DCCC: Democrats Can't Comprehend Columbus

The Democrats just don't get it. Only slightly more than a month since taking an electoral thumping of historic proportions the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has gone negative with their first attack (of the 2012 election, that is) against Congressman-Elect Steve Stivers. The attack itself is neither noteworthy nor memorable as it's just more of the same "former bank lobbyist" rubbish that resonated so poorly in the 2010 campaign (the Democrats are fond of repeating failed strategies). This time the old attack is aimed at Congressman-Elect Stivers's assignment to the House Financial Services Committee.

Stivers's assignment to the Financial Services Committee is one of the most logical and intelligent committee assignments that could be made in the 112th Congress. The only thing the Democrats demonstrate by attacking it is how out of touch and totally disconnected from reality they remain.

Stivers has an MBA (that's Master of Business Administration for any Democrat readers), worked as a Vice President for Bank One, worked for the civic-minded investment firm The Ohio Company, and served in the Ohio Senate as Chair of the Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee and Vice Chair of the Finance and Financial Institutions Committee. His professional background is a veritable checklist of desired qualifications for a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Congressman-Elect Stivers

Where leftist ideologues see a "former bank lobbyist" the American people see someone who understands banking. The Columbus Dispatch explained this very clearly in their endorsement of Stivers: "Kilroy has vilified Stivers for his work in the banking industry, but this background ensures that Stivers understands something that Kilroy does not: that ledgers must balance and that red ink is destructive."

The Democrats don't understand the intelligence of the American people; we're not simple rubes who fall for sound bytes and cynical narratives about all bankers being evil incarnate. If we were, then maybe Stivers wouldn't have dominated incumbent Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy by 13 percentage points and nearly 30,000 votes--actually at that margin, rubes or not rubes, Kilroy was toast!

We voted for Stivers because he understands us. He promised he would view legislation through the lens of our number one issue: jobs. In this district you can't talk about jobs without talking about bank jobs.

The OH-15 is home to almost 60,000 financial and insurance industry jobs. Huntington Bancshares Inc. is headquartered in the district, as are Nationwide Insurance, Grange Insurance, Motorists Insurance, Safe Auto Insurance, and State Auto Insurance. J.P Morgan Chase & Co., which acquired Stivers's former employer Bank One, also maintains a major presence in the district, as do PNC Bank, KeyBank, U.S. Bank, Citigroup, and Fifth Third Bank.

The Ohio 15th District is a major banking and insurance hub, and it is only fitting that our representative should sit on the House Financial Services Committee. Historically, this has been the case with Congressman-Elect Stivers's three most immediate predecessors serving on the Financial Services Committee or its ancestor, the House Banking Committee. That the Democrats would seek to deny us this representation only further demonstrates that they don't understand our needs or share our values.

Of course, after they voted Nancy Pelosi back in as their leader was there really any doubt as to if they shared our values?

Reasserting Our Sovereignty

Today "We the People" will reassert our sovereignty. It's about time too, because we've been ignored for far too long.

Our number one issue has always been jobs. Not so for Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy and the other Democrats in Congress! Their number one issue has always been whatever House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, told them it was.

Around this time last year we were all crying out "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!" and because our Congresswoman was under the spell of the San Francisco Democrat the topic being debated was Obamacare not jobs. Namely, if the individual mandate is a tax (by the way, now the Administration admits it is). We were desperate for an economic fix, Washington was enraptured by debating the finer points of legislation we didn't ask for--or want.

Over half a wasted year later in March we all were still crying out "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!" and the Democrats were still focused on Obamacare. Congresswoman Kilroy refused to hear us. She was too busy listening to Nancy Pelosi.

For his part, Steve Stivers voiced our opposition to the bill. He stated our anger, "It targets taxpayers with new costs in the middle of a terrible recession and it targets the fast-growing Ohio industry of medical-device manufacturing with a new tax that will surely kill jobs."

Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Kilroy passed the bill. (They had to so we could find out what was in it, of course.) President Obama signed it into law.

We wanted job creation. We got saddled with new debt.

Obamacare was egregious. What's worse is that it's been just one in a seemingly never-ending series of times we've been ignored:

Cap-and-trade.

The $787 Billion Stimulus.

The Dodd-Frank fiasco.

Raising the national debt limit. Twice.

Congresswoman Kilroy and her ilk haven't listened. Today, we will elect someone who will. 

Steve Stivers for U.S. Congress. Vote TODAY.

Union County Believes in Steve

Steve Stivers is building unstoppable momentum. This week the Marysville Journal-Tribune made the historic decision to endorse him in the race for the Ohio 15th Congressional District seat. I call this decision historic because the Journal-Tribune has never before endorsed a candidate for public office. In its endorsement the paper cited Steve Stivers's lengthy record of dedicated public service and incumbent Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy's unacceptable record of completely ignoring the people of Union County. Said the tribune, "[Kilroy] has done absolutely nothing for the citizens of Union County."

That the Marysville Journal-Tribune has broken with precedent and endorsed a candidate highlights the dire situation our country is in. The move is extraordinary. However, the explanations given for why the Journal-Tribune endorsed Lt. Colonel Stivers over Congresswoman Kilroy are anything but surprising.

The endorsement condemns, "For the past two years, the district's representative, Mary Jo Kilroy, has ignored her constituents." This is painfully obvious in Kilroy's voting record. The Congresswoman has voted in lockstep with Speaker Nancy Pelosi 98% of the time--a voting record that may pleasure the denizens of left coast San Francisco, but it doesn't work for the good folks of the Ohio 15.

She is supposed to represent us faithfully and vote our beliefs and values in Congress. Instead she has shown nothing but disdain and disrespect--and, as evidenced by the Journal-Tribune's rebuke, Kilroy's contempt is directed especially at the more Republican-leaning Union and Madison Counties. It's as though Congresswoman Kilroy shares President Obama's sentiments that we are mere hillbilly bumpkins who cling to our guns or religion or xenophobia and can't comprehend the grand liberal vision.

An examination of Kilroy's constituent outreach initiatives (to call what she's done "constituent outreach" is to expand the term quite liberally) reveals a systemic disregard for the people of this District--and especially for those outside of the Congresswoman's home county, where Kilroy maintains her only district office. By Congresswoman Kilroy's own numbers she visited Union County a meager six times during her first year in office despite a promise to keep a high profile in both Union and Madison Counties.

The Congresswoman's staff has been woefully unavailable to constituents outside of Franklin County. In a smoke-and-mirrors attempt to appear more available to her more geographically distant constituents Kilroy's staff has held "mobile office hours" sessions. Of the two best publicized sessions, the first was a fleeting three hours long and was held a brisk 5.4 miles to the southeast of the Congresswoman's district office (and thus further away from Madison and Union Counties). For the second session Congresswoman Kilroy got bold and ventured as far to the West as Upper Arlington; however, she abbreviated her staff's availability to only two paltry hours--but hey, at least it brought her staff closer to Union and Madison Counties for an ephemeral moment... even if it was only 3.7 miles closer (after all, it's the last two minutes of the 54 minute trek from Richwood that tire a person out).

Congresswoman Kilroy has also demonstrated great disinterest in reaching the citizens of Union County through local media. When the Journal-Tribune, Union County's only daily newspaper, contacted her office for an interview they went through a morass of astounding proportions which resulted in a complete snub of the paper by Kilroy.

It's as though Congresswoman Kilroy has forgotten that the people of this District earn the dollars that pay her $174,000 salary (and, of course, for the $403,981 worth of taxpayer-funded campaign mailings she's franked us with).

It's no small wonder the Marysville Journal-Tribune joined The Columbus Dispatch in endorsing Steve Stivers. As the Journal-Tribune noted Stivers is an "honest and forthright person" who will listen to all the people of the District and be their "true representative". 

Positive change is coming.

Mary Jo Kilroy and the Heights of Hypocrisy

Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy would have you believe that she's the King Richard of anti-Wall Street crusaders. You may have noticed this when she mailed you--at your expense--a brochure titled "Cleaning Up Wall Street's Mess". The reality, however, is (as it always is with Ms. Kilroy) very different. A recent National Review Online article exposes her as "a profiteer from predatory lending and Wall Street speculation". Shocking!

As it turns out, Congresswoman Kilroy's portfolio included shares in Washington Mutual, the largest bank to fail in the crisis and in U.S. history. Luckily for her she sold her shares in 2008 as part of a series of transactions that brought her between $285,000 and $1,050,000 in personal wealth. The Congresswoman's financial disclosure form is mysteriously incomplete (notice the awkward blanks on page 15) leaving it impossible to tell exactly how much the Congresswoman profiteered from the bank her Democratic colleague Senator Carl Levin accuses of building "a conveyor belt that dumped toxic mortgage assets into the markets like a polluter dumping poison into a river."

Kilroy's WaMu involvement in the face of her public Wall Street hate-fest is but one of many instances in which the Congresswoman's rhetoric fails to meet with reality. In a recently produced C-SPAN profile of the Ohio 15th District, Kilroy decries the "poisonous atmosphere of the attack ads". From her statement one might think she is above such tactics. However, the reality is that Congresswoman Kilroy is one of the worst offenders when it comes to creating negatives ads. NBC4 recently slammed Kilroy for running an untrue negative ad that disgracefully alleged that her opponent, a decorated war veteran, is "for sale".

Kilroy has also reached the heights of hypocrisy in accusing Lt. Colonel Stivers of red-baiting in an ad that the Ohio Elections Commission has since found to have accurately portrayed her record of failure. While accusing Stivers of anti-Chinese fear-mongering Congresswoman Kilroy was herself running an ad inciting the same fears. Notice the Chinese characters in the screen capture below:

Kilroy's Red-Baiting Ad

However, while Kilroy has voted for legislation that used our tax dollars to create jobs in China Steve Stivers has not. Kilroy bases her claim that Stivers is pro-corporate tax loopholes and pro-shipping jobs and factories to China on the Americans for Tax Reform pledge below:

I, Steve Stivers, pledge to the taxpayers of the 15th district of the state of Ohio, and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

What magical thinking led Congresswoman Kilroy to read "shipping jobs... and factories to China" out of that is anyone's guess. Congresswoman Kilroy doesn't understand that the people of this district are smart enough to see through her lies. We're not objects to be manipulated.

One more week.

Kilroy Denies Stimulus Shanghai (Another Lie)

Congresswoman Kilroy seems to be preparing for her post-electoral defeat transition back to trial lawyering (though as a multi-millionaire she may just retire and enjoy her wealth). The Kilroy for Congress campaign has filed a frivolous complaint against Steve Stivers for producing and disseminating an ad that accurately portrays Congresswoman Kilroy's record of supporting the failed stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which created jobs in China.

This is just one more pathetic gasp for attention by Congresswoman Kilroy's desperate campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has walked away from her because they've lost faith that she can win. The people of the OH-15 have long since lost faith in her (the majority of us never had any faith in her to begin with--she won her seat with a mere plurality of the vote). Congresswoman Kilroy knows without a major game-changer her career will end with this election. This complaint is a meritless and cynical stunt to attempt to conjure that game-changer out of thin air, and Kilroy is hoping we'll all be dumb enough to fall for it.

The reality is that Lt. Colonel Stivers's ad contains only true statements. The entirety of Kilroy's complaint hinges on the falsehood that no jobs were created in China as a result of the stimulus. Unfortunately for Kilroy, the stimulus did create jobs in China. It's been widely reported. See the ABC News coverage below:



As reported in The Washington Times last month:

"The Department of Energy estimated that 82,000 [stimulus] jobs have been created and has acknowledged that as much as 80 percent of some green programs, including $2.3 billion of manufacturing tax credits, went to foreign firms that employed workers primarily in countries including China, South Korea and Spain, rather than in the United States."

Now I may not be a fancy trial lawyer like Ms. Kilroy, but stimulus money going to "foreign firms" that employ workers "primarily in countries including China... rather than the United States" reads a heck of a lot like stimulus money creating jobs in China. Congresswoman Kilroy may like to ignore this inconvenient truth, but as economist Samuel Sherraden of the progressive think tank New America Foundation said, "We have to recognize that we are funding job-creation programs in Germany, Spain, Japan, and China."

While Kilroy turned a blind eye, other Democratic legislators recognized the problem and were outraged. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Ohio's own Sherrod Brown sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner asking him to put a moratorium on the section 1603 grant program responsible for using stimulus money to create jobs in China. In their press release the senators highlighted a project anticipated to create 3,000 jobs in Shenyang, China. The same project's estimated impact in the United States was roughly one tenth the Chinese impact with most U.S. jobs created being only temporary positions.

That's like for every dollar spent we get a dime.

The Treasury Department responded to the senators that it did not have authority to halt the program. Subsequently, Schumer introduced legislation to amend the program to include a "Buy American" requirement. The legislation has not been enacted and thus stimulus funds are still free to flow overseas.

What are we to think when rather than fight to correct legislation that is widely known to benefit China Congresswoman Kilroy turns a blind eye and pretends all is well? Mary Jo Kilroy has been a militant socialist, defended an IRA terrorist on domestic abuse charges, and has received campaign funding from a known front group for HAMAS. Now, she's been exposed as voting in favor of legislation with giveaways for China and is trying to squash the truth about her record by filing a frivolous OEC complaint. Stivers's ad is right to ask, "Whose side is Kilroy on?"

Saving Private Kilroy? Fat Chance!

I wonder what Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers must think looking over to the opposing camp where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee late last week canceled millions of dollars of advertising and, essentially, cut Congresswoman Kilroy loose to her own devices. In effect, what the Democratic leadership has done is left a comrade behind--something, as a soldier, Stivers has been trained never to do. All four hundred of the troops and contractors he lead during Operation Iraqi Freedom returned home safely.

Congresswoman Kilroy has been the perfect puppet for Speaker Pelosi. In the words of The Columbus Dispatch, she has "marched in virtual lockstep" with the unpopular speaker voting in sync with her 98% of the time. Kilroy voted for Obamacare, the failed $787 billion stimulus plan "that barely made a dent in private-sector unemployment", and supported an energy tax that would have killed over 100,000 Ohio jobs. It's revolting to watch the Democrats abandon her in a bid to hang on to a slim majority after she's blindly supported each and every one of their job-killing measures. Especially after DCCC Chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen promised her supporters, "I give each of you my word that I am standing with Mary Jo, and that the full strength of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is behind her."

Looks like the Democrat's word isn't worth much.

Congresswoman Kilroy wasn't pressured into wholeheartedly supporting the entirety of the Obama-Pelosi agenda. She is, after all, a Democratic Socialist ideologue and always has been. She's been a poor fit for this politically moderate district. With her votes and actions she has sold us out to special interests time and again. She should have foreseen that her liberal masters would apply a tourniquet to her career in a desperate grasp to hold on to their power. She also should have understood that had she listened to us and faithfully represented us in Washington she could have held on to her own.

But if she had sided with us what would her "old militant friends" have thought?

It's too late for an apology. She chose her side.

She may try to recast herself as an underdog to win sympathy votes. However, a woman who jets around on Air Force One, rolls around with Congress's top dogs, and gets special shout outs from the Speaker of the House of Representatives is no underdog.

Before siding with the agendas of the liberals in Washington over the interests of her constituents Kilroy should have remembered the old adage, "There's no honor among thieves." While she was once a reliable vote in the Pelosi Congress's bid to spend away our country's prosperity and future now she's just a beleaguered comrade who fell behind.

I wonder if she now wishes her Democratic ilk shared Stivers's sense of duty.

Mary Jo Kilroy's Disingenous Astroturf Campaign

Watching the CBS Evening News on Tuesday night I caught incumbent Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy delivering what may be the most ironic quote of the political season. Speaking of the latest CBS News/New York Times poll Kilroy offered, "And as far as this GOP energy, I think a lot of it is 'astro-turf.' That means it's not real grassroots. It's these phony grassroots."

Yes, "It's these phony grassroots", indeed. Let's take a sentimental journey down Kilroy's faulty logic path: The poll is real. The results are real; they say more than three in four Ohio residents described themselves as either angry or dissatisfied with the federal government--with Kilroy's failed policies. So if the poll and the results are real then in order for it to be "these phony grassroots" the citizens must be fake. So she's saying more than three in four Ohio residents are fake Republican interlopers from out-of-state... What?!? That kind of lunacy is even harder to follow than Kilroy's magical thinking that spending money we don't have will lower the deficit! Kilroy's looking more like Norma Desmond every day.

Let's explore a more likely reality: the Congresswoman made a Freudian slip.

Several sources have already reported on Congresswoman Kilroy's fliers seeking $10/hour "paid volunteers" who would, ostensibly, devotedly campaign for Kilroy out of their deeply held belief in... needing cash.

This could be a cultural difference between the values of the the Ohio 15th District and the "values" of Washington, D.C. where they have to declare "Prostitution Free Zones" in order to keep pay-for-play at bay, but here in the OH-15 we don't call it love if you have to pay for it.

And looking over Federal Election Commission filings it gets worse: Kilroy's astroturfing campaign receives assistance from twenty-two additional mercenary campaigners from Working America, the independent expenditure arm of the AFL-CIO. (For the record, Working America pays better than Kilroy for Congress.) A review of the Working America astroturfers' addresses as filed with the FEC reveals nearly half of them don't even live in the 15th District.

So, in review, Kilroy's "volunteers" are:

1) Compensated for their pro-Kilroy opinion.
2) Bused in from outside the voting district.

That is the very definition of astroturf campaigning! And it's pathetic.

This is what REAL grassroots looks like:

Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers with actual volunteers

And within the ranks of Congresswoman Kilroy's astroturfer/"these phony grassroots" mercenary army there are some accompanying hypocrisies:

1) In the wake of the Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission ruling, which expanded the rights of unions and corporations to make independent expenditures in federal elections, Congresswoman Kilroy made a big show of signing a pledge opposing independent expenditures. If she were truly principled about the issue she would have refused the aid of Working America but, apparently, she was only putting on a show for media benefit. Changing her opinions based on who she thinks is watching makes Mary Jo Kilroy a sleazy flip-flopper.

2) The rental vans used to haul around Kilroy's mercenary Working America crew filled up with BP gas. Twice. One would expect that after all the Congresswoman's carping about how "BP must pay" and after she signed the bpmakesmesick.com petition that her campaign staff wouldn't patronize the company. As it turns out, all that rhetoric was just for show.

Mary Jo Kilroy is disingenuousness personified.

Mary Jo Kilroy is Addicted to Lying

Mary Jo Kilroy is what's wrong with politics. She knowingly lies, distorts, and obfuscates in an attempt to confuse busy voters without the time and energy to factcheck her every false statement. She does it because it's her nature and her only hope. If voters decide this election based on the issues--jobs (or the present lack thereof) and the Pelosi Congress's ruinous spending--Mary Jo Kilroy is toast. Defeated. Over. Unemployed.

Congresswoman Kilroy's latest attack ad is no exception to her past record of deception. In her first ad she told us she voted against a bill that was voted on before she took office. Then she tried to imply she was anti-lobbyist when she's been an active part of a Congress that has created a "golden age" for lobbyists. Now she's running an ad (link forthcoming) with a completely false claim that Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers wants to create a 23% national sales tax.

Kilroy's ad cites a Union County & Galloway 912 Project Federal Candidate Questionnaire as her source for the bogus claim. The specific question the Congresswoman bases her misleading assumption on (below) was a multifaceted question inquiring as to how Lt. Colonel Stivers would vote on legislation to eliminate the progressive income tax. Because Stivers supports "a flatter, more simple tax system with less loopholes"--a more equitable system--he answered, correctly and honestly, that he would vote for eliminating the complicated progressive income tax (which most likely would be done without tampering with the 16th Amendment).

We've seen in the past that when in desperate situations Democrats tend to forget the definition of basic words like "is". In Kilroy's desperate struggle to hold on to her job she must have forgotten the definition of the word "or". In checking "Support" Stivers was not endorsing BOTH a flat tax AND a national sales tax, he was endorsing elimination of the complex progressive income tax structure that we are all burdened by right now. Because he has publicly stated his preference for "a flatter, more simple tax system with less loopholes" and is on record against a national sales tax, using Midwestern common sense (which Congresswoman Kilroy apparently lacks) we can draw the logical conclusion that Stivers supports a flatter, simpler tax system with less loopholes and not a national sales tax.

As an aside, I imagine Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would agree with Steve Stivers that the tax code needs simplified. After all, Secretary Geithner's confirmation hearings proved a testament to the complexity of the tax code.

Furthermore--and this is in very stark contrast with the claims made in Kilroy's deceitful ad--Stivers has been quoted very recently by The Columbus Dispatch stating his adamant opinion that, "Now is not the time to raise taxes on anybody." Conversely, Mary Jo Kilroy wants to raise taxes by ending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. According to a CNN Money survey 60% of economists agree with Stivers's position. Some prominent Democrats agree with Stivers too.

Once again Mary Jo Kilroy is out on a limb and out of touch. And once again she's trying to cover it up with another shamelessly dishonest ad. Politics as usual for Mary Jo.

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Mary Jo Kilroy's gotta lie.

Kilroy's K Street Love

The most predictable act of the OH-15 congressional race has taken place: incumbent Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy has attacked Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers with a negative TV ad. With her past history of running negative campaigns, the fact that she aired a negative ad isn't itself worth discussing, but the hypocrisy of the message contained in the ad is well worth highlighting.

The ad decries the number of lobbyists in Washington, D.C., but fails to mention that under the Obama Administration and the Pelosi Congress lobbyists are thriving like never before. The Weekly Standard calls the current Democrat-created environment in Washington a "golden age" for lobbyists. And they're correct in doing so: 2009 set a record as the most profitable year ever for the lobbying industry with a walloping $3.47 billion dollars being spent on lobbying the federal government. And they couldn't have done it without Mary Jo Kilroy and her liberal ilk in Congress.

"Lobbyists love it ... when you've got an activist agenda like this," said James Thurber, the director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, of the Obama-Pelosi agenda. And the lobbyists who are thriving aren't Republicans either--they're Democrats. The much-decried "army of lobbyists" President Obama and Congresswoman Kilroy carp about include many faces friendly and familiar to them: former Obama administration officials, prominent Democratic donors, former lawmakers, and former staff members of the current Congressional Democrats. People like Obama's failed Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee and tax-dodger Tom Daschle; Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta's BP lobbyist brother Tony and sister-in-law Heather; Goldman Sachs's Michael Paese, formerly an aide to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (as in Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act).

Kilroy's Army

What's worse is that the anti-lobbyist rhetoric of Kilroy and Obama is pushing lobbying into a black market. The Huffington Post brands the new trend "influence laundering". To get around the scorn and disclosure requirements of being publicly known as a lobbyist many Washington influence peddlers are deregistering themselves. Effectively, this sends much of the lobbying industry underground to a world free of transparency and accountability for both lobbyists and Kilroy lawmakers alike. (Remember when Congresswoman Kilroy inserted a provision into the financial reform bill that sent bond deals underground? --It's like she's got an ax to grind with the very ideas of transparency and accountability.) For his part, President Obama has found his own clever way around the transparency requirements he instated.

In truth the only way to curb the influence of the "army of lobbyists" is to cut the size of government; if the beast starves it will die. President Obama and Congresswoman Kilroy have kept the beast well-fed with Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank "reform" bill, and cap-and-trade. It's time for the lobbyists' "golden age" to end!

Mary Jo Kilroy did get one line right in her attack ad: With big lobbyist enablers like her in Washington, it is no wonder our voices never get heard.

Democrats: The "D" Stands for Dishonest

According to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democratic strategy for this fall is to run away from the Democrats' legislative record and try to make the election a choice between political parties. In support of this strategy, President Obama offered up a cutesy little metaphor:

"I do want to point out, when you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D.' When you want to go back, what do you do? You put it in 'R.' We don't want to go into reverse back in the ditch."

Effectively, the strategy is to run against George W. Bush.

"Blame Bush" is hardly a new strategy. One might even say it's a worn-out dogma that has, for far too long, strangled our politics. It's like President Obama's mind is stuck in reverse. And it's because of this brand of childishness that the president's once-soaring popularity has declined, by the way.

Far worse, however, is that it's dishonest. The groundwork for the financial crisis was laid before George W. Bush took office. In the last month of his presidency, President Bill Clinton signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted the toxic mortgage-backed securities from government regulation. And before that Clinton signed the Financial Services Modernization Act which allowed the creation of the mega-banks, the banks that were "too big to fail".

So by the time President Bush (43) took office big banks were getting bigger and had been equipped with the financial instruments that Warren Buffett described as "weapons of financial mass destruction". The car was already in overdrive when George W. Bush first sat in the driver's seat.

But blaming President Clinton is overly simplistic; it's the sort of thing the Democrats would do, and I most certainly will not stoop to their level. The global financial crisis was a complex occurrence, and the guilty parties are many. (Besides, the former president has had the decency to admit his error in creating the climate for the collapse.) However, when doling out blame, there are some very guilty people who mustn't escape notice: former Clinton advisers who now, coincidentally, are Obama's advisers.

As it turns out, we can't put the car in reverse because we've already gone backward.

Liberal columnist Paul Krugman asserts, dejectedly, that all of Obama's economic advisers are "proteges of [Clinton Treasury Secretary] Robert Rubin, the apostle of financial deregulation". And Krugman is right to do so. Beyond being mere proteges, Obama's economic advisers were in the room with Rubin as he pushed for the Financial Services Modernization Act before bailing government service for a $15-million-a-year job at Citigroup. (Citigroup itself having been created in a merger made legal by the Financial Services Modernization Act--it's dealings like that which earned Rubin a spot on Market Watch's 10 most unethical people in business.)

Let's take a look at the Rubin proteges who shape Obama's thinking:

• Larry Summers, Rubin's Deputy Treasury Secretary and successor, is now Obama's Director of the National Economic Council. Summers pushed Congress to deregulate the derivatives market on the basis that financial institutions are "eminently capable of protecting themselves from fraud and counterparty insolvencies"--financial speak for "they can police themselves". As it turns out, they couldn't.

• Timothy Geithner was Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the Clinton Treasury Department and is now Obama's Secretary of the Treasury. According to a Wall Street Journal bio, Geithner "learned from Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers". As previously reported in this blog, Geithner was in the room with Lehman Brothers as they engaged in fraud, knew it, and failed to take commensurate action. What a stand-up guy.

• Gary Gensler's official biography as Obama's Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission states that, as Under Secretary of the Treasury, "Chairman Gensler was the principal advisor to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and later to Secretary Lawrence Summers on all aspects of domestic finance." Ah, so he was Rubin's Rubin. According to The New York Times, Gensler also played a "significant role in shepherding through Congress deregulation measures that led to the explosive growth of the over-the-counter derivatives market."

And, of course, there are more, lower-profile Clinton era (read as: deregulation era) economic advisers surrounding President Obama. Not quite the "Change" we were promised.

President Obama has oft-repeated a line about Republicans driving the country into a ditch. He ought to level with us and mention that the car had faulty steering and brake lines, and that they were installed by his own economic team. That doesn't make for a very rousing stump speech, however.

Sadly, our local trial lawyer won't press our case and demand restitution from the negligent technicians who put us here. Apparently, the Democratic cause has already paid her a hefty retainer for her services.

We can take heart that the tow truck is coming this November.

Since You Asked...The Answer is HELL YES: Mary Jo is Anti-Israel

In a desperate attempt to convince voters that Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy is not an opponent of the strong, friendly relationship that exists between the United States and Israel the Congresswoman's campaign recently launched a new website, http://ismaryjoantiisrael.com/. The dull and uninspired website, which is un-sourced and provides veritably no useful information to voters, poses a solid white background with the question "Is Mary Jo Anti-Israel?" in black lettering, and then in large, bold-faced type: "NO" with a link to contribute to the Congresswoman's campaign. (However you needn't worry about contributing even if you are so misguided as to support her; she's already supplemented her campaign with your tax dollars.)

Kilroy's denial is very adamant, and I think the lady doth protest too much. An examination of the Congresswoman's record demonstrates that she has not been a "100%" supporter of Israel as she claims. In fact, Mary Jo Kilroy is one of the most anti-Israel Members of Congress. Period.

Congresswoman Kilroy's record of disregard for the U.S.-Israel alliance predates her tenure in the United States Congress. In 2002, during the height of the second Palestinian intifada, then-Franklin County Commissioner Kilroy was the lone vote against a three-part resolution expressing determination to 1) stand behind the efforts of the president in support of the government and the people of Israel in their time of crisis; 2) stand behind the State of Israel in its campaign against terrorism; and 3) support the State of Israel in its efforts to live in peace and security.

It is unclear to which innocuous provision(s) Ms. Kilroy objected: standing behind the president, supporting the people of Israel in a bloody conflict that cost them the lives of 1,063 of their countrymen, or supporting our ally in its quest to live in peace and security. Regardless of from which provision her objections stemmed, in dissenting to any she expressed disdain and disrespect for the people of Israel.

After being elected to Congress, Kilroy continued to exhibit her disdain for Israel. Congresswoman Kilroy was one of only 54 representatives to sign a letter urging President Obama to pressure Israel into easing blockade restrictions on the HAMAS-controlled Gaza Strip. Additionally, Kilroy was one of only six representatives to sign a letter asking Attorney General Eric Holder to hold a meeting with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group the FBI has found to be linked to the terrorist group HAMAS, the primary goal of which is to "obliterate" Israel.

Now, why would Mary Jo take such positions so far out of the mainstream? Gosh, surely this can't possibly be another example of Kilroy being bought and paid for by disreputable characters....

Yep. It's that again. She's sold herself so many times you'd think she was on the other end of the Craigslist scandal.

As it turns out, Mary Jo Kilroy has a long-standing donor/puppet relationship with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. When then-Commissioner Kilroy voted against the resolution supporting Israel in 2002 CAIR was there to praise her for her "responsible stand by abstaining from voting on this very disturbing resolution." And then, in four years time, when Kilroy decided to make her first run for Congress, CAIR National Vice Chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras rewarded Kilroy for her anti-Israel sentiments with the first of many campaign donations.

If Kilroy's collection of bizarre out-of-state and out-of-the-mainstream donors can be likened to a compost heap, Ahmad Al-Akhras might well be the biggest weed growing out of it. Check out the picture of him below pressing the flesh with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's predecessor, Mohammad Khatami.

(Picture originally from CAIR's 2006 Annual Report)

Beyond being the No. 2 man at a front group for HAMAS, Al-Akhras has been known to serve as a character reference for convicted terrorists. Take, for example, Christopher Paul, an Ohio man who was charged and later plead guilty to "conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, namely explosives to be used as bombs" against U.S. citizens and property outside the United States as part of an al-Qaeda plot. Al-Akhras, who claimed to know Paul, said of him: "From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town. They are a good family together." Paul was such a fine family man and father that investigators seized a letter from his apartment instructing his wife to raise "little mujahideen," or holy warriors. (The children are our future--even for jihadis!)

Kilroy donor Al-Akhras vouched for another suspected terrorist when he asserted that Nuradin Abdi, a Somali national accused of plotting to blow up a shopping mall, was "unlike how he [was being] portrayed" by the FBI. Al-Akhras went on to predict a dismissal of the charges, "This may be one of the cases also that may not have enough evidence or there's no evidence at all." Abdi later plead guilty to providing material support to terrorists.

With Congresswoman Kilroy sitting on the House Homeland Security Committee, it's deeply disturbing that she's accepting money from a guy who, at best, associates with terrorists and, more likely, is one.

It's equally disturbing to consider that she's so mentally warped as to make an argument that she supports Israel while palling around with folks who are nothing more than front men for a terrorist organization that's sole purpose is to destroy Israel.

The national Democrats want to make this election a choice, not a referendum on the legislative overhauls passed by the sitting Congress. In the case of Ohio's 15th Congressional District, the choice could not be clearer: Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers, who has worn the uniform of his country in the fight against terrorists, or Mary Jo Kilroy, a politician funded by terrorists.

Mary Jo, Nancy, and The Pimp

Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy gets her money from some disreputable places. As previously reported in this blog, Kilroy has received money from the man who modernized the prostitution industry, Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark. Yesterday, Third Base Politics highlighted a CNN investigation into the role of Craigslist in the underage sex trade and suggested Congresswoman Kilroy should donate the money she received from Craig Newmark to charity. When you think about the flow of cash used to make this particular donation, it's impossible not to agree.

Craigslist makes nearly one third of its $122 million in revenues from "adult services" ads--that's more than $36 million of revenues earned from what are, essentially, pimping fees. With his company raking in pimping revenues hand over fist, it's safe to say a good chunk of Craig Newmark's net worth came in the form of sweaty, fluid-encrusted cash from the hands of gratified johns.

According to the CNN investigation, "A 20-year-old identified only as 'Jessica' works out of low-rent hotels on Washington's busy Interstate 95 corridor. She posts [Craigslist] ads mid-morning for $10 and says she earns up to $250 from each man who answers and shows up."

$250--that's the exact amount of money Craig Newmark has donated to Congresswoman Kilroy so far this election cycle. It's almost as though the john was paying Kilroy directly. Sleazy. And it's all happening right there in our nation's capital, right under Kilroy's nose.... I thought they were going to drain the swamp?

Over the course of the Congresswoman's career Newmark has basted her with $2,000 in direct donations. Indirectly, Newmark has furnished Kilroy with even more money by donating $15,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Barack Obama's Hopefund, Inc., Al Franken's Midwest Values PAC, and Howard Dean's Democracy for America, all of which have given sizable donations to Kilroy over the course of her career as a politician.

I don't know how many sex acts that all translates into, but I'm sure it's more than enough to have crushed the spirits of more than a few young women. The flow of money is sickening:

Sweaty, gratified palms of a john --> involuntary prostitute --> Craigslist/Craig Newmark --> Mary Jo Kilroy

What's particularly disgusting is Mary Jo Kilroy's hypocrisy. The Congresswoman has accepted a lot of money from well-meaning "Women's Issues" groups. She has two daughters; we've seen them in her ads. Congresswoman Kilroy should be out front showing some leadership to stop sex trafficking. Instead, she and her party are all but supporting it by accepting donations from the world's most notorious pimp.

Of course, as in everything, Mary Jo Kilroy is just following the example of her mentor, Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has also accepted graft from Newmark. Together they're making a mockery of women's empowerment by abandoning the truly helpless to a cruel fate. Apparently, the Pelosi-Kilroy bond is strengthened by a mutual willingness to be blind to anything so long as it helps them gain the cash they need to stay in power.

Birds of a Feather
(Original photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/speakerpelosi/3748460352/in/photostream/)

The issue shows a stark and meaningful contrast between Congresswoman Kilroy and her opponent, Lt. Colonel Steve Stivers. Stivers, while a State Senator, voted to strengthen anti-human trafficking laws by mandating prison terms for persons found guilty of human trafficking and payment of restitution to victims.

Steve Stivers knows what is right, and he does it.

Mary Jo Kilroy doesn't care what is right. She cares about cash for her re-election, and she'll accept it from anyone--even a pimp.

Kilroy Keelhauls Economy with Sweetheart Deal

As Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy updates her resume for her post-November job hunt she can add a new achievement: causing economic chaos by bringing a $1.4 trillion market to a grinding, painful halt. As the result of a Kilroy-authored provision of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, the world's three largest bond rating agencies said their credit ratings could no longer be used in documentation for new bond sales. Because many types of bonds are required by law to include credit ratings in their official documentation, the bond market was completely shut down with no asset-backed bonds put on sale this week. 

I'm not sure how many jobs the collapse of a $1.4 trillion market destroys or fails to save, but I'm sure it's a lot. And beyond the killed jobs, the ramifications for consumer credit will be devastating: Ford Motor Co. has already been forced to scuttle a debt deal to finance auto loans.

[For a good discussion of Kilroy's blunder, watch the video here with Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally. It gets relevant around 4:21.]

Think about it: Nobody can get a loan to buy a car because Congresswoman Kilroy just killed the bond market. If nobody can get financing then there aren't going to be many cars rolling off the lot. If nobody is buying cars, there's no need to make cars (or car parts). If there's no need to make cars or car parts, there's no need for workers to be employed at Honda Marysville (Congratulations to them on cranking out their 10 millionth vehicle earlier this week!). Worthington Industries would likely have to make cutbacks too as the demand for automobile steel tanks. So where does that leave us? Car dealers, car manufacturers, steel workers, the drivers who deliver the cars, the workers who make the car parts, and all the support personnel at all the previously mentioned entities left without work. Of course, you can't turn on the TV without seeing a commercial for a car dealership so there are going to be some cutbacks at the TV stations too from the loss of advertising revenues... but I'm sure, by now, you see the pattern: it's all connected. It's not so much a financial overhaul as an economic keelhaul. No bond sales = no consumer financing = no consumption = no jobs. 

And why'd Kilroy do it? To make the financial system more accountable? To right horrific wrongs?

Nope. She did it to excite the erogenous zones of one of her key constituencies: the trial lawyers! This is an election year, and she needs cash.

The Kilroy provision (or Kiljobs provision, if you prefer) renders ratings agencies "expert", and thus, exposes them to a new liability similar to that held by auditors. A major difference, of course, is that auditors are liable for their examination of what is and bond raters are now liable for predictions of what may be. In effect, bond raters now face a level of liability greater than anyone else in all of business: in order to avoid being sued into oblivion bond raters must predict the future accurately every time at bat.

Congresswoman Kilroy knows full well that no one bats a thousand. Just look at her own political party and the "Summer of Recovery".

The impossibility of bond raters getting it right 100% of the time is exactly why Kilroy authored the provision making them legally liable for not having the foresight of Nostradamus: it's food on the table and Benzes in the driveway for her trial lawyer donors.

When they thrive, she thrives.

But we don't:

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kilroy provision "has done the exact opposite of the bill’s intended efforts at creating more transparency and openness. It is forcing more deals underground, where there will be less access to capital and less opportunity for public scrutiny." Where only people who have the cash and the connections can have access and reap the benefits.

Congresswoman Kilroy has sold us up the river again, pretending to pass Wall Street reform legislation while rewarding her donor base. Let's hold her liable in November.

Kilroy for Congress: Paid for by the U.S. Taxpayer

What do you do when you're a member of an incredibly unpopular Congress and your big union, big trial lawyer, and Washington insider donors aren't giving you enough money to buy a fighting chance against your vastly more likable combat veteran opponent? The answer for Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy is to subsidize her campaign with your tax dollars.

Congresswoman Kilroy recently hired a communications director for her campaign who will also work part time in her congressional office. As an employee of her congressional office this campaign staffer will draw a federal salary. While Kilroy is hardly the first member of Congress to realize the ability to use tax dollars to pay for a campaign, precedent doesn't make her unprincipled conduct right.

According to the House Ethics Manual congressional staffers are permitted to engage in campaign activities on their "own time" as long as they do not do so in congressional offices or facilities, or otherwise use official resources. (Interestingly, executive branch personnel are subject to much greater restrictions on partisan political activity under the Hatch Act. It would seem the Congress saw fit to exempt itself from ethical standards the rest of the government must follow--part of a pattern of behavior that must be stopped.)

So, in the case of Ms. Kilroy's dual campaign and congressional office staffer, who is policing when he's on his "own time" and when he's on government time? The answer will disturb you.

From the House Ethics Manual:

"What constitutes a staff member's 'own time' is determined by the personnel policies that are in place in the employing office.... [D]ue to the irregular time frames in which the Congress operates, it is unrealistic to impose conventional work hours and rules on congressional employees." (Emphasis added.)

So the only standard for when government time ends and campaign time begins is set by Mary Jo Kilroy, the very woman whose whole future depends on the success of the campaign. Given her history of abusing her authority, I do not find that reassuring.

But surely her tax dollar-subsidized campaign staffer is required to keep a log of how he spends his time, right?

No? Oh, that is bad. One would expect the House of Representatives to, at the very least, have requirements for how congressional staffers who moonlight in their employers' re-election efforts document their time. (Heck, even the lobbying firms Kilroy oh-so-publicly decries have their employees keep time sheets of billable hours!) While the House Ethics Manual states staffers who do campaign work "should" keep records, "[t]here is no set format for maintaining such time records." So we're just supposed to trust Congresswoman Kilroy and her staff. I'd sooner trust Wall Street investment bankers to police themselves.

Between Congresswoman Kilroy's extravagant use of the franking privilege to disseminate what is, essentially, campaign propaganda (It even has the same color scheme.) and this new scandal of putting her campaign communications director on the federal payroll, Mary Jo Kilroy has effectively compelled us into footing the bill for her quenchless ambition. She should be required to change the FEC-mandated disclaimer displayed on all of her official campaign materials from "Paid for by Kilroy for Congress" to "Paid for by You, the U.S. Taxpayer, Sucker!"

Kilroy for Congress: Paid for by the U.S Taxpayer

"$teve $tivers" is Catching On (But Not How Mary Jo Kilroy Intended)

Just in case you missed the weekend coverage: Steve Stivers's work ethic lead to his second quarter fundraising efforts overwhelming those of slumberous Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy. Stivers raised $532,687 in the three month period preceding June 30--more than double Congresswoman Kilroy's $229,955. According to a press release from his campaign, Stivers enjoyed the support of 1,227 new individual donors this quarter. It would seem the spirit of civic engagement that lead to record voter turnout in 2008 is alive and well--except this time it favors Mr. Stivers.

Stivers also has more cash in the bank than Kilroy with $1.24 million to her $933,626. Now we know why Congresswoman Kilroy's campaign refers to Lt. Colonel Stivers as $teve $tivers: JEALOUSY! (Though it could just be that as a multi-millionaire trial lawyer she sees dollar signs everywhere.)

Stivers's fundraising success and accelerating momentum is exceedingly good news for you and me, the people who live in Ohio's 15th Congressional District. For too long we've lacked a representative who holds our interests in mind. Congresswoman Kilroy has raised only a paltry 63% of her money in-state. She's bought and paid for by Washington special interests and out-of-state liberal activists including George Soros, Susan Sarandon, Barbara Streisand, Carl Reiner, and internet regulation-pushing Craig's List founder Craig Newmark.

Steve Stivers, on the other hand, has raised 91% of his money from inside the State of Ohio. He will represent Ohio's working families because he's not beholden to anyone else. The erosion of our interests in favor of those of the Washington insiders and left coast liberals that has occurred on Kilroy's watch will be turned back by Mr. Stivers.

We'll have our own representative in Washington, D.C. again--just like the Framers of the Constitution intended. Imagine that!

It feels particularly good--particularly patriotic even--that, as Ohioans, we were able to scrape together more money than the Washington insiders and liberal activists to give to our candidate so that he now has more cash in the bank than theirs. It's David beats Goliath. (Though we have to keep throwing stones to keep Goliath down.)

By gosh, I actually pity Mary Jo Kilroy right now. I really do. Her fundraising efforts are faltering (the only method that she understands to get money from Ohio's working families is to tax it away from them), and she has the natural charisma of a doorstop. Without any coattails to ride this is going to be a rough election for her. And if she loses this job... well, you've seen the economy she created. It's rough out there.

Speaker Pelosi Knows So Much That Isn't So

Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shoveled some more coal into the engine of the Democrat crazy train yesterday. In a news conference Pelosi claimed federally funded unemployment benefits spur job creation faster than any other initiative. According to Pelosi unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy.



Uh... What? The four-week average for unemployment claims now stands at its highest point since March. By Pelosi logic that means we should be seeing commensurately high levels of job creation--and yet employers are projected to have cut a net total of 110,000 jobs in the month of June. And all that demand being injected into the economy by unemployment benefits? Well, check out the Financial Times article "Fears Mount Over Slowing Global Demand" for the stark reality on that.

Pelosi's absurd pronouncements remind me of Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf--better known as "Comical Ali" or "Baghdad Bob"--the former Iraqi Information Minister who entertained the world with his wacky and undeniably bogus claims about the progress of the American-led coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Pelosi is one more sloshed night at a ritzy fundraiser away from putting on a beret and proclaiming “We are at peak employment. There are no Americans without jobs in the United States! There is, in fact, by the grace of Obama a job surplus!”

Just because the Democrats have decided that the laws of the land no longer apply and that they don’t need to pass a budget doesn’t mean the laws of reality no longer apply. Unemployment benefits do not create jobs, and they do not spur economic growth. Our distressed economy is a case in point.

A parting thought on Speaker Pelosi and her toadies in the House like Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy who votes in tandem with Pelosi 98.4% of the time: Who’s more foolish the fool or the fools who follow her?