What Was Wrong At The Southern Republican Leadership Conference?–UPDATED

What a weird conference. There. I said it. The Tea Party received the biggest cheers. The Republicans bashed their own party. Attendees were optimistic and cheerful. Politicians were purposeful and focused on 2010–a marked shift from the usual perspectives at SRLC which has been a conference that gives voters a first look at potential Presidential candidates. Ron Paul’s groupies were suitably worshipful and idealistic. Mitt Romney’s posse were mission-focuses as always. But something was off.

It wasn’t the city or weather. New Orleans was more beautiful than I have ever seen it and the weather was perfect. Food? A+. Gambling? I wouldn’t know, but people had fun. A shooting did clear a friend’s restaurant, though–so it’s the same old New Orleans we know and love.

It wasn’t the venue or organization which was okay–although the scheduling was unorthodox. The speakers didn’t get going until the afternoon every day while the delegates had various brunches. It made for an excellent blogging schedule.

What simmered below the surface of the event, though, made me uneasy. And it was who didn’t attend the event that concerned me.

Eventually, Mitt Romney is going to have to show up at an conference with other political contenders. Will he get more cheers than Newt or Sarah or Mike Pence or Rick Perry? I know he’s hoping to wait them all out, gather to himself a gagilliion dollars and be the presumptive nominee. That method worked in the past, will it work now?

Haley Barbour endorsed Charlie Crist who is miles behind Marco Rubio. Barbour was RNC chair during the 1994 revolution. Many of these old dogs are still around and enjoying power. They remember sweeping in and they don’t want to be swept out.

The recent arm wrestling being done by the NRSC and NRCC against the RNC might actually be wasted effort. If donors are by-passing all of them and funding the Rubios of the world, the party bosses might matter less even as the give full-throated endorsements to establishment candidates who have zero chance of getting elected.

One Republican said to me, “It’s like the Republicans are ten years behind the times. They’re looking for women candidates, when the voters are beyond that.”

What he meant was, the voters now, men and women, want a good candidate who follows, as Rick Perry mentioned, first principles. Gender matters little anymore. Beliefs matter most.

But first principles are inconvenient when an old-guard politician is trying to keep power and money. And so beneath a placid, optimist surface, there is struggling. The struggle would seem to be philosophical: big government Republicans against tax-assailing and small government conservatives with some Tea Party help.

Unfortunately, the struggle seems to be more base than that: who is going to man the ship when Republicans get power back in November? There are lots of Republicans angling for chairmanships and sweet deals and that seems to be a more important fight to them than fighting Democrats and a President who are trying to do to dismantle freedom and the American way.

Politics, like business, has many aging boomers who love their jobs. They don’t want to give them up. Terrified of becoming relics and irrelevant, they fight like badgers to hold on to personal power while not paying attention to what they’ll even be owning after they “win.” If the establishment Republicans rip the party apart, they may have power in a party that no longer matters. Do they recognize this reality?

Many of the old guard are suspicious of the Tea Partiers and conservatives in general. Cozying up with small government types, makes keeping a big government difficult.

Bottom line, the leadership of the party isn’t at the top anymore. The grassroots are leading, amoeba-like, toward a philosophical goal of smaller government, less taxation and more freedom. So far, no presumptive presidential candidate has taken on that mantal.

After the November mid-term elections, I expect a very wild presidential campaign. And while Mitt stuffed the ballot boxes at the Southern Republican Leadership Council, I don’t think his place as the new face of the GOP is anywhere near certain.

The Republican party will change, people will give them one last chance, because voters burned themselves with Ross Perot going third party. But if the party isn’t responsive to the base’s concern after the last two years, I’m afraid there will be a new party building and the old guard will be manning an empty ivory tower.

Tabitha Hale has more. She has a controversial take on the opening speaker who decided that the most important issue facing the nation is gay marriage.

Here are some interviews I conducted at SRLC:

Texas Governor Rick Perry Talks Texas….And A National Run? Also here.

Ted Cruz, former Texas Solicitor General who has argued many cases before the Supreme Court (and won) discusses the possible legal approaches to get rid of Obamacare. Also here.

A great Republican running against Deborah Wasserman-Schultz: Learn about Brian Reilly here.

I also got to spend 10 minutes with Herman Cain. That video is still loading, but I’ll add it to the cue.

UPDATED:

Liza over at Culture Kitchen gives me a back handed compliment and then dismisses a Rick Perry run for President because of his secession hyperbole while extolling Mitt Romney.

One word: Jobs

Texas has them. No other state comes close.

One phrase: It’s the economy stupid.

Rick Perry gets that, the Democrats don’t.

Now, Perry may have no chance to get elected, I don’t know. But please let’s not pretend that Romney doesn’t have baggage.

Can you say RomneyCare? And much as it pains me, his religion will still be a stopper for many people.

The press likes Romney way too much. Remember how they loved McCain? Yeah.

Posted in Conservatives, Moderates, Political Animals, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Tea Party | 16 Comments »

Brian Reilly Runs For Democrat Deborah Wasserman Schultz’s Seat

Wasserman-Schultz must go down.
Brian Reilly: Another GOP Up And Comer
Uploaded by melissaclouthier. – Watch the latest news videos.“>Brian Reilly spent a few moments to talk to me at the SRLC about the Florida race. He’s a good candidate in a winnable district. Like so many young gun conservatives I’ve met, he just needs money and optimism:

Posted in Republicans | 2 Comments »

RNC Chairman Steele: It’s Partly Racism

RNC Chairman says the attacks he’s receiving are partly racism and that blacks have a smaller margin of error. I’d say that’s true for some few people, just as it’s true for some small segments who have disliked Obama from the beginning. Mostly though, it’s sore-loserism and establishment-ism and power-ism. You know, those “isms” that define Washington, D.C.

Here’s the video of the Chairman’s comments.

How about this for a theory?

1. Establishment Republicans see their power dwindling and they want to control the money.

2. The Crossroads business was hatched before last week when operatives from within this new money-seeking organization denounced their competition, the RNC–these people are going after the same dollars after all.

3. Republicans angry at Steele for saying the truth, that he’s not sure they’re ready to take the helm back, decided to gun for his demise.

You know, people are so sick of the Republicans. These guys demonstrated a frustrating inability to enact measures to trim the government’s power when they were in power.

I see nearly zero reason to believe that they govern much differently once back in power. For months, they fought the influence of the Tea Party movement and even now, some establishment candidates grit their teeth about this growing movement. They have a vision for Republicans in America–it’s big government, big business, big power.

Now, some have seen religion. They are terrified and want to get re-elected. But most who face primary challenges seem offended that they have to go through such lowly politicking to do the job they feel entitled to do.

In addition, those forming the Crossroads group, seem to ignore how this looks to people who now pay attention. It looks like the same old D.C. power plays. It looks like division and pettiness. It looks like the Mitch McConnell-Bush wing of the Republican party doesn’t want to let go.

Guess what: they were voted out for a reason.

Now, a person reading this might construe me as some worshipful devoté of the RNC and its leadership. I’m not. I’m just an observer who doesn’t believe, for one instant, that this Crossroads group is anything but an organization grown and built to support the Republican D.C. establishment while Chairman Steele is trying to strike the balance between an old and new Republican party.

Many Republicans don’t want a new party. They don’t want a younger, more diverse and more fiscally conservative party. It does not serve THEM.

They want power. It’s naive to think anything else.

So is it racism? Maybe a little bit. But really, it’s just Republican politics as usual.

P.S. The Republicans outside the RNC are questioning the judgment of Chairman Steele, right? Well, I question their judgment dividing the leadership during a year when Republicans are sure to win big because the Democrats are even more horrible than Republicans. What sort of wisdom do they have? How smart is it to divide the party on the eve of a big win. Yeah. Typical Republicans: shooting themselves in the feet.

Posted in Political Animals, Racism, Republicans | 3 Comments »

Bad Numbers For Bad Democrats

Rasmussen’s recent poll should concern Democrats–if they hadn’t already enacted the single most transformational piece of legislation ever knowing full well that the American people hated it. But they made that decision knowing full well that their futures hung in the balance. Or maybe they didn’t care about the future because they had some other guarantees for other lobbying or ambassadorships or inside administration jobs to keep them in the manner to which they’re accustomed.

The numbers aren’t a joke though. From Rasmussen:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, up three points from last week, while 39% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent, up four points from the previous survey.

No, it’s not a joke.

But the joke may well be on the American people. I’m not sure the Democrats care about re-election.

Posted in Democrats | 2 Comments »

About Our Southern Border

Drug wars, corruption, gang violence, murder, kidnappings, torture–it’s all part of Mexican culture these days and it’s getting worse. Why? Well, trouble has been brewing for a very long time.

A while back, I wrote about how the border will never get closed because it is like steam from the Mexican teapot. Illegal immigration gets workers to the U.S. where there are jobs and sends money back home to Mexico where there are not jobs. But now, the U.S. economy is tanked and thousands of workers have moved back across the border to find a better landing spot at home. They aren’t finding it.

Closing the border would do much the same thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mexico suffered something night unto civil war. The fact is that Mexico needs to clean up its mess and create a place where people want to live and work and feel safe doing so. Corruption and nepotism are so rife there, though, that it’s nigh to impossible to “reform” anything.

Anyway, Michelle Malkin talks about the rancher who got killed. There will be more of this. Mexico can no longer contain their problems.

Posted in America, California, Crime, Not America, Texas | 1 Comment »

McCain Verses Hayworth

Robert Stacy McCain at the American Spectator (doing great work, by the way, subscribe to their magazine) writes about the Senate primary race in Arizona. A couple money quotes:

“Obviously, the gulf between my opponent’s rhetoric and the reality is so great it exceeds the geographic dimensions of our own Grand Canyon,” Hayworth says. “It’s more than a credibility gap, it’s a credibility canyon.… If he was really concerned about [the influence of political contributions], he certainly seems to have gotten over it very quickly.”

Whether McCain’s big money will be enough to secure his re-election, it undoubtedly gives him advantages against Hayworth, whose low-budget campaign doesn’t expect to match the incumbent dollar-for-dollar in the five months between now and the August 24 primary.

“We know we’re not going to out-raise him,” Hayworth says. “We’re not going to out-spend him.”

No way! John McCain is using big money to win an election? I thought he wanted money out of campaigns?

And then there is the recent hard tack to the right. It seems John McCain suddenly finds the border issue an important law enforcement issue:

But 2010 is not 2004, and in the intervening years, McCain led a legislative push to grant amnesty to illegal aliens — a very unpopular stance in Arizona, especially with Republican and conservative-leaning independents. (Arizona election law allows registered independents to vote in either party primary.) A Rasmussen poll last year found that Arizona voters considered immigration a more important issue than health-care reform and 65 percent said “enforcing the borders is more important than legalizing the status of those already living here.”

The immigration issue has “gotten bigger” in Arizona recently, Hayworth says, after a Cochise County rancher was found shot dead Saturday near the Mexican border, a crime that law-enforcement officials suggest was committed by illegal aliens or smugglers who have made the border an increasingly dangerous place.

“Border security is national security and it is time that we enforce the law,” Hayworth said in a press release reacting to the killing of 58-year-old Rob Krentz, whose family has owned a cattle ranch near the border for more than a century. “For thousands of Arizonans, border security is also quite literally a matter of personal security.”

Allah is amused:

I came thisclose to headlining the post “comedy gold.” What miracles hath this Hayworth primary challenge wrought!

From the man who once famously groused about conservatives’ desire to build a “goddamned fence” and then denied voting for it when pressed by Univision during the campaign, I give you John McCain — border warrior:

This is why primaries are so important. I’m guessing the reason that John McCain is finding his conservative soul is because his internal polling looks terrible.

So many of these politicians have sat in Washington, ignored American sentiment, and ignored their own constituents. There are many races where I feel less than enthusiastic about the primary challenger, but the incumbent has such a long history of betraying fiscal conservatism and self-aggrandizement, that I want them to go.

Politics should not be a lifetime sport with lush retirement package. But that’s how it goes now, in DC. Politicians get into office, get bought off by big interests, and then stay in office with the money received from those big interests. John McCain’s McCain-Feingold act made the problem even worse–but it turned out better for John McCain. The law protected incumbents.

Well, there should be no protection for incumbents. They should have to defend their positions, defend their votes and be at least marginally responsive to their constituents. I mean, at least pretend you give a damn what your voters think. Man.

Posted in Political Animals, Republicans | 3 Comments »

Podcast: Redemption and Derision

The story of enslavement to freedom is inherent in the Judeo-Christian culture. During this week where emancipation–being freed from slave owners and ultimately our own limitations–is a central focus, it was fitting, then, for Iris Blue to join me. She spent months in “the hole” in a Harris County (Houston) jail. She suffered addiction to heroin. She fought wardens. And she did it all to herself, willfully, angrily and stubbornly. Her story is inspiring and I hope you’ll listen to it. We talk about child-rearing, the church, and who is Jesus?

In the second half, another, less successful religion is discussed: Global Warming. Charlie Martin, now the science editor at Pajamas Media discusses the latest happenings and the bitter clinging to a discarded belief.

Listen here

Posted in Christianity, Mind, Podcast, Spirit | No Comments »

Telcos Knew What Was Coming From Obama A Year Ago: More Taxes For You Through Them

Endgadget reported this last year:

There’s no easy answer to erasing a staggering trillion-plus dollar deficit in a federal budget, but you’ve got to start somewhere — and Obama’s looking at the nation’s wireless carriers as cash cows just waiting to be milked. The President’s proposed budget for 2010 calls for an increase in spectrum license user fees from $50 million to $200 million, with further increases to $550 million over the course of the next decade, all of which would be on top of the billions carriers have already shelled out in spectrum auctions. A good way to bring in some extra cash? Yeah, probably, but considering that carriers will be more than happy to pass the increases on to consumers, let’s just be straight: it’s a tax.

And now, we read of worries about hyper-inflation. Now, why would that happen? When businesses are trapped, losing revenue, losing buyers, but having increased tax burdens, what is their choice? They have to increase prices and CUT STAFF.

Often, salaries are the biggest part of overhead. The Obama administration has no business experience. Hates businesses, especially, it seems, the small business person, but must increase government revenue to pay for all their social programs.

What happens then, though, is that people stop paying taxes. They either can’t afford it or feel that the taxes are harmful and a burden. And government revenues further decline.

About the hyper-inflation:

One can’t argue, however, with the fear this run of outsized state spending has inspired among global investors.

They worry that Western governments might not be able to someday erase those mounting deficits, which have caused U.S. federal debt to approach 100 per cent of GDP – its highest level since the years immediately following the end of World War II.

The jitters account for the weakened U.S. dollar and a slumping euro. It is hardly a surprise that Greece, fiscally mismanaged for a decade, would someday face default. What is alarming is that Athens’ belated acknowledgement of its fiscal crisis immediately triggered fears that a raft of other economies – including Spain, Portugal, Ireland and perhaps even Britain – would follow suit. How else to explain the 307 per cent jump in gold prices since 2000 to a current $1,140 per ounce, for a commodity used principally as a hedge against global ruin?

Well. I don’t know. For their to be hyper-inflation, there has to be buyers, right? The problem is that their aren’t buyers right now. And there probably shouldn’t be. Americans and Westerners around the world need to get their personal debt in hand and get reacquainted with things like quality and extending use. That won’t help the economy in the short term, but it will help the nation in the long term.

Maxed Out Mama says the recession isn’t over. That seems self-evident to me. Why the Democrats tout a recovering economy in the face of the increased job losses, decline in home sales, increase in gas prices and mild inflation baffles me.

Will electing the Republicans in November help? One commenter over there rightly notes that many people in the US are simply holding because Obama and the Democrats have created such an unstable environment. That’s certainly true. I still don’t think it’s enough. It might help.

Anyway, the Democrat solution is tax and spend. It’s not much of a solution. You, the consumer, will pay many ways: direct VAT tax, increased income tax at the state and federal level (Maxed Out Mama also notes that the states and federal government are fighting over the same money), and then carry-through taxes as businesses try to recoup earnings from their increased tax burden. Did I mention that the buyer is already stressed and out of work?

Bottom line: The economy is still a mess and Democrat policies are making it worse.

Posted in Capitalism, Socialism | No Comments »

The Key To Socialism In The USA: Destroy The Tea Party Movement

Why stop at socialism? I mean, really. That’s just a pretty way of saying communism. Here’s the most accurate label for the New Left: NeoComms. I plan to use it everywhere.

Think I’m being extremist? Well David Frum and all his smooth talking moderate talkers can chew on this:

These debates are happening on the basis of charges like reformism, revisionism, and right opportunism. For me, this is proof that not enough has been done to modernize our organization and to transform Marxism from an old catechism into a real guide to action and a way of understanding the concrete conditions of struggle in our own country and in our own time. As one of the main preconvention documents said, “We have to accept and adapt to the reality that times have changed” (from U.S. Politics at a Transition Point).

The growing influence of the Tea Party movement, the long and grueling fight that was healthcare reform, and so many other features of the current struggle should demonstrate convincingly that though the 2008 election dealt a major blow to the ultra-right, it did not knock them out completely as we had hoped.

Rather than jumping to the conclusion that we need to shift our focus to criticism of Obama, the Democratic Party, or the labor movement, we should instead be seeking to recommit ourselves to defeating the ultra-right and building the broad democratic coalition more strongly than ever. This is the orientation that the main discussion documents point us toward. We have to keep in mind who the “main social force(s) hindering progressive development” are and keep our fire aimed at them (from U.S. Politics at a Transition Point).

If the policy of defeating the ultra-right was correct in the 1980s, the 1990s, and 2008, how can it not be just as correct now that we are in a moment of transition toward a time when we can more forcefully go on the offensive? Let’s update our strategic policy to take account of post-election developments of course, but let’s not take a path that would isolate us from the rest of the coalition for change.

So the threat to Marxism-Leninism isn’t from President Obama and the Democrats. Indeed, the problem with the Democrats is their implementation. The communists merely disagree with how it’s happening. They like that it’s happening.

And in fact, the real problem is the Tea Partiers. The pesky folks pushing back against socialism must be stopped. Notice that they didn’t mention the Republicans.

The article ends with a plea to change the communist movement, maybe even renaming it and making it more palatable to the modern world.

Why? Why hide what you are? Ultimately, don’t bother. Just call yourselves Democrats and be done with it. And commies should worry about Tea Partiers. They name you. And the Democrats, too.

Communists. Socialists. Statists. Totalitarians.

NeoComms.

The name change won’t disguise a NeoComm. The ideas reveal the heart of these people.

Much as they’d like to destroy the Tea Party movement, it won’t happen. The Tea Party movement is organic. It will morph and change and grow. It isn’t headed by an organization. It doesn’t require one leader to exist.

But most of all, the beliefs of the Tea Party folks will help them win in the end. Liberty. Ingenuity. Creativity. Life. Happiness. Freedom. Those values beat the smallness of socialism. Always.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Isms, Socialism, Tea Party | 11 Comments »

Legislators Legislate. It’s What They Do.

When I send a patient for a surgical consult, I expect a surgical answer. A surgeon does surgery. It’s what they do. They cut and fix and see the world through the lens of a scalpel. It’s not right or wrong. It just is. You don’t go to a surgeon to sue a business partner or balance your books or invest your money. You don’t go to a surgeon to give you nutritional advice or to solve your relationship trouble. You go to a surgeon for surgery.

I bring up this analogy to explain Congress.

Legislators legislate. They make laws. Their constituents see problems that need solutions. Someone says, “There ought to be a law” and they make a law. Legislators legislate. It’s what they do.

In a sense, there is no “small government” Congressman because their whole purpose is to make laws. And laws, by definition, proscribe behavior. Making laws makes the government bigger and more power and more invasive in your life. This is why they are hated.

Laws, by definition, create lawbreakers. That is, until their is a law on the books, it’s not a crime to do fill-in-the-blank. Because America is drowning in laws, we’re also drowning in criminals. The government, if it were so motivated, has enough legal ammunition to put every American behind bars for something.

So when we hear Representative Paul Ryan praise a Democrat for good parts of the legislation, imagine a surgeon praising another surgeon for his “fine work”.

These guys love to make laws. They love the haggling. They love the collegiality. They love sparring. They LOVE the process. It’s fun to them. It’s like a game.

To some, it IS a game.

Who wins? Who loses? Who bested who? Who out-jousted Representative so-and-so on which morning show. It almost doesn’t matter what the law is about, really. It’s that it’s so damn cool to make a law. And even better, everyone has to do what I say. This is soooo awesome.

When talking to a surgeon friend of mine, he was lamenting the hours and the Medicaid fee reimbursement. I gloated about my free weekends, good hours and happy patients. He said,”But I get to cut.”

So for all the belly-aching you hear from Congressmen, they get to make laws. And laws make your life more constrained, more controlled and less yours. That’s the way it goes.

For fellow Americans expecting salvation from a certain party or group, keep in mind that in order to have the freedom and lack of invasive laws, Congressmen will have to work against their essential nature–making laws. Repealing laws is not a high priority with Congress, if you’ll notice.

Philosophically, they’re belief in the greatness of the individual and the force of that belief will have to outweigh their very human’s bent: to impose their will on someone else. Most of us don’t have the power bend others to our will. Congress has that power. And the power is heady stuff. That’s why there is so many big government Republicans. They wouldn’t be working in government if they didn’t think government was super fantastically great.

All legislators are not to be trusted. Their role is antithetical to freedom. It just is. That’s why there are checks and balances and separation of power, etc. That’s why there are elections.

With legislators spending all their time in Washington, D.C. (Nancy Pelosi loves it that way), they are distant from their constituents, their districts and their states. Their brains marinate in the D.C. power juice and they forget why they’re in DC. Or rather, their mission shifts to pleasing their party masters, big donors, lobbyists, etc. Those people pay the bills, after all.

The only solution is to stick on a Congress person like your life depends on it because these days, it actually does depend on it. And that’s the ultimate problem.

Eventually, the laws get more and more personal, until every aspect of your life is run by the guy who just received your vote.

Vote carefully.

Posted in America, Democrats, Republicans | 1 Comment »