Federal Budget Update

No time for much talking, just a quick note that fiscal conservatives won a very good (but not great) victory in the big budget battle that just was resolved. From the Washington Examiner via Hot Air

A new analysis by a group of federal-spending watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republicans have made enormous strides in cleaning up their act. In the Senate, the GOP made only one-third as many earmark requests as Democrats for 2011, and in the House, Republicans have nearly given up earmarking altogether — while Democrats roll on.
The watchdog groups — Taxpayers for Common Sense, WashingtonWatch.com, and Taxpayers Against Earmarks — counted total earmark requests in the 2011 budget. Those requests were made by lawmakers earlier this year, but Democratic leaders, afraid that their party’s spending priorities might cost them at the polls, decided not to pass a budget before the Nov. 2 elections. This week, they distilled those earmark requests — threw some out, combined others — into the omnibus bill that was under consideration in the Senate until Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled it Thursday night. While that bill was loaded with spending, looking back at the original earmark requests tells us a lot about the spending inclinations of both parties.
In the 2011 House budget, the groups found that House Democrats requested 18,189 earmarks, which would cost the taxpayers a total of $51.7 billion, while House Republicans requested just 241 earmarks, for a total of $1 billion.
Where did those GOP earmark requests come from? Just four Republican lawmakers: South Carolina Rep. Henry Brown, who did not run for re-election this year; Louisiana Rep. Joseph Cao, who lost his bid for re-election; maverick Texas Rep. Ron Paul; and spending king Rep. Don Young of Alaska. The other Republican members of the House — 174 of them — requested a total of zero earmarks.

Republican Senators didn't behave so honorably, but, still the overall result is very good. Another win for the Tea Party: though out of power in the White House and both Houses of Congress, fiscal conservatives were able to impose their will on the ultra liberals (as in liberal with taxpayer money) that currently theoretically control our government. Let's hope Republicans can step it up to the next level in the next Congress.  They better, or else!

More Scalps for Palin

The most influential member of the most influential movement in the country continued her run of success against establishment candidates.  Palin-endorsed Senate candidates won the Republican primaries in Delaware, New York, New Hampshire, & Wisconsin on Tuesday.  The Tea Party is indeed transforming the Republican party from the inside out.  Proving that she's a force to be reckoned with apart from the Tea Party Movement, her candidate, Kelly Ayotte, won the New Hampshire primary against a sprited effort by the Tea Party-endorsed candidate, Ovide Lamontagne. 

In state after state (though certainly not all the candidates she's backed), Palin's endorsement has taken a little known candidate and thrust him/her into the spotlight, resulting in Tea Party publicity and conservative money heading their way.  The candidate then becomes a household name, and their message resonates, eclipsing the Establishment Candidate. 

Whether this is all for the good of the Republican Party or not is debateable.  Joe Miller, Marco Rubio, Kim Ayotte, & Nikki Haley are all good candidates. 

The big controversy is in the Delaware Senate primary, where, with a boost from Palin, Christine O'Donnell overcame much controversy and a big deficit to beat long time Delaware Republican RINO Mike Castle.  Mike Castle is a type of Republican that would make Jeff's (and my) blood boil, with his vote for Cap 'n' Trade, and his vote before the Iraq Surge for a Congressional Resolution against it:

pledges support for U.S. personnel serving “bravely and honorably in Iraq” but says Congress “disapproves” of the president’s plan to add more than 20,000 combat troops. The resolution was approved 246 to 182. Seventeen Republicans joined 229 Democrats in support of the resolution. Two Democrats opposed the measure.

This was similar to a statement made by Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith in Dec 2006, just before the surge:

I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that any more. I believe we need to figure out not just how to leave Iraq but how to fight the War on Terror and to do it right

That statement by Smith convinced me that Republicans and Americans didn't need him and I refrained from voting for him in the 2008 election, helping to hand one of Oregon's senate seats to uber-lib Jeff Merkely. That doesn't make me happy, but a Republican undercutting the war effort, particularly at that critical time, was unconscionable.

However, and this is a big however, in every poll conducted in Delaware so far, Mike Castle easily defeats the Democratic candidate, Chris Coons, while every poll also shows Chris Coons easily defeating Christine O'Donnell.  It's quite possible that Republican control of the Senate could come down to the Delaware vote.  If Mike Castle were nothing else, he would at least be a number determining whether Harry Reid will be the leader of the Senate or not.  And that, as Joe Biden says "is a big fucking deal".  Well, it doesn't matter if it was right or wrong for Sarah to endorse O'Donnell, but she did, and she won.  We'll see if O'Donnell can close the gap in Delaware.  Even if she doesn't, she has poached RINO from the Republican Party, and maybe we don't even want control of the Senate at this time.  Many blogs have given this topic in-depth analysis.  See Ace for the most even-handed. 

But, regardless, the Power Behind the Republican Party: my gal Sarah, and the Tea Party continue to roll on and transform the Republican Party and America.  The MSM destroyed her as a candidate, but, as in Star Wars, striking her down, made her stronger than they could possibly imagine.  This campaign season is a sweet revenge.

Really, I've just been waiting for quite a long time for a good excuse to post that exclusive photo of Sarah during her last Arctic hunting trip.