LR FOLLOW-UP STORY

Republican Scott McInnes now leads Ritter by 8

Tea Party supporter and backer of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) Scott McInnis now holds a comfortable lead in the Governor's race over embattled Democrat Bill Ritter. McInnis is a former 4-term Congressman who represented the Western Slope (Grand Junction).

GOVERNOR – COLORADO (Rasmussen)
Scott McInnis (R) 48%
Bill Ritter (D-inc) 40%

BACKGROUND: Original LR Story from July 11

Hogan & Hartson is Democrat Governor Bill Ritter's former law firm. They specialize in governmental and environmental litigation. Now, the Denver Post has learned that the Governor awarded a no-bid contract made available by Obama stimulus money to his former law partners.

From CBS News 4 - Denver:

Gov. Ritter Steered Stimulus Money To Ex-Employer

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has awarded some of the state's first stimulus money to his former employer in a no-bid contract.

Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson, in a no-bid contract to review stimulus spending, The Denver Post reported Friday. It said the firm was paid $40,000 in stimulus money through June.

The firm has responded to the allegations. Continuing:

Many of Hogan's lawyers are Ritter supporters, and two who work directly on the state's stimulus issues are contributors.

A managing partner for the firm, Cole Finegan, told the Post that the work was of "tremendous importance." Colorado was due to receive about $3 billion in stimulus spending.

From the Editor:

Last week I received this nice note from a regular reader of the Blog. I'm not in the habit of posting "Letters to the Editor," but this one asked a very important question, that I wish to respond to for the benefit of all our readership.

Mr. Dondero,

I've been a fan of yours for some time now, and am curious--are you still actively involved in the LP, or do you believe that a libertarian's electability is better suited to the RLC? I am extremely intrigued by the RLC, and have doubts of my own about LP candidates' viability, especially with the electoral college structure. I would appreciate if you could share your personal beliefs on this.

D.H.
Millington, TN

Firstly, I'm a Lifetime Member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, having Founded the organization in 1990. But I'm also a dues-paying Member of the Libertarian Party and have been for over 25 years, on and off.

What I advocate in this regard? Be a member of both, and be active in both. Mostly the RLC is best for practical politics. But once in a while, like a special election, or an election where no Republican is on the ballot, the Libertarian Party serves a very useful purpose.

It's only about $60.00 a year: $30.00 to rlc.org, and another $30.00 to lp.org Too much dinero? Send one $30.00 for the first 6 months of the year, and the other one the other $30.00 the second half.

Breaking out of Nashville...

Another Democrat Congressman has announced his sudden retirement. This makes the fourth Dem incumbent in the last few weeks to decide against reelection. Just last week Rep. Brian Baird of Washington State unexpectedly stepped aside, in a district (southwestern WA), that leans Republican. And the week before that it was Rep. John Tanner of Eastern Tenn.

From the Nashville Post Politics.com:

From Press Release: After more than a quarter-century of public service to his home state of Tennessee, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon announced his plans to retire from Congress when his current term ends in 2010.

There really isn’t anyway to spin as anything but bad for Democrats. Whatever their reasons, the retirement of both John Tanner and Bart Gordon mean that only two years before redistricting the Democrats will have to defend two marginal seats that will likely be carved up anyway.

It had always been assumed that the GOP would flip the 5-4 congressional delegation majority for Democrats to at least a 5-4 Republican and likely 6-3 or 7-2 in 2012. It just wasn’t expected to happen in 2010.

Editor's Note - a special hat tip to our very high-placed GOP source in Washington, DC who sent to this to us early this morning.

by JB Williams

It’s official folks, with the Democrats steamrolling over the GOP filibuster intended to stop another TRILLION in wasteful spending yesterday, Republicans in congress have been handed their hat once again.

Do you republicans not know that you are completely irrelevant? Or do you just not have the spine to take a real stand? Democrats are making asses out of all of you!

This is NOT a game! The future of freedom and liberty hang in the balance and most Americans know it! How did you miss it?

Republican congressional votes have NO meaning today. So what, if you are “on-record” voting against the global socialist leap off the leftist cliff? Unless you find a way to derail that speeding locomotive, you will soon burn in a Marxist hell with the rest of us.

When American freedom and liberty are gone and every American is forced into a financial corner where socialism looks better than starvation, it won’t matter who voted against it!

With the loss of the filibuster, Congressional Republicans have only ONE play left to stop the coming train wreck, when Obamunism runs head-on into millions of increasingly angry American patriots in the streets. Only Congressional Republicans can stop that clash!

Congressional Republicans MUST WALK OUT immediately!

You must pack your bags, close your offices, refuse to enter the congressional chambers for one more pretend vote in which the Democrats will hand you your hat once again.

If Republicans want to harness the power of the Tea Party – 912 – and Town Hall patriots across this land, you can do it in three simple steps…

· Shut down congress by walking out and refusing to return. Can Democrats even call something to a floor vote without a single republican in the chamber? Would they even dare try it?

· Return home and spend time listening to angry patriots in as many town hall meetings as you can schedule. You will earn your pay at a town hall, whereas attending another congressional vote is worse than a waste of time. It’s counter-productive. Go home and listen, don’t talk!

· Grow the backbone to walk away from all of your past mistakes, and line up behind the ONLY people who can put you back in power, the American patriots who stand for a constitutional government and against the current steamroller to socialism.

You have only one other option… to keep doing what you’re doing, which amounts to being a big part of the problem, instead of a part of the solution.

WALK OUT TODAY!

GO HOME! - And set up as many town hall meetings in your home districts as you can fit into your schedule. Earn your paycheck by meeting with the people, so that you can once again begin to represent the will of the people. Don’t talk – LISTEN!

Tell Democrats that if they are determined to lead this country into the toilet, they will have to do it all alone without a single republican in the chamber when they do it, one lousy piece of anti-American legislation after another.

Republicans have a very clear choice to make and you had better make it fast! The nation doesn’t need two parties full of leftist losers. Republicans willing to stay in session should be seen not as “RINOs,” but as Democrats… and they will be.

You can take a stand with the 70% of Americans who DO NOT want any form of Cap & Trade, Global Socialized Medicine, a One World Government, the Copenhagen Climate Scam, Amnesty for Illegal’s, or trillion dollar payoffs to leftist organizations and labor unions which only enrich the leftist juggernaut now running roughshod over the nation. Only 25% “strongly approve” of Obamunism as of today… It’s time for you to strike!

Severe situations demand severe action!

We are out of time for any other option. The Tea Party – 912 and Town Hall people will not – I repeat – WILL NOT line up behind Republicans too spineless to put a stop to the hourly destruction of this nation.

Republicans have ONLY one way to regain any form of power, and that is to toss out the politically correct nonsense of the past and line up behind the millions of patriots begging for action across this country!

Republicans either line-up behind the American right in a hurry, or their party is finished, as is this nation.

WALK OUT IMMEDIATELY! – And DO NOT RETURN until you have control of congress next November!

I call upon EVERY Washington DC Republican to walk out NOW!

This is NOT an issue item! This is NOT a circus stunt sideshow. WALK OUT and STAY OUT! Refuse to participate in the rape of this great nation!

If you continue to sit in that chamber and watch the gang rape of this nation, you are NO BETTER than the rapists! GET OUT of that chamber NOW! Let the American people see the rapists clearly!

God help us all if YOU lack the courage to do what must be done to save this nation!

JB Williams is National Founder of Freedom Force PAC, to elect Tea Party candidates freedomforce.us

Adam Brickley, Founder of Draft Sarah Palin for VP 2008, has just interviewed Republican candidate for Illinois Governor Andre Andrzejewski. He is the insurgent Tea Party Patriot in 2nd place in the GOP primary, fighting against the GOP establishment whose backing tax raiser, and former Governor, moderate Republican Jim Ryan. Andrzejewski is an entrepreneur, and government reformer. He says in the interview that his main political mentor is libertarian-leaning Gov. Mitch Daniels, and that he'd model his administration after the tight-fisted Indianan. He also gave these two following answer to a lightening round of brief questions:

AB: Alright, ten seconds: Sarah Palin.

AA: I like Sarah Palin. She put the check register – the checkbook of Alaska online. She took the old boys’ codified permanent, professional political class of Alaska, and she beat ‘em, and she should run for President.

AB: Glenn Beck.

AA: Oh, I like Glenn Beck. [What] I think of Glenn Beck is that social conservatives and libertarians – that’s the marriage that Ronald Reagan created to be the winning majority back when times were good and we brought down the Soviet Union without firing a shot. Social conservatives, like myself, with libertarian leanings, we need Glenn Beck.

Read the full interview at Race42008.com See a campaign update video of Andre on YouTube.

MONDAY MORNING POLLING UPDATE!

From Eric Dondero:

Late Sunday night... Down .1% since our last report. Obama's culmulative Real Clear Politics average stands at 48.8% Approvals, with 45.3% Disapprovals. That's a spread of 3.5%. The differentials on the graph are getting closer and closer to criss-crossing.

See it at RCP.

Note - the RCP running average combines Rasmussen, NY Times/CBS, WSJ/NBC, Bloomberg, Marist and other top polling firms.

UPDATE!!

Rasmussen reporting late Sunday dramatic decline over the weekend in Obama's approvals:

23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low.

See graph above. Note severe drop in Obama Approval since Friday (Health Care debate, Copenhagen, Climategate, Cap & Trade, ect...).

Full report at Rasmussen.

FURTHER UPDATE!

Real Clear Politics is now reporting that Obama's approvals have dipped yet again, now standing at 48.6%, down from 48.9% late last week.

From Eric Dondero:

Strange happenings in the home state of the Bowl-bound Boise State Broncos.

Seems a prominent Democrat has decided to switch parties to Republican, to run against incumbent Democrat Congressman Walt Minnick. The Congressman is considered to be the only Democrat in the entire House of Reps, who leans libertarian. A recent survey found him to have the most "conservative" voting record of the entire Northwest delegation, including Republicans. What's more, Minnick himself is a former Republican who switched to 'D' to run for the seat.

From Rocky Barker at the IdahoStatesman.com, Dec. 12:

the other big race for 2010 is expected to be the U.S. House seat now held by Democrat Walt Minnick. Minnick, a former Republican whose voting record in the House so far has appeared closer to his previous party affiliation, has irritated many Democrats for not supporting central party positions like a cap-and-trade climate law and a public option for health care reform.

Democrat Larry Grant, a Fruitland attorney who lost a narrow race in 2006 to Republican Bill Sali but stepped aside for Minnick in 2008, said he gets at least one call a week from Democrats urging him to challenge Minnick for the seat. He usually tells them no.

Recently, he told me, he answered yes.

“I said I was going to run for Congress as a Republican,” Grant said.

A Republican? That’s right, he said.

Since Vaughn Ward has the Palin wing of the GOP behind him and Raul Labrador has the Sali crowd behind him Republican moderates have nowhere to go in the primary, Grant said. If he jumps into the race he can get moderates along with Democratic crossovers unhappy with Minnick.

“All I need is 35 percent,” Grant said.

There is still rampant speculation that Sali might also jump into the race, but unclear as to what party; Libertarian, Constitution or Tea Party Independent.

And, there's still speculation that Minnick may switch back to Republican. Many progressives in Boise are urging him to do so, to make way for a hardline liberal "real Democrat" candidate.

Side Note - LR received a nice note from Rocky Barker at the Idaho Statesman for this linking of his piece. Turns out he's got a bit of a fondness for libertarians.

by Eric Dondero

What we know... Blogger Jodi Rove of Buffalo's Fire was the reporter covering the story of the Baucus affair, and the pending appointment of his Mistress Melodee Hanes. Rove reported earlier this week on her Blog, that Baucus's Senate office called the night before they were about to break the story, to inform the paper that Hanes's name had been withdrawn. She had been one of three candidates to be appointed to serve as Montana State Attorney General under Eric Holder. Now Rove's story has been confirmed.

From The Editors of the Missoulian, Dec. 9:

Eight months ago, when Hanes’ name surfaced as one of the nominees for the U.S. attorney’s job, the Missoulian asked Sen. Max Baucus’ spokesman whether Baucus was involved in a romantic relationship with Hanes – as her ex-husband was alleging – and if so, why Baucus would pursue a course that posed such a clear conflict of interest.

Not only would Baucus not speak directly to the Missoulian, but his then-spokesman, Barrett Kaiser, refused to address the issue and strove to keep any story at all about Hanes’ nomination from print. Indeed, the night before the story was to run, Kaiser called the paper and told us that Hanes’ nomination had been withdrawn.

With nothing from Baucus on the record, and no way to prove the veracity of Hanes’ husband’s assertions, the Missoulian couldn’t responsibly print the allegations.

This has led prominent Democrat blogger Jay Stevens to pen a piece, "It's not the affair. It's the cover-up." Stevens raises the question of possible collusion between the Missoulian and Baucus's office. From Left in the West:

Is it me? Or did they totally drop the ball on this story? What kind of reporter stops investigating a story when the investigated subject refuses to speak about it? They couldn't find anyone else to confirm Baucus' relationship to Hanes? Really?

Nationally syndicated columnist, legal scholar, and frequent Cable News guest Johnathan Turley has now joined in, commenting on his Blog:

Other details have emerged that may cause problems for Baucus. He insisted publicly that Hanes decided to withdraw from consideration as the new U.S. Attorney (with Baucus’ important support) when their relationship became more serious. However, reporters are now saying that the decision was made shortly after they confronted Baucus with the story at the Missoulian and said that they were about to make it public. Remarkably, the Missoulian never ran the story in March.

The Missoulian, a paper hugely supportive of Baucus in the past, now appears to be engaging in a little CYA criticizing Baucus for his decision making process.

Continuing from the Missoulian:

many Montanans are seriously questioning Baucus’ judgement just at the moment we should be focusing on his role in national health care reform, energy legislation and a host of other crucial legislative matters.

The Missoulian couldn’t care less about Baucus’ personal romantic relationships. Such things are a private matter that has no bearing on the public’s business – or at least, they should be. But when someone in a position of public trust and authority uses his position to further the career of someone he is romantically linked to, that warrants full disclosure and public scrutiny.

Baucus exercised poor judgment in this matter not once, but repeatedly.

The Missoulian is a notoriously leftwing biased newspaper in Montana. It services a university town. They make endorsements of only Democrats. In the 2006 race for US Senate, the paper ran repeated investigative pieces on Republican Senator Conrad Burns for allegedly questionable financial and campaign practices. Burns ended up losing that race to Democrat Jon Tester.

When one looks closely at the timeline of events that transpired last Spring, it's clear that at some point a decision was made at some level at the Missoulian to quelch the story. As Jay Stephens asks, why in the world would any newspaper just halt such an investigation?

One has to wonder if such a story would have been quelched had it been a Republican legislator in question.

Right Arm of Wyoming

Gun Rights, Property Rights, Fuck the Nanny-State! Describing themselves as "Anarcho-libertarians," with a rightwing bent.

"So-called Anarchists voted in the bigger problem we have now. I'd take Ronald Reagan over the Commie Criminals we got now."

From the Editor: Our friends at Right Arm of Wyoming sent us a review copy of their latest CD "Cling to our Guns." Ever since it's been clinging to my CD player in my pick-up truck. It's become a permanent fixture in my '98 Chevy 4x4. Perfect for jamming on rural backroads here in South Texas.

Buy your copy now! LibertarianPunk.com The perfect gift for that lazy scraggly-ass leftwing friend of yours who just wants to cheer on Obama, but doesn't want to go out and find a job.

This is no time for Holiday Cheer

Libertarian-Conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann didn't hold back on a recent conference call sponsored by the RNC.

From the Minnesota Independent:

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann urged her supporters to fight health care reform by calling Congress “every day, when you wake up in the morning and comb your hair and take your vitamins.”

Democrats are purposely pushing health care legislation at holiday time, Bachmann charged during a nationwide conference call Thursday. “It’s intentional that they’re doing this at Christmas time and Hannukah.”

“We’re going to kill socialism,” Bachmann vowed during the call, which was hosted by the Republican National Committee. “They can’t have our country. We’re not going to let them win.

(H/t GOP12)

Another News Site from a Libertarian Republican slant

Joining Andrew Breitbart's recently launched BigGovernment.com comes yet another libertarian Republican leaning news site.

Nothing up yet, except a title. But within days Tucker Carlson will launch a new website for hardhitting investigative journalism for the Right.

The title simply: The Daily Caller - 01 11 10, (a reference to the date Republicans may take back control of Congress.)

Writes Margaret Chadbourn, "Tucker's next Move," at Washingtonian.com:

The nonstop clamor of the media is about to get louder with the launch of pundit Tucker Carlson’s newest effort, DailyCaller.com.

A libertarian Republican known for his love of bow ties and a quick elimination on Dancing With the Stars, Carlson says his Web site will have a heavy dose of tough, original reporting.

“The press has sucked up to Obama,” he says. “The core of the site is to provide better coverage of the White House, Congress, and the federal government.

He's gathered an impressive set of partners, and is gathering up writers who've been unemployed since Obama's recession began, in the faltering media industry.

DailyCaller.com

by Eric Dondero

According to NewsMax, the Obama Administration is now hiring "hundreds of new employees," for the IRS, to go after tax patriots who invest overseas.

The Democrat-controlled Congress just approved $387 million for the IRS fiscal year 2010 budget to hire the new employees.

From NewsMax:

The IRS high wealth unit, part of a broader effort to combat international tax evasion, is focusing on "the entire web of business entities controlled by a high wealth individual," IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told a tax conference this week.

The IRS is also opening new criminal offices in Beijing, Panama City and Sydney to focus on funds flowing out of Europe and into Asia... At the center of the agency's offshore effort is its legal cases against Swiss banking giant UBS AG. UBS agreed to turn over nearly 5,000 names of individual American clients and paid $780 million to settle a criminal case for aiding tax evasion.

The IRS has also begun initial steps to join forces with other governments to scrutinize corporate tax filings...

President Barack Obama has proposed tightening tax rules for U.S. multinationals, including one in which companies delay paying taxes on income earned offshore, a legal practice known as deferral that officials say is abused.

If there was ever a time to completely abolish the IRS, now is it. We Libertarian Republicans must do everything we can to help elect GOP candidates on the record in support of getting rid of the agency. And remember, we're now fully into primary season. We must support those candidates in primaries who don't fudge on the abolish IRS stance.

Fortunately, a number of Republican Congressmen are already on record in support of abolishing the IRS, Ron Paul, of course, but also first-term Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana (Source), Rep. Jeff Flake of AZ and Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia.

Libertarian Republican candidates for Congress for 2010, have called for the absolishment of the IRS. They include Rand Paul running for US Senate in Kentucky and Peter Schiff for Senate against Dodd in Connecticut.

Schiff said on Fox News back in April:

Why not just abolish it completely? How about a flat-tax of zero. Why don’t we shrink government and have a much smaller national tax. It’s far less destructive to our economy and people don’t have to surrender their individual rights to privacy in order to comply with tax law?

Schiff's father Irwin Schiff is serving a lifetime prison sentence for writing a book in the 1980s, "The Great Income Tax Hoax," and urging others to avoid paying the income tax. Schiff believes the tax to be UnConstitutional, and inherently illegal.

Want to strike back at the IRS? For Tax Patriots, supporting Schiff's son for US Senate is an good way to start. Then follow up with a contribution to Rand Paul for Senate in Kentucky.

SchiffforSenate.com

RandPaul2010.com

The Road to Serfdom

From USA Today, Dec. 11:

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

On Sunday, Mitt Romney commented on Meet the Press (via GOP12):

"The real threat here is something Alan Greenspan just said, and that is if we don't take action to rein in the scale of government and the growth of government spending and the compensation levels of government workers. You saw average government workers are now making $30,000/year more than the average private sector worker... this threatens our long-term viability... It's not a partisan issue. It's a growth of government issue, and it's got to start or America's future could be very much in jeopardy."

Even Liberal Hollywood Producers starting to acknowledge the Obvious

30 Rock, a popular network TV comedy sitcom, joked on a Dec. 10 episode, of Obama's appeal to Muslims.

Here's the dialogue (h/t Newsbusters):

Kenneth explains to Tracy Jordan...

"These are my all inclusive holiday decorations. Here’s a little Christmas tree...A menorah. A picture of President Obama- for the Muslims." Jordan then shot him a look and replied, "Gonna let that one slide."

You can see the short video clip at EyeBlastTV.com

Barbara Walters Special, Tuesday Night, "America's Ten Most Fascinating People"

BARBARA WALTERS: Does government do anything good?

BECK: Defense.

BARBARA WALTERS: Besides that?

BECK: They made a really nice highway.

Terri McCormick is a candidate vying for a Congressional Seat in Northern Wisconsin District 8. The seat, currently held by a Democrat, is viewed as one of the most likely pick-ups for the GOP in 2010.

McCormick is a former 3-term State Legislator. She's also the author of the provactively titled book: "What Sex Is a Republican?’ Stories from the Front lines of American Politics and how you can change the way things are"

According to Aaron Biterman, Communications Director for the Republican Liberty Caucus:

Terri is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus and a former three-term State Representative that held herself to her original term limits pledge. She is a constitutionalist and is anti-statist. She is currently in an eight-way primary, but is the only candidate that has name recognition districtwide. (She ran in 2006 for the same seat, but lost because the NRCC did not want her to be the nominee.)

From her Campaign Website:

Terri believes in the principles of limited government, fiscal restraint, checks and balances, free market competition, constitutional freedoms and rule of law. She believes that “every earmark, pork barrel spending scheme, every bureaucracy created takes freedoms away from American citizens.” She was the author of the Small Business Regulation Reform Act in Wisconsin that requires free market principles and pro market representatives to regulate the impact of endless regulations on business. Removing government regulation unleashes the forces of the free market that raise our living standards. Responsible government begins with the understanding that government is a servant of the people and not a master of them. Free market protections were strengthened by Terri’s reforms for capital investment, competitive bidding pools, market transparency and regulation reform.

She's also a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, and is fiercely opposed to a public option for Health Care.

TerriMcCormickforCongress.com

Asian Americans know best about the evils of Communism

An Asian American local councilman is getting both praise and severe criticism for his one-man protest recently. The Democrats in Orange County held a dinner, and controversial Councilman Steven Choi of Irvine showed up with a photo-shopped photo of Nancy Pelosi as Josef Stalin pinned to the back of his suit.

The Scavenger from SFGate explains:

Last Friday, a group rented a room at the Irvine Hilton to protest the Democratic Party of Orange County's 15th Annual Harry Truman Awards and headliner House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Joining the demonstration was Irvine Councilman and Assembly candidate Steven Choi.

An OC Register photographer caught Choi roaming the Hilton lobby before Pelosi's address. Choi is seen in a suit, tie and a depiction of Pelosi as Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator who killed millions under his Great Terror campaign. Another photo shows Choi posing with a woman who is wearing a Pelosi-SS guard illustration.

Choi was quoted by the OC Register:

"I'm a Republican Party member and went there to express my disapproval of her policies. I have big concerns with what is going on with the government pushing down the mandated health issues... As a small businessman it would impact me."

One Democrat attendee, a Jewish Rabbi and liberal columnist David Hirschfield commented:

We seem to have endless appetite for comparisons to Hitler, Nazis and the Holocaust, and like all forms of gluttony, it's making us very sick. It's neither a Democratic thing nor a Republican thing, it's a simply and disturbingly a tragic fact of contemporary American life.

But the popular libertarian-leaning Orange Juice Blog defended Choi:

Choi is well thought of in Irvine. He has a great background in education. The blue boys can rail all they want, but Choi is a real threat to them – and their ridiculous attack isn’t going to hurt him. Will it peeve Democrats? Sure. But who cares? He has to win a GOP primary in order to take DeVore’s seat. This story will only help Choi in that primary.

Libertarians have been calling for abolishment of Medicare and all government-run health care for decades. Now, arguably America's most well-known and popular libertarian broadcaster has joined the call. Beck made the remarks on his radio show the other day.

Transcript from the leftist blog Think Progress:

CO-HOST: This is unbelievable, because the whole thing with the public option, is we were saying this is going to be like Medicare, they just want to make a big — make another Medicare program. And then they said no, public option is just competition.

BECK: And, wait wait wait. And I also said why don’t you just abolish Medicare, because it’s so wildly corrupt and out of control. It’s so inefficient, it is so bad and there’s $47 billion in suspected wrong payments, okay, in Medicare. So what are they saying — now remember, what we’re going to do — the compromise is we’re going to expand Medicare. That way there won’t be a public option, we’ll just — which doesn’t make any sense — we’re going to expand Medicare.

The Senate Conservatives Fund is Chaired by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint. The Fund works to elect Conservatives nationwide to the US Senate.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, December 10, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), announced the endorsement of Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams for U.S. Senate in Texas. Williams is running to replace Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) who recently announced plans to resign sometime next year.

"Michael Williams is the Democrat Party's worst nightmare. He's a principled, outspoken conservative who will fight to stop the massive spending, bailouts and takeovers that have destroyed millions of jobs and piled a mountain of debt on our children and grandchildren," said Senator DeMint. "Michael Williams has a compelling life story, a proven conservative record and an energetic grassroots following that make him one of the most exciting Senate candidates in the nation."

"It is an honor to receive the endorsement of a fellow committed, courageous conservative like Senator Jim DeMint," said Commissioner Williams. "Senator DeMint and I are kindred spirits. We seek to bring bold conservative leadership to Washington. We believe in the principles of limited government, strong national defense and traditional family values. I look forward to the day, very soon, when we have the opportunity to work side by side to maximize freedom, security and prosperity through proven conservative principles. We are going to be a great team."

DeMint Announces 4 Endorsements for the Conservatives Fund

Michael Williams is the fourth candidate to be endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund in a 2010 Republican primary. SCF has also endorsed former Congressman Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, former State Speaker of the House Marco Rubio in Florida and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in California.

"Americans are tired of apologizing for their principles, and they're looking for some new Republicans who will stand up for mainstream American values," said Senator DeMint. "That's why we're helping a strong group of viable conservative candidates in races across the country, including Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Chuck DeVore and now Michael Williams. These are leaders who deeply believe in constitutional limits, a balanced budget, and individual liberty. These are not radical ideas - they're the principles that have made our country the envy of the world, and we desperately need leaders in the Senate who will fight to defend them."

SenateConservatives.com

Senator solicited his Office Director to Fly Away to Disneyland

Montana Senator Max Baucus was recently implicated in a Sex Scandal involving his Deputy Chief of Staff for his Senate office Melodee Hanes. Baucus has admitted to a longterm affair with Hanes. More damaging, he submitted her name at the time she was acting as his Mistress, to the Justice Department to serve as State Attorney General. It was reported on Tuesday that Baucus and Hanes even took "political junkets" to exotic vacation spots including Dubai and Vietnam.

Back in 1999, Baucus had another brief flurry of a Sex Scandal, and the story line is amazingly similar to the current flap with Ms. Hanes.

Salon.com covered the story that year:

Last week, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call broke the news that mild-mannered Montana Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, had fired his chief of staff, Christine Niedermeier, for what he described as management differences and she described as direct retaliation for refusing months of sexual advances.

At its core, it seemed like a classic "he said, she said" kind of tale... Niedermeier, 47 and single, says she was terminated because she rejected his advances and because he feared she was going to file a sexual harassment suit.

on May 3, 1999, she accompanied Baucus to an official White House dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

According to Niedermeier, Baucus asked her questions about her personal life and her relationships with boyfriends, commented on what she was wearing, compared her to his wife and, at times, implored her to go away with him for the weekend. One time he suggested they go to Disney World together.

Niedermeier went on to relay more background including accusations of stalking by a loyal Baucus aide, and Baucus himself, "calling her room repeatedly."

She also describes her last day when Baucus fired her over the phone at the airport. Then when she went to the Senate office to retrieve her private email communications between her and Baucus which included matters of a sensitive nature, she was stopped from entering by Capitol Hill police.

Niedermeier's case was eventually thrown out of court. She missed a 90-day deadline for filing.

Editor's Note - We are grateful to our source in Montana for giving us the background, and tipping us off to this story.