Should We Endorse?

GOP-spot makes an endorsement in the 7th Congressional District Republican primary. Obey Out had considered doing this several months ago, but was encouraged by many to stay out of the primary election and focus on Dave Obey. We have done that.

We applauded Scott Walker for departing the governor's race when he knew he couldn't win because in so doing he gave Mark Green a clear shot at Jim Doyle - something critical to winning in November. It's especially important because it brought donors off the sidelines and will give Green the resources he needs to mount a full-scale assault against the incumbent.

We believe the same thing should happen in this race. One candidate should have a clear shot at Dave Obey. We want to hear from you.

So, the question is, if both candidates file nomination papers, should we make an endorsement in the Republican primary and if so, what should be the criteria?

We invite your comments. Please start comments with, "You should endorse because" or "Your criteria should be"

Obey's Non-Plan for Energy Independence

We hope you're sitting down. Dave Obey voted against domestic oil and natural gas exploration again last night. (roll call vote 357)

This time it was to increase leasing of federal lands/oceans 50-100 miles off the coast of Florida where there are billions of gallons of oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas.

What's ironic is that according to news reports, Cuba is leasing oil rights closer to Key West than we would under this law. Cuba is leasing these rights to China and India.

So, with that in mind, our Congressman decided that rather than letting U.S. companies get this oil and natural gas, he'll let China and India get it - making us more dependent on foreign sources of energy AGAIN.

Obey's drive for $4 a gallon gas continues.

Obey Said WHAT!!!!

We'd be speechless about Obey's quote in this article . . .

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. David Obey said on the House floor that "both the Chinese Communist government and our own administration appear to be interested in doing almost anything in order to prevent legitimate news organizations from reporting activities on people who govern each country."

. . . but we have to say something because Dave Obey compared our government to the communists in China.

Dave Obey is essentially saying that the United States government asking the New York Times not to publish a story about a LEGAL activity to watch terrorists because we feared the terrorists would be alerted to what we are doing is like the Chinese government jailing and killing reporters. Now that's just plain ridiculous.

The New York Times is the paper of record in the city attacked by TERRORISTS. Not just on September 11th, but there was another world trade center bombing 8 years earlier.

Now comes Dave Obey to defend the New York Times, who we're sorry is endangering its very readers. Dave Obey the same guy who just a few months after the first world trade center bombing voted to CUT $500 MILLION FROM OUR INTELLIGENCE BUDGET.

We really could go on and on about the outrageousness of Obey's statement, but we'll end by saying if you didn't think Obey was in the "liberal of the liberals" camp before, this proves it.

FYI - the House of Representatives is voting today on a resolution condemning the New York Times. We're betting Obey votes no.

Obey Said What or Welcome to Lilliput

We don't have the link yet, but we just got a call from a reader who said Obey just took to the house floor to support medical marijuana.

Reportedly, he told his colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives to "butt out" of prohibiting doctor prescribed smoking of marijuana.

OK, so you might support medical marijuana even though there are prescription drugs that use THC to alleviate pain and increase appetite (oh, and the Supreme Court has upheld the federal law prohibiting medical marijuana), but here's the kickers on what Obey called his colleagues:

" . . . the daffy ducks in this institution"

as well as "Lilliputians"

As for Lilliputians, we looked them up for a description (see below). Besides the fact that our Congressman is an ongoing embarrassment for some of the things he says in the House of Representatives, we say, it takes one to know one.

The Lilliputians symbolize humankind’s wildly excessive pride in its own puny existence. Swift fully intends the irony of representing the tiniest race visited by Gulliver as by far the most vainglorious and smug, both collectively and individually. There is more backbiting and conspiracy in Lilliput than anywhere else, and more of the pettiness of small minds who imagine themselves to be grand.

Obey's Senior Scare Plan Working

We've been talking about Dave Obey's plan to NOT HELP seniors in his district get the help they needed under the Medicare prescription drug plan so he could play politics with it later.

Well, his plan worked. Dave Obey's failure to talk to seniors about the Medicare plan until AFTER the deadline expired resulted in just 59% of seniors in his district being covered by Medicare or a former employer as contemplated by Congress - that's the lowest in the state and among the lowest in the country.

That's ok, our Congressman is really focused on tackling our most pressing problem (according to him) - global warming.

Obey's House Comparison

Just in case you thought Obey's house was average:

According to this article, the national median home price is $217,900. The median home price in the Washington, DC area is $422,500. In Marathon County, it's $132,500 and in Douglas County it's $113,300.

So, conservatively, if Obey's Arlington, Virginia house sold for $950,000, how would that compare?

225% higher than the DC metro area median home price.
436% higher than the national average median home price.
717% higher than the Marathon County median home price.
838% higher than the Douglas County median home price.

Obey's $1 million House

Want to know where Dave Obey spends most of his time during the year? Well here it is - his home in one of the wealthiest areas of Arlington, Virginia. According to the Arlington, Virginia Department of Real Estate Assessments, this house is valued at $871,800.

We called a couple realtors in Arlington to see what this house would sell for. They said it would list for between $900,000 and $1,000,000 and that most homes are selling for around $100,000 over their assessed values if they are in good shape.

What else is there to know about Arlington County, Virginia? It has the 8th highest per capita income of any county/city in the United States. In fact, the Northern Virginia area where this house is located has 4 of the top 11 richest counties/cities in the country.

If you notice in the photo of just the front door, you'll see the Congressional Seal as a door knocker. Nice touch Dave.

Last check, Obey listed a small condo in Wausau as his official mailing address. We understand he purchased that after being questioned about his residence in the state - apparently he had been using his parent's address for a long time.

Rumor has it that Obey is now building a home somewhere in Northwest Wisconsin. Another rumor has it that Obey spends some quality time in the sun of Arizona. This would make sense as Arizona is the third highest source of contributions for Dave Obey outside of Wisconsin last quarter. In fact, Obey raised 91% of his contributions from outside of Wisconsin last quarter. His neighbors (lawyers and lobbyists) in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC were the number one source of individual contributions outside of Wisconsin - nearly equaling the contributions from inside Wisconsin.

After the Wausau paper ran a story singling out the two Republicans' previous sources of income but doing ZERO investigative reporting when it comes to Obey's finances, we thought we should point out where his money is - real estate. According to the rules of the House of Representatives, Members of Congress do not have to report homes they own solely for personal use. So, in addition to the six figure annual pension and tidy little 401(k) style-plan Obey will retire with, he has invested heavily in real estate - all items that don't have to be disclosed publicly. I don't know how many of you own 3 or 4 homes, have a $100,000 pension waiting for you as well as a 401(k), but Dave Obey does.

Next time the Wausau paper wants to insinuate that the Republicans are in this for the money but Obey's just a poor working stiff, think again.

We'd also like to say a special thank you to our loyal reader in the DC area who took the photos and sent them to us.

Obey Continues to Play Politics with Seniors on Fixed Incomes

To continue the "Day Late, Dollar Short Tour" Dave Obey will be in Superior Saturday to talk about Medicare prescription drugs. The hour-long meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. in the second floor boardroom in the Douglas County Government Center, 1313 Belknap Street.

Let's remember that we are now over one month past the deadline for signing up for the new plan. We know Obey opposed the law (as did many conservative Republicans), but instead of helping seniors understand the plan and sign up before the deadline that will cost seniors a 1% penalty every month, Obey waited till after the deadline to talk about it in the district. And why would he do this, well, the more seniors he can make mad about the plan, the more votes he hopes to get in November. It once again shows absolutely no regard for the financial well being of his constituents, only political calculation to improve his chances for re-election this fall.

We're calling on anyone in the Superior area to go to the public meeting and ask Dave Obey why he waited till one month after the deadline for signing up to come and talk to seniors about it. The only way we can beat Obey is to make sure everyone in the 7th District understands who he is and what he's done to us for 37 years.

Obey Opposes Line Item Veto

Not that Dave Obey claims to be fiscally responsible, but he voted against the line item veto legislation today that was authored by Paul Ryan.

Oh, and he voted against ending the death tax for small businesses in Wisconsin.

Another day of stickin' it to his constituents.

. . . from a guy who's been in Congress 37 years and thinks we're all too dumb to notice or too lazy to care.

The Republicans

Both Republican campaigns issued press releases in the last couple of days, so we thought we'd give them a little pub here.

Nick Reid blasts Obey for making global warming his highest priority

Seventh Congressional District Candidate Nick Reid today called Dave Obey’s postal patron mailing proof of how out of touch the 37-year incumbent has become. At a time when the hard working taxpayers of his district are dealing with high gas prices, scarce jobs, assaults on traditional marriage, and the war on terror, Obey claims global warming is the biggest issue facing us right now.

Tyberg talks about the minimum wage.

Jeff Tyberg, Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, believes that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of jobs will be lost if Congress approves a raise in the minimum wage. “It will hurt working class families–people in small communities like in northern Wisconsin,” said Tyberg. “Small businesses will forced to shed workers to stay profitable if Congress raises the minimum wage.”

Border Insecurity

Obey calls for "compromise" on securing our borders.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said the House is dominated by "100 hardheads who think it is a mortal sin to compromise,"

Let's remember that Obey voted against the House immigration bill which effectively calls on the United States to secure the borders and create real enforcement for employers first. I think most people saw the failure of the 1986 amnesty to secure our borders and want some tangible evidence that the enforcement measures will be put in place before compromising on a temporary worker program again.

While Obey was in Congress in 1986, he apparently conveniently forgot that it didn't work very well the first time.

P.S. Can anyone name a time when Obey compromised with a Republican on anything he believed strongly in? We didn't think so.

We found this humorous . . .

Our good Congressman apparently forgot how to subtract the other day on the house floor.

Here's what Obey said:

"Your party has controlled this Congress for 14 years."

The year is 2006. Republicans won control from the Democrats in November 1994, that's almost 12 years (actually 11 years 5 1/2 months since January 1995 when Republicans actually took control).

OOPS!

And here is an interesting press release where Obey's math quote can be found as he talks about the impending ice age.

Obey Campaign Mailing at Taxpayer Expense Part II

For some reason we didn't get it, but Obey sent another postal patron mailing on issues effecting rural Wisconsin. Thanks to our loyal reader who sent it to us.

Much of it reads like a campaign puff piece with much of it focused on Obey taking credit for things he had nothing to do with. Because there's so much too criticize, we decided to focus on just one claim to put it in perspective for you.

In the campaign piece paid for by taxpayer expense, Obey says that he and a Republican Member of Congress have introduced legislation to close the Milk Protein Concentrate tariff loophole. First of all, about 50 members signed up to co-sponsor that bill the same day Obey did. If you check Rep. Don Sherwood's website, you'll find no mention that Obey was the chief of those co-sponsors. Same if you check Dave Obey's website.

Pretty much, our Congressman is taking credit for someone else's work, and hoping no one will fact check him. Sorry, but we are going to fact check everything you say this year Dave.

The Stupidity Astounds Us

We've been weighing whether to comment on the June 17 Wausau Daily Herald story about the previous income of Nick Reid and Jeff Tyberg. To us, it is a non-story that was clearly planted by the Obey machine here in the 7th district to somehow make the Republican candidates look unworthy of the position of United States Congressman. In fact, we think the story is so unworthy, we are not going to link to it here.

Ironically last week, the House of Representatives dealt with the issue of allowing their COLA to take effect. We at Obey Out have no problem with the salary of Congressman and have no problem with the COLA taking effect.

However, if this reporter Brian Tumulty, who by the way is in their Washington, DC office, so he is clearly in tight with Obey and his press staff, is so concerned with pay, why didn't he talk to Obey about the pay raise vote? If he thought $168,000 sounded like so much money for our Congressman to make next year as a Republican, did he ask Dave Obey if he would be donating his raise to charity?

Did he ask Dave Obey about his $1 million house in Arlington, Virginia (in a quite nicely appointed suburban DC neighborhood)? Did he ask Obey how he's afforded a condo and a retirement home in Wisconsin and one in Arizona? Did he ask him if he thought his six figure pension sounded reasonable to the people of Wisconsin?

We could actually care less if he asked those questions, except that he made such a big deal out of the Republican candidates' earnings.

And here's the kicker in our opinion about the story, Dave Obey has never held a real job in his life. Oh, we're sure he worked somewhere while he was going to school, but then he started running for office. He's been living off the taxpayers his whole life. Not that it's inherently wrong, but this story makes it sound like Reid or Tyberg are undeserving of the same career track Obey has been on.

We could go on and on, but in summation, we think this story to be ridiculous and just plain stupid. It is just another example of the love affair the press seems to have with their liberal poster child, Dave Obey.

We do however, have one question that's since come to mind: Mr. Tumulty we ask you, when are you going to join Obey's staff officially rather than just shilling for him as a "reporter"?

Obey's Out of Touch Postal Patron (campaign mailing)

A while back we commented on how "ridiculous" Dave Obey was for holding Medicare Part D (prescription drug) town hall meetings 3 weeks after the deadline passed to sign up.

Well, he's sent out another postal patron mailing (essentially a campaign mailing at taxpayer expense) . It's full of a lot of fluffy, self-promoting, blaming Republicans for all that's wrong with the world GARBAGE.

Well, we were particularly amused that Dave Obey believes the following headline from his mailing, "Global Warming: The Greatest Challenge We Face."

The greatest challenge we face is global warming???? We could get into the technical arguments whether or not its global warming or just cyclical climate change, but we'll leave that for the experts. But the fact that Global Warming is first, in real scientific doubt, and second, a problem that would have no real effect humans for thousands of years even if true, means Obey has completely lost touch with reality and certainly lost touch with the people of his district.

What about jobs and health care? What about immigration, education and wasteful government spending? What about promoting traditional marriage to ensure we bolster the foundation of our society?

Obey has just proven our point, 37 years is too long for anyone to serve in Congress.

Mirror, mirror on the wall . . .

We had another post planned for this morning, but then we found this little post from Washington called "Honeymoon in Vegas."

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the luckiest congressional spouse of them all? It's a tie between Mrs. Rep. David Obey and Mrs. Rep. George Miller. Both couples took six privately funded trips to Paris, Italy or the Carribean during the time period.

You guessed it, for Mrs. Rep. David Obey to go on these trips, it means her husband Mr. Rep. David Obey was taking these all-expense paid vacations, the most recent a beautiful trip in February that cost almost $6,000 while we were all pretty cold here in Northwest Wisconsin.

From Red State.com

The Seventh District Race got a boost today when the leading national conservative blog, www.redstate.com, highlighted it. Warning to Tyberg supporters, a Reid supporter submitted this entry. We will highlight the non-Reid specific parts of the entry here.

It's an unprecedented opportunity to knock off Obey, who is far to the left of his district. Obey is the ranking Democrat on Appropriations and has made it a habit to try and tax and spend us to death. He called the federal marriage amendment "ridiculous" and voted against it twice. He was rebuked by his Catholic Bishop for his anti-life stands. Obey sponsored legislation for public campaign financing. And, Obey voted against the House immigration bill.

A billion here, a billion there

As someone once said about spending in Washington, "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we're talking about real money." (To get to $1 billion, by the way, you'd need to make $100,000 a year at your job for 10,000 years. So, to get to $6.3 billion, yes, 63,000 years.)

According to this article, Obey tried to increase spending by $6.3 billion yesterday.

Imagine if Obey was the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He would really saddle us quickly with higher debt and higher taxes.

The Word is Spreading

GOP-SPOT agreed with us about Obey's so-called campaign finance bill today. As we've said here, here, here (and that's just since the beginning of April) and actually more times than we can count or care to link to, this legislation is a joke. If Obey's serious, we say, agree to a campaign spending limit like Nick Reid challenged you to several months back (oh and anything you've spent since the challenge should count). We're guessing his answer is no (see this for why it may be it may be with stronger language).

ICYMI - Wausau Daily Herald Article

On Sunday, this article appeared in the Wausau Daily Herald. Thanks to the paper for writing a story to actually cover the 7th District Race against Obey, but next time maybe a little more substance please.

Quotes from both candidates:

"At this point, both campaigns focus on Obey," said Tyberg, saying their views regarding Obey are similar. "We're getting the message out, because of the two of us, that it's time for a change."


"I have focused all my ammunition on Obey -- he is my real opponent," Reid said. "He is the reason why we're running. It's been far too long that the 7th District hasn't had (representation)."

And the Winner Is?

Here are the results from our non-scientific poll . . .

Nick Reid 134 votes - 78%
Jeff Tyberg 37 votes - 22%

Congratulations to Nick Reid and his supporters.

Deconstructing Dave III or More Ridiculousness from Our Congressman

Some weeks Dave Obey gives us a few things to talk about, this week, we're finding them faster than we can get them on the blog.

On Tuesday, Obey voted against this legislation to speed the application process for new refineries.

As we've said, Obey continues his drive for $4 a gallon gas.

Obey Calls Marriage Amendment Ridiculous

Kudos to Go Nick Go for catching this one

Obey said, " . . . to put that (marriage amendment) in the Constitution is ridiculous."

Obey Lies to Seniors

From the Chetek Alert

Claim:
"Obey said he originally introduced a bill that was directly tied to Medicare. "But the White House cut us off at the pass with their own bill," Obey claimed."

Truth:
Obey did not introduce his own Medicare prescription drug bill. He co-sponsored someone else's bill.

Claim:
"The congressman explained that the Part D bill passed for two reasons. Initially the bill failed, but the Congressional voting machine was kept open for 15 minutes longer, and another vote was taken. Part D failed again. The scenario repeated itself, and the bill failed one more time. After three hours of re-votes, the bill finally passed."

Truth:
While the vote on the Medicare bill was held open, the bill did not fail over and over again on a series of votes.

You may be saying to yourself these are just "little white lies" or "miscommunications" so you guys at Obey Out are nitpicking a little.

Well how about this then -

"Obey opened by highlighting some of the confusion the bill has caused. "Surveys have shown that two weeks before the sign-up deadline, 50 percent of citizens didn't even know the deadline was coming," Obey mentioned."

According to the article, Dave Obey held this meeting on June 2nd a the Rice Lake Senior Citizens Center. The deadline Dave Obey referred to was May 15th, 18 days earlier.

The question we ask is, what did Dave Obey do to help seniors sign up for the plan before the deadline to avoid the penalty? If he was so concerned about 50% of seniors not knowing the deadline was coming, why didn't he try to give them a helping hand? I mean, we all received his two recent postal patron mailings recently, right. One announcing his after the deadline talks on the issue and one where he bragged about holding these meeting two plus weeks after the deadline had passed.

That leads to the next logical question, why didn't Dave Obey use some of his office budget he wasted on advertising after the fact meetings on the prescription drug plan to help seniors sign up before the deadline?

The only logical answer we can come up with is that he wanted to suppress the number of seniors who signed up for the new prescription drug plan so he could go around to seniors centers and complain about how lousy the plan was and that it was all Republicans' and big drug companies' faults. The more seniors who hadn't signed up, the more he could rile up.

It's sad really, but what do we expect, it's how he's played politics here for 37 years.

Deconstructing Dave II

Today, the United States Senate defeated a procedural motion that would have allowed a vote on the federal marriage amendment.

Dave Obey has consistently opposed the federal marriage amendment.

The House of Representatives will probably vote on this amendment again this summer. As Wisconsin prepares to vote on the state marriage amendment, get the word out on where Dave Obey stands on the issue.

Deconstructing Dave

As the House and Senate begin to work out their difference over the immigration issue, we want to remind everyone just where our Congressman stands.

He voted against the enforcement first legislation that came out of the House.

While considering that bill, Mr. Obey voted against an amendment to build a section of fence along the most high risk portions of our border with Mexico.

Dave Obey who called for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld and celebrated the departure of Porter Goss for destroying the CIA. Dave Obey who has voted numerous times to cut the CIA budget, including a $500 million cut right after the first World Trade Center bombing . . .

When it comes to protecting us, we have a Congressman who fails time and again.

ICYMI - Dave Obey's a Liberal

This story is all over the wires (link to ABC News), with the title, "Prospective Democratic Chairs All Liberal."

So, what does the story have to say about Mr. Obey:

"a free-spending progressive from Wausau, Wis"

In case you're not into political labels, progressive is what liberals call themselves. A clarification the story later straightens out:

"Rep. David Obey, the unapologetic liberal from Wisconsin, is eager to retake the gavel of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which holds the reins on government spending. He briefly led the committee in 1994 before the GOP landslide that year awarded control of Congress to Republicans. Obey came to Washington at the height of the Vietnam War; ever since, he has been an ardent opponent of GOP efforts to clamp down of domestic agency budgets that Congress approves each year."

We have an unapologetic, budget busting liberal representing us here in the 7th District. He is well-known in Washington, DC for his died in the wool, left wing ways. Let's get the word out here in Wisconsin.

Do Real Reporters Exist Around Here?

According to this KUWS story, we have proof positive that the mainstream media doesn't accurately cover the race for the 7th District. The reporter thinks Dave Robinson is still in the race for the Republican nomination. He dropped out a while back and endorsed Nick Reid. We talked to the Reid campaign and they confirmed that KUWS got the press release.