Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Tom White changes his tune on TARP

Lots of reading for your political eyes.

In Politics Daily, the author looks at the Congressional race in Nebraska’s second district, and gets all hot and bothered that Lee Terry doesn’t brag optimism about his race.

Sure, some pols will tell you, “I’ve got it in the bag,” but what does that do to your supporters? Encourage them to stop canvassing the neighborhood and stay home on Election Day, that’s what.  So we won't get excited about Lee being his usual cautious self.

Beyond all the rest, what was interesting was Tom White’s “flim flam” about the TARP bailout.

You will remember that White’s recent TV ad says,
“Terry voted for wasteful spending, like the Wall Street bailout...”
Uh...but when actually trying to nail down White on this issue, what do we hear?
"I don't deny that saving the financial system was critical," he said with a bit of inadvertent understatement. "It was and it did. But what was done was done very poorly – and, of course, it was done under the Bush administration. And they did not control where that money went . . . There's a lot to legitimately criticize about TARP and his vote, while still recognizing the necessity of saving the financial system." Parse that answer – if you can.
OK, let us parse away!
“Saving the financial system was CRITICAL.”
“(The TARP vote) was (critical)...”
“(The TARP vote) did (save the financial system).”
So, Terry’s “wasteful” vote was critical, and it saved America.

Well, then thanks for clearing that up, Tom White.

And this clear-as-mud response is one reason why you’re no longer on the Democrat’s most favored list.

What’s that? Well...

***

If you read CQ Politics, you can see that the Terry-White race is not on many analysts’ radar:
Aside from GOP Reps. Anh “Joseph” Cao (La.) and Charles K. Djou (Hawaii) — both of whom represent heavily Democratic districts — there are three Republican Members whom Democrats believe they have a chance of defeating in November. They are Lungren and Reps. Dave Reichert(Wash.) and Charlie Dent (Pa.).
(We will give you a second to search for Lee Terry’s name there. You good? Good.)

***

And for an analysis of Nebraska’s Second District, the AP has done a little research.

You can find an interesting review of the trend for voters to register as Independent, rather than Republican or Democrat in the Omaha area.

Tom White’s campaign man, Ian Russell, spun it that Republican Primary Matt Sakalosky voters,
...could turn to White, whom Russell called "an independent leader" and "a fiscal conservative."
Riiiiight. THAT’s where they’ll turn. To the Democrat who supports ObamaCare at the trillion dollar stimulus. Uh huh.

But for a more critical analysis of the trend, look no further than Terry’s Manager, David Boomer:
Turnout among unaffiliated voters tends to drop in mid-cycle election years, he said, as it did in 2006, when about 32 percent of nonpartisan voters cast ballots -- compared with nearly half of all registered voters that year. Terry garnered about half of the independent vote in 2008 -- a year when nonpartisan voters across the country cast ballots 2-to-1 for Democratic President Barack Obama, Boomer said.
"If the Democrats could win every independent voter in November -- and the turnout is the same as it was in 2006 -- it would still come out even ... and that's not going to happen," he said.
Terry's campaign has also been targeting independent voters this year, Boomer said.
"If there's a nonpartisan voter out there who is likely to vote in November, they've heard from us four, five or six times this summer," he said.
That’s just a little more definite than, “we hope Sakalosky’s people vote for the Democrat”, eh?

***

Finally, 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith, has this request to YOU, to help ID wasteful spending:



This is actually fairly interesting. Smith notes,
We are launching an experiment - the first YouCut Citizen Review of a government agency. Together, we will identify wasteful spending that should be cut and begin to hold agencies accountable for how they are spending your money.
First, we will take a look at the National Science Foundation (NSF) - Congress created the NSF in 1950 to promote the progress of science.
For this purpose, NSF makes more than 10,000 new grant awards annually, many of these grants fund worthy research in the hard sciences.
Recently, however NSF has funded some more questionable projects - $750,000 to develop computer models to analyze the on-field contributions of soccer players and $1.2 million to model the sound of objects breaking for use by the video game industry.
Help us identify grants that are wasteful or that you don't think are a good use of taxpayer dollars.
(Now if we can only figure out a way to swing some-a-that soccer cash, we’d be singing a different tune...)

Hey and, superficially, Smith's delivery on this was good, huh?  Nice work.

10 comments:

Don Kuhns said...

I agree that White's answer was weak. He could have said that with greater oversight of TARP, our economic system could have been saved without rewarding the very people who nearly destroyed it, but holding those people accountable was not a priority for Lee Terry and many others in the congress.

According to Walter Shapiro at the link, anyone who believes a wiser course than paying this huge ransom with zero strings attached could have been chosen is guilty of a "flim flam", because only a cynic or a marxist could have predicted that the greedy bastards on Wall Street would laugh in our faces after we submitted to all their demands. Obviously Street Sweeper agrees with this sentiment.

Say NO to Chicago Politics said...

Tom White flip flopping around like a dying fish and now the Obama/Daily Chicago Machine being brought into Nebraska politics.

Someone - Teresa Whitehead, Danielle Conrad or their supporters have hired the Chicago slim Research firm Gragert Research, to dig dirt on Conrad and Whitehead's opponents.

Gragert opperative Matt Steiner (Chicago, Ill.) has been in Nebraska trying to dig any possible dirt they can use to distort and smear their client's opponents.

Steiner has ties to Senator Russ Feingold and Chicago Mayor Richard Dailey.

District 2 went Obama in 2008. Now the corupt Chicago Political machine is seeking a foothold in Nebraska.

GeosUser said...

Comrade Kuhns,
Since you are a Marxist, your perspective on TARP may be just a little distorted. In case you've forgotten Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner were both "in the room" when TARP design and decisions were being made. They are also both Democrats.

Anonymous said...

Adrian Smith could stop taking trips on the tax payers dole. Like when he went to the South Pole. That would save money.

Anonymous said...

Geo - Hank Paulson was Treasury Secretary under Dubya, and had deep ties to the firms that he handed a big pile of money with no strings attached. Not that it matters to you since you just create your own "facts" and blame Democrats for everything anyways ...

Anonymous said...

I did some deep research on this and discovered that the Democrat controlled Congress passed TARP.
How that!

Don Kuhns said...

Being a greedy, well, let's just say your view might also be a bit skewed, Geouser.

You are right, though. Geithner and Paulson should be in jail with the rest of them.

Anonymous said...

Ian Russell is forgetting that Matt Sakalosky strongly endorsed Terry the day after the primary.

His suporters are going to vote for Terry, not White. A bunch of them are active in Terry's field op.

I recall Matt said something like he agrees with Terry on 90% of the issues and zero % of issues with White. It is a pretty clear choice for conservatives.

Anonymous said...

Poor Tom, I wonder how many lawsuits he will have to file against the City of Omaha or Douglas County to recoup his $50,000 that he wasted on his campaign?

Maybe that is why Biden is coming. It's to fulfill the promise of the DNC that they would help him raise money to pay himself back-no matter what.

One Out In the Third said...

Smith was coached well...he looked and sounded like his shadow wasn't chasing him.

He want's us to identify the bad programs funded by the NSF? Doesn't he have a staff?