Senator McCain came to New Hampshire this weekend to co-host a town hall meeting with Kelly Ayotte the former New Hampshire AG. Senator McCain is supporting Ayotte’s bid to fill the empty Senate seat being vacated by Senate Republican Judd Gregg. The first question was to Kelly Ayotte about her recent trip to the VA. Ayotte, whose husband is an Iraq war veteran, voiced her support for a VA hospital in New Hampshire. The second question was to Senator McCain asking if the current health care bill was passed could it be repealed. While Senator McCain said that the passage of the bill would trigger a nationwide movement to repeal the bill, he also stated that defeating the current bill was far better option. He urged people speak up and speak out against the bill as strong opposition by the American people (our representatives constituents) is now what is most likely to influence the House and Senate. The questions that followed were in large part about the either health care, the huge amount of government spending, the skyrocketting national deficit, or some combination of these issues.

Some of the points made by Ayotte and McCain included:

• The health care bill will collect money from tax payers for four years before offering any benefits in a rather blatant budgetary gimmick.
• The huge amount of government spending is an act of generational theft, leaving future generations with a massive debt to pay off.
• Cuts in payroll and corporate tax rates would be far more effective in stimulating economic growth than government spending.
• The process involved in formulating the health care bill has revealed the broken promises of the Obama adminstration in terms of transparency, bipartisanship, and backroom political dealings i.e. Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, Gator Aid, etc.

Senator McCain was back in his element hosting a town hall in New Hampshire, and Kelly Ayotte had a solid performance too stating that she would regularly conduct town hall meetings as a NH Senator. Representative Hodes, her likely Democratic competitor, has been highly reluctant to hold town hall meetings. For another take on the McCain Ayotte town hall NECN filed the report, McCain: Ayotte the ‘next generation’ of leadership

You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.

–The Wizard to the Cowardly Lion

There are different types of wisdom. One of them, conventional wisdom, can sometimes be neither wise nor conventional. I am not saying that the four-term Senator from Arizona is a wizard or that the one term senator from South Carolina is a cowardly lion. I guess I just used the quote because the wizard of Oz used “my friend”, an annoying phrase used often by John McCain.

The reason for writing this diary about these two Senators running for re-election in 2010 has nothing to do with the horse-race aspect of the election. As much as I detest McCain and admire DeMint both of them are going to be re-elected. My reason for writing this diary is to focus on the money that these two men have raised for other people in 2010. Winning support for a position of leadership has a lot to do with how much campaign support you have provided to your colleagues. John McCain has a PAC, Country First, that has contributed to four candidates for the US Senate. Jim DeMint has two PACS, MINT and Senate Conservatives Fund. The tables below indicate the names of the recipients, and the amount of dollars they received. The Florida US contest is extremely important for determining if Sen. DeMint is rising in the US Senate and Sen. McCain is dropping in the leadership department.

The real comparison between these two men is a choice between having leadership that is authoritarian and progressive (McCain) or libertarian and conservative (DeMint). I am personally rooting for the latter.

The early 20th century progressives were authoritarian in prohibiting booze, and the early 21st century progressives are authoritarian in prohibiting lobbiests campaigning, and consumers buying incandescent light bulbs. As a progressive they know they are smarter and must decide for all of the rest of us what is in our best interest. They lost the argument with the passage of the 21st amendment then, and they are losing the argument incrementally with Supreme Court decisions now. We always need to remain vigilant against these authoritarians. They may go off and hide for a while, but they will be back when they think they see an opening.

I recently watched the movie, Fountainhead. I recommend this movie especially two main characters, Ellsworth Toohey and Howard Roark, for showing the authoritarian progressive vs the conservative libertarian. a Cliff-Notes excerpt:

Toohey knows that a Fascist or Communist state requires a citizenry willing to obey. He can establish a dictatorship only if the majority of individuals are willing to give up personal autonomy - to surrender their minds to a leader. This is the two-pronged goal that he attempts to reach: destroy the independent thinkers like Roark, and, by convincing individuals to surrender their judgment and values, turn them into followers like Keating. A dictator requires a flock of sheep; he cannot hold power over a citizenry of independent men.

Toohey has a clear vision of his role in the collectivist state. He himself is not the brute of physical force who gains dominance by unleashing a reign of terror. His role, rather, is to be the intellectual advisor behind the throne. The brute will hold physical power over the masses, and Toohey will hold spiritual power over the brute. Toohey is a behind-the-scenes puppet master, who surreptitiously wields the real power - and this will be his place in the totalitarian state he seeks.

source

Country First PAC John McCain

Cross-posted at The Minority Report

Hussein the Usurper is, in his own words, offering “up the oldest Washington stunt in the book”, by creating his blue ribbon panel to analyze the country’s deficit problem.

In September of 2008, then Illinois senator, Barack Hussein Obama, attacked John McCain for creating a commission to study the nation’s debt. Here are Hussein the Usurper’s own words:

Just today, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book – you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. But here’s the thing – this isn’t 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out. I’ll provide it, John McCain won’t, and that’s the choice for the American people in this election.

On February 18, 2010, president and Marxist in Charge, Barack Hussein “the Usurper” Obama, announced he is using “the oldest Washington stunt in the book”.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order creating an 18-member bipartisan panel to suggest steps to reduce the federal government’s record debt and deficits that he said threaten to “hobble our economy.”

Nobody should be surprised.  America elected an International Marxist and America is getting more International Marxism.  Marxism is a lie, so it follows, Marxists lie.

America, you wanted it; you got it.  Now the rest of us will pay.

God help us!

I’m happy to see John McCain fight for his political life in Arizona, but stuff like this means I must go for McCain over Hayworth.

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who on Monday officially entered Arizona’s Republican race against Sen. John McCain, defended his recent call for President Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate, suggesting his questions stem not from conspiracy theories that Obama was really born in Kenya but from concerns about identity theft.

During a Monday evening interview on CNN (watch it here), Hayworth pointed to the case of fugitive Vietnam War protester Howard Mechanic, who in 2000 sought a seat on the Scottsdale City Council using the alias “Gary Tredway.” After he was exposed, Mechanic eventually received a pardon from President Bill Clinton.

“All I’m saying is, for every race across the country, especially with identity theft in the news, it would be great that people can confirm who they say they are,” Hayworth said.

“Identity theft? I mean, come on,” an incredulous CNN host Campbell Brown said, laughing. “Is that honestly what this is about?”

The Birther issue is a non-starter and if Hayworth is going to pursue it, he needs to be beaten. No respectable politician can run on this issue.

Joe Wurzelbacher aka Joe The Plumber was thrust into the national spotlight during the last presidential election when he asked Obama about taxes, to which Obama famously said it’s good to “spread the wealth around”.

Joe became an unlikely champion of average Americans and even went on the road with the McCain campaign. Joe went from being an unlicensed plumber to being a media star. He was booked on all the best shows, became a correspondent for Pajamas Media, and even “wrote” a book.

Fast forward to today and the plumber turned political pundit is bitter and angry. He now says McCain “used” him and really screwed his life up.

He also said angrily that he no longer supports Sarah Palin because she’s planning to campaign for John McCain. “He’s no public servant”, Joe says of McCain.

Keep in mind Joe said all of this during a speech endorsing state Representative Sam Rohrer at his Mobilize for Liberty event in Harrisburg.

Rohrer is allegedly one of more than 200 politicians seeking Joe The Plumber’s endorsement, of which he’s only backing five so far.

Yet, when it was pointed out to Joe that he would be a big fat nobody if it weren’t for John McCain and Sarah Palin he said, “I don’t owe him sh*t. He really screwed up my life is how I look at it.”

I’m not sure how becoming a coveted endorsement of more than 200 politicians and having national media access has screwed up Joe’s life, but I guess I’ll have to take his word for it.

It seems to me that Joe has let his newly acquired fame go to his head. He reminds of the Tommy Gunn character in Rocky V. Like Gunn, Joe The Plumber is biting the hand that fed him.

I’m no fan of John McCain, but I’m a big fan of loyalty. I’m a big fan of remembering the people who got you where you are. I believe in dancing with the one that brung you.

I respect Sarah Palin for supporting John McCain. They may have differing political philosophies, but she’s not going to throw the man who took a chance on her under the bus. That’s the way people with class treat their friends. Furthermore, John McCain was a strong voice against ObamaCare — even if he was wrong on immigration and interrogation.

Joe doesn’t have to support John McCain, but he doesn’t have to publicly trash him either. Joe is acting like the hobo you give $20 bucks to and as you’re walking away he hits you over the head and takes your wallet. I may not like phony Conservatives like John McCain, but I really don’t like arrogant, backstabbing punks.

Joe doesn’t owe John McCain sh*t, but Joe wouldn’t have sh*t if it weren’t for John McCain and he would do well to remember that little fact.

Orginally posted at The Hot Joints

The RNC Resolution Concerning Party Support of Candidates:

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have recently supported primary or special election candidates who professed allegiance to the Republican Party but who, as their circumstances changed and to serve their own interests, turned against the Republican Party and became or supported a candidate of another party; and

WHEREAS, many Republican leaders and Republican organizations were undermined and lost credibility as a result of the actions of such candidates; and

Just a few questions.  Does this statement apply to Rep. Mark Kirk who is a current candidate seeking the Republican US Senate nomination in Illinois?  If so, does this mean all those - John McCain, John Shimkus, Aaron Schock, Tim Johnson, Pat Brady, and others - have to drop their support and endorsements of Mark Kirk?