Sometimes little things piss me off...

I saw this article today about President Clinton and his cosy relationship with the Bush I and II. I do not have a problem with Clinton being pals with Bush, but I have a huge problem with the repeated slandering of Clinton by a Republican consultant, the only person quoted in the article.

How can a reporter really think this is ok? Amazing...

Too little, too late Jan

One of the things that bugs me about politicians is when they wait for re-election to put forward long overdue policies to solve old problems. Good old Jan Brewer has waited two years to begin putting together election reforms that we needed four years ago. Here is an article from the Capital Times about her tepid conversion.

I know that Republicans are loath to take up election reform because current flaws in the system have benefited them, but this is an issue too important to be partisan. Election reform is not about partisan advantage, it is about upholding a fundamental principle within our republic. I can live with Republicans winning elections as long as I am confident in the outcome. There are people that will never be satisfied, but we have a long way to go before we approach perfection.

The voter should always be given the benefit of the doubt. Disenfranchisement should be avoided at all costs. Anyone that shows up at the polls should be able to vote a provisional ballot. Every vote should be counted, even if it does not affect the outcome. Periodic audits of voting procedures should be performed systemically and randomly. Comprehensive election reports should be issued after every election to create transparency. The Secretary of State should be a non-partisan office and should not be allowed to sit on candidate committees. As the chief election officer, the Secretary of State should make every effort to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Of course, Jan Brewer has so many conflicts of interest that people react like this.

Abramoff

The Republicans in DC have obviously been corrupted by the likes of Abramoff, but how do the Dems use this Culture of Corruption to their advantage? The problem as I see it is that most people view all politicians as being corrupt. Many news reports yesterday failed to mention the Abramoff problem as being primarily Republican. A differentiation has to happen...

I believe that Democrats are more honest than Republicans, but how do we communicate this. The media is generally useless in this regard. This is more important than just political gain in the 2006 election, this is real corruption. Many of these Republican pols are dangerous to our republic. We are looking at wide spread abuse of power, bribery and chicanery. We should be very aggressive about rooting this out of our system because it is the right thing to do.

Election 2006

2006 should shape-up to be a big political year. We have the potential for a significant congressional election. In Arizona, we have Gubernatorial, US Senate, CD 8, AG and Secretary of State races. The governor's race is not looking terribly competitive at this point, the Republicans cannot get their act together. However, I would not anoint the Gov quite yet. There are 11 months between now and Election Day, an eternity in politics. She will have a tough legislative session, but things do look good.

The senate race will be targeted nationally, at least initially. Arizona was supposed to be targeted in 2004, but we saw how long that lasted. Petersen could beat Kyle, but it will take a near perfect campaign by Petersen with Kyle making some significant mistakes. Kyle's numbers do not look great. I suspect that most people do not know the name of their junior senator, let alone have familiarity with his policies.

I have not heard a lot about the AG race. If I were a Republican strategist, I would go after everything, but the Governor. In Arizona, Clean Elections makes taking out incumbents exceedingly difficult, so the Rs would have a tough time.

CD8 looks to have strong candidates on both sides. Gabby Gifford seems to be the presumptive favorite. If her fundraising is as strong as I have heard, she will be very hard to beat, but not impossible. Regardless of the primary outcome, Dems should be assured a good candidate. The Rs cannot say that...


Few people are paying attenation to the Secretary of State race. Jan Brewer has a significant primary challenger in former Phoenix mayor Rimza. I am not sure he can beat her or how that will affect the overall race. My sense is that Brewer is not a particularly good candidate and has made some dumb mistakes, like this . So far the only Dem in the race is Bruce Wheeler. He is a former legislator and Tucson City Council person. He seems like the only person in the race interested in the actual job of Secretary of State. The other candidates are clearly running for higher office. Wheeler has more of a shot than the powers that be in Maricopa give him credit; it is a typical case of no respect for Pima county pols.