Jim Gilmore to campaign in Staunton Friday afternoon

Jim Gilmore, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, will be in Staunton Friday afternoon, October 31, at 2:00 p.m. at Shenandoah Pizza in historic downtown. Come on out and talk with the Governor about his issues and you will be convinced he is the best candidate to protect this country and serve our state.

Friday - 2:00 p.m.
Shenandoah Pizza
19 E. Beverley Street
Staunton, VA 24401
Contact: Alex Davis, Gilmore Coordinator for Staunton

Gilmore for Senate

Cross-posted at SWAC Girl

McDonnell: "Vote Gilmore for national security"

Dear Virginia Voter:

Although America’s national security isn’t the number one issue in the headlines right now, it is a topic paramount to the future of our children and grandchildren. Who we elect to the United States Senate from Virginia is going to help determine which direction our nation takes to defend America’s national interests around the world and at home.

Because of his experience and his principles, I strongly recommend Jim Gilmore for the United States Senate. Jim and I are both Army Veterans, and as you can imagine, I have a deep appreciation for the service of the men and women of our armed forces. Jim Gilmore volunteered for the U.S. Army and played an important role in counter-intelligence for the U.S. Army, safeguarding the security of American bases in Europe.

As you may know, Congress chose Virginia’s Jim Gilmore to chair a national commission charged with making recommendations on methods to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks on the United States. The Gilmore Commission warned in 1999 and in 2000 that America was facing a possible terrorist attack.

After 9/11 Congress adopted 146 of the Gilmore Commission’s 164 recommendations. Jim Gilmore has the experience in homeland security I know must be possessed by Virginia’s next United States Senator.

Virginia and our nation must elect Jim Gilmore to the U.S. Senate. Join me in the fight to elect JIM GILMORE as our next U.S. SENATOR.

With less than a week to go you can help in this critical effort with your contribution...no matter how large or how small...by clicking the CONTRIBUTION link below.

Also remember to VOTE on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4th for JIM GILMORE FOR SENATE.

Best regards,

Bob McDonnell
Attorney General of Virginia

Cross-posted at SWAC Girl

Washington Times endorses Gilmore

The editors of the Times simply cut through the fog of Mark Warner's rhetoric and looked at the truth:

. . . Mr. Gilmore is strongly opposed to the $700 billion mortgage-bailout bill passed by Congress earlier this month; Mr. Warner supported it.

Mr. Gilmore favors making permanent the federal tax cuts enacted by Congress in 2001 and 2003. Mr. Warner, by contrast, has suggested repealing tax cuts on persons whose family income exceeds $250,000 a year.

. . .

Mr. Gilmore favors offshore oil drilling in Alaska and off the Atlantic Coast. Mr. Warner opposes drilling in Alaska and says more study is needed before drilling is permitted off the Atlantic Coast. Mr. Gilmore opposes and Mr. Warner favors the Orwellian-titled Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much easier for labor unions to coerce workers into joining.

As governor, Mr. Gilmore is best known for his work to repeal the oppressive car tax. Mr. Warner's major political achievement as governor was his success in pushing a $1.4 billion tax increase through the General Assembly in 2004. Only weeks after passage of the tax increase (which Mr. Warner asserted was essential to balance the budget), state officials acknowledged that Virginia was actually running a budget surplus. (In other words, Mr. Warner's dire warnings of imminent fiscal collapse had been proven false.)

It's easy to see why - as the Times put it - "Mr. Gilmore would be the superior choice."

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal

Waynesboro NV endorsed Jim Gilmore for Senate

~ News Virginian gets it when comparing the two candidates~

Willing to look beneath the superficial surface to actually examine Mark Warner ... and bucking the trend that seems to prevail throughout most of Virginia's media who appear to think this is the Miss Congeniality contest instead of a senatorial race ... the Waynesboro News Virginian today endorsed Jim Gilmore for Senate with a well thought-out editorial about Gov. Gilmore's accomplishments and Mark Warner's lack of them.

The very first paragraph of the editorial hit the nail on the head:

Once the practice of statesmen, politics has evolved into an art of all things banal — schmoozing principal among them. On this count, as they have been in the polls since the race began, Senate candidates and former governors Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore are separated by a chasm. Warner represents a twist on the “Cheers” TV show theme – he knows everybody’s name. Gilmore is a politician with a comic’s capacity to offend, squashing toes in the natural manner in which most people breathe, many of the stinging digits found in his own party.

Governor Jim Gilmore is a leader. Leaders have targets on their backs ... they take arrows. Leaders do the right thing despite the critics ... and that is Jim Gilmore.

The News Virginian continued:

As a result, Warner, who made a mint in telecommunications, built a mammoth war chest while Gilmore scraped for relative pennies of support. Warner ascended in his party, winning a keynote speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention, while Gilmore fished for a base despite a relatively strong conservative record.

Despite receiving the Republican Party's nod at a hard-fought convention battle in May and despite receiving the endorsement of the Party establishment, the Gilmore campaign has had an uphill battle going into the war against Mark Warner, a battle that no one else was willing to wage but that the fighter Jim Gilmore was willing to take on. Even the man whose seat he is battling for, Republican Sen. John Warner, has not endorsed him and as recently as two weeks ago said he was undecided on which man he would vote for.

For the reason alone that he was willing to take on the Democrat in the "we-love-Mark Warner" media atmosphere, Jim Gilmore deserves accolades.

Gilmore, the ever-move-forward warrior who headed a commission on terrorism before 9/11 ... who was Governor of Virginia when we were hit on 9/11 ... who fought to get into UVA Law School after serving in Army intelligence as a young man ... the hard-hitting prosecutor from Henrico County ... has always been more concerned about getting the job done than the finer art of communication, something that has been misconstrued over the years into whatever the recipient perceived -- arrogance, disdain, whatever. But Gilmore got the job done.

There are more than a few people for whom Gilmore cares little, and Warner hovers somewhere at the top of the list. Warner in 2002 followed Gilmore as governor and made quick work of depicting his predecessor as an irresponsible spender who left the budget in shambles. Gilmore touted a plan to eliminate the car tax, and wound up slashing it by 70 percent. But Warner charged Gilmore shortchanged the budget in the process, prompting a record $1.4 billion tax increase. It was later revealed that there was surplus that fiscal year and the state revenues were increasing before the tax increase.

Nevertheless, Gilmore’s campaign backside still wears the brand Warner applied, of a failed governor whose policies swamped the budget and forced his successor to stick it to Virginians. In fact, Gilmore’s spending record as governor bears a foul aroma. The state operating budget swelled by a third during his stay in Richmond. Republicans who cut taxes while failing to cut spending do taxpayers and conservatives a disservice.

Mark Warner, who became a rock star of the Democrat Party through the help of some Republican electeds in the Commonwealth's General Assembly when they backed his record $1.2 billion tax increase, giving him the votes needed to pass the largest tax increase in Virginia history (leaving the impression nationwide that Warner was a bipartisan politician who could work with both sides of the aisle), attained a Teflon coating as far as the media were concerned. Throw out the facts about Warner's lack of leadership and watch them slide off as an adoring media look the other way. Warner became the master of spin as noted by the NV:

Still, Warner masters another modern political art, that of unction. Not only did he slip responsibility for his tax increase by wrongly strapping it like a string of dynamite to Gilmore, he also eluded for years accountability for his 1994 rant against gun advocates, pro-lifers and home schoolers. Gilmore achieved rare success when he released an audio recording of Warner’s comments that forced the Democrat to finally concede them as his own after repeated denials.

Those comments against home schoolers hit me particularly hard in 2001 when Warner was running for governor. As a home schooling parent and leader in the local home school community, I wrote a letter to the Staunton News Leader to expose the comments, a letter that was blocked by then-Opinions Editor Dennis Neal (who has since left the newspaper) who said he had no collaboration or proof of it even though I offered up the statement, and he ignored it when I noted he did not normally "fact-check" other letters to the editor. Irregardless, my letter never saw the light of day and every time I mentioned his censorship in the years following, he became defensive.

Indeed, Mark Warner denied making such a statement but was proven to have lied when the Gilmore campaign produced audio of the remarks. What Warner said not only bashed home schoolers but also National Rifle Association members, the Christian Coalition, pro-life proponents -- people he found "threatening to what it means to be an American."

His remarks were:

"One of the things you are going to see is a coalition that is just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state and if they have their way it's going to take over state government. It is made up of the Christian Coalition, but not just them. It is made up of the right-to-lifers, but not just them. It's made up of the NRA, but not just them. It is made up of the home schoolers, but not just them. It's made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of differing views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to what it means to be an American." Mark Warner, May 1994

Caught with audio proof, Warner lamely admitted saying those things but added that he had "learned a lot since then." Most in the media ignored that he lied about making the comments. The NV once again got it:

His strong Second Amendment record will allay potential Warner opponents among the ranks of the National Rifle Association, but there’s little to appease abortion foes and home schoolers, except for the fact that a relative of Warner’s home schools. What matters more is whether Warner can be taken at his word when he says, for example, that he opposes a provision in the Employee Freedom of Choice Act that would end secret ballots in union elections. As written, that law – the concept of which Warner favors – would load unions with power and threaten the stability of small businesses across the land.

Similarly, Warner touts as feasible the pipe dream popularly known among Democrats as the “renewable revolution,” a plan to shift America from reliance on fossil fuels to renewables. Never mind that renewables account for only 7 percent of the world’s energy output and that solar and wind power, to which he frequently refers, require vast expanses of land, in the fashion of ethanol, the fallacy of which leftists are discovering. Warner calls for an all-inclusive energy plan, including natural gas and nuclear energy, and insists that Gilmore is focused almost exclusively on drilling, a charge the Republican rejects.

Like presidential nominee John McCain but with a stronger conservative record, Gilmore is less than an ideal foe for Warner. But his deficiencies are dwarfed by Warner’s, no matter how carefully concealed the latter’s might be. As a result, Gilmore is our choice for the U.S. Senate.

The Waynesboro News Virginian, that small hometown newspaper in the central Shenandoah Valley, did more homework than most of the big newspapers throughout the land. They actually took the time to examine the records and accomplishments of the two senatorial candidates ... and whenever that happens, Jim Gilmore comes out on top every time. The NV understands this is not a popularity contest and that the very safety and future of our country is at stake in these volatile, terrorism-filled times.

Jim Gilmore for Senate 2008

Cross-posted at SWAC Girl
Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com

Jim Gilmore signs Energy Freedom pledge

Affirming His Support for Increased Domestic Energy Production

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore, candidate for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator John Warner, today signed the "Energy Freedom Pledge." Affirming if elected to the U.S. Senate, his commitment to "oppose any and all attempts to impose another national ban on drilling for oil and natural gas energy resources off our nation's shores or on oil shale extraction" in the United States. By signing the pledge, Gov. Gilmore also affirmed to "support efforts to increase domestic energy production which will provide for American's future energy needs and make the U.S. less dependent on foreign sources of energy".

"During these tough economic times, never has America's need to tap into its vast resources of oil and natural gas been clearer," said Gilmore. "Doing so would not only set the course for energy independence, but would create thousands of jobs right here in the U.S and in Virginia."

"Virginia is an energy state, with our vast resources of coal in Southwest Virginia, and oil and natural gas off our shores, as U.S. Senator, I will ensure Virginia plays a primary role towards American energy independence," added Gilmore.

For more information click on the "Energy Freedom Pledge."

Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com
Cross-posted at SWAC Girl

How Warner's 1994 comments and his support for the bailout are related

I was considering cross-posting my comments about Mark Warner's 1994 slam against home-schoolers and right-to-lifers, but as the first half of said post included a rehash of what SWAC Girl already cross-posted, I figured I should just get to the point.

That point is this; you may think Warner's little rant is unrelated to today's pressing issues, but if so, you'd be wrong. It's revealing for this reason (an excerpt from my RWL post):

The Dem nominee is the poster-boy for the “limousine liberal” (as Bob Novak calls them), wealthy politicos who vote for the Democrats on social or foreign policy issues, but mainly driven by an elitist snobbery that has no use for ordinary Virginians or what they think.

Until this year, “limousine liberals” did most of their policy damage on cultural or security issues, but the events of the past month have revealed something new: their elitism has become part and parcel of the herd mentality at the top that led to mass hysteria over the financial markets.

The Mark Warner of 1994 was an out-of-touch elitist who was slamming ordinary Virginia voters in partisan speeches. The Mark Warner of 2008 is still out of touch, but he is now part of an elite gone mad on financial issues.

Will the Mark Warner of 2009 be in a position where his weakness for hysteria can do real damage? Or will Virginians recognize the danger in time go with the safer
pair of hands - namely Jim Gilmore’s?

We have four weeks to stop the insanity.

Mark Warner audio: NRA, home schoolers, right-to-life people are "a threat to what it means to be an American"?

You've read the quote. You've heard the rumors. Now, hear the audio of Mark Warner calling the NRA, people of faith, home schoolers and people who believe in the right to life "a threat to what it means to be an American."

When this issue first surfaced in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, then gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner "angrily denied the claim" and called it "inaccurate." But the audio will tell you a different story.

Listen ... and then decide if you want this man to represent you in the U.S. Senate.

Jim Gilmore for Senate 2008

Cross-posted at SWAC Girl

Good Morning, it is now a different race

In the four months or so that I have posted in this space, I'd like to think I gave Mark Warner the rough treatment he deserved. I will confess, however, that I was less enthusiastic than most over here about heaping praise on Jim Gilmore. As one of the leading Bob Marshall bloggers, I must admit that his narrow loss hurt deeply, and while Gilmore was and is certainly head and shoulders above Marky Mark, it was more difficult for me than most to get behind him with zeal.

That all ended for me when I came across Gilmore's fervent opposition to the Paulson-Pelosi-insert-establishment-politician-here bailout (Tim Craig, Washington Post, emphasis added):

Gilmore came out strongly against the $700 billion plan, arguing in a concise way that it amounted to government run amok. Warner supported the bailout, saying it was needed to prevent economic turmoil. Warner tried to pin the need for Congressional intervention on lax oversight by the Bush administration and "greed" on Wall Street.

Warner noted that both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama voted in favor of the plan, prompting Gilmore to say at one point, "I'm not in this for John McCain, I am in this for the people on the other side of this camera."

For once, Warner's efforts to turn the contest into a referendum on Gilmore's record as governor was overshadowed by an issue of more immediate concern. The only thing anyone who watched the debate will probably remember tomorrow is the word "bailout."

You got that right, Tim.

Of all the issues on the domestic front, this one was the biggest. Wall Street went into a panic, which promptly infected Washington and led the Administration and Congress into mass hysteria. Two weeks and $700 billion later, the entire episode cast a pall on democracy as we know it, while the free-market ideal (which didn't actually have anything to do with what went wrong) fell victim to the cross-fire. It was an ugly spectacle that revealed the American "elite" to be a bunch of ignoramuses with a dangerous herd mentality.

Friday night, Virginians were given a clear choice on a dramatically important federal issue. No historical arguments about who was the better governor. No Marky Mark distractions and obfuscations that required the Warnerese-to-English translator. On Friday night, Mark Warner revealed himself as the guy who will stand for the elites and stand on ordinary Virginians.

Jim Gilmore, meanwhile, revealed himself as the guy with the level head, the fellow with the better grasp of the state of our economy, and the guy who will stand up for each and every one of us and stand up to the elites of both parties.

Don't tell me this race is "over." Every single vote cast for Jim Gilmore is a vote against that bailout. More importantly, every vote cast for Jim Gilmore is a warning to Washington never to do something this stupid again.

That message will be much louder with 40% of the vote than 30% . . .

. . . 45% will make it louder still . . .

. . . and, if we can pull Gilmore up to 50%-plus-one, the message will reverberate through the country like an earthquake.

Don't tell me Gilmore can't catch up either. I remember a Republican "blue-blood" in New Jersey who was running more than twenty points behind with less than three weeks to go in the campaign. She ran on an anti-tax, populist platform, too. The elites laughed hysterically. Establishment types in both parties declared here a sure loser.

Yet on Election Night 1993, Christie Todd Whitman shocked the world and beat Jim Florio. The anti-tax shock waves rippled across the land and set up the GOP for the 1994 landslide. Meanwhile, Washington hasn't enacted a tax increase since.

Every vote matters now: win, lose, or draw. This isn't about personal battles for glory or reputation. This isn't even partisan anymore. This is us versus them, the sensible electorate versus the skittish and panicky elected, the sane masses versus an elite gone mad.

Jim Gilmore would have had my vote by default, but he's earned it now, and if you're a Virginia voter reading this, any Virginia voter reading this, he's earned your vote, too.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal

Sen. Mark Obenshain nails Mark Warner and says, "Vote for Jim Gilmore!"

This is the best, most succinct reasoning of why we must elect Jim Gilmore to the U.S. Senate. You have got to read Sen. Mark Obenshain's (R-26th Senate District) thoughts about Mark Warner's recent visit to Harrisonburg and the former Republicans who were with him. Excellent read that should be passed around to everyone you know. The added emphasis is mine:

On Friday morning, I opened the Harrisonburg newspaper to see a picture of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Harrisonburg joined by certain former Republican lawmakers - and, in the case of John Chichester and Ross Potts, I do mean former Republican, as it has been about a decade since they have supported any Republican for anything. There are a couple of points that need to be made before pro-business or pro-family voters decide to follow their lead

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, why on earth would we want to help Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, and the rest of their gang by sending Mark Warner to Washington to help them reach a 60 vote Democrat supermajority?

Make no mistake about it: Mark Warner got his political start from Chris Dodd. He actually got his business start from him, too. Leveraging his knowledge as one who helped Dodd craft the rules for the eventual auction of cellular phone franchise licenses, he rounded up investors and built the foundation of his vast financial fortune. Since then, Warner has fallen in line, appearing on the campaign trail with John Kerry and now Barack Obama, and backing his liberal friends in Washington whenever they need him. Those who truly believe that Mark Warner will develop an independent streak once elected will be greatly disappointed.

Not enough? Try this on for size. In a filmed interview with Virginia's AFL-CIO Leadership, Warner promised he would back the so-called "card check" bill, effectively gutting Virginia's right to work laws. Or this: Warner's election will help liberal efforts to restore the "fairness doctrine," which will decimate talk radio in America. The "fairness doctrine" would require radio stations airing conservative talk shows to also air an equal number of liberal talk shows, even if there is no demand for them and they cannot sell any advertising. Their only legal alternative would be to remove all talk radio from the airwaves. Increasingly, for liberals, the First Amendment is a one-way street. Hello Mark Warner -- goodbye Rush Limbaugh!

Don't get me wrong. I like Mark Warner. He's a nice guy. Jim Gilmore, on the other hand, has stepped on plenty of toes and will never win a "Miss Congeniality" award. That may be all it takes to win the votes of some, but not mine. Good grief!

More is at stake here than Mark Warner's career trajectory, and more is on the line than one more Democratic vote in the Senate. The Democrats are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of their candidates across the country because they believe their party on the verge of achieving a 60-vote supermajority which would strip Senate Republicans of the few parliamentary procedures they have to reign in liberal excesses. With a supermajority, Democrats could cut off debate on controversial bills and put them to an immediate vote, which they would inevitably win, voting along party lines.

The framers of our constitution, in their wisdom, enacted measures to rein the urges and excesses of the legislature and to check the power of the majority. A vote for Mark Warner could quite possibly be a vote for a Democratic supermajority and against any chance of tempering or standing athwart the liberal Democratic agenda.

For Republicans, there is but one choice -- Jim Gilmore. He has made a career of standing on principle, doing that which is the right, not always the popular thing to do. For some, casting a ballot for Gilmore might not be an easy choice, but it is certainly the right choice.

Jim Gilmore for Senate

Cross-posted on SixtyFour81.com
Cross-posted on SWAC Girl

Jim Gilmore fights for the taxpayers

The choice is clear: Jim Gilmore fights for the taxpayers ... Mark Warner fights for the high rollers on Wall Street.

In a follow-up after Friday night's debate, the Gilmore campaign issued the following:

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore, candidate for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner, said today in a debate with Mark Warner on statewide television the choice for Virginia voters in the November 4th election is clear -- a U.S. Senator like Jim Gilmore who will fight for taxpayers and oppose federal government bailouts or a U.S. Senator like Mark Warner who will sell out the taxpayers for the high rollers on Wall Street.

“I am strongly opposed to asking America’s hard working families to cover the bets of the Wall Street high rollers and insiders who exploited flaws in government regulations to make personal fortunes and devastate our economy,” said Gilmore.

Throughout the debate Gilmore repeatedly pointed out how as a U.S. Senator he will stand up for regular Virginians who are struggling and how Mark Warner will instead protect the special interests on Wall Street, rather than the taxpayers.

“Requiring taxpayers to cough up $700 billion without providing them any additional assurances for their own financial security is wrong,” Gilmore added.

Gilmore said Mark Warner supported the costly bailout of Wall Street while simultaneously taking in almost $3 million in contributions from the Wall Street high rollers who benefit from the taxpayer bailout. (Click here to see)

“Maybe Mark Warner finds it easy to take more and more of the taxpayers’ money, but I do not,” Gilmore said. “We must restore accountability in Washington – and on Wall Street – so America’s taxpayers are protected and our economy prospers.”

This third Virginia U.S. Senate debate between former Gov. Jim Gilmore and Mark Warner took place in Roanoke, Virginia. Sponsored by NBC affiliate WSLS Channel 10, the debate was held at the Taubman Museum of Art in downtown Roanoke and was moderated by WSLS news anchor and political reporter Jay Warren. The debate was broadcast live on television stations statewide

Spread the word that Jim Gilmore is the only choice for conservatives in the U.S. Senate race.

Jim Gilmore for U.S. Senate

Cross-posted at SWAC Girl

The latest from the Warnerese-to-English translator

The Democrat who would be my junior Senator spoke out on the Bush-Obama-Paulson-Pelosi bailout that went down in flames on Monday (Richmond Times-Dispatch). Of course, he spoke in his native tongue (Warnerese) so no one understood him. Time to bring out the translator!

As always, the English version is in bold and italics:

The option was no action or action. This is not one you can say we’ve got to wait another 30 days and play Russian roulette. I would have liked to have seen it improved.

The option was no action or action. As my wealthy Wall Street buddies said one thing and ordinary Virginians said another, I’m completely flummoxed as to what to do. So I’ll take some rhetoric from Column A and some from Column B, mix it all up into an unrecognizable stew, and hope to God you rubes don’t see through it.

These are real people with real homes, with jobs, whose lives are on balance as they wait for this to play out.

These are real people with real homes and with jobs, and my ability to tax them to the gills are on balance as we all wait for this to play out.

When he opens his mouth again, the translator will be there.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal