Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Reaction to Massa Presser

One of these days, I would absolutely love to attend a Massa press conference. I wonder how welcomed I would be...

Regardless, here's my reaction to his presser:

1) If the NH primary results are an indication that people are "fed up with politics as usual in Washington, DC" and want to dismantle the "good old boy network," how come the Dems voted for the establishment candidate there? True, Hillary's not physiologically a "boy", but she's most certainly part of that damn network!

2) I highly doubt that Congressman Kuhl's recent mailer on SCHIP cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money." And what's exactly wrong with informing constituents directly on where he stands on an important issue, and even informs them on how to apply for this program?

3) The complaint that Congressman Kuhl has with the "Post Office Congress" isn't that they choose to honor distinguished citizens by naming post offices and federal buildings after them, but rather he believes that on top of doing nice things like that, Congress should also be passing laws that have a real positive affect on the country, and the Dem leadership has failed to do that in 2007. The reason for dubbing it the "Post Office Congress" is because of "the 155 bills signed into law, over one-third of them renamed post offices and court houses" and that "only six [of the 155 bills] will really have a positive affect on the American people." You see, Eric, Congress can rename a post office or two (which Congressman Kuhl has no problem with for a distinguish American, like Congressional Medal of Honor winner Jason Dunham) and pass substantive laws too!

4) Massa repeated his shtick that he's "bi-lingual," i.e., he "speak[s] donkey and elephant, eat[s] carrots and peanuts." You see, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Massa was once a Republican, but switched parties for political gain because he felt "disenfranchised" by the GOP. But as a former Republican, he thinks he can still speak "elephant." Of course, I can't find a single major issue that he runs on in which he has a conservative viewpoint. You see, Republican voters primarily fall into three groups: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and foreign policy conservatives. If Massa genuinely wants to claim that he speaks "elephant" (and I will define "speaks" as being at least somewhat fluent, merely because you can say "Bonjour" doesn't mean you can "speak" French), then he should prove that he appeals to at least one group of these voters. For example, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) can legitimately claim that he speaks "elephant" since he appeals to social conservatives with his pro-life views. NM Gov. Bill Richardson (who sadly exited his quest for the presidency today) speaks "elephant" to fiscal conservatives, given his tax cutting record as governor. And when he was still a Democrat, Joe Lieberman's views on Iraq and the War on Terror greatly appealed to the foreign policy conservatives (yes, I know, he got pushed out of his party because of these views and is now an Independent, but since he held these views back when he was a Democrat, he's still a good example). Yet, Massa doesn't hold a view on any significant issue in which he can honestly claim that he "speaks elephant" and "eats peanuts." Instead, he's a proud pro-choice, economic "progressive," who vehemently opposes the Iraq War. Sounds like a typical liberal to me, at least through the ears of one who actually speaks "elephant."

1 comment:

Rottenchester said...

(1) Even Republicans began talking about change after Iowa. This is a change election - that's the broader point. The Republican winner in NH has been in the Senate longer than the 3 front-running Dem's combined. Yet he casts himself as a change candidate (and maverick) also.

(2) The yearly franking budget for a MOC is over $100K. Since Kuhl only sends out glossy mailers, he's spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. More generally, I think it is worth asking whether Kuhl's habit of sending a couple fancy mailers per year, which are basically campaign literature, is the best way to keep his constituents informed.

(3) On Massa's general point: The whole do-nothing or po congress line isn't doing Randy much good. What's his positive message? Why is Randy part of the solution and not the problem?

(4) Massa has a couple of positions that aren't typical of Democrats. He opposes further gun control, he is for "fair trade" rather than "free trade" which appeals to some conservatives, "local control of schools" is something that a lot of conservatives agree with, etc.