It sure sounds that way from the quotes in this Newsmax article. The article’s titled “Tax Hikes Sinking Gov. Corzine in N.J.”, which I believe. what I’m wondering, though, is what effect they’re having on the Bob Menendez vs. Tom Kean Senate race.

Ingrid Reed of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University said voters are so cynical in corruption-riddled New Jersey that they may not have had much confidence in Corzine or his opponent last fall to begin with. “There was an enormous skepticism among voters that either candidate could deliver,” Reed said.

The voters who had “enormous skepticism” that “either candidate could deliver” certainly didn’t expect Corzine to break his campaign pledges this fast or this dramatically. This is something that Democrats still haven’t learned. You can’t keep breaking campaign promises, especially if these broken promises cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Once voters think you aren’t trustworthy, you’re sunk politically. Corzine is sunk four months into the job. Worse, he’s facing a huge budget deficit and little support for his agenda, especially within Democratic legislators. That wouldn’t be doomsday if he were a moderate Democrat who could cobble together a coalition with moderates of both parties. Corzine isn’t a moderate; he’s a liberal. Thus, his options are extremely limited and shrinking almost daily.

If that’s his honeymoon, I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather skip to the divorce and be done with it.

James Florio was New Jersey governor from 1990 to 1994 and lost re-election amid public anger over tax increases he pushed through within months of taking office. Florio predicted Corzine would survive the breaking of his campaign promise. (continue reading post »)

It’s obvious that the Democrats are worried about Tony Snow’s ability to connect with real people beyond the Beltway. If they weren’t worried, they wouldn’t have sent out the flurry of contradictory messages today, saying in one breath that Snow is a shill for the Administration and that he’s disagreed with them too much another. Here’s a sampling of their doublespeak:

The Democratic National Committee said Snow’s appointment shows “truth still snowed in” in the Bush administration.

Karen Finney, the DNC’s equivalent of Joe Goebbels, was on Fox earlier today and said “It isn’t a question of whether Tony Snow is a likeable guy. It’s a question of whether he’ll be honest with the American people.” Anyone who’s known Tony Snow knows that he’s as honest a person as there is in Washington. That isn’t just my opinion. It’s possibly the only opinion that Bob Beckel, Juan Williams and I wholeheartedly agree with. The last I checked, Beckel and Williams aren’t the staunch conservative that I am.

Here’s some of the media’s reaction to Snow’s appointment:

Jack Cafferty welcomed the former “Fox News Sunday” host to his new job yesterday by referring to his old employer as “the ‘F’-word network.” “Tony Snow, who also happens to be an anchor over there at the “F” word network, is likely to take the job as White House press secretary,” reported Cafferty. “President Bush can do worse, not a bad guy. But it might be too late.”

(continue reading post »)

Shareholders should wise-up to the shenanigans.

Special interests are embedding themselves into corporations, and manipulating shareholder interests for political gain.

S.F. Business Times reports: “Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich, speaking with a hoarse voice, led a two-hour annual meeting Tuesday that provided a forum to air a range of controversial isssues from evictions in San Francisco to coal miners conducting mountain top removal in West Virginia.”

Shareholders were greeted by members of the Rainforest Action Network protesting the bank’s environmental policies and extending financing to coal companies using moutain top removal. Community activists were there as well to protest the bank’s subprime lending practices.

Wells Fargo and its banking counterparts across the country have become lightening rods for controversy as advocates try to harness the power of these financial institutions to create change. Bank of America shareholders, for instance, voted down Wednesday a stockholder proposal to remove sexual orientation from the company’s equal employment opportunity statement.

Investors should be aware that special interests don’t care about creating shareholder value, but rather promoting their own agendas while corporations are forced to pick up the tab. The costs may not show today, but they will eventually. No free lunches.

A year ago this month, we wrote: “Once again, political-correctness bullies its way into corporate America.” It appears that Wells Fargo has compromised itself by trying to appease the activists. Let this be a lesson to other institutions.

RELATED:
Activism Takes Root Within Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo Targeted By Environmentalists
Wells Fargo: Banking Illegals Since 2001
“Gay Pride” Festivities: Wells Fargo Hosts S&M Spanking

Technorati Tags: California, Environmentalists, Wells Fargo, Liberals

A little mid-week humor, courtesy of reader Ralph O.

—
California 156 years ago!

Do you know what happened this week back in 1850, in California?

It became a state.
The State had no electricity.
The State had no money.
Almost everyone spoke Spanish.
There were gun fights in the streets.

So basically, it was just like California today except the women had real boobs and men didn’t hold hands.

An open letter to my friends from Instapundit to proteinwisdom, from QandO to The Corner. I want to bring to your attention the issue of net neutrality, which you may have heard in your travels.

In a nutshell, the concept of a network neutrality mandate is that all bits on the Internet must be treated identically, by law. It has become something of a hot-button because one of the telcos said some impolitic things that set off the conspiracy theorists and got the attention of Congress.

While “neutrality” sounds benign, the proposed legislation would give the FCC powers that it currently does not have. Be clear, there is no neutrality legislation in place and we are doing just fine. And the best is always yet to come.

More importantly, from a technical and economic perspective, I am inspired by innovation and experimentation and the free markets which enable such. A neutrality mandate would give the federal gov’t regulatory powers to decide right and wrong at the router level. It would become illegal to build the better network, unless you are willing to give it away.

You should not be surprised that the loudest advocates of ‘net neutrality are those on the far left, including MyDD, MoveOn and Craig Newmark (lovely guy but hardened socialist). Their arguments are very much in line with things like McCain-Feingold and the old Fairness Doctrine.
(continue reading post »)

Except if it’s coming from DNC Spokeswoman Karen Finney. Then it’s worthless. Catch this quote from this morning’s DNC press release:

“The American people should get ready for another Snow job from the Bush White House. Tony Snow represents more of the same, not the fresh start the Administration needed,” said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. “This is an interdepartmental move from one part of the conservative infrastructure to another that allows a darling of the right-wing to deliver the same misleading message, cherry-picked information and spin to the American people. Josh Bolten’s plan for re-energizing the White House called for more happy talk and a better PR campaign for the same failed policies. Snow’s track record of delivering misleading rhetoric is a perfect fit for this Administration that refuses to change and has a problem telling the truth.”

[Publisher's note: It really says something about Tony Snow and the Dems who are perceiving him as such a threat. After all, they're already publicly attacking him for "misleading rhetoric" before the man has even uttered a word on behalf of the White House. Must be a sign of good things to come.]

In Ms. Finney’s world, Fox News Channel and talk radio are merely the propaganda arm of the Bush administration. Ms. Finney’s quote of “Snow’s track record of delivering misleading rhetoric is a perfect fit for this Administration that refuses to change and has a problem telling the truth” is bizarre. Then the press release notes all the times that Snow’s ‘misled the American people’. Here’s one of the things cited in the DNC’s propaganda sheet: (continue reading post »)

Oil rose to $75 a barrel last week, meaning the average price of gas at the pump is $2.91 a gallon. Democrats blame President Bush (of course). Whether it be war, peace, prosperity, global warming, or natural disasters, when the truth just won’t do, BLAME BUSH.

UPDATE: (via GatewayPundit)
Nancy Pelosi Is Spitting Mad About Oil Prices

The war in Iraq was supposed to be a war for oil, said left wing extremists. Wouldn’t gas prices be lower if that were the case? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, said:

“The increase of the oil price and growth of oil income is very good and we hope that the oil prices reach their real levels.”

Sidebar: The usual conspiracy theories are that Pres. Bush has dealings with oil empires throughout the world for profit. A more likely scenario is that leftist extremists have made a deal with the opium growers of Afghanistan for a buffet style all-you-can-eat smorgasbord supply of dope in exchange for relentless fables against the President (like, for example, that President Bush knew about 9/11 and sent a jet to escort Osama Bin Laden and his family safely out of Afghanistan). Let’s face it, leftists are smoking something, and it isn’t cigarettes.

End Sidebar: Why are gas prices so high? Reality: Democrats for over 30 years have caved to environmentalism and refused to allow drilling for oil off the coast of Florida and the west coast and ANWR in Alaska. Reality: Democrats repeatedly vote for tax increases on gasoline and oil. Reality: Demand for oil/gas has quadrupled in the past 40 years, making the US dependent on foreign oil. Supply has not kept up.

Here are some facts: (continue reading post »)

by Neil Cavuto

I see Chuck Schumer wants to investigate the oil companies for price gouging. Why doesn’t he ask his fellow politicians to do the same about tax gouging?

After all, oil companies’ profit works out to nine cents a gallon. Taxes total more like 40 cents a gallon.

But you don’t hear Schumer whining about the taxes. After all, that’s an easy source of revenue for a monotonous list of social programs whose failures are legendary. Better to keep funding them through taxes that are killing us, than demanding accountability due all of us.

Senator, if you want to bring gas prices down, start offering solutions and stop playing games.

Start opening areas for more oil exploration here, so we don’t rely on oil from over there.

Start ending the environmental catchpenny of blended fuel mandates, that’s done squat to clean our air but done tons to sully our wallets.

Start removing the restrictions that prevent companies like Wal-Mart from selling more gasoline here.

And start demanding the same accountability of our tax dollars that you do oil giants’ dollars.

You do motorists no good, Senator Schumer, when you motor past the facts and only stop for an open microphone.

No one’s a saint in this process, Senator, least of all… you.

Watch Neil Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on “Your World with Cavuto” and send your comments to cavuto@foxnews.com

That’s the name of Max Boot’s latest LA Times op-ed and it couldn’t be more spot on.

ON JUNE 7, 1942, shortly after the Battle of Midway, the Chicago Tribune carried a scoop: “Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea.” The story, written by a correspondent who had seen intelligence reports left in an officer’s cabin, reported that the U.S. knew in advance the composition of the Japanese fleet. It didn’t say where this information came from, but senior officers privy to the U.S. success in breaking Japanese codes were apoplectic at this security breach. The Justice Department convened a grand jury to consider whether to charge the Tribune and its flamboyant owner, editor and publisher, Col. Robert McCormick, with a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917.
No charges were brought, in part because military officials were unwilling to share classified information about intelligence gathering. But the Chicago Tribune was reviled by other journalists for betraying national security, and no other publication followed up its revelation.
Poor Col. McCormick. He was a man before his time. Today, he would have been hailed as a 1st Amendment hero, and his newspaper would have been showered with accolades. That, at least, is the only conclusion one can draw from this year’s Pulitzer Prizes, which reflect a startling degree of animus toward the commander in chief in wartime.

Today’s press hasn’t cared a lick about national security if it gets in the way of a good story. Frankly, the press corps can talk all it wants about whistleblowers revealing things that aren’t what America is about or whatever. All that is is rationalizing committing crimes that needlessly put us all in harms’ way. And that isn’t acceptable.

You’d think that the major media would’ve learned from their falling numbers and their microscopic approval ratings but they haven’t. Reporters like James Risen, Eric Lichtblau and Dana Priest are traitors. They’ve sold out our national security for a story. In Risen’s case, he sold it out for a book that’s jumping off the bookshelves by the dozens, if that.
(continue reading post »)

Tony Snow will officially become the White House press secretary following an announcement tomorrow morning.

Tony Snow will be named new White House press secretary on Wednesday morning, FOX News has learned. Snow is expected to be at the White House for the announcement. He has been mulling the offer for the last several days.

Dan Senor and Torie Clark were also originally mentioned as possible successors to Scott McClellan but Tony’s been the prohibitive favorite for over a week now. The truth is that he’s the most qualified for the job, hands down. He knows how to make the best argument for the various policies. He’s well-liked within the Beltway press corps, something that shouldn’t be underestimated. Mike McCurry stood his ground but he helped reporters get information on the questions they asked. I think that’s the mold that Tony Snow’s cut from.

Sources said Snow was President Bush’s first choice, but he needed the all-clear from his doctors before he takes the job. Snow is recovering from colon cancer.

That he’s the President’s first choice doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s also a good sign to Bush’s supporters because it’s a signal that the White House communication team will sharpen its message heading into the elections, which should help soothe some political strategists’ nerves. The biggest weakness this administration’s had is communications. Though no one’s blamed McClellan yet, it’s my opinion that he should be partially blamed for that failure. (continue reading post »)