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“Nothing in politics happens by accident”

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This observation by Franklin D. Roosevelt comes to mind as various agencies of the federal government move in force against reported design defects in automobiles made by Toyota Motor Company. Focusing on problems of sudden acceleration, the proceedings of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a grand jury and today the House Energy and Commerce Committee have begun to exhibit something resembling a cross between swarming and piling on. Is it possible that last year’s federal intervention to "save" the Chrysler and General Motors corporations has as its follow up an attack on the chief foreign rival of these American companies? Just wondering. For years, the primary criticism of government efforts by liberals to encourage commerce has been that picking winners and losers is neither productive nor fair, these matters being best determined by competition in the marketplace. Are we now seeing that such "picking" involves not only giving political and financial advantages to favored firms but actually making attacks on unfavored ones? One is reminded of the purportedly non-xenophic President Obama's denunciation of foreign corporations in his State of the Union Address last month. I guess foreigners coming over the borders illegally is one thing but playing by the rules in the American market is something else. Kimberly Strassel wondered out loud about these possibilities last week in her weekly column at the Wall Street Journal. I think she might be on to something.

There ARE Rising Stars in the GOP!

Barack Obama and Ron Paul had something very much in common during the '08 campaign. Both won hearts and minds talking about fiscal responsibility and Bush bashing.  The key difference was Obama delivered his fencepost-up-side-the-head attacks on Bush with polished eloquence and Paul, with his tremulous, whiny voice, sounded more like someone's great-grandad sitting on the front porch ranting about issues of the day.  Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll last night, at least among the college age attendees that voted.  When FOX News announced the results, they were quick to add that many people chose not to stand in line and cast a vote, suggesting the result isn't  especially signficant, but you can bet the liberal media and pundits such as the gang on MSNBC's Morning Joe tomorrow will have a boat load of fun with it.  They'll be quick to point out that the Republican Party still does not have a shining star at the helm.

Ron Paul is a stalwart against big government spending and along with his libertarian and anti-war points of view, he does have something to offer the disgruntled, especially Tea Party activists.  The combination of Ron Paul and an unpopular mainstream Republican candidate (selected for the most part by the liberal media) won the White House for Mr. Obama.  So, we want to go that route again in 2012?

There is a growing number of conservative Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives that are getting little press or attention.  As Mr. Limbaugh says, you can always tell which Republicans the Democrats fear most because they go after them with full force of their wrath and condemnation.  Identify, isolate and destroy.  The media has thus far been pretty successful in taking Bobby Jindahl off the national radar, yet the press conference he gave in anticipation of another hurricane instead of making a speech at the '08 Republican National Convention was incredible.  He is a man with remarkable leadership and organizational  abilities with staunch conservative values, not just in theory, but also in practice. He is also a joke amongst media types.

Indiana offers two conservative Republicans with impressive track records, and either would make an excellent presidential candidate.  Mike Pence and Mitch Daniels are often overlooked, but if you YouTube Pence's speech at CPAC a couple of days ago, he looks and sounds very much like the kind of conservative we need.  Governor Daniels presides over a state of fiscal reponsibility and black ink.  Cross the state line between Illinois and Indiana and immediately you'll see a vast difference in conditions of their roads and highways.  In spite of the likes of native Hoosiers such as David Letterman, Indiana has alot to offer America right now in terms of conservative leadership.  However, the suggestion that John Cougar Mellencamp may be a viable candidate for Evan Bayh's seat reminds us that even Red states have their share of looney liberals. 

We should also be taking a look at young Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.  He stood up to Obama at the Republican House Retreat a few weeks ago.  He has put forth an impressive and extremely workable, affordable alternative to ObamaCare.  It is simply a lie for anyone to continue to say that the Republicans offer no plan to health care reform.  As always, the Democrats' definition of bipartisanship means Republicans roll over and give them whatever they want without argument. 

The newly inaugurated governors of Virginia and New Jersey are both carrying the conservative torch and if they so continue, will have long careers in Republican politics.    John Thune and others have much to offer the Republican Party platform.  We have stars, but we need to start looking up rather than backward.  

God love Glenn Beck, and thanks to him for the hard work in exposing the truth about ACORN and many of the shady characters given jobs as czars in this administration.  At the same time, Mr. Beck will do the resurgence of the conservative movement more harm than good if he continues his rant against the Republican Party.  We all painfully understand that when the majority voted Obama into office, many were voting against Bush policies and spending.  Glenn forgets sometimes that presidents don't have the power to spend, only to recommend spending.  Spending, for the most part, spun out of control starting in '07 when power was handed to Pelosi and Reid.  At some point, we need to move past the overblown spending in the Bush Administration on initiatives like education and the prescription drug entitlement.  Those were Bush's versions of the coveted bipartisanship, and we see where they got him.  We get it.   Massive spending of money not yet earned, borrowing from China and printing whatever else we need is a really bad deal for America.  But we have people that agree with us and that are willing to freeze spending here, and slash it there.  We have people ready to govern within strict conservative boundaries.

The Tea Party folks have put forth a third party candidate in Nevada to run against Harry Reid.  Ron Paul is obviously still popular among many.  History shows us time and again that when one party splits, it also fails.  We can try to run Third Party candidates without the funding, clout and backing of the Republican Party and take our chances, or we can look to some bright young stars waiting to be discovered.  There are candidates that will govern with the conservative values we want and need.  Once they are elected, we must not go back to sleep politically and expect government to take care of itself.  We need to stay engaged, continue to organize town hall meetings frequently and write and call our representatives with demands that they adhere to their campaign promises.

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TABOR suit assumes we're sheep

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(Denver Post, Feb. 21) Mobilize the militia. Fire up the Humvee. Get down the musket off the mantelpiece. Boulder is preparing to invade Colorado. Yes, a lawyer from up in the progressive paradise says that your right to vote on taxes violates his constitutional entitlement to ever-increasing teacher salaries and NEA indoctrination of our kids. The invasion is no joke, because Herbert Fenster is a legal heavyweight and his intended enforcer is a robed priesthood answerable to no one. TABOR could be in trouble. Fenster will ask the courts to strike down the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in our state constitution, whereby citizens have the last word on taxes and debt, under his theory that taxation by elected legislators, not you and me, is essential to “a republican form of government” as guaranteed to each state by the U.S. Constitution.

Some theory. Major premise: “The power to tax is the power to destroy,” as John Marshall warned Americans two centuries ago. Minor premise: Colorado’s people, explicitly sovereign under our 1876 constitution, have limited the taxing power with a 1992 amendment. Conclusion, according to Fenster: The General Assembly must be given unlimited power to destroy.

Who is to ax TABOR? Not the ordinary working Coloradans who sweat the jobs that bring the paychecks that yield the taxes that reduce the take-home that feeds the family. That would call for a ballot issue and a campaign, you see. It would require persuading too many selfish folks who don’t realize that others know what’s best for them. Fenster of Boulder would rather just persuade a few enlightened judges.

We could try to antidote this poison cocktail of elitism and illogic with facts. We could bring data to show that tax limitation over the past two decades has helped Colorado’s economy to thrive competitively, while buffering public budgets from the nightmare imbalance of states like California. We could cite studies tracing the dysfunction of public education to structural, not fiscal, causes. But that’s not the real issue.

The issue is whether we’re fit to be free – we the self-assertive and self-reliant Westerners, we the people. Herb Fenster and his liberal posse, decent Americans as best I know, don’t think so. They want the unelected judiciary to take our votes away from us because we’re uncaring toward children. What’s scary is that they may succeed, unless we raise the kind of hell that free men raise when liberty is threatened.

I don’t just mean filing legal briefs. A defense in court will be needed, and TABOR advocates will mount one. Nor do I just mean winning the debate. Montana's Robert Natelson and many other law professors could school Fenster in the constitutional acceptability of “direct citizen lawmaking” in both the Founders’ intent and case law.

But along with all that, we need the tea-party spirit. Absent an aroused and determined citizenry, neither law nor logic nor the majesty of the Supreme Court nor even the powers of Congress are now enough to safeguard limited government, so far gone is the old American republic with its “Don’t tread on me” ethos.

In the Reynolds case of 1964, the US Supreme Court imperially banned state senates from being districted as the U.S. Senate is. Constitutionally unwarranted and outrageous, but we swallowed it. Will the Fenster case tempt the Supremes to a similar tyrannical ban on tax limits? It could – and even if it does not, this should be a wakeup call for patriots.

Those seeking to simply gavel TABOR down will try something else if this fails. They are emboldened and shameless. They evidently believe Dostoevsky was right when he predicted mankind will trade “the ill-fated gift of freedom” for bread and lies. They assume that Tocqueville’s prophecy of “soft despotism” gradually making Americans a nation of sheep has come true. Has it?

Party of Yes convenes at Mt. Vernon

Some ill-informed folks describe conservatives as "the NO party," suggesting that we oppose all proposed legislation without any positive plans for addressing our nation's significant public issues and dire economic concerns. Not so, as we saw this week when conservative leaders gathered to proclaim the Mount Vernon Statement, a strong affirmation of modern Constitutional conservatism. Nor did they speak only for themselves; thousands of conservatives across the land promptly pledged their support.

In clear, bold language, the Mount Vernon Statement declares Constitutional conservatism's principles. "Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law," it begins. "They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government."

Not negative but principled, Constitutional conservatism "limits government's powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively."

On public issues, this reasoned, mindful agenda "honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life." On our nation's vital economic woes, Constitutional conservatism "encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions."

Thus we conservatives present a united and empowered team, and all Americans can contemplate for themselves, individually, the simple yet profound and compelling logic of Constitutional conservatism.

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