You’ve heard about the Fast and Furious Gunwalker Scandal. And you’ve heard about the scandal involving the Obama Administration’s raid of Gibson Guitars. But it took Iowahawk to combine them.
When last we checked the Obama Administration, as part of it’s ongoing war against (pick one or more) A) Energy, B.) Capitalism, and/or C.) Texas, had the EPA come up with new emissions rules that would have resulted in Texas power plants having to shutdown before sufficient new capacity was online, which would most likely have resulted in rolling blackouts (and probably fatalities) the next time summer came around.
Now comes word that the EPA is backing off on new smog emissions rules. Naturally Rick Perry, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the 25 million Texans who’s A/C won’t suddenly shut off when it hits 112° in August because some bureaucrat in Washington decreed it are pleased, while radical environmentalists are outraged.
I had two separate science fiction conventions to go to (Worldcon in Reno, and Armadillocon here in Austin) back to back, plus some personal upheavals, so it’s taking me some time to get back in the swing of things. So here are some quick Senate race updates for the last two weeks:
Another Senate candidate forum, this time in Waco. Cruz earns points for defense of the Tea Party. Other attendees included Elizabeth Ames Jones, Tom Leppert, and “folksy Magnolia mortician” (to use The Waco Tribune‘s phrase) Glenn Addison. Addison seemed to get off the best line, a shot at Anthony Weiner, when asked if he’d resign if caught in a scandal. “The good lord knows I have my struggles, but I don’t struggle with holding cameras different ways.”
Cruz warmed up the audience before Rick Perry’s announcement at Red State.
Ross Ramsey polls the insiders again. Ramsey also consigns Sean Hubbard and Stanley Garza to the ranks of the invisible men, using the phrase “Ricardo Sanchez, the only declared Democratic candidate.” This is what old school journalists used to call “a factual error.” Do they not teach “Accuracy 101” in The George Soros Academy for Left-Wing Journalism?
Is Rep. Mike McCaul considering getting into the race? I don’t see a lot of running room, but McCaul is frequently ranked as the wealthiest member of congress with a reported fortune for $294 million (his wife, Linda McCaul, is the daughter of the founder of Clear Channel Communications). Given that, his willingness to “spend $4 million to $6 million of his own money” seems pretty penny-ante for a Texas Senate seat, especially with David Dewhurst already in the race. Now, if he were to announce he was spending $25 million of his own money…
There was also evidently a candidate forum put on by Congressman Pete Olsen in Ft. Bend County, but I can’t find any mention of it except on Dewhurst’s site. Also watch Jim Bognet refer to himself as “Manager for Governor David Dewhurst’s senate campaign.” Might want to make sure to slip in that “Lieutenant” before “Governor” next time…
Elizabeth Ames jones endorses Rick Perry for President. I see no indication that Perry has returned the favor for Jones’ Senate race…
And finally, as far as I can, over the last two weeks, Ricardo Sanchez…did absolutely nothing.
According to Rasmussen, “for the first time this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry leads President Obama in a national Election 2012 survey. Other Republican candidates trail the president by single digits.” That’s within the margin of error, but it’s still a striking result. Go back to November 4th of 2008 and tell victorious liberals that Obama would be tied in the polls with a conservative Texas governor and they would have looked at you like you had a rabid duck on your head.
Plenty of liberals had been hoping to see Rick Perry get the GOP nomination because they regarded him as (next to Bachmann and Palin) too conservative to win. Much like liberals thinking the same of Ronald Reagan in 1979, they may rue getting their wish…
“Gadhafi’s Son Claims Dad Wants a Role in Rebel Government.” In much the same way that I seek a date Kate Winslet. Indeed, I think my chances are better with Kate than Gadhafi’s are with the rebel government…
I think this is a pretty big indication that Moammar won’t be sending out Muharram postcards from Tripoli this year. Gadhafi himself still seems to be playing the title role in Where’s Waldo, but him sending his family out of the country would tend to indicates that his prospects for regaining power are (thankfully) bleak.
Unless a hard-core Jihadi government takes over in Libya (possible, but it seems unlikely), the fall of Gadhafi must rank as good news for America, for the Libyan people, and, yes, President Obama. Putting aside questions of whether Gadhafi could have been toppled earlier (quite likely), whether Libya was the worst remaining Arab dictatorship (it wasn’t; Iran and Syria (clearly), as well as Saudi Arabia (arguably) are worse troublemakers and oppressors of their own people), and whether toppling Middle East dictatorships is a proper use of American power (there were many justifications of America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 that weren’t applicable to Libya, but I can think of none that would apply to Libya that would not equally apply to Iraq), having Gadhafi gone is good news for everyone involved except the dictators own corrupt cronies (and the businessmen who profited from dealing with them), and there’s a significant chance that he wouldn’t have been toppled without the judicious application of American air power that Obama approved. It would be nice to see Gadhafi hung from a pole, or put on trial for crimes against his own people, but even having him merely deposed is a significant victory. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Texas Iconoclast: “My early guess is that Perry will breeze through the GOP Primary with little difficulty and will continue to hone his anti-Obama message across the country…Perry is, by far, the strongest candidate with the strongest conservative record. Romney vs. Perry is all that’s left and I expect Romney’s support to start melting away.”
William Murchison: “Rick Perry loves business and the spirit of enterprise even more than Barack Obama seems to look down his nose at same….As a New York Times subscriber of many years’ standing, I can tell you Maureen Dowd, Frank Bruni, and the squinty fanatics of Andrew Rosenthal’s editorial page will come unglued at the idea of Rick Perry approaching unto the seat of Barack Obama. Likewise the Eastern bloggers — the Jacob Weisbergs, the Andrew Sullivans, and so on. Why do the nations so furiously rage together when a Texan comes in view? They just do.”
Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry over at NRO say that Perry will be a formidable candidate, but list five obstalces he will have to overcome. I don’t necessarily agree with their analysis (such as the necessity of winning Iowa).
Roger Simon: “Rick Perry only just announced his presidential run Saturday, but out here in the blue-blue City of Angels I am already detecting severe signs of PDS — Perry Derangement Syndrome.”
Last, and very possibly least, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs insinuates that Perry is a secret jihadi sympathizer, or at the very least soft on jihad. To call it weak tea would be to suggest that there’s any tea at all; instead, it appears Geller has taken a picture of a tea bag, and then steeped the picture.
