A lioness in the White House?

(Denver Post, June 26) “The best man in the cabinet.” That’s how Golda Meir was described by her colleague, David Ben-Gurion. She went on to lead Israel to victory in one of its darkest hours, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Meir once attended Denver’s North High School, and you can visit her girlhood home in Auraria. The little grandmother was revered as “the Iron Lady,” before Britons conferred the title on Margaret Thatcher. The grocer’s daughter was not one to shrink from the sound of the guns either. She vanquished Argentina in the Falklands and helped stiffen George H. W. Bush’s spine (when they were together in Aspen, as it happened) after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. I thought of the Iron Ladies, with their Colorado connections and their heroic leadership of America’s closest allies, last week after Michele Bachmann electified the first Republican presidential debate. Pundits were derisive, one scoffing that her rivalry with Sarah Palin is a "cat fight." Unfair? Yes. Surprising? No.

Palin and Bachmann know you don’t go on the playground unless you can take rough teasing, and both have survived worse. This latest round merely reminds us it’s a liberal man’s world in which conservative women are fair game for putdowns and the non-sexist PC rules apparently don’t apply.

It’s ironic, though -- because there’s evidence that each woman is no common kitty, but a lioness with mettle such as few American politicians of either sex have demonstrated in our times. While Bachmann and Palin can’t yet be compared with Thatcher or Meir, both are on a career arc that could lead there in a decade. What two other women, after all, have ever vied for a major party’s presidential nomination?

As for the evidence I’m referring to, Denver audiences wowed by the Minnesota congresswoman and the former Alaska governor could attest to their remarkable appeal. Colorado Christian University, where I work, brought in Michele Bachmann last summer and Sarah Palin this spring. Each lit up the room.

Bachmann roused a crowd of 600 at Western Conservative Summit 2010 with her fiery yet precise argument for returning Congress and the White House to Republican hands. Palin was equally impressive as she used a speech at CCU on May 2, the day after our forces killed Bin Laden, to spell out a statesmanlike doctrine for the use of U.S. military power.

After some banter about basketball and bear hunting, the alleged airhead from Wasilla (perpetually underestimated, like a certain B-movie actor who won 49 states and took down the USSR) deftly zinged Pakistan’s double-dealing and Obama’s “ill-defined” Libyan folly. Then with Reaganesque toughness she set forth five principles for the American way of war:

(1) “Commit our forces only when clear and vital American interests are at stake.”

(2) “If we have to fight, fight to win. Use overwhelming force. Defeat the enemy as quickly as possible. Nation-building is not the main purpose of our armed forces.”

(3) “Have clearly defined goals and objectives before sending in troops. If you can’t explain the mission to the American people clearly and concisely,” stay out.

(4) “American soldiers must never be put under foreign command.”

(5) “Sending our armed forces should be the last resort. We don’t go looking for dragons to slay.”

Neither of the Bushes, nor Clinton, nor Obama, ever put it so well. America’s day will come, as Britain’s and Israel’s did, to be led by a lioness. Not one but two are in view for 2012. Lady Liberty could do a lot worse than Bachmann or Palin.

Sober up, spenders!

Washington spenders are like drunks on a binge, says John Andrews in the June round of Head On TV debates. It's bad, agrees Susan Barnes-Gelt, but she contends the solution must include tax hikes as well as entitlement reform. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Hancock's win for Denver mayor, Hickenlooper's first six months, the politics of natural disasters, and the 2012 presidential outlook, and results of Colorado's legislative session. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for June: 1. RAISE THE DEBT CEILING?

John: Washington politicians with borrowed money are like alcoholics with a bottle. They can’t stop themselves. But if they don’t, there’s hell to pay. Every American should root for Boehner and the Republicans to make Obama and the Democrats sober up. Do not raise the debt limit without massive spending cuts.

Susan: Both sides of the aisle are all wet on this one. Of course we need to get a handle on entitlements just as we need to revamp the tax code. And as for the rating agencies – very same who failed to identify the 2008 financial collapse? Gimme a break!

John: Well, you’re half right. Fewer handouts, yes. More taxes, no. We can never tax our way out from under the tens of trillions in impossible promises to future recipients of government medicine and government pensions. The GOP must insist on entitlement reform in return for raising the debt ceiling.

Susan: My prediction: both sides will play cat and mouse with this issue until after the 2012 election. It's a scare tactic typical of the Beltway. Federal government has become increasingly less relevant as both sides move to the extreme. Without serious tax and entitlement reform, and major investment in technology and infrastructure our kids and and theirs are doomed.

2. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

John: “Barack Obama has failed America.” Those words of Mitt Romney sum up the reason why millions of Americans are eagerly watching the field of Republican candidates for 2012. Gov. Romney, Gov. Pawlenty, Speaker Gingrich, Congresswoman Bachmann, Senator Santorum, or businessman Herman Cain, could all do a better job than Obama.

Susan: Mitt Who? Health care Mitt? Pro-choice Mitt? Buttoned up Mitt? Shirt sleeve Mitt? Who is that handsome guy with the unruffled hair? Even in federal races, where there are too many layers between the candidates and the voters, authenticity rules. Can’t trust the messenger – the message is lost.

John: Warning, viewer discretion advised. My Democratic friend dares not mention her party’s president, the underwhelming Barack Obama, or her party’s vice president, the laughable Joe Biden. But no wonder – with unemployment rising, health care unpopular, and bankruptcy threatening, ridiculing Republicans is your only hope.

Susan: I’m proud to wave the Obama/Biden flag. This calm, and collected administration never succumbed to angry rhetoric - right or left. Elections are about differences and there's lot's at stake. Do Michelle Bachman, Mitt Romney or Newt have the judgment to move us forward? I don't think so.

3. HICK’S FIRST SESSION

Susan: Governor Hickenlooper had a pretty good first session. Thanks to a divided legislature, he didn’t have to deal with lefties or right wingers. He angered the K-12 crowd by cutting ed dollars but made up for it by vetoing cuts for kids’ health. Our a-partisan governor came out OK.

John: Does Hickenlooper get it that reckless spending is a dagger at the heart of our democracy? His tough stand on public employee pensions says yes. But the veto on cost-sharing for medical coverage says no. His overall passivity says no. The high-visibility activist mayor is gone. What gives, Susan?

Susan: Hick was a high visibility Mayor, but hardly an activist. He is a moderate whose approval numbers remain very high because of his commitment to please all the people all (well most of) the time. His style is better suited for partisan politics where straddling the middle works.

John: Straddling may boost the governor’s polls for now, but it’s no substitute for real leadership in a state with chronic budget deficits, too much union power, and too little job creation. Colorado needs a gutsy chief executive like Christie in New Jersey, or if you prefer Democrats, Cuomo in New York.

4. HORRIFIC STORMS

Susan: Unprecedented weather catastrophes - tornadoes, floods and storms hit Memphis, Raleigh, Tuscaloosa, Joplin MO, Minneapolis and most recently Springfield MA. Countless deaths, cities and towns destroyed. And the Republican House doesn’t want to pay for disaster relief?

John: In the words of President Grover Cleveland, my favorite Democrat, it is the people’s responsibility to support the government, not the government’s responsibility to support the people. Natural disasters are always with us, and federal aid is already massive. A few severe storms don’t justify a budget blowout or a carbon tax.

Susan: I get it. We pay taxes to wage war, support tax cuts for the rich, protect privilege and ignore the common interest. To bad if public infrastructure fails or natural disasters hit. Let state and local government or the individual carry the burden. There’s a recipe for a toxic tea party.

John: Folks, if you like melodramatic fantasy, go with that. But here’s the reality: FEMA, the disaster relief agency, is getting the extra money it needs with bipartisan votes of Republicans and Democrats. Those tornado and flood victims do deserve help. But Susan, the ultimate storm, fiscal collapse, is still coming.

5. HANCOCK WINS RUNOFF FOR MAYOR

John: Congratulations to Michael Hancock as he moves up from City Council to Mayor of Denver after galloping to win from behind like Secretariat. There will be no political dynasty for the Romers or the Penas, but the Webb dynasty has new life. Now for the hard work of governing.

Susan: I’ve known Michael for twenty years – truth is – the late great John –National civic league – Parr was Hancock’s real mentor. Michael builds a big platform. There’s room for everyone, and that’s the Denver way. He is a good man and has the makings of a great mayor.

John: Hancock has his work cut out. The onetime Broncos mascot takes office facing third and long, with his team behind. Denver has weak job creation, a structural budget deficit, sagging morale in its public safety agencies, and union problems in its public schools. Roll up your sleeves, Mayor Mike.

Susan: Fortunately non-partisan local government facilitates problem solving. No pointless fights over ideology. Michael will have the chance to build a strong team and make structural budget adjustments. Not to mention revamp the cop shop. Public education? A very challenging dilemma.

Save us from the voters

Memo to: Justice Anthony KennedyFrom: Coloradans for Benevolent Despotism Re: Enough with the Uppity Teabaggers

(Denver Post, May 29) Tony, can we use first names? You have your dignity to think of, U.S. Supreme Court and all that – but we have a spending racket to sustain, so here goes. Let’s drop the formalities and lay it out candidly. Barring a Wikileak, this won’t be in the papers anyway.

It was a banner week in Colorado for all of us who know what’s good for the public better than the public themselves. With the filing of Herb Fenster’s federal lawsuit to declare the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights unconstitutional, we may see the end of 20 long years of politicians having to ask citizens for permission to tax them. The galling indignity of it all! As a fellow member of the enlightened elite, Mr. Justice, you’ll sympathize.

TABOR, as the tax limit added to our state constitution by voters in 1992 is called, is alleged by wild right-wingers like House Majority Leader Amy Stephens to have protected Colorado from unchecked spending and California-style deficits. Is she delusional? TABOR’s “bad consequences for economic development and education” are notorious, as true Republicans like former Sen. Norma Anderson can attest.

But we both know money isn’t the real issue here. The issue is position and power. Who knows best? Who are today’s philosopher kings? As a judge, you see one every time you look in the mirror. We 34 plaintiffs in the Fenster suit sense in ourselves the same superiority. Why else would the common folk have elected us to state, county, and local offices, school boards, RTD? Born to rule, all of us – weren’t we, Tony?

Never mind if the district court and the appeals court laugh at our looney legal theory that Article IV, Section 4, “guarantee(ing) to every state in this union a republican form of government,” disallows the taxpayer a chance to vote on how much of his hard-earned money the government can take. Eventually it will come before the Supremes. When it does, since you’re the swing vote out of nine, please do the right thing.

Save us from the voters. Please. Deliver us, rescue us, spare us, Mr. Justice, from a miseducated (with too few teachers, overworked, underpaid), misinformed (with too little public broadcasting), stingy, stubborn, selfish, skeptical, bigoted, unwashed, unruly, SUV-driving, Fox-watching, gun-loving, greedy, grasping, holy-rolling, hard-hearted, ditto-headed citizenry who don’t understand that everything belongs to us – except what little we let them keep.

The reason our anointed guild of educators and legislators, incumbents and used-to-be’s, frank Dems and faux GOP, formed Coloradans for Benevolent Despotism is that it has gone really sour between us and the electorate. They no longer do our bidding. Arnold and Maria aren’t more estranged than we and those uppity teabaggers.

We’re not quite saying one man, one vote, one time – the way Mubarak did things – but honestly we’re sick of the sheep having so much control over their own shearing. “One man, one vote, pony up, and shut up for two years,” would suit us fine. Hence Fenster, unsupported though he is by the Founders or case law.

So we’re counting on you, Antoine old buddy. Understand? The high court can be our Seal Team Six in black robes – except we only need five to win. Yourself plus Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor (“wise Latina” is just another way of saying philosopher queen, after all) will stop all this excessive democracy. No more voting on taxes, California here we come, party on, woo hoo!

Ryan shows up Obama

Paul Ryan's bold approach to federal deficits and debt will backfire, predicts Susan Barnes-Gelt in the May round of Head On TV debates. Not hardly, replies John Andrews; President Obama left a leadership vacuum on the fiscal debacle, and this lowly congressman has filled it. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over the mayor's race in Denver, the politics of natural disasters, the 2012 presidential outlook, and results of Colorado's legislative session. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for May: 1. RYAN TAKES ON THE DEFICIT

Susan: Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan offered up a deficit plan that opened the garage door of opportunity to President Obama and Democrats in Congress. His proposal to privatize Medicare so inflamed his constituents– who voted him in by a 70% margin – that the national guard was summoned to a town meeting.

John: Nonsense on stilts. Where do I start? First, any uproar by the Wisconsin left was manufactured, not spontaneous. Second, Paul Ryan’s budgetary roadmap to keep entitlements from bankrupting the country is not only good public policy. It also exposes Obama as shallow and weak – a leader who has failed to lead.

Susan: My, my you’re cynical. Town meetings are orchestrated by the opposition? I wish the Dems were that strategic and well-organized! Sorry. Average people in both parties are horrified by cuts to programs they’ve paid into while the uber-rich and the Pentagon remain untouched.

John: The reason Americans gave Obama an electoral shellacking and fired Nancy Pelosi as speaker was that they were unhappy with the government takeover of health care and horrified at the impending fiscal disaster. Even then, the president refused to get serious about entitlements. More power to Paul Ryan for doing so.

2. RUNOFF FOR MAYOR

John: For Denver to be well governed as the capital of our state and region matters to everyone across the West. The campaign for mayor needs more energy and more honesty in the final round. The choices are Chris Romer from downtown and Michael Hancock from the neighborhoods. I like Romer.

Susan: Three surprises in the May election: A little known but very impressive young man won Hancock’s Council district – Chris Herndon beat political warhorse Chris Martinez. Debbie Ortega got a whopping 46,000 votes in the at-large race. And – less than 1600 votes separated Romer from Hancock. Hancock’s got momentum.

John: Denver is the economic engine for Colorado’s prosperity. It needs a dynamic CEO. Voters can gamble on Councilman Hancock, or they can hire an experienced businessman and dealmaker in Senator Romer. The race is neck and neck. I wish it was Republican vs. Democrat and a proper election with polling places.

Susan: Ain’t gonna happen. In two words – investment – banker. If Romer pins his strategy on his 25-years as a bond jockey, he’s –pass the marmelade – toast. People have no confidence in bankers and less in Wall Street. Hancock wins – trustworthiness, likability, authenticity and biography. Read my lips . . .

3. TORNADOES IN THE SOUTH

John: Life is fragile, community is vital, and economic growth saves lives. Those are the lessons from the Alabama and Mississippi tornadoes with their awful death toll. Nature’s random destructiveness should keep us from ever taking a single day for granted, or forgetting how much we need each other.

Susan: Yes and in the face of catastrophe, the convener of help is the federal government. The very same federal government Grover Norquist, chief manipulator of all things Republican, wants to drown in a bathtub. Political leaders in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia are undoubtedly rethinking their allegiance to Grover.

John: Such massive tragedy is not Republican or Democratic or political at all. A windstorm in Alabama or Bangladesh, an earthquake in Japan or Haiti, simply makes us weep for the victims. It also reminds us that developed countries survive these things better. Anti-growth environmentalism has a cost in lives.

Susan: The horrendous loss of lives and treasure isn't a political issue. But, the reality of response and recovery is political. It will cost hundreds of millions, perhaps billions to rebuild Tuscaloosa - not to mention the other places impacted. The federal government's row is critical. That's political.

4. 2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Susan: The 2012 Presidential race is on. Fortunately for the Democrats, the tough economy, three wars and total beltway disarray are being eclipsed by the bombastic egotism of Donald Trump. This pro-choice, democrat-supporting buffoon has quickly replaced Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as your party’s flavor of the month.

John: Obama and Trump deserve each other – two self-promoting con men, both hollow at the center. But Susan, you’re right. The president’s birthplace is the least of his problems. Barack the Great has not revived the economy, not made us safer in the world, not handled gas prices. He’s really vulnerable.

Susan: Obama’s successful targeting and killing of Osama Bin Laden is a game changer. Period. All the goofy birther nonsense, challenging his abilities as a leader, his patriotism and resolve are suddenly non-issues. And his call to George Bush before any public announcement was classy.

John: The TV speech never mentioning Bush was not classy. It was tough policies of the last administration, Guantanamo, interrogations, rendition, bitterly criticized by Obama but continued anyway, that finally took down the arch-terrorist. Nor does Bin Laden’s death lessen the Islamic threat. Defeating Obama in 2012 is still imperative.

5. COLORADO LEGISLATURE

Susan: Redistricting dominated this year’s legislative session. Despite the bi-partisan committee, neither party came off looking good. As in previous years, the courts will draw the Congressional district lines. Other than the shameful defeat of the bill giving in-state tuition to undocumented students, the session was a solid C-.

John: Thank goodness Coloradans voted for divided government. A Republican State House this year finally demanded budgetary sanity after four years of reckless tax and spend policies under Bill Ritter and the Democrats. I give the session a B. Hickenlooper even took on the teacher unions. Wisconsin, here we come.

Susan: Please John – you, former Colorado Senate President, know better. The state’s discretionary budget is tiny and voters weigh in on every tax increase. Both parties must stop kicking the can down the road and make some tough decisions. Divided government is fine. But where’s the leadership?

John: When you as a liberal say “leadership,” I as a conservative hear “bossiness.” Divided government makes it harder for politicians to butt into our lives – that’s good. And as a former senator, Susan, let me say this: Lawmaking isn’t easy. One hundred Colorado legislators of both parties deserve our thanks.

There is no political panacea

(Denver Post, April 24) “To the Colorado renaissance.” That’s the oilman’s toast to the steelmaker and the railroad mogul in the new film version of “Atlas Shrugged.” As Ayn Rand’s epic novel of capitalism finally comes to the screen, more timely now than when she wrote it in 1957, our state has a starring role. You never saw the aspens so golden, the individualism so heroic, the bureaucrats so villainous. Audiences applaud as the movie ends – with Ellis Wyatt having set his own oilfield on fire and gone off with the rebel messiah John Galt. His signboard of defiance to big government, “Take it. It’s yours,” brings railroader Dagny Taggart to her knees. Washington central planner Wesley Mouch has either killed Colorado’s ascendancy or delayed it. We’ll find out in Part II, next April 15.

The book is not great literature, and this isn't great cinema. But as an indictment of false collectivist compassion, it works. Let’s hope millions see it and wake up. My column of March 2009, entitled “When will Atlas shrug?”, foresaw stiff resistance to Obama’s redistributionist guilt trip. With the John Galt message in theaters, Americans’ defense of our liberties may stiffen more.

So far so good. Yet after emerging into the spring night and reassuring myself there was no smoke on the horizon from the torching of Wyatt Oil, I wondered how much real difference there is between the “Atlas Shrugged” movie and the sensationalistic sci-fi stuff like “X-Men” and “Priest” that we had just seen trailers for.

Fantasy is fantasy, after all: diverting at best, narcotic at worst. The energy time warp that could make Taggart’s trains dominant over trucks and planes by 2016, and the magic technology that could power Galt’s miracle motor, both of which “Atlas” asks us to believe in, only provide a stage backdrop for the superhuman intelligence, virtue, and charisma of John Galt himself.

It all requires the myth-spinner’s precondition, suspension of disbelief – and someone will have to tell me how that is helpful. The only basis for getting anywhere politically, economically, culturally, or morally, is practical realism about the limitations of the human condition and the imperfections of us all, not hero-worship and panacea dreams. Thirty disillusioning months of Barack the Great have surely taught us that.

Remember his megalomaniacal boast upon securing the Democratic nomination? “I am absolutely certain,” Obama said, that history will record “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment when we came together to remake this great nation.” Right. Even if we did need the nation remade or the planet healed – and we don’t – this president has done neither.

Messianism is messianism: foolish at best, hypnotic at worst. The grandiosity of Barack Obama and the will to power of Saul Alinsky cry for relief. The country must be rid of them, and soon. But the antidote is not John Galt and Ayn Rand. The messianic similarities are too close. One political panacea can’t cure another.

The novel’s final scene (coming on film, year after next) tells how Galt “raised his hand and traced in space the sign of the dollar,” while nearby one of his disciples rewrote the Constitution. No sign of the Cross for the atheist Rand; no great reverence for the Founders either. Her secular religion, Objectivism, would improve on both. Right.

There is no political panacea, and most Americans know it. Those now observing Easter and Passover know it best. Keeping faith, civically and spiritually, honors liberty better than any cinematic shrug. It will not be the “Atlas” sequel on Tax Day, but the president’s dismissal on election day, that heralds our 2012 renaissance.