Nunes, the tragic hero

You have to hand it to Rep. Devin Nunes, Tragic Hero-Visalia, he’s a performer. In fact, you have to stand in line to hand it to him, behind national PACs, agribusiness and oil and gas to hand it to him. He’s raised nearly a million dollars for his campaign next year and if some strong Democrat contender lurks in Nunes’ district, that contender lurks below the surface so far.
 
The Costoza, representatives Jim Costa, D-Fresno and Dennis Cardoza, Fairy Shrimper- Annapolis/Merced, are not in Nunes’ league. The political theater-going public, knowing this, has dispensed a mere $350,000 and change to each of these chorus boys. . The fourth member of the Valley congressional delegation, Jerry McNerney, Goose Egg-Pleasanton, who represents the actual Delta, tries to keep the Altamont between him and the Valley as much as possible. Closer to Mother Nancy, McNerney gets nearly half a million.
 
Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, has only raised $124,572.. The last good thing that happened in Radanovich’s congressional district, one is tempted to say, was the Gold Rush. Although he represents parts of the original Mariposa County, these parts now have other county names. Aside from that, all his district’s natural resources have been more “rationally deployed” by everyone from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Land Management to Valley agribusiness, facts that perhaps inform his understated, bitter political utterance. Radanovich is a bit the messenger that brings no good news. The audience throws him pennies on the dollar.
 
The Costoza chorus hurls impotent epithets at Nunes:
 

On Tuesday, the simmering conflict boiled over as two Valley Democrats blasted Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia for "grandstanding" in zealously pursuing water-delivery amendments. Nunes, in turn, asserted his Valley colleagues were "mesmerized" by liberal environmentalists.
While prevalent on Capitol Hill, the outright partisan spear-throwing is rare among Valley lawmakers who once prided themselves on working across party lines. It's already starting to hinder how the members work together.
"This is baloney, to be doing this (sort) of thing," Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, said of Nunes' approach. "I have had a number of my colleagues tell me they are fed up with it." – Merced Sun-Star, July 15, 2009.

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Nunes’ face, gesture, words and actions are alive with the passions of his people, that great seat of Hellenic civilization in Tulare County, now under attack by the combined forces of commie radical environmentalists from San Francisco, ancient center of Macedonian excess. Nunes strides the stage, bellowing imprecations against the invading hordes of  godless, materialistic enviros that threaten the noble virtues of Big Dairy, Big Citrus Big Cotton, and Big Oil and Gas in his sacred congressional district, California’s own little chunk o’ Texas, south of where the dry bed of the San Joaquin River wanders across the Valley from the Sierra to the Coast Range before turning north to flow in the opposite direction of the state and federal aqueducts flowing south from the Delta.
 
“Man-made drought!” Nunes cries from the stage.
 
Costoza chorus:
 

Today, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) announced that a grant of $378,600 has been awarded to the Sanger Unified School District to help establish and expand elementary and secondary school counseling programs…. Congressman Cardoza announced today that nearly $15.5 million will be spent on three transportation-related projects for the San Joaquin Valley and the 18th Congressional District.
 

Radanovich:  

“Judging from his actions, President Obama does not understand the importance of agriculture to California’s Central Valley.  Clearly, President Obama doesn’t understand rural farmers and farm-workers who cherish their guns, religion, and water.”
 

McNerney:

Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) announced today that Lodi Unified School District will receive a $235,137 grant from the Department of Education to improve school emergency preparedness. 

 

Nunes:

“Today’s action is not progress, it is politics.  There are a lot of people in public office searching for a public relations victory and they hope this will buy them time.  But the people deserve to know the truth and the truth is that this action will not ease our region’s suffering,”

Costoza chorus:

Today, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) announced that a grand total of $8,214,230 million has been released to the Cities of Fresno and Bakersfield and to the Counties of Kern and Fresno to rapidly re-house families who fall into homelessness, or prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.  Funding was released through the Department on Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “The release of this funding is spectacular news for our Valley,” Costa said.  “These CDBG program funds will help revitalize our communities that have been ravaged by the nationwide recession, the housing crisis, and the drought conditions in our area.  In addition, these projects will provide jobs for our Valley residents and help get us back on the path to recovery."
… At the request of Congressman Cardoza , U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan toured the City of Merced Thursday. During his time here, he informed the San Joaquin Valley that there will be increased eligibility for mortgage refinancing under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program. “I am grateful for Secretary Donovan’s time and visit to our community,” said Congressman Cardoza. “I also am optimistic that our pleas are being heard. My hope is that Secretary Donovan and I will return to work on this issue in Washington with a renewed sense of urgency.”

Radanovich:

“Environmental restrictions on federal and state water deliveries have wrecked havoc on farmers and farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley.  Unemployment in the Valley is at 20% and in some towns as high as 40%. We've lost 40,000 jobs and almost a billion dollars in agriculture revenue. Crime and homelessness are skyrocketing as is alcohol and drug abuse.
“Speaker Pelosi has ignored and actively worked against every attempt that I and the rest of the Valley delegation have made to fix the current man made drought in California and relieve the San Joaquin Valley of a humanitarian crisis that is a result of oppressive environmental regulations that value the lives of fish over humans.”

 
McNerney:

 “Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the new generation of veterans that have served our country since September 11, 2001,” said Rep. McNerney.  “The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill honors these brave young men and women for their service by providing much needed educational benefits.  I’m hosting this event so that our area’s veterans have access to the information they need to apply for these benefits.”
 

Nunes:

“One of the amendments Democrats killed on Tuesday was identical to language approved by House Democrats and Republicans in 2003.  That language dealt with New Mexico’s silvery minnow – which looks nearly identical to the delta smelt.  I have challenged my Democratic colleagues on this matter and demanded to know what has changed since 2003."

 
Costoza chorus:

Earlier in the week, the House of Representatives passed two amendments authored by Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) by voice vote.  The two amendments will provide $10 million in funding toward the Intertie and Two-Gates projects, direct the Secretary of the Interior to diversify sources of water for refuges to free up more water for agricultural water users, ease the ability for the state to do inter-county transfers, and expedite a plan to deal with the Giant Garter Snake, which has been an impediment to critical water transfers.  The bill was passed today by the House and now moves on to the Senate for consideration.

 
Radanovich:

“Temporary solutions such as the Two Gates and the Canal Inter-tie projects in addition to the voiding the biological opinions are necessary to keep our farmers in the San Joaquin Valley farming.  These projects must be constructed and online by this fall in order to provide any relief to this terrible drought. 
“Unfortunately, yesterday House Democrats on the Rules Committee denied consideration of three additional amendments offered by Mr. Nunes that would have gone a long way to helping fix our regulatory drought.
“Solving one of the worst crises the San Joaquin Valley has ever seen should not be a partisan issue and I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to allow all solutions to our current problems to be debated and voted on by the full House.”

 
McNerney:

Today, a bill authored by Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) to address the needs of veterans who have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) has been incorporated into the comprehensive Veterans’ Insurance and Health Care Improvements Act of 2009 and passed by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
“Many service members who have been wounded in Iraq have experienced a traumatic brain injury.  In fact, traumatic brain injuries are the hallmark injuries of this war,” said Rep. McNerney.  “It is our responsibility to ensure that the Veterans Administration is equipped and ready to provide the ongoing services necessary to fully address the impact of traumatic brain injuries.”

 
Nunes:

“The drought Californians are suffering is a drought of leadership – a shortage of the political courage necessary to relieve the suffering of communities across our state…
The hypocrisy of this situation is that the Democratic majority champions the working family but backs the radical environmentalists instead. For the San Joaquin Valley, the majority in this House has chosen fish over working families …What we are witnessing, is the greatest elected assembly in the history of the world starving its own citizens of water, acting like a despot, who tortures the innocent just to stay in power. And make no mistake, raw power is what we are witnessing.  Power that injures and wounds, exercised at highest levels of government, straight from the Obama White House and the Democratic leadership in the Congress. They will say and do anything to keep hold of the reins of power. And their victims are my constituents, the people of the San Joaquin Valley, who have done nothing to deserve such cruelty at the hands of the government…”

 
McClatchy:

The energy and water bill is one of a dozen appropriations measures needed to fund the federal government each year. This year's 348-page committee report is packed with earmarks steering funds to favored local projects. – Merced Sun-Star, July 16, 2009.

 
Thus, the Costoza chorus of the Party-in-power brings in the crisis pork, the man from Mariposa mutters darkly to no avail, the congressman who represents the Delta, in fact the object of the entire tragedy, can’t say the word in public, and Nunes thunders on to the approbation of the adoring tribe of special interests that dispense the mother’s milk of politics, the very politics the Great Nunes defames, despises and curses from the stage.
 
Nunes knows the ancient secret of politics: it makes absolutely no difference how effective the politician is or what the consequence of his words and deeds are, as long as the sentiments they represent are shared by his district. Performance is all.
 
Just when you think there’s no hope for American politics and both Broadway and Hollywood are doing reruns, we get Devin Nunes, Tragic Hero-Visalia, right here in the Valley. We must live right or something.
 
 
 
 
 
 
7-19-09
Modesto Bee
Campaign cash puts politician dead last...Michael Doyle
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/786756.html
WASHINGTON -- Mariposa Republican George Radanovich is raising money, but his campaign war chest remains smaller than that of his San Joaquin Valley colleagues, new filings show.
Radanovich reports having $124,572 in cash as of June 30. That's less than the veteran House member had on Dec. 31, and less than half the amount stockpiled by any other valley lawmaker.
Still, Radanovich's once-lackluster fund raising has picked up. He reported raising $121,029 in the past three months, twice as much as he raised between January and March.
"Congressman Radanovich has always raised what he needs to be re-elected," Radanovich's spokesman, Spencer Pederson, said Thursday, adding that "in the next quarter, we'll start ramping it up a bit."
Republican Devin Nunes of Visalia again topped the region's congressional delegation, with a reported $943,359 in cash.
Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced reported having $376,682, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, had $320,058.
Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, who toppled a powerful San Joaquin County Republican in 2006, has $519,170 available.
Lawmakers and political operatives alike carefully scrutinize the quarterly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The money raised, stockpiled and spent can shed light on a politician's prospects, campaign commitment and ability to deter challengers.
But the time-consuming task of raising money can interfere with other priorities, and it's not everyone's cup of tea.
For the past several fund-raising cycles, Radanovich's total has lagged behind his colleagues.
"His focus has been on doing his congressional job and on taking care of his family," Pederson said.
Radanovich's wife, Ethie, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2007 and has since undergone a series of treatments. Earlier this year, Radanovich had to miss some House votes because he and his wife were consulting with doctors at the National Institutes of Health.
Sometimes lawmakers hold special events, like the fund-raiser Cardoza held in May at the Pimlico Race Course in Maryland. Donors were also invited to a June 9 "Casino Night" reception for Cardoza at Washington's Phoenix Park Hotel, according to an invitation posted on the non-partisan politicalpartytime.org Web site. Costa hosted an "agricultural reception" last month for donors paying up to $5,000.
All of the valley members raise money through a combination of political action committees and individual contributors.
Cardoza raised 70 percent of his funds between April 1 and June 30 from PACs representing such entities as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Mortgage Bankers Association.
Radanovich, too, raised about 70 percent of his money from PACs, AT&T and Chevron among them.