Category: Politicians Suck

Arlen Specter is already running ads against Pat Toomey.  That’s rich.  Arlen Specter, who voted for Obama’s Porkulus bill, is trying to suggest that Pat Toomey, who has spent the last several years heading up Club for Growth, which advocates for smaller government, has destroyed America.

I guess now it’s time to think about starting a 2010 Election category, and pondering whether I have the energy for a nasty primary, followed by a nasty general election.

The Governor is still barreling down the PA Turnpike like a bat out of hell:

It found one instance on a Sunday morning when his car averaged an estimated 99 mph traveling between the New Stanton and Warrendale interchanges of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

His trip speeds between the Harrisburg East and Valley Forge exits, the stretch of the toll road he uses most often, have estimated speeds ranging between 48 and 93 mph.

This has been an issue before.  Glad to see the problem has been corrected.  I hope he at least wears his seatbelt.

Obama sent a letter to Jacques Chirac telling him how much he’s looking forward to working with him.  Problem?  Jacques Chirac is no longer President of France.  What would the media reaction be if Bush did this?

UPDATE: Missing context

Apparently Florida was trying to make bestiality illegal (because it apparently wasn’t already).  This is a priceless example of how stupid politicians can be:

This irreplaceable moment came during a debate to outlaw bestiality in Florida, which appears to be perfectly legal at the current time. When an exception for animal husbandry was raised, State Senator Bullard was alarmed: “People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?”

I wasn’t exactly raised a farm boy, but even I know what animal husbandry is.  What’s scary is that apparently this State Senator is vice chair of the Agriculture Committee.  God help farmers in Florida with this kind of leadership!

If we get hit with another terrorist attack against planes, it’s on you Barack.  It’s on you:

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.

Asshole.

Michelle Obama told us, in the days before her husband’s campaign took her out of the spotlight, that she wanted a piece of our pie.  Well, it seems we no longer have to worry.  Seems the biggest problem we face with people who frequent soup kitchens these days is that they aren’t eating enough healthy organic fruit.

McCain introduced earmark reform in the Senate, and look who the Republicans are who opposed it:

Nine Republicans voted with Democrats against Mr. McCain’s amendment: Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah, Christopher Bond of Missouri, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. More here. (Via Tennessee Free)

It gores my goat that I’m going to have to help Specter out in 2010, in my capacity as EVC, because he’s likely to carry an NRA endorsement.  But given that NRA stays out of primary fights, I will absolutely back any actual Republican who wants to run against Specter in the primary.  Seriously, we might as well have a Democrat.  First the stimulus, now this.

Hat Tip Instapundit

Senator Specter responsded to my letter on his stimulus package vote.  Here’s a section I want to highlight:

I was impressed with the position of the United States Chamber of Commerce which was for the bill very solidly.  The Chamber is for the bill because it supports pro-growth tax initiatives.  The Chamber is for the bill because it applauds the inclusion of tax relief.  The Chamber is for the bill because many of the spending-side provisions in the legislation will also provide stimulus to get Americans back to work, focusing on infrastructure spending for roads, rails, public transportation, aviation, inland waterways and ports.

Here’s a recent press release by The Chamber.  Tell me if you think this is “for the bill very solidly”:

Ever since the election, the Chamber promised to work with the Obama team to develop and then pass a stimulus bill that would apply a defibrillator to our economy and shock it back to life … a bill that was timely, targeted, and temporary … a bill whose most important objective would be to create and save American jobs.

Unfortunately, that’s not what the House of Representatives delivered.

Its bill contained massive amounts of wasteful spending … infrastructure projects that would come on line too slowly … an insufficient level of tax cuts … and billions of transfer payments, rather than incentives to create new business and jobs.

House leaders prevented anyone other than themselves—including, apparently, the president—from shaping the bill. As a result, it was a prescription for bigger government, more debt, and ballooning deficits as far as the eye can see.

The Chamber worked hard to win improvements in the Senate version. It’s better—it contains more tax cuts and curtails some of the wasteful spending, but we would have liked to have seen more improvements.

In the end, they supported the Senate version, but that sounds rather tepid to me.  If Arlen is looking for cover for his vote, he’s going to have to try harder than this.

Arlen Specter encountered some unhappy people over his stimulus vote, and says:

Specter, 79, acknowledges his run for re-election will be tough. […] Specter acknowledges the Republican Party’s conservative wing will attempt to unseat him in next year’s primary race.

I’m absolutely counting on it.  This time, he won’t have Santorum and Bush to pull his ass out of the fire.  There’s on issue he can make this up to me on, and the vote is likely coming.

PDB is confused that Obama’s next move is the budget deficit.  He’s concerned about deficits.  Apparently it’s going to hit 2 trillion this year, and that worries him.  You know, there’s a bill on your desk, Barry, that if you veto would get you halfway there.