There’s been a lot of talk about Walt Havenstein lately.  No, not because he’s a candidate for Governor.  Of course, video recently surfaced where he makes an insulting comment about the Tea Party – the very people he purports to respect and hopes (needs) to have vote for him in the coming September primary.

My fellow Groksters, Skip Murphy, Steve McDonald, Rick Olson, Mike Rogers, and Kimberly Morin each wrote about Havenstein’s comments (here, here, here, here, and here).

We bloggers each took a crack at Mr. Havenstein for these arrogant, hurtful, and pandering comments, hopefully illuminating some of his “inner-man” – raw material for voters to use in their critical decision-making process.

This type of “scandal” is not unique.  Many people experience the pain of prior comments coming back to bite them, and many politicians “step in it” along the campaign trail.  What tells you most about the character of a person is how they respond to the situation.  I spoke with a number of Tea-Party-Havenstein supporters this weekend (mostly because they worked for him at BAE) who collectively said that they hoped he would just “come out and own up to the comments”, “offer a public apology” and “get beyond it”.

So, what happens when a non-blogger, concerned, patriotic citizen (who served in the US Navy at about the same time Havenstein served in the US Marines) approaches him face-to-face regarding the gaffe?  How does Havenstein, the man, measure up on the character scale?

Note: I used the photo of Havenstein and McCain for effect.  Not only because there is a slight resemblance but because the body language and, quite frankly, the arrogance seems eerily similar.

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Yesterday I tweeted out the CNHT Straw poll results as they were announced, but I never had the time to post the actual results.  CNHT’s Straw poll is known for its accuracy as it takes a sample of the core conservative and libertarian grassroots activists–something we insiders have another name for.  Primary voters.

(Just noticed…Skip posted the video of the results just a few minutes before I posted this.)

Here are the results.

CNHT Straw Poll Results 2014

GOVERNOR

Andrew Hemingway – 111
Walt Havenstein – 43
Jonathan Smith – 1
Daniel Greene – 0

US SENATE

Bob Smith – 76
Jim Rubens – 44
Scott Brown – 34

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Moms Demand Action, the Astro-turf group funded by former NYC Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg (Wait!  I thought US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that the Democrats didn’t “have” any billionaires??) has been going around to commercial entities like Starbucks, Chili’s, Lowe’s, Home Depot – you get the idea.  Because they and their fellow “disarm the general populace” gun grabbers having had zippo lately for more infringing of peoples’ Second Amendment Rights, they’ve decided to tell private companies that they would punish them economically if they didn’t, in turn, punish those that wished to exercise their Right.

Target was their latest target, and with a few open carry folks that had no sense of common sense and nuance, the CEO put out a statement concerning customers and their guns.  Nicely worded, vague and all, but it seemed to give Moms Demand Action a glimmer that they got what they wanted.  Not quite.  If you translated it (as I am oft to say “We can say things that others can’t – or won’t”), it came out like this (H/T:  Bob Owens):

How the heck did we get caught up in this mess? All we want to do is sell cheap foreign-made stuff to hausfraus who feel they’re too good to be “people of Walmart.” We don’t want to be involved in gun rights politics at all.

But thanks to some grandstanding long-gun open carry yahoos in Texas who can’t figure out basic muzzle discipline, and the response of some shrill harpies in Indiana taking orders from a bitter under-sized billionaire in New York, we’re screwed through no fault of our own.

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From Tom’s post about our Jr. Senator Kelly Ayotte signing up for this bill, Sportsmen’s Act S. 2363, that is being sponsored by known Democrat anti-gunners Senators (some of which are also Democrat illegal alien amnesty Senators), it mentioned:

The Sportsmen’s Act is, substantively, largely a “nothing-burger.” People could hunt on federal lands — unless Obama didn’t want them to. Dedicated funds (from the Pittman-Robertson tax) could be used for ranges — but don’t have to be, and probably wouldn’t be. Moreover, Section 107(b)(4)(B) of the bill says that the BLM or Forest Service can close down federal public lands that can be used for hunting and recreational purposes for a host of reasons, including “public safety.”

Not that I disbelieved them but I decided to read the 59 pages and pull out some of the verbiage to support the claim – turned out to be real easy:

Sec. 103 (d)

It is the sense of Congress that, consistent with applicable laws (including regulations), the Chief of the Forest Service and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management should cooperate with State and local authorities

SHOULD is not SHALL.  SHOULD mean “ok, if you wanna, if you feel like it, and if all political signs and smoke signals seemed to indicate “good to go”.  If having a bad hair day, naw.  Sorta like when concealed carry used to be “may” here in NH – it all depended upon if the issuer liked the idea or you.  If either of those were negative, you were out of luck.  However, the change to “shall” was a game changer – a POSITIVE issue instead of a WHIM issue.

Same with this Act.  

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I wrote this in comments under Kimberly’s video/post where the NHGOP’s establishment pick for Governor, Walt Havenstein, is singing to the “Establishment Choir.” Having long ago pegged him as the old-rich-white-guy inside solution the NHGOP has been waiting for, hearing Walt heap disdain on the base does not surprise me at all.

Pegged him as the ‘Made man’ the minute they hinted at a run. And for the record, the NHGOP’s problem is not the base. It is their influence addiction.

Don’t give me this crap about dividing the party and ignoring calls of unity. As I’ve written before, we are unified under the principles in the platform. But whenever a candidate comes up that is also united by the principles of the platform who may not be one of the GOP’s ‘Made men/women’ they find someone to primary that candidate even if they have more baggage than Lindsey Lohan.

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From the video:

…I have been asked why I would, at the age of 60, retire from BAE systems, a magnificent extraordinary company and come to SAIC.  Raise your hands again?  That’s the reason. That’s the reason. and there is a difference between being in an extraordinary company and a company of extraordinary people.  We’ll talk a littl bit more about SAIC but that why I came to SAIC.

Um, when my wife thought I was going to retire, go to NH, get active politically; I said I will leave that to you.

…WE got a lot of problems in this country.  The TEA-Baggers or whatever they are, they’ve been telling us that all summer long, alright (semi-smirk). Isn’t that who they are? (fuller smirk to get the audience to titter).  I’m a little out of touch (full smirk, body language says he is pleased with himself).  Heh!

From Political Scoop, the quote from Henry Goodwin:

“At the time Walt wasn’t involved in politics because he was busy running one of the world’s largest companies,” said Havenstein spokesman Henry Goodwin. “However, he has always believed that government should be limited, taxes should be low and spending should be restrained.”

Go ahead and watch either the short version (Kimberly’s post) or the longer one (put up by Mike).  Watch his body language  as he moves from talking about SAIC to his self-seeming joke about the TEA Party 

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When you modify the text of the original report, and replace all the anti-gun references with the words ‘Birth Control‘ you  get a different sort of response from the liberal left.  (Not to worry.  They wont suddenly begin to empathise with gun owners.)   (Read the original here)

A draconian (birth control) bill set to be voted on by the California legislature would allow police to confiscate a person’s (birth control) solely on the basis of an accusation made against the owner by a family member or a health professional.

Although the bill was amended after an onslaught of complaints, the legislation is still being labeled as the harshest (birth control) law in the country.

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Given the latest hysteria and lies over the Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case,  I searched high and low over the interwebs and discovered a video of Sandra ‘I can’t buy my own birth control’ Fluke from her childhood.

Not much has changed into her ‘adulthood’ only she doesn’t want golden eggs now, she wants thousands of dollars of birth control she apparently needs each year.  And she doesn’t want her actual Daddy to pay for it, she wants Big Daddy Government or Big Daddy Employer to pay for it.

Somehow women of her ilk are so weak-minded and pathetic they cannot shell out the few dollars a month it costs to pay for their sexual proclivities.  Sex is apparently their choice but purchasing birth control must be the responsibility of their employer or the government.  These ‘adult women’ continue to act like petulant children.

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