In Defense of the Political Insult

by Eileen McGuire-Mahony | 4:31 pm, September 16, 2011

It is one thing to allow some behavior legally and another altogether to smile upon it in polite society. Trying to legislate manners is as stupid and dangerous as trying to lower the murder rate via cotillion lessons.

Will Ken Buck’s extremism beat Barack Obama’s?

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 8:29 am, August 14, 2010

Ken Buck is going be a big target for the Dems, especially on social issues. That could scare away the independents’ votes for Buck. In the eyes of independents, moderates and Democrats, Buck is an extremist on social issues. Indeed, that is how I see him, but i”m willing to put that asside because I’m more worried about Obama’s extremism than Buck’s.

Voters are very unhappy with everything Obama’s doing, and outside groups will hammer Bennet on that.

At this point Buck has the anti-Obama tide at his back. But Bennet has more money and better name recognition as well as the Obama organization behind him.

As I’ve said before, outside groups will make the campaign vicious and nasty. While that will turn off the non confrontational know nothings in the electorate, it will ensure that most voters will know more about the candidates, including a lot of lies, than they ever wanted to know.

This election will be about values, goals and the future of Colorado and America. It will be decided not by traditional Colorado Democrats and Republicans but by the more than a million of us who’ve moved to the state over the last 20 to 25 years. 

You might think of this year’s senate race as a battle between Midwestern Republicans and California Democrats, although it’s probably not as black and white as that. 
Ken Buck is going be a big target for the Democrats, especially on social issues. That could scare away the independents’ votes for Buck. In the eyes of independents, moderates and Democrats, Buck is an extremist on social issues. Indeed, that is how I see him, but I’m willing to put that asside for now because I’m more worried about President Barack Obama’s extremism than Buck’s. The Tea Party didn’t made the difference in the GOP primary. The social issues Republicans did. But nobody but the Democrats want to talk about that. And they already are making it an issue by calling Buck an extremist.
Most Colorado voters are very unhappy with everything Obama’s doing, and outside groups will hammer appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet (D-Washington, DC) on that. Obama and Bennet are doing all they can to give the federal government the power to micromanage our lives and limit our liberties, and that should cost them big in the November elections.
At this point Buck has the anti-Obama tide at his back. But Bennet has more money and better name recognition as well as the well-organized and well-funded Obama campaign organization behind him. 
This will be a fight between Buck’s believers and the government employes and unions who want to use Bennet to control the federal government.
Buck’s supporters want to take our country back.
Bennet’s supporters have strong financial incentives to work for them. Indeed, the federal government is paying them to vote for him.
Government employes and unions want to be their own bosses, and they can do that at the expense of taxpayers by electing Obama Democrats like Bennet. If government employes and unions control the Democrats and the government, they write their own rich tickets at the negotiating tables when union contracts with the federal government come up. No wonder federal employes on average make nearly twice as much as the taxpayers they work for.
They negotiate with themselves and give themselves rich salaries and benefits.
As I’ve said before, outside groups will make the campaign vicious and nasty. While that will turn off the non confrontational know nothings in the electorate, it will ensure that most voters will know more about the candidates—including a lot of lies—than they ever wanted to know.
The Buck versus Bennet election will be about values, goals and the future of Colorado and America. It will be decided not by traditional Colorado Democrats and Republicans but by the more than a million of us who’ve moved to the state over the last 20 to 25 years. We’re a Blue, hard left state until the voters change their minds and turn Colorado Red again.
It is in no way a sure thing that Colorado will turn red in 2010. Buck’s extremism on social issues might keep Colorado Blue. And he can’t move to the center on social issues because he doesn’t want to be called “Both ways Ken.”
Republicans’ only hope is that Bennet’s rubber stamping of Obama’s job-killing extremist positions on spending, taxes, health insurance, energy, climate change and union card checks will help Republicans turn Colorado Red.
Bennet is trying to move to the center, but his hard left record is there for all to see. It’s the record of a senator who represents government workers and his home town of Washington, DC, not Colorado values. It’s the record of a shameless Obama rubber stamp.
If Buck’s supporters want me to elaborate on his extremism, I’ll be glad to. If they’re smart, they won’t ask.
 

Why Ken Buck leads Michael Bennet 46% to 41% in Rasmussen poll

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:36 am, August 13, 2010

Why is Ken Buck leading appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet (D-Washington, DC) by 46% to 43% in Rasmussen Reports’ Aug. 11 survey of 750 likely Colorado voters?
Some reasons that Buck starts the general election campaign with a small lead:
Andrew Romanoff’s attacks on Bennet in the Democrats’ primary were much tougher than Jane Norton’s snips at Buck in the GOP primary. Bennet is living down Washington and Wall Street and a bungled financing deal for the Denver Public Schools. Buck is living down high heels and half a dozen “dumbass” Tea Party birthers.
Bennet has voted for numerous job killing amendments and bills, and he promises to vote for more. He voted for a job killing stimulus bill early last year and for ObamaCare. ObamaCare imposes huge tax increases on all Americans while giving Obama the power to sharply restrict access to care for very sick people and most seniors. After the election, win or lose, Bennet will vote during the lame duck session for job killing climate and energy bills and for job killing union card check bills. He’s a rubber stamp for Obama’s job killing efforts to redistribute wealth in America.
Buck knows Colorado and wants to represent the state. 
Bennet grew up in Washington, DC, and wants to represent the over paid employes in his home town. He wants to create more government jobs and spend more on our failing public education morass.
Even though Bennet made more than $11 million in the  private sector, he wants to crush it. Bennet knows how to give us the same kind of centrally-planned and mismanaged Federal government that destroyed the old Soviet Union. While he enjoys being rich, he thinks being powerful would be more fun and satisfying. Bennet is Washington, DC’s first Senator just as the man he replaced, Sen. Ken Salazar was Mexico’s first Senator.
Ken Buck is very accessible to reporters, editorial writers, columnists and most bloggers. He isn’t afraid to discuss anything with anyone. He believes that if he answers questions honestly, he’ll win.
Michael Bennet is relatively protected by his highly-paid political consultants and handlers, most of whom probably are from out of Colorado. (I don’t really know, but high-powered campaigns usually bring in talent from outside the state.) 
Ken Buck has spent the last year driving to all 64 Colorado counties multiple times. He has friends and believers in every county, and they are working hard for him.
Bennet’s been too busy micro managing our lives in Washington to spend much time in Colorado. He has establishment Democrats who depend on government jobs and handouts working for him in every county.
Financial incentives in the form of jobs and expensive government handouts for party hacks will work to Bennet’s advantage, but true believers will work to Buck’s advantage.
LINKS:
www.Rasmussenreports.com.
Bennet versus Buck. Editorial, The Daily Sentinel.
Bennet, Romanoff join hands, shift target to GOP’s Buck. By Michael Booth.
Colorado Dems make nice as contest gets tougher. By Michael Booth.
Can Ken Buck buck the system? By David Cantanese & Jonathan Martin.

Tom Tancredo’s saying that Scott McInnis has to quit or he’ll run as 3rd party candidate

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 6:52 pm, July 22, 2010

Scott McInnis has to decide.
Is it time for Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper to measure the curtains in the governor’s mansion?
Will he let his kids live with the disgraced McInnis name, which will be hard to live down if doesn’t quit the governor’s race?
Does McPlagiarist plan to spend the rest of his life herding sheep because he won’t dare set foot off the ranch?
How will he explain to his contributors that he not only blew off the Hasan Family Foundation, he blew off people who sent him more than $2 million for his campaign?
Can he stand being the butt of Colorado jokes for the rest of his life. He’s no Bill Owens, Roy Romer or Dick Lamb.
Will he make his living talking about mishandling his disgraceful demise to ethics classes?
Does he really want to let Tom Tancredo use his gubernatorial campaign to sell his Amendment 42? That ballot initiative would make Colorado a UN-Free Zone exempt from any UN treaty that overrides the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.
Today, Tancredo said that if Scott McInnis and Dan Maes don’t promise by next Monday, July 26, that they will drop out of the governor’s race if they win the Aug. 10 primary, he will run as a third party candidate. Tancredo wants the winner of the primary to drop out and let a 24-person vacancy committee name a new candidate.
Tancredo correctly believes that if McInnis or Maes runs against Gov.-elect Hickenlooper, they’ll not only lose to Hick, they’ll take down the entire GOP ticket with them, regardless of national trends.
If Tancredo winds up in a race against McInnis and Hick, 95% of Republicans, including this one, will vote for Tancredo. 80% of independents and 100% of Democrats will vote for Hick.
Scott McInnis must decide what kind of state he wants Colorado to be. He needs to decide how he wants Colorado will remember him. And he has to decide whether he wants to make the McInnis name such a joke that his kids and grand kids will move out of the state to escape his reputation.

Tom Tancredo makes Ken Buck and Jim DeMint look like moderates

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:04 pm, July 8, 2010

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo today said President Obama is the biggest threat to America’s liberty. This brought condescension and flames from the left, and Buck didn’t applaud the statement, which Tancredo made at a Buck fundraiser attended by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). 
While Tancredo obviously reflects the views of a lot of conservatives and independents, his comments shocked the hard left Obama Democrats and a few too cool liberal reporters in the mainstream media.
Actually, Tancredo showed how he can use a few words to make Buck and DeMint look like moderates.

Scott McInnis promises to roll back Democrats’ tax increases,  restore tax exemptions, balance budget

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 3:39 pm, July 4, 2010

Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate, Scott McInnis, has used an interview with the AP to reiterate his promises to roll back the Democrats’ tax increases, reinstate tax exemptions eliminated earlier this year by General Assembly Democrats and to find ways to overcome the state’s looming $175 million budget deficit without reducing “essential services.” If he is elected governor, McInnis will need a legislature that is controlled by Republicans instead of the Democrat-controlled legislature that has helped create Colorado’s budgetary problems. This was McInnis’ first interview with a major news organization. I’ve interviewed him as have small town papers and some broadcast reporters and talk show hosts. Find the AP interview by searching for “Scott McInnis” on the web.

Jane Norton’s campaign gives Ken Buck an opportunity to call her a ‘racist’

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:11 pm, June 29, 2010

Ali Hasan, a supporter of Ken Buck and a Muslim, has taken advantage of a lousy editing job by Jane Norton’s campaign to use an old tactic of the Democratic Party. He’s calling Jane Norton a “racist” because her silly ad calling for an unlikely victory in the war on terrorism calls for a war on Islam. 
Anybody with half a brain should have edited that headline, and anybody who understands the politics of America’s war on terrorism knows that the war is against Islamic fanatics and terrorists. It’s not a war on Islam. This is even though to the trained eye, most Muslims seem to tacitly support their terroristic peers. That is a valid perception because you don’t see much of an outcry against the terrorists in Muslim countries or even among many American Muslims. Hasan is a true patriot, and he understands the politics of the war in America and in the Muslim world, but he won’t admit that Muslims have and deserve a huge PR problem in America.
Indeed, a lot of conservatives may be applauding Norton for saying we’re in a war on Islam, because that’s what it looks like to most Americans whether it should or not. Maybe Norton’s pollsters told her that Americans think we’re in a war on Islam and not just in a war on terrorism?
So Hasan, a failed candidate for Colorado Treasurer and the state House of Representatives, definitely is blowing the Norton campaign’s error out of proportion even though he has a point. The Norton campaign, as it has done in issuing press releases and making claims about Buck and the issues, has again failed to think through its attack on Obama. Sloppy staff work sinks sagging campaigns.
And Norton has managed to offend any Muslims who might have been thinking about voting for her. That’s probably a small number of Republicans.
Obviously Hasan and his family haven’t considered supporting Norton for a long time. So it seems that he  protests way too much. 
Norton’s no racist. That seems to be Hasan’s favorite word.
Hasan’s name calling is as insulting, offensive and wrong as the idea that we’re in a war against 57 Muslim countries and against Islam. That a Buck supporter is calling Norton a racist won’t help Buck in the GOP primary. 
I’m neutral in the Buck-Norton contest.

Why did Ken Buck get only 77% of votes to Cleve Tidwell’s 15%?

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 3:08 pm, May 22, 2010

Another big surprise out of the Colorado Republicans’ state assembly. Tea Party and social issues candidate, Ken Buck received only 77% of the votes to Clive Tidwell’s 15%. And Jane Norton wasn’t even on the ballot. 
What happened?

Liveblogging Cory Gardner, Tom Lucero, Dean Madere at CD-4 Assembly

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 2:06 pm, May 21, 2010

The Embassy Suites in Loveland is packed with Republicans from four Congressional districts. I’m live blogging the most contested district, CD-4. Cory Gardner is hoping to keep Tom Lucero and Dean Madeare off the Aug. 10 primary ballot. 
State GOP Chairman Dick Wahdams says that who is nominated by the GOP will be the next Congressman from CD-4.
Wadhams tells me that Rand Paul, the controversial GOP Senate candidate in Kentucky, will have to back track on his assertion that businesses should have the right to discriminate against customers for any reason. The issue will blow over and “he’ll be ok,” Wadhams predicted.
The assembly is taking care of official business. Then it will nominate regents and finally Congressional candidates.
Preliminary: 546 delegates.
Jane Norton gets cool reception. Repeats her speech that outlines her positions as outline on her web site. More applause when she’s done.
Scott McInnis. Hick is phasing out tax increases. Hickenlooper supports open borders and sanctuary cities. Repeats his positions on abortion, illegals, TABOR, taxes and unions.
Ken Buck gets standing ovation from home district crowd. Makes strong statement on border security. Support senators like Jim DeMint who want to fight big government. Several delegates stand and applaud after he finishes.
Senate candidate, Steve Barton, speaks about currency devaluation and need to reduce the deficit.
State Treasurer candidate Ali Hasan. Uses his prop and talks about bail out banks. 
State Treasurer candidate J. J. Ament gets big home district cheer. Sells his expertise and record. Crowd supports him.
Dan Maes gets standing ovation from six or seven delegates. Sells his plan, which is described on his web site. Like Norton and McInnis, promises to move against illegal immigration. Hot topic here. Gets standing O from about 20 delegates.
Former CD-4 Rep. and Senate candidate, Bob Schaffer, gets warm welcome. Says he misses Rep.Mariyln Musgrave, who was beat by Betsy Markey (D-CD 4). Gives award to Musgrave. Show film clip of Musgrave promo. GOP death wish or what?
John Suthers gets standing O. 
Breadth and scope of federal power will be the issue in 2010 elections. Dems after him for standing up against ObamaCare. There is no healthcare power in the Constitution. Big cheer. There is a commerce power to allow Congress to regulate interstate commerce, but Congress is for first time trying to tell citizens to buy health insurance. If that is upheld by the Courts, federalism will be over. It is a fight well worth fighting. Biggest standing O of the day.
Nominatons for CU regents. Two candidates. I’m not covering that race.
591 delegates credentialed. 177 is the magic number
Cory Gardner is being introduced.
Lots of supporters go to front with him. Dick Brown nominates Gardner. 
Mark Hillman seconds. Weld county Sheriff John Cook seconds.
Cory Gardnet gets standing O from Eastern Plains delegates. Good speaker. Strong campaigner. Impressive. Should be able to beat Markey. Best speaker I’ve heard all year on the campaign trail. Crowd likes the speech.
Tom Lucero nominated by Dan Nenowski (sp), a small business owner.
Jabs Gardner as a former Democrat who campaigned against Bob Schaffer eight years ago.
 

Ryan Frazier says immigration reform should not include amnesty

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 8:47 pm, April 25, 2010

Ryan Frazier, the leading GOP candidate to oppose incumbent Democrat Ed Perlmutter in Congressional district seven, told the first of his town hall meetings in Aurora Thursday evening that Congress needs to pass an immigration reform law that enforces border security laws, bans amnesty for illegal immigrants who are in the country and provides temporary work visas for seasonal workers.
People who are in the country illegally should be sent home before they are allowed to apply for permanent visas, or they should pay a “big fee” for such visas, he told about 20 people at the meeting.
Financial reform also is needed, but it shouldn’t include the $50 billion bailout fund that is or was in the bill, he said. The failed government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also should be regulated by a financial reform bill, he said. He asked why new regulatory agencies would do any better than the 20 or so agencies that failed to protect the country from the current financial crisis.
After the meeting, Frazier told me that he is 100% opposed to a value added tax, which is being promoted by President Obama and Congressional Democrats.
Frazier said he would support a simplified tax and a flat tax.
By expanding government with the stimulus bill, ObamaCare and the proposed new financial regulatory agencies, Frazier said, Congress is giving banks incentives to hire more lobbyists. Any time Congress increases the size of government, it increases the amount of money that is spent on lobbyists and the power of special interests, Frazier said.
Attorney General John Suthers will speak at Frazier’s next town hall meeting Monday, April 26, at Colorado Christian University. The meeting will start at 5 p.m. Call 303-333-7926 to find out where on the campus the meeting will be held.

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