Sen. Kelly Ayotte issued a press release today titled, “What They’re Saying: Praise for Ayotte’s Support of Bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill.” As you would expect, it’s a one-sided survey of editorial support for her position. Here are a few reactions from the other side — most expressing anger over her perceived flip-flop on the issue.
Madison Project’s Daniel Horowitz called her “another Schumer Republican who lied to get elected:”
It’s amazing how many Republicans ran for election as absolutely opposed to any form of amnesty — certainly before enforcing existing laws. Somehow within a year or two, all of them have had an epiphany. The latest example is Senator Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire, the third amigo in the McCain/Graham Schumer club.
In 2010, Ayotte ran strong on the issue of illegal immigration, and actually aired a number of ads lambasting her Democrat opponent on support for amnesty. During the primary, she had a strong Tea Party challenge from Ovide Lamontagne, winning by just 1600 votes. Needless to say, she wouldn’t have been caught dead supporting amnesty during that primary.
Long time conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly said Ayotte should “stop echoing Karl Rove” and read the “Amnesty Bill:”
“As a Senate candidate, Kelly Ayotte had it right when she said that we don’t necessarily need to add new immigration laws, we need to start by enforcing the laws already on the books,” said Schlafly. “Ayotte even ran ads against her Democrat opponent for supporting amnesty.”
“Ayotte betrayed every conservative who supported her when she announced her support for this shameful bill,” Schlafly declared. “She has apparently been spending too much time with serial Establishment election losers like Karl Rove instead of reading the bill.”
Even Birther Queen Orly Taitz got in on the act, linking the immigration bill to the President’s alleged invalid Social Security number:
Senator Ayotte, aside from being a U.S. senator, you are a former Attorney General of New Hampshire, a Chief Law Enforcement officer of a state. You are being held to a higher authority. It is your duty to demand to stay the hearing on the new immigration bill and seek to hear the issue of Mr. Obama’s use of a stolen Social Security number, which failed E-verify.
You will have zero credibility in promising U.S. citizens and your constituents that e-Verify of millions of illegals will be checked, if you are covering up the failed E-Verify of an individual occupying the position of the U.S. President and Commander-in-Chief. Moreover, if you do not take action, you will be criminally complicit in the cover up of forgery, fraud, Social Security Fraud, IRS fraud, violation of Identity Theft Act of 1988 and treason.
Huffington Post confirms Sen. Kelly Ayotte undercut efforts by Sen. Marco Rubio to beef up border security measures in the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill. The story validates analysis by WMUR’s James Pindell who called Ayotte’s actions a “political fumble” by a rookie politician.
Ayotte’s announcement that she plans to vote in favor of the immigration overhaul weakens Rubio’s hand at the bargaining table as he attempts to make the bill more palatable for conservatives.
Citing three sources, Huffington Post writers Elise Foley and Sam Stein describe a private conversation between the two senators in which presidential hopeful Rubio asked Ayotte to hold back before announcing her position in favor of the bill:
Rubio had privately urged fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to remain quiet about her support for immigration reform, in hopes that Senate negotiators would amend the bill’s border security measures to win her vote, according to three sources, including one Republican Senate aide. …
Rubio “has not been telling them to vote no,” said one Senate Democratic aide familiar with negotiations. “He has been apparently holding people back from declaring support for the bill, while at the same time saying the bill needs changes in order to garner support. My understanding is he told Sen. Ayotte’s office to hold back, but she didn’t care.” …
A spokesman for Ayotte flatly denied that such a conversation took place. A spokesman for Rubio said he could not confirm the anecdote.
Ayotte apparent rebuff of Rubio’s request came just days after he came to her defense with a six-figure ad buy when she faced withering criticism over her opposition to expanded background checks for gun purchases.
The announcement by Sen. Kelly Ayotte that she will vote for the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill was a “political fumble” by a rookie politician, writes WMUR’s James Pindell:
Ayotte is playing Candyland while many in the Senate are playing chess. The way Ayotte played it, she did two things damaging politically.
First, she undercut Rubio. Lately Rubio is saying that while he was among those crafting the bill he wants the amendment process to beef up border security measures. Before Ayotte’s announcement Rubio would have had a seat at the table to drive those changes. Now, immigration supporters can tell Rubio to buzz off because they have the 60 votes to do what they want.
Second, by going all in for it, she is now irrelevant in the next few weeks of immigration debate, for a few days of news coverage Sunday and Monday of her decision. If, instead, she said she generally favored the bill, but wanted to watch the amendment process, she would have received the same amount of headlines as a potential 60th vote, but reserved the right to vote against the bill. In that position, Ayotte could have crafted changes in the final bill. …
Now she doesn’t have that option and nor does Rubio.
Yesterday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte announced she will be voting for the bipartisan immigration overhaul crafted by the “Gang of Eight.”
In an op-ed defending her vote, Ayotte cited the need for a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. “We need immigration reform that serves the best interests of our country,” she wrote, “a solution that … creates a tough but fair means for those who are here illegally to earn citizenship….”
No complaint here.
But I will point out, as her disapproving friends on the far right have noted, this is a far cry from her position in 2010 when she ran hard as an anti-amnesty candidate.
To prove that point, National Review posted a copy of a direct mail piece Ayotte sent out in 2010 attacking her primary opponent Bill Binnie for “standing together” with Pres. Obama on immigration reform.
And then there was the Letterman-style top ten list she released on the eve of a visit by Vice Pres. Joe Biden. Number six on Ayotte’s list of the “Top Ten Things Bill Binnie and Joe Biden Have in Common:”
6. Binnie and Biden both support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
You don’t say… must be something in the water down here in Litchfield…
— Kevin Smith, who has said he is considering a second gubernatorial race, responding to fellow Litchfield resident George Lambert who told friends he is also running for governor
In a blistering editorial, the editors of the Nashua Telegraph blast state Senate President Peter Bragdon and his Republican followers for their ideologically-driven budget proposal.
The editors single out the Senate’s refusal to expand Medicaid to cover the state’s poorest uninsured adults calling it an “ideological mess.” They warn the senators that “New Hampshire voters aren’t an ideological bunch and they don’t appreciate it from their elected leaders, either:”
Day by day, Bragdon and his Senate Republican brethren come closer and closer to channeling ousted House Speaker Bill O’Brien and his disgraced leadership team. In their philistine fight to dismantle government, O’Brien et al. cut many essential programs to the bone, leaving some of the state’s neediest out in the cold. Last November, voters rewarded O’Brien by ousting many of his colleagues and relegating him to the back bench.
With regards to Medicaid, it’s a lesson Bragdon and his followers should pay closer attention to.
State House Rep. George Lambert (R-Litchfield) is preparing a run for the corner office.
On Facebook last night, he posted a teaser. “There is a strange feeling of ‘Liberty’ and potential in our home this evening!” he wrote. “Had a long chat with my wife this evening… I am feeling so empowered.”
Lambert promised big news, but refused to be specific. “Next a chat with one of my neighbors down the street for sanity checking reality. Sorry that I can’t say more yet… but keep on the look out for something really big!”
A few minutes later, his friend Fred Mitchell spilled the beans. “Just got wind that my friend George Lambert wishes to run in the gubernatorial race in New Hampshire,” he wrote. “He would make a true ‘Governator’ as he would tear down the BS that has become the politics in our Live Free or Die State. As totally Liberty Minded, he would bring our State that much closer to our dreams. SUPPORT HIM!!!!”
“Any help you can be will be of a tremendous benefit,” Mitchell continued. “He needs contributions and volunteers. This is it, folks. Finally, a true Liberty-minded no compromise candidate that would serve as the lynch pin into making the Live Free or Die State live up to its name already.”
As a House lawmaker, Lambert has sponsored numerous so-called “pro-liberty” bills including legislation making it impossible to prosecute “victimless” crime such as drug offenses and driving while intoxicated. “If there are no victims, there is no crime,” he told the Telegraph. “The state itself can’t be the victim.”
Lambert, who is closely aligned with the Free State Project, was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance in his last House race.
The latest Tea Party conspiracy theory involves the adoption of Common Core Standards in education. In an email appeal, the New Hampshire Tea Party invoked Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro to condemn the program that has been endorsed by Nazi sympathizers Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush:
It’s time ‘conservatives’ got up out of their complacency and realized, as Hitler knew, that those who control education will control the political views of generations to come. In Germany, a core curriculum was introduced, so that the Nazis could monitor, at all times, what was being taught. …
In Nazi Germany, teachers who did not go along with the political views of the government were dismissed. This is already happening in the USA…. Today’s teachers and psychologists are NOT being trained to educate students academically or to counsel and help people cope with their problems, but to influence their political views. Does it sound like we’re becoming Castro’s Cuba? I can tell you from personal experience that we’re already there.
State House Rep. John Hikel (R-Goffstown) took to Facebook today and blasted House Democrats for voting to “grossly raise taxes, increase the size and intrusiveness of state government” and diminish our “unalienable rights.” A constituent from Goffstown, Jennifer Garth, responded forcefully and eloquently. Excerpts from the discussion follows:
John Hikel Those of us whom were in the NH House yesterday experienced a losing effort trying to resist and defeat some of the most damaging tax increase including Common Core and Obama Care to mention a few but not limited to just those and attacks on our NH Bill of Rights and constitutional freedoms in the form of diminishing our rights by accepting more federal money with strings attached. …
Jennifer Garth I see a lot of vague talking points here (“grossly raise taxes, increase the size and intrusiveness of state government, diminishes our unalienable rights such as the right to self defense”). Can you name the specific things that he voted for/against that you are taking umbrage with, please? Thanks.
John Hikel … Now you can either believe someone who is sitting through it and watching it happen or you can engage yourself in the process but it will depend on how you look at tax increases whether they are more free stuff for those who feel entitled or are you of the ones who contribute so your government can give more of your money away.
Jennifer Garth John Hikel, I don’t subscribe to the Tea Party ethos that says that fellow struggling Americans who want to utilize government services are parasites to be crushed. … So you can take your Fox hate speech and use it on someone who agrees with you that the American citizens are the enemy and the lobbyists are the good guys.
John Hikel Wow Jennifer Garth, Are you misinformed about what I support. You are so far off base. Not one thing you just said is even close to accurate. … do you have such a dislike for hard working people like myself because we work 6 days a week trying to get buy and don’t work 7 to give more to the beast? Try being a productive contributor to society.
Jennifer Garth … And see, there you go again… “do you have a dislike for hard working people like myself”, meaning YOU don’t work so you wouldn’t understand. You tea party types are imperious, vainglorious, self centered menaces to society. You know nothing about me yet accuse me of not being a productive member of society. This kind of disdain for your fellow citizen shows in the legislation you press, whether you admit it or not.
John Hikel Sorry but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Seems contagious these days.
If New Hampshire conservatives had any doubts about Ayotte, they’ve been asked and answered at this point. What Ayotte’s opponents, especially New Hampshire Democrats, hope is that they can use this issue to reduce her appeal beyond the GOP base. The more they reduce her crossover appeal, the greater the chance they can do to her what they did to another young up-and-comer, John Sununu, in 2008.
— Dante Scala, UNH political science professor, on the electoral implications of Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s vote opposing expanded background checks for gun purchases.
By a 322 - 246 margin, voters in Claremont Ward 2 selected Republican Joe Osgood over Democrat Larry Converse to fill the vacant Sullivan District 4 House seat in yesterday’s special election.
New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn breathlessly declared the win was “a repudiation of Governor Hassan’s irresponsible agenda and her failed fiscal leadership in Concord.” Her troops obviously didn’t get the memo.
“While Republicans will undoubtedly boast about the pick-up, don’t read too much into it,” wrote Republican state House Rep. Steve Vaillancourt.
Spec Bowers, Sullivan County Republican Committee chair, was honest. “Special elections never have real implications,” he said. “I’d like to think it is a good sign but I can’t. I know better.”
Frank Szabo, who moved to New Hampshire with the Free State Project, earned his 15 minutes of fame when his 2012 campaign for Hillsborough County Sheriff ended in a spectacular implosion.
While campaigning, Szabo had declared “abortion is murder” and promised to arrest anyone performing an abortion in Hillsborough County. His campaign effectively ended the day he took that to its logical conclusion and told WMUR that he would not rule out the use of deadly force to prevent an abortion from taking place.
Soon after his defeat, Szabo announced he had left the country. Today, he is extolling the virtues of Freedom Orchard, a development north of Curacaví, Chile “that will be attractive to freedom-minded people worldwide:”
John Galt is the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s famous novel Atlas Shrugged. He determined that he would not use his talents to support the welfare/warfare/high-taxed/overly-regulated state and built a high-tech colony called “Galt’s Gulch” to where productive scientists, entrepreneurs and other talented people could escape from statist slavery and be free to create value and thrive. … In today’s world, Galt’s Gulch can best be attained in Freedom Orchard….