Posted on 03/09/2007 6:44:43 PM PST by LdSentinal
Periodically, I get e-mails from supporters of the presidential candidacy of Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter who express disbelief, befuddlement or fury, or a mix of all three, at my flat contention that he is a populist demagogue and anything but a principled conservative. These folks cannot fathom any talk that he's not free-trade, small-government Ronald Reagan reincarnated.
Here's a typical example of Hunterista reaction to my comment that he's been against trade deals that have been important boons to our economy:
You're supposed to be a columnist, an informed person. This is not an informed statement.
OK. If you don't believe me about Duncan Hunter's RRRINOitis, here's what the influential, admired-and-respected-in-conservative-circles Club for Growth has to say about him:
Like most Republicans, he's strong on tax cuts, but he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last 6 years. He also has a protectionist streak in him. Here are some of the more troubling votes:
NO on NAFTA YES on No Child Left Behind YES on Sarbanes-Oxley YES on the 2003 Medicare Drug Benefit NO on CAFTA YES on 2005 Highway Bill YES on the 527 bill (like most Republicans, he flip-flopped, having first voted NO on McCain-Feingold) Hunter also went 0 for 19 on the Flake anti-pork amendments.
Despite being a member of the Republican Study Committee, Hunter frequently votes NO on their fiscally conservative annual budgets (2006, 2005, 2003...)
We gave him a 49% on the 2005 Club for Growth scorecard. That places him 187th within the House GOP conference, out of roughly 230 members.
National Taxpayers Union shows a more telling trend. He was strong in the early 1990s, getting "B's" and one "A", but as time went by, like most politicians, his score dropped. For the past few years, he's been getting "C's".
Those Cs are incredibly generous. As CATO noted last year, with Duncan Hunter cheering him on ...
... President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton's last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush's first term.
The Republican Congress has enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
The GOP was once effective at controlling nondefense spending. The final nondefense budgets under Clinton were a combined $57 billion smaller than what he proposed from 1996 to 2001. Under Bush, Congress passed budgets that spent a total of $91 billion more than the president requested for domestic programs.
And as bad as things are on the budget front, they're about to get a whole lot worse because of a pending nightmare that Duncan Hunter -- supposed tough guy, supposed truth-teller, supposed fiscal conservative -- has chosen to ignore. To borrow from what I wrote last year ...
... the single worst problem facing this country in coming years, with the possible exception of nuclear terrorism, is dealing with the massive fiscal impact of baby boomers retiring. As we slowly transition from a nation where there are 4 working adults for every adult getting Social Security and Medicare to a nation where that ratio is 2 to 1, we will face an incredible fiscal squeeze.
As a veteran member of Congress, Duncan Hunter knows this. He's heard the warnings, seen the bipartisan studies. So what did this self-declared fiscal conservative do in 2003? He voted to make the problem much, much, much worse by extending prescription drug benefits to seniors, three-quarters of whom already have coverage. The money that was saved by all the triumphant stands he claims to have taken is infinitesimal compared to the staggering long-term national debt he helped add with this one vote, which was tantamount to civic arson.
Yeah, right, our Duncan's a fiscal conservative. ... He loves spending your grandkids' money, and by the truckload.
Duncan Hunter is no Ronald Reagan. To those who say Ronald Reagan really wasn't Ronald Reagan -- that government didn't get smaller when he was president -- well, he tried harder than any president in modern times to get Congress to control spending and wipe out whole government agencies. By contrast, Hunter and the GOP Congress of 2001-2006 kept the national credit cards hanging on a string around their necks for easy and constant use.
Good grief. A WHINO is whining that no one is perfect.
Nice try but it isn't business/finance conservatives that will get Hillary elected. If Hunter is the nominee for the Republican Party I'll vote for him in November. Even if McCain is the nominee in '08 I'll vote for him against any Democrat (while holding my nose). The only people threatening to take their ball (vote) and stay home are the so-called social conservatives who think everybody has to vote exactly like they do, that the Party must suit their every whim at the expense of other Republicans in their midst.
They never learn that hearts and minds are changed gradually, not by the force of their Bible pounding.
You think you're going to ride with Iraq into '08 and come out on top? Enjoy your long walk in the wilderness. Maybe you should start your own Nation Building thread and make yourself feel good. Blackbird.
Duncan Hine's cake mix if full of filler masquerading as the real deal!
lol.
Crash, meet Burn.
Yeah... tell it to my friend "Kelly" who just got back from her Tour.
She says unit morale and discipline was so bad she had to take a "boyfriend" of convenience just to have a protector against all the other guys who were eager to, ahem, "take liberties". Ditched him as soon as she got back to the States and doesn't like talking about the Army anymore, at all.
Pretty girl. Was politically Conservative (I have no idea now -- as I said, she doesn't like talking about it). Thinks the whole operation over there is the worst FUBAR she's ever wasted her young life on.
On the upside, if she had gotten pregnant, at least she could've gotten an abortion from the Yanar Mohammed Clinic in Baghdad, established in 2004 in a renovated butcher's shop offering Abortions free of charge paid for by US Tax Dollars.
Another shining example of the brilliant policy of "nation-building" in Iraq.
HOO-freaking-RAH!
"I'm voting for Duncan Hunter"
Yep...write-ins are powerful!!!
That's an odd statement. When the MSM shoves Rudy, McCain, and Romney down our throats, it doesn't mean we have to swallow.
Frankly, I prefer to do my own thinking, so whenever the liberal "king-makers" of the MSM ignore a candidate, one ought to find the candidate more interesting.
Cheers,
OLA
Greetings Valin & alicewonders:
And very likely the same Quinnipiac University Poll would deliver the same results if the question was written:
"If the 2008 Republican primary for president were being held today, which candidate have you heard the most favorably press coverage about?"
Preferring to do my own thinking, and not letting the liberal MSM king-makers tell me, statistically, how I should vote.
Cheers,
OLA
Like a fat envelope of money from a defense contractor.
Just a suggestion: get the audio tape version of "In His Own Hand" (Maybe they call it "In His Own Voice" -- the collection of 3 minute radio essays Reagan wrote and spoke in the 1970's. Really remarkable. He was a one-man think-tank.
They should take a Gore run very seriously. And that's not s.
The McCain-Feingold vote is wrong. Hunter voted against campaign finance reform.
He voted against it after he voted for it...where have we heard that before?
Hunter is rated an A by Gun Owners of America(GOA) and an A+ by the NRA.
Have you seen Hunter speak? Have you seen him speak especially in a Q&A, talk format? Have you seen him discuss issues on the House floor on C-SPAN? The man exudes leadership and that is why there is all the fuss. We are too used to Republicans letting the Demonrats and media run circles around them and that doesn't happen with Hunter.
"When is Jesus going to announce?
Obviously, he's the only candidate who will be perfect enough."
Some would find problems with him running. Hanging out with prostitutes would not be of high character...lol. You know I am right.
See post 66 for a current interview with Hunter. It's good you are keeping an open mind. I think people will discover that Hunter exudes leadership and that's why there is such enthusiasm for him. His name is out there and that's a good thing. There is supposed to be a debate in NH next month so you may get to check Hunter out there. Unfortunately, Rudy is passing it up.
Thank you for clearing up Hunter's vote on McCain-Feingold.
Randy Cunningham and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, worked closely with two local companies – ADCS Inc. of Poway and Audre Inc. of Rancho Bernardo – to make the Pentagon pay for converting printed documents to computer files. They and a few other lawmakers got Congress to allocate $190 million for “automated data conversion” projects from 1993 to 2001.
Did the Pentagon want this “help”? No. As a 1994 General Accounting Office report noted, it already had the tools for such work.
But Cunningham, Hunter and their House allies didn’t care. Audre and ADCS were generous with contributions – and ADCS executive Brent Wilkes allegedly was bribing Cunningham…This led to such absurdities as a $9.7 million contract for ADCS to digitize historical documents from the Panama Canal Zone that the Pentagon considered insignificant. This isn’t governance. This is looting.
Duncan Hunter, strong on defense...contributions.
Hunter DID NOT vote for McCain-Feingold. Your man, Fred Thompson, did.
See post 87 on campaign finance reform. Hunter voted NO on McCain-Feingold. As for some of the votes-seems as if Hunter followed the party line to pass the President's bills. Obviously he hasn't been perfect.
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