Mikey’s Version Of “People Power” Shakes Up The PA-08 Race

I’m really trying to understand what’s going on here in Bucks County, PA; this story in the Bucks County Courier Times today tells us that former PA-08 Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Fitzpatrick has called for an “open primary” without any candidate receiving a formal GOP endorsement (Fitzpatrick is definitely running for his old seat, which was suspected, though he made it official over the weekend).

Yet, as the story tells us, his entry into the Repug primary means that some individuals in the field will now drop out (Rob Mitchell is gone, Judith Algeo is gone, and Dean Malik and Jeff McGeary are thinking about giving up – no word on Merrill, Lynch, Sacco, Vanzetti, the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the rest of the candidates :-).

So, by entering the primary, Mikey ends up narrowing the field and enabling himself as the odds-on winner of an “open primary” that would end up giving him the endorsement anyway.

Typical.

And what exactly is Mikey running on this time around? Well, J.D. Mullane described Mikey’s positions on the issues as “pastel and pending” today in Mullane’s column (Mullane attended Fitzpatrick’s gathering where he made the announcement that he was entering the race – I cannot get a link at the moment to Mullane’s column, what with that miracle of technology known as phillyburbs.com experiencing one of its frequent service interruptions...never mind - here it is).

Mikey, when you don’t have Mullane on board, you’ve got a problem.

Well, since Mikey apparently hasn’t bothered to define himself (pulling a “Scott Brown,” I see), allow me to remind us of what our former rep did before he lost to Patrick Murphy in 2006:

- Here’s Mikey failing the mothers of children suffering from autism as these women advocate exploring whether or not vaccines could be responsible for this awful affliction.

- Here’s Mikey sponsoring something called the Railroad Security and Public Awareness Act, which supposedly provides more funding for mass transit security; the problem is that the bill is currently stuck in a House subcommittee.

- Here’s Mikey doing nothing (nothing good, anyway) about rising personal property taxes, health care costs, and student loan costs.

- Here’s Mikey “considering” supporting legislation to allow Medicare Part D recipients to buy drugs in bulk for less money, even though Medicare Part D isn’t listed as an issue on his “Mike On The Issues” health care page.

- Here’s Mikey’s ridiculous criticism of Patrick Murphy for attending a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. hosted by Nancy Pelosi when, to quote the Doylestown Intelligencer, Mikey “never met a PAC contribution he didn’t welcome.”

- Here’s more evidence of Mikey the "independent moderate" supporting Bushco both on the Iraq war and its failed domestic agenda also.

- Here’s Mikey voting to fund something called the Secure Fence Act (as opposed to an “insecure” fence? Does it have self esteem issues?) which provides funding for a fence along the Arizona/New Mexico border nowhere near the 8th congressional district, while Mikey and the Repugs voted down a host of homeland security measures including increasing the number of border patrol agents.

- Here’s Mikey stating his support for adult stem cell research, which holds nowhere near the potential for curing life-threatening illnesses as embryonic stem cells.

- Here’s Mikey trying to get New York City to lower its reservoir capacity to 85 percent, which would yield a likely flooding decrease for Bucks residents along the Delaware River of about one inch.

- Here’s Mikey supporting Social Security privatization and taking campaign funding from Dick Cheney, though he proclaims himself an “independent moderate.”

- Here’s Mikey voting against homeland security measures (I know I mentioned that above also) though he DID vote to fund the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.

- Here’s Mikey voting for a conference report allowing drilling in the ANWR, and also voting against investing in cleaner energy (the mailing in question here, by the way, has no mention of the fact that Fitzpatrick is a Republican, though it does contain a quote from JFK as well as the former president’s picture).

- Here’s Mikey stating that he’s abandoned Bush’s policy on Iraq (Dubya has one?) while Fitzpatrick offers no plan of his own instead.

- Here’s Mikey trying to include an estate tax cut in legislation to raise the minimum wage (the legislation was defeated).

- Here’s Mikey’s sudden conversion to exploring alternative energy sources to lower energy costs, though in ’05, he voted against bills to crack down on gasoline price gougers and creating a strategic refinery reserve.

- Here’s Mikey calling for hearings on Bucks County flooding, even though, as a member of the Delaware River Basin Commission, he should have been familiar with the issue already.

- Here’s a mention of Mikey’s “Deleting Online Predators Act,” which is still bad law, and mention also of receiving $20 from Tom DeLay and $800K from PACs overall (I believe the amount was actually $15K, though the link supporting that, as well as the claim that Fitzpatrick opposed expanding TRICARE funding, has since expired).

- Here’s Mikey shredding the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens and remaining silent while Bush tried to raise acceptable levels of mercury in our drinking water.

- Mikey wasted no time here in calling Iraq war vet Patrick Murphy “a cut-and-run liberal” right after Patrick defeated Andy Warren in the Democratic primary.

- Mikey favored weakening House ethics rules, and his excuse was that he was trying to help pass a homeland security bill.

- Here’s Mikey supporting the House immigration bill punishing religious aid workers, including Catholics.

- Here is the context in which Mikey claimed he would win in '06 “if Bush had a 50 percent or better approval rating.”

- Here’s Mikey trying to fudge on the “honesty” pledge he signed for the Bucks County Courier Times almost right after he signed it (with Mikey’s great quote, “The truth is a matter of interpretation”).

- Here’s Mikey traveling to Iraq to check on our troops, including whether or not they have adequate body armor, but not saying whether or not they actually do (and as a bonus, he also channels “Crazy Curt” Weldon’s “Able Danger” nonsense).

- And FINALLY, here’s Mikey refusing to say whether he thinks Don (“The Defense Secretary You Have”) Rumsfeld should stay or go.

Fitzpatrick had better go on record about what he intends to do for two reasons: 1) Voters in PA-08 aren’t going to settle for the bland pap that those independent numbskulls in Massachusetts settled for from Scott Brown, and 2) Patrick Murphy most definitely is not Martha Coakley.

And for proof, here is a Guest Opinion from Patrick that recently appeared in the Courier Times.

This Wednesday, President Obama will give his first State of the Union address. I'm sure he will talk about our aggressive new strategy in Afghanistan and the need to rebuild our economy. On many measures I proudly support the president. He was dealt an awful hand after eight years of George Bush's reckless foreign policies and disastrous economic policies. There is a simple fact continuously overlooked by the Party of Palin.

When President Bush took office after Bill Clinton, he inherited a $236 billion annual surplus. He turned that into a $1.3 trillion deficit. This is the stark reality that our nation faces, we must tackle it now.

That is why I am calling on President Obama to enact a freeze in discretionary spending in this year's budget. This won't be easy to enact and I know that I will face trouble from my own party - but it is imperative that we make tough choices and work together in Washington to return to balanced budgets. We did it in the 1990s under President Clinton; we can do it again.

My frustration with spending in Washington is neither newfound, nor focused on blaming George Bush and the opposition party. One of my first acts as a new congressman in 2007 was to join the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs and vote against the Democratic Party budget because it did not hold the line on spending. I have also voted against the congressional pay raise every time it has come up for a vote. When the pay raise passed anyway - with support from both political parties - I gave the raise to charity.

In 2009 alone, I voted to cut more than $15 billion in wasteful spending and wasteful programs. A month ago, I was one of only a handful of Democrats to oppose a spending bill that used returned bailout money for new spending instead of deficit reduction.

But I haven't just been standing on the sidelines saying no. Anyone can claim to want to cut spending, but specifics separate the leaders from the pretenders. I have teamed up with Democrats and Republicans to propose specific cuts to programs and specific reforms that drive waste and fraud out of federal programs from Medicare to the Pentagon.

Recently, I partnered with the former head of the Republican Party, Sen. Mel Martinez, to introduce the IMPROVE Act. This legislation, which passed the House and needs a Senate vote to become law, could cut hundreds of millions of dollars of Medicare fraud.

Earlier this week, I led an effort to freeze discretionary spending in the coming year. This won't be easy or politically popular. My own party will claim that this will hamstring government programs, the opposition party will breezily claim that more can be cut - despite eight years of total silence while they were in power.

However, I have assembled a small group of members of Congress to support this initiative. We plan to use our voting block to try and force our own party to cut spending. I'm hopeful this can be accomplished in the State of the Union address. If not, we will fight for it in the coming months.

When I was first elected, voters got to know me as the Iraq war veteran staunchly opposed to continuing the $3 trillion war in Iraq and opposed to President Bush's policies. It's no secret that I was an early and strong supporter of President Obama. I continue to support his efforts to revive our economy and refocus on al Qaida in Afghanistan instead of Iraq. But I'm not afraid to call on this president and my own party to cut spending.

Since the late 1990s, both parties have continued to spend way too much. This path is unsustainable. That's why I will continue working with Democrats and Republicans to fight for balanced budgets.

I think Patrick is a little preoccupied with the deficit over the more urgent issue of job creation here, but otherwise, this is exactly the tack a Democrat has to take in the fall elections. Sell yourself on the issues and attack the opposition. If you don’t, they sure as hell will.

Update: I made some minor modifications to fix broken links in this post as well as correct some formatting issues, since most of this content originated four years ago.