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Every Republican lives in fear… They go about their lives, hoping no one finds the truth… They fear one day, all will be revealed.. They fear that Delawareans will one day learn the truth… So they use their wealth to spin their lies, and huddle like scurvy little spiders… sucking the juices out past year’s kills…
Delaware woke up this morning to find Ginger Gibson got there first… Like Frodo in the cave of Shelob, a brilliant light seared their retina’s as the first rising Republican casually glanced over the News Journal page this morning… There for all to see…. Critics say GOP abused its perks: Shocking’ expenses slashed in Del. House!
First one call to Westover, then two calls, then four.. Soon, the phones began ringing all over Republican land… ” Wake up! Get digging! This is bad! We’re Doomed! Damage Control! Who squealed!” although for some reason the calls never made it as far north as Yorklyn… Heard all over Republican land, were these word muttered under every Republican’s breath… “That damned Spence… Why did he have to put his name on all those checks…”
Spiders everywhere retreated to their den… Holed up… Hibernating till 2016……
Republican Party Chairman Tom Ross said he couldn’t speak to specific allegations but characterized them as partisan attacks likely fueled by election-year politics.
Absolutely… Which is why it is always important when listening to a Republican, to click on links… Like this one to the side of Ginger’s story…..
It is addressed to Vincent Lofink,
Dear Mr. Lofink:
As recommended in a report from the State Auditor’s Office, I am writing to ask that you reimburse the House of Representatives for tuition reimbursements you received while serving as a state representative… The total amount you were reimbursed is $12,124.50.
Since this is a partisan attack fueled by election year politics one would assume the State Auditor would be of the opposite party…. What, the state auditor is a Republican?
Oh, my…. He’s a Republican.
… and since he took the Republican House leadership to task, he is apparently a damned good Republican too… By rough calculation, I’d be guessing he, Kilroy, and Rsmitty are the only three good one’s left…. JoAnne might still be one of them, I don’t really know anymore… And Hastings, I don’t want to forget.
Obviously Delaware’s State Republican Party is still not familiar with how to act within the light of open government … Am I the only one remembering how they tried to take credit for being the only ones truly supportive of opening the General Assembly to FOIA?
Probably. 
As of this writing there is still 20 minutes to go.
My take.
It was good the Republicans insisted on having this. They were shown up to be well meaning citizens concerned with the future of health care profits. There is no denying it anymore… The tapes are in.
It was good that Obama chose to be the moderator. He definitely is the best president of this century. I could not help but think of George Washington moderating between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Today we saw a real leader in action… Not someone who happened to grab a megaphone during a time of sorrow. Most impressive was his grasp of the issue. He responded to Republican posturing with facts against which they could not argue back.
The Democrats have really tried to be bipartisan and that has produce a good bill. This bill is necessary to help seniors, to help small businesses, to help every American making less than 100,000 a year, to help America compete with cheaper government run health care systems utilized by our prime competitors. It helps everyone but insurance executives… That is fair in my book because they voted for the losing side..
Defining moment: When one Republican congressman was arguing for switching to health cost withholding plans, Obama retorted if it was indeed so good, why ddidn’t he give up the Federal Employee coverage he had now and go for it… The Congressperson’s face became crimson…. If it wasn’t good enough for him at $174,000 a year, how would it be good enough for someone making $40,000?
Most disgusting moment. CNN’s coverage diverted away as soon as Stenny Hoyer began speaking to discuss around their high priced round table, just how strong Lamar Alexander had come out fighting… So obviously a set up… I switched to CSpan. Never again CNN…..
In my yearly burst of genius, ( only happens that frequently), I thought that if I were to lay the Senate candidates strategies out now, the very ones that will play out over the next few months, then registered voters wiser at knowing ahead of what will happen, can by their questions force the candidates to battle person against person. idea against idea… We the voters will finally be given a choice between two stripped down men, and not have to be swayed by glossy ads, television spots, and dandy jingles on WDEL as well as WGMD…
We all know that it is a very few people who actually know what is going on. They set the parameters for the rest of us… We listen to a news report and gasp… not knowing that the timing of its release was calculated to achieve that very optimal effect… So what I’m envisioning, is to make the blog world so interesting that readers are attracted to what gets said here, that we will control the election cycle instead of the high paid advisers who get paid to manipulate our thoughts and feelings..
In full disclosure, many of you know that Republican policies are a flat fail… If you don’t know that yet, read the archives… They are and there is nothing anyone can do about it.. However, that said, if Mike Castle were to impress me more than Chris Coons, I am not above voting for him. I want only the best for my children and grand children. Therefore it is in my best interest to make this campaign more man against man, and put all the crap that sucks up your political donations, into a pile called irrelevant.
But fans of Mike Castle should see this as the single most valuable opportunity of their campaign. For if they can convince this writer their belief that their candidate is better, they have a fighting chance despite what the polls say today… For if they can convince me in that their candidate has some form of merit, as I said … I really don’t care whether a Democrat or Republican wins this seat. I do care deeply and sincerely, that it is the best man who wins. Again, if you want proof, read my archives.
Mike Castle’s strategy will be to run on his record. With his close medical scare last election, he has now assumed stateman-like status, similar to that of Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts who like Castle, continued to get elected because of his name, his longevity, his personal association with people located in his home state. Most voters have no clue on how Mike Castle voted. They might remember he was a good governor, and they have remember seeing his green and blue signs parked in the same spots every two years… Mike’s strategy will be to keep that advantage going, by making personal appearances and handing out the very big government checks against which he voted. As I said, voters are not aware or do they care how a candidate actually voted….
Mike’s prime strategy will be to keep voter’s who have always voted for him before, to vote for him again. In 2008, against a poorly run campaign but a nice candidate, Mike Castle won by 89,003 votes... Assuming the numbers of voters going to the polls will be similar as 2008, to achieve a win by one vote assuming a two party race, he needs this total: 192,729 … The number who flat out will not vote for him (in other words the floor), stands at 146,434 ….. The battle is strictly for the difference between the two: that roughly 46,295 votes between who didn’t vote for KHN and the number he needs to win….
That number 47,000 should be posted in giant letters on every wall of every Republican household and on the window of every Republican headquarters….
This race boils down to that one number. Mike Castle’s entire strategy is to keep 47,000 of those who voted for him in 2008, from straying into the other camp in 2010….. He doesn’t need to do anything else.. He needs no grand speeches, he needs no great bills passed between now and November, he needs to do nothing, except make sure he doesn’t piss off those extra 47,000 voters… The 47,001 voter? Who cares, he or she is not needed. …
By the count of the last election cycle, Mike has a surplus of 42,708 votes he can piss away… So as we hear the Democrats inspiring stories of people peeling off from Mike Castle’s Republican-styled-run campaign, disgusted by his association with the “Party of Ideas That Destroyed A Nation”, we need to realize that unless it is more than 42,709 voters defecting, any and all such reports are irrelevant.
On the other hand, Chris Coons is no KHN. Whereas Mike has been banished for 18 years in Lobby-wontanimo, Chris Coons has been operating in the executive capacity since 2000, a reality that slightly closer to the perspective experienced by most of us average Americans. His strategy will be to take Karen’s 2008 base at 138,683, and find 54047 votes out of those previously in Mike’s camp, which will side with him.
In his favor, if you take a state race with everything factored out, and isolate party versus party, you have trends pointing for Coons to take the race… In 2008, the great Matt Denn carried the race by 225028 to 141043, and the surprise winning Democratic Insurance Commissioner, carried her race by 208351 to 148,016. Therefore we see that along party lines, Coons has slightly more than the 192,729 needed to win a seat to the United States Senate, thereby ensuring that the United States of America does not return to the Bush Republican era and it’s failing philosophies….
To achieve these results the strategy is rather simple. Castle needs to distance himself from everything Republican. He needs to run on his laurels and hope that fewer than 47,000 defect to the party of good ideas. Coons, needs to embrace his party as one of the future, and needs to excite his party structure, and needs to paint Mike as a nice guy who is nevertheless, responsible for the collapsing economy. Coons needs to tie Mike to George Bush, Mike needs to tie himself to Obama..
Whichever is more successful, wins.
From Newsweek
For more than 35 years, my life has been intertwined with Congress. But I had always worked in the legislative wings, serving first as a volunteer on Joe Biden’s 1972 Senate campaign, then as his longtime chief of staff, and later as co-chair of the Center for the Study of Congress at Duke University, where I continue to teach. When Biden traded his Senate robes for the vice presidency last year, I was part of his transition team; I never considered that then–Delaware governor Ruth Ann Minner would appoint me to his old seat. After all, in politics, like volleyball, there are servers and spikers. So it came as a genuine surprise when Joe’s son Hunter turned to me on a flight and asked, “Why not you?”
I could think of more than a few reasons why it shouldn’t be me. I was almost 70 years old and had already paid the rent on a beachfront Florida condo for the winter. I was ready for a more contemplative life and greater stretches of time with my seven grandchildren. And I knew the less-than-flattering conventional wisdom: I would be a lame-duck senator with little ambition and no ability to get anything done. But the more I thought about it, and talked it over with family and friends, the more I realized that my situation was full of advantages. Far from being a bystander whom “no one will hear from,” as one op-ed put it, I would be in a great spot—ideally positioned to move straight from the sidelines to the Senate floor.
With a great staff already in place and no plans to run for election in 2010, I could take on Wall Street—funneling my outrage at the financial crisis into concrete reforms—without worrying about the political blowback. I wouldn’t have to fundraise or campaign, two tremendous time drains. And as a temporary senator on a two-year tour, I would not have to pace myself. Most important, I would already know how the game is played. The Senate is a go-with-the-flow place, the proverbial saucer that cools the tea. But unlike the typical new senator, I wouldn’t need any on-the-job training, and I already had relationships with the Senate’s most-senior Democrats—many of whom were important committee chairs—including Dan Inouye, John Kerry, and Pat Leahy.
As a result, I was able to break out of my legislative pen early, helping to push through a key antifraud act, which not only funneled millions into law enforcement but created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission—a 9/11 Commission–style investigation into Wall Street’s role in the Great Recession. (To get on the bill, I just asked Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy, who gave me carte blanche to push it in the Senate and the press.) Although I am not a member of the banking committee—the traditional place to take on Wall Street—my knowledge of the Senate (and my Wharton M.B.A.) has helped me tackle market issues through other means. Last fall I served as lead witness at a banking-committee hearing on computer-driven trading, the high-frequency strategies that allow traders to make money by merely churning the market, buying and selling stocks in milliseconds. In December I chaired a full Judiciary Committee hearing on the pursuit and prosecution of those responsible for the crash of 2008.
We’re making progress. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is rolling; the Securities and Exchange Commission seems to be regaining its footing. And those people responsible for the financial catastrophe are under active criminal and civil investigation. Like most Americans, sometimes I get frustrated with Washington. But after 37 years, it feels good to be spiking the ball.
From Newsweek
Everyone complains about Congress… But the truth is, it is strictly only the republicans in Congress who gum up the works. The other party(Democrats), gets things done. The other party (Democrats), discusses their differences and reaches around those differences to find ways of agreeing and moving forwards. The other party (Democrats) looks at problems in the hope of finding solutions, and not just as a way to score points against their opponents.
Republicans do not care about their constituents. Name one who does. Their actions this past year prove it.
But the other party does… Let us look at a real example where the other party did something that benefited America.
It’s been over a year since the Recovery Act was signed into law by President Obama. Even republican Mike Castle is handing out the very government checks he voted against, which of course, were passed over his objection, by the party of the people: Democrats.
The Recovery Act cut taxes for 95% of working families to help give them a level playing field as they fight to survive. It invested in our nation’s infrastructure and clean energy. it gave tax breaks to small businesses to help hire workers, and it helped out state and local governments — especially to local police departments. Republicans wanted to cut back all police departments. Fortunately Democrats understood that during hard economic times, it is exactly the wrong time to cut back on public safety.
Now, as many as 2.4 million Americans are working who would otherwise be unemployed. We’re breaking the back of the recession.
In the three months prior to the Act under republican George Bush, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. The financial system was collapsing, and the “Great Recession” was being recognized for what it was — the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
But as you can see above, ever since the Act’s passage, America has gained 200,000 (.2 million) more jobs than were lost. That net gain of 200,000 jobs, is 200,000 more jobs than were gained by Americans during the entire Bush administration. Of course, I should specify American jobs. A lot of foreign jobs were created by American corporations during the years of Republican policy; many an American lost his job because of Republican policy.
So, if there were no such things as Republicans, this nation would be better off… If there were no such things as Republicans, our 401K’s would be better off… If there was not such things as Republicans, our average checking balance would be better off..
Republicans are wimpy… We all know it takes a real man to stand up to corporations and put jobs back into America… 200,000 more jobs than the Republicans ever did. We all know Republicans bow and kneel to every corporation. They don’t have any guts to stand up for American people.
The last thing we need is one more Republican wimp in the Senate…. We need someone who fights corporations; not kisses their ass.
Why are we here?
Mostly due to stagflation that occurred during the post Vietnam economy. That stagflation, where inflated prices led to a crippling lack of profit, created an atmosphere in which deregulation appeared to offer a viable solution..
And what a solution it provided. It offered hope and people responded by again putting their money up for investment, and the markets responded to the new influx of cash by growing towards more prosperous times. Ronald Reagan is usually given credit for this recovery.
This spirit of deregulation, since it appeared to work, spread out to all other fields…
One was banking… Banking works like this.. The bank borrows money on which it pays low interest, and lends out that money again at high interest… It makes its money on the spread between the high rate, and low rate.
Recognizing that the health of banks was tied up with the health of our nation, strict rules were placed on banks after the first Great Depression, to make sure no federal economic crises could occur again. One of those rules was to forbid any interest from being paid out on the capital the bank used as collateral: primarily that money which individuals placed into their checking accounts. This low cost of capital 0%, meant that the spreads would be beneficial to banks during both good and bad times, and … that banks would not have to charge as high on the upper end to achieve and cover their profit margins.
So during the 80′s the idea came up that having fake banks offer similar services could provide competition to banks and make them trimmer and healthier. We began using semi-safe money market accounts in place of checking account mechanisms and banks who had to compete against them, soon got permission to join in…. The bank was no longer paying out 0%. Nor was it’s capital safe from all financial fluctuations as it would have been had it remained depositor’s only.
Banking is risky. A bank provides safety to those lending money to it… and provides risky financial capital to those entities who borrow from it… The bank is expected to absorb all risk, and charges accordingly to cover the cost that such a risk involves.. This was typically done by buying short, and lending long…. The bank charges a low interest rate for a short period of time, because it can quickly get its money back and there is less risk of losing it. The bank will charge a higher rate on a long term loan because there is greater risk that it will not receive its money as agreed…
In the spirit of deregulation, banks began using money other than that of their depositors to make high risk loans. Since this money cost them more to buy, they made riskier loans on the high side to make up the difference.
Then came 9/11 and the collapse of the economy. Interest rates were dropped excessively low to stimulate growth. The drop in interest rates, made houses cheaper to buy and many people did.. A housing boom market was born. Since one could afford a more expensive house because of the new low rate, housing prices rose to meet that demand. If one had an existing house whose value was rising rapidly, that person could afford to borrow more. Their home, if sold, would cover whatever would be the default amount. And if a risky loan was made, the house’s rising worth would cover the defaulted loan amount and then some. In this environment it made financial sense to loan to anyone who couldn’t afford to pay the regular amount. You made money for a few years on the ARM portion and then, sold the house at auction to make even more money..
It was safe. Since it was so safe, the idea came up as to why you couldn’t buy or sell these safe investments.. Bundle the mortgages together, and find a buyer.. If a small institution had doubts about a mortgage, it sold it to a larger one. Eventually, because these investments were so safe (you’d just sell the house if it ever defaulted), the global economy invested heavily in this replacement for depositors. You paid out the low rate, and sold that to a buyer for a higher rate… and made money on the spread.
The only thing that could possibly go wrong, was if housing prices fell. Then, the house couldn’t be sold.. and the loan would go into default… Then the institution covering that default, would be the one absorbing the risk.
As ARM prices began morphing into regular interest rates, a lot of people simply walked away from their new mortgage responsibilities. As banks scrambled to sell these houses (that no one wanted), they couldn’t. As the numbers walking away grew rapidly, banks now left with a lot of properties on hand, had to sell them at bargain prices to get some cash back on the balance sheets. This impacted the price of everyone’s house. Why buy a $250,000 house on market when its neighborhood was selling at auction for $95,000?
Suddenly no home was worth an adequate amount to secure its loan. That made every mortgage basically as secure as any credit card transaction. Everyone hoped the person would make payment, but if that person defaulted, there was no way to collect upon the debt. Suddenly the institution was severely at risk.
Which meant,… just as suddenly, … the entire banking industry across the globe, was instantly based on nothing. Absolutely nothing, except the “hope” that American house payments would continue to come in….
With nothing to back up money, (it is after=all, just a piece of paper) suddenly everything, became without worth… Absolutely everything… One’s house, one’s wallet’s cash, one’s credit cards, one’s employer’s credibility, one’s paycheck, one’s accounts receivable, one’s accounts payable, one’s tax refund check… each and all of these were now based on the slim hope that perhaps everyone who found out that had no worth left, would continue making their mortgage payments out of habit… Not a reassuring dose of confidence.
Into this void steps the United States of America saying, ” We will guarantee all these loans, even though it may cost us a pretty penny, we will make sure everyone gets paid.”, The United States economy was large enough at that time, so such a statement was believable. A lot of investors large and small, closed their eyes and went to bed that night..
Socialism saved the world. Government action, not private enterprise, saved our ass. It was done by a Republican administration because it was the right thing to do. It was done by a Republican administration because it was the only thing to do…
So do us a favor, the next time you spend any money at all, whether it’s to pay a bill, pay a toll, buy something for your kids, pick something up that you always wanted, or even when you see your automated deposit hit your account… say a little prayer thanking God for socialism…. Because without it, there wouldn’t be an America right now..
And if you happen to hear someone abuse socialism in any derogatory form or fashion, do us all a favor, use your American given right to carry a gun, and shoot them* for us, …. P L E A S E ?
*(inside joke: don’t get yourselves bent out of shape over it)
Rumors were that New Castle County Executive Chris Coons was holed up in Delaware’s Democratic headquarters last night to plan his strategy for taking bead on Mike Castle… Delaware’s whiningest politician… (or is it winningest? idk)….
Both are running for the Senate seat to be vacated by Delaware’s most effective public servant ever to work in Washington…
Initial speculation was that Chris Coons will have a tough fight… (He is running against a well funded cardboard cutout...)
After all, Coons has been beat up a little in the tug of war between the people living, dying, and breathing in this county, versus the interests of the developers and labor unions…. But beat up politicians are the expected par for course when you decide to take someone who isn’t new to the process… And one good thing about politicians previously beaten up: they tend to have more longevity….
Fortunately for us, politicians evolve. But right now, if one were to ask me, the election would be between a rock and a piece of paper… The scissors would decide the outcome… Coons was vibrant his first race in 2000… But working in the dark of the New Castle County building can take a little life out of the man… He will need to revisit his youth and find the tone he once had… especially down in Sussex County… It would be nice to hear him guffaw once in awhile…
Mike Castle stands for ancient history… He will say he is experienced having served 18 years in Congress already… But experienced at what? What did he do to help our state over his entire term while he was in office… Word is… he will say he voted… That’s good. But anyone can vote…..
A Delaware Senator needs to get results. We are not a giant state.. We only have one Congressperson… Therefore our Senators must share a larger percent of the burden of getting Federal money NOT to go to another state, but to come here…. Each senator here has 33.3% of the responsibility of getting money into Delaware… That’s compared to the 3.2% of responsibility a Senator from New York has…
Mike Castle has not delivered 33.3%… We Delawareans are suffering because of it… If he didn’t deliver in the House… what makes one think as he gets older and older and older and older and older that he will deliver 33.3% in the Senate?
I’m sure in this fair state, there will be at least one knucklehead who will support Castle.. That’s acceptable. No one can be perfect and win unanimously.
The winner of this contest will be the one who can break out of his mold and convince voters of Delaware that he will bring change to both Congress and Delaware… Right now, change is a hard concept for Mike Castle to sell.. Against conventional wisdom at the moment, I’m telling you that according to the numbers not out yet, the ones forthcoming in October of 2010, Chris Coons will have the edge….
But he will need all the help he can get…… Now is the time for Jason330 to dust off Mike Castle’s record……… again..
He is running against Carney, you know the guy who went up against Markell? But not too many people know Scott Spencer…. They should..
Scott is the kind of guy who gets things done… Whether it is realistic or not, certain things like Sunday DART service, SEPTA rail to Newark, Fisker Electric Cars being built in Delaware, all have his fingerprints on them.
Single handedly, Scott Spencer has probably done more for transportation in this second smallest state, than any other person alive today… ( Joe Biden might be the exception for keeping Amtrack alive…. ) Scott goes as far back as pushing DART service past the 6:00 curfew that existed forever…. His efforts allowed banks and insurance companies to continue working past that early close up time…
In the future, we will see SEPTA go all the way to Aberdeen. There one can jump aboard a MARC and commute his way to DC… We will have commuter rail service from Philadelphia to Washington… Scott will have his fingerprints on that as well.. Soon (2011) 25,000 jobs will land in Aberdeen as the Army upgrades its operations there… With commuter rail, some of that money could find a home in New Castle County. At the same time, the demolition of the Chrysler plant and rebuilding of the University of Delaware’s Medical Center, will employ large numbers on this side of the state line.. It appears Newark will be booming soon. What a relief…. Of course, Democrats are the ones to thank… Use of government money to jump start an economy goes against every Republican tradition ever noted….
Scott has done more to bring jobs into Delaware than many of our state reps and state senators combined…
But is it enough.. Not only does he have to beat the person everyone thought was annointed to take over Biden’s Senate seat when he became VP, but if he can accomplish that unspeculated task, he will then have to take on the Republican challenger and take him out like one does that guy sitting on the toilet at the Rehoboth Beach Funland shooting arcade….
Most think that won’t happen.
Scott has some novel ideas. One, is his insistence he will run an organic financed campaigh. That means all his money will come from consituents. None from the party, none from outside the state, none from special interest groups… Whereas that may sound idealistic, fact is… it is. Making such a stand means that just one mistake of accepting money from an entitiy outside the state, even if done on oversight, washes the entire campaign’s credibility away… Secondly, is that if he takes no money, and his opponent takes all, his opponent will win… Perhaps Scott thinks the people will rise up and vote for this distinctive funding plan… Perhaps…
Another plank in his platform is his plan to fix Afghanistan. He proposes to take the workable plan making headway in one district of that war torn nation, and importing it to all the other areas not working well at the moment. That plan uses local implementation of solving issues… That plan will put local people into deciding their own fate. On it’s surface that plan is well thought out, and even I would endorse it.
However, it is such a distant problem to most of Delaware’s current needs, that upon its reiteration and description, the eyes glaze over and the snores gain volume…
Scott’s third plank is to re-beat the drum on health care… Yes we need it.. but the issue is worn out… However, true to form, Scott has a great plan that is workable in theory if one takes human nature out of the equation.. Scott proposes an independent commission similar to that investigating military base closures, to devise the best plan and sell it to Congress on an up or down vote…. Remove politics from decisions requiring reaoning and science.. If only that was possible…
And that is the legacy of Scott Spencer… He has the right ideas that will resonate with both conservatives and progressives, but he does not seem grounded in what is obtainable. The name Don Quixiote gets whispered among many who listen to his plan….
And that is the delimina. Scott has planned this run for a long time… He is loathe to give it up… He is a great guy, and a good Democrat… But despite his own best intentions, there must be a better spot in our state where he can accomplish more good, than running another idealistic Beiner-esque campaign across three counties… Those of us connected, must do our part to find the proper slot for this focused, intense, concrete, sharp, and visionary young man…. There has to be a postion where he can do far more good for our state, than just lose to John Carney…
