No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for March 13th, 2008

Assembly passes earmark reform

by @ 23:21. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

With all the bad news, I guess I should report on some good news. The Assembly passed the Earmark Transparency Act (AB 739) late last night on a voice vote. If it makes it thorugh the Senate and past Jim Doyle’s veto pen, it would:

– Prohibit state agencies from requesting earmarks when making their budget requests to the Department of Administration.
– Require the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to prepare an “Earmark Transparency Report”, including cost, location, beneficiary and sponsoring representative/senator, to be released to the public at least 48 hours before any action on a budget bill is taken by the Joint Finance Committee, the Assembly or the Senate.
– Prohibit a conference committee from “airdropping” earmarks or other non-fiscal policy items into the budget that were not previously part of an approved version of the budget.

Do note that this passed through the Assembly on a voice vote. That usually doesn’t happen with a controversial bill, so the ball is squarely in the Senate’s court.

Today’s bad news – Congressional edition

by @ 22:53. Filed under Politics - National.

Item #1 (H/T – Allahpundit) – The Hill reports on a very grim conversation with National Republican Senatorial Committee chair John Ensign. Selected lowlights:

– On the heels of not getting anybody for Mark Pryor’s seat in Arkansas, the NRSC had wealthy potential challengers in New Jersey and South Dakota balk.
– About half of the 49 existing Senators (which presumably includes the 5 retirements) are well behind in fundraising, with the incumbent Dems whose seats are up this year raising $1.2 million more than the incumbent Pubbies up for re-election.
– Related to that, the NRSC has less than $15 million in cash on hand, compared to the Dem counterpart’s $30 million.
– The money kicker; despite the RNC having a lot more cash on hand than the DNC, the RNC isn’t expected to help out any.
– The Virginia seat currently held by John Warner, one of those retiring, will almost certainly go to the ‘Rats.
– The only ‘Rat seat with “top-level” recruit with a realistic shot of winning is in Louisiana (seat currently held by Mary Landrieu), with the NRSC touting a long-shot in Massachusetts.

I guess the only question is, will the ‘Rats get to 60, or close enough, to not get rid of the filibuster?

Item #2 (H/T – see-dubya in the comments section of that thread, or you could look at the post before this one for Shoebox’s headline contest) – The Washington Times’ Fishwrap reports the National Republican Campaign Committee discovered its former treasurer filed fraudulent financial audits between 2001 and 2006. According to the House Republican campaign arm, Christopher J. Ward transfered several hundred thousand dollars without authorization from the NRCC to outside committees, and then transfered money from there to what appeared to be his personal and business bank accounts.

Boy, is that ever “great” timing. Of course, since the NRCC is in the business of protecting RepublicRATs like Tom Petri from even primary challenges like one being explored by Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz (H/T – Brad V. at Try to Focus), maybe the NRCC would be better if it were defunded.

Revisions/extensions (10:59 pm 3/13/2008) – I guess I should mention the NRSC sent over a fundraising letter today. Since see-dub wants to see the reply, I’ll dig it out of the trash, open it up, and craft a reply. Of course, since it is almost 11 pm, I’ll have to toss it over while I sleep.

R&E part 2 (11:39 pm 3/13/2008) – I don’t know what I’m still doing up, but see-dub says, “Give directly to the candidates, not the RNC/NRSC/NRCC".

Headline Contest

by @ 20:03. Filed under Politics - National.

Here’s a story that’s too good to pass up.   I propose we start a contest to come up with the best title/headline for this story:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The committee in charge of running House Republican campaigns said Thursday that a former treasurer “deceived and betrayed” the group, which is missing hundreds of thousands of dollars"”and possibly more"”due to fraudulent acts conducted over the past several years.

Complete story here.

Here’s a couple of headlines to start the fun:

NRCC Treasurer makes personal earmark!

or:

Deceit and Betrayal: Doing to them what they do to us.

The Veneer is Wearing Thin

by @ 13:50. Filed under Politics - National.

There have been a number of recent articles suggesting that Barack Obama has reached his peak and will likely see declines in his popularity.   A review of the Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll seems to confirm this.

In today’s poll, Barack Obama is shown as having a favorable rating of 52%.   His rating has dropped from a high of 56% of just 3 weeks ago.   During that same time frame, John McCain’s favorability rating has remained flat or up slightly at 53%.   While these are the numbers that generally get the headlines, it’s the underlying numbers that tell me that Obama has hit his peak. (more…)

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