Posted on Conservatives, Republicans

michael steele doesn’t get it

This started out as such a brilliant idea — getting one of those “clean and articulate” African-Americans Vice President Biden always talks about to be the new chairman of the RNC. Then the Republicans’ grand plan started to unravel. The first strand was Steele v. Rush.  Attacking Rush Limbaugh always gets you points with the Democrats and with the leftist media, but it doesn’t do much to keep the support of the conservative base of the Republican party. What I believe Chairman Steele fails to understand about Rush’s influence is that he expresses what the majority of his audience already believes.  Rush Limbaugh is not the leader of the Republican Party, and he would never want to be. That’s not his job.  He is an entertainer, as Steele said, but he is also an important voice for conservatism. In addition to the occasional mindless drone who looks to Rush to tell him/her what to think and believe everyday, Rush’s audience also includes grassroots activists who are motivated by their ideology to volunteer for the party in their local communities, and to encourage others to do the same. In the Steele v. Rush debate, all the Chairman accomplished by his scattershot comments is to alienate many of my fellow conservatives who wish to be included in this new big tent we are creating in the party with all those important moderates and independents. In the absence of Republican leadership, many voices clamor to be heard, and there is much competition to be the most powerful and influential representative of my party.  Right now that person doesn’t seem to be the chairman of the RNC.

The second so-called controversy that’s currently getting airplay is about his comments on abortion in GQ, and how he believes that it’s a woman’s “individual choice”. Well, yeah. Of course it is.  I’m not sure we can win hearts and minds to the pro-life position by arguing over this point. I don’t think that this says anything significant about Michael Steele’s personal beliefs on the abortion issue, although those who were initially skeptical about his abortion views won’t be reassured by his current comments on the subject. While there may be room for a difference of opinion among my fellow Republicans on abortion, ultimately the Republican Party is and always has been a pro-life party. Social conservatives have a home in this party, and they make up a significant portion of the grassroots army the Republicans need to win elections. That’s why the current mindset of our RNC chair is troubling to me. He doesn’t seem to understand a significant portion of the people he represents, and yet he wants to expand our base to include moderates and independents. This would mean watering down the principles we claim to have always stood for, even if the execution of those ideals has never been perfect.  If he can’t keep the trust of the base, then all the moderates and independents he could gain won’t do much to our electoral prospects going forward into ’10 and ’12.

Do I think we should throw Michael Steele under the bus?  Not yet.  Possibly not at all.  The Democrats managed to succeed in spite of Howard Dean, didn’t they? Right…so there is still hope for the RNC to get its act together in time for the next election.

Posted on Democrats, Liberals, War on Terror

good luck with that — part II

John Kerry says that Syria should help in the disarmament of Hezbollah, and he’s an foreign policy expert because he served in Vietnam. Thank God America had the good sense to vote against him in 2004.

From Yahoo News:

BEIRUT (AFP) – Senator John Kerry said on Wednesday that the new US administration will press Syria to help disarm Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as it forges ahead with a fresh diplomatic approach in the region.

“We want Syria to respect the political independence of Lebanon, we want Syria to help in the process of resolving issues with Hezbollah and with the Palestinians,” said Kerry, after meeting President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

“We want Syria to help… with the disarmament of Hezbollah,” added the former US Democratic presidential candidate, who is also due to visit Damascus on his regional tour.

Sure.   I’m surprised no one tried this before.  It’s such a simple plan after all.

Posted on Random Musings

reason reviews the “stimulus”

From Reason mag’s original analysis by Veronique de Rugy:

There are many more bad policies and spending decisions in the Senate stimulus bill, but even a cursory glance at the parts outlined above give a good sense of the overall legislation—and what is likely to be signed into law by President Obama.

And here is one more thing to consider: There is absolutely no evidence that any stimulus package in the past 80 years has goosed economic activity—not FDR’s during the Great Depression, not Japan’s during the 1990s, and not George W. Bush’s in 2001 and 2008. If anything, the economic evidence suggests that such spending packages actually intensified and prolonged misery.

Instead of rushing through legislation that will likely have no short-term effect on the economy, is guaranteed to have negative long term ones, and that serves the traditional interest groups that politicians are always busy catering to, the Senate should have cut spending like Ireland is now doing and cut marginal tax rates across the board. That would not only have stimulated the economy, it would have been fiscally responsible considering the massive entitlement crisis that is coming our way. But such legislation, alas, will have to wait for another day. Or another crisis.

Her analysis on the final bill is here, appropriately subtitled “The final stimulus package is the final insult to taxpayers.”

1 Comment Posted on Random Musings

rasmussen

67% Say They Could Do A Better Job On The Economy Than Congress, and 44% believe that “a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress”, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.   I suppose you can make polls say whatever you want them to say, but those numbers don’t look like a vote of confidence in the stimulus / porkulus bill.

Another Rasmussen poll: 62% Want Stimulus Plan to Have More Tax Cuts, Less Spending.

It’s clear to me which side the American people support in the stimulus battle.

5 Comments Posted on Democrats, Liberals

better to remain silent

But no…Chuck Schumer must speak and say something stupid.

Here he is:

Why else would the American people oppose this bill?  This stimulus bill will NOT fix the economy for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that most of the new spending projects won’t provide any immediate benefit to the average person.  At least with Bush’s stimulus, taxpayers (along with non-taxpayers) got a tangible benefit in the form of a check as a result of that plan. The Republicans (and President Bush) spent too much taxpayer money on previous spending bills.  That’s been acknowledged many times.  But what President Bush started,  President Obama has spent much more taxpayer money on all this new stimulus legislation than even I expected him to do.  What do we get with the Democrats and President Obama? Money for special interests and ACORN.

Posted on Random Musings

good luck with that

This guy Alec Dubro (never heard of him before either) writes in The Progressive that we won’t make any significant progress toward addressing climate change until we get rid of all the cars.

He says:

Without divine intervention – which seems to be the basis for most energy reduction schemes – there is simply no way to maintain both the atmosphere and personal transportation. Even if the population were frozen at its present level, even if economic growth stopped the sheer number of people wanting – and under the present regime, need – personal transportation makes any plan to reduce car pollution by increasing efficiency is futile. The personal automobile must be abandoned, and quickly.

It would be better to do this in a measured and humane way, easing both automobile workers and users into a post-car world. It needs a societal consensus, requiring major shifts of goals and expectations, and few of us will take these steps on our own. But this change will eventually happen to us whether we like it or not, perhaps in time to stave off climactic disaster.

That’s some kind of fantasy world.  Maybe the Europeans will calmly surrender their cars and use public transportation, but Americans aren’t so easily persuaded.  Getting rid of our cars would be much more of a sacrifice than recycling or using cloth bags at the grocery store.  I seriously doubt that there will ever be a “societal consensus” to ditch our cars for government transports, but there’s something quite refreshing about a liberal who is honest about his desires / intentions for public policy.

8 Comments Posted on Democrats, George W. Bush, Iraq, Liberals

very impressive

I’ve had doubts about President Obama since I first took a look at his campaign, but even I didn’t expect this level of confusion.

Now-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner –  isn’t too keen on paying taxes, even when it’s clearly explained to him how to do it.  It inspires such confidence knowing that our Treasury Secretary can’t handle his own taxes or even manage to find himself a decent accountant to keep track of those things for him.  This is the only guy who can solve the economy?  If so, we are in deep trouble.  Shame on the Republicans who voted to confirm him.

Former HHS nominee – Senator Daschle – married to a super-lobbyist,  didn’t consider the tax implications of having his own personal limo driver “kindly lent to him” by a friend with absolutely no strings attached. Is he the only one capable of forcing through universal health care?   That’s doubtful.

Watch as the former senator rails against tax cheats.  Good stuff.  Wish I could embed this video.

Former Chief Performance Officer nominee – Nancy Killefer, felled by nanny issues and tax issues.

Then there’s the botched handling of General Anthony Zinni.  He was reportedly offered the job of ambassador to Iraq by Secretary of State Clinton, then President Obama changed his mind and withdrew the offer.   Can’t say I understand the President’s reasoning here, especially when they have apparently decided to give the job to Bush’s assistant secretary of State for East Asia, Chris Hill. Is there something else we don’t know about him that’s fatally damaging?  Kind of makes you wonder, based on the current pattern of Obama nominees.

There’s more Cabinet members worthy of skepticism, including AG Eric Holder, but I think these are enough examples of the flaws in President Obama’s vetting process.  This is truly ethics and competence we can believe in.  Not to mention that great judgment Obama was always bragging about…

President Obama says “I screwed up” when talking about some of these picks.  Good for him.  He doesn’t get extra credit for taking responsibility for his mistakes.  I just hope that he’s a quick study on how to deal with our allies and our enemies.  Foreign policy is an area where a simple “Oops” or “I screwed up” may not be sufficient to obtain forgiveness from the American people.