With all of the delicacy, charm and raw political skill that they showed in trying to get Gov. David Paterson of NY to quit.

White House Is Taking a More Aggressive Role in State Races

WASHINGTON — The White House’s intervention in the race for New York governor is the latest evidence of how President Obama and his top advisers are taking an increasingly direct role in contests across the country, but their assertiveness has bruised some Democrats who suggest it could undercut Mr. Obama’s appeal with voters tired of partisan politics.

[snip]

More than anything, though, the interventions reflect a controlling style of this White House and of Mr. Emanuel, who employed similar hard-ball tactics to recruit candidates when he was running the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In addition to Mr. Emanuel, the White House political director, Patrick Gaspard, and deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, keep close watch on all political races.

Via @PatrickRuffini: bolding mine, and reflective of Erick Erickson’s recent first look at ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’s Rolodex.  One may be forgiven for wondering whether… input on this was sought.

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I don’t know him or anything about him. This is not an endorsement. But I can’t tell you how many people have poured out into my email inbox to express support for Ryan Frazier. I’ve got a lot of friends who are impressed by him.

One person who has great gut instincts of conservatives sent me a link to a YouTube of Ryan Frazier. Hmmm . . . Frazier, Rubio, Williams . . . ironic if these three got elected we might see the most conservative Republican caucus to exist in a long while and it’d be the two black men and the hispanic guy pushing the GOP to the right.

Works for me.

That is me being charitable.  Because the alternative is that Maurice Schwenkler is an idiot whose idiocy is only matched by the Democratic idiots who sent him out to bust his own side’s window:

A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions.

[snip]

While [Maurice] Schwenkler does not appear in the state’s voter registration database, a person by that name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition for “communications,” according to campaign finance disclosures.

[snip]

A Maurice Schwenkler also signed an online 2005 petition to free anti-war Christian protesters who were captured in Iraq.

More details here, here, and most assuredly here (the phrase “connected to ultra-liberal groups once investigated by the FBI for potential domestic terrorism incidents” features prominently) [and now here and here]: this Rootswire screenshot of the Colorado Citizens Coalition will also prove amusing.  Which leads to the next question: what does State Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak know about this?  She familiar with Schwenkler at all?  Or the guy that’s still at large?

At any rate, I think that it’s time that extremist fringe supporters of health care rationing stop using violence to accomplish their goals.  It’s not going to derail the democratic process, and it’s bad for the country in general.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

After a series of unsuccessful requests to arrange a town hall over the August recess with Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey (CO-4), grassroots organizers opted instead to host their own health care town hall in the congresswoman’s absence – complete with an empty chair and placard for the reticent Markey.

The Northern Colorado Townhall Committee, who say their objective is to “provide a forum” for the voters of Northern Colorado, announced today they would hold a health care town hall on August 25th, and extended an open invitation to Representative Markey to moderate the event.

“With the August recess nearly half way over, we can’t wait any longer,” said the group’s founder, Kelly Trosper. “When other Reps across the nation are adding extra meetings, we still don’t have a schedule from her. This is a forum to discuss urgent topics, to include Health Care reform. We’re having to set one up ourselves, because our Rep isn’t making herself available.”

But this afternoon, following the public outcry and impressive political theater, Markey’s staff announced a town hall blitz, featuring 11 public forums on health care reform.

Greg Merton, a spokesman for the townhall committee, remains skeptical of Markey’s new-found interest in dialogue, and points to a local news report where Markey’s staff obfuscated on the matter last night, saying no details on the Congresswoman’s events would be made public for at least another week.

Confronted with the prospect of engaging in a dialogue with unhappy constituents, Democratic members of Congress have begun employing questionable tactics to limit access to town hall, some staffing the forums with supporters, while others still requiring photo identification to verify residency. While Congressional Democrats routinely demagogue the latter practice as it relates to voting, arguing it disenfranchises poor and minority voters, they seemingly have no problem disenfranchising low- and middle-income families concerned with the future of health care in the United States.

Concerned Markey may chart a similar course of action, Merton says his group intends to keep the August 25th event on-the-books until they “find out the ‘rules of engagement’” for the Congresswoman’s other events.

“We appreciate the small victory for democracy,” Merton says, adding, “but we’ll be keeping the date so we can be sure to be heard.”

Markey’s staff did not return an immediate request for comment.

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…it’s who you know.  Isn’t that right, Governor Bill Ritter (D-CO)?

Gov. Ritter Steered Stimulus Money To Ex-Employer

DENVER (AP) ? Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has awarded some of the state’s first stimulus money to his former employer in a no-bid contract.

Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson, in a no-bid contract to review stimulus spending, The Denver Post reported Friday. It said the firm was paid $40,000 in stimulus money through June.

In this case, ‘who’ is a law firm full of political donors of Governor Ritter’s (D), including at least two “who work directly on the state’s stimulus issues.”  The Governor’s (D) office is claiming that the deal was righteous, as well as legal… although they didn’t go into explaining why they paid six times what they would have if they had run things through the Attorney General’s office:

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Brian pointed to the bizarre reposition of Rep. Charles Melancon (D-LA) on card-check. But this points to a broader pattern. Senators running in 2010 in potentially contests Senate seats are afraid to take a position on the issue.

For example, in Colorado, appointed Senator Michael Bennet is “stuck in neutral” on card check, according to the Denver Post. In Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln won’t support it. Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter is famously wrapped around the axle on it.

With card-check, cap-and-tax-and-trade, and Obamacare in the pipeline, how much soon until these Senators back away from the President?

Colorado is likely to be home to several competitive races in 2010: notably Senator Michael Bennet’s first re-election run, two Democrat-held House seats, and hopefully Governor Ritter’s re-election bid. With that in mind, it’s encouraging to see early signs of disaffection with President Obama:

Barack Obama and Mark Udall each won their elections in Colorado last year by pretty solid margins, but Public Policy Polling’s first look at their approval numbers since taking office finds relatively weak numbers for them in the state.

Obama receives approval from 49% of voters with 45% dissenting. For Udall it’s just 41% approval and 46% disapproving.

For each that’s a much smaller swath of the electorate approving of their job performance than voted for them last fall, and it looks like a lot of that may have to do with their standing among independent voters.

An average of PPP’s final three Colorado polls last year found Obama and Udall both doing spectacularly well among independent voters. Obama had a 24 point lead with them and Udall led by 27. But now only 48% of independents approve of what the President is doing with 47% disapproving and for Udall the spread is negative at 41/48.

The midterms are a long way off, but numbers like this will aid both in candidate recruitment and early fundraising. In a formerly red state that has trended blue, we’ll need both.

So let’s review: what happens when you are an average citizen that skips out on paying late fees? You get your car repossessed, your home foreclosed upon, or your utilities shut off. If it is a government fee you refuse to pay, you will likely end up in jail for not paying. But, whatever late fee you aren’t paying, it bodes major trouble if you’re a regular citizen.

Now what happens if you are a Democrat politician that finds a late fee assessed to you for whatever reason? Naturally, you decide you are exempt from paying such piffle because, after all, YOU are an important politician. Even if you are just a local state perfunctory, you are above being bothered by having to pay a late fee on anything. What do people think you are, anyway? A lowly VOTER!? Perish the thought.

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Colorado’s Michael Bennet - who faces the voters for the first time next year - had a rough meeting with ‘progressives’ in Colorado. It sounds as if he thinks that his re-election chances suffer if he supports the Obama agenda. In particular, he doesn’t like Card Check:

Bennet has been one of the few Senate Democrats who have declined to take a stand on the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill favored by organized labor that would make it easier to unionize worksites.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., announced Monday that she would oppose the bill, making it all but certain that the bill in its current form can’t muster the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster by opponents.

“We’re going to have to see whether or not there’s a consensus that can be reached that makes it something that can be passed because right now there isn’t something that can be passed,” Bennet told the group at New Belgium.

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If you haven’t read it yet, read it here.

Yup. Threatening a kid for having fake gun-shaped items used for rifle drills. Fascinating how these people think, huh?

The principal for Cherokee Trail High School is Brooke Gregory. S/he could very well be not yet fully aware of this situation: give him/her a call at 720-886-1904 and politely inquire.

The Superintendent for the Cherry Creek School System is Marie Chesley, and she would no doubt like this problem to go away. You can reach her at 303-773-1184 - just to make sure, though.

The Congressman for CO-07 is Ed Perlmutter (D). Call him up at 202-225-2645 and ask him if he supports the expulsion of students trying to do rifle drills. If you live in the District, his number there is 303.274.7944.

Mark Udall (D) is the senior Senator for Colorado. Call him at 202-224-5941 (877-768-3255 if you’re from Colorado) and ask him the same question, assuming that you can get through from all the people screaming about how we’re about to pass a trillion dollar debt bill. On the other hand, they’d probably be ecstatic to have something less minefield-like to work on, at this point.

Michael F. Bennet (D) is the junior Senator for Colorado. Call him at 202-224-5852; if/when you get through, be sure to ask whether he would have sanctioned this when he was running the Denver school system.

…And that’s all that I can think of, under the circumstances.

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

Another Example of How Liberals Destroy This Country

We often call them “our best and brightest.” They are the men and women of our armed forces, all volunteers putting their lives on the line to defend our nation. Some of our most able and trustworthy leaders have come from their ranks. In times of need their sacrifice is cause for us to well with pride and their inevitable loss cause to shed a tear of gratitude. We encourage our young people to consider this life of sacrifice to our country and when at a young age they so choose the life of a soldier, almost without fail we find such young folks to be the cream of our society. Polite. Earnest. Intelligent. Hard working.

So why are the administrators in the Aurora, Colorado public school system harassing and punishing one of those very young people that we should be celebrating? With actions such as this, liberals are not only destroying our schools but also our traditions and our very social fabric.

High school senior Marie Morrow, 17, of Cherokee Trail High School is serving an illicitly sentenced 10-day suspension and her expulsion from school is on the line within the month. Miss Morrow is a team leader of the Young Marines youth leadership group and participates in the group’s drill team.

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