Vice-President Dick Cheney will appear at a $1000-plate fundraiser for Randy Kuhl on September 29 in Rochester, according to Eric Massa's campaign diary.
Cheney appeared on Meet the Press this morning and commented that he's been campaigning heavily and expects to win:
I’ve done 91 campaigns myself this cycle, since last fall. I’m on the road a lot. I’ve seen our candidates, I’ve seen how they’re handling the issues. We’ve generated the resources we need to be able to have a good, hard-fought competition. I—if I had to bet today, I’d bet that—well, I can bet you a dinner that we hold both Houses.
Cheney's appearance, like Bush's trip earlier this year, is a double-edged sword for Kuhl. Cheney's approval ratings are in the low 20's, and he's a polarizing and divisive figure. As his Meet the Press appearance demonstrated this morning, he's also an articulate spokesman for the Bush administration's positions on the War on Terror. Apparently Kuhl will risk another "rubber stamp" branding moment to energize his base and fatten his warchest.
Comments
Hi! OT here but I just found a Lexis-Nexis entry for a 2000 property sale that listed "Randy Kuhl" as the title company but I can't find a "Randy Kuhl" listed as a business.
Can you tell me anything more about Randy Kuhl's private business interests?
Of course, his MTP appearance also demonstrated that he's at best completely clueless and, rather more likely, a liar, given his track record. His "I haven't read it" excuse regarding the report stating that there was no connection between Al-Qaeda and Saddam is nonsense...that report is a summary of information that should have been available to the WH for ages. If he doesn't know that, it's because he doesn't want to know. More likely he ignores it because it doesn't fit with his polished set of lies he trots out every appearance.
Another question - how is the $500k Olean Challenger Center for Space Science Education coming along?
I became curious when I read on Kuhl's website that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) congratulated Kuhl on securing the funds (see Kuhl's 11/8/05 press release).
I hope you don't think I am a nuisance but I have more questions about Kuhl.
I just realized that Randy Kuhl is John R. Kuhl. When I checked Lexis-Nexis, I found properties owned by John R. Kuhl. I also found properties owned by Joseph and some other Kuhls.
What I did was search by the counties listed on Kuhl's website. I searched three or four counties.
Any way of checking if any of the 2005 Small Cities grants to resolve health and safety issues for low-income housing listed on Kuhl's website went to Kuhl, his relatives or his contributors?
Phil -- I'm no Cheney fan, but I still think he's an effective spokesman who can shore up Kuhl's base and make him some $$. I agree that some of his dodges on MTP were less than artful, including the one about not reading the Senate report, but he's not going to be taking tough questions from Tim Russert at a fundraiser.
Mrs Pantsreppon-
John R Kuhl Jr is his full name. He was a lawyer in private practice in Bath, NY before his election in '04. Every real estate transaction in NY pretty much requires an attorney, so it would make sense that his name was on some real estate documents. There are a lot of Kuhls in NYS -- I don't know how many of them are related to Randy. I don't get to Olean much, but Since the Challenger Space Center money was added to the '06 NASA budget, it wouldn't surprise me if nothing had happened yet. Also, Kuhl spent 20 years in the NYS assembly and was viewed as a moderate and didn't have any history of questionable financial transactions, so I doubt that the Kuhl as grafter research will go anywhere.
RC, I'm a Democrat who just "researched" three Congressional earmarks for Room Eight and the Sunlight Foundation and all three were shady.
I don't hold anyone in the NYS Assembly, Democrat or Republican, in high regard.
Look at what Comptroller
Alan Hevesi has to say about NYS debt.
Did Randy Kuhl ever speak up about fiscal responsibility when he was in Albany? If not, he is part of the problem.
Do you know anything about John R. Kuhl, Jr.?
He bought vacant land in Urbana? in Steuben County in 2004. The Nex-Lex description lists 10 acres but at the bottom of the page, it says 42 acres.
There are several John R., John R. Jr. and John R, III Kuhls buying property in Nevada and Florida.
"Moderate" does not translate to honest, imo.
RC - Oops! I asked about John R. Kuhl Jr. and you had already told me who he is.
Sorry for the blooper. I was up late last night as you already know.
I agree that there's nothing shiny about being a NYS assemblyman. It's certainly not honest work, but Kuhl was generally considered reasonably clean. If you find something real linking Kuhl and a questionable earmark, I'd be very interested to see it.
Deal. If I find anything, I'll post it here.
"Reasonably clean" doesn't cut it with me. Ignoring corruption is almost as bad as pepetrating it.
Besides, I don't think John Kuhl, NYS State Senator, could have done a very good job for his consituents.
I've been following
Charlie Gargano's career since 2002 and I read a lot about Syracuse, NYC and Long Island getting lots of ESDC money but no so much for Kuhl's neck of the woods.
So what did John Kuhl Jr. really do for his constituents when he was in Albany?
Kuhl probably did as little as any other NYS legislator. I'm no fan of Kuhl or the NYS assembly. My point is that there's a difference between a politician whose views you disagree with (e.g., Kuhl) and a corrupt politician (e.g., Delay). If you can show that Kuhl has done something illegal or unethical, bring it on.
Cripes! I thought the folks here were Democrats. I just followed the link from Room Eight and never checked the poltical climate here before posting.
As long as I am here, I might as well explain myself.
I don't if Kuhl is corrupt or not. I don't live in his district.
I am bringing up questions that someone who does live in his district might be able to get answered.
I am a CPA and former auditor who lives on Long Island. I usually can verify local information myself.
For example, if I want to know anything about real estate deals in Nassau and Suffolk County, I can ask a relative who is in commercial real estate.
He is the one who explained how Tom Suozzi raised money in Nassau County by doing questionable sale/leaseback deals.
Suozzi is a piker compared to what the Nassau County Republicans did to the county taxpayers in the '80s. That's when Peter King was comptroller.
Almost a year ago, I researched Tom Delay's charities and wrote about them at the TPM Cafe.
I analyzed the 990s filed by the charities with the IRS.
I had free access to the 990s because they are now online at the websites of those two very wonderful and public-minded organizations, the Foundation Center and Guidestar.
I raised a lot of questions about the operations of Delay's charities but that was all I could do. I don't live in Texas and I don't know anyone there.
It is up to someone in Texas to follow up on my research if they think there are illegal or unethical transactions involving Delay's charities.
I found a blog dedicated to issues in Delay's district so I wrote a letter to the sponsor of the site.
She provided me with a little info to the effect that there had been questions in the past raised about a very wealthy foundation linked to Delay's charities.
I told her that I had taken the issue as far as I could. Whether she followed up or not with Ronnie Earle, I don't know but I hope she did.
A few weeks ago, I asked someone who runs a blog in Rep. John E. Sweeney's district if she could find about a questionable organization that Sweeny earmarked HHS funds for.
Again, I don't live in the Hudson Valley so I couldn't pursue the issue any further but someone in Hudson Vally could.
All they had to do to start was drop by the public library and ask about the Readnet literacy software, for starters.
Kuhl and Rep. Jim Walsh seem pretty good at rounding up funds for water and sewer projects.
I don't if any real work is ever done or who the contractors are but someone in Walsh's or Kuhl's districts might be able to find out more about those earmarks.
If you google "mrs panstreppon", you would get an idea about what I have been up to in the last few years.
I am interested in good government and I sort of took it on myself to "investigate" crooked politicians.
I can be slightly off-the-wall but I try to always reference my facts to publicly available info.
Hope I clarified why I posted here, RC.