NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2007
GOP Lawmakers Head For The Exits
The Skinny: Retirement Season Hits Republicans Hard; Being In Minority "Not That Much Fun"
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Interactive 110th Congress The balance of power shifts and new leadership takes control as the latest session convenes.
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Who's Who Leadership Shuffle The Democrats' success in the 2006 elections means changes at the top in the House and Senate.
Capitol Hill is no picnic when you're on the losing team. So it shouldn't be such a huge surprise that 16 Republican lawmakers have announced their plans to take their ball and go home.
What is surprising, the Los Angeles Times reports, is that only two Democratic lawmakers have decided to call it quits so far - and they're both seeking higher office.
The disparity underscores "the sharply different moods in the two parties," according to the Times: Democrats are still reveling in last November's power grab, while Republicans, reduced to minority status in the House and Senate, "see more allure in private life."
"I don't like being in the minority," said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who was first elected in the 1994 landslide and will retire this term. "It's not that much fun, and the prospects of the future don't look that good."
GOP woes are compounded by the fact that they have a much smaller pool of money for next year's congressional election, meaning they're likely to be stuck defending more House and Senate seats with less money. To give you some sense, the GOP House congressional committee has a measly $1.6 million compared to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's $22.1 million.
"If I was talking to my favorite brother-in-law and he was thinking about running for Congress, I would say, 'Why would you want to do that now?'" said Eddie Mahe, a former GOP official. "If anybody's not smart enough to figure that out, I don't want them around anyway."
Hillary Crosses The 50 Percent Threshold, Enthusiastically
Some of the same partisan "enthusiasm gap" that's tempting Republican lawmakers to retire showed up today in a USA Today/Gallup Poll.
It found that, for the first time, Hillary Clinton wins the support of 50 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, and that she commands the most enthusiastic backing of any contender in either party. In addition, it found that Democratic voters are more committed to and energized by their field than Republicans are.
Regardless of whom they support, 64 percent of Democrats say they would "enthusiastically" vote for Clinton as the nominee; 49 percent say that of Barack Obama. In the GOP, 51 percent would enthusiastically back Giuliani, 38 percent McCain, 37 percent Thompson and 25 percent Romney.
Meanwhile, Clinton continues to widen her lead over Obama, now 50 percent to 21 percent, her biggest edge since spring. The paper points out that for Clinton, reaching the threshold of 50 percent may have some value. Only once has a presidential candidate received as much as 50 support in a Gallup Poll and then gone on to lose his party's nomination. That was Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1980.
So, basically, USA Today is saying that if Clinton can manage to avoid drunkenly driving off of any piers, she'll be on the ballot in November.
Is Sarkozy's Marriage On The Skids?
The New York Times reports today what it admits France's more self-respecting newspapers won't deign to touch: Paris is ablaze with rumors that President Nicholas Sarkozy and his ex-model wife, Cecilia, are about to get divorced.
One can see how the groundwork for such rumors was laid. The first lady of France has been remarkably invisible from official functions since her husband was elected in May. She even stood the Bushes up for a lunch date this summer, when the couple was vacationing in New England.
Except for "a daring and successful" diplmotic mission to help win the release of Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor imprisoned in Libya, the Times notes, she has largely stayed offstage.
And the Sarkozy's relationship was turbulent from the start. They were both married when they fell in love, and married each other in 1996 after they had lived together. She left him for another man in 2005 and returned several months later. Absent during most of the campaign, she did not even vote in the second and decisive round of the election.
Asked to describe her role in an interview last month with the regional newspaper L'Est Republicain - the only interview she has given since being first lady - she said: "There is no role. I do not believe in having a particular role."
"Perhaps because of that interview," the Times muses, "the newspaper's report on Friday (citing sources close to the Elysee Palace) of an imminent divorce on its Web site was given some credibility." Tabloids have had been having a field day ever since, with reporters barraging the presidential spokesman with questions about the first marriage at a recent press conference.
"The absence of outright official denials has fueled both speculation and calls for the truth," the Times writes. That, and some healthy newsstand sales, no doubt.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 50 CommentsYou are definitely a flat earth 25 percenter.
You''re the traitor,for supporting a corrupt, Constitution destroying, pro-torture, administration that is destroying the American Middle-class and spending this country into bankruptcy.
They don''t just hate Bush, they hate this country. Why is it that you defend traitors? George Soros and his buddies are responsible for the "betray us" add, you support that? It''s *** like that which divides this country and makes us look bad to the rest of the world.
I have stated the facts, you just choose to deny them. I blame Soros, Turner, moveon.org and the rest of the elitist traitors for *** with our news organizations...you just go on and keep supporting them. You want to challenge me on something go ahead...waiting... All you got is calling me a Nazi..pretty pathetic.
Deny it all you want, lazy american.
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Posted by katg21 at 05:44 PM : Oct 16, 2007
+ report abuse
Yeah I know, it''s real rough being a Nazi these days. NO ONE is buying your "Blame the Liberal''s" and when you have to start stating facts instead of attacking the person, it just kind of falls appart on ya. You might take a little time and go back to the LAST even with Fascism, Joe McCarthy, to find out how people will see you in the future. Now THAT is depressing. Sieg Heil Y''all.
wow, the president says he has the right to perjury????
President to Senate: Perjury is my right...
http://findarticles.com/p/arti
cles/mi_qa3827/is_199901/ai_n8836610
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Posted by terrorislam1
You aren''t taking the fall of the Reich very well are you? As a practicing fascist you should know it never works in America and far better men than you have tried. Sieg Heil and Happy Retirement. ROFLMAO
Deny it all you want, lazy american.
wow, the president says he has the right to perjury????
President to Senate: Perjury is my right...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199901/ai_n8836610
hahaha
WELCOME TO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
English ''pull own teeth'' as dental service decays
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071015160912.2jq4i1wm&show_article=1
CANADIAN MP
Stronach went to U.S. for cancer treatment: report
Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.
Stronach''s spokesman, Greg MacEachern, told the Toronto Star that the MP for Newmarket-Aurora had a "later-stage" operation in the U.S. after a Toronto doctor referred her.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/20070914?hub=Health
Posted by katg21 at 03:15 PM : Oct 16, 2007
ROTFLMFAO!!!!
The vast majority of voices on the air, radio and cable, are right-wing ones. This whole idiocy that the MSM is somehow controlled and run by the left is so ludicrous that it''s hard to believe that anyone would believe it. It''s a myth put out by one of the most corrupt masters of republican spin, Lee Atwater, who also started the other lies that Democrats are soft on crime, are soft on defense or love to tax and spend. All pure BS too, but these lies have been swallowed, hook, line and sinker as gospel truth by republicans ever since. I will give the republicans credit for this though. They are masters at lying and spinning to their own believers and their own believers are experts at believing whatever lies they tell them.
so violating a crime scene is ok with you,,, good one,,,
so the demonic-rats are above the law
hahaha
Posted by Rayuk
Sure, the democratic party has all of the money backing them; moveon.org, etc.. They own the major networks and the stories they put on the air. They spoon feed their news to the lazy americans who choose not to challenge it. In this spoon fed news, they demonize the three networks you mentioned and are trying to silence any and all right wing talk radio, etc.. It''s pure power and control that they''re after and it seems they''ve got it. We''ll be a socialist country in no time, just watch. You have people like Ted Turner and George Soros, who absolutely HATE america and all it stands for, calling all of the shots and people continuously buy into it. It''s pretty sad.
Posted by rafterman1 at 03:03 PM : Oct 16, 2007
It is rather pathetic to watch, isn''t it? As they desperately scrap the bottom of their barrel of lies and can only come up with the most ignorant, the craziest and the most easily disproved ones. Still grasping at straws is all they have left as the slowly sink. The Foster one is about as credible as if they claimed the Clintons killed Lincoln....though I don''t want to give them any ideas.....
What do you expect? They had their rubber stamps taken away.
OUTED
THE LIBERAL MAIN MEDIA AND DEMONIC-RAT PROPOGANDA MACHINE
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez what the media will not tell you,,,
The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war.
My assessment is that your profession, to some extent, has strayed from these ethical standards and allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on TV, what they read in our newspapers and what they see on the web. For some of you, just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little to no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases and agendas.
http://www.militaryreporters.org/sanchez_101207.html
Sanchez Blasts Media, But Media Only Highlight His Criticism of Bush
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/10/15/sanchez-blasts-media-media-only-highlight-his-criticism-bush
Sanchez Assaults Drive-By Media
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101507/content/01125112.guest.html
Retired general issues sharply worded rebuke of ''unscrupulous reporting''
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/retired-general.html
Sanchez: Media''''s Reporting of Iraq War Endangered Soldiers'''' Lives
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301676,00.html
From a world view, it would appear that there is something very restrictive and strange about the above three maverick news companies. Can anyone shed some light on this phobia or at least a phobic reaction to unfavorable news for Conservative politicians?
The next day, when the Park Police arrived for the official search of Vincent Foster''s office, they were shocked to learn that Nussbaum, Thomason and Williams had entered the office. Conflicts channeled through Janet Reno''s Department of Justice resulted in the Park Police merely sitting outside Foster''s office while Bernard Nussbaum continued his own search of Foster''s office. During this search, he opened and upended Vincent Foster''s briefcase, showing it to be empty. Three days later, it would be claimed that this same briefcase was where the torn up suicide note was discovered.
The boxes of documents removed from Foster''s office by Hillary Clinton''s chief of staff, Margaret Williams, were taken to the private residence area of the White House! Eventually, only 54 pages emerged.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/FOSTER_COVERUP/foster.html
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