Chuck Todd at Southwestern

For political junkies like me, this is a HUGE coup — NBC's political director, Chuck Todd, is the speaker at the Docking Lecture Series at Southwestern on Oct. 20. (I believe the speech is open to the public) He's kind of the heir apparent to Tim Russert.

Goodwin-Abrams

I appeared on Kansas Week last week — the KPTS show that airs on Friday night and Sunday morning. We were suppose to talk about Goodwin-Abrams, but ran out of time discussing the bailout and VP debate.

Anyway, doing a little research before the show taped Friday afternoon, it seems clear that outside forces are going to weigh in heavily on this one, and that it will get very negative. Abrams is already up with a negative newspaper ad in Mulvane trying to cast Greta as a tax and spend liberal.

And this is what Senate minority leader Anthony Hemsley told me Friday when I asked about Abrams:

"The (state education) board during his tenure became the butt of jokes on late night TV. Made Kansas kind of the laughing stock of the whole county .... It's a very clear cut choice: A seasoned veteran legislator with a pretty strong record in representing her district, versus a guy out of the mainstream of most political thought."

Expect outside groups on both sides to push these negative narratives.

Bett's tanker attack

TIAHRT TAKES MONEY FROM NORTHROP GRUMMAN DURING 2008 ELECTION CYCLE

WICHITA, Kans. – State Senator Donald Betts, Jr. provided information at last week’s press conference that Rep. Todd Tiahrt had taken $3,000 from Northrop Grumman during the 2008 election cycle. Additionally, Tiahrt voted for on the Fiscal 2008 Department of Defense Authorization Bill HR 4986, PL 110-81, Section 804 which allowed the Secretary of Defense the ability to waive “Buy American” Provisions. It passed by the House 369-46 with Representative Tiahrt voting Aye. This vote by the entire Kansas delegation effectively allowed the Air Force to make decisions on outsourcing military work to other countries. Campaign donations to Tiahrt can be reviewed by at The Center for Responsive Politics (a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization) website at this link: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/pacs.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00008144§or=D&seclong=Defense&cat=D03&induslong=Misc+Defense

“Todd would have you believe that he has been an opponent of ‘outsourcing’ but the truth is he voted for the bill that allowed foreign companies to bid on defense contracts.” “Most people would be shocked to learn that he voted for a bill a few years ago that undermined the ‘Buy American Act’ established in 1933 by giving the Secretary of the Defense the opportunity to let out contracts to foreign governments.”

“I am sure that Representative Tiahrt doesn’t want the public to realize that it was ‘him’ and other members of Congress and not this contract that opened the door to sending our jobs and security overseas,” said Betts. “It is an outrage that he is acting as though he supports Boeing and opposes Grumman when the truth is that he took campaign donations from Grumman,” said Betts. “We should absolutely never outsource our military contracts. The Department of Defense should always use American manufacturing for the sake of insuring the best possible products for our servicemen and women and for our nation’s defense and security.”

In addition to this legislation opening the process to foreign companies, it is important to note that in 2001, both Representative Tiahrt and Senator Roberts started receiving contributions from Grumman’s Political Action Committees (Grumman is the partner with EADS (Airbus) on the tanker project). Shortly thereafter, McCain mounted a campaign to force the Congress and Air Force to drop the Boeing tanker leasing deal introduced in October 2001. McCain bragged during the 2008 campaign for President that he had “saved” the American taxpayer 30 billion dollars by forcing the cancellation of the contract. In May 2003, Roberts voted for the John McCain amendment to the Fiscal Year 2004 military budget (Senate Bill S1050) allowing the Department of Defense to buy military equipment and services from foreign companies, including EADS, undermining the “Buy American Act”. It passed with a 50-48 largely Republican party line vote.

-MORE-

Senator Roberts and Representative Tiahrt are on the Senate and House sub appropriations committees for military spending, yet there is no evidence that they spoke out or tried to stop the cancellation of the Boeing contract in May 2004. Furthermore, the House and Senate in a series of continuing motions eroded the 50% USA content rule used by the Department of Defense by making agreements with 21 foreign countries to grant a waiver from the 50% rule. In other words, the House and Senate declared even if military equipment was manufactured in one of the 21 foreign countries it would be counted as “MADE IN THE USA”. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and President Bush supported these motions as did Roberts and Tiahrt. These motions passed without any reported opposition from Roberts or Tiahrt.

In Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Authorization Act (HR 1815, S1042) contained the authorization for the tanker contract. HR 1815 contained 3 strong Buy American provisions:
a. Section 817 banned the Secretary of Defense from buying military hardware from any foreign company who receives subsidies from a foreign government when that government is a member of the World Trade Organization and applied only when the US is involved in an unresolved WTO dispute over the subsidies or the WTO has ruled the subsidies are illegal. The sole purpose of the amendment was to prohibit Airbus from winning the tanker contract over Boeing.
b. Section 818 required military purchases contain at least 50% USA made content. It would have invalidated the special agreements with 21 foreign countries allowing them to manufacture more than 50% USA military equipment and count it as “made in the USA”
c. Section 1212 would have prevented the US military from buying equipment from foreign companies who have sold items on the USA’s Munitions List to China.

HR 1815 passed the House and was referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee on which Senator Roberts sat. Senator Warner tried to attach the 3 “Buy American” amendments to the Senate defense appropriations bill, but in May 2005 Roberts as a member of the committee dropped the “Buy American” provisions. Grumman teamed with EADS (Airbus) to bid on the tanker in September 2005. The Senate Armed Services Committee stripped “Buy American” provisions out and it passed the Senate Armed Services Committee without any recorded objection from Roberts. On November 15, 2005, the stripped bill passed the Senate with unanimous consent with no recorded objection from Roberts. On that same day, Roberts was named to serve on the conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills. On December 21, 2005, the Senate agreed to the Conference Committee Report by a voice vote, again without the “Buy American” provisions.

Roberts and Tiahrt did not voice their opinions objecting to military contracts involving bidding from foreign companies or foreign countries, yet they have been very vocal as of late to show the voters of Kansas that they are the advocates of keeping military work in the U.S. “Voters need to be alert to realize this is not how they have voted and to realize this is just the latest in their campaign ploys to the public to present a different image,” said Betts.

Tiahrt on his NO vote

Tiahrt Statement Regarding the Bailout Proposal

WASHINGTON—U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-Goddard) today issued the following statement about the Senate Wall Street bailout proposal.

"My decision to oppose the bailout bill today did not come easily," said Tiahrt. "This week I have talked with many hard-working Kansans who are concerned about their savings and even job security. We have a serious problem and need stability in our market.

"However, this $800 billion plan only provides temporary relief while shunning long-term reform and lasting stability. I cannot support a bill that throws money at a problem in hopes it will disappear. We need tough reforms to correct the mistakes that got us into this mess.

"The bailout proposal fails to hold anyone accountable. Wall Street CEOs who practiced deceit can still make out with lavish compensation packages while regular Kansans assume billions in bad debt. Even more troubling is the bill allows foreign financial institutions to participate in the bailout on the backs of American taxpayers.

"This bill provides no assurance that we will not be faced with this financial crisis again because it falls short in reforming the underlying problems."

The Senate-passed bailout bill (H.R. 1424) passed the House by a vote of 263-171.

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Abrams taxes, push poll

Abrams line of attack in a Mulvane News ad is taxes and spending. He's made the "No tax increase" pledge and attacks Goodwin for being a free-spender as the state budget has grown.

Also today, we got a call from a business person who said they had been "push polled" on the Abrams Goodwin race. The caller asked questions like "do you support Goodwin's opposition to teaching students moral values, or do you support Steve Abrams support of teaching students moral values."

A push poll, I think, is when the caller acts like a neutral pollster put slants questions in favor of a candidate.

The business person said the caller would not ID themselves and he did not record the call.

Anyone else getting these?

Apology

Mell met with NAACP president yesterday and is now apologizing. I give him credit for responding quickly. He certainly didn't have to meet with anybody about this, including them. He certainly didn't have to apologize.

Full story will be posted online later today

p.s. Full disclosure:
As a reader pointed out, Mel did tell me he planned to go as a audacious black women the week before the event. I told him he should reconsider because it would be offensive. I'm also aware of others warning him.

Here tis ...

full story on the Men in Tights controversy that includes Mel's explanation

(Note: The Web version has a correction from the print version, in case anybody got confused. He did say "bullshit" twice during the interview and it was intended to be part of the story)