Lame duck session still on for defiant losers to run wild

Washington, Jul 29 - Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after offering a resolution on the floor of the House of Representatives calling on Congress not to hold a lame duck session after Election Day for the purpose of passing hugely unpopular legislation like a national energy tax, enormous deficit spending bills, and the kickback to Big Labor known as “Card Check.”

“Americans are sick and tired of their elected leaders making backroom deals to ram through unpopular, 2000-page bills that no one has read,” said Chairman Price. “They are sick of out-of-touch politicians, and they are tired of being ignored. A number of Democrats, including members of their leadership, have recently expressed a desire to ignore the public will and use a lame duck session to pass liberal legislation Americans do not want. Today I gave my Democrat colleagues an opportunity to show they are finally ready to listen to the American people.

“Our system of government rests upon the consent of the governed, but it is quite clear that Democrats no longer have Americans’ consent. The public’s trust in this Congress has been repeatedly broken. Voting for a national energy tax and other items on the liberal wish list in a lame duck session would shatter it beyond repair. Republicans are fully prepared to do what is necessary to restore Americans’ trust in their elected representatives. We know it will be a long road, but it is one well worth traveling.”

Note: Instead of taking a clear stand on this issue, House Democrats chose to delay a vote on the Price resolution.

RINO hunting is old news, but DINO hunting is gaining fans

Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln barely survived this week’s runoff election, after MoveOn.org mobilized against her and Big Labor funneled $10 million to defeat the two-term incumbent. Both accused her of centrist sins ranging from opposing the public option in health-care reform to opposing "card check."

We’re all familiar with the factional fights among Republicans, the party purges, and rabid RINO (a.k.a. Republican in Name Only) hunting. What’s gotten far less attention is the still emerging ideological blood-sport of DINO hunting—but it’s a fever that’s catching among the activist class.

After all, Lincoln wasn’t the only Dem in a tough fight with the left this week. Hawkish California Congresswoman Jane Harman was under fire from progressive candidate Mary Winograd in her primary, arguing along the same lines that dispatched Joe Lieberman in 2006. Even Nancy Pelosi found herself heckled by “progressive” protesters at America’s Future Now!, for being insufficiently liberal when it came to health care—a concept that would make many a conservative’s head spin.

The attacks serve as a reminder of the through-the-looking glass political era we’re living in, in which conservatives are convinced that President Obama is a socialist, while liberals call him a corporate sellout. The right trades anecdotes about Obama’s intentional undermining of the War on Terror, while the left accuses him of callously continuing the Bush administration’s War on Terror policies. These narratives are logically incompatible, and yet they’re simultaneously dominating the national debate. All the while, incumbent Democrats decline in the polls.

In the past, the conservative Club for Growth had the market cornered on primary challenges to same-party centrists in swing districts. Last year, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee began playing the same game, raising money to run ads against centrist Blue Dog Democrats in their own districts. “Blue Dog Democrats are wholly owned subsidiaries of corporate America,” said co-founder Adam Green in a press release. “And they will pay a political price back home for putting their corporate contributors ahead of their constituents who want reform.”

Washington Examiner: Big Labor lost big in Tuesday's elections

Tuesday's biggest election loser was Big Labor and its pernicious card check proposal to abolish secret ballot voting by employees in workplace representation elections. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., opposed card check. Her primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, favored card check. So Big Labor and its allies on the far left of American politics like Moveon.org, decided to make Lincoln an example to all Democrats in Congress. They flooded the Razorback state with an estimated $10 million on Halter's behalf. They forced a runoff, but when the smoke cleared Tuesday evening, Lincoln won fairly comfortably. As an exasperated Obama White House official told Politico's Ben Smith: "Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise." That may be the most honest public statement heard from anybody in the Obama high command in months.

Examiner fingers Stabenow on "dirty" money

WHO: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check).

WHAT: Stabenow received the following dirty money: Communication Workers of America (PAC) $5,000 in election 2008 cycle; $5,000 in 2006 cycle. Boilermakers Union (PAC) $2,000 in 2006 election cycle. American Federation of Government Employees (PAC) $4,000 in 2006 election cycle. Service Employees International Union (PAC) $5,000 in 2006 election cycle. United Steelworkers of America (PAC) $5,000 in 2008 election cycle; $5,000 in 2006 election cycle.

WHY IT’S DIRTY: Multiple officers and members of these unions, including division presidents, secretary-treasurers and business managers, have been convicted since 2001 of felonies ranging from embezzlement, falsifying official reports to government, mail fraud and conspiracy. The Communication Workers of America and the American Federation of Government Employees have had at least eight convictions, the Service Employees International Union at least nine and the Boilermakers 10. The United Steelworkers of America, which includes Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), has had 30 convictions among its membership. The amounts of embezzled funds range from over $5,000 to over $100,000.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Dirty-Money
-Watch-Sen-Debbie-Stabenow-D-MI-44124302.html