There is a handsome man who works as the Legislative Director for Congressman John Shadegg, Paul Edattel.  But he’s not quite handsome enough.  He just missed the cut as one of Capital Hill’s “50 Most Beautiful” by coming in at 51.

Better luck next year Paul!

This was passed on to me by a good friend, who knows how I feel about the auto bailouts, and that I give Ford a lot of credit for not taking government money.

Apparently, I’m not alone.  This is a Rasmussen report:

46% More Likely To Buy Ford ‘Cause It Didn’t Get A Bailout

 

Public opposition to the auto bailouts may translating into consumer buying decisions, with 46% of Americans now saying they are more likely to buy a car from Ford because it did not take government money to stay in business. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 13% say they are less likely to buy a Ford because the company didn’t receive a bailout, and 37% say it has no impact on their car buying.

Keep at it Ford.  We’ll keep driving (or at least I will as soon as I get my truck).

The folks at Patients United Now, a project of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, are asking a simple question to Members of Congress: Did you read the bill?

They are launching an ad campaign that is meant to cause Members of Congress to stop and think about whether they want to vote on a bill that is rushed to the floor by Speaker Pelosi with no time to read the entire thing.

This has become a bit of a habit for Pelosi – if she can’t get a bill through Committee because it’s so big, complicated and expensive (think Stimulus and Cap and Trade) they rush it to the floor, giving Members of Congress no chance of actually knowing what all is in the bill.  With the Cap and Trade bill, the Democrat leadership introduced a 300 page amendment to a 1,000 page bill.  There was exactly ONE copy of the amendment on the floor of the House during the compressed debate.

This is not “the most open and honest Congress in history” that Pelosi promised.

Today was Sarah Palin’s last day as Governor of Alaska.  Some on both the right and the left have written her political obituary. 

The left, particularly radical feminists, hate her with a passion because she breaks all kinds of stereotypes they want to force on women.  She’s beautiful, married to a real man, has kids (more than one or two!), chose life for her Downs Syndrome child and hunts.  She’s their worst nightmare!

And that’s why she’ll be back.  She is going to have rock star status on the GOP circuit for years to come, and at the right time, she’ll emerge as a contender.  Of course, guys like Romney and Huckabee and Jindal all hope that emergence is far into the future (if at all).

However, I think it’s tough for the GOP to have long term credibility if we don’t have strong and attractive female candidates at the upper echelon of our party.

Don’t count her out yet.

Today is my birthday. 

Exactly three weeks ago I had a fleeting thought that I wouldn’t see my 39^th birthday when my car rolled and I was rushed into emergency surgery for a lacerated spleen and internal bleeding. 

It puts a whole new perspective on birthdays.  Up to now they’ve generally been seen as just another year with many more to come.  As I sit here, I reflect that now each birthday I will be grateful for making it this far.

I’m not a fatalist, nor am I much of a worrier of death.  I never get skittish when I’m flying – even when there is really bad turbulence – and I never even think about that kind of stuff when I’m driving.

Looking back on my accident, I realize how easy it would have been to be killed in an instant – no warning.  I didn’t think much about turning 39 before three weeks ago.  Now I’m really happy I made it.  Maybe that’s the true meaning of “Happy Birthday.”

Congressman Scott Garrett is a true believer. He is one of the few in Congress who not only is a principled conservative, he actually acts like it all the time.

You’ll recall that Sen. Jon Kyl made the comment that the stimulus money wasn’t working.  In reaction, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood sent a letter to Governor Jan Brewer asking if she agreed with Sen. Kyl and told her he would be happy to withhold stimulus dollars from Arizona.  It was an outrageous letter and Scott Garrett takes LaHood to task for it.  This is a must see video passed on to me from a good friend of mine on the Hill.

I don’t get a lot of time to read books, that is, to really sit down and read a book in a day or two.  However, recently a friend of mine sent me a book that I HAD to read.  The book is “Losing Mum and Pup” by Christopher Buckley.

An interesting and heartbreaking story of an only child being orphaned at age 55 when both parents die within a year. The story is even richer and more interesting because the parents are Pat and William Buckley.

As a disciple of WFB since I was 12 yrs-old, I was captivated by Christopher’s emotion, anger, fear, humor and self-exposure.  I was particularly fascinated with the drama of planning the memorial service for WFB at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and Christopher’s account of that day.   I was at the Memorial service, and was particularly happy with the reprint of Henry Kissinger’s remarks because I had the hardest time hearing him at the service.

The book was even better than I had expected.  I laughed, I grimaced, I chuckled and I cried. While Christopher has been heavily criticized by some on the right, I find the criticism unfair and short-sighted. Certainly the man who stood athwart history yelling “Stop!” can withstand some scrutiny from the insecurities of an only child.

It should be the next book you read.

Walter Cronkite was an institution.  He was a pioneer in news broadcasting. In fact, he was one of the reasons I was a broadcasting major in college.          

I met Cronkite as a student at ASU.  My first interaction with him was after a speech he gave on campus.  I got up and, knowing his disdain for conservatives and conservative talk radio, asked him whether he thought that it was time to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.  I knew he couldn’t possibly say yes, but I knew he wanted to.  Sure enough, he paused for a few seconds and then paid me the highest compliment I could ask for as a budding journalist: “Son, that is a whale of a question.”

He said all the perfunctory stuff I expected about how bad Rush Limbaugh was and what a negative influence he was on public discourse, etc., etc. But then he said that he didn’t think that reinstating the Fairness Doctrine was the way to go.

About a year later he was back on campus and I had a chance to be in a small meeting of about 20 students with him.  He spoke for a few minutes and then opened up for questions.  I immediately asked a question (I think I asked him what motivated him to be a journalist) and he answered.  Then there was silence – for an uncomfortably long time.  I sat there thinking, we are a group of journalism students, with one of the icons of broadcasting willing to spend some time talking to us, and none of these folks realize the huge deal this is.

As I was thinking that, he said, “Don’t the rest of you have questions?  How do you expect to be journalists if you don’t ask questions.”  That motivated one other student to ask a question and then I asked the next three.  And, sensing that no one else was going to ask anything, he gave long answers.

He was very gracious to me, even though one of my questions had been “how do we stay objective in the business is we don’t share the liberal philosophy of most in the in business like you.”  He was pretty taken aback by that, but he was friendly enough.  Even though we disagreed vigorously on politics, I felt a bit of a connection to him.

He revolutionized broadcasting – and we’ll never have anyone like him again.

“And that’s the way it is.”

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas W. Elmendorf dropped a nuclear bomb on Congress when he was asked about legislation reforming health care and whether it would actually save money:  “On the contrary,” Elmendorf said, “the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.”

This is huge news because the main argument Democrats, including Obama, have been using for their health care reform is that they need cut cost.  Now they have an independent agent telling them that it’s going to cost a lot of money – just the opposite.

Of course Sen. Harry Reid, ever the class act, had this to say: “What he should do is maybe run for Congress,” Reid said.

Keep in mind, Elmendorf was appointed to be the CBO Chief by Reid and Nancy Pelosi.  But now that he doesn’t toe their line, Reid dismisses him.

Reid can try to distract all he wants, but the issue creates a huge problem for Democrats as they try to rush through a bill that will hurt Americans.  Make no mistake about it, when they talk about reduced costs, they are talking about reduced care.

*Graphic Images Alert!*

Arizona’s Yellow Sheet Report decided that the picture of my staples from my splenectomy was akin to Lyndon Johnson showing off a scar from a gall bladder removal.  I suppose there are similarities, but I’m guessing that is the only thing in common I would ever have with the architect of the “Great Society.”