Delivered $$$ earmarks in exchange for campaign contributions

From Eric Dondero:

Once a darling of left libertarians for her visceral hatred of George W. Bush and staunch opposition to the War in Iraq, Ohio Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur is now being taken to task for her fiscally un-libertarian actions.

In cooperation with Citizens for Government Waste, Reason presents this video highlighting her wasteful ways.

by Clifford F. Thies, Senior Editor

This year's Libertarian Party ticket for Governor and Lt. Governor of Wisconsin are nobody for Governor and somebody for Lt. Governor. Pretty ingenious move by the Libertarians, who always run behind "None of the Above" in Nevada where state law requires this option be available to voters. Obviously, nobody is the least of three or more evils!

This reminds me of Karl Hess's answer, a few years ago, to the question, who would make a better President, H.L. Menchen or Murray Rothbard, to which Hess replied, why, Menchen, of course, he's dead! (Now, sadly, all three are equally qualified for the job.)

It also reminds me of a note tacked on the kitchen door at the church of which I am a member: When ANYBODY can do a job, EVERYBODY will assume that SOMEBODY will, and NOBODY will do it.

And, the scene in The Odyssey, where Jason tells the Cyclops that his name is "Nobody." Then, after Jason pokes out the Cyclops' eye, the Cyclops cries out to his brother Cyclops, "'Nobody' has poked out my eye.," leaving his brother befuddled as to what happened or didn't happen.

Editor's Note - Cliff Thies is the former National Treasurer for the Libertarian Party, and ran as the Libertarian candidate for US Senate in Montana in 1984.

by Clifford F. Thies

West Virginia will indeed have an election to choose the fill-in for the late Senator Robert Byrd. As of today (Thursday, the 22nd, with filing continuing through 5 pm tomorrow), candidates include Governor Joe Manchin on the Democratic side and businessman John R. Raese on the Republican side. Two other Democrats and three other Republicans have also filed, meaning that each party will determine its nominee in the special primary to be held in August.

As prognosticated by RealClearPolitics, the Republicans are favored to pick up 4 seats held by Democrats (AR, DE, IN and ND), with 7 other seats held by Democrats in the toss-up category (CA, CO, IL, NV, PA, WA, WI). Assuming Republicans hold all their seats and pick up the four Democratic seats in which they are favored, they would need another six seats to win control of the Senate. While there are idiosynchantic elements in Senate races, during the past several election cycles we have seen that almost all of the close races fall the same way. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to think that the Republicans could "run the table," or nearly so, the way the Demorcrats did in 2006 and 2008.

West Virginia, while tabbed by RealClearPolitics as "Likely Democrat," adds to the possibilities. The very fact that an election is being held in a state that is trending Republican in Presidential elections although heavily Democratic in state elections, in a state that is highly vulnerable to the Green agenda of the Democratic Party, and with a Republican candidate who can largely self-finance his own campaign, complicates things for the Democrats. Can they really presume that the "popular, conservative" Governor will win the race; or, will they have to devote resources to the Mountaineer state that could otherwise be directed to other contests?

The West Virginia and Oregon Senate seats are long-shots in terms of Republican prospects. But, with continued softness in the economy, either one could prove to be Plan B in the event one or two of the toss-up states fall through our hands in an otherwise strong Republican year.

by Clifford F. Thies

The second attempt to form a majority coalition, following this year’s parliamentary election in the Netherlands, has failed. The market-liberal Dutch People’s Party could not reach an agreement with three left-of-center parties – the center-left Labor Party, the progessive-left Democrats, and the Greens – on spending cuts. This followed a failure to form a coalition of three center-right and right-wing parties – the Peoples Party, the center-right Christian Democrats and the populist-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. The sticking point in that set-up was the more over-the-top planks of the Freedom Party’s manifesto concerning Islam and immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Muslim world. It appeared that the Christian Democrats, still smarting from their dramatic fall-off in the popular vote, queered the deal by demanding that the Freedom Party renounce its manifesto prior to and as a condition for negotiations. Mark Rutte, leader of the People’s Party, has reiterated his preference for a coalition of the right.

American-Constitution Party

Colorado Republicans were on their way to an easy win for Governor, after 4 years of Democrat Bill Ritter. Then frontrunner Scott McInnis became immersed in a plagiarism scandal. Second-place runner Dan Maes, the more conservative Tea Party favorite, never caught on. His campaign has been regarded as lackluster.

Now a major development is threatening to rock the Colorado race.

Showdown! To GOP contenders: Leave by Noon Monday

The Denver Post reports this morning:

Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo demanded today that the two GOP gubernatorial candidates drop out of the race.

If they don’t, he said he will run for governor as an American Constitution Candidate, a move likely to split the Republican Party in November’s general election.

“There’s nothing left to split. The reality is that with the two candidates we have, we will lose the general election,” Tancredo said in an interview.

Tancredo called upon Scott McInnis and Dan Maes to commit to leaving the race Aug. 11, just hours following the results of the primary. That way a Republican vacancy committee could appoint a replacement. Tancredo said he doesn’t care if the substitute is not himself.

He gave both candidates until noon on Monday to release public statements agreeing to his terms.

Obama worse than Soviets remark a precursor to race?

For many years, Tancredo served as President of the libertarian Independence Institute out of Golden, Colorado.

More recently, he received national attention and excited rightwing libertarians with his statement at a Tea Party rally, that Obama was as big a threat to the United States as Communism and Islamo-Fascism. From LR July 9:

"We had that threat [from the former Soviet Union] and we survived it. Later we found out we had another threat to our way of life and that was al-Qaeda. We found that out on 9/11.

But I firmly believe this... the greatest threat to the country that was put together by the founding fathers is the guy that is in the White House today."

Time to Say "WE TOLD YOU SO!"

From Eric Dondero:

John Fund, libertarian columnist for the Wall Street Journal is reporting that for the first time, voters regret their decision in the 2008 Presidential race and would now vote McCain if they could do it all over again.
From the WSJ:

Democrats will be gulping this morning at the Quinnipiac Poll's latest results. For the first time in the survey's history, Americans believe by a 48% to 40% margin that President Obama doesn't deserve re-election. Almost as stinging, a plurality believe the country would have been better off if John McCain had beaten Mr. Obama in 2008.

Perhaps even more damning for Obama - "Only 39% rate him positively for his handling of the economy..."

Another recent poll by Rasmussen had McCain's running mate Sarah Palin tied with Obama for 2012 at 43% each.

Rated Very Worst AG by libertarian group

From Eric Dondero:

Democrat Attorney General and candidate for Governor of California Jerry Brown was recently rated the "Worst AG in the Nation," by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Now he's responding by seeking to write CEI off as a fringe operation, and linking the Institute to corporate interests.

From the Examiner:

The nation's worst state attorneys general abuse the power of their office for political ends, undermining the rule of law. In recent years, many state attorneys general have "usurped the roles of state legislatures and Congress by using lawsuits to impose interstate and national regulations and extract money from out-of-state defendants who have little voice in a state’s political processes,” as I explain in a recent study, The Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General.

Here are the six worst state attorneys general in the nation:

1.Jerry Brown, California
2.Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
3.Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma
4.Patrick Lynch, Rhode Island
5.Darrell McGraw, West Virginia
6.William Sorrell, Vermont

Brown: libertarian group works for oil and tobacco interests

From the LA Times, "Focus shifts to Brown's attorney general role" July 22:

“It’s a right-wing operation; in fact, I think it’s pushed by the same people — oil, tobacco kind of interests — that don’t like reasonable regulation,” Brown told his hosts on KGO-AM (810). “Certainly I’ve strived to achieve a balance between vigorous enforcement but refraining from excessive intervention in pushing our regulatory framework so it becomes suppressive.

“What these people want is a dismantling of the basic protections of our society, particularly in terms of the environment.” Brown added. “When they say libertarian, they mean free them from any kind of restraint or reasonable regulatory framework.”

Brown’s spokesman added that the groups’ list seemed to find the most fault with Democrats. "It’s a nonsense report,” he said

Praised in the 1970s by left-libertarians

Ironically, there was a time in the 1970s, when Brown was viewed as libertarian-oriented himself, fiscally conservative, advocating austerity in government spending, and legalization of marijuana.

Wrote Garris, "25 Years ago in Reason" (Reason On-line):

"Jerry Brown[is] more libertarian than the average politician, and much more so than any recent Governor of California. He is more fiscally conservative than many so-called conservative leaders, and yet is a good liberal on civil liberties questions."

—Eric Garris, "California's Other Governor"

Though, oddly, he backed his libertarian side with a call for mandatory national service and support for the military draft.

Photo from a 1970s Newsweek cover of Gov. Brown with then girlfriend Linda Rondstadt