Progressives who don't know Pete Sessions have taken his his statement about disruptive town hall meetings out of context, as if he were challenging the screamers to "bring it on." But those of us in the District know that Pete Sessions is a coward. Re-read the Politico article and you'll meet a man who pines for a fantasy town hall meeting that never existed, where only "15 or 20 of your friends show up." But in today's town hall environment he's in his element. The screamers are his base. In this video, he answers a woman's health care concern by throwing them some red meat:
According to a Politico and Washington Monthly article, Session earmarked $1.6 million to a company he may or may not have questionable ties to.
[Sessions] steered a $1.6 million earmark for dirigible research to an Illinois company whose president acknowledges having no experience in government contracting, let alone in building blimps.
What the company did have: the help of Adrian Plesha, a former Sessions aide with a criminal record who has made more than $446,000 lobbying on its behalf.
Sessions has referred to earmarks in the past with unquestioning and unequivocal opposition. Saying earmarks are "a symbol of a broken Washington to the American people."
Of course, Pete Sessions staff member and spokeswoman Emily Davis defended the project before looking at a map. According to Politico, Davis said the airship project is a worthwhile use of federal funds and says it could eventually lead to thousands of new jobs in Sessions's Dallas-area district.
As mentioned above, the company is based in Illinois with a branch office in San Antonio.
Washington Monthly sums up the bizarre situation:
While lawmakers routinely support earmarks for their home district and/or state, this particular measure has nothing to do with Sessions' Dallas-area district. The company, Jim G. Ferguson & Associates, is based in a Chicago suburb. It has an office in Texas, but it's 300 miles from Sessions' district.
What's more, when Sessions submitted the earmark, he used a Dallas address for the company, but it was actually the address of a friend of one of the company's executives.
It looks a little suspicious. The leaders of Jim G. Ferguson & Associates admit they have no background in aviation or defense, and no expertise in engineering or research. It's why it seems odd that Sessions would direct $1.6 million to the company, most of which would go towards research and engineering on a dirigible project.
We use words like hypocrisy on this site a lot to sum up the Republican Party in Texas, but this extends well beyond a complex idea like hypocrisy. This seems, at the very worst, corrupt and at the very best, unethical.
Sessions is the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman (NRCC). He is in charge of both representing and electing Republicans to Congress.
In Texas, we have a distorted view of what a "swing seat" is for Democratic targeting. Given our multiple rounds of redistricting, true marginal seats in the traditional sense are hard to find. Texas Democrats either hail from incredibly safe districts, districts that are safe due to demographic trends but not ideology, or Republican districts where great Democrats make an exception (Chet Edwards).
That said, it's encouraging to see not one, but two Republican Congressional seats listed among the top 10 potential "dark horse" breakout races that are causing buzz in the Beltway. And not only that, but they are at the top of the list.
McCaul was technically a lower-tier Democratic target in 2008, but that was really only because his opponent, former TV judge Larry Joe Doherty (D), was raising money like gangbusters. Doherty really didn't have the right profile, and he wound up losing by a pedestrian 11 points - the exact margin of the presidential tally in the district. Now, Democrats have another big-money candidate, with businessman Jack McDonald raising $300,000 in the first quarter. We'll see if he has the right profile, but the fact that he is vice chairman of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce suggests he might. The party has already put McCaul near the top of its target list.
4. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
Democrats tried to mount a late charge in 2006 against National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and they could do it again in 2010 against current NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) only took this suburban Dallas district 53-46 in the 2008 presidential race, and the heavily Hispanic areas have grown at a faster pace than the white areas. Sessions's district is actually probably more fertile ground than McCaul's, but Democrats might not have as good a candidate. Attorney Grier Raggio (D) has an exploratory committee, but it's not clear who else might emerge.
In TX-10, Democrat Jack McDonald expressed earlier today that there is good reason to be paying attention to the 10th yet again, having raised over $634,000 to date with over half a million on hand, even while in exploratory mode and having yet to roll out campaign staff or field. While there isn't a equivalent Democratic response in TX-32 up in Dallas as of yet, the more competitive nature of the district and county coordinated campaign there provides a bit more breathing room for a top notch candidate to get settled.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), chaired by Congressman Chris Van Hollen, announced the DCCC is launching the third phase of the Putting Families First campaign on Tuesday targeting Republicans who opposed President Obama's economic recovery bill, the largest component of which is middle class tax cuts to 95 percent of Americans.
The campaign has named Pete Sessions (TX-32) as one of the 12 targets in the campaign.
The DCCC is also launching a new webpage, www.recoveryforamerica.org, designed to educate people about the benefits of the economic recovery bill and how it will impact their district. The site includes an interactive map that illustrates the job creation and tax cuts by state, information about targeted Republicans; and a petition where people can voice their outrage about Republican opposition. People can also get the economic recovery information on their mobile device by texting the word "recovery" and a state abbreviation to 30644 (For example: "recovery TX").
"These are serious times; hard working families are worried about keeping their jobs, health care and homes. Americans want action on middle class tax cuts and economic recovery, not House Republicans' 'just say no' approach," said DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen. "House Republicans can't have it both ways - they can't claim to be in favor of tax cuts and then vote against the largest tax cut in American history. Americans will hold House Republicans accountable for 'just saying no' to the largest tax cut in American history and saving and creating three to four million jobs. We will hold accountable those Republicans who continue to vote in lockstep against President Obama's economic recovery plan for the American people."
According to the DCCC Americans are overwhelmingly rejecting House Republicans' "just say no" approach to the economy and middle class tax cuts according to a new AP-GfK poll.
In a bizarre and offensive interview with the editors of the Hotline, Dallas Congressman and newly elected National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) described the Taliban as a "model" for the Republican insurgency in the U.S. House of Representatives. Listen to the interview here.
Sessions comments go far beyond typical partisan rhetoric. His praise of the Taliban is dangerous and disrespectful to the thousands of American military families with loved ones serving and, too often sacrificing their lives, for our country.
The Lone Star Project includes some fact that show how absurd the request is.
Taliban Death Toll Sessions refers to the Taliban with admiration even as 645 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001. (Source: http://icasualties.org/oef/ ) Currently there are 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan with 30,000 more expected to be deployed there within 2009.(CBS News January 17, 2008)
Taliban Brutality During the 1990's the Taliban, "imposed strict enforcement of fundamentalist Islamic law, banning movies, music and forcing women out of schools and into all-enveloping burqa clothing. The Taliban also provided a haven for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization." (New York Times, November 7, 2007)
The Taliban terrorizes Afghan citizens and kills American soldiers in order to disrupt the government the United States is supporting. In October, Taliban militants pulled as many as 30 people off a bus and beheaded them. (New York Times, October 19, 2008) The Taliban has also been blamed for spraying 11 girls with acid as they were headed to school. (New York Times, January 13, 2009)
Sessions' request is scary. It is disrespectful to our fighting men and women and to the American people.
We join the Lone Star Project in asking you, the BOR community to call Rep. Sessions' office and demand an apology.
Contact Pete Sessions and tell him to renounce the Taliban and apologize to American service families.
You can email Pete here or call him at (972) 392-0505 or (202) 225-2231.
Read more at this at Sessions Watch -- a blog devoted to following the rantings and ravings of Sessions.
I'm not even making this up. From Hotline:
Frustrated by a lack of bipartisan outreach from House Democratic leaders, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said today that the GOP should look to the Taliban for guidance in conveying its position on the stimulus package and, more broadly, in working to make the party's views on issues known. [...]
"Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Sessions said during a meeting with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes.
"And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."
You need a model for insurgency -- HOW ABOUT THE FOUNDING FREAKIN' FATHERS!
Some Texas bloggers have long argued that U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions was vulnerable. Until today, however, national Democrats have ignored TX-32 ever since Martin Frost lost to Sessions in 2004.
That has now changed with the DCCC's announcement that they will run radio ads in Session's district beginning this week.
The DCCC is running targeted radio ads and making 100,000 "person-to-person" calls to hammer 28 Republicans who voted against the stimulus last week and the leaders who high-fived afterwards.
The radio ads will run for about a week and target members on state-specific issues -- jobs, health care and education.
But the ones running in the districts of Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Via.) and NRCC chief Pete Sessions (R-TX) are extra-special, hitting the leader with voting against the stimulus while voting for "big banks" on TARP I.
Sessions is the only Texan on the list. The rest of the list is after the jump.
A version of this diary was cross posted at Daily Kos.
Out here in the lonely boondocks of the gerrymandered 32nd Congressional district, no one does polls, so I have no hard data to back up my optimism about Eric Roberson's chances for winning, but today, I saw yet another hopeful sign that things are going our way--the Dallas Morning News' endorsement of incumbent Pete Sessions.
Their praise of Sessions is almost "dog whistle" politics against him. Follow me over the jump, and let's take a look at what they said, and how this is a win for us...
Probably the most difficult thing about being a SessionsWatcher is actually seeing Pete Sessions in person. It's kinda like hanging out in the rain forest with binoculars, trying to catch a glimpse of a rare bird that only shows up every two years, then flits away into the night.
After last night's debate--which only lasted half an hour--Sessions made a hasty retreat out the door of the elementary school cafetorium, instead of hanging around with constituents, enjoying cookies and coffee and listening to the other debates of the evening...
