Would you house and try terrorists in an area that includes:

• Our largest naval installation?
• The shipyard responsible for building nuclear carriers?
• Where design work is done on our nuclear subs?
• Headquarters for the US AIr Force’s Air Combat Command and 1st Fighter Wing?
• Multiple other military bases?
• A nuclear power plant?

No?  I wouldn’t either.  Yet, the Obama administration is evidently giving serious consideration to doing just that.

As the Washington Post and Daily Press report, the Obama Justice Department is considering holding trials for terrorists in the Eastern District of Virginia.  If so, the trials could occur in either Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond or Alexandria.  You can bet they wouldn’t do it in the DC burbs, so scratch the Alexandria courthouse off the list.

While Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), Del. Glenn Oder, Del Phil Hamilton, and Virginia Sen. Tommy Norment have all strenuously denounced such an action, it is the stance of Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) that is the most ironic.  Scott, whose district includes the Newport News shipyard, the Newport News and Norfolk federal courthouses, Ft. Eustis, and the Surry nuclear power station (and is adjacent to the Norfolk Naval Base and Langley AFB) is straddling the fence:

… the decision on where to hold the trials is at "the discretion of the executive branch."

I don’t recall Bobby saying that when decisions were made by the Bush administration.

H/T – Brian Kirwin @ Bearing Drift

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore is scheduled to speak at the 90th annual American Legion convention is Falls Church this morning. Gilmore, the GOP nominee to succeed retiring Sen. John Warner (R-VA) is a Legion member and Vietnam-era veteran.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) seldom missed a chance to discuss his military service will running for office in 2006. Now that he is on the list of potential running mates for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL), Webb claims that “we need to make sure that we take politics out of service.”

Stating that McCain should “calm down” about his military record, Webb told MSNBC that:

“Don’t be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them, because they don’t.”

Webb’s remarks follow those of retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark:

“Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

IF Webb winds up on the Obama ticket, do we honestly expect him to not mention his military service? This would be one of the motivating factors in putting Webb on the ticket as Obama has never served his country, other than to hold elected office.

If Webb runs for re-election in 2012, will he again claim that military service should not be a factor in electoral politics? Of course not! Jim Webb is not only turning into a liberal of the first order, he has become a first rate hypocrite.

The Commonwealth deserves better. If Webb does become Obama’s running mate, perhaps he could do Virginia a favor and resign from office before losing in November. That would be a true win-win.

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Thanks to my Red Maryland and Salisbury News colleague Kenny Burns for putting me on to this one:

Speaking Democrat: A Primer by Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI)

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Hillary has thrown in the towel and the party of Jefferson and Jackson (both Andrew and Jesse) will nominate Barack Hussein Obama to be their candidate for President!

We should not be complacent. Like our current President who rode into office promoting a “compassionate conservatism” (borrow and spend big government), Obama will attempt to assuage the fears of voters by rhetorically promoting a less threatening form of socialism than leftist candidates before him.

Obama promotes government control of our economy through socialized healthcare and excessive taxation of “windfall profits”. Obama wishes to appease our enemies by claiming that he isn’t practicing appeasement.

With a Democrat congressional majority AND an Obama presidency America can look forward to waiting in mile long lines for $10 gasoline so that we can then get in line at the grocery store because food companies will have to be tax to death (since food prices are too high).

In a totally expected development, a staff member of Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (?-1) has formed a group calling themselves “Republicans for Kratovil”.  It appears that reporter Joe Gidjunis and the management of the Daily Times have signed up to be the group’s ad hoc publicity committee.  Why else would they bother to give a rump group of nominal Republicans (or closeted Democrats) in Kent County such prominent coverage?

There was never a question of the Daily Times‘ support for Gilchrest.  In all fairness, they should have.  Hardly an enclave of conservatism, our local paper had the perfect candidate in Gilchrest – liberal on social and environmental issues, moderate on fiscal and defense issues.  Unfortunately for them, but not for the people of the First District, their shining knight was showing signs of tarnish and lost.

Now they appear to be linking arms with a group led by paid Gilchrest staff to push the candidacy of Queen Anne’s States Attorney Frank Kratovil.  Why?  The answer is a simple one.  If Andy Harris wins in November, their beliefs will have been repudiated.

I have stated several times that Andy Harris was the best candidate running the worst campaign.  That’s not entirely true, but Gilchrest certainly ran a better race than Harris’.  Andy Harris was and is, BY FAR, the best candidate in this race.  He best represents the beliefs of the vast majority of voters in the First District.  Is the environment important?  Of course it is.  Is it more important to the majority of voters than taxes?  Illegal immigration?  Government spending?  The war on terror?  National defense?  No.  Harris is in sync with the majority of First District voters on all of these.  Unfortunately for Harris, his media consultants appeared to have only two arrows in their quiver (fiscal policy and immigration) and allowed the message to degenerate.

Now we have a small group of Gilchrest supporters who have swallowed the Kool-Aid and have disavowed the GOP because they lost a primary.  Fair enough, this is America.  Now the rubber has hit the road for Gilchrest and his senior staff.  Will he repudiate the actions of one staffer, and dismiss her, or will he remain silent?  Rep. Gilchrest should consider if this is the legacy that he wants to leave.

Some may argue that Gilchrest has no control over the actions of his staff.  The very fact that Karen Willis (founder of Crybabies for Kratovil) is prominently identified as a “Gilchrest aide” may infer that Gilchrest supports these efforts.  Does Gilchrest want to leave Congress as a statesman, or as an embittered loser who is using tax dollars (through paid staff) to provide aide and comfort to the very candidate that he had hoped to oppose in November.

cross posted at Salisbury News

Technorati Tags: Maryland, politics, Andy Harris, Wayne Gilchrest, Frank Kratovil, GOP, Democrat, conservatism, Daily Times, Gannett, fiscal policy, government spending, taxation, envirnoment

Michelle Malkin states that “heads explode” over the endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA). I’d venture to say that it’s just one more disappointment for the fans of Mitt.

I’m not a fan of Mike Huckabee, despite Chuck Norris’ endorsement. However, I’m a little disappointed by pundits who report to only be concerned about Conservatism moving forward, yet don’t hesitate to distort the record of those that they disagree with.

We need to remember that Huckabee was attacked on his fiscal record, but he was able to prove that it wasn’t has bad as people like Robert Novak claimed. We now have Ms. Malkin (who I am a fan of) proclaiming Huckabee as an “ethno-panderer”.

Why should folks be surprised that Hunter would not support Mitt Romney? National security has always been the number one issue for Hunter and, as Michael Swartz points out, Hunter has repeatedly asked Romney to intercede with his friends over at Bain Capital to drop their partnership with Chi-Com defense contractor Huawei Technologies in a bid to buy US defense contractor 3Com.

This is just one reason why I can’t support Mitt Romney for President. The evidence that Romney considers profit more important than national security bolsters the claim that a Romney presidency would mean (at least) four more years of a corporatist White House.

As for the continuing dismissal of Sen. John McCain, I am amazed at the revisionist history being written by the Bush wing of the party and its supporters (like Romney). I remember similar attacks being levied against Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980 (by Bush’s father, no less). I agree that McCain is weak on immigration, but he can remedy that mistake. His capital crime, among the corporatist wing of the party, is his refusal to immediately jump on the bandwagon for Bush’s tax cuts. Admittedly, part of his reasoning was wrong. I didn’t buy into the “class warfare” aspect, but McCain was dead right regarding the effect of the cuts on the deficit.

While I may wish that Rep. Hunter had supported McCain, I understand his choice. He should be respected for it.

Technorati Tags: 2008, Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, fiscal policy, defense, taxation, economics

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There are just over three weeks to go until Maryland’s primary. Republican voters in the First District will have an opportunity to cast their vote in one of the most hotly contested Congressional primaries of the year when they choose between Wayne Gilchrest, Andy Harris or E. J. Pipkin. You can read a detailed analysis of each campaign at the Campaign Edge.

The biggest question is – will voters be sufficiently informed as to who stands for what on immigration, taxation, fiscal restraint and the war to actually vote for the candidate who best reflects their views or will they be sufficiently confused to vote for the wrong guy … or not to vote at all?

cross posted at Salisbury News and Red Maryland

Technorati Tags: 2008, campaign, GOP, WayneGilchrest, AndyHarris, EJPipkin, immigration, fiscalpolicy, taxation, defense

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Spank the Donkey is running an excellent series of posts titled “Why Jim Gilmore Will Win” To date they are:

Why Jim Gilmore Will Win – Part 1: Government Spending

Why Jim Gilmore Will Win – Part 2: Looming Recession

Why Jim Gilmore Will Win – Part 3: Agent of Change

Why Jim Gilmore Will Win – Part 4: Military Service

Why Jim Gilmore Will Win – Part 5: Bringing Virginians Together

We’ll keep updating the series as Chris adds more posts. You can also catch them over at Bloggers 4 Jim Gilmore.

Technorati Tags: 2008, JimGilmore, economics, fiscalpolicy, taxation, defense, campaign, GOP, Virginia, politics, virginiapolitics

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One of the favorite terms slung by left is “McCarthyism”. They love to accuse those in the center and right of this supposed sin. Of course they are never guilty of it themselves.

People have short memories, and certainly aren’t helped by the media. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) actually did a lot of good in bringing attention to Communists and Communist sympathizers employed in high ranking posts by the Federal government. There was just one problem, McCarthy became a little too infatuated with his press clippings and started branding people as Reds who simply disagreed with him. This brought us to the now infamous Army-McCarthy hearings.

The Left’s favorite organization, MoveOn.org seems to have learned little from history. This merry little band of America haters decided to take out an ad in the New York Times declaring Iraq theater commander, Gen. David Patraeus, as Gen. Betray Us.

Without bothering to hear what the man had to say, they accused him of betray his country and lying to the American people. Needless to say, a far too large group of Democrat Congressmen jumped on the “America Last” bandwagon.

Technorati Tags: defense, McCarthyism, MoveOn.org, liberalism

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