Visiting Colleges - Calling for Action

Dave Obey even made the evening news saying Congress is making it harder for children of working families to get an education. Really Dave?

How about, instead of being so negative all the time, you give us a plan. Let's see your plan. Tell us how you would pay for it. Tell us why you don't support making colleges justify the amount of student aid they receive based on the number of qualifying students.

Here's an even better question, why don't you tell families that you voted against virtually all tax relief they've received since you've been in Congress and that you've voted for all their tax increases since you've been in Congress? Tell them that you don't want them to have extra income to save for college, that you'd rather take it from them and dole it out through federal bureaucracy, and only when they fill out a 13 page form to become eligible. Basically, tell them you're a big reason why trying to pay for college is such a problem for working families.

A Sad Day

It was a sad day for America yesterday when a seated member of Congress admitted to taking nearly $2.5 million in bribes for official favors. Duke Cunningham violated the public trust and should rightly be held accountable for his actions.

While Democrats and liberal bloggers can hardly contain their glee all over the Internet, to politicize the actions of one individual is both dangerous and unfair. It's dangerous because at least one Democrat is under FBI investigation and it's unfair because most lawmakers in Congress Repubilcans and Democrats, are there to serve the people whether we agree with them or not. However, it's all the Democrat Party's got right now. They can't win on the issues, and they don't have a plan.

As we noted in our post from yesterday, Democrats are going to pound away with a negative message. Republicans will be demonized and accused. Every Republican candidate will be compared to Duke Cunningham and Tom DeLay. Just look at the House Democrats website, and you see them trying to link every Republican to some scandal (which is an absolutely ridiculous blanket accusation) and they call it a campaign for change. The question is, a change to what? Higher taxes. More out of control spending. No accountability for bureaucratic nonsense. Dismantling the best health care system in the world. Giving unscrupulous trial lawyers the ability to file unchecked frivilous lawsuits. Allowing France to make our foreign policy. Turning a blind eye to immigration issues. What part of their agenda do they actually want to run on? That agenda has failed to win them control of the House since 1992. It hasn't changed since then.

We suggest that after 36 years in the Seventh District, the people of Northwest Wisconsin need to campaign for change and to vote Obey out.

[Update 4:15pm, 11/29] Obey Out has heard from a couple of people offline who think it's very appropriate for Democrats to bring up the "culture of corruption" especially in light of the fact we are going after Obey's record here.

We maintain it is individual lawmakers should be held accountable for their actions.

For instance, Democrat Frank Ballance was sentenced to four years in prison for funneling public funds into a non-profit organiation he ran. If Republicans were looking for ways to tie Dave Obey to Frank Ballance, we would think that to be unfair.

Jim Traficant, who was a Democrat (turned Independent) when he committed the crimes was convicted of, should not be linked to Obey. No more than Dan_Rostenkowski, a Democrat convicted of corruption charges, should be linked to Obey.

The Democrats have plenty of skeletons in their closets, including an ongoing FBI investigation against Democrat William Jefferson of New Orleans. The point is, unless Dave Obey were implicated directly which he hasn't been, this should not be raised as an issue against him.

The Democrats can try to shield their bad agenda by making blanket statements about Republicans, but we will call them out on it.

What we at Obey Out will do, is point out Dave Obey's specific votes and words. We believe that record alone merits his defeat in 2006.

Obey Fear Campaign Continues

According to the Stevens Point Journal, Congressman Obey is continuing his fear campaign on Tuesday. According to the news brief, "Obey will talk about prominent issues in the U.S. Congress. He will address congressional cuts in student financial aid."

We imagine it will look a lot like his trip to Superior that we commented on earlier. In that conversation with college students, he focused on condemning Republicans. He basically made it sound like Republicans are trying to shut down colleges across America. As we noted in that earlier post, the centerpiece of the Republican plan is to make schools justify the amount of financial aid they receive based on the number of students who actually qualify. Sorry Dave, but that means MORE deserving college students can actually receive financial aid in Wisconsin, not less, because schools like Harvard won't see an increase in federal student aid just because they got some last year. It's just common sense.

Dave Obey is once again using scare tactics in a desperate attempt to hold on to his seat in Congress. We believe he must really be scared about his re-election if he's resorting to these tactics nearly a year before he faces the voters.

Thankfully

With Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, we wanted to list some things we're thankful for here at Obey Out.

• We're thankful someone will be running against Dave Obey next year, rather than him getting another free pass.
• We're thankful that the Republicans will field a viable candidate against Doyle.
• We're thankful that Congress is passing fiscally responsible spending bills.
• We're thankful that there has been no terrorist attack on U.S. soil since September 11th.
• We're thankful that thousands of volunteers are still working in the Gulf Coast region to help the people devastated by hurricanes.
• We're thankful that we will be able to spend time with our families and we pray for those men and women in uniform serving overseas who cannot spend time with theirs.

Obey Out is a new blog that has one goal to beat Dave Obey next fall with the best possible Republican candidate. We're thankful to those of you who are beginning to read what we have to say on a regular basis. We look forward to engaging in the battle to send a Representative to Washington who is accountable to us. Thirty-six years is a long time to go without.

And the Winner is . . .

Thanks to all who participated in our first online poll (which was clearly not scientific).

Here are the results:

Nick Reid - 85%
Jeff Tyberg - 11%
Dave Robinson - 4%

Congratulations to Nick Reid and his supporters.

We'd like to thank everyone for the 80 votes we received. Not bad for a one month old blog. We will do another poll early next year to see if things have changed.

A Challenge from a Reader

A recent reader suggested that Obey Out doesn't understand elections. We beg to differ.

The Seventh District is a competitive Congressional District. The past two presidential elections have been decided here by less than 1% of the vote. The Democrats that are in the district are generally conservative, blue collar Democrats. This district voted for Tommy Thompson and Ronald Reagan.

That's the basics of the positive demographics (there's a lot more, but we don't want to bore those who aren't into the numbers, nor do I want to give away any strategy we might share with the Republican nominee offline).

As to the real key - money - no one has raised roughly more than $200,000 against Dave Obey. To say that he has ever, in any way, been seriously challenged since the early 70's is wrong. The only thing that almost took him out was the wave of 1994. Had Scott West found a way to raise another $200,000, it would be Congressman West today.

So, if a candidate can raise a substantial amount of money, Dave Obey better watch out because his voting record is to the far left of the people of the Seventh District, and there's not much he can do now to correct a 36 year far left liberal record.

Obey Out advocates that Seventh District Republicans get behind a candidate early next year so they have the best shot at the most money and united organization to take on the Congressman. However, it is the right of all three candidates to stay in through the primary.

So, to our faithful reader that suggests we have no understanding of elections, this is only the tip of the iceberg as to what Obey Out understands.

Interesting Facts for Today

Obey Out is well aware how Congress works, so we know that much of what a Member does is behind the scenes, particularly the Ranking Member on the Appropriations Committee. We realize much of what you get done are things you get inserted and moved as part of larger bills, etc.

We thought we'd look at any visible evidence of what Mr. Obey has done in Congress this year.

He offered 14 amendments on the House floor. 12 were defeated, withdrawn or ruled out of order and two passed.

He offered 2 pieces of original legislation. Neither has moved in Committee, in fact neither of them even has ONE co-sponsor. HR 1740 relates to labeling ginseng products and HR 3510 to the movement of hazardous waste. Again, neither one has a single co-sponsor. You can look up Obey's record on Thomas here

Why do we find this last part interesting, well Dave Obey spends a lot of time running around the district telling the people of Wisconsin what's wrong with Republicans. It strikes us as odd that he is doing very little legislatively to change things that matter to most of us.

It's time we elected a Representative that at least tried a little harder.

P.S. If you think this is simply an off year for Obey, in 2003 and 2004, Obey introduced only 8 original pieces of legislation (we didn't count the same bill that was introduced in two different forms or the 5 alternate procedural rules). One bill (the duplicate budget bill) had 13 co-sponsors and an education bill had 11 co-sponsors. The other 6 had none. There are 435 members of the House. If your high water mark is 3% support on a legislative idea, that's not doing really well.

Our First Poll

In an effort to see initial support for the three announced Republican candidates for the Seventh District, we have inserted a web poll on the blog. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by their last name.

Voting will remain open until Tuesday, November 22nd at Noon.

Good luck.

House Supports Troops

Despite all the rhetoric the last two days by liberals saying we should give the terrorists a timetable for our withdrawal from Iraq, the House voted 403 to 3 against it. Al Jazeera made it the lead story.

It's really hard to believe Democrats in Congress continue their campaign to erode the support for our troops in the field. They ignore the fact that Iraqis are on their way in record numbers to the polls for the third time this December to elect a permanent government. They ignore that we have trained 200,000 Iraqi soldiers. They ignore that these soldiers are taking over more and more of their own security. Common sense tells you that this progress means our troops will begin to come home in the very near future.

No one should discount the more than 2000 soldiers who have given their lives. However, this cut and run strategy would only mean they died in vain.

The other thing that really bothers us is that Democrats are accusing the President of lying about the intelligence that lead to the War in Iraq. This is the intelligence largely gathered by, and supported by, the Clinton Administration. The CIA director who called it a "slam dunk" was appointed by President Clinton. Leading Democrats from Harry Reid to Hillary Clinton (not to mention the Kerry-Edwards ticket) made the same claims about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of WMD's. Watch the video on www.gop.com and listen to Democrat after Democrat talk about Saddam's WMD program.

It's another case of Democrats saying whatever they believe will benefit them politically.

The dishonest Democrat leaders Dave Obey supports are playing politics with our troops. It's time to rid ourselves of this win at all costs mentality and elect a Representative who shares our values when it comes to supporting our troops until they get the job done.

Obey Says No to Fiscal Responsibility - Again

Late last night, Dave Obey marched lock-step with Democrats and voted against (Roll Call #601) the Deficit Reduction Act.

Mandatory spending is growing at nearly three times the rate of inflation. That is unsustainable growth for the fiscal health of our nation under any definition of the word. This legislation said, instead of growing mandatory spending at 6.4%, we should decrease that growth to 6.3% over the next five years. It's not much, but at least, it's a step in the right direction. But, Dave Obey said loud and clear that he is against any attempt to bring more responsibility to spending, to rid Washington of some waste, fraud and abuse, and to be accountable to the next generation of Americans that will have to pay for.

If Dave Obey had his way, we would spend trillions of dollars more over the next five years. While he claims that raising taxes on the rich would pay for all the spending he wants, the facts don't support his claims. The only way to pay for all the spending he's voted for and supports is to raise taxes on EVERYONE, and not just a little bit either. While Dave Obey is running around the district saying Republicans want to cut this program or that program, he's covering for the fact that if he had his way, we would be on a path toward national bankruptcy and long term recession caused by draining money out of the economy.

Call or e-mail Dave Obey and tell him you're disappointed he voted against fiscal responsibility - again.

Polling Data Not Good For Obey

A lot has been made recently about President Bush's job approval ratings (and yes, they aren't good, somewhere between 35 and 40 percent). But, to get the feel of the country in general, you have to look deeper into the poll numbers.

According to a recent NBC/Wall St. Journal poll, 29 percent said President Bush shared their priorities, but only 26 percent said that Democrats shared their priorities. Only 19 percent of Americans said Congress shared their priorities. Only 33% of Americans approved of the job Democrats were doing in Congress. Here's the kicker, only 11% of Americans said Democrats had a clear message and vision for the future.

The environment in America right now is not just anti-Bush, it's anti-politician. Dave Obey has been in Congress for 36 years. As evidenced by our last post, he's spent a lot of that time trying to scare people about Republicans - offering very little in terms of common sense solutions for the future. He's vulnerable in 2006 because the American people are tired of the same old way of doing things and there's no greater example of that than Dave Obey.

Over the next year, Obey Out will reveal the 36 year record of Dave Obey. We will bring into the open the type of liberal tax and spend, socialist government ideas that he has. He's been a steadfast supporter of failed ideas and the people of the Seventh District should know it.

If you've been waiting years to get Dave Obey out of office, then let's work together to make it happen.

Obey Lies About Student Aid

Dave Obey is back to his old tricks of spreading fear for political gain. According to this story, Dave Obey told college students that the "Nasty Old Republicans" were after their student aid.

Besides the point that student aid will continue to increase under the plan, only not by as much, Obey obviously is doing a talking points tour under marching orders from Liberal San Fran Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat majority leader because he clearly didn't read the bill.

The changes to student aid changed the way it was administered. Now a school will receive federal student aid based on the number of students who actually need it rather than based on how much they got last year. That's right, UW Superior students will probably get more student aid next year because schools like Harvard will have to justify the amount of student aid they receive based on the number of students who actually need it.

Please Dave, start telling the truth.

These changes make sense and will save taxpayers money. The people of the Seventh District are tired of the same old lies you're using as a desperate ploy to hold your seat in Congress.

Big Vote

Today the House of Representatives will vote on the Deficit Reduction Act. In a nutshell, the Congress will decide if they will reduce the growth (not actual programs just the growth) of federal mandatory spending programs by 1/10th of 1% over the next 5 years. Sounds like a no-brainer when mandatory programs are growing by 6-9% a year (two to three times the rate of inflation).

Here's Obey Out's bold prediction. Dave Obey will vote against wringing waste, fraud and abuse out of these programs. He will vote to maintain the status quo and keep a spending pattern in place that will burden our children and grandchildren with enormous debt. He will say that we wouldn't be in this problem if it weren't for tax cuts for the rich. I can tell you that song and dance simply isn't true. Under Obey's plan, within the next 25 years there will be so much strain on our federal budget that EVERYONE will be paying higher taxes. The payroll/FICA tax itself could need to rise by as much as 40%.

I believe it was liberal economist Keynes when asked about the long run who said, "in the long run we'll all be dead." It's Dave Obey's philosophy, let the next generation figure this problem out, or better yet, "in the long run, Congress can just raise taxes."

It's time to get rid of Dave Obey and his old school liberal tax and spend thinking. For 36 years he's done nothing but vote for irresponsible spending and against any tax relief. Today will be no exception.

Obey Flip Flops on Property Rights

Last week, Obey voted for (Roll Call #568) the Private Property Rights Protection Act which makes governmental entities ineligible for any federal economic development funds if they carry out a wrongful taking. This bill was passed as a response the Supreme Court's unconstitutional Kelo case.

Yet, back on June 30th, Dave Obey voted against (Roll Call #350) an amendment that would have prohibited the use of federal funds to carry out the Kelo case.

This is a case of "I voted against property rights, before I voted for them."

Apparently, Dave Obey decided his anti-property rights vote would get him in too much hot water, so he wanted to make amends. Obey Out looks forward to the exposure of this and more of Obey's record which is so clearly out of touch with the people of the Seventh District.

One Year Away - Thoughts on the Seventh

Obey Out was privvy to the speeches given by the Seventh District Republican candidates for Congress last weekend. And, we checked out the subsequent blog posting (Reid had the only one online as of this post).

Jeff Tyberg gave good speeches. We agree with him on most of the issues. We are glad that he is willing to serve if elected. We think it's admirable that anyone would put their name on the line to run for office.

The Go Nick Go post said something that we at Obey Out find compelling at this point. "Nick won't need on the job training when he goes to Washington to fight for Wisconsin." That is an important message for a Republican nominee to take up against Dave Obey in the fall, because Dave Obey will be able to play the incumbent, experience card. We need someone who can call his bluff and make a case that his incumbency isn't doing enough for Wisconsin.

Obey Out believes we should send someone up against Obey who can go toe to toe with him on the issues and someone who can make the case to the people that they can be effective from Day 1 when they get to office.

When you listen to Nick Reid talk, you hear this. You hear that he knows the issues. You hear that he knows the process.

No offense to Tyberg or Robinson, who spoke last weekend, but the moderate voters who will swing an election if it's close, need something to hang their hat on, to put their trust in, when they go in the voting booth. Only Reid thus far has demonstrated that he can take the BIG "I know how Washington works, I can get things done" advantage away from Obey.

We're still waiting to be 100% convinced here at Obey Out before we make an endorsement, because we want to endorse the candidate who is best prepared to knock Obey out of office, but those are out thoughts on this election which is one year from today after hearing from the candidates this weekend.

Obey Fails to Condemn Parental Rights Decision - Day 2

Dave Obey's been rough on our Constitution recently. His failure to protect free speech on the Internet being the latest example.

We at Obey Out support strong families and believe in the rights of parents to raise their children. The state should not be able to override parental objections to teach children, particularly the 1st, 3rd and 5th graders who were subjected to this horrible California school district action, about sex. It is unconscionable. It should not be allowed to stand. And Dave Obey should come out and call for this decision to be overturned.

Obey Votes to Restrict Free Speech

While we're waiting on Dave Obey to condemn the 9th Circuit decision, we will have to blast him for voting against the First Amendment free speech rights we are practicing on this blog. Obey wants to further his incumbent protection agenda and further his retirement income by putting a lid on comments that would point out his votes against things like the First Amendment.

What he did yesterday was reinvigorate Obey Out's commitment to throw Dave Obey a retirement party next November.

Outrageous

A federal appeals court Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by parents outraged that a school district in California had surveyed their elementary school children about sex - rejecting the parents' claim that they have the exclusive right to tell their children about sex.

We call on all of our elected officials in Wisconsin, especially Dave Obey, to denounce this horrible federal appeals court ruling out of the 9th Circuit.

Below are excerpts from the AP story:

"Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt said "no such specific right can be found in the deep roots of the nation's history and tradition or implied in the concept of ordered liberty."

"The appeals court noted that other courts have upheld mandatory health classes, a school system's condom distribution program and compulsory sex ed."

"The district dropped the survey in 2002 amid complaints from parents."

"It was given to children in the first, third and fifth grades as part of a program to gauge early trauma and help youngsters overcome barriers to learning."

"Among other things, the students were asked how often they thought about sex."

Update: Red State has the questions. We put them in the comments section for your review. Be careful, they're really rather disturbing to be asked of first graders.

The Candidates

Obey Out has been tough (we believe rightly so) on Jeff Tyberg lately, but we wanted to give him some positive blog time. Tyberg (as well as Reid, Green and others) will be at the Northwoods Republicans Reagan Day Dinner this weekend.

Check the candidates out, and decide who you would like to represent you in Congress. Then get out there and work hard for them for the next 12 months.

We have links to the candidate websites here on Obey Out. Because as you may have guessed by the name, we would prefer to elect a new Representative next November.

Go Nick Go Reports

According to Go Nick Go, Reid made the Washington newspaper, Roll Call.