We can win Kirsten Gillibrand's Seat

The House Democrat leadership is very unhappy with the appointment of 20th District Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate by New York’s Governor David Paterson. Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making it known that Gillibrand’s seat in upstate New York will be very hard to hold. Republicans view the 20th District as a stronghold for their party that they lost in 2006 only because of scandals and the total ineptness of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Also, Kirsten Gillibrand was one of the few New York Democrats conservative enough to be backed by the NRA. She is an avid hunter and a fiscal conservative.

“This should be a Republican seat,” said Bob Bellafiore, a former press secretary to Gov. George Pataki (R). “Having hit rock bottom, this is the first step for Republicans in New York to start their comeback, by winning a seat that should be rightfully theirs.”

But the big question is whether the Republicans will run a conservative who fits the nature of the district or “go for the middle” with a anti-tax candidate who supports same sex marriage, or even worse, is pro-abortion. As Republicans moved away from social conservatives in the Northeast they lost more and more seats.

Within hours of Gillibrand being sworn into the Senate, Republican leaders met and picked Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco as their candidate. It is unknown if the Conservative Party will back him as well. Tedisco was the 2006 candidate for governor on the GOP ticket. As you may recall, he lost to Elliot Spitzer who is best known nationally for hiring high dollar prostitutes. Tedisco has received at times a 100% rating from the NY Right to Life Committee and a zero rating from abortion group NARAL. He is also part of an Alliance Defense Fund lawsuit to stop Gov. Paterson from allowing homosexual marriage.

If Jim Tedisco wins this special election it will show that the Republican party does not lie cold in the grave. But Jim Tedisco is not the kind of candidate the big money guys in the Republican Party want. Wall Street favors anti-tax candidates who also favor same-sex marriage and the whole homosexual agenda. Walls Street and the big corporations see big bucks in the “gay agenda” and favor going back to the days of Richard Nixon, when social conservatives were not welcome in the Republican Party at all. Wall Street and particularly the editors of the Wall Street Journal just do not understand that without social conservatives the Republican Party can’t win elections.

Goodby George, Hello Barack

FRIDAY WAS BLACKBERRY TURN-IN DAY- Officially the government does not change hands until about 10:00 AM on Tuesday, January 20th, but Friday was actually the last real day the Bush Administration has any effective control. All of my friends at various departments, such as Justice, State, Labor and even the White House were ordered to turn in their Blackberry handsets today. Although they will be paid through Tuesday, they were told not to report to work on Monday.

A FAREWELL TO GWB- When George W. Bush was sworn in as Governor of Texas in 1995 my wife Nancy and I were present in Austin, Texas. We moved the offices of the Religious Freedom Coalition to Washington, DC from Dallas, Texas shortly after that. We were also at both of George W. Bush's presidential Inaugurations, in 2001 and 2005, and in fact participated in Inaugural Balls both times. Going full circle now, we have been invited and will attend the farewell ceremony for President George W. Bush at Andrews Air Force Base on January 20th. We were not invited to any of the Inaugural Balls or other events for Barack Obama.

OBAMA'S GAY MILITARY - Barack Obama has indicated that one of his first orders as Commander-in-Chief will be to eliminate the "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward homosexuals in the military initiated by President Clinton and continued by President George W. Bush. Under the order to be issued by Obama, homosexuals will be allowed to openly flaunt their sexual encounters in the military. Why is this a problem? In a combat unit men must act as a team. When "lovers" are in the unit they watch out for each other and not the team. Read more

BUSH PROCLAMATIONS - Before leaving office, George W. Bush issued two proclamations of interest to social conservatives. He proclaimed January 18th as National Sanctity of Life Day. The March for Life will be held in Washington, DC on January 22nd, the anniversary of Roe V. Wade. President Bush could not issue a proclamation for that date because Barack Obama will be president. It is VERY doubtful that Obama will ever issue a "Sanctity of Human Life" proclamation because he simply does not believe an unborn child is a human life. President Bush also proclaimed today, January 16, 2009 as Religious Freedom Day. I do not know if these links will work after Barack Obama is sworn in.