Councilman Jim Suttle, former VP Spiro Agnew and VP hopeful Joe Biden (Agnew and Biden sent in by a reader).
So, as Pete Townshend and the boys said, Who's next?
***
Nice turnout for the Obama-ites last night at their new HQ in Omaha. Somewhere between six and nine hundred people on a Wednesday night? Not bad. (Of course there could have been more if Mike Boyle would have moved his car out of the way, like the police asked.)
That should perk up the ears of the McCain-Palin campaign -- if they're interested in securing what could possibly be a very significant Electoral Vote in Nebraska's 2nd District.
A visit by the GOP Presidential candidates to Omaha would likely go a long way towards reinvigorating the base and nailing down the vote.
***
Seen milling around, outside his campaign office on West Center Road in Omaha, trying to hone in on the press coverage for the GOP soiree next door -- one Scott Kleeb.
Apparently sharing the spotlight later at the Obama party (though not sticking around for the whole gig) wasn't good enough for Kleeb. So he tried his best to get the local media covering the GOP event to notice him.
No one bit...
***
Well, if it wasn't clear before, it is crystalline now: Jim Esch's plan for getting elected to Congress has nothing to do with his own background. Or experience. Or life story. Or positions. Or plans. Or even his personality.
His plan is to simply be the Democrat candidate riding on Barack Obama's (hoped-for) coat tails.
Well, that's a strategy, we guess.
***
Seen at the Obama office opening last night with Democratic State Senator, Steve Lathrop -- one Republican State Senator, Brad Ashford.
***
The Nebraska Farm Bureau has endorsed Reps Terry, Fortenberry and Smith for Congress.
Yes, Smith and Fortenberry have races this year. We haven't forgotten....
Posts
43 comments:
I think Brad Asford owes State GOP Chairman Mark Quandahl an explaination as to why he was at the Obama rally last night!!!! The GOP worked hard to help Brad Ashford and now he is hanging out with Governor Wannabe and Liberal Dem Steve Lathrop and supporting the Obama/Biden effort.
I agree with GOP Voter! How dare Senator Ashford have a mind of his own!!!!!
gop voter:
You are a little confused. In LD 12, it was Jean Stothert that was the liberal that has a record of voting for tax increases and is not pro-life.
Lathrop is 100% pro-life, opposed the gas tax increase, and has voted to cut taxes statewide.
Anon 4:56 stole my talking points.
While I don't agree about Lathrop, I appreciate that you agree about Liberal Jean's record. Jean Stothert is too liberal to serve on the City Council.
So Lathrop is against IVF?
Senator Lathrop brought both pro-lifers and stem cell research advocates together to create a compromise that was one of the biggest successes of the last legislative session. That is kind of nonpartisan leadership we should expect out of our Legislature.
Brad Ashford is a Republican?
Tell me you're kidding. Please.
How about a Separated at Birth? Todd Palin and Billy Ray Cyrus?
I wonder why Congressman Lee Terrys and John McCains supporters Rescue the Heartland were allowed to parade their truck with pictures of aborted fetuses around the neighborhood?
What is wrong with those people from Kansas? They make me sick.
I hope Congressman Terry publically renounces their support.
Ricky From Omaha
By the way, the similarity between Biden and Agnew is easily explained. Biden plagiarized.
I wonder why Congressman Lee Terrys and John McCains supporters Rescue the Heartland were allowed to parade their truck with pictures of aborted fetuses around the neighborhood?
Ricky: it's just a wild guess, but I'm thinking it's that First Amendment thing.
Uh Oh, it seems at last night's GOP event the topic of Blumenthal's boy's smears and lies was the topic of discussion with some pretty important GOP officials. Someone is going to get scolded and another is getting a very big endorsement. I hope the paycheck was worth it.
To Millard Repub: I think you have your definitions confused. Jean Stothert promoted local control of school districts (conservative), Jon Blumenthal profited from his firms attempt to take over Elkhorn and Millard (liberal). Every parent in Milard and Elkhorn knows what Baird Holm tried to do to us. Jean Stothert will have our support. Also wasn't it Baird Holm that got passed the largest School Bond tax in Nebraska's history???? 300 million dollars is not chump change.
So can i get a billboard behind a truck with some porn on it? its the first amendment and i bet it would be less controversial than the fetuses
At first I thought it was Mike Boyle alone blocking traffic..I must have missed the car part..sorry my mistake.
FYI, Ricky Bobby from Omaha,
That Kansas truck with all the babies on it just might have been Jim Esch's. What, you didn't get the memo? Jim Esch has renounced his pro-abortion ways and gone back to listening to his parents.
So, Ricky Bobby, are ya' still gunna vote for that "prolife extremist"?
Brad Ashford should just register as an Independent and be done with the whole Party loyalty thing.
His life would be easier, and so would ours.
GOP observer:
A conversation between you and the George Bush poster at the DCRP does not qualify as a "discussion of important GOP officials."
And get serious - nobody is scolding anybody. Wishful thinking on your part.
Ok anonymous you know what you are talking about. Remember this famous quote. "Jon Bruning is in this race to win and will take on all comers, including Mike Johanns." Others clearly do!!! I think the "W" cut out at the DCRP knows more about elections than you.
So can i get a billboard behind a truck with some porn on it? its the first amendment and i bet it would be less controversial than the fetuses
Depends on the porn.
The First Amendment exists to protect controversial speech. If nobody found what anyone else said offensive, we wouldn't need it. I'm pro-choice, in a very limited way, but I say, if you can't look at the sort of fetuses you're aborting, maybe you should reevaluate your views.
I'd offer you the chance to fill my shoes Observer but, as we both know, mine are twelve sizes too big for you.
I guess you'll just have to keep on sniping from the cheap seats. Don't let envy cloud your telescopic lens. Good day!
I say there are certain decency standards that need to be adherred to in society. We dont allow porn on public TV, on billboards or bus seats. Why? Because no one wants to see it. There aren't pictures of broken arms with bones sticking out to deter against football or soccer. Ive seen those in real life, absolutely disgusting. Im all for allowing billboards that say "STOP ABORTION" or "BAN ABORTION". I love the first amendment, but there are limits on it as well, and there should be.
Good job, Mike Boyle. I can understand the frustration one feels at those morons. This is from a pro life Republican. That pictures on that truck are obscene.
I just love the Blumenthal crew rewritting history and facts to try and gain ANY kind of a toe hold.
Simply put, Millard is the best run and most efficient district in the Metro area. The parents are happy and the students excel. Jean Stothert's tenure on the school board had been marked by improvements at all levels, and at a time of unprecidented growth in enrollment.
Jean has also been an extremely loyal GOP member. She is not a Jon(nny) come lately like Blunenthal. She has supported GOP candidates and was a key player in helping Governor Heineman with the GOP Primary and Governorship.
Where was Jon boy? He was helping the WORST run, least efficient school district in the state try to take over every other district. That Elkhorn thing will go over well with the voters too!
There it is, Jean Stothert...real positive results and a proven record. Blumenthal? Stuck with desparate internet rumor mongering and outright lies.
To Anonymous: I am not envyous of you one bit. Not much of a future for someone that trashes the president, the next senator, loyal and well liked republicans with lies and smears. The cheap seats are just fine.
shawn harstad,
i'm with you. i'm all for the First Amendment, but there were children there (which is why Boyle did what he had to do). Not to mention those protesters totally undermine any sane argument coming coming from the pro-life side.
gerard harbison,
i'm pro-choice too and yet i, nor really anybody i know can stomach images like that, but i hardly think that means we turn our backs on keeping abortion safe and legal. do you condone such fringe tactics that actually cheapen the debate? by that logic, the pro-choice movement should start parading around with images of women butchered by back alley abortions.
Good points anon 11:30.
I totally agree. Yay for Mike Boyle! He did exactly what he should have done. Those fringe "extremist" groups on the pro-life side do nothing to further their cause. They do nothing but cheapen their argument and alienate more people. Helps to strengthen Jim Esch's comment that there ARE more extremists on the pro-life side.
Why would anyone be surprised that Ashford would show up at a (D) event? He has been left of middle when he was in the Legislature 20 some years ago. He was left of middle when he ran for Congress in '94 and will always be a RINO.
No one is bashing Stothert. We are just talking about her record. If a Democrat voted to raise taxes and supported embryonic stem cell research like Jean, you know you would call them liberal. Don't lie to yourself!!!
Millard Repub, please, please, PLEASE explain to me what Jean Stothert's opinion on ESCR has to do with her running for City Council?
Are you serious? Are you kidding? Please tell me you are. Sheesh.
I really don't want to get involved in this, and have no real opinion on this particular race (yet), but...
Here is why said candidate's opinion on a hot button issue, like abortion, matters in a race like City Council, where there are few abortion issues the Council could impact:
The future viability of that candidate. Say Candidate X gets elected to the Council. Then Candidate X will have a much easier time getting elected to the next level, be that Mayor, legislature, Congress or what have you.
That is why Pro-Life and Pro-Choice groups get involved with candidates that don't have much say on their issues...now.
As he or she gets more political experience and become more a viable candidates, he or she will have a better chance of election to the next level. They will have more of an "incumbent's chance" than simply coming out of no where, no matter their views on specific issues.
That is why those hot-button issues in a race like City Council still matter.
Yours,
SS
To Millard Repub: Jean is pro-life period. Second Jean did raise the mill levy twice in her 12 years of office. She also lowered the mill levy as well and refinanced all of Millard's Bonds to save the taxpayers money. Millard has added about 5,000 kids since Jean has been on the Millard School Board. So Millard repub how do you add 25% more kids and keep your spending the same...You can't. Millard's budget is under its state imposed spending lid (student Growth and a small inflation factor) and has millions of dollars of unused budget authority the board has refused to use. Millard has kept its per pupil spending at more than $2000 less that Blumenthal's Client OPS. Millard has the best score for the lowest per pupil cost. Under Jean's conservative leadership Millard has had an abstinence based sex-ed policy, raised academic standards, purchased our own drug dog, toughened drug and alcohol policies, Fired Blue Cross and went to self insurance for health care and saved over 10 million dollars in premiums and uses program based budgeting to add and delete programs and keep costs down. Just to show how the Millard voters approve of her performance. She has been reelected several times and had our last bond issue passed by a wide-margin. Even the Governor hold Millard out as one of the best models of efficiency. Lastly Millard is the most conservative school board in the Metro area there are no liberals on that Board.
Right on SS. . .
If we are going to build a conservative bench for the Republican Party then we must start with City Council races and others. We don't need more liberal candidates on our bench.
I don't know that there is much difference between Stothert and Ashford.
And by way of clarification, I'm not saying either of these referenced candidates is more or better or anything else than the other.
I'm simply pointing out why groups who are concerned about certain issues make these points in seemingly unrelated races.
There are many things I neither condone nor am willing to ban. Whatever happened to "I deplore what you're saying, but will fight to the death for your right to say it".
People who want legal late term abortion should be prepared to look at the results and say "I'm OK with that". I have no respect for anyone who can't.
Really Millard Repub: Same as Brad Ashford???? Jean was endorsed by the NRA, endorsed by Heinemann, pro-death penalty, against the learning community, has consistently given money to republican candidates at all levels and supports the McCain/Palin ticket....She is the same as Ashford...maybe you need to take Richard Carter's drug test...DUDE...lol
Recalled mayor and current county board member, Mike Carbunkle can interfere with traffic and a legal protest whenever and wherever he feels called to do. What I object to is the blowhard wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars of taxpayer paid-for time of the local justice system to contest the $54 ticket he was given. BTW, is he calling the Omaha police officer who issued the ticket to him a liar??? Commissioner Carbunkle said in at least two broadcast interviews the officer only told him once to move while the officer reports he did so at least three times. Maybe his tender sensibilities were so ruffled that he wasn't capable of processing the first 2 or 3 requests.
"People who want legal late term abortion should be prepared to look at the results and say "I'm OK with that". I have no respect for anyone who can't."
And I have no respect for anyone who would subject innocent children to these photos just to prove some political point. Disgusting.
SS said it well on why pro-life PACS care about Weed Board, Community College, County Board and yes, City Council races. I might add to that that indeed for the Lincoln City Council, abortion was an issue from 1991-1995 while they were voting for money in the city budget to go to Planned Parenthood. Pro-lifers showed up en massse for council budget hearings that went into the wee hours to speak against such funding. At the time we made the case that PP was tied to abortion and in 1995 did open its own freestanding abortion facility in Lincoln. Former Lincoln City Councilman Ken Haar voted for the PP funding those years. He is the husband of Chris Funk, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Nebraska/Council Bluffs. And Ken Haar just happens to be running for Legislature in LD 21. Another PP candidate, Barb Baier, won election to the Lincoln School Board. Now she's trying to move up the ladder to the Lancaster County Board. There has been controversy about the county awarding Keno funds to PP. So yes these issues can crop up at the local level but as SS illuminated, candidates with ambition have to start somewhere, and oftentimes it's county and city races.
So why is it when the anti-abortion politicians have all the power, that they don't get abortion banned in all cases (as NRTL advocates)? They certainly had the power for 6 years in Washington. Of course, most don't want to admit that the reason they do nothing is it would then pull away a resource for getting votes. They can't lose that voting block, so abortion will always be legal.
And by the way, only the EXTREMISTS on the far right think anyone would advocate third trimester abortions!!! It's called creating a strawman and knocking it down!
You have a right to free speech, but we have a right and a duty to protect children from your speech
BUUUTTT, Anon at 3-something, Obama did advocate for 3rd trimester abortions when he went to the Left of the ProAbortion Lobby and voted against the Born Child Protection Act. It is very rare that a child "born" in the first or second trimester is able to live more than a few minutes or hours. Most ALL children born during the third trimester are receptive to life saving measures. Many don't even need that extraordinary care. Obama Man can spin that he is ProFamily all he wants, but that does not make him ProLife in anyone's book.
On another Race, but the same subject, the only reason anyone in this District believes that Jim Esch is ProLife is because he has been waving his "Look at me, I am a good Catholic" flag in everyone's face. It is abhorrent to imagine any Catholic that is not devoutly ProLife. So my question to the Esch campaign is, who was blowing wind in Jim's face for the last 3 years that convinced him that his faithful teachings (16 years in Catholic schools) were wrong? And, why should anyone believe that he won't be swayed by those very same "forces" when asked to committ to a vote?
Inquiring minds want some answers.
To GOP VOTER:
I truly believe this country has reached an extremely low point when people feel the politicians they voted into office need to report to the chairmen of their party and not the people they represent. As a GOP voting for Obama, why can't the Republican Party recognize there are thousands of moderate republicans looking for a party to represent their conservative fiscal ideals combined with a more liberal social agenda....I no longer have a party to represent me....that is something I want to ask Mark Quandahl.....I don't need to waste his time on why Ashford was there....Ashford doesn't asnwer to him...he has not been elected into office
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