Category: Bruce Braley

Braley Bytes: "Uh-Oh! I Just Stepped In Iowa" Edition

U.S. Rep turned Senate hopeful Bruce Braley is feeling embarrassed right now for being himself in a video, speaking candidly to some of his out-of-state lawyer buddies. While mooching around for money, Braley condescendingly calls Chuck Grassley “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.” He contrasts that description (which could also fit many of his constituents) with himself who shares the out-of-state ambulance chasers’ “background,” “experience,” and “voice.” Watch the video here:

While that crap might not play in Pella, it seems to do the trick on the out-of-state lawyer crowd. Attorneys and law firms have been Braley’s biggest donors, pumping $1,122,748 into his Senate campaign so far and 82% of his contributions have come from outside the state. I guess we know who his “voice” will be representing if elected.

Iowa First District Election Update

Bruce Braley (D)
Ben Lange (R)

Lange Lunges Ahead

A late October poll shows challenger Ben Lange charging past incumbent “Borrowing Bruce” Braley to take a narrow 46.9% to 45.4% lead in Iowa’s 1st congressional district. The poll shows 6.9% are still undecided and has a margin of error of 5.1%, so Lange, who has been burning shoe-leather all across the district, definitely can’t coast to the finish line. In this race every vote is important.

Interlopers Support Braley

According to 3rd quarter financial records, 78% of the contributions to Bruce Braley’s campaign came from out of state special interests. 92% of Ben Lange’s donations came from Iowans. This seems to continue a trend since during the 2010 election cycle 71% of Braley’s contributions came from out of state while 86% of Lange’s came from in state.

Despite calling for a ban on lobbyist contributions to Congressmen, “lawyers & lobbyists” have given $718,216 to the Braley campaign during this election.

National Rifle Association Endorses Lange

In addition to being A-rated by Gun Owners of America, Ben Lange has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF). In a statement the NRA-PVF explains:

“Ben Lange will protect our Second Amendment freedoms,” said Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA-PVF. “Because of his strong support of our rights, Ben Lange has earned an “AQ” rating and endorsement from the NRA-PVF.”

Ben Lange supports the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, which held that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms for law-abiding citizens in Iowa and everywhere in America. Lange also supports “The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act,” which would ensure that law-abiding Americans with a valid concealed handgun permit would be able to carry a concealed handgun in any other state that does not prohibit concealed carry. Additionally, Lange will pursue the truth in the deadly Operation Fast & Furious scandal and help deliver justice to the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

In contrast, Ben Lange’s opponent, incumbent Representative Bruce Braley, has fought against our constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms and is “F” rated by the NRA-PVF.

Bruce Braley refused to join the historic District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, making it clear that he does not believe the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Braley also supported reinstating the failed Clinton semi-auto gun ban and opposed an amendment that would prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from circumventing the will of Congress, and the American people, by centralizing records of American’s long gun purchases. In addition, he voted against H.R. 4089, “The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act,” which would promote America’s hunting heritage and positively impact sportsmen throughout the country.

“Ben Lange will defend our Second Amendment freedoms and hunting heritage, and the people of Iowa know that Bruce Braley has not,” Cox continued. “We urge all NRA members and gun owners in Iowa’s 1st District to vote Ben Lange for U.S. House of Representatives on November 6.”

For more about Lange’s view on the Second Amendment (and other issues) read my post “10 Questions with Ben Lange.”

Braley Bytes: Crazy Train Edition

More Braley buffoonery. After (IA-01) Rep. “Borrowin’ Bruce” Braley (D) got busted for using taxpayer funds to stage a campaign event (er, sorry, “deficit workshop”) in the newly redistricted area he wants to represent, he wisely canceled the event since it was is clear violation of House ethics rules. According to those rules “[m]embers may not use official funds, including the use of staff resources, to conduct ‘town hall’ meetings or other official gatherings outside their districts.”

Did Braley learn his lesson?  Apparently not. Braley then issued a press release that said he would  “jump aboard a Union Pacific Train on Friday in Fairfax headed to Marshalltown to promote and support enhancements to infrastructure in Iowa. Before the train leaves, Braley [would] hold a short press conference[.]” Neither Fairfax nor Marshalltown are in Braley’s district.  Whoops!

The Iowa Republican points out: “House ethics rules explicitly prohibit Members of Congress from using official House resources, paid for by taxpayers, for purposes outside of their current district. This prohibition extends to new geographical areas, like Fairfax and Marshalltown, that are being added to Members’ districts as a result of redistricting. Members may campaign in these new areas, but not at the taxpayers’ expense.”

Let’s hope the next time Braley rides the rails it will be as a hobo after he’s defeated in November.

Braley Bytes: Tail Between His Legs Edition

After saying that the ethics complaint against his taxpayer-funded event had “no merit” Bruce Braley’s campaign has cancelled the offending event.

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

“In the wake of an ethics complaint filed by a Republican activist, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley has dropped plans for a deficit reduction workshop in Cedar Rapids, which is outside of his current congressional district.

“The Waterloo Democrat’s chief of staff said the workshop was being cancelled to avoid the appearance of an ethics violation.[…]

“Although a spokesman for Braley’s Republican challenger, Ben Lange of Independence, last week called on Braley to cancel the workshop, Davis dismissed the allegation then as having ‘no merit.’

“The Lange campaign was pleased by the cancellation, calling it another case of Lange ‘holding Washington politicians like Bruce Braley accountable,’ Lange campaign adviser Cody Brown said.

“‘We remain deeply disturbed by the misrepresentations that originated from his Washington office last Friday,’ Brown said. ‘Iowans are tired of Washington politicians who won’t tell the truth.

“’An apology is entirely appropriate and would go a long way towards resolving this issue for Iowa taxpayers,’ Brown said.”

Cancelling the event and a puppy-dog eyed apology may resolve the issue with some Iowans (not this one), but Braley could still be in Dutch with the House Ethics Committee.  It remains to be seen whether the committee will flog him once with a wet noodle or just give him the stink eye.

Braley Bytes: LMFAO Edition

Is U.S. Rep. “Borrowin’ Bruce” Braley campaigning on the taxpayers’ dime? A complaint filed with the U.S. House Ethics Committee against Braley certainly makes the case that he is.

The complaint was filed by former Dubuque County GOP chairman Matt Giese. Giese takes issue with a public “deficit workshop” that Braley plans on hosting in Cedar Rapids on August 20th. Cedar Rapids is NOT in Iowa’s 1st District, which Braley represents. However, due to redistricting, Cedar Rapids will be in the newly redrawn 1st district this fall and will therefore be voting for in that district in the coming election.

The complaint states: “Because Braley is in the midst of a tough reelection campaign in the new First Congressional District, and based on the fact that Braley does not represent the people of Cedar Rapids, the only conceivable reason that Braley would have in using official taxpayer-funded resources to communicate with the residents of Cedar Rapids is to support his reelection campaign in violation of House ethics rules and federal law.”

Giese also points out: “On September 16, 2011, the Committee on Ethics and Committee on House Administration issued ‘Joint Guidance Regarding Redistricting’ as a supplement to the Ethics Manual in order to ‘offer guidance on what Members may and may not do with official resources where redistricting is concerned.’ The Joint Guidance made clear that ‘[m]embers may not use official funds, including the use of staff resources, to conduct ‘town hall’ meetings or other official gatherings outside their districts.’ [Emphasis added.]

“In the case of Braley, he used official congressional office resources to organize an official gathering in Cedar Rapids, which is outside of Braley’s current congressional district, and is therefore in violation of the House ethics rules issued jointly by the Committees on Ethics and House Administration.

In addition, Giese alleges that Braley abused Congressional franking privileges when promoting his event: “[T]he Ethics Manual clearly states that ‘[e]-mails sent by a congressional office must likewise comply with the Franking Regulations’ and the Joint Guidance states that ‘[u]nder the franking statute, a Member ‘may not send any mass mailing outside the congressional district from which the Member was elected.’

“Braley is clearly using his email account to target non-constituents in Cedar Rapids and is therefore in violation of the House Ethics Manual and franking regulations.”

In the end I’m sure nothing much will come from this ethics complaint. Whenever you have crooks policing crooks its always a joke. If Braley murdered fourteen Girl Scouts with a machete he might get a stern finger wag from the House Ethics Committee, if that. If anyone is going to hold Borrowin’ Bruce accountable for anything it will have to be the voters back home in November.

Braley Bytes: Fast & Furious Edition

The recent vote to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents in the investigation of the Department of Justice operation “Fast and Furious,” which resulted in the deaths of over 300 Mexicans and an American border patrol agent, was “purely political theater” according to 1st District Rep. Bruce “Clunkers” Braley.  Braley voted against holding Eric Holder in contempt, both in committee and when the measure came before the full house.

If Braley thinks that the Fast and Furious investigation is merely “political theater,” FoxNews.com contributor John R. Lott Jr. points out a salient fact that Braley should bare in mind: “People died. It is something to remember during today’s historic House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Never before has a sitting attorney general been held in contempt.

Lott continued, “With all the hoopla over past scandals from Watergate to Filegate to Pardongate, the cover up was always worse than the crime. Yet, in ‘Fast and Furious,’ the guns that the US government supplied to Mexican drug gangs have been used to kill one American border agent and over 300 Mexican citizens  and commit numerous other crimes.

“To date, because of administration stonewalling, we don’t have answers to the most basic questions. Why would the Obama administration give drug gangs guns without trying to trace them? Why not inform Mexican officials about the program so that the Mexicans could try tracing the guns on the Mexican side of the border? Why start pushing untraceable guns to Mexico at the same time that the Obama administration was making their wildly false claim that 90 percent of crime guns in Mexico were from the US?

“One hopes that it was sheer incompetence combined with a desire to stonewall any investigation, but the fact that people knew that the guns weren’t being traced raises questions even about this explanation. It raises the possibility that the guns were being sent to Mexico as part of a plan to push for more gun control.”

Whether it was or wasn’t part of a plan to push for more gun control as Dr. Lott suggests (and I agree), Holder has stonewalled the congressional investigation to the best of his ability.

Small town lawyer Ben Lange, who is challenging Braley for the 1st District seat, had this to say about Thursday’s contempt vote:

“Border Agent Brian Terry died at the hands of weapons given to drug lords by a federal agency under the jurisdiction of Attorney General Eric Holder. The Attorney General subsequently admitted to misleading Congress and retracting a letter that contained false information about what officials in the administration knew about the ‘Fast and Furious Operation.’ The Attorney General then refused to turn over documents that would allow our elected representatives and the Terry family the ability to hold our government accountable and find out who knew what and when. Instead of holding the Attorney General accountable, however, Congressman Braley chose to play politics. The family of Brian Terry deserves better. Iowans deserve better.”

Braley Bytes: Ben Lange Back To Battle Braley Edition

According to Craig Robinson at The Iowa Republican:

On Wednesday, Ben Lange, the Republican nominee in the 1st Congressional District in 2010, will announce that he will begin to actively prepare for a rematch with Congressman Bruce Braley in the reconfigured 1st Congressional District. Lange narrowly lost to Braley in what was one of the closest races in the country in 2010. Lange lost to Braley by 4,209 votes, which was less than two percent of the vote.

A rematch between Lange and Braley would be interesting, but while the candidates will be familiar with one another, the reconfigured 1st District will make the 2012 campaign much different from the 2010 contest.

Other potential Republican challengers to Braley include Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje and former C.R. mayor Paul Pate.  Robinson continues:

Not only is Bruce Braley is vulnerable, but it seems certain that Republicans will once again put up a tough candidate against him. Braley took less than 50 percent of the vote last cycle, a critical threshold for campaign odds-makers. Since the last election, his star has continued falling, including losing his choice seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has become marginalized in Washington and has continued casting votes (aside from government takeovers, bailouts, and Obamacare) that will put him at odds with the majority of voters in the new district.

Since he’s a conservative and I’m a libertarian, Ben Lange and I don’t agree on every political point.  But, I have to admit, I’ve got a soft spot for Lange, not just because of his noble sounding first name, but because we both grew up around the same unpronounceable small town of Quasqueton.  Besides, I wish luck to anyone who wants to add Bruce Braley to the ranks of the unemployed.

Braley Bytes: Knock Me Over With A Feather Edition

I’ve gone to great lengths on this blog to present my supposed U.S. representative, Bruce “Clunkers” Braley, as a big government liberal who’s only interested in defecating on the Constitution and drowning my children and unborn grandchildren in red ink.  While I still think that’s an apt description, there have been a couple of signs lately that Braley is, if not turning over a new leaf, at least running scared from the baying of the Tea Party hounds on his trail.

For instance there is Braley’s recent call to avoid raising the national debt ceiling.  He said, “[W]e have to be able to draw the line somewhere because if we don’t start addressing this spending problem now, when will we?”  Since he helped nearly double the national debt, hearing Braley preaching spending restraint is a little like hearing Homer Simpson preach temperance (not that the average elected Republican has much more credibility on the issue).  In Washington words are cheap, but votes are more concrete.

Recently Braley actually voted my way on a bill for once.  Braley voted to allow three onerous provisions of the misnamed Patriot Act to expire February 28.  According to the ACLU (conservatives, stop rolling your eyes, they’re right on this one):

The overbroad provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire are the John Doe roving wiretap provision, which allows law enforcement to conduct surveillance without identifying the person or location to be wiretapped; Section 215, or the “library records” provision, which allows the government to gain access to “any tangible thing” during investigations; and the “lone wolf” provision, which permits surveillance of “non-US” persons who are not affiliated with a terrorist group. All three provisions lack proper and fundamental privacy safeguards.

Although my fingers are starting to itch and stiffen up as I attempt to type these words, I’ll endeavour to write them anyway: Good job, Clunkers!

Braley Bytes: Pyrrhic Victory Edition

In the November elections incumbent U.S. Representative Bruce Braley won reelection despite the fact that the majority of voters in his district voted for one of his three opponents rather than him.  However Craig Robinson at The Iowa Republican says that Braley’s victory may have come at a heavy cost.  Robinson analyses how all three of Iowa’s Democrat members of Congress are now strapped for campaign cash while the two Republican reps, Steve King and Tom Latham, are doing well.  This will be important during the uncertainty of redistricting this year.

Bruce Braley has seen his cash-on-hand number plummet by 90 percent. Braley squeaked out a narrow victory in November over Republican Ben Lange. He won re-election by just two points, but only has $28,896 in the bank. The once rising Democrat star is now relegated to insignificant committees. With Democrats in the minority in the House for the first time since being elected, Braley is going to struggle at raising money.

The only fundraising advantage Braley still has is that he’s a trial lawyer. Braley is scheduled to travel to Miami later this week for a campaign fundraiser at the American Association for Justice’s Winter Convention.

I disagree with Robinson on one thing though.  He writes:

Braley and Loebsack […] are not going to scare anybody. They [barely] won their 2010 campaigns, have little or no money in the bank, and their districts are going to get more rural, which is good news for their Republican challengers. [Emphasis added.] 

People who love and respect the U.S. Constitution should be scared to death of Clunkers Braley.

Braley Bytes: "Debt for Clunkers" Edition

Besides helping to nearly double the national debt, Iowa First District Representative Bruce Braley’s biggest achievement in Congress is his co-sponsorship of the 2009 “Debt for Clunkers” program. (This program is sometimes erroneously called “Cash for Clunkers” under the mistaken assumption that an organization that’s $13 trillion in debt and hemorrhaging $1 trillion more than it’s taking in each year actually has “cash” to hand out.)

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a free market think tank, wrote a good summary of the program shortly after it ended in 2009. Forgoing the usual academic niceties, Edwards dubbed Debt for Clunkers as “the dumbest government program ever.” Here’s Edwards’ rundown of the program’s dubious achievements:

  • “A few billion dollars worth of wealth was destroyed. About 750,000 cars, many of which could have provided consumer value for many years, were thrown in the trash. Suppose each clunker was worth $3,000 at a guess, that would mean that the government destroyed $2.25 billion of value.
  • “Low-income families, who tend to buy used cars, were harmed because the clunkers program will push up used car prices.
  • “Taxpayers were ripped off $3 billion. The government took my money to give to people who will buy new cars that are much nicer than mine!
  • “The federal bureaucracy has added 1,100 people to handle all the clunker administration. Again, taxpayers are the losers.
  • “The environment was not helped. See here and here.
  • “The auto industry received a short-term “sugar high” at the expense of lower future sales when the program is over. The program apparently boosted sales by about 750,000 cars this year, but that probably means that sales over the next few years will be about 750,000 lower. The program probably further damaged the longer-term prospects of auto dealers and automakers by diverting their attention from market fundamentals in the scramble for federal cash.” 

Edwards’ last point is vividly illustrated in the following graph from John Stossel’s website. Although there’s a temporary “blip” when the $3 billion in borrowed money is injected into the automobile market, as soon as that is removed auto sales drop right back to where they were. The only lasting effect of “Debt for Clunkers” was to put America’s children $3 billion further in debt to the Red Chinese.

If the “dumbest government program ever” is his crowning achievement, it’s easy to see that Bruce Braley is a real lemon. If 1st District voters are willing to push, pull or drag Braley out of office in November, there are a couple of newer and better models just waiting to be driven off the lot.

How about a 1979 Republican Ben Lange?  The Lange features lower taxes, lower spending and higher integrity than our current clunker.  If you really want to save some bucks we also have the economy model, a vintage Libertarian Rob Petsche.  The Libertarian has many of the same fine features as the Republican model, but with much lower imperial maintenance costs.  Either one would be fine for us to park in DC for a few years.

So, now what can I do to set you up with a new representative today?