I know it may be hard to believe, but don’t take my word for it:

The Citizens Against Government Waste gave Dick Lugar a 67% “Friendly” rating in 2006 while Mike Sodrel earned an “Unfriendly” rating of just 30%

Any guess who else received a 30% rating that year? Then Senator Barack Obama.

http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/DocServer/GWWSummer07.pdf?docID=2641

As things begin to get ugly in Indiana’s Ninth District Republican primary, the Dems are pulling for Sodrel to eek out a fifth attempt…

Check out the following from Swing State Project:

“If Sodrel wins his primary against attorney Todd Young and teabagger Travis Hankins, I’d have to say Hill is favored to win reelection. It’s just as likely, though, that the establishment candidate Young will beat the more conservative Sodrel, and if that happens, Hill’s toast. Since Hill wants to run for governor in 2012, he might also decide to bail on this race; in that case, term-limited Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, who’s been trying to build a national profile lately, might run for the seat, but he’s too liberal for the district and would be heavily outgunned by either Sodrel or Young.  On balance, I’d give the slight advantage to the Republicans here.  Prediction: tossup

http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/6276/the-indiana-races-a-state-of-the-field

Considering Sodrel and Obama were equally as loose with taxpayer money during his 1 term, it’s no surprise they think Hill will beat him again. Millionaire Mike 5.0? Hill won’t even need to produce new commercials.

What is the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

Ok, so Congressman Pence didn’t actually call out Mike Sodrel by name, but here’s what he did say just months ago about the 2006 Republican Congress:

MIKE PENCE ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY: “Well, I think Republicans are starting to earn back the confidence of the American people that we squandered, really, in the last 10 years. I mean, look, let’s be honest. We didn’t just lose our majorities in 2006. We lost our way. I mean, the American people saw a Republican Party that walked away from its commitment to fiscal discipline, limited government and reform, and the American people walked away from us.” – Fox News Sunday August 2, 2009

This was the same year the Citizen’s Against Government Waste called Pence a “Tax Payer Hero” and called Mike Sodrel “Unfriendly.”

Coincidence?

Click here to see more  about Mike Sodrel’s dismal “Unfriendly” rating in 2006.

The following found at:

http://donotletevanbayhkilljobs.com/thefacts.php

The “Employee Free Choice Act”

The “Employee Free Choice Act”—better known as Card Check or EFCA—would be the most sweeping and dramatic change to labor law since 1947. It would restrict choice and take away freedom by eliminating the secret ballot, requiring mandatory and binding arbitration and increase government control of business. Studies show that if EFCA passes, more jobs will be lost which our country – and Indiana – cannot afford.

Senator Evan Bayh has a record of support for Card Check – cosponsoring the legislation and voting for cloture of the bill in 2007. He has not gone public with his position on this critical issue in 2009 but his record speaks for itself. In a recent survey 71% of Hoosiers said that they DO NOT support card check. DO NOT LET EVAN BAYH KILL JOBS – TELL HIM TO VOTE NO ON CARD CHECK!

Card Check WOULD KILL INDIANA JOBS

1) ELIMINATES THE SECRET BALLOT

Card Check would strip workers of their right to cast a secret ballot in union organizing elections opening the door for intimidation and coercion.

2) INCREASED GOVERNMENT CONTROL

Card Check would put Washington bureaucrats in charge of making binding decisions with regard to workers pay, health care, vacation policy and other workplace conditions without a vote by employees or approval of the employer.

3) Harsh New Penalties for Business

Card check would increase penalties on business – but NOT unions – for violations during the union organizing process.

FOXNews.com

- April 15, 2009

Thousands of Anti-Tax ‘Tea Party’ Protesters Turn Out in U.S. Cities

Hundreds of anti-tax rallies kicked off Wednesday in several U.S. cities as demonstrators protested high taxes and massive government spending.

Chants like “Give me liberty, not debt” and “Our kids can’t afford you” were heard across several U.S. cities Wednesday as anti-tax “tea party” protesters took to the streets to voice their opposition to big government spending.

Thousands of protesters — some dressed in colonial wigs with tea bags hanging from their eyeglasses — showed up in states from California to Kentucky to Massachusetts, holding signs and reading speeches lambasting the Obama administration’s tax-and-spend policies.

“I have two little kids and I know we are mortgaging their futures away,” one protester at a rally in Austin, Texas told FOX News. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

The demonstrations are part of a larger grassroots movement against government spending called Taxed Enough Already, or TEA — giving name to the Tax Day Tea Parties — and come more than 235 years after the original Boston Tea Party revolt against taxes.

Protesters gathered in cities across the country.

Shouts rang out from Kentucky, which just passed tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol, to Salt Lake City, where many in the crowd booed Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman for accepting about $1.5 billion in stimulus money. Even in Alaska, where there is no statewide income tax or sales tax, hundreds of people held signs and chanted “No more spending.”

“Frankly, I’m mad as hell,” said businessman Doug Burnett at a rally at the Iowa Capitol, where many of the about 1,000 people wore red shirts declaring “revolution is brewing.” Burnett added: “This country has been on a spending spree for decades, a spending spree we can’t afford.”

In Boston, a few hundred protesters gathered on the Boston Common — a short distance from the original Tea Party — some dressed in Revolutionary garb and carrying signs that said “Barney Frank, Bernie Madoff: And the Difference Is?” and “D.C.: District of Communism.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up a tea party at Austin City Hall with his stance against the federal government, as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, “Secede!”

But unlike many events around the country, politicians were not allowed to speak at a separate rally in San Antonio.

“They are welcome to come and listen to us, for a change,” organizers said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Obama seized the opportunity to defend his tax policy Wednesday, saying, “Make no mistake: this tax cut will reach 120 million families and put $120 billion directly into their pockets, and it includes the most American workers ever to get a tax cut. This will boost demand, and save or create over half a million jobs.”

“I know that April 15 isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite date on the calendar. But it is an important opportunity for those of us in Washington to consider our responsibility to the people who sent us here and who pay the bills,” he said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also defended the president’s promise to cut taxes.

“If anybody involved looks at the facts, they’ll find out that this president promised and this president delivered on putting more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans, cut their taxes, made it more affordable to buy a home, made it more affordable to send their kids to go to college, provided tax incentives for businesses to create jobs through things like clean energy,” Gibbs told reporters during an afternoon press conference.

“I’ll let the organizers of whatever these are speak to their motivations,” he said.

Earlier in the day, poor weather and permit problems threatened crowd turnouts at protests in Washington, D.C.

One million tea bags delivered to Lafayette Park were reloaded and sent away because tea party organizers did not have the proper permit, protest organizer Rebecca Wales told FOX News.

And a D.C. rally scheduled to take place outside the Treasury Department was cancelled when the U.S. Secret Service prevented protesters from gathering outside for lacking a permit.

The latest round of protests started yesterday when about 200 people gathered at the Missouri state capitol.

The movement has attracted prominent Republicans, some considering a 2012 presidential bid.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich address a tea party in a New York City park Wednesday night. His advocacy group, americansolutions.com, has partnered with tea party organizers to get word to the group’s members.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, another likely 2012 GOP presidential hopeful, planned to attend tea parties in Columbia and Charleston. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sent an e-mail to his supporters, letting them know about tea parties taking place throughout the state.

There were several small counter-protests, including one that drew about a dozen people at Fountain Square in Cincinnati. A counter-protester held a sign that read, “Where were you when Bush was spending billions a month ‘liberating’ Iraq?” The anti-tax demonstration there, meanwhile, drew about 4,000 people.

In Lansing, Mich., outside the state Capitol, another 4,000 people waved signs exclaiming “Stop the Fiscal Madness,” “Read My Lipstick! No More Bailouts” and “The Pirates Are in D.C.” Children held makeshift signs complaining about the rising debt.

More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside a downtown federal building in Salt Lake City despite the rain and snow. Kate Maloney held a cardboard sign that read “Pin the tail on the jacka$$” with a picture of Obama on a Democratic donkey.

Other protesters also took direct aim at Obama. One sign in the crowd in Madison, Wis., compared him to the anti-Christ. At a rally in Montgomery, Ala., where Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” blared from loudspeakers, Jim Adams of Selma carried a sign that showed the president with Hitler-style hair and mustache and said, “Sieg Heil Herr Obama.”

Still others talked of their children’s futures. In Washington, D.C., Joe Hollinger said he took the day off to attend the protest with his 11-year-old daughter.

“I’m concerned about the incredible amount of debt Congress is going to put on our children,” Hollinger said, pointing to his daughter’s sign, which read, “Congress get your hand off my piggy bank.”

“Across our nation, thousands of Americans are participating in taxpayer tea parties today for one simple reason: overtaxed families and small businesses have had enough,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday.

“They’ve had enough of Democrats forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for more wasteful spending instead of working together to make the tough fiscal decisions Americans are forced to make each and every day. They’ve had enough of seeing their hard-earned tax dollars wasted on pork-barrel spending that won’t create jobs, rebuild their savings, or get our economy moving again. And they’ve had enough of Congress and the White House mortgaging our children and grandchildren’s future by saddling them with mountains of debt destined to bankrupt our country,” Boehner said.

FOX News’ Griff Jenkins and Eric Shawn and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

I’m not sure what Mike Sodrel was thinking when he decided to run for Congress again this year. Perhaps he figures people won’t remember his record from his 2005-2006 term.

A quick review of the Citizens Against Government Waste by any of his “teaparty”  or “fiscal conservative” supporters, should have them fleeing his campaign like the Titanic.

CAGW gave Sodrel an “Unfriendly” rating of just 30% for his performance  in 2006, the lowest of any Republican in Indiana.  Any guess who else received a 30% rating that year? Then Senator Barack Obama.

http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/DocServer/GWWSummer07.pdf?docID=2641

Here are the Indiana rankings from 2006

Pence (R) 98%

Chocola (R) 95%

Burton (R) 54%

Hostettler (R) 45%

Buyer (R) 41%

Souder (R) 34%

Sodrel (R) 30%

February 1, 2010, 4:50 pm

Tea Party Convention’s Keynote and Other Events Will Be Televised

From Rasmussen:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/january_2010/9_expect_obama_s_spending_freeze_to_have_big_impact_on_deficit

Thursday, January 28, 2010

One of the key new initiatives in President Obama’s State of the Union speech is a three-year freeze on discretionary government spending, but voters overwhelmingly believe the freeze will have little or no impact on the federal deficit.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just nine percent (9%) think the freeze will reduce the deficit a lot.

Eighty-one percent (81%) disagree, including 42% who say it will have no impact. Another 39% say the freeze in nearly all areas except defense, national security, veterans affairs and entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will reduce the deficit a little.

Still, 56% favor the president’s plan for a three-year freeze on discretionary spending. Only 24% oppose it, and 20% more are undecided. Other data suggests that voters view the proposal as a first step in the right direction.

Overall, 57% would like to see a cut in government spending, 23% favor a freeze, and 12% say the government should increase spending. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly favor spending cuts. Democrats are evenly divided between spending cuts and a spending freeze.

It’s important to note that 49% of voters think reducing federal spending is more important than bringing down the deficit. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say reducing the deficit is more important.

The data found a significant partisan divide on this point. Most Republicans (58%) and unaffiliateds (53%) believe cutting federal spending is more important that cutting the deficit. A plurality (48%) of Democrats take the opposite view and believe reducing the deficit is more important.

Both in the Top 25 for Congressional Net Worth, 2005

From the Center For Responsive Politics

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b001233/

There’s been a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility coming out of Bayh’s office. Go look at his votes and make your call!