Inside the Beltway

“If elected in November, Ken Buck and Linda McMahon will increase the members of the small-government constitutional caucus in the U.S. Senate,” muses Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, in praise of the Republican Senate primary election winners in Colorado and Connecticut, respectively, and noting that both are “unfettered” by insider machinations on Capitol Hill.

“Republican primary voters are continuing to move the Republican Party significantly to the right. The 2011-12 Congress is likely to be the most conservative ever. Thanks to President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the conservative movement has been relaunched stronger than even in the Reagan years,” Mr. Viguerie adds.

GORE-Y DETAILS

U.S. Senate, U.S. House, the federal government, “the government as a whole,” polluters, the fossil-fuel industry, climate skeptics, reality, global warming, “professional deniers,” “biased right-wing media” and the Wall Street Journal.

(Al Gore’s list of those to blame that a climate bill is not likely to pass this year, according to “Green Hell” author Steven Milloy, who somehow managed to be privy to Mr. Gore’s private conference call with National Wildlife Federation supporters on Tuesday evening.)

POLL DU JOUR

• 57 percent of U.S. voters say President Obama’s campaign promise to repeal the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law is “motivated more by politics than principle.”
• 55 percent are opposed to Defense Department modification of training programs to promote acceptance of openly gay persons in military educational facilities.
• 52 percent are opposed to career penalties against military personnel or chaplains who do not support gays in the military.
• 48 percent say it would be best for Congress to keep the 1993 law “as it is.”
• 67 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of active-duty military agree.
• 45 percent overall favor overturning the law.
• 65 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of military members agree.

Source: Center for Military Readiness survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted July 14-18 and released Tuesday.

• Ballyhoo and dull details to jharper@washingtontimes.com

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