E!! The True Conservative Story™

Michelle Malkin provided us with the entire roll call vote on the Geithner nomination including the 10 GOP’ers who voted Yes:

Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Ensign (R-NV)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Come on, guys:  even Arlen Specter voted No on this one!

As did Democrats Tom Harkin, Robert Byrd, and Russ Feingold - and Independent Bernie Sanders.

Newt says he will chair the RNC, if asked.

I’ve always liked Newt. If you don’t know him well, read this.

 Leslie Carbone has a very moving post up over at dontgomovement.com.  I like her passion.

There’s one in every crowd.  Or in this case, five…Republicans, that is, who are muddying the waters of the clearest issue facing the GOP this fall:  energy and offshore drilling.  In response to voter discontent over high gas prices and polling near 80% in favor of offshore drilling, the majority of GOP has (wisely) gone after the Dem anti-drillers in the House.  Enthusiasm for the cause has given new life to conservative candidates who were losing oxygen in tight races.

Enter Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Isakson (R-GA) who, along with five Senate Democrats, have announced that their ”Gang of 10″ wants a “sweeping” and “bipartisan” energy plan to break the ”stalemate.”  Sounds good, right? 

Not really.  The bill says new production on offshore federal lands would be left to the state legislatures, and then in only four coastal states. The regulatory hoops and hurdles are huge.  The bill prohibits drilling within 50 miles of the coast — keeping some of our most potentially productive areas closed.  ANWR would still be  a no-go. AND the plan contains $84 billion in tax credits, subsidies and handouts for alternative fuels and renewables…to be paid for (drum roll) by raising taxes on oil companies!

Boys, we’ve been over this umpteen times:  we need to open up all lands in all coastal states, keep the red tape to a minimum, drill wherever the oil is, tap ANWR, and get it straight that raising taxes on oil companies means raising the price of gas for consumers, because Big Oil will just pass the hikes down to the man at the pump.

These five Republicans need to re-think their agenda and quick, before November voters hit the ballot booths.  If you wish to express your thoughts and feelings to any of the senators, here are links to their contact pages:

Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
John Thune (R-S.D.)
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
Johnny Isakson (R-Ga)
Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)

Not content to let Eric & Allen & Friends have their Happy Ending, Progress Illinois took the Open Left talking points about #dontgo that Eric had debunked on his blog earlier and ran it as fact without doing any checking.  From the Progress Illinois site:

Let’s be clear. This is a “movement” that originated at the highest level of powers in Washington. It’s a movement that, if successful, would benefit large oil companies and their rich executives far more than the average American consumer. It’s a movement with protests populated by paid staffers from industry-funded organizations. In short, there is nothing “grassroots” about it.

ROFL

Anyone who knows Eric “the Libertarian” Odom knows he is as anti-establishment as it gets.  He isn’t In with the Insiders in D.C. in any way, shape or form.  I’ll grant that Eric’s day job is a paid consultant for Sam Adams Alliance, but Eric blogs and Twitters on the side (and only WISHES he got paid to do it). 

Eric and Allen are two very enterprising individuals who threw up the Twitter tag, purchased the two #dontgo-affilliated domain names and built the dontgomovement.com website on their own dime and on their own time.  They were not paid by Big Oil fat cats, mythical “industry-funded organizations,” or Newt Gingrich.  The huge influx of Twitterers and bloggers happened because a lot of good citizens are angry about the lack of Congressional action on energy and were/are interested in what was/is happening on on the House floor…and the Twitter feed was/is the best way to follow the play-by-play.

Isn’t it interesting that the Left just cannot FATHOM the concept of a committed activist who isn’t getting paid and/or receiving some personal benefit for championing a cause?  Seems to me their accusations and protests are very revealing.  One wonders how many staffers at Open Left, Progress Illinois, or MoveOn.org would spend their own time and money trying to get something worthwhile done.  Not too many, I’m guessing.

So, anyhoo, just know that Progress Illinois got the story Wrong.  Not surprising, considering they never bothered to contact Eric and took their talking points from an outdated, debunked post on Open Left…which, by the way, continues to get the story wrong.  To borrow Open Left’s oh-so-sophisticated Slam-fest sum-up which simultaenously insists #dontgo is (1) backed by “the highest levels of power in Washington” and (2) “insignificant”:  whatever!   If Dontgomovement.com is so insignificant, why is the national media all over it – and why are you guys still writing about it?

(For those of you who do not know the whole back story, you can read my post from yesterday and/or catch Mary Katherine Ham’s piece in the Washington Examiner.)

I missed posting at noon-ish today; it’s been a long, hard sun cycle; and my creative juices are dry.  So, I’m going to do what all great bloggers do and post someone else’s clever riff in order to fill blogspace.  This is from Chuck Muth’s News & Views:

DO YOU, MR. CANDIDATE, TAKE MS. VOTER…?

I ran into another [Nevada] Republican candidate today who has yet to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.  His objection is one I hear quite often from candidates who simply don’t want to take a firm position on a critically important philosophical, as well as fiscal, issue. “I’ve learned over the years never to say never,” this candidate told me this afternoon.

Really?  I wonder exactly when he learned that lesson?

I suppose it was sometime AFTER promising Mrs. Candidate on their wedding day that he was taking her “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, ’til death do us part.”

I mean, if your philosophy is to “never say never,” then shouldn’t those old marriage vows be made a bit more flexible?  I mean, shouldn’t we take out the part about “til death do us part” and insert some kind of escape clause which acknowledges that when it comes to being faithful, “everything is on the table”? I mean, it’s just not right to never say never, right?

You see, when you really, really, really, really, REALLY believe in something at the very core of your being, it’s not hard to say “never.”  Then again, if you really, really, really, really, really DON’T believe that raising taxes is a bad thing, then you come up with all kinds of excuses for not making such a firm promise.

So, Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer, when a candidate who refuses to give you a firm promise not to raise your taxes comes to you asking for your vote, remember…it’s just a one-night stand.  There’s no commitment involved.  Just hope he or she at least leaves you enough money for cab fare home.

The Las Vegas Sun says Jon Porter’s (R-NV) recent energy petition is less about his tightly contested race with Democratic challenger Dina Titus and more about an overall Republican strategy to insert GOP-backed energy proposals into the House floor schedule over the past 7 weeks. 

Not sure the Sun has it quite right.  It’s a political axiom that the more birds you can kill with one stone, the better.  

The Sun quotes a Republican strategist stating that “making energy No. 1 was a no-brainer.”  So was having Porter push forward one of the petitions.  It achieved the GOP’s agenda in D.C. and sent a message to Nevada voters that Porter is on the right side of the issue.  Hope it’s enough to save Porter’s butt because – although he’s not as conservative as some of us would like – Dina Titus is an incurable taxaholic.  Nevada does not need her in Washington.

Pelosi & Pals adjourn, having failed to schedule a vote to allow offshore drilling (11:23 a.m.)  They turn off the lights, kill the mics, and head home.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other GOPers indignantly opposed the motion to adjourn.  A few GOPers stayed on the floor and continued to debate.  As word spread, the crowd on the floor began to grow.

Dem aides were steamed at the “stunt” and had reporters kicked out of the Lobby.  Capitol PoPo were also busy kicking people out of the press gallery but stopped when Minority Leader Roy Blunt (R-MO) went up to talk to reporters.  Blunt’s office sent out a message asking all Republicans still in town to come to the House floor.

The Dems turned out the lights (again).

The Republicans sent out word that they were looking for a bullhorn and also sent aides out to round up members to come to the floor.  Shadegg started typing random codes into the chamber’s PA system and accidentally hit the right code to turn on the microphones (cheers!) but then they subsequently went off again (groans).

Members were pacing the floor, making speeches, standing on chairs.  Visitors were cheering loudly.  At one point Manzullo (R-IL) gave a rousing speech and brought the crowd to its feet.  Applause and cheering echoed in the chamber.

Rep Nunes (R-CA) crowed, “I am a Democrat and here is my energy plan.”  He then paraded around the House floor holding up a picture of an old VW Bug with a sail attached to it.  (LOL)  More cheering.

At 5:00, Tom Price (R-GA) announced the end of the protest and led the chamber in a round of “God Bless America.”  Assembled visitors, aides, souriest, and members gave a standing ovation.

Question:  Since the C-SPAN cameras were off, didn’t anyone think to try to sneak in a video tape so we could have some fun watching the footage on You Tube and/or FNC?

The Hill is reporting that the Senate just passed the 2008 Fannie & Freddie Prop Up bill (72-13).  The monster housing bill will now go to the White House for W’s Johnny Hancock.  For what it’s worth, all 13 ’no’ votes were GOP-ers.  Senator DeMint (R-SC) had delayed the bill over objections to F & F lobby rights, but in the end the R’s struck a deal with the Dems and passed it.  

The bill will allow re-fi’s of up to $300 billion in distressed mortgages, give tax breaks galore in order to help the market, tighten future oversight of F & F – and (this is the real kicker) give the Treasury temporary authority to approve an unlimited line of credit for F & F.  Now isn’t that sweet?!  We, the taxpayers, are going to foot the bill for a bottomless pile of cash for two government-sponsored enterprises being run by people of questionable judgment.

If you wish to see this in a positive light, just read the first paragraph of today’s Washington Post story which says, “In a rare weekend session, the Senate today ended months of legislative wrangling and gave final approval to a sprawling housing bill that seeks to halt the steepest slide in home prices in a generation, rescue hundreds of thousands of families from foreclosure and restore confidence in the nation’s largest mortgage finance firms.”

(GAG!!)

Why-oh-why is it the job of Congress to interfere with the natural forces of the market, rescue people from foreclosure because they financed over-priced houses with adjusable-rate mortgages they now cannot afford, and restore confidence in two companies that probably deserve to fail due to poor management?  Where in the Constitution does it say that the State is responsible for protecting its citizens from the natural consequences of their own poor judgment?!!

The Nanny State gets fatter while our dependence upon her grows…

I promise to give up all shameless self promotion when I’m a famous nationally syndicated writer/editor.  But for now, I’m tickled to announce that yesterday’s E!! post on Dem/Progressive want ads for campaign help (and the lack of any for the GOP) in Nevada got the attention of Politico @ Real Clear Politics here.

I think we must stick with the traditional ingredients of cold-filtered Conservatism and persuade people - through the intelligent and passionate presentation of facts and ideas - that it is well worth preserving.