Man of Steele in MontCo

I penned an op-ed for The Times Herald about RNC chairman Michael Steele’s recent visit to Blue Bell.

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Onorato: Polls are ‘moving in the right direction’

Democrat Dan Onorato says he’s not worried about the polls that show him facing an early gap against Republican rival Tom Corbett.

Onorato, appearing on Fox29 in Philadelphia Wednesday morning, noted that he is already closing the gap against Corbett, with a deficit that most surveys had at about 20 percent narrowing down to low double-digits.

“We’re excited about those numbers because if you go back six months it was a 20-point gap,” Onorato said, …

Pols pass on a chance to hang with Obama

Elected officials aren’t exactly tripping over themselves to spend time with President Obama during his visit to Pittsburgh Wednesday.

The Tribune-Review …

Copying Obama when you don’t even like him

Republicans may not hate Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, President Obama and other Democrats as much as they say if a recent GOP primary in Idaho is any indication.

Then again, we may have stumbled onto the reason why they do.

Vaughn Ward—the mainstream, establishment Republican running in the district of infamous former Congressman Larry Craig—was videotaped giving a speech that lifted portions nearly word for word from the one delivered at the 2004 Democratic National …

Carney, Marino agree on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

It looks like at least one issue won’t amount to much politically in the 10th Congressional District.

Congressman Chris Carney (D-10) and Republican opponent Tom Marino have both voiced opposition to the recent efforts to repeal the military’s policy of barring gays from serving openly. Carney, a sophomore, voted against, and like others who did, he cited the fact that the Pentagon is still in the midst of its own review on the matter.

“I …

Dent calls ‘hypocrisy’ on Callahan over financial reform

Congressman Charlie Dent’s (R-15) campaign on Tuesday responded to a series of attacks from Democratic challenger John Callahan, calling out the Bethlehem mayor for criticizing Dent’s vote in favor of the 2008 financial bailout even though Callahan says he also would have supported the unpopular measure.

Citing a pa2010.com interview with Callahan’s campaign manager, Dent’s campaign said Callahan was trying to have it both ways.

“While Callahan has been engaged in confusing political double-speak, Congressman …

Toomey voices support for Israel in wake of flotilla raid

With Israel facing p“Any loss of life is regrettable, but I fully support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Toomey said in a statement about the raid that killed nine people. “Supporters of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group clearly would like to find a way to deliver weapons to Hamas in Gaza. Israel has a right to stop ships to prevent this from happening. Israel offered the ship a port and promised to deliver the humanitarian aid, but militant activists on the ship intentionally provoked a battle instead./p
p“Although much of the world community wants to deny it,” Toomey added, “Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense, and it is exercising that right in the waters near Gaza. I refuse to join the ‘blame Israel first’ crowd. America must stand by its ally in our mutual fight against international terrorism.”/p
pToomey’s comments came as his campaign is a href="http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/21256/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jewishexponent.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishexponent.com%2Farticle%2F21256%2F','hoping+to+make+significant+inroads+with+suburban+Jewish+voters')" target="_blank"hoping to make significant inroads with suburban Jewish voters/a, a constituency from which incumbent Senator Arlen Specter has long enjoyed deep support. Though many Jewish community insiders say those votes are now likely to go for Democrat Joe Sestak in November, Toomey’s campaign thinks that tensions between Israel and the Obama administration have created a wider opening for Republican gains./p
pAlso on Tuesday, Toomey joined Sestak in looking to put to rest the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/05/white-house-dispatched-clinton-to-float-an-unpaid-job-for-sestak/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fwhite-house-dispatched-clinton-to-float-an-unpaid-job-for-sestak%2F','much-chronicled+controversy+over+the+White+House%22s+attempt+to+coax+Sestak+out+of+the+Democratic+primary+by+offering+an+administration+position')" target="_blank">much-chronicled controversy over the White House’s attempt to coax Sestak out of the Democratic primary by offering an administration position, saying it was time to focus on issues and not what some have come to call “Jobgate.”

In a statement, Toomey’s campaign said he “wants to focus on the real issues.”

Corbett vs. Onorato: A scheduled 15-rounder

Pennsylvania, in the lingo of political science, is a “competitive two-party state.” In plain English, it’s a state where elections are frequently close, usually hard fought, and often hard to forecast.

Lately, however, calling Pennsylvania competitive seems a stretch. Certainly recent presidential elections haven’t been competitive, with Democrats capturing each of them since 1988. Furthermore, state Republicans have been taking it on the chin, losing the last two gubernatorial races, the last U.S Senate races, …

Lentz says Meehan played ‘central role’ in failure to regulate Wall Street

Democrat Bryan Lentz on Tuesday made the most substantive and direct attack yet on his Republican opponent’s ambiguous position on financial reform, criticizing Pat Meehan anew for not taking a stance on legislation moving through Congress and even laying some of the blame for the recent financial crisis at Meehan’s doorstep.

Meehan has yet to publicly take a position on financial reform legislation that has passed both chambers of Congress and awaits conference committee negotiations …

Fox News digs Joe Sestak

Apparently the folks over at Fox News like nothing more than to talk about Joe Sestak and that pThe liberal-leaning watchdog emMedia Matters for America/em a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/201006010012" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://mediamatters.org']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fmediamatters.org%2Fblog%2F201006010012','notes+that+Fox+News+mentioned+the+controversy+221+times+over+the+holiday+weekend')" target="_blank"notes that emFox News/em mentioned the controversy 221 times over the holiday weekend/a, compared to 60 mentions on emMSNBC/em and 37 on emCNN/em./p
p“It’s true that on Friday, when the White House released its official explanation of the incident, lots of Beltway insiders spent way too much time trying to rub two Sestak sticks together in hopes of creating a spark,” emMedia Matters/em senior fellow Eric Boehlert wrote. “But even they eventually seemed to realize the story had no legs, based on the facts in play. … But inside the right-wing world of Fox News? Sestak definitely = blockbuster. And the cable channel literally could not stop talking about the shocking Sestak controversy, even though since last Friday emthere were no new facts to report/em.”/p
pa href="http://earlyreturns.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=965:fox-loves-them-some-sestak&catid=53:post-gazette-staff&Itemid=34" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://earlyreturns.sites.post-gazette.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fearlyreturns.sites.post-gazette.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26amp%3Bview%3Darticle%26amp%3Bid%3D965%3Afox-loves-them-some-sestak%26amp%3Bcatid%3D53%3Apost-gazette-staff%26amp%3BItemid%3D34','A+hat-tip+to+Early+Returns+2.0+for+pointing+out+this+one.')" target="_blank">A hat-tip to Early Returns 2.0 for pointing out this one.