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************************************ Cannon Fodder There's a new development and update on the trials (literally) and tribulations of deadbeat congressman Chris Cannon of Utah. It's a shame we don't tar-and-feather con men like him any longer. Read all the sordid details in a new "Muth's Truths" column at www.citizenoutreach.com. ************************************ Trashing the Gipper What should conservatives do about the upcoming CBS mini-series which trashes Ronald and Nancy Reagan: Boycott the sponsors...or blow the whole thing off as another typical Hollywood smear that we just can't do anything about? Cast your ballot by clicking on the "Survey Says!" button at www.citizenoutreach.com. ************************************ Subscribe FREE to News & Views If you or someone you know would like to receive our FREE daily News & Views e-briefing, just go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ ************************************ AWOL Joe Sen. Joe Lieberman has put a "hold" on Mike Leavitt, the President's choice to head the EPA, saying he doesn't have enough information on the nominee...which really has some Republicans in the Senate steamed. As the Hill reports, "Of 27 meetings that have taken place this year before both the full (Environment and Public Works) committee and subcommittees Lieberman sits on, the presidential candidate has attended just two." This led Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) to declare Lieberman's obstruction "outrageous" since Lieberman "won't even come to our hearings, let alone the confirmation hearing." Nerves are getting a little raw as Congress winds down and the election season heats up. ************************************* Taking the Gloves Off As noted in yesterday's DC Confidential, Senate Republicans have just about come to the end of their rope in this standoff with Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Pat Leahy over President Bush's judicial nominations. While some GOP senators would just like to look the other way on the judges fight and move on to other business, conservative grassroots activists have been hammering Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for being too timid in his efforts to break the rolling filibusters. The GOP base is highly agitated over this issue, and Frist and the White House can't ignore it any longer. So, according to conservative columnist Robert Novak, Frist is about to mount a new three-stage campaign designed to turn the heat up on the Democrats. Novak writes: "Phase One: Start this week with a cloture vote on the nomination of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering Sr. of Mississippi for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. Pickering, bottled up in the Judiciary Committee during the 2001-02 Democratic interregnum, has just been sent to the Senate floor. "Phase Two: Next, order a cloture vote for the second time on Alabama State Attorney General William Pryor for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Claims by opponents that Pryor's 'deeply held beliefs' taint him for the court have produced accusations of anti-Catholicism. "Phase Three: Vote on three female nominees. Attempts to get cloture on Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen's nomination for the 5th Circuit has failed three times. California Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl's two-year-old nomination for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco is coming to the Senate floor for the first time. Just released by the Judiciary Committee and already threatened with a filibuster is California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American. "Failure to reach 60 votes for cloture on each of these three women is scheduled to be followed by consideration of the bill co-sponsored by Frist and conservative Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia. That measure would reduce the number of votes needed to end filibusters on nominations. That, too, will be filibustered in order to defeat it. "All this refocusing is intended to set the scene for a bitter battle in next year's session of Congress. At that time, an effort may be made to rule out of order a filibuster against judicial nominations -- the 'so-called' nuclear solution. This would require only 51 votes, but Frist does not even have that many today because of reluctance to tamper with the traditions of the Senate. "Whether or not Bill Frist's offensive eventually places any of these well-qualified judges on the bench, it will sound a stentorian refusal to surrender. That means a Republican president and a Republican-controlled Senate have not acquiesced in letting Ted Kennedy determine the membership of the federal judiciary. The battle resumes today." Let the games begin. And keep your calls and emails going to Senate offices. They are definitely having an effect. ************************************* Loony Clooney Rolling Snake Eyes Actor George Clooney has been one of the most vocal and vitriolic critics of President Bush, the war against terror in Iraq and conservatives in general. Discerning viewers of television and movies know this, and apparently are voting with their feet...as in boycotting anything Clooney is involved with. His HBO series "K Street" is tanking big time and won't likely be on the air much longer. And his fortunes on the big screen ain't much better. After the poor opening of his latest movie, "Intolerable Cruelty," Hollywood insiders say Clooney's movie roles are drying up. The only decent leading role he can land is in a movie he himself is producing, "Ocean's 12." One might reasonably conclude that conservatives who are boycotting Loony Clooney's shows are having a devastating effect on his career. Then again, it could just be that his movies and shows stink. Personally, I think it's a combination of the two. ************************************* How We Hate Thee, Let Us Count the Ways "I've written before that liberals need anger management therapy, but their antipathy for President Bush has grown to the point that even The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz is writing about it. "...Some on the left may deny the hatred, but how else do you explain the phenomenon of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's formidable popularity among the party rank and file? It's not what he stands for; it's whom he rails against. At this point, the former Vermont governor is riding to his party's nomination on the coattails of abject hatred toward the commander in chief. "...Their angst really stems from one simple fact: Mr. Bush took back the executive branch from them, which they view as an entitlement, even to the point of their irrational rantings about him being an unelected president - not just because of Florida, but because he didn't win the popular vote." - Columnist David Limbaugh ************************************* Schiavo Case's Slippery Slope of Death "If the government is allowed to order the death of one of its citizens when close relatives object and the patient's wishes are not spelled out in a legal document, how long will it be before government can order the death of other citizens for lesser reasons?" - Columnist Cal Thomas ************************************* Tax Revolt Hits Ohio "Last month Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell launched an Initiated Statute effort to repeal the temporary 20% increase in the state sales tax (to 6% from 5%) that Gov. Bob Taft and the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted in the two-year state budget. If Mr. Blackwell collects the required 97,000 signatures by Dec. 20, the question will be before the Legislature in January. "Why is Mr. Blackwell doing it? Because the Ohio government has been on a massive and prolonged spending spree with no end in sight. . . . Because this tax increase is the largest in the history of Ohio--$2.9 billion--Mr. Blackwell believes it ought to have some citizen approval. The last time an increase in the sales tax was presented to the voters, in 1998, they defeated it by a 4-to-1 margin. "...The Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party told Blackwell the sales tax increase was both 'responsible' and 'essential,' and his effort to repeal it a 'ridiculous media stunt.' For the establishment, better government is always bigger government. Ohio's Republican establishment needs to get a grip too." - Columnist and former Delaware Gov. Pete DuPont ************************************ Big Problem Brewing South of the Border "Hardly anyone is paying attention to (Mexico's) rising political star and likely next president, radical left-wing Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. His 'approval ratings have steadily climbed to a remarkable 88%, and a recent poll put him as the clear front-runner for the 2006 presidential race. He is riding so high that last week he boasted he was 'indestructible,' prompting a leading radio station to play the 'Superman' theme any time the mayor's name is mentioned,' the Wall Street Journal reported recently." - NewsMax.com, 10/26/03 ************************************ General Silence "What three-star Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin needs is for a four-star colleague to call him in, stand him at attention, grab him by his stacking swivel and remind him that free speech does not apply to him as long as he wears that uniform. . . . If Gen. Boykin wishes to voice his personal opinions on religion and social issues, he needs to be reminded that he is entirely free to do so - after he retires and removes that uniform. He's an experienced officer. He should know better, and he richly deserves the criticism he is presently encountering." - John Fuller, Washington Times, 10/25/03 ************************************ I'm Sure THIS Won't Stir Up Any Controversy Dick Morris, former adviser to Bill Clinton, says Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as governor of California "shows what the Republican Party could do if it broke with the pro-lifers and abandoned their intrusive efforts to regulate private behavior." According to Morris, whose own private behavior with a hooker during Clinton 's re-election campaign got him tossed out of the inner circle at the White House, "It is about time that the Republican Party realizes that the Christian right is doing to it exactly what the radical black Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson did to the Democratic Party in the '80s - making them unelectable. Their embrace is the kiss of death. It is not that the religious right is wrong. Right or wrong, it gets in the way of so much good that the Republican Party could achieve if it were not in the Christian right's grasp." Now, I suspect them's fightin' words. And if you want to read the rest of Dick's words on this subject, you can access the entire column by going to: http://thehill.com/morris/102203.aspx *************************************** How to Subscribe Chuck Muth's News & Views is published by Citizen Outreach, a member-supported 501(c)3 non-profit corp. If you enjoy News & Views, please make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work: http://www.citizenoutreach.com If you'd like to receive our FREE News & Views e-newsletter, you can sign up at: http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ Published by Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth Editor/Publisher 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003-4303 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The opinions and views expressed in Chuck Muth's News & Views reflect those of the writers, editors and columnists therein and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Citizen Outreach, its officers, directors or employees. To be REMOVED, go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/remove/default.cfm and complete the removal request instructions you'll find there. Or send your request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # #
