Posted on 01/31/2013 12:35:00 AM PST by neverdem
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., defied the odds in November when she won the closest senate race in the country, and now that she's arrived in Washington, she's defiant as ever. But now, instead of defying the pollsters, she's defying the Democratic caucus by taking divergent opinions on issues central to the President Obama's second term agenda, ranging from gun control to the environment.
Heitkamp, who says growing the economy is her top priority, is concerned that the president is changing his focus to issues like climate change and gun control. "I think, you know the one thing that has gotten lost by everyone is one of the best ways that we can perform here is by getting people back to work, making sure that this economic recovery, slow as it is, gets amped up and moves forward," Heitkamp tells Politics Confidential. "It's one of the reasons why I've been such a big proponent of the Keystone Pipeline. There's a shovel ready, private sector jobs program, good paying jobs."
On the topic of gun control, Heitkamp does not hesitate when asked if she'll support an assault weapons ban; her answer is a definitive no.
"There's literally hundreds of thousands of guns already out there," says Heitkamp. "This isn't a solution to the problem, that's my first thing. And I think if you read the case, the Second Amendment case, you got some serious Second Amendment challenges in all of this, and my personal perspective is that you are ignoring what could actually work to prevent this from happening because you are following an agenda that you already had before this ever happened, instead of taking a look at this circumstance, these situations and how do we prevent this violence."
Heitkamp says mental health needs to be part of the conversation in...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Lemme guess, she’s a dem because she wants the right to slaughter womb-bound humans.
Obama is a lame duck. Heidi and similar rats in the Senate don’t have many reasons to agree with Obama’s agenda as proclaimed in his second inaugural address.
As far as the oil patch goes, reductions in State Income Tax, economic prosperity, a fat state budget--all go down the tubes if the patch gets shut down.
Even the Eastern North Dakotans (the part of the State with no oil, but which elected her) would realize they had been benefiting from tax reductions once they went away--and that would be political suicide.
Shh! Family secret.
Good cop : Bad cop.
Lemme guess: Sure this Heitkamp bimbo is talking tough now ... but will back some far-left SCOTUS nominee in the near future. Thought North Dakotans were smarter than this. Looks like they bought themselves a closet Leftist for Life as a Senatrix, although she sounds smarter than Barbara Boxer, I have no doubt they will vote together most of the time.
In the Eastern part of the state, (Fargo, Grand Forks), they've been pulling down Federal Money for a long time, flood relief, universities, and an air base out there. When you consider that 2/7 of the population is in Fargo and Grand Forks, 1/7 in Bismarck/Mandan, it is an uphill climb to beat a democrat here, despite the conservative nature of many of the people.
Sadly, they fell for the "save the family farm" crap until there weren't many, the "save Social Security" crap while the Dems looted it, and a host of squawks about farm programs. The election was close, though, with only 3000 votes between Heitkamp and Berg.
Another factor was that while I'm not sure how much the GOP spent on Berg's campaign, Heitkamp had a LOT of airtime and slick mail out campaign material which bombarded people with what I still think was dreck.
We'll see.
I didn't vote for her, and I'm not sure which interests in the State she will back (East vs. West) or if she'll find the razor's edge of middle ground that manages to keep everyone happy--she'll likely catch Hell from all sides if she does (not conservative enough for the conservatives, not liberal enough for the liberals.)
While we know the oil boom has been good for just about everyone, (with some exceptions, granted), the east side persists in oil envy, trying to put the brakes on something that has two speeds--flat out and dead stop.
Fargo is the most liberal (and largest) town in the State, and their mayor has been siding with Bloomberg on guns.
(I think they should build the flood diversion channel around the west side and give the town to Minnesota, where it might be more at home, but that's just my opinion.)
Anyway, she has to go a long way to prove she isn't just another Democrat in DC as far as I am concerned.
She’s either a communist or not a communist. If she weren’t a communist she wouldn’t be a member of the communist party (D).
Some Demolsheviks are just more vulnerable than others. If the Senate gets down to needing just one vote to confiscate every pee shooter in the land, she will cast her lot for state control. When has a Democrat ever done otherwise?
She claims (at this time) to be against gun confiscation, but her main thing is to listen to local politics and support the Keystone pipeline. That should keep her in office, irrespective of whatever else she says, and whether or not the feds block the pipeline. Thanks neverdem.
The squirrels in my back yard are smarter than Barbara Boxer.
...when asked if she'll support an assault weapons ban; her answer is a definitive no... "This isn't a solution to the problem, that's my first thing... you are ignoring what could actually work to prevent this from happening because you are following an agenda that you already had before this ever happened, instead of taking a look at this circumstance, these situations and how do we prevent this violence." Heitkamp says mental health needs to be part of the conversation...
You don't have to be a "dem" for that. Here in Illinois we have a baby killing senator with an "R" behind his name. (Mark Kirk).
I'm guessing she didn't major in math.
Does a Republican ever win a "close race"?
Never. In the past three Senate elections, the Republicans have lost about 8 seats by 1 or 2%.
Heidi ran to the right of the John Birch Society but when you have listened to her guest host for her brother on their “News and Views” program, you will have heard her make comments about certain people making too much money and discussing how government control can and should be increased on people and business. She is as big of a Communist/Fascist as Obama.
Is there any way we can turn 5 rats into independents that would caucus with the republicans?
Heidi sounds like a viable target.
That would be strategic thinking, something the GOP stinks at.
Here's another stratagem--the GOP should be calling for Menendez of NJ to step down, after all the charges are so serious,are they not? Then Christie, a Republican, could appoint a GOP Senator.
The only fly in the ointment, is that Christie, in the name of "fairness" would appoint a Democrat.
But if we don;t start making strategic alliances to encircle the Dems in the Senate between now and 2014, we are in a world of hurt.
The obvious goal of the Dems is to completely eliminate the GOP and especially conservatives from any role in governance. You have to fight fire with fire.
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