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Published May 20, 2015
Now the latest from the post-election Grapevine:
GOP Wins due to Bush's "Smart Strategy"
The New York Times managed to get the news of the Republican Senate takeover into its late editions, complete with an editorial which credited the outcome to the President's popularity and to what the Times called his "smart strategy."
And what was that strategy?
"The president's party denied Senate Democrats the chance to pass popular bills on prescription drugs for the elderly and the establishment of a Department of Homeland Security by adding political poison pills the Democrats couldn't swallow."
Fighting over Homeland Security
Speaking of that proposed Department of Homeland Security, it was a major issue in Georgia, where Republican Senate nominee Saxby Chambliss attacked incumbent Democrat Max Cleland for votes against the version of that bill the president wanted, which would have given him more freedom than the Democrats would have to hire, fire and transfer personnel within the new agency. Chambliss won.
This is how the New York Times reported that, "The upset was as much of a shock for Democrats as the venomous campaign that preceded it in which Mr. Chambliss accused Mr. Cleland, a triple amputee, of not being committed to national security."
Organic Ordinance?
Among the ballot initiatives voted on Tuesday was a proposed city ordinance in Berkeley California that would have required restaurants and cafes to sell only coffee that was organic, grown in environmentally friendly conditions, and for which growers were paid at least $1.26 per pound.
Coffee shop owners who violated the ordinance could have gotten up to six months in jail for selling what came to be referred to as politically incorrect coffee. The ordinance lost.
Prostitutes? No problem! Gay Marriage? No way!
Meanwhile, voters in Nevada, a state where prostitution is legal in most places, drew the line on gay marriage, adopting a state constitutional amendment specifying that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.
Bars Don't Stop Votes from Coming In
In the great state of Ohio, former Congressman James Traficant, who doing an eight-year stretch in the penitentiary for bribery and racketeering, nonetheless managed to get more than 27,000 votes running as an independent for his old seat in the House.
Democrat Tim Ryan won, and Traficant came in third, but nonetheless got 15 percent of the vote.
His ex-wife said, "The biggest obstacle was that he couldn't campaign."
https://www.foxnews.com/story/gop-wins-due-to-bushs-smart-strategy