Friday, July 20, 2007

State Senator Lisa Boscola a DINO?

If you read my blog long enough, you will find out sooner or later I am not a Lisa Boscola fan.

I have always thought of her as a DINO (Democrat In Name Only).

Recently she has more than admitted it.

During the Kieklak fiasco, Boscola took to the airwaves as a caller to Ken Matthews radio show on WGPA. During her flustered call, she claimed she was more conservative than most Republicans. A commenter (Anon 11:25) to Bernie O'hare's blog gave a fairly good summary of the call.

Then last week, during the budget debate, Boscola gave a speech on the Senate floor calling out the administration for furloughing workers and not passing the budget. During her speech, she said it was a sham and a disgrace that welfare recipients will continue to get checks and workers won't. John Micek's Capitol Ideas blog had the quote and a comment. Boscola is so proud of her comments, that she has posted the video on her website. It is viewable here.

Now last time I checked, Democrats did not brag about being more conservative than Republicans and did not criticize people for receiving welfare.

So today I will be starting a new feature here at Down and Out in Bethlehem, the DINO Club.

Congratulations State Senator Lisa Boscola you are a charter member of the DINO club.

Please feel free to email me or leave a comment for nominations for future members.

7 comments:

Bernie O'Hare said...

This is yet another great post. I'm going to call attention to it early next week. It's a great idea.

I think I'm a DINO. I'm pretty far to the left on most issues and would vote for greens more often if I thought they had a chance. I also will strtay from the party's choice.

BethlehemDem said...

Thanks Bernie. I think we fall into similar boats. I think I am more liberal than the average Democrat.

That said, my problem is with the Democrats who go the other way on the spectrum.

Boscola is a classic example of a DINO. Just as Spector is a classic RINO, according to Republicans.

Anonymous said...

As long as we're on the subject, how about Mike Schweder and Jay Leeson? If ever DINOs existed, they would be the quintessential examples; despite their occasional forays into True Democratic territory, these two guys are Republican to the core.

I have no problem with that; but masquerading as Dems -- when they clearly are not-- qualifies them as a certain breed of politicians: opportunistic politicians. I say, "Yuck."

Anonymous said...

DINO, "how about Mike Schweder and Jay Leeson?".
The cargate guys? Gee, with dems like these, who needs republicans? Mike Schweder seems to think that harassing the city administration is job one, instead of moving the city forward. Wasn't he recommending that the financially strapped city use the majority of the gambling impact fees to reduce taxes? That sounds republican to me.
Good old union busting Jay Leason, the defender of the diocese of Allentown against its sexual victims, didn't seem to have a democratic bone in his body, until recently suggesting that Bethlehem build an enclosed swimming pool with the recently increased parks and recreation fees. Could it be that his daughter is a competitive swimmer?

BethlehemDem said...

Thanks for the 2 nominations.

I will need to examine each more closely. I have a feeling one them is getting into the club.

I will try not to hold Leeson's legal practice against him. Attorneys are in business and sometimes the choice of their clients are business decisions, rather than personal decisions.

Schweder is one of the old guard, as LVDem likes to say. That may make him slighly more conservative.

I am going to investagte these two further.

House of Crayons said...

I think her comments were EXCELLENT. It makes my RINO heart smile. "F" lockstep partisanism. All hail commonsense and well thought out positions.

We need some DINOs & RINOs elected in Easton. Panto is getting close to the hairy fringe of DINOism, and Corpora's commonsense and ability to reason with people get him close to DINOland.

Your Neighbor

Unknown said...

For Lehigh Valley political observers, last season’s “Bonnie Dodge for Senate” campaign no doubt offered a peculiar pageantry. Teetering back and forth on a variety of off-kilter planks – from monorails for the Poconos to herbal remedies for the masses – the quixotic effort probably at times seemed refreshingly entertaining. After all, no gray-flannel campaign managed by expensive consultants would roll out the enigmatic slogan, “I’ve got my hands in my own pockets,” illustrated with a photo of the candidate with palms dutifully plunged into an austere pantsuit, a vaguely disturbing pantomime.

Yet as Voltaire observed, “All history is little else than a long succession of useless cruelties.” And this is the real history of the Bonnie for Senate campaign. The doomed effort may not merit much of a retrospective, even though it is likely this self-righteous political figure does intend to lay her “family values” wares before the electorate once again (in a race for magistrate, we hear). But there is a whole other dimension to the campaign and to the behavior of the candidate that has never been revealed, one that is all too familiar to members of our family.

Several weeks ago, I took the first step in alerting the wider community to the hypocrisy and mean-spiritedness of this unctuously moralistic candidate by posting the following response on the Lehigh Valley Ramblings blog to one of her ad-hominem tirades: http://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2007/06/boscolas-former-opponent-bonnie-dodge.html

Many members of the Dodge family, most of whom she has completely alienated, agree with me that the more attention we can bring to this individual’s behavior, the more likely we are to ensure the health and safety of our father, and protect the family from the spasms of venom that she has continually injected into family relationships.

But beyond this, there is an unwritten story of profligacy and greed that puts the “hands in pockets” candidate at the center of an immense financial disaster. Part of this web is the “Upbeat with Bonnie Dodge” radio show that she hosted for more than a year on WGPA. This was a pay-for-play program that required massive cash infusions. No doubt it was meant to prepare the way for a subsequent triumph at the polls. Instead, in my view, it is likely to have helped pave the way for the financial collapse of the family business, and the loss of jobs for more than two dozen Lehigh Valley workers.

In the end, “Bonnie values” have left a good and decent family in tatters. It is something to remember the next time she pops up to challenge the Catholic “credentials” of a political opponent, or reappears at a public forum cloaked in piety, stirring the familiar cauldron of recrimination.

Charles S. Dodge
Carlsbad, California