Who Will Succeed Ted Kennedy In The Senate

    As sad as the passing of the iconic Ted Kennedy is, after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the writing on the wall became not just clear, it became quite bold. It was understood that Senator Kennedy would not be in office much longer and that although he would not dare resign to resign despite his inability to effectively serve the people of Massachusetts a replacement would be needed.

Now, even though Senator Kennedy’s life came to an end liberal politics continues. But to discuss possible replacements to pick up where he left off was taboo. Even the most boisterous, power hungry and egocentric politicians refused to at least publicly discuss the issue. But maneuverings behind the scenes most certainly did occur.

Even Senator Kennedy tried to manipulate the selection of his successor by changing the law that allowed a special election to make that determination to one that would give the state’s Democrat governor the opportunity to hand pick who that individual would be.

But aside from that demonstration of political insincerity and hypocrisy, there are reports that Teddy wanted his wife to inherit his senate seat but before his death she indicated no desire for the position. Other reports suggested that Robert Kennedy’s son Joseph was the Liberal Lion’s choice.

Possible Ted Kennedy successors Patrick (left) and Robert (right) Kennedy

That selection would be a tough one to elect. The disturbing details of a messy divorce and Joe’s close ties to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez make him an easy target to focus on and raise doubt about. But he is a Kennedy, which is the most important consideration that Massachusetts politics apparently takes in to account. He is also a former Congressman who still has 2 million dollars in his campaign account.

Other Kennedy’s mentioned included Caroline, President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, but after failing to show herself up to the job when New York’s Governor David Patterson contemplated appointing her to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacant senate seat, she is unlikely to be her uncle’s successor.

Teddy’s sons Edward, Jr. and Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy are possible contenders but neither really have demonstrated any significant abilities. In fact Patrick’s history of D.U.I.’s makes him a poor choice especially when you combine it with his being a carpetbagger who is serving in Congress as a representative in another state.

Marty Meehan

There are of course more than just Kennedy’s in Massachusetts and some are seen as strong possibilities.

That list could include the state’s governor,. Deval Patrick, , the state’s attorney general Martha Coakley, Rep. Edward J. Markey; Rep. Barney Frank; Rep. Stephen Lynch; Rep. Michael Capuano; and Rep. James McGovern. Also under

Edward Markey

 consideration are Former Rep. Marty Meehan, who resigned his seat to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts and has $4.8 million in leftover campaign funds.

Rep. Barney "Elmer Fudd" Frank

On the Republican side prospects for victory are slim with the most competitive choices being former Governors Mitt Romney and William Weld, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey; and former White House chief of staff Andrew Card.

Romney would be wise to forego such a run. I believe he has a better shot at being elected President of the United States than he does at winning another statewide election in Massachusetts. Bill Weld is wacky enough and at times desperate enough to go for it. After serving his two terms as Governor of Massachusetts he briefly ran for Governor and Senator in New York. Briefly. Very briefly.

Andy Card in my opinion could get the nomination but he would go over like a lead balloon and be defeated before the race begins. That leaves former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey as a likely choice.

Governor Deval Patrick

Wherever the chips inevitably land, watching them fall over next few weeks will be very interesting and regardless of all the crocodile tears that many liberal Bay State politicians will be shedding as the nation mourns Ted Kennedy’s death, most of them are dieing to burry Teddy’s body so that they can maneuver themselves into his still warm senate seat.

THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE AND THE SARATIZATION OF STALE POLITICS

In 1968 the campaign of Hubert Humphrey was the first presidential election to use a television ad attacking the oppositions vice presidential nominee. It was used to make fun of Richard of Nixon’s selection of then Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew.

That election was won by Richard Nixon with 301 electoral votes to 191 electoral votes. Third party candidate, Governor George Wallace won 5 southern states and 46 electoral votes.

The ad on Agnew had little effect.

Today we face a much different electoral map, yet one thing that is not different is the use of Sarah Palin by the opposition in this election. Many private groups have taken it upon themselves to run ads, on behalf of Barack Obama, that focus on Palin.

Governor Palin will Saratize the stale political atmosphere

The great attention on Palin came within days of the boost that her addition to the ticket brought to John McCain’s candidacy. A sort of fear overcame the liberal extremists within the Obama camp and outside of it. They were caught off guard by the selection. They were offended by the presentation of a strong, accomplished woman that was not Hillary Clinton or who married into power.

When she was first announced as McCain’s running mate, the Obamakins stated that her only experience is as a small town mayor. They skipped right over the fact that she is a sitting governor. They immediately wrote off her experience because “some” of it, was rooted in a small town and from their perspective small town America doesn’t matter.

Since than, the left has attacked her family, her education and her religion. They have lied about her decisions and actions and claimed that she banned books that were not even published at the time and that she supported secession from the Union when she simply spoke against secession before groups that did advance that cause.

In other words, the left went nuts. They did not know how to deal with her candidacy and they still don’t.

As the vice presidential debate approaches I am sure that they are still at wits end when it comes to coping with her presence on the stage. They have more lies ready to hit to the stands. They have more distortions that they are ready to perpetuate on the internet and over the airwaves. They have plenty of mud to throw but they have little constructive commentary to replace their mud with.

During the course of the debate, I am confident of one thing, Sarah Palin will be a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale political environment. I am sure she will provide rational sectors of the electorate, with confidence in her abilities and beyond that she will instill a sense of confidence in her ability to bring about their desire for reform of business as usual, Washington, DC, politics.

You see, Sarah Palin does lack experience. She lacks the experience of Washington, DC and it’s go along to get along mentality. She lacks the experience of putting aside one priority for someone’s political favor. Palin lacks the experience of inaction and double talk. On the other hand she has the experience of standing up to the status quo, eliminating deadweight and defeating obstacles to progress. She has the experience of being able to make government work for the people, not against them.

The left can make all the false charges that they want but the truth of Governor Palin’s record cannot be changed. She has spent her time in public service tackling corruption and standing up to the powers that be, even when they were in her own party. She has developed economic policies that enrichened the pockets of Alaskans, not legislated money out of their pockets.

To the contrary, her debate opponent, Joe Biden, has never once opposed a tax increase, reduced the size of

Biden will use DC doubletalk to poluute the political atmosphere

government or stood up to his party and he is a longtime member of the liberal establishment. He is the type of Washington insider that gets hung up on politics and losses sight of positive progress. Biden is the politician who made the decision to hold a “trial” to determine whether, a decade earlier, Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had committed the outrages of remarking to Anita Hill that dirt on a can of soda looked like pubic hair. Biden is the man who recently touted that the answer to Iraq’s problem was splitting the sovereign nation up into thirds based upon religious sects.

Just as was the case in the 1968 election, this election will not hinge on the vice presidential candidates or their debate and the left’s attacks on Palin will make even less difference. Most people vote for the President, not the Vice President but what people, especially undecided and independent voters, will walk away with is a sense of which ticket is more suited to change the way Washington works. Change in the sense of reform that will take effect from the top down.

I believe that Sarah Palin will Saratize the stale atmosphere of DC politics and that her common sense talk will prevail over Biden’s DC doubletalk.

And for those of you who want to claim that when it comes to the vice presidency, Sarah Palin does not have enough experience but when it comes to the Presidency, Barack Obama does……..I suggest you take a look at this:

 

 

 

Top 10 Signs Your Presidential Candidate is Under-Qualified

1.- Promises to improve foreign relations with Hawaii.

2.- Runs a series of attack ads against Martin Sheen’s character on “The West Wing”.

3.- His #1 choice to work on his cabinet is “That Bob Vila guy”.

4. – Outstanding record as Governor of Rhode Island nullified by the fact that no one cares.

5. – Got his degree in Political Economics by bribing Sally Struthers with a chocolate donut.

6. – Anybody mentions Washington, he asks, “The state or the DC thingie?”

7. – At the debates, answers every question with a snarled, “You wanna wrestle?”

8. – Vows to put an end to the war in Pokemon and free the Pikachu refugees once and for all 

9. – Says the Pledge of Allegiance as quickly as possible, then shouts, “I win!”

                10. -On the very first question of the debate, he attempts to use a lifeline.

OBAMA and McCAIN NEED TO RESCUE ANY RESCUE PACKAGE

One will be President. Both need to show us why they should be.

Presidents must provide leadership that leads us away from crisis if they see it coming. If they didn’t see it coming, they must get us through it.

The current financial crisis that our nation is being warned of could have been avoided if we acted on some of the preventive measures that would have averted the recent need for a 700 billion dollar rescue package. Not avoiding it is something that I blame President Bush for. Note, I do not blame him for the problem but I do blame him and the administration for not seeing it coming. I blame him for not heading the advice of others who warned us about the mortgage lending practices which have inevitably threatened every other, major, area of the economy. People like John McCain who in 2005 proposed measures to correct our course and avoid the ice field.

Someone was asleep at the wheel on this one. It was akin to being on duty in the watchtower and still not seeing the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.

I will blame the President for allowing the issue to get to this point and requiring an historic, expensive hurried, solution to what should have been avoided, but I will not blame him for creating the problem that he did not acknowledge until it was too late.

Nat'l Homeoners Strategy led to crisis

This was a problem created, in part, by the Clinton era.

Under the Clinton administration mandates were created that forced FannieMae and FreddieMac to extend high risks loans to low income and minority applicants. Clinton‘s National Homeowners Strategy was a financial scheme that promoted insanely low down payments and coerced lenders into giving mortgage loans to first-time buyers with unstable financing and incomes. It was a way to increase homeownership. That is an admirable motive but as usual,the  liberal mentality, forced government to do that which it should not have done. Essentially, the Clinton era initiatives that forced government action on private sector interests led to the need for government to take over FannieMae and FreddieMac. This is not to say that private sector greed and bad business practices did not add to the wrong minded government policy, it did, but what happened here is that government solutions to one problem, created another . Now, ironically, the government which helped to create this problem is having to solve it.

There are many lessons that can be learned from this. Whether you refuse to learn those lessons is up to you but the lessons are there. The left , under Nancy Pelosi, want to point fingers at Republicans and blame the entire problem on their tendencies for deregulation. That could almost be plausible if it was true. Unfortunately for liberals, it is not true. Conservatives are not for no regulation. Conservatives are for less regulations. They are against government regulations such as the Clinton era housing initiatives which forced FannieMae and FreddieMac to enter into high risk loans that should never have had the opportunity to be defaulted on. Republicans are against the type of regulations that prevent reasonable growth of our economy that is based upon sound policy and business practices.

Such was the case in 2005 when John McCain sponsored the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act which was specifically aimed at reeling in the higher than acceptable risk taking of FannieMae and FreddieMac. It was also designed to reign in many of the shady recording practices that both institutions were conducting.

The Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 was, as it’s name indicates, a bill of regulatory reform, a bill that would have reformed the regulations which have added to the creation of the current economic crisis. The bill was ignored and denied by Democrats and the Democrat chairmen of the committees responsible for the bill. Congressman Barney frank and senator Chris Dodd did not act on this corrective initiative. Yet today, they join with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in blaming Republicans.

Pelosi’s lack of ability to lead has been clear for many years. During the last two years, as Speaker of the House,her lack of leadership has been profound. It lacked the ability to get her own party in line and pass their own liberal initiatives. That is why this is one of history’s least productive congressional legislative

The most unaccomplished Speaker in history

sessions.

Between President Bush sleeping at the economic wheel and the house Democrat leaders’s lack of ability to accomplish anything, we need a leader to step forward. For me that leadership should come from the next President. It should come from the individual who will be steering our economic ship with whatever the burden of the solution to this crisis is.

Barack Obama and John McCain are incumbent senators. They have a responsibility to live up to in those capacities and they should not use a political campaign as an excuse for avoiding that responsibility.

John McCain was right when last week he suspended normal campaign activity in a stated attempt to deal with the legislative package aimed at rescuing the economy. He was wrong to back away from this original position. In doing so we are back to square one and Nancy Pelosi’s lack of leadership along with that of President Bush and Committee Chairs Dodd and Barney still leaves us crying out for effective leadership.

John McCain is no Nostradamus, but on this issue he has been ahead of the curve and his instincts have been right, at least since 2005 when he proposed measures that would have not allowed things to spiral out of control and bring us to this point. McCain should continue with those instincts and apply them in his capacity as a sitting senator.

Why did he reject the solutions before it baecame a problem?

I understand that neither McCain or Obama sit on the House Financial Services Committee or the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, which are the primary committees handling the bailout package. However, their involvement on the issue,along, with their colleagues can interject some much needed initiatives and direction into those committees. To believe that since they are not on the committee, they have nothing to do with it or no ability to influence it is absurd.

If either of these two men have the capacity to lead us that their individual campaigns would have us believe than now is their chance to show it.

Too late now to save the process he helped to sink

Now is the time for them to demonstrate their purported abilities to solve problems and unite people together to properly address our national concerns. If either of these men have the answers to our problems, than now is the time to provide those answers. If the economic dangers we are witnessing are truly a crisis, now is the time to answer their calls to duty.

Get off their high horses and get behind their legislative desks of responsibility. Do not politicize the crisis in stump speeches before adoring supporters in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Colorado.  Go to Washington, D.C. and rally the legislative geniuses of Capital Hill together behind appropriate, legitimate legislation that will address the crisis.

I want McCain and Obama to present their rescue packages. A package of legislative measures that:

A. – Produces an acceptable level of fluidity in the credit markets
B. – Prevent the abusive practice of an overextension of risky loans.
C. – Tightens the recording practices of all federal monetary institutions.
D. – Eliminates the Clinton era National Homeownership Strategy policies
E. – Levees a payback with interest on any and all monies invested in bailout packages
F. – Eliminate golden parachutes for executive officers responsible for insolvency

Obama and McCain may not sit on the committees charged with hammering out such a package but they are

Talk is cheap. Action is essential.

charged with the responsibility to create a package that the proper committees must address. Through their leadership they can create a plan that is good enough to garner support and strong enough to rally behind. If they cannot do this than they have no right to comment on the process and use it to advance their candidacies for President.

I want them to demonstrate through deed, not word, how good their abilities are to resolve problems and deal with crisis.

If either McCain or Obama want to demonstrate that they have the ability to accomplish things as President, now is the chance to show it, not just talk about it. The cry for leadership in this crisis is loud and clear and if Obama and/or McCain refuse to answer those cries, than neither one should be asking for the chance to lead our nation for the next four years to come.

Last Wednesday, when McCain embraced the issue and suspended his campaign, he was on track. It was the right thing to do. Since than he has strayed off this track and now we still do not have a rescue package in place. Now, more than ever he needs to get back on track, suspend his campaign and take the lead on the issue. Develop a plan that can win the day and help propel him to the White House.

A campaign is a great forum for ideas to be expressed but a time of crisis is a great forum for leadership to be practiced. McCain and Obama need to practice it now.

A Guide to U.S. Newspapers 

 

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand the Washington Post. They do, however like the smog statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn’t have to leave L.A. to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country, and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority, feministic atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.