barney frank

Wherever you live on the planet, the jolly red-faced gentleman, hitching up his pants around his portly frame, will have visited you by now. Er… no, I’m not referring to Barney Frank! The Christmas holiday is a time to chill out (or perhaps ‘freeze’ would be a better description, Mr Gore!) and try to forgive those that have done us wrong throughout the year.

There’s certainly a lot to forgive this year. The year started with the news that the number of long-term unemployed was the highest since official records began, back in 1948. While the country suffered the effects of high unemployment, low consumer confidence and failing businesses, the Obama administration was engaged in a war.

This was not the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, not even the generalized ‘war on terror’. This was their private war on Arizona. Forced into taking action at state level, due to the inaction of federal agencies, Governor Brewer was informed that her actions were unconstitutional. An amazing statement, given that the state legislation was, in most respects, a copy of the federal immigration policy.

The administration’s lame excuse was that it promoted racial profiling, even though the Arizona bill prevented such actions. This denial of the facts is the same as that shown by the powers granted to the TSA. Humiliate obviously innocent Americans with naked images and ‘sexual assaults’ (that’s what it is, folks), while allowing groups that are most likely of misdemeanor to conduct their own pat-downs.

Obama’s reluctance to comment on the folly that was the planned Ground Zero mosque was further proof of his fear of alienating his remaining support base. He knew that if he lost the support of the black, Hispanic, muslim and gay sectors (and, dare I say it, the illegal voters), his days would be numbered.

Never mind the unemployment figures and dying businesses – we can fix that with new, clean technology industries (Obama’s fixation with batteries); Don’t worry about the threat on the southern border – we’ll look at giving citizenship to the children of illegals; There’s no reason to be concerned about the spiraling federal deficit – we’ll introduce a VAT-style tax to give us more money for earmarks… after all, your money is the government’s money!

As the year approaches its end and we look forward to a new Congress in 2011, hopefully all this will will vanish like a bad dream… the nightmare before Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to our readers, from Skip and myself.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

Janet Napolitano took a jolt of testosterone and ‘stood up’ to the incipient rebellion of American citizens, who have had it up to their eyeballs by the vast overreach of the federal government today.

The DeMarxists and their unions, in their zeal to obtain absolute control over everything, have finally gotten around to our scrotums and vaginas. Of course, Janet, taking manly control of the situation, has chided the American people for daring to object to the Obama Transportation Safety Administration’s high-handed tactics.

American Patriots, now that we have the rats in the administration and in Congress either on the run or shedding trails of rat pellets getting ready to run, are getting around to the promises we made to the DeMarxists all along during the last two years. Inquiries, people! Investigations, committees and subpoenas under oath. Say, for instance… oh, I don’t know… an audit of the Fed?!

Or here’s one that should send Barney (the banking queen) Frank screaming for the exits… an audit of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. An investigation into TARP is also on the way. Inquiries into the Democrats interference with border control and illegal immigration are sure to be demanded by the American people… to the extent such inquiries roll over and engulf some of our ‘moderates’ and RINOs. Oh well, you sure picked the wrong bunch to hang out with.

By the way, we see Dick Army supposedly emerging as a ‘leader’ of the Patriots? Don’t make me laugh. Whatever Army is, Conservative isn’t one of them. Go home, Dick.

While we’re at it, we may just as well start the fight to break the back of the public service unions. That’s a battle that has been deferred almost to the destruction of the country.

Yeah, Napolitano, we’re mad. We’re still here and we’re coming after your cozy little sinecure next. What the left still hasn’t figured out is that we, the American Patriot Movement, are beholden to no one. It’s driving them crazy, which is also just fine by us. There was a famous British Naval toast (when Britain still had a Navy). It went, ‘Confusion to the enemy’. Happy rebellion, Janet.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

San Francisco won’t sober up for a week… but not to fear. One day before, possibly, the most important election of our or any time. Conservatives show up to vote regardless. Minimally motivated Bay Area lefties probably aren’t going to hit the polls with a massive overhang, which most of the city and much of the ‘burbs are likely to have.

Advantage: Patriots. We may steal a march on the hordes of the raging liberal beast… we’re still outnumbered but maybe we can scare them… and maybe influence some close races.

The surest way you can help at this late date is to make darn sure that you and yours make it to the polls. Call your couch potato buddies and roust them out. Tell them their freedom depends on it. We can’t let up now… and maybe never again. We have to steel ourselves for the long pull because this is but the very beginning.

All of the election prognostications, even those of the most slavishly devoted DeMarxist mouthpieces, are now painfully admitting that they are going to get annihilated tomorrow. We’re also going to see the hordes of DeMarxist attorneys to call for recounts, à la Barney (I didn’t know it was a whorehouse) Frank. The ‘public’ service goons and their money is out in full force.

The DeMarxists have little or nothing to run on, except for the few and courageous lawmakers who refused to sign on to any of Barack Obama’s agenda, and it’s probably too late for them too. The Obama, Reid, Pelosi triumvirate has painted all Democrats with the same broad brush and it’s going to be a very, very bad year for incumbents. God Bless you and God Bless this great nation.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Barack Obama’s America doesn’t exist and never has. Seen through the eyes of Conservatives, it’s a bleak and desolate landscape. We should win in November. We should win really big in November.

What we have to be very careful of is over-confidence. Over-confidence has a way of creeping in, especially when all the political forecasts, even the left’s own, are indicating a huge sea-change. In the short-term we have to be prepared for the left’s usual election day hi-jinks.

Let us not forget the tens of thousands of false registrations generated by ACORN. By the way, ACORN is still lurking out there under various names, and there is evidence of a resurgent ACORN in some cities.

We watched Barney Frank literally steal an election. This should be a huge reality check… this sort of illegal behavior should be expected in any close race. The Democrats are going to be getting very desperate between now and the election, as are Obama and his administration. We have to be extra vigilant and move quickly to counter any DeMarxist cutesy tricks.

It’s time to consider what a Conservative government might look like. It was pointed out that, even after the new crop of Conservative Representatives and Senators, there will be plenty of work ahead. There’s just no room in the new Conservative Republican party for phony moderates – RINOs. To me, a moderate Republican is just a liberal without the guts to say so.

The coming Conservative revolution will be the shot heard around the world. The last thing our foreign enemies want to see is a strong, united Conservative government in the United States.

Once again, if you’re not registered, get that way. Talk to your friends and neighbors. If they’re not registered, help them get that way. See if there’s anyone in your area that would need a ride to their polling place. Encourage everyone you meet to vote!! That’s how we’re going to win.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Barney Frank lauded, flacked and defended the two institutions many people feel were major factors in the collapse of the mortgage market and, through them, the housing and construction industries.

Barney Frank

Fannie and Freddie, the two government entities which had been producing most of the high-risk paper, bundling it and selling it to other mortgage banks. Eventually, the market turned toxic with bad mortgages and the actual and threatened failures of many of the banking institutions that had gambled on these billions of dollars of worthless bundled mortgages.

Even in the face of the obvious disaster that befell us in 2008, just in time to panic an already nervous public into thinking the sky was falling, Barney Frank was steadfast in his defense of the two low-income mortgage giants.

I was listening to Larry Kudlow’s radio audience filet him for appearing to praise Barney Frank for his abrupt turn around about Fannie and Freddie saying, “they should be abolished”. Larry seems to think that Barney had an epiphany regarding Fannie and Freddie and the entire low-income loan business, among other revelations. He thinks Frank is a serious politician and, as he puts it, “a thinker”. Ok, Larry, if you say so, but I’m equally certain that whatever comes of all that furious thinking does not, in general, bode well for the American people.

I’m wondering if Mr Frank may be looking for political cover in the impending storm coming up in November. In fairness to Larry Kudlow, he disagrees with just about everything Frank says. I’ve made no secret of my dislike for Barney Frank and what he helped perpetrate. For him to ride out the back end of this, as the redeemed advocate for free market solutions, would be disingenuous at best. He hasn’t changed his spots Larry… just his tune.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

DeMarxists in Congress are accelerating their totalitarian lockstep to steal your country away from you before the mid-term elections will sweep them from power in both Houses and put an abrupt end to their dreams of a communist America. I’m getting really tired of reading mush-headed, mealy-mouthed writers who haven’t the courage of their supposed convictions. Liberal-Progressive (the favored term du jour of our little red friends)-Socialist-Leninist-Marxist-Communist. These terms are completely interchangeable.

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd

There’s a classic pic of the intrepid duo of Barney (The Banking Queen) Frank and his bud, Chris (Cretin) Dodd coming out of the White House, with Frank looking like he just finished doing what he does best, according to rumors around the beltway… pulling his pants back up. Not surprising, given we are talking about the guy whose male prostitute boyfriend was running a gay brothel out of Frank’s Washington Condo. (Has anybody cleared this dude with the health dept?) Hey, Obama… want everybody in the country tested for AIDS/HIV? No need to look any farther than your own backyard for a start.

Amazing. The statists still haven’t figured out that the vast number of people in this country are, have been and, God willing, always will be in committed monogamous relationships. The DeMarxists put much into the effort to make you think differently, as the destruction of the moral fabric of America is, if not the most important item on their agenda, very close to it.

Barney Frank is a totally despicable human being. That he now has the nerve to hammer banking regulation when he was one of the principal architects of the mortgage banking crash is chutzpah to a spectacular degree.

Special note to the liberal hack/anarchists sitting in their mamas’ basements taking shots at people like Dee and myself: now that’s a personal attack.

Unfortunately, I see absolutely no way to remove Frank from his cozy little gerrymandered sinecure any time soon. The best we can do is to isolate the little toad and send him shrieking into the background.

After delineating a really grim assessment, WSJ/NBC Democrat pollster Peter Hart, in part, had this to say, “a really ugly mood and an unhappy electorate” – happily for Conservatives, which now outnumber their radical statist opposites by more than two to one. Mr Hart has masterfully understated the absolute rage boiling just under the surface out here in the hinterlands.

Something with equal downside potential is the DeMarxist failed attempt at driving wedges into the ever-more-powerful Conservative/Patriot/TeaParty/Republican coalition, which they attempted to fragment with the old Bill Clinton – Ross Perot third party siren song. Didn’t work. Next, they attempted to demonize the people they perceived to be the ‘leaders of the movement’. Uh-uh, that hasn’t worked either. They’re afraid to go home and face their constituents.

I guess the only tactic left to them would be the scorched-earth policy of trying to steal the election— a very risky move given the mood of the country, but a typical communist desperation tactic, which in any country other than this one would have reasonable expectation of success. America is on the march… and it’s not the Obamao lockstep either.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Awhile ago I suggested it was time to focus on some high value targets for 2010 in the wake of the Scott Brown victory. 

Barney Frank comes immediately to mind.  He's vocal. He's liberal to the core. And he was wrapped around the failed financial regulatory agenda of the past decade that led to the collapse of the housing industry and the financial markets.

Really, If the public is outraged over Bailout Nation, it would seem they would have little use for the guy whose lax lending agenda created the necessity for bailouts and then was the architect of the bailouts themselves.

Frank's gerrymandered district was until January 19, 2010, thought of as a Democratic stronghold. Then something funny happened. It was carried by Scott Brown.

I also note Frank doesn;t seem prepared for a serious challenge as he only has $400K COH, an advantage one good moneybomb could quickly erase.

So the elements are there for a really hot fire. The problem here is upon review of the Brown performance, it was strongly due to an outstanding showing in a blue collar region 50 miles from Frank's home base. This should be an opportunity. But unless conservative or Republican activists jump in here and make something happen it will be a wasted opportunity.   

 The two candidates thinking now about challenging Frank are perennial candidate Earl Sholley and newbie Keith Messina.  

Neither's gonna get it done.

Sholley's tried before with dismal results. He got 24% in 2008, running behind John McCain even in his own hometown.  Morevover his persona--born in PA 60 years ago; owner of a horticulture business in a small suburb; known for lots of lawsuits--doesn't suggest he has a big upside in an ethnic Democratic district.  No matter how  revved the Tea partiers get over him; there's not enough of them to win here.

Messina lacks controversy, but his website offers little sense he's tied in enough to this district to unseat a 30 year incumbent.

We need a new candidate here

Someone who can exploit Frank's deficiencies and force him to play defense. Someone with sufficient roots here to "look" the part of an effective representative.

Here's where geography and ethnicity kicks in and we turn the gerrymandering of the 4th District against Barney Frank.

Frank's base is in the close-in, high-income towns next to Boston--Brookline and Newton.  Some of MA's wealthiest and best educated people live here and they would never dare vote for any rebellious Republican. In the Brown-Coakley election these town cast about 55,000 votes with about a 22,000 vote edge for Coakley 

On the other end of the district is the less affluent "South Coast" region around Fall River and New Bedford. The towns adjoining those two cities cast about 63,000 votes and Coakley barely carried the region, based on a 3,000 edge out of New Bedford.   Brown ran well ahead of Mitt Romney is this region, suggesting this area is swinging against the Democrats this cycle. While this area was once America's center of whaling,  it doesn't seem Republican candidates are playing the role of Captain Ahab anymore.

The remainder of the district was strongly pro-Brown, as he broke even in Wellesley, lost narrowly in heavily Jewish Sharon, and crushed Coakley elsewhere in Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth counties, with margins of 2,500 in Taunton, 3,000 in Mansfield, and 2,500 in Foxborough.    

So, we need to find a candidate who can play well on the South Coast.  This is a region that is unique. The largest ethnic group here are Portuguese Americans.  Providence TV covers these communities. And New Bedford and Fall River have their own daily newspapers and radio stations.

And this region and its major ethnic group are forgotten in MA politics. I can find no evidence of a Portuguese American ever winning a MA congressional election. And the last resident of Bristol County to hold a House seat was North Attleboro's Joe Martin who left office in the 1960's.    MA pols tried to address this in a failed 2002 remap to draw a new House district; but it would have caused an existing seat in the Merrimack Valley to disappear and the plan failed.

Back in 1982 a much younger Barney Frank campaigned hard when this region was added to the district and won their votes.  Can an entrenched incumbent explain that 28 years later this area is still economically troubled--and it's not his fault?  Can a an urban social liberal bring back ethnic blue collar voters to the Democratic line?

Can he do this if we run a young, appealing Portuguese American lawyer or businessman from the South Coast against him?

I know "what" the candidate here would look and sound like. I admit. I don't have a name.

That's where the MA GOP and the conservative activists need to step up. We need to find this person.  

I'm reasonably convinced that if we find my South Coast candidate Frank's numbers in the region will be held down sufficiently that we will have a reasonable shot of victory. (While Martha Coakley did many things wrong, leaving votes on the table in Brookline and Newton wasn't her problem; she pretty much topped out for a Democrat in a contested race there.) 

We will need to fund our target candidate  of course, and find a way to bypass Sholley and Messina. So inertia is not an option.   

And I'm not saying it's going to be easy. But Frank--due to his high profile, his atrophied campaign apparatus, and his acerbic persona--is going to be worth it.  

The question is: do we just want to kvetch about how Barney Frank burned down our financial house or do we want to do something productive to hold him accountable for his debacle.

I'm for getting to work. Anyone got a list of lawyers in Fall River for me to vet? 

In the wake of the Massachusetts Miracle we have achieved far more than even I dreamed possible. I had hoped for a serious scare and some recriminations on the part of the Democrats, not a shattering of party unity and confidence.  

Now what?

Well, I'm told that the GOP is going to "fight everywhere" this year. But not all fights are created equal.  Barring cash in an incumbent's  freezer, once a district gets to D+20 CPVI there's really no path to a Republican victory. And while some back bench incumbents may be weak reeds, it's rather likely that unlike Martha Coakley, they will go down quietly and with little notice from the public. A Zack Space meltdown in Zanesville, OH is not likely to make the national wires.

What the GOP should set aside some resources for is to call out the loudest, most partisan and least appealing leaders of the Democratic senate and house caucuses.  We know who they are. They are the ones who react like stuck pigs to being challenged. They are the ones whom we can readily point to a paper trail of advocacy for deficits, government intervention, and crony dealing.   And these are the people whom we can readily define as the Democratic party for swing voters.   

By their vociferous counterattacks, they will do our job of defining the opposition for us.  Their colleagues in swing districts and purple states will try to win their re-elections based on incumbency and alleged centrism; this plan is designed to make that strategy unworkable for any Democrat.

Some of these people are already "on the list"--Harry Reid and John Murtha.  My plan is to wxpand the list to folks in D+10 plus constituencies, since in the wake of Scott Brown, these seats are no longer locks in the present environment.

The chances that any of these seats actually "flip" to the GOP is still remote. I believe the recruitment of serious candidates and the allocation of resources is still wise for a number of reasons. It will drive the narrative in less high profile seats and force moderates to defend the leadership party line. It will conversely, cause the Democrats to hoard their cash to play defense and cause them to triage their less senior members in swing seats.  Finally, since these folks are easily identified villains to the Right, there's the possibility to drop moneybombs in these places.

Here's my list:

Chuck Schumer

Schumer defeated an obscure GOP assemblyman badly in 2004 in what was a non-campaign. Since then he's been enbolden to play partisan bomb thrower and is one of the  happiest Democrats to lambaste "teabaggers" for the temerity to question Washington.  Schumer is probably one of the most anti-gun and pro-abortion politicians ever elected to office, and has treated Wall Street as an ATM for his campaign warchest. Needless to say this isn't quite the agenda every New Yorker applauds--his recent poll ratings have slipped.

Schumer is still a heavy favorite, but two things make this more than an exercise in wish fulfillment. First is Schumer' arrogance, which may remind voters of disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer. Second is the demographics of the off-year NY electorate, where Upstate casts a higher percentage of the vote--indeed, nearly half.

Larry Kudlow (whom I thought was still a CT resident) is thinking about this race. But has anyone thought that an upstater associated with the Tea Party--like Doug Hoffman--might send Chuck into orbit?   

Steny Hoyer

Hoyer is Nancy Pelosi's second in command. Unlike San Fran Nan, he actually represents some Republicans in his suburban Maryland district which is only D+11.   As it is in the Washington, DC media market it's not a cheap district to run in, but any misstep by Hoyer will be promptly reported by the national press.  Hoyer will have to explain his party's agenda in a district which contains many of the same sort of outer suburban communities that were Scott Brown strongholds in MA. Good luck, Steny.

Barney Frank

Chris Dodd is gone, but the other architect of the ruinous subprime mortgage bubble, Barney Frank, thinks he's going to coast to re-election. Perhaps he'd best look at the voting results in MA 4 as it appears his district was carried by Scott Brown.  MA 4 is a D+14 district but it is a gerrymandered mess which includes areaas far from Frank's base inside Route 128. These communities--even the blue collar ones--turned hard against the Democrats in the special election.

I'll explain in more detail, but the key to making this seat truly competitive is candidate recruitment and pushing aside a perennial candidate who simply doesn't "fit" this district in favor of one who could peel off a critical region from Frank.  

Henry Waxman

Henry Waxman is probably the one member of Congress most directly responsible for the decline of America's industrial vigor.  As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee he is single handedly responsible for pressing forward on a multifront regime of regulation and government edicts.   He also was foursquare for the government takeover of health care enbodied in the House's "public option" bill.

His district includes Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu so we can be sure the entertainment industry will shell out to give him around. That said, money he gets can't go to Indiana or new Jersey.  His district also now includes large chunks of the San Fernando Valley where a political agenda based on middle class concerns might well receive a receptive response. 

It's pretty clear we would need a very libertarian minded candidate to get an audience here. That said, a "cool" Republican would draw attention to the party and draw attention away from older socially conservative white men in the Red States. And a credible campaign against Waxman--inagine Republican lawn signs on Brentwood hillsides--would be magnified in the national media.

I cna think of less notorious Democrats like New York's Gary Ackerman or CT's Rosa DeLauro who have baggage, atropried campaign skills and districts with appreciable Republican activity. But the bigger point here is to draw out the loudest and least  persuasive advocates for Democratic control of government.

The Democrats made sure they got Jesse Helms a tough race every cycle hoping for a meltdown. Now it's our turn.   

In the wake of the Massachusetts Miracle we have achieved far more than even I dreamed possible. I had hoped for a serious scare and some recriminations on the part of the Democrats, not a shattering of party unity and confidence.  

Now what?

Well, I'm told that the GOP is going to "fight everywhere" this year. But not all fights are created equal.  Barring cash in an incumbent's  freezer, once a district gets to D+20 CPVI there's really no path to a Republican victory. And while some back bench incumbents may be weak reeds, it's rather likely that unlike Martha Coakley, they will go down quietly and with little notice from the public. A Zack Space meltdown in Zanesville, OH is not likely to make the national wires.

What the GOP should set aside some resources for is to call out the loudest, most partisan and least appealing leaders of the Democratic senate and house caucuses.  We know who they are. They are the ones who react like stuck pigs to being challenged. They are the ones whom we can readily point to a paper trail of advocacy for deficits, government intervention, and crony dealing.   And these are the people whom we can readily define as the Democratic party for swing voters.   

By their vociferous counterattacks, they will do our job of defining the opposition for us.  Their colleagues in swing districts and purple states will try to win their re-elections based on incumbency and alleged centrism; this plan is designed to make that strategy unworkable for any Democrat.

Some of these people are already "on the list"--Harry Reid and John Murtha.  My plan is to wxpand the list to folks in D+10 plus constituencies, since in the wake of Scott Brown, these seats are no longer locks in the present environment.

The chances that any of these seats actually "flip" to the GOP is still remote. I believe the recruitment of serious candidates and the allocation of resources is still wise for a number of reasons. It will drive the narrative in less high profile seats and force moderates to defend the leadership party line. It will conversely, cause the Democrats to hoard their cash to play defense and cause them to triage their less senior members in swing seats.  Finally, since these folks are easily identified villains to the Right, there's the possibility to drop moneybombs in these places.

Here's my list:

Chuck Schumer

Schumer defeated an obscure GOP assemblyman badly in 2004 in what was a non-campaign. Since then he's been enbolden to play partisan bomb thrower and is one of the  happiest Democrats to lambaste "teabaggers" for the temerity to question Washington.  Schumer is probably one of the most anti-gun and pro-abortion politicians ever elected to office, and has treated Wall Street as an ATM for his campaign warchest. Needless to say this isn't quite the agenda every New Yorker applauds--his recent poll ratings have slipped.

Schumer is still a heavy favorite, but two things make this more than an exercise in wish fulfillment. First is Schumer' arrogance, which may remind voters of disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer. Second is the demographics of the off-year NY electorate, where Upstate casts a higher percentage of the vote--indeed, nearly half.

Larry Kudlow (whom I thought was still a CT resident) is thinking about this race. But has anyone thought that an upstater associated with the Tea Party--like Doug Hoffman--might send Chuck into orbit?   

Steny Hoyer

Hoyer is Nancy Pelosi's second in command. Unlike San Fran Nan, he actually represents some Republicans in his suburban Maryland district which is only D+11.   As it is in the Washington, DC media market it's not a cheap district to run in, but any misstep by Hoyer will be promptly reported by the national press.  Hoyer will have to explain his party's agenda in a district which contains many of the same sort of outer suburban communities that were Scott Brown strongholds in MA. Good luck, Steny.

Barney Frank

Chris Dodd is gone, but the other architect of the ruinous subprime mortgage bubble, Barney Frank, thinks he's going to coast to re-election. Perhaps he'd best look at the voting results in MA 4 as it appears his district was carried by Scott Brown.  MA 4 is a D+14 district but it is a gerrymandered mess which includes areaas far from Frank's base inside Route 128. These communities--even the blue collar ones--turned hard against the Democrats in the special election.

I'll explain in more detail, but the key to making this seat truly competitive is candidate recruitment and pushing aside a perennial candidate who simply doesn't "fit" this district in favor of one who could peel off a critical region from Frank.  

Henry Waxman

Henry Waxman is probably the one member of Congress most directly responsible for the decline of America's industrial vigor.  As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee he is single handedly responsible for pressing forward on a multifront regime of regulation and government edicts.   He also was foursquare for the government takeover of health care enbodied in the House's "public option" bill.

His district includes Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu so we can be sure the entertainment industry will shell out to give him around. That said, money he gets can't go to Indiana or new Jersey.  His district also now includes large chunks of the San Fernando Valley where a political agenda based on middle class concerns might well receive a receptive response. 

It's pretty clear we would need a very libertarian minded candidate to get an audience here. That said, a "cool" Republican would draw attention to the party and draw attention away from older socially conservative white men in the Red States. And a credible campaign against Waxman--inagine Republican lawn signs on Brentwood hillsides--would be magnified in the national media.

I cna think of less notorious Democrats like New York's Gary Ackerman or CT's Rosa DeLauro who have baggage, atropried campaign skills and districts with appreciable Republican activity. But the bigger point here is to draw out the loudest and least  persuasive advocates for Democratic control of government.

The Democrats made sure they got Jesse Helms a tough race every cycle hoping for a meltdown. Now it's our turn.   

David Axelrod is telling us breathlessly that his glorious leader is FEISTY. I guess from that monumental statement Conservatives should be quaking in our boots in anticipation of the drubbing to be handed out by the President during his state of the union address. Pardon us while we don’t get overly apprehensive about repackaged garbage. According to White House insiders President Obama will focus on JOBS and the DEFICIT. In other words, everything he has worked so diligently to destroy in his ideological drive to transform this nation a la Saul Alinsky.

David Axelrod

This is worth repeating. While Obama is busy revamping his message and telling us what a terrible raw deal he was handed by George Bush… remember that one? The one engineered by Democrats through Fannie and Freddie, Acorn, AIG and players like Goldman Sachs, with the willing accompaniment and active interference of people like Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd, the chairman of the House Banking Committee? Good public servants all.

Our President has presided over a money glut of historic proportions, one which if allowed to run to its conclusion will cost the taxpayers of this country FOUR POINT NINE TRILLION DOLLARS by 2016. This is in addition to the 5.1 trillion Bush and Obama are already responsible for. Now he wishes to speak of fiscal responsibility and will seek to find blame everywhere but where it belongs. During the Bush years we saw gains of THREE POINT SEVEN MILLION new jobs. Not as impressive as the Clinton years and the hysterical growth prior to the .com bubble burst, which left George Bush with a recession of his own to deal with, a fact that is conveniently discarded by the tame Democrat left-leaning press and most politicians, but still solid substantial job growth.

Now we come to Obama and the great GREEN job revolution that ain’t. Better than 15.3 million jobs lost to the recession, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pathetically few jobs he can credit himself with are mostly government and / or temporary. Once again, GOVERNMENT PRODUCES NOTHING.

The American people know about job growth. They know where jobs come from and they also know that runaway regulation and massive tax increases are not going to create those jobs. Obama is putting out feelers for a SECOND stimulus to ‘jump start’ job growth. That seems to be the entire liberal philosophy… not accounting or taking responsibility for failed policy but taking refuge behind inanity such as “it needed more funding to do it right”, or “it needed more time”, which amounts to the same thing.

This is a mantra we’ve heard from the left consistently on one public policy issue after another for a hundred years. The definition of insanity is doing something with negative results and going back and doing it again and again expecting a different outcome. President Obama, we await your little extravaganza with bated breath, while we observe your cronies scrambling for whatever political cover they can find.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010