Living in California as we do, it's depressing that the closest thing to representation we conservatives have in the United States Senate is Jon Kyl from Arizona.  What we are left to endure usually comes from our junior Senator, both in seniority and in intellect, Barbara Boxer.

Among the myriad of causes and issues of which she claims to be a champion, she is an abortion absolutist above all else.  Boxer put that on display once again today, when she temporarily blocked the passage of a Senate resolution honoring the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.  The resolution, offered by Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, was deemed offensive to Boxer in two areas, and wouldn't allow the measure to move forward until the language was removed.  One of the clauses dealt with religious expression in public places.  Boxer certainly can't have that.  

But the line in the sand clause to Boxer was this one, which you can read at Politico.com.

Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and vulnerable, witnessing to the value of each and every human life;

That raised the anti-abortion alarm bells with Senator Boxer, and she raced into action.  This cannot stand.  She will not allow the United States Senate to blindly honor someone who values every human life, even someone like the Pope, who actually has spoken out, witnessing to the value of every human life. 

She is as hard left on the life issue as Barack Obama is, which is radical.  Senator Obama was rhetorically talking about his potential grandchild when he made his now infamous remarks about not wanting his daughters to be "punished with a baby."

Democrats continue to maintain the illusion that public anti-war sentiment is going to sweep them to power in November, just like it did in the Congressional elections in 2006.  What they fail to realize, however, is that the Democratic Party is about to nominate someone who is out of the mainstream liberal.  And America, as divided as we keep being told it is, simply isn't as far to the left as the Democratic Party thinks it is.

Most Americans, even ones who are pro-choice, wouldn't go to the lengths of Senator Boxer to deem one of the hallmarks of the Pope's Catholic faith as unacceptable political speech that should not be honored by the United States Senate.

What a horrible night for Barack Obama, and for the Democrats in general.  George Stephanopoulos, along with Charlie Gibson, conducted a great debate on substance, showing any American willing to look that neither Democratic candidate is ready for the West Wing, and that John McCain clearly is.

In an exchange that will be played all through the general election season, Senator Obama was asked about his connections to unrepentent anti-war bomber/terrorist/Weather Ungerground member Bill Ayers.  Obama was clearly flustered by the question, and in responding, compared Ayers to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn's views on doctors who perform abortion.  Here's the video:



The last time I checked, Doc Coburn neither advocated, participated, nor had a need to repent from any terrorist activity, unlike Bill Ayers, who to this day is proud of his activities forty years ago.  If Obama wanted to unify America, he took another large step in achieving half of that goal with conservatives, who are not going to take this slander on Coburn lightly.   

Both Clinton and Obama stumbled on taxes, especially capital gains taxes, on guns, and on foreign policy.  Obama was clearly uncomfortable on the Wright issue that hasn't been put behind him yet. 

The other exchange that's going to come back and bite Obama is him doubling down once again on the bitterness comment that has caused him so much grief this past week. Here's the video of that:

When people feel like Washington's not listening to them, when they're promised year after year, decade after decade that they're economic situation's going to change, and it doesn't, then politically, they end up focusing on those things that are a constant, like religion. They end up feeling this is a place where I can find some refuge. This is something that I can count on. They end up being much more concerned about votes around things like guns, where traditions have been on from generation to generation.

So if the economy is going great, especially if it's caused by action in Washington, people have no need to focus on things like religion or votes on guns?  It sounds to me like he didn't walk back from what he said to the elites in San Francisco a week and a half ago.  Instead, Obama's answer came out sounding something like, "I made a mistake about what I said in San Francisco, so let me be clear about what I really meant then, and mean today.  When small town people get bitter, it sometimes drives them to guns and God.  Hopefully, I cleared that up."

As has been said around the blogosphere, there was only one clear winner tonight, and that is John McCain.  

Thanks to the amazing skill Barack Obama has shown this week of how easily he can stick his foot in his mouth while trying to speak off the cuff, the country continues to focus on who is or is not bitter, and whether guns and religion and trade policy are just crutches used by small town Americans who can't get what they want out of life. 

In the meantime, however, two of the chief Democratic windbags in the United States Senate took to the floor this morning, with their charts and graphs, and decried how essentially the republic as we know it is in jeopardy because of an unprecedented amount of Republican filibusters. 

With the assistance of C-SPAN, it is clear that majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Chuck Schumer of New York, senior senators of their respective states, had senior moments today.

Here is Schumer, not today, but just over a month ago, March 6th, 2008, to be precise:



And here is Chuck Schumer, on the Senate floor today, on the same subject:



Oops.  Something doesn't quite add up, does it?

Here's Harry Reid from Leap Year Day, 2/29/08:



And here is Happy Harry today:



Why the discrepancy, you ask?  The Democrats seem to have a living, breathing definition of the word filibuster.  It seems if the Democrats block judicial nominations, Reid and Schumer count it as a Republican filibuster.  If Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, filibusters the FISA reform bill, Reid and Schumer count that as a Republican filibuster. If Democrats vote unanimously or near-unanimously with the Republicans to uphold a filibuster and beat a bill, as has happened on almost a dozen occasions, that counts as a Republican filibuster.

Harry Reid, despite the fact he has trouble with two digit numbers, also took to the floor yesterday morning, and made the following remarks about fellow Americans visiting the United States Capitol:

04-14reid.mp3

“Mr. President, someone wanting to visit the Capitol today, there is no place for them to gather. They gather -it used to be out on the East Front - now they gather on the West Front. And the people who work here joke about you can always tell when it's summertime because you can smell the visitors. And what we mean by that Mr. President – they stand out there in the high humidity, heat, sweating, and it’s really – there’s no place for them to go. The bathrooms in this facility are almost nonexistent. There is one on this side, one on the other side, both very small.”

Oh, how nice.  There certainly is no elitism in the Senate, is there?  Barack Obama thinks you're bitter, and Harry Reid thinks you stink. 

General David Petraeus is in Washington, D.C. to give his latest report to the Senate and the House about the progress in Iraq after the surge, and what still needs to be done.  The last time this warrior visited the Congress, instead of receiving the honor and gratitude from a grateful nation that he deserves, his arrival in Washington was greeted by a full-page ad placed by MoveOn.org in the New York Times, calling him a traitor by renaming him General Betray-us.   

This time around, at least one Senator has made sure that General Petraeus will be thanked properly for his service, and you can add your name to that list, too. 

Republican leader Mitch McConnell, over on his campaign site's blog, has drafted a thank you letter to David Petraeus, and has it set up so that you can add your name and brief comments that will be presented to the General. 

Please click here to add your name to the card, and show General Petraeus that the MoveOn view is not how most Americans feel about their military men and women.