Everyone loves sketchy politicians. Well, maybe not love, but we do enjoy the stories of pure stupidity. This post is unlike the last post that I wrote about famous scandals. However, this will be mostly on New York State politics (and maybe a few others).
Everything seems to be crashing down on Democrats around the country. First, they lose the Governors races in New Jersey and Virginia. Second, they lose a key Senate seat race in Massachusetts. Third, polls are showing that Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas could be losing some congressional seats to Republicans and Republicans could win the Governor’s races too! Great news if you are a Republican running for office come November.
The last thing that the Democrats needed was some “missteps” in one of their key states: New York. In the past couple of weeks there have been several Democrats in NY taking heat. I will start with Congressman Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee.
Congressman Rangel allowed for a private corporation to pay for him to take a trip to the Caribbean in 2007 AND 2008. The Ethics committee originally said it was “ok” for Rangel to go on the trip but then later question how it was paid for. Obviously, Mr. Rangel forgot that he is not supposed to take money to go on trips unless it is coming out of his own pocket. Congressman Rangel has since stepped down from being the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Sometimes I wish the Governor Paterson was not blind so that he could see all the red he is putting the state in! Obviously, it did not start with him and he was put in a pretty bad position, but he has been in office for almost 4 years now and he now gets the credit for putting the state in more debt than ever before. Well, maybe you have not heard, Paterson is under some heat too. Apparently, stepping in to a close friend’s domestic dispute (that friend also works for him) gets people in high political offices in trouble. He somehow thought that trying to convince the court to brush the problem off their shoulders. Better yet, Paterson also thought he did not have to pay for last year’s World Series tickets. I know David, you can’t see, but there was actually a price-tag on those tickets. I think the best news that has come from this situation; Paterson has said he will not be running again. And if one looks at the polls, they claim that the Governor’s race is wide open but we all know that it will unfortunately go to Andrew Cuomo the current Lieutenant Governor.
The third and final huge misstep for the Democrats in NY is Congressman Eric Massa (NY-29). A couple of days ago he released a statement saying he will not be seeking re-election due to health problems. Almost a day later we found out that Massa approached a male intern. We all know where that leads and we can recall countless examples of politicians that created political suicide for their careers because of this. As of today, March 8, 2010, Congressman Massa decided to resign from office. Now this gets interesting. Apparently there is going to be a “special election” to fill the vacant seat which will guarantee the winner the seat until November 2012. The current front runner is Tom Reed, the former mayor of Corning, NY. However, there are several other interested Republican candidates including Monroe County Executive, Maggie Brooks, and the 29ths former Congressman, Randy Kuhl. If this was my district, I would vote for Reed but that is a different topic for another post. (After the special election I will write-up a summary of that).
My final ranting point for this post is going to deal with Nacy Pelosi. In her infinite wisdom she has said the following statement: “A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes.” Now maybe she knows something that I do not. However, let me explain how stupid this comment is: 1) a bill can only be bipartisan if both parties agree 2) more than 1 person of the opposite party needs to vote for the bill. Now, I realize that some Democrats will cry and say this: “well the Republicans are just the party of ‘no.’” Here is my counter to that statement: you are completely wrong in that the Republicans want to make sure that these bills will not destroy or country and our country’s economy. The Democrats have consistently not listened to any Republican ideas. But wait, aren’t the Democrats the ones who are crying for bipartisanship? Well the Democrats want to shove these bills down the American people’s throats and could actually careless about bipartisanship. That there folks is truly the party of the American people (and just in case you do not have a functioning cerebellum, that party is the Democrats who are doing this). Listen Democrats, you had a super majority and didn’t accomplish anything except make a lot of voters extremely angry. This is why 2010 will be another 1994. Mark my words.
