Archive for the ‘Congress’ Category
Mark Warner Rallies for Glenn Nye
Video source: Virginia Beach Democratic Committee. Video of Rep. Glenn Nye on the flip…
Please think of the alternative!
As David Campbell points out… “Liberals who want to punish Nye by staying home on election day should consider the alternative.”
Sorry to make you vomit in your mouth so early in the morning!
Yes, a lot of us are incredibly disappointed with Glenn Nye. How easy it has become to bash Nye by those that don’t live in the 2nd district. Righty Rigell could otherwise be my representative in Congress. It’s bad enough having total GOPpers representing the Beach in the GA, but Rigell coupled with McDonnell and a likely GOPper majority amongst Virginia’s delegation to Congress is going to be miserable, especially for us in the Beach.
I have a Glenn Nye bumper sticker on my car and his yard sign in my front yard. Over the weekend, I’ll put up some Nye support stuff on this blog. So, go ahead progressives. Start bashing us at VB Dems for supporting Nye.
For God’s sake, Righty Rigell, as announced in today’s Virginian-Pilot, has signed the Tea Party pledge. Great, our potential new congressman has pledged himself to a group founded on hate and racism. More vomit in my mouth!
Nye Needs To Take A Cue from Cantor
Rep. Glenn Nye needs to take a cue from Rep. Eric Cantor and, like Cantor, at least mention how “last year I think the state received somewhere around $3 billion of stimulus monies.” (Source)
That stimulus money really saved Virginia’s hide! Glenn needs to list out examples of the jobs saved, programs salvaged and contributions made to the surplus Virginia enjoys today.
Notes from Last Night’s Debate
I’m sure VBDC Chairwoman Susan Mariner and others wouldn’t mind if I posted here some of the Facebook comments on last night’s debate.
Susan writes: “My opinion of the debate: Debate goes to Nye on substance and poise. Golden gets second on style. Rigell gets third for a Sarah Palinesque understanding of issues and freaky animatronic mannerisms. Hope that’s the way it goes in November too.”
“I was proud of Congressman Nye. He was respectful, knowledgeable, and stayed on the message.”
“Rigell was inauthentic and vapid. Main thing I took away from his performance was images of his intermittent and bizarre yelling for emphasis (if you don’t have anything particularly intelligent to say, at least say it really loudly???) and the disconcerting plastic smiles he delivered on cue.”
“I am totally a fan of Kenny Golden’s flamboyant and entertaining style even though I disagree with most of his platform.”
“He [Rigell] said that he opposed the bailout. Of course he also opposed the stimulus plan, and yet he took $400K in Cash for Clunkers money. So I guess his opposition is more about OTHER people getting stimulus money rather than him.”
The best comment however goes to Susan’s FB friend, Cole:
Rigell on the Economy: Fire Pelosi. Tax Cuts. I run a business. Fire Pelosi.
Rigell on Immigration: Leave Arizona Alone!
Rigell on Healthcare: Don’t fund Obamacare. Hehe. I’m clever. Obamacare.
Rigell on Afghanistan: This is Sparta!
Editorial Rules
A letter to the editor in today’s Virginian-Pilot violated what many newspapers consider to be its editorial rules. The letter both bashed one candidate and praised another. I like the rule where the writer has to pick one or the other. It can’t do both. I don’t even want to see “vote for _______” at the end of a hit piece.
The other editorial rule that should be employed is not to print pro- or con- candidate LTEs at least one week prior to the election. The paper needs to allow time for publication of responses to that hit piece.
The Sucking Soul-Crushing Senate
“It sucks,” said Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) (House Democrats Rip Senate Colleagues: Their Lethargy Is Going To Cost Us Seats In 2010), “and I mean it literally. It sucks the energy out of the room and it sucks the urgency out of what we do… The lack of urgency from the Senate on these jobs bill is soul-crushing.”
This reality lends more to my current attitude that elections are a crap shoot. “What’s in it for me?”, is always the prevailing motivator for all too many electeds to demands the public is making to see some legislative inertia. And “while a fair chunk of the Senate was immune from direct, electoral blowback, every member of the House would have to deal with the taint”.
“They say the senate has a luxury of time, six-year cycles for elections,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus. “But these last 18 months have, in memory, have not only been the most frustrating but the inertia created in the Senate is what is jeopardizing Democrats and progressives’ opportunities in the midterms. It is not our lack of action. It has been their lack of action.”
Ironic, but if an anti-incumbent wave tosses a great number of Democrats to the curb this November, it won’t discriminate between those Dems that at least tried to accomplish things like Perriello and those that didn’t.
A Campaign to Get Excited About!
Never mind Glenn Nye’s campaign. Elections around here are a crap shoot anyway. Time and energy is limited so why not get behind a candidate with courage and conviction who needs and appreciates our support.
Here’s two articles of interest supporting Rep. Tom Perriello:
Tom Perriello And Marco Rubio Have Massive Fundraising Quarters (Huffington Post)
Nye, Perriello take different approaches to re-election (RTD)
Here’s also his report on “How the Clean Energy Economy is taking off in the 5th District: A News Round-Up“.
WE MUST RETURN TOM TO WASHINGTON!!! He’s exactly the legislator we need. He represents everything we hold dear. http://www.perrielloforcongress.com/
GOPper Primary Day in Virginia – Open Thread
Writes the RTD: “About 1,000 polling places will be open today when Virginians go to the polls to nominate five Republican congressional candidates.”
“A total of 19 candidates are running in the five districts. Seven are seeking the GOP nod in the 5th District and six in the 2nd District.
Nonparty candidates, who run as independents, must file their candidacy by the end of today.
The general election is Nov. 2. Currently, Virginia has six Democratic congressmen and five Republicans.”
Bearing Drift did some last minute Rigell bashing – outing him as “desperate” with a last minute infusion of $75,000 of his own money into his campaign. But it looks like that blog post got pulled. (Eyes rolling…)
An LTE in today’s Pilot endorses both Councilman Bill “the Bigot” DeSteph and Scott Taylor, praising both with the same brush. Ouch for Scott Taylor! (Eyes rolling…)
Mizusawa in a TV ad says “”As a combat tested conservative, I will… [blah, blah, blah]” WTF is that supposed to mean? A Facebook friends responds… “He is conservative in combat?” (Eyes rolling…)
And I love David Campbell’s comment on the Pilot write up on today’s primary… “How long will it be after the primary before the Hampton Roads Tea Party and the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance reverse themselves and embrace Rigell?” I think that’ll depend on how much Loyola collects. If it’s close, it may enrage them and they drop out. I’ve been told that Teabaggers make up 40% of the 2nd district GOP. I suspect half of that 40% will half-heartedly switch to Rigell while the other half either stays home or switches to Kenny Golden or Glenn Nye.
If Loyola wins, we’re in trouble! So go Rigell! I’m not voting though. Are you?
Playing the Veteran Card: Loyola Breaks the Rules
Over the last few weeks it seems that many veterans eager to use their service as a campaign talking point, have had a little problem with following the rules.
First, we had Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who claimed that he had served in Vietnam when he actually spent the war pursuing a series of deferments before landing in the Marine Corps Reserves. These days you can be pretty sure that any reservist you meet has spent time in a combat zone or will be pretty darn soon. But that wasn’t the case in the 70’s when Blumenthal served. He never got anywhere near Southeast Asia and veterans are justifiably upset at his false claims.
Next up was Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican candidate for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat in Illinois. Kirk has spent the last 9 years claiming that he won the prestigious Naval Intelligence Officer of the Year award in the late 90’s. Turns out that his entire unit received an award for outstanding service from the National Military Intelligence Association, a professional group that is not part of the Department of Defense. Now, that’s nothing to sneeze at and a wonderful award for an intelligence unit, but Kirk’s exaggeration (and it’s a pretty big one), whether intentional or not, is unacceptable.
With that backdrop, I headed out of my home in Chesapeake the other day and, while driving down Virginia Beach Blvd., saw a large campaign sign for Ben Loyola, a Republican candidate for Glenn Nye’s seat in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
Loyola’s campaign sign has his name and it sports a rather large photo of Loyola in his Navy dress whites. I did a double take. As the wife of a Navy veteran and an advocate for military families, I’m perhaps hyper aware of Department of Defense regulations drafted to essentially mirror the Hatch Act. The Department of Defense has a series of directives specifying exactly how active duty personnel and veterans may or may not engage in the political process in order to avoid the appearance of the DoD endorsing a particular party or political viewpoint. Of course, these directives also cover the political campaigns and campaign materials of active duty service members and veterans. (more…)
Democratic Crossover Voting in the 2nd
Bearing Drift announced its endorsement of Bert Mizusawa as the Rethuglican nominee in the 2nd district. Interesting…
My voting record is as clean and pure as Christmas snow. I have never nor ever will vote in a Republican primary. But I do understand the rationale for Democratic crossover voting. You vote for the candidate that the Democratic candidate (in this case Rep. Glenn Nye) would have an easier go at beating.
Scott Rigell is the GOPper chosen son and has more money than God. But he’s built in the same creepy right-wing mold as Bob McDonnell. Will voters make the same mistake twice?
Rigell is tapped into the same network of voters that allowed Jeff McWaters to shellack his opponents. In low turnout primaries, this hard-core righty-tighty group will crawl over broken glass to vote for the annointed one. And had this been a closed primary, Rigell would win by a landslide.
But it’s an open primary on Tuesday, June 8. All registered voters can cast a ballot by showing up at their usual polling places anytime between 6am and 7pm. It’ll be Democratic crossover voters that upset poor Rigell’s apple cart. Ha!
Should Rigell prevail, all that $ will go into his extreme makeover. Independents fell for it last year. Did electing Bob McDonnell teach them any lessons?
Now, if Mizusawa muster a win this Tuesday, he has several huge obstacles to overcome in order to beat Glenn Nye. Number 1 of which is the fact that his wife and children live, work and play in Fairfax County.
With Mizusawa the general election race becomes almost 100% about military issues and campaigns centered around military voters. Advantage goes to Nye who seems to think 100% of his constituents care about nothing else than military issues.
So, if I were voting on June 8th, I’d vote for Mizusawa. How about the rest of you VB Democrats?
If Mizusawa vs. Nye, Then Levandoski vs. Van Hollen
Jay Ford at Alt Daily has been interviewing Repug candidates for the 2nd district. Check out his interview with Bert Mizusawa here.
Now I know this is a military town and family life carries extenuating circumstances but this strikes me as wrong… Mizusawa’s family lives in Fairfax. He obviously maintains a second home and feels rooted here as he grew up in Hampton Roads.
Sophie’s Next Paycheck?
Here’s the conversation had on the way to school with my daughter whose first paychecks in life came from Young Democrats for America in 2008 and Mathieson for Delegate in 2009:
Sophie: “A lot of the kids at school [First Colonial HS] are getting paid to work for this guy Rigell.”
Me: “You know he’s a right-winger Republican, right?”
Sophie: “So I suppose you won’t let me work for him, right?”
I told her it was up to her if she wanted to work for him. I also explained that he’s paying now, but it’s all in run up to a primary that ends June 8. Both camps (Repug and Dem) will again be paying kids in run up to the general in November, and that she could probably get a paying gig with Glenn Nye starting after Labor Day.
Sophie: “But I could make some $ now if I worked for Rigell.”
Me: “Is that what’s it about for you… making $ even if it’s in support of somebody who is terrible and terribly wrong?”
Sophie: “Yeah.”
So we’ll see. This should be an interesting test for my daughter’s God-given (and mother-nurtured) left leanings.
Orange Pancakes
The situation status map of the Gulf Coast spill refers to the things pictured here as “orange pancakes”. And that map shows the line of “orange pancakes”, “silver sheen”, “brown oil” and “tar balls” pushing closer to landfall than indicated yesterday, which was closer still than 48 hours ago.
Yesterday, BP also released 30 seconds of video depicting the “[o]il and gas stream from the riser of the Deepwater Horizon well May 11, 2010. This video is from the larger of two existing leaks on the riser. This leak is located approximately 460 feet from the top of the blowout preventer and rests on the sea floor at a depth of about 5,000 feet”.
It sickens me to think that our Virginia policy makers support drilling off our coast. A spill even a small fraction of the size of this Gulf Coast spill occurring off our Virginia coast would devastate our coastal economy. It is so not worth the risk! These policy makers are in complete denial to a number of things: 1) spills still occur despite all the technological advances (look to the Australian spill as another example of this failure – 3 month long blowout before it could be controlled, a spill almost the footprint size of Virginia, a rig built in 2007); 2) spill response is inadequate and adds insult to injury; and 3) 8 years of oilies controlling the Bush administration has resulted in slipshod Federal regulation and oversight of drilling operations.
A moratorium on new drilling must be enacted!
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