We at Pundit Review have been warning so-called fiscally conservative Republicans to act like the majority party we elected them to be especially on immigration and spending. You would think that with lower Congressional approval numbers than our president at around 30% (is this even possible?) that the GOP may wake up sooner rather than later as November 2nd rapidly approaches with their razor thin majorities hanging by a thread in perilous ballance.
If Karl Rove is reading this, he may want to read this op-ed in the Wall St. Journal today (if you don’t have a subscription, it’s time to purchase one for $100 per year there is no better print media source of info around) so he can institute immediate changes with regards to Republican strategy for victory in the 06′ elections which should primarily recommend that Republicans act mmore like Reagan and less like Licoln Chaffee.
The probelem in a nutshell, is that our congressional leaders such as Denny Hastert and Bill Frist have no guts. They are part of the K-Street Republican incumbancy. If they think that Americans will have a higher opinion of them if they start acting more like liberal Democrats, the result will be Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid in November. No doubt in my mind. Conservatives would rather have the real deal in charge even if they are a bunch of tax and spend socialists rather than a bunch of spineless jellyfish afraid of their own shadows.
Oil prices hit $75 a barrel last week, while gas has reached a national average of about $2.85 a gallon. The Republican response has been to put on Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi fright wigs and shout about corporate greed and market manipulation. House Speaker Denny Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist fired off a letter to President Bush yesterday demanding the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigate “price fixing” and “gouging.” Senator Arlen Specter wants to go further and impose stricter “antitrust” laws for oil companies, as well as a “windfall profits” tax. Mr. Hastert also delighted the class warriors in the press corps by lambasting recently retired Exxon CEO Lee Raymond’s pay “unconscionable.”
Instead of trying to get to the left of the class warrior socialists like Pelosi and Shumer, Republicans should quit blaming private business for the latest run up in spot oil and gas prices and take a closer look at their own failed protectionist energy bill they passed last summer.
That self-serving legislation handed Congress’s friends in the ethanol lobby a mandate that forces drivers to use 7.5 billion gallons annually of that oxygenate by 2012.
At the same time, Congress refused to provide liability protection to the makers of MTBE, a rival oxygenate getting hit with lawsuits. So MTBE makers are leaving the market in a rush, while overstretched ethanol producers (despite their promises) are in no way equipped to compensate for the loss of MTBE in the fuel supply. Ethanol is also difficult to ship and store outside of the Midwest, which is causing supply headaches and spot gas shortages along the East Coast and Texas.
If Republicans want to start restoring public confidence and see their numbers go up this is what they need to do according to the WSJ editors:
1. End the 54 cent a gallon tariff on imported ethanol.
2. Reduce the number of “boutique fuels” from 17 to 6. The EPA could ease rules and regulations to facilitate this process.
3. Open more domestic oil and gas exploration(ANWR and the Outer Continetal Shelf) to reduce dependence
on foreign oil
I agree!
Fellas, trust the free market. It always works when you get out of the way.
James Lewis at The American Thinker notices,
Mary McCarthy makes four
Mary McCarthy is the fourth Clinton NSC member to assault the Bush White House. Ms. McCarthy, who was dismissed for leaking national security secrets to the press, is not the first Clintonite to undermine and assault the Bush White House. The biggest raging bulls attacking the White House have been former Clinton National Security characters.
Mary McCarthy was one. So was Joe Wilson â?? and his wife Val Plame, who presumably cooked up the phony Niger uranium documents scam, which now has Scooter Libby facing jailtime. Then we had Richard Clarke, who ran interference for the Clintonistas during the 9/11 Commission hearings, so that Clintonâ??s criminal neglect of Osama Bin Laden was somehow â??overlooked.â? The media never cites those Clinton connections. Joe Wilson is always â??Ambassador,â? but never â??Clinton appointee.â?Â
Then we have Sandy Burglar himself, of course. And Mary makes four.
These folks are not just loyal old Clintonistas. They are also auditioning for the second eight years of Clinton II.
Read the whole thing.
AllahPundit has more, much more, on Mary McCarthy.
HT for both stories: Michelle Malkin
Pundit Review and Blackfive are collaborating to bring his popular Someone You Should Know series to the radio. This week we highlight the heroic actions of Captain Brian Chontosh, the first man to be awarded a Navy Corss in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
We are honored to collaborate with Blackfive, and we share his belief that the public needs, and wants, to hear the stories of the bravery, courage and dignity of the men and women who fight for us.
This regular feature is heard every Sunday evening at 9pm est on Pundit Review Radio.
Bill Pierce, Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, who is running in the May 2nd primary against two-term Senator Mike DeWine, joined us last evening on Pundit Review Radio. We discussed the deep dissatisfaction within the GOP and the role that blogs have played in his campaign.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. This unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening at 8pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Leader.
Washington Post
Leaders Question Gasoline Prices
Hastert, Frist to Ask Bush for Probe
Congressional leaders yesterday planned to ask President Bush to order investigations into possible price gouging by oil companies as crude oil prices hit new highs on world markets and average gasoline prices in the nation’s capital blew through the $3-a-gallon mark.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) are preparing to send a letter to the president Monday asking him to direct the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate alleged price gouging and instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to issue waivers that might make it easier for oil refiners to produce adequate gasoline supplies, Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said.
Before the Republicans betray their core principles and jump on the “windfall profit tax” bandwagon, maybe they will look at up actual profit margins of the comapnies they want to penalize?
Profit Margins (ttm):
ExxonMobil: 10.87%
ConocoPhilips: 8.33%
BP: 7.82%
Chevron: 7.60%
The GOP has lost it’s way. The economic policies they are backing are in lock step with the communist Chinese. Nice.
China slaps windfall tax on oil, gives no size
SINGAPORE, March 27 (Reuters) – China has imposed a windfall profit tax on domestic crude oil sales with immediate effect, the government’s top economic planning body said, without revealing how big the tax would be or how it would be applied.
Congratulations to Boston-based blogging brothers Matt and Aaron Margolis, who were written up nicely in today’s Boston Globe.
This weekend on Pundit Review Radio we will be providing a preview of the 2006 election season by interviewing Bill Pierce, a Republican running in the primary against two-term Senator Mike DeWine.
This race interests us for two reasons. First, Pierce is running to the right of DeWine. He is unhappy with the GOP Congress, their inability to control spending and entitlements, their failure to extend the tax cuts and their weak stance on immigration, among other things. The second reason we are following this campaign is that Pierce has an interesting, and seemingly effective blog strategy, utilizing a number of Ohio blogs, including our friend Tom Blumer at BizzyBlog, to get his message out and to help him raise money.
A recent column in a local Ohio paper summarized Pierce’s blog initiative,
Bloggers are attempting to do the same thing for Republican Bill Pierce in his challenge against U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine. While the mainstream media gives little coverage to DeWineâ??s two challengers, many bloggers, frustrated with what they view as DeWineâ??s abandoning Republican principles, have latched onto Pierceâ??s campaign.
Tom Blumer, 51, of suburban Cincinnati, blogs at bizzyblog.com and is working with Pierceâ??s campaign. How much bloggers affect the outcome of the Republican Senate primary will be another benchmark for their influence, Blumer said.
At the very least, said blogger Tim Ferris, of Cleveland, he gets a place to have his say.
â??We have that perfectly fine fellow, Bill Pierce, and they wonâ??t even acknowledge him,â? Ferris said. â??He needs to be able to tell people what he thinks, without having tons of money. Thatâ??s what we do. Thatâ??s the democratic process, with a small â??d.â??â?ÂThose who blog politically nearly always have candidates they are supporting; the bias is a major difference between them and other media. Bloggers say, however, that their bias is stated, not the hidden bias they say they see in larger, corporate media.
At 9pm, it is Someone You Should Know, our collaboration with milblogger Blackfive in which we take a few minutes to appreciate the heroic efforts of the men and women fighting for us overseas. We’ll also find out more about the 1st annual Milblogging Conference in Washington DC
For the remainder of the hour, we will talk about the arrest of a CIA leaker and what it means, for our national security, and the future of journalism.
Here is a collection of blog commentary on the subject,
The Corner: Balance, WaPost Style
Strata-Sphere: CIA Leaker Leaked Multiple Times
Flopping Aces: The Democrat Mole in the CIA
Captain’s Quarters: A Sting Operation?
Tom Maguire: Sacked CIA Officer: Hey Big Donor
Tom Joscelyn: The Leaker & Al-Shifa