Archive for Republicans
Responding To The Pearl Clutchers
Posted by: | CommentsAll the fuss over Newark, NJ Mayor Corey Booker’s comments about Obama’s “nauseating” campaign ad slamming Mitt Romney’s experience with Bain Capital has Booker backtracking, the White House scolding and Republicans clutching their pearls. How dare he slam the private equity firms for maximizing profits at the expense of workers? No business-friendly politician would do that, would they?
Think Progress reminds us of pearl-clutching, anti-capitalist Republicans who did:
Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney’s Republican rivals:
1) “The idea that you’ve got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that’s not what the Republican Party’s about.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]2) “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]
3) “Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]
4) “We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” — Newt Gingrich [Globe and Mail, 1/9/12]
Six more at Think Progress. How rude, Digby observes.
Pat McCrory’s Ethics and Transparency Under Fire
Posted by: | CommentsRepublican candidate for Governor, Pat McCrory, is being taken to task over his financial relationship with a mortgage lender. The news report below investigates the claims and then goes one further, scrutinizing McCrory’s unwillingness to release his tax records. It’s all very fishy. Kudos to WTVD for doing the legwork to actually investigate rather than just doing a he said-he said story.
‘But I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was’
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Priorities
Posted by: | CommentsYour North Carolina General Assembly is back for their short session. You can see Nelda Holder’s preview of the session here. These headlines jumped off the page yesterday and today:
In North Carolina, the GOP is intent on maintaining short-sighted cuts to our children’s education system, but increasing revenue for roads is a-ok. WRAL:
“My guess is it’s (gas tax) going to be something that’s focused on freezing at whatever rate that it’s projected to go down to in July and then freezing it.” Current plans, he said, call for freezing the gas tax for one year and then rewriting the gas tax law as part of a comprehensive tax reform plan the GOP wants to roll out next year. “We have inadequate money going to road projects,” Tillis added. “We’ve got to think about how tolls, gas tax, and other sources of revenue can help us overcome that gap.”
James O’Keefe made a video to bolster the case for NC Voter ID laws. O’Keefe has become notorious for his disinformation campaigns in efforts to further restrict voting. Think Progress:
Sex and Candy
Posted by: | CommentsAnother lobbyist sex scandal in Speaker Thom Tillis’ office. Nothing to see here.
House Speaker Thom Tillis said Tuesday a second staff member will resign this week after admitting to having an inappropriate romantic relationship with a lobbyist.
Tillis would not identify the staff member or the lobbyist, but he provided enough details to indicate that they are Amy Hobbs, a policy analyst, and Dean Plunkett, a lobbyist who represents several clients in the state legislature.
Trust
Posted by: | CommentsJon Ostendorff at Politics Now reports on the rising controversy being caused by Republican candidate for Governor, Pat McCrory:
Pat McCrory continues to refuse to release his tax returns and lobbying client list despite questions about his employment with a lobbying firm and sitting on corporate boards, the group said.
The leading Democratic candidates for governor have released their returns.
Let’s Just Say It
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I recommend reading this entire article, though you’ll run the risk of having some area Republicans and equivalency fetishists gnash their teeth when you share it with them.
Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. This essay is adapted from their book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism,” which will be available Tuesday.
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.
“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.
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Charles Thomas, Tillis’ Chief of Staff, Resigns
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The chief of staff to state House Speaker Thom Tillis has been in an intimate relationship with a lobbyist for the North Carolina Home Builders Association, a special interest group that often seeks help from the legislature and provides money to political campaigns across the state.
Charles Thomas, Tillis’ chief of staff, resigned Thursday evening after being questioned about the relationship by The News & Observer.
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State ethics laws seek to ensure that public officials exercise their authority “free from impropriety, threats, favoritism, and undue influence.”
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But such laws do not specifically address the type of romantic relationship that has developed between Thomas and Hayes. In general, though, public officials are required to identify actual or possible conflicts of interest between their personal and public lives and take steps to resolve them, such as making public disclosures or recusing themselves from being involved in matters.
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Thomas said he believes someone is out to get him, probably connected to a local issue in his hometown of Asheville, in what the former Army soldier called an “assassination.”
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The N&O on Thursday requested email, text messages, phone records and other correspondence between Thomas and Hayes. The newspaper is also seeking expense reimbursements filed by Hayes internally with the home builders association.
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Thomas said he does not have a role in Tillis’ re-election campaign. The campaign started paying $500 per month to Thomas last year, with a listed purpose of rent. That coincides with when the two began sharing an apartment unit in Raleigh.
NC-10 Primary Open Thread
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As a result of the efforts of the GOP majority in Raleigh, I’m a newly minted resident of the 10th Congressional District, as are most Buncombe County citizens. Congressman Patrick McHenry has been serving for several terms after a successful stint as National Coalition Director for George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign. He’s got a Republican challenger in the primary named Ken Fortenberry. Be careful if you click that last link, it brings up his website with a mini-Ken that starts talking at you.
From an Asheville government perspective, we’re very hopeful that Rep. McHenry will be as supportive as Rep. Shuler has been in regards to securing transit funding resources as well as communicating with us about other opportunities for furthering our strategic goals.
There are three Democrats vying for the chance to unseat Rep. McHenry. Patsy Keever is a progressive standard-bearer with impeccable credentials and ethics, though it’s unclear how well her views will play with folks down the mountain. Her 2004 Congressional run against Charles Taylor was competently executed, so it’s clear she’s got the organizational chops. Keever is the strongest voice in the race for education and women’s rights, including the right to choose.
Mayor of Asheville Terry Bellamy is also running, and word is that she’s got the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which will help her organizationally and financially. Keever and Bellamy raised roughly the same amount of money according to the most recent documents. Bellamy has demonstrated a conservative streak that she’s balanced through advocacy for affordable housing and transit services.
The other Dem in the race is Timothy Murphy, who describes himself as proud liberal. I don’t know anything about him except what I see on his campaign website.
What’s the CW on this race? Keever and Bellamy will each get a lot of Asheville votes, but who has the edge in the rest of the district? Will the Democratic nominee’s stance on abortion rights be an important issue in the general election? Is McHenry beatable? Please opine at length in the comments.
