Hal Rogers

Republican Party pushes Garland Barr IV to wave white flag

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February 13, 2012
By David M. F. Schankula

A quick roundup of Congressional redistricting finds Andy Barr giving up in the 6th after his fellow Republicans strengthened themselves and left the Tea Panderer out in the cold.

The bill was signed into law on Friday by Gov. Beshear. After the House and Senate failed to come to an agreement on their own maps, House Speaker Greg Stumbo and 5th District Congressman Hal Rogers got together and crafted a map of their own.

That map strengthens all incumbents, including Ben Chandler. This angered 6th District area Republicans, like state Sen. Damon Thayer. A week after trying to expunge the area’s own Senator, Thayer was forced to pivot, flip-flopping his position so that now he finds himself incensed and offended by the redistricting process. Our hearts go out to him, and the others. From the CJ:

Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington, called HB 302 the “Ben Chandler Lifetime Employment Act.”

Thayer called the bill an “insult” to the people of Central Kentucky and described it as “horrific.”

….Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, complained that “we have turned our allegiance more to the congressional delegation than to the taxpayers.” He said the people in his district oppose the plan.

Rep. Lonnie Napier, R-Lancaster, said his constituents don’t want to move from the 6th District to the 2nd, as the plan requires.

He said the people in his district are “not a bit happy.”

Now unlike Thayer’s plan to disappear Kathy Stein, the Hal Rogers compromise map doesn’t do anything too crazy… it just shifts a few lines and Brett Guthrie should be a) concerned, and b) offended that so many Republicans are unhappy about now having his conservative credentials as their new Congressman.

What do Fayette-area Republicans have against Brett Guthrie?

Garland Barr IV was similarly offended by Hal Rogers’ plan. He said:

It’s weird that Barr and his Republican allies have taken this opportunity not to welcome their new voters or accept any challenge, but rather to throw up their hands, waving the white flag.

If you want to call it the “Ben Chandler Lifetime Employment Act” and you want to spend your time appealing to voters who can no longer vote for you because they are now represented by Brett Guthrie, that’s your choice, but it’s not particularly smart to declare your race lost while simultaneously alienating and denigrating your new voters.

[Check the HL for maps.]

The only explanation for why Barr and his allies would crap all over Hal Rogers and the Republican power nexus that crafted these maps is that the Barr campaign is continuing its strategy of pandering to the Tea Party.

Cynically believing the Tea Partiers and rank and file conservative activists to be total idiots, Andy Barr is trying to make them believe this was all Ben Chandler’s doing. Which is simply not true. Barr and 6th District republicans were pawned by Rogers and the Republican controlled delegation to make the other districts more conservative.

Each of the four Republican members, Reps. Brett Guthrie, Ed Whitfield, Hal Rogers and retiring Rep. Geoff Davis, are drawn into conservative-oriented seats.

There is a catch for Republicans, however: In keeping their House members safe, they also bolstered Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler by shifting more Democratic voters into his district. Chandler is a top GOP target who survived the 2010 election in one of the closest races of the year. Under the plan, Chandler’s Lexington-based 6th District seat will become slightly more Democratic-friendly.

Sonka/LEO’s Fat Lip has more on both the internal GOP squabbling that led to this compromise, as well as some sharp words from Ms. Kathy Stein for Thayer and Kerr and a quick numbers game looking at how the new 6th might alter vote turnouts for Barr and Chandler.

GOP internal squabbling leads to congressional redistricting deal

Though it looked like congressional redistricting would go to the courts, since the legislature couldn’t reach a compromise, that will no longer be the case. A wild morning full of emotions and accusations lead to the passage of House Bill 302, which will now go in the books and finalize the boundaries for congressional districts in Kentucky.

Though an agreement appeared to be reached a week ago, it was nixed at the last minute by central Kentuckian Republicans, particularly Sen. Damon Thayer and 6th District congressional candidate Andy Barr, who got Tea Partiers from their area to flood Republican senators with calls telling them not to agree to it. While the deal reached eased the concerns of Republicans in other districts, it does give Chandler a slightly more favorable district than what he previously had. In nixing the deal, several Republicans were quite liberal in expressing their anger at Barr for sabotaging it (particularly Tom Jensen).

Click it and go.

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KY Congressional Redistricting Stalemate

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February 8, 2012
By David M. F. Schankula

Not only did Kentucky House and Senate leaders screw up the state legislature redistricting, they appear to have hit a dead end on the mandated 10-year re-draw of Congressional districts.

The House favored a bill which would have strengthened Ben Chandler in the 6th (after he eked out a 600 vote victory, one vote per precinct, in 2010) and bettered Dem chances in the 1st and 5th while making the already Awesome 3rd even more Awesome.

The Senate Republicans, on the other hand, sought to maintain the Republican strength in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th, and attack Chandler in the 6th.

House leader Greg Stumbo and 5th District porker Hal Rogers came up with something of a compromise, House Republican leader Jeff Hoover was kinda on board, but the Senate Republicans weren’t having it, especially Damon Thayer who, having already tried to disenfranchise the voters of Fayette County, mitched and boehned about a perceived “damage” to Fayette by allowing the 6th to get Bluer.

The filing deadline for Congressional seats, already extended a week, was today.

Mr. Gerth @ the CJ:

The House and Senate failed to reach a compromise Tuesday on a new congressional redistricting plan as the filing deadline passed — and House Speaker Greg Stumbo said legislators likely won’t try to change the current district lines this session.

He conceded, however, that such an approach would likely be ruled unconstitutional if challenged in court.

A decade after the current lines were drawn, the districts vary considerably in population — in violation of court standards — and Stumbo said he didn’t believe they would withstand scrutiny.

Should a candidate (Barr, etc) or a national party (GOP, etc) challenge the lack of new districting, Stumbo thinks the courts will just do the drawing.

Meanwhile…

Four of Kentucky’s five incumbent congressmen will have no opposition in the state’s May 22 primary.

And Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, is facing only a perennial candidate, Burrel Charles Farnsley, as a primary opponent and a relatively unknown Republican, Brooks Wicker, for the general election, according to filings in the Kentucky secretary of state’s office. The filing deadline was Tuesday.

The 1st (Whitfield) has two Dems in the Primary, the 2nd (Guthrie) is probably already over, the 5th (Rogers) possibly bought and paid for, and the 6th a grudge match between Garland Barr and Ben Chandler.

In the 4th, where Geofferson Davis is giving up his seat to “spend more time with his family,” there are two Dems and five Republicans.

William Adkins, the chairman of the Grant County Democratic Party, filed Tuesday to run in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District seat occupied by U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Hebron.

….Adkins will face Greg Frank, of Corinth, in the Democratic primary.

 

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Let’s Build Something Together: Hal Rogers fundamentally misunderstands Lowe’s slogan

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February 7, 2012
By David M. F. Schankula

From the Washington Post:

Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation.

Under the ethics rules Congress has written for itself, this is both legal and undisclosed.

It’s a great article, looking at how recent moves against Congressional insider trading have so far not crossed over to persoanlized earmarking. You can look at a map of the Big 33, and here’s what they dug up in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood:

In Kentucky, Rep. Harold Rogers (R) has been called the “Prince of Pork” for his success in guiding federal money to his Appalachian home district. The longtime member and current chairman of the House Appropriations Committee helped secure about $250 million in earmarks from 2008 through 2010 — but when the House imposed the moratorium, Rogers embraced it. The country, he said, needed to “turn back from the edge of fiscal ruin.”

Prior to the moratorium, Rogers earmarked funds for the revitalization of downtown Somerset, his home town. That project continues today: More than $7 million in Rogers’s earmarks have gone toward it.

Read on to find out how Hal Rogers used your money to beautify his very own street — burying power lines, redoing sidewalks, re-doing driveways and adding decorative lamps.

“Congressman Rogers sees no conflict of interest in helping local community leaders achieve their goals for growth — at large or in this case in particular,” said Michael R. Higdon, chief of staff for Rogers.

And thanks to those decorative lamps sitting right outside his house, if there was a conflict of interest Hal Rogers would probably be able to see it.

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HBEER! Federal funds support Kentucky’s Houseboat Industry

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January 30, 2012
By David M. F. Schankula

Federal regulators are forcing Kentucky industry and employers into pursuit of “energy effecient” housing in their continuing war on coal. And Hal Rogers carrying the pork and trying to destroy King Coal. Read all about it:

Kentucky’s houseboat manufacturers once thrived by churning out luxurious floating residences, but the industry was nearly capsized by the economic downturn. Now it’s dabbling in a new venture as it looks for a different course — the construction of moderately priced, energy efficient landlocked homes.

Houseboat maker Stardust Cruisers has built two relatively low-cost modular homes in a test that area residents hope will help revive the industry and bring back jobs to this struggling town on the edge of Appalachia.

….During the heyday in the mid-2000s, area workers skilled as carpenters and electricians produced several hundred houseboats each year, Stardust’s chief executive estimated. The companies shipped finished boats to Europe, Australia and the Middle East.

Now, production has shriveled to about 20 to 25 per year. The number of area manufacturers has dropped from a dozen to about four, and where once 1,000 people built houseboats, now that number is fewer than 200, said Stardust President and CEO Terry G. Aff.

That’s deepened the impact of the recession in a place that proclaims itself the “houseboat manufacturing capital of the world” on a sign at the entrance of the town, population 6,000.

Here’s Hal:

The project has been backed by federal grants, and its proponents are hoping the venture expands to include construction of multifamily units and classrooms. The venture could be a boon to suppliers as well. Kentucky products accounted for more than 80 percent of the value of the two prototype homes built by Stardust.

Stardust has boosted its full-time work force in the past couple of years, and a few have focused on building the modular homes. Aff said that the process for building the boats and the landlocked homes is similar, so adding the new product didn’t require many equipment changes. There has been some worker retraining.

“This project meets a multitude of needs in our region by putting families back to work, providing energy-efficient housing, increasing demand for Kentucky-made projects,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers, among the state and federal officials boosting the initiative.

Putting jokes about Solyndra and the Prince of Pork aside, this does look like a pretty cool project with some promising rewards. It actually started at the UK College of Design. Read more about it or watch:

And far and away the coolest piece of information out of this whole story is that Monticello’s claim to fame as the “Houseboat Capital of the World” will now be spread throughout the land:

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

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Not-So-Super Grover beats the Supercommittee

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November 22, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Superfail on the Committee. The 13th member, Grover Norquist, today rejoices.

In all, 270 members of Congress — from Mitch McConnell at the top all the way down to the lowliest members, like Ben Chandler — have signed his “No Tax Raises Ever” pledge, which meant that building any sort of a compromise in the Supercommittee was all but impossible, even though it is obviously good economics to repeal the Bush Tax Cuts for the Super Wealthy (and also popular with the electorate).

Here’s some Grover highlights, if you’re not familiar, in which he likens any Republican who might betray him and his pledge as “a rat head in a Coke bottle”:

And while Grover Norquist has taken to FOX News to insist that he is not to blame, another arm of NewsCorp, the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal, is thanking him for the failure.

And in that spirit, we’d like to thank all our Kentucky legislators who signed Grover Norquist’s ridiculous pledge — McConnell and Chandler, Rogers and Guthrie and Davis. Thank you!

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Hal Rogers attacks family farmers, America’s well-being

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November 18, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

The 2012 Agricultural Appropriations bill is coming out of conference and Hal Rogers couldn’t be happier with it. After all, the bill attacks family farmers, seeks to slash a green energy program and finds new and inventive ways to undercut the Consumer Protection Act passed last year.

This is a Win-Win-Win for the Republican Party, and America can serve up their thanks to Hal Rogers, Kentucky gentleman.

According to the Chairman of the Appropriations’ Committee Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the bill places restrictions on the implementation of a Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration proposed rule that would have allowed harmful government interference in the private market for livestock and poultry.

The National Farmers Union is expressing concern with the fiscal year 2010 Ag Appropriations language in the conference report.

“The report is disheartening for the fate of U.S. family farm agriculture,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “The policy rider that precludes implementation of the GIPSA rule is upsetting. Political pressure and disingenuous economic studies paid for by meatpackers and processors have stopped the rule that would have returned basic fairness and competition provisions to farmers and ranchers. The most critical parts of the rule that Congress proposes to prohibit include a clearer definition of USDA’s interpretation of competitive injury, which would address the fundamental problems that have plagued the livestock and poultry industries.”

Johnson also points to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission budget. He says proposed cuts would preclude the CFTC from enforcing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed just one year ago.

The Rural Energy for America Program would be cut by 64% — despite REAP’s success:

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced 2011 awards for the Rural Energy for America Program, with a focus on solar, wind, geothermal and small hydropower. The awards reflect the growing and diverse opportunities for American agriculture and rural communities to profit from renewable energy.

Despite the success and popularity of the program, a Congressional “Conference Committee” is deliberating just how drastically to cut REAP funding for 2012. “REAP is a successful clean energy program, generating jobs and economic development in rural communities while cutting pollution,” said Andy Olsen, Senior Policy Advocate for the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Congress can create jobs and grow our economy, by continuing to renew and robustly REAP for 2012 and beyond.”

Those REAP environazis are the same ones who gave Kentucky farms half-a-million dollars in August, so obviously they must be stopped.

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REINS Act passes House Committee: The Geofferson Davis ‘People Killin’ Job Creatin’” Legislation moves forward

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October 25, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Kentucky Congressman Geofferson Davis — relation unclear to the Confederate Slave Advocate President who lead the war to kill 600,000 Americans — got his Republican “jobs plan” one step closer to dying in the Senate today as his REINS Act passed out of Committee.

The plan purports to put the reins on the safety regulations that keep corporations from poisoning and killing us (Get it? Reins? Like a horse maybe, or a ball-gag.) and, because the GOP has nothing actually going for it — no real ideas — “creates jobs.” Because if you die, that creates a job, see.

Here’s the news:

The House Judiciary Committee cleared a bill today that would require Congress to sign off on federal regulations that Republicans say threaten job creation and cost millions to comply with.

….The bill “is an urgently needed antidote to this anti-democratic sentiment,” Smith said in prepared remarks. “It gives the people’s representatives in Congress the final say on whether Washington will impose major new regulations on the American economy, not unaccountable agency officials.”

Bob Deans at the Natural Resources Defense Council writes:

This is the same Congress, remember, that has yet to pass a fiscal 2012 budget, eight months after it was introduced. The REINS Act would permit members to kill needed environmental rules just by dragging their feet a few weeks.

And, what was the justification? Jobs, of course.

“We must put a stop to the reckless and costly anti-free market regulations that are destroying jobs,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., co-sponsor of companion REINS act legislation in the Senate.

It’s a crafty strategy. With 14 million Americans out of work, we’re in the worst jobs market since Ronald Reagan was president. The “job-killing” message resonates.

There is, though, one problem: it’s not true. Government regulations — of all kinds — accounted for just two-tenths of one percent of the half-million Americans who lost their jobs in the first six months of the year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By global standards, in fact, the United States has the most business-friendly regulatory structure of any major country in the world, according to the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank arm that helps countries improve their business practices and investment climate.

Bob’s got much more so keep on.

The Republican Party is framing every piece of ridiculous legislation they present in terms of “job creation” these days. That’s what sells. The other thing that sells is the Republican Party and it’s sad to see Americans buying into this idea that if they are less safe then somehow, magically, they will be more safe or at least employed. Because who doesn’t want a job? And if a kid’s gotta get poisoned so you can get that job… who cares, right? There are lots of kids and there’s only one you.

So the Republican Party is following Kentucky’s lead. I can’t stress this enough:

Mitch McConnell obfuscates America’s economic recovery in the Senate, Hal Rogers chokes it off as the head of Appropriations in the House, Rand Paul drives the country further toward crazyville, Ed Whitfield works meticulously to destroy the EPA from his own leadership position in the House and Geofferson Davis is pushing this “REINS” Act, the national Republican Party’s #1 “Jobs Creation” idea which creates no jobs and makes the entire country less safe.

Sitting on a porch on this beautiful Kentucky evening in the color of fall leaves, it’s easy to question what’s wrong with us, why we send these people to our Capital to represent us.

The harder question, though, is why America puts up with us. A state of 3 Million people is dictating the future of this country, of 300+ Million Americans. We have no say in Presidential politics, but between the House and the Senate, we own you.

Beat the regulator drumbeat, Kentucky:

I can’t believe they taking Warren’s wealth
They took my rings, they took my rolex
I looked at the brotha, said ‘Damn, what’s next?’

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War on War on Coal Party!

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October 24, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Hal Rogers, Rand Paul and “celebrities” show up for a rally in support of the war on “the war” on coal:

It is awesome.

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Hal Rogers FEMA hypocrisy

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October 24, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Hal Rogers is supposed to be the top dog in the born-again fiscally conservative Republican House.

Somehow duping the dupable Tea Partiers into gaining the position of Appropriations Chieftan, Hal is the same old big spender he’s always been and while he and his party claim government is spending out of control, he is, at the very same moment, siphoning off its funds, helping to bankrupt us all.

A few members of Congress, using the same “earmark” technique that secures special projects for their areas, have forced FEMA to divert $150million in additional disaster aid to their states since 2007 even though those states did not meet FEMA’s criteria for getting the extra aid.

The lawmakers used earmarks to bypass federal regulations that say FEMA will pay 75% of disaster recovery unless the total costs exceed a threshold. The threshold this year is $125 for each resident of a state where a disaster occurred.

In Kentucky, that means the cost of a single disaster must exceed about $500 million for FEMA to pay more than 75% of recovery costs. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., forced FEMA to pay 90% to 100% of recovery from two recent storms that have cost $35 million and $22 million.

“I make no apologies for helping those I represent,” Rogers said in an e-mail.

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Mittens!

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October 17, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Hal Rogers and Ed Whitfield are throwing their towel in with Mr. Romney, says the Politico:

EXCLUSIVE – HAL ROGERS AND ED WHITFIELD TO ENDORSE ROMNEY: The two Kentucky congressmen, both establishment heavyweights, are signing with the frontrunner today. Rogers chairs the House Appropriations Committee, and Whitfield chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee’s powerful Energy and Power subcommittee. Rogers says he’s impressed by the comprehensiveness of Romney’s economic plan, and the depth of his private sector experience. Whitfield plans to praise two elements of Romney’s Massachusetts record: balancing the budget with no tax increases and leaving the state with a Rainy Day Fund. “They share my goals of lessening the regulatory burden on small business and getting our exploding deficits under control. They also share my goal of making our country energy independent,” Romney says in a statement that will go out later.

Hal and Ed also have deep respect for Romneycare and Romney, likewise, has the utmost respect for Hal’s big pork spending ways.

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TAKE IT OVER!

Democratic Party Precinct Elections MARCH 31st

**** LEO’s Fat Lip **** JOE SONKA

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