The bullshit of the abortion debate
Congressman Todd Akin’s asinine comments about “legitimate rape,” pregnancy and abortion have knocked medicare and the economy off center stage in the political debate, at least temporarily.
Akin has apologized. Yet his comments are unforgivable because he is clueless to the hurt and damage he has caused and continues to cause. He is clueless to how hurtful his comments are to women, particularly rape survivors. His apology is empty because he doesn’t realize what he did.
Akin is clueless to the political damage he is causing as evidenced by the fact that he refused to resign his candidacy for U.S. Senate. He thinks he can win. He says his campaign is not about him, but about his message, as if he is a messiah with a unique message that no one else can deliver. Akin is a candidate for a straight jacket and the U.S. Senate.
Republicans are losing women over the Akin gaffe because 1) they failed to get him out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race and 2) their response is too male. Empathy is missing. The Republican response, which failed, is strategic and politically expedient. The strategy is sound, but empathy is missing and women feel that.
Much of the empathy coming from the left is false. It is strategic. But at least they are trying. Thus the gender gap will expand until Republican males get empathy for women, or at least fake it as well as Democratic males do.
The sin of it all is that on a political level the abortion debate is bullshit.
Posted: August 22nd, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Abortion, Rape | Tags: Abortion, Rape, Republican platform | 35 Comments »ANNA LITTLE EARNS BIG SUPPORT
Red Bank, NJ – The newly formed American Tea Party Congress is not wasting any time in showing its political teeth. The statewide organization comprised of 31 statewide tea party and conservative groups, voted to unanimously support Anna Little in her congressional bid against the notoriously liberal Frank Pallone, best known for his support of ObamaCare.
The feisty Little is known as a committed Constitutionalist, which resonates with Tea Party supporters who believe in limited government and fiscal responsibility. New Jersey tea parties have learned the importance of networking and working toward a common goal. Mayor Little will be the first candidate to benefit from their hard-earned knowledge.
Bob Gordon, spokesman for the American Tea Party Congress, said, “The unanimous vote to support Anna not only speaks volumes about her as a candidate, it also speaks volumes about what this group is capable of doing. Three years ago when the Tea Parties erupted throughout this nation in response to an out-of-control government, many of our members were politically naive. In a very short period of time we have been able to grow into a movement that will impact the future of this country. Many were quick to report that the tea parties were no longer relevant and were disintegrating. Here in New Jersey, the reports of our demise were ill-informed and fictitious. We are strong, we have united, and we intend to reclaim our country. We will do this by vetting and supporting constitutional candidates and by speaking with one voice – loud and clear.”
Gordon continued: “Anna is the first of many candidates that will enjoy our support. Others will soon follow. Not only do we intend to support candidates, we also intend to keep them accountable once they are elected. We will not be ignored by the establishment any longer. It’s time to reclaim America and the principles it was founded upon. We believe wholeheartedly that Anna can help us lead the charge to achieving that goal.”
Gene Hoyas, the moderator and founder of the American Tea Party Congress also commented: “I am honored to be part of this historic alliance and to have had the opportunity to vote to supportAnna. Organizing the Congress is a first and supporting Anna is another first. America is rising and we are determined that she will continue to rise until the land of the free and the home of the brave is safe from tyrants and despotic rulers.”
Posted: August 20th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, Press Release | Tags: American Tea Party Congress, Bob Gordon, Frank Pallone, Gene Hoyas, Manly Rash, Press Release | 8 Comments »Gopal calls out Little and Smith over Kyrillos tax stance
The following is a release from Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal on behalf of Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (Monmouth-6) and Brian Froelich (Monmouth-4) – Democratic Candidates for US Congress in Monmouth County:
Now is the time to ask these Republicans where they stand – do they stand with the Joe Kyrillos who has spent over 2 decades in Trenton protecting the wealthy at the expense of New Jersey’s working families and opposed the Millionaires tax? Or do they stand with the Joe Kyrillos who seems to only have existed only for one newspaper report and realized that he was on the wrong side of NJ families in his repeatedly demonstrated opposition to a millionaires tax.”
Poltical Animals and other musings
I didn’t make the Highlands council meeting last night as I was dining in Princeton with Poltical Animals star Sigourney Weaver.
Not really. Weaver was leaving the Blue Point Grill as my party was entering. And we had the same waitress. Still it was cool. Other than politicians and pundits this was my closest celebrity encounter since Bette Midler walked in on me in a Fort Lauderdale Airport mens room.
Political Animals is a fun watch.
Weaver plays a former first lady, Elaine Barrish, who ran for president, lost the Democratic primary, divorced her philandering husband and became Secretary of State for the president who beat her in the primary. In the most recent episode, Barrish tells the president that she is going to run against him again, but not before she councils him to do something more heroic than killing Bin Laden and her ex-husband ex-president punches out the vice president in the oval office.
While all of that high drama is going on, Barrish’s “bad son,” a gay piano player who was outed while growing up in the White House, is in the hospital recovering from a drug overdose and her “good son” is joining the mile high club with a reporter who buried the overdose story while the good son’s fiancee is smoking pot with Barrish’s mother.
Must see TV.
I heard the Highlands council did not vote to put the flood mitigation plan on the November ballot as a non-binding referendum and that Councilman Chris Francy did not deny that he kept the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers off his property when they wanted to study an alternate plan of flood mitigation. When asked about that during the public portion of the meeting, I’m told that Francy said, “that article on the Internet was not really an article, but a blogger’s opinion.”
Whatever. They’ve done the right thing so far. I hope the governing body doesn’t drop the issue now.
The political animals in the NJ GOP were crazier today than the TV show.
The Bergen Record ran a piece by their Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, GOP Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos open to tax hikes.
By early afternoon, Kyrillos issued a press release stating that he doesn’t favor raising taxes. He wants to lower tax rates and close loopholes.
12th District GOP congressional candidate Eric Beck, the guy running against Rush Holt, issued two press releases. The first one was announcing that he disagrees with Kyrillos on taxes. The second one was announcing that Huffington Post and Politickernj picked up the first one. Beck’s campaign manager, Chris Pordon, who got his start in politics working for Kryillos, has been breaking his back trying to get free media for Beck. He got some today, including this mention on MMM for which he’s been dogging me.
Anna Little has not issued a press release throwing Kyrillos under the bus. Michele Bachman endorsed Little and the Bayshore Tea Party is having a bake sale fundraiser for her. Really. What’s next, a car wash? No bikinis. Please.
In Bergen County, Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan is suing the Republican controlled Freeholder Board to prevent them from dissolving the Bergen County Police.
Kyrillos announced that he will release three years of tax returns at a press conference tomorrow. Senator Bob Menendez responded that he will release five years of tax returns at a press conference next week.
Not a bad day for the Democrats given all the Republican self inflicted wounds.
Posted: August 16th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Anna Little, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Bob Menendez | Tags: Anna Little, Bayshore Tea Party Group, Bergen County Police, Bette Midler, Bob Menendez, Chris Francy, Christopher Pordon, Eric Beck, Highlands, Highlands flooding, Joe Kyrillos, Kathleen Donovan, Political Animals, Sigourney Weaver | 2 Comments »The Little Event
For more photos, click here
Posted: August 15th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, Anna Little, Christine O'Donnell | Tags: Anna Little, Christine O'Donnell, John Bennett, Sam Thompson, Wayne Pomanowski | 9 Comments »Because you asked…
Several readers have asked if I was going to attend and report on the Anna Little/Christine O’Donnell event. None offered the $250 price of admission.
But, because you asked, I drove by Lakeside Manor and took this photo at 6:30, 1/2 hour after the event was scheduled to start.
There were about 35 cars in the lot.
Red Bank GOP Municipal Chairman Jack Minton was outside with a red drink in a martini glass.
Posted: August 14th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, Anna Little, Christine O'Donnell | Tags: Anna Little, Christine O'Donnell, Hazlet, Lakeside Manor | 9 Comments »The Only Issue This Year
By Stuart J. Moskovitz
This election, like every Congressional election, will have nominees running around their districts and, in the case of Senatorial candidates, the state, spewing banalities and canards about what “they” have as a philosophy, what direction “they” will push for their country, what “they” will support and reject. As it has been for many years, it will all be nonsense.
There is only one issue in this year’s Congressional campaigns. There is only one issue in this year’s Senatorial campaign. Anything else is a myth. The only issue is whether in the next two years Congress will be run by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi or by two people with very, very different ideas.
Frank Pallone and Rush Holt wouldn’t vote against Nancy Pelosi if their lives depended on it – perhaps because they fully believe their political lives are totally dependent on the good will of Nancy Pelosi. In the entire time each has represented us, they have shown not a hint of a backbone, moral, ethical, intellectual, or otherwise. These two do not represent their districts in New Jersey. They never have. They never will. They represent their party, and only their party. More precisely, they represent the will of Nancy Pelosi. What their constituents should be demanding is that their representatives represent New Jersey, not Pacific Heights, California. Can anyone honestly say they are just tickled pink with having this country run by Nancy Pelosi? She is as intellectually stiff and dead as her surgically created face. No one who exclaims that we need to pass the most significant domestic legislation in fifty years in order to see what it says as opposed to actually reading the darn think before deciding whether it is worth supporting, is worthy of leading this nation. But a vote for Pallone or Holt is a vote for Pelosi. There is no getting around that.
As for Menendez, aside from his well-documented corruption pushed aside by the fourth estate that used to protect America, he is every bit as important for the continuation of Harry Reid’s dominance in the Senate as Al Franken. If one were suddenly to awake from a long sleep, they might be inclined to laugh heartily at the great satirical impression by Al Franken of a clueless, directionless U.S. Senator – until being informed it is not an act. Harry Reid himself has done nothing in four years to turn this economy around. He has spent every day blaming the Republicans. The fact is, the Republican House has sent Mr. Reid 65 bills, each of which would aid this economy in some way, providing jobs, providing fiscal sanity, providing the means of stabilizing an economy that currently threatens the viability of the dollar as the international standard. He has buried every one. He has never passed a budget during Obama’s tenure. His Senate even unanimously rejected the only budget ever submitted by Barack Obama – without ever producing an alternative.
The nation simply cannot wait until 2014 to take the Senate out of the control of Harry Reid. New Jersey cannot wait until Lautenberg runs again (no, seriously, he’s still there) to have a Senator representing New Jersey, not Nevada.
There is only one issue in this campaign. The voters of New Jersey need to plow through the posturing and supercilious nonsense and recognize that their choice is not about the candidates they see on the ballot. Their choice is to have the power in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, or to elect candidates who will represent New Jersey, not Pacific Heights, California or Nevada.
Posted: August 14th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races | Tags: Frank Pallone, Rush Holt, Stuart Moskovitz | 15 Comments »Tonight’s the night!
Patriot Ticket $250
Co-Host Sponsorship $2,500
Other Sponsorships Available – Please Call for Details
~ RSVP TODAY – Space is Limited ~
Call 732-658-5461
Please Mail Event Contribution Checks To: Friends of Anna Little P.O. Box 382, Highlands, NJ 07732
Please Include: Employer and Occupation in the memo line (Information Required by Federal/State Law – if self employed list ‘self’ and industry ie: Attorney)
~Thank You to Our Host Committee ~
Municipal Chair of Old Bridge, Anita Greenburg, Assemblyman Rob Clifton, President of Affiliated Republican Club Wayne Pomanowski & Mayor Fred Rast of Atlantic Highlands
Posted: August 14th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races | Tags: Anna Little, Christine O'Donnell, McKayla is not impressed | 1 Comment »Little rates a “Pants on Fire”
6th District congressional candidate Anna Little’s claim that she “made history” and “came the closest in 24 years to defeating Frank Pallone” in 2010 is a fib, according to research compiled by The Star Ledger’s PolitFactNewJersey.
Little made the claim in an interview with NJTV’s Mike Schneider on August 2.
Watch Congressional Candidate Little Believes in Grassroots Effort on PBS. See more from NJToday.
PolitFactNewJersey found that while Little’s margin of defeat was smaller than most who have taken on Pallone, the 2010 election was not Pallone’s closest and that Little’s timing was wrong.
Year | Republican challenger | Pallone’s margin of victory |
2010 | Anna Little | 16,520 |
2008 | Robert McLeod | 86,608 |
2006 | Leigh-Ann Bellew | 55,076 |
2004 | Sylvester Fernandez | 83,039 |
2002 | Ric Medrow | 48,900 |
2000 | Brian Kennedy | 79,244 |
1998 | Michael Ferguson | 22,922 |
1996 | Steven Corodemus | 51,233 |
1994 | Mike Herson | 33,635 |
1992 | Joseph Kyrillos | 17,317 |
1990 | Paul Kapalko | 4,170 |
1988 | Joseph Azzolina | 9,545 |