Interview with Supreme Court Justice Scalia

I found this interview on Hulu, given the Sotomayor hearings I thought this would be good to share.

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

Gary Johnson for President? What?

I think Springboard America knows something I don't. Why? Well, I took a survey with them and came across a rather strange selection for a question. (Text below image)

If you can't read it it says:

Q: Several politicians have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates for the Republican Party in 2012. For each of these politicians, please say whether you think they would make a good president or bad president:

Michael Steele
Mike Huckabee
Newt Gingrich
Sarah Palin
Gary Johnson
Mitt Romney
Ron Paul
Condoleeza Rice

Obviously, Steele and Rice could be expected to be included on the suspected list of Huckabee, Gingrich, Palin, Romney and Paul. I'm guessing the surveyors will use Steele and Rice in some form of division into classification - people should indicate some knowledge of the positions of those two. But Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico? What? That's a plant and makes me wonder who paid for this survey.

The entire basis for Johnson's consideration of a bid for Presidency is this blog post, as far as I can tell. Oh and there is a Facebook Group to recruit him. Then again, there is a Facebook Group for everything (literally).

As a side note, you'll notice that I didn't say they'd all be "bad presidents," though I'd have a hard time saying that I'd agree with what they said I'm not sure they'd be "bad presidents." (Plus, I wanted to help encourage Palin not to run).

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

Bill Clinton Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Wow, I totally missed this (via The Nation): "Former President Bill Clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage."

As you probably know, President Clinton signed DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) in 1996 and in May of this year (2009) said that his opinion of same-sex marriage was "evolving."

"I personally support people doing what they want to do," Clinton said. "I think it's wrong for someone to stop someone else from doing that [same-sex marriage]"

Talk about a renewed pressure on President Obama to do something. (For the record, The Nation makes no secret of it's advocacy of Obama and it seems pretty clear that they support same-sex marriage). I cannot entirely disagree with a recent assessment in their magazine that he's running out of time to move from the rhetoric stage to action stage; well wrought words may carry the day but actions make history.

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

Update On Florida

Florida's been busy these past couple weeks, specifically regarding the Senate race. My favorite, State Senator Dan Gelber, dropped out to run for Attorney General. He's currently facing off against State Senator Dave Aronberg for the Democratic Nomination and it's looking to be a tight race. Gelber's exit leaves Congressman Meek to battle either Governor Crist or former Florida Speaker Rubio in the race for Senate. The Republican battle is getting more and more interesting everyday.

Florida Capitol News reports today that "Rubio, the fiery conservative alternative to the moderate Gov. Charlie Crist, beat Crist 60-11 in a straw poll conducted Saturday by the Lee County Republican Executive Committee." Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports today that "Charlie Crist will likely be the Republican Senate nominee next year, but winning the nomination will not be the cakewalk that the conventional wisdom supposes. Marco Rubio, brainy but underfunded, will take a bite -- several of them -- out of the frontrunner before it's over." Oh yeah, did I mention Rubio raised only $340,000 in the 2nd Quarter while Crist raised over $4.3 million? And, Rubio is expected to have spent a chunk of that generating "hype," as one reporter put it.

It's no wonder then that the Examiner.com is reporting today that Congress Daily is reporting Rubio is "seriously considering" dropping out of the Senate race and entering the Attorney General race. That'd pit him against either Gelber or Aronberg and probably give a better chance at being elected.

Frankly, I don't think anyone really knows what's going on. Rubio is probably still weighing his options.

I'll say this, if Rubio drops out then Crist will almost certainly become Senator. I just don't buy Examiner.com's claim that Conservatives will seriously look toward carpetbagger and former U.S. Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) who moved to Sarasota and endorsed Senator Kerry for President over their reliable, incumbent Governor. Smith is too much of a risk.

Oh, and, former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey endorsed Rubio earlier in the week so it's hard to imagine that Rubio won't hang in a little while longer.

To add to that, Congressman Meek has proven to be a fairly poor fundraiser taking in only $1.5 million - most of which seemed to come from former President Clinton's visits. (Note: I'm not clear if that was Q2 data or fundraising altogether but even if it's Q2 he's being rapidly outstripped by Crist).

Finally, if you're interesting in knowing all about the political events of Florida Progress Florida has the most awesomely useful daily email which you can sign up for here. It's actually a great summary of all the articles that ran in the past 24 hours about political events/people/issues involving Florida in an easy to read format. (Much more useful than, say, email updates from President Obama).

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

A Return To Normalcy

No, not Warren Harding;s Campaign but, rather, a return to blogging. I'm in DC, interning, and once again reunited with the internet.

I do have one caveat though. Since I'm interning on the Hill, on the Senate Side, I won't be able to take up the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings or Health Care (or anything thing else I hear whispers of in the halls of Congress). I don't do this for any reason other than the fact that I'd like to keep my job. I do agree wholeheartedly with Sissela Bok who said " I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless" but unfortunately that is currently the society we live in.

I will say, on the subject of Sotomayor, that every news organization I've read expects her confirmation unless she says something completely insane. Further, on the subject of Health Care, Roll Call ran an article today that said they (Roll Call) expected the Senate to cut into their August break in order to get Health Care passed before leaving town.

Turning back a couple weeks, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Independence Day. I know I did. Actually, I went to a parade in the small town (approx. 2500) of Grantham, NH. I have to say that it was quite a display for such a small town. Also, the day before I was in New London, NH and other nearby parts. I can honestly say that the American Flags and Bunting was like the sheep in New Zealand, it outnumbered the people. I've been privy to some spectacular July 4th Spectacles in Boston, DC and other large cities but those were all pale ghosts of patriotism compared to what I saw in some of those New Hampshire towns. And, I'm sure the same would go for quite a few small towns across the country.

Side note, I spent sometime in New Jersey and while I haven't been up on the polls of the Governor's race there I'm betting that Corzine isn't looking too good right now. Not a single person I talked to had something good to say about him.

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

Sarah Palin

I know I'm a bit late on this but I wanted to jump in on the Sarah Palin announcement. I just saw her on Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room where she replied "that was a good catch" to a question about July 3rd being deliberate. Frankly, I'm not sure what to say to that, July 3rd was most certainly deliberate. Though I cannot say I think that 'declaring her independence' is a good reason. As far as I know, Palin is the first and only Governor to leave during a first term for no particular reason at all.

If Sarah Palin was a stock I'd predict that she lost a lot of value with that announcement. And, considering Forbes' profile of Shannyn Moore, one of about five political bloggers in Alaska, I doubt Palin's prospects are improving. If you don't know Moore staged a press conference in relation to Palin's suit against her, a suit centering on 'rumor-mongering' as far as I can tell.

Public Policy Polling (PPP) results show that Palin, like Pawlenty (who announced he was not seeking reelection in 2010), is hurting in terms of prospects. The new claims are of 'Goldwater.' Although, I'm not sure I believe Palin is capable of penning such a well written and thoughtful book as Conscience of a Conservative.

Honestly, I don't think Palin has a political future. But, her almost-son-in-law may not be so wrong in that it was a good time to get out of electoral politics and "cash in." It has become increasingly apparent that Palin had too many negatives to really and truly make an effective run in the general election (although she could have probably gotten the Republican Nomination) and her political fortune won't last forever.

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content

Back from NH, Sort Of

I'm sort of back from NH, I doubt I'll be posting regularly until Monday. I'm in the midst of working on a couple other projects. I didn't have internet or phone service for more than a week so I'm busy catching up on the news. I was lucky enough to be able to read the Valley News most days but most of their political stories were AP or WashPo stories so I didn't get quite the number of perspectives I'm used to. Interesting news about Palin though, I'll certainly be covering that later.

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content