Phil Gramm whines "It's the democrats fault"

McCain adviser Gramm leaves campaign
Former lawmaker from Texas resigns after 'nation of whiners' comment
MSNBC -- Fri., July. 18, 2008

NEW YORK - Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm resigned Friday from his role as Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign co-chairman, hoping to quiet the uproar that followed his comments that Americans had become a "nation of whiners" whose constant complaints about the U.S. economy show they are in a "mental recession."

Gramm, a past presidential candidate, made the remarks more than a week ago. McCain immediately distanced himself from the comments, but they brought a steady stream of criticism just as McCain is trying to show he can help steer the country past its current financial troubles.

Gramm said in a statement late Friday that he is stepping down to "end this distraction."

"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country,that kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country. To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as co-chair of the McCain campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters."

Gramm made the comment to The Washington Times and later explained that he was talking about the nation's leaders not the American people. Democrats claimed at the time that the Gramm comments showed that McCain is out of touch with voters' concerns over high gas prices, the struggling housing industry and the shaky economy in general.

Professor McCain and Psychology 101

The way a candidate runs his or her campaign provides some insight as to how he/she will run things if elected. The same goes for a candidate's choice of advisors and surrogates.

This week, Phil Graham, McCain's economic advisor, referred to the economic slowdown as "a mental recession" and called the United States “a nation of whiners.” Some have speculated that Phil Graham would be at the top of the list for McCain's pick as Treasury Secretary. When gas is over $4.00 a gallon, a barrel of oil setting new records on a daily basis, Americans are feeling more than a pinch at the gas pumps and stores.

When Bush took office, a barrel of oil was $27.69 a barrel. Today it's $145.00 a barrel approximately an increase of 500% and rising. Airlines are begging passengers to contact congress and ask that something be done - when corporations are asking for that kind of help you know it's not all in your head.

McCain quickly came out and attempted to distance himself from Graham, stating that Graham did not speak for him. While McCain was doing this tap dance, Graham was at that moment speaking for McCain with the Wall Street Journal. Which is it? Yesterday Graham doesn't speak for McCain, today he does, tomorrow he....does or doesn't?

Previously, McCain was asked when he last pumped gas and what was the price of gas. McCain responded "Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters."

Well, the price of gas does matter. It matters when you have to put gas in your car in order to go to work, to earn money to pay your bills and buy food. It's soon reaching the point where people will need a second and third job to pay for gas so they can get to their first job.

McCain isn't above playing psychologist, of his proposed "gas tax holiday" he said "it will provide a little psychological boost”. Bush's "tax stimulus" checks were "feel good" gestures they are not solutions. We don't need "feel good" or "psychological boosts", we need real solutions.

Although it's July, many people are looking three or four months ahead, when winter sets in, when it gets cold. A minimum delivery of 125 gallons of heating oil is costing over $500.00. People are worried how they will keep warm as they know our congress and certainly the two oil guys in the white house won't be doing anything to help.

When you are tucking your kids into bed, putting on a few more blankets to keep them warm, will you kiss them good night and tell them it doesn't matter because the fact they are cold is all in their heads?

McCain Flummoxed By Vietnam Vet

Flummoxed By Vietnam Vet, McCain Falsely Claims He ‘Received Every Award From Every Vets Organization
Think Progress -- July 8, 2008

Posing the first question in a Denver town hall meeting yesterday, a Vietnam veteran challenged Sen. John McCain on his Senate voting record regarding veterans issues, remarking he had voted against increasing vets health funding four years in a row. Ignoring the veteran’s point, McCain testily — and repeatedly — insisted that he had “received every award from every major veteran’s organization in America”:

MCCAIN: I’ve received every award from every major veteran’s organization in America. I received every organization in America their awards. … The reason why I have a perfect voting record from organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and all the other veterans service organizations is because of my support of them. […]

VETERAN: You do not have a perfect voting record by the DAV and the VFW. That’s where these votes were recorded. These votes were proposals by your colleagues in the Senate to increase health care of the VA in 2003, 4, 5, and 6 for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. And you voted against those proposals. […]

MCCAIN: I’ve been endorsed in every election by every veterans organization that do that, I’ve been supported by them, and I’ve received their highest awards from all of those organizations. So I guess they don’t know something you know.

McCain has made the exact same claim before — and it is just a false today as it was then. As ThinkProgress documented, McCain’s so-called “perfect” record has been roundly criticized by prominent veterans groups: He received a grade of D from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a 20 percent vote rating from the Disabled Veterans of America; Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had “voted against us” in 15 “key votes.”

As for the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — with whom McCain claims to have a “perfect voting record” — both groups vigorously supported Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) GI Bill that McCain tirelessly opposed.

Later in the town hall, McCain admitted he does “not have a perfect voting record,” but then declared that questions about veterans issues were off limits: “I will be glad to debate a lot of things, but not that one,” McCain said.

Not Bush?

The more McCain tries to put some distance between himself and bush - the closer they get. From the Fear and Smear tactics to fudging facts and now those attending his scripted "town hall" meetings are screened.

Censorship at Town Hall Event Bolsters "McCain = Bush" Argument
Tue, 07/08/2008 - 1:46pm. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERTby Meg White

In Denver, John McCain's campaign seems to be intent upon proving protesters right. A group of protesters with the Colorado group ProgressNow.org was asked to leave a town hall meeting for McCain Tuesday in Denver. McCain's Secret Service told the protesters they had to ditch their signs (one reading "Bush and McCain Peas In A Pod") or be charged with trespassing.

Carol Kreck, a 61-year old librarian, was at the same town hall event. She was ticketed for her refusal to leave the sidewalk or get rid of her sign that read "McCain=Bush." Her court date is set for July 23.

It is uncertain whether Kreck was protesting the event with ProgressNow or she was on her own, but the encounter was caught on tape by the group. She wondered aloud why a Republican campaign such as McCain's would take issue with being associated with the most powerful Republican leader in the nation:

"Why is that offensive?"

President George W. Bush's Administration was charged with similar actions in Denver in 2005, when White House staffers forced three attendees to leave an event because their bumper stickers were deemed offensive.

Bumbles, Fumbles and Stumbles

When McCain became the presumptive GOPer nominee, he had at least a 3 month headstart on organizing and running his national presidental campaign. He had 3 months to fine tune his "message" and to dominate the headlines.

McCain didn't step into presidential campaign mode until Obama became the apparant Democratic party nominee. McCain bumbled a 3 month lead.

Weeks before becoming the Democratic nominee, Obama hit the ground running with his presidential campaign. Obama showed a smooth transition from primary campaigning to presidential campaigning while McCain napped and is only now trying to get organized.

With all the messes that bush has left us, from Iraq, the economy to gas prices, etc. and considering the low approval/support for bush and GOPer - I was expecting a Shock & Awe blitz by McCain to be well underway. Yet, McCain's campaign is bumbling, fumbling and stumbling.

I've often said that the manner in which a candidate leads their campaign is indictative of how they will govern and manage things if elected.

Those who are leaning towards supporting McCain should be asking themselves if this is the way McCain will run the country. Bumbling the problems, daily flip-flopping on what he supports or doesn't support is not the kind of leadership we can afford. Forget 'staying the course' on anything - McCain is still trying to find a map.

Obama easily stepped into a leadership position, he's set the course for the Democratic party and presented his path for the country. McCain is bumbling around waiting for direction from the GOP or Rove or both. This presents another question - in the event of a McCain presidency - will McCain lead or just take orders from GOP headquarters?

Republicans are using Fuzzy Math....again

Fuzzy math or catapulting the truth or cooking the books - call it what you will - but the republicans are once again twisting facts.

Miscounting Obama's Tax Votes
Republicans claim Obama "voted 94 times for higher taxes." But their count is inflated and misleading.
By Lori Robertson factcheck.org Jul 3, 2008 Newsweek

Summary The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee both claim that Obama has voted 94 times "for higher taxes." We find that their count is padded.

After looking at every one of the 94 votes that the RNC includes in its tally, we find:

Twenty-three were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all; they were against proposed tax cuts.

Seven of the votes were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on a relative few, either corporations or affluent individuals.

Eleven votes the GOP is counting would have increased taxes on those making more than $1 million a year – in order to fund programs such as Head Start and school nutrition programs, or veterans' health care.

The GOP sometimes counted two, three and even four votes on the same measure. We found their tally included a total of 17 votes on seven measures, effectively padding their total by 10.

The majority of the 94 votes – 53 of them, including some mentioned above – were on budget measures, not tax bills, and would not have resulted in any tax change. Four other votes were non-binding motions related to conference report negotiations.

Analysis In a June 9 press release, Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Sen. John McCain's campaign said that "during just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes." The same day, the RNC, which researched Obama's votes and is the original source of the claim, issued its own release, saying "Obama Voted At Least 94 Times For Higher Taxes" and that he had voted "For A Tax Increase Approximately Once Every Five Days Congress Has Been In Session." A few days later, McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin and other campaign staffers repeated the charge, which was quoted in various news stories. We suspect we'll be hearing this figure a lot more as the campaign wears on.

If this type of claim sounds familiar, it's because George W. Bush's campaign used a similar refrain against John Kerry in 2004, charging that Kerry voted for "higher taxes" a whopping 350 times. We found that claim to be incorrect as well. This time around, Republicans are using some of the same tricky accounting to beef up the number of votes.

It Pays to be a friend of Bush

Feds' closed-door deal could ease development
New Forest Service rules could let largest private owner convert landBy Karl Vick MSNBC Sat., July. 5, 2008

MISSOULA, Mont. - The Bush administration is preparing to ease the way for the nation's largest private landowner to convert hundreds of thousands of acres of mountain forestland to residential subdivisions.

The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Plum Creek Timber Co., a former logging company turned real estate investment trust that is building homes. Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana, where local officials were stunned and outraged at the deal.

"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter.
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Former Larry Craig aide and timber lobbyist, uses federal position to help access to trophy home sites deep in the forest
June 11, 2008 — Ralph Maughan

We’ve talked about Mark Rey before. He is under secretary for natural resources and environment in USDA, and thus oversees the U.S. Forest Service. Before that he learned the ropes from none other than Larry Craig and became a lobbyist for the timber industry.
In the past, he has barely escaped jail for defying court orders, and most recently is busy trampling on states rights to open national forest logging roads as acess to proposed and under constrution trophy homes deep the the forests.

These energy sucking, hard-to-service palaces are being built over the objections of states and counties that will have to pay the bills.

Rocky Barker discusses Rey today. D.C. political appointee flouts states rights and local control. Letters from the West. Idaho Statesman
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Friends of Mark E. Rey:

Richard Pombo: The two work together to move public resources to private companies. They have created more park roads and bargin mining rights in history. GOP Team.

Pombo Connections:

Jack Abramoff: Campaign accounts received $7,500 from Abramoff.

George W. Bush: Bush calls Pombo "The Marlboro Man." Pombo is one of Bush's closest allies on Capitol Hill.

Abramoff-Reed Indian Casino Scandal: Pombo chairs the House Resources Committee (deals with Indian tribes) and he has received thousands in contributions from tribes.

K Street Project: Pombo chairs the House Resources Committee which handles Native American issues linked tightly to the K Street influence.

John T. Doolittle: The FDIC's chief spokesman characterized what Doolittle and Pombo did as "a seamy abuse of the legislative process. In 2001, the two congressmen inserted many of the sensitive documents into the Congressional record

Mark E. Rey: The two work together to move public resources to private companies. They have created more park roads and bargin mining rights in history. GOP Team.

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations: Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay made Pombo chairman of the Resources Committee, he did so largely because he shared Pombo's desire to gut the Endangered Species Act.

Endangered Species: Pombo's changes to the Endangered Species Act will give more freedom to developers and require taxpayers to compensate developers for lost opportunity when the Act prohibits building.

Duane Gibson: Former House Resources Committee aide and mining industry lobbyist, Gibson held a $1,000 a head fundraiser for Pombo that included many mining industry officials.

Duane R. Gibson: Gibson, a mining lobbyist, hasworked for the Resources Committee and is a former Abramoff hand. Monsanto: Pombo was one of the members who helped the rBGH Hormone milk get on the market. Detalis of Monsanto's support $$ for cooperation below.

Safari Club: Pombo supports the broader legislation for the SCI canned hunts where caged animals are shot in fenced areas. Check the Cheney story, he got 70 pheasants in a day plus ducks.

Barbara Bonfiglio: Bonfiglio was Treasurer for Rep. Pombo's RICH Political Action Committee (leadership PAC)

Biotech Brigade: Where ever there are corporate interests against the environment or human health, Pombo can be counted on to jump in and fight for his corporate supporters.

Michael J. Malik, Sr.: Malik was a top Donor & friend

Marian Ilitch: Top 10 Donor and giftgiver

LCV “Dirty Dozen,” members, Conrad Burns (MT), Rick Santorum (PA), Jim Talent (MO), and Representatives Henry Cuellar (TX), Katherine Harris (FL), Richard Pombo (CA), Charles Taylor (NC) and Heather ...

Monsanto's American Government : 1994 Member Congressional Committee stalling rBGH labeling to kill it in committee; he took Monsanto funds at the time.