The Stafford Voice

Our little place to talk about and share about life.

election

Reince Priebus Threatens CNN, NBC Over Clinton Projects

by

The chairman of the Republican National Committee says NBC and CNN are in the bag for Hillary Clinton, and he’s pledging to block the networks from sponsoring 2016 GOP primary debates unless they scratch their respective TV projects about the former secretary of state.

Reince Priebus accused the networks of promoting Clinton “ahead of her likely Democratic nomination for president in 2016” by airing the productions.

NBC is planning a miniseries about Clinton staring Diane Lane, and CNN has a documentary in the works about Clinton’s professional and personal life, expected to air in theaters before running on the cable network. In a letter to program executives, Priebus asserts that the networks’ plans will tip the scale toward Clinton in the next presidential election, providing unfair treatment not only to Republicans but also to other Democrats vying for the nomination. He called the networks “campaign operatives” for Clinton, and noted that Democrats protested when Citizens United tried to air a pay-per-view film about her before the 2008 election.

“The fact of the matter is you’ve got two networks that are potentially spending millions of dollars promoting a person that they know is at least doing the dance and getting ready for a run for president,” Priebus told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday night, noting that Democrats blocked Fox from hosting Democratic debates in 2008.

The chairman said NBC and CNN have until Aug. 14 to pull the programming or else he will seek a “binding vote” at the RNC’s meeting that week to prohibit them from partnering with the committee for primary debates or sponsoring any GOP debates of their own. State party chairs in Iowa and South Carolina said they supported Priebus’ move.

But the networks don’t plan to back down.CNN called Priebus’ decision “premature.”

via RealClearPolitics

Libertarians flex their muscle in the GOP – The Washington Post

by

Way back in 1975, a Republican agitator named Ronald Reagan had this to say about an esoteric young movement that was roiling politics: “If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”

Neither the GOP old guard nor the rowdy libertarians ever quite bought that argument.

They both lay claim to the same conservative economic philosophy. But libertarians are more isolationist and antiwar than Republican orthodoxy allows on foreign policy and more permissive on social issues.

Still, in the nearly four decades since Reagan made those comments, the two have managed — at least most of the time — to maintain an uneasy marriage of expedience.

Libertarianism once again appears to be on the rise, particularly among the young. But its alliance with the Republican establishment is fraying, as demonstrated by the increasingly personal war of words between two leading potential 2016 presidential contenders.

The sparring began last week, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie R posited: “As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought.”

After Christie made it clear that he was referring to Rand Paul, the Senate’s leading critic of the National Security Agency and its surveillance programs, the Kentucky Republican fired back on his Twitter account: “Christie worries about the dangers of freedom. I worry about the danger of losing that freedom. Spying without warrants is unconstitutional.”

Their feud — which is being watched closely as a possible warmup round for 2016 — has continued, expanded and spilled over into other issues.

On Tuesday, Christie chided: “If Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start cutting the pork-barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky.” After which Paul told CNN that the plus-size governor was “the king of bacon talking about bacon.”

This kind of rancor is pretty much the last thing the Republican Party needs right now as it struggles to broaden its appeal and find its footing in the wake of two successive presidential defeats.

For their part, libertarians are thrilled. They say it is a sign they truly have arrived as a force to be dealt with, rather than dismissed as a fringe element.

via The Washington Post

Romney Visists Iowa Ahead of Straw Poll; Rips Obama on Economy

by

In a rare visit to Iowa ahead of this weekends straw poll, Mitt Romney rips Obama on economy saying Americans were “fearful, but not panicked.” Echoing the recent presidential approval ratings, he also predicts that voters will deny a second term for Obama. [Read more…] about Romney Visists Iowa Ahead of Straw Poll; Rips Obama on Economy