Pick a Side

Here in The Neighborhood, we know that Mr. Rogers is a superduper awesome fundraiser.

Did you know that he's been working just as hard to protect American jobs?

Well, as long as the jobs belong to American Republican Representatives, anyway.

Since becoming Incumbent Retention Chair for the NRCC in 2009, Mr. Rogers has working hard to protect GOP incumbents, meeting weekly with party leaders and individual members.

[Wouldn't it be great if Mr. Rogers spent this kind of time focusing on jobs for his constituents?]

All that hard work paid off, I guess.

At a PAC briefing yesterday, Mr. Rogers was

telling attendees that the committee's work had already shielded a substantial group of members from facing any serious challenge in 2010.

"A year and a half ago, I was giving you the names of 30 members and you know what? It worked," Rogers said, according to a source familiar with his remarks. "We feel strongly at this point that only nine incumbents need your help to withstand the attacks by the DCCC and their allies."

Gee, Mr. R., that's epic!

Maybe now that you've fixed the jobs situation for Republican politicians -- not to mention Tom Izzo -- you could pay a wee bit of attention to the job situation for the people who live in your district.

Because a Million Just Isn't Enough...

Mike Rogers just can't stop raising money for his campaign, even though he no longer has an opponent.

Yesterday, Mr. Rogers wined and dined (literally) at his luncheon for the telecom industry at the Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar.

The restaurant, where the main floor is

a bustling, upscale casual bistro inspired by the neighborhood enotecas found throughout Italy

and the second floor

Avenue Lounge is an airy, elegant, modern space, and is perfect for large cocktail parties, fundraisers, product launches, and personal events up to 125 guests.

has been named Washington's Best Wine Bar (2010) and was the runner-up for Best Charcuterie Plate (2009).

Did I mention the ticket prices for this little get-together?

Contribution Information:

$2,000 PAC Co-Host; $1,000 Individual Co-Host; $1,000 PAC; $500 Individual

It's such a relief to know that Mr. Rogers isn't slumming it.

Jobs for Michigan?

A quick review of Mr. Rogers' fundraising for the first quarter of 2010 shows that he's been pretty busy: taking in just over a million dollars ($1,018,397 to be precise) and spending only $319,151.

Where did the money go? Well, $40,000 went to the Michigan Republican Party. There are also operating expenses, like website development, payroll services, e-commerce vendors, fundraising and direct-response firms... We could talk for hours about the role of money in politics, but like it or not, these types of expenses are pretty standard for a Congressional campaign.

What's not so standard? A Congressman from the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate spends quite a bit on out-of-state businesses.

Mr. Rogers has hired a Wisconsin web developer, an Illinois payroll company, a New Hampshire direct mail/telemarketer and a California software vendor to assist his re-election campaign.

It's a little hard to believe that there are no Michigan businesses providing these services.

Opposite World

Mr. Rogers was in full bloviation mode this week, pontificating about the "failure" of the Obama administration to have prevented the Times Square bomber before he acted.

Thought police, anyone?

If Mr. Rogers ever bothered to talk to people in his district (other than the ones who pay for the privilege), I would love to ask him a few questions:

1.) Apparently, the 53 hours and 20 minutes that elapsed from incident to arrest in this case was not good enough for FBI Guy Mike Rogers. Remind me, Mr. Rogers, where Osama bin Laden is being held in custody? Oh, wait -- he still hasn't been captured, nearly a decade after 9/11. Hmm... you've been serving on the House Intel Committee since you first went to Washington a decade ago. Coincidence?

2.) In that MSNBC interview, you referred to a "pattern" of "successful" bombing attempts by Faizal Shahzad (Times Square Bomber) and Umar Abdulmutallab (Underwear Bomber). Why would you define as "successful" two bombers who failed to set off their bombs? No deaths or injuries resulted from their failed attempts; both men were apprehended, taken into custody and provided significant amounts of actionable intelligence after interrogation. I personally think this is outstanding; it's not clear why you are so critical of the efforts of professional law enforcement personnel.

3.) You've been railing about the dangers of a law-enforcement approach to anti-terrorism policy, wailing about the Scary Terrorists, and bailing on taking even a shred of responsibility for your decade of inaction on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I defer to Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan for summing up the irresponsibility of this type of behavior:

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

What have you done for us lately, Mr. Rogers?

Qu'est-ce Que C'est

It's not often that Mr. Rogers brings to mind a Talking Heads song, but after reading today's LSJ piece these lines from Psycho Killer sprang to mind:

You start a conversation you can't even finish it.
You're talkin' a lot, but you're not sayin' anything.

According to the LSJ, Mr. Rogers spent $172,764 on mass communications to two million contacts. This translates to being the 94th highest spender in the House, roughly in the top fifth for mass communications expenditures.

Given that there are only about 707,179 people in MI-08, you have to wonder who the other ~1.29 million folks are...

You also have to ask why he is still spending money on printed mailings, why his emails are so cookie-cutter, and how much it could possibly cost to have a telephone town hall.

It would be cheaper for Mr. Rogers to buy a plane ticket every few months and actually come home to talk -- in person -- with the people he represents.

Party On

It's no wonder Mr. Rogers is so seldom home in the 8th District! He's been busy in Washington, D.C. raising money for his campaign. Thanks to all those Happy Hours, Ladies Nights and Five Guys Lunches, his campaign war chest is filling up nicely -- in the first quarter of 2010, he's taken in over $1 million in total receipts... with more than half of it coming from PACs.

Speaking of PACs, Mr. Rogers is also busy tending to his own personal PAC, the MIKE R Fund ("Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans"). MIKE R Fund has helped support such Congressional luminaries as Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC) and the Republican Parties of Iowa and Louisiana.

Throw in his responsibilities as incumbent retention chair for the NRCC, and you can totally understand why Mr. Rogers can only talk to people who are willing to pay for the privilege.

UPDATE: Yesterday's Huffpost Hill also picked up the Five Guys lunch story, albeit in terms a bit less delicate than we Neighborhoodies prefer:

12:00 pm: Looking to evacuate both his guests' wallets and bowels,Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) hosts a "Five Guys Lunch" [National Republican Congressional Committee, 310 First Street SE].

The Company You Keep

Remember Mark Foley? He was the GOP representative who, among other things, exchanged sexually explicit instant messages with teenage Congressional pages and later resigned amid questions about coverups by the House Republican leadership.

Mr. Foley's scandal reached the 8th Congressional District when CNN ran film of Mike Rogers accompanying Mr. Foley to the White House. Both men were involved in GOP leadership and served as deputy majority whips. Mr. Rogers' assertion that he didn't socialize with Foley was weakened when it surfaced that the two men, both prodigious money-raising guys, often co-hosted fundraisers for fellow GOP incumbents and held a fundraising event at Mr. Foley's home.

Old news, you say.

Well, it turns out that Mr. Foley re-emerged last month, attending a Palm Beach political luncheon where Mitt Romney was the guest speaker.

Mr. Romney, ginning up for a possible Presidential run in 2012, has long had a pal in Mike Rogers.

Mike, Mitt, and Mark -- keep your eye on these guys during the coming year. Their paths will no doubt continue to intersect in some interesting ways.

Prioritie$

Mr. Rogers hasn't been around much lately, since he's so busy with raising record-breaking amounts of money for Republican Congressional candidates. For over a year now, he's been working on the NRCC Patriot Program and there's no question that Mr. Rogers is really, really good at raking in the moola.

So good, in fact, that even when he was home this week the only people he talked to were the ones who paid $30 to attend the Howell Chamber of Commerce program (Chamber members got a slight discount).

Aside from coffee and muffins, what did they get for $30?

They got Mike Rogers in full oogedy-boogedy mode, warning of "bad omens for small business." The health care reform bill (which Rogers voted against twice) will make employers "nervous."

Not sure where Mr. Rogers has been, other than NRCC pep rallies -- because if he was here in the 8th Congressional District he would know that according to his own Energy & Commerce Committee, 15,100 small businesses would receive tax credits to provide employee health care coverage.

Mr. Rogers was also in a tizzy over proposed bank regulatory reforms, worrying that they would "inhibit access to capital." According to a 2009 report by the Federal Reserve, small businesses were already looking at the worst credit crunch in history. Credit cards, a traditional small business tool, are no longer as helpful, since the companies have raised their rates -- and small businesses weren't included in the credit card reform legislation passed last year.

Turning his gaze to the wider world, Mr. Rogers shared his thoughts on the "pretty frightening" situation in Iran, and

He said fear of a nuclear threat only compounds the worries of small-business owners, and that the country needs a stronger stance on the issue on the worldwide stage.

Gee.

I'm willing to bet that if you went door-to-door on Main Street in Brighton or Grand River in Howell, and asked small business owners what was on their Top 10 List of Stuff to Worry About, Iran's nuclear threat wouldn't be on it. Probably not even on their Top 100 List, to be honest.

Basically, the whole breakfast was just another episode of Rogers Kabuki Theater: he strikes a heroic pose, says the same scary things about Iran, pushes the same tired health policy ideas and pretends he hasn't been hanging around Washington for the past decade. It's great value for your entertainment dollar, if you like that sort of thing.

If you would prefer a Representative who actually wants to represent you, please visit Democratic Congressional challenger Kande Ngalamulume's campaign website. You'll see what a real 8th District Congressman looks like.

The CBO says health care bill will cut the budget deficit and cover the uninsured

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary analysis on the compromise health insurance reform bill today, and it shows simply that Republicans and teabaggers have been lying for an entire year.

Here’s what the CBO says the bill does:
It cuts the deficit: It cuts the deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years (2010 - 2019), and it cuts the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years.

It reduces annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year-while improving benefits and lowering costs for seniors. It also extends Medicare's solvency by at least nine years. It expands health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans Helps guarantee that 95 percent of Americans will be covered. It is fully paid for - costs $940 billion over a decade. (Americans spend nearly $2.5 trillion each year on health care now and nearly two-thirds of the bill's cost is paid for by reducing health care costs).

More importantly, here’s what it will do for the residents of the 8th Congressional District. Despite those benefits, you can rest assure of two things: the lies from Republicans will continue, and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers will vote against it.

+ Improve coverage for 505,000 residents with health insurance.
+ Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 150,000 families and 15,100 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
+ Improve Medicare for 90,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
+ Extend coverage to 20,000 uninsured residents.
+ Guarantee that 8,100 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
+ Protect 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
+ Allow 63,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
+ Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 10 community health centers.
+ Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $29 million annually.

Hell: Freezing Over Yet Again!

Over the years,The Neighborhood has seen some pretty conservative folks call out Mike Rogers on issues of national security, fiscal responsibility and earmarks.

Well, it's happening again -- and this time, it's close to home.

Leon Drolet, leader of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and close pal of Mr. Perks the pig, recently posted his take on the latest Club for Growth RePork Card.

Congratulations to Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Holland) for earning the only 'A' grade of all 15 Michigan congress members.

Thaddeous McCotter (R-Livonia) earned a 'B+' and Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) received a 'B-'. The only other sorta passing-ish grade went to Mike Rogers (R-Howell) who received a D+.

We know that Mr. Rogers was for the earmarks before he was against them (ahem!)... nice to see that the conservatives are admitting it, too.