Update: Colorado's own Ken Salazar voted for the bailout. John Hawkins at Right Wing News reports within the past hour that the automotive bailout deal is dead in the U.S. Senate for this year. Confirmed by the Associated Press:A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers has collapsed in the Senate after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts. Michelle Malkin reports only 52 votes in the U.S. Senate, eight short of the 60 needed for cloture to move the auto bailout forward. Good news. If this economic disaster ends up going forward, the Democrats and their UAW sugar-daddies will own it. … [Read more...]
Democrat Leader Tapdances Around His Party’s Push to Kill Secret Ballot
After their impressive electoral victories, the Democrats on Capitol Hill are feeling their oats. Can you blame them? It's payback time to the Big Labor leaders who have bankrolled the campaigns of many a Congressional Democrat. Top of the list therefore? The unpopular and poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would take away workers' rights to a secret ballot in union elections. Watch how House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), appearing on Fox News Sunday, tapdances around Chris Wallace's question contrasting the union bill with the House Democrats' own procedures for electing officers within the caucus: "Why is a secret ballot okay, and desirable, for Congress, but you want to take it away from workers?" (H/T … [Read more...]
Hmmm…Will Al Franken Find His Winning Recount Votes in Time?
Powerline has the latest update on the Norm Coleman-Al Franken recount saga. Not exactly the grand Florida melodrama of eight years ago. Nor does the angry, foul-mouthed comedian seem to have much reason to be less angry than usual. As I write this, Coleman's pre-recount lead of 206 now stands at 210 with 77 percent of the ballots totaled. According to Powerline, though, many of the untallied votes will come from Minneapolis precincts. Stuart Smalley Al Franken has to hope that some of the Twin Cities' deceased cousins in Chicago, Philadelphia, or King County, Washington, might have made a last-minute trek there to cast a vote for him from beyond the grave. ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and darn it, dead people like me.") Maybe a … [Read more...]
House Education Appointments Uninspiring: What Will Storyline Be?
Last week I pondered in a Denver Post op-ed what the effect might be of the statehouse Democrats elevating pro-public school choice Rep. Terrance Carroll to Speaker of the House:Carroll is set to appoint fellow Democrats to the House Education Committee. In recent years, the committee, largely stacked with handpicked union favorites, has killed or watered down many K-12 education bills deemed unacceptable by the union. CEA may lose some of its leverage to bottle up education reform in committee. Well, yesterday came the revelation of the House Education Committee assignments. Michael Merrifield retains the chair, with Judy Solano as the vice-chair. Overall, the membership of the committee appears to move scarcely a whit in the direction … [Read more...]
A Promising Step to Test the Bounds of Colorado Teachers Union Power?
My post-election commentary on the impact for teachers unions and education reform was published today in the Denver Post. A key section to whet your appetite:Peter Groff's Democratic peers voted to re-elect him as state Senate president, and Rep. Terrance Carroll was selected to become the new speaker of the House. … [Read more...]
Defeated but Not Down
It's hard to live up to the promise of live-blogging when there isn't much good news to report. This is the Democrats' night. I'll let them enjoy it. May God give them the grace to govern wisely. Somehow I doubt they will, certainly not from the perspective of life, liberty, and limited government. At least the vittles are good here at the John Bodnar party in Westminster. I couldn't bring myself to visit the somber affair down at the Marriott South. Meanwhile, I'll go look for the few bright spots of the night. Some big tax increases on the ballot maybe going down. (This tells me the state isn't lurching Left as much as it's turning Blue.) Other than that, not much. Don't expect to see a lot of politics on this site in the days … [Read more...]
“Sleaziest” 527 Ad Exposes Union Payroll Abuses, Calls for Amendment 49
Sleazy ads by the Democrats' 527 group Accountability for Colorado? Say it ain't so (from the Rocky Mountain News editorial page):The sleaziest flier this season? Probably the one targeting Republican Kevin Priola, who's running for the District 30 state House seat in Adams County. It claims a judge "issued a restraining order against Priola out of fears that he posed a threat and imminent danger to the victim." Come to think of it, a second anti-Priola flier may be worse. It says that the "judge found [my emphasis] that Priola posed a threat and imminent danger to the victim." In fact, requests for temporary restraining orders are routinely granted just to be on the safe side until a hearing can be held. In this case, the person … [Read more...]
ObamaFraud and the Ongoing Motivation of the GOP Ground Game
There is a ton to catch up on heading into the election's final week: Palestra has the latest on vote fraud committed by Barack Obama staffers camping out in Ohio. Naysayers repeat the mantra that this fraud can't possibly affect the election, because it's on such a small scale. Focused so intently on potential direct impacts, they miss the point. The ever expanding, yet unknowable, scale of voter registration fraud has been part of feeding a public perception. Based on what we know about human nature and behavior, it will have some effect - how so, it's too hard to say. To further understand the concern, think instead about what this says: the bare minimum of electronic controls to cover his online donations, allowing for myriad kinds … [Read more...]
Denver Post Backs Grassroots GOP HD27 Challenger John Bodnar
The Denver Post gave its complete endorsement round-up for Colorado state house races today. It's impossible for us mere mortals to divine the rhyme or reason behind the Post's endorsements. As expected, the center-left editorial board has backed more Democrats than Republicans, and nearly every incumbent. But interestingly, the Post threw its lot behind two Republican challengers over Democrat officeholders. One of them is here in Arvada, where a hard-working, truly grassroots, common-sense candidate has emerged:HD 27 (Jefferson) — First-term incumbent Democrat Sara Gagliardi, a nurse, has focused primarily on health care. But we're more impressed with Republican challenger John Bodnar because of his balanced views on energy and … [Read more...]
The Denver Post and Me Both On Board for Campaign Transparency
In his Sunday column, Denver Post editor Dan Haley discussed "cloak-and-dagger" Democrats:The once-stealth cadre, united under the name Colorado Democracy Alliance, has not only heavily influenced state politics, it's become a model Democrats want to replicate nationally. Nothing they're doing is illegal, or at least it doesn't appear to be, but it has changed politics and policy-making in Colorado for years to come. Republicans last week could only stand by, slack-jawed and jealous. It was the type of operation they figured Democrats had. Only bigger. Politically speaking, the operation is genius, as it funnels money from wealthy donors — sometimes tax-free — to push political causes. But, ultimately, all of this skirting of … [Read more...]
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