Category: House 2006 (Page 1 of 2)

Howard Dean on the Foley scandal

October 5, 2006 / Gerardo Orlando

Great quote from Howard Dean:

I’m not going to say somebody should resign or something like that. But I will say this: [Rep.] Ray LaHood [an Illinois Republican] says they should get rid of the page program. They should not get rid of the page program. They should get rid of the people who run the page program, and that’s the Republican leadership. In the past, when things like this happened, they acted in unison in a bipartisan way to deal with it. Here they keep [Rep.] Dale Kildee [a Michigan Democrat] in the dark; they never even told the Democrats who were supervising the page program about this. They didn’t let our side of the aisle know. Why? Because, they considered this a political problem. This is not a political problem. This is a human problem, and it should have been dealt with a year ago.

House 2006, Republicans

Hastert press conference

October 5, 2006 / Gerardo Orlando

It’s so humorous sometimes listening to Chris Matthews analyze an issue in real time. He often gets so caught up in the moment or one point that he completely loses all analytical skills.

Matthews seems to think that Hastert did well in today’s press conference. Naturally, he’s missing the point. He and his guests are not addressing one critical fact – Hastert failed to notify the Democratic member of the page board! That fact makes clear that Hastert was more concerned about politics than getting to the bottom of Foley’s problems with pages.

House 2006

Foley scandal

September 30, 2006 / Gerardo Orlando

Josh Marshall is all over this story, and he sums up the issues nicely with his latest post. The GOP has plenty to answer for – what did the leadership know and when did they know it. This story has legs.

House 2006, Republicans

House 2006 Republicans

Howard Dean vs. Rahm Emanuel

May 11, 2006 / Gerardo Orlando

The fight between Howard Dean and Rahm Emanuel over how the Democratic National Committee should be spending its money demonstrates the difficulties facing the Democrats as they try to restore the party to power.

Both men have valid arguments. Howard Dean is spending money in all 50 states in a long-term strategy to rebuild the party from the ground up. This strategy makes sense, and he should stick to his guns.

On the other hand, Rahm Emanuel sees the huge opportunity this fall to retake the House and Senate. He wants Dean to conserve resources so they can weather the inevitable GOP onslaught in tight House races. Emanuel doesn’t want to lose this opportunity. He’s also correct.

Unfortunately, even with solid fundraising, there’s only so much money to go around. Emanuel will probably lose this argument.

That said, the Washington Post article points out the Emanuel’s House committee has roughly the same amount of cash on hand as their GOP counterpart, and Chuck Shumer’s Senate committee actually has more money than their GOP counterpart (run by the hopelessly incompetent Elizabeth Dole).

On a more humorous note, the Post article is worth reading just for its description of Emanuel:

Emanuel, a recreational ballet dancer with the vocabulary of a longshoreman, has for 15 years fashioned a reputation as one of Washington’s most aggressive figures — first as an operative on Capitol Hill and in the Clinton White House, and after 2002 as a representative from Chicago.

Priceless.

Democrats, House 2006, Senate 2006

Democrats House 2006 Senate 2006

Karl Rove unleashed

May 11, 2006 / Gerardo Orlando

Get ready for hurricane Karl. Howard Fineman reports how Karl Rove’s strategy for the 2006 elections will be to demonize the Democrats and scare the crap out of voters. Democrats should be worried. Rove is at his best when he’s fighting in the gutter, and he will do everything in his power to avoid a Republican meltdown in November.

That said, this strategy might backfire. Voters are obviously tired of Bush and the GOP, and they’ve heard all this about the Democrats before. Rove in essense will be doubling down with this strategy, and it could lead to even bigger GOP losses.

House 2006, Senate 2006

House 2006 Senate 2006