Gov. Ed Rendell speaking on the Sean Hannity show about five minutes ago — IOW about 6:10 p.m., March 10 — praised President George W. Bush for being courageous and correct.
Rendell, who chaired the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 election, said Bush and the Republicans heroically went against popular opinion in instituting the surge in Iraq and the policy was a resounding success.
And while speaking of the Republicans, the Governor said “we have to be a big tent”.
Pennsylvania’s Bush-bashing, Obama-supporting governor may have changed his tune, at least with regard to the wisdom of military trials for terrorist and the closing of the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Gov. Ed Rendell, on Fred Thompson’s radio show today said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
“Let him plead guilty before a military tribunal in Gitmo,” Rendell said.
There had been talk about holding the trial in Wester Pennsylvania after New York politicians started rebelling against the plan to have it in The Big Apple.
Thompson is a conservative as is Sean Hannity whose show the governor has also been gracing with his presence.
Rendell Haitian Trip Hot Blonde Glory Grab — Jason Altmire had been a lobbyist for, and former acting vice president at, UPMC, an integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh that is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh.
In 2006, he was elected to Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s Fourth District as a Democrat.
Gov. Rendell with Leslie Merrill McCombs at a 2007 Pittsburgh Pirates game.
Mary Beth Buchanan, a Republican former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania who had announced she was considering a run against Altmire this November, began organizing a mission two days after the Jan. 12 Haitian earthquake to render aid to Jamie and Ali McMutrie, Pittsburgh-area sisters who were running a orphanage in Port-au-Prince and rescue the orphans.
She enlisted Valerie May, a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer, to smooth the way for the children’s entrance and contacted Dr. Mary Carrasco, an old friend who was director of A Child’s Place, based at UPMC Mercy hospital who connected her with Kathy McCauley, a grants consultant, who began gathering supplies.
It was then that Leslie Merrill McCombs appeared on scene.
Mrs. McCombs is the hot blonde senior consultant for government relations at UPMC who developed a close working relationship with Gov. X-Man Rendell while successfully lobbying on behalf of Lions Gate Entertainment for the $75 million 2007 Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program.
Mrs McCombs never disclosed the relationship — with Lions Gate that is albeit she vociferously denied having one with X-Man– and wound up being fined $5,025 in July 2009 for failing to reveal being a lobbyist.
Anyway, Mrs. McCombs told Mrs. Buchanan that UPMC would be the sole handler of the rescue mission, a mission that would eventually include Gov. Rendell, Congressman Altmire, but not Mrs. Buchanan.
Wonder what Congressman Altmire and Gov. Rendell have in mind to pay her and UPMC back?
PaWaterCooler.Com is reporting that Gov. Rendell flew to Haiti to deliver medical supplies and rescue 54 orphans after a woman who is a former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania did the work in organizing the effort.
Mary Beth Buchanan spent four days, according to PaWaterCooler, obtaining clearance for the children to enter the United States, medical supplies, physicians to escort the children and an airplane cleared to land in Haiti.
The only thing she failed to get was the airplane, in lieu of which came an interrogation from a senior consultant for UPMC — a major health facility headquartered in Pittsburgh — regarding the details of her mission. The supplies Ms. Buchanan had gathered were the ones carried to Haiti by Rendell.
Ms. Buchanan is openly mulling a challenge to incumbent Congressman Jason Altmire (D-Pa4). Altmire is an ally of Rendell and has close connections with UPMC where he was a former acting vice president.
Ed Rendell has not been the most competent governor to lead our state but God bless him for the effort he put out to rescue those 54 orphans from Haiti and for persevering through the garbage thrown at him to get the job done.
Here’s a story about what the mission had to go through before a successful end.
The recent Rasmussen Poll shows that 59 percent of Pennsylvanian disapproved — and 38 percent strongly at that — of the performance of Gov. Fast Eddie “X-Man” Rendell. I haven’t seen this reported too much in the dinosaurs.
Anyway, thank you again Republicans for Rendell. Gotta always admire the steel trap thinking of the “fiscal conservative, social liberal.” You guys and gals would give Jethro Bodine a run for his money in a battle of wits.
Rasmussen also has Republican Pat Toomey beating either Democrats Arlen Specter (46 to 42 percent) or Joe “Damn the Pennsylvanians Full Speed Ahead” Sestak (44 to 38 percent).
Note that 35 percent of Pennsylvanians have a very unfavorable opinion of Specter.
Regarding President Obama, 50 percent approve of him and 48 percent don’t.
Kristin Davis, the madam who supplied former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer with hookers, has been saying that another prominent governor has used her service.
She referred to him as Governor X.
She was asked on the July 24th Opie and Anthony radio show who that might be. She apparently wrote a name on a piece of paper and passed it to her hosts, who then spent the next 10 minutes dropping hints.
Those hints included:
“What, did he pay her in coal and steel?”
“I guess he had a little filly on the side.”
“Did he used to be an Eagles scout?”
Can this explain why a certain someone is standing in the way of passing the state budget?
Gov. Ed Rendell was among those sending a letter to U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter praising convict Vince Fumo and urging an easy sentence.
Who says there is no honor among thieves?
It didn’t do that much good. Buckwalter gave Fumo –who was ranking the Democrat on the state Senate Appropriations Committee until his indictment in February 2007– 55 months today for his conviction on 137 federal corruption charges.
Hey, it’s still half-a-year less than what his predecessor as the people’s representative from South Philadelphia’s 1st Senatorial District — Buddy Cianfrani — got in 1978. Take heart, Vince. Buddy was out in 27 months.
Also sending a letter of support for Fumo was former State Supreme Court Judge Sandra Schultz Newman, a Republican.
For an interesting explanation of Pennsylvania politics read the book by former Delaware Countian and judicial reformer (and martyr) Bob Surrick: “Lawyers, Judges and Journalists: The Corrupt and the Corrupters”. Free chapters can be found here: surrickbook.com/free.htm.
Mrs. Newman’s son Jonathan chaired the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for 4.5 years until January 2007. He actually did a pretty good job.
