Freedom Line Blog

From Josh Kraushaar, politico.com: 

On the same day Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn officially claimed the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, he found out that his newly-minted running mate has a rap sheet that includes alleged domestic battery and tax evasion.  The revelation has shocked Democrats, leading to worries that his presence could taint the entire statewide ticket.

“According to court records obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Scott Lee Cohen, a millionaire pawnbroker who prevailed with a narrow plurality in the crowded primary for lieutenant governor, was accused by his ex-girlfriend, a prostitute, of holding a knife to her neck in a 2005 domestic dispute.”

Read the whole story here.

In a move sure to raise questions regarding the torture of U.S. Senators by a secretive government cabal, the Senate Ethics Committee has written Senator Roland Burris (D-Ill) a letter. 

The admonishment letter, long argued by advocates of more humane punishment to be the senatorial equivalent of water-boarding, is said to be a “sternly worded rebuke,” from which Burris is unlikely to recover before dinner.

The letter, which took months of closed-door scheming to prepare, cites Burris for “providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate [by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich].”

Recognizing the severity of such a letter and attempting to reduce public criticism over the harshness of its language, heretofore reserved for such acts as appearing on the Senate floor with one’s pockets stuffed with $100 bills,  the Senate Ethics Committee recommends no further punishment.

Since Burris has announced that he will not seek re-election, he will be allowed to vote on serious matters affecting the American people and be afforded all Senatorial privileges only through the remainder of his appointed term, which runs until 2010.

New Orleans Times-Picayune:  “With help from [Senate Majority Leader] Reid, the health care bill provides Louisiana with between $100 million and $300 million in Medicaid financing for fiscal 2011.”

Must have been one of those rounding errors that caused the rest of the mainstream media to report only the lower number.

Harry Reid will get a little back, for himself, not taxpayers, when Landrieu and James Carville host a New Orleans fundraiser for him on December 12 at $4800 a pop.

h/t:  Martin Kady II, politico.com

Now they’ve finally blown it.  After getting away, so far, with screwing over just about everyone in the country, with hardly a peep, the Senate version of “healthcare reform” has now inappropriately groped a constituency that no sane male-dominated body dare touch:  real housewives of America.

That’s right, ladies.  Politico.com reports, before you’ve even had your coffee this morning, that the botox tax is back.  Five percent on all elective cosmetics surgery.  It is needed “to make the numbers work,” a Democratic Senate aide told Politico.

All we can do is warn Senators of the following:  Ladies who attend those Tea Parties that scare you so badly wear sensible shoes.  Real housewives wear four-inch stilettos, and they ain’t just for pretty.

No waffling, we were flat-out wrong about the possibility of Doug Hoffman winning the special congressional election in NY-23.  That rather significant part of the equation was a bridge too far, too fast, and we just got carried away by the effort, by the momentum (which was genuine) and by the weird dynamics of a race that behaved like a game of pinball rather than politics.

In the end, the Wicked Witch of the North, Dede Scozzafava was able to exact revenge by backing Democrat Bill Owens and drawing away enough votes to deny Hoffman the victory.  Regardless, her future is not going to be that of “a great leader,” Bill Owens’ appreciative words from one clueless backbench hack to another.  Owens will get his lapel pin and his year, during which we suspect he won’t become one of Nancy Pelosi’s acolytes.  No one could be that dumb.

For conservatism, however, the victory of shoving a dose of grassroots reality down the throats of Republican Party bosses cannot be underestimated.

As someone once said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  Now, who’s paying attention to the Florida Senate race?

When Doug Hoffman wins the special election for NY-23 tomorrow, as he now seems poised to do, much will be written about what that means, and much of that will be meaningless.

What won’t get that much attention is that Hoffman is the candidate of New York’s scrappy Conservative Party, founded in 1962, with the support of William F. Buckley, Jr.  Buckley became the Party’s candidate for New York City mayor in 1965, losing as he knew he would, but with great wit and that wonderful twinkle in his eye.

The Party, with its own ballot line, is a political force, for decades under the savvy, never-blinking, steadfastly conservative leadership of Mike Long.  Hoffman’s win will be a rare, single line victory, but that diminishes not at all the influence New York’s Conservative Party has been able to wield over politics even in New York’s liberal wilderness, now aided mightily by the Tea Party brigades.

Have a party tomorrow night, Mike.  You and a Conservative Party worthy of the name deserve it.

From Mark Tapscott, Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Examiner:

Federal Emergency Management Agency deputy administrator Timothy Manning told a congressional panel [Tuesday, October 27] that his organization had spent $5 million during the last 18 months reviewing how it spent $29 billion since 2002, but still doesn’t know what it got for the money.”

From the Associated Press:

A government-sponsored ‘public option’ for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

“In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as ‘the consumer option.’  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi’s side and used the term ‘competitive option.’

“Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public – or consumers or competitors.”

Read the full article here.

“Good Evening. This is Walter Crankcase reporting for State News.

“We are unable to report tonight that President Obama is still dithering over the decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan because former Vice President Cheney said it and Fox News reported it first.

“Turning to other news, the Obama family has posed for its official White House portrait. Isn’t that just the cuddliest First Family you ever saw? Robert, leave that visual up for the rest of the broadcast. It’s much better than those boring unemployment numbers and that deficit graph.

“After the break, we’ll be back with an exclusive report on Rahm Emanuel’s Thanksgiving plans, and the ACORN choir will premiere its Christmas carol, “What Will Santa Bring the Hos?”

“Robert, can we leave the First Family portrait up during commercials?”

New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava is the Republican candidate in a special election for New York’s 23rd district congressional seat.  She was hand-picked by party bosses, although many conservatives believe she is too liberal and prefer Doug Hoffman, who is running on the New York Conservative Party line.

So, last night, Scozzafava was at a speaking engagement, following which Weekly Standard editor John McCormack tried to ask her some questions about her positions.  That didn’t go well, to say the least.  Someone on Scozzafava’s staff called the cops on McCormack.  Read the whole story here.

Would McCormack’s infraction be categorized as “Questioning a thin-skinned political hack under the influence of conservatism?”

Another great choice, Republicans!

“President Barack Obama has not yet determined whether he will make a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan before the November 7 election runoff, a US official [White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs] said Tuesday.” — AFP

“The United States cannot wait for problems surrounding the legitimacy of the Afghan government to be resolved before making a decision on troops, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said.” — Reuters

NBCConnecticut.com reports:

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotormayor’s nomination was so controlled that the White House even approved her clothes, she told Yalies when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday.”

To be even relatively safe from vicious attack, virtually all current writing on public affairs must begin with caveats (such as “I am not a racist” or “I really do want peace on earth but…”)

Okay, then, here’s our caveat for this one.  We absolutely love crime reporting.  With particularly intriguing cases, we’ve been known to live for it.  Crime reporting is part of the grand tradition of American journalism and even grander stories.  The number of truly great reporters who started on the graveyard police shift is staggering.

But…(you knew there was one coming), we were considerably taken aback when New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt revealed yesterday that the paper had nine reporters covering the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le.  Nine reporters from one paper on one tragic but non-extraordinary murder?

Remember when part of the Times’ excuse for not originally covering the ACORN scandal was that the paper was overextended covering wars and famines and the natural disaster that is Congress?  Maybe a few of the crime guys and gals could be reassigned.  Just saying.

Well, it only took the Obama administration a half-day to find folks to trash an insurance industry study that calculates much higher health care insurance premiums under the Baucus version of ObamaCare.

“I really don’t think it’s worth the paper it’s written on,” AARP Executive Vice President John Rother  said, according to the Associated Press. 

That couldn’t be the same AARP that sees nothing distressing in Medicare cuts of $500 billion or of significant cuts to Medicare Advantage under the Baucus plan, could it?  The AARP that sells insurance  that will competitively benefit from cuts in Medicare Advantage?  The AARP that sells tons of stuff to seniors by making those seniors believe that AARP is their lobbyist while laughing all the way to the bank?