Friday, January 04, 2008
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The Case For McCain: Climate Change and Campaign Finance Reform
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
5:44 PM
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Former New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass just endorsed John McCain, and explained to Fox News' John Gibson that John McCain has always stood for the same things. The first two issues cited by Bass? "Climate change," and "campaign finance reform." Bass added that Republicans shouldn't worry that Joe Lieberman's support of John McCain means that McCain"will be a traitor to Republicans."
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Of course we don't have to worry that McCain WILL BE a traitor to the Republican Party... He already IS (and HAS BEEN - as was confirmed by Congressman Charlie Bass ["Climate change," and "campaign finance reform."]).
Let us also not forget the Gang of 14 (preventing the Senate from eliminating the filibuster of judicial nominees).
Then, of course, there's the McCain/Kennedy AMNESTY bill (which, if McCain became President, he would gladly sign into law).
I don't trust McCain as far as I can throw him. |
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Keep changing the topic Hugh, rather than address the real elephant in the room. . .
Professor Bainbridge sums it up:
Hugh Hewitt apparently wants us to think that the market’s tanking because his man Mitt Romney lost the Iowa caucus last night. here at PB.com, we’re not buying this one anymore than we bought Hugh’s argument that harriet Miers was qualified to be on the Supreme Court
http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/punditry/comments/hewittno mics/ |
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...who just today revealed he leans to McCain right now. |
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1. After your man Mitt Romney’s bad beat in Iowa, you wrote about [it being 1976 all over.]
Sorry, I don’t buy it. First, Ronald Reagan was able to drag out the 1976 primaries all the way to Kansas City because he had a base of support that was both broad and deep...
To this day, I have never seen any candidate in America arouse crowds the way Reagan did. His riff about keeping the Panama Canal prompted his audiences to go practically beserk.
Nobody in the current GOP crop is generating that sort of loyalty and enthusiasm. Once, somebody generates momentum, there’s liable to be a strong shift to that candidate.
...How much more of his own money do you think Romney is willing to spend?
In sum, I just don’t see the process lasting much past February 5th. Comments?
2. ...If Romney loses in New Hampshire, where does he win next?
3. Political science professor and conservative blogger Steven Taylor says: “Barring a big win in the NH, this is the beginning of the end for Mr. Mitt.” Isn’t it fair to say that he has to win New Hampshire to remain viable?
Update 3A. Ed Morrissey wrote that:
What does this mean for Romney? It’s a body blow. He spent somewhere between $8-9 million and came up far short of a victory. That directly reflects on his next race, where John McCain has taken the lead in his backyard. If he can’t do any better against McCain than he did against Huckabee, Republican voters will rightly question whether Romney can win anywhere, even with the huge funding advantage he has had.
Is he wrong too? If so, why?
Update 4. Do you really believe the market is tanking because your man Mitt lost yesterday? There comes a point at which boosterism becomes self-parody.
http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/punditry/comments/post_iow a_questions_for_hugh_hewitt/ |
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Let's see how Hugh spins spins spins |
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Helman, Scott. 8 November 2005. "Romney favors pact by states on emissions" The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/08/romney _favors_pact_by_states_on_emissions/
In opening remarks to a clean-energy conference in Boston, Romney said the first-of-its-kind agreement, under which Massachusetts and eight other states could be required to cut power plant emissions by 2020, will not hurt the economy, as some have charged. He argued that it would spur businesses to develop clean- and renewable-energy technology to market worldwide.
''This is a great thing for the Commonwealth," Romney said, his strongest endorsement of the pact to date. ''We can effectively create incentives to help stimulate a sector of the economy and at the same time not kill jobs."
....Romney's overall support for the initiative could add another wrinkle to his checkered relationship with the corporate community.
==
Romney said yesterday that he had some concerns about the agreement, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, but he endorsed this and other clean-energy initiatives by saying they would stimulate the development of technology that Massachusetts companies could sell to other states and countries, as the emphasis on climate change grows.
''I'm convinced it is good business," Romney said. He cited analyses showing that the agreement would boost energy prices by just 1 or 2 percent.
==
Romney won office in 2002 by casting himself as a successful businessman who would draw on his background to turn around the Massachusetts economy and infuse efficiency into state government. But while Romney has launched probusiness policies, he has also drawn criticism from the business community for his closing of corporate tax loopholes and his support for a measure allowing cities and towns to shift more of the property tax burden onto the commercial sector.
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Mitt Romney was never the 700 Club right-winger his campaign managers conceived. He was and is a man of business and a very capable one at that.
He's all but doomed now. Senator John McCain will beat him in New Hampshire, probably by a lot, and Romney's media coverage will evaporate and his candidacy will consequently die. On January 9, his managers will walk in and say that the campaign needs $10 million or $15 million to continue and that he, Romney, will have to write the check. Everyone who would contribute has maxed out. Everyone who might won't. Two-time losers don't get new money. It's a basic rule of politics.
Romney will make his last stand in Michigan; that'll be the compromise he and his advisors reach. It's another of his "home" states, by virtue of the fact that his father was governor there 40 years ago. And he'll make the "economy" the issue there, with some immigration red meat thrown in to try to cut McCain. But by then, everyone there will see it for what it is: a construct of consultancy, a case study in desperation. Romney's defeat in Michigan will be definitive. And then it'll be over; back to Belmont with Ann and the kids and plenty of time to think about what went wrong.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/a_hard_lo ss_for_romney.html |
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McCain would be great as Secty of Defense in the Romney administration. He is an honored combat vet and people trust him on the military.
However, by championing one of the worst pieces of legislation in years - the McCain/Kennedy amnesty bill - he took himself out of the race for the GOP nomination.
We are a nation of laws and laws must be enforced. So, secure the border, enforce the law and illegal immigrants will go home - voluntarily.
Be a sport - self-deport!
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Charlie Bass sounds like a member of the Silk Stocking Branch of the GOP, a member just like McCain.
McCain is not a conservative except on national security, which is in fact vital to our country. However, McCain is not my personal choice for the GOP's nominee, except if he were to be, I'd vote for him vs. any Dhimmicrat nominee.
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He just opened his show attributing the market drop to McCain. Quick, get the thorazine! |
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Does Romney have any "core beliefs"?
If so, what are they?
Club for Growth. 21 August 2007. "Mitt Romney's Record on Economic Issues"
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/08/mitt_romneys_record_on _economi.php
Governor Romney's history on tax policy is scattered with inconsistencies. As a candidate for governor, Romney refused to sign an anti-tax pledge distributed by the local Citizens for Limited Taxation. He opposed Ballot Question 1 to eliminate the state income tax and proposed an auto excise tax on SUVs and a greenfields tax on the development of ocean space.[13] In 2003, the Governor refused to endorse the Bush tax cuts, earning the praise of Massachusetts liberal congressman Barney Frank[14], and was even open to a federal gas tax hike[15]. His strident opposition to the flat tax is most curious and difficult to explain since Romney wasn't a political candidate at the time. In 1996, he ran a series of newspaper ads in Boston, New Hampshire, and Iowa denouncing the 17% flat tax proposed by then presidential candidate Steve Forbes as a "tax cut for fat cats".[16] Even today, Romney continues to oppose the flat tax with harsh language, calling the tax "unfair."[17]
Overall, Romney's record on tax policy is mixed. His record is marred by questionable statements and positions, and his fee hikes and "loophole" closures are troubling. However, his support for broad-based tax cuts in liberal Massachusetts together with his enthusiastic embrace of the Bush tax cuts on the campaign trail offers hope that Governor Romney's previous ambivalence on tax policy is more a function of Massachusetts politics than his core beliefs.
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Editorial of the Washington Times. 3 January 2008. "Down to the wire in Iowa"
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080103/EDITORIAL/4 83973945
Mitt Romney on crime: As Massachusetts governor,
Mr. Romney rejected all of the pardon requests he
received, citing a reluctance to overturn the legal
findings made by juries. But his management of the
Massachusetts correctional system and judicial
selection polices are now under fire over the case of
Daniel Tavares, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to fatally
stabbing his mother. Despite multiple attacks on
prison guards, threats to kill Mr. Romney and state
prosecutors and a local sheriff, Tavares was freed
from prison in June-- apparently because Mr.
Romney's administration neglected to strip him of
"good-time credits."
Police immediately rearrested Tavares and charged
him with assaults on the guards. But Kathe
Tuttman, a state judge appointed by Mr. Romney,
rejected prosecutors requests to hold Tavares on
$50,000 bail and released him on his own
recognizance. Tavares moved to rural Pierce
County, Wash., where he is charged with breaking
into his neighbors' home and murdering a young
couple. Mr. Romney has called for Judge Tuttman's
resignation over the Tavares case. Citing comments
from Romney aides at the time of the Tuttman
appointment, critics suggest that his administration
was fixated on the need for gender diversity on the
bench instead of selecting a high-quality judge who
would have understood that Tavares was too
dangerous to release.
Romney's stellar judicial appointments
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9380a1ac-650e-4e62-a8a 8-cc86e06ca2a1%40q77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com
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Nichols, Russell and Kathleen Burge. 27 April 2006. "Romney names 4 women to bench
Seen as response to call for diversity" _The Boston Globe_
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/27/romney _names_4_women_to_bench/
Governor Mitt Romney, under pressure to name
more women to the bench, yesterday nominated
three current or former prosecutors and a top official
from the Menino administration in what aides
boasted is the largest number of female candidates
ever brought forward at once.
Kathe M. Tuttman of Andover and Merita A.
Hopkins of Boston were nominated as associate
justices of the Superior Court;
==
''The governor felt he wasn't getting enough female
and minority candidates," said Romney spokesman
Eric Fehrnstrom. ''The governor is interested in
making sure that appointments to the bench, to the
extent possible, reflect the diversity of the
community at large."
==
Tuttman and Hopkins are registered Democrats.
Lyons is a Republican. Wright is registered as
unaffiliated with any political party.
==
Romney has argued that political views don't matter
when it comes to enforcing the law.
Romney's stellar judicial appointments
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9380a1ac-650e-4e62-a8a 8-cc86e06ca2a1%40q77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com
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Hugh you sound like Romney had the RIGHT to win the election. Get off your high horse. Romney is done. |
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these two issues have always been at the top of my list. As a young tyke, my favorite stuffed animal was my polar bear, i named him "Al". Don't ask me why i named him "Al", he just had this cute little spare tire around his tummy and he looked like an "Al". Now, i have a candidate that i can identify with, who says identity politics have no place in the republican party. |
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Get Funky.
...its only just begun.
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Here's the interesting part: the Republican party has begun the process of deconstructing its conservative base and is moving left (which in its case, is toward the middle). Nevermind Huckabee; he's a product of the only opportunity evangelicals really have to influence the election, and he is going nowhere. Romney, trying so hard to be a perfect conservative, is headed south. Fred Thompson, the true conseervative, is just about gone, along with the lesser conservatives like Hunter, Tancredo, etc.. McCain, really a moderate, and Giuliani, even more moderate, are strengthened. After the South Carolina primary, the conservative base is about done.
Even the Democrats are still moving left. |
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John McCain Highlights:
"Climate change" and "campaign finance reform?" I just spit out my first beer of the weekend! |
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The only climate change I'm worried about is within the Republican party. |
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With five or so hours to go till the Iowa Caucuses, Mitt Romney has to be judged the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, but it’s awfully hard to find anyone not named Hugh Hewitt who seems excited about the prospect. More than enough ink has been spilled on how his political inauthenticity, his consultant-ish pursuit of ideological correctness, has undermined any excitement surrounding his candidacy, replacing it with the resigned, “he’s the best we can do” thinking that undergirds the NR endorsement and others like it. (David Brooks’ column this weekend offers, I think, the last word on the subject.) For my part, though, the most alienating and off-putting quality of the Romney campaign hasn’t been what’s he’s said, but how he’s said it - the words he’s chosen and the tone he’s employed, which have made following the Romney campaign the equivalent of listening to nails drawn across a chalkboard.
... Romney comes across as Ray Kurzweil crossed with Joel Osteen. I’m talking about the way he sounded when he burst out with his famous “we ought to double Guantanamo” line - like an ad man proposing a brilliant new sales pitch, not a would-be President grappling with a difficult issue. I’m talking about how phony he seems when he puts on his most serious face and talks about the looming threat of an “international jihadist Caliphate.” I’m not talking about his flip-flops, but the graceless way he flip-flops; as Ryan Lizza wrote, “he not only shifts positions; he often claims to be the most passionate advocate of his new stances,” which makes all those (equally-passionate) old YouTube clips all the more damaging. And I’m talking about the way the off-message Mitt seems no better than the on-message Mitt: the former seems phony, but the latter ranges from tone-deaf to just plain weird.
http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/index.php/punditry/comment s/ross_douhat_on_romney/
http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/01/my_mitt _romney_problem.php
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Hey Hugh, give it a rest! Here's an idea - After Mitt loses in NH he throws his votes to Rudy with a big endorsement in exchange for a VP spot. Then you could still make some money on Mitt for VP books and continue to ride the wave until Nov. |
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Bret Hume and Bill Kristol are writing Mitt's political obituary on the FoxNews AllStars.
When the history of this campaign is written, Mitt will have been seen to run one of the most inept (and expensive)campaigns ever. |
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How does one figure that McCain is on the "climate change" band wagon? Population growth is the driver of higher greenhouse gas emissions. Americans have adopted a near zero population growth birth-rate. McCain is pro-population growth through mass immigration of high birth-rate Third Worlders who have little to no respect for the environment. For each and every illegal alien McCain wished to award with amnesty (not to mention all the visas to bring in their large families) we add 23.8 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per alien/per year. This makes McCain pro-pollution not pro-environmental responsibility. |
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I was crazy in love with the McCain of 2000, then fell out of love with him over the last couple of years when he was groveling to GW. He is creeping his way back into my heart. Depending on how far left Obama might wind up running, McCain would have an excellent chance of getting crossover Dems to vote for him, as well as the center-right (and I don't regard Hugh as center-right, despite what he says... he's all the way right!) McCain would look old up against Obama, no question... but I think he'd have a better shot than any of the other Repubs. Would you rather win with McCain, or lose with Rudy? |
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McCain has stabbed Republicans in the back so many times that I no longer trust him. Alot of people think the same as I do, so McCain is in deep doo-doo and I couldn't be happier. |
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...totally off the subject...
but does Hugh's show have the WORST bumper music (almost every piece is limp, formless, boring) of any radio show you can name? Who picks it... the "Generalissimo"?
I'm just sayin'. |
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Fred Thompson is the only consistent conservative and the one the MSM won't give an inch of air or print time. Why not- because they know he can whip their left-leaning buddies. So they call him lazy. Did you look at his schedule on his website- events he attended in the past month? Not lazy, just not dancing to the media's tune.
We don't have to settle for dishonest candidates, nor one-McCain- who has for years told conservatives to take a hike. So we have- we don't need his arrogant "I know best-now shut up."
Conservatives Unite! |
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What's up with the bizarre musical crossfade we hear at the top of the hour? It starts as a peppy country-music fiddle and morphs into a mournful dirge, all in the space of about 2 seconds. |
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reactions have begun to settle in. obviously MR is plunging across the board but MH does not show much movement upward.
McCain up 4.7% over RG and 18% over MR and MH.
the one thing that we don't know is what we don't know = called unexpected events between now and 2/5
2008 Republican Presidential Nominee
2008.GOP.NOM.MCCAIN
John McCain to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 33.0 35.4 33.0 176545 +0.3
2008.GOP.NOM.GIULIANI
Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 27.0 28.3 28.3 145975 +2.2
2008.GOP.NOM.ROMNEY
Mitt Romney to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 14.6 15.0 15.0 114064 +0.7
2008.GOP.NOM.HUCKABEE
Mike Huckabee to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 15.0 16.1 15.0 106788 -2.4
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Hugh's top-of-the-hour piece of music says, "I, Hugh Hewitt, am a salt-of-the-earth, down-home, cornpone, regular guy engaged in an epic, majestic battle with the forces of evil (Democrats)... but I will emerge triumphant." |
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Victor Davis Hason once wrote something quite important, "Do We Want Mexifornia?". For better or worse, a vote for John McCain is a vote for Mexifornia. McCain has made it very clear, time and time again, that he will never enforce our immigration laws and worse doesn't even understand why anyone would want them enforced. Some folks believe that John McCain is the best candidate for Iraq. Perhaps he is. However, America can afford to lose Iraq. We can't afford to lose America. Beyond that, McCain will almost certainly be defeated if the Republicans are crazy enough to nominate him. He embodies, in one person, all of the failed Bush policies that have laid America and the Republican party low.
I understand that many Republicans (and Democrats) regard McCain as the best qualified candidate to continue the war on terror. However, winning the war on terror will avail us naught, if we lose our nation at home. Right now America, or at least anything that middle-class Americans, might recognize as America is dying. The reasons are many, but uncontrolled mass immigration without even a bare pretense of assimilation is clearly a key factor. Like too many of our elites, John McCain lives in such a exalted corporate world that he doesn't even see the crisis burning out of control at his doorstep. Worse, he sees immigration through rose colored glasses that have blinded him to the depressing realities on the ground.
I could offer reams of evidence. John McCain still talks about "jobs Americans won't do". The possibility of paying higher wages to American workers is both alien and foreign to him. He doesn't have any problems with an economy based on exploitation of immigrants (legal or otherwise) or any awareness of the disastrous social consequences of such policies. |
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...was booming? I keep hearing all the righties tell me the economy is in great shape, no recession, etc. But..And all because of Romney? Who knew? |
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I think all this calling McCain a traitor. The American Conservative Institute which is not close to McCain in anyway gave him an 86% conservative rating and Thompson about the same.
The main issues they rated him liberal on was campaign finance reform and tobacco taxes(An issue I have not heard come up in the campaign.
Now a couple of caveats. Immigration reform is not considered by most groups a liberal or conservative issue. In fact our own president took the lead on this and McCain though the was serving support for his party. The other issue is the environment. While McCain believes global warming exists and we should do something about it (Not considered a liberal or conservative issue) he was against the original Kyoto protocals, but is in favor of some enviro regulation. The other caveat is on taxes. While McCain voted against the Bush tax bills that was because he was trying to get leverage to ban most earmarks and trim the budget. Most conservatives consider that a conservative, yet politically naive move.
In other words McCain's biggest problem is not that he is not conservative enough. His biggest problem is that he has nobly, but lets face it politically stupidly put him at odds with the president, talk radio hosts, and demagoguers. |
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In the end even if McCain doesn't win he has forced us to ask the question, what are conservative issues? Being in favor or torture, not believing in global warming, wanting to evict all illegal immigrants, and cutting taxes without cutting spending are not being conservative as far as I remember the term. You may not like a candidate for their stand on any of these issues, but it does not make them a liberal.
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