Fargo, North Dakota February 23, 2006
Last night the “Friends of Kent Conrad” hosted a reception for Senator Kent Conrad at Stoker’s, an intimate, ultra-hip wine and cordial bar located in the basement of the Hotel Donaldson
Thanks to “Friends of Kent Conrad” for the four Pacificos, and the buffet of snacks. The reception was very informal. Probably about 30 people attended and anyone who wanted to could walk up and have a relatively private chat with the Senator. During my chat time, I visited with the Senator about a member of his family.
Later, after his presentation, I asked the first question. “Is war with Iran inevitable.” Sen Conrad gave a fairly long answer. He said he’d thought our focus on Iraq had been wrong from the beginning, (he voted against going to war), and that we should have been focused on Iran. He said he wasn’t expecting much help on Iran from the French. [ha? ha?] But he felt that the Russians were making a significant contribution to resolving that situation. He ended by specifically saying that he did not think that war with Iran was inevitable.
Besides Senator Conrad we had a few other dignitaries at Stoker’s;
On the left, Ed Schultz, of The Ed Schultz Show and on the right, Roger Johnson , ND Agriculture Commissioner, and the only Democrat currently holding an office in ND state government.
Ed Shultz asked Senator Conrad if he was going to invite Dick Cheney to ND for a pheasant hunt. Much laughter! I think Sen. Conrad said, “Yeah, don’t forget to duck!”
On the voting machine issue he recommended that everyone vote absentee ballots.
At the Radisson Hotel, Senator Conrad spoke before a crowd of a couple hundred, a Prairie Progressives Town Hall Event. Here he did a power point presentation on Bush’s FY 2007 Budget, deficits, and debt. The numbers and the implications for the future are staggering. If you think social programs have taken a severe hit these past several years, you’re going to be in for a surprise as it appears there will be numerous programs eliminated completely, or cut severely. We’ve just got to preserve that 41 Billion dollar tax cut for those make more than a million per year, right???
Senator Conrad -“… there will be massive budget cuts…with the intention of shredding Social Security and Medicare… it’s stunning what’s been proposed.
And he mentioned that he’d been called in for a private chat with President Bush, (no staff present), and that he’d discussed budget and finance issues with the president for 1.5 hrs. And at the end of the conversation Sen. Conrad said that he had concluded that Bush just didn’t have a clue. He said it was just like Alfred E. Neuman, “What me worry?”
Sen. Conrad’s conclusion; Bush is short of horsepower.
See more comments and links for that information below the fold:::
BUSH FY 2007 BUDGET: MORE DEFICITS AND DEBTThe nation needed a new budget plan this year, a dramatic and bold acknowledgment from the Bush administration that we need to put our fiscal house back in order. Instead, we got more of the same – more deficits, more debt, and more hiding of our true fiscal condition from the American people.
The President’s new budget is nothing new. It represents the same reckless fiscal course the administration has followed for the last five years. It explodes deficits, but then conceals them by providing only five years of numbers and leaving out large costs, like long-term Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) reform and realistic ongoing war costs. The result will be more debt passed on to our children and grandchildren.
From all indications the FY 2007 budget will be devastating for many people. In the FY 2007 Budget, Funding for Vocational Education will be eliminated, funding for Upward Bound will be eliminated, Rural Health Care cut 83%, etc. For more details see this 9 page pdf download on Bush’s FY 2007 Budget
If you don’t feel like reading a lot of text see these very nicely done charts that illustrate the debt and deficit aspects of Bush’s FY 2007 Budget, on this 7 page pdf file, Charts Used in Press Conference on Bush FY 2007 Budget – Feb. 6, 2006
The following is a 9 page pdf file of Sen. Conrad’s Remarks at Press Conference on Bush FY 2007 Budget – Feb. 6, 2006
The question was asked on when the Democrats at the national level would be coming out with their plan. Sen. Conrad said that was not likely until some time in September. The strategy being to keep the focus on the Republicans’ failures, in order to further decrease the public’s respect for this administration, rather than have the media focusing on what’s likely to be a great brouhaha once the Democrat plan is presented.
His rational on that strategy seemed to make sense at the time of my hearing it. I still think the leadership at the national level needs to show some spine somewhere in order to keep some hope alive at the grass roots level.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve just got to let Senator Conrad’s vote on Alito go, and move on. There is no likelihood of a viable third party at the state level here, so that is not really an option for me, if I want to continue to remain involved politically.
I have a great many personal friends who I have been involved with for more than a couple of decades who remain active in the North Dakota Democrat-NonPartisan League. So I guess I will continue to take this wild ride with them.