Chris Murphy

The DC Conventional wisdom has deemed CT Congressman Chris Murphy the one "serious candidate" the Democrats are fielding for an open U.S. Senate seat.

Well, this seems to be akin what what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan called "defining deviancy downward". Maybe the MSM is now defining "serious" on a curve when it comes to Congressman Murphy, the Eddie Haskell of the House.

After all, getting "Bieber Fever" is exactly what one associates with the attributes of statesmanship  

Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has contracted, but quickly kicked, a case of Bieber fever. During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, singer Justin Bieber, a native of Ontario, came out in favor of health-care reform. "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills," he told the magazine. On Thursday afternoon, Murphy read the quote online and tweeted his approval, posting a link to Bieber's comments. Moments later, Murphy recanted. "Oh wait . . . just heard what Biebs said about abortion," the congressman tweeted, referring to the immaculately coiffed 16-year-old's pro-life stance. "Ugh. #bieberfevercured."

I leave it to Congressman Murphy to justify why he was so quick to attack the child of a single mother for a pro-life attitude.  But maybe the problem here is that this is an example of someone who is simply too shallow and immature to be trusted with the responsibility of being a U.S. Senator. Obviously Congressman Murphy was greatly taken by Justin Bieber's tremendous expertise is the realm of health care finance.

Are we to assume perhaps Chris Murphy will next be taking advice on the issue of nuclear nonproliferation from Miley Cyrus?

The country is facing fiscal ruin, the Chinese are gaining on our economy, the Islamic world is a tinderbox. And a U.S. Senate candidate has "Bieber Fever". What is wrong with this picture?

Frankly, whatever your opinion of Joe Lieberman's record in the Senate you have to admit that Chris Murphy isn't in the same area code as Lieberman when it comes to his stature and abilities.  In 13 years of holding elective office Murphy can cite only one accomplishment, a state stem cell bill the Democratic legislature would have passed with or without him. 

Mind you this isn't the first time Murphy has made a shallow, immature statement on his Twitter feed. Last fall he cited a New York Times story about the number of people arrested wearing Yankee caps, and Murphy chimed in that he was "not surprised"; implying, of course, that Yankee fans were all street criminals.  Thoughtful and responsible. NOT

Murphy has pulled a big scam on the credulous CT media.  If one superimposes the template of Chris Murphy as being the spoiled child of a rich Hartford lawyer, --who legacied his son into his "Little Ivy" alma mater--hmmm..... suddenly this snide superficial attitude comes into clearer focus.

Unfortunately, the CT press gets a fever over any breathing Democrat whether they are a pop star or not.   

Separated at birth?

==Update===

After calling Yankee fans criminals, Chris Murphy's campaign is running web ads on the Yankee fan site, River Ave. Blues.  I mean--- this is a new dimension of shameless!

I give MoveOn.org this much. When it comes to their friends they never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

This weeks's meme is the man who will humble corporate control of government is Connecticut Senate candidate and Nancy Pelosi lackey Chris Murphy

One year ago today, the Supreme Court gave corporations the same First Amendment rights as you and me, in the Citizens United decision. And in the last election, we saw what this corporate takeover of our democracy looks like, with a record-setting $4 billion spent on the elections.1

Connecticut Rep. Chris Murphy has been a leader in the fight to rein in corporate control of our democracy. He was one of the first signers of our Fight Washington Corruption pledge, which included a call to overturn Citizens United, and he organized other congressional candidates to join him and "take back our democracy from the big corporate special interests who have so dominated our political decision making in the last decade."2

A corporate front group targeted Rep. Murphy with over a million dollars in attack ads in retaliation for his bold stand3, but Rep. Murphy fought hard, and with help from local MoveOn members, won in November.

Yesterday, Rep. Murphy announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Joe Lieberman. It's exciting that as a champion in fighting corporate influence in Washington, Chris Murphy can make this a real issue in the race for Senate.

Will you call Rep. Murphy to thank him for his leadership on this issue? Then, ask him to make sure the issue of corporate influence remains front and center in the Senate race over the next two years by encouraging all the candidates to speak out forcefully on the need to rid our political system of corporate influence.

Now, the rest of the story about Chris Murphy and the corporate buyout of the federal treasury.

MoveOn doesn't tell folks Chris Murphy received well over $2 million from special interest PACs  

MoveOn doesn;t tell people Chris Murphy has raised over $1 million from the financial services industry. Which comes as little surprise as Murphy served on the House Banking Committee when it approved the 2008 TARP bailout.   Indeed, Murphy voted for the $700 Billion TARP bailout withing hours of receiving a large contribution from the American Bankers Association.

So, when did Murphy decide it was time to start fighting corporate influence in Washington? Oh. maybe it was during the health care reform fight....umm...no since the Pharma lobby ran a blitz of issue ads praising Murphy.   Did those ads explain Murphy's flip-flop on allowing drug reimportation? Hey, decide for yourself.

No, Chris Murphy suddenly decided corporate money in politics was a bad thing when the corporations that didn't like health care reform paid for ads against him. The contributions from special interests to stuff his 7 figure warchest and the slick issue ads promoting his agenda, well, then it was good government. 

Incumbent politicians don't like Citizens United for the same reason Microsoft doesn't like Macs. When you have a monopoly you want to stifle the means of competition. You want the people whose industries are at risk to come to you on bended knee, checkbook in hand. How dare these people complain directly to the public!  

You see, it's all about protecting your investment. And MoveOn has invested a lot in Chris Murphy.  He was their Number one recipient of campaign cash in 2006. So when a group like AAF  opposed to big government runs the same type of ad MoveOn ran, take MoveOn's umbrage with a grain of salt. And also understand why MoveOn looks the other way when their boy Murphy ladels out trillions to bankers and drug companies. They are going to stand by their man.  Getting him into the Senate will pay a return on their investment.

And this investment may suddenly go sour if the new darling of the hard left, Keith Olbermann  is persuaded to run for the open Connecticut Senate seat.  How could the unctuous Murphy and his corporate liberalism compete with the 200 decibel leftism of Olby? 

The problem with investing millions of dollars in a product is after awhile, a newer brand goes on the market. MoveOn and Murphy may find their base of support has moved on to a guy who only took millions from Corporate America to call conservatives the worst people in the world. Heh   

Tomorrow, a man true to himself calls it a day in elective politics. Joe Lieberman will announce his retirement at the end of this term.

Lieberman is an interesting case for many reasons. In 2006, when the Democratic Party adopted advocacy of military defeat as a campaign platform, Lieberman stood athwart history and said NO.  After his rejection by his party's voters Lieberman took his case to the entire electorate, and won a fairly convincing victory.

We don;t know what the corruptive effect on the Democratic Senate caucus the election of Ned Lamont would have caused. I do know that at a point when the George W. Bush adminstration seemed to have the communication skills of a stump and the fighting skills of Punch Out's Glass Joe. Lieberman carried the cause of seeing Iraq through loudly and proudly.

Now the ride is over. Supposedly Lieberman wanted to run again but found no path. The problem here is the voters may reward a candidate for breaking with one party for one reason, but will not reward zig zagging across the political landscape.   Lieberman's position on health care reform and "climate change" made him unsalable to a Republican primary electorate.

Now the successors are on the way. The persistant and fumbling Susan Bysiewicz has already announced, and the Eddie Haskell of the House, Chris Murphy, is almost sure to follow.  On the Republican side Linda McMahon may have never stopped running. Whether she can run a more focused campaign than one that veered into Vietnam during an economic crisis, and used Hermes clad muffies as spokespeople--well, remain to be seen. Tom Foley, who emerged well liked from the gubernatorial run, and old reliable Rob Simmons are giving the race some thought it is said.

Connecticut 2012 may be a wild ride. But when we're done we will probably miss the adult in the room leaving the stage tomorrow.

Ultra liberal Chris Murphy is trying the Big Con for CT voters. We can call him on it. And we need to do it now.

Chris Murphy's closing argument in his flagging bid for re-election is that he represents the "pragmatic center" of American politics. This is a place he visits only after Labor Day on even numbered years.

I call B.S. on this. Let's count the ways Murphy is far to the Left in American politics--even beyond the usual Nancy Pelosi foot soldier.

Terrorism

Chris Murphy thinks our efforts to keep Americans safe should be micromanaged by lawyers and run in a fashion so as to not to offend foreign press.

Murphy is one of the most vocal opponents of the use of warrantless wiretaps to obtain information to thwart terrorist threats. We do not know the precise manner this past week effort to blow up Jewish houses of worship with mail bombs was foiled, but do we want to hamstring the people who keep us safe? Murphy evidently does.

Worse still, he favored letting the telecom firms that assisted the War on Terror face ruinous lawsuits from lefty lawyers 

Erick Erickson at Red State has more on this point.

Murphy is also one of the firmest opponents of keeping the detention facility at Gitmo open. What he suggests we do with the jihadists we do not know.

Health Care

Chris Murphy has a problem with the health care bill. He doesn;t think it went far enough. He is a strong supporter of the public option. And why?  Because last year he told the Meriden Record Journal  "I'm haven't given up on private insurance" while claiming the public sector could provide the same service better.  

There are tens of thousands of private insurance jobs in CT. What a joy to know our Congressman isn't ready "yet" to have the federal government put them all out of business.   Murphy went to some tony college in the UK for awhile; perhaps he became enamored of the NHS and socialized medicine while over there.

Netroots

If you are an ally of Kos, you are not a Blue Dog, a New Democrat, or a fiscal conservative. You have decided to ally yourself with folks who think the Democratic Party has not yet moved far enough to the Left. 

Chris Murphy was a lead speaker at Kos' Netroots Nation convention. He wants to be the "tip of the spear" advancing the liberal agenda through Congress.

He told MSMBC that after he and his colleagues got past the voters in November they would return with "steel in their spine" ready to cast more tough votes against the wishes of their constituents.

So Murphy is following the playbook. talking left outside the district, talking right inside the district, and planning to do whatever he pleases if he is returned to office.

That, by the way, will be to abandon his work as a House member and start his 2012 senate campaign against Joe Lieberman.  Of course, CT observers have noticed that if Murphy loses tomorrow, he's probably all done for 2012.

Conclusion

There are plenty of Democrats who are going to lose. Many are well meaning and misguided. But as for a toxic cocktail of ambition, ideology and insincerity there are none more deserving of defeat than Connecticut's Chris Murphy. 

If you agree go to www.samforcongress.com 

Successful political parties shouldn't have to do a few things right before an election.

For one thing, they shouldn't have to throw cash at people to get them to do campaign work election weekend.

Then again, when you hire the former campaign manager for convicted ex- Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez as your political guru, maybe the only way he can run a campaign is to use street money; although in the 5th District it's more like "cul-de-sac money"

The other thing successful political parties don't do is have incumbents throw the rest of the party under the bus to try and save their own seats.  However, Rep. Elizabeth Esty had no compunctions about trashing the Democratic leadership of the legislature as a bunch of spendthrift morons, calling state government "badly broken". 

Of course, beyond this she also validate the arguments that Reoublican "Cash Cop" Jeff Wright is using to oust incumbent State Treasurer Denise Nappier--that Connecticut's financial house is in shambles. But Liz needs the fi cons to vote for a Democrat, so I'm sure an Ivy League educated lawyer like Esty can expound upon the defense of necessity.   Of course she won't bend on opposing the death penalty--even after a horrific home invasion in her district-- so one must conclude she'd rather throw Chris Donovan under the bus then see a needle stuck in Steven Hayes's arm. 

Funny Esty's 2008 campaign was all about hope and change and green energy. The only energy she has this cycle is directed at her own party. My, how times have changed. 

Remember  back in the summer, when liberals were thinking the election was just a speed bump on the way to a more statist America?

Oh, yes, the Netroots of the far Left do. And remember wistfully their "Tip of the Spear" symposium at Netroots Nation.  At a posh Vegas hotel, the true believers huddled to determine how they could get President Obama and Speaker Pelosi to enact programs even more liberal than what had been passed in 2009-10.

Two Congressman decided that hanging with lefty activists was more important than working back in their districts for their own re-election.  My Congressman, Chris Murphy, obviously found "the Strip' more alluring than fielding questions about closed businesses on Straits Turnpike.

He was joined by AZ's favorite open borders fanatic, Congressman Raul Grijalva

Murphy was living in his own world in Vegas, self-assured that liberals were on their way to inevitable success

"I would hope that the movement continues to understand that what we’re trying to do is supposed to be hard," said Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who was first elected in 2006. "What I worry sometimes is that people who come into the Netroots community, when they don’t get an immediate victory… they walk away. The frustration level builds rather quickly."

Giving an upbeat scenario for Election Day, Murphy said, "When we retain the House, some members are going to come back with some extra steel in their spines, having cast some tough votes and having survived what’s likely the toughest election of their career."

"Some members don’t want to cast tough votes before November," Murphy said, but he argued "that doesn’t mean that permanently excludes the ability to vote on things like immigration reform and energy."

Well, he got Congressional cowardice right. In fact, by voting to adjourn prior to voting on tax relief extension he was an eager participant. As for the election predictions, well let's say Charlie Cook and Nate Silver ain't buying it.

And Murphy's own constituents's aren't buying the extreme liberalism, the extreme partisanship, the pandering double talk, and the take it for granted attitude of Chris Murphy. 

In an independent poll, Murphy is losing by 50%-44%  National Review says the "dam has burst."

Maybe the 5th District has decided Chris Murphy can take that "steel in his spine" and , hmmm, put it somewhere else?

Oh poor Chris, after going to Vegas to tell lefties to put steel in their spine and reject moderate policies he's trying to claim back here in Connecticut he wants to work with Republicans.   Please. We can use the Internet , too. Selling a bridge?

As for Murphy's buddy in Arizona, he's lost favor with his voters in a gerrymandered Democratic district.  He leads by a mere 7 points. Some people don't like it when a Congressman calls for his own state to be boycotted.

On November 2, voters will be able to make a positive change for America. We will effect a bigger change not by just knocking out the craven and cowardly Blue Dogs, but by making sure that when Markos looks for politicians for next year's Netroots Nation no one more prominent than a college town councilman shows up.

Yep, let's give Chris Murphy and Raul Grijalva the tip of OUR spear. 

Go Sam Caligiuri

Now that the GOP seems to be leading in the midterms the question should be: how do we best exploit our apparent good fortune?

Some have suggested going after long time Democrats in the belief their campaign skills have atrophied and their districts have changed out from under them. We might win some races that way. But if that's the case, aren't these folks likely to retire soon anyway and their open seats likely to eventually fall to the GOP?

Others suggest going hard in the strongest McCain districts. But we are talking mostly Blue Dogs in these seats. While winning a lot of them is essential were we to have Speaker Boehner, the survivors are likely to be even less supportive of President Obama going into a re-election their consituents oppose than they were the past term. On key votes. we might well scare these votes into our columm anyway.

I suggest now is the time for the GOP to follow the example of the Terminator (the character; not the lame imitation in Sacramento) and figure out who are the rising stars of the Democratic Party. And nuke them now before they run for higher office.

We all know these types: they are young, ambitious and ready to run for statewide office at the next good opportunity. Defeating them now will cause the Democrats in future years to be forced to field untried candidates or retread party warhorses.   The vacuum left in these situations will be far more significant than flipping a seat a cycle earlier than it was liable to flip anyway.

My personal nominee is my congressman and the anticipated 2012 Senate nominee in Connecticut: Chris Murphy.

When Murphy was at the Netroots nation conference in Vegas drumming up support for his future run he participated in a seminar for the "progressive stars" in Congress entitled the "Tip of the Spear".

We know that spear is pointed at fiscal responsibility and constitutional government. Chris Murphy would like it pointed at Senator Joe Lieberman.

Sam Caligiuri is one point behind Murphy. This is the time for conservatives to disarm Murphy and send him back to his progressive pals sans career. And not insubstantially improve Republican chances to win the the 2012 senate election in CT.

My friend Baseball Crank suggests that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is cut from the same cloth, and aims to replace Democratic Senator Tim Johnson from South Dakota. A Kristi Noem victory damages that plan badly.

There are others out there. but now is the time to stop them before they get more seniority, more exposure and a bigger warchest. I'm all ears as to who else needs to be added to this list. 

We can terminate our future opponents for Senate and governor posts. Only one question. Do we have the vision and energy to actually do it?   

This is not an extra from The Sopranos

This is Chris Murphy's campaign manager Kenny Curran.

Who is Kenny Curran? Well he was the highly paid campaign manager for corrupt Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez

Perez, for those unfamiliar with CT politics, was a supposedly reformed street gang leader who climbed the rungs of Hartford Democratic politics and attained the Mayor's office. Along the way he decided white collar crime was more his style and got free home improvements from city contractors; as well as orchestrating shakedown schemes to enrich political allies.

Ken Curran knew those political allies. He managed Perez's re-election campaign. He ran an expensive race ( well over $515,000 in a city of barely over 100,000 residents)  funded by special interests that successfully got a plurality of Hartford residents to decide Perez was honest and effective enough to warrant re-election as Mayor. Perhaps part of this success was due to the massive use of "street money" on election day? Hmmm... But why did the street money work?

Because Kenny Curran set out to smear Perez's opponent with false charges; alleging he was responsible for actions that occurred long after former city official I. Charles Matthews left office.

Here's what Matthews said, pointing out Perez had originally promised to run a clean campaign,   "But these attack ads are not just misleading," he said. "They are outright lies."

So let's see. Chris Murphy hires a guy to run his campaign who re-elected a corrupt politician by specialized in sleazy tactics and lying. Surely Murphy is above that?

Yeah, then why did he accept the nomination of the ACORN front Working Families Party, the alter ego of the SEIU?  One goon likes the others? 

And why is Curran already trashing Republican Sam Caligiuri?

The point is Kenny Curran only knows sleazy goon politics. It's how he got Eddie Perez re-elected. It's how he plans to keep Chris Murphy in office. And Chris Murphy has embraced this by hiring Curran to run his own campaign.

Hey if Kenny Curran could convince Hartford voters Eddie Perez was honest maybe the idea is he can convince 5th District voters Chris Murphy is fiscally responsible.  

Kenny Curran's old mentor gets sentenced this morning on his corruption conviction. Wonder if Kenny has the cojones to be in the courtroom this morning to see if his old boss gets the 55 years he could receive?

Probably not. It's not the way bullies operate.

This morning the NY Times figured out the secret strategy Democrats have to gain re-election in November. They will spend millions pretending not to be politicians and not to be Democrats

There is no better example in place than my Congressman, Chris Murphy. No he isn't some ideological activist going to hard left conferences at swanky Vegas hotels--complaining his fellow congressmen aren't working harder to "change America" but promising after the election they'll have "extra steel in their spine" .

No, he's really some mellow small town guy knocking on doors and feeling our pain.

Hollywood is known for creating fantasylands but Murphy's ad firm has outdone themselves.

The ad is entitled "Neighbors". (like John Belushi's last film?)  Well, who is Chris Murphy's "neighbor"?

Ms. Lauren Korman lives on Spruce Street in Cheshire; 2.2 miles from Murphy's current residence. She does not vote at his precinct and I do not believe she is a member of whatever church Murphy attends or has children the same age as Murphy. So how would she know Murphy well enough to endorse him as a "neighbor"?

She is a member of the Cheshire Democratic Town Committee and a vocal campaigner for President Obama and against Sarah Palin. 

Former Hillary Clinton supporter Lauren Korman of Cheshire said Palin’s lack of experience scares her.“If something should happen to John McCain, she doesn’t have what it takes to lead the country.” Korman now supports Obama and said she thinks he would be an excellent diplomat for the United States around the world. 

But it gets worse. Korman was formerly press secretary to Democratic Congressman and Defense Secretary Les Aspin.  Yeah, nothing says authenticity like hiring a former paid mouthpiece to play neighbor.  She is backing Murphy because he "works with Republicans". Right.

Murphy's ad proclaims that he is a "deficit hawk" based on a single press conference wherein he promised at some unspecified date in the future to vote to cut the budget. Since then of course, he eagerly voted for the teacher's union bailout. Guess this deficit hawk will be a dove when the press isn;t around? Forget the ratings. Believe the "neighbor"

Besides, the "neighbor" supporting Murphy for  alleged budget restraint has actually been active in lobbying Murphy to set up a brand new federal spending program. 

 U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-5, said he is hopeful that some federal money may become available to help remediate abandoned barite mines in the state like the one the one that caused a 20-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep sinkhole in one Cheshire resident’s backyard in October 2005.Murphy met with Sheridan Drive area residents Monday morning.He said a bill that will be introduced when the 111th Congress convenes in January would provide funding for remediation of hard rock, or non-coal, mines.“It was introduced to this Congress and passed the House but not the Senate,” Murphy said. “So we’re going to introduce it again.”The meeting with Murphy was held at the home of Lauren Korman, who lives next to William Baker, in whose backyard the sinkhole developed. Nearly 20 residents attended the meeting, Korman said

So until the election came around we are to believe Ms. Korman wanted to increase the trillion dollar sinkhole of the federal deficit to fill in holes around her house, but now she supports Murphy because he wants to cut spending? Sure.

So if you are a former DC spokesperson active in Democratic politics who is lobbying for more federal spending programs, Chris Murphy is your kind of neighbor.

For the other 700,000 residents of Connecticut's Fifth District, we just see another poseur trying to pull one over on the rubes so he can go back to dragging America to the left whether we want it or not.  

For a reality based candidate, I suggest Sam Caligiuri is the answer.

The anecdotal signs for liberal Chris Murphy's re-election are not good.

A poll conducted by a firm that works with Republican politicians found that Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy and his challenger, state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, are in a statistical dead heat in their 5th District race.

The highlights

Today the Caligiuri Campaign released poll results showing that Sam Caligiuri, the Republican Nominee for Congress (CT-5), is a single point behind Chris Murphy. This amounts to a statistical tie. In a head-to-head matchup, 39% of respondents favored Caligiuri while 40% favored Murphy. This represents a huge gain for Caligiuri and a significant loss for Murphy, as Murphy was leading Caligiuri 49% to 28% in an October 2009 poll conducted by the same firm. . . . In the hard re-elect question, only 36% believe Chris Murphy has performed his job in Congress well enough to deserve re-election, while 45% think it’s time for a new person. In an ominous sign for the party in power, only 29% of voters believe the county is heading in the right direction, while 63% believe things are off on the wrong track. This number has gotten worse over the past 10 months: In October, 2009, the right direction/wrong track number was 35%-54%. The generic ballot favors Republicans, 41%-38%. Among unaffiliated voters, the generic Republican leads 38%-32%.

The campaign manager for Murphy, former lead political advisor for convicted Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, went into a tirade about the poll results. Of course, he failed to release to the media any of the alleged polls he had that supposedly put his candidate way ahead.  Lack of exculpatory evidence got his old boss convicted, hmmm...

In any event, Courant columnist Rick Green, no pushover for spin, seemed satisfied the Caligiuri poll passed the smell test.

In Murphy world the Connecticut economy is recovering nicely and everyone loves a congressman who is a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi.  And jeez, I recall when the Left called itself the "reality-based community". That's a quaint thought now--it reminds me of when there was full employment in this part of Connecticut--27,000 jobs ago.   

Sam Caligiuri has surged into a tie before airing TV ads. It's only gonna get better, my friends.