Target Rich Environment

There were a lot of special Democrat moments this week. In 2006, when the nation chose to move in a “New Direction,” led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

It’s hard to pick the Democrat of the week, but there are quite a few options.  I liked Paul Kanjorski, Democrat Congressman from Northeast PA’s candor as he admitted that even though they insinuated that they’d end the Iraq War in the leadup to the 2006 Congressional elections, Democrats had no intention of doing so (link):

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A video clip has surfaced of U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski saying that Democrats “sort of stretched the facts” before the 2006 election by implying the party could end the Iraq war.

Kanjorski, a 12-term Democrat from northeast Pennsylvania, said: “We didn’t say it, but we implied it, that we if we won the congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody who was a good student of government knew that wasn’t true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts.”

Kanjorski made the comments at a town hall meeting in Ashley, Pa., in August. Republicans on Friday circulated a link to the video clip, which was posted Thursday on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Kanjorski, 71, handily won re-election two years ago when Democrats swept control of the House and Senate.

In another rare moment of Democrat honesty on the House inquisition of energy company leaders, Rep Maxine Waters let fly with the true intentions of all Democrats on energy (link, btw read the whole thing, Ed Morrissey is dead-on):

First, let’s review what Rep. Maxine Waters said to the president of Shell Oil during a House hearing:

“And guess what this member* would be all about? This member would be all about socializing - er, uh. [Pauses for several moments] …. would be about … [pause] … basically … taking over, and the government running all of your companies.”

Take a look at the video that AP posted last night while Waters says this. As soon as the word “socialization” exits her lips, she knows she made a big blunder, not the least of which is that the actual term is “nationalization”. Waters just declared a socialist policy of total confiscation in the House hearing room, and she looks for an exit strategy, finally winding up with the slightly more ambiguous idea of Washington “running” the oil companies. Two people in the background try mightily to stifle laughter at Waters’ predicament.

Hillary Clinton on why she’s staying in the race.  If anything were to happen to Obama at this point, it’d be like Hillary was an arrogant husband with the last name Peterson and Obama was his missing wife whose first name rhymes with “acey” (link):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced a firestorm Saturday sparked by her raising the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy to justify her decision to prolong her White House campaign.

Clinton told a newspaper board in South Dakota she could not understand calls for her to quit, arguing that history showed that some past nominating contests had gone on into June.

“My husband (Bill Clinton) did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary, somewhere in the middle of June, right?” Clinton said Friday in an interview with the Argus Leader newspaper editorial board.

“We all remember, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California, I don’t understand it,” Clinton said.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton condemned her comment as “unfortunate” and said it “has no place in this campaign.”

Clinton appeared to reference the Kennedy killing at the end of the 1968 Democratic presidential race to show that previous Democratic nominating contests have stretched well into June.

To give equal time, Barack Obama was not without his barely-reported weekly gaffe (link).   

And my favorite candidate is the loan-welcher, Congresswoman Richardson (Hillary Superdelegate) from California, who walked away from the mortgage on her second home in Sacramento, CA. Michelle Malkin brought this to our attention here (link). Who do you believe?  Sounds like the facts garnered from public records are a lot different than stated by Ms. Richardson (we used to call it “lying) (link):

Congresswoman’s Home Sold in Foreclosure Auction

Rep. Richardson’s former Sacramento home (Associated Press)
Congress has turned its attention to solving the foreclosure crisis even as one of its members has lost a home in a foreclosure auction.

The Sacramento home of Rep. Laura Richardson was sold in a public auction two weeks ago for $388,000. The Southern California Democrat bought the house for $535,000 with no money down in January 2007 and owed nearly $575,000 to Washington Mutual when the mortgage was sold earlier this month at a significant loss to Red Rock Mortgage Inc.

Rep. Richardson, a former Long Beach city council member, bought the home after winning a seat in California’s state assembly. She maintains her primary residence, a four-bedroom home, in her Long Beach district. Months later, Rep. Richardson ran in a hard-fought election for the congressional seat, which was vacated when the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald died from cancer. To fund that campaign, Rep. Richardson lent herself more than $75,000 and stopped making payments on the Sacramento home around the same time.

The story was first reported by the Capitol Weekly, a Sacramento publication.

Rep. Richardson denied the report in a written statement Wednesday, “The residential property in Sacramento California is not in foreclosure and has NOT [emphasis hers] been seized by the bank,” she said: “I have worked with my lender to complete a loan modification and have renegotiated the terms of the agreement - with no special provisions. I fully intend to fulfill all financial obligations of this property.”

The terms of that agreement were not specified, and Richardson’s office did not return a call seeking clarification.

James York, the Sacramento broker who bought the three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home, rejected the idea that the home hadn’t been seized. The sale of the home was announced in March. “She’s walked away from the property,” he said. “I would be happy to resell her the home for the $535,000.”

Sounds like the type of individual we need writing laws for the rest of us!  My favorite part was this passage (link):

York produced a trustee’s deed confirming that his company, Red Rock Mortgage Inc., owns the house.

York said the house was relatively clean when he found it, at least compared to other foreclosed homes, though the garage was “full of trash to the ceiling.” Workers have been cleaning it out and tending to the yard, which had been left unmowed for months.

When he bought the house at 3622 W. Curtis Drive, York assumed responsibility for Richardson’s unpaid property tax bill of $8,950.79.

“Tell Laura I’d be happy to have her pay my property tax,” York said.

What a great neighbor! Say, maybe we should have the “people who can’t manage their own finances” run “big oil”! I believe that is the Bad Idea of the Day.

Did I miss any candidates?  Who’s your vote?