West Virginia Blue
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No wonder Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steel is always sending out emails begging for more contributions from GOP donors:
Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.
RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.
Steele himself declined numerous interview requests, though his defenders point out that luxurious accommodations are sometimes necessary to attract big-time donors, especially since Republicans remain in the minority in Washington.
A friend pointed out in an email that apparently the West Virginia Republican "thinktank" ran out of new ideas months ago. I'm not surprised. They didn't have any good ideas anyway.
It reminds me of the old campaign page of Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito listing her accomplishments in office. It was blank.
Paul Nyden of the Charleston Gazette has a better story on Senator Robert Byrd's health:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The health of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., is improving, according to several of his staff members, but he remains in the hospital.
Mark Ferrell, who works in Byrd's Charleston office, said Friday, "From what I know, he continues to improve and has been telling family members and staff he wants to go home."
Larry Puccio, Gov. Joe Manchin's chief of staff, said Friday, "We understand he is doing better and certainly hope he continues to get well and goes back to work. We need him so badly in Washington.
"Sen. Byrd has such a veteran staff that continues to operate so well during his temporary absence, doing a very professional job," Puccio said.
The rightwing hate promoters in the media like Don Surber are eager to push Byrd out of office because they could never defeat him at the ballot box.
Senator Jay Rockefeller has been out longer with a knee injury yet you don't see the obsession with his health that you do with Byrd because this has nothing to do with his time missed. Byrd represents everything the Republicans are not: decent, powerful, and in the U.S. Senate.
Here's a dramatic interpretation of how the rightwing hate promoters like Surber and the Ghoulish Old Party politicians like Del. L'il Jonny Miller and Del. Troy Andes are behaving. No wonder the family doesn't want people to know which hospital Byrd is recovering. The Byrd haters would be there harassing him while at the same time showing their "concern."
Except Byrd isn't going any where. He's the king in that video skit riding by them. I hope Byrd recovers soon and serves his entire term and runs for re-election just to spite them.
Shame on Jake Stump, who usually is better than this. In a story today in the Daily Mail, Stump does a story on Senator Byrd's health.
Of the five people he quotes in the story, four are Republicans. Other than Gary Abernathy, the other three Republicans sound positively ghoulish. Note to Stump: of the two major political parties in West Virginia, only one is relevant and it certainly isn't the Republican Party.
Byrd's illness has prompted rumor mongering and even a false report of his death on WSAZ.com this morning.
What is wrong with some of you people in the old media - and unfortunately some in the new media on the Republican side of the blogosphere - and in political office that causes you to act so irresponsibly and with such a lack of grace and decorum?
Some in politics and the press mock the bloggers as being irresponsible and using foul language, but why is it taking a dirty hippy blogger like me to remind some of you to act with more respect and responsibility? I'm certain your mothers raised you to behave better than this. Shame on you ghouls.
West Virginia Republican Party executive director Gary Abernathy is leaving to return to Ohio.
Abernathy's hiring was controversial at the time; some within the party objected for a variety of reasons. But he weathered the initial storm and the controversy eventually died down.
Abernathy will also give up his popular political blog, The Republican Gazette, where he posted a video farewell message Wednesday.
"I need to make a clean break and let the Republican Party be on their way without me," Abernathy said. "That will be sad for some, and a celebration for others."
I must say it's sad for me as well. I've butted heads with Abernathy and I've learned from him. I've criticized him on policies he supports and I've defended him from scurrilous charges from within his own ranks. On Memorial Day we even posted a tribute on each of our respective blogs to our honored dead in a show of unity for the true meaning of the day.
Abernathy had an impossible task trying to rebuild a state party with a dearth of viable candidates. He also was constrained by the most radical rightwing core of the party from reaching out to moderates and independents to grow the ranks.
The Senate passed HB 2464 today to allow for early voting satellite precincts. Seems like a good idea to me. Anything that makes it easier for people to vote, from vote by mail to early voting at satellite precincts so people don't have to drive all the way to the couty seat should be supported by anyone who wants people to use their constitutional right to vote.
In a March 19 blog post at the Republican Gazette, WV GOP executive director Gary "Goodbye America" Abernathy wrote on the issue:
A bill designed to expand the number of places where voters can cast early ballots amounts to nothing more than a ploy to place voting locations in precincts and regions that are heavily tilted toward high Democrat registration. The ill-conceived legislation has been slowed up in the state Senate due to cost issues, but it should be killed on its lack of merit. (emphasis mine)
snip
The cost of the bill, and the opportunity for political favoritism in the choice of new and selective voting locations, makes this bill an unnecessary and counterproductive political ploy.
Political ploy for Democrats? The County Clerk who pushed hardest for it was Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright, a Republican. So it's a political ploy in Abernathy's view for bills to be pushed by Democrats and Republicans. The rest of the world would call that bipartisan.
The House version of the bill passed the Senate today on a 34-0 vote.
Wait a minute...what? That means every Senate Republican voted for an issue that the Republican Party's executive director called an "unnecessary and counterproductive political ploy." Not one voted the way he wanted on this. We've not won every issue we've pushed on this blog, but I don't remember any shutouts nor are any of us the executive director of the party for the state.
Abernathy opposes early voting in general. I don't know if Ohio has early voting or not, but I think it's safe to say that those of us who live in West Virginia, Democrats and Republicans, like the convenience of early voting.
People who live in West Virginia like it so much that the elected leaders of Abernathy's own Republican Party in the Senate voted today to expand it. He recommended that it should be "killed on its lack of merit" and it passed unanimously. Apparently he's not only out of touch with West Virginians on the issue, but with his own party.
Republicans propose cuts or eliminations for a number of state taxes, which they say would help attract employers to West Virginia.
If all the tax changes highlighted on Thursday were enacted, though, it would cost the state about $530 million in revenue, at a time when Manchin has already decided to cut about $200 million from his initial budget of $4.3 billion.
That's part of the reason Democrats say the situation isn't as simple as their rivals contend.
House Majority Leader Brent Boggs said the session has been heavily influenced by the worsening prospects for the proposed state budget. Lawmakers have been warned they must cut 2 percent, and then another 2.5 percent or so, this session, he said. On top of that, they still haven't seen an amended spending bill from the governor.
"We're in a situation where we have to devote a lot of our time to working on a budget,'' the Braxton County Democrat said.
Boggs also cited hard-to-avoid increases in such budget areas as prison health care costs.
"It would be difficult to cut taxes, and then try to balance that with the services that people need and require,'' he said. "Things like health care are becoming a real budget-strangling issue.''
It's funny how the Republicans always claim to have a new plan when it's always the same thing over and over and over again. George W. Bush's tax cuts helped run up record deficits even before he drove the national economy into a ditch.
I guess the West Virginia Republicans' needed to distract from the stigma of their mantra of "Unleashed capitalism." But offering nothing new and calling it a new plan? I guess driving the state's budget into a ditch and completely wrecking it to with tax cuts that wouldn't cover the basics of government like roads and prisons would be something new, but haven't Republican plans done enough damage already to the national and global economies?
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.... After far too many foot-in-mouth controversies, RNC Chairman Michael Steele has reportedly "called a halt to his television appearances" and "curtailed national media interviews," in order to focus his energies on internal work at party headquarters.
That seems wise. The more Steele spoke, the more he embarrassed himself. The less we see of Steele, the happier the Republican establishment will be with his "leadership."
Except, there's a catch to all of this: Steele did some interviews before he decided to pull back, and they're still being published.
Could someone get Gary Abernathy a dictionary? He used the wrong words.
Faced with a smart not-very-bright, well-spoken gaffe-prone African American media star as the new chairman of the Republican National Committee...
In what surely must be a sign that the Republican Party's tent continues to shrink to only the most radical rightwingers, the West Virginia GOP is looking to ban independents from voting in their primaries.
Non-Republicans in West Virginia have been voting in state GOP primaries for more than 20 years, but now party leaders are re-examining that privilege.
State GOP Chairman Douglas McKinney is to appoint a committee this week charged with studying whether Republican primaries in West Virginia should be closed to non-Republican voters.
The move follows a recent meeting of the West Virginia State Executive Committee, during which some members expressed that the party's policy should be changed.
It was just last year that state Democrats opened their primary to non-Democratic voters - a decision that mirrored established GOP policy and was believed to have a positive effect for Democrats in the state in 2008.
Democrats continue to grow in West Virginia as are the number of independents. It worked out well for the Dems to have the indies join in the primary, a good move by Nick Casey, and if the GOP wants to send the signal to independents they're not wanted, I'm sure the Dems will be happy to work with them.
West Virginia GOP executive director Gary Abernathy sees the problem:
"But we have to consider ... now that the Democrats are allowing other people to vote in their primary, do we only want Republicans to vote in ours?" he said.
Abernathy noted there are two schools of thought on the matter.
"Some feel only Republicans should vote because they are the only ones who contribute and work for the party," he said. "Those in favor believe an open primary involves more people in the process. They believe the voter might stick with the same candidate in the general election, and eventually join the party."
But as the Republican Party both in the state and nationally gets further marginalized it moves further to the right because moderates have already seen they're not wanted by the right wingers. The party belongs to the radical right and they don't want it spoiled by those who might think differently.
I'm sure all the West Virginia Republicans outraged over WV GOP chairman's decision to hire executive director Gary Abernathy behind closed doors will be consistent and be outraged by the national GOP doing the same thing:
A C-Span staffer has informed us that the RNC voted to close today's meeting, which is being held as a forum for the leadership candidates, and eject the cameramen and press so it won't be carried on TV or elsewhere.
The Republican National Committee members obviously want to hear some Frank discussion of the issues and the state of their party -- so much that they don't want the public hearing what's said.
After suffering one of their worst election seasons ever, the West Virginia Republicans have turned again to Gary Abernathy.
While I'm late to the news - I'm still in my post-election recharging of the batteries phase - I want to extend my congratulations to Abernathy. Considering the state of the current West Virginia GOP, he also deserves our condolences because he's taking on a tough job at rebuilding a state GOP that faces serious issues. Not only does the state GOP have fundraising problems, it also has to figure out what it wants to be. After the current chairman Doug McKinney tried to throw evangelicals under the bus and make the election all about "unleashed capitalism" - talk about bad timing considering the damage to the unleashed capitalism has caused - the state GOP has to figure out if it's all about God, guns and anti-gay or if it's about being pro-business. Because that grand alliance formed under President Reagan is breaking up and it isn't working to win state elections for them.
For all the flaws of the West Virginia Democrats, they're minor compared to the challenges facing Abernathy. Hiring him is probably the smartest move McKinney's made as chairman.
And remember rightwingers, we beat you by electing a black man with the middle name Hussein who is a socialist Marxist atheist Muslim with a radical Christian minister.
MARTINSBURG - Dr. Joseph DeSoto has a vision for West Virginia, one that he believes is already on its way to becoming a reality.
In the not too distant future, Republicans will hold all of the major offices, including governor, senators and house members. And it makes sense because many West Virginians are already philosophically in tune with the Republican platform, said DeSoto, who currently serves as president of the Berkeley County Republican Club and chairman of the Eastern Panhandle Republican Association.
"While most West Virginians are still registered as Democrats, they are the 1940s Democrats and they are actually de facto Republicans when you consider their beliefs. And that's why, in time, the Republican party is going to make this state completely red," he said.
Democrats remain the dominant voting force in West Virginia, adding 26,416 to their ranks since the 2006 general election to total 675,305. Republicans gained 10,467 voters during that time, and now number 353,437.
The GOP outnumbers Democrats in eight of the state's 55 counties, down one from the primary. Berkeley County had 297 more Republicans than Democrats in May, but the latter party has since eclipsed them by 257 voters.
Not only are Democrats dominant from our traditional Democratic roots by a 2-to-1 margin, we're outregistering the GOP with new Democrats at 2.5-to-1 pace.
Under DeSoto's "leadership," Berkeley County just flipped from Republican majority to Democrats outnumbering them. His smears about Sen. Barack Obama and others were probably beneficial to Democrats by helping moderate-thinking, unregistered voters and independents who switched to the Democratic decide that they did not want to be part of the Hate Talk Express of the modern GOP.
While DeSoto's is having a "vision," Berkeley County Democrats have worked at actual party building and helping people.
He sees West Virginia as all "red" in the future - really? If the Republicans believe the FDR-era Democrats are really Republicans, how's come they haven't been able to convince them of that? It's not like they haven't had a few decades to convince them since the 1940s to switch parties. It's because the Democratic Party is really the Big Tent, where people of different ideological stripes can work together on solutions for the common good while the Republican Party has grown even more narrow and narrow in ideology to the point where long-term conservatives like Christopher Buckley, Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of Dwight Eisenhower and cut from the same political cloth as him, andJulie Nixon Eisenhower, the daughter of Richard Nixon, have endorsed Barack Obama for president.
And probably the best known West Virginia Republican in the blogosphere, John Cole of Balloon Juice, left the Republican Party and switched his registration to the Democratic Party. Like many of us, he has criticisms of the Democrats and some of our candidates. But the differences many have with our party and our leaders are often miniscule in comparison to our differences with the state and national GOP.
Meanwhile the WV GOP couldn't even field legitimate candidates or any candidate to run for governor, U.S. Senate, two of the three Congressional races, Secretary of State, Auditor and Treasurer. Looking at the GOP bench, I don't see many people rising in the future. Vic Sprouse was touted as a "family values" Republican with a future in the state until his numerous affairs and public feud with one of his many ex-wives over support for the health bills for one of his children ended that.
State GOP Chairman Doug McKinney said this was going to be the election the party focused on "Unleashing Capitalism" because the state has too many environmental and safety regulations. The GOP's standard bearer on a Quixotic quest for the governor's race called West Virginia the most "socialist state" in the nation. The reality is West Virginia's economy is growing at a faster rate than the nation's economy and the man Weeks and McKinney supported for president in the past eight years just nationalized banks and a large part of the insurance industry. In those two cases again, Republicans were in opposition to reality.
Considering how much damage the Republican Party has done to our nation's economy, environmental and safety regulations, military strength and international reputation over the past eight years, you can see why DeSoto and his ilk want to focus on a delusional "vision" than on reality.
But all we need to know about DeSoto and his "vision" is that he told people to vote for George W. Bush for president. How'd that work out for us?
General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.
General: That is good! That is good. Conan the Barbarian (1982)
I took a break from phonebanking here at the Campaign for Change office in Martinsburg so I checked my email.
Here's one making the rounds leaving West Virginia Democrats speechless.
Here's the West Virginia Democratic Party's calendar of events. Go take a look at it. Follow the link now. I'll wait. That's important to do before you see what's below.
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