Red State

Good on the President-elect for this decision:

President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday.

"President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," an aide on Obama's transition team said. "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."

Oil prices have fallen from a record $147 a barrel in July to under $50 this week.

Of course, no matter what the price of oil, a windfall profits tax is a terrible idea so the President-elect should not have waited until the price of oil fell before making the decision to ditch the tax. Additionally, it would have been nice if the President-elect had taken a stance against the windfall profits tax irrespective of the price of oil during the campaign. But I suppose that was not possible; the "reality-based community" would have objected if Barack Obama was actually reality-based when it came to this issue.

Okay, so it is somewhat mean to be so snarky and yes, Democrats have far more to brag about in this election cycle than do Republicans so perhaps I jumped offsides on the snark. But it remains worth noting that with Saxby Chambliss's big win in today's Georgia Senate runoff, Obamamania has met certain limits. While there was some concern that Chambliss was not breaking 50% in the polls and thus may have been vulnerable, the incumbent won by 20 points. I'm sure that is good for a few raised heads and cocked eyebrows in Punditland, where many of the residents seemed to think that the race would be closer.

It should be noted as well that in the battle of the surrogates, John McCain and Sarah Palin overcame Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Barack Obama--all of whom campaigned for Chambliss's opponent, Jim Martin. With the win, Republicans will officially prevent Democrats from reaching 60 seats in the Senate. The only contest that remains is the one in Minnesota where Norm Coleman is doing well enough that Al Franken is trying to get the Senate to come and save him.

So tonight was a big win for Republicans. And a wake-up call to Democrats that there remain positions of electoral strength for Republicans. The party has been written off before and has come back to surprise. Maybe we are seeing the stirrings of a surprise gather even now.

I would like to reassure our Republican readers that my mentioning of Joseph Cao's alternate name in the title is in no way intended to diminish his quite impressive accomplishments in the community. You can volunteer to his campaign here, by the way - or, again, contact the LA GOP. No, I'm fully confident that any Republican reading this understands the stakes. The title is simply there to remind our Democratic readers that there will be a clear and stark moral choice going on in Saturday's election... and that anybody who doesn't do whatever they can to defeat Bill Jefferson has made the wrong moral choice.

In other words: vote for the Republican.
It's important.

Moe Lane

PS: Again: ...in his freezer.

John Fleming's website is here; contributions here, but what he probably wants right now is boots on the ground. Or you could contact the Louisiana GOP.

This is a race for an open seat, and right now the Democratic challenger's major hope is in heavy African-American turnout. Obama has not come down to stump for the candidate - he's pretty much done what he did for Martin, minus the rap stars - and this is a GOP-leaning district (R+7), so it can be won.

If we go for it. Eyes on the prize, people. Eyes on the prize.

Both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama campaigned in Georgia. Palin flew all over the state rallying Republicans. Obama flew under the radar heavily targeting black voters, demanding support for Martin, and running heavy radio advertising on urban stations.

Ladies and Gentlemen, black voters turned out for Obama, but not for Obama's candidates. Remember that for 2010.

But folks, remember this too: Sarah Palin asked Republicans to turn out and they did. Of all the Republicans who campaigned for Chambliss, she was the only one that went all over the state for him. And it paid off.

Now Saxby, pay attention: If you do not fire Charlie Harmon tomorrow and undergo a significant restructuring of your Washington office you will prove yourself a fool who has learned nothing from this. Hiring a Democrat to run your office was a bad idea. That he pushed you to engage in bipartisan compromises that did nothing but piss off your base was inexcusable. A Chief of Staff could keep you out of this crap, not get you into it. He should himself resign.

Also, memo to the Georgia Republican Party: Sue Everhart is not eligible for re-election in 2009 as Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. The stunning lack of anything displayed by the statewide GOP apparatus disqualifies her.

UPDATE, 9:00 PM: With 68% of the vote in, it's 61/39 Chambliss/Martin, and I'm going to go back to watching Hellboy 2. But the big question is: did Obama know that he wasn't going to be able to pull this one off for the Democrats, or did he just not particularly care? Either answer would be interesting for his Party, in the Chinese proverb sense.

PS: Chambliss is well aware who helped get him out of this hole.

WJBF Results here: With 1% in, it's 70/30 Chambliss. We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE, 8:12 PM: And CNN has it at 65/35 Chambliss with 20% of the vote in.

UPDATE, 8:31 PM: Georgia's Secretary of State page (H/T AoSHQ) has it at 62/38 Chambliss with 43% of the vote in.

Proving that common sense, let alone economic literacy, are as rare as hen's teeth in some political circles, both Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds refused to rule out tax hikes to clean up the state's budget woes:

“Everything should be on the table,” said Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria. His position was echoed by state Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath.

Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who is eying a gubernatorial bid, disagreed. “You don’t raise taxes in a down economy,” he said.

Walter Mondale.

As for Republican contender Bob McDonnell:

McDonnell also rejected taxes, saying lawmakers should cut spending. “The worst thing you can do during a recession is try to tax yourself to prosperity,” he said.

The drive-by media is at it again - Politico, in this instance, fanning the embers of resentment between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Lisa Murkowski, both of Alaska, and hoping to start a fire. Since Sarah defeated Frank Murkowski, the senator's father, on her way to the governor's mansion, there has been some bad blood between Palin and the Murkowski family.

When asked in an interview about the prospect of a potential challenge to Murkowski for her senate seat by Gov. Palin, the senator answered that it would be a tough fight and a risky one for Pain. Now Politico writer Manu Raju has authored an article with the inflammatory headline, "Murkowski to Palin: Leave my seat alone." Leave it to the drive-bys to try to start a cat fight between Alaska's two most prominent women in politics, hoping for a battle that would leave both of them bloodied and weakened.

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Perhaps we did not purchase the bill of goods, but 68,588,471 American voters, most still alive and voting only once, were sold the campaign schtick – hopeCHANGEhope – and now they're learning about it from Karl Rove. On their home turf, NBC's Today program, Karl Rove reviews their messiah's national security & foreign policy team and tells them this:

The team represents, to a substantial degree, continuity.

Ouch. Continuity = More of the Same. (Gates, btw, is not a Republican.)

(There's more beyond the vid.)

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Check out this picture from a Boston Globe article on today's runoff election:

The caption below the photo says, "Jim Martin, the Democrat vying for the US Senate seat in Georgia, posed with rappers (from left) T.I., Young Jeezy, and Ludacris during a campaign rally in Atlanta."

Here's a question I have: who in their right mind thought, in a state-wide runoff, it would be a good idea to have Martin appear at public venues with these Kings of Misogyny?

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I wrote a post on November 21st. I have put it in the queue to go live tomorrow morning. It relates to the Georgia Senate race. The damage is already done so I figured I'd hold my fire until after the race was over so as not to distract from the real issues.

But the question is: which consulting firm engaged in a conflict of interest, self-dealing, and in the process cost the GOP thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours by duplicating a mistake after already coming under fire for the mistake once?

Find out tomorrow.

And consider this an open thread.

Though no official announcement has been made, Chris Cilliza reports that the Sunshine State’s lone Republican US Senator, Mel Martinez, has decided to not seek a second term in 2010.

According to sources close to Martinez – the former beleaguered General Chairman of the Republican National Committee who resigned amid the comprehensive immigration debate – the retirement was prompted by a desire for “more free time and a less scheduled life.” Martinez’s retirement is sure to start a new parlor game in Floridian politics, ensuring both a costly and competitive primary and general election.

Of the potential candidates:

State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, widely seen as Democrats' strongest potential candidate, has apparently decided that she would not run but may well reconsider that decision given Martinez's expected announcement today. Democratic Reps. Ron Kleinand Kendrick Meek as well as state Sen. Dan Gelber are likely to consider the open seat race.

On the Republican side, there may well be a push to recruit former Gov. Jeb Bush into the contest although that seems like a long shot. State Attorney General Bill McCollum will almost certainly be mentioned as will state Senate President Jeff Atwater and former state House speaker Marco Rubio.

Cross-posted at Skepticians.com

This cause - "No Pardon or Clemency for George Ryan" - was passed along to me in light of my article yesterday, and now I'm passing it along to you. It can be donated to: all donations go to the Better Government Association. The creator of it is himself a RedState reader and occasional diarist, so check it out.

If you're wondering why I'm linking to a cause found on a social networking site that you don't yourself use, you're wondering about the wrong thing. What you should be wondering is why you're not on that and other social networking sites yourself, particularly if you're eager to go full-metal grassroots activist for 2010 and beyond. These places are not substitutes for working in your state and local GOP offices... but they're darn good supplements, and if your goal is increased communication you need to start thinking like a communicator.

So go to it, then.

Moe Lane

PS: Don't go too far with it, of course. Your state and local GOP offices do need your help.