Two different takes on Mike Pence's failed bid to become Minority Leader:
His leadership in my opinion would potentially undermine the future of the Republican Party as a majority party, not enhance it.
Scott Fluhr --
Today's vote was an unclear outcome for the Republicans, but a defeat for Indiana.
Scott Fluhr on Mike Pence's bid to become Minority Leader in the House of Representatives:
Mike Pence, while known as somebody with new ideas and seen as a fresh face, probably simply just hasn't donated enough money to his fellow Republicans to secure the leadership. Money matters . . . that's an objective fact; it matters regardless of principles.
I'd give Pence an outside chance to win. He'd certainly be better than Texas' Joe Barton or Ohio's John Boehner, but the smart money seems to be on Boehner . . .
From Resisting Inertia, with a rundown of our House delegation.
MEANWHILE, Abdul chimes in, "What's interesting is the GOP won all the statewide races. And the Indiana Congressional delegation went from 7-2 Republican to 5-4 Democratic. To me, it shows Indiana may now be the new battleground state. We'll see in 2008."
MEANWHILE, Scott Fluhr writes John Hostettler's political obituary.
More: He also surveys the coming statewide political landscape.
Doug Masson has an interesting note:
Just thought I’d take a look at how the second place finishers did in the Congressional Race. Here they are in order of vote percentage:
#1 - Eric Dickerson (IN-07) - 46.41%
#2 - Chris Chocola (IN-02) - 45.9%
#3 - Tom Hayhurst (IN-03) - 45.7%
#4 - Mike Sodrel (IN-09) - 44.85% (Libertarian Eric Schansberg took 5% of the vote in this race.)
#5 - Barry Welsh (IN-06) - 39.8%
#6 - John Hostettler (IN-08) - 39.33%
#7 - David Sanders (IN-04) - 35.33%
#8 - Katherine Fox Carr (IN-05) - 32.89%
#9 - Mark Leyva (IN-01) - 26.85%
Mark Rutherford posts some exciting news:
Results of last night's poll commissioned by the Libertarian Party of Indiana on Libertarian Rex Bell's Indiana House District 54 race:
Among Decided Voters
Saunders (R) (I) : 35.4%
Bell (L) : 33.1%
Sadler (D) 31.3%
Wow.
Here's what I learned talking to and listening to Brad Ellsworth, Joe Donnelly, and Baron Hill yesterday. The three great hopes for Indiana Democrats seem to be in very different moods heading into the final three weeks of the campaign.
Ruth Holladay relates some difficulties in getting the Indianapolis Star to cover Indiana's 4th Congressional district race.
Jason Bourneman says that Evan Bayh should demonstrate his party loyalty by ponying up more than $100k to help take back the Senate.
via Doug Masson, we see that the Great All-Knowing Kos agrees.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has released its congressional scorecard for 2006. Indiana's congressional delegation fared poorly overall.
Matt Tully says that Democrats' criticism of Chris Chocola for not opposing Major Moves is "smart -- but wrong."
More: Doug Masson begs to differ.
Indiana On Message has a district-by-district analysis of spending by the NRCC and the DCCC:
An Indiana On Message analysis of independent expenditures for the month of September shows that nearly $2.5 million dollars was spent by the NRCC and the DCCC in Indiana's most competitive districts . . . Democrats were outspent by over a half-million dollars, only besting their Republican counterparts in IN-02 . . .
$2.3 of the $2.5 million was spent on television advertising, almost without exception negative.
Marie at WHL links to the You Tube clip of Howard Dean discussing Indiana's hot three congressional races.
A roundup related to the hot races in Indiana:
David Weigel reports on a breakfast held by the American Spectator with Mike Pence, the Hoosier "Republican rock star."
Scott Fluhr, "Overlooked in the revelation of the automated call prohibition, and in the whole EFF incident, is the impact that this might have on get-out-the-vote efforts by both parties."
John Good reports that Dr. Hayhurst has stolen a page from the Bill Frist playbook.
Jason Borneman notes that, "Democrat Tom Hayhurst has outraised incumbent Republican Mark Souder and currently has over twice as much Cash On Hand." He wonders if this is the race is getting close.
Doug Masson examins why Indiana's 2nd Congressional District is heating up, where a recent poll showed that, "Donnelly had 46%, Chocola had 41%, 13% were undecided."
Meanwhile, Frugal Hoosiers tries to make political hay out of Donnelly's tax issues.
Frugal Hoosiers notes that, "Vi Simpson wins the award for being appointed to the most study commissions with ten on her calendar this summer. That's lots of per diem dollars and mileage reimbursement. Good for her." Some less flattering commentary follows.
Doug Masson says that Eric Schansberg may be gaining clout in the 9th District.
State Rep. Steve Heim (R - Culver) recaps his holiday schedule. Says Doug Masson, "I’m a little tired just reading it . . ."
Tippecanoe Politics has more grades for campaign websites.
The Indianapolis Star recently reported on the finances of Indiana's Congressional delegation. Doug Masson summarizes:
So, I’d put their net worth in the following order:
John Good notes that Rep Mark Souder voted against Net Neutrality on Thursday. He's not happy about that.
Jason Borneman wraps up his investigation into the voting record of Indiana's Congressional delegation.
Doug Masson notes some funny business with House GOP Leader John Boehner's (OH) recent trip to Evansville to stump for John Hostettler. I wonder if Mike Pence has any private thoughts on the matter.
Meanwhile, Advance Indiana also notes that:
A Center for Public Integrity Report reveals that Indiana's Sen. Richard Lugar (R) accepted nearly $150,000 in privately-paid trips over the past 5 years, nearly as much as his annual congressional salary of $162,500 according to the Hill . . .
In Indiana, billionaires Bill Cook of the Cook Group and Mel and Herb Simon of Simon Properties have been known to be generous in loaning their private luxury jets to certain members of Indiana's congressional delegation.
Three hits on Evan Bayh.
Well at least Evan Bayh didn’t join the Tom Friedman Six Months And It’ll All Be Better Club, but I gotta wonder what Senator Bayh will be saying in “six to eight weeks”.
Right Wing News, a blog that, as you might expect, worries about Republicans losing the White House, rates the 10 most dangerous Democrats, based on their electability. Evan Bayh comes in third, behind Mark Warner and Bill Richardson, just ahead of Hillary Clinton and Al Gore and way ahead of John Kerry and John Edwards.
I’m still unhappy with Senator Bayh for voting for the elimination of the estate tax back in 2001, and, while I’m pleased that he’s at least giving a nod toward fiscal sanity by linking the estate tax to the deficit, I’m not a great deal happier with the level of support he is giving to the idea of getting rid of this tax in advance of taxes that affect average citizens, such as the income tax; or getting rid of taxes on rich people while a massive National Debt remains for our children to pay.
Doug Masson criticizes the AP for a shallow article on the anti-Chris Chocola (R-02) ads from MoveOn.Org.
He also has some heat for WSBT, who:
. . . claims it pulled the ad because the ad implied that Chocola received money from Halliburton specifically, which he didn’t. Moveon says the implication is that he voted for legislation that benefited Halliburton, which he did.
I guess they’ll have to pull all those ads that imply you’ll get hot chicks if you just drink a lot of beer or drive the right car.
Jason at X-Tra Rant notes passage of a bill in the House Judiciary Committee supporting net neutrality. John Hostettler (R-08) voted against it. Mike Pence (R-06) was MIA.
Jason at X-Tra Rant is applying his nifty PHP gizmo to all nine of Indiana's Representatives. Check it out.
From the 9th District, Hoosier Pundit notes that the House race there is the 7th-most likely to change parties, and FWOb reports on a Libertarian spoiler, Dr. D. Eric Schansberg of New Albany.
Meanwhile, the Coagulating Eighth* has moved down to the 10th-most likely to switch, and Doug Masson puzzles over the salient issues.
* A quick Google search shows that I get dibs on coining that phrase.
Doug Masson has a "roundup of the landscape of Indiana’s Congressional Races based in large part from the election results here."
Doug Masson digs up some predictions from CQ:
Congressional Quarterly has a Balance of Power Scorecard for the House of Representatives. It rates the Indiana delegation as follows:
IN-01: Pete Visclosky - Safe Democratic
IN-02: Chris Chocola - Leans Republican
IN-03: Mark Souder - Safe Republican
IN-04: Steve Buyer - Safe Republican
IN-05: Dan Burton - Safe Republican
IN-06: Mike Pence - Safe Republican
IN-07: Julia Carson - Democrat Favored
IN-08: John Hostettler - No clear favorite
IN-09: Mike Sodrel - No clear favorite. . . I think our red-but-becoming-purple little state may play a big role in the balance of power in the House of Representatives.
Doug also reviews the Journal-Courier's series on Lafayette-area Congressional primary races.
Mitch Harper points us to an interesting post on the blog Down With Tyranny!, "Can Indiana Help Turn Congress Blue? INDIANA???"
Meanwhile, Leo Morris scoffs at the suggestion that Indiana's electoral votes will veer leftward.
Craig from Reverent and Free sums up all the money the House Republicans from Indiana took from Tom DeLay's PAC. Almost ninety-one large ain't bad.
Tracy Warner draws our attention to Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN03), who recently threw a little tantrum over an amendment that would protect government whistleblowers (with video).
Update: Advance Indiana is reporting that the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition is demanding an apology.
Sen. Evan Bayh says the west should act against Iran, reports Welcome to Hoosier Land.
“The government of Iran, as opposed to its people, is a radical regime that is fostering violence, including violence directed at Americans,” he said in an interview with Indiana reporters. “They want to obtain nuclear weapons. They are pledged to destroy the state of Israel. They’ve made menacing comments about our own country.
“We better deal with this sooner rather than later. I think it’s quite possible to deal with it through peaceful means -- if we act now. But if we don’t act now, we’ll need to confront a very difficult dilemma at some future date if we don’t want that nation to acquire nuclear weapons, which is clearly the path they are on,” Bayh said.
Leo Morris on Sen. Evan Bayh's crusade against violent video games.
Masson's Blog: Jasper Time Zone Hearings, St. Joe County Commissioner takes swipe at Portage mayor, Congressman Chris Chocola takes bold stand on time zones
Taking Down Words: "TDW pities Judy Kaleta, senior counsel for dispute resolution with the USDOT, who has to preside over these hearings. People are rightfully angry, and she's caught in the middle."
Deliberate Chaos: "Does having day light savings time in Indiana do the state any good if the whole state is still on split time?"
Taking Down Words: Congressman Steve Buyer cancels Congress's annual joint hearings with veterans' groups.
Probably not a smart idea.
Leo Morris on Advance Indiana's post suggesting Mike Pence was being a hypocrite with regard to his shield law:
Pence makes a valid point that there is a difference in a leak that involves “real time” classified information that poses an “imminent threat” (the prison story) and a leak that involved a CIA employee who wasn't really covert and not in any danger from being "outed."
Still, Leo -- who has worked as a professional journalist for more than 30 years -- has several problems with Pence's proposed shield law. For instance:
Something I write in this blog would be covered under the law because I am doing it under the umbrella of a historically accepted form of the press, i.e., newspapers, TV news operations, public-relations outfits. Something posted on Fort Wayne Observed or Indiana Parley, because they are done merely by ordinary citizens acting on their own, would not be.
PREVIOUSLY: Pence a hypocrite?
On Tuesday, the Indiana Blog Review noted an intersting post on Taking Down Words about Congressman John Hostettler picking up tornado debris in Evansville yards, including the yard of a local television reporter.
That reporter went on Taking Down Words and added a comment clarifying the story, and a nice little back and forth followed between he and the blogger. It's worth a read -- especially if you were unsure whether people really were paying attention to blogs.
PREVIOUSLY: Tornado Aftermath
Advance Indiana thinks Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, in discussing his media shield law, is being hypocritical due to the fact that the proposed legislation would protect the journalists in the Valerie Plame leak case but not the prospective investigation into a story about secret CIA prisons.
Compelling Washington Post reporter Dana Priest to reveal her source would be entirely appropriate because that leak Pence tells us involved “real time” classified information that posed an “imminent threat.” Pence continued, “My view turns entirely on [whether] the information that was leaked constituted a breach of national security and compromised our national security. That’s precisely the kind of leak that our federal media shield would not protect.”
Apparently disclosing Valerie Plame’s identity in Pence’s view in no way constituted a breach of national security or compromised our national security. The public doesn’t really know since her work at the CIA is classified, and Rep. Pence probably hasn’t had access to intelligence concerning her work either to make that conclusion. Nonetheless, as a former covered and currently classified CIA agent, would Ms. Plame not have reason to fear an “imminent threat” to her own well-being Rep. Pence? Or is it more important to protect the partisan gun-slingers in the White House who recklessly placed her life in danger than it is to discourage future disclosures that could place our intelligence officers lives in danger?
But after a lengthy investigation, the special prosecutor didn't find enough evidence that anyone had violated the law by "outing" Plame. Advance Indiana seems to take it as a given that Plame's identity as a CIA agent was a secret until Robert Novak wrote about her in his column, but if that's the case, why didn't Patrick Fitzgerald charge Novak's source with committing a crime?
Here's a question for debate: should a media shield law have restrictions, such as if the information revealed "constituted a breach of national security and compromised our national security"? If so, how does one define those terms?
Taking Down Words: U.S. Rep. Baron Hill is back.
From Jim Shella's blog:
Look for more coverage in coming days of Congressman John Hostettler's decision to forego a visit to the site of the Evansville tornado. Hostettler aides are telling people that the Congressman doesn't want to get in the way, but smart politicians from both parties will tell you that promises of aid and comfort hardly get in anyone's way. In fact, listen closely to those Republicans who choose to defend (or maybe explain) Hostettler's decision. They are tepid defenses and it is not hard to imagine that they are accompanied by pointed private advice to the Congressman.
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