Sunday, January 4, 2009

Told You So:  Quid pro quo for Gift to Clinton Library

by TheTruthSquad

I hate to say “I told you so” but in an earlier post on this website, MFP raised the pretty apparent conflict of interest created by Bill Clinton for his wife Hillary Clinton.  Gifts to the Clinton Foundation and Library are vetted by the West Wing, giving anyone overseas who wants the attention of Obama and his Secretary of State an opportunity:  Give to the Foundation and get some attention.  This dynamic is nothing new as revelations of what one donor received are coming to light

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Senator Theodore Bilbo (D-MS):  Arch Segregationist

by W. T. Howes

Governor Blagojevich is at it again!  He has defied his own party and appointed a successor to President-elect Barack H. Obama in the United States Senate.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has already announces that the Senate would not seat the new nominee, which raised the question, when was the last time that the United States Senate refused to seat an elected Senator.  According to U.S. Senate historians, the last time was in 1947, when a coalition of Republicans and Northern Democrats refused to seat Hon. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi (pictured left).  Senator Bilbo was a real character of the game.  Let’s turn back the clock and take a look at this little piece of historic irony.

What an irony!  The last time the United States Senate refused to seat a legally elected or appointed Senator was in 1947, when the Republican-controlled body refused to seat arch-segregationist Senator Theodore G. Bilbo.  Ironic?  Sure.  Senator Bilbo must be absolutely spinning in his grave with the knowledge that America has elected its first Black President.  However, that old devil must also be chuckling because the man who is being blocked 62 years after he was blocked is Black.

Theodore Bilbo was one of the most colorful Southern politicians of the twentieth century.  He was one of a new breed of populists (or demoagogues, depending on your point of view) who rose up in the dirt poor deep South.  Bilbo was always controversial.  As a state senator he was involved in a bribery scandal connected to - ironically - the appointment of a new United States Senator.  In the years before direct election of United States Senators, the Mississippi Legislature was set to select a new one.  The multi-candidate field was deadlocked through several ballots in the legislature until several legislators changed their votes and resolved the race.  The next day, Bilbo claimed to have been bribed by the victor.

No one was ever charged or indicted or convicted in the scandal.  However, Bilbo was impeached by the State Senate.  He was not convicted.  Despite the scandal, Bilbo was elected Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi.  He served there, then as Governor and eventually a United States Senator.

Bilbo was an avowed segregationist and an admitted member of the Ku Klux Klan (an honor he shares with his fellow Democrat, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia).  In the Senate, he sponsored bills providing appropriations for the relocation of African-Americans to West Africa.  He penned a book entitled, Take Your Choice, Separation or Mongrelization, in which he explained the proposition.  He publicly stated that he believed that Blacks should not vote.  He filibustered an anti-lynching bill in the United States Senate.

Bilbo was later eulogized as a “redneck liberal” for his shameless pandering to poor rural white folk and his support for the New Deal.  He was such a figure that he has a namesake in William Faulkner’s fictional Yoknawpatawpha County - Bilbo Snopes.

Theodore Bilbo died in 1947 of mouth cancer. 

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Not So Fast!  There are Battlegrounds in 2009

by W. T. Howes

There is a lot of talk in the blogosphere (and in what’s left of the newspapers) about the 2010 election cycle.  The talk is about Camelot Barbie and her quest for Hilary’s Senate seat; there is talk about Harry Reid’s uphill battle to retain his own seat; and there is talk about Jeb Bush running for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez.  These are interesting topics, but conservatives must focus on the first task at hand - the 2009 statewide races in Virginia, New Jersey and perhaps Illinois.

Believe me, I can’t wait to see Harry Reid lose his Senate seat.  After all Nevada is at its core a red state.  Believe me, I would love to see Jeb Bush steamroll to a victory in a U.S. Senate race.  And I would really love to see Caroline Kennedy AKA “Camelot Barbie” defend a Senate and her non-existent resume.  Those are great topics, but we have to keep our eye on the ball:  There are important statewide elections in 2009 that deserve our attention.

VIRGINIA: The governor’s race is at the top of the ballot in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The GOP has put its decade-long infighting aside and has rallied behind Attorney General Bob McDonnell.  McDonnell is a popular figure who has a strong law-and-order record both as a Delegate and as Attorney General.  He has deep roots in the two most populous and vote-rich area of the state, and has proven that he can win a statewide election.  He has a very strategic advantage in that he has no primary opponent.  The Democrats, on the other hand are holding a three-way primary between R. Creigh Deeds, Brian J. Moran and Terry McAuliffe.  McAuliffe, of course, is the former chairman of the DNC and a Clinton crony.  Moran, a state legislature, is the choice of the Virginia Democrat establishment.  The united GOP will have a chance to reverse the blue tide in the Commonwealth.

NEW JERSEY: The New Jersey governor is the constitutionally most powerful governor in the nation.  There are no other elected constitutional officers, so the governor appoints everyone in the cabinet, as well as every new judge in the state.  Wall Street Magnate Jon Corzine holds the position now.  He is there because he has used his vast fortune to win a Senate seat in 2000 by outspending his opponent by a 9:1 margin, and has underwritten Democrat bosses and machines across the Garden State for eight years.  New Jersey is a very BLUE state.  However, Corzine’s approval ratings are upside-down, so the GOP sees an opening.  The GOP will chose its nominee on June 4, in a primary.  There are three declared candidates - two mayors and a state assemblyman - but the GOP awaits the entry of popular U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.  If the GOP can unite behind a candidate, then they have a chance to pull an upset.

ILLINOIS:It looks like Barack Obama’s Senate seat is no longer for sale.  It may have to be decided in a special election, which should give the GOP an opening.

The GOP is on a mild winning streak, having won three special elections in Georgia and Louisiana since the election of Obama.  If we can focus on 2009, then we can build on those victories.