting for Troubled Asset Relief Program.
“He has put a financial burden on my four children that will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars each,” Clowdus says of Conaway on his campaign website.
“I think it was a bad, bad political decision,” Armey said of the 34 Senate Republicans and 91 House Republicans who voted for the TARP bailout, “and if you talk to grass-roots activists, it has become a political test for them.”
Moylan agreed that TARP is “really kind of the flash point that started all of this.”
“People are paying attention and are willing to hold these people accountable,” he said.
For some, supporting insurgent campaigns or waging primary bids just isn’t a strong enough signal to send to a Republican Party that has abandoned core conservative policies.
Erick Erickson, founder and editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, has urged tea party activists to “put down the protest signs” and stage takeovers of local Republican parties.
“Grass-roots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.”
Read More: Politico.com
The GOP Is Winning the Health-Care Debate
Oct 8th
By KARL ROVE
Passing health-care reform could be harmful to the health of congressional Democrats.
Just look at how President Barack Obama’s standing has fallen as he has pushed for reform. According to Fox News surveys, the number of independents who oppose health-care reform hit 57% at the end of September, up from 33% in July. Independents are generally a quarter of the vote in off-year congressional elections.
Among college graduates, opposition to health-care reform is now 50%, while only 33% support it, according to Gallup’s Sept. 24 poll. College graduates are slightly more than a quarter of the off-year electorate.
Among seniors, opposition to ObamaCare hit 63% in last month’s Economist/YouGov Poll. But the number from that poll that should spook Democrats is this: 47% of seniors said they “strongly” oppose health-care reform, just 27% “strongly” support it. Seniors are the biggest consumers of health care, and their family members will probably take their concerns seriously. Seniors will likely cast about 20% of the votes next year.
The trend behind these numbers is that voters are turning away from Democrats. In 2006, the year the GOP lost control of Congress, Democrats enjoyed a double-digit lead in several “generic ballot” polls—a measure of voters’ party preference. Democrats held that lead until this year. Today, Gallup’s generic ballot shows Democrats have a razor thin 46% to 44% edge. According to Gallop’s numbers, independents now favor Republicans by nine points.
The numbers may get worse for Democrats if they pass a health-care bill. Why? Because Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) wants to frontload the reforms with distasteful things. Under his plan, tax hikes and Medicare and Medicaid cuts kick in immediately, while new benefits are delayed for two-and-a-half years. Voters likely won’t warm to reforms that slam them next year while promising benefits down the road.
Congressional Democrats could also be the first to feel a backlash against rising federal spending. An early September Gallup poll found that 38% approve and 58% disapprove of Mr. Obama’s handling of the deficit (from 49% approve, 44% disapprove in March). In September, a Fox News poll found that 61% of independents think the Obama administration wants to increase spending too much; just 29% thought the amount of spending Mr. Obama wants is “about right.”
After a $787 billion stimulus package and other spending binges this year that have the administration planning to double the deficit in five years, many voters are worried about the amount of red ink being spilled.
Voters likely won’t react well to the price tag of Mr. Baucus’s bill. Yesterday’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report pegs its cost at $829 billion over the next 10 years. The CBO report claims the bill won’t add to the budget deficit until 2015—but the bill only manages that feat by delaying benefits and imposing taxes and Medicare and Medicaid cuts up front.
The CBO report does shed some light on the cost for each person the Baucus plan would add to the ranks of the insured. CBO estimates the plan would insure about 29 million people. If that is right and if the total price tag is also accurate, the average cost per year per person for the seven-and-a-half years benefits will be in force during the program’s first decade would be $3,811. That compares favorably to private insurance. On average, a single person now pays $4,824 a year for health coverage and a family of four pays $3,344 per family member per year, according to the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy.
But the CBO numbers are almost certainly overly optimistic—there has only been one large-scale federal health program that has come in at or under its projected cost, the Medicare prescription drug benefit enacted under the previous administration, which is costing 40% less than estimated.
The good news for the president is that his job approval ratings appear to be stabilizing. The Rasmussen tracking poll for Oct. 2-3 shows 46% of likely voters approve and 50% disapprove of his performance, essentially unchanged over the past month.
Independents, the college educated and seniors may oppose health-care reform, but if Mr. Obama has halted his slide congressional Democrats may be willing to bet on him and go for his whole health-care reform enchilada—public option and all.
This battle is far from over. But what Democrats have to keep in mind is that there are two fights going on here—one over health care and another over which party will control Congress after next year’s elections. By waging the first, they may be setting themselves up to lose the second.
Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.