Posted on 01/08/2010 5:37:08 PM PST by Libloather
Why Dorgan Pulled the Ripcord
By John Kartch - FOXNews.com
Updated January 07, 2010
Like Senator Tom Daschle in 2004, Byron Dorgan was finally exposed for who he is.
What a difference a year makes. The 2010 Senate landscape has been rocked by North Dakota Democrat Senator Byron Dorgan’s stunning announcement Tuesday that he would not seek reelection come November. Retirement announcements from Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Dodd and Colorado Democrat Governor Bill Ritter came soon after, the latest indicators of a worrisome electoral outlook for Democrats.
The most consequential of these is Dorgan, who has strong approval ratings and decades of double-digit victories under his belt. Far to the left of his constituents and a master at trading his dark suit for a pair of Wranglers and talking like a conservative back home, the numbers tell the real story of where his philosophical heart resides: His 2008 rating from the left-wing Americans for Democratic Action was 90 percent while his American Conservative Union score was 8 percent.
Dorgan has been getting away with this act for years, so why jump ship now? Putting aside any personal reasons, with Democrats misreading their mandate and overreaching in their control of the House, Senate, and presidency, it became more difficult for Dorgan to disguise his true nature. Dorgan went against the will of his constituents by voting for the Senate health care bill: a recent Rasmussen poll showed 64 percent of North Dakotans oppose the bill. Like former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle in 2004, Dorgan became exposed for who he is.
Additionally, the same Rasmussen poll showed Dorgan losing by 22 points in a hypothetical matchup with popular Republican Governor John Hoeven.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Same goes for every RAT in Congress. Their arrogance and their in-your-face contempt for the American people has ensured their downfall. The US Congress and this Thug Administration has declared war upon We The People. Elections have consequences and declaring war upon their constituents has its consequences in 2010 and 2012.
I have always been wondering about the volume of hair spray necessary to keep those locks in place.
Hopefully Red states that elect the occasional conservative-talking RAT like Dorgan or Ben Nelson will stop and think. Even fat-farm-subsidy-loving Iowegians might start to realize these Democrats are not what they think they are when they show up in the church basements and school auditoriums and promise to “be their voice in Washington”.
This election could be more like 1982 than 1994. It will probably see Republicans make very significant gains against the discredited Democrats, but fall short of a mandate to lead. The Democrats have shown their true colors and the American people are appalled. Still, they have qualms about the Republican Party’s ability to succeed.
Dorgan had to expose himself: the people of ND would have never figured him out, trusting souls that they are.
If his popularity grows over the winter, Dorgan might get back into the race. Kent Conrad did something similar to that in 1992, and ND people cheered his “honesty”, actually dishonesty. But it’s ND!
My posture in 2000 with a dicey Bush holds today. We have to elect the best available candidate and then hold his itchy feet to the fire. Teaparties movement might handle this challenge and might just be the wave of a renewed American future.
These enemies of America have given us hours upon hours of campaign material to use against them. Their treasonous deeds, their in-your-face arrogance, their corruption and bribery, their disregard for our Constitution, and their disregard for their Constituents proves them to be traitors. They declared war upon the American people and they have destroyed our future. If the leadership of the GOP doesn’t have the brains or the guts to know what to do with these truths, then let us do it. We are all willing to climb into the RAT gutter to fight them using their dirty deeds and corruption against them.
Call for volunteers to map a strategy to make all the RATS up in November TOAST. Not only toast, but have them branded traitors to their country.
Oh, gosh, in 1982, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., led the Texas “democracy” to its last sweep of all statewide offices.
ND people must have frostbit brains. Maybe the emerging oil patch there will thaw out their politics some.
Can't stand that fraud.
Let’s hope his golden parachute spills out and tangles around his feet!
What Conrad did in 1992 was totally different. He opted against reelection not because he was going to lose, but because he had promised to balance the budget in his first 6 years or something like that; he got some flak in ND for it, but not enough to put his seat in danger. So his buddy Dorgan ran instead. But then the other Senator, Quentin Burdick, died, and Conrad decided that his pledge not to run for reelection applied only to the seat he held, not to the other seat, and he ran in the special election to fill Burdick’s seat (which was (temporarily held by his widow, who had been appointed by the RAT governor). Both Dorgan and Conrad won, so Conrad resigned his seat to start serving in Burdick’s seat and the governor named Dorgan to complete Conrad’s term befire his own term began in January. Legend has it that Conrad did not resign his original sear until Dorgan was ready to take the oath of office and that Conrad actually held both Senate seats from ND for a few hours.
A little strange Indian money via Jack Abramhoff and some cozy loans.
I have repeatedly explained the vote getting gimmick of the Rats in ND. They go to congress, promising half of the population of the state the bennies of pork for the major cities, in which half the population resides.
Then they turn around and tell an aging demographic that they will "save Social Security", and promise, as always, to "save the family farm".
When agriculture has become so heavily under the Federal thumb, and it is one of the main sectors of the economy here, that carries some serious sway.
The other sector is Energy, Coal, oil and gas, and electrical generation. That is where the bite of cap and trade costs votes.
Remember, you don't have to buy the votes of the whole electorate.
Just promise 51% everything the other 49% owns, and you win.
Besides, it is really hard to get a Conservative North Dakotan to move to a muggy swamp in a bad neighborhood with ridiculous gun laws.
I read an old newspaper article from the 1890’s. NYT times I think. They constantly refereed to the dems as “democracy”.
In think in 2000 when Conrad was reelected I learned he was first elected in 1986 and since 6 does not go evenly into 14, I was puzzled. Then I learned the story which I still find bizarre. The oddest part being why he kept his promise to begin with.
I agree, Conrad feeling duty bound not to run for reelection is the strangest part of the whole story. Maybe he knew that Burdick wouldn’t run for reelection in 1994 or would retire earlier so he could appear to be a principled budget-balancer and still be back in the Senate within a year or two.
The most bizarre part is why the GOP didn’t run actual serious candidates (of which one got 33% against Conrad and the other 39% against Dorgan), even as we took the Governorship with Ed Schafer. The GOP should’ve fanned public disgust at that Senate seat “switcheroo.”
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