Posted at 5:44pm on May 14, 2008 Ohio AG Marc Dann resigns

Pressured out by his own party

By Kevin Holtsberry

It seems that Marc Dann finally realized that the gig was up and he couldn't hang on:

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann resigned this afternoon, just hours after the inspector general’s office launched a raid on his office.

The embattled Democrat made the announcement in a joint appearance with Gov. Ted Strickland in the governor’s cabinet room, next to his Statehouse office. The governor called it a “sad day” for Ohio but said he is “pleased” Dann quit.

It's up to Strickland to appoint a successor until Ohioans vote in November on someone to fill out the final two years of Dann’s term. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher has been among those mentioned as a possible successor.

Dann’s decision comes after a week and-a-half of increasing pressure to get Dann out of office, and a little more than five weeks after The Dispatch revealed sexual harassment complaints by two women employees against their supervisor in the attorney general's office, a longtime Dann friend.

Investigators descended on Dann’s offices in the Rhodes Tower shortly after 11 this morning, defying Dann’s legal arguments that they had no right to investigate his office.

The situation is thick with irony. Dann was one of the loudest critics of former Governor Bob Taft and hammered Ohio Republicans on the so called "culture of corruption" theme over and over. Surprised when his tactics worked, he found himself elected to a critical statewide office lacking the competence and leadership skills to do the job.

Now he finds himself forced to resign after articles of impeachment were filled against him by his own party and his office was searched by the inspector general in the aftermath of revelations that his office was rife with sexual harassment and improper relationships; including an affair between Dann and his scheduler. All Taft did was play golf with friends and fill out some paperwork wrong!

That old adage that you need to be loved or feared is applicable here. Dann's bombastic style and lack of judgment alienated even fellow Democrats. Lacking power or friends he soon found himself without a political card to play.

Ohio Democrats appreciate the fact that they have gained the power they have - they control four out of five statewide offices but the GOP controls the General Assembly - thanks to some screw ups by Republicans and an appearance of moderation and stability. There was no way they were going to let someone like Marc Dann put that at risk.

The netroots might take note that angry attack style politics is not how Democrats have found success in critical swing states. And if the party doesn't find you useful they will kick you to the curb without blinking an eye.

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Posted at 4:20pm on May 14, 2008 Obama will preen and eat waffles, but not answer questions

By Soren Dayton

Today in Michigan, via Marc Ambinder:


Instead of answering a reporter's question, he calls her "sweetie" and says that he'll do a press avail, but, recalling a certain waffle incident, he never does. You see, he preens for the media rather than talk to them. Video after the jump.

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Posted at 4:00pm on May 14, 2008 Polluting the Message

Always Let the Right Hand Know What the Left Hand is Pandering

By Mark I

Sen. John McCain has called for a summer gas tax holiday to help consumers dealing with the rising cost of filling their tanks. Most observers, including this one, think that the temporary aspect of McCain’s suspension makes it nothing more than political pandering. But we’ll accept that because of the political strategy inherent in making this proposal. It’s a good suggestion inasmuch as it forces his Democratic rivals to go on record as for or against higher gas prices. Sen. Hillary!™ Clinton recognized the political strategy implicit in McCain’s call and quickly endorsed the idea, while the Senator from H.O.P.E.™, Barack Obama, did not. In the process Obama painted himself as more comfortable than McCain or Clinton with high gas prices. So far, so good.

But then Sen. McCain stole the thunder away from his own political jujitsu by coming out in favor of a cap and trade system for carbon emissions. Leaving aside the catastrophic economic implications such a policy would have, and sidestepping the question of whether man-made global warming is real and reversible; calling for this policy on the heels of proposing a gas tax suspension is both bad politics and poor message craft. The two proposals contradict one another and make the Democrats' message look coherent by comparison.

Read on…

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Posted at 3:51pm on May 14, 2008 My, what a refreshing glass of cola.

I can't tell you the brand, lest it be seen as advertising...

By Moe Lane

...but it's one of the ubiquitous ones. Mmmm. Tasty, tasty carbonated beverage...

IF CLINTON DOES NOT WIN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY NOMINATION, 29% OF DEMOCRATS SAY SHE SHOULD RUN AN INDEPENDENT CAMPAIGN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.

(Via Hot Air)

(pause)

Excuse me while I go get a towel for the keyboard.

(longer pause)

Sorry: I still got nothing that can top that.

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Posted at 3:04pm on May 14, 2008 Poppies in Iraq and Arabs in Afghanistan: Did Barack Obama “Pull a McCain” in his SpeechTuesday Night ?

No -- What he did was far worse.

By Jeff Emanuel

You could say that Barack Obama "pulled a John McCain" Tuesday night, with his verbal gaffes regarding Iraq, Afghanistan, Arabic-speaking translators, and the War on Terror.

You could say that -- but you would be wrong.

“Conflating” Sunni and Shi’a?

Almost two months ago, pundits and politicians alike descended upon Mr. McCain with accusations of confusion, a lack of touch, and even outright dishonesty when the Republican presidential nominee said that al Qaeda fighters in Iraq have been receiving funding, training, and equipment from Iran during the last year-plus of the Iraq War.

Mr. McCain "conflated" Sunni and Shi'a organizations, which clearly "represent opposing sides in the Iraqi civil war[sic]" crowed the liberal web site ThinkProgress. In an ABCNews blog post entitled "Err-Jordan," Jake Tapper wrote that McCain "seemed to step in it" with his assertion that Sunni al Qaeda and Shi'a Iran were working together, asking if the Senator was suffering from "jet lag." (Tapper, who has been one of the better reporters of this campaign season, later posted an opposing viewpoint, if not an outright correction.)

Susan Rice, then still a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, called McCain's assertion "very bizarre," saying that "there is no body of evidence to suggest Iran is aiding Al Qaeda in Iraq" and noting that Mr. McCain had "made the same statement three times in as many days. Surely he must know, as Senator Lieberman reminded him, that Iran is not engaged with Al Qaeda in Iraq. I don't know if he is confused, or is he cynically trying to conflate Al Qaeda and Iran as Cheney and Bush did Al Qaeda and Iraq in 2002 and 2003?"

Read on.

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Posted at 1:03pm on May 14, 2008 Obamomentum, West Virginia Edition

He's Lost That Loving Feeling

By Dan McLaughlin

“If Obama was a fatally damaged general election candidate by this point, this is pretty much how you would expect him to be doing in the late primaries.”

It's not every day you see the presumptive nominee lose a presidential primary in a swing state by 41 points (by contrast, despite a persistent protest vote faction, McCain hasn't actually lost a primary since Kansas and Louisiana on February 9), but that's exactly what happened to Barack Obama last night in West Virginia, and suggests pretty strongly why his campaign seems to be writing off the state for November.

Anyway, let's update the chart I've been running (last installment here) showing the popular vote trend since Obama's armor started to crack at the beginning of March. Here's the current chart:

State Date Obama Clinton Margin
West Virginia 5/13 91,652 239,062 -147,410
Indiana 5/6 630,925 645,336 -14,411
North Carolina 5/6 883,508 656,284 +227,224
Guam 5/3 2,264 2,257 +7
Pennsylvania 4/22 1,046,822 1,260,937 -214,115
Mississippi 3/11 265,502 159,221 +106,281
Wyoming 3/8 5,378 3,311 +2,067
Texas 3/4 1,362,476 1,462,734 -100,258
Ohio 3/4 1,055,769 1,259,620 -203,851
Rhode Island 3/4 75,316 108,949 -33,633

Vermont 3/4 91,901 59,806 +32,095
Total 5,511,513 5,857,517 -346,004
Overall% 48.48% 51.52%

Read On - there's much more...

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Posted at 11:52am on May 14, 2008 Going Old Testament on the House GOP

Their Deserved Walk in the Wilderness

By Erick

"Not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times - not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

"So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' "

Numbers 14:22-23, 28-34

We've talked a lot here about the GOP being in the wilderness. That metaphor comes from this Old Testament passage. The Lord sent the Israelites into the promised land and the Israelite scouts reported back with fear and trembling that they'd never be able to defeat the occupants of the land. The Lord had provided many signs and wonders, yet the Israelites doubted.

In punishment, the Lord said the Israelites would wander for forty years until all the present generation of sinners who doubted him had died off. And here we find a parallel of the Republican Party and why I yet again must advocate bloody purges.

Read on . . .

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Posted at 11:35am on May 14, 2008 Clean House at the NRCC

By The Directors

“Changing the campaign chairman at this late stage won't solve all of the GOP's problems, but it will demonstrate that the party is serious about change”

After losing three consecutive special elections in Republican-leaning districts in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, House Republicans need to make a decision: They can continue on this course until November and embrace disaster or they can clean house and bring a new direction to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Conservatives have been voicing their frustration with NRCC Chairman Tom Cole for more than a year. In fact, it was last May when Cole shocked conservatives with this outrageous quote in the Washington Post regarding the 2006 election losses: "Oh, I don't think the problem was spending. People who argue that we lost because we weren't true to our base, that's just wrong."

Over the course of the past year, the NRCC has been rocked with a major financial scandal, lackluster fundraising and a rash of retirements. Now the committee is facing the prospect that it can't even win in a Mississippi district that gave President Bush 62% of the vote in 2004 or a Louisiana seat that the GOP has held for more than three decades.

Cole doesn't deserve the blame for all that went wrong in the three special elections. But as the chairman of the GOP's congressional campaign arm, he does have to take responsibility. And the responsible thing for him to do is pass the torch to someone new.

Changing the campaign chairman at this late stage won't solve all of the GOP's problems, but it will demonstrate that the party is serious about change -- something Minority Leader John Boehner emphasized in his comments about the Mississippi loss.

"The results in MS-01 should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide," Boehner said. "As I've said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington."

Boehner can start by politely asking Cole to step aside. The two have feuded dating to last fall about the NRCC's direction. They have apparently since patched up their differences, but last night's results are likely to only revive those old tensions. That's not a healthy relationship heading into one of the busiest times of the year.

Cole's resignation isn't the only matter the GOP needs to address. The party must unify around Sen. John McCain's anti-earmark pledge. Veteran earmarxists such as Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and new appropriators like Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) need to stop talking and start acting. Only by taking significant steps toward fiscal responsibility can the GOP stave off some of the damage.

The same goes for the war on terror and domestic issues ranging from energy exploration to market-based health care. Now is not the time to play it safe. Republicans need new ideas and new leaders. Replacing Tom Cole is one way to start. New leadership elections would be another way. We know they won't actually do it. Republicans do not do such things. And this failure of bold leadership in the face of adversity will bring about what we all know will happen in November: compounded losses. So be it.

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Posted at 9:58am on May 14, 2008 Obama, Afghanistan, Idiocy, and the Flag

By Erick

Blackhedd put this in an email earlier and I wanted to share. He's cool with that:

Of course, this link has been passed around a lot, but check out David Wright’s (the ABC reporter) update.

So Obama got called out on calling for Arab-speaking translators for Afghanistan. Well, his campaign responded to that, saying basically: Hey, numbnuts, there are plenty of Arabic-speakers in Afghanistan. They’re the foreign fighters who have been infiltrating the country.

To which David Wright responds: Umm, I’ve been to Afghanistan a lot. Those Arabic-speakers are shooting at us, not talking to us.

That’s the cat the Obama let out of the bag. He talks a lot about resolving the situation in Afghanistan while pulling out of Iraq, but he’s probably planning to invite the bad guys to a tea party. He’s probably too smart to say it out loud after he said that’s what he’d do with the Iranians.

About the flag pin: I’m just imagining the conversation he had with Michelle: “Barack, this isn’t about being true to yourself. That’s just sissy s**t. This is about getting POWER. You can’t do squat unless you get the big job. So suck it up and let the morons see you wearing their stupid flag. After you’re inaugurated, you can wear it upside down if you want.”

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Posted at 9:37am on May 14, 2008 Rekzo trial goes to jury.

The most avidly watched, but hardly mentioned, trial of this year.

By Moe Lane

The baby just woke up, so let me make this quick. Via Instapundit:

Antoin 'Tony' Rezko's fate now lies with the jury
Prosecutors, defense wrap up closing arguments

By Jeff Coen and Bob Secter | Tribune reporters

The federal corruption trial that has sent ripples through the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich has reached its final stage, and the fate of political insider Antoin "Tony" Rezko is now in the hands of the jury.

The panel that spent more than two months listening to testimony deliberated for about half an hour Tuesday afternoon after closing arguments ended.

If they bring back a guilty verdict, I'll be shocked if it goes to sentencing. Rezko will want to make a deal, and he knows the magic word: "Blagojevich." It's considered impolite to say by many, but everybody reading this knows that Illinois State politics is one happy bipartisan mess of corruption, influence-peddling, bribery, and a wide variety of other activities prosecutable under the RICO Act. It may be too much to hope that flipping Rezko will result in the kind of housecleaning that Jindal is trying down in Louisiana, but at least the cockroaches will scurry - with any luck, some of them out of the USA altogether.

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Posted at 12:27am on May 14, 2008 Elections

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Another Tuesday, another Presidential primary. And in shocking news, Hillary Clinton announces that she is not going to get out of the Presidential race just yet. Her campaign communications director, Howard Wolfson, got on CNN this evening and insisted that the magic number for delegates is 2,209--and yes, that is the number that you get if you include Florida and Michigan in the mix. We are obviously going to go to June 3rd and perhaps longer if the Clintons believe that they have any chance whatsoever of winning the nomination--or at least going on long enough to ensure that they are able to extract concessions or even set up Barack Obama for a defeat in the fall, thus opening the way for Hillary Clinton to capture the nomination in 2012.

Meanwhile, it isn't as if Republicans don't have problems. There is no denying it anymore--if it could even be denied in the run-up to tonight; Republicans have serious problems with the brand identity. Yes, I know that there are six months left until the election but what else needs to occur for the GOP to realize that it has a very serious problem on its hands? There have been any number of indications concerning a Republican image problem and nothing has been done to ameliorate matters. Either Republican leaders get on the ball very quickly, or the GOP is headed for yet another round of epic Congressional losses.

This is all obvious, I know. But apparently, the Republican Congressional leadership class has still not caught on.

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Posted at 12:08am on May 14, 2008 "The Obama Rules"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Duly noted. And yes, there have been quite a spate of news stories piously reminding us of all the things we are not supposed to say about Senator Obama and all of the negative comments we are almost bound and obliged to say about Senator McCain. I don't blame the Obama campaign for trying to spin things their way, but I certainly have a problem with mainstream journalists who enable the narrative and then tell us in the very next breath that there is no such thing as ideological bias in journalism. Yeah right. Give credit to Vegas casinos when credit is due; at least the casinos are subtle when they try to stack the deck.

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Posted at 10:30pm on May 13, 2008 In West Virginia, Obama Still Can't Win

By Erick

As crosses burn Hillary sweeps across West Virginia tonight with a massive victory, I have to wonder how many members of the MSM will change the "Obama wins" narrative, at least only slightly, to recognize that Obama is, in fact, the weaker candidate in a general election match up with John McCain.

When Indiana and North Carolina voted last week, the MSM was gleeful pointing out that McCain, the GOP nominee, was still seeing double digits worth of votes go to Huckabee, Ron Paul, and others.

Here now, this week, and next week, Barack Obama, the presumptive Democrat nominee, will have lost every election since February except North Carolina and Guam, and lost nearly two thirds of the vote in West Virginia, and yet the media will sweep it all under the rug, flailing about wildly to find burning crosses and white sheets instead of recognizing Obama's significant general election vulnerabilities.

Hillary is still done for in the media's mind, but Barack still can't win. The media will ignore that. After all, West Virginia and Kentucky and Indiana and Puerto Rico are all racist.

When the sun sets on this election we might have to realize that the media's efforts to set up Obama as the Democrat nominee has been the greatest gift they've ever given to the GOP.

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Posted at 9:49pm on May 13, 2008 West Virginia Results Open Thread

The State That Was Created When It Refused To Join The Confederacy

By Dan McLaughlin

Big media outlets already calling it for Hillary. Take your bets here on the point spread. And drink every time an Obama supporter calls the state's Democrats racists.





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Posted at 8:23pm on May 13, 2008 MS-01 Open Thread

By Moe Lane

UPDATE: Well, at 370/462 it's 51/49 Childers, with 1,000 vote difference; I think that it may not shift at this point (the Clarion-Ledger agrees with me). Ach, well: better luck next time; woe, woe, woe, we're all going to die; and I expect that Travis Childers will be endorsing Barack Obama for President within the next 24 hours. Only fair, given all the work that his online support has given him.

UPDATE: OK, at the rough halfway point 54/46 Childers, about 3,500 vote margin. Good news for Childers, but this one may take a while.

UPDATE: With the Clarion-Ledger reporting 153 out of 462 districts, it's 53/47 Childers. We'll see how it goes, obviously.

The Greg Davis and Travis Childers runoff: this will be redone in November, but people are going to be reading a lot in this one's entrails. Results as soon as they come in and I find a good source.

Also: our colleagues from the Other Side are going to be stopping by to try to drink our pain if it turns out that Childers disassociated himself from them sufficiently, so if that happens, be sure to give 'em a good show. You know: weeping, wailing, grim proclamations of how we're all going to die, the usual. I wouldn't bother with the threats to leave the country, though: even they won't buy something that over the top.

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