Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Jim Ramstad
I recently had an opportunity to attend a fundraiser for Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN) for work purposes. He's a relatively pragmatic conservative Congressman. Other than coming across as a nice guy, (everyone there did give him a check for $1,000, so he had reasons to be nice) he made some interesting points:
1) He says the feelings in GOP circles is that they will suffer in '06, and the Dems should have big gains. He didn't say House/Senate leadership will change, just the GOP should expect losses.
2) He's from a strong Republican district, and has held many "town hall" forums on different issues, but he's never seen such an organized opposition before. His forums tend to be packed with people, most of them against the Iraq War, Social Security change, Schiavo, etc. Ramstad thinks the GOP should be scared-it's a wake up call.
3) He voted with most Republicans on the Terri Schiavo vote. He stands by it, because the wording was something like "The Federal Judiciary SHOULD take a look at this...", not the "Federal Judiciary HAS TO take a look at this...". I haven't looked into if that's true or not.
4) He thinks stem cells should be a major issues, and even went as far as to say the Administration is clearly "anti-Science". Ramstad says it's not about abortion, and never should be. He went on to say if Orrin Hatch supports stem cell research, and is "pro-life", everyone should.
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1) He says the feelings in GOP circles is that they will suffer in '06, and the Dems should have big gains. He didn't say House/Senate leadership will change, just the GOP should expect losses.
2) He's from a strong Republican district, and has held many "town hall" forums on different issues, but he's never seen such an organized opposition before. His forums tend to be packed with people, most of them against the Iraq War, Social Security change, Schiavo, etc. Ramstad thinks the GOP should be scared-it's a wake up call.
3) He voted with most Republicans on the Terri Schiavo vote. He stands by it, because the wording was something like "The Federal Judiciary SHOULD take a look at this...", not the "Federal Judiciary HAS TO take a look at this...". I haven't looked into if that's true or not.
4) He thinks stem cells should be a major issues, and even went as far as to say the Administration is clearly "anti-Science". Ramstad says it's not about abortion, and never should be. He went on to say if Orrin Hatch supports stem cell research, and is "pro-life", everyone should.
