Tea Party victory in Texas; Cruz Cruises past Dewhurst

It was supposed to be Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst's 'turn' in the Senate. Backed by Rick Perry and the Republican establishment, Dewhurst won a plurality of the vote in the primary but Ted Cruz was able to force a runoff two months later. That runoff was yesterday and the establishment lost.

Via Texas Tribune:

Defying all early expectations and upending long-standing conventional wisdom in Texas Republican politics, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz handily won the Republican runoff for an open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday night.

He moves on to the general election against former state Rep. Paul Sadler, who defeated retired educator Grady Yarbrough in the Democratic runoff.

Cruz defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst after a lengthy, contentious political battle in which Cruz painted a longtime statewide elected official backed by Gov. Rick Perry as a moderate.

“Tonight is a victory for the grass roots,” Cruz said Tuesday night. “It is a testament to Republican women, to Tea Party leaders and to grass-roots conservatives.”

In a short concession speech, Dewhurst said he was proud of the race he had run.

“We got beat up a little bit, but we never gave up,” Dewhurst said. “And we stand tall in knowing that we never compromised any of our values.”

Then, in a classic case of projection, Sadler actually attempted to charge that the Republican Party had been 'hijacked' and that he would seek to recruit Dewhurst supporters.

In a statement, Sadler made clear that he will fight for Dewhurst’s supporters ahead of the Nov. 6 general election.

“Tonight, I stand alone as the only nominee of a major political party in Texas because the Texas Republican Party has been hijacked by the Tea Party,” Sadler said in a statement.

Uh, not so much, Mr. Sadler. The Tea Party is desperately trying to bring the Republican Party back from the abyss and it is YOUR party that has been hijacked - by Communists.

Then again, commies lie.

Here's a montage of the campaign between Cruz and Dewhurst. Make no mistake. If Cruz defeats Sadler in November, he will be a MAJOR upgrade to Kay Bailey Hutchison. To be fair, Dewhurst would have been as well.

One last point. Many of Dewhurst's problems stemmed from the Kabuki theater that took place during last year's special legislative session. It was obvious that the establishment in both the State House and Senate, which Dewhurst led, didn't want to pass the tough Sanctuary Cities Bill or the TSA anti-groping bill (brought up by Cruz in the video below). House Speaker Joe Straus and Dewhurst attempted to point fingers at the other house.

Each should have been held solely responsible, not just equally responsible, for not getting those bills passed. Last night, Dewhurst was held accountable, in part, for his Special Session performance.

Is this how Fast and Furious ends?

Hundreds of dead Mexicans; whistleblowers who put their necks on the line; Justice Department officials who committed perjury; evidence that Fast and Furious was authorized at the highest levels of DOJ; a President who asserts Executive Privilege to prevent the production of documents in response to a lawful subpoena; and an Attorney General found in criminal contempt of Congress. Yet, Congressional investigators appear to be content with letting five ATF leaders take the fall. "Miscarriage of Justice" doesn't begin to explain this.

Via Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON -- Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials -- from the special agent-in-charge of the Phoenix field office to the top man in the bureau’s Washington headquarters -- are collectively responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was “marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy.”

The investigators, in a final report likely to be released later this week, also unearthed new evidence that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix initially sought to hide from the Mexican government the crucial information that two Fast and Furious firearms were recovered after the brother of a Mexican state attorney general was killed there.

According to a copy of the report obtained Monday by The Times, the investigators said their findings are “the best information available as of now” about the flawed gun operation that last month led to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. being found in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.

Two more final reports, they said, will deal with “the devastating failure of supervision and leadership” at the Department of Justice and an “unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself.”

On one hand, Issa fought both the DOJ and Republican leadership valiantly. In the end, however, it was Republican leadership that carries the most disgrace. Nonetheless, this news amounts to an armistice on the part of Issa.

It's a sad day when not enough political will can be mustered to get to the bottom of a program that led to the death of at least one Border Agent (Brian Terry) and hundreds of Mexicans, all in the name of a gun control agenda.

We've come to expect the Democrats to close ranks and defend their own, no matter the cause; we've come to expect Republicans will cry and wilt when it's time to fight but this is the first time they've done so in the face of a potential mass murder conspiracy. If John Boehner is really worried about future generations, he has a strange way of showing it. Fast and Furious appears to be winding down without justice being served and much of that reality can be laid right at the feet of Boehner, who has turned his back on those who stuck out their necks and sacrificed their children:

Once again, I give you John Boehner's 'fight or flight' response:

It's Time for Karl Rove to come clean

After publishing this post yesterday, which included a photo circa 2000 that shows Abdurahman Alamoudi meeting with George W. Bush and Karl Rove, I decided to look into the book that Rove was quite likely given by the delegation seen in the photo. It's entitled, The Cultural Atlas of Islam and was written by a man named Ismail Al Faruqi in 1986.

Now, obviously, Karl Rove cannot be held accountable for accepting a book from a group he met with; it happens all the time. In fact, in 2009, Barack Obama accepted a far left-wing book from Hugo Chavez. That made news because Chavez wanted to make a public spectacle of himself.

However, there were red flags raised by the Secret Service and Intelligence officials relative to both Alamoudi and Sami Al-Arian. Yet, Bush and/or Rove met with them on more than one occasion after this book was put into Rove's hands. If there were suspicions about Alamoudi prior to these meetings, wouldn't it have been prudent to investigate the author of material this group felt was important enough to put into Rove's hands?

According to Newsweek, via History Commons:

...Alamoudi and the AMC had been previously criticized for their ties to Hamas and other militant groups and figures (see March 13, 1996). Bush and/or Rove will meet with Alamoudi on other occasions (see (see July 2000, June 22, 2001, September 14-26, 2001). US intelligence learned of ties between Alamoudi and bin Laden in 1994 (see Shortly After March 1994);

Yes, Alamoudi visited the White House after 9/11. As it turns out, Al Faruqi is identified as the founder of one of the Muslim Brotherhood front groups listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial (HLF). That group is the Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS). Here is what Discover the Networks says about AMSS:

Established in 1972 by Temple University professor Ismail Raji al-Faruqi and University of Pennsylvania graduate student Abdulhamid AbuSulayman, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS) is a constituent organization of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and a sister organization of the International Institute of Islamic Thought.

AMSS describes itself as “an independent membership-based organization that encompasses the United States and Canada.” It has no corporate, legal or financial relationship with any organization bearing the name of AMSS in any other country. Its mission is “to provide a forum through which Islamic positions on various academic disciplines can be promoted, with an emphasis on the social sciences and humanities”; to further “the continuity of the Islamic intellectual heritage”; and “to serve the interests of the larger Muslim community by bringing together Muslim and non-Muslim scholars in an academic setting to examine and define Islamic perspectives on issues of global concern that contribute to the prosperity of Muslims around the globe and the betterment of humanity.”

AMSS collaborates with the International Institute of Islamic Thought to publish the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), which is distributed in more than 50 countries around the world. Launched in 1984, AJISS is an interdisciplinary publication of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world: politics, history, economic philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, religious law, and Islamic thought.

So, the author of the book given to Rove in 2000 was closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has pledged to work toward the destruction of the United States. The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), another unindicted co-conspirator in HLF also lists al-Faruqi as its founder.

Are we to believe that the Bush administration did not know of the nefarious intentions of these individuals and groups?

Take a look at an article written by Franklin Foer on November 12, 2001 that was published by The New Republic:

On the afternoon of September 26, George W. Bush gathered 15 prominent Muslim- and Arab-Americans at the White House. With cameras rolling, the president proclaimed that "the teachings of Islam are teachings of peace and good." It was a critically important moment, a statement to the world that America's Muslim leaders unambiguously reject the terror committed in Islam's name. 

To the president's left sat Dr. Yahya Basha, president of the American Muslim Council, an organization whose leaders have repeatedly called Hamas "freedom fighters." Also in attendance was Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who on the afternoon of September 11 told a Los Angeles public radio audience that "we should put the State of Israel on the suspect list." And sitting right next to President Bush was Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America, who last fall told a Washington crowd chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans, "America has to learn if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come." Days later, after a conservative activist confronted Karl Rove with dossiers about some of Bush's new friends, Rove replied, according to the activist, "I wish I had known before the event took place."

Again, it's time for the highest members of the Bush administration - including Karl Rove - to come clean about who they met with, what they knew about them, and why they continued meeting with them after they knew it.

The stakes are too high and the jig is very close to being up.