Archive for May, 2009

Kucinich portion of the segment starts at 2:51.
I’m glad Kucinich is not simply towing the party line but instead standing up to President Obama. Kucinich is not even asking for anything that Obama did not promise in his campaign. The basics of the progressive left, close Gitmo, bring the troops home…etc. If Obama does not satisfy this portion of his own party he may be facing a tough midterm election here in his first term.
Again this is within his own party and not to mention the growing number of Libertarian voices on the right that will challenge him on these same issues come 2010.

As I wrote about in my post on PoliticalLore.com a few weeks back in the article titled, What would a Ron Paul 2012 campaign look like? it would help Ron Paul to have surrogates early to be able to cover more ground on his behalf.
Well it looks like his son Rand Paul is doing just that as his exploratory committee for a US Senate run in Kentucky moves forward. Heading up the Economic Council of Advisors will be Dr. John Garen, who is currently the chair of the economics department at the University of Kentucky. Along with Dr. Garen, Paul has appointed 6 other economists, primarily from Western Kentucky University to round out the Council.
This will lend credibility to Rand Paul’s campaign from day one.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released this ad shortly after the launch of Republican Rob Simmons announcement that he would be running for Connecticut’s US Senate Seat.
Simmons has earned the reputation as a crony capitalist by rubbing elbows with defense contractors and landing them contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.
Peter Schiff may be able to take the angle that he himself is a self made man well outside the web of Washington, while Simmons has made a name for himself pushing forward the Neo-Con agenda during the most destructive of the Bush years.

Rollcall.com posted an article today that included an interview with Jesse Benton, the former Ron Paul Presidential campaign manager and now the man who runs Ron Paul’s Liberty PAC.
The biggest news in the article is that Benton says the Liberty PAC will not be used to challenge Republican incumbents in Congress. This is an interesting development that shows Ron Paul’s willingness to mesh with the Republican Party on issues which they agree upon. I personally think this is a smart move on Ron Paul’s part, because this will ease the competition of those supported by the Liberty PAC in Republican primaries. Having to spend more money in the primaries means that the Liberty PAC would get less bang for their buck and be competitive in less races.
It is important to clarify that the Liberty PAC is a separate organization from the Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, which is used primarily to support legislation such as HR 1207 (to audit the Federal Reserve).
There are already several likely candidates who will enjoy the support of the Liberty PAC funding and vocal support. First and foremost Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul who has launched an exploratory committee for Jim Bunning’s Kentucky Senate seat.
Two likely candidates who have already received a written endorsement from Congressman Paul are Adam Kokesh, who has launched an exploratory committee for the New Mexico’s 3rd district US House seat and Steve Lonegan who will be running for Governor of New Jersey.
Economist Peter Schiff, who I expect to launch his candidacy in the coming weeks, will also definitely receive support from the Liberty PAC. Schiff served as an economic advisor to the Ron Paul Presidential campaign.

In this interview Peter Schiff, known as one of the few economists that truly saw the current economic crisis coming, adds fuel to the speculation that he may soon declare his intention to run for the US Senate in Connecticut.

An official announcement is expected from Schiff in the coming days. I believe that he will declare his candidacy on the Glenn Beck Fox News show this Thursday. If Schiff would emerge the victor in the Republican primary he would likely face the incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd, who has come under fire recently for his support for the Bush administrations bailout package as well as the unpopular bailout packages that followed in the Obama administration.

There are only 39 more cosponsors in order to reach the magic number of 218 “yes” votes that is would take to pass on the House floor.

My feeling now is that this bill will reach that magic number of 218 in the coming weeks. However, my feeling is also that Barney Frank and the leadership of both parties in the house are trying to figure out a way to water the bill down. The fact is that the bill is already extremely simple.

Erasing the loopholes in the accountability of the Federal Reserve would be a fairly simple process that would involve them completely opening their books to an independent audit. The tricky part will be delivering the results of the audit to the American people in a way that will generate the appropriate anger and outrage needed to propel the eventual closing of the United State’s central bank that is the Federal Reserve.

I’m getting ahead of myself. The next step is to get this bill out of committee to a vote on the floor. And then if it passes it faces a much tougher road in the Senate and a virtual death sentence if it were to miraculously reach Obama’s desk.

So what these coming months will be about is the opportunity to raise the topic of the Federal Reserve in public forums. If the bill were to pass in the House, those in opposition in the Senate will be forced to clearly define why they oppose a simple transparency bill for the nation’s central bank, a bank which has been so intricately involved in the current economic disaster.

Once this discussion is made reaches more and more of the already outraged public, public support will explode and those in opposition to the bill will be exposed for protecting the private Federal Reserve bank.