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Tancredo wins Michigan strawpoll
Rep. Tom Tancredo is being touted for winning a straw poll during a Michigan
county GOP gathering of 600 where half the participants participated in the
poll. Here is part of what is posted on the
Michigan Republican website:
Over 600 participants packed a room to hear "Team Michigan". Led by keynote
speaker Dick DeVos, then Secretary State Terri Lynn Land and Attorney
General Mike Cox and U.S. Senate candidates Mike Bouchard and Keith Butler
addressed the group.
327 individuals participated in the poll. The question read:
Who is your choice for President in 2008?
The raw vote results are as follows:
Tom Tancredo 60
Rudy Guiliani 45
Mitt Romney 40
Condolezza Rice 39
Newt Gingrich 38
John McCain 38
George Allen 21
Mike Pence 15
Ron Paul 14
Mike Huckabee 6
Bill Frist 4
Alan Keyes 2
Candice Miller 2
Sam Brownback 1
Frist: eliminate death tax
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is scheduling a vote for Thursday to
repeal the "Death Tax" on estates. The
NY Times reports on the effort:
Permanently repealing the estate tax, or what Republicans have branded the
"death tax," is a priority for President Bush and many Republican lawmakers.
But Senate leaders, vowing to schedule a vote for full repeal on Thursday,
have yet to line up the 60 votes they need to prevent a Democratic
filibuster. Indeed, with public approval ratings declining for Mr. Bush and
the Republicans, party leaders face at least as much opposition from
Democrats today as they did last summer.
In what is either a shrewd game of chicken or an effort to inflame the
passions of crucial Republican constituencies, the Senate majority leader,
Bill Frist of Tennessee, has made little effort to strike a compromise with
conservative Democrats that would greatly reduce but not fully abolish the
tax.
"Senator Frist is for full repeal, first and foremost," a spokeswoman for
Mr. Frist, Carolyn Weyforth, said.
"Until we've had the cloture vote, any talk of a compromise is premature."
Bump in Ahmadinejad's World Cup plans
The
AFP news service is reporting on Jewish opposition to plans by Iran's
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the World Cup in Germany:
The head of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote to Germany's
leader on Monday after Iranian officials were quoted by media as saying
their president would attend the football fiesta in Germany if Iran's team
advances to the second stage.
"President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust and called for the
obliteration of the state of Israel," wrote Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's
founder and dean in the letter to Merkel obtained by AFP.
"It is inconceivable that a head of state who advocates those policies would
be received at a world sporting event by the same country where the
Nuremburg Laws were proclaimed and where Adolf Hitler first enunciated his
policies that led to the 'Final Solution'.
"Such a visit would desecrate the memory of the millions murdered in the gas
chambers and contradict the very foundation upon which the post-war Federal
Republic of Germany was built," Hier added in the strongly worded letter on
behalf of the 400,000 center members.
Sen. Sam Brownback profiled
The
Washington Post profiles presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS):
"I could be the right person with the right message at the right moment. And
I could be completely wrong and I'll still be happy about it," he says,
sounding way too mellow for a wannabe president.
In the meantime, amid the fundraising and the visits to Iowa and New
Hampshire, Brownback is focused on spreading light when he enters a room. He
has said he tries to see Jesus in his fellow senators.
Three years ago he gave a speech at the Archdiocese of Denver. He spoke of
the need to "convert the culture" by spreading God's love. He posed a
question: "When we walk up to the McDonald's counter, what if we looked at
that person in the eye . . . and we said, 'God bless you for that Big Mac?!'
"
Then Brownback quoted Burt Bacharach.
"What the world needs now," the senator said, "is love, sweet love."
Republican wins California
Democrats predicated that the special election to replace convicted
Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham would be a bell weather of the coming
Republican demise. However, Republican Brian Bilbray won over Democrat
Francine Busby.
Busby showed the Democrats' true position on immigration when she told a
group of individuals who were not citizens that they didn’t need papers to
vote. She later denied that she made the comment, but a participant at the
event produced a tape recording of her making the comment.
Men & women lose
The Senate failed to pass the Constitutional amendment to define marriage as
between a man and a woman. The 49-48 vote fell 11 votesshort of the 60
required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally by the full Senate.
"I do not believe the sponsors are going to fall back and cry about it,"
said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) "I think they are going to keep bringing it
up."
Vilsack loses - twice
Governor Tom Vilsack (D-IA) suffered a devastating setback in his campaign
for the 2008 presidency from Democrat primary voters in Iowa. Vilsack's two
candidates, Mike Blouin for governor and Dusky Terry for Secretary of
Agriculture, both went down in defeat.
Blouin lost to Secretary of State Chet Culver, an extreme liberal.
Former Governor Mark Warner (D-VA) received high marks for helping elect his
Lieutenant Governor to succeed his tenure. Vilsack, on the other hand, can’t
even bring his candidates through his own primary.
Bubba Bill in New Hampshire
Former President Bill Clinton will make two speeches in New Hampshire on
June 27, including an address at a fund-raiser for the state Democratic
Party.
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