Gary Aminoff, on his TV interview show, “The Aminoff Effect” interviewed Tom Del Beccaro who is running for United States Senate in California to replace Barbara Boxer.
Continue reading “TOM DEL BECCARO, CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE”
Republicans, particularly Republican Senators, should not be encouraging the enemy in time of war.
In a previous post I urge everyone to Take the Pledge.
In a post this morning, Hugh Hewitt relates that the urgency to contact your Senator has increased. They have not been listening. According to an article in the Washington Post today:
The committee’s partisan vote strengthened the hand of Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and a bipartisan group of senators backing a less forceful resolution of opposition.
Warner and his co-sponsors, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), went to the Senate floor last night to introduce their resolution of opposition, brandishing a raft of new co-sponsors, including Democrats Ken Salazar (Colo.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), as well as Republicans Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.)….
But several Republicans indicated they would vote for a resolution of opposition if the language were toned down. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a presidential candidate, said he was in talks with Warner on a resolution he could embrace. Others were still awaiting some sign of compromise from the president.
According to Hugh:
The Warner resolution encourages the enemy, and that is according to the testimony of General David Petraeus. Not only should it have zero co-sponsors, there should be zero GOP support for any of its first cousin resolutions. In my interview with him yesterday, Norm Coleman indicated that he will reconsider support for the resolution, and every Republican named in this story needs to hear from you as well. E-mailers tell me that Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and George Voinovich of Ohio are also among those who were considering the Warner resolution prior to the Petraeus testimony.
Please spend the day working the phones and the e-mail to let these senators and the GOP leadership know that the Warner resolution is unacceptable.
Sign the pledge and ask your friends and family to do so as well (more than 6,000 have done so in 18 hours.). The country is not defeatist, does support victory in Iraq, and most certainly does not support encouraging the enemy.
Senator Kyl told me that “I think my colleagues have their ears to the ground,” but they are clearly not hearing from the core of the party, a core that will not shrug off a vote for the Warner resolution or any resolution that undermines the policy already in place and supported by not just the President but also by General Petraeus.
Please tell the candidates in the ’08 cycle especially –Alexander, Collins, Coleman and Smith and would-be presidential nominee Brownback—that a vote for the Warner resolution is the end of support for them and the NRSC.
Senator Alexander’s phone: (202) 224-4944. His e-mail is here.
Senator Brownback’s phone: (202) 224-6521. His e-mail is here.
Senator Coleman’s phone: (202) 224-5641.His e-mail is here.
Senator Collins’ phone: (202) 224-2523. Her e-mail is here.
Senator Smith’s phone: (202) 224-3753. His e-mail is here.
Senator Voinovich’s phone: (202) 224-3353. His e-mail is here.
The GOP leadership, which needs to announce that no resolution will be voted on that encourages the enemy, and that includes the Warner resolution or any cousin of the Warner resolution:
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s phone is (202) 224-2541. His e-mail is here.
Minority Whip Trent Lott’s phone is (202) 224-6253. His e-mail is here.
Senator Jon Kyl’s phone is (202) 224-4521. His e-mail is here.
Senator John Ensign’s phone is (202) 224-6244. His e-mail is here.
When you are done calling and writing, start over, and ask your friends to do so as well, beginning with the pledge.
I don’t know what these senators are thinking this morning, but they clearly haven’t been listening to you. No debate will begin or vote be taken until next week, so invest some time in supporting the troops by bringing clarity to these senators: You can’t win a war by encouraging the enemy and undercutting the commander on the ground in Iraq or the Commander-in-Chief in the White House. Not to understand that is a great way to send an irreversible message to core supporters that their time and money is best spent elsewhere.
It will discourage me to begin the ’07-08 campaign cycle aware that I won’t be able to support with time or money some very fine senators or, in all likelihood, the NRSC. But victory in war trumps party. The senators may say they are voting their conscience. So will I.
So will I.
I’m with Hugh Hewitt on this:
If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the President has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.
Take the pledge, and tell the NRSC:
NRSC
Ronald Reagan Republican Center
425 2nd Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.675.6000
webmaster@gopsenators.com
Then e-mail Senator McConnell and Senator Ensign, and tell them too. Senator McConnell’s phone number is (202) 224-2541. Senator Ensign’s phone number is (202) 224-6244.
GOP activists and donors built the GOP senate delegation, as well as the majority that was punted away. They can disassemble it as well, and GOP support for a neoappeasement resolution is exactly the way to start that process.
The Congressional GOP has to realize it cannot have it both ways –you can’t be for victory after you were against it.
And GOP senators –alone or as a group– definitely cannot count on the support of the base if any of them vote for appeasement.
Go to this site to sign the pledge.
Democrats, led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D.,Iowa)and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D.,Conn), offer a proposal to amend Senate Rules to eliminate all filibusters, not just those against judicial nominees. The sponsors of the proposal announced that “the filibuster rules are unconstitutional” and that “the filibuster is nothing short of legislative piracy.”
Despite its support by senior senators you didn’t hear about this proposal from the ads by Moveon.org blasting Republican Senators. You also didn’t hear about it from Democratic Senators, like Sen. Lieberman who today held a press conference to criticize Republican Senators for attempting to restore Senate tradition to the judicial confirmation process.
Why? Because it was proposed in 1995.
Read Sean Rushton’s article on “Filibuster Rules: Then and Now” for an interesting treatise on how, when it suits the Democrats, they are willing to change Senate Rules, but when it isn’t in their best interest they will oppose any rule change. The history of the filibuster is interesting.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R.,AZ) said today that Sen. Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R.,TN)will try to negotiate with Democrats to arrive at some reasonable accommodation to permit the President’s judicial nominees to have a fair up or down vote. Failing that, he will propose that the filibuster rules be changed to permit a simple majority of the Senate to be able to confirm a judicial nominee. Sen. Kyl said that it will come to a vote in the next few weeks if something can’t be worked out.
BEAR TO THE RIGHT 