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Economy

George Allen Blamed Obama For Rising Gas Prices, Is Silent Now That They’re Falling

By Josh Israel on May 24, 2012 at 5:30 pm

From GeorgeAllen.com

From GeorgeAllen.com

Former Virginia Sen. George Allen (R), who is seeking to reclaim the Senate seat he lost six years ago, has made pro-dirty energy policies a huge part of his campaign, and has railed at every opportunity about high gas prices. But he and his campaign have either not noticed or chosen to ignore the significant drop in the cost of gasoline in recent weeks.

Front and center on his campaign website is a graphic comparing gas prices from the artificially low $1.85-per-gallon average from January 2009 (driven down by the economic meltdown) with the $3.87-per-gallon average of several weeks ago.

Throughout his campaign, Allen has promised lower energy prices, which he says can be achieved by pushing for more offshore drilling and more deregulation. The League of Conservation Voters called described him as having “one of the worst environmental records ever.”

In February, March, and April, Allen blamed the President for energy costs, complaining that “The Obama administration may not think rising gasoline and energy prices are severely straining budgets – but the families and small business owners of Virginia tell a different story.” The effort to pin rising gas prices on the President was echoed by Republicans across the country — though history consistently has shown gas prices have virtually nothing to do with any U.S. policy decision.

But according to AAA’s “Daily Fuel Gage,” the national average for a gallon of gas has dropped from $3.849 a month ago to just $3.676 today. And in Virginia, the state Allen hopes to again represent, it’s at an even-lower $3.485.

Allen has updated neither this graphic nor his rhetoric. Just yesterday, the campaign posted a comment from Allen’s wife Susan that Virginia entrepreneurs want “real change in Washington to get rid of burdensome regulations and create a real energy policy to alleviate the pain at the pump.” And a week ago, George Allen tweeted, “High cost of gasoline touches virtually every aspect of our economy. We need to unleash our American energy resources.”

When prices were going up, Allen and others on the Right, were all too happy to blame it on President Obama. Now that prices are going down, rather than give any credit to the Obama administration, they seem content to just ignore it. Allen owns between $108,009 and $370,000 in coal, oil, and other energy companies’ stock, received at least $15,000 in consulting and speaking fees from the dirty energy sector in the previous year, and was paid $20,000 for his work as chairman of the American Energy Freedom Center, a pro-dirty energy group which engages in global warming denial.

LGBT

George Allen Disagrees With Virginia Republicans: Sexual Orientation Should Not Be A Criteria For Judges

By Alex Seitz-Wald on May 17, 2012 at 12:20 pm

Former Senator George Allen (R), who is now running to reclaim his seat, said he disagreed with a recent decision by the state’s House of Delegates to reject the confirmation of a judicial nominee because he is gay. The House rejected the appointment of Tracy Thorne-Begland, one of the state’s top prosecutors, because “his lifestyle is exactly contrary” the the state’s anti-marriage equality law, Delegate Bob Marshall (R) said.

But Allen said he does not think sexual orientation should be a consideration for judges. “What I’d look at as far as judges is, I’d look at their qualifications. As far as judges are concerned, sexual orientation is not one of their criteria for being a judge,” Allen said during a campaign stop in Prince William County, according to Inside Nova.

Allen is hardly an LGBT-friendly lawmaker. He’s said that gay rights are not civil rights, co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality, and often used to raise the specter of same-sex marriage in stump speeches.

Election

Rove’s Crossroads GPS Spends $1.2 Million Of Secret Money On Dishonest Attacks In Key Senate Races

By Josh Israel on Apr 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

Crossroads GPS Attack Ad (Virginia)

Crossroads GPS Attack Ad (Virginia)

Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS is using $1.2 million of its secret money to launch attack ads against Democrats in five closely-contested senate races, this week. The tax-exempt 501(c)(4) is running “issue ads” blasting Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sen. John Tester (D-MT), former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA), former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Rep. Shelley Berkeley (D-NV).

Crossroads GPS, which almost exclusively backs Republicans, claims, “these spots [are] intend to alert citizens to the anti-job policies in Washington and push for real economic solutions to create jobs,” but the spots are little more than dishonest attacks against Democratic candidates and President Obama.

The ads attempt to cast the Democratic candidates as stand-ins for Obama, but because Heitkamp and Kaine have never served in Congress, the attacks on these two are particularly disingenuous.

In North Dakota, Crossroads GPS uses the same clip of Heitkamp as the National Republican Senatorial Campaign (NRSC) posted on YouTube last week. Like the NRSC, Crossroads takes out of context an innocent comment by Heitkamp that she expected then-candidate Obama’s 2008 convention speech to be “amazing,” and it attempts to use that as a way of blaming Heitkamp for everything the group dislikes about Obama and the Affordable Care Act.

The clip comes from a 2008 video made by North Dakota attorney and Democratic National Committeeman Chad Nodland. Nodland successful got YouTube to remove the NRSC’s posting of the video, citing his copyright of the footage. In an email, he confirmed to ThinkProgress that he is already preparing a cease-and-desist letter to Crossroads GPS and will alert YouTube and North Dakota television stations to the copyright violation. (Out of respect for Mr. Nodland’s legal right to the video, ThinkProgress will not link to the Crossroads GPS spot).

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Election

GOP Senator Endorses George Allen, Who Voted For Trillions In Debt, Claiming He Would Change ‘Debt Culture’

By Josh Israel on Apr 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) will endorse and campaign with former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) today, as Allen seeks to regain the Senate seat he lost in 2006 after his infamous bullying of an Indian-American campaign tracker whom he called “macaca.” In an email obtained by Roll Call, Johnson — who oversees Senate Republican message and agenda coordination — explains that he supports Allen because, “We must change the spending and debt culture in Washington.”

In his lone Senate term, Allen voted for about $4.4 trillion in discretionary spending appropriations, 52,000 earmarks, and four debt limit increases. He also backed George W. Bush’s massive tax cuts for the rich, which exploded the deficit.

In all, the public debt increased by about three trillion dollars — more than 51 percent — during Allen’s tenure, making him the last person Johnson should trust to change the spending and debt culture.

NEWS FLASH

George Allen Rejects Kaine Proposal To Curb Secret Money | Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who is now running for his old senate seat, rejected a proposal by likely Democratic nominee former Gov. Tim Kaine aimed at eliminating secret money from the 2012 Virginia senate race arising from 501(c)(4) groups like Crossroads GPS. Allen, who had earlier endorsed the concept of “full disclosure,” suggested that Kaine’s proposal was an “unfortunate gimmick, typical of the partisan gamesmanship playing out in Washington today.” Prior to this incident, Allen also rejected a Kaine proposal to eliminate super PAC spending similar to the agreement adopted in the Massachusetts senate race. Allen’s support for unlimited corporate and secret donors using shady 501(c)(4)s and super PAcs to influence the race is unsurprising: high-dollar political donors overwhelming favor Republicans.

NEWS FLASH

Georgia Senate Votes To Ban Undocumented Immigrants From Attending State Colleges | The Georgia Senate passed a bill 34-19 that would ban undocumented immigrants from attending any of Georgia’s 60 public colleges, even though state college officials have already said the bill is unnecessary. The measure now goes to the House for consideration, where another bill targeting undocumented immigrants and public colleges has not yet passed out of committee. Federal law does not prevent undocumented immigrants from attending public colleges. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency wrote in 2008 that “individual states must decide for themselves whether or not to admit illegal aliens into their public postsecondary institutions.”

Climate Progress

George Allen Invests In, Works For, And Campaigns Around Dirty Energy Corporations

By Josh Israel on Mar 2, 2012 at 10:09 am

LCV Ad: Senator George Allen - One Of the Worst Environmental Records Ever

League of Conservation Voters Ad Against George Allen

Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who is trying to regain the seat he lost in 2006, is making his support for pro-coal, oil, and energy corporation policies a huge part of his campaign. And a ThinkProgress Green analysis of his personal and campaign finance disclosure forms may show why.

In August, Allen submitted his required candidate financial disclosure report to the Secretary of the Senate. In it, he revealed:

–He owns between $108,009 and $370,000 in coal, oil, and other energy companies’ stock. The include holdings in Chevron Group, Devon Energy, Peabody Energy, General Electric, Praxair, Constellation Energy Group Inc., Nextera Energy Inc., Encana Corp., and Dominion Resources Inc.

–He received at least $15,000 in consulting and speaking fees from the dirty sector sector in the previous year. Those came in the form of a $5,000 speaker’s fee from the Ohio Coal Association and $5,000-or-larger consulting payments from both Alpha Natural Resources and the investment branch of Peabody Energy.

–He was paid $20,000 for his work as chairman of the American Energy Freedom Center, a pro-dirty energy group which engages in global warming denial. The organization is connected with the Exxon-Mobil Corporation-funded Institute for Energy Research.

Read the disclosure form (.PDF).

Since his first run for Congress in a 1991 special election, Allen has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from energy-sector corporate PACs. This includes some of the worst polluters in the country: Koch Industries (at least $28,500), Dominion Resources Inc. (at least $20,000), Occidental Petroleum (at least $17,000), Southern Company (at least $13,500), ExxonMobil (at least $12,500), and Marathon Oil (at least $10,100).

So it’s no wonder that Allen’s running a hugely pro-energy sector campaign. He advocates for more offshore drilling, construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline which would bring no jobs to Virginia, and deregulation. His @georgeallenva Twitter feed contains a non-stop parade of complaints about “gasoline prices,” “costs of fuel,” and “energy prices.” One recent Allen tweet pledged “On day one I will introduce a bill to open VA’s coast for exploration for oil and natural gas.”

Allen attempts to convince voters that his pro-industry policies would somehow bring gas prices back to $1.84 — rather than simply increase profits for the energy companies he invests in and worked for. But domestic oil production is at its highest point in nearly a decade while prices continue to rise.

In his one term in the senate from 2001 to 2007, Allen amassed what the League of Conservation Voters called “one of the worst environmental records ever.” Should Virginia return him to the senate, it seems clear Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Energy would have his vote and his undivided attention.

Economy

GOP Senate Hopeful George Allen Has A Case Of Balanced Budget Amendment Amnesia

By Josh Israel on Feb 21, 2012 at 6:05 pm

Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA)

Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) is trying to regain the seat he lost in 2006 after his infamous bullying of an Indian-American campaign tracker who he called “macaca.” In this campaign, he is playing up is his support for a constitutional balanced budget amendment, in order to clean up the massive budget deficit that he helped run up last time he was in congress. And his allies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are also playing up the issue in their “independent” ads supporting him.

But video on Allen’s campaign site highlights his selective memory on this subject. As part of his “Ask George Allen” video series, Allen tells a questioner, “you do have my word to fight for a balanced budget amendment to the constitution as well as line-item veto authority.” He then explains his reasoning, saying:

In fact, while I was a member of the House of Representatives for one year in the early 1990s, I introduced the line item veto [and the] balanced budget amendment. We got it to a vote on the floor. And when I was in the Senate, a few years ago, I introduced it as well.

Watch the video:

But here’s what actually happened. In 2000, he ran against then-Sen. Chuck Robb (D), promoting his support for a balanced budget amendment. After getting elected, Allen waited more than five years to act. He neither authored nor co-sponsored a balanced budget amendment proposal in the Senate in the 107th or 108th Congress, while the Republican Congress and President George W. Bush took a $236 billion surplus and turned it into a $412 billion deficit. Instead, he focused his efforts on legislation like his Liberty Dollar Bill Act, a proposal to require that all U.S. one-dollar bills include the preamble to the constitution, a list of articles, and the first ten amendments.

Only in February 2006, when he was up for re-election, did Allen submit a balanced budget amendment proposal in the senate. In his speech announcing the bill, he said “I hope my colleagues recognize the seriousness, the importance, and the urgency” of his proposal. Allen was unable to get a single colleague to sign on as a co-sponsor.

But sure enough, his 2006 re-election site boasted that Allen “introduced a Constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget.”

A constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget is, in the end, a gimmick that would either require massive tax increases or massive spending cuts — cuts which could have put 15 million Americans out of work if they were enacted this year. But still, Allen is throwing his weight behind the idea as a crowd-pleaser, when there’s no chance of him actually getting it enacted.

Climate Progress

George Allen Wants To Be Virginia’s Tar Sands Senator

By Josh Israel on Feb 15, 2012 at 4:50 pm

George Allen's attack ad

George Allen's attack ad

In a new ad for the Virginia U.S. Senate race, Republican candidate George Allen implausibly argues that the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport Canadian tar sands crude from Montana to Texas refineries, would benefit the state of Virginia.

The unnarrated 75-second spot, entitled “Unabashed,” laments that the nation has endured “35 straight months of unemployment above 8%” and highlights President Barack Obama’s administration’s rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Then, it shows a lengthy series of video clips and newspaper headlines tying likely Democratic nominee, former Gov. Tim Kaine, to the administration’s position and backing the tar sands project:

– “Obama’s decision will cost the U.S. jobs” [Chicago Tribune, 1/19/12]
– “Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejection is hard to accept” [Washington Post, 1/18/12]
– “Obama’s Keystone pipeline nix worries small business” [CNNMoney.com, 1/19/12]
– “Obama’s pipeline decision delays energy security” [USA Today, 1/18/12]

Watch the spot:

The ad ends with the text “Tim Kaine. President Obama’s Senator. NOT VIRGINA’S.”

The claims that the Keystone XL pipeline would be a significant job creator have been widely debunked and the media citations reference stories that relied on flawed information. But even if you believed the industry’s inflated claims of tens of thousands of jobs, is hard to imagine that a construction project nearly 1,000 miles away from even the Commonwealth’s western-most point would put a significant number of Virginians to work.

More likely to benefit, however, would be the big oil and other energy companies whose multi-million-dollar lobbying campaigns have focused heavily on pushing the pipeline’s construction. And, as it happens, that sector has heavily funded former Sen. Allen’s campaign. Though the campaign has refused to disclose the list clients at Allen’s company or what he did for the energy industry as a consultant in the time between his last campaign and this one, ThinkProgress reported last year that Allen founded an industry-tied group to oppose clean energy reforms, spoke at a global-warming deniers hosted by the Heartland Institute, and toured Virginia with the Koch Industries-funded Americans for Prosperity.

A more truthful ad would say: George Allen. Big Oil’s Senator. NOT VIRGINIA’S.

Politics

Chamber Of Commerce Supports Government Spending, But Runs Pro-GOP Ads Attacking ‘Big Government’

By Josh Israel on Feb 13, 2012 at 3:45 pm

Chamber of Commerce ad attacking "Big Government"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced a multi-state voter “education” ad blitz late last week. Tom Donohue, the group’s president and CEO, says the ads focus on a simple question: “Is big government or free enterprise the solution to our country’s economic problems?”

The blitz features an array of 30-second TV spots aimed at bucking up vulnerable Republican incumbents, supporting GOP House and Senate hopefuls, and criticizing Democrats. One spot supports Blue Dog Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT).

But there is a large element of hypocrisy and contradiction in the spots. One typical ad praises former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who was defeated in 2006 following his infamous bullying of an Indian-American campaign tracker who he called “macaca” and is seeking his party’s nomination for the same senate seat this November. The narrator says:

Big government isn’t going to help the American recovery. We need to focus on jobs to get our economy back on track. In the Senate, George Allen supported tax cuts that spurred economic growth. He supports a Balanced Budget Amendment. And as Virginia’s governor, Allen cut spending and waste with bipartisan support. Call George Allen. Tell him to keep fighting to promote Virginia jobs.

Watch the ad:

But the Chamber has a selective memory. It was a leading proponent of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus legislation promising that the tax cuts and even many of law’s spending provisions would “provide stimulus and get Americans back to work.” Allen has called the law a “jobless stimulus.”

Though the measure passed almost entirely along party lines, the Chamber spent millions in 2010 to defeat the Democrats who backed the bill — and some of that money may have come from foreign businesses. The $789 billion law has been the largest increase in spending in the Obama presidency.

A constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget would have rendered this stimulus bill — and the preservation of the Allen-backed tax cuts that the Chamber claims spurred growth — impossible.

But even if three years is too long ago for the Chamber to remember, one would think they could remember back to last week. For just as the group blitzed Americans with messages that a smaller government was a panacea to solve the woes of a demonstrably improving economy, its own “Americans for Transportation Mobility Coalition” launched an ad last week calling for more federal government spending on transportation. With clips of President Ronald Reagan, the spot demands “new investments in transportation to keep America moving and jobs growing.” That would likely mean more “big government.”

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