Category Archives: Commentary and Opinion

Me giving my humble and utterly warped opinion on something political.

Two Republican Establishment Examples Before You Vote In The Florida Primary

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Gingrich is getting pounded again as the Republican establishment tries to stop him.   The attacks are coming in hard now, and while Gingrich is none to conservative himself, but he has far more of it in his background than Romney and a better track record from his time in the House.  So in case you’ve possibly opened your mind to listening, here are two reminders of exactly who the Republican establishment is and why you should think carefully before taking their word on anything.

  1. The Senate just killed the motion of disapproval for Obama’s $1.2 trillion dollar debt ceiling increase.  Some Republican staffer commented about how red-state Democrats would suffer for it, which is completely beyond all comprehension.  All any Democrat has to do to deflect blame is remind everyone that this debt ceiling agreement was bipartisan, and possibly create an ad with McCain calling all the Tea Party types who didn’t agree with the approach that just handed the Democrats a win yet again Hobbits.  None of this would have been possible without the aggressive assistance of Boehner and McConnell, which won’t be lost on much of anyone.
  2. The House is passing legislation in a shady way.  This is either because the Establishment wants to short-circuit their own conservative caucus to maintain the status quo or they’re too terrified of Obama and Reid to resist the status quo.  They broke a few more promises too, and you can read the details at RedState.

This is the Republican establishment at work.  They’re the same establishment that wants Romney.  The same people that made the House the Other Democrat in spending after Gingrich left.  The same lot that led us to 2006 and 2008.  Why would the candidate they back be any different from them?

News link credits:  RedState, The Hill

The Newt Win In South Carolina

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By now you’ve heard that Newt ran away with South Carolina in the primary.  The down side of this is that South Carolina is a proportional delegate state under the new rules.  This means that while Newt may get the largest share of delegates, he’s not taking them all.  Mitt still gets some of them, so for now the race isn’t going to be decided before it gets to other states like it was for McCain in 2008.  He had pretty much wrapped up the primaries and lost the general election around February of that year.

The biggest hit Mitt took wasn’t in delegates, but the meme of his inevitability.  Now he’s more like Mr. Inevi<CRASH>.  Since that’s pretty much all he has going for him besides the bogus electability argument (it’s what they say to promote all the non-conservative candidates nowadays), expect more shrill from his supporters.

Last, Mitt’s not the only one with something to lose.  If he doesn’t make it through the primary, it will be the first time since Reagan that the Republican establishment doesn’t get its way in a Presidential nominee.  Their reaction will likely be similar to 2010 as with Charlie Crist, Senator Murkowski, Karl Rove’s treatment of Cristine O’Donnell, and all the trouble we had with the NRSC trying to put milquetoast moderates into the race.

Still, it would be one more small victory.

News link credit:  Legal Insurrection

Scott Walker: Most Wanted Wisconsin Recall Target

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After a million signatures were submitted on petitions for a recall of Governor Walker, ‘most wanted’ is a great description.  There’s no way that happened without truckloads of union money going towards it.  How many of those signatures are valid remains to be seen, but likely one of the reasons you go for a million signatures is to drown validators in sheer volume.

The reasoning is obvious.  Walker took on the PEUs and won.  Unions are still stinging and they don’t want this to spread.  They’re intent on making examples and inflicting payback.  But there’s one other thing they desperately need to offset.

Walker’s PEU reforms produced results.  Thanks to his efforts and that of the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature, there is now a capacity to show how union reforms can improve a state in a before and after fashion.  Wisconsin exists as a practical reminder of what can be when you put your government back on sane fiscal footing, and the unions have only one response to this:  fear.

Yes, the facts can be real, but if Walker loses they’ll become irrelevant to future governors’ decisions.  Give a politician a perceived choice between ‘real facts’ and ‘keep job,’ which one do you think they’ll take?  This is why it’s important to get behind Walker now when he needs us most.

You can visit him here.  You can help him make a statement that the unions aren’t the final say.  The next state you help reform if he wins might be your own.

News link credit:  Legal Insurrection

Can’t Really Call This Voting Delay A SOPA Victory Yet

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While Darrell Issa, to his credit, is an actual opponent of the SOPA bill, this latest bit of news from him on a voting delay can’t really be called a victory yet.

According to a report at The Hill, Cantor’s promised him that the bill won’t come up for a vote until there’s a consensus on it.  The trouble is the weasel word ‘consensus.’  Cantor’s part of the same leadership group that’s happily gone around his own conservative caucus to help Democrats pass Democrat spending, so it’s hardly reassuring.  His ‘consensus’ may well be to do that again, and this is merely a tactic to turn down the heat so they can ram the bill through later.

As the Internet is the reason for far more informed voters and activists being able to communicate with each other and the masses around the party structures, my response to this news would be ‘eternal vigilance.’  If this bill gives the government power to block sites with only nebulous complaints of copyright infringements as the pretext, they’re not going to just walk away from it.  There are too many loose cannons to be silenced with it.