The LuLac Edition #71, Oct. 20th, 2006

PICTURE INDEX, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JOE LEONARDI AND SENATOR RICK SANTORUM WITH A FAN OF SCRANTON'S LA FESTA'S LEMONADE EARLIER IN THE CAMPAIGN, WILK'S SUE HENRY AND JOE SCARBOROUGH APPARENTLY HIDING FROM HIS PLEDGE TO OFFER AIRTIME TO CANDIDATES WHO TOOK HIM UP ON HIS OFFER.



Going to the candidates debate,
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose.

CASEY SANTORUM DEBATE AGAIN


When they last met for a televised debate, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and Democrat Bob Casey Jr. looked as if they were ready to jump from behind their respective podiums and scuffle.
Monday night’s meeting at the National Constitution Center -- the final in a series of three Pennsylvania debates -- was tempered and substantive by comparison, but the candidates still spent an hour trying to weaken and attack each other’s credibility on issues and character. A debate Monday morning at KYW Newsradio took a similar tone, as plenty of hostility crackled just below the surface.
Santorum went on the offensive against Casey, painting him as a lightweight who was coasting on his family name. Santorum positioned himself as being more independent of President Bush than Casey has portrayed him over the last 18 months, and as a senator who delivers for the state.
“The bottom line is I have worked hard for the people of Pennsylvania,” Santorum said. “Why? Because I had to work for this job. It is not a job I inherited because of my last name.”
Casey, the son of a two-term governor, belittled Santorum as a desperate campaigner and a divisive ideologue who, as a leader of the GOP Senate majority, was partly responsible for the “toxic” environment in Washington.
“On one side, you have a candidate of status quo, stay the course, more the same,” Casey said.
The three-debate series served more as a soapbox for the candidates to hash out the differences their staffs have been debating with the media for more than a year.
Santorum came into the debates with the heavier burden. Trailing in the polls, and now even with Casey on the amount of money on hand to spend through Election Day on Nov. 7, Santorum needed to chink Casey’s armor. Santorum managed to portray the Democrat as being unprepared in some areas by asking questions he couldn’t answer, such as identifying the former Iranian president who made a controversial trip to the United States last month.
Casey needed to hold his own against Santorum, who was viewed as the more adept debater, and avoid any serious gaffes. He succeeded.
There has been much talk that Santorum needed to have a strategy that portrayed him as a fighter in the Western part of the state and more moderate in the eastern part. This could be the reason why the debate in Philadelphia was a little bit more subdued.

LEONARDI ENDORSED BY ESQUIRE MAGAZINE


Dr. Joseph Leonardi, Republican Nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives PA-11, has been endorsed by Esquire Magazine.
Per the November edition of Esquire Magazine, page 206:
Pennsylvania
District 11
Joseph Leonardi ( R )
Paul Kanjorski ( D )
"Incumbent Kanjorski has been described by The New York Times as a "master of earmarking," better known as a pork farmer. This got him into trouble a few years ago when he got 7.5 million taxpayer dollars for a company partly owned by members of his family. Esquire endorses: Leonardi"

SUE HENRY HEADS TO WASHINGTON


Sue Henry’s Radio program on WILK will originate from the White House next Tuesday. Only one of about 30 broadcast outlets allowed on the premises, Henry will be interviewing Cabinet officials and Lord knows who else might be strolling around. The Bush White House has long been an advocate of inviting talk radio hosts to the residence but this is unique in the sense that live broadcasts will be going on from there. Henry has no idea why her show was picked but she joins pretty famous company. In the past the President has invited Sean Hannity, Michael Reagan, and the very scary Laura Ingram. Warning to Nancy Kman, programming boss at WILK, Tony Snow seems to need all the help he could get. He just may tap Ms. Henry as a top aide in the press office.

THE PRESIDENT STOPS IN THE SUMMIT

President Bush stopped off at Manning’s Ice Cream in Clarks Summit for a bit of ice cream. The President favored Pralines and Cream and waved to excited residents. A cousin of mine and her husband I believe are the only two Democrats in the Summit but did not venture out for a cone or a glimpse at the Chief Executive. At least I'll give the President this, he didn't order vanilla ice cream. If I had a chance to show him the sights in Lackawanna Coiunty, we'd do wings at the Windsor, stop by my friend John Webster's house so he could see John's collection of Beers of the World, a visit to the Archbald pothole and a set at Superdads, then end it all with a few dogs at Abe's on South Main in Wilkes Barre. See, Democrats do have more fun!!!!!!!!!

MEDIA WATCH

All TV stations did a very good job covering the President’s visit. David DeCosmo from WYOU TV was his usual best while Amy Bradley and Jill Kanopka did great team coverage on WBRE TV. And of course Newswatch 16 did their usual good job. This is President Bush’s 7th visit to the region since he came to office. He has been here more than any President.

OH CAROL!!!!!!

Not lost on the crowd or even the President at Sherwood’s rally was the presence of the Congressman’s wife and daughter. Mrs. Sherwood wrote a letter to supporters over the weekend and essentially forgave her husband and questioned why voters in the 10th district could not do the same. Here’s a copy of her letter:

Dear Friends,
After watching the debate last Wednesday night between my husband and
Chris Carney, I decided to write this letter. . This is not an easy thing for me to do
because I am basically a private person. But as I sat in the auditorium listening
to the debate, I realized that I would never want a person like Chris Carney to
represent me anywhere, especially in Congress.
Chris Carney talks a lot about family values - but the /lsubstance" of his
campaign is to attack my family. He says his campaign isjustified in publicizing
over and over my husband's infidelity under the guise of /Ifactual information."
He won't admit that it is negative campaigning or a personal attack. I think
we all know the facts by now, as the media has not let us forget. Chris Carney
might be trying to make himself look squeaky clean, but we have all made
mistakes we regret over the years... nobody is perfect. I am certainly not
condoning the mistake Don made, but I am not going to dwell on it either.
Weare a strong and loving family and have been put to the test... WEARE
NOT RUNNING AWAY FROM OUR PROBLEMS! On the contrary, we have
gained strength from each other and, as a family, continue to pull together. It
seems like a long process, but we are slowly and surely rebuilding our family.
As with most couples, Don and I have worked through our differences during
our 34 year marriage and, although this is hard, we're not about to give up.
Don is a good person and has always been a hero to our daughters and,
without a doubt, will be again. We do not believe in flogging dead horses or
living in the past. It is time to move on and that is exact/yowhat we are trying
to do.
The negative ads approved by Chris Carney seem to be needlessly cruel.
Private humiliation is one thing to endure, but to be repeatedly, publicly
humiliated is quite another. When somebody hurts one of us, he hurts
everyone in the family. Perhaps Carney gets some pleasure out of hurting our
family, or maybe that's what he thinks will make him a winner. He seems to
be self-appointed judge and jury. "I will make you proud" he so frequently
likes to say... but I find nothing in his actions during this campaign that
would make anybody proud.
We have all done a lot of soul searching and put many hours into restoring
our family unity. Without Don, we are not a whole family. It is a fact that good
people can and do make mistakes. Don is a good person.
I took a break from politics and campaigning for a while, now I am back and
willing to work as hard as you to keep a good man doing a good job for all of us.

LEONARDI CHALLENGES SCARBOROUGH TO PUT HIS MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS. SO FAR SCARBOUROUGH HAS NOT BOTHERED TO RESPOND TO JOE LEONARDI. HEY MR. SCARBOROUGH, IF YOU DON’T MEAN IT, DON’T WRITE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From ROME WASN’T BURNT in a DAY, by Joe Scarborough, page 181: "This year on Scarborough Country I will invite incumbents and challengers of both parties to sign my 10-Point Pledge to clean up Congress. I’ll be highlighting candidates who agree to support all provisions of the reform package and demanding answers from those who don’t." Since I announced my run for U.S. House of Representatives in August of 2005, I have been trying to contact Mr. Scarborough to appear on his show to sign his pledge. I believe strongly in this pledge and I am signing it without appearing on the show. My campaign was advised by producer Tara Meltzer that "we don’t do that on Scarborough Country anymore." We attempted to explain that we were only responding to Mr. Scarborough’s challenge, but she curtly stated that "we don’t do those kind of segments anymore." I am extremely disappointed that Mr. Scarborough would issue a challenge and then avoid someone who is willing to take up his challenge. I have been quoted as saying I am glad I’m not going to Washington, D.C. to be a Chiropractor, because there are so few spines; it seems it may be a trait that some political analysts share.
Here is the pledge:
From page 180-181 Joe Scarborough, "Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day"
Joe Scarborough’s 10-Point Pledge to clean up Congress:
1. Ban congressmen, senators and White House officials from lobbying for five years.
2. Freeze the pay of congressmen, senators and White House officials until the federal budget is balanced. This includes cost-of-living adjustments!
3. Force political candidates to immediately scan and post all campaign contributions on their campaign website. Failure to do so results in criminal penalties.
4. Pass term limits now! Since the House of Representatives authorizes the federal spending, limit House members to three terms (six years).
5. Make Congress and every Washington bureaucracy undergo an independent, professional audit, line by line, program by program, every four years.
6. Pass a constitutional amendment requiring Washington to balance the budget every year except when Congress passes a resolution declaring a national emergency.
7. Create a federal rainy-day fund that would set aside one-half of one percent of all tax receipts each year for national, state and local emergencies.
8. Reenact pay-as-you-go rules that would require Congress to offset new spending programs and tax cuts with spending cuts from other programs.
9. Reinstitute congressional spending caps that would force congressmen or senators to live within their previous spending projections. These caps will not be broken unless Congress passes a separate resolution declaring a national emergency as described in number 6.
10. Pass a new American tax code written by a bipartisan panel of budget experts instead of the lobbyist groups who regularly carve out special-interest deductions and greatly simplify the tax system.

Signed: Dr. Joseph Leonardi
Candidate U.S. House
PA - 11