[Apologetics] FW: Third Branch News - Alarming

[Art Kelly]

-----Original Message-----
From: Manuel Miranda [mailto:mmiranda at att.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 10:02 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient: ;@mail.rightinternet.com
Subject: Third Branch News - Alarming


1) An accurate and alarming survey of 8 key Senate races.  At stake is more
than the Senate leadership for the GOP, but also the future of the circuit
courts and the Supreme Court.  So if you do not go out of your way every day
to do something for Rick Santorum and Mike Dewine, and others like Steele
and Kean, please think again.  Here http://www.ricksantorum.com/Index.aspx
you have  a chance to help RJS win the air campaign with a donation.

2) ACU's David Keene suggests that the GOP may be wrong to bank on its
financial resources given, as we have heard from Cleta Mitchell, the
enormous advantage the Left has with 527 money.  (Thank you John McCain.)

3) The Fidelis Center's Joseph Cella looks at Bob Casey, Jr. from a Catholic
point of view.

________________________________________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/us/politics/28senate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin




September 28, 2006
New Hope for Democrats in Bid for Senate
By ROBIN TONER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 — Six weeks before Election Day, the Democrats suddenly
face a map with unexpected opportunities in their battle for control of the
Senate.

In Virginia, a state that few expected to be seriously competitive, Senator
George Allen looks newly vulnerable after a series of controversies over
charges of racial insensitivity, strategists in both parties say. In
Tennessee, another Southern state long considered safely red, Representative
Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat, has run a strong campaign that has kept that
state in contention.

Elsewhere, Democratic challengers are either ahead or close in races in five
states held by the Republicans: Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
Rhode Island, according to political strategists in both parties and the
latest polls.

All of these races could shift direction in a matter of days, let alone six
weeks, and Republicans are counting on their superior finances and large
blocks of television advertising to hold the line. Democrats also have their
own vulnerabilities, particularly in New Jersey, where Senator Robert
Menendez is in a tight race with his Republican challenger, State Senator
Thomas H. Kean Jr., according to recent polls.

Democrats must win six Republican seats to regain a Senate majority, meaning
they would have to win nearly every close race. Even the most optimistic
Democrats acknowledge that such a feat would require a big anti-Republican
wave, a lot of money and a lot of luck.

Still, a shift in the Senate was always considered a long shot this year.
Some analysts now say, however, that there are enough Republican seats
facing serious challenges to make it at least plausible.

“There’s a big difference in talking about six seats in play and not five,”
said Stuart Rothenberg, an independent analyst.

In Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, has been
lagging behind Bob Casey, the state treasurer, for months. In Rhode Island,
Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Republican, overcame his primary challenge, but
remains locked in a tight race with Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democrat and
former state attorney general.

Senator Mike Dewine, Republican of Ohio, is fighting an unhappy political
mood in his state, stoked by local Republican scandals and economic unease..
Independent polls suggest Mr. Dewine remains in a tight race with his
Democratic challenger, Representative Sherrod Brown.

In Montana, Senator Conrad Burns, the Republican, has been considered
vulnerable for months to his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, a farmer and
state senator. And any route to a majority for the Democrats would have to
include Missouri, where Senator Jim Talent, the Republican, is being
challenged by Claire McCaskill, the state auditor.

Republicans’ hopes for a pickup look strongest, at the moment, in New
Jersey. But another target is the open Democratic seat in Maryland, where
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is running against Representative Benjamin L.
Cardin, a Democrat still trying to unify his party after a competitive
primary campaign.

Republican strategists acknowledge the intensely competitive map but say
they are ready for it.

“Anybody who says there’s no way the Democrats could regain control of the
Senate, that’s just wishful thinking,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican
pollster active in numerous House and Senate races. “But there’s a long way
between could and would, and the Republican resource advantage is just now
coming to bear.”

Democrats are upbeat but wary.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee, said: “We will pick up seats. And if the
stars continue to align, we can take back the Senate.”

Republicans say they have the money not only to defend their seats, but also
to put Democrats on the defensive in Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere.

“We obviously knew all along many of our Republicans were going to have
difficult races, and they’ve known that as well, which is why they have more
resources than their counterparts and are able to push back,” said Brian
Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Republican Senate candidates are getting a major boost from the Republican
National Committee, which is financing an advertising campaign so far
focused largely on Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. This is widely viewed as a
firewall strategy: If Republicans hold onto even one of those seats, it
stymies the Democrats’ hopes of regaining a majority.

Mr. Schumer said, “The 800-pound gorilla is the money the R.N.C. is pouring
into those races.”

Republicans also argue that six weeks out, many voters are only beginning to
pay attention. In Tennessee, for example, Ben Mitchell, campaign manager for
the Republican Senate candidate, former Mayor Bob Corker of Chattanooga,
said voters would reject Mr. Ford when they learned about his voting record,
which Republicans assert is at odds with his centrist image.

Pete Brodnitz, a pollster for Mr. Ford, countered that Tennessee voters had
a “big appetite for change.”

Perhaps the most unexpected development this year is the competition in two
Southern states. Democrats have fared poorly in the South in recent years,
which has accounted, in large part, for their difficulty in gaining a Senate
majority.

Tennessee, where the seat is held by the retiring majority leader, Bill
Frist, is drawing intense interest from national Republicans. President Bush
was in Memphis on Wednesday to raise money for Mr. Corker.

The Virginia race — between Mr. Allen and Jim Webb, the Democrat — looked
safe for the Republicans until Mr. Allen made a demeaning reference to a
young American man of Indian descent — a Webb campaign worker — at a rally
in August. Then, last week, Mr. Allen reacted angrily to a reporter’s
question about whether his mother had been born Jewish, which began another
distracting episode for his campaign.

This week, he has faced accusations that he used racist slurs in the 1970’s
and 1980’s — allegations that Mr. Allen has flatly denied.

This week, Mr. Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, described the race as
“competitive,” but asserted that would change as it became clear that Mr.
Webb “stands with John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer and Hillary
Clinton.”

Steve Jarding, an adviser to Mr. Webb, described the race as a dead heat,
and said that while Mr. Allen retained a financial advantage, Mr. Webb’s
fund-raising had soared of late.

Both parties are watching to see if Mr. Webb can take advantage of his new
opening.

Analysts say the level of Senate competition should come as no surprise;
Senate races are more likely to reflect national trends, they say, whereas
most House districts are so carefully drawn on partisan lines that “they are
safe against anything but a hurricane,” said Gary C. Jacobson, a political
scientist at the University of California, San Diego.

_________________________________________________________________

Can Republicans Weather Storm?

By David A. Keene

The Hill

September 26, 2006



To maintain control of Congress this fall, Republicans will have to overcome
the drag of history, an unpopular war, a president whose poll numbers have
been in the tank most of the year and the smell of corruption emanating from
a few bad apples in the GOP barrel. It’s a tall order, but they could
conceivably pull it off unless there’s a 1994-like anti-Republican tsunami
building over the horizon.



Republican leaders would be happy to avoid the sort of disaster that hit the
Democrats in 1994, but know it could happen and that knowledge may be their
best weapon against it. Back then, the Democrats never believed such a wave
was possible and did little to prepare for what was coming. They were like
the people in Indonesia who stayed on the beach in spite of the signs of
impending disaster when the real life tsunami hit that country and they paid
a similar price.



Republicans have at least learned from 1994 that when the storm signs are
out, it’s best to move back from the beach and they have been doing just
that. They’ve dug in, stockpiled resources and are out there fighting for
their political lives knowing that the wave could still wash them away but
that if the storm is downgraded between now and election day, they can
minimize the damage.



And there are signs that the storm is abating to some degree. The president’
s approval rating is inching back up and Republicans remain competitive,
even if slightly behind, in districts that their opponents should already
have sown up. Analysts who were predicting a Democratic takeover of the
House two months ago are now suggesting that Republicans might dodge the
bullet and the Democratic inability to nominate a scandal-free candidate in
New Jersey may save the senate.



In the absence of a tsunami-like wave, control of Congress will depend on
the outcome in perhaps 20 congressional districts and half a dozen states.
The House majority is in particular, as Rep. Mike Pence described it last
week, a “tenacious majority” that will fight to the end. That tenacity could
make the difference on Election Day.



One of the real problems the Republicans face, however, is financial. The
common wisdom is that the GOP through its various committees always enters
the fray with more money than the Democrats, but those who ascribe to the
view that Republicans enjoy a real advantage these days don’t know what’s
been going on out there.



The advent of John McCain’s election “reforms” has created a new world in
which the super-rich and organized labor are playing a bigger role than
ever. Even as they whine that George Soros and others aren’t giving them
enough money this year, the left has access to far more hard and soft money
than the GOP.



In fact, liberal/left- and union-organized PACs and 527 committees have been
running millions of dollars in television ads in at least 90 congressional
districts since the spring to soften up potentially vulnerable incumbent
Republicans by driving up their negative poll numbers.



Anyone who doubts the advantage these folks enjoy need only look at the list
of the largest political action committees. Cleta Mitchell, a Washington
attorney who follows these matters closely, has been warning for months that
McCain’s rules favor the left and reports regularly to anyone that will
listen on the size of their war chest. The first dozen are all
pro-Democratic with exception of the Realtors who historically give half
their money to candidates of each party. MoveOn.org’s PAC has raised and is
spending more than 14 million dollars in hard money and one has to drop down
to the 13th largest PAC to find the first right of center PAC, that of the
National Rifle Association.



As of June 30th, left wing and union 527 committees had raised more than
$105 million as opposed to about $20 million raised by their pro-GOP
counterparts. Where I come from, a 5:1 advantage is meaningful.



The whining of folks like Harold Ickes who say the left isn’t putting up
much money this year should be taken for what it is: the poor mouthing that
inevitably accompanies an appeal for even more. Republicans on the ground
know that he and his soul mates have already raised and spent enough to salt
the clouds in the hope of generating the storm and tsunami they so fervently
are hoping is developing.



The GOP hope is that they spent much of their millions early and will
squander the rest. Most of them feel it’s bad enough that they have to deal
with the problems that put them in a hole in the first place with out the
added burden of overcoming the McCain handicap.



Mr. Keene is the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a managing
associate with the Carmen Group, a Washington, D.C.-based
governmental-affairs firm.

The above op-ed is also available at
http://conservative.org/columnists/keene/060926dk.asp


___________________________________________________________

http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17233862&BRD=2737&PAG
=461&dept_id=574088&rfi=6

 Bob Casey's Misguided Moral Compass

by Joseph J. Cella

To the grave disappointment of many Catholics across the country, the
Catholic University of America extended an invitation to U.S. Senate
candidate Bob Casey, Jr. to deliver the 38th annual Pope John XXIII Lecture
at the university's law school. Casey accepted and delivered his talk last
week entitled: "Restoring America's Moral Compass: Leadership and the Common
Good." With Casey's controversial positions and his close ties to
anti-Catholic left wing groups, his appearance revealed how his own moral
compass is misguided and how he is an unprincipled leader whose words and
actions cannot be trusted.
The decision by Catholic University to give Casey this platform confounded
Catholics not only because he was exploiting his appearance to promote his
campaign, but also because of his strong alliance with radical left wing
groups such as the Human Rights Campaign and MoveOn.org, both of whom are
hostile to the Church and her teachings on life, marriage and the family.
Equally problematic is Casey's own endorsement of homosexual adoption of
children, his support of Plan B abortion drugs and his backing of homosexual
civil unions.
Setting aside the unseemly political nature of the event, a look at the
record of cash and endorsements Casey has received from groups hostile to
the Church is startling.
Since September 2005, public records show Casey has received $164,000 from
the Human Rights Campaign, a radical homosexual rights group and leading
advocate of "lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender" special rights. The
Human Rights Campaign openly promotes homosexual adoption, taxpayer funding
of gay and lesbian partner benefits and homosexual marriage. Casey not only
took their money, but served as the keynote speaker for their annual
fundraising gala in February. In fact, the Human Rights Campaign recently
ridiculed Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley for ending the
100-year-old adoption work at Boston Catholic Charities because the agency
was forced to allow homosexual adoption of children.
But these are not Casey's only extremist friends. Since June 2005, Casey has
also taken in $168,591 from MoveOn.org, the notorious left wing group funded
by atheist billionaire George Soros. In 2004, MoveOn infamously placed ads
that compared President Bush to Hitler before finally bowing to public
pressure to remove them. Just last year, the extremist group launched an
anti-Catholic ad mocking the Pope depicting him holding a gavel with the
caption 'God already has a job ... he does not need one on the Supreme
Court.'
Casey's radical left wing allies and big money friends inspire little hope
that he should be trusted to help restore 'America's moral compass.'
The most shocking point of the talk came when Casey emotionally described
that "dark night," of the 1992 Democratic National Convention when his
father, the late Governor Robert P. Casey, was denied the opportunity to
address the convention because of his pro-life views. Recalling that night,
he stated that the party "insulted the most courageous pro-life Democrat in
the land, who asked that those who believed in the right to life be accorded
the right to speak."
What is shocking about this is that the late Governor's son continues to
accept hundreds of thousands of dollars from those radical groups who denied
his father the opportunity to speak at the convention. And these same groups
fight ferociously to protect and advance the policies his father opposed,
namely the sanctity of all human life and traditional marriage. Casey
appears indifferent and unprincipled, having refused to return any of these
contributions and supports many of their positions.
Sadly, the record now shows that, despite invoking his father's legacy,
Casey has abandoned many of the principles his father staunchly defended and
actively collaborates with those who push an agenda he claims to oppose.
Finally, it seems only appropriate to recall the teaching document on
Catholic universities issued by the late Pope John Paul II. In his
encyclical, Ex Cordiae Ecclesia ("From the Heart of the Church") John Paul
wrote: 'It is the honor and responsibility of a Catholic University to
consecrate itself without reserve to the cause of truth.' That means a
speaker at a Catholic University must support and advance the truth behind
the Church's teachings on key social issues, which Casey does not.
Bob Casey, Jr. is an unprincipled leader who cannot be trusted to serve
Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.




Joseph J. Cella is president of Fidelis, a national Catholic advocacy group.





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