Medfly and Other Dems - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Medfly and Other Dems
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With Election Day fast approaching, it’s time to remind Republicans of the unused ammunition they have only three more weeks to expend. In the spirit of the Marine Corps aviators — one of whose mottos is, “never return to base with unexpended ordnance” — here are a few cases of bombs that are still hanging on the Republicans’ wings waiting to be dropped.

Given his record, it should be easy for Meg Whitman to defeat the gent who the late Mike Royko labeled “Governor Moonbeam.” But the last time Jerry Brown served as California’s governor was thirty years ago, and memories — even bad ones — fade over time. So it’d be a good time for Ms. Whitman to remind Californians of Brown’s other nickname — Governor Medfly — and how he earned it.

In 1980 California was beset simultaneously with Brown sitting in the governor’s chair and an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly (the two creatures being easily confused). On November 24, 1980, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared the state’s effort at medfly eradication inadequate. Gov. Medfly fumbled and fussed, working anxiously to avoid using environmentally unfriendly pesticides against the environmentally destructive fly. Eight months later — on July 10, 1981, after threats of boycotts of California agricultural products came from Japan and Mexico — Brown finally ordered aerial spraying. State ag officials used malathion, a very powerful chemical. But because the infestation had spread so widely by the time Brown acted, the spray had to be applied across a huge area, close to many populated places. The malathion promptly melted the paint off of hundreds of cars. Californians may want to vote “green”, but not if they have green-painted cars.

And while we’re in fruit and nut land, Carly Fiorina might want to remind voters that her Senate opponent, soon after her election, disclaimed any loyalty to the other of the state’s two major employers: the defense industry. And Sen. Barbara (“don’t call me ma’am”) Boxer has remained faithful to that liberal orthodoxy. She’s done all she can to turn California’s aerospace industry into a high-tech ghost town.

Suddenly last August, Boxer realized there were defense industry union votes to mine so she went to the C-17 production plant and promised to do everything in her power to keep the massive transport rolling off the production line. And, of course, Babs didn’t lift a finger, C-17 production is being terminated, and California will lose yet another 5,000 jobs. Babsy Boxer has not only harmed our national security. She’s cost California a minimum of 40,000 defense industry jobs.

Moving east from California, we need to stop briefly in Nevada to remind Sharron Angle of the principal question regarding Harry Reid: where is Harry’s brain? He answered that question for us on August 3, 2007. Remember when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was being rewritten by grownups? Amidst the New York Times‘ conniptions about “warrantless wiretapping” and the ACLU’s rants about “constitutional rights” of terrorists, FISA was about to expire and the Bush administration was pushing hard to get the law updated and reauthorized.

And on that hot and sunny Washington day, Harry Reid was asked at a press conference whether he thought the Bush administration was stampeding Congress to pass the FISA bill. Harry then reached into his suitcoat pocket and pulled out a New York Times editorial from that very morning. Fortuitously, it was entitled, “Stampeding Congress, Again.” And Harry proclaimed, “Here’s what I think about that.”

Ms. Angle should remind Nevada voters that Harry’s brain is not in his body. It’s in the New York Times‘ editorial office. If you want to know what Harry thinks, don’t ask him: read the Times. Not many Nevadans do.

It would be ungenerous of us to list the redundant proofs that the so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats, poseurs all, are nothing more than Pelosi’s pink lapdogs. So let’s proceed.

Of these 52 ladies and gents who insist that they are fiscal conservatives and strong on national defense, about one-third of them voted for BOTH the “cap and tax” global warming bill AND for Nancy Pelosi’s version of Obamacare. For the record, they were:

Joe Baca (CA-43)
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Leonard Boswell (IA-03)
Dennis Cardoza (CA-18)
Jim Cooper (TN-05)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08)
Jane Harman (CA-36)
Baron Hill (IN-09)
Mike Michaud (ME-02)
Dennis Moore (KS-03)
Patrick Murphy (PA-08)
Loretta Sanchez (CA-47)
Adam Schiff (CA-29)
David Scott (GA-13)
Zack Space (OH-18)
Mike Thompson (CA-01)

Anyone running against any of these folk should be reminding people of these votes. (As Casey Stengel would have said, “you could look it up.” Pelosicare was HR-3962. The “cap and tax” bill was HR-2454.) The ever-informative Club for Growth reports that Pelosi herself cast 62 votes on fiscal issues in the 111th Congress and the Blue Dogs voted with her 80% of the time. (Which brings to mind another useful New York baseball saying: “T’row da bums out.”)

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is blessed by the fact that his main opponent, Charlie Crist, has a record that is the rough equivalent of Gov. Medfly’s, minus the malathion. Rubio should need no help at all after Crist’s toss of the first pitch at an MLB playoff game. Crist — apparently dressed in someone’s pajama pants and his father’s baseball jersey — looked entirely ridiculous and threw so wildly that the catcher needed to chase the ball. Why not use the video of Clumsy Charlie juxtaposed with one of Rubio throwing hard to a major league catcher? “Marco Rubio throws heat, and hits the target”?

Pollsters have all but written off Jay Townsend’s campaign to topple uberliberal Chuck Schumer in one of the two New York Senate races. But Townsend may yet surprise them. He’s already remembered two key facts: that Schumer is in a three-way tie (with the aforementioned Babsy Boxer and Barry O’Bama) for the title of most liberal person on the planet. And Schumer’s weirdness is something too few New Yorkers remember. Chuck has two imaginary friends — he named them Joe and Eileen Bailey — who he talks to frequently and who he says accompany him everywhere he goes. They advise him on middle-class issues. Townsend could put out a YouTube video with Chuck and a few cartoon pals talking about how proud he is to lead the national liberal agenda. It would go viral and Chuckie could be the surprise upset of the year.

Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias said on “Meet the Press” yesterday that he (formerly the bank’s senior loan officer) didn’t know the extent of his family-owned bank’s loans to convicted mobsters and assorted felons. And, he said, only 9% of the bank’s loans weren’t bad. Hey, no prob: the mob is a good credit risk to Giannoulias’s “family” bank. Republican Mark Kirk might think about one of those newly-popular YouTube videos featuring Jack Webb’s Sergeant Friday character. Kirk’s staff could cobble together Giannoulias’s statements on MTP with Sgt. Friday questioning him aggressively. No need to waterboard Alexi. The hot lights will be enough. Dumm-ta-dumm-dumm.

By the time the polls close on Election Day, Republicans should feel confident that they’ve missed no opportunity. Bombs away, folks.

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