Skip the corn dogs

The Iowa State Fair is underway and the Presidential candidates will be expected to gaze at the butter cow, speak from a hay bale stage (and get heckled) and eat all sorts of fried food. From  what I  can see from a quick google search most of them have been enjoying a pork chop on a stick.That's a shame but they were warned:

CBS: On the food front, there is one resounding warning call: avoid the corndogs. At this typical Americana event, food is king, and everyone will talk about the food the politicians eat. The media will also take photos of the candidates as they eat.

WaMo:  I’d say Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry would agree.

Well that advice will disappoint a lot of wise guy bloggers who would post pictures like these:

It's also  probably a good idea to skip the ice cream:

Just stick with the beer:

Prez O likes football

"The most important thing I have to say is football starts today." --President Barack Obama (via pool report)

(PHOTO CREDIT: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

  House GOP introduces bill to repeal football

 Michelle Bachman calls for investigation of unAmerican activities of NFL players

 NFL owners admit that they didn't build the stadiums, the taxpayers paid for them

 Mitt Romney says he has friends that own NFL teams and will give them a tax cut

 Paul Ryan claims he scored 6 touchdowns in a football game in under 3 hours

 Iowa Rep. Steve King proposes electrified fence and alligator filled moat around fields to keep out foreign born players from kicking FG's and extra points

 Rep. King says Michael Vick is his favorite player 

GOP Rep. Steve King Defends Dog Fighting

 

 Lou Barletta asks "What are the Yankee's doing?"

  Tom Marino placed a bet with Louis DeNaples

 Laureen Cummings prayed about something.

Rick Santorum wins Iowa

CNN 120,900 votes

Santorum 29,944 25%
Romney 29,926 25%
Paul 26,182 21%
Gingrich 16,210 13%
Perry 12,574 10%
Bachmann 6,064 5%

Update: When I called it a night Rick was ahead by 18 votes. The final tally is Romney 30,015 Santorum 30,007. Michelle Bachman dropped out today and Rick Perry dropped out last night but changed his mind today.

Paul Begala: "I would have never guessed Rick Santorum would be so happy about two men being tied up together...So while the winner of Iowa in terms of expectations is Santorum, the story is the man he basically tied: Mitt Romney. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when you can't beat the Man-on-Dog guy, who lost his home state by 18 percent, you stink. You really stink."

Waiting for the Iowa results

The Presidential general election is sometimes described as the the Super Bowl of American politics so tonight we start the playoffs. The conventional wisdom is the Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and our very own Rick Santorum will finish in the top 3 with Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry possibly looking at the end of their White House hopes.

Like the rest of you political junkies who read this site I await the results then on to New Hampshire.

This guy doesn't like some of the descriptions of his state.




D.B. Echo said...
Check out the cow at :30! From the same mold as Three-O-Nina!

Santorum surging in Iowa

In the latest PPP in Iowa my favorite presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R-VA) is now in a dead heat for the lead of the also rans. Ron Paul has 23 percent, Mitt Romney 20 percent, Newt Gingrich 14 percent. Fourth place is a tie between Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry at 10 percent. Polling in a caucus state is not as reliable as it is in a primary but it bumbs along the horse race narrative.

I've worked in many election campaigns where it was hard enough to identify your voters and convince them to take 15 or 20 minutes out of their day to vote let alone try to get people to show up for a 3 hour meeting. Newt has been dropping like a rock in the surveys and I have been reading that he doesn't have much of an organization in Iowa. Ron Paul is surging and has an army of volunteers and dedicated followers that matters. If there is a blizzard on January 3rd he will win going away. Romney is spending big in the state hoping for a 1-2 punch with a 1st place showing followed by a win in New Hampshire.

Santorum has been working the state hard and yesterday he got the backing of two so called family values leaders. Rick has an organization and has visited all 99 counties.

Two Iowa conservative Christian leaders this morning endorsed Rick Santorum for president

One of them, Bob Vander Plaats, asked Bachman to drop out of the race. This thing is so much up in the air that it is not inconceivable that Santorum could be the surprise of the night finishing 3rd or better.

Yesterday Santorum reminded me why he is my favorite Republican candidate when he said:


HP: "They talk about income inequality. I'm for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality."

He then launched an attack at President Barack Obama. "President Obama is for income equality. That's socialism. It's worse yet, it's Marxism."



TP: A recent poll found that Americans’ fears about income inequality are growing, with two-thirds of likely voters saying the middle class is shrinking, and 55 percent saying that income inequality has become a big problem for the country. Santorum, evidently, thinks more of the same is what they need.

Just for fun


Adultery Dating Website Ashley Madison Endorses Newt Gingrich:


Extra-marital dating website AshleyMadison.com has erected a billboard of serial adulterer and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that reads: “Faithful Republican, Unfaithful Husband. Welcome to the AshleyMadison.com Era.”

They really wanted Herman Cain.

David Freed for Attorney General

From PoliticsPA

Carlisle — In the crowded lobby of the Cumberland County courthouse, District Attorney Dave Freed launched his bid for Pa. Attorney General Tuesday afternoon. He repeatedly emphasized his record as a tough-on-crime prosecutor.
“The vast majority of my career has been spent prosecuting criminals. I’ve prosecuted capital murder cases, run grand jury investigations, taken down child pornographers, locked up drug dealers, child molesters and arsonists,” he said.
Freed was flanked by several of his colleagues – District Attorney James Martin of Lehigh County; Tom Kearney of York County; and Shawn Wagner of Adams County – and introduced by Ed Marisco of Dauphin County. His website boasts the endorsements of 20 Republican DAs from across the state.
He joins Pa. Senator John Rafferty (R-Montgomery), the only other declared Republican candidate.

When you look at the picture I posted and the banner he has on his website he appears to have Michelle Bachman eyes.

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CasablancaPA has some information about both Republican candidates

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SMOKE = FIRE

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And, unsurprisingly to anyone who is familiar with the Pennsylvania state legislature going back to, well, forever, Rafferty's staff received quite a few campaign reimbursements... Check it out for yourself here. If there is one thing we've all learned since 2007, campaign reimbursements have always led back to illegal campaign activities IF a prosecutor issues subpoenas and investigates.
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MAYBE RAFFERTY WILL GIVE US A BONUS, TOO

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Beyond merely surrounding himself with some of the largest beneficiaries of the legislative bonuses he abhors, Rafferty seems to have a more significant problem than just schizophrenic taste. How does it look for a candidate for Attorney General to hire as a leading member of his campaign team a current target of an on-going grand jury investigation? What signal does it send to the investigators at the OAG who are still investigating the Senate Republican Caucus' operations during Mike Long's leadership?

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"IT'S OBVIOUS [HE] DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE LAW"

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Will anyone ask Harley, the Office of Attorney General, or Governor Tom Corbett whether Leroy Zimmerman's son-in-law "obviously doesn't understand the law?" Or, was Harley just spouting nonsense on the taxpayer's dime to protect his boss politically?

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Freed told Capitol Ideas that he will drop out if he doesn't get the backing of the PA State Republican Committee

"I will not run without the endorsement," he said. "I have no problem saying that."

The winner of the primary or endorsement contest will face one of 3 Democrats in the General election.

They are Dan McCaffery who is backed by Congressman and head of the local Philadelpia Democratic party Bob Brady. Scranton native Kathleen Kane who has been on Hardball discussing the Sandusky scandal.

Former Congressman Patrick Murphy has also been proposing protections for children in the wake of the scandal and stands up for fellow veterans. Murphy was the leader in Congress for the repeal of DADT. I was in the military in the 70/80's and we knew who was gay but didn't give a shit, all that mattered was if you could do your job.

Murphy made it to the last Blogfest which got major props from me and our local scribes. We will have another gathering before the April primary and expect even more statewide candidates in addition to the local hopefuls to attend.

Do the Republicans want to win the White House in 2012?

I've been an observer of Presidential politics since shortly after I learned how to read but I've never seen anything like this pre-primary season. Serious candidates like Mitch Daniels and John Thune took a pass then Tim Pawlwnty dropped out after the Iowa straw poll after losing to Michelle Bachman.

Donald Trump was leading the polls in the spring peddling birther nonsense then his bubble burst when Bin Laden was killed and he decided to go back to his TV show. Texas Governor Rick Perry was cheered for executing people and raised a bunch of money but couldn't speak in complete sentences and had a memory lapse. Then it was pizza guy Herman Cain who was sunk by an allegation of a 13 year extramarital affair after being accused of sexual harassment. Cain dropped out Saturday and the Borowitz Report translates his statement:


But before I go, let me share with you my final thoughts on my campaign. After months of crisscrossing this great land of ours and participating in over three hundred televised debates, I am being disqualified because of an extramarital affair. And that raises the following question: are you fucking kidding me?

I mean, let’s get real. I never heard of Libya. I didn’t know whether that CNN dude’s name was Wolf or Blitz. And my only training for running the #1 nation in the world was running its #8 pizza chain. Yet none of that, I repeat, none of that disqualified me. In fact, I was the front-fucking-runner, as long as I kept my 9-9-9 in my pants. (I have no idea what I meant by that — I just like saying 9-9-9.)

But here’s the part that really kills me. You’re kicking me to the curb because I was messing around, and instead you’re going with… Newt Gingrich? I repeat: are you fucking kidding me? Oh, I know what you’re saying: you love Newt because he’s an “intellectual.” Well, Newt Gingrich is the intellectual of the Republican field the way Moe was the intellectual of the Stooges.

Now the front runner is Newt Gingrich who is an ideas man. Most of them are bad like having grade school kids work as janitors. Now he talks about bipartisanship after poisoning the atmosphere in the 1990's.

Every Word Matters: Using 'Keywords' as a Political Tactic

Gingrich's negative words for Democrats

"Anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child, anti-jobs, betray, coercion, collapse, consequences, corruption, crises, decay, deeper, destroy, destructive, devour, endanger, failure, greed, hypocrisy, ideological, impose, incompetent, insecure, liberal, lie, limit(s), pathetic, permissive attitude, radical, self-serving, sensationalists, shallow, sick, they/them, threaten, traitors, unionized bureaucracy, urgent, waste"

Now Trump is back in the news saying he will be the moderator of a Newsmax debate about a week before the Iowa caucus that has some Republicans balking . Newt doesn't have a ground game and even if he wins an early contest or 2 it's hard to see him lasting in a contest with Mitt Romney. Andrew Sullivan said that Romney makes plastic look real.

Back to my original point. I really don't think that the Republican media machine want's to see President Obama defeated. It would be bad for ratings for FOX News and Rush Limbaugh if they didn't have a Democratic President to beat up. Not to mention what it would do to their book sales.

Sarah Palin said some nice things about Rick Santorum

Sarah Palin said some nice things about Rick Santorum (R-VA) on Fox News that he touting in a fundraising email.

Gort
“If voters start shifting gears and deciding they want ideological consistency, then they’re going to start paying attention to say, Rick Santorum.”
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said that last night on Fox News about me, and I wanted to make sure you heard about it as well.
I am grateful for those kind words from a strong conservative like Governor Palin. And it’s becoming more clear that other conservatives are starting to rally around our message of passionate conservatism.

I love it when a politician sends a personalized email when hitting me up for money but I'm unclear what the difference is between a passionate conservative and a compassionate conservative like Bush advertised. I think it might be something akin to being a benevolent axe murderer as Mike McGlynn once said in the CV.




Michelle Bachman said she would consider him for VP.




CNN: Bachmann threw out a few names Wednesday when asked who her potential vice-president would be, including fellow candidate Rick Santorum...The congresswoman from Minnesota also floated Santorum as a potential attorney general, saying his legal acumen was top notch.
"I think that Rick Santorum is a wonderful man personally, but also, I think that he's very gifted when it comes to the area of legal issues."




Rick is charming all the girls saying "I’m the one you want to take home to Mom.”




Rick Santorum a Hit With the Ladies

It's Rick Santorum's turn to be the flavor of the month

The race for the Republican Presidential nomination continues to be a search for an alternative to Mitt Romney. It's been one flame out after another.

First it was Michelle Bachman winning the Iowa straw poll who's understanding of American history confirmed that our school systems are failing. Then Governor Rick Perry's inability to speak in complete sentences in the debates burst his bubble and shamed his English teachers. Nobody wants another Texas Governor that murders the English language. Next was pizza guy Herman Cain who is mired in sexual harassment charges and seems to think that his ignorance of foreign policy is a plus. Right now Newt Gingrich is topping some polls but was paid over $1 million by conservative boogie man Freddie Mac and is haunted by his past events like serving divorce papers to his 1st wife when she was in the hospital recovering from cancer and being forced to resign from being Speaker of the House because of ethics issues. Not to mention the Tiffany's thing.



So that leaves former PA Senator and Virginia resident Rick Santorum who is banking on a good showing in Iowa to keep his campaign alive until he drops out after South Carolina or Florida. He is only polling 3% in Iowa but polls in a caucus state don't always predict the outcome. Iowa Republicans are known for their religious conservatism and his hawkish foreign policy stances play well. Santorum has always been a consistent abortion opponent who wants to turn the clock back on gay rights and thinks starting a war with Iran is a good idea feeding off the end of times Israel can do no wrong fundamentalism.



His camp is actually touting an interview with Glen Beck of all people. Beck was kicked off FOX News for being even to nuts for them. He also said that Penn State shouldn't go to a Bowl game and Sarah Palin disagreed "It's not the players' fault that they have a perverted former assistant coach," she told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren. "I would like to see the players not suffer more than they have suffered."

Bob Reilly got Luzerne County contract

Incredible. Admitted criminal former Luzerne County Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly formed a company called Tri-State Chemical March 21, 2011 that was awarded a county contract to provide cleaning supplies valued at $6500 on August 23, 2011. Reilly plead guilty to lying to a FBI agent and was sentenced to probation November 4, 2010. He was originally charged with accepting a bribe from Barton Weidlich but cut a deal with the feds.

Controller Walter Griffith discovered the ownership of the company and has asked the Commissioners to cancel the contract and put it on a no bid list. Various lawyers quoted in the media are not sure if that is possible and Commissioner Chair Maryanne Petrilla points out that the county contracts with thousands of companies. The challenge is to develop a vetting process to prevent this type of thing from happening again if possible. Reilly's lawyer argues that the guy has to make a living.

You have to wonder what this guy is thinking by putting in a bid for county business after disgracing himself. As Michelle Bachman would say, he has a lot of choot-spa.


Commissioners probe how firm owned by former clerk of courts won county contract


Controller wants to void bids from Reilly-owned company

Flavor of the month

I remember the last time around in the Republican nominating process when some of my Republican friends thought Fred Thompson was the answer to their prayers because they were unhappy with the field especially front runner John McCain. That worked out well.

This time many of the true faithful want an alternative to next one in line , Mitt Romney. Michelle Bachman created a buzz for a bit even winning the Iowa straw poll until Rick Perry got in the race and stole her thunder. Now Perry is fizzling out after his less than stellar debate performances losing the Florida GOP straw poll to the pizza guy.

So now the hope is that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will get into the race despite his previous statements like "short of suicide, I don't really know what I'd have to do to convince you people that I'm not running. I'm not running." The blunt talking Governor telling people to
"get the hell off the beach." as Hurricane Irene was bearing down and telling Washington to get it's act together after the disaster

“You want to figure out budget cuts, that’s fine..You’re going to turn it into a fiasco like that debt-limit thing where you’re fighting with each other for eight or nine weeks and you expect the citizens of my state to wait? They’re not gonna wait, and I’m going to fight to make sure that they don’t,” Christie said putting the Tea Party-driven House on notice that its slash and gut politics will not be tolerated.

He also defended his choice of a Muslim as a Judge saying "Sharia Law has nothing to do with this at all, it’s crazy!"

Yep, he will go far in this atmosphere.

Rick Santorum wins Pennsylvania Republican straw poll for President

Capitol Ideas is reporting from the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee meeting where all the buzz is about the plan to blow up the way the state will allocate it's Electoral College votes in the Presidential election and the brewing civil war that has pitted the legislature against the state party leadership worried about down ballot races and the Republican US House members who are worried about getting reelected. I would usually expect cooler heads to prevail who would keep the winner take all system but in this crazy atmosphere anything can happen.

pawatercooler.com has the results of the straw poll that for some reason doesn't attract as much attention as the one in Iowa.

In the interest of fair and balanced coverage that Fox News has pioneered I decided to put up the unofficial Gort42 campaign photos of some of the candidates. Please send pics of the candidates if you have better ones.

Former PA Senator and long time Virginia resident Rick Santorum topped the poll with 138 votes out of 388 tallied. The horse race coverage people like percentages so that is 35.5%


Mitt Romney came in 2nd with 98 or 25.5%. The dog that he strapped to the top of his car for a 12 hour ride didn't have a vote.

Flavor of the month Texas Governor Rick Perry got 71 votes of the faithful (18.3%). If he signs a few more death warrants he may increase that percentage.




Ron Paul continues to be the Rodney Dangerfield of this race, no respect at all. 21 votes



Jon Huntsman may be the most qualified guy in the race after being Governor of Utah and Ambassador to China. He even speaks a foreign language that probably disqualifies him with the English Only Crowd. In today's Republican Party that is a handicap. Look for him 2016. Tom Ridge endorsed him. 18 votes.

Herman Cain. 16 votes.

Newt Gingrich is someone I sometimes liked when he was talking ideas instead of his scorched earth policy of partisan warfare. 14 votes.

Last in the poll was Michelle Bachman.

ALex said: Only 12 for Michelle Bachmann? Maybe that anti-vaccination insanity had a stronger effect that I thought.

Whoever wins the Republican nomination has to run against this guy. 0 votes.

Ames, Iowa looking over it's shoulder

With all the attention on the Iowa straw poll my friend Dave Baloga decided to get a head start and organized his own.


At the Jonathan Balaster Memorial Summer Picnic on Aug.13th, 2011 we conducted a straw poll of potential (age 18 or older) voters and the results were compiled before anyone had known the Iowa straw poll results. There were 120 attendees and many children. It was a mixed political attendance with the majority Republicans, many Independents and an unknown number of Democrats.


The results of the Luzerne County GOP straw poll:

Rick Perry – 23 votes
Michelle Bachman – 15 votes
Rick Santorum – 12 votes
Mitt Romney – 11 votes
Newt Gingrich – 7 votes
Herman Cain – 7 votes
Ron Paul – 3 votes
Sarah Palin – 2 votes
Tim Pawlenty – 1 vote
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I know this is a small sample but people who go to these events are the hard core Republicans who actually work in campaigns. I'm surprised that Santorum only got 12 out of 77 votes. Maybe they're still mad at him for endorsing Arlen Specter.


Ames, Shmames – Rick Perry Wins Luzerne GOP Straw Poll

Michelle Bachman wins the Iowa straw poll

I know I'm late to this as I was on vacation.

My prediction that Lady Gaga fans would put him over the top did Tim Pawlenty in. Such a shame as he was the only Republican candidate in the field that I actually met. He seemed less crazy then the rest of them.

Ron Paul came in second but he is the Rodney Dangerfield of the race


Ron Paul Gets No Respect

Michelle Bachman was the winner

(pic via Froth Slosh B'Gosh)

Rick Santorum for President

My favorite Republican Presidential candidate had a disappointing fundraising second quarter pulling in just $582,347 with only $ 229,114 cash on hand. He is in single digits in most national polls and even trails Michelle Bachman and Mitt Romney in the latest Pennsylvania poll.

To top up his coffers he has decided to pick a fight with gay sex columnist Dan Savage sending out a fundraising email about his now famous google bomb that will lead you to this site. If you do a search for Santorum it's still the top result. This reminds me of when some magazine did a story on the 10 dumbest members of Congress and one of them called a news conference the next day to deny it.

If you don't want to follow the links I will provide a summary. In an interview in 2003 Rick Santorum said


he didn't believe in a right to privacy regarding sexual acts between adults. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

When the Associated Press asked, "So if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?" Santorum replied, "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."

Savage responded by adding his definition of Santorum

Function: noun
1. The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

2. Former Senator Rick Santorum

Savage is now threatening to redifine Rick

A question for Big Dan and the rest of you. Shall I use the ice cream cone pic instead of the powder blue suit for future posts?

Does Lou Barletta prefer Lipton or Tetley?

CBS: The Democratic National Committee is today launching an effort to force Republicans "to stand with the Tea Party or disavow their beliefs," as DNC Spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine put it in a release.


The group is urging local reporters in 30 districts to press House Republican candidates and officeholders to specify whether they will join Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Loco Gringo) Tea Party Caucus...Today's DNC push comes on the heels of the DNC's release of a document laying out what it says are the plans of the "Republican Tea Party," among them repealing the health care bill, privatizing Social Security, ending Medicare in its current form, extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and abolishing the Departments of Education and Energy. They call the 10-point platform the "Republican Tea Party Contract on America."

The Republicans being targeted include Lou Barletta.

Si el alcalde de Hazleton hace a Washington le sumamos al llamamiento Michelle Bachmann de una caza de brujas de los miembros anti-estadounidense del Congreso?

You Tube weekend

I haven't paid much attention to the PA 12th CD special election to succeed John Murtha but this ad caught my eye because it is so stupid, creative and funny all at the same time.

The Republicans keep trying to demonize Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi which probably works in their echo chamber but I don't think it translates to the larger electorate. In this spot the soft spoken grandmother who represents Sodom on the San Andreas is transformed into a giant 50 foot monster. The Tubes and old 50's sci-fi films should get royalties. The puppetering looks like something the South Park/Team America guys would do. All that is missing is Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann shooting the flamethrowers at the end.