personal

Conservatives generally dislike and distrust the press.  Most will say it’s because the press is biased against conservatives – that if you were to ask members of the media whom they voted for in the last three Presidential elections it would be Gore, Kerry and Obama.

However, if conservatives, who are more likely to cite the Founding Fathers in a political of philosophical debate, were consistent in their thinking, they would embrace the press as an important safeguard to liberty.

Instead, conservatives routinely bash the media, the “MSM”, the “left-wing rags” – hey, I’ve done it at times as well.

This whole line of thinking – the importance of a free press – got started when I was interviewed last week by Dave Biscobing, a young, aggressive reporter with ABC 15 in Phoenix.  This is a guy who takes his job as a reporter seriously – he truly investigates, ask the tough questions and seeks the truth without bias.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is likely no fan of Biscobing, and my guess is that any public official who engages in questionable activities or puts their public trust at risk is going to get to know Dave.  Having met him, I’m glad we have a free press to keep politicians honest.

If you are a baseball fan, the most envious place to be today would have been in Seattle watching the Mariners and the Chicago White Sox.  Sox pitcher, Phillip Humber, did something so rare it has only happened 21 times in all of Major League Baseball history: he threw a perfect game.

The perfect game is one of those very special things that you can only hope that you get a chance to witness in person some time in your life.  It is one of those things that could happen any day you go to the ballpark, but is so rare to be almost mythological.

Today there are fathers in Seattle trying to explain to their son or daughter how special this day is, and how they’ll truly appreciate it some day.

Perfection.

An item in the April 9 Yellow Sheet Report caught my attention.  Greg Patterson, one of the trailblazers of political blogging in Arizona, said that that his blog, espressopundit.com, may go dark as a result of his confirmation to the Arizona Board of Regents.

That’s sad.  Greg is an insightful, smart and witty commentator who has been on the cutting edge of political, social and cultural thought for nearly a decade.

To see espressopundit go dark would be a travesty.

In true Patterson form, his latest blog post about this issue is pretty funny.  The metaphor of putting the espresso machine in the attic is classic.

I think the Regents position is similar in stature to a Judiciary appointment.  I don’t think I can serve as a sitting Regent and blog the way I have blogged in the past.  So I’m going to put the espresso machine in the attic for a while.

I’ll probably end with a few more “wrap up” posts and then sign off for a while.  If I return, it will be in a reinvented format that I haven’t thought of yet. (Of course, writing is an obsession, so I will have to find some type of outlet or I will explode into a zillion little over-caffeinated pieces.)

Greg, I hope you re-think your decision – or at least figure out a way to continue to entertain and inform a thirsty audience.

11 ¶But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

 12 And seeth two ^aangels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

 13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

 14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and ^asawJesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, ^aMaster.

 17 Jesus saith unto her, ^aTouch me not; for I am not yet^bascended to my ^cFather: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my ^dFather, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

 19 ¶Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were^aassembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and ^bstood in the midst, and saith unto them, ^cPeace be unto you.

 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his ^ahands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they ^bsaw the Lord.

 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my^aFather hath ^bsent me, even so ^csend I you.

 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

(John 20:11-22)

Rick Santorum has won the Kansas caucus (say that five times) and Romney has won the caucuses for Wyoming, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

This puts the delegate count at 454 for Romney, 217 for Santorum, 107 for Gingrich and 47 for Ron Paul.

Romney will prevail, but Santorum has a slight chance for victory in Alabama and Mississippi, thus the GOP continues the process.

Keep in mind, while it seems like this nomination process is taking forever, Clinton and Obama went into late June before it was settled in 2008.  The GOP has plenty of time.

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I find it interesting, and kind of amusing, that the Denver Bronco’s are making such a hard play for Peyton Manning, thus showing they are willing to throw Tebow overboard.  Yes, Manning is a great quarterback, but I’m guessing the fan loyalty to the Bronco’s will be less intense with Manning than it would be with Tebow.

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A recent web ad by American Future Fund calling on Obama’s SuperPac to give Bill Maher’s $1 million contribution is pretty edgy.  Too edgy to post directly on my blog – you’ll have to see it here.

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After a morning scare that the Valley of the Sun was out of Thin Mints, I hustled over to Wal-Mart and snatched up a few boxes (and the Do-si-dos).  I love the Girl Scout cookie drive.

One of the best pieces in reaction to the recent passing of Andrew Breitbart is by Jonah Goldberg.

My favorite part was this picture perfect description of Breitbart:

He was a human run-on sentence who showed deference to no punctuation mark save the exclamation point, a conservative Tasmanian Devil from the Bugs Bunny cartoons we both grew up on, whirling and whizzing through anything in his path. Giving him a dose of Ritalin to treat his hyperactivity would be like throwing a glass of water on a five-alarm fire.

Breitbart will truly be missed, because he really did live such a full life in such a short time.  I still haven’t completely come to grips with him being gone.

One thing is for sure – even though he has passed on – he will have an impact for years to come.

Andrew Breitbart lived large and loved life – all while being perfectly irreverent.  His Breitbart.com and accompanying BigGovernment, BigHollywood, and BigJournalism sites took on mainstream media and have been instrumental in the shift to more aggressive conservative journalism.

I had the great honor to know Andrew and share some war stories from politics.  His loss is a blow – for the conservative movement, for young bloggers and for guys like me who are just north of 40.

I can’t sum it up any better than Larry Solov:

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

 

Whenever two Republicans face off in a very Republican district, it always comes down to “who is the most conservative.”

When I was John Shadegg’s campaign manager in his first race in 1994, the candidate who was the presumptive nominee was former Scottsdale City Councilman and former Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Jim Bruner.  Bruner is a successful guy and had served honorably in his positions.  He was a classic establishment Republican, generally conservative, but willing to use taxpayer dollars to fund things like a baseball stadium.

The central issue in Shadegg’s campaign against Bruner was that he cast the deciding vote to impose a temporary tax on residents of Maricopa County to fund the construction of what became Bank One Ballpark – or BOB – and is now known as Chase Field.  It was a huge gift to Jerry Colangelo who was trying to get a baseball franchise to Phoenix.

Shadegg’s other main opponent in the primary that year was Trent Franks, who at the time was a former one-term state legislator.  Franks positioned himself as the “true” conservative in the race, primarily touting support from social conservatives in the district.

Shadegg obviously won that race, but then after 2001 redistricting, Franks ran and won in a new district.  For eight years, Shadegg and Franks served in Congress together, which gives us an interesting test of who was more conservative.

According to National Journal Rankings, they tied for the most conservative Member of Congress twice, and in the other years, Franks ranked about 5 points more conservative on average.  In that time, Shadegg and Franks were both in the top 3% of the most conservative Members of Congress.

So we can see that when Shadegg and Franks were battling over the “true conservative” label in 1994 they both ended up in about the same place.

As an aside, given that Salmon is running for Congress again, I compared Salmon and Shadegg in the 6 years they served together.  Over the six years, Shadegg was on average 7 points more conservative than Salmon, but if you took the last three years of Salmon’s tenure, Shadegg was on average 14 points more conservative than Salmon.

Now to the main point.

This is very instructive for voters in the newly drawn Congressional District 6 and the race between Ben Quayle and David Schweikert.  The latest National Journal rankings show that Ben Quayle is, in practice, more conservative than David Schweikert.  And it’s not even close.

Check out the rankings.  It scores how conservative members are on economic issues, social issues and foreign policy issues, and the overall rank in Congress.

                                     Economic        Social                 Foreign Policy            Score   Rank

Quayle                        90                   83                              91                                94            1

Schweikert                 75                   69                               91                               81       66

Gosar                          73                   69                               91                               79.8    76

Flake                           49                   83                              91                               78.7    91

Franks                        78                   74                             70                               76.2    109

Qualye isn’t just the most conservative member of the Arizona delegation, he’s the most conservative by a long shot.  He scores 13 points higher than Schweikert who scores 1.2 points better than Gosar, 2.3 points better than Flake and 3.8 points better than Franks.  Quayle’s the most conservative walking away.

This is the kind of stuff that drives folks like Rob Haney crazy.  No matter how many times he called Shadegg a “RINO” over the years, it just didn’t stick because Shadegg was demonstrably conservative.  And, Haney and his cohort’s heads are now exploding because their chosen candidate, Schweikert, is demonstrably LESS conservative than Quayle.

Damn those pesky things like facts.

Prediction: Romney will win Arizona by double digits and also win Michigan next Tuesday.  That will give him momentum going into Super Tuesday in which he will win more delegates than Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich and continue to lead the delegate count on his way to the Republican nomination.

Here is my problem with Rick Santorum, and it’s personal.  I took vacation time in 2004 to work on Pat Toomey’s Senate campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter.  Rick Santorum, to the surprise of many conservatives, endorsed and cut ads for Specter, as did President George W. Bush.  The argument at the time from the White House was that if Specter was the Republican nominee, Bush would be able to win Pennsylvania.  The counter argument was that if Specter was the nominee, the base Republican voters in Pennsylvania would be unmotivated to turnout and vote.

As a result of Santorum endorsing Specter, Specter won the primary in 2004 by one vote per precinct over Toomey and then Bush went on to lose Pennsylvania to Kerry in the General Election.

I can’t forget Santorum supporting Specter, who not only voted counter to Bush in the following years, but eventually switched to Democrat and was the deciding vote on Obama’s health care bill.

That’s unforgivable.

As I have written before, the Quayle vs. Schweikert primary for Congressional District 6 is going to be one heck of a race.

The race has barely started, and it’s already personal – somehow even getting personal towards me when you look at one of the comments from my previous post on this issue.

Congressman Quayle sent out an email that responds to a number of emails, comments and general murmurings coming out of the Schweikert camp.

The best line of the email is this:

The 6th District does not belong to David, as his campaign communications assert, nor does it belong to me or to any office seeker. It belongs to the people who live there.

That reminded me of when Scott Brown beat Martha Coakely in the Senate seat to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.  Brown used the same language.

In fact, that is a major tenant of the tea party movement – that political offices belong to the people, not the politicians who are elected to represent them.  There is a certain unseemly arrogance when politicians claim ownership of anything, let alone the office in which they were privileged to serve.

Geez, it’s only the middle of February.