Northup’s Gun Reality

Despite her delusional supporters…

Northup Gets A on Guns from Group That Counts: the NRA (Cyber Hillbilly)

In 2006 the NRA reviewed Anne Northup’s career the way they do every other candidate for Congress at the end of every term and gave the Congresswoman an “A” for her record in Washington fighting to protect the 2nd amendment. That should be the end of the story. The NRA is the nation’s preeminent gun ownership lobby in America and is nearly universally trusted by hunters and gun aficionado’s alike.

Sadly, it’s not. As Elendil's Journal points out, Northup does draw fire on guns. But look who’s doing the firing: the Gun Owners of America. This is a group that accuses the NRA of selling out gun rights. They’re even opposed to finding ways to keep firearms away from “mentally unstable killers like [VA Tech Shooter] Cho Seung-Hui.”

Northup’s gun record is reality….

Gun Control Ratings for Northup in Congress (Elendil’s Journal)

Many people have questioned, including myself, Northup's support of gun owner's right . So I wanted to go and look at her record in the legislature to see if the criticism was justified. I went to GOA (Gun Owners of America) to find out Northup's rankings while she was in Congress and found the following rating system.

Grade Definition

A+ Pro-Gun Leader: introduces pro-gun legislation.

A & A- Pro-Gun Voter: philosophically sound.

B & B- Pro-Gun Compromiser: generally leans our way.

C & C- Leans Our Way: occasionally.

D & D- Leans Anti-Gun: usually against us.

F Anti-Gun Voter: a philosophically committed anti-gunner.

F- Anti-Gun Leader: outspoken anti-gun advocate who carries anti-gun legislation.

In this scale anything less than an A- in my mind is problematic. That means they would be willing to compromise on our the second amendment right to bear arms. I would have a hard time voting for someone that didn't at least have a B average.

So how did Northup fair while she was in Congress?

Term Served Grade

106th Congress D-

107th Congress C-

108th Congress C-

109th Congress A-

Ouch! Only in her last term did she show any affinity for the second amendment. What I find more disturbing was her vote on the concealed carry law in the Kentucky General Assembly back in 1996. Concealed carry is a cornerstone right for those who believe in the second amendment. It allows law abiding citizens that chance to defend themselves against evil. She was one of 20 legislators to vote against the measure that passed 74-20. Heck she even introduced a measure that would require people to give a reason for seeking the permit. This disregard for the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens is very disturbing.

Kentucky Pachyderm 2 Lambastes Negative Northup

We can’t remember which Kentucky governor started the tradition of handing out oversized checks to announce the funding of local projects. It was either Wallace Wilkinson or Brereton Jones; we’re not sure. (One of us said Martha Layne Collins, but the rest of us think the practice started after she left office). But one thing’s for certain, governors have been doing this for at least 15 years and the tradition dates back to before gubernatorial succession was allowed.

Years ago we heard one Central Kentucky mayor say he hoped to paper the walls of his City Hall with those ceremonial checks. Of course since he was a Republican mayor in a Republican community, his dream didn’t come true. But the moral of the story is that local officials in small towns appreciate state funding for their projects.

It’s not news when the governor appears in Lexington or Louisville, or even larger towns or urban areas like Northern Kentucky, Owensboro, Bowling Green, Ashland or Paducah. The press pays little to no attention to him being there or why he’s there. On the other hand, when the governor visits places such as Inez or Burkesville or Calhoun or Cadiz, that’s of note to the local populace as well as the local press.

Even when a Democrat governor comes to a Republican town, he is treated like visiting royalty. Leaders from both parties turn out for the event. The local newspapers often cover a gubernatorial visit like it’s the biggest story of the year, and in many cases, it is. The people in Booneville and Owenton and Greenville want to think the governor is interested in their needs and concerns, and not paying attention only to Fayette and Jefferson counties.

The rural counties in Kentucky have their own special needs from the government. They don’t have a sufficient property tax base or payroll tax base to fund services like Lexington and Louisville do. They need state government’s help in funding projects like street and road repairs, water line extensions, and other things that the larger communities can pay for themselves.

When a governor comes to town to break ground or cut a ribbon or present a check, the local people appreciate it. They are happy to see that Frankfort is looking out for them. That’s one reason we don’t think Anne Northup’s recent flurry of negativity is going to be of benefit to her. It’s almost as if she is ridiculing these communities and their needs. When she criticizes Gov. Fletcher for going to places like Lancaster or Elkton or Owenton, in effect she is saying, “You people don’t deserve the projects you are getting from the state and the governor is wasting his time by visiting your community.”

People realize that, too. We’ve seen Gov. Fletcher go to counties that are heavily Democratic in registration and receive an enthusiastic welcome. We’ve also seen Democrat governors such as Jones and Wilkinson and Collins go into staunchly Republican counties and receive the same recognition, even though they could not succeed themselves. No one begrudged those communities their projects back then, nor the visits from the governors.
When Northup attacks Fletcher for traveling across the state and announcing projects, she not only aims her poison barbs at the incumbent governor, but to every community that gets these much-needed state projects. Would she prefer that the money go to her hometown of Louisville instead? Anne Northup’s negative campaign insults the intelligence of every Kentuckian who does not live in a major metropolitan area.

The World’s Worst Retort

People challenge Anne Northup. Her blogger’s responses? They assail the messenger. The aforesaid is political smear tactics. The aforesaid is also pathetic. Attacking the statements and not their substance screams desperation. Obviously, Northup’s supporters are.

From Blue Grass, Red State:

Now that the actual Fletcher campaign is publicly resorting to lies and negativity instead of allowing henchmen to do the dirty work for them behind closed doors and in roundabout ways, we have a great chance to see firsthand again the incompetence that has plagued Ernie Fletcher during his entire term as Governor.

Did the Fletcher campaign think the Barr recording would only be heard by people listening to their answering machines? Did they think they could keep it all hush hush? Or, are they just so dumb that they didn't think to research the biography of the man they were using to attack Anne Northup?

Bob Barr is an anti-Christian anti-terror fighting pothead, and now he's speaking for Ernie Fletcher! As I said just last week, when Anne Northup represented KY-3 in Congress, one of the extraordinary things she did was wield her power to fight social ills using conservative methods in attempts to reach conservative goals. For this, she drew the hatred of liberal Democrats, the ACLU, and other assorted kooks. Now, Ernie Fletcher is using a friend of the ACLU who lobbies for the Marijuana Policy Project and withdrew from the Republican Party to speak on his behalf in phone messages attacking Anne Northup's stellar record.

From Cyber Hillbilly:

What is it about Anne Northup that makes kooks oppose her so fiercely? Over the past few months perhaps nothing has been more amusing than to watch a steady procession of nut jobs come out in opposition to the former Congresswoman in her bid for Governor. First there were the libertarians: as KY Progress reported, the Take Back Kentucky group endorsed Gatewood, and singled out Anne Northup for criticism. I guess we know what those guys were smoking.

Then Frankfort restaurateur Rick Paul got into the game on Friday, when he suggested in a blast email that the Congresswoman is set to and should drop out of the Governor's race in spite of confirmation by the weekend that she’s actually ahead in at least one poll. Paul is listed by the Kentucky Hemp Food Association as a 1999 supporter of the Hemp Food Banquet which “conducted a test for taste and the drug, THC.” He's also on record as a strong Gatewood supporter.

Now comes word that the Governor has allied with former Congressman Bob Barr to bring the message to the state that the former Congresswoman who fought so hard to get millions for her local churches, the devout Catholic who’s fought abortion tooth and nail her entire career, the same lady who believes deeply enough in the sanctity of life and God’s commandments that she not only had four children of her own, but actually adopted two more… that this lady wanted to take God out of our children’s schools. Yes, you heard me right.

His Words Worthless

Simply stated, I loathe On the Right’s fanatical Anne Northup support. However, his reprinting this was brilliant. Read the Governor’s statements, replay his four years, and abstain from voting for him.

Excerpts From Ernie Fletcher's Inaugural Speech:

....State government has too often been used to look out for the insiders and not the citizens. This has insulated poverty from progress, and need from remedy.

What could have been a broader, common, wealth has become a guarded treasure, traded among the well positioned.

Though we are so proud of being Kentuckians, we are, in our state, somewhat divided from one another. West, East and Central feel enjoined neither to each other, nor to the whole. Rural and urban nurse jealousy, and not entirely without reason, and it has been this way for so long that it has been accepted without even realizing the cost of these hurtful divisions.

I am surrounding myself with women and men of integrity, character and self-discipline to work on behalf of the people of Kentucky. That is how to create an ethical government.

We can pass page after page of ethics laws, but in the end, they will only be honored by ethical people.

Our Heartless Governor

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

For the second time this year, the state has issued a "Type A" citation to Baptist Convalescent Center in Newport. It came after a resident who had become dehydrated at the nursing home died of renal failure on April 8, two days after being hospitalized. The citation is the most serious type the state issues. It was issued April 26 and accuses the center of placing the resident's life in immediate jeopardy when it failed to monitor fluid intake and failed in March to assure lab tests were conducted. Baptist CEO Robert Long said he plans to appeal the citation, but acknowledged that there were failures in the home's system of care.

According to the citation, the center's medical director admitted the facility "dropped the ball" in letting the resident become dehydrated. The first "Type A" citation this year against the center was issued on March 16, after a resident went four days without food or water because no one noticed that his feeding tube bottle needed changing.

This is a third story concerning elderly mistreatment. During the previous weeks, child mistreatment stories have disgraced the newspapers. Yet, our Governor has remained silent. This center received a second serious citation. However, no special investigations or intervention. No condemnation. Governor, why do you not care?

Fletcher Commences Campaign (Commences?)

From Pol Watchers:

With 11 days left until voters cast their ballots, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced his campaign's first public event today. Fletcher will start a 6-day "Kentucky Wins" bus tour on Monday, according to a news release. He'll visit 31 counties in six days.

“When I became governor, we promised change. In just four years we charted a successful course that created new jobs, saved our families money and moved Kentucky in the right direction,” Fletcher said in the release. “I look forward to continuing to tell our story of results and opportunity for every citizen of the Commonwealth on the ‘Kentucky Wins!’ bus tour.”

He'll kick off the tour in Owensboro and will travel through Hartford, Leitchfield, Morgantown and Bowling Green on Monday. Fletcher has been criticized heavily by opponent Anne Northup for using state aircraft to travel the state handing out ceremonial checks and to attend private campaign events, such as fund-raisers.

Fletcher's campaign has also paid for automated telephone calls to drum up attendance at the governor's check presentations and other official events. Fletcher has attended several campaign events organized by others, such as Lincoln Day dinners and debates. After being questioned by the Herald-Leader, Fletcher agreed to repay the state more than $19,000 for his travel.

Possibly, I am naive. However, the campaign has two weeks remaining. Should not the Governor have commenced his campaign in January? (For the Governor’s information, prancing around Kentucky, disbursing random checks, is not campaigning)

Blue Grass, Red State Delusional For Northup

Emergency Meetings

Apparently there are some people at FletchCo who are wanting to jump ship. People are talking. It looks like they have a couple leakers who want to help the candidate who deserves the nomination.

Desperate Hypocritical Fletcher Edge

I was 100% dumbfounded yesterday when I discovered the Conservative Edge's crazy and desperate attempt to use liberal Courier-Journal and Jack Conway talking points from five years ago to try to smear Anne Northup's stellar ethical record.

Anne Northup & Jeff Hoover: Common Sense Conservatives

How pathetic. If you want a Governor who will later disclose that he took contributions to his legal defense fund in exchange for work contracts and government favoritism, vote for Ernie Fletcher. Otherwise, vote for Northup/Hoover or write in your own name. Ernie Fletcher is simply not an acceptable candidate for Republicans.

Unconservative Fletcher Edge Insinuates Wrongdoing in East Kentucky

Anne Northup and Hal Rogers Do The Right Thing, Fletcher Continues To Be An Unethical Embarrassing Disappointment. In their haste to head off Northup/Hoover's surge in the internal polls, Team Fletch raised a failed five year old campaign ploy initiated and carried out by the liberal C-J, Jack Conway, and the ACLU. What Team Fletch failed to realize is that Northup utilized the same upstanding conservative approach to charity work that Hal Rogers has successfully and rightfully used in East Kentucky.

Kentucky Pachyderm 2: Northup Is Lying

Anne Northup supporters are now claiming that their internal polling, as well as internal polling of other candidates, now shows her with a 4 to 5 point lead on Ernie Fletcher. The rumor was first reported on Kentucky Progress, and later picked up by other blogs.

However, no sourcing for the rumor was given and there are no polling documents available to confirm that, which is in contrast to the recent Fletcher polling showing them with a 22-point lead on Northup. The polling memo was made available to the public and it would be nearly impossible for her to have made up that big of a deficit in such a short time.

Contrary to what Northup's supporters are hoping and wishing for, the view from here is that Fletcher is gaining strength. Northup's negative and misleading ads are backfiring, and the relentless press attacks aren't helping her any either. In short, we don't believe those rumors of her dramatic surge in the polls, and that belief was confirmed for us today by a highly-placed source who has knowledge of such things. That information would seem to correspond with information provided to The Conservative Edge by Fletcher campaign manager Marty Ryall, who said they had not seen any recent polling that showed Fletcher as having less than a double-digit lead.

One of us had a conversation with someone in a position to know, who reported that current Fletcher polling shows the incumbent with a whopping 52 percent of the vote among likely Republican voters. That number is subject to vary slightly considering factors such as turnout, but at this point the Fletcher camp is quietly confident that they will win with more than 40 percent of the vote on May 22.

This source also stated that a year ago, even Fletcher was sanguine about his re-election chances. The attitude in the Capitol was, "We've got to go out there and put smiles on our faces and do our jobs and work hard and hope things get better." Now they feel very good not only about the May primary, but the November general election against whomever the Democrats nominate.

We don't have any access to the polling documents that indicate this, but we have no reason to disbelieve what one of us learned today. Perhaps the Northup supporters hope that if they can spread misinformation about her surging to the lead, they can actually shift some momentum. If they believe what they're sayiing, more power to them. We don't know what Fletcher's vote total will be. It would be great if he tops 50 percent, but we'll be thrilled if he gets 41 percent of the vote and wins the nomination outright.

Cyber Hillbilly Questions Fletcher’s Temerity

Boxing fans will be familiar with the term “Glass Jaw.” It refers to a fighter who often appears to have all it takes to win in every category save one: the ability to weather a really hard punch. Some of the most intriguing fighters in boxing have had glass jaws. Take Tommy “the Hitman” Hearns. He could move, he could jab, he could punch—oh my god, how the man could punch—but his Achilles Heel was always his chin. No matter how underrated his opponent might be, if they packed a wallop, ol’ Tommy was suspect to go crashing to the mat at the first sign of danger.

Then there was Tommy Morrison. He never quite made the big time, at least in terms of his fighting ability, but he showed promise. While not in Hearns league, Morrisson had a lot going for him. First, he represented the latest incarnation of the famed "Great White Hope"; that is, a Caucasian boxer who could win the title in the heavyweight division. Morrison had a fearsome left hook, was one of the strongest punchers in boxing in years, and was handsome and articulate. Further, he was a celebrity, having co-starred in Sly Stone’s fifth Rocky movie. Tommy’s star was in the ascendancy until he met a Marine named Mercer. Mercer stood his grounds and took Tommy's blows for several rounds before finally catching up with the Great White Hope. In a matter of seconds, after a few hard knocks, Morrison was out cold.

Politics can be similar to boxing. No matter how strong candidates might appear, there’ve been countless times those same candidates turned out to be a paper tiger. Might this be the case with Ernie Fletcher? For months, Anne Northup’s stalked the Governor trying to get in a good hard punch. She fended off crowds of hostile state workers at Lincoln Day Dinners and accusations that she was somehow disloyal to the party for running against the Governor. All the while, she continually insisted that the Governor couldn’t weather the storm of unpopularity in the general election. And for those same months we were treated to heartfelt assurances from Team Fletcher that he was in fact up to the task.

But last week an interesting thing happened; Anne caught up with the Governor. While the Governor was probably hoping that Anne had been the one portrayed in his latest cheesy ad, alas, it wasn’t to be. And now, after being on the defensive for a little over a week, the Governor’s own polls show him trailing or tied with Northup.

Granted, Anne Northup packs a wallop. Just ask Mike Ward, Jack Conway, Tony Miller, Eleanor Jordan, and various others who stood between her and electoral success. But come November, whoever emerges from the Democratic primary will be wearing brass knuckles. He’ll be buoyed by the passion and drive of a party uncomfortable with its loss of power four years ago and eager to do whatever it takes to get that power back. Further, he'll have the luxury of knowing that only once in the 30 years since Louie B. Nunn's election has a Republican won the Governor's mansion and that the majority of the voters are already registered his way even without a cloud of unpopularity hanging over the incumbent's head.

If at that time the opponent happens to be Ernie Fletcher, Republicans can expect an even fiercer assault. It’s hard to imagine that the Governor’s political jaw can sustain the abuse he’s likely to get. Take note Republicans… take note.

OSI Interprets

This is the last in the series of questions for the Governor candidates put forth by the Herald-Leader. This time, the issue is campaigning with state resources and how the candidates will stop it. (We thank the Herald-Leader and its staff, Ryan Alessi and John Stamper, for the very informative series). Here are the candidates responses -- in their own words:

Billy Harper: "Public officials need to draw a clear line in the sand when it comes to use of state resources. As governor, I will establish clearly defined guidelines for all non-merit personnel to follow from day one. It should never be simply a question of what’s legal. The state’s chief executive should always make decisions based on what is right." Billy will establish guidelines for his staff, to do what is right and not merely what is legal.

Ernie Fletcher: No response. (Update: This post has been updated with a response): "I have gone above and beyond what the law requires. I have reimbursed the state when political events coincide with official trips even though it is not required by law. ... I expect the legislature to examine this issue and will happily comply with whatever requirements they deem appropriate." Ernie says he has refunded the state for personal campaign expenses (though he initially refused to do so, after the Herald Leader took him to task on it) and expects the Legislature to examine the issue (and says also he will comply with any new laws).

Anne Northup: "It is astonishing that Ernie Fletcher, who ran on a promise to clean up Frankfort, has used your tax dollars to finance his campaign. Until he got caught, he had no problem using your money to further his own political career. The law must be clarified and strengthened to ensure that future governors cannot blur the bright line between official and campaign expenses." Anne wants to have the Legislature to strengthen the law so that tax dollars are not used to further [a future Governor's] political career."

So there they are, in their own words -- deciphered (This time I give the candidates credit for speaking more CLEARLY!)