Eight of them:

Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley’s congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.

Via HolyCoast.com. Note that the SEIU itself hung Balzano out to dry: when your guys are already out there on camera beating up protesters and gadflies, it’s not a good time to start a fight with the Boy Scouts of America*.  I suggest that the various loyalists of that organization keep that in mind.

Moe Lane

*Not that it’s ever a good time.  Nobody smart in American politics messes with the Scouts. Boy or Girl Scouts.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

As noted before, Scott (of Scrappleface fame) is running for Lehigh County Executive, and he’s in the middle of a $5,000 pledge drive to fund getting another mailing in before the election. He’s no more than $500 away from it. You can contribute here.

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If you’ve ever laughed at anything that he’s written, then you’ve probably gotten at least five bucks’ worth of entertainment out of him. Here’s a good time to pay him back for that; I just did, and I don’t really have it to spare.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

This has been noted as being almost like a game of rock-paper-scissors:

• Toomey beats Specter, 45/40.
• Specter beats Sestak, 46/42.
• Sestak ties Toomey, 38/37.

Some other numbers for Specter: 46/52 favorable/unfavorable (Rasmussen);  31/59 deserves-reelection (Susquehanna).  The Susquehanna poll also has him leading Sestak in the primary 44/16 and tied with Toomey 42/41, but that may be the usual registered/likely voter difference.  All in all, it’s starting to look like maybe Specter should have taken the hint and announced that he wasn’t going to run for re-election after he switched parties…

Moe Lane

PS: Pat Toomey for Senate.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Scott (of Scrappleface fame) is running for Lehigh County Executive, and he’s explicitly avoiding the soundbite in this video. You can read the summary if you’re in a hurry.

At the end of 2010, the reserve funds are gone. Don Cunningham spent all of his predecessor’s 69.5 percent tax hike. At this spending rate, you face a property tax hike of at least 20 percent. Cunningham’s administration refuses to answer questions about the looming 2011 tax hike, but the image above speaks for itself. County Executive candidate Scott Ott will prevent the tax hike, by making the tough decisions to bring spending in line with revenue.

Scott’s coming up on the end of the quarter for fundraising, just like a lot of other candidates out there. Now would be a good time to let our opponents know that we care about more than the federal races when it comes to elections.

Donation link here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

They say that nobody loves a traitor. The Pat Toomey campaign wants you to remember that usually one person does, at least: the traitor himself.

Two things:

1. President Obama ripped off former President Bush so blatantly in that speech praising Specter that the former should have paid the latter royalties; and
2. It’s not every day that people are given a second chance to correct the mistakes of a past election.  Pat Toomey for Senate. RedState likes him.

Moe Lane

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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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Brian Faughnan noted the other day that up until this year Democrats have been pretty open that the “public option” was intended to be a back door into universal socialized healthcare.

Barney Frank, too, has pretty strongly hinted at that.

Up in Pennsylvania, Chris Carney, a liberal Democrat who tries his best to seem moderate, kind of sort of let slip in a town hall that, in fact, he favors the full socialization of the American healthcare system and views the public option as a back door to universal healthcare.

Rather, Mr. Carney said, he wants a bill that ensures insurance companies must cover pre-existing conditions and allows people to take their health care coverage with them if they change jobs, a concept known as transportability.

“A public option is something that may get us what we really want,” he said.

What does Chris Carney really want? Well, the language of the legislation itself provides a roadmap to what Carney wants.

Under the Democrats’ plan, businesses will get a $4,000 per worker incentive to push people onto government healthcare. (SOURCE)

Additionally, individuals who leave their current insurer for any reason - whether it be moving to a different state or changing to a different employer - will be forced to purchase a new government-approved private plan or to enroll in the government-run, taxpayer-funded “public option” for their health coverage. (SOURCE)

It all leads to socialized, universal healthcare. This is all in the legislation.

Carney, by the way, was at a townhall recently acting like he has read the bill. When people told him what is in the bill, he replied that the issue “is not in the bill.” Only later did he say, “The bill has not been written yet.”

Arlen Specter is, admittedly, the most unprincipled opportunist in Washington, but something sure seems fishy.

Back in April after switching parties, Arlen Specter said, “I will not be an automatic 60th vote and I would illustrate that by my position on employees’ choice, also known as card check. I think it is a bad deal and I am opposed to it and would not vote to invoke cloture.” He was pretty adamant about it.

Well, Specter goes to the lefty blogger confab in Pittsburgh on August 14th and is asked, “Is it fair to say that on the climate legislation, on Employees Free Choice, on the public option health care plan, these are all areas where you would be voting with the majority for cloture?”

Specter’s response? “Yes.”

Guess what. Three days after Specter’s yes, Obama decides to raise money for Specter.

Sure, Obama had already said he’d campaign for Specter, but had actually done not one thing to help Specter. Heck, Obama did absolutely nothing to keep Sestak out of the primary, something Obama could have done.

But Specter goes on record saying he will now vote for cloture on stuff four months ago he adamantly was opposed to and now Obama says he’ll raise money for Specter, as will Joe Biden.

The question is: which came first? Did Specter saying ‘yes’ persuade Obama or did Obama persuade Specter?

The buzz in Pennsylvania last week was that Obama would not be helping Specter despite promises to do so. Now Obama is all in.

Unless you think the news is wholly coincidental, we must now consider the need to spell Arlen Specter’s last name with a dollar sign instead of an “S”.

It sure looks like Presidential bribe to get a filibuster proof Senate.

:sound effect of mouthful of coffee being sprayed across the monitor:

Uncomfortable town hall meetings are just the tip of the iceberg for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. He now trails Republican Pat Toomey by double digits in his bid for reelection next year and is viewed unfavorably by a majority of the state’s voters.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows 48% would vote for Toomey if the election were held today. Just 36% would vote for Specter while four percent (4%) prefer a third option, and 12% are not sure.

These figures reflect a dramatic reversal since June. At that time, before the public health care debate began, Specter led Toomey by eleven.

:pause:

Wow.

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Right now, today, we have an available source of energy that accomplishes the stated policy goals of the Obama Administration, by:

• Reducing our reliance on imported oil.
• Creating good-paying, green jobs for Americans.
• Reducing greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants.
• Providing affordable energy from a totally domestic, proven source in virtually inexhaustable amounts.

Of course, nothing’s perfect. This energy source comes with some distinct DISADVANTAGES, being contrary to the Administration’s goals:

• It’s not government-centric.
• It won’t allow the Administration to throw a sop to ACORN, SEIU or powerful Democrats in Washington.
• American corporations (and American investors) sometimes actually make a profit on it.
• Winners and losers are determined in the marketplace, not by government diktat.

So, I can see already why this fuel might not be popular with the current Administration, but some folks might even interpret those disadvantages as ADVANTAGES.

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This one is of his speech that Toomey did for the Gathering, not the interview afterward: I’m not sure if there is going to be a better video copy of it, so enjoy. Pat Toomey is, of course, the guy who scared Arlen Specter into getting primary challenged by the Democrats instead of the Republicans, which is probably not what Specter had in mind. Such a pity, really.

As the video notes, Toomey also has a book (The Road to Prosperity) out.

Moe Lane

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From the diaries, by Erick.

As noted below, Rep Lloyd Doggett of TX got his head handed to him talking to his constituents back home in the most liberal part of Texas.  He’s not alone.

Panzeramic has a whole series of videos from an Arlen Specter event with [HHS Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius in Philly.  Here’s my favorite…

Check out the site, they’ve got a bunch more. It would appear that the indians are restless.

In March, I wrote about the GOP opportunities that follow from the conviction of South Philly machine Democratic State Senator Vincent Fumo. The recent news of Democratic corruption out of New Jersey (mayors, rabbis, and body-parts, oh my!) and the emerging consensus that this fundamentally damages Jon Corzine’s already difficult re-election, when combined with outrage at farcically light sentencing creates real opportunities for Republicans.

Let’s go over the facts and see how much this helps Pennsylvania Republicans in 2010.

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If so, the New York Daily News is being rather artful about it:

Meanwhile, people have been speculating with vengeance since we told you about the former Davis escort who contends Spitzer wasn’t the only governor she romped with. On Friday, when Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s spokesman Chuck Ardo resigned, Ardo insisted his retirement had nothing to do with Gawker and other sites putting Rendell on their short list of pols who may be Governor X. Ardo told The D.C. Write Up that Rendell is not the new luv guv - “no way, no how, no place, no time.”

Many seem to be aching for X to be Arnold Schwarzenneger. While we’re continuing to investigate the escort’s highly detailed story of her three “dates” with him, we won’t identify the chief exec with the prominent wife. But we will say this: it ain’t California’s Governator.

So Gov. Rendell’s former PR flack’s denial that his former boss patronizes prostitutes gets reported without comment - while unnamed rumors that it was actually Gov. Schwarzenegger get firmly and unequivocally debunked.  Either way, absolutely deniable on the Daily News’ part.

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…that someone surveying the situation might be forgiven in thinking that it’s implicitly permitted: but no, we don’t actually want election fraud to happen. When it does - like it did in Pennsylvania - and we can catch them at it, we put the people who did it on trial.

And then, apparently, we have the ACLU wander in and pick the wrong side to defend (via No Sheeples Here).  They’ve decided that paying people to commit election fraud is constitutional:

PITTSBURGH — The community organizing and voter registration group Acorn filed a federal lawsuit here Wednesday claiming that a state statute that is being used to prosecute some of its former employees is unconstitutional.

[snip]

Acorn hopes the lawsuit will prevent criminal prosecution of its local leaders and office, which have been under investigation by Mr. Zappala’s office for eight months, said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is representing Acorn.

See also the American Spectator, which in another article notes the real estate links between the NYT and ACORN.  Just in case anyone was wondering why the sympathetic tone.

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[UPDATE]: And if you think those numbers are bad, wait until Specter caves on card check to appease his new owners.  His constituents are purely going to hate that.

Via Hot Air Headlines, nobody loves a traitor.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s 2010 reelection lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey has shrunk to a tie with 45 percent for Specter and 44 percent for Toomey, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. And voters say 49 - 40 percent that Sen. Specter does not deserve reelection.

[snip]

Specter, first elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980 but who switched to the Democratic Party earlier this year, holds a commanding 55 - 23 percent lead over U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak in the race for the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side Toomey buries Peg Luksik 47 - 6 percent.

[snip]

In other trial matchups Specter would defeat Luksik 47 - 40 percent, while Toomey would edge Sestak 39 - 35 percent.

That last bit may be what dooms Sestak’s candidacy… except, of course, that the Democrats are already trying their best to sabotage his (and Maloney’s, over in NY) primary challenge anyway. Meanwhile, the NRSC is backing Toomey, thus avoiding the bloody primary that we were all expecting and dreading before Specter changed sides.

So: thanks for not retiring, Arlen! Make sure that you vote for health care rationing!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

It’s a lovely morning today.  The sun is shining down from a brilliantly-azure sky.  The birds are singing counterpoint to the steady rumble of people getting up, going to work and living their lives.  Somewhere, a child laughs with innocent delight as a sudden breeze stirs the grass, and sends dandelion seeds dancing through the air.  And Air Force investigators are charging that various-and-sundry companies linked to Rep. Jack Murtha (and his lobbyist brother Kit Murtha) improperly received and used earmarks funneled to them by him.

When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors.

The research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart, however, when investigators found evidence that it was used to improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha’s district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments.

As prosecutors reveal new details of their criminal probe into the $8 million earmark that Murtha arranged for the Air Force project, one familiar player is never mentioned by authorities. Several of the companies had hired the lobbying firm of the lawmaker’s brother, Robert C. “Kit” Murtha.

They’ve already flipped one of the defendants: Richard Ianieri (formerly of Coherent Systems International, one of the companies involved) will be cooperating with the authorities on this and a probably-related kickback case. In other words, this is the point in the ongoing investigation timeline where the investigators have finally taken hold of the loose thread and are prepared to give it a good, hard yank - just to see what happens. This is also the point where people start mumbling things like ‘no wrongdoing has been proven on the part of my client’ rather than confidently shouting it: it’s not yet the point where sitting politicians start discovering a burning need to spend more time with their families, but there’s time for that.

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He is running for Lehigh County Executive against entrenched Democratic incumbent Don Cunningham, and on a ticket of fiscal responsibility:

…he is of course well known to us as a long-time political wit and satirist (this is one of his latest works); but he’s extremely serious about this race, and he needs our help. So, if you have anything to donate, you can do it here.  Remember: the cavalry isn’t coming to save us.  We’re the cavalry.

And we are perfectly capable of saving ourselves.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Not good for House Republicans.

Rep. Jim Gerlach has told National Republican Congressional Committee officials that he is running for governor, a GOP source confirmed Tuesday, making his competitive southeastern Pennsylvania district a prime Democratic pick up opportunity in 2010.

The Allentown Morning Call first reported that the four-term Republican has opted to run for governor, ensuring that his suburban Philadelphia 6th district seat will be a top battleground next year. According to the newspaper report, Gerlach is expected to make his gubernatorial announcement at some point Tuesday.