Skepticians

Skepticians

• Fox News op-ed: Uneasy Dems: Bring back Clinton! Or Bush!
  When a deeply polarizing egotist leads an already-unpopular party, the only place to go is down, as endangered Democrats will soon realize. Some, having already learned the lessons of the Pennsylvania and Colorado Senate primary contests, are politely rebuffing–while others still downright rejecting–Barack Obama’s offers to join them on the campaign trail. Instead, they’re tapping a [...]
  
  
• The George Bush ‘Miss me?’ pumpkin
  What’s Halloween without a little politics? And with little more than a week until Election Day, you can’t blame me that I incorporated it into my jack-o’-lantern last night, when I joined my family to carve pumpkins. Inspired by a recent Gallup survey in which President Barack Obama and former President George Bush were virtually tied [...]
  
  
• Union axes worker for wearing ‘Bush’ shirt, hat
  A California union stagehand was abruptly terminated Friday for wearing a “George H. W. Bush” sweat shirt and hat while constructing a stage to be used for a get out the vote rally featuring President Barack Obama. Duane Hammond says his clothes were not a political statement, rather a sign of support for his son, who [...]
  
  
• Florida Dems mail GOP candidate’s social security number
  In a state Democratic Party mailer that hit South Florida mailboxes last week, voters found an interesting figure on a top GOP House recruit: His social security number. The Florida Democratic Party reproduced a 2005 tax lien–since paid–filed against Allen West for delinquent credit card bills. As the Palm Beach Post reports, the document contains the [...]
  
  
• Washington Times Op-Ed: Who are you calling extreme?
  Incumbent Democrats are desperate — increasingly aware the public’s taste for their brand of change has waned. Some, in generally conservative districts and states, are reaching for the mantle of the moderate; others, like those in reliably Democratic areas, have not yet begun backsliding on the president on the issues of health care reform and [...]
  
  
• New ad spotlights Dems’ unease with Obama on the stump
  The story of an irritated JetBlue flight attendant whose tantrum last week drew national attention is the subtext of a new web ad in which endangered Democrats frantically escape an airplane piloted by the president with a course set for their home states and districts. Parodies aside, the 50-second spot highlights a serious concern among Democrats: [...]
  
  
• Playing politics with ailing 9/11 rescue workers
  In today’s Politico, I have an editorial on the Democrats’ procedural gimmicks and faulty pay-for system that cost the passage of the James Zagroda 9/11 Health and Compensation Act: In spite of fierce public opposition, the Democrats’ sizable House majority secured passage of President Barack Obama’s controversial overhaul of the nation’s health care system. But this [...]
  
  
• Greene: ‘He knows how you feel, ’cause he’s unemployed, too’
  Political observers will attest that the majority of campaign ads are banal rehashings of tempered stump speeches. But we were greeted this week with a pleasant–and yet remotely disturbing–break from that pattern, with the video “Greene is on the scene,” a parody of South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene’s campaign missteps set to a [...]
  
  
• Rangel to be charged with new ethics violations
  A House ethics committee has launched an investigation into New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel for undisclosed ethics violations, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Rangel, who resigned from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee in March following a formal admonishment for two corporately-underwritten Caribbean junkets, will appear next week before a subcommittee of [...]
  
  
• VP Biden to shopkeeper: Stop being a ’smartass’
  Vice President Joe Biden was caught on camera calling a Glendale, Wisconsin custard shop manager a “smartass” after the man asked the White House lower his taxes. Biden visited Kopps Frozen Custard, a popular Milwaukee-area restaurant the vice president mistook for an ice cream parlor, to chat with employees and patrons. Biden’s rebuke, which was captured [...]
  
  
• Dave Weigel and the Washington Post: A case of false pretenses?
  When the Washington Post hired bloggers Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein, it appeared the paper was inclined to invest heavily in its web presence — and prepared to shift its online editorial slant further leftward. To offset what many saw as a disproportionate coverage of Democratic politics, the paper announced months later it had hired [...]
  
  
• Unions Big Loser in Arkansas
  At Human Events, President Ronald Reagan’s favorite paper, I have an editorial today on the multi-million dollar gamble organized labor made on Bill Halter’s ill-fated primary challenge to Blue Dog Senator Blanche Lincoln: For Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Tuesday’s victory was bittersweet: She narrowly secured her party’s nomination, though head-to-head polls indicate she will lose six of [...]
  
  
• Romanoff, White House aide admit jobs talk
  A senior aide to President Barack Obama approached former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff with the possibility of three federal posts as an alternative to his primary challenge to Beltway-supported Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff rebuffed the aide’s suggestions to join the administration. In a statement acknowledging the job talk, Romanoff appended an email from White House [...]
  
  
• Palin reaffirms support for Haley, blasts ‘lamestream media’ and ‘laughable’ blogger
  Sarah Palin lent her considerable Facebook megaphone in support of South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley, with whom a prominent Palmetto State blogger reported today he had an “inappropriate physical relationship” years before. “When Nikki and I held her endorsement rally on the steps of the beautiful and historic South Carolina state house a few weeks [...]
  
  
• Issa Threatens July 4 Ethics Probe over Sestak Bribery Claim
  In the wake of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, a top House GOP legislator is renewing his call for an ethics probe into allegations the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak an administration post in exchange for foregoing his primary bid against Beltway-endorsed Sen. Arlen Specter. California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican member of the [...]
  
  

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