Friday’s political round-up

January 5, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who still hasn’t officially announced his presidential campaign yet, picked up a key Iowa endorsement yesterday when Kim Lehman, the current president and executive director of Iowa Right to Life, “signed on to Brownback’s upcoming Iowa leadership committee.” Lehman also took a subtle shot at the other GOP frontrunners, saying, “While other candidates are in the process of defining and refining their position at the start of this campaign, Senator Brownback has been principled, consistent and unwavering in his support for the right to life.”

* The Columbia State reported today that John McCain “has locked up nearly every major Republican donor in South Carolina to lead his 2008 finance committee, including some of the top names of President Bush’s 2000 campaign.”

* Former Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who retired rather than seek re-election in 2006, is reportedly considering a gubernatorial run in 2010. Dayton acknowledged that he wasn’t “as effective as I hoped to be when I arrived,” in part because he lacked seniority in what was the minority party. “The Senate or the Legislature is a very reactive institution, and I think I’m much more effective personally and professionally being more proactive,” he told reporters.

* Abortion-rights champion Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL, is expected to endorse John Edwards’ presidential campaign.

* It was easy to overlook after Dems went +30 for the campaign cycle, double the number of seats they needed to reclaim the majority, but CQ noted that it was almost much worse for the Republicans. “Of the 202 Republicans sworn in Thursday as members of 110th Congress, 15 maintained GOP control of their seats by margins of just 3 percentage points or less. On the other side of the aisle, just two of the 233 members of the new Democratic majority were winners of contests in which they retained their party’s control by similarly razor-thin margins.”

John Edwards knows a lot about poverty, after all, he’s helped throw a lot of people into it with:

– his co-sponsorship of H-1b visas,

– his support for illegal aliens,

– his vote for MFN-China

but what about stuff like iraq war and the patriot act?

well, he voted for them too

About the only thing you can say for Edwards is, he spent so much time running for president that he didnt have time to do more damage as senator

You’ve got to ask yourself – ‘what did he do, with the power he had, when he had it?

  • Oooh yes. Please let Yosemite Sam get the nomination. It might be the first time in its history that the Log Cabin Republicans not only refuse to endorse a GOP nominee, but put a price on his head.

    tAiO

    p.s. Who will rid us of this turbulent pest?!

  • Abortion-rights champion Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL, is expected to endorse John Edwards’ presidential campaign.

    Nice to see a presidential candidate of either party standing four-square with a Supreme Court decision which has become fixed law since 1973 and with which 70% of the American voters agree.

    Lotta courage out there among our leaders and would-be leaders.

  • I think Andy F is using reverse psychology – getting us to feel sorry for Edwards, so that we go look up his real record and start to support him.

  • I have resisted numerous opportunities to feed the troll, but there is one thing that needs clarification and i can’t resist any longer. The idea that H-1b visas throw people into poverty is just truly, deeply, nuts. Now, it is true that the shortage of and restrictions on H-1b’s may cause poverty. I do work for numerous tech companies and other companies with highly specific needs in midwest states with declining populations. There simply are not enough native citizens that even apply, much less that are suitable candidates, for many of the technical positions they need to fill. Therefore, the H-1b workers are not displacing any domestic workers. Without H-1b candidates to fill some of those spots, however, the entire company would have to close or relocate for lack of adequate workforce. That would do greivous harm to the entire local economy and would put many citizens out of work. This issue is one where zealous xenophobia (a nice way of saying “flaming ignorant bigotry”) completely impairs common sense and results in the very harm the John Birchers claim to want to avoid. The technical/specialist workforce shortage in middle America is very real. H-1b’s are the only way to keep the economy functional in many of these American cities.

    Why does Andy F hate middle America?

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