At Blogcon 2011 in Denver, Colorado, some fresh U.S. Senate and House hopefuls visited with bloggers. Here’s a little info on all of them:

Karen Harrington: Tough lady. Owns three restaurants. Bawdy, smart, funny and determined to win a tough election against Debbie Wassmerman-Schultz. Consider the following: If redistricting goes as planned, that shifts her district more favorably to Harrington. More importantly, a tight races keeps DWS from flitting around the country on behalf of Obama. She’ll have to stay back home and fight for her seat. We want her to have to work. Taped interview here.

Dan Lilenquist: Dan is a state representative in Utah and just won Legislator of the Year for how he has dealt with entitlements in Utah. Rumor has it that he may primary Orrin Hatch and win that seat. I’ve heard people I respect shrug and say that we shouldn’t be primarying Republicans this year. Hogwash. The new blood in the Senate has made a significant difference pulling the Senate to the Right. We need more constitutionally-based folks in there. Suck it up and get back to work Tea Party! Interview here.

Richard Mourdock: Richard is Indiana’s state treasurer and running against Obama’s favorite liberal Republican Dick Lugar. Again, tired of your ideals being sold down the river by a guy who works for the other side? Well, we need to continue to hold these Republicans accountable. See why here. Interview here.

With the national presidential election turning into a hot mess, keeping eyes on the Senate prize and adding seats there is an encouraging endeavor.

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“Of course I allow my patients to pay in installments. They couldn’t afford orthodontics otherwise. Does that make me a financial company?”

Legislation that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate would create a new regulatory agency with the power to regulate a small business that allows its customers to pay in more than four installments or applies late fees –Senate Bill § 1027(a)(2)(B)(iii)– This is the wrong way to fix financial regulation and the wrong way to protect consumers. Let’s get it right by working together on a commonsense solution without creating a new $410 million big government bureaucracy with powers to regulate businesses that had nothing to do with the financial crisis.

“Obviously, the gulf between my opponent’s rhetoric and the reality is so great it exceeds the geographic dimensions of our own Grand Canyon,” Hayworth says. “It’s more than a credibility gap, it’s a credibility canyon.… If he was really concerned about [the influence of political contributions], he certainly seems to have gotten over it very quickly.”

Whether McCain’s big money will be enough to secure his re-election, it undoubtedly gives him advantages against Hayworth, whose low-budget campaign doesn’t expect to match the incumbent dollar-for-dollar in the five months between now and the August 24 primary.

“We know we’re not going to out-raise him,” Hayworth says. “We’re not going to out-spend him.”

No way! John McCain is using big money to win an election? I thought he wanted money out of campaigns?

And then there is the recent hard tack to the right. It seems John McCain suddenly finds the border issue an important law enforcement issue:

But 2010 is not 2004, and in the intervening years, McCain led a legislative push to grant amnesty to illegal aliens — a very unpopular stance in Arizona, especially with Republican and conservative-leaning independents. (Arizona election law allows registered independents to vote in either party primary.) A Rasmussen poll last year found that Arizona voters considered immigration a more important issue than health-care reform and 65 percent said “enforcing the borders is more important than legalizing the status of those already living here.”

The immigration issue has “gotten bigger” in Arizona recently, Hayworth says, after a Cochise County rancher was found shot dead Saturday near the Mexican border, a crime that law-enforcement officials suggest was committed by illegal aliens or smugglers who have made the border an increasingly dangerous place.

“Border security is national security and it is time that we enforce the law,” Hayworth said in a press release reacting to the killing of 58-year-old Rob Krentz, whose family has owned a cattle ranch near the border for more than a century. “For thousands of Arizonans, border security is also quite literally a matter of personal security.”

Allah is amused:

I came thisclose to headlining the post “comedy gold.” What miracles hath this Hayworth primary challenge wrought!

From the man who once famously groused about conservatives’ desire to build a “goddamned fence” and then denied voting for it when pressed by Univision during the campaign, I give you John McCain — border warrior:

This is why primaries are so important. I’m guessing the reason that John McCain is finding his conservative soul is because his internal polling looks terrible.

So many of these politicians have sat in Washington, ignored American sentiment, and ignored their own constituents. There are many races where I feel less than enthusiastic about the primary challenger, but the incumbent has such a long history of betraying fiscal conservatism and self-aggrandizement, that I want them to go.

Politics should not be a lifetime sport with lush retirement package. But that’s how it goes now, in DC. Politicians get into office, get bought off by big interests, and then stay in office with the money received from those big interests. John McCain’s McCain-Feingold act made the problem even worse–but it turned out better for John McCain. The law protected incumbents.

Well, there should be no protection for incumbents. They should have to defend their positions, defend their votes and be at least marginally responsive to their constituents. I mean, at least pretend you give a damn what your voters think. Man.

Watch here:

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2_wm.aspx

The context of my comment was the notion that the Stimulus Bill could somehow be magically turned into better legislation by Senate Republicans rather than the bill being an inherently horrendous pile of economy-hurting poop that needed to die. The staffer was telling me about the Republican alternative legislation that would deal with “the root cause” and lower interest rates to 4.0-4.5% for troubled home owners. He was shocked at my outrage.

Why was I outraged? Well, because as a tax-paying, small-business owning, home-owner who is refinancing right now to get near a 4.5% interest rate LEGITIMATELY, the bank is humping us because appraisers are afraid to stand by appraisals so are way under-valuing property making it a pain in the butt to get a good deal on a loan. So, when REPUBLICAN Senators writes legislation rewarding people who couldn’t afford the houses they bought given by banks who played with funny money at the Senate’s own behest (because of horrible laws encouraging lending to bad risks), are now troubled and they get an automatic 4.0% loan to “take the pressure off” and “save their homes” while I have to jump through hoops like a circus poodle when I have paid on-time, actually pay my taxes (a lot of them) and employ people, it ticks me off. [Yes, that was a long sentence. Taking a breath.]

So, let me get this straight: Republican Senators are just Democrat Senators but a little nicer? The new Republican policy is to reward bad behavior and punish those who follow the law, live within their means and employ people?

I get that if everyone loses their jobs, loses their homes and banks implode that it’s bad for the economy–and for my home value (which will lose more value). What I also get is that the GOVERNMENT caused this to begin with. Stupid law created the economic situation we’re in and we don’t need the government trying to bail themselves out by avoiding the inevitable. This situation is going to be painful for a while.

The solution, as I see it, is to start rewarding good behavior. Banks who are solvent should advertise and open their books. People will start putting their money there. Bad banks will fail. Aw, too bad. That’s what happens when you’re greedy or stupid or both. Bad businesses will fail who relied exclusively on credit. You know what? That is life. That’s capitalism. And it’s harsh and horrible. Companies who don’t live on credit will survive. Right now the “bailed out” banks aren’t lending anyway. They are holding the money and trying to stay solvent.

The solution is to free up the market by reassuring the market. Right now, businesses with money are afraid to invest. They have hiring freezes, traveling freezes, they are “hunkering down” (to use that reviled phrase) for the next four years of higher taxes and a miserable business climate. This fear is causing the economy to further implode. People are waiting to see what happens.

The solution is for President Obama to send a clear signal that taxes will be cut, corporations will be given tax cuts and room and reinforcement to grow. The solution is to cut the size of the government because it’s taking money out of the private sector.

Unfortunately for America, the solution is to do the very things that Republicans used to stand for and do and we’re stuck with a Democratic Congress and President. Well, the American people would prefer a real Democrat than a false one dressed up as a Republican. And besides, Barack Obama sounded more conservative than any Republicans anywhere during the election cycle. He may be forced to BE one, too. The economy cannot bear Democratic wish lists. It will sink an embattled ship and take Dems down with it. Seems like the Blue Dogs, at least, get this.

So, when I was saying that the Senate houses a bunch of “inbred cretins”, that’s what I meant. Republicans WILL NOT succeed by being Democrats-lite. Stand for principles already or be consigned to irrelevance for decades. That Senate Republicans do not get this is just maddening. They have killed the brand and continue, after losing big over and over, to do so. And Senate staffers are angry with ME and other conservatives for pointing this out?

I believe in Reagan’s 11th Commandment, too. It’s what kept me positive when I heard McCain bumble around during the run-up to the election. But enough is enough. Republicans cannot win by betraying principles–being corrupt, spending, bad-behavior-enforcing, unethical, pork-loving legislators. That’s what Democrats are for. That’s what is expected of Democrats. It IS their brand. And their constituents don’t care because they hope to be on the receiving end of the largess.

The problem for Republicans is that their constituents actually pay taxes. They are the silent majority. And right now, they feel unrepresented by either party. They hoped Barack Obama represented them. I think they’ve probably been dissuaded of that notion.

Thomas Sowell says it better than me and more eloquently than what I was barking at the Senate staffer:

Within 24 hours, however, Republicans in the Senate came out with a plan to have the government fix mortgage interest rates at four percent– and use taxpayers’ money to cover the losses that lenders would otherwise sustain.

It is painfully obvious that government intervention in the housing markets over the past several years has been at the heart of the boom and bust that has led to a huge economic downturn.

It was not the market, but the government, that pushed for abandoning traditional standards for making mortgage loans. That was what got both borrowers and lenders way out on a limb– and set off economic shock waves when the limb broke.

The last time the Republicans pushed for price controls was during the Nixon administration. It was very popular in the short run. But, in the long run, even Nixon admitted in his memoirs that it was bad for the country.

Price controls have been tried and failed, in countries around the world, going all the way back to ancient Rome and Babylon. Moreover, politicians intervening in the economy is the hallmark of Democrats.

What principle separates the Republicans from the Democrats? If they are just Tweedledee and Tweedledum, then elections come down to personality and rhetoric. If that happens, you can bet the rent money on the Democrats winning.

That’s right. Senate Republicans need to wake up. What sounds good around the negotiating table is absolute political suicide in the big picture. The Senate has become too much of what it’s meant to be: a chummy, insiderish, stop-gap against trends and bad, expedient laws. It has become a rubber stamp for bad laws.

The Republicans have consoled themselves that they’ve “worked together” with the other side, but have ignored that their working together has resulted in law that is bad for America. And then they’re mystified when Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and independents are outraged. “I thought the American people wanted bi-partisanship?” they muse. No. What the American people want is law that helps America. Sometimes, that means that Republicans are going to cause a monumental stink and NOT work together with the opposition, because that’s what’s good for America. And the press will hate it. And the libs will howl. And America will be better off because the Republicans stood on a principle. And shock of shocks, Republicans will WIN elections because they stand for something.

I was told I was crazy because I called the Senate Republicans “inbred cretins.” I suggested to the Senate staffer that I would be pleased to meet those who call me crazy. I’m one of those people who is too busy with work, kids, life and paying taxes to be condescended to by those who throw my money around like candy pouring from a pinata and then have the nerve to call me crazy.

You know, Republican, conservative, libertarian, and independent voters know when they’re being condescended to and scorned. It’s bad enough getting maligned by the Left, it’s a betrayal to receive that treatment from Republicans.

Republicans need to find their conservative-libertarian-constitutional DNA. Own it. Love it. Be it. Live it. Inbreeding just causes deformity and death. I’d like the Republican Senators to live as Republicans, not some Democrat clone.

Obama said today:

“I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening. And as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”

On Nov. 23 David Axelrod, said on Fox Chicago:

“I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

Tonight the campaign is saying this was not correct…

Here’s the link to the video of what Axelrod said.

More from Jake Tapper via Glenn Reynolds (except that you can’t quote from their site, grrrr….). Anyway, go to the link, there’s lots more about the Obama-Blagojevich connection.

I suspect that the President-elect isn’t being exactly forthcoming.

UPDATED:

MaxedOutMama has some great insights about who and what is being bought.

GatewayPundit has all the dirt on the meeting November 5 of these two non-acquaintances.

Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com

But here’s the thing about the Republicans having the filibuster. As long as they have it, every “bad” thing ever done or not done or thwarted will be blamed on Republicans. It won’t matter that there’s a Democrat in the White House. It won’t matter that Democrats control the House like they have for two years. It won’t matter that the Democrats control the Senate in a huge way. No, the way every piece of hung up legislation will be handled will be be to blame the Republicans even though they have next to zero power to stop anything any Democrat wants.

There is a reason the Democrats are bringing the Auto execs to capital hill now. They have political cover–they can still blame the Republicans for a failed bailout.

In a couple months, Democrats have to balance the budgets (yeah, right), figure out how to not look like weak losers when it comes to our military engagements, keep psychotic leftists hell-bent on destroying America’s social fabric happy and they have to do all this without excuse. They own it.

They own it all without reservation if Republicans don’t have the filibuster in the Senate.

Americans watch with keen interest how the hope and change crowd are hopefully going to change things. That is to say, Americans, the fickle pickles that they are, want some change but not too much change. The Democrats overreach and they will be punished. After eight years of non-stop bitching, moaning and complaining, they have it all. Americans gave it to them. The mood is generally: Shut up and get to work.

What will Nancy Pelosi have without the foil of George Bush to blame every one of her embarrassing failures on? How will Harry Reid appease the Kos Kids out for blood, literally? How will Barack Obama entreat the bitter Leftists while keeping the idealistic electorate convinced of his centrality?

A filibuster gives these opportunists cover. They don’t deserve it. But America will pay a steep price along the way for the lack of it.

Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com and The Houston Chronicle