FRED THOMPSON ON FEDERALISM

Republicans have struggled in recent years, because they have strayed from basic principles. Federalism is one of those principles. It is something we all give lip service to and then proceed to ignore when it serves our purposes. During my eight years in the Senate, I tried to adhere to this principle. For me it was a lodestar. Not only was it what our Founding Fathers created — a federal government with limited, enumerated powers with respect for other levels of government, it also provided a basis for a proper analysis of most issues: “Is this something government should be doing? If so, at what level of government?”

You Call This Leadership!?!?

Leadership elections are underway in Democrat caucus. Here is the line-up:

Senate Democrats: Mr. Reid majority leader; Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois majority whip; Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, campaign committee chairman caucus vice chairman; Sen. Patty Murray of Washington conference secretary; Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan steering committee; Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Senate president pro tempore.

Not a conservative or moderate and only one Southern Dem (if you count W.Va.) among them: (So much for being conciliatory and bi-partisan). Durbin, Schumer and Murray are the three most rabidly partisan Dems in the Senate. Durbin compared American soldiers in Iraq to Hitler and Pol Pot. Schumer is chairman of the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee and recently his staff illegally obtained the Social Security number and credit report of Maryland Republican Senate candidate Michael Steele. Murray received more than $40,000 in contributions from out-of-state Indian tribes represented by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. What a line-up.

Senate Republicans:Sen. Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) is in line for majority leader. Trent Lott and Lamar Alexander declared their bids for minority whip. Heaven forefend. I guess if you are going to have one of these two in a leadership position, Whip is the one where you would do the least damage.

House Democrats: Nancy Pelosi is the presumptive Speaker with John Murtha and Steny Hoyer vying for majority leader. Rep. James Clyburn, (D-S.C.,) to be whip and Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, (D-Ill.,) who ran the House Democrats' campaign committee, is to be chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

House Republicans: Mike Pence of Indiana and John Shadegg of Arizona are the two conservative candidates for House Minority Leader and Whip, respectively. Jack Kingston (R.-Ga) and Dan Lungren (R-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R, TN)are making a bid for House minority conference chair. Current Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and current Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri are looking to stay on in the face of their crushing losses at the polls.

RNC: Once again, the GOP heaves Blacks over the side in favor of Hispanics as former senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will replace Ken Mehlman at the Republican National Committee. Martinez was elected to the Senate just two years ago. Martinez is expected to serve as a part-time party leader in a party that needs constant supervision. Martinez was the Senator who “inadvertently” passed a copy of the 'Terri Schiavo talking points memo' to Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. The memo from one of his staffers outlined how the Terri Schiavo case could benefit the Republican running against Sen. Bill Nelson in Nelson’s re-election bid. He also blamed one of his staffers for calling federal agents in the Elian Gonzalez affair “armed thugs”.

DNC: No word to offer on DNC changes.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Crisis=Danger and Opportunity

The old saying that the Chinese character for crisis is a combination of danger and opportunity applies here. Nowhere is this truer than at this time with this Congress. In previous mid-term elections, George W. Bush dodged the historic mid-term election losses that most presidents experience. Perhaps this was the accumulation of those historic losses that did not previously materialize.

If Republicans had to lose an election, this was the one to lose. This gives them two years to get their act together and two years for Democrat and Liberal pratfalls. The radical Left in the Democrat party will not go quietly. The national Democrats were able to push the Liberals in the closet and nail the door shut. However, with the exuberance that goes with gaining a majority, they will need to deploy more and longer nails in the door because those folk have not gone into permanent hiding.

Democrats have to lead now and with leadership come responsibility. Democrats will have to take responsibility for ALL that happens—the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE BAD: Look for a flood of investigations under the guise of “oversight”. The Liberals in the Democrat party are salivating for the opportunity to grandstand on some of their pet issues: Katrina, intelligence estimates, Halliburton, gasoline prices. Historically, they have been incapable of not being intemperate in these matters. Charles Rangle, slated to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has already said the tax cuts will not be made permanent. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, look for an end to judges who adhere to judicial restraint and originalism. Of course you will see the steady increase in the welfare state as Liberals increase the percentage of the population that is beholden to the government especially behavior modification through the tax code. More people will be made wards of the state through tax preferences and exemptions.

THE UGLY: The 2008 Presidential Campaign started two days after the mid-term elections when Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa took the initial step in his long-shot bid for the White House Thursday by establishing a presidential campaign committee and seeking an early jump on 2008. John McCain is tapping his presidential snare drum to begin the media’s marching cadence to elect him president. George W. Bush has already said he is going to resume his fight for “comprehensive immigration reform,” read: amnesty for illegal aliens.

THE GOOD: After this election debacle there might actually be new GOP leadership coming from the ranks of conservatives, signaling a return to the REAL Conservatism that was the heart of Reagan and Gingrich Revolutions. U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, R-Ind., formally announced his campaign for Republican Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Spence sent a letter to his colleagues, “we didn't just lose our majority, I believe we lost our way .... Our opponents will say that the American people rejected our Republican vision. I say the American people didn't quit on the Contract with America, we did. And in so doing, we severed the bonds of trust between our party and millions of our most ardent supporters....” Apparently he gets it. Other potentially bright spots include Mitch McConnell from Kentucky running for Senate Minority Leader. McConnell was on the front lines leading the battle against the despicable McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform”. Marsha Blackburn, appears to get it also. She is running for House Republican Conference chairman saying, “We lost because we didn’t trumpet our ideas enough and we didn’t stick to our core beliefs enough. We have the better vision for America, we just have to get back to that vision and share it with voters more effectively.”

Perhaps all is not lost. The Democrats who got elected ran as moderate, centrist and, dare I say, conservatives. No doubt they will come to like being in the majority and hopefully they will mightily strive to match their actions with their rhetoric, since the days of talking conservative at home and voting Liberal in Washington are gone.

In truth, the path back to majority status for Republicans can be found in the words of Barry Goldwater forty years ago: “I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests," I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.”

If Republicans embrace this philosophy and govern accordingly, conservatives will return and the put them back in power. If enough Republicans and Democrats wrap their arms around it, conservatives can enjoy a working majority that will restore the republic.

Why Did This Happen?

You really don’t have to look far to explain why Republicans lost their majority in Congress. Democrats did not win, Republicans lost. Since the 1995 government shut-down, the departure of New Gingrich and the election of George Bush, the House and Senate Republican leadership have been on a steady diet of accommodating the Democrat and liberal agenda under the guise of setting a new tone.

The Republicans came into power with an agenda of controlling runaway spending, fiscal responsibility and eliminating the Department of Education. Instead, government has doubled in size, discretionary spending has doubled, federal education control and spending has doubled under the guise of leaving no child behind; illegal immigration is out of control; we have a new Medicare entitlement program; they gave up on tax reform (settling for tax cuts and jiggling the current code); gave up Social Security reform, gave up on the overarching domestic them of the Ownership Society, ran from the fight on ending Democrat judicial filibusters —and that’s just on the domestic side.

On the international side/defense/national security side: The Iraqi front on the War on Terror is sliding into chaos after a brilliantly-executed shooting war because we are more concerned about political correctness than victory. They added to the withdrawal drumbeat with the Frist-Warner alternative that demanded quarterly reports on the war's progress. The Republican leadership ran from the fight when the New York Times published national security secrets; ran from the fight on the trial and treatment of terrorists and terrorist wiretapping and, with the Democrat majority, running from Iraq.

While the Administration has done a masterful job in fighting terrorist activities here at home, its communications colossal ineptness vis Iraq and terrorism has empowered war opponents to spin the effort so that it is unrecognizable. What does it say about a White House communications operation when you have people within government and out saying 9/11 was an “inside job?” and the terrorism risk is overblown? It won’t be long before the media will say the reasons for no terror attacks are not because of increased vigilance, but because there was no real threat.

The Republicans worked very hard for this defeat. They've earned every lost seat.

More to come.

it’s a great day in America

I'm still digesting the results of the mid-term election and will have more to say over the weekend, however it must be said that it’s a great day in America. Democrats received a majority because there was no voter fraud; no Diebold voting machine malfunctions, no long voter lines patrolled by ultra-rightwing Republican death squads with vicious dogs intimidating Black voters; Don Rumsfeld is no longer prowling Faluja killing American soldiers; and there is an end to the stream of bad news from Iraq. No we have not passed through the looking glass. We just had an election and because the Democrats got a majority, obviously, none of the usual Democrat excuses for Democrat loss apply.

The short version of why the GOP went down in flames is we are seeing the results of a post-Gingrich revolution period the way we witnessed a post-Reagan revolution period when the conservative reform agenda was betrayed. It is the accommodation of Democrat/Liberal agenda by putative Conservative Republicans and the accumulation of multiple privations by the GOP. The Republicans worked very hard for this defeat. They've earned every lost seat.

Perhaps purged of the feckless Mike DeWine and the spineless Lincoln Chafee, not to mention the departure of the impotent Bill Frist, something good will come of this.

Already, Mitch McConnell, defender of free speech and warrior against McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Gag, is moving to head the GOP in the Senate. And Lamar Alexander, for a while the most conservative (!?!!?!) Senator from Tennessee is making a bid for Whip.

Bush continues his betrayal of conservatives by gleefully expressing his optimism for open-border immigration reforms while choking the border fence baby in the cradle.

More to come later.

It's Ugly

As I predicted, it looks like the GOP will hold on to the Senate by the barest of margins--at least as of this posting.

Unfortunately, my hopes of holding the House were not fulfilled. It looks like Speaker Pilazy--I mean Pelosi.

Stacy Campfield, after fending off the GOP establishment and the shrill, humorless Sheree Pettigrew, will be returning to Nashville.

Unfortunately, Randall Parker and David Massengill will not be joining him, but Jimmy Matlock will.

I looked at the exit polls on the Senate race and from it emerges a profile of the typical Ford voter. She is un-married, non-white, childless, non-religious woman who never attends church and is between the ages of 18 and 29 or over 60 and lives in Memphis.

She has no college degree, makes less than $50,000, voted for Kerry and Bredesen, disapproves of how Bush is doing his job and does not want Frist for president. She comes from Memphis and decided on who to vote for within the last two weeks.

She considers terrorism, illegal immigration, government corruption/ethics to be of low importance.

The profile of a Corker voter is a married, white, conservative, church-going, evangelical Christian Republican, male between the ages of 30 and 59. He is a college graduate with children and earns over $50,000 per year and lives in suburban east Tennessee. Approves of Bush’s job performance and considers terrorism, illegal immigration, government corruption/ethics to be of high importance.

Given a choice between the two for the task of deciding who will run the country, I'd but more faith in the latter voter.

Today's Interviews

Interviews today with Sen. Lamar Alexander, fmr. Sen. John Breaux, state Sen. Jim Bryson, Congr. Lincoln Davis, and Bob Corker. Go to the link above and click on archives.

Tomorrow, listen to Southern Roots Radio's "The Voice" for an interview with Brigitte Gabriel of Amerian Congress for Truth. She is a Lebanese journalist who grew up as a Christian in the Middle East and will discusses the threat radical Islam poses for the Western world.

RE: Deval Patrick

While writing the previous post, I kept being nagged by the question of who is Deval Patrick because the name sounded familiar beyond his governor's race. A quick search reminded me that he was the Clinton administration's civil rights head in the Justice Department. (I thought he as a US atty. in a high-profile case somewhere in the back of my mind).

The amusing part about Patrick's bio can be found in Wikkipedia which says, "Patrick wrote frequent and detailed letters to prisons regarding the treatment of incarcerated criminals, to the extent that one warden called him a "zealot".[7] Among his complaints: tuna sandwiches were served too warm in a tiny jail in Dooly County, Georgia; meals at a Mitchell County, Georgia, jail were served too cold in styrofoam or plastic containers not designed to maintain proper food temperatures; only 1 operative basketball hoop at another prison; under inflated basketballs at another."

Why Does Race Matter Only in the South?

I was just reading an article in the Tennessean about the U.S. Senate race here and was somewhat taken aback by the article's tone that HFjr could lose because he is Black and that it indicative of Southern racism. A curious linkage that somehow the pundit class has not extended to the Maryland senate race (Michael Steele); the Pennsylvania governor race (Lynn Swann); the Ohio governor race (Ken Blackwell), the Massachusetts governor race (Deval Patrick).

Why do the punditry insist on charging racism if Tennesseans do not elect HFjr, but think racism does not exists if Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts, do not elect Steele or Swann or Blackwell or Patrick?

Five African-Americans are running for statewide office this year. Yet the only one were race is the preoocupation is Tennessee. Neither Maryland or Pennsylvania have elected Blacks statewide, but of course, they are Northern states and racism does not exist in the North. LOL!

A Message for My Right Wing Brethren

I remind you of the campaign slogan during the Barry Goldwater campaign. "The stakes are too high to stay at home." Cut and run is NOT an option. It is surrender.

I understand your frustration with the national GOP. On more than a few issues it has been feckless, weak, disappointing and craven. It is unfortunate that we are faced once again with the lackluster options of voting for the lesser of two evils. But lesser it is.

Let us band together once more. And one more go into the breach.

GOP performance has been unremarkable and infuriating. But it is the vehicle that we have. While I would rather ride in a powerful, fuel efficient, brilliantly bright automobile with all the options available, I have to settle for a car that meets my bare reqirements for transportation because the only other option is walking or waiting for hours on end for the bus.

While I hate to go through yet another election cycle voting for one guy because the other guy is so unreliable, it is what it is.

So cinch up your belt one more notch. Suck it up one more time. And vote Republican because you know that at the very least, they will confront national security with the cold, clear eyes that are required.

Not much of an endorsement, but there it is.

Predictions

I normally don't make predictions about elections, but for some reason I feel a certain impulse to do so about the outcome of the national races that are afoot.

The Dems will make gains in the House and Senate, but I think they will not pull off the big prize. In the Senate, they will gain enough to narrow the GOP majority, but the GOP will hold out. The same with the House.

Current trends indicate that GOP incumbents who were considered threatened are holding on and/or making some advances.

At this particular snapshot, I will say GOP holds VA, TN, MT, MO, AZ. Maryland is a possible pick-up that will offset PA or RI or OH. Minnesota was supposed to be a pick-up, but it does not look that way now. Current polling shows the Dem with a double-digit lead for the Dems to retain this seat. Santorum, Chafee and DeWine appear to be in serious trouble. Of the three, conservative stalwart, Santorum would be a great loss. Conservatives can live without the feckless Chafee and the malignant dwarf DeWine.

So, I'm saying in the Senate, Dems +3 maybe +4.

Dueling Ad Buys

New DSCC Ad

NEW CORKER SPOT

Ford, Sr. and Jr. lobbying bedfellows.

Corker Gaining Momentum?

We are at the end of early voting. The REAL election day is just five days away. Yes, I am one of thoses who likes to go out on
ELECTION DAY to vote--not one of those lazy slubs who can't be bothered to exercise their franchise on the appointed day.

You only have to look back to the wheel-tax blackmail and the County Charter debacle to understand why you should wait until election day to cast your vote. Both of these events broke within a few days of early voting or within early voting. Those people who voted early, voted without benefit of full knowledge of the shifting political landscape.

In any event, it seems Corker is starting to widen the gap between himself and HFjr. However, the Ford camp seems suspiciously up-beat. Ford was on 1180 WVLZ today, and while not his usual hyperactive performance, he did not seem demoralized.(I gave him some friendly advice one day that he should take it down a notch because he was coming across a little to shrill on the radio. I guess he took it.) I had a brief chat with a colleague at work who said he was prepared to vote for Corker (as the default position) until the "negative" ads started. Thank you RNC and NSRC. He is a sports guy and probably was not paying attention to the race until the last two or three weeks. I am amazed at how people have given Jr. a pass on some of the "negative" ads he has run.

Poor Jim Bryson is playing the role of the traditional sacrificial lamb in the governor's race. I took note of the fact that I have received about 85 emails from the Tennessee Republican Party touting Bob Corker's election, but not one pushing Bryson. Either I am not on that mailing list, or the State Party is only making token efforts to assist Bryon after dragooning him into running.

Perhaps Bryson is positioning himself to run for Congress when Marsha Blackburn goes after the Governor's Mansion.

Harold Ford misses votes

Harold Ford Junior on Terrorism

Thats the REAL Harold Ford Jr.

Fred Thompson on Bob Corker

Open Mouth Insert Loafer

John Kerry stepped in again yesterday. He slandered the brave men and women serving in the military in general and in Iraq in particular.

John Kerry is no stranger to opening his mouth and inserting his Italian tassel loafers. His history is well-known and well-documented. From his treasonous testimony during the Vietnam War to his "I voted for it before I voted against it" during his presidential campaign to his previous slander of soldiers serving in Iraq. Remember that "Face the Nation" interview where he said, ". . . there is no reason . . . that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the – of – the historical customs, religious customs,"?

The left has been conspicuously quiet in this election cycle. No doubt the Democrat party leadership has instructed liberal left leadership to keep quiet and out of sight. But you can keep these people under wraps for only so long. First Nancy Pelosi, then Charles Rangle and now John Kerry.

The effete snobs of the Democrat party are showing their true colors scant days before these crucial elections. Their face is showing and the public is recoiling from the sight.

More on HFjr

Many HFjr supporters are saying HFjr is a conservative Democrat. HFjr is travelling the state campaigning as a conservative Democrat. He says, in essence, that he has had an epiphany during his time in Congress. He admits he was more liberal in his early years in Congress, but Lincoln Davis and Jimmy Duncan "beat some sense" into him.

Fine. If that is the case, bless him for it. But, I want to see him walk a few more miles down the path of conservatism before I let him into the pulpit to preach.