Wisdom From The Center-Right
I've been mulling this over since yesterday's Hugh Hewitt show. In the middle of his show he explained how he had a sit-down with Bill Frist, and how he had his word that Brett Kavanaugh would receive his vote on the floor of the Senate before the Senate had their usual Memorial Day break. Then he stated that Frist went 180 degrees opposite that statement when talking to the press. Hugh was irked, to say the least, and he announced that the GOP had basically better pull their head out of their @$$.
This is an election year, after all. And he has written extensively on what the GOP needs to do to succeed. He's given the infamous Fifteen Word Platform they need to campaign on, but if they lack the fortitutde to handle that platform, then maintaining their gains in both the House and Senate are in jeopardy. The tax cut bill pushed through Congress yesterday puts a checkmark next to one of the platform ideas: Cut the Taxes. But, they still have to Control The Spending, Confirm the Judges, work on Winning the War, and work towards Controlling the Border. That's four things that really haven't been addressed.
OK. Three things. We are still working on winning the war, but part of that comes in defending the administration. I saw very few members of the GOP come out swinging yesterday over the USA Today piece. Hardly anyone came out when the Times ran theirs last December, and since then people in the GOP (Tom DeLay, John Shadegg, John Kyl, John Cornyn) all stated that it was a mistake not to get out in front of these issues. The administration is doing its best in this war, and the GOP is like a blind-dog sniffing around for where it's home should be. Supporting the war and the troops starts with supporting the administration, and backing up their votes to begin our retaliation in this war. No one, it seems, wants to do that.
But we are lacking in the areas of making sure the right judges go to the bench. And to the Left out there, I'm not talking about "GOP stooges" that will simply go up and act as their liberal brethren have, and pass a conservative agenda from the bench. That's not what this is about, and ideology should have nothing to do with how a judge decides a case; it lies all within jurisprudence. We want jurists going to the bench that believes that the Constitution and what it says is set in stone unless amended, and that the rights of the states to make laws governing it's citizens should be abided by.
The spending issue is just as simple. There is too much pork barrel spending going on in Congress. We killed the "Bridge to Nowhere" but now we have a "Railroad to Nowhere" that is being pushed for inclusion into spending bills. I know representatives prove their worth to the state by how they get federal dollars for their constituents, but there has to be a limit on what is accepted and rejected. If Congress refuses to give the president a line-item veto, so he can control part of that spending, then Congress must control itself on its own. Either our representatives learn this and understand this, or they won't have our support when the primaries come around.
And the border is equally important. As important as winning the war, or any other piece of the platform. Everyone in Congress seems dead set on working on the "normalization" of the illegal aliens in America right now. Honestly, that is irrelevant to me. Let's start with securing the borders. Build the fence, the wall, or whatever the hell Congress wants to call it. But it must be built, and to hell with Vincente Fox if he doesn't like it. Once the borders are secured, then you work on normalization. You can't jump to the last step in the process if the first step isn't taken, which is only making the matter worse. Secure the borders, then focus on those here.
And I only bring this up because as I was taking another trip around the Internet, I noticed that Captain Ed had piped up about this, as well. He did yesterday, too. Like I said, I was a bit reluctant in touching on this today because I had hoped that we might be able to "grill the minds" about this subject this Sunday. Unfortunately, Sabrina has another chemo treatment today, and isn't likely to feel up to it. That's fine. Marcie and I will handle the weekend duties (though posting may be a bit light this weekend).
The choice for the GOP base is clear: WE must make the changes. WE must assume responsibility if Congress won't. As Captain Ed maintained today, if we have a problem with someone running for reelection (like DeWine, like Snowe), then we should support a different primary candidate. One that might be a bit closer to where the base actually stands in terms of ideology. If that person loses though, we'll have to make a choice between the two major candidates. (No offense to the Independents and Libertarians out there, but there's little chance one of your candidates is going to win.)
Do we forsake the majority we have to send a message to our prarty, or do we suck it up, hold our nose, and vote for someone we have a problem with. Well, that's up to the voters of the other states. We'll be voting to put Kyl back in the Senate and we'll be sending John Shadegg back to the House. We're still torn over Jeff Flake; he isn't too well liked by Arizona right now. But we will do our part here in Arizona. The best we can do for other candidates (Michael Steele, Mark Kennedy, Ken Blackwell, Lynn Swann) is contribute to their coffers directly.
The RNC and NRSC isn't getting one red cent of our money. They spend too much time supporting the incumbants, and never looking at their record. They base their support on the old political numbers game. "Maintain the majority." Except what happens when that majority isn't there most of the time? What happens when the Chafee's, the DeWine's, the Snowe's and the McCain's decide that they'd prefer to be on the other side? We agree with Hugh that the tent is big enough. But there isn't enough discipline in the leadership to keep these people from going wonky when the votes count the most. That is why a message has to be sent--loud and clear--to the party big-wigs that as their constitutents, we've had enough of this malarkey.
We want results, not lip service. We want answers not "no comments at this time." When we inquire what is going on with our tax money, we don't want people essentially telling us to butt out. This isn't their government. This is our government. It's the people's government. It's "liberty and justice for all" not for a select few. This year, if the base is going to maintain the majority, it will have to work for it. Captain Ed's right. The answer is not sitting at home in a snit over the parties antics. Get Up, Get Out, and Be Heard! Work for what we want. Sitting at home now or in November will only assure us of one simple thing.
Failure.
No offense, but I don't like to lose. I get surly when I do lose, and failure only reminds me to dig in harder next time around. This may be life, but there's not time for a costly life lesson regarding failure. Failure this year and in 2008 ensures that the war will end very soon, and with our enemy on the ropes. Withdrawing from the field will give them time to recoup their losses, entrnech themselves further, and invite another attack down the road. In addition, with things going the way they are with Iran right now, we don't need a Democrat in the White House shooting for the "North Korea" solution. The "trust them because they signed a piece of paper" approach won't help us, or any of our allies.
No, we can't fail this time around. And it's going to fall on the base to make sure it doesn't.
Publius II
I've been mulling this over since yesterday's Hugh Hewitt show. In the middle of his show he explained how he had a sit-down with Bill Frist, and how he had his word that Brett Kavanaugh would receive his vote on the floor of the Senate before the Senate had their usual Memorial Day break. Then he stated that Frist went 180 degrees opposite that statement when talking to the press. Hugh was irked, to say the least, and he announced that the GOP had basically better pull their head out of their @$$.
This is an election year, after all. And he has written extensively on what the GOP needs to do to succeed. He's given the infamous Fifteen Word Platform they need to campaign on, but if they lack the fortitutde to handle that platform, then maintaining their gains in both the House and Senate are in jeopardy. The tax cut bill pushed through Congress yesterday puts a checkmark next to one of the platform ideas: Cut the Taxes. But, they still have to Control The Spending, Confirm the Judges, work on Winning the War, and work towards Controlling the Border. That's four things that really haven't been addressed.
OK. Three things. We are still working on winning the war, but part of that comes in defending the administration. I saw very few members of the GOP come out swinging yesterday over the USA Today piece. Hardly anyone came out when the Times ran theirs last December, and since then people in the GOP (Tom DeLay, John Shadegg, John Kyl, John Cornyn) all stated that it was a mistake not to get out in front of these issues. The administration is doing its best in this war, and the GOP is like a blind-dog sniffing around for where it's home should be. Supporting the war and the troops starts with supporting the administration, and backing up their votes to begin our retaliation in this war. No one, it seems, wants to do that.
But we are lacking in the areas of making sure the right judges go to the bench. And to the Left out there, I'm not talking about "GOP stooges" that will simply go up and act as their liberal brethren have, and pass a conservative agenda from the bench. That's not what this is about, and ideology should have nothing to do with how a judge decides a case; it lies all within jurisprudence. We want jurists going to the bench that believes that the Constitution and what it says is set in stone unless amended, and that the rights of the states to make laws governing it's citizens should be abided by.
The spending issue is just as simple. There is too much pork barrel spending going on in Congress. We killed the "Bridge to Nowhere" but now we have a "Railroad to Nowhere" that is being pushed for inclusion into spending bills. I know representatives prove their worth to the state by how they get federal dollars for their constituents, but there has to be a limit on what is accepted and rejected. If Congress refuses to give the president a line-item veto, so he can control part of that spending, then Congress must control itself on its own. Either our representatives learn this and understand this, or they won't have our support when the primaries come around.
And the border is equally important. As important as winning the war, or any other piece of the platform. Everyone in Congress seems dead set on working on the "normalization" of the illegal aliens in America right now. Honestly, that is irrelevant to me. Let's start with securing the borders. Build the fence, the wall, or whatever the hell Congress wants to call it. But it must be built, and to hell with Vincente Fox if he doesn't like it. Once the borders are secured, then you work on normalization. You can't jump to the last step in the process if the first step isn't taken, which is only making the matter worse. Secure the borders, then focus on those here.
And I only bring this up because as I was taking another trip around the Internet, I noticed that Captain Ed had piped up about this, as well. He did yesterday, too. Like I said, I was a bit reluctant in touching on this today because I had hoped that we might be able to "grill the minds" about this subject this Sunday. Unfortunately, Sabrina has another chemo treatment today, and isn't likely to feel up to it. That's fine. Marcie and I will handle the weekend duties (though posting may be a bit light this weekend).
The choice for the GOP base is clear: WE must make the changes. WE must assume responsibility if Congress won't. As Captain Ed maintained today, if we have a problem with someone running for reelection (like DeWine, like Snowe), then we should support a different primary candidate. One that might be a bit closer to where the base actually stands in terms of ideology. If that person loses though, we'll have to make a choice between the two major candidates. (No offense to the Independents and Libertarians out there, but there's little chance one of your candidates is going to win.)
Do we forsake the majority we have to send a message to our prarty, or do we suck it up, hold our nose, and vote for someone we have a problem with. Well, that's up to the voters of the other states. We'll be voting to put Kyl back in the Senate and we'll be sending John Shadegg back to the House. We're still torn over Jeff Flake; he isn't too well liked by Arizona right now. But we will do our part here in Arizona. The best we can do for other candidates (Michael Steele, Mark Kennedy, Ken Blackwell, Lynn Swann) is contribute to their coffers directly.
The RNC and NRSC isn't getting one red cent of our money. They spend too much time supporting the incumbants, and never looking at their record. They base their support on the old political numbers game. "Maintain the majority." Except what happens when that majority isn't there most of the time? What happens when the Chafee's, the DeWine's, the Snowe's and the McCain's decide that they'd prefer to be on the other side? We agree with Hugh that the tent is big enough. But there isn't enough discipline in the leadership to keep these people from going wonky when the votes count the most. That is why a message has to be sent--loud and clear--to the party big-wigs that as their constitutents, we've had enough of this malarkey.
We want results, not lip service. We want answers not "no comments at this time." When we inquire what is going on with our tax money, we don't want people essentially telling us to butt out. This isn't their government. This is our government. It's the people's government. It's "liberty and justice for all" not for a select few. This year, if the base is going to maintain the majority, it will have to work for it. Captain Ed's right. The answer is not sitting at home in a snit over the parties antics. Get Up, Get Out, and Be Heard! Work for what we want. Sitting at home now or in November will only assure us of one simple thing.
Failure.
No offense, but I don't like to lose. I get surly when I do lose, and failure only reminds me to dig in harder next time around. This may be life, but there's not time for a costly life lesson regarding failure. Failure this year and in 2008 ensures that the war will end very soon, and with our enemy on the ropes. Withdrawing from the field will give them time to recoup their losses, entrnech themselves further, and invite another attack down the road. In addition, with things going the way they are with Iran right now, we don't need a Democrat in the White House shooting for the "North Korea" solution. The "trust them because they signed a piece of paper" approach won't help us, or any of our allies.
No, we can't fail this time around. And it's going to fall on the base to make sure it doesn't.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:40 PM
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