Scott Walker has won Wisconsin's recall election, embarrassing Big Labor nationwide!
FoxNews: Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker survived his recall election Tuesday, capping months of acrimony in the state that began when the first-term governor and Republicans in the state Legislature rolled back what they considered excesses in the collective bargaining agreements of public-employee unions.
The Republicans argued the move was a necessary part of their efforts to cut Wisconsin’s estimated $3.6 billion budget shortfall. Democrats and union leaders accused them of overreaching.
On Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin voters concluded that the complaints against Walker were not enough reason to oust him midterm.
One more victory for conservatism, in a BIG way, in 2012!
RealClearPolitics: Sixty million dollars in campaign spending and 15 months of protests later, Wisconsin voters decided Tuesday that Republican Gov. Scott Walker should keep his job after all. With over 60 percent of the precincts reporting, he held a 15-point lead over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, 57 percent to 42 percent, and was projected to win by the major news networks.
The victory was the culmination of a heated recall election that began in the corridors of the state capitol and then transformed into a national test of the conservative grassroots and the power of organized labor. Walker's win deals a blow to the latter and energizes the former.
ADDENDUM: Here's Gov. Scott Walker's full victory speech (via theRightScoop):
I know, rare, right? Well, Bob Shrum had one of these rare moments with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation (or as Rush likes to call it, 'Slay the Nation'), uttering things that you'll hardly ever hear liberals say out loud, like "I think we ought to just face reality here," and "Look, I'm being honest," when discussing how Obama will lose if this election ends up being a referendum on his first-term record.
SHRUM: I think we ought to just face reality here. If you did what I think the governor is suggesting, maybe he’s not, and you just let this be a referendum, I don’t think the president could win. The truth of the matter is, he may have created over 4.3 million jobs, he may have saved General Motors, but the country is still not back to where it needs to be. So this needs to be a choice election. People have to have that choice, and if they have the choice, I think the president’s going to be fine. Look, take Bain Capital, everybody got all excited about Bain Capital. And I know some Democrats in the party are pretty close to the financial industry. Two kinds of private equity– some buy up companies and build them up, others buy up marginal companies, load them up with debt, take out giant fees, the company goes down and the employees lose their job. Ampad, bought by Bain Capital—Bain put in $1 for every $20 it took out. The company went down and Romney and his partners made $100 million. I did the Kennedy campaign in Massachusetts in 1994 against Mitt Romney. That is a very powerful argument.
SCHIEFFER: Let me say something, I think there are a lot of Republicans out there saying, did you hear that Bob Shrum just said that if this is a referendum on Barack Obama he would lose?
SHRUM: Look, I’m being honest. If this is simply a referendum on the condition of the economy and the country, people aren’t happy. The president said that. We have a lot more to do. So they have to be given a choice. The Romney campaign has made it very clear they want this to be a referendum. Did you hear the other day–
Sigh...Why? Here's just one of those reservations come to fruition that conservatives have had against Mitt Romney being the Republican nominee from the very beginning...
Ricochet: One of the few Republicans in the country who's been tirelessly pushing for the implementation of Obamacare at the state level has been tapped to head Mitt Romney's transition team, should he become president.
Former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, and his consulting group Leavitt Partners, are the primary advocates within Republican circles for implementation of Obamacare's exchanges. It just so happens that his consultancy is one of the major beneficiaries of the taxpayer funded gold mine of hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange implementation grants. But that's a coincidence, of course.
Over the past year, Leavitt and his staff have repeatedly tangled with conservative and libertarian think-tanks and advocates who oppose him on this point, understanding that there is no such thing as a state run exchange under Obamacare, and that this represents the primary front for states in the battle against Obamacare's implementation. This hasn't stopped him from lobbying all over the country for it.
What's most concerning about all of this is not that Romney selected one of the few Republicans in the country who backs implementation of Obamacare's exchanges. It's what the selection of Leavitt means as an indication of how Romney would potentially "fix" Obamacare if repeal proves impossible. According to Politico, "already, plugged-in Republicans from Washington to Salt Lake City are buzzing that Leavitt could make his own transition next January into the job of White House chief of staff or as a Valerie Jarrett-like personal counselor to a President Romney."
Should the Supreme Court strike down only a portion of Obamacare, it seems clear Leavitt would be a major voice in deciding how to replace it. And he is convinced that "exchanges are part of the future, no matter what."
All this talk that "I'll repeal it," on the campaign trail, then appoint this liberal RINO to head your transition team upon winning the presidency? This is a terrible idea, Mitt. We need to know what Romney's plan for healthcare is, and we need to know it NOW! AMERICANS overwhelmingly don't want ANY part of this Rube Goldberg experiment in central planning we've come to know as Obamacare.
ADDENDUM: In discussing this appointment on Monday's show, Mark Levin says we're going to have to "work really, really hard to drag his ass to the right." (via theRightScoop)
Rush exposes more of the Democratic hypocrisy (say it ain't so) in the Walker recall efforts in Wisconsin, and emphasizes the stakes for the Left, "Wisconsin is a battleground for the very future of the union-government model."
But don't let that deter Paul Krugman's irrationalizations: That's not a lot of money & Solyndra wasn't Obama's fault anyway; no, it was because of that hostile Congress that the boss has to work with...yeah, that's it. Note: Watch the eyeshifting going on with Krugman, as if to say, "I wonder whose buying this BS?"
Oops. Gov. Rick Perry has really stepped in it. He's not only doubling-down behind the WRONG candidate in the Texas Senate race to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison, which has come down to a runoff between moderate, establishment-backed David Dewhurst (Perry's Lt. Gov.) and tea party favorite conservative Ted Cruz (former Texas Solicitor General), but he's also turned that classic cockiness up to ten with statements like this (via Chron) for conservatives throughout America supporting Cruz:
“There’s a whole lot of people who don’t intimately and expertly know how Texas operates that have come in and endorsed in this race, and with all due respect – I respect each one of those individuals, but they don’t know anything about how Texas works,” said Perry after a hurricane preparedness tour at the Austin airport. “And if they did, they would be endorsing David Dewhurst.”
Without naming Palin, DeMint or Santorum, Perry called them to mind by naming their states: “I appreciate everybody paying attention to Texas – as well they should, they could learn some things on how to run South Carolina and Pennsylvania and Alaska.
“Come to Texas and learn how to do it right, but don’t come down here and tell us who needs to be our next United States senator, thank you very much. We’ll decide that without your outside, Washington, D.C.-oriented help,” Perry said.
Wow. Can we say Good Ol' Boys Club? Well, towards the end of Friday's program, Mark Levin acutely set the record straight (via theRightScoop):
Mark Levin, who has endorsed Ted Cruz, slammed Rick Perry for his ‘illogical’ comments noting that Dewhurst himself has had ‘outsiders’ cutting ads for him. But even more than that, Levin said that it’s a US Senate race that will have an affect on everyone in the country and people have a right to weigh in on the race.
Toward the end he told Rick Perry to “go ahead and back your candidate” and to “give us all the great reasons why Dewhurst should be elevated to the Senate…,” but to stop telling the rest of this country what to do. “It’s still a free country,” Levin added.
Couldn't agree more, Mark!
By the way, also worth noting, which Levin later did as well, here's Perry's 'outsider'campaigning in Minnesota. Pot calling the kettle black, much?
So, when Perry was up for his third term, which he won (making him the longest serving governor in Texas history, and America for that matter...and I voted for him), he heavily courted the tea party, and did so in a substantive way during his presidential run as well. But when tea party organizations, not only statewide, but nationally, overwhelmingly back the conservative for a crucial U.S. Senate seat, the tea party is scolded by the Governor, because they're not backing his candidate, and leading members of the national movement to revitalize our nation are essentially told to 'get outta Texas'? Huh. And I thought a crucial part of the tea party movement (from its inception) was not only to break up the statist infiltration of our government, primarily in the Democrat Party, but to also rid the Republican Party of these go-along-to-get-along, Good Ol' Boys Club establishment types who do just as much harm? I know some don't want to hear it, but Dewhurst is one of those...so what does that make Perry when he doubles-down with this kind of rhetoric?
I don't know if this will hurt his chances for a fourth term come another couple of years; but the governor, and those supporting this stance, are unfortunately on the wrong side of this debate, which feeds directly into our overall united struggle to revive what is still the last best hope for man on earth. I pray we can all get on the same page, sooner rather than later.
Surprise. And keep in mind, this is only what they're feeding the media...the actual numbers are even more dire.
TheWashingtonExaminer: The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, well below expectations of 150,000 job gains, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Not only did BLS report terrible numbers for May, but it made downward revisions to previous months job growth numbers, which were already considered weak. The economy is now said to have added 143,000 jobs in March (instead of 154,000) and just 77,000 jobs in April (instead of 115,000).
The unemployment rate crept up slightly to 8.2 percent.
Here's more expanding on those revisions, set to rising unemployment & a sinking GDP...
LosAngelesTimes: Adding to the dreary economic news, the government said in a separate report Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product grew at a slower pace in the first quarter than previously thought. Growth in GDP, the total value of goods and services produced in the nation, was revised down to an annualized rate of 1.9% from 2.2% initially estimated a month ago.
The revision by the Commerce Department reflected a smaller increase in consumer spending and inventory building, and a bigger drag on growth from government cuts and the trade deficit. On the positive side, business investments were revised slightly higher.
GDP expanded at an annual rate of 3% in the fourth quarter of last year. Many analysts are expecting GDP growth to remain mediocre this year at about 2.5%, which doesn't bode well for the job market.
I have to chuckle when I hear mention of 'government cuts'! WHERE?! Breitbart picks up that point & poses an interesting comparison:
Compare Reagan's recovery after inheriting an economic crisis to Obama's.
Both Presidents attempted "trickle-down economics." Reagan gave money back to the people in the form of historic tax cuts and blew the doors off the economy.
Obama took our money (and China's), decided the government would dictate how it would be spent in the hopes it would "trickle down" to the rest of us, and the failure of this policy is now undeniable.
Now, I've heard some of the excuses out there, and that we need to acknowledge that when more people return to the workforce, the unemployment rate will automatically increase. Certainly. But doesn't that say more about where unemployment in America is at right now?! Folks, hope & change is an economic trainwreck.
"It's the little things that tell you so much about who Barack Obama is." ~ Rush Limbaugh
And this is no exception...
GatewayPundit: Barack Obama gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dolores Huerta, an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. During the ceremony today President Obama admitted he stole her slogan “Yes we can!” for his 2008 campaign.
Heritage: President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday to Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union.
Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.
DSA describes itself as “the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.”
Huerta has claimed, “Republicans hate Latinos,” and has spoken fondly of Hugo Chavez’s despotic regime in Venezuela.
YES! Outspent and with lower name recognition, Texas conservatives held the line and denied another establishment shoe-in for the U.S. Senate race in Texas' Tuesday night primary.
YahooNews: Tea party candidate Ted Cruz achieved his goal Tuesday and forced establishment favorite Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst into a runoff in the Texas U.S. Senate race.
Cruz, a Cuban-American lawyer who served as state solicitor general, along with seven additional Republicans competing in the Senate primary, held Dewhurst to 47 percent of the vote with 40 percent of precincts reporting. That meant Dewhurst was just shy of the majority required to avoid a July 31 runoff. Cruz placed second with 32 percent to secure his runoff spot.
The showing by Cruz, who was endorsed by the Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks, Sarah Palin and others connected to the tea party, marks the latest in a string of U.S. Senate victories for the movement. First, tea party challenger Dan Liljenquist forced Sen. Orrin Hatch to a primary in Utah, then Richard Mourdock defeated Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana, and most recently, state Sen. Deb Fischer won her party's nomination in Nebraska.
Conservative Senator Jim DeMint, who backed Cruz early on, tweeted Tuesday night, "This is a major victory for conservatives. Dewhurst failed to get a majority because he failed to fight for conservative principles. His false attack backfired. Now it's time for freedom-loving Americans everywhere to help @tedcruz win the 7/31 primary run-off." DeMint also iterated on the Senate Conservative Fund something that many know in their gut (and the microcosm I pointed to last week):
"This is now the most important Senate race in the country. It pits the establishment against one of the most exciting conservative candidates in the country. The outcome will have national implications that stretch far beyond Texas. We must fight. We must win."
Now that former NFL player/ESPN announcer Craig James is out of the running, along with former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert (and his empty suit commercials), the CONSERVATIVE choice is crystal clear. Now it's up to you, Texans. It's put up or shut up time. Will you send a go-along-to-get-along establishment moderate to Washington (basically, another Hutchison), or will you send a true conservative fighter? The conservative turnout on July 31st will determine the outcome.
Join the late Andrew Breitbart in supporting a man that he believed represents the future of conservatism. Help elect Ted Cruz as Texas' newest U.S. Senator!
Today, we remember those who've served in our Armed Forces & made the ultimate sacrifice for this Great Nation. May we honor their memory by doing our part to help secure our Freedoms, recognizing that "we are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth."
God Bless America, and God Bless our Armed Forces!!
