Patches Pelosi: "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a bill."John Callahan: "What?"
(Patches throws a wrench and hits Callahan in the face).
Patches Pelosi: "If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a bill."
John Callahan: "What?"
(Patches pushes Callahan into oncoming traffic on Route 22).
Dodgebill.
According to the NRCC, the only Democratic Congressional challenger in Pennsylvania to actually take a position on health insurance reform is Manan Trivedi. And he's running against another Democrat in the PA-6th. A doctor, he supports the Senate version.
The rest of them are playing dodgebill.
That should be no surprise, because even the incumbent Dems and Speaker Pelosi are considering the "Slaughter Rule," so that even they can avoid taking a public position.
In contrast, every Republican challenger has publicly spoken out.
17 comments:
The Republican position is a tough one to take.
"We oppose Death panels, we oppose bureaucrats, we oppose trillions and trillions of new taxes"
Just say no wasn't even this stylish when Nancy Reagan was saying it. You go girls!
I have a very intelligent, very liberal (lived in a commune) friend. She clearly sees how her side operates and agrees these are horrible people. But, she is so enamored with the ideology, she will never abandon them no matter how shameless they prove to be.
Contrast that to disgruntled conservatives, who have basically told the Republican party to either come home or go piss up a rope.
Callahan must be learning how to dodge from Dent who is dodging ethics by engaging in pay to play politics... Air Products gets 750k for 13k in campaign contributions. Dent's campaign should return that campaign money.
I spoke w/ Dent about that years ago. He told me he is proud to accept money from people who live in his district, and he supports the alternative energy application researched by Air Products.
Now you want to talk about pay to play? Really? If truth be told, every argument you make against Dent, and they can be made, can also be made against Callahan. He regularly accepts money from city vendors or accepts money from wheeler dealers who get millions in grants and favorable tax treatment.
Then let's look at the "indpendent" bloggers who trash Dent. Kwiatek was bought and paid for by Cunningham and, yes, Callahan. Geeting workls for Soros. O'Donnell was a paid Democratic operative.
So frankly, I'm not all that bothered by Dent. I'm bothered by all of it.
Who are Kwiatic, O'Donnell and Greeting? What are you talking about? Are they elected to anything?
I'm really disappointed that you don't mind that Dent is guilty of pay to play. As an infrequent visitor, I would think you might be willing to call him on it. I guess I am wrong.
He should return the money. Don't you agree?
And the New York Times picked up this information. it's not like it came out of the looney bin or a campaign. The New York Times is kind of reputable.
The saddest thing in the article is that Dent's spokesman didn't understand that pay to play impacts taxpayers.
No, I don't.
I don't believe Dent is huilty of pay to play. In these larger races, having gobs of money does not mean as much as it does in a local race. And I have spoken to Dent about the contributions he gets from those PACs. many of them are in his district, and are really consortiums of employees who work for Air Products or PPL or other businesses.
If you want to attack these kinds of contributions, you have to be consistent and attack ALL of them. That means that all the PAC money going to Callahan should be returned. All the money he got from city vendors shold be returned.
I'm sure Callahan could make a persuausice argument for why those people should be allowed to contribute as well.
Personally, I favor clean election laws in which this kind of influence cannot exist or is minimized.
But I will not condemn Dent for what Callahan is doing as well. I will not condmen Callahan for what Dent is doing.
But let's be honest. They both do it.
"And the New York Times picked up this information. it's not like it came out of the looney bin or a campaign."
The NYT is certainly reputable but did not condemn Dent and merelyy noted he gets earmarks for the companies who contribute to his campaign. They are LV companies, employ LV workers. Places like Air Products are doing a lot of research on alternative energy. There is another outfit working on a battery that can deliver a 100 mile charge. These are worthwhile investments, and there really is no quid pro quo. Dent is something of an aletrnative energy geek and has been at the forefornt of that movement for many years. he gets very interested in that topic.
The bloggers you claim to not know used that NYT article to try to slam Dent, something you are doing now.
I don't know if this has been discussed here, but none the less here is a list of donors for Callahan.
Looks like Pelosi's peeps kicked in 4 grand.
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00464750/436228/sa/ALL
I read the NYT. Many people do. I don't know who those people you mentioned are and I don't care. I hope I didn't hurt their feelings.
You can splice it and dice it any way you want: Dent is taking campaign money and then getting earmarks for the company. It's bad gov't.
You claim to have talked to him and then talk about his virtue as an alternative energy geek. Well, then return the campaign money and do the earmarks b/c you are an alternative energy geek. Tell the company bigshots to keep their money and get them the earmarks b/c it supports a local employer and could do good for the environment.
Since Callahan isn't the incumbent, I can't attack him over earmarks. Dent is, so I will b/c he is guilty of pay to play.
It's disappointing that you aren't as vocal about Dent's transgressions as you are about Pawlowski's. Excusing it b/c "everybody does it" and "it's generally disguisting" is entirely disgusting and serves as an excuse for bad gov't, which I thought you opposed.
Anonymous said...
And the New York Times picked up this information. it's not like it came out of the looney bin or a campaign. The New York Times is kind of reputable.
Are you fucking kidding me? The NY Times is as radical left wing as it gets, gets it wrong more often than not, employs plagiarizer after plagiarizer and is declining far more rapidly than the newspaper industry on the whole.
Credibility? Hah!
I'm watching a political party, given the greatest advantage in 100 years of political history literally implode in front of my eyes, because they have an inability to do the right thing by the people that elected them...guess this must be what it felt to be a Republican in 2006.
I'm changing my registration this week. The democratic party has jumped the shark.
"It's disappointing that you aren't as vocal about Dent's transgressions as you are about Pawlowski's. Excusing it b/c "everybody does it" and "it's generally disguisting" is entirely disgusting and serves as an excuse for bad gov't, which I thought you opposed."
You claim to be an infrequent reader yet know my stance re Pawlowski pretty well. I oppose pay to play. Pawlowski has taken that to new depths. I particularly oppose pay to play in local races, where a little money means so much more.
In larger races like Governor or Congress, I understand that you need to raise gobs of cash, so doations from one person really don't mean as much. When somebody gives you $20k but you need $2MM, his money is not going to buy your vote.
So in the congressional race, I will view Callahan and Dent differently than the way I view candidates for local office. I believe this thinking is entirely consistent,and I've explained it before.
I would love to see clean election laws. I have supported that all along. If you want to criticize Dent and be consstent, you have to criticize Callahan.
I'm nit justifying it. What I am saying is that yu are inconistently bc you only look at one candidate's sins when there really are two sinners.
The classic Ohare response to someone who calls him on his shit.
An opening snarky remark, a rationalization, a deflection of the topic and in summary an attack on the questioners integrity.
The Ohare Mancrush Insurance program. don't you wish you had an Ohare in your corner?
Good try Anon 7:47. Try to use diversion to distract everyone from the fact that Callahan is too chicken to take a stand on the health bill.
"Callahan must be learning how to dodge from Dent who is dodging ethics by engaging in pay to play politics... Air Products gets 750k for 13k in campaign contributions."
Rehashing used and failed talking points against Dent. Obviously no one with George Soros or the Callahan campaign thinks for themselves. Are we also going to use the oldie but goodie that Dent=GW Bush?
blah, blah, blah... Bernie. Dent got nailed in a pay to play scheme and you are ducking the issue for him.
Maybe Callahan is learning his dodgeball skills from you.
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