Blogging Blue

Back on January 9, 2008, Sen. John McCain, fresh off his New Hampshire primary victory, sat for an interview, during which he stated a clear desire to raise the level of political dialogue in America:

“I’m going to raise the level of political dialog in America,” McCain, R-Ariz., said at a campaign rally in central Michigan, “and I’m going to treat my opponents with respect and demand that they treat me with respect.”

Now if there was any ambiguity in Sen. McCain’s statement, he went on to say:

“It’s time we did away with a lot of this political rhetoric at the level we’re at, including these negative ads. Nobody likes these negative ads. You want to know what we’re for, not who we’re against.”

Here’s McCain talking about his disdain for negative attack ads in 2000:

So wait…I’m confused. John McCain circa 2000 said, “If all you run is negative attack ads, you don’t have much of a vision for the future or you’re not ready to articulate it,” but John McCain circa 2008 seems to be perfectly content running negative attack ads, with some estimating his campaign is spending 100% of its media buy on negative attack ads. Does that mean John McCain doesn’t have much of a vision for the future, or is he just not ready to articulate it?

What’s more, given Sen. McCain’s stated desire to do away with negative ads and to treat his opponents with respect, it strikes me as more than a little hypocritical that John McCain would flip-flop and start the smear campaign once the deck was stacked against him. Once again, John McCain has proven he’s not above saying or doing anything to get elected.

When Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was chosen to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate, Republicans spent an awful lot of time touting her record as a Washington outsider and as a reformer in her home state. Now there’s no denying Palin’s a Washington outsider, but there’s a little problem with her record as a reformer. The Associate Press is reporting Gov. Palin may have received special benefits as mayor of Wasilla:

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception — and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free “awesome facial” she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The “absolutely gorgeous flowers” she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

She also stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings. She asked the City Council to add a friend to the list of speakers at a 2002 meeting — and then the friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.

That year, records show, she tried to help a neighbor and political contributor fighting City Hall over his small lakeside development. Palin wanted the city to refund some of the man’s fees, but the city attorney told the mayor she didn’t have the authority.

Now receiving special favors is one thing, but Palin wasn’t afraid to give special favors as well:

Some of her first actions after being elected mayor in 1996 raised possible ethical red flags: She cast the tie-breaking vote to propose a tax exemption on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one, and backed the city’s repeal of all taxes a year later on planes, snow machines and other personal property. She also asked the council to consider looser rules for snow machine races. Palin and her husband, Todd, a champion racer, co-owned a snow machine store at the time.

Palin often told the City Council of her personal involvement in such issues, but that didn’t stop her from pressing them, according to minutes of council meetings.

Two months before Palin’s tenure as mayor ended in 2002, she asked city planning officials to forgive zoning violations so she could sell her house. Palin had a buyer, but he wouldn’t close the deal unless she persuaded the city to waive the violations with a code variance.

The Palins, who were finishing work on a new waterfront house on Lake Lucille about two miles away, asked the city for the variance. The request was opposed by one planning official and some neighbors.

“I would ask that the Wasilla Planning Commission apply the exact same rules in this situation that it would apply to other similar requests so that our community can see that being a public figure does not give anyone special benefits,” urged neighbor Clyde Boyer Jr. in a 2002 note to the city.

The Palins’ house was built by the original owner too close to the shoreline and too close to adjacent properties on each side, including a carport that stretched so far over it nearly connected the two houses.

The Palins didn’t create the zoning problems, but they should have known about them when they bought the house, wrote Susan Lee, a code compliance officer with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, in response to the Palins’ request. The borough, similar to a county government, makes recommendations to the city, which has final say.

But in August 2002, Wasilla Planner Tim Krug approved a “shoreline setback exception” for the Palins’ house being built too closely to the water. He sent an e-mail to the mayor saying he was drafting another variance for the side of the house built too close to the property line, but that he understood from her that the other side “will be corrected and the carport will be removed.”

Krug asked Palin to let him know if he was wrong in his impression that the carport would be removed.

A few minutes later, the mayor e-mailed back: “Sounds good.”

Yeah, Sarah Palin sounds like a real reformer.

How stupid does Sen. John McCain think people are?

I think it’s a question that’s worth asking, and I’d love to hear Sen. McCain’s answer. After all, Sen. McCain must think people are stupid, given how he continues to lie and flip-flop with impunity, as if people are either stupid, not paying attention, or just don’t care. I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about Sen. McCain’s myriad of flip-flops on issues big and small, but I think Sen. McCain’s behavior towards late night comedian David Letterman takes the cake. To briefly summarize, Sen. McCain was set to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman, but on the day of the taping, Sen. McCain called Letterman personally to cancel his appearance, citing the current economic crisis. Here’s a little more of the back story:

Mr. Letterman told his audience that Senator McCain had called him directly on short notice Wednesday, to tell him he had to cancel his appearance. After expressing his admiration for Mr. McCain and his sacrifice as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Mr. Letterman said, “When you call up at the last minute and cancel, that’s not the John McCain I know.” He repeated that “something smells right now” and he suggested “somebody must have put something in his Metamucil.”

Mr. Letterman said Mr. McCain had said the economy was “about to crater” which necessitated that he get to Washington right away. Mr. Letterman then suggested that McCain should not be suspending his campaign at all and that he could have “sent in the second-string quarterback,” his vice presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, to fill in for him. “You don’t quit,” Mr. Letterman said.

And here’s some video. It’s about 9 minutes long, but it’s worth every minute.

John McCain ought to be ashamed of himself, and for his behavior he wins my Idiot of the Week award.

Only this time it’s not Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac; it’s AIG, one of the world’s largest insurance companies. Total cost to American taxpayers? Up to 85 billion dollars.

And let’s not forget this latest government-funded bailout comes fresh on the heels of a horrific start to the week that saw the Dow lose nearly 1,000 points on Monday and Tuesday, as well as the largest bankruptcy in the history of the world.

Who do I blame for the current state of our economy? Well, President Bush would be the easy answer, but a healthy dose of blame should fall squarely on Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who’s been a staunch proponent of government deregulation of banking and commerce throughout his career in the Senate. What’s worse, McCain’s now flip-flopped on this issue, adding to his litany of flip-flops, but this latest change in position reeks of political opportunism at its worst:

John McCain ought to be ashamed of himself for the kind of opportunism and pandering we’ve seen from him this week, especially on an issue as important as the economy. It’s become painfully obvious he’ll do or say anything - and I mean anything - to get himself elected.

Personally, that doesn’t look like someone I’d trust but apparently Republican presidential nominee John McCain disagrees, as he trusted a story first reported by Carl Cameron of Faux News, who alleged that Democrats threw away thousands of American flags after the Democratic National Convention. Sen. McCain’s campaign was quick to jump on the story and attack the lack of patriotism shown by Democrats, all the while ignoring their own little inconvenient truth: Carl Cameron is a proven liar.

Back in October 2004 Cameron was caught publishing a series of fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry on the front page of the Fox News website, and Fox News was later forced to retract the fabricated story and issue an apology. In light of Cameron’s history, it’s not inconceivable he used a little “creative license” with this story.

And to think, John McCain once took pride in being a straight talker.

H/T to Jay over at folkbum.

Asked in an interview on Wednesday how many houses he own, Sen. John McCain couldn’t answer, because apparently it’s really easy to lose track of how many homes you own when you can’t count them all on one hand:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

Considering how hard Sen. McCain has tried to portray his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, as an elitest, I can’t help but think this is yet another in a long line of examples of Sen. McCain’s unabashed hypocrisy. For a guy who once rode a campaign bus called the “Straight Talk Express,” Sen. McCain sure does seem averse to giving Americans a little straight talk.

Here’s an ad from the Obama campaign about Sen. McCain’s many houses:

H/T to Dan Cody and Deke over at Caffeinated Politics.

I’ve been doing my best to keep up with all of Senator John McCain’s flip-flops on a whole host of issues throughout the course of his Presidential campaign, and let me tell you, it’s been hard work. McCain’s flip-flopped more during this campaign than John Kerry could have ever hoped to, and there’s still four months left until election day.

During an appearance on the Today Show this morning, McCain was asked about his previous statement that he doesn’t understand economics well. The exact quote is:

“The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

The quote itself comes from a Boston Globe article from December 2007. Now despite the fact that McCain has admitted he doesn’t understand economics that well, he’s now attempting to rewrite the past. During his appearance on the Today Show, McCain flatly denied ever having said the economy wasn’t his cup of tea, and he went on to say, “I’m very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent.”

Once again the Straight Talk Express has gone off the tracks, and instead we’re left with the Double Talk Express, and I’ve come to the realization that John McCain circa 2008 will say or do anything to win this election, principles be damned.

First of all, many thanks to Cindy Kilkenny over at Fairly Conservative for all her hard work to help break this story and bring to light a gross abuse of taxpayer dollars, not to mention a willful violation of state employee leave policies.

As first reported by Cindy, it’s been confirmed Kevin Fischer, a legislative aide in State Senator Mary Lazich’s office, used more vacation time in 2007 than he was allotted. In fact, Fischer used up 46 more hours of vacation than what he was allotted, which given his yearly salary, equates to roughly $2,000 in pay (if my math is correct). In other words, Kevin Fischer milked the taxpayers of Wisconsin for more than $2,000 worth of pay for vacation time he wasn’t entitled to take. What’s more, this isn’t the first year Kevin Fischer has overused (abused) the vacation time allotted to him, as Fischer went negative on vacation hours in 2006, too, to the tune of 46 more hours that had to be returned in 2007.

Here’s the real money quote from Cindy’s blog entry:

Kevin Fischer likes his vacation time. Let’s hope 2008 is a little more true to what he earns. The Senate administrator that just gave me a call indicates they are doing their best to tighten up these policies. He also indicates that there are very few employees that have this much trouble keeping their vacation resources in check.

First of all, I’m of the belief this is a little more than an employee having “trouble” keeping his or her vacation resources in check. I don’t know about Kevin Fischer’s paychecks, but most other state employees get an updated accounting of their leave balances with each new paycheck stub they receive, so there’s absolutely no excuse for a state employee not being able to keep track of how much vacation, personal, or sick leave time they have, other than willful disregard of course. However, while I believe Kevin Fischer should be held responsible for his continued pattern of abuse of the state’s vacation leave policies, I’m not holding my breath, simply because he’s been allowed to continue to abuse his vacation leave time by his supervisor, who seems oblivious - or unconcerned - about his abuses.

State employees are disciplined all the time for these kinds of abuses of their leave time, and I can only hope Kevin Fischer is held accountable in some way for his chronic abuse of his vacation time.

If I remember correctly, Scott Walker was elected to serve as County Executive largely on the promise he’d rectify the scandal-ridden quagmire that had become the county’s pension system.

And yet, all these years later, we’re still hearing tales about a stunning lack of oversight over the county’s pension system:

Milwaukee County pension officials say they mistakenly overpaid former House of Correction superintendent Richard Cox and will seek a refund of more than $100,000 - one of 115 newly discovered pension payout errors.

The disclosure comes in a new filing with the IRS that admits numerous systemic mistakes caused pension overpayments and underpayments from 1994 through the present. The county is seeking refunds in some cases.

Necessary reviews of payouts were left undone and the county’s own pension laws were not followed in the various cases, says the IRS “voluntary correction” filing. It comes nine months after a Journal Sentinel investigation of county “buyback” pension benefits prompted a similar admission to the IRS.

…

The total price tag on the mistakes has not been determined, but could approach $1 million including pensioners’ and the county’s liability, according to estimates based on the county’s filing.

So let’s recap:

• 115 newly discovered pension payout errors? Thank you, Scott Walker!
• Laws not being followed? Thank you, Scott Walker!
• Liability approaching one million dollars? Thank you, Scott Walker!
• General lack of oversight over Milwaukee County’s pension system, despite promises to clean things up? Thank you, Scott Walker!

Scott Walker’s failure to clean up and fix Milwaukee County’s pension system is just another in a long line of promises he’s broken, and that’s why it’s time for new leadership for Milwaukee County.

So says Walker campaign staffer Tim Russell, in talking about the following ad that’s been all over the airwaves in the past week or so:

Now sure, it’s a pretty decent ad, but as Greg Borowski of the MJS reported, the ad’s not really that unique, borrowing heavily from a theme most recently used by former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist during his 2000 re-election campaign. However, when prompted by a “longtime political observer,” Borowski queried the Walker campaign to find out if any of the folks featured in Walker’s ad were paid actors, as opposed to being the “real citizens” the ad portrays them to be. The Walker campaign’s response?
“They’re all real people,” Tim Russell of the Walker campaign said. “They’re all real people” - seems pretty unambiguous, right?

It sure does, except that it’s not really true. After Borowski posted his story, Tim Russell fired off an email clarifying his assertion that all the individuals in the ad were “real people.”

“I did not intend to say that none of the people in the ad were talent. Our
agency had talent on hand for the taping in case our volunteers didn’t
work out. We had a couple that got stage fright and were replaced
with people the agency had on hand. I apologize if I was unclear in
my answer.”

Unclear is one thing, but Russell seemed pretty clear and unambiguous when he said none of the individuals in the ad were “real people.” Instead of trying to explain away his lie, Russell should have the gumption to simply fess up and admit he lied, instead of trying to spin his comments as him “not being clear.”

H/T to xoff.