Harry Reid announced that the Senate will be voting on the takeover of 18% of the economy and total control of the population on Christmas Eve. The bill is called a healthcare bill, but the bill has nothing to do with healthcare. It has everything to do with control over the public. That is why the Democrats are willing to vote it in and take the political fallout of losing their majorities in the House and Senate. They know that when the bill kicks in that their eternal majorities are assured. All they have to do is demagogue the issue and people will vote to keep the lousy healthcare they have. People do this in Europe, even though there is a better option available.

The question remains as to whether the Democrats have their 60 votes necessary to pass the bill. Currently, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has come out against the bill. His objection is about abortion. Ben Nelson is pro-life. The Democrats want this fake healthcare bill to pay for abortions. The two cannot co-exist. What will probably happen is that the abortion option will be dropped from the Senate bill and then put back in during the conference between the House and Senate. That way the bill gets the 60 votes it needs to get passed initially and only needs 51 votes for final passage.

Senator Joe Lieberman had opposed the bill until his wife was threatened with a loss of her job. Then, he caved in and has come out in support of the bill. He will deny that his wife’s job had anything to do with his change in position, but the timing is suspect. Though, Al Franken, the imposter from Minnesota, would not give Senator Lieberman one minute to finish his remarks. From reading the reports, that is highly unusual. The report could not recall a time that a request for additional time had not been granted. This kind of disrespect might just push Joe Lieberman back onto the correct side.

The Republicans have vowed to continue the fight for as long as they can. The Republicans do not have enough votes to stop anything if the Democrats all operate from the same page. The only reason they have any power right now is because the Democrats are in disarray.

The Radicals in the Democrat ranks want this bill passed regardless of what happens. The “true liberals” in the Democrat ranks are upset with the “important” parts of the bill being dropped to get votes. The public option and other parts like that were important to the true liberals. The radicals just want something passed so they can have a framework to institute the radical change they want. The radicals realize that all is needed is a foot in the door. The true liberals want the door done right. As long as that fight goes on, the opportunity to defeat this bill is there. If the two competing Democrat ideas ever get together, the bill will pass because of the huge advantage in votes for the Democrats. The other thing slowing the passage is that some Democrats like serving in the House and Senate. They know that if the bill passes they will not be back in 2011.

The Democrats are trying to set things up so that there are no controversial votes in 2010. They feel that no controversial votes will make life easier for those House and Senate members up for re-election. My hope is that the public has a long memory for a change. A long memory would enable us to get rid of a lot of the dead wood that has accumulated over the years. If the public has their usual short memory, we will be stuck with these losers for another two years and probably never recover from the disaster they would cause.

The elections yesterday showed that Democrats are in trouble everywhere. If they cannot win in one of the bluest states in the country with an incumbent, they will have trouble winning anywhere. In the big three races, two went for Republicans and one went for the Democrat. The win in Virginia for Republicans was particularly smashing as they won the top 3 spots. That is a political rarity in Virginia. In New Jersey, Jon Corzine should have won because the state is a sure victory for the Democrats every election. They have had Republican Governors from time to time, but they are rare. In the House race in New York, district 23, the Democrat narrowly won over the Conservative Party candidate. It is rare for a Democrat to hold this seat. The last one was in 1993.

What does all this mean? It means that as of November 4, 2009, people are upset with the Democrat agenda in Washington. Why do I say that? It is because of the amount of time that Barack Obama spent on the Governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey. He visited each one so many times that he is now eligible to vote in both states. (I am joking.) Both Governors’ races effectively became referendums on Barack Obama because of his extensive involvement. That both races ended up as losses for the White House does not look good for what they are doing to America. The White House will spin it as local issues causing the Democrats to lose both races. That is partially true as it is partially true in any race. But the fact remains, Obama spent a lot of time in each state campaigning for both of the losing Democrat candidates. That both lost in states he carried easily in 2008 is significant.

The House race in district 23 in New York is a horse of a different color. This district almost always has a Republican to represent it. Democrats are claiming that this is the first in 117 years. But the truth is that the last Democrat that represented the district was in 1993. What makes this different than the Governor’s races is the way the Republican Party handled the race. They held some meetings to decide on a candidate and chose one more liberal than the Democrat she was running against or those in Washington. The national Republican Party leaders lined up behind her as the Republican candidate, regardless of her positions on the issues. Sarah Palin and the more conservative Republicans said that they would not support the Republican. They would support the Conservative Party candidate. This caused a furor. Then, the financial support for the Republican candidate evaporated. She resigned from the race and endorsed the Democrat. The Conservative Party candidate was an unknown one month ago. The Democrat was well known one month ago. The Democrat was well funded throughout the campaign. The Conservative Party candidate only started to receive funding near the end of the campaign. To sum this all up, the Republicans shot themselves in the foot on this one. Had they put forward a viable candidate from the start, things would most likely have turned out differently.

These elections will have little impact on the number of Republicans or Democrats in the House or Senate. The Democrats still have enough votes to do just about anything they want to do. What these votes will do is cause those candidates in vulnerable districts or states to reconsider their positions on controversial issues. That could have major impacts on whether we are saddled with a loss of our freedom in the Obamacare package or the “Cap and Tax” plan. If the Democrat has any desire to serve one more term, he/she may decide that it is better not to support a dismantling of the best healthcare system in the world or a dismantling of the best economy in the world. Had these votes gone for the Democrats, we would have both of these bills passed and signed by Thanksgiving. Now we may not even get any discussion on these bills until after the New Year. That puts them in an election year where the issues will be even more volatile.

The Democrats are now in a box. Do they go on and pass the rest of their agenda right now or do they go slower on their agenda? To move quickly means they might get the bills passed, but at the cost of losing the House and Senate in 2010. If they go slow, they might not get the rest of their agenda passed at all. The answer to that question is how much of a dedicated Democrat are you? If you are a fanatic, you will push for everything now and worry about tomorrow when it comes. If you are more pragmatic, you will go slow and might be around to fight again, but without your agenda passed? The fight will begin today for the heart and soul of the Democrat Party. Who will win? Will it be the fanatics or the pragmatists? We shall know all in the next six months. Fasten your seatbelts folks; it is going to be a bumpy ride ahead.

On the way to work today, there was some disturbing news. Nobody else seemed disturbed by the news that the gang of 6 seems to be reaching some kind of agreement on a health care bill. That is exactly the wrong thing that should happen. The healthcare bill should go down in flames and then you start over with realistic ideas. You don’t try to pull Obama’s bacon out of the fire at the last minute. Obama needs a healthcare bill to sign into law. Any bill that gives the government authority over healthcare is a win for him. Since Max Baucus (D-MT) is happy about the bill, you can bet that the government will have lots of authority over healthcare. It would be a fantastic win after the long series of defeats in July, August and September.

The tendency of Republicans in the Senate is to roll over and play dead when negotiating with Democrats. The Democrats always get what they want and the Republicans never get anything more substantial than it will be considered at some future time, to be determined. Democrats get concrete things they can count on today. Republicans never get anything more than promises. With the reaction of Max Baucus, that would seem to be happening again.

Didn’t the Republicans see all the people that showed up in Washington over the weekend? Maybe they thought it was just a coincidence that they all showed up at the same time to protest about something. They obviously could not be serious or the Democrats would be calling them racists or something like that.

Barack Obama is in a “Take No Prisoners” mood. His talk last week to Congress was full of “My way or the highway” talk. For someone who is being actively opposed by large numbers of people, that is not the way to talk. If he persists in talking that way and forcing his minions in the House and Senate to vote that way, 2010 will be a bloodbath for the Democrats that they will not soon forget. The upshot of that is that it might make Obama into a halfway decent President. That’s what happened to Bill Clinton in 1994. After his Democrats got their clock cleaned, he learned and adapted and became an almost decent President, scandals aside. The same could happen with Obama, except I do not think he has it in him. I do not think that he is one who learns from mistakes. He has always had things handed to him, so he would expect that to continue.

Since the Obamacare bill will not take effect until 2013, nobody will be impacted by Obamacare until then. That would give people time to forget about all the promises that were made to get the bill passed. People will forget about Obamacare until it bites them in the behind. Then it will be too late to do anything about it. That is why action now is so important.

The Saul Alinsky playbook has the advice to overwhelm the system. That means to put more balls into play than can possibly be hit. That will mean that some will get through and your agenda will get passed. We see that principle being used by the Obama administration when it comes to bills that are designed to destroy America as it has always been known.

Right now, Obama is trying to throw things at us faster than we can discuss and decide about them. His problem is the US Senate. It was never designed to handle a large workload of major bills. Every time they get a major bill, it takes a month or three to get it decided upon. That has thwarted the agenda of the Obama administration. They wanted all their bills decided without reading or discussing. That is not what they got in the Senate. They are being discussed. I am not sure if they are being read by Democrats. But Republicans are reading the bills and they do not like what they see. This health bill was supposed to be decided and voted on so the President could sign it by July 4. We are almost two months past that date and rumors have this bill occupying the Senate’s time for another 4-5 months. This is especially true after the death of Ted Kennedy.

What the Republicans in the Senate should do is filibuster all the budget busting bills in the Senate. That would delay things at least 5 months. It would also push these budget busting bills into the election cycle of 2010. That would make the Democrats from conservative states very nervous. In a non-election year, Democrats can get by with voting for stupid things. The public will usually forget about those votes by the time it comes to vote again. Pushing votes on Healthcare, Cap and Tax and all those other bills into an election year suddenly makes them election fodder. Voters may forget votes taken one year ago. They are unlikely to forget votes taken just 2-3 months ago. It would be an interesting way to see how committed these Democrats are to communism.

Many Democrats are vulnerable in 2010. The most prominent Democrat that is vulnerable is the Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. He is being challenged by Danny Tarkanian. The polls show that Harry Reid trails Danny Tarkanian by 11 points at this time. For a powerful incumbent like Harry Reid, this cannot be good news. He should be ahead by 25-30 points at a minimum. To be trailing to a relative unknown is not good news for Democrats. There have to be other Democrats that are also as vulnerable as Harry Reid. It may be possible to retake the majority in the Senate after this election, if the trends hold. Similar results have to be showing in the polls for the House as well.

Democrats are on the ropes right now. We need to press the advantage and keep them down. We cannot give them any chance for a face-saving play. That would destroy the momentum that has built up from the Tea Parties to the Townhall Protests. There is a lot of energy and anger at the excesses of the Democrats. We need to keep the public focused on the socialist agenda that is being pushed by the White House and the Democrat leaders in the House and Senate. If we do that we can retake Congress from the clutches of the Democrats. That would thwart the agenda of the Obama administration. Anything that thwarts the agenda of Barack Obama is good for America.

Edward M. Kennedy died last night. His death ended one of the more controversial Senate careers in memory. He is being lionized by the left and acknowledged as a Senate leader by the right. After his brother Robert Kennedy was killed in 1968, the mantle of the Kennedy’s fell upon him. At that time, it was thought that Ted would someday become President of the United States. That was not to be after he ran a car off of a bridge and a woman drowned. He ended up taking the Democrats where nobody ever thought the Democrats would ever go under the leadership of a Kennedy. Both John and Robert were strong supporters of the military. Ted became very anti-military.

Mary Jo Kopechne died in the car that Ted ran off the bridge. Ted managed to escape from the car. Mary Jo did not escape and died. After escaping from the car, Ted walked up and down in the area near the accident before deciding what to do. This action has always puzzled me. I would have thought that a great swimmer like all the Kennedy’s would try and help Mary Jo escape from the car as well. Ted never made any attempt to rescue Mary Jo Kopechne. After he decided what to do, he walked into the nearest town and called his attorney. Again, this is puzzling to me. I would think that calling the police or rescue teams would be high on the list of things to do. Ted called his attorney first. I don’t remember much about the rest of the experience, except that the Massachusetts town decided not to prosecute Ted for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

Senators that worked with Ted Kennedy say that if Ted gave you his word that he would do something, he would do it. That is always prized when working with people. That is one reason that Ted was so universally well liked in the Senate during his time there. He was even well liked by those that were politically opposed to everything he was trying to do. Ted could demonize you from the floor of the Senate one minute and be your friend in the hallway the next. The demonization was for the TV cameras and the actions in the hallway were the true Ted Kennedy.

Through the years, Ted Kennedy became more and more radical and out of touch with reality. His push for universal health care for America is one such item. Universal health care would be un-Constitutional on its face. There is nothing in the Constitution that says that health care is any responsibility of the US government. But, that made no difference to the “Lion of the Senate”. He just ignored the Constitution and proposed universal healthcare anyway. As the years went on, the Constitution lost all meaning for this supposed “Lion of the Senate”. If he was truly a “Lion of the Senate”, he should have had the interests of the Constitution high up his priority list. Unfortunately for the United States, he disregarded the Constitution for years.

An example of Ted trying to have everything his way is on his replacement. When Mitt Romney (Republican) was Governor of Massachusetts, Ted pushed through a law that required an election 5 months after the death of a Senator or Congressman. That way a Republican could not pick a replacement for a Democrat Senator. Then, when Deval Patrick (Democrat) was elected, Ted started pushing for a change in the law to allow the Governor to appoint a replacement Senator. That is playing politics, pure and simple. Unfortunately for Ted, he died before the Massachusetts State Legislature could act on his request. That means an election will be held in 5 months to elect his replacement. It also means that with 59 votes, the Democrats cannot break filibusters any more. Democrats will be frantic to replace Ted ASAP.

The amount of disinformation coming from the White House, Democrats in general and the President in particular is astounding. They know that we have “hot buttons” that if pressed would immediately destroy the subprime healthcare bill. (The term subprime healthcare bill is borrowed from Hugh Hewitt) So, in the interest of saving their bill, they tell us what we want to hear, regardless of what is really in the bill. Some people might call that making mistakes. But, the consistency with which it happens makes me think that the intent is to tell something that is not true. By definition, telling something that is not true is a lie.

Let’s look at a few examples of what I am talking about. First would be the insistence by the President that if we like our insurance carriers we can keep it and if we like our doctors we can keep our doctors. Anyone with half a brain knows that cannot possibly be true. Since over 80% of people are happy with their current insurance coverage there would be no possible space for a “public option”. The estimates are that the “public option” will cover over half of the country initially. The two ideas are not compatible. Either we keep our existing coverage or we will be forced into the “public option”. Since the obvious goal is to get everyone in the public option, the truth has to be that the public option would cover most Americans initially and all Americans eventually.

The second part of the President’s statement is that we would be able to keep our current doctors. Listening to talk radio and doing research on the internet, I understand that doctors that are currently near retirement age would retire if this subprime healthcare bill gets passed. That would lower the number of doctors available to see patients immediately. Since this number would greatly exceed the number of doctors that would enter the workforce in that first year, the total number of doctors available would go down. Also, many doctors have said that under no circumstances would they take payment from any “public option” patients. That means if you are forced to the public option you would most likely lose your doctor at the same time. Democrats have to know this as they are much more connected to this information than I am. They also have large numbers of employees that can check the information as it becomes available.

The next one I want to look at is funding for abortions. Since over half of the country does not believe in public funding for abortions, the Democrats have been telling everyone that there are no provisions in the bill to pay for abortions. The wording in the bill is a big ambiguous, but bills that attempt to clarify the language by making it policy that there is no public money spent on abortions is immediately rejected by the Democrats in Congress. If there was no language in the bill to fund abortions, there should be no objection to clarifying the language. Since they obviously did not want the language clarified, it can be assumed that the Democrats want the language to be interpreted to mean that there CAN be public money spent on abortions.

The other thing that really amuses me is whenever Barack Obama brings up an example of a government program that works well, it never does. Even the “Cash for Clunkers” program that simply gave money to people to buy cars could not be done right. If the Congress cannot get a simple program like giving away money correct, what are the chances they can get a complicated program like the subprime healthcare bill correct?

Democrats are not telling the American people the truth. There is no reason for them not to know what is contained in the bill, as they wrote it. Republicans might get things wrong every now and then because they did not write the bill. But Democrats should have a record of getting their facts correct almost all of the time. Since their record of getting the facts on the subprime healthcare bill is near zero, there has to be a reason for the discrepancy. Either they truly do not know what is in the bill or they are lying. Since there is no excuse for them not to know what is in the bill, the only conclusion is that the Democrats are lying about what is in the bill. They have to be lying for a reason. The only reason I can think of is so that they can get some Republican support for this subprime healthcare bill. That would give them some cover when the bill goes belly up within a few months of implementation.

Plus, I still do not know why the emergency when the bill will not be implemented until 2013. If it will take that long to get it implemented, we can take a year or two to get it right. The only reason for speed is to pull a fast one over on the American people.

Today, the accomplished world traveler, Barack Obama, is visiting Phoenix to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention. He is expected to try and mend fences with the military and maybe speak about his government healthcare takeover.

Yesterday, Barack Obama visited the Grand Canyon. I have no objections to him visiting the Grand Canyon. I also understand that when a President visits somewhere, there are understandable restrictions on the people that are in the area. What made the event memorable is that Obama tried to play himself off as some sort of a westerner. He looked and acted so out of place that when he put on the act, it was truly laughable. Those in the east might not pick up on it because they do not live out here, but we in the west know what a true westerner acts like.

One bit of good news is that Senator Kent Conrad (ND) announced that the “public option” will be dropped from consideration from any healthcare reform bills. That is good news on the surface. They can still achieve their goal by government regulation, but the easy way through insurance is not on the table right now. The fight is not over as any revision that allows the government to stick its nose in the business of health care is not good for the country. I hope that most people are not disarmed by this “sop” to the masses. It is a victory and it should be savored, but it is not final victory. It is like winning a battle in a war, it is good, but not the final objective. Right now, the Democrats are on the run. If we keep the pressure on, we can achieve a lasting victory. If we take the pressure off, we will lose everything we ever won.

What we need to do now, is get government out of the business of regulating health insurance. Licensing companies and agents who sell insurance is still a good thing. You want to make sure that the insurance you get is legal. But, that is where government regulation should end. We need to be able to buy our insurance anywhere we want. If I find a policy in Vermont that is cheaper and gives me what I want, I should be able to buy it. Right now, that would be illegal.

I should also be able to pick and choose what is included in my policy. That way I am paying for what I might potentially use. My wife and I are over childbearing age. We have no need for maternity services. Why should I pay a fee each month to pay for maternity services that I will never use? Why can’t I drop maternity services and save a small amount each month? The same can be said for many of the other required things in health insurance. Some things I want included are not included. Some things I want excluded are included. I should be able to pick the things I want included and then pay what I want to pay. If I want cheaper insurance, I could choose to have fewer things covered or lower amounts. The choice would be between me and the insurance company. The government would not be involved. This would not cost the government any money. In fact, it would save the government a lot of money because the cost of health insurance for government employees would go down. The Democrats would never go for this option because it gives them less power, not more power. Democrats are into power. Anything that gives them more power, they support. Anything that takes power away from government they are against.

That is just one simple idea that would save at least millions of dollars each year. It would most likely save billions. There are other ideas that are simple to adopt that would save people billions. As the costs go down, more people would have health insurance. But, only the people that want health insurance would have health insurance. If you do not want health insurance, you should not be forced to buy health insurance. People should not be forced to do something that they do not want to do, just because the government says they should do it. We should support freedom for Americans. More freedom means a stronger America. It also means some people will not choose to do things the way that we want them to do them. That is just fine as long as they are not harming anyone by making those choices. We own ourselves and as long as we are making choices that affect just us, the government should stay out.

At least that is one man’s opinion, as long as there is still freedom to say what you believe. That time is rapidly closing, but it was fun while it lasted.

On the way to work today, I listened to Mike Broomhead on KFYI. Just as I got to work, he was reporting on some tracking polls about Barack Obama. Those polls tell an interesting story on what is happening to Obama’s presidency. It also underscores why he is so intent on getting his government healthcare proposal through Congress right now.

The polls show that 37% of the voters in the country do not like Obama at all. They are listed as strongly disapproving of the President. There are 29% that strongly approve of the President. When you look at where those numbers come from, the results are very scary for the Democrats. As expected, Republicans have 77% that strongly disapprove. Democrats have a similar number that strongly approve. The independent voters, the ones that generally make or break Presidential campaigns, have 65% that strongly disapprove. What makes this so frightening for Democrats is that this independent group has a strongly disapproval number that is growing rapidly as the government healthcare bill is being discussed.

The top leadership in the Democrat party is all on board with Barack Obama and is pushing for government healthcare. The Democrats, that are not highly committed far left members of the party, are starting to have second thoughts about the matter. They see their chance of re-election going out the window and they do not like that at all. The top leadership is ignoring all that and is directing full steam ahead for government healthcare.

Republicans have an opportunity to regain the leadership in the House and Senate in 2010. They have to get their act together and put forward a coherent package of proposals that are not “Democrat Lite”. Republicans have a tendency to think that people want “Democrat Lite” instead of conservative ideas. This is rooted in the fact that many of the old stalwarts in the party hail from the northeast. Northeast Republicans tend to be liberals in disguise, like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. What the country really wants this time is a return to conservative principles like those of Ronald Reagan. That does not mean Ronald Reagan’s ideas and proposals. It means conservative principles used to solve problems in our day.

There are a number of people and groups that have conservative principles solving problems in our day. The problem is that these are not coordinated. All of the ideas cannot be adopted because some of them would clash and not work together. The party needs to get together and adopt many of these ideas that can work and can be implemented easily. Getting the House and Senate leaders together for a few days could get a framework for this to occur. Then, all Republicans could run on solutions to problems caused by the overspending by the Democrats in this Congress. The result would be Republicans elected at almost all levels and in districts that would not always elect Republicans. Even long term Democrat Senators could easily be defeated if the right platform was put together. Then, you have to find the best candidate to run to defeat the Democrat. This 2010 election will be an opportunity of a lifetime. The Republicans should not let it go to waste.

Barack Obama will be a one-term President. The more people find out about him, the less they like. That will cause a congressional change in 2010 and further changes in 2012. Since Obama has the reins of power in the Democrat party, he will be the nominee in 2012. It gives the Republicans a chance to have in 2012 what the Democrats have in 2009. Let’s hope that they do not blow it like the Democrats are doing right now.

Articles are starting to appear in the main stream media about the incompetence of the Obama administration. Those articles usually follow a script. They first say they voted for Obama in the last election and that they still support him. Then, they start ripping into the people that surround Barack Obama and how incompetent they are. They will also rip into Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid at this point. What the writers of these articles fail to realize or they realize but fail to articulate, is that the President appoints those around him. If the people surrounding the President are incompetent boobs, then that reflects badly on the person that appointed them. It is not all the fault of the person that they are incompetent. The person doing the appointing should have done their homework and discovered that the person was an incompetent. That the person doing the appointing did not do their homework reflects badly on the person doing the appointing. It also tells us a lot about the person doing the appointing. If they make mistakes at this level, how are they going to be when it comes to appointing people for important positions like Supreme Court Justice?

Those of us who did not vote for Barack Obama were warning of many of these problems before the election. Not in any of our wildest imaginations did we guess that he would have been as bad as he has been. We all assumed that he had a level of competence because his campaign went off almost without any flaws. The fact that he is a total incompetent boob at virtually everything to do with the Presidency is a surprise to everyone. Many of his faults were telegraphed and identified, but not all by any stretch.

What do we do about it now? The election is over and another is not scheduled for another 16 months. We have to hope that the gridlock among Democrats continues. The way things are the Democrats do not need Republicans for anything, not even a quorum. That means that they can push any idea through Congress that they desire. Since assuming total power, there has been a decided lack of progress. This is great as far as the country is concerned. If you are a Democrat, this has to highlight a problem. As Will Rogers used to say, “I don’t belong to any organized political party, I’m a Democrat”. That statement seems to ring true, even today.

The public is currently riled up over the health care bill being considered by Congress. Democrats do not understand the opposition. In their mind, everyone believes like they do. The Democrats live and die by the poll. They know that public sentiment is running against the health care proposal right now. They also know that the longer that the proposal is out in public view, the more opposition there is against the bill. They do get the message that if they vote for the bill that they will be looking for work in November 2010. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pushing hard to pass the bill. They will undoubtedly attempt to buy off as many Democrats as they need to buy to get the bill passed. It remains to be seen if they can pull off passing a bill when the public is rising up in opposition. That would be a neat trick, but political suicide.

Harry Reid may not be re-elected to the Senate from Nevada. He is getting pushed hard from the Republicans in Nevada. The race is currently a toss-up. As an incumbent, the race has no business being a toss-up. Harry Reid should be way out in front, but he is not. That means he could actually lose this race.

Nancy Pelosi is from a “safe” House seat in California. It is highly unlikely that she would be defeated, even if she were to destroy the American way of life in the process. That is a shame, as it would be wonderful to be rid of Nancy Pelosi. Having her lose her House seat would be poetic justice.

Here in Arizona, the Congressional delegation will be all Republicans after the 2010 election, except for Pastore. He is from a safe seat in south Phoenix. That would restore Arizona to its natural Republican roots. At least, that is how I see the election turning out in August 2009 more than a year away. If a week in politics is an eternity, what is 16 months?

Since Governor Sanford reappeared, the talk shows have had almost non-stop talk about the situation. The facts are rather simple. The Governor was attracted to a woman, not his wife. This went on for a while in relative privacy. Then, he decided to visit her in Argentina. When he made the visit, he did not confide in anyone on where he was going. That is why the false story about the hiking trip was given out. After learning that he was discovered, Governor Sanford admitted to the affair and resigned from the leadership post with the Republican Governor’s Association.

The story is a familiar one. A man in a powerful position finds himself attracted to women. Even though he is married, he decides that nobody will find out about an affair with “this woman”. So, the powerful man breaks his marriage vows and has the affair with the exciting woman that he has found. Of course, he is found out. Some, at this point, try to lie their way out like Bill Clinton. Others, like Mark Sanford, own up to the error and admit the affair. The one thing that almost all of them do not do is give up the power that they currently hold. It is extremely rare for a person in power to give that up over an affair with a woman. They may give up leadership positions, but not the position of power that they currently hold. If the person is a Democrat, things are forgotten and go back to normal. If the person is a Republican, he is hounded all the way through the election to guarantee that he loses and a Democrat can pick up the seat.  This situation is following in the typical pattern. It is still early, so we do not know how it will finally play out.

Mark Sanford was talked about as Presidential material. That talk is now over. This affair will ruin his career potential. He has reached the maximum level that he will ever reach in politics. He could have gone much higher. He was saying and doing all the right things to enable him to be nominated for President or Vice-President.

Mike Gallagher asked a question on his radio program this morning that was intriguing. The question is whether we can have living heroes. Mike Gallagher had put Mark Sanford in the hero category because of his track record on the issues. Now that Mark Sanford has shown that he has feet of sand, he has proven that he is not a hero. Many of us do the same thing with other politicians or public figures. The problem is that all of these “heroes” are human. Humans, by definition, make mistakes. If we accept the fact that humans make mistakes, then we also should accept that our “heroes” will make mistakes. We just have to hope that the mistakes we are talking about are a little smaller than this one by Mark Sanford. For example: I put John Wayne in the hero category. I know that he smoked, but he still qualifies as a hero because of a great many other qualities. The same would work for almost all people that would qualify as heroes. The only unblemished heroes would be fictional or Jesus Christ. All others are fallible human beings.

The Democrats will make hay out of this admission by Mark Sanford and the other recent one by John Ensign. They will claim that Republicans are hypocrites. We preach about family values, then go off and have affairs. These affairs actually prove the message, not disprove the message. The fact that they are unusual proves that Republicans are generally supportive of family values proves the point. That a few fall off the wagon is not a rejection of family values, it is just an acknowledgement that humans are not perfect. On the other hand, nobody bats an eyelash when a Democrat is unfaithful. That is because Democrats do not uphold family values and so are not expected to live them. I would rather live family values and have some fall off the wagon than not live family values at all. Of course, that is the Christian in me talking.

Cap and Trade, what does that mean to you? To Democrats in Congress, who do not want you to know what it really is, it is a bill to make energy producing companies pay their share to clean up the environment. But, since everyone knows that companies do not pay taxes, people do, the costs the companies get will be passed on to us in the form of higher energy costs.

How much will our energy go up? The estimated amount here in Phoenix for our electric to go up is just under $4000 per year. Gasoline costs are estimated to go up 74%. Those amounts are going to destroy the economy for sure. We are already in trouble from the banking and housing failures last fall. We have not even begun to get out of that hole. The Democrats in Congress must believe that adding thousands of dollars in new taxes for every American family is the way out of the recession/depression we are in? That is crazy talk. We need fewer tax dollars removed from our wallets, not more, to get us out of this problem.

Democrats never have been very good at understanding what gets us into or out of a recession. They believe that higher taxes got us out of the last recession. They are deluded in that thinking. They believe that higher spending is the way to get out of a recession. Higher spending usually puts us into a depression from a recession. That is why we are seeing this current recession last so long. We should be on our way out of the recession and have no signs that we have even hit bottom yet.

The Cap and Trade bill that the House of Representatives is supposed to pass out of committee within the next week is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately for you and me, the Republicans in the House have almost no power at all. They could not stop the bill unless a lot of Democrats had second thoughts and voted with them. With the power structure the Democrats have, that is extremely unlikely. There is a better chance in the Senate, but even there the chances are slim. There are those northeast Republicans that tend to vote Democrat on these types of issues. That means a massive tax increase is in store by the end of the year. It also means that any chance the Democrats have of holding onto the House of Representatives and the Senate are also gone by the end of the year.

The public will scream loudly when faced with the high energy costs. The blame will fall squarely on the backs of the Democrats in Congress who passed the bill. Any person running against those Democrats would be wise to focus the public’s attention on the fact that their Congressman/woman voted a massive tax increase when we are in a recession. I am not just talking your usual massive 10% tax increase. I am talking about a tax increase that would be in the nature of 40-50%. That will get people’s attention real quick. Any Democrat who votes for the bill will be guaranteeing that they will not be back to Congress after the 2010 elections. Unless there are more stupid Democrat voters than I think there are.

Even though the bill would destroy the economy of the country, the Republicans should just put up a token resistance to the bill. They should talk against it. They should work to have it defeated. They should not filibuster the bill in the Senate. The reason is that letting the bill pass will destroy the Democrats chances at winning in the 2010 elections. The bill would do a lot of damage in the mean time. The bill would pass anyway. The Democrats have the votes to push it through. This is one to let go. You have to fight the fights that you can win. I can’t see pulling enough Democrats into the light to make any difference. You might get a few in the House who are in competitive districts, but none in the Senate. If the Republicans put up a fight in the House, they would not even get the few from the competitive districts.

This bill will destroy what is left of our economy. All that could be done from then on would be to pick up the pieces. The Democrats would probably put in some provisions that people below a certain level of income could apply for relief from these taxes. That would just frost the people not receiving the subsidies even more. There is no good thing that can come out of this for Democrats.

The first shot against the tax and spend Democrats was heard yesterday in, of all places, California. California has been a lost cause for sense when it comes to politics, finally got one right. They rejected a slate of ballot measures that would have endorsed the tax and spend ways of their legislature and the Congress. Instead, they rejected all the measures that would have raised taxes or kept tax rates at high levels. The only measure approved was the one that prevents legislators from raising their salaries during years when there is a deficit. This is a big loss for Democrats.

Even though Barack Obama was not on the ballot in California and did not campaign for or against the measures, he is the biggest loser in this election. This election is a rejection of the out of control spending that Barack Obama has done since being elected. I know that this is just rejecting those measures on a state level, but you can project it to a national level very easily. People do not like to run up huge deficits with no way to pay them back. People also do not like high taxes. With huge deficits, eventually everyone, including the poor, will pay higher taxes.

If Democrats are smart, and I don’t think that they are, they will take the message from California. They will start being fiscally responsible in Washington and take that weapon away from the Republicans. Since I don’t think they will learn from this, they will continue as if nothing has happened. This will play very well into Republican hands. They will shout from the rooftops that Democrats are spending us into poverty and we need to get our fiscal house in order. Democrats will cry back that Republicans ran up deficits, too. Republicans will answer:” yes, but the deficits were about 1/10^th the size of what you are running up “. Results at the polls should be disastrous for the Democrats.

Barack Obama is still running around acting like nothing has happened. He is in the process of taking over General Motors. General Motors filed bankruptcy papers yesterday and their goal is to make a quick sale to the government. The government has no authority to buy a private business. That will not stop Barack Obama and the Democrats from doing just that. Barack Obama wants us to be a socialist country and he will get us there any way he can.

Speaking of General Motors, Barack Obama also announced new standards for emissions on the vehicles produced by auto manufacturers. Obama is trying to do two things with the standards. He is trying to solve a hoax and clean up the air. In his efforts to clean up the air, I applaud him and that part of the standards would be ok. The part of the standards where he is trying to reduce carbon emissions is the part where he is trying to solve a hoax. Since a hoax is not true, solving a hoax is not possible. Since it is not possible to solve a hoax, any emission standard proposed by the government will not solve global warming.

The result of these new emission standards is that the auto makers will have to make smaller, lighter cars. The problem with smaller lighter cars is that I do not fit in them. I wear small cars. I do not sit in small cars. The reason I drive the car I do is because I fit comfortably in the driver’s seat. I drive the smallest car that I can. It is a mid-size SUV. All smaller cars have no room for my feet or knees or head. Other than that, they are just fine.

Back to my general premise, the election in 2010 is an opportunity for the Republicans if they learn. If they learn the lesson from California, they will win and win big. If they try and be Obama-lite, they will lose big. They have to give voters the chance to say that we do not want socialism. We want fiscal responsibility. That being said, Republicans need to get Democrats on record supporting the overspending of Barack Obama. They also need to get the Democrats on record supporting the socialism of Barack Obama. They also need to hope that Nancy Pelosi hangs on for the 2010 election season. If all that happens, the Republicans will have solid majorities in both the House and Senate.

We have to stop Barack Obama from transforming this country into something it was never intended to be. Right now, Republicans need to stall for time as much as possible. The more things they can delay into 2010 and beyond, the better. That means less of a chance they will happen. This is especially true of the disaster of Obamacare. Republicans could be in the verge of a dramatic transformation of the House and Senate. Given their track record on fumbling away opportunities, I am not getting my hopes up too much. But, Democrats also have a history of fumbling away their chances to really transform things. They are fumbling their chance right now. Which side will fumble the most between now and November 2010 remains to be seen.

The Republican Party is in shambles right now. There are people on the right that say, throw out all the moderates and stick to core conservative principles. There are moderates that say, throw out the core conservative principles and move more to the left. Which will be the final winner? Only time will tell for sure. My gut instincts are to stick to conservative principles, because when they are spoken with conviction they always win.

Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush are on a “Listening Tour” around the country. Is there anyone in the entire world that believes that a listening tour is anything but a campaign photo op? On their listening tour, Jeb Bush made the comments that we should give up the values of Ronald Reagan and move more to the center. He said that because he believes that would bring in a larger tent for Republicans.

Mitt Romney put his foot in his mouth on this “tour”. He was shown a list of important Republicans. On the list was Governor Palin of Alaska. Mr. Romney said that she did not belong on the list of important Republicans. Thereby breaking Ronald Reagan’s 11^th commandment, thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. That was a particularly dumb move on his part. She is an important player in the Republican game at this point in time. She may ultimately fall out and be what Mr. Romney says she is, but we do not know that at this time. She may also be important enough to be on the ticket in 2012 in either spot. I should say at this point that I contributed to Mitt Romney’s campaign for President in 2008. I believed he was the best person to be President in 2008 and still do.

But, just because I support a person does not mean that I cannot see their flaws. In 2008, Mitt had a problem of being too stiff. He had a hard time taking off his tie and connecting with the people. He had a hard time just being himself in public. That got better right at the end, but it was too late. Right now, he is quite comfortable in the public eye. Had he been this comfortable in 208, he would have been the nominee. I also see the mistake in criticizing Governor Palin. She is obviously working on polishing up her resume to be ready for a run at the Presidency in 2012. This comment will come back to haunt him in the 2012 race, especially if it comes down to the two of them.

The biggest question the Republicans have to answer is who shall lead the party? The person that leads the party will be the face of the party. That person’s values will also become the values associated with the Republican Party. It is critical that Republicans pick a good leader with good values. We cannot have a repeat of Independents and Democrats voting for our leader. That led to John McCain and disaster. I am not saying John McCain is a bad person. I am just saying he was the wrong candidate at that time. Against the nimbler Obama, McCain stood no chance. McCain stood on some principles that made no sense. He voluntarily tied his hands and would not return fire when it counted.

My choice in a leader should have a clear vision of what a conservative should be. That leader should articulate the conservative position in such a way that people get excited about being a conservative. The leader should not be defensive about being a conservative. My leader should believe in and support liberty for Americans and others. My leader should talk about releasing the power of private ownership of businesses. In other words, my leader should be everything Barack Obama is not.

I think we have a good selection of people to pick from. In my mind, the most polished and ready candidate is Mitt Romney. I am biased as I supported him in the past. We have a couple of potential stars in Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. They needed some seasoning in 2008. Sarah was a better speaker than Bobby. Bobby probably has a better resume. The others on the list like, Jeb Bush, Governor Huntsman of Utah and Mike Huckabee have more serious flaws. There will not be a “perfect” candidate. No candidate will completely emulate Ronald Reagan, but they do not have to. The one that best matches their potential will be the ultimate winner. We can win the White House in 2012. All we have to do is select our “Best” candidate, not a perfect candidate.

The Congressional Budget Office announced that the Obama administration’s deficit for fiscal years 2010-2019 will be $9 trillion. That is $4.3 trillion more than the Obama administration estimated their budget deficit to be. The Congressional Budget Office is supposed to be non-partisan, and it is for the most part. As a result, it gets budget deficits much more accurately than does administrations as a general rule.

Is this a big deal? Yes, the country cannot afford budget deficits of $9 trillion over the next 10 years. It would fundamentally change the way this country has to operate on a financial basis. The standard of living that we enjoy today would not be the standard of living that we would enjoy in 10 years. The next generation would not be able to look forward to having a lifestyle like that of their parents when they reach their parent’s age. They would be looking at living their current lifestyle all of their lives. In other words, people would not change economic classes any more. As an example, when my wife and I were first married we lived on next to nothing and would have been classified as poor by any definition. We did not feel poor as we were working towards a goal. As we worked in our professions throughout our lives we moved from poor to lower middle class to middle class. That will not happen for our children if these deficits are as bad as projected.

If President Bush was still in office, he would have run up a deficit of about $1 trillion for the current fiscal year. The actual deficit will be in excess of $1.5 trillion. That difference adds up over time and makes a huge difference to our ability to pay it off. If you run a deficit, you should either cut spending or get more income. Since the government cannot get more income easily, the best option is to cut spending. Democrats think that cutting spending is going to destroy our lifestyle. Republicans think that cutting spending and government programs is exactly what you should be doing. With Democrats in the majority, cutting spending is not likely to happen. They would rather raise taxes and reduce the income. Republicans on the other hand, know that cutting taxes will raise more money. It has been successful every time it has been tried.

The actual deficit should be worse than is displayed. The government is buying bad loans from the banks. If they were doing it the honest way, the deficit would go up tremendously. Since they do not want that to happen any more than it has to, they have tried a new trick. This is to guarantee the loan. If the government guarantees the loan the amount does not show up on the deficit until the loan is cleared. Then, the loan is the responsibility of some other administration. The group that actually caused the debt will be long gone and forgotten. This way the public does not see the debt actually being accumulated by the administration as it is accumulated. They only see it when it appears years later. These Democrats hope that it is a Republican administration that has the cards come crashing down on it. That way they can claim financial irresponsibility and get power again. If it is a Democrat administration, they will just try and figure out a way to blame it on the Republicans anyway.

Deficits are a fact of life in Washington. Out of control deficits are not a fact of life. We have an out of control deficit situation. We need to jump in and solve the deficit situation by cutting programs that are unconstitutional. That would be fantastic if applied strictly according to the wording in the Constitution. Most of the current budget would go and most of the current federal programs would be eliminated or transferred to the states. The states could pick up federal programs or eliminate them as the states determined their own needs. Then we would get back to the type of government the Founding Fathers envisioned. Unfortunately, that will never happen as long as we elect people like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and other Congressional Democrats. Unfortunately, the hat also fits a lot of current Republicans as well.

All that can be expected to happen is nothing for the foreseeable future. If the public wakes up even a little bit, the Democrats might be out of the majority in the House and even possibly the Senate. The Senate would require almost a complete wipe out and I cannot envision that happening. Taking over the Senate will almost undoubtedly have to wait until 2012.

Diversion, thy name is AIG. Sure the huge, by my lowly standard, payout to its employees is stupid in this economy and after taking bailout money. AIG says that this money was written into contracts before the company was aware of any financial problems. Still, it looks bad and Obama is taking no time in stoking the wealth envy crowd. He is getting all worked up over such a small, by his standards, amount. He should be worked up over the huge by anyone’s standard of the bailout money and his budget. That is where the target should be, not on AIG. One company doing something that does not look good on the surface does not make it wrong. To a populist, a company that does something that looks wrong it is wrong, even if it is perfectly legal and within financial bounds.

Democrats do not have very many plays in their playbook. One of their most effective plays is to play the wealth envy card. Since so many people do not make a million dollars, it is easy to make someone who does seem evil. That person could have earned that money through legitimate means and within contract guidelines, but that would make no difference to a Democrat playing the wealth envy card. This card always works with Democrats and usually works with Independents. It will even work with some Republicans, especially during a recession. It shouldn’t work at all.

The card should be played differently. The person making that much money should be held up and looked at. Then, everyone should be asked if they would like to make as much money as this person. Since everyone would like to make more money, everyone would say they would. Then you tell how that person got to that point. They most likely got to that point by getting a good education. Then, through hard work, they moved up the line until they made it to the top. Everyone will not make it to the top, but more could. All it would take is dedication and hard work. Talent comes in to tell those that make the biggest money from those that don’t.

An example of this is baseball. Any baseball player with a little talent can play major league baseball. All they need to do is work harder than the next person and study the game more. There are numerous examples all over baseball of players who have average talent at best who are in the majors. There are also numerous examples of players with enormous talent who stay in the minor leagues because they never develop the work ethic needed to succeed in baseball.

The same holds true for any profession. Those with the most talent will make the most money if they also have the work ethic to back it up. Michael Jordan was the best basketball player of his time, maybe the best ever. He was known for having a lot of talent, but he also worked harder than any other player on any team that he played for. As a result, he was paid the highest amount of money. Any profession has the same set of standards. Those that work the hardest make it to the top. Those with the most talent end up at the highest level of the highest level. But, all those that make it to the top will do well financially. That is the message that should resonate with everyone. Democrats do not want that message taught because there is no mention of government in that message. They have to have government in the mix in order for them to support the message.

The Democrat message is one that has mass appeal. The message is that through government, all will succeed. There was another person with a message like that. He gave one of two options in a large meeting a long time ago. In it he promised that all could return to live with the Father if he was in charge. Now, who can argue with that message? Everyone will return to live with the Father! But, the kicker is that all the glory had to be given to him. In the Democrat message, all the glory has to be given to the Democrat party. The story from long ago, the person was named Lucifer or Satan. I am not calling the Democrats Satan worshippers or anything like that. I am just saying that their message sounded awful similar to another message I heard about.

The Republican message is one where the individual has to make his/her own way to success or failure. That is also similar to a message given at that meeting so long ago. This other person said that he would go and let everyone choose for himself/herself whether to choose good or evil. He would pay the price for us, but we had to take the actions that would move us toward one goal or the other. The similarity is not as close, but they both deal with individual choice and responsibility. Republicans believe that each person is responsible their own success in this world. Jesus taught us that we should choose good over evil, but the choice is ours to make. In other words, it is our responsibility to be successful in choosing what is best for us.

Don’t fall into the lie told by the Democrats that government is the answer. Ronald Reagan was right when he told us that government is not the answer. Government is not the answer to any of the world’s problems. The solution is always: get the government out of the way and the problem will be solved. Governments generally do not solve problems as much as continue them. Solving a problem reduces the need for government. Private industry solves problems because that is where they make the most money. That is the big difference.