Letter Sent to President George W. Bush; Speaker Nancy Pelosi;
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Richmond- Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell released a 5-page letter today calling on the federal government to immediately act to combat the growing criminal illegal immigration problem in the United States. The letter was sent to President George W. Bush; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Copied on the letter was the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Timothy Kaine; United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff; and the Virginia Congressional delegation.
A few quotes from THE letter. It ain’t pretty.

I write on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia to ask that you take immediate action to address the issue of illegal immigration, particularly illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Any crime committed by an illegal immigrant is one too many, and the recent news coverage of murders, DUI-related deaths, and fraudulent identification document crimes perpetrated by illegal aliens is resulting in an increasingly concerned citizenry. The borders are not yet secure, the administration and enforcement of the immigration system is cumbersome and ineffective, and the public safety problems caused by criminal illegal aliens are growing. This is unacceptable.Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

The federal government has put the states in an untenable postition: Congress has enaacted laws which are not properly enforced due to the understaffing of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At the same time, Congress has preempted enactment of state laws regulating emmployers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and largely precluded states from enforcing federal immigration violations. It is intolerable that the federal government has failed to do its job, while severely limiting states from acting.

http://www.vaag.com/PRESS_RELEASES/NewsArchive/Immigration%20Letter2007.pdf

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WASHINGTON – What we learned from the off-year elections: The president’s influence is limited, independents rule, incumbents beware, issues trump ideology and, once more, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Also: Republicans can win — even if they lack a leader and their base is cracked. And this certainly isn’t the Democratic-friendly political environment of 2006 and 2008 when the party captured control of Congress and the White House.

The first Election Day of Barack Obama’s presidency was a big night for Republicans, who recaptured governorships in the swing state of Virginia and the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey. Democrats won two races for vacant congressional seats, including one in upstate New York that had been long held by Republicans and that exposed a GOP divide.

So, what did we learn about politics, people and their priorities from the handful of races on Tuesday? And how will those lessons shape the maneuvering of Republicans and Democrats ahead of 2010 midterms, when Obama’s prestige will be put to the test across the country?

The results don’t seem to bode well for Obama and his party heading into a high-stakes year as they look to advance an expensive domestic agenda while protecting the Democrats’ grip on House, Senate and gubernatorial seats nationwide. They’ll try to win over people in a country clouded by a job-killing recession, divided over war and, as Tuesday’s results showed, fed up with the powers that be — no matter the political party.

Among the lessons learned:

_OBAMA’S POLITICAL POWER IS LIMITED

“Yes, we can!” has turned into “Yes, we can — if we feel like it!”

The broad coalition — minorities, young people, first-time voters, Republican crossovers and independents — that fueled Obama’s victory was a 2008 phenomenon; it can’t be counted on if the man himself is not on the ballot. Even though Obama personally implored his supporters to turn out in droves, voters rejected incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey and Democratic candidate R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia.

That could be a problem for Democratic lawmakers in swing states and conservative-to-moderate districts next fall because Obama won’t be on the ballot to drive up turnout. Candidates carried into office in the Obama wave will be vulnerable in 2010 — with no lifeguard to help. And that could influence how those lawmakers vote in Congress in the meantime — perhaps threatening the president’s priorities.

With Obama unable to guarantee their political survival, what’s the incentive for them to back his legislative agenda?

_INDEPENDENTS ARE KINGMAKERS

Voters who don’t claim a political party again proved their value by propelling Republicans to victory in Virginia and New Jersey one year after carrying Obama to the White House.

Independents are, well, truly independent — and, thus, are extraordinarily fickle.

Last year, hope and change tilted them toward Democrats. This year, anger and frustration tilted them to Republicans. They broke 2-1 for GOP victors Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Virginia.

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 4:37 PM

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CAMDEN, New Jersey – Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia face possible defeat in November, despite strong showings by President Barack Obama in those states last year, in elections that could render the first judgments on the Obama presidency.

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a close Obama ally, is struggling to win re-election in the face of a strong challenge by Republican Christopher Christie.

The Obama administration has turned out in support of Corzine, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive.

In Virginia, the only other U.S. state with a gubernatorial contest this year, Democrat Creigh Deeds has been losing so much ground in the polls to Republican Bob McDonnell that he has blamed the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan for his low popularity.

A Washington Post poll published on Friday gave McDonnell a commanding lead of 53 percent to 44 percent, with less than a month to go until election day.

“Frankly, a lot of what’s going on in Washington has made it very tough,” Deeds told Politico newspaper. “We had a very tough August because people were just uncomfortable with the spending.”

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RICHMOND, Va. – Last year, 23-year-old Rashida Hill watched the presidential debates, visited the college political party meetings and put a Barack Obama bumper sticker on her townhouse door. She voted for Obama because she felt like the election was about “being a part of something.”

But on Tuesday, the Virginia Commonwealth University student didn’t bother voting in the governor’s race because, she said, the candidates didn’t give her anything to get excited about.

“The simple fact is, unless you put it in front of somebody, they’re really not going to seek it out,” Hill said.

Many of the young, first-time voters who propelled Obama to the presidency stayed home this year, a glaring absence that helped Republicans win governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey. More than 3 million voters who cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election — many of them minorities — failed to show up at the polls in either state.

Obama carried Virginia with 52 percent of the vote last year, but only 43 percent of voters surveyed in Associated Press exit polls Tuesday said they had voted for him.

Another group that solidified Obama’s victory — independents — turned their backs on Democrats this year.

In Virginia, independents in 2008 helped make Obama the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1964. But on Tuesday, they voted 2-1 in favor of Republican Bob McDonnell, who easily defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds. About one in 10 Virginia voters switched their support from Obama in last year’s election to the Republican candidate for governor this year.

In New Jersey, independent voters who narrowly favored Obama last year strongly supported Republican Chris Christie for governor over Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. Christie won 49 percent to 45 percent.

“A lot of this had to do with the collapse of the economy and future prospects for the nation and the state,” said Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

Independent voters “are very performance-oriented. They just want to know what have you done for me lately or what have you done to me lately,” he said.

Outgoing Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the Democratic losses in Virginia and New Jersey had more to do with local issues than Obama’s first-year performance.

Exit polling showed support for Obama remained steady despite the Republican victories.

The president campaigned hard for Corzine, making three visits to the state, including one on the last weekend.

The president’s appeal worked for Roger Johnson, a 50-year-old restaurant employee from Cherry Hill, N.J., who said he had qualms with Corzine but voted for him, anyway.

“I went in to help the president. I wasn’t going to vote for Corzine,” said Johnson, a registered Republican who usually votes for Democrats. “But I did.”

About 60 percent of voters in both states said their feelings about Obama were not a factor in their vote in the governor’s race, exit polls showed. In Virginia, a quarter of voters said their vote for McDonnell was in direct opposition to Obama. In New Jersey, those who said he was not a factor were evenly divided in their support.

Even some of those who did not support Obama last year said they feel like he’s doing the best he can considering the circumstances under which he’s serving.

Linda Doland, 60, of Chesterfield, Va., said she thinks Obama is way off the mark on health care and Afghanistan, but “I think he has the best interest of our country at heart.”

Still, many just chose to sit this one out.

Mark Dorroh, 58, of Richmond, has not missed an election since he turned 21. He voted for Obama last year, not because he was particularly inspired, but because he said the Harvard graduate “seemed like he would be competent and able.”

Neither of the candidates impressed him, so he skipped this election.

“I just wasn’t in the mood to vote,” he said.

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He doesn’t acknowledge the huge debt caused by big unfunded tax breaks and two wars under Republican leadership. Meanwhile he charges the Democrats with attempting to spend too much money as they are now trying to repair damage done by the Republicans and correct problems Republicans have long ignored or fostered.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-twelve-months-on-the-star-falls-back-to-earth-1811148.html

Last year he could do no wrong. Now he is on the stump in a desperate bid to avert a Republican fightback. David Usborne reports

Thursday, 29 October 2009

AP
President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown walk from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

If there was a degree of déjà vu for fans of Barack Obama crammed inside a university athletic arena in Hackensack, New Jersey, the other evening, it was entirely deliberate. They only had to close their eyes and listen to the deafening chants of “Yes We Can” to imagine they had been transported back to the heady days of a year ago when their candidate was on the verge of seizing the White House and making history.

Even with open eyes they could have felt some of that old frisson. Event organisers wandered the hall wearing shirts proclaiming “Yes We Can 2.0″, as if they were selling the latest Windows update, and a giant banner stage-right gave top billing to Obama. The name beneath his, Corzine, might almost have been an afterthought.

This was not a re-election rally for Mr Obama – not yet, please – but for Jon Corzine, the former boss of Goldman Sachs and now governor of New Jersey. He had invited the president to speak because, when Jersey voters go to the polls next Tuesday – New Jersey and Virginia are the only states where governorships are in play this year – it is not at all clear that they won’t ditch him in favour of his Republican opponent, Chris Christie. The latest polls say it’s too close to call.

That’s better than in the summer when Christie had a double-digit lead. But, in the final stretch, Corzine needs to remind Democrats of the fervour of 12 months ago when they overwhelmingly chose Obama over John McCain. “One more time”, the disco beat booms before the two men arrive on stage in front of a crowd of about 3,000 eager supporters. “One more time. We’re going to celebrate. Oh yeah. Alright.” Once at the microphone, Corzine promises to be brief. “I know who you came to see,” he says.

Obama does what is required of him with his usual eloquence, speaking for 30 minutes. He looks happy to be campaigning again, relieved of Oval Office responsibilities for an afternoon, his stump oratory uncaged. But selflessness and politics do not go together. He is in New Jersey because what happens here next week will matter to him. This is an off-year for congressional races, so, rightly or wrongly, the outcome of these two gubernatorial races will be viewed by some as a first referendum on his presidency.

The President has already suffered a slow, but steady, decline in his approval ratings, so it cheers no one in the White House that the outcome in Jersey is so uncertain. In Virginia, where the President campaigned this week, the outlook is worse with most polls suggesting that the Democrat candidate, Creigh Deeds, will be walloped by his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell.

If Republicans seize the governors’ mansions in both states, the embarrassment will be acute. That is just what happened in both New Jersey and Virginia back in 1993 before the Republicans seized control of the US Congress the following year, dealing a crippling blow to the newly minted Democratic president of the time, Bill Clinton.

But even losing one of them next week will scratch the sheen of President Obama, who seems, one year on from his election, to be hovering in the view of most Americans between competent and fumbling, notwithstanding the high esteem in which he is still held abroad and, of course, in the minds of the Nobel committee.

What is certain is that the almost-mad expectations placed on Obama that unusually warm night in Chicago’s Grant Park when he delivered his victory speech last November, have given way now to a general unease about his performance in office. For sure, he has mostly avoided calamity. Not getting the Olympics for Chicago doesn’t count. Nor is his administration in disarray or anything close to it. (Mr Clinton had barely arrived in office before he was instantly engulfed in mini-scandals.) But the Obama magic that should be working to protect Democrats like Corzine and Deeds seems mostly to have leaked away.

New Jersey is a state that naturally belongs in the Democratic column. Moreover, since 1947, only two Jersey governors have failed to win a second term. But Corzine is unpopular in the state, thwacked by raising property taxes and the effects of the economic recession. “The New Jersey governor’s race is going down to the wire,” predicted the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Virginia had been a red state – as far as the presidency was concerned – since 1964, but it turned blue for Obama and Democrats hailed it as a s

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By Wesley Pruden

This is one Mr. Deeds who apparently isn’t going to town. The collapse of the Democratic campaign for governor of Virginia speaks volumes – chapters, anyway – about what the body politic is trying to tell Barack Obama’s Democrats.

They’re learning, painfully, that campaigning without George W. Bush is baffling, frustrating and scary. Worse, it offers a preview of what the congressional campaigning will be like next year. One Obama doorbell ringer, working neighborhoods in Northern Virginia for Creigh Deeds, says even the promise of free pizza can’t lure faithful Democrats to a rally.

For weeks, The Washington Post, the house organ of the national Democratic Party, pounded away at Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee, for having written politically incorrect term papers in graduate school, citing his master’s thesis, which decried abortion, gender-bending and radical feminism, as proof that he doesn’t like women very much.

Only a month ago, Mr. Deeds, the Post’s horse in the race, wouldn’t talk about anything but the McDonnell graduate-school thesis – maybe a boon to master’s and doctoral candidates who can’t get anybody but a professor to read their wit and wisdom, but, as it turns out, a bore to voters in Virginia. The public-opinion polls continue to show Mr. McDonnell ahead, despite all the Post’s ineffective deeds, and with a lengthening lead.

Now Mr. Deeds doesn’t want to talk about graduate-school scribbling at all, just as leaks from the Post newsroom reveal that the newspaper has a seven-part series ready for publication to prove that Bob McDonnell has had a lifelong hostility to those of the pink persuasion. He once pulled the pigtails of a little girl in the second grade, and as a third-grader he bounced a spitball, aimed at a male pal, off the shoulder of a girl two rows over. These are no doubt serious charges, violence against (tiny) women, sexual harassment and all that, but not likely to turn the tide of a runaway that is building in Virginia.

Suddenly, the White House is treating the bereft Mr. Deeds as if he’s on the fourth day of a three-day underarm deodorant pad. Bill Clinton, accustomed to speaking to cheering thousands at a hundred grand a pop, was dispatched the other night to a Deeds rally to set the throng on fire with one of his late-October stumpwallopers. The rally, such as it was, was held not at an arena or a hotel – not even a Motel 6 – but in a campaign office in the Washington suburbs. The “throng” was counted in the dozens, about the size of a PTA meeting. Not even Bubba could dispel the gloom of a wake.

“These polls are either accurate, or they’re not,” he said, delivering an insight worthy of a Harvard political science professor. “So are the polls right? The answer is yes, no, and maybe.” But what else could he say? Dispatched for mortuary duty, Bubba could only sympathize with the preacher called on to say something nice over the grave of the town bootlegger.

Barack Obama himself is offering the mere minimum of presidential support over the past seven days of the campaign, just mailing it in (even if delivering the mail in person). He’ll make one last appearance with Mr. Deeds this week in Tidewater. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the president’s political aides continue to dish the obsequies over a doomed candidate while pretending to pray for a miracle. So far no one has invoked Harry Truman, patron saint of doomed candidates, but there’s still a week to go.

Mr. Deeds’ friends are bitter about the anonymous voices peddling the discouraging word from the White House. “These ‘anonymous voices’ have decided those hard-working [down-ballot candidates] are just collateral damage in their effort to tell the world that if [Mr.] Deeds doesn’t win, it is because he ignored advice,” Paul Goldman, a former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, tells Politico, the Washington politics daily. “This isn’t change we can believe in, but the same old, same old we voted out of office. Do they really believe their attempts to shield the president from blame is going to distract [Mr.] Obama’s critics, much less change the arc of today’s politics?”

Of course it won’t, and that’s what makes the Virginia race so scary for the president’s men. Voters will use whatever club is available to “send a message,” and sometimes, as any number of pols could tell you, the club is big, rough and means business.

• Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times.

Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/27/something-really-scary-for-obamas-democrats/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_more_news_carousel

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