GOP "Death List" has KS-02 as "Lean Democratic"

Fairly good news for Congresswoman Nancy Boyda- her Republican colleagues in the House think she's probably going to get re-elected according to a chart produced...and then frustratingly spread to the wind:

Voter displeasure with the war and economy, coupled with Sen. Barack Obama's popularity, has the House GOP running for cover. Even though polls have shown that Americans don't like congressional Democrats any more, a new internal GOP tally of House races suggests a Democratic rout that could keep the Republicans in the minority for decades. A document provided to Washington Whispers from a House GOP official shows that they could lose a net 34 seats.

Just in case you think it's all a scam:

The document provided to Whispers is no gag: It comes from one of the key House GOP vote counters. The source called it a "death list." The tally shows several different ratings of 66 House Republicans in difficult races or open seats held by retiring Republicans. "Rating 1" finds 10 Republicans "likely gone." Those districts are New York 13, Alaska, Arizona 1, Virginia 11, New York 25, Illinois 11, Florida 24, Michigan 7, Nevada 3, and North Carolina 8. Under "Rating 2," nine Republican seats are listed as "leaning Democratic." Under "Rating 3," some 22 GOP seats are listed as "true toss-up." The fourth rating, "lean Republican," finds 15 seats in the category that comes with this warning: "If there's a wave, some could be in trouble." The last "likely Republican" rating finds another 11. Only three Democratic districts are seen as "hopeful" GOP pickups. They are Florida 16, Pennsylvania 11, and Texas 22. Another 10 Democratic seats are listed as "possible" pickups. The loss of 34 House GOP seats is among the most dire predictions in Republican circles. Most analysts have suggested a drop of at least 20 seats and at most 30 seats. A key Democratic official refused to provide his own list but said, "I'd rather be us than them."

Want to see it for yourself? Well, it's all online, right here. Or, view it below:

GOP Death List2 - Upload a Document to Scribd

More on the Farm Bill

Another article today from the Wall Street Journal talking about why the Farm Bill found veto proof success, even though the President and the Republican leadership in the House instructed members to vote against it (which bleary-eyed lapdogs Todd Tiahrt & Jerry Moran dutifully did).

Last time around, Republicans were pretty generous when it came to larding up the farm bill.

This year, though, some of them had a change of attitude.

President Bush directed his party to get back to its fiscally conservative roots. He said he would prefer no new farm bill to the one written by Democrats.

The elected leader of the House Republicans, John Boehner from a corn-growing district in western Ohio, called the bill “a great example of what’s wrong in Washington.”

But half of Rep. Boehner’s caucus didn’t see it that way – 100 Republicans voted for the bill, which racked up such a large victory margin – 318-106 – that overriding a veto shouldn’t pose much of a problem, if it comes to that.

It’s a testament to the power of an important constituency in both congressional and presidential contests: the rural vote.

Yep, the rural vote, and the deep necessity to protect our farmers. Democrats and Republicans expressed the same reason for voting as they did: "I was voting my district."

That's what Nancy Boyda did. Dennis Moore, who's district has almost no farmers (if any) voted the way he knew Kansas farmers needed him to vote. Even Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback voted with a veto-proof majority in the Senate to pass the bill (though they both expressed the same hesitations Boyda did- that the bill wasn't perfect, but it was certainly better than nothing). Heck, Farm Bureau back the dang bill.

Only Tiahrt & Moran seemed to forget they represent a state of farmers and not San Francisco. Luckily Nancy Boyda was looking out for their constituents.

More on the New Ryun-Jenkins Poll

Little snippet from The Hill gives us some more reaction to the recently released poll that shows Jim Ryun destroying Lynn Jenkins by 44 points in the primary in the KS-02:

Former Rep. Jim Ryun leads state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins by roughly 3-to-1, according to a Ryun-commissioned poll of their GOP primary race released Wednesday.

Ryun’s 65 percent-to-21 percent lead among GOP primary voters represents a significant bump for the former congressman since a poll released nearly a month ago showed Ryun leading 50 percent to 34.

That poll was conducted for a group supporting Jenkins.

“While this race is bound to tighten as the campaign progresses, there is no question that Jim Ryun has a very strong edge among GOP voters,” says the poll, which was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies. “The report indicates that Ryun benefits from significantly higher name identification.”

Jenkins campaign manager Patrick Leopold took issue with the poll, noting that it was not “independent.”

“We haven’t spent a dime on advertising and sit here today with more money to spend on the primary than Ryun,” Leopold said, adding that the April poll showed that “the more people hear about his record, the better we do.”

Ryun communications director Jacqueline Harrison said: “This poll speaks for itself.”

Indeed the poll does speak for itself- Jim Ryun continues to out-perform the pro-choice, pro-tax Lynn Jenkins with Republican primary voters. We will, however, have to wait and see what these numbers do after both candidates go up on TV, which should, probably, be any time now.

Republicans Fail- Again- To Win A Republican Seat in Congress

Honest-to-goodness, it's music to our ears:

A GOP House leadership aide told the Politico last week that “if we don’t win in Mississippi, I think you are going to see a lot of people running around here looking for windows to jump out of.”

They didn't win in Mississippi.

For the third time in a row, the Republicans have failed to keep a solidly Republican House seat in their column For the third time Democrats have been elected over supremely well funded Republicans to seats that haven't seen Democratic representative in the last 20, 30, 40 or more years.

For the third time in a row, seats just as or even more Republican than Nancy Boyda's have been won by Democrats, even as the Republicans have scrambled desperately to paint the Democrats with national brushes, when it's local issues, and deep, deep dissatisfaction with the Republican brand, that has won the day time and time- and time- again.

First it was Congressman Bill Foster's stunning win in the seat once held by Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert in Illinois- a seat with a PVI of R-5 that the Democrat carried 53% of the vote. Then, Congressman Don Cazayoux was elected in the Louisiana 6th- a district with a PVI of R-1o that hadn't been represented by a Democrat since 1974. And now, just tonight, Congressman-elect Travis Childers has found himself elected in the Mississippi 1st- a district that has been held comfortably by Republicans since 1994 and that Childers took tonight with 54%.

In each race, the Republicans pulled exactly the same tricks they're going to try to use against Nancy Boyda. They're going to try to make the race about Nancy Pelosi, they're going to try to make the race about Barack Obama- they're going to do whatever they can to make the race about anything other than Nancy Boyda's track record or about the Republicans, because, if they do allow the race to be about the job Boyda has done, or about the miserable job the Republicans have done, they know they'll be destined for yet another lose in a "Republican" district.

It didn't work there, and it won't work here.

A third loss in Tuesday’s 1st District special election would prompt new predictions of electoral doom in November, hurt the party’s already flagging morale and usher in a new round of public finger-pointing among an already fractured GOP. Politico.com

With good reason- they're heading toward yet another election year like they had in 2006.

The Mississippi First is a district 4 points MORE Republican than Nancy Boyda's. This wasn't in Boston, kids, this was in rural Mississippi. And rural Louisiana. And rural Illinois.

Our hunch is- rural Kansas is going to be more of the same.

Happy Mother's Day, but just from the Democrats

All of us here at BoydaBloc, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, Congressman Dennis Moore, and 235 other members of the United States House of Representatives would like to wish you and your mothers a very happy Mother's Day.

Kansas Republican Representatives Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran and 169 House Republicans would rather just play politics in the House.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Yeah, of course, Tiahrt had just voted in favor of the resolution, and, in this recommit, but then joined 177 other Republicans (just Repubilcans) in voting against it. This was an effort, you see, to prevent the House from accomplishing a singularly important goal:

As House Democrats tried to pass legislation to ease the mortgage crisis on Wednesday, Republicans served up hours of procedural delays, demanding a score of roll call votes: 10 motions to adjourn, half a dozen motions to reconsider, various and sundry amendments, a motion to approve the daily journal, a motion to instruct and a "motion to rise."

The high point came just after 6 p.m., when, after one of the motions to adjourn, 61 members lined up to change their votes, one by one. Forty-six went from aye to no, while 15 changed from no to aye. The maneuver ate up 28 minutes in all -- and caused an eruption by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who accused the minority of a "filibuster by vote changing."

The Mother's Day resolution wasn't a big deal, and, really, most of America's mothers are probably just fine today knowing folks like Tiahrt and Moran would rather play politics than honor them, but this sort of obstruction, this sort of rank partisanship, is ridiculous when people all around the nation are losing their homes.

File this one under "Callous, and they don't care."

(By the way, if you needed any more evidence this was just a game, Tiahrt's spokesman has affirmed that Todd does indeed still love his mother).

Photo Caption Contest: Vice Presidential Edition

For your captioning pleasure:

Five Years After "Mission Accomplished"

Nothing, absolutely nothing, is any more distressing and deeply depressing than the fact the President of the United States told us five years ago today that the war in Iraq was over, and that our mission was accomplished.

It was foolish, and the thousands of American and Iraqi lives lost since them is a testament to that foolishness.

This war, which was supposed to have been over five long years ago, has seriously damaged our ability to respond to any new threat that might emerge anywhere around the globe, and it is from that prospective that Congresswoman Nancy Boyda has approached her very sound desire to begin a strategic redeployment of our troops from Iraq.

As reported by this blog at the time, Boyda expressed these concerns when General David Petraeus reported to Congress in early April.

Boyda said military leaders were also increasingly concerned with the situation in Afghanistan. About 10 months ago, a National Intelligence Estimate reported that al-Qaida had regained its pre-9/11 strength in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"When we ask why we aren't addressing that more, we are told that Iraq is our number one priority," Boyda said. "But why and when did Iraq become the number one priority? It wasn't the number one priority on Sept. 12-13."

Boyda said she wasn't in favor of a large withdrawal, rather a slow and steady progression that would allow the U.S. to reset its military readiness. Boyda cited a quote from General George Casey, Army chief of staff, who said there was an "invisible red line" that would indicate the current operations can no longer be sustained.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said April 2, "I think we're close to (the red line) now."

"While everyone rejoices in some stability in the region, the questions are two-fold," Boyda said. "One, will we be able to stay and hold on to that stability and two, at what cost could we do it? It's clearly having an affect on readiness moving forward.

"We're on uncharted ground," Boyda said. "There's no doubt in my mind that if we had another 9/11-type incident, we would be able to have an overwhelming and immediate response. The Air Force and Navy are ready (to respond quickly). The problem is sustaining that response. That's what we're hearing from senior military leadership."

Our men and women in uniform have done a supreme job in the missions they've been given, and God bless each and every one of them and their families. We have seen, however, rank mismanagement of this war by the civilian leadership in the Bush Administration and by Republicans in the House and Senate. The refocus to Iraq from Afghanistan has allowed the nation we invaded first to fall closer and closer to chaos, with only minor success in Iraq to show for it. And, on top of that, our strategic readiness, our ability to respond if anything else happens globally, has been seriously undermined.

So, on this five year anniversary of "Mission Accomplished," we'd just like to take a moment to remember all of those who have died or have been injured, and to hope for a fundamental change of direction - hopefully before another five years have passed. It is a time, friends, that we are lucky to have Nancy Boyda in Congress.

Bounce Boyda: Rest in Peace

So, so sad...

Boyda & Moore lead on earmark transparency; Moran and Tiahrt MIA

Following Congresswoman Nancy Boyda's lead, Congressman Dennis Moore from the Kansas 3rd District has released a list of the federal funding he has requested for FY2009.

Republican Congressmen Todd Tiahrt & Jerry Moran have not (typical from the party of "fiscal responsibility). Neither have either of our US Senators.

As we've said before, Boyda has taken the lead on earmark reform, and, hopefully, will succeed in passing legislation to force her Kansas colleagues who are lagging behind to catch up to her.

Under these new, more transparent rules, the total cost of earmarks in the 2008 federal budget dropped by 42% – the first decline in a decade.

Calls for further reform are quickly gaining momentum. One proposal would require Congress to list all earmarks within the text of a bill, rather than in legislative committee reports (as has been a common practice in the past). The idea is worth considering, but it seems to me that shifting earmarks from one venue to another is not enough to end corruption. Instead, we must make the entire budget process more transparent.

That's why I'm sponsoring legislation to require all Member of Congress to post their earmark requests online – not just the earmarks they receive, but every earmark they request. Taxpayers have the right to know how Congress wants to spend their money.

I began holding myself to this standard of accountability last June, when I posted my 2007 earmark requests to my Congressional website. This was a sharp break from the traditional secrecy of the budget process: CNN went so far as to call me a "maverick." Maverick or not, it just makes sense that greater transparency will lead to a more efficient, more effective federal budget.

No one called him a maverick, but CongressmanTiahrt did get a particularly auspicious bit of recognition recently- Citizens Against Government Waste listed him the 34th biggest "porker" in their annual "Congressional Pig Book, " which ranks Members of Congress based on the dollar amount of earmarks they've secured for their district.

This blog doesn't have a problem with earmarks, but we don't mind providing perspective. Tiahrt was 34th, followed by Jerry Moran at 103rd, Congresswoman Boyda at 114th, and Dennis Moore at 367th.

Hopefully Kansas Republicans (and their online minions on the blogs) will remember Boyda and Moore are both out passed in "pork barrel spending" by our two Republican members.

FEC deadline fast approaches...who will come out on top?

The weekend is always a slow time here at Boyda Bloc, but it's a perfect time to post ya'll with a question: With the FEC filing deadline coming on Monday, March 31, what do you think we should expect to see in terms of money raised and on-hand from Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins?

Just as a refresher, this is where they all started this quarter (listed in "Cash on Hand order):

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda
4th Quarter raised: $218,054.81
Cycle-to-Date: $771,305.76
Cash on Hand: $654,229.18

Lynn Jenkins
4Q raised: $90,376.52
Cycle to Date: $406,377.37
Cash on hand: $416,241.73 (it's higher than contributions because of some pesky "other receipts."

Jim Ryun
4Q raised: 198,454.18
Cycle-to-Date: $960,127.85
Cash on Hand: $364,789.19

So, who's gonna raise what? Will Congresswoman Boyda continue to win the cash-on-hand battle? Will Jim continue to blow his wad on stamps? And will Lynn even manage to break $100K? Give us your guess as to amount raised and CoH.