Archive for the 'Hal Rogers' Category

CONGRESSMAN RON LEWIS, HIS WIFE KAYI LEWIS ALONG WITH KENTUCKY CONGRESSMEN HAL ROGERS AND ED WHITFIELD ARE LOSERS, IN IOWA.

Jim Pence January 3rd, 2008

The Most Reverend Congressman Ron Lewis and his Kentucky Congressional pals Hal Rogers and Ed Whitfield bet on Mitt Romney and lost in Iowa last night.
Ron’s Wife Kayi Lewis, Co Chair For Ernie Fletcher’s re election campaign received a ass kickin’ last November.
These folks are out of touch with reality and it’s really beginning to show.
I’ll bet ol Preacher Ron is ready for a long tall drink of some of that liquor lobby booze tonight.
BTW if you want to buy a house Ron Lewis has his house for sale for about $250,000 more than what I think it’s worth and that’s a conservative, no pun intended, guess.

Hal Rogers Brings Home the Bacon

Terri Whitehouse December 18th, 2007

The good folk at the Sunlight Foundation have highlighted earmarks by Rep. Harold Rogers:

After it hired a lobbyist and its employees’ contributed to a member of Congress’ leadership political action committee, a Kentucky company saw its defense business quadruple thanks to earmarks.

Over the last three years, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., says he has earmarked at least $10.4 million in defense funds for Phoenix Products, Inc., a small company in McKee, Ky., that makes aircraft accessories, including custom V.I.P. interiors for Black Hawk helicopters that “offer the finest leather,” fabric, naugahyde and carpet, according to the firm’s Web site.

In 2006, Phoenix added Kentucky-based McCarthy & Speaks Strategic Solution, a lobbying firm that has strong connections with Rogers, to its Capitol Hill representation. Partner Jeff Speaks worked in Rogers’ congressional office as projects director for 10 years, according to the firm’s Web site; Speaks represented Phoenix Products, the firm’s lobbying disclosure forms show. The other partner, John T. McCarthy III, was the chairman of the Kentucky state Republican Party.

Since 2004, Martin, Fisher, Thompson and Associates and McCarthy & Speaks Strategic Solution Phoenix Products have reported that Phoenix Products has paid them more than $240,000 to lobby on its behalf.

During that same time period, the firm’s employees have given $12,400 to Rogers’s campaign and have been contributors to his leadership PAC as well. In 2007, Peggy Wilson and Thomas Wilson each made $1,500 donations to Rogers’s leadership PAC, Help America’s Leaders (HALPAC); their first campaign donations to HALPAC came in 2004, Federal Election Commission records show. They’ve also contributed to other members of the Kentucky delegation including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).

Must be nice in that ivory tower!

This Week in James R. Carroll’s Notes from Washington

Matt Gunterman November 25th, 2007

James R. Carroll has some tidbits of interest in his “Notes from Washington” in the Courier-Journal this Sunday.

First up: Rep. Hal Rogers (R) is in deep denial, just like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R). As I pointed out here at DitchMitchKY back in August, at Fancy Farm this year McConnell was bashing Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) and using her presumed unpopularity in Kentucky to justify his belief that 2008 wouldn’t be bad for Republicans at all in the state is she were at the top of the Democratic ticket. As I pointed out then, the Survey USA presidential match-up polls for Kentucky showed Clinton defeating every potential Republican candidate at the time.

Well, it appears that Rep. Hal Rogers (R) is working under the same assumption about Clinton’s potential and popularity in Kentucky. From Carroll:

[...]

Political analysts see the GOP retirements as a sign that many Republicans believe their status as the minority party could be lengthy.

Rogers is not of that view.

More Republicans have retired in previous elections, he said.

“We feel good,” Rogers said of House Republicans. “We feel we’re doing some good things. We think next year may not be all that bad.”

A presidential election brings out voters who don’t otherwise vote in congressional races, and that can help the GOP, Rogers said.

The Democratic presidential nominee is likely to be Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., “and that will be good for us,” he said.

[...]

###

The times have changed in Kentucky. This isn’t 1994, when then First Lady Hillary Clinton was burned in effigy in Owensboro, Kentucky [with Rep. Ron Lewis (R) looking on in approval].

This is 2008 we’re talking about here, and it’s a whole other ballgame.

Second juicy piece from Carroll’s piece is this from the Club for Growth:

[...]

As you know, from time to time we offer ratings of lawmakers from groups across the ideological spectrum. This week we have ratings from the conservative Club for Growth.

The group has put out 2007 House and Senate “RePORK” cards. Lawmakers were rated on whether they supported what the Club for Growth viewed as anti-pork measures. The lower the lawmaker’s score, the more “porky” they are considered.

Only four senators scored what the group considered perfect 100 percent ratings. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., was given an 87 percent, and McConnell got a 53 percent.

[...]

As Joe Sonka would say, “Calling Larry Forgy!”

UPDATE via Sonka: Matt’s words are backed up again by the SUSA poll #’s released yesterday. In head-to-head matchups Hillary Clinton beats ALL Republican challengers. Every damned one of them

Giuliani (R) 44 (45)
Clinton (D) 48 (47)

Romney (R) 39 (41)
Clinton (D) 54 (50)

Huckabee (R) 36 (39)
Clinton (D) 55 (49)

McCain (R) 47 (49)
Clinton (D) 48 (45)

Good luck with that anti-Hillary strategy, Rogers/McConnell.