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Democratic senate candidate Dick Blumenthal has announced that he would have opposed the President’s stimulus bill. John McCormack reports:
How unpopular has Obama’s economic agenda become? Democratic Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal–in deep blue Connecticut–says he would have opposed the stimulus. Via The Hotline’s Josh Kraushaar, the Connecticut Mirror reports:
“I believe that the stimulus was wrongly structured, because it failed to provide jobs and paychecks to ordinary Americans. It unfortunately was inadequately designed to invest in infrastructure, in roads and bridges and schools,” Blumenthal said.
Asked how the state could have balanced its budget given the influx of stimulus money for Medicaid, education and other programs, Blumenthal said, “That’s an entirely separate question. I would have opposed the stimulus as it was structured.”
Carney // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:43 am
Why is this weasel still in the race? Why haven’t the media hounded him out? How has he been able to stiff-arm the fuss over his lying, and wait it out?
See this devastating piece by William Saletan. It spells out how nitpicky, relentless, and ferociously merciless Blumenthal has been to anyone in his crosshairs, throughout his career, and now whines for mercy and understanding.
http://www.slate.com/id/2254214/pagenum/all
abj // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:58 am
A male Martha Coakley.
sinz54 // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:36 am
Carney:
Some are already suggesting that Linda McMahon could be Connecticut’s answer to Scott Brown.
If a candidate for Senate from Connecticut has to run away from Obama’s agenda, you know that support for Obama’s agenda is collapsing nationwide.
CowboyDan // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Perhaps is correlates to Obama’s lower approval ratings, but Blumenthal has also shown himself to say anything in order to try to win support, such paint his dodging of going to Vietnam as patriotic service with other brothers.
easton // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:12 pm
I would have opposed the stimulus as it was structured.”
And how is this running away from the Democratic agenda? “It unfortunately was inadequately designed to invest in infrastructure, in roads and bridges and schools,” Blumenthal said.
Is precisely the criticism that most Democrats made of it at the time. Remember, Obama only had 56 Democrats at the time (57 if you count Sanders), MN. had not played out and was empty, Lieberman was a definite unknown, so the administration had to cut deals to bring in Republicans. Granted, I find Blumey’s words to be weaselly, since what he would have done and what could have been done were very different issues, but stating that a Democrat staking out a more Democratic position is running from the Democrats is ludicrous.
And McMahon will get trounced. She is a circus barker, a freak show, Blumey only need run videos of her on WWF stage making an ass of herself in a business that is rife with early death, drug use, steroid induced murders and suicides…yeah, that is the ticket for them.
JeninCT // Aug 19, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Blumenthal is kidding himself if he thinks anyone in CT cares how he would’ve voted for the stimulus. It reminds me of Obama saying in his debate with McCain that the hardest decision he ever had to make was to opposed the war…when he was in the Illinois state senate at the time and couldn’t have voted against it anyway!
balconesfault // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:11 pm
It reminds me of Obama saying in his debate with McCain that the hardest decision he ever had to make was to opposed the war…when he was in the Illinois state senate at the time and couldn’t have voted against it anyway!
Except that Obama never said that. Obama’s position has actually always been that it was pretty much a no-brainer that invading Iraq was a really, really stupid thing to do.
What he did say was that declaring his opposition to the Iraq war as stridently as he did at the time was a risky political decision. And in fact, had Iraq gone the way the neocons were claiming it would in 2003, Obama would have had that thrown in his face for the rest of his career – that’s the reason why so many Dems like Hillary and Edwards climbed aboard the “Give Bush the Power to Decide” train, basically abdicating their congressional responsibility.
But no, while Obama felt the decision was politically risky, he has never said it was tough. Although I’ve no doubt that Rush will tell his listeners otherwise on a regular basis.
JeninCT // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:34 pm
@ balcone’s fault: You’re splitting hairs. The question was: “What’s the most gut-wrenching decision you ever had to make and how did you process that to come to that decision?”
Obama answered: ” Well, you know, I think the opposition to the war in Iraq was as tough a decision as I’ve had to make. ” And then he went on to qualify his decision.
And what does any of that have to do with Rush? I never listen to Rush and simply remember the debate because I watched it.
balconesfault // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Ah – I was searching the Presidential debates – you were referencing the Saddleback Civic Forum.
Anyway, Obama specifically stated in his response that a major part of the reason it was a tough decision to come forward in opposition to the Iraq war was because of the political consequences of that decision. As I pointed out above, in fact he did take considerable political risk with that position.
abj // Aug 20, 2010 at 10:25 am
easton-
And McMahon will get trounced.
Yeah, probably. I compared him to Coakley not because I think he’ll lose, but because I think they’re very similar candidates (uncharismatic, uninteresting, incredibly dull). A Linda McMahon-style candidate in MA probably couldn’t have beaten Coakley.
JeninCT // Aug 20, 2010 at 11:31 am
@easton:
“And McMahon will get trounced.”
I’m not convinced. Those ads showing her kicking that guy are already on the air and they’re not nearly as damaging as ads with Vets talking about Blumenthal’s lack of honor.
As a CT resident, I preferred Peter Schiff, but McMahon seems likeable enough and her ads are EVERYWHERE. By election day, there will not be a single CT voter who doesn’t know her name, and most of them haven’t forgotten Blumenthal lying about his service.
easton // Aug 20, 2010 at 12:12 pm
JeninCT Kirk lied similarly in Illinois. Obviously Schiff would have been far, far better, an experienced legislator and war veteran. CT Republicans were simply idiots for letting him go by.
But it comes down to fruitcake versus liar (and as all politicians lie somewhat) I gotta go with liar.