Archive for January, 2009

Georgia Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey is telling Rush Limbaugh to butt out.  Not smart.

Rush Limbaugh has the most listened-to radio show in the history of the earth.  As a result, he is closer to the pulse of conservative, grassroots activist than most Members of Congress. 

Gingrey was elected long after the 1994 GOP Revolution, so he can be somewhat forgiven for not recognizing the power of Rush.  After the 1994 election, the new freshmen held a dinner at Camden Yards that featured Rush.  Rush was made an honorary member of the 1994 Republican Freshman class.  I was there, and it was historic.

(It was also memorable, because it was the first time in my life that I ate an anchovy.  They served a Caesar salad, with, what looked like to me, brownish little bacon strips.  I had a pretty rude surprise when I popped one in my mouth!)

That night, Rush talked about the clamoring for change the American people wanted and it was their desire for change that motivated them to get out and elect Republicans to the majority.  He said that the Members of Congress had an obligation and a duty to hold fast to the principles they campaigned on.

Sadly, very few of the Members listened and absorbed.  Of the 74 there that night, I can name, on one hand, those that have stuck to principle: John Shadegg (still in Congress), Tom Coburn (now in the Senate), Mark Sanford (Governor of South Carolina), and two who have been pretty good: Saxby Chambliss (now in the Senate) and Sam Brownback (now in the Senate).

Others who stayed principled, but who are no longer in office include Matt Salmon (AZ), Steve Largent (OK), J.C. Watts (OK), Mark Neumann (WI) and Gil Gutnecht (MN).

Gingrey should be figuring out ways to follow Limbaugh’s lead – not get in the way.

We certainly did not need more bad news.  Arizona’s own Fulton Homes has filed for Chapter 11 protection.  Yet another example of how the so-called bail-out package has not worked.

When former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson started screaming that the sky was falling, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Not exactly the kind of thing someone who is supposed to manage expectations is supposed to do.  Think about how much different the financial crisis had been if he had quietly tried to solve the problem when it was just a couple banks looking at insolvency.  But his greed (and the greed of his buddies on Wall Street) drove him to try to convince Congress that we needed $700 BILLION to “save the industry” because “failure is not an option.”

We still don’t have an explanation as to why he picked $700 BILLION as the magic number, but his chicken little routine has now driven the cost of this crisis to TRILLIONS.  He should go down in history as the biggest failure as Treasury Secretary we’ve ever had.

With $350 billion of the $700 billion already squandered, and nothing to show for it, conservatives are demanding that we re-think how this is done.  Arizona Congressman John Shadegg read this WSJ article and promptly sent it out to his supporters saying something was very, very wrong.  Here is what likely caught his eye:

The results have many in the industry scratching their heads. Two banks in Green Bay, Wis., have received federal investments. But in Arizona, a state hit hard by the housing slump, officials say they are perplexed that a dozen or so state-chartered banks haven’t heard back from Treasury about the status of their applications.
 
Arizona’s banking superintendent, Felecia Rotellini, says she is teaming up with local bankers and state legislators who plan to start lobbying Arizona’s congressional delegation for help. “Some states are getting better treatment, and we just want it to be a level playing field,” Ms. Rotellini says. “I think it’s just a question of advocacy. It has to be a congressional voice.”

Think about that, the purpose of TARP was to help those banks who needed to off-load bad debt, and Arizona has been the fastest growing state in the nation, and thus has shouldered a huge portion of the foreclosure problem. And in order to get what is supposed to come as a result of the legisltion, they have to engage the Arizona Congressional Delegation.

Shadegg followed up with a letter to the chairwoman of the oversight committee that reviews TARP asking her to investigate whether political influence affected where payouts went.  She may not find any such influence, but there is no doubt it’s there.  This is high-stakes politics after all.

“Men do not follow titles…they follow courage.”  Mel Gibson, as William Wallace in Braveheart

Al Gore is scheduled to appear Wednesday before Sen. John Kerry’s Foreign Relations committee to discuss the urgent need to deal with global warming.  As we say in politics, the “optics” of that won’t be very good.  You see, the forecast for the D.C. area on Wednesday calls for severe weather – including snow, ice and sleet.  It’s hard to call for urgent action on global warming with a straight face when it is freezing outside.

Now, someone will likely opine that severe weather IS a sign of global warming. Of course, the catchphrase they use now is “climate change” because they keep having this pesky problem of really cold weather when they stage these global warming events.

I just think it’s God’s sense of humor.

“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.”  –George Washington

Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee, Timothy Geithner

I have an idea.  Let’s all decide that we are going to cheat on our taxes.  Hey, it’s not going to prevent Timothy Geithner from becoming Treasury Secretary, so what justification would he have in coming after us?  None of us are seeking Senate confirmation for a post in the Obama Administration. Seriously, how will he ever, with a straight face, be able to give the nod to the IRS to investigate tax evasion?

The absurdity of Geithner’s pending confirmation proves, yet again, that Democrats are treated different than Republicans when it comes to fitness for important government positions.  Can you imagine the screaming that would have ensued had Bush’s first Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, cheated on his taxes?  For crying out loud, Leona Helmsley was criminally prosecuted and served almost two years in prison for doing the same thing that Geithner has done.

One thing we should watch closely is what Senators vote to confirm Geithner.  We’re going to need their letters vouching for our character when the IRS comes knocking.

Obama’s new stimulus package includes more than $100 million for contraceptives.  You read that right.  It is beyond baffling how this can be considered “economic stimulus.”  This is how Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended it on This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

So, we have government policy that encourages fewer children at the same time Social Security and Medicare are going bankrupt because we have a shrinking workforce to support the ever-increasing number of retirees.  Folks, this is just the beginning… it’s gonna get worse.

The problems with light rail in the Valley of the Sun continue to mount.  This time, the brainiacs who brought us light rail (and their “public places for art”) decided that it was too much hassle (and money) to provide any facilities for the folks they were luring to the trains.

Once again, the wise urban planners forget that we are all human after all.  You’ll just have to hold it.

“If Virtue and Knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved.  This will be their great Security.” — Samuel Adams