It just came to my attention that you will be fundraising for your Presidential campaign in St. Louis today. I just wanted to take a moment and welcome you to the great state of Missouri.

I know that you don’t make it to Missouri as much as you visit our neighbors to the north in the Hawkeye State, but you’ll see while you’re here that Missourians are some of the most hard-working and entrepreneurial folks in the entire country.

While we’re happy to have you in our state, we hope that you take some time to answer a few questions. It seems that unlike most people running for office, you are unwilling to answer questions from voters and the press, and your staff even claims that you’re not “ready” to appear on a Sunday show.

As a career candidate like you knows, fielding questions on your proposals and explaining your record are really a cornerstone of the political process. Unfortunately, it looks like the only questions you’ll be taking today are from donors, so we took the liberty of putting together a few questions we hope you’ll answer:

1) Last night Senate Republicans voted to raise taxes on nearly 160 million Americans just so millionaires and billionaires don’t have to pay their fair share. Why do you support raising taxes on middle-class Americans?

2) The President’s payroll tax cut would let the typical Missouri family keep an extra $1,520 of what they earn. Why do you think that $1,520 is nothing more than a “little band-aid” for middle-class families?

3) Your campaign says that you’re not “ready” to sit down for a Sunday show. If you’re not ready for a few tough interviews, what makes you think you’re ready to lead the country?

4) Reckless behavior on Wall Street led us to the brink of economic disaster in 2008, so why do you want to repeal the safeguards that protect America’s taxpayers and why do you want to let Wall Street write its own rules again?

5) In a recent interview, you refused to answer a question about what book you are reading – are you ready to stop dodging the simplest questions?

I look forward to your speedy reply and again, welcome to Missouri.

Sincerely,

Brian Wahby

Chairman

St. Louis City Democrats

The President and his national security team took a big risk when they snuck into Pakistan, without permission and under the cover of nightfall to kill America’s number one enemy.  It took nearly a year of intelligence gathering about bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound and careful planning to pull off this daring nighttime raid.  Hopefully this successful mission will put to bed the age old Republican talking point that Democrats are soft on defense issues and only Republican president’s can keep the American people safe.

The President called for unity in the wake of this big victory for America.  He invoked the sense of unity that existed in our country in the weeks and months following 9/11.  This time, that unity lasted for only a few short hours.  By Monday morning, the right wing talking heads and some of the leading Republican presidential candidates were praising former President Bush for making all this possible.  Some of them without any actual intelligence to support their position praised the “enhanced interrogation techniques” for providing information that led to Bin Laden’s death.

It pains these Republican Presidential candidates to see President Obama succeed.  They know that their chances of ever becoming President shrink every time the President and his team competently handle a crisis and clean up another one of the Bush Administration’s messes.  Their efforts to belittle the President’s accomplishments are backfiring and they are the ones the look petty.

Let’s look at a couple of examples from the past few weeks.  The President decided to put an end to the birther nonsense, which is nothing more than a veiled attempt to discredit America’s first black President, by releasing his “long form birth certificate.”  This won’t stop the conspiracy theorists, but it should at least silence the serious Republican presidential contenders.  I’m sure it will only silence them until they can devise another conspiracy to talk about President Obama’s race.

It’s no secret that our nation is facing a serious debt crisis that is a result of years of out of control spending by both parties and a shortfall in revenues thanks to the Bush Tax cuts.  The President and his team try to come up with real, grown up solutions to our nations debt crisis.  They recognize that continuing to cut taxes for the rich can’t solve this crisis and that entitlement programs really do need to be reformed.  Rather than responsibly deal with this crisis and work with the President, Republicans proposed a disingenuous plan to solve our nations debt crisis on the backs of the poor and elderly.  They proposed slashing Medicare and Medicaid to cut costs while at the same time giving more tax breaks to America’s richest one percent and to their corporate bosses.

Finally, last week a new jobs report was released that shows the American economy created 244,000 jobs during the month of April and that U.S. payrolls grew at the fastest rate in five years.  This is great news not just for President Obama but for the country as a whole.  Yet, Republicans continue to sing the same old song that they can do a better job fixing the economy by implementing the tired old economic policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

President Obama may never win the respect of the right-wingers, but he is winning the respect of independent voters and of America’s middle class.  Most Americans aren’t interested in hyper partisanship.  They are interested in having good jobs and a decent quality of life for themselves and their children.  They want a President and a Congress that simply get the job done.  I can’t speak for the Congress, but we have a real leader in President Obama who is making tough choices and working every day to make this country a better place.

Brian Wahby is Chairman of the St. Louis City Democrats and Missouri’s At-Large Member of the Democratic National Committee.

This spirited support was lead by our political and civic leaders from both sides of the river, many of whom whole-heartedly joined the Host Committee.  We would not have come this far without the great support of Mayor Francis Slay, Governor Jay Nixon, Senator Claire McCaskill, County Executive Charlie Dooley, Senator Dick Durbin, our bi-state Congressional Delegation.

Joining our effort were business and labor leaders including David Farr of Emerson and Civic Progress, Mike DeCola of Mississippi Minerals and the Regional Business Council, Bob Soutier of the St Louis Labor Council, Gerry Feldhaus and Jeff Aboussie of the St. Louis Building Trades Council, Nancy Cross of SEIU.  To all of these great St. Louis leaders: Thanks for your leadership and commitment to St. Louis.

Of course there are many people to thank and in the coming days we will attempt to reach out to you, but we also want to recognize here the extraordinary efforts, commitment and leadership of Kitty Ratcliffe and her staff at the Convention and Visitors Commission.  We are truly blessed to have such a dedicated and talented group of people working to sell our region as a premier location for tourists, meetings and conventions.

Again thanks to all of you who helped.  St. Louis was a serious contender throughout this process, and we should be proud of our collective efforts.  You proved that no league is too big for St. Louis.  It is at times like this that I like to read the following quote from one of my favorite Republicans, Teddy Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Thanks for allowing me the great honor to have lead this effort. Remember, 2016 is only 5 short years away.

Sincerely,

Brian Wahby

Chairman

St. Louis City Democrats

Courtesy of www.democrats.org

Video Courtesy of the DNC.

St. Louis submitted its bid on 21 May, along with several other cities.  St. Louis is a strong contender for the Convention, given the region’s central location and unique attributes as a family-friendly and diverse city capable of hosting the 50,000 delegates, press and other visitors in 2012.

If successful, St. Louis will enjoy a significant economic benefit from the Convention.  In 2008, the Convention boosted Denver’s regional economy by $266 million.  For comparison, the 2009 MLB All-Star Game boosted the St. Louis economy by some $60 million.

The DNC’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will conduct site visits to each finalist city this summer.

“I’m proud St. Louis got short-listed,” said St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay.  “We demonstrated we are a first-class city capable of holding an event of this magnitude.”

The community can follow the St. Louis bid online and sign up to help at stl2012.org, via Twitter @stldnc2012 and on Facebook at facebook.com/stldnc2012.

Congressman “Bailout” Blunt’s Campaign Account is

“Where Big Oil Puts Its Money”

Forbes Highlights Blunt as #2 Highest Recipient of Big Oil Money in U.S. House of Representatives

14-Year Voting Record Shows Billions in Government Giveaways to Big Oil

Jefferson City – As Big Oil executives took heat on Capitol Hill yesterday, Forbes released an article “Where Big Oil Puts Its Money on Capitol Hill”, highlighting Congressman Roy Blunt’s record of raking in chart-topping amounts of cash from Big Oil.  The article notes that Congressman Blunt has the distinction of being the second-highest recipient of Big Oil money in the entire House of Representatives for the current campaign cycle [Forbes, 6/15/2010].

The other top recipients of Big Oil cash are largely from oil producing states, unlike Congressman Blunt.  However, given Congressman Blunt’s 14-year record of protecting Big Oil, the news doesn’t come as a total surprise, but serves as a reminder of who Congressman Blunt has been working for during his seven terms in Washington. Congressman Blunt’s record includes doling out billions in government giveaways to Big Oil and fighting to ease drilling restrictions for oil companies.

“As oil continues to seep, so do the stories about Congressman Blunt’s ties to Big Oil,” said Ryan Hobart, Communications Director for the Missouri Democratic Party. “The more we learn about Congressman Blunt’s chart-topping Big Oil contributions, the more we understand why he has spent the last 14 years in Washington protecting Big Oil companies.”

Congressman Blunt recently added to his Big Oil coffers when he took money from Halliburton after the spill began and Congress started investigating the company’s potential involvement in causing the spill. [Fec.gov (Halliburton contribution on 05/17/10)].

CONGRESSMAN BLUNT’S 14-YEAR WASHINGTON RECORD OF PROTECTING BIG OIL

What He Gets:

• Congressman Blunt took More Than $1 Million from Big Oil & Energy Interests during his time in Washington  [OpenSecrets.org, 5/21/10]
• Congressman Blunt is ranked #2 out of 435 members of the House of Representatives in oil and gas contributions [OpenSecrets.org, 5/26/10]
• Congressman Blunt is among the Top Ten Recipients Of BP Money in the House of Representatives [OpenSecrets.org, 4/30/10]

What He Gives:

• Congressman Blunt voted for $21 billion in subsidies and government giveaways to the Oil and Gas industry [HR 6, Vote 630, 11/18/03; Knight Rider, 11/20/03; Arizona Republic, 11/20/03]
• Congressman Blunt voted for nearly $15 billion in special interest energy tax breaks, which went overwhelmingly to Big Oil companies. [HR 6, Vote 445, 7/28/05; New York Times; Public Interest Research Group, League of Conservation Voters; HR 4, Vote 320, 8/02/01; Los Angeles Times, 8/3/01; Taxpayers for Commonsense, 7/31/01]
• Congressman Blunt voted for more than $1 billion for a special tax cut for their work overseas. [Vote 333, 7/22/99; Vote 379, 8/5/99; USA Today, 8/17/99; New York Times, 7/21/99]

Long time Washington incumbent Congressman Blunt has 8 opponents, including Tea Party favorite State Senator Chuck Purgason, in the Missouri primary for U.S. Senate.

For more information about the Missouri Democratic Party visit www.MissouriDems.org and follow us on Twitter www.Twitter.com/MoDemParty.

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June 1, 2010

Leave it up to the right wingers to blame the President for the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Rather than discussing our country’s long-standing addiction to crude oil and the impact this dependence has had on our ecology, economy and security – the right-wing would have us believe that President Obama started the leak himself. Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck would rather distract with assertions that the President hasn’t responded quickly enough to a catastrophe that they would have people believe the President’s policies fostered.

I, for one have had enough.

Yes the events unfolding in the Gulf are a horrific reminder oils spills of the past. The images of tar balls, crude covered sea fowl and dead fish remind us that we need to change our energy policy – not beat-up on our President. If we insist on placing blame on a President, how about we place blame on the President funded by big oil? You guessed it, George W. Bush and his Halliburton-sponsored sidekick Dick Cheney.

So what really caused the mess in the Gulf? It is our country’s laissez-faire approach to energy policy. A policy that has developed and been fostered by generations of oil men – oil men like George Bush, his father before him and especially their lead oil man, the former CEO of Halliburton – Dick Cheney. After all, it was Bush’s administration that issued waiver after waiver to BP and Halliburton, which allowed them to skirt safety issue and ultimately lead to the oil spill in the Gulf.

We Americans have to wake up. “Drill-baby-drill” is not a sound energy policy, nor is a policy written by big oil lobbyist. We need a policy that focuses on independence from oil and encourages development of renewal energy. American energy policy should provide a cleaner environment, new industries and freedom from the politics of the Middle East (and freedom from the politics dominated by big-oil and their Republican lackeys).

They don’t call it Texas Tea for no reason –It’s the fault of those good ol’ oil boys from Texas that we are witnessing the destruction in the Gulf. But Rush Limbaugh won’t tell you that.

Brian Wahby is Chairman of the St. Louis City Democrats and an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee.

www.TheVeryWorstOfWashington.com

Jefferson City, MO – Days after the Missouri Democratic Party released a trailer previewing the untold stories of Congressman Blunt’s extensive ties to the most corrupt players in Washington, the cutting edge Web site everyone has been waiting for is LIVE.

This blockbuster Web site exposes some of the lesser-known aspects of Congressman Blunt’s record as the ringmaster of Washington.  Together with convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff and indicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Congressman Blunt has been at the center of nearly every major political corruption scandal of the last decade.  And while the Web site may look like that of a fictional political thriller, unfortunately for Missourians, every story, connection and character on www.TheVeryWorstOfWashington.com is real.

“For thirteen years, Congressman Blunt has been the glue holding the very worst of Washington together, and with the launch of our new Web site, Congressman Blunt will finally be exposed for what he is: the ultimate insider with a record of waste, corruption and sticking it to the middle class,” said Ryan Hobart, Communications Director for the Missouri Democratic Party.  “With www.TheVeryWorstOfWashington.com Missourians will see that Congressman Blunt has been up to no good all these years in Washington and certainly doesn’t deserve to go to the U.S. Senate.”

The Web site includes these features:

• “Characters”  — the who’s who of Congressman Blunt’s Washington inner circle
• “Episodes” – real stories and examples of what Congressman Blunt and his Washington friends have been up to
• “Hangouts” – real locations of where these Washington insiders conduct business
• “Timeline” – dates and times of what went down
• “Connections” – how the Washington insiders fit together
• “Which Washington Insider Are You? Quiz” – an interactive quiz to take and share

Congressman Blunt’s record of sticking it to the middle class, accepting huge checks from Wall Street bankers, and voting against tax cuts for small businesses speaks for itself.  Now, voters will have a chance to see just how Congressman Blunt spends his time, and with whom he’s spends his time since he’s been in Washington.  This all-too-real story about the Washington Insiders is now available for all Missourians to witness the very worst of Washington with their own eyes.

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