Posted on 03/09/2007 6:44:43 PM PST by LdSentinal
Periodically, I get e-mails from supporters of the presidential candidacy of Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter who express disbelief, befuddlement or fury, or a mix of all three, at my flat contention that he is a populist demagogue and anything but a principled conservative. These folks cannot fathom any talk that he's not free-trade, small-government Ronald Reagan reincarnated.
Here's a typical example of Hunterista reaction to my comment that he's been against trade deals that have been important boons to our economy:
You're supposed to be a columnist, an informed person. This is not an informed statement.
OK. If you don't believe me about Duncan Hunter's RRRINOitis, here's what the influential, admired-and-respected-in-conservative-circles Club for Growth has to say about him:
Like most Republicans, he's strong on tax cuts, but he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last 6 years. He also has a protectionist streak in him. Here are some of the more troubling votes:
NO on NAFTA YES on No Child Left Behind YES on Sarbanes-Oxley YES on the 2003 Medicare Drug Benefit NO on CAFTA YES on 2005 Highway Bill YES on the 527 bill (like most Republicans, he flip-flopped, having first voted NO on McCain-Feingold) Hunter also went 0 for 19 on the Flake anti-pork amendments.
Despite being a member of the Republican Study Committee, Hunter frequently votes NO on their fiscally conservative annual budgets (2006, 2005, 2003...)
We gave him a 49% on the 2005 Club for Growth scorecard. That places him 187th within the House GOP conference, out of roughly 230 members.
National Taxpayers Union shows a more telling trend. He was strong in the early 1990s, getting "B's" and one "A", but as time went by, like most politicians, his score dropped. For the past few years, he's been getting "C's".
Those Cs are incredibly generous. As CATO noted last year, with Duncan Hunter cheering him on ...
... President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton's last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush's first term.
The Republican Congress has enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
The GOP was once effective at controlling nondefense spending. The final nondefense budgets under Clinton were a combined $57 billion smaller than what he proposed from 1996 to 2001. Under Bush, Congress passed budgets that spent a total of $91 billion more than the president requested for domestic programs.
And as bad as things are on the budget front, they're about to get a whole lot worse because of a pending nightmare that Duncan Hunter -- supposed tough guy, supposed truth-teller, supposed fiscal conservative -- has chosen to ignore. To borrow from what I wrote last year ...
... the single worst problem facing this country in coming years, with the possible exception of nuclear terrorism, is dealing with the massive fiscal impact of baby boomers retiring. As we slowly transition from a nation where there are 4 working adults for every adult getting Social Security and Medicare to a nation where that ratio is 2 to 1, we will face an incredible fiscal squeeze.
As a veteran member of Congress, Duncan Hunter knows this. He's heard the warnings, seen the bipartisan studies. So what did this self-declared fiscal conservative do in 2003? He voted to make the problem much, much, much worse by extending prescription drug benefits to seniors, three-quarters of whom already have coverage. The money that was saved by all the triumphant stands he claims to have taken is infinitesimal compared to the staggering long-term national debt he helped add with this one vote, which was tantamount to civic arson.
Yeah, right, our Duncan's a fiscal conservative. ... He loves spending your grandkids' money, and by the truckload.
Duncan Hunter is no Ronald Reagan. To those who say Ronald Reagan really wasn't Ronald Reagan -- that government didn't get smaller when he was president -- well, he tried harder than any president in modern times to get Congress to control spending and wipe out whole government agencies. By contrast, Hunter and the GOP Congress of 2001-2006 kept the national credit cards hanging on a string around their necks for easy and constant use.
If for some reason he became the GOP candidate (meteorites take out the other candidates, black death, etc) the press would have a field day with him and his history.
***Thanks for posting your accusations & running. Pretty soon you'll catch JimRob's attention and there will be nopardons for you.
One of the two tours his son did in Iraq, included going to Fallujah
It was at the time of major house to house fighting.
His son left a good job and joined the Marines to serve his country.
You've been reading my cookies, haven't you? Darn, that tinfoil hat is wearing out. ;-)
True, true and it doesn't help Hunter any, that the person leading his team, has been smeared with Abramhof "dirt".
As for his friendship with Cunningham, they were both Vietnam vets and they were both San Diego congressmen, so I can understand why he would be friends with him because on the surface they had much in common.
All defense companies give political contributions to candidates that they think are promoting military spending. All candidates take contributions from companies and lobbyists. Duncan Hunter is strong on the military and promotes military spending so I don't find it in the least bit odd that a defense company would make large contributions to his campaign. I'm sure this was not the only defense company that contributed to Hunter.
Since this was probably not the only defense company that contributed to Hunter's campaign, you would have to know the other companies that contributed in order to deduce anything about his voting record. Hunter could have genuinely thought that one company was better equipped to handle a contract than another. In defense spending you don't always want to just go with the cheapest bid. It's possible that Cunningham helped sway his opinion, but that doesn't implicitly make Hunter involved in any scandal that Cunningham was involved in.
HOWDY! :-)
Then maybe he should stay in Congress then..
Well, then pick your poison. One of the digs against Hunter is that he doesn't have much money. Hunter is building the national organization, and doesn't need it in place for 9 months. The money thing will be handled in a 3 pronged military-style attack. 1) He's building a grassroots organization on the part with Dean's money raking capabilities. 2) He's rubbed shoulders for years with some very big kingmakers when he oversaw a $530BILLION budget for the armed services, which makes rudy's money men look like lemonade stand owners. 3) Once he starts winning primaries, he attracts bandwagon jumpers in the republican party and the republican party itself, which has lotsa dough. It's early in the football game and he's got a good running back & a couple of fast receivers, so there could very well be some big plays up ahead.
I didn't know that....
Good research. Thanks.
Then in the national election he will get his butt kicked big time.. That is if he wins the primaries..
There we see it again. A couple of rudybots twittering with each other through the thread, populating it with pro-rudy statements is the usual MO.
Good night and pleasant dreams......................
"Then maybe he should stay in Congress then.."
He would be even MORE effective as POTUS.
...
"I thought that Republicans didn't appease communists, and that's what we did," he said.
"Today starts the time for choosing – for every American manufacturer and laborer. You can either choose to give into China's cheating – or you can choose to join me to enforce fair trade."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070126-9999-1n26hunter.html
January 26, 2007
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Rep. Duncan Hunter, warning about mounting threats to U.S. security from China, Iran and North Korea, became an official presidential candidate yesterday with a pledge to champion Ronald Reagan's doctrine of “peace through strength.”
snip from: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070126-9999-1n26hunter.html
John Hawkins: Missile defense shield.
Duncan Hunter: Yes, and I've been a strong supporter of that. I've put in the initial money for missile defense when it first started, I supported it strongly then, and I supported missile defense for Israel, very strongly. Incidentally, under my watch, we've actually deployed missile defense. We have our first missiles that are now deployed in Alaska and the west coast which had limited capability to intercept incoming ballistic missiles.
http://www.rightnation.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=114155
Time will tell; yes.
I read the Rudy threads - I've heard everyone's defense of him - I have an open mind & do my own research before I make up my mind on something. You all have your reasons for supporting him - I have my reasons for supporting Hunter.
I know I am not going to convince a die-hard Rudy supporter to come over to the Duncan Hunter side - life's too short to waste on such an impossible dream.
By the same token - you are never going to convince me that Rudy is the best choice for our party to win in 2008 - NEVER. Let's agree to disagree & stop wasting precious time with this in-fighting. It's America - we can support who we want to.
He's a lousy dresser too.
***That's really why he doesn't get your vote, isn't it? Of course, pictures of rudy in drag all over the islamofascist community, that doesn't bother you. Thank you for posting. Maybe you changed some minds today.
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