*NOT OUT OF THE FORREST YET: If Democrats think they have New Jersey’s Senate race sewn up now that they have a candidate who doesn’t take bribes, they should think again. A new survey by Virginia-based pollster Joseph Gabriel of ccAdvertising-a commercial marketing firm-found that 54% of New Jersey respondents disapprove of the court’s decision to allow former Sen. Frank Lautenberg to replace Sen. Bob Torricelli as the Democratic candidate on the ballot. Further, he claimed, the survey "portends doom for Lautenberg and the Democrats in the race, with 53.01% saying they would vote for Republican Doug Forrester."
New Jersey Republicans are encouraged by a barrage of talk-show complaints about the Democratic machine’s willingness to subvert the law to achieve their political ends and, in the process, making the state the butt of jokes around the country. One political activist told HUMAN EVENTS, "It’s no longer Doug vs. the Crooked Pol. It’s now the People of New Jersey vs. the Crooked Machine."
*STRANGE JUSTICE: Eyes were still rolling last week over the astounding 7-to-0 ruling of the solidly liberal New Jersey Supreme Court-six of the seven justices were appointed by equally liberal Republican former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman-that rewrote state law so that the Democrats could substitute Lautenberg for Torricelli on the November ballot. Even though it was the Democrats who wanted to remove Torricelli’s name after the legal deadline, the court ruled that it "is in the public interest and the general intent of the election laws to preserve the two-party system and to submit to the electorate a ballot bearing the names of candidates of both major political parties. . . ." Of course, as Republicans pointed out, had the court not acted, "names of candidates of both major political parties" would have been on the ballot. Just not the one the Democratic bosses wanted.
*JUST CALL: Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott (Wash.) refused to appear on the "O’Reilly Factor" on Fox News last week to explain his controversial behavior in Baghdad attacking President Bush (see page 3), so host Bill O’Reilly just posted McDermott’s office phone number-202-225-3106-on the screen so viewers could call him directly. McDermott was, however, very willing to appear on the far-friendlier Phil Donahue show Wednesday night.
*THROW GRANNY OFF THE CLIFF: In an obvious effort to scare senior citizens and minorities into voting for Democrats-which they apparently believe is critical to their winning elections-the Democratic Party has created a cartoon attacking, and distorting, sensible Social Security reform. Their cartoon actually depicts President Bush pushing a wheelchair-bound elderly woman off a cliff that represents recent declines in the stock market. Bush also encounters a young black man who is dreaming of the tropical island retirement that Social Security checks will provide him with. Bush then shatters his dream by pushing him off the cliff as well.
The Democratic National Committee featured the cartoon last week on their website: www.democrats.org/social_insecurity
*SMITH FOR SUNUNU: Enraging conservatives around the country who do not want to endanger a Republican-held seat, some New Hampshire supporters of Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) have launched a write-in campaign on his behalf. Apparently unwilling to accept the fact that the GOP primary is over and that Smith lost to a fellow conservative, Rep. John Sununu, Mark Hounsell, head of the Christian Freedom Defense political action committee, and another group called "Take Back the Party" recently sent out a mailing decrying Smith’s primary loss and calling on former backers to write in his name on the November ballot.
But Smith himself rejects these efforts. "He supports John Sununu," Smith spokeswoman Lisa Harrison told HUMAN EVENTS last week. "He said it on election night. The most important thing he feels we face is passing the President’s agenda and the best means of doing that is to get a Republican Senate." The latest American Research poll shows Sununu leading Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen by nine percentage points statewide.
*CONGRESSIONAL DISGRACE: Not having enacted even one of the required 13 appropriations bills and scheduled to adjourn October 19, this Congress has the worst record of dealing with fiscal issues in years. Office of Management and Budget spokesman Trent Duffy told HUMAN EVENTS’ John Gizzi last week that, because the Senate has not acted, "this is the first time since 1974 there has been no budget by this time, the first time since 1986 that no appropriations bills have been passed, and the last time a Defense bill took this long to enact was in 1969."
*DEFENDING THE 2ND AMENDMENT: Stymied by the American electorate’s love for its gun rights, anti-2nd Amendment forces have taken to suing gun manufacturers in what gun defenders say is nothing but an indirect effort to deny Americans their constitutional rights. Jurisdictions around the country have filed suits against gun manufacturers blaming them for the "misuse" of their products by criminals. On October 2, a federal bill designed to protect firearms makers advanced out of committee. The House Judiciary Committee passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (HR 2037), which was modified with language taken from the Firearms Protection Act (HR 123) sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.).
"Firearms manufacturers and lawful gun retailers have been facing the threat of extinction at the hands of overzealous trial lawyers, mayors, and gun control groups capitalizing on the anti-gun lobby’s well-funded public relations campaign," said Barr. "To hold an industry responsible for the actions of an individual who criminally misuses a legal product has no place in American legal jurisprudence, and I will continue to stand on the side of lawful gun owners, manufacturers, and retailers." Barr’s office expects the bill to come to the House floor before the end of the year.
*NO FREEDOM FOR CHURCHES: The House voted down the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act (HR 2357) on October 2, 178 to 239. (See HUMAN EVENTS rollcall next week.) Sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R.-N.C.), the bill would have needed two-thirds to pass because it was brought to the House floor under what is called suspension of rules. Bill supporters, however, had hoped for at least a majority in order to give greater impetus to their movement to restore to churches the 1st Amendment political freedom that was stripped from them thanks to a provision Sen. Lyndon Johnson slipped into a bill in 1954. (See HUMAN EVENTS last week, page 6.)
Forty-six Republicans opposed the bill, which would have allowed churches and their pastors to devote an insubstantial amount of their time to discussing politics and even endorsing candidates. "The congressman was so glad that Congress was finally able to give voice to such a significant issue, and he is definitely looking forward to the next round of this fight. He’s going to reintroduce HR 2357 on the first day of the 108th Congress," said Lanier Swann, Jones’s press secretary.
