Chad’s Morning Brief: McCain & Graham Slam Paul Filibuster, Democrat Wants NASCAR to Drop NRA, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of March 8, 2013. Give Chad your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am.
1. Establishment vs. Rand Paul (link)
Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham showed just how out of touch they are yesterday by slamming Senator Rand Paul's filibuster.
While Republican senators flocked to the floor Wednesday night to support Sen. Rand Paul’s nearly 13-hour filibuster, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did exactly the opposite on Thursday.
McCain quoted heavily from a Wall Street Journal editorial that slammed Paul’s filibuster on the Obama administration’s drone use, including a line that said “If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in college dorms.”
McCain called Paul’s concern that the government could kill any American with a drone “totally unfounded.” He referenced Jane Fonda, as Paul did on Wednesday, calling her “not his favorite American” for her support of the Viet Cong, but said the American government would not have killed her.
“To somehow say that someone who disagrees with American policy and even may demonstrate against it, is somehow a member of an organization which makes that individual an enemy combatant is simply false,” McCain said.
Graham also chided his fellow Republicans on the floor for joining Paul in his filibuster.
“To my Republican colleagues, I don’t remember any of you coming down here suggesting that President Bush was going to kill anybody with a drone, do you?” Graham said. “They had a drone program back then, all of a sudden this drone program has gotten every Republican so spun up. What are we up to here?”
McCain and Graham realize they are losing control of their power. They view Senator Paul, Senator Cruz, Senator Lee, and Senator Rubio as threats. Right now, I'd rather stay on the young gun side than the McCain/Graham side of history.
2. NASCAR & the NRA (link)
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut wants NASCAR to drop the NRA. Why? Because of the Newtown families.
In a letter sent Thursday to NASCAR CEO Brian France, Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, asks the stock car racing association to drop the NRA’s sponsorship of an April race at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race, in NASCAR’s top flight, will be the NRA 500.
“By giving the NRA sponsorship of a major NASCAR race, NASCAR has crossed a line – you have decided to put yourself in the middle of a political debate, and you have taken a side that stands in opposition to the wishes of so many Newtown families who support common sense gun reform,” Murphy wrote. “Whether or not this was your intention, your fans will infer from this sponsorship that NASCAR and the NRA are allies in the current legislative debate over gun violence. By announcing this new partnership at the very height of Congress’s deliberations over gun reform, NASCAR has inserted itself into a political debate that has nothing to with the business of NASCAR.”
Murphy, who represented Newtown, the site of the massacre of 20 children, in the House before moving up to the Senate. He has been outspoken in his desire for tougher gun control laws, including universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.
NASCAR referred questions to the Texas Motor Speedway, which actually signed the sponsorship deal with the NRA. A spokesman for the speedway declined to comment.
”It’s not about politics. It’s about sports marketing,” the racetrack’s president, Eddie Gossage, told the AP on Monday.
Murphy is an idiot. The NRA had nothing to do with the shooting in Newtown. The NRA promotes responsible gun ownership. Senator Murphy should be ashamed that he is using the victims families as pawns in his anti-gun crusade.
3. Tech Football on a Thursday? (link)
Yesterday it was announced that the Texas Tech-TCU football game would be moved to a Thursday night kickoff on September 12. While it's great exposure for Texas Tech and the game will be on national TV, I am not a big fan of the move.
Why? Because for the fans it stinks. At least for the fans who plan on going to the game or traveling it's bad. Thursday just doesn't have the same gameday experience as a Saturday game. People get off of work around 5 or 6pm, then have to rush home to change then drive to the stadium to find parking. Speaking of parking, what is Texas Tech going to do about the main parking lot. Students are in class until 4 or 5pm in many cases. What happens to the tailgating that goes on during gameday? Will there only be 2 hours of that allowed? What about parking in other areas around the stadium?
Oh yeah, and since it's a night game don't expect to be home before 11pm or midnight. While the college kids might not care, some people do have to wake up pretty early. Finally, it hurts people who plan on traveling to the game. Not just TCU fans, but Tech fans as well. Instead of just taking Friday off, many fans will have to take Thursday and Friday or even Wednesday-Friday off. Ouch.
I understand Texas Tech was going to have to do this at some point and I understand it puts Texas Tech in the national spotlight. That doesn't mean it's good for the fans though.
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