Tuesday’s political round-up

February 27, 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:

* As if the nominating process needed another big state to move up its presidential primary, New Jersey came one step closer to following California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois yesterday. A state Assembly committee unanimously approved a measure to move New Jersey’s primary from June to the first Tuesday in February. The proposal has already passed the state Senate and received Gov. Jon Corzine’s (D) endorsement.

* Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who’s been exploring the possibility of running for president for about two years now, raised the specter of running on a “hybrid” presidential ticket that would include a Dem. USA Today reported, “[Hagel] said that if he ran he would seek the Republican nomination. Yet he’s also talking up Unity08. That’s a plan by a bipartisan group of political operatives to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket on the Internet and offer voters an alternative to the Democratic and Republican candidates next year. ‘I think it’s a very intriguing enterprise,’ Hagel said.”

* In Kentucky, Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) is struggling mightily to maintain GOP support for re-election in the face of primary challenge from former Rep. Anne Northup (R). Yesterday, Fletcher’s lieutenant governor, Steve Pence, endorsed Northup and said Fletcher is unworthy of a second term.

* In Colorado, former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) has filed his paperwork with the state in order to run for the Senate next year. It will be an open-seat contest with Sen. Wayne Allard (R) retiring, and McInnis will likely face former Rep. Bob Schaffer and retired Air Force Major Gen. Bentley Rayburn in a GOP primary. Rep. Mark Udall (D) is widely considered the likely Democratic candidate.

* And in New Hampshire, a new Granite State Poll shows both of the state’s U.S. Senators slipping in popularity. Judd Gregg (R) now finds his approval rating down to 48%, from 53% in the fall. More importantly, John Sununu (R), who is up for re-election next year, has seen his standing drop from 50% to 45%. In general, incumbents who enter a race below 50% are considered vulnerable.

Yeah, I can see the Democrats voting for a Joe-Lieberman clone.

Right.

Can’t blame Hagel for looking for some way to get clear of the toxic Republicrook brand name, though. And I’d say if Hagel actually did go after Bush with a meat cleaver instead of being the yappy dog that never bites, MAYBE he’d have a shot.

But I think it’s almost too late for him, any swing to the left now would look suspiciously opportunistic.

  • That’s a plan by a bipartisan group of political operatives to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket on the Internet and offer voters an alternative to the Democratic and Republican candidates next year. ‘I think it’s a very intriguing enterprise,’ Hagel said.”

    Ahem anyone who is left of center and votes for the extremely Right Wing Hagel is an idiot…….Hagel other than his tenuous stance on Iraq is as far right wing as it comes…be careful what you wish for

  • Conceivably the Republicans face total repudiation and disaster next year – what Dem in his/her right mind would run on a ticket with a Republican at the head – doing the things that Republicans have to do to appeal to their base?

    ok,. I mean, besides Joe Lieberman, that is …

  • ‘I think it’s a very intriguing enterprise,’ Hagel said.

    For the record, Abraham Lincoln had a Democrat as a running mate in 1864. But things were a little crazy at the time.

  • Hagel is the one Republican candidate, who is genuinely dangerous to Democratic prospects in 2008, because he is smart, articulate and has been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and is genuinely conservative enough for the Republican base.

    Every other Republican candidate for President — in fact, every Republican candidate for everything down to dog-catcher — is tainted by Bush, Iraq and whatever comes next. All of the so-called moderate candidates, and I include McCain as well as Giuliani and Romney, have Iraq and flip-flopping both. Hagel has neither.

    Whatever-comes-next is the lead anchor around every Republican, who has supported Bush on Iraq, which is every Republican except Hagel. Bush is an incompetent moron, who will just keep pushing this country into disaster. Whether it is another Katrina or a debacle in Iraq or a debacle with Iran or something else, there will be an additional Bush disaster. And, Hagel won’t be touched, even as the rest of the Republicans become self-poisoning.

  • Hey CB, check out how our buddy Egypt is treating its Bloggers:

    An Egyptian court has sentenced a dissident blogger to four years in prison for insulting Islam and defaming President Hosni Mubarak. […]

    Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom organisation, accused the Egyptian regime of breaking a promise to liberalise press laws. “Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences,” a spokesman said. “Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”

    Amnesty International joined the criticism, describing the outcome of the case as “yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt.”

    http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1425345.ece

    Freedom is on the march. And how much money do we give them every year?

  • Hagel is the one Republican candidate, who is genuinely dangerous to Democratic prospects in 2008, because he is smart, articulate and has been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and is genuinely conservative enough for the Republican base.

    That’s the problem right there – regardless of any of his other attributes, he’s “conservative enough for the Republican base”. In considering the GOP contenders – all of whom are running to the right – I’m trying to image a scenario where that will win any blue states. I just don’t think at this point, that people in the remaining blue states have any trust left for anything on the conservative side – “conservative” now means mixing religion and government, above all – but also means reckless foreign policy and reckless fiscal policy, cronyism, putting party before country, rejection of science, denial of global warming, pandering to big business at the expense of jobs, and a generalized intolerance of just about anybody who doesn’t fit into the conservative mold. Hardly the model for good governance – and after 8 years of Bush/Rove-ism and reactionary Southern ascendency, it’s hard to see how anything in the conservative agenda fits anything that’s important to those in the blue states.

    On the other hand, the Republicans will have to figure out how to keep states such as Ohio and Colorado from going blue.

    The only Republicans who will be “genuininely dangerous” to Democrats will be a moderate Republican who runs a decidedly middle-of-the-road, “good government”-type campaign – which is something that the Republican base isn’t interested in at all and which none of the GOP contenders are bothering to position themselves. I can’t imagine how running a “conservative” is going to win over any blue states.

  • It’s an interesting idea but Hagel’s done little to match his rhetoric, and his actual voting habits have been solidly pro-Bush.

    The other huge thing is that there’s nothing the religious right hates more than an apostate and Hagel is already considered that by quite a few. His presidential bid is very much lower-tier so Dobson and friends haven’t had to give him the smackdown yet. But as soon as he becomes a necessary target, they’ll dogpile him in a heartbeat.

    Great example of how the religious right treats a Judas (NRA in this case, but they’re entirely synonymous):
    This is what happened when an extremely popular hunter who’s been writing for 40 years objected to people using assault rifles to shoot prairie dogs (yes, I’m serious) and called them “terrorist rifles.”

  • Probably apropos of nothing… but the front-loaded primary schedule next year will mean that in a year at the very longest, we’ll know who the nominees are. Then there will about six months until the conventions–call it Buyer’s Remorse Season. And as the country starts to gag on the two individuals selected by a few thousand Iowans, groups like Unity08 suddenly just might seem very viable. One to file away.

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