Please, no more phone calls or emails! I’ve finally gotten around to posting my Shelby County voting guide and my reasoning at TennWatch.

Dennis Miller on the prospect of Nancy Pelosi becoming third in line for the presidency:

 Hat tip to Blogs for Condi.

OK, so the Gun Owners of America doesn’t exactly endorse candidates. But it sure rates them according to their votes.

For Tennessee, Ford has an “F” while Corker is unrated (never having held a legislative office).

My Congressman, Marsha Blackburn, has an “A-”.

Surprisingly, Democrat Cohen (Dist. 9) has a “B”. On the other hand, his firebrand Republican opponent Mark White has an “A”.

The choices are clear.

Update: Micky White left a comment reminding me that he is running as an independent against Marsha Blackburn and has an “A” rating from the GOA.

I’ve met Micky, blogged next to him at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, broken bread with him, and so on. I find him to be intelligent and sincere.

I question his motives as he takes a Quixotian run at Marsha but wish him all the best. ‘Tis citizens like him that keeps this country great.

Terry Roland is running for the Tennessee Senate in District 29. You may remember Terry as being the winner of the special election before Ophelia Ford found some miracle votes and when I say “miracle” I mean miracle as some of the voters in that election were dead when they cast their vote.

Roland spoke to the Shelby County chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association last Thursday.

According to Roland, district 29 is not only the poorest district in Tennessee, it also contains the largest concentration of senior citizens in the state. (This after three decades of Ford “leadership”.)

What makes Terry Roland think that he can win this race? Because there are 60,000 registered Democrats in the district but 128,000 registered voters. And because a lot of those voters are tired of Ford leadership — even a lot of the Democrats. He remarked that Keith Oberman has said that Shelby County has taken over from Cook County as the most corrupt county in the nation.

Roland talked about some of the main topics from his platform:

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Over at Farmer for Congress (whom I endorse) there is a debate going on about my Congressman, Marsha Blackburn. There are complaints that she votes for omnibus spending bills and globalization.

Marsha takes a lot of heat from a lot of people, including (occasionally) me, but I take slight umbrage at these accusations and feel I must insert some rationality into the debate.

Yes, when bills get to the floor she usually votes along party lines but what you don’t see is the monumental amount of work she does behind the scenes to cut out the fat before the bills get to that point. Why do you think the Club for Growth gives her a score of 95 and ranks her 15th in the House?

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One thing to consider in the Connecticut primary: turnout was heavy: maybe 50 percent in a state where the previous record was 38.8 percent. The disaffected always turn out in droves during primaries (hence the Roland win over Ophelia Ford here in Memphis). Winning in November won’t be so easy for Lamont.

But more importantly, this victory will be seized upon as a viable campaign strategy for candidates in tight races everywhere in November. The press will focus on those races and the perception of the public will be that Dems are the “cut and run” party. The Senate is not really in play this year and there’s no way Dems are going to pick up 15 House seats to take control.

Thus the important prize is still two years ago. Two years. In that time Bush will be pushing for resolution to the Iraq situation. The coalition government has already formed and more elections will have taken place. Terrorists are being distracted by the Hezbollah fracas in Lebanon and are losing focus. Kurdistan is at peace. And meanwhile drilling will commence in the gulf and oil prices will come down.

When 2008 comes around the Democrat Party will be perceived as the crazed, left wing nutter crowd. Meanwhile Iraq will be in better shape, Israel will once again be happily back within its own borders with a UN force ineffectively trying to deal with terrorists in Lebanon and a terrorist attack will have happened again somewhere in Europe.

Bottom line: unless something disastrous happens, this Lieberman loss will mean a Republican sweep in 2008.

Update: Just found this quote from Cokie Roberts over at The Glittering Eye in which she addresses the Lamont campaign:

Yes I do because I think first of all it’s pushing the party to the left (which is what’s likely to happen). It’s pushing the party to the position in which it traditionally loses

I’ve always had a thing for Cokie, probably because she’s something rare: a truly intelligent Lefty.

Technorati Tags:
Joe Lieberman,
Ned Lamont,
Connecticut Primary,
Races of 2006,
Races of 2008,
Democrats Lurch Left,
Republican Majority.

Daily Kos has been a force behind the effort to defeat Lieberman, pushing the boundaries of rhetoric and raising funds for millionaire Lamont’s campaign. Now he has some suggestions about what to do with Lieberman.

Outside the Beltway answers point for point.

Excerpted from Real Clear Politics (read it all!):

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Millionaire Ned Lamont (worth between 90 and 300 million dollars) beat Joe Lieberman by four points in the Connecticut Democrat primary yesterday.

In the hours before the election, a Denial of Service (DoS) attack was launched on Lieberman’s campaign website, resulting in a spate of accusations between the two camps. Lamont’s people suggested that Lieberman just didn’t pay the bills, while Lieberman’s people countered by citing the server provided by Server Matrix and the 200 GB bandwidth per month contract. The FBI is investigating.

Maggie’s Farm debunks the myths surrounding what the Lieberman Loss means and notes:

So – what do the results say? 1. About half of CT Dems are really tired of Iraq on the news. 2. About half of CT Dems are fond of Lieberman, and/or see the war as a necessary evil. None of that is very surprising.

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Tomorrow is election day here in Tennessee. For conservative voters, there is one important choice yet to make: Ed Bryant or Van Hilleary for TN Senate?

My friends, it is time to toss Van:

1. Going into early voting, Ed was ahead of Van in the polls.
2. Shelby County is Ed’s back yard and the number of voters that turned out for early voting set a new record.
3. On the average, there was light voting across the rest of the state, which is bad news for Van. He cannot win.
4. The light voting across the rest of the state is also bad for Corker. The unique combination of voting patterns gives me hope for the first time that Ed can beat Corker in spite of the money Corker is throwing at the election.

At this point, Van is out. A vote for Van is a vote for Corker who, incidentally polls the worst against Ford.

And really, in the end, there’s just not that much difference between Corker and Ford.

The decision is clear. Vote Ed Bryant, the true conservative in the race. Don’t believe me? Read Enduring Faith, Personal Integrity, Conservative Values by one who worked closely with Ed for almost three years.

And if anyone is looking for guidance as to how to vote for the forty county judicial races or 27 state judical confirmations take a look at my recommendations. Hours of research so you don’t have to!

Download and print the Complete AlphaPatriot’s Shelby County Voter’s Guide. Take it with you to the polls. Pass it out to your friends!

<⁄end shameless self-promotion>

Technorati Tags: Ed Bryant,
Van Hilleary,
Bob Corker,
Tennessee Politics,
Tennessee Senate Race,
Shelby County Politics.

Quicklink: The complete AlphaPatriot’s Shelby County Voter’s Guide.

Explanation: The ballot on Thursday is the longest in Shelby County history, with every voter having 96 races on which to make a decision and Memphis voters having 103. Sixty six of these are for county judges, about which most voters have no idea.

I performed extensive research for the judicial races and am darn glad I did. There are some very respected jurists in the race and there are some who are astonishingly unqualified. For instance:

• Candidates for Criminal Court Judge with no criminal trial experience.
• A candidate that has been publicly censured, found in “willful contempt of court” and found guilty of legal malpractice.
• Candidates in bankruptcy, that have had their law license suspended, and pled guilty to mishandling client affairs.

For sources I included both the Democrat and Republican Parties, a right-leaning attorney and a left-leaning attorney, the Commercial Appeal and and the Conservative Republican Club. I believe that I was steadfastly impartial in making the judicial picks (except, perhaps, the Tennessee Supreme Court and appellate courts).

You may want to view just the county judicial races as I have included endorsements from all my sources so you can compare them.

But if you want to just print something off and go vote, I highly recommend my complete list of endorsements. It includes links to my research so you can make your own decision, but few of my choices are controversial.

I’ve done hours of research so you don’t have to! As always, comments welcome. And on this topic, comments from practicing attorneys are especially appreciated.