Arkansas Times Blog: The liberal takeover of Arkansas?

[1776Forever]

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2010/05/the_liberal_takeover_of_arkans.aspx

Politico, which loves to force disparate political outcomes into unifying themes, now decides a single congressional race in Pennsylvania -- a happy win for a Democrat where the GOP had made a huge investment and had much going for it -- turns upside down the notion that a partisan revolution is in the offing in November. I hope they're right.

At the very same time, Politico asserts, on the strength of three Senate races, including the Democratic primary in Arkansas, that "activists have seized control" of elections. It's a thin thesis. Teabaggers indeed won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucy. Common sense ruled in Pennsylvania, where Democrats rejected a turncoat, Arlen Specter, who'd often been a thorn in their side. And what of Arkansas?

The notion that "liberal activists" seized control of the Arkansas Democratic primary is laughable. (Oh, why not. It was the Arkansas Times endorsement that almost pushed Bill Halter to victory.)

More seriously: there's no doubt liberal money beat up on Blanche Lincoln to Bill Halter's benefit. But she ended where she started before MoveOn, the SEIU or anybody else had figured out where Arkansas was. She was in the low 40s when she was for card check and before the election season had begun. She ended in the low 40s after she came out against card check and voted for and against health care. Again: Those weren't liberals voting for D.C. Morrison last night. Many liberals voted for Halter. So did some Republicans in West Little Rock and Grant County and the Delta and elsewhere who thought beating Lincoln now was the best ticket to a Republican victory in the fall. Oh, and please: The most liberal county in Arkansas -- Pulaski -- went strongly for Blanche Lincoln. The big Hillcrest box, reliably the most liberal in the state, went 725-498 for Lincoln.

It would not surprise me to see Blanche Lincoln win the runoff. But I"ve been wrong before -- a number of times last night.

...............

Let's hope this person is wrong in June! I think a lot of people in Arkansas are waking up to who is "really" on "their" side! Let's hope those pesky "liberals" can get out the vote in June!

:woohoo: :applause: :woohoo:

[saltpoint]

1. Halter would make such a good candidate for the general, and Blanche

is clearly not going to win in November.

I hope there is strong, swift support for Halter in this run-off.

[moriah]

2. Hey, don't knock Blanche on everything.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/0512/Lincoln-to-the-rescue-Shaking-up-the-derivative-business

Snippet:

"Right now, the biggest battle in bank reform is over a provision introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas that would force the giant Wall Street banks to give up their lucrative derivative trading businesses if they want the government (i.e. taxpayers) to continue insuring their commercial deposits.

The five biggest Wall Street banks have had the derivatives market (derivatives are bets on whether the price of certain assets will rise or fall, bets thereby “derived” from asset prices) almost entirely to themselves. Last year their revenues from derivatives trading totaled a whopping $22.6 billion. Their advantage comes from their large size, plus government insurance of their commercial deposits that allows them to raise money more cheaply than other financial institutions.

Derivatives lie at the point where the basic saving-and-lending function of commercial banking meets the private casino of Wall Street investment banking. You and I subsidize the biggest players in the casino who, precisely because we subsidize them, have grown too big to fail. The Glass-Steagall Act once prevented the casino from using commercial deposits, but since 1999, when Glass-Steagall was repealed, the game has exploded. That’s part of the reason the giants on Wall Street could make wild bets that ended up threatening the entire economy, costing millions of Americans their jobs and savings, and requiring a massive taxpayer-financed bailout.

Lincoln wants to force the banks to put their derivatives into separate entities that aren’t subsidized by you and me. This is just common sense. Her move would also end the big banks’ monopoly over derivatives, thereby reducing their risk to the financial system. It would also cut dramatically into the big banks’ profits."

[1776Forever]

3. Seems Sen. Lincoln was trying to shore up votes with this bill - Read on.........

Blanche Lincoln's Derivatives Plan Survives (For Now)
Posted by Adam Sorensen Wednesday, May 19, 2010

So reports the Wall Street Journal. The Chris Dodd compromise I mentioned this morning is being dropped from financial reform as Democratic leadership in the Senate scrambles to line up final votes on amendments and a cloture motion this afternoon.

As Jay suggested the other day, there's a political angle. Senator Blanche Lincoln, facing a primary challenge from Bill Halter, is widely speculated to have introduced biting derivatives language last month at least in part to shore up her left flank -- she hopes her crusade against Wall Street will endear her to the primary crowd. Tuesday night, as Arkansas Democrats sent Lincoln and Halter to a June 8 runoff, financial reform architect Dodd floated a compromise that would essentially let the most controversial portion of Lincoln's derivatives plan die a slow death.

Now, with Lincoln's political fate still up in the air, Dodd has dropped the plan. Why? The Senate leadership needs 60 votes to move forward. Republicans are beginning to buck after a few weeks of detente, and some Democratic Senators feel their pet causes are getting short shrift. But it's NOT Ben Nelson this time. Byron Dorgan was incensed his amendment banning "naked" derivative swaps, basically a financial bet for betting's sake, couldn't get a full vote -- it was tabled last night. Maria Cantwell's (and John McCain's!) amendment reinstating the Glass-Steagall division between simple commercial banking and financial exploits hasn't gotten an up-or-down on the floor -- it's opposed by bankers and the Obama administration alike. Tom Harkin's effort to limit bank ATM fees was turned away as well. Others have merely had their measures bumped down the road; Sam Brownback's auto-dealer exemption from consumer finance regulation and Jeff Merkley's expansion on the Volcker rule will be taken up after debate is formally closed.



Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/05/19/blanche-lincolns-derivatives-plan-survives-for-now/#ixzz0oRQBSzZP

[moriah]

4. Yeah, I noticed I only read about this ....

... this morning, when it was posted on the Coffee Party's Facebook feed.

Honestly, I've liked Blanche for a long time. I'm one of her constituents, and she has helped me in dealing with the federal government on many occasions when problems arose and agencies weren't dealing with my case properly. Wish more people would realize that function of our representatives should be used -- I've seen many people bitching about some agency or another, and when I've suggested that they ask their congress-critter to help, they were amazed at how quickly things got done.

I mainly just don't want to see Boozman as our senator. Whatever it takes to keep that asshat out of the Senate is good in my opinion, the ONLY letter he ever responded favorably to that I've written him was one about requesting funding be allocated for the National Center for Missing Adults. He liked the fact I highlighted missing person cases in his district, so he could use the "personal touch" in advocating for them. Hey, if it gets the job done I don't mind doing his research for him!

[socialist_n_TN]

13. If you don't like Boozman..............

and I don't on the general principle that he's a Republican, why support Lincoln? I think that the odds favor the Republican in AR this year anyway, but doesn't Halter poll better AGAINST Boozman than Lincoln does, on on one? IOW, don't the polls show Halter with a better shot to retain the seat for the Dems?

To me, it's similar to PA. Sestak ALWAYS polled better head to head against Toomey than Specter did AND he was slightly farther to the left of Specter. So why support the guy who's MORE RW than the incumbent AND who has a worse chance in the general than the incumbent?

[MilesColtrane]

5. There's a lot of blue in Arkansas.

I have quite a few relatives there who have been two things all their lives; farmers and Democrats.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. There is a lot of blue in Arkansas

but for some strange reason, Arkansas can usually be counted on to vote republican in Presidential elections. It's been that way since 1972-- except for cases where the Democrat was a Southern governor (Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992/96), the state has always voted for the Republican. And in 1968, the state went for George Wallace, a 3rd party candidate who was also a Southern governor.

[Lyric]

8. Same way with West Virginia

Lots and lots of Democrats, but almost always goes Red for presidential elections. All I can say is that people here are poor, sadly uneducated, and therefore easily misled by dishonest politicians. The 'Pukes once sent a mailer out here saying that the Democrats were going to ban the Bible in America. They don't even PRETEND to be honest around here. Some of the conservative lies I've seen directed at rural West Virginians over the years are breathtaking in their sheer blatancy and ridiculousness...and yet, with a low-income population that is MUCH less likely to have access to national news, public libraries, and reliable internet, how are people supposed to be able to counter the misinformation? Most of them don't even know that they're being used and lied to. When you live in a tiny hill town, can't afford cable, get no public airwaves reception thanks to the hills, and your local "library" is one little room in the "courthouse" filled with mostly 100-year-old history volumes and a yearly visit from the small volunteer Bookmobile, how on earth can anyone really expect you to be better informed? I can't criticize these people for being easily fooled. Wealthy people have been taking advantage of the low-income community's lack of information resources in precisely this way for a very long time--and not just in West Virginia.

Here's an idea for the future: national free wireless internet, and guaranteed public broadcasting of Senate and House proceedings to every single tiny town in America. I am of the opinion that the very LEAST we owe to every single American citizen is a way to access vital information about our government that is reasonably convenient, free of charge, and untainted by bias. If you want to see the red states start going purple and blue, then we NEED to work on this problem. We cannot continue to blame the victims for their ignorance.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Arkansas also has lots of isolated towns

And probably a lot of what you mentioned can be applied there as well.

But two of the reddest counties of the state-- Benton and Sebastian-- are a little different. I'm not sure what the deal is with Fort Smith (in Sebastian County), but it has been a Republican stronghold for as long as I can remember. For example, it was the city that gave John Paul Hammerschmidt his extremely narrow margin of victory in the 1974 Third District congressional race against a then largely unknown neophyte politician named Bill Clinton. And Sebastian County voted against Clinton twice in 1992 and 1996 (one of the very few counties in the state to do so.

Then there's Benton County. In 1970, it was solidly Democratic, but since that time has experienced a massive in-migration that has changed the political landscape 180 degrees. Much of the county is relatively flat land, and there are very few communities there that are truly isolated, but there are many wealthy retirees, and the world's largest discount retailer is also based there. The only Republican Senator from Arkansas in the 20th century was from Benton County, as is the current Republican nominee for the November Senate race.

Baxter County, another Republican stronghold that is in the heart of the Ozarks, also has a lot of rich retirees from out-of-state, but it also has a lot of isolated communities. It is also one of the few counties in the state that supported the Republican over Clinton in the '92 and '96 Presidential elections.

[1776Forever]

12. I love your idea for a free internet and public broadcasting of Senate hearings!!

"Here's an idea for the future: national free wireless internet, and guaranteed public broadcasting of Senate and House proceedings to every single tiny town in America."

I also have asked Direct TV why we can't at least buy CSPAN 3 and they never got back with me! The only way you can get it is on the net!

Keep pushing this!:fistbump:

[Divine Discontent]

6. K&R

[Radical Activist]

9. It's a race between a right leaning Democrat and an actual Democrat.

The media is framing this as a challenge from the left, which it is in a way since Halter isn't a conservative. But that doesn't make Halter that liberal. I hope he wins the primary because the US Senate needs to hear the message that it's time to deliver on the mandate we gave them in 2008.

[autorank]

10. That's excellent!!! k*r

The liberal precincts go for Lincoln and the rest of the people say adios.

[joeybee12]

14. Blanche cannot win the general election...simple as that...hopefully Dems in Ark

realize this before the run-off.