Justin's Thursday Political News 06.21.07

Posted by Justin Baragona on 06.21.2007

South Carolina's Treasurer gets busted with blow, Bloomberg says adios to the GOP, Tony Snow is funny and Bush vetoes a stem cell bill (again)

Welcome to another edition of Justin's Thursday Political News. Not much going on here in St. Louis, unless you want to hear about my adventures in trying to patch my kitchen wall or chop down the overgrown trees and ivy in my backyard. Of course, I wouldn't think you would come here to here such fascinating tales since this is a free website and all. Instead, you came here to read some of the exciting news going on in politics. I do not want to disappoint, so I will get right to it.


South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford made this statement in regards to State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel's indictment on federal cocaine charges this past Tuesday:


"These are obviously very serious allegations that we're constitutionally bound to act upon, and they'll ultimately be decided by the courts."


From the indictment, it appears the Ravenel obtained about 500 grams of blow to distribute to his friends. The charges stem from a drug buy that the treasurer made in 2005, prior to him being elected to office this past November. He was under investigation prior to him being elected but the there was not enough information to pursue the case until a couple of months ago. Ravenel has been suspended from his duties by the Governor and he will name an interim treasurer in the very near future. If Ravenel is convicted of distribution of cocaine, he can serve as much as 20 years in prison. I would say that it is more likely that he will cut a deal to serve a short amount of time behind bars along with probation. The man accused of selling the coke to Ravenel is in custody, so depending on how big of a drug dealer he is it would seem that the feds would offer Ravenel a plea deal for testimony.

Of course, it is always funny seeing somebody from the 'family values' party get busted for doing something 'immoral'. Ravenel is the son of a former U.S. Congressman with powerful connections in South Carolina. He also made a bunch of money prior to getting into politics in commercial real estate development. So, let's see….we have a son or a rich and powerful person who then went on to make more money through real estate, most likely with help from his daddy. Somehow, it seems like we have an excellent case of another spoiled rich kid who partied all the time and when he turned 40 decided it was about time to go into politics like daddy. Hmmm, this guy sounds kind of familiar? Hell, we even have the cocaine connection here.


New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had this to say after he announced that he was leaving the GOP and becoming an independent:


"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city."


Supposedly, this is the first step for Bloomberg towards making a run at President as an independent, third-party candidate. He has been a bit ambiguous about it, even after he announced he was no longer a Republican. He has stated that the only reason he is leaving the party is so he can speak more openly on issues that are in conflict with the party line and the President. He has always been known as a moderate, and some of the conflicts he has with the GOP are his views on gay marriage, abortion, gun control and stem cell research. He even raised property taxes in New York City to help offset the budget deficit the city faced after the 9/11 attacks.

However, as coy as he is being about running, this announcement pretty much solidified that he will be running as a Ross Perot-type candidate in 2008, all the way down to being able to finance his own campaign (Bloomberg has a net worth of over $5 billion.) He would definitely be seen as a more viable candidate than Ralph Nader was in 2000, where Nader ended up playing spoiler to Al Gore by receiving almost all of his votes from potential Gore voters. Bloomberg, on the other hand, will be able to take votes from both Republican and Democrats and could potentially get as many votes as Perot did in 1992, when he was able to get 19% of the popular vote. Republican strategists feel that Bloomberg running will hurt the Democrats more then the GOP due to Bloomberg's moderate stance. However, it should also be pointed out that man Republicans are somewhat tired of their party and are looking for another option that is not Democrat. We'll see how this unfolds in the coming months.


Tony Snow made this comment when discussing an investigation into missing email records for many White House aides:


"This is an administration that is very careful about obeying the law. We take it seriously. The White House legal counsel's office takes it seriously."


Now that's funny. Tony Snow is a true comedy genius. I can't add anything more to this so I think we should just move on.


This was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reaction to the likeliness that President Bush would veto an embryonic stem cell funding bill that was passed in Congress:


"By vetoing a bill that expands stem cell research, the president will say 'no' to the more than 70 percent of Americans who support it, 'no' to our Democratic Congress' fight for progress, and 'no' to saving lives and to potential cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's. He will say 'no' to hope."


Well, it isn't like this is surprising, right? The Bush Administration has always been about appealing to the religious right, and this has been a cornerstone of that effort. The President did indeed veto the latest attempt by Congress to pass an embryonic stem cell funding bill that would allow for research to be done on new stem cell lines and not just the ones that existed prior to August 9th, 2001. The White House made sure to take the offensive right away on what is likely to be another extremely unpopular decision by the President that will surely make him even more disliked by Americans, as 70 percent of Americans approve of embryonic stem cell research. First, White House spokesman Tony Snow wanted to point out that if this bill were passed that it would mark the first time ever that taxpayers would be asked to pay for the "deliberate destruction of human embryos." Of course, the White House would not want anyone to use common sense and realize that there are thousands of unused embryos sitting in fertility clinics across the country that would eventually be destroyed anyway. Why can't these be used for research? Is this administration under the impression that every single embryo sitting in a fertility clinic will eventually become a child? I'm pretty sure they don't think this (though I could be wrong) and that again they are just sticking to their stubborn ideals to appease the remaining 20+% of the people in America who still support the President, because of course these people feel that human life begins when you just think about maybe having sex.

Another point the White House tried to bring up in vetoing this bill is that they are not against the use of other stem cells and using them for research. In fact, the President, in his infinite wisdom, has directed the Health and Human Services Department to promote research using these other cells that also hold the potential of embryonic stem cells in regards to regenerating into other cells (just as long as they don't use those damn embryonic cells, because it is always good to limit the options of scientists.) The White House is trying to make the statement that they are not trying to "muzzle science" but instead just trying to respect people's beliefs and the sanctity of life, but hindering science is exactly what they are doing by vetoing any attempts to provide federal funding for this research. Also, they are stating to the world that this country is completely happy and content to fall behind the rest of the world when it comes to science and research.


Well, that's going to do it for me this week. Before I sign off, I would like to direct you to Matthew's Wednesday Enlightenment. He used to do the Weekly Monitor, which was always awesome to read, and you will not be disappointed with his latest column. I'll be back next week with more news in the realm of politics.