Every vote counts, and you have to watch those who count the votes like a hawk. Those are the two take-away lessons for tea party patriots who are newly involved in the political process and coming up against the party machines for the first time.

First let’s consider the tight race in Virginia’s House District 11 because of the notable irregularities. The local tea party endorsed Republican candidate Keith Fimian, who was trying to unseat big spender (of our money) Democratic incumbent Gerry Connolly. After the initial vote count was announced, Connolly claimed victory with a slim margin of 968 votes. However, we’ve just gotten these details from the non-partisan Northern Virginia Tea Party, whose co-chairmen are one Republican and one Democrat:

Current count:

Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly (D)
111,695 or 49.22%

Keith S. Fimian (R)
110,727 or 48.79%

There are several developments in the Fimian – Connolly race that may call into question the accuracy of the current vote totals. Here are the issues that are being looked at:

In Fairfax County, the voting machines failed to register votes from over 800 ballots, including 106 in the Sideburn precinct alone. (Keith Fimian won that precinct 58% – 40%.) In Prince William County, the machines failed to register votes on more than 200 additional ballots.

In several precincts, there were actually more votes than voters. That is, voting machines reported a higher number of votes than the number of voters marked on the pollbooks as having voted in the election.

As of Election Day, there were over 1,150 absentee ballots that had been mailed out to military and other overseas voters but had yet to be received back in the 11th Congressional District.

We also understand that officials in Prince William County rejected over 280 absentee ballots, with another 200-300 absentee ballots being rejected in Fairfax County.

…these are some of the questions that are being considered at this time.

In Arizona’s House District 8, incumbent Democrat Gabrielle Giffords has claimed victory over Republican challenger and Iraq veteran Jesse Kelly, with a lead of 3,641 votes in precinct totals. But there are an unknown number of absentee ballots and possibly a large number of provisional ballots which have not yet been reported by the media.

In California’s House District 11, Republican challenger David Harmer had the support of the Pleasanton/NorCal TEA Party against incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney. Votes are still being counted, and the counting process could continue until Thanksgiving, after which there may be a recount.

In California’s House District 20, incumbent Democrat Jim Costa is trailing slightly behind newcomer and Republican candidate Andy Vidak, a member of the Bakersfield Tea Party Patriots. Votes are still coming in.

In Illinois’ House District 8, Republican challenger Joe Walsh holds a lead of 553 votes in precinct totals over incumbent Democratic Melissa Bean. Bean is hoping to erase the Republican’s lead with absentee ballot counting from the infamous Cook County.

In Kentucky House District 6, incumbent Democrat Ben Chandler holds a 600 vote lead in precinct totals over Republican challenger Andy Barr, who has asked for a recanvass.

Another undecided race is playing out in New York’s House District 1. Republican challenger Randy Altschuler, a self-funded local businessman, ran against Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop. On election night, Tim Bishop claimed victory:

(Nov. 3, 2010) United States Representative Tim Bishop appeared last night at the Islandia Marriot to claim victory in his race against Randy Altschuler, a millionaire businessman. However, with absentee ballots left to be counted, Mr. Altschuler declined to concede.

According to the Suffolk Board of Elections, only 3,461 votes separated the two candidates in the hard-fought and expensive race. Mr. Bishop had 50.96 percent of the vote to Mr. Altschuler’s 49.04 percent, with a total of 181,043 votes cast….

But after more serious ballot scrutiny, that 3,461 vote lead evaporated, and became a slim margin of 392 in favor of Altschuler. Absentee ballots remain to be counted.

In New York’s House District 25, Republican challenger and tea party favorite Ann Marie Buerkle is holding a slim lead in precinct totals over Democratic incumbent Daniel Maffei, with a margin of 659 votes. An estimated 9,500 absentee ballots remain uncounted.

In North Carolina’s House District 2, Republican challenger Renee Ellmers received 1,646 votes more than seven-term incumbent Democrat Bob Etheridge. Etheridge is expected to request a recount.

In Texas House District 27, Republican challenger Blake Farenthold holds a lead of just 792 votes over 28-year incumbent Democrat Solomon Ortiz:

Ortiz has not conceded, however. On Friday, based on what he termed “numerous irregularities,” he said he would request a manual recount of the 101,116 votes cast in the race. He has said that the irregularities include the “misplaced” ballots in Nueces County, a power outage at an early voting site, and a polling site that opened almost an hour late on Election Day, “depriving many from casting their vote.”

In Washington House District 2, incumbent Democrat Rick Larsen appears to be holding on to his lead over tea party favorite and Republican challenger John Koster, with a 3,841 vote margin as of Saturday night.

Related:

The Right Point of View — Congressional Race Still Up in the Air- Randy Altschuler Ahead

Tea parties enable the recently awakening patriots to come together and share ideas, but they are not enough. Our country is in the clutches of power-hungry, greedy, self-serving political hacks who use party politics to retain their control.

Jim Condit, Jr., producer of the video The Strangest Political Secret says:

Whether or not we implement the neighborhood precinct strategy in 2009 through 2010 to 2012 may mean the difference in life or death to the constitutional form of government with its true freedoms that we’ve had in the United States for two hundred and thirty-something years. This is the only peaceful and constitutional solution. The system is already set up, and the precinct strategy is also the way to organize — by county, by state, and by precinct — in case things go unexpectedly for the worse in the United States of America in the next few years.

The strangest political secret is the neighborhood precinct strategy.

There are fifty states (sorry, Obama, there ARE fifty) divided into 3141 counties. The Democratic and Republican political parties, between the two, control ALL of them. Each one of the counties is divided into neighborhood precincts for voting purposes. All the voters living in a precinct vote at one place.

In even numbered calendar years, party primary elections include voting for party precinct leaders. About one month later, party members meet to elect party leaders. These people are almost always party loyalists who select candidates that will continue the regime of political insiders.

If we are to take our country back, Condit suggests, we must find a few hundred thousand patriots from among the ranks of Second Amendment defenders, Ron Paul supporters, Tea Party patriots, and others who believe in constitutional government to fill the precinct leader positions.

This video is 13:24 minutes long. We urge our readers to take the time to watch.

The Strangest Political Secret

Tail wag: Jim Simpson of Truth & Consequences

…by Evan Bayh’s statement about his reasons for not running for reelection to the Senate:

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh, a popular Democrat seen as having a good shot at a third term, said Monday he won’t run again because of the kind of bitter politicking that has put President Barack Obama’s whole agenda in jeopardy….

“I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress,” Bayh said at a news conference in Indianapolis, making little effort to hide his frustration at the slow pace in the Senate….

His statement was believable to me, because the most recent polls showed his declared Republican challenger, former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, running way behind:

Bayh is ahead by 20 percentage points in the poll, leading Coats by 55 percent to 35 percent, with 10 percent of respondents undecided. The second-term Democrat holds a 40-point advantage among independent voters, who back him 64 percent to 24 percent. Bayh currently draws a substantial number of Republicans away from Coats, taking 26 percent of GOP votes to Coats’s 68 percent.

Only a narrow plurality of voters — 38 percent — say they have a favorable view of Coats, with 34 percent viewing him unfavorably. Bayh, meanwhile, has an approval rating of 61 percent, with just 33 percent holding a negative opinion of him and 6 percent undecided….

Then I read this article by Larry Elder:

Here’s the Real Reason for Bayh’s Good-Bye

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., “shocked” President Barack Obama and his party by announcing his plan to retire from the Senate. Appearing on CBS’ “The Early Show,” Bayh explained: Washington suffers from acute partisanship. Washington doesn’t work. It is broken.

How noble — a principled position against “divisiveness.” Let us honor a good man standing tall against the lack of “bipartisanship.” Pass the barf bag….

Could it be that the “fed-up” senator feared losing re-election? Don’t ask. CBS didn’t. The possibility that Bayh faced a tough re-election wasn’t even hinted at….

In a hypothetical race against undeclared candidate Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. — according to a recent Rasmussen poll of likely voters — Bayh was down 3 points. Against another possible opponent, former House Republican John Hostettler, he was only ahead by 3 points. Welcome to the new normal. No Democrat or squishy Republican is safe….

Democrat Martha Coakley, just two months before the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, was ahead by 20 points. She lost. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in deep trouble in Nevada. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is retiring, as is Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I. In California, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer leads her possible Republican opponent by only 4 or 5 points. In New York, former Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Democratic replacement faces stiff opposition. Obama’s Illinois seat is up for grabs.

Florida’s Republican governor/Senate candidate, Charlie Crist, who hugged Obama and supported the bailouts and the “stimulus,” is down in the polls against a more conservative Republican. Even Sen. John McCain, 2008′s GOP presidential candidate, faces vigorous opposition in his primary against a self-described “consistent” conservative.

In Bayh’s case, how embarrassing would it be to outspend your opponent … and lose? Makes it tough for donors to kick in for a presidential run. Why take the chance?

If he bows out now, with the traditional media helpfully painting him as a lock for re-election, Bayh can go around the country unshackled….

When I listened to Bayh’s press conference I was favorably impressed … and almost fooled. But when polling him against an undeclared candidate, we discern that he is just another democrat leaving a sinking ship, hard on the heels of Dodd and Dorgan. The scandal-ridden Dodd was in trouble even within his own party, and December polls showed undeclared Republican Hoeven beating Dorgan 58%-36%.

The election in NY-23rd is about third party power, and professional politicians are trying to suppress that fact. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want the public to realize this, for obvious reasons. The media are complicit with establishment insiders, so they are not saying anything. And the bloggers, bless them, who would ordinarily be the purveyors of truth, don’t have the length and depth of political experience to understand what is going on. It requires an understanding of the legal mechanics of candidate selection and a long memory…

Let us be perfectly clear about the situation in New York’s 23rd Congressional District special election. Three distinct political parties with legal status in New York put up viable candidates:

• The Republican Party nominated New York State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava in a smoke-filled room deal.
• The Democratic Party nominated community activist and 30-year practicing lawyer Bill Owens.
• The Conservative Party nominated community leader, business entrepreneur, and Certified Public Accountant Doug Hoffman.

The fresh-faced Hoffman, reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, has the most appeal with voters in the district weary of government excess (almost an art form in the state of New York), and has pulled ahead in the polls. The Conservative Party selected the most likable candidate and has the best message, and so they are ahead. It is as simple as that. It is a reprise of the election of US Senator James Buckley on the Conservative line in 1970, when he proved more popular than both the Republican and Democratic candidates.

There is nothing sacred about the Republican and Democratic parties. Political party organizations are not provided for in the Constitution of the United States. They are merely incorporated entities that provide for pooling money and manpower to support candidates for public office. They have acquired the veneer of “official” status by being around for a long time, but they are no more “official” than any newly minted party, which can be formed under state election law by meeting certain requirements.

For example, to put a name on the ballot in New York State requires the signatures of five percent of the registered voters in the juridiction.  As of April 1, 2009, there were 15,339 registered voters in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  So volunteers had to collect valid signatures from at least 767 registered voters on “designating petitions” for Doug Hoffman to run for Congress.

Do you understand how feasible that is? Twenty people collecting 10 signatures per night for one week can collect 1400 signatures. That is easily done by going door to door in your neighborhood. Or you can just stand outside the local grocery store and collect signatures from shoppers as they enter. The totals rack up quickly. It is no more difficult than, say, selling Girl Scout cookies. And your kids can do that.

One advantage that the two so-called “major” political parties have is that they retain a cadre of volunteers trained in the collection of signatures, which have to meet certain book-keeping requirements. For instance, the person has to sign the petition in exactly the same way that his or her name appears on the voter registration. So you need to have that information before you start your rounds, but that information is a matter of public record, and the state cannot deny you access to it. The other advantage of the “major” parties is that they have established fund-raising channels. And as we see in NY-23rd, that isn’t doing them a lot of good in the face of an outraged populace.

On Thursday, February 19 of this year, CNBC reporter Rick Santelli called for a “Chicago Tea Party” while reporting from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. Within two short months, powered only by bloggers, a national “tea party” movement had organized across the country to hold rallies on tax day, April 15. Along about the 4th of July, another round of tea parties erupted across America, and sentiment grew for a march on Washington. A little over two months after that, one of the largest grass-roots crowds ever seen in the District of Columbia marched on the Capitol.

What if…

What if, instead of attending rallies, or marching on Washington, these aroused patriots had been carrying designating petitions? The whole political landscape of America could be changed within one year! And that is the 900 pound gorilla in the political closet that the Republicans and Democrats do not want you to know about or think about. It scares them witless.

All the talking heads and political hacks are painting the congressional race in NY-23rd as a rift in the Republican ranks. It is not. It is a third party candidate proving that the Republicans and Democrats can be made irrelevant in the face of tea party power. It is proving this in the full glare of the national spotlight. And the only way that the entrenched politicians can save their own bacon is by spinning the story to distract the public from the obvious truth. All the king-makers’ horses and all the king-makers’ men cannot defeat an honest tea party patriot once ordinary Americans wake up.

 

The editors and writers at The Nation rag-azine have put their pointy heads together and racked their collective brain to come up with a way to gain praises from their statist-minded readers and poach profits from Sarah Palin’s book at the same time. Entertainment Weekly reports:

Start-up publisher OR Books will publish Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare, with a book jacket similar to Palin’s upcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. Also, the publisher will release the look-alike copy November 17, the same day Palin’s book is slated for release.

Two of The Nation’s top editors, Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, compiled the counterfeit for OR Books. The counterfeit will be the first (and hopefully the last) book release from the publisher that “embraces progressive change in politics, culture and the way we do business.”

The Nation, the flagship publication for the statist left, has been an anti-American rag that has consistently supported totalitarian and communist regimes. At the conclusion of World War II, The Nation’s articles parroted the Stalinist line and condemned U.S. involvement in the Cold War.

After the Cuban Revolution, The Nation’s Carleton Beals, praised Fidel Castro as a “hero,” possessing “the finest qualities of true leadership:  self-sacrifice, dedication, patience, confidence and ready pliability in the most difficult situations.”  Beals wrote, “The revolution sweeps on in many directions…these are days of great promises and great hopes.”

The Nation exalted Cuba as “one of the most egalitarian societies in the world,” but it has never criticized Castro’s brutality, his human rights violations, or the poverty that he inflicted upon the Cuban people.

If the truth be told, The Nation’s editors and essayists despise those founding principles that promote individual liberty, personal responsibility, freedom of conscience, and free markets. They are out to destroy Palin because, like Ronald Reagan, she too embodies those principles that have made America great, and they despise her for it.

A poll conducted over the weekend by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. The Oct. 24-25 poll shows Conservative Doug Hoffman with 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens with 27.0%, Republican Dede Scozzafava with 19.7%, and 22% undecided.

Multiple viable political parties have existed in New York State for some time. In addition to the Republican and Democratic parties, there have been the Liberal and Conservative parties, and more recently the Working Families Party which was organized by the now-infamous Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

The Conservative Party was founded in 1962, and eight short years later, James Buckley was elected to the United States Senate running on the Conservative line only, in a three-way race against Republican and Democratic candidates. Popular Buffalo mayor Jimmy Griffin was first elected solely on the Conservative line in 1977, and served for sixteen years.

Many see in the Hoffman candidacy a reprise of the Buckley contest. Outsiders look at party labels, and assume that Hoffman is splitting the Republican vote with Scozzafava, leaving Owens with the Democratic half. But that is not the way New York State works — it divides along conservative-liberal lines. In reality, Owens and Scozzafava are splitting the liberal vote, leaving Hoffman with the conservative half.

The Hoffman candidacy is also noteworthy for attracting the support of tea party patriots throughout the country, giving it national resonance. A Hoffman win would have tremendous implications for grass roots power, especially since both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have been fundraising for his Democratic opponent and Newt Gingrich has vehemently supported his Republican opponent.

Doug Hoffman has been compared to the Jimmy Stewart character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. If he wins, for a moment we can all enjoy the feeling of a return to those more honest times.

The candidacy of Dede Scozzafava has divided the GOP between its Reagan conservatives and the party establishment. 

Leftist progressive Republicans might not raise the eyebrow of your average Snowe-blind Maineiac, but the thought of adding another DIABLO (Democrat In All But Label Only) statist-minded representative to Washington has GOP conservatives and libertarians apoplectic.

Scozzafava is in a three-way race with Democrat candidate Bill Owens and Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman to fill the seat of departing Republican John McHugh in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

Scozzafava, who has been lauded by Newt Gingrich, supports abortion, homosexual marriage, Brother O’s stimulus spending, cap-and-trade, and Card Check; and is endorsed by Markos Moulitsas, founder of The Daily Kos; NYSUT (New York State United Teachers), the largest labor union in New York and affiliate of the National Education Association, and ACORN’s (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s) Working Families Party.

Hoffman, the Reagan conservative in the race, is supported by former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, former vice chairman of the 2008 Republican National Committee Platform Committee, Ken Blackwell, former Majority leader Dick Armey, Minnesota congresswomen Michele Bachmann, former Republican Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Fred Thompson, founder of the Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer; the Wall Street Journal and the conservative Club for Growth in Washington, D.C.

Right now Democrat Bill Owens is leading Hoffman Scozzafava, but Hoffman’s poll numbers have been steadily rising and have surpassed Scozzafava, which means that Scozzafava is now just a spoiler and could keep Republicans from holding  the seat that McHugh routinely won by 2-to-1 margins.

Hoffman is running as the Conservative Party’s candidate because New York’s local GOP establishment entered their “smoke-filled room” and chose Scozzafava behind closed doors, bypassing a primary and the party’s grass-roots voters.

Scozzafava’s leftist politics aren’t the only embarrassment for the Republican Party. She called the police on John McCormack, a Weekly Standard blogger, who questioned her about support for Card Check and then used the propagandist media to smear the journalist.

The call has gone out for Scozzafava to withdraw or be dumped from the race. More than a dozen conservative bloggers and organizations have called for her resignation and for the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) to withdraw their support and put their resources behind the real Republican in the race.

If Hoffman wins the big one, his campaign will become the template for grassroots conservative campaigns nationwide next year. The special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District just might be the spark that ignites an internal revolution to regain the soul of the GOP and bring common sense and sanity back to the party of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.

GOP success in 2010 would end the progressive agenda in America. According to Vice President Joe Biden, if Democrats lose 35 House seats in 2010, it’s doomsday for Brother O’s agenda.

“If they take them back, this is the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do,” Biden said at a fundraiser for Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in Greenville, Delaware.

Republicans need 40 additional seats to regain control of the House. Currently Democrats hold 49 seats in districts that Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) won in last year’s presidential election.

Biden gives the Republicans only “one shot” to stop Brother O’s agenda, and if they fail “the dam is going to break” … letting loose “[a]ll the hidden Republicans that don’t have the courage to vote the way they want to vote because of pressure from the party” to merge with the collective stream of Democrats and form a new era of bipartisanship.

Biden reserves the term bipartisanship for those Republicans who are willing to set aside free market principles and ideas of limited government to capitulate to Democrat desires to control people through a centralized government and a planned economy.  Republicans who hold to their principles and oppose statism are condemned as hatemongering, racist obstructionists.

Nonetheless, Biden’s assessment of the 2010 landscape is interesting. He readily admits Brother O’s attempt to increase the power and size of government to control the private sector could mark the end of the progressive agenda. And it could happen, but only if enough people will do what must be done before it’s too late.

Wednesday evening the Senate voted 63-35 (60 needed) to end debate on the nomination of Cass Sunstein, the radical Harvard University law professor whom Brother O selected czar of the powerful White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, a Fox News analyst, places Sunstein on the far left of the Democrat Party, to the left of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

“We have never had anybody in a regulatory position with this kind of power that is this far to the left of the American people,” says Napolitano. “His potential damage is limitless.”

Sunstein’s nomination had been put on hold in the Senate since late April, but Senator John Cornyn (R–TX) decided to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and assure the radical’s nomination by lifting the hold.

Cornyn wasn’t the lone Party sell-out. Senate Republicans could have held up the Sunstein nomination but for the seven magnificent RINOs — Susan Collins (R-ME); Olympia Snowe (R-ME); Bob Bennett (R-UT); Orin Hatch (R-UT); Judd Gregg (R-NH); Richard Lugar (R-IN); and George Voinovich (R-OH) — who joined with all but three — Mark Pryor (D-AR); Blanche Lincoln (D-AR); and Jim Webb (D-VA) — of their “enlightened” statist brethren Democrats to invoke cloture and guarantee Sunstein’s nomination before the Democrat controlled Senate.

The Senate is expected to have an up or down vote to rubber-stamp the nomination of the leftist radical tomorrow.

Watch Glenn Beck Clips – Andrew P. Napolitano Interview:

Watch Glenn Beck – Cass Sunstein – The Regulator Czar

 

There’s never a shortage of irresponsible male politicians who can’t keep their pants on to entertain us.

Usually we only cover national and international news. But we do include state and local stories when the events are prototypical of the American scene. And in this case, the story is soooo steamy and soooo funny, it is irresistible.

You will recall that a bit earlier we poked fun at Sleazy California Politicians. There must be something in the water in Sacramento.

One day while Michael D. Duvall, Orange County’s 72nd Assembly District representative was sitting in a hearing, he regaled a colleague with details of an extramarital affair he was having. (I’m laughing out loud as I write this.) Unbeknownst to him, his microphone was on, and the lurid details were shared with the cable-televised committee hearing. The Orange County Weekly tells the story:

In July–two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put Duvall on the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics–the second-term, conservative, Republican assemblyman sat in a public hearing and vividly described lewd details about his trysts with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before another committee on which Duvall sits.

Duvall, speaking to a relatively mum Republican colleague seated to his left, apparently had no idea his dais microphone became live beginning about a minute before the start of a cable-televised committee hearing. He was captured in the middle of recounting portions of an affair.

“She wears little eye-patch underwear,” said Duvall, who is married with two children. “So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday–a lot! And so she’ll, she’s all, ‘I am going up and down the stairs, and you’re dripping out of me!’ So messy!”

That line may quickly become part of colorful Sacramento political lore….

Duvall–who was twice a president of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, served two terms as mayor of Yorba Linda before entering the assembly in 2006, and is the owner of an insurance agency–continues his tale: “So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah! Because you’re such a bad girl!’”

The paunchy Duvall, vice chairman of the Assembly’s powerful Committee on Utilities & Commerce, is 54 years old. His sex partner, about 20 years younger, is a blonde bombshell who is a lobbyist with business before that committee.

The woman, Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, is “one of the top lobbyists” for privately owned California utility giant Sempra Energy. Said a capitol staffer:

“Their relationship is the worst-kept secret in Sacramento. He’s old and fat. She’s hot, blonde and about 20 years younger. He could have never gotten a woman like that before he got this job.”

No kidding. And we complain when our Washington DC politicians appear to be “in bed with lobbyists.”

---

UPDATE, 5AM: According to new reports, this guy sleeps with multiple lobbyists. And BTW all you libs who complain that I only dis Democrats, take note — this guy is a conservative, family-values-spouting Republican. (I dis all hypocrites, not just the Dem ones.)

Television coverage from KCAL/9 is now online. Enjoy!

 

UPDATE, 3PM: California legislative leaders stripped Michael Duvall of his committee posts this morning and launched an ethics probe of his actions. This afternoon, after assessing the public reaction to his shenanigans, he resigned from office. (Source.) He did not face the media directly, nor did he address the issue on his official state website. He posted a brief statement on his old campaign website:

“I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state. I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office. Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work.”