Thursday, September 4th, 2008...7:04 am
From One Conservative Blog
I got turned on to this by Paul Metcalf, a student at the U of A. Check out this post on The Arizona Desert Lamp, a conservative leaning blog written by former Arizona Daily Wildcat columnist Evan Lisull. It is an account of Tim Bee’s appearance before the College Republicans.
Bear in mind, this was written by a guy that supports Bee.
Should Bee lose this election, I would argue that it comes from his shift from a top legislator (read: compromiser), who provided an essential counterbalance to Gov. Napolitano in Phoenix, to a relatively forgettable GOP talking piece.
His speaking arrangement today mostly consisted of questions from the audience; given the fact that it’s the College Republicans, it wasn’t exactly a tough crowd. When asked to name his top three issues, he listed off energy (national GOP issue), illegal immigration (state GOP issue), and earmarking (although national, it pertains on a local basis). On none of these issues did he say anything particularly distinguishing: his energy position is a carbon copy of the litany of speeches made during the Guerilla Congress his summer; his illegal immigration stance discussed the same tough-border mentality, without so much as a bone thrown to the business community. Yet most disappointing was his stance on earmarks; while decrying Giffords’ flaunting of her earmarking ways (she publishes them with pride), he promised to, “bring in projects that will help to ensure that we can defend the district.” In other words, don’t count on a Rep. Bee joining the Flake-Shadegg Earmark Moratorium bandwagon.
Interestingly, this seems to mean that Bee doesn’t have trouble with earmarks in general, or even the earmarks that Giffords has made, but he just has a problem with the fact that Giffords is the one making them. Um, yeah.
Lisull continues:
The most amusing exchange occurred at the end of the questioning, with a seemingly innocuous question about wiretapping and FISA. However, a misstatement led to this little exchange with an unnamed student:
STUDENT: “Wait. Did you say that you supported FISA?”
BEE: “I believe that the FISA law that is in place should be obeyed.”
“But you are aware that the current law requires court authorization for wiretapping. Do you support this?”
“I don’t believe that that’s the case.”
So, the guy is running for congress, but he doesn’t know one of the most important aspects of the current FISA law? This isn’t some random obscurity, it’s been very publicly debated for the last couple of years.
Lisull ends his post with the following:
Awkwardness all around. Obviously, I prefer Bee to Giffords; but after this performance, I’m not expecting any miracles.
15 Comments
September 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Every time I see the phrase College Republicans I think “young people who should be enlisting to go fight the glorious war they support”.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:25 am
We do our part by fighting the ideological war at home.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Uh, right. To quote a fellow Chicken-hawk, you have other priorities at the moment….
September 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Republitard: There are many older people who are physically and mentally able to “fight the ideological war.” Meanwhile the young and healthy chickenhawks should be out there leading the charge to defend their values and rights and freedom. Isn’t that what they say they have sent our young volunteer army to do? Go figure — words are easier than IEDS anyday. Chickenhawk is the right phrase alright.
And by the way, did John McCain have any choice but to join the military and be a fighter pilot? Do fighter pilots lead troops or do they follow orders and attack from the sky? I fully respect his courage while in captivity. I do not respect in any possible way his behavior when he was set free. I’m talking about his treatment of his first wife, his rush to marry the young pretty one, and his Keating 5 conduct. After the Keating 5 he got better, but still he hasn’t taken care of the state that elected him, and has seldom voted in the Senate during the last two years. As a point of interest purely, is there a graph out there showing the respective #s of votes by the last 3 candidates during their candidacy?
September 4th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Giffords lists her earmark requests on her webpage in the interest of transparency, not because she thinks the appropriations process is the best thing of all time ever. Every time I have heard her discuss earmarks, she talks about the need for more transparency and accountability in the process. BTW, Arizona is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to earmarks. Alaska is número uno.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I get the sense lately that Tim Bee’s heart is really not in this race. He seemed like a very formidable opponent for Rep. Giffords at the outset, but everything I read or hear about him lately speaks to the reality of a detached, unprepared candidate who fails to inspire his followers. The comments from a conservative in this post help to confirm the growing malaise detected in the Bee camp.
Without question, he will poll more votes than Graf two years ago and the registration numbers in CD8, coupled with McCain leading the ticket, still require a full-bore campaign by Giffords. However, I worry less about Bee every day because he just can’t seem to hit his stride…nor does it seem like he cares if he does. This can’t make Jim Click and the other monied interests in the GOP who urged him to run very happy at all!
September 4th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Johhny Mac’s opposition to earmarks has hurt this state. Some earmarks are pure porkbarrel projects that benefit a few, but many ‘earmarks’ are items that fund projects that truly benefit the citizens of the state. It is how a large number of things get funded, like it or not. McCain won’t put in for projects in AZ, but he sure loves pork-barrel, no-bid ‘allocations’ for Haliburton and the like in Iraq.
I guess when the money goes to corporations without a bid, they aren’t earmarks.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Rex you said it. I traveled to several of the polls in LD 26 on September 2nd. There were a few supporters for legislative candidates and NO supporters or signs for Tim Bee. I know he had no opponent in the primary but what a missed opportunity.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Good points Rex and Stan.
I have been saying for a long time that this was a fools errand for Tim Bee. Losing this election will come at great cost to his political career. To win it, he has to bring it. He is facing incumbency advantage, a better funded candidate, and a candidate that doesn’t inspire the kind of hatred to get people to switch horses mid-stream.
I note and continue to note Rex’s cautions. After watching the GOP convention and the speeches that promoted patriotism and at the same time mocked Obama, I feel that I need to donate more time.
This crowd cannot keep the White House and it cannot take seats in the House and Senate.
At the state level, it is even more serious. As McCain and Bee talk about cutting government and passing things on to states…they forget clearly what things look like in our states now.
We MUST support state legislative candidates from the Democrat party, we must turn aside Bee, and we must vote for Obama.
I cannot even stress enough how important this is.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Gabby has spent over $250,000 in taxpayer money on campaign brochures she has the audacity to call franking and you are saying she is a fiscal conservative?
September 7th, 2008 at 4:07 am
By the way my friends,
Every economic forcast of Arizona shows our economy as horrible and getting worse. If you don’t believe me go to this site at the University of Arizona’s Eller College.
So, how on earth can business leaders still trust the GOP legislature that has ran our economy into the ground? How on earth could people support Bee when he has presided over the Senate during this economy. I know I know GOPers blame the governor, but it is our state legislature that has the power the purse and the ability to tax and spend.
They have gotten all they wanted on lowering taxes and do any of you see any real greatness from our economy? The theory is false…its a sham..and it is the predominant economic plan of John McCain…less taxes, cut spending, more growth, more revenue. BULLS**T
September 7th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Here is the site of the not so liberal, Eller College of Management’s Mid-year economic forecast…it is horrifying.
Our state is falling apart…cuts in taxes by our state have destroyed our infrastructure so much that our business community is begging for sales tax increases to build roads and to increase education spending…they can’t get it through our legislature so they have to go to ballot initiatives.
When will people wake up and get this draconian GOP out of office?
For god’s sake, they have even turned away the few republicans that get it….Hershberger, O’Halleran, Burns, etc.
If we don’t win this election we are not getting more of the same either…we are getting much worse. The candidates that have made it through the GOP primaries make most conservatives look like Ralph Nader.
http://ebr.eller.arizona.edu/presentations/MidYear_Forecast_Update_2008.pdf
September 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
kralmajales, what they do is show spiffy charts from that show how taxes rates correlate perfectly to growth. Of course that whole “correlation is not causation” thing that we all learned in Logic 101 makes the eyes glaze over at the Goldwater Brainless Trust. I mean I can produce charts that (and this is probably a much more reasonable assumption) demonstrate how population increases and business growth tracked with the proliferation of central air conditioning.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
There’s an extra from in that post. It’s not “charts from that show” it’s “charts that show”.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:35 am
I know this is an old post, but I’m curious, Ted: was Bee’s engagement before or after the FISA Amendments act passed? The link is dead now.
Obviously, the timing of the question would determine whether Bee’s answer was correct.