Posted on 07/24/2006 5:36:32 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
In Tennessee's U.S. Senate campaign, a new Chattanooga Times Free Press poll shows Bob Corker (R) leading in the Republican primary with 39%, trailed by Ed Bryant (R) at 23% and Van Hilleary (R) at 22%.
In the general election, Corker leads Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN), 49% to 36%.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalwire.com ...
First guy that says that he will ban Rocky Top gets my vote~~~~
Lamar is a Big Government shill. He supported Taxquist on the state income tax {remember that one?} He helped stiff Knoxville with a few ventures like Whittle Communications. His wifes magical investment and a lot more. How about this The Skeleton Closet Lamar Alexander I remember quite a bit of it myself especially the Whittle deals. They were publish in local newspapers even the Conservative one.
I won't even mention the disaster called the 1982 World's Fair. On second thought it was the political backed fiasco which was followed by two very major banking failures one of which was an uninsured S&L. State funding went into the Worlds Fair. By opening day all persons including the crooks that shoved the Worlds Fair down our throats who later skipped town {some to Chattanooga} leaving taxpayers with debt knew it was doomed.
Truth is Alexander wasn't even that great a governor. But hey when you replace a felon how can you possibly go wrong in the polls right? Alexander may be a Republican but he is by no means Conservative. Just another Rockefeller Republican who got a cushy senate seat with the huge help from others like him. A Sign hanging on RNC office in DC must say Conservatives need not apply.
A Georgia(or insert school of choice) fan and a Tennessee fan were to be executed. Their jailor asked if they had any last requests.
The Tennessee fan said, "I'd like to hear Rocky Top before I die".
The Georgia fan then said, "Kill me first".
LOL My sentiments exactly!!!!!!!!!
The fact remains that Lamar has been a reliable conservative as a Senator. More reliable and more conservative than Fred Thompson was.
Hogwash! Corker simply got started sooner and got his plan for victory in front of most all of the prominent Republicans who can raise money by hosting $250, $500, and $1000 a plate receptions. I have talked to several local power politicians who said that Bryant got started too late and they had already pledged their support and money to Corker. Hilleary even started later than Bryant, if memory serves me well. When Bryant and Hilleary started trying to raise money and get support Corker had already sewn up most of the movers and shakers.
Now, before you whine about powerful movers and shakers, you have to realize that this is the mother's milk of running for a seat: raising money and getting support from key people with influence. It is a fact of political life. Corker saw that and like a smart tactician took advantage of the opening provided by being the man with a plan earliest.
If you don't like it, buy a radio station, newspaper, or television station and offer free time to whomever you want. Or, donate money and/or time to whomever you want. If you get real efficient and successful at recommending a candidate to alot of eligible voters, you become a powerful mover and shaker that everyone wants to court.
If not for Fred and a few others before he became a senator our felon governor may have never been brought down. Fred was a big disappointment in the senate hearings and the vote but so were some other so called sainted RINO's.
I believe now that he was told by GOP leadership to back off. Fred also had some issues himself it's been rumored. I think Bill and Hill could have brought down some career RINO's who were always more than eager to make certain no one got prosecuted. But remember this also. It was Alexander who was given what must have been advance notice as in days or weeks as to Fred's retirement before it came out. Before Fred officially uttered the words the White House and RNC as well as the media had crowned Alexander as his replacement.
Bryant would have made a much better senator but the RNC and Washington DC insiders controlling the GOP will never allow the day. Bryant would have likely stood against Bush when Bush was wrong and the GOP should have called him on it.
The GOP became ill in January 1989 but almost recovered in 1994 from it's sickness of Liberaism. The GOP or at least the Conservative GOP died in 1995 as it was choked to death from within the party. What is left is now for the most part is the party of Rockefeller and a few good Conservatives that the Rockie Groupies haven't managed to get booted out yet but give them time.
John Kennedy if he were alive today would be too conservative for the Rockies liking.
That's been tried before as well. Ever hear of N.E.T.? It was the best Conservative television ever created. It was a brain child of Paul Weyrich actually. Weyrich started stepping on big toes like Lott's and a few others. Next thing you know he's voted out by the board and a kinder gentler more Liberal and I do mean Liberal network agenda that took it's place called America's Voice. Instead of Bob Barr there was Bob Beckel. The Armstrong Williams and Ellen Ratner Hour was a pukefest as well.
I am saying there is an organized effort by the controlling faction of the GOP called the Rockefeller Republicans to force out the Conservatives. It has been an ongoing effort. Don't you find it odd that one of the persons who help derail the GOP Conservative Majority agenda in 1995 was a keynote Speaker at the 1996 GOP Convention? Yea good old Susie along with another RINO former governor of New Jersey who is as Liberal herself as Al Gore but no Republican will admit it. I was wrong about one thing the Conservative Movement GOP died in 1996. Bob Dole put the nails in it's coffin. That Convention was the most repulsive thing the GOP ever put together and was down right sickening to hear and watch the GOP being destroyed. The GOP never recovered agenda wise.
The GOP is a split party that I don't see as any hope of ever again being reconciled. Many in the GOP now have more agenda's in common with the Dems than they do the Grass Roots Conservatives who put them in office to start with. If the GOP finally kicks the bucket great that's fine by me. The Specters, Frist, Hatch, Warner, Stevens, and the rest of the crowd including McCain can join the DEMs whom they share values with.
Former Gov. Sundquist keeping financial finger in GOP politics Committee spent $20,000 on polling, disclosures show
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/election/article/0,1406,KNS_630_4862670,00.html
By TOM HUMPHREY, tomhumphrey3@aol.com
July 22, 2006
Former Gov. Don Sundquist has contributed - directly or indirectly - to four current candidates for the state Legislature from his continuing campaign account while spending $20,000 on polling, financial disclosures show. The Sundquist Committee, originally set up for his 1998 run for re-election as governor, still had a balance of $1,434,694 on hand as of June 30, according to its most recent report.
"I'm spending it down," Sundquist said. "It's a political fund. I don't plan on running for anything, but I still retain an interest in politics."
The recent disclosure shows the Sundquist Committee spent $20,000 in March on polling by Ayers, McHenry and Associates - a firm also employed by other Tennessee Republicans including Sen. Lamar Alexander and U.S. Senate candidate Bob Corker.
Asked why a noncandidate would be paying for a poll, Sundquist replied, "Just curious."
"We like to find out what the issues are and how people feel about different things. What trends are. How things are changing. What's going on politically," he said, declining to elaborate on any specifics.
The report shows only one direct contribution to a legislative candidate - $1,000 to Jimmy Matlock of Lenoir City, who is seeking the Republican nomination to the District 21 state House seat being vacated by Rep. Russell Johnson, R-Loudon.
"I've known Jimmy for a long time," Sundquist said. "He'll be a great legislator."
The committee gave $500 to the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women and reports giving $1,000 - labeled only as "donation" - to Sundquist.
Drew Rawlins, director of the Registry of Election Finance, said the latter entry raises a question that will likely prompt a letter to the committee seeking an explanation. The former governor said the entry was apparently mislabeled and was reimbursement to him for a charitable donation.
The Sundquist Committee last year also gave $20,000 to Majority Tennessee, a political action committee that Justin Wilson, once deputy governor under Sundquist, serves as treasurer. Wilson himself put in $5,000, and the PAC then held the $25,000 balance until June 16, 2006.
On that date, the PAC's disclosure says, donations of $2,500 each were distributed to state Reps. Michael Harrison, R-Rogersville; Bob McKee, R-Niota; and Dennis "Coach" Roach, R-Rutledge.
Majority Tennessee PAC also gave $1,000 to Martha Yoakum of Tazewell, who is seeking re-election as public defender in the 8th Judicial District. She is the sister of Eleanor Yoakum, who served in Sundquist's gubernatorial Cabinet.
The three state representatives are all facing primary challenges to their re-election from opponents who question their conservative credentials.
"Don Sundquist doesn't have anything to do with the decision-making" on PAC expenditures, Wilson said.
"That's all Justin's area," said Sundquist of the PAC allocations.
The Sundquist Committee had expenditures of $73,461 during the first six months of 2006 and $186,225 in 2005, disclosures show. At the same time, the account is still earning interest - $21,328 in the first half of this year.
Most of the committee's contributions go to charitable, rather than political, causes. The biggest donation in the past two years was $50,000 to the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center received $12,500.
The committee also pays $1,739 per month to Elizabeth Phillips, who served in Sundquist's press office while he was governor. She "handles my correspondence," scheduling of any politically oriented matters and occasionally writes a speech, Sundquist said. Barbara Breuer of Arlington, who keeps the committee books, draws $1,252 per month.
In the first months of the current year, the committee paid about $1,200 toward cell phones for Sundquist and his wife, Martha, which the former governor said represents about half the cost. It also covers a subscription to The New York Times and, occasionally, the costs of meals - such as a recent gathering in Memphis that Sundquist said was hosted for longtime political supporters.
As an individual, Sundquist has donated to at least six campaigns for the U.S. House and Senate across the nation in the current election cycle.
Two of them are in Tennessee - $2,000 to U.S. Senate candidate Bob Corker and $500 to U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., whose district includes Sundquist's home near Townsend.
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And no Republican of any conscience can defend him in private, either. I'm sorry I didn't see his slimy trail in '94 before I voted for him for Governor, thinking he might ACTUALLY be an improvement over his fellow 'Rat slug, Ned Ray McWherter.
"However, Lamar Alexander got a score of 92 in 2004 and 88 in 2005 from the American Conservative Union and since he has been in office he has voted pro-life in 23 of 24 issues according to National Right-to-Life (the one negative mark was voting for stem cell bill that Bush just vetoed). You may have issues with Lamar prior to him being a US Senator. But how could a fair-minded conservative take issue with his record since he took office?"
Yes, my problems with Lamar! began before he began his current Senate tenure, and this Conservative calls "shenanigans" on his record. Nevermind the fact that he left the state GOP nearly as moribund as the Taxachusetts party in 1986, his flaky tenure as head of UT and as Education Sec'y showed he was woefully lacking on education issues, and was a johnny-come-lately in regards to discovering the cancerous hard-left indoctrination that has been going on for the better part of the 20th century (nevermind this one). His similar obsession with taxing the internet was just about the final straw for me, and when I contacted his office to rip apart his ridiculous stance, I received a letter -- with the SAME talking points I completely obliterated. I'm sorry, but he's a dilettante, substantially lacking in the sense, reason, and brains departments, and worse than useless as a Senator.
Good, I'm glad to hear that. Mind you, as I told some other concerned Tennesseans that don't want son of da 'Rat debbil being elected Senator, I told them I won't urge people to vote against Chattanooga Chafee in the fall, only that he will get elected WITHOUT my vote. I'm sorry, folks, I've played the obediant automaton one too many times with the RINO trash, and I'm not doing it again. I vote for candidates I can support in good conscience. Corker ain't it. Ed Bryant gets my vote in the primary and the general. I'd prefer to push the button for his name in November, but if "RINO" is the nominee, I'll write Bryant's name in.
"One last question: How much money have you donated to Bryant's campaign?"
Not enough. I'm not wealthy. On a good day, I'm poor.
Policy positions coming out of a RINO's mouth on the campaign trail are utterly worthless, you should know that.
Squish on abortion.
Squish on KELO.
Squish on loyalty to the Republican party.
Squish on Conservative values.
Scumquist's former right (or should it be left ?) hand man.
Works well with and encourages 'Rats to vote in the GOP primary.
That's all I need to know.
Bryant started too late ? Bryant never STOPPED campaigning for a Senate seat that was stolen from him from Lamar! in '02. Unlike these fat-cat wealthy RINO dilettantes, Bryant actually is of modest means. When you have powerful rich people out to steal something from you, it's hard to stop them.
Fred Thompson I had infinitely more respect for than Lamar! Unfortunately, he made the horrendous mistake of allowing the 'Rats to control the agenda with regard to Chinagate when he ran Gov't Reform & Oversight. He realized too late exactly what was at stake, and it was one of the reasons he opted to exit the Senate when he did. Just like Dorothy, he saw behind the curtain.
I remember when CNN did a puff piece on one of America's greatest traitors, John Glenn, they went to Thompson to get some feel-good soundbite on his Senate & Committee colleague. Thompson told them they couldn't play on air what he thought about Glenn.
Corker is a modern-day political playboy; he's buying each of his votes with innuendo and blank checks from his hefty bank account.
He will prove to be that spineless beast often found hiding between the yellow lines or flattened pointing toward the bushes on the high road of principle.
The lowly, "moderate conservative."
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