Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

At 7:18 AM yesterday, Mark Kimble wrote this on the Tucson Citizen’s blog:
[Tim] Bee plans to make it all formal Saturday morning at Palo Verde High School, where he is an alum.
Maybe he should rethink the location.
In 2006, Democrat and former television news anchor Patty Weiss showed up at Palo Verde High School – her […]

In a couple of hours, I’ll be going to the election night party that the Democrats are holding. After the last two elections, we Democrats have been treated (and I use the term loosely) to appearances by Republican officials. Both the 2005 and 2006 elections were fantastic nights for Democrats, no doubt they wanted to […]

There have been a couple of articles in this past week (here and here) criticizing Tim Bee for not stepping down from his position in the State Senate in preparation for his possible, no, likely, no, certain run for congress next year.
I’m a bit torn about this. I mean, anything where the local press is […]

Well, the new rumor being circulated is that Tim Bee is so intimidated by the piles of cash that Gabrielle Giffords has raised that he is reconsidering the race and may instead run for County Supervisor.
I don’t buy it. The field has been cleared for him, and all indications are that this will be a […]

I’ve received a couple of e-mails from folks asking me when Tim Bee was going to resign. It didn’t occur to me that such a thing would be imminent, but he may need to sooner rather than later.
There are two things Bee has to do before he tries to take down Gabrielle Giffords in the next election. […]

The Republic’s Plugged In blog has reported that the finance director for the State Republican party has quit. She has only been there for two months. The previous finance director quit just minutes after the election of new chairman Randy Pullen.
Part of the trouble for these folks is that the “Country Club Republicans” that Pullen […]

Gabrielle Giffords is hosting a border security summit in Douglas today. This comes on the heels of the recent drug-related violence in Cananea. The summit will be at the Douglas Visitors Center, 345 16th Street. That’s sixteen blocks from the border for those of you that are counting.
The invitees include law enforcement officials as well as […]

Reports are now afoot at the capitol that the votes that were promised by renegade Democrats for Speaker Jim Weier’s budget plan have vaporized. Either these Democrats have gotten cold feet after the pounding they have taken from AEA members (geez, imagine if they were still allowed to hit these breakaways with rulers…) and a mysterious […]

An article in the latest Roll Call (not linking article since a subscription is required) entitled “National GOP Hits Arizona Frosh” details the way the Republican Party has chosen to go after Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords. Of course they will: Giffords’s district had been represented by a Republican since 1985, and Mitchell’s has been since, […]

The Hill last week announced that John Edwards has made public a list of twelve house members who have endorsed him.  On that list: Raúl Grijalva.
This may be thought of as “letting the cat out of the bag,” but the bag was a clear plastic one. Grijalva was courted heavilly by Edwards back in 2002 […]

Randy Pullen put out a press release Yesterday raking Janet Napolitano over the coals, for, apparently, something she has not said yet.
This isn’t the first time that Napolitano has been attacked for a position she might take. Back when they did this before, I called it the “Republican Leap.” Since they seem to be doing that […]

The US Chamber of Commerce is going full bore against HB 800, the Employer Free Choice Act. They are running radio ads against Harry Mitchell, which can be found on the Chamber’s press page.
The ads are over the top, accusing Mitchell of being against the right to vote and the right to privacy. Pretty ridiculous, really. […]

Gabrielle Giffords is scheduled to give a five minute floor speech on the House floor tonight sometime between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM local time.

José Ibarra has announced that he is not running for city council in this year’s election, which leaves the Ward 1 city council race wide open. Ibarra has served on the council since being elected as a 25 year old in 1995 after being an aide to Raúl Grijalva (then a county supervisor) and a […]

Ike Skelton made an unusual move today during the House Armed Services Committee meeting.  He allowed freshmen members to ask the first questions of Secretary Robert Gates and General Peter Pace.  The members were able to elicit some suprising admissions from the two of them, with Pace admitting that our non-deployed forces are not ready to fight and Gates […]

Clarence Boykins is still being talked about as a candidate in Ward 2, but it seems that the ever eager Rodney Glassman has out maneuvered him in the early part of this race.
Last Thursday, Glassman turned in enough contributions to qualify for city matching funds.  Long time City Clerk Kathleen Deitrick says that it’s the […]

Republican mahouts are already working behind the scenes to avoid the divisive primary that they feel cost them Southeastern Arizona’s District 8 seat.
The current rumor is that fundraisers and kingmakers have made up their minds that newly elected Senate President Tim Bee will be the candidate, and have been working Rep. Jonathan Paton, currently on […]

I finally recieved a mailer from Randy Camacho. I thought it was a bit unusual since it contained what was essentially a very wordy palm card, rather than a letter, detailing his 30/15/8 plan. I suppose that the card contained the same information that would be in a “Dear Democratic Friend” letter anyway. It just […]

As I wrote earlier, Gabrielle Giffords made her first remarks on the House floor last Friday. She made them during Special Orders on the topic of immigration:
(Ms. GIFFORDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak for the very first time in this […]

Interesting bit in Roll Call yesterday. Should John McCain win the presidency, or even if he resigns his seat upon nomination, Governor Janet Napolitano would appoint a successor. Unlike in some states, any appointee has to be of the same party as the person they are replacing. This means that Napolitano would have to find […]