Is Wisconsin Ready for Change?

According to the latest Zogby poll, Mark Green leads Gov. Doyle by 3%. In order to win this race, Mark Green will need to do very well in the 7th District. We believe a rising tide lifts all boats.

We also believe that a Mark Green victory would represent a general dissatisfaction with the policies of Doyle. Because Dolye is actually not as liberal as Dave Obey, we believe it sets the stage to reveal Obey for what he is - an out of touch tax and spend liberal. The record is there if we can get behind a candidate who can effectively carry that message.

Are we ready to help propel a Republican into the 7th District seat in Congress? We should be.

Scott Walker's Exit

We have to comment on Scott Walker's exit from the race to garner the Republican nomination for Governor.

First, we at Obey Out didn't have a dog in this fight. We would have supported Green or Walker in the General Election wholeheartedly.

In a time in politics where people often put themselves above their party's chances to win an election, Scott Walker did the right thing. In fact, Scott Walker has improved his position to run for higher office in the future by stepping aside. Should he choose to enter another race in the future, many Republicans will line up behind him because of the good will gained by stepping aside and giving Mark Green a clear shot at Jim Doyle.

It's also good for us here in the Seventh District. Mark Green can now begin to build a statewide organization aimed at doing one thing, turning out enough votes to beat Jim Doyle in November, with no Republicans upset because their candidate lost the nomination. Our nominee here in the Seventh will benefit tremendously from this organization effort.

One thing we noted was that Walker realized that Republican money was sitting on the sidelines until after the Primary. While we have no hard evidence here in the Seventh, we believe that problem is worse here than in the statewide race. Dave Obey has been in office so long, a lot of Republicans aren't yet ready to believe he could be defeated, let alone worry about picking a candidate.

Moreover, if that local money could be put into one candidate's bank account, then the national Republicans would take a serious look at this district. Let's remember, Kerry and Gore both won here by less than 1% of the vote and both with less than 50% of the vote. The national Republicans know that the playing field is small and they need to find opportunities to knock off incumbents. The Seventh presents such an opportunity, but not with a contested primary. They won't direct national money our way until the field is clear. With our primary in September, it would likely be too little too late.

We call on the three Republicans running to retire Obey to take a good hard look at themselves and their realistic chances to win in November based on their story, their experience and their ability to run an effective campaign. It would be outstanding if one of you had a 6 month long clear shot at the Congressman.

Are there two more Scott Walkers out there?

We Couldn't Have Said It Better Ourselves

Check out this post:

http://widewhite.blogspot.com/2006/03/this-congressman-might-be-worse.html

Yep. We agree. "Good grief."

If Democrats Win

Here's a snapshot of who will be in charge in Washington if Democrats win in November according to Investor's Business Daily.

We'll start with the excerpt about Obey:

David Obey of Wisconsin, whom the Almanac of American Politics describes as "a true believer in traditional liberalism, Keynesian economics and economic redistribution," is likely to return as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. At a post-9-11 Oval Office meeting, he is said to have told Bush to leave Congress' big spenders alone because they're such experts on legislation.

Yep, a true liberal who believes in economic redistribution and wants to spend our money like it's going out of style.

But it's even worse than putting Obey in charge of anything, look at his Democrat colleagues . . .

Rep. John Conyers at Judiciary . . . A founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, he used the '60s riots in his district of Detroit as a pretext to call for government-guaranteed income, and he opposed President Johnson on Vietnam as soon as he entered Congress in 1965.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco would be Speaker, Rep. George Miller, also from a liberal area in California would be the Education Chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (he's from California too) would Chair the Government Reform Committee, which means he would be calling Administration officials up to the Hill twice a week to testify merely for political purposes, and it doesn't get any better from there . . .

As the article says,

In short, a Democrat-controlled House in 2007 won't look anything like those run by Tip O'Neill and Tom Foley in the past. It would a radicalized, emboldened bunch out for blood — that of George W. Bush.

We can help reduce the chances that there will be a radically liberal House of Representatives by saying enough is enough and sending Dave Obey into his cushy, taxpayer-funded penion, retirement.

Obey Said What

Yesterday, on the House floor, Dave Obey said, "I intend to support whatever money is necessary in order to support our troops." It's in the Congressional Record for March 15th if you want to look it up online (www.thomas.loc.gov).

We invited you back to October 31, 2003, when Dave Obey voted AGAINST funding necessary to support our troops (click here to see the vote). That was the same funding for our troops that John Kerry voted for before he voted against.

So, a more accurate statement would probably have been, "For right now, I intend to support whatever money is necessary in order to support our troops, because I haven't always."

We think it's because it's an election year and Obey has 3 opponents who are more than willing to talk about how Obey hasn't fully supported out troops.

A Wednesday Diversion

It's early 2006, but there's a lot of buzz about who the next Republican Presidential nominee will be, especially since Dick Cheney has taken himself out of the running. To make your Wednesday a little bit more interesting, we offer a link to a straw poll. It's especially appropriate after our own Senator clanged out that censure resolution (which still has no Democrat supporters in the Senate at last count).

http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/archives/003322.html

Feingold's Crusade

We here at Obey Out are focused primarily on the Seventh District race for Congress. However, we just can't let Senator Feingold's actions this week go by without so much as a comment.

Russ Feingold wants to call the President before the United States Senate and (Joe Lieberman's words here) "scold him" because he doesn't agree with him. And this guy wants to be President?

One news outlets headline, "Censure in the Wilderness"

Here's the article.

Is Dave Obey on the record with whether he supports this yet? In his heart of hearts it's what he believes, but the big question is, will he admit it? Can someone in the mainstream media please ask him.

Here's the scorecard for Feingold thus far:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid - DOES NOT SUPPORT
The aforementioned Lieberman - DOES NOT SUPPORT
Senator Herb Kohl - DOES NOT SUPPORT

The 7th in Play

In an article titled, WI 7: GOP Pegs Obey Upset Hopes on Gay Marriage Ban, Washington, DC publication Congressional Quarterly looks in at the race against Obey.

Here's a quick fact check for you - Dave Obey opposes the marriage ban, a ban that will drive Republicans and conservative Democrats to the polls.

While we at Obey Out believe there is plenty in Obey's record that is out-of-step with the people of the Seventh District, we will take whatever advantage we can get when it comes to beating him in the November election.

We do believe it is extremely good that pundits in Washington are taking a look at this race. We know one of the three candidates spent a good amount of time educating the DC crowd to try and bring some attention to the competitiveness of this race. Hopefully, the national Republicans will keep watching this race and lend us a hand.

A Turkey

Dave Obey continues his fear campaign, spending his time at a senior center scaring them about Republicans and President Bush. Seems Obey doesn't know any other way to campaign. Click here for the full story.

Obey railed particularly hard on the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. We at Obey Out have a lot of concerns about the plan, however, we also recognize that it's the law of the land and as such, Obey should be helping seniors without drug coverage to sign up with the plan.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the rate of signups in the Seventh Congressional District is 38% - that's the lowest in the State and one of the lowest in the country. Obey didn't do much to help the 62% of seniors in the Seventh District who have not yet signed up, calling the plan a "turkey."

Once again, it looks like Dave Obey cares more about scoring political points then actually helping his constituents.

Archy

If you've ever poked around Congressman Obey's website, you'll find his tribute to his favorite philosopher, Archy the Cockroach. We find this missive on politics particularly appropriate when it comes to our representation in Washington the past 37 years.

Rumor Has It

Obey Out hears that Nick Reid and Jeff Tyberg will be at the Northwoods Lincoln Day Dinner this Saturday, March 4th.

We also hear that Dave Robinson's attendance is in question. From our friends across the district, we hear that he has not been at several recent Republican events where Tyberg and Reid spoke.

We open this post to those who might comment on any candidate sightings around the 7th District and what your impressions of the candidates was . . .

Polls

CBS put out a poll that has President Bush's approval rating at 34%. First, no other poll out since the Port deal story broke has him under 40% (and they took this poll just as the story was breaking and before much information was out). Second, CBS surveyed just over 1000 adults, only 28% of them Republicans (no legitimate pollster believes only 28% of Americans are Republicans). Third, a majority of this poll was taken on a weekend, which every legitimate pollster will tell you moves things away from a Republican. Yet, every news story you read said, "President Bush's approval rating is 34%."

Our answer, no, it's not.

The truth however does not matter in the media (at least the big city papers and networks). They want Democrats to win because in that business there are really only 28% Republicans (a number that goes lower up the chain of command).

You don't believe us, U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is another in the string of Democrats to have ethical problems, yet the media focuses on two people - Lobbyist (and admitted Republican) Jack Abramoff and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
(Here's the Conyers clip)

Dave Obey has introduced a bill to create public financing of elections and the media has praised him for it, yet, when given the opportunity to voluntarily limit his own campaign spending he refuses. No one in the media says, "but Mr. Obey, you received 2/3rds of your campaign donations from DC-based lobbyists and special interests." The media wants him to be the next Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Our Republican nominee will have an uphill climb this year, but we believe that the people of the Seventh District have a good dose of common sense. If we work together to get the word out that Dave Obey does not reflect our values, he can be beat in November.