Yep, meet Dr. Dan Benishek.  He’ll be running against the spineless Bart Stupak this November.  When I first joined his facebook, it wasn’t really clear whether he was a democrat or Republican.  It’s clear now.  Within the first hour of Stupak announcing he took the money off the night stand, he had nearly two thousand members join.  He’s over 17,000 now twenty four hours later:

I have never held political office but I feel compelled to seek a position at this time because of disturbing developments in our nation’s capitol. I have watched with horror and disbelief as congress has voted to spend trillions of dollars on legislation that no one even read. I very much want to serve my country and the citizens of the 1st District and to provide better representation and leadership on important issues such as:

· Job Creation. Our best hope lies within the private, not public, sector. In particular, we need to support small business, which creates the bulk of new jobs. Government should step aside and let the free market work by reducing burdensome regulation and taxation.

· Fiscal Responsibility. Government is out of control and is squandering our children’s future! I say no to more government bail-outs, business takeovers, and growing entitlements. It is time to make drastic cuts in spending, balance our budget, stop printing money and start paying down our ballooning national debt.

· Lower Taxes. I believe that a government which governs least is a government which governs best. We need a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We need to reduce oppressive taxation and allow individual citizens to keep and invest more of their hard-earned money. We need to shrink the size and scope of our government to be in line with that envisioned by our founding fathers.

· Health Care. America has the best health care system in the world – a system which needs fine-tuning but definitely not a government take-over! We need to focus on free market reforms which will increase competition and decrease costs. A good place to start would be to allow health care insurance to be tax deductible, portable and sold across state lines. Additionally, we must pass tort reform to rein in skyrocketing costs associated with frivolous medical law suits.

· Energy Independence. Radical environmentalism has rendered energy development next to impossible. While we must be good stewards of the earth, God gave us this earth and all its resources for our needs. America has huge coal, natural gas and oil reserves. We need to responsibly tap into these reserves and stop relying on other nations to supply our energy. In addition, we need to vigorously expand our use of nuclear power as a safe, clean and efficient source of energy.

If you believe in personal responsibility and limited government, please support me in my effort to change the status quo in Washington and return responsible representation to the 1st District of Michigan. If you feel powerless as you watch our government take your hard earned money and spend it foolishly, choose me. If you want an honest, hard working congressman who will answer your letters and phone calls, choose me.

As a surgeon, I have 30 years experience dealing with and solving serious problems. I don’t have all the answers to our nation’s problems but I will enthusiastically apply my skills and work with you to find them! Let us start here and work together to return our government to the people. Join my campaign and stand as a citizen of our great republic with your vote for me.

Sounds pretty good so far. 

Look, I know he is green.  He still doesn’t have a website and he just recently put up a donation page.  But this is what the founders had in mind.  John Q. Lunchpail coming to Washington to represent their constituents.  Novel idea, huh?

Good luck Doctor.

A democratic Syracuse Common Councilor fell short of the required signatures he needed to get himself on the democratic party line for the November election.  How many signatures was he short you ask?  One.  He forgot to sign his own petition:

Syracuse Common Councilor Michael Heagerty needed 335 valid signatures on his petitions to run for re-election on the Democratic Party line, a generally routine task for any incumbent. He was mortified to find Wednesday that he ended up one signature short.

And that he forgot to sign his own petition.

The city Democratic Committee had named Heagerty its designee in the 1st District and wanted to see his name in the Democratic line Nov. 3. Instead, district voters will find that spot blank.

On Wednesday evening, a reporter broke the news to Heagerty that he didn’t sign. “I didn’t sign my own petition? You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.  “I can haz reeeecount?”

It’s possible I made that last quote up.

If he is this incompetent with a simple task like counting signatures, I wonder how he has been doing with the rest of his job?

When faced with a current 21 point deficit in the polls to Pat Toomey and a sure beat down in the Republican primaries, specter did what any morally and ethically bankrupt politician would do:  He switched parties.  When the going got tough for ‘ol arlen……well the weak got going.  And specter took his ball and went home.  Pussy.

I say good riddance.  And I am not buying any crap about this stupid “tent” these rino’s keep talking about.  You know, a perverbial tent to allow for some diversity of opinion on issues in order to reach out to these squishy, linguini-spined independents to covet their votes.  Screw them.  This notion that conservatives need to be careful about picking their battles is absurd.   I reject the idea that it is better to have a weak-kneed Senator who votes against us more than with us, than a solid Senate candidate who nobly loses while keeping his conservative principles intact.

Frankly, I’m not sure why this is such a shock.  The fact some republicans were left flat footed is lost on me.  What core values did this douchtool represent?  His colors have been showing for quite some time, most recently with the porkulous vote.  He was one of three republicans on Capitol Hill that voted for porkulous.  More democrats rejected the porkulous than republicans voted to support it.  He voted to weaken Bush’s tax cuts.  He went along with the railroading of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.  He even opposed parental notification on abortions – not consent, but notification.

I think we have learned something quite valuable here and that is arlen spector is a political hack and cowardly individual.  At the first chance he might lose his Senate seat–and power–he bolts in an ass-saving cowardly maneuver.  This isn’t bitterness, at least on my part.  If he wants to switch parties, that is perfectly fine.  He could have done it in an honorable way by resigning, possibly getting appointed by the democratic governor, or could have just run against whoever received the appointment.  He chose the easy way.

But before that door hits you in the ass arlen, why don’t you hold it open to see if we can get a few more to follow you.  McCain, Snowe, Collins, Grahamnesty…I am sure I am forgetting someone.