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House Race Update

CA 47: Takes Nguyen To Know Nguyen

  TChris at TalkLeft asks the question, "Why did GOP candidate Tan Nguyen, running ... against Rep. Loretta Sanchez, pony up money for a list of Democratic voters?"  TChris self-responds:

  One possibility: to discourage foreign-born Democrats from voting by advising them in a letter that it's illegal for immigrants to vote.  That bit of advice is a lie, of course -- immigrants who are citizens have the same voting rights as Americans who are citizens by birth -- but Nguyen refuses to take responsibility for the letter.  He blames his office manager while disavowing any knowledge of the use to which the mailing list was put.

  Finger pointing and playing the blame game is a Republican way of life, but in this instance, not a very effective one.

  TChris goes on to quote a snippet from a news article:

  In an interview today, Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh said representatives of the Huntington Beach mail house that produced the letter told him that Nguyen was directly involved with the letter, calling and asking that it be sent out as soon as possible.

  The GOP on Thursday asked Nguyen to step down as its candidate for the 47th district race.  No word yet on whether Nguyen will do that.

MN 05: We CAIR A Lot

  Scott continues Power Line's crusade, as it were, to expose for all the world to see that Dem candidate Keith Ellison is a shill for Muslim interlopers, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune simply can't hack it as a reputable newspaper.  Having earlier tied Ellison to the Nation of Islam, now Power Line scrutinizes the relationship between Ellison and the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).  "Even such stalwart Democrats as Senators Dick Durbin and Charles Schumer," Scott writes, "have come to recognize CAIR's 'association with groups that are suspect,' its 'ties to terrorism' and its 'intimate links with Hamas.'

  "[C]onvictions of CAIR officials and employees for terror-related activities have made it increasingly difficult for CAIR to continue its charade with the same high level of success," Scott continues.  "No such difficulty confronts CAIR at the ... Tribune, which has proved itself a willing dupe."  He then references an op-ed column at the paper written by CAIR executive director Nihad Awad and chairman of the board Parvez Ahmed.  One part of the column particularly attracted Scott's attention.  Quote:

  There has been much sound and fury in certain circles about the American Muslim community's support for Keith Ellison and his campaign to represent Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. ... A handful of right-wing bloggers, agenda-driven commentators and political operatives have used scurrilous smear tactics in an attempt to derail his campaign and to marginalize American Muslim voters.  These smears and distortions send an un-American message of intolerance and bigotry. ... We are proud of our personal donations to Ellison's campaign.  He has proven himself to be an effective legislator and his commitment to social justice is worthy of admiration.  We believe his election will send a powerful message to the world about America's commitment to religious inclusion and tolerance.

  Keith then proceeds to list some of Awad's rhetoric and CAIR's dubious achievements, as well as Ahmed's ties to a convicted terrorist.  He concludes, "Awad's and Ahmed's utterly shameless column supporting Ellison should at least serve the purpose of putting Ellison's prospective congressional colleagues on notice of the rogue they are about to receive into their ranks."

  Captain Ed at the Quarters also takes offense to the op-ed's characterizations, saying that the Tribune "has done nothing to cover Ellison's connections" and "runs an op-ed piece ... that basically calls us racists."  Not one to turn the other cheek, the good Cap'n says bluntly that "CAIR serves as an apologist and fundraiser for terrorists; in fact, it was founded for that purpose. ... Their activity on behalf of a Congressional candidate, especially one who sneaks off to speak at a secret session of their organization, has rightly caused people to scrutinize both the candidate and the organization more closely, and screeching 'racism' is just another ploy for these radicals to hide themselves, this time behind a shield of political correctness."

NH 02: Bass Kicking

  DavidNYC at Swing State Project gets a laugh out of a mail ad from the campaign of Dem candidate Paul Hodes, challenging GOP incumbent Charlie Bass.  The ad features a sport fish and, in true Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote fashion, the faux-Latin nomenclature of Followis Bushis Bassius above it, with a further attempt at yuks beneath it, painting Bass as a Bush sycophant.

  Commenter DavidG isn't all that impressed, remarking, "Eh.  Trying to be too cute.  The Latin will go over the heads of most."

NY 19: Runaround Sue

  Rocker-cum-activist-cum-Dem-House-hopeful John Hall had the recent pleasure of debating an empty chair, since GOP incumbent Sue Kelly is refusing to go toe-to-toe with him. 

  Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos has a vid with "the explanation why our guy Hall is debating an empty chair, replete with video of ... Kelly running away from cameras asking her why she won't debate Hall."

  Commenter KingOneEye quips, "I can't help thinking that the intellectual level of the debate increased significantly when the chair was assigned to stand in for Kelly."

Bloggers Vs. Beltway

Moyers' Lawyers Try Shakin' Akin

  Jimmy Akin had the temerity to quote another guy's fudgery about news commentator Bill Moyers on his blog, and now finds himself in the middle of a legal tiff that might yield an amused smile or two among readers.

  In a post from Oct. 13, Akins wrote the following:

  Bill Moyers ... has long been regarded as one of the worst journalistic shills for the Democratic Party, pretending neutrality but in reality viciously slanting his coverage in favor of liberal causes. ... I was interested, therefore, when E. Calvin Beisner of the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance told me that he would be on a recent episode of Moyers' program "Moyers on America" that was devoted to environmentalism and titled "Is God Green?"

  I was not surprised that he tried to smear Cal by selectively disclosing facts and selectively editing the interview he did with him.  That's par for the course with the MSM.  What did surprise me was just how open Moyers was about his use of his journalism as a political tool to benefit liberal causes."

  Akin then posted an excerpt from a recent ISA newsletter, that opened up a can of legal eagles, as Akin would soon find:

  The bias of Moyers’s program is not surprising.  He forthrightly told me before our interviews that he, as a liberal Democrat, hoped to use this program to divide the evangelical vote and return control of Congress to the Democrats in November’s elections.  The timing of the program’s release, therefore, is not surprising.

  It was Beisner's assertion, and Akins posting of same, that triggered a letter from Moyer's legal team, along with a vigorous denail from Moyers himself that he ever made the statements attributed to him by Beisner.  The lawyer writes that "we have demanded on behalf of Mr. Moyers a retraction from the [ISA] stating clearly and without qualification that Dr. Beisner's statement was erroneous," etc., and indicated that by re-posting Beisner's words, Akin had also defamed Moyers.  The letter demanded that Akin publish Moyer's response along with Beisner's retraction.

  Though lacking the as-yet unavailable retraction, Akin happily obliges with the rest, publishing not only Moyer's response and the lawyer's letter, but also a letter from his own lawyer, who finds it "highly unlikely that you can sustain a case against my client for defamation," and says furthermore, "if you choose ... to proceed with a civil action against our client, notwithstanding his willingness to comply with Mr. Moyers's demands, please understand that this firm will vigorously defend Mr. Akin's rights and good name."