Monday, April 09, 2012

McIntosh Getting Help From Grover Norquist

Former U.S. Rep. David McIntosh is bringing Washington insider Grover Norquist to Indiana to lend support to his 5th District campaign, but will it help? One of his primary opponents, Dr. John McGoff, doesn't think so. McGoff's campaign fires off a press release that renews attacks on the fact that McIntosh has no residence in the 5th District and hasn't had one for years, even though he has a questionably legal voter registration within it.
Under increasing criticism for leaving Indiana and taking up residency in Virginia years ago to make money for a billion-dollar lobbying firm, David McIntosh, a candidate for Indiana's 5th Congressional District, is visiting Indiana again on Monday.
The occasion for McIntosh's most recent visit back to Indiana is to rollout the endorsement of Grover Norquist – another Washington insider. Norquist is asking the voters of Indiana’s 5th District to vote for and be represented by a Congressman who lives and works a short distance from his own K-Street lobbying firm. This is in stark contrast to 5th District candidate Dr. John McGoff – a physician who has lived in Indianapolis for decades and has attended weekly services at St. Pius X Catholic Church since 1959.
When questioned by the Indianapolis Star last week, McIntosh attempted to hide behind five pages of legal maneuverings to claim he is a resident of Indiana despite owning a house in Arlington, Virginia (which is his family’s primary residence), carrying a Virginia driver's license and driving cars with Virginia license plates.
"I don't need a team of lawyers to tell me where I live," McGoff says. “The fact that McIntosh would need to hire a lawyer to establish an appearance of residency in order to run for Congress is absurd. This is another example of why Americans don't trust Washington and politicians. You don't need a lawyer.  Just ask some simple questions: Where does David work? Where is the pillow he lays his head down at night to sleep? Where do his children go to school? And, where does he go to church? The answer to all those questions is metropolitan Washington D.C., not Indiana.”
McIntosh is also trying to compare his decision to live in the D.C. suburbs to those who are sometimes called to leave their home state on deployments overseas to fight for our country – as Dr. McGoff recently did as a Brigadier General in the Air National Guard to serve in Iraq – or even as officials who are currently holding office.
"After losing his bid to become governor in 2000, David McIntosh made a conscious decision to leave Indiana to become part of the big-money, Washington insider club as a former Congressman-turned-lobbyist," McGoff reports. "He is not serving or representing the people of Indiana as he claims. He is only serving his lobbying clients and his personal financial needs."
Norquist is the latest of Washington insiders to protect their own – working to ensure that THEY are the true constituents of Congressmen who live near them, rather than the constituents in Indiana who should be the people represented.  One after another, they have lined up to back McIntosh. In one case, after McIntosh and McGoff gave the same answers to a National Rifle Association (NRA) questionnaire, the NRA gave McIntosh an “A” grade and McGoff a “D” grade.
A number of conservatives have grown increasingly distrustful of Norquist because of his ties to Islamic terrorists. While many Republicans cozy up to him for his role in pushing "no new tax" pledges, others have not shied aways from criticizing him, including U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), who had this to say about Norquist:

"Documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel.” He pointed out that “around the years 2000 and 2001, Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist plot and who is presently serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison.”
Norquist, reported Wolf, “also associated with terror financier Sami Al-Arian, according to Mary Jacoby’s reporting in March 2003, in the St. Petersburg Times. Al-Arian pled guilty in 2006 'to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law,' and is under house arrest, according to a Department of Justice press release. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s ‘paramilitary wing—the al-Quds Brigades—has conducted numerous attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings,’ according to the National Counterterrorism Center.”
These are the kinds of people for whom Norquist opened doors. Norquist, said Wolf, “served as a key facilitator between Al-Arian, Alamoudi and the White House. … In June 2001, Al-Arian was among the members of the American Muslim Council invited to the White House complex. ... The next month, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom—a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian—gave Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases.”
McIntosh has scheduled a noon press confererence with Norquist at the State House today to announce his support for his candidacy.

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