Red State

The MSNBC noisemaker Chris Matthews recently blasted Sarah Palin for remarks she had made to children regarding the role of the Vice President in the Senate, suggesting that the veep could have a policy role. Matthews screamed at McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer that Sarah didn't understand the Constitution, that all the veep could do was to break ties in the Senate.

That is the only specifically enumerated duty of the veep in the Senate, besides presiding over it, but the role is not Constitutionally limited to only that. But still, Matthews is a dull blade.

Here it is, from Article I, section 3 of our Constitution:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

It says that the veep shall not have a vote unless the Senate is otherwise tied, but it does not say that the veep will otherwise sit there and drool.

The McCain camp shot back:

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It's important to be prepared, right? I mean, inauguration is just 87 days away. Why wait for the voters to render a verdict?

Mr. Obama’s advisers are sifting résumés, compiling policy options and discussing where to hold his first news conference as president-elect. Democrats say Mr. Obama hopes to name key members of his White House, economic and security teams soon after the election. His transition chief has even drafted a sample Inaugural Address.

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This wasn't pretty: then again, interviews where you're being asked to distinguish between your running mate's views and Karl Marx's rarely are. Head's up via Ace of Spades:

The interviewer is Barbara West, of Florida's WFTV News. The interviewee is, of course, Senator Joe Biden, who graced us with his trademark... thoughts. Some points to consider, Senator:

• When you're pushing back on the perfectly accurate observation that your running mate is attached to the hip to ACORN... don't quote one of ACORN's talking points.

• Umm... your guy thinks that "when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody". Do try to keep up, Senator.

• I understand that you're not a drinker, Senator. Good: drunken oblivion is too easy an out for you for dealing with the fact that you had to tell the world that Obama's mistaken views on Iraq were better than yours, let alone John McCain's.

And, lastly: "I don't know who's writing your questions..." What a charming attempt to diminish a reporter who dared ask you questions that you didn't want to answer. And, just out of curiosity: would you have said that to a man?

Moe Lane

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According to Michael Brodkorb, tomorrow's Star Tribune has an endorsement of incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. This is quite surprising.

This would be like the NYT endorsing Rudy for GOV. The Strib is one of two papers that is more partisan and unreadable than the NYT (the St. Petersburg rag being the other). Maybe there is some appetite for not giving Ds absolute, unfilibustered power.

Note that the Strib refused to endorse Franken in the primary as well, saying:

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For Sunday, October 26, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace chats with surrogates: Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for Obama and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge for McCain.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos chats with former GE boss Jack Welch; Lindsey Graham; and former Clinton (Bill) aide Rahm Emanuel of Chicago.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw will grill Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer will talk to economic surrogates Doug Holtz-Eakin for McCain and Robert Rubin for Obama; and Ed Rendell and Tim Pawlenty, two gubernatorial surrogates.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer will have surrogates galor: Evan Bayh, Jon Kyle, that Wasserman-Schultz and her incantations, and Heather Wilson.

~~~~~

NBC's Meet the Press, even with the erratic Brokaw, was back on top of the stack last week, and this is another opportunity for McCain to be heard.

We get to hear Tom Ridge assert the gravity of the mistake he believes McCain made by not selecting him as his running mate.

And Rahm Emanuel might gleefully trumpet that he doesn't even have to run conservatives as Dems to win this season.

The media's polling and editorializing/reporting is starting to get to people.

I'll review the shows here tomorrow.

Via Gateway Pundit:

Personally, I think that Alan Colmes should be grateful. I'm given to understand that normally he'd have to pay somewhere around six, seven hundred bucks to get spanked that comprehensively.

Moe Lane

PS: Go, Team Sarah.

I think I am supposed to be skeptical, react to this like I did when Donato Dalrymple said he might seek higher office. But no, listening to the man speak, Joe Wurzelbacher is for real.

He told radio talker and fellow cancer survivor Laura Ingraham today that he might run for Congress in 2010. Against Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur.

Ingraham herself said she would immediately volunteer for his campaign and help him with campaign advertising and PR. Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee said they would welcome Wurzelbacher's candidacy with "open arms.”

"We support Joe the Plumber and people like him everyday with our support for lower taxes and energy independence," NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said.

Kaptur's office responded by blaming Joe the plumber for recent layoffs at the local Jeep plant.

It looks like conservative populism is here to stay, and it is definitely something the party wants to encourage in the future. Grassroots activism. (There is a community blog designed for this sort of thing, but I, oh I forget its name offhand.)

I'd give you the URL at which to donate to Wuzelbacher's campaign, but it does not exist yet. I'll be back with you on this in a year or so.

Just saying, that's all.

"Middle Class"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X2uCNIq0dI

"Part of the Problem"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgulGI1IWZc

Contribute here.

While we continue to pray for Ted Kennedy and his loved ones, his prognosis is apparently not a hopeful one. Nevertheless, the last liberal lion is working on a legacy he can pass on to the next great liberal hope: socialized medicine.

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Barack Obama continues to promise tax cuts for everyone making under $250,000 a year and tax increases for those who make above that figure annually. He is unapologetic in his proposed use of this policy to “spread the wealth around.” And while we are correct to see this as nothing less than a bald attempt to redistribute wealth, we miss the boat if that’s all we see. Lower and Middle class families who plan to benefit from this policy at the expense of others need to understand that the generosity of the upper class is going to disappear once already confiscatory taxes turn into highway robbery.

That this is so is not just common sense, although common sense should suffice. The effects of high tax rates upon a people’s charitable spirit has been seen again and again by free market economists and historians who look honestly enough at history to see that low tax rates spur generosity while excruciating rates close otherwise open purses.

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If you needed any confirmation that this race was bizarre in ways that would make a neo-anti-anti-Dadaist performance artist on acid scratch his partially-shaved, partially-covered-in-dyed-weasels head, here you go:

"If I’m not mistaken, when Al Gore and his brilliant running mate, about this time in the campaign in 2000, were about six or seven points behind," Lieberman stated. "And, of course, we won. Or we got more votes, anyway."

I think that we all need a moment to just sit there and contemplate that one.

We point out yesterday that Musgrove and Marshall do the same ad set. The NRSC does an ad today on the matter:

That's awesome turnaround guys.

How desperate is Nick Lampson in TX-22? He sent out an email blast the other day that read

Prosecutors were quick to move on a felony complaint that was filed after evidence was discovered showing Pete Olson (with the same addresses and signature of candidate Olson) voted and maintained voter registration in Connecticut and Virginia. Voter fraud is a felony in both states.

It's a total lie. A far left group filed a criminal complaint, but their evidence is specious. The group accuses Olson of voting in two different states on the same day. Unfortunately for them, Olson has his plane ticket stub showing he was flying to Texas and there is no way what the lefties are claiming could possibly be true.

Undeterred, Lampson put out a television ad making the same accusation.

According to the Olson campaign:

Today KHOU Channel 11 pulled a misleading television ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that falsely smeared Republican Congressional Candidate in Texas’ 22nd congressional district, Pete Olson. KHOU decided to pull the ad after it was presented with a letter, affidavit by Pete Olson and evidence proving that the DCCC knowingly ignored evidence disproving the false claims.

Democrat Nick Lampson is desperate.
His wife cannot vote for him because she does not live in the district. In fact, Lampson does not live in TX-22 either.

But he'd rather distract from the truth by lying about Pete Olson.

You can contribute to Pete here.

Believe it or not, there is a primary going on. Not a general election race, but a real primary. To be specific, it's the primary-runoff in Louisiana's 4th Congressional District.

There are two good men running, Chris Gorman and John Fleming.

Having to choose between the two, let me say I don't know either one personally, but do have relatives and friends in Louisiana. Of course, the good relatives all live south of Alexandria and not up in Yankee land . . . er . . . North Louisiana. Anyway, I'm partial to Chris Gorman.

Both men in the runoff are conservatives. I think Gorman is probably a bit more pro-life than Fleming and I think he is more likely than not to stand firm on immigration issues. From what I know about Chris, I think he's not going to be someone to "grow" in office, but will keep being rock solid.

I think between the two we should be supporting Chris Gorman.

Chris Gorman is 100% pro-life. He is in favor of securing our borders. He does want to win the war on terror.

May I kindly suggest we get him into the general election.

This is not an exaggeration or euphemism.
This is his intent.

NEW BEDFORD — After the November election, Democrats will push for a second economic stimulus package that includes money for the states' stalled infrastructure projects, along with help paying for healthcare expenses, food stamps and extended unemployment benefits, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Thursday.

In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that upper-income taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay.

The military cuts also mean getting out of Iraq sooner, he said.

Via The Hill, via Commentary.

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