“The Most Dangerous Credit Card in the History of the World”

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called congressional voting cards “the most dangerous credit card in the history of the world”, because then enable Congress and the president to engage in reckless spending. This was not Boehner's first criticism of Obama, but his statement came on the 101st day of the Obama Administration, a time which Boehner has criticized as being pock marked with excessive borrowing, reckless spending and a massive growth in government.

Boehner said that Democrat’s “record on spending and debt is staggering, but our economy is growing weaker, and it’s not going to get any better by growing the size of the government here in Washington.”

Boehner believes that the Democratically controlled Congress has enabled and contributed to the recklessness, and thinks it is up to the Republicans to put a stop to it. Republicans must be “the party of better solutions” if they are going to stand up to the Democrats in Congress, Boehner said, adding that he hopes Democrats will be committed to a bipartisan policy approach..

Citing the elections of 2008, Boehner said “out brand has been tarnished”, but to help the party serve the American people, Republicans must stand up to the Obama Administration when disagreements arise, and to offer alternative solutions.

Leader Boehner applauded President Obama on his strategy towards Afghanistan and Iraq, but showed concern at Obama’s greater national security policy.

“The big question continues to be: what is the Administration’s overarching plan to fight terrorism? Judging from their recent decision to release 30 terrorist detainees with no plan on where to put them, it continues to beg the question,” referring to Obama’s closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center without knowing where the detainees will be sent.

Specter’s Spectacle

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Senator Arlen Specter
Photo by Michael Ruhl

Senator Arlen Specter (Penn.) says that he left the Republican Party because they had stuck their nose into party affairs to the point of breeding extremism. Ironically the Democrats are doing the exact same thing to their newest member. Micromanaging from the highest level doesn’t seem to be exclusive to the Republicans.

Yesterday Specter walked away from the party he has been with for nearly four decades, because he felt they were ignoring moderate voice. Specter announced his decision to defect to the Democratic Party, only the twenty-first time that a Senator has done such a thing since 1890.

President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have both said they will fully support Specter in his 2010 election, but Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) was not sure that the party establishment should be backing Specter in this way.

“If decisions and candidates are being chosen in Washington, you may just reemphasize that divisive barrier that’s between the parties,” Sestak said. “I think we cannot afford to have a decision that is so important to Pennsylvanians be decided by the party establishment,” and that the voters should be the ones to choose their candidate.

Sestak is rumored to be considering running for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, and would come up against Specter in the Democratic primary. When asked directly, Sestak said he had not decided yet whether or not he would run. Another contender, Representative Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) said today that she would not run for the seat.

The republican response has ranged from anger to confusion. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steel likened Specter to Benedict Arnold.

“Clearly, this was an act based on political expediency by a craven politician desperate to keep his Washington power base - not the act of a statesman,” Steel said. “Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate.”

Specter responded, “I have not represented the Republican Party, I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.” He was referencing the fact that in the past months there has been an exodus from the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, where over 100,000 individuals changed their party registration from Republican to Democrat.

Specter is defending his position as being one of riding with the tides of his constituency, instead of bowing to the will of a national political party. Critics see it as a survival move of a desperate politician.

Speaking today with President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, Specter said that staying in the Senate would allow him to carry forward important initiatives for his constituents, speaking specifically about expanding medical research.

Specter would prove to be the 60 Democrat in the Senate, provided that comedian Al Franken prevails in his court case for the Minnesota Senate. Sixty votes, called a supermajority, is enough to override a Republican filibuster. Specter said previously, though, that he was not going to simply back the Democrats automatically, and President Obama acknowledged that, saying, “I don’t expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp.” According to Obama, he and Specter agree in the areas of health care, education, medical research

McConnell: Specter’s Decision Purely Political

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

The Republican ship is sinking and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) is first to jump off the boat. While to some experts the recent defection of Specter to the Democrats marks the end of an electable Republican Party, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) said they were far less concerned.

“This was simply, nothing more and nothing less than political self-preservation,” said Cornyn, adding that “(Specter’s) own pollster told him that he could not win the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, so his only options were to leave the Senate or join the Democratic Party.”

Additionally, McConnell downplayed Specter’s decision as a Pennsylvania problem, and not a national problem for the Republican Party.

“This is a Pennsylvania story about his inability, according to his pollster, to be renominated by the Republican Party,” said McConnell.

But one aspect of Specter’s decision could not be denied, as he, coupled with Al Franken’s election in Minnesota, would give the Democrats the necessary votes to block any Republican filibuster.

“But it sets up the potential for the majority, if it chooses to, to run rough over the minority. To eliminate checks and balances and the kind of restraint that Americans have historically wanted from their government,” said McConnell.

Nevertheless, while the loss of Specter lessens Republican power, McConnell tried to lessen the blow by saying, “He (Specter) made a totally political decision.” and that the decision was not symptomatic of other underlying issues within the party.

Boehner Gives Obama Poor Grade For First 100 Days

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service
Summing up President Obama’s first 100 days in office as “spending, taxing, borrowing, and ducking the hard choices,” Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) said that in his eyes “the grade would not be very good.”

Boehner gave a news conference before his meeting later today President Obama and House and Senate leaders from both parties.

“The American people want us to work together, Democrats and Republicans, to deal with the issues that their confronting everyday,” he said, adding that Democrats are working strictly on their own agenda, and that “behind closed doors, they’re continuing to put their finishing touches on their budget.”

Boehner said that this Sunday marks “Debt Day,” in which the federal government revenue for this fiscal year will be gone. Boehner said that any money spent by the government after Sunday April 26th through Sep. 30th, has not been budgeted and will increase the national debt.

The money “is going to have to be borrowed from our kids and grandkids,” Boehner said.“This is the earliest debt day in history. It’s some four and a half months earlier than it was last year when it was August the 5th.”

Considering Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in the midst of the economic crisis “they clearly had a lot on their plate,” said Boehner.

“You’ll continue to see us (Republicans) try to be the party of better solutions,” said Boehner. “The stimulus bill was supposed to be about jobs, and it turned into “spending, spending, and more spending.”

After Democrats released memos last week outlining torture techniques used by the Bush administration, Boehner said “I’m hopeful that Americans will begin to understand there is a bigger story here about what happened, what was done to keep America safe.”

Boehner said that both parties were briefed on the interrogation methods, “and not a word was raised at the time.”

Although he supports the President’s plan for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Boehner questions the bigger picture of what the administration is doing to keep America safe.

The world “didn’t suddenly become safer in January of 2009,” Boehner said Democrats have “decided to close the detainee base down in Cuba without having any plan for what they’re going to do with those terrorists who are hell bent on killing Americans.”

Bond “cautiously optimistic” over Obama approach to Pakistan

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio New Service

This morning at a discussion on issues related to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-MO) broke away from his Republican colleagues by praising one of President Barack Obama’s policies.

The plan that was unveiled last Friday would increase U.S. support in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bond says the only way to address the long-term threat of terrorism in the region is to take a “smart power-counter insurgency approach.”

Recent attacks in Pakistan “underscore that the threats emanating from the region are one of the greatest national security threats and challenges of our time,” Bond said.

“The reason my optimism is guarded is because the President has split the baby between two competing camps in Washington and I believe in the White House today. The first camp focuses strictly on counter terrorism, or CT, and the second which takes a counter insurgency or coin strategy approach,” Bond said.

“We will not have success eliminating extremist elements in Afghanistan if we cannot confront them in western Pakistan. To do this we must fully engage Pakistan,” he said, adding that cooperation from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is vital to success.

“NATO must supply more military and civilian assistance personal and remove cumbersome constraints on their people in the field,” Bond said.

But, Bond said, the U.S. “must work with Pakistan to find out what will be required to achieve genuine and measurable progress against terrorists and insurgents in the federally administered tribal areas and other border regions in Pakistan.

“There are three legs of the stool that need to be addressed in the region; security, development and governance,” said Bond, adding that security will only be truly established when local Afghan and Pakistan security forces are able to hold territory themselves and when they have the incentives to do so.

Additionally, “We need to have USAID and other development organizations coordinate better with our military forces to provide what local leaders want and not just deliver to them, one year later, what we tell them they need. This means working with local councils or tribal gurges to insure we are meeting their needs.”