David Vitter

Washington Post 95% In Belief Republicans Will Win Senate In November: Totally A Delusion!

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It is amazing that the Washington Post is predicting by a percentage of 95 percent that the Republicans will win the six seats needed to control the US Senate in 2015-2016.

Even if they do, which is highly unlikely, with two thirds of the seats in 2016 having incumbent Republicans, it is certain that the Democrats, if they lose control will regain it with a major margin in 2016!

But to believe that the Republicans will gain six seats is belied by the likely defeat of Pat Roberts in Kansas and Mike Rounds in South Dakota, both which no one had thought possible to go to the Democrats.

And those who think Mary Landrieu is not going to win her seat in Louisiana forget her ability to survive, as the only sane major figure in a state which includes Bobby Jindal and David Vitter, both disgraces in every possible manner!

And Mitch McConnell in Kentucky is not going to win his seat this time around against Allison Lundergan Grimes, and Georgia will go Democratic as well with Michelle Nunn, which means even if the Republicans win six seats, they will lose three in those those two states and Kansas, and will not win one of the so called three “guaranteed” states of South Dakota, Montana, and West Virginia!

North Carolina with Kay Hagan seems safe, while admittedly, Arkansas, with Mark Pryor, is in more danger.

Expect overall a three seat Senate gain for the Republicans, with the Senate going from 55-45 to 52-48, including a likely four independents, from Maine, Vermont, South Dakota (or Democrat Rick Weiland winning instead of Independent Larry Pressler), and Kansas!

Political Reality: Those Accused Of Corruption Invariably Are Guilty Of Charges, Not Innocent!

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We constantly see political corruption arise to the surface, and the saying is that corruption is as American as Apple Pie!

We are seeing, and have seen, governors, mayors, state legislators, and members of Congress, and even the executive branch, accused of corruption, exposed, and most often, forced out of office over time!

So when we hear that Bob McDonnell, Chris Christie, Scott Walker and others are being investigated for corruption of one kind or another, face the facts! Almost certainly, they are guilty as charged, but of course they deny it and fight it.

But it means their political careers are usually over, with an occasional exception such as Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, involved with a prostitution madam, but still reelected to the Senate, and now planning to run for Governor!

In certain states, corruption is more rampant than elsewhere, although it is endemic to American politics. But states such as Louisiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, Arizona, West Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, Florida and New York have more than their fair share of crooked politicians of one kind or another!

Bobby Jindal For President: Give Us All A Break!

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is working very hard to make a name for himself, as he plans to run for President.

There is a sad lot of candidates for President on the Republican side, but Jindal is among the worst of the worst!

He heads a state, Louisiana, which remains in the bottom ten of states in most statistics, and often almost at the bottom of the bottom!

His state is extremely poor, but Jindal, unlike John Kasich of Ohio and Jan Brewer of Arizona, will not allow Medicaid coverage for one out of four Louisianans, and continues to oppose ObamaCare with no alternative solution.

His state is the worst state per capita for people in prison, and the state prison system is mostly privatized, which makes it an industry designed to incarcerate as many inmates as possible for profit reasons.

His state, historically, is the most corrupt state politically, and now has a US Senator, David Vitter, who was involved in a prostitution scandal, but still was reelected, and now plans to run for Governor in 2015 to succeed Jindal.

Jindal has done nothing to better the lot of poor Louisianans, and every time he opens his mouth, he makes one wonder as to his intelligence, and his lack of empathy for those less fortunate is shocking!

If the GOP were to choose Bobby Jindal as their Presidential nominee in 2016, he would lose in a massive landslide!

New York City Politics And Sex Scandals: The Redemption Of Anthony Weiner And Eliot Spitzer?

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Who would imagine that two New York politicians, both tragic figures involved in sex scandals, could suddenly emerge as likely choices to be the next Mayor of New York City, and the next City Comptroller?

That scenario is seen as very likely for former Congressman Anthony Weiner and former Governor Eliot Spitzer, spicing up the races for who will run the largest city, and who will be a watchdog over the city’s finances.

Weiner lost his Congressional career over his inappropriate utterances and photos on Twitter and with women, and Spitzer was involved in a high cost prostitution scandal, and yet both have now asked for forgiveness, and seem likely to have the voters give them another chance for public service.

No one can deny that their careers were dedicated to good deeds in public life, but their weakness in the area of sexual interests brought them down to humiliation and destruction.

The irony is that if both win the offices they seek, their egos and personalities will likely clash a great deal of the time, leading to lots of political “theater”, but also meaning New York City politics will be one of the most interesting political stories in America as we move into the future.

But would New York City and its residents want anything else other than center stage?

Redemption is part of the story of humankind, and Bill Clinton, David Vitter, and Mark Sanford have already proved that there is a life after scandal, in a nation in which ethics has suffered a massive decline! So the most interesting story of this off year election will not be the Governorship of New Jersey nor the Governorship of Virginia, but the New York City municipal races!

The Republican Party: The Party Of “Family Values” And A Multitude Of Sex Scandals!

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The Republican Party broadcasts its belief in “family values’ constantly, and the most religious people in this nation tend to vote for that party on a regular basis!

The author is not trying to claim that Democrats are not capable of engaging in sex scandals, but they do not use the hypocrisy of claiming to be the party of “family values”, and the number of Republicans who have engaged in sex scandals is much longer than that of Democrats!

A selected list of Republicans involved in sex scandals includes:

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, just elected back to his House seat
Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, who has been reelected by his state despite his scandal
Senator John Ensign of Nevada
Senator Larry Craig of Idaho
Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon
Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia
Congressman Bob Livingston of Louisiana
Mayor Rudy Guiliani of New York City
Congressman Mark Foley of Florida
Presidential Candidate Herman Cain of Georgia

Instead of promoting “family values”, including concern about the lives of the elderly, the young, the poor, women, and the disabled, the GOP does the “religious” thing, while lining their own pockets with the money of lobbyists, who work against the interests of the American people, and promote the rich becoming more wealthy, and presiding over the poverty and deprivation of many of their constituents who, stupidly, vote for them!

Mark Sanford Vs. Elizabeth Colbert Busch: The Race To Watch On Ability To Overcome A Sex Scandal!

Ronald 4 Comments

Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, the center of a lurid sex scandal, is trying to restart his career by going back to the Congressional seat in Charleston which he held before he became Governor.

Once having Presidential ambitions, which fell by the wayside once he was involved with an Argentine beauty, and disappeared for days without explanation, Sanford now faces the challenge of the candidacy of Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of Stephen Colbert, the comedian on Comedy Channel, who is one of the best political comedians in America, along with Jon Stewart of the same channel.

The race is very close, but if Sanford wins, his political career would be revived, and if he loses, he is done with politics, and would go back to his former real estate career.

Can a disgraced politician survive a sex scandal? Well, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana has done so, but that is an exception.

Of course, former President Bill Clinton did so, although not running for office again.

Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is considering running for Mayor of New York City, which will be another test of ability to come back from a sex scandal.

Realize that in almost all cases, a sex scandal destroys the career of a politician for good, so the Sanford and, possibly, Weiner cases will be very telling to see if the voters are willing to forgive, if not forget, their transgressions.

We shall see regarding Sanford tomorrow night, and Weiner making a decision to run in the next month before the deadline to file for the New York Mayoralty!

Should Disgraced Politicians “Come Back”?The Cases Of Anthony Weiner And Eliot Spitzer And The New York Mayoralty In 2013

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The political world is abuzz with rumors that former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is thinking of running for Mayor of New York City in 2013, to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg!

There has also been discussion of the possibility of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer running for Mayor as well.

Both New York politicians resigned after sex scandals, which would ordinarily destroy their future careers, but at least Spitzer has been a host of news shows on CNN and now the CURRENT channel, and has come across very well as a political commentator.

One could argue that after such scandals and disgrace, that these and others, including former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, should just go into the woodwork and never re-emerge again!

And yet, Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter survived a sex scandal, never resigned, and was reelected to the Senate!

So the best answer is that anyone has a right to run for public office, and the scandals will reflect on their character, but ultimately, IF the American people want a former disgraced politician to run and win, that is their right, and none of us should condemn such action by the candidates, or by the people who choose to support them!

The Contradictions And Blunders Of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor!

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia has really been, symbolically, shooting himself in the foot lately!

Calling for spending cuts, if there was a desire to provide relief to flood and tornado victims in the South and Midwest, made him look totally hardhearted and uncaring!

Calling upon New York Congressman Anthony Weiner to resign because of his sex scandal was hypocritical, since Cantor did not say the same thing about Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, Senator John Ensign of Nevada, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, or Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, among others.

His lack of consistency and compassion is a major negative, plus the image created that he is an overly ambitious man who wishes to undermine House Speaker John Boehner due to his own ambitions to take over that position!

Eric Cantor does not exactly come across in a positive way for someone who wishes to become a national leader with consistent views and principles! Instead, he gives the impression of willingness to do or say anything to advance himself!

The Anthony Weiner Disaster: No Solution Is Good!

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New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, admired by many for his willingness to fight for his principles, and hated by Republicans because of his strong attacks on their party and its policies, has put himself in an impossible position by his involvement in “sexting” on Twitter, Facebook, and on email.

For a member of Congress to be involved in a sex scandal is nothing new, unfortunately, but his lies and deceit for a week make his finally “coming clean” much more problematical. It is sad how a talented politician can be so self destructive, and can risk his career, and his new marriage, all because he has no self control over his sexual urges.

Should Weiner resign? Some would say yes, and others would say no, but some politicians have stuck it out, and have survived, such as Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, and President Bill Clinton. Of course, many more have quit under the pressure, and the intensity of the attacks, and a planned investigation by the House Ethics Committee, and the lack of public support by his Democratic colleagues are telling signs of his likely failure to be able to stay in office and leave it to the citizens of his congressional district to decide his fate.

In fact, his seat is likely to be disappearing during reapportionment of seats in the House of Representatives, with the fact that two congressional districts will be eliminated for the state of New York in any case.

So, sadly, Weiner, who once hoped to run for NYC Mayor, is probably doomed and likely to be forced out soon. Public scrutiny of public figures makes one realize that if he or she cannot keep his behavior within norms, then his or her humiliation and embarrassment is legion, so expect Weiner to resign under fire very soon as another victim of his own shortcomings!

Louisiana Senator David Vitter, Backing The “Birthers”: A Cover For His Scandals! :(

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Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter is running for reelection, and faces a competitive race against a moderate Democrat, Congressman Charlie Melancon.

Vitter has plenty of “skeletons in his closet”, having been implicated in a scandal involving a “Madam” that he was a regular client of over a period of years, and the fact that one of his congressional aides was involved with death threats and assault on a woman, and yet he worked for Vitter for another two years until his recent resignation! 🙁

So to cover up these stories, or take attention off them, Vitter has now distinguished himself by legitimizing the “Birther” wingnuts who claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but rather in Kenya, despite the Hawaii state government under Republican Governor Linda Lingle asserting that such charges are false, and publishing on line the birth certificate of the President!

For that alone, plus the scandals he has been involved in, the people of Louisiana should retire Vitter and put a decent Congressman, who has been tormented by the oil spill’s effect on his state, Charlie Melancon , into the US Senate for the next six years!