Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Day: May 3, 2007”

Really broad support

May 3, 2007

Horse's Ass blogger David Goldstein is ordinarily definitive about his side and the other side (ordinarily, Democrats and Republicans, respectively). But every so often a case comes up that makes any good blogger say: Well, what are you gonna do?

Such is the case of the candidacy of Maureen Judge for city council in Mercer Island city. She has bipartisan support (endorsements from legislators both Democratic and Republican). And the blogger himself, who adds, "Okay… I happen to know Maureen pretty damn well. Um… she’s my baby’s momma."

They're divorced now, but Goldstein hasn't let that interfere with his endorsement: "And while I suppose this sort of disclosure might raise red flags amongst Mercer Island Republicans, they should at least take comfort in the fact that Maureen had the apparent commonsense to divorce me. Can’t get much more bipartisan than that. . . . and damn, she’s a helluva lot more likeable than I am. Go ahead, try to beat her at something she really cares about. Hell, I never did."

Smith: The conservative case against

May 3, 2007

We've said before we expect, with the new Club for Growth activism in Oregon leading the way, that there will be a from-the-right challenge next year to Oregon Senator Gordon Smith.

We didn't say it would necessarily be successful.

The outlines of such a challenge - a case against Smith - were cleanly laid out in the Northwest Republican blog, in the form of a letter from Bill Sizemore, he of numerous (largely anti-tax and conservative-based) initiative campaigns. (Blogger Ted Piccolo posted the letter, but without comment.) Sizemore has been mentioned as a prospect to oppose Smith in the Republican primary. That may or may not happen, but his argument against Smith could easily constitute the core of the primary insurgency.

"Can a greater case be made against Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon? Hate crimes legislation; boondoggle mass transit funding; voting against drilling in ANWR; voting for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and calling our troops’ presence in Iraq “criminal”. That ought to be enough of an indictment. But there’s more." The more is Smith's support of a cigarette tax increase, opposition to some anti-immigrant efforts, and so on.

Read and check it out. It could be picked up by whoever runs against Smith (who we suspect won't be Sizemore.) But don't assume it will necessarily be enough to work.