While the nation’s “economic pie” can be grown through good economic policies, the “liberty pie” is a zero-sum game – it doesn’t grow or shrink – and there are only two slices:  government power and citizens’ liberty.  If the current notions of centralized health care are enacted, government’s raw power over citizens’ lives will increase, and their liberty will be reduced by the same amount.

So writes Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in this month’s issue of the American Spectator.  (sorry, the actual article won’t be available online until April)

Cuccinelli is fast becoming one of the leaders of the conservative movement.  While Cuccinelli has been using the power of his office to fight federal tyranny in the courts, he is also using the pen to make a reasoned argument for all that conservatives hold dear.

During the current resurgence of the conservative movement and the semi-conservative populism inherent among the tea parties, some may dismiss the need for the intellectual strength displayed by officials like Cuccinelli.  Don’t be fooled.  Without its intellectual underpinnings, the conservative movement never would have grown beyond the Bob Taft years.

As I have noted here in the past – Yes, it is important to believe the right things.  However, without a firm understanding of WHY we believe what we do, those beliefs will not survive the test of time.  This is precisely why we need elected officials like General Cuccinelli.

Yes, we all know that ObamaCare is bad policy.  We all know that it would be fiscally disastrous.  We all know that the world’s best health care system would be greatly diminished.  Yet, Cuccinelli has managed to succinctly explain why we should fight ObamaCare – even IF these things were not the case.  If we wish to forfeit our God given individual liberty for a promised blanket of economic security then America ceases to be that shining city.  Liberty forfeited is liberty lost forever.

Thanks Ken.

Red State’s Erick Erickson writes that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist may be bolting the GOP to run for the Senate seat Crist arrogantly believes is his by right.  If he does so, the conservative response should be a simple one – marshal every resource possible to elect Marco Rubio and THEN (after the election) make it our mission to destroy Crist politically so that he can never run for office again or benefit financially from his service as Florida’s governor.

Now, this may seem hard hearted.  It is.  However, if you play the game you should play by the rules.  If Crist bolts or campaigns for the Democrat nominee he has left the realm of civil political behavior and should be handled as such.

Erickson writes:

Here’s what will happen if Charlie Crist leaves the GOP. The DC-GOP Establishment crowd will attack RedState, Jim DeMint, and Marco Rubio for shrinking the GOP. Instead of pointing out that moderate Republicans are sore loser who don’t play well with conservatives, conservatives will be attacked for chasing Crist out of the party.

Sadly, this brings to mind two things:

Doug Hoffman sought the GOP nod to run in NY-23.  He lost.  Then, he ran on the Conservative line.  Now we all know what a toad Dede Scozzafava was.  We know the rules for nominating a candidate were bad.  That said, I have to ask if Hoffman signed the blood oath.  This is fairly normal under such circumstances; you pledge to support the GOP nominee no matter what.  If Hoffman did, then he certainly isn’t the hero that many conservatives portray him as.  He’s no better than Crist (if he bolts).  Let’s not forget that honor is one of those values we claim to believe in preserving.

Second, Erick is absolutely right that the DC-GOP establishment doesn’t play well.  However, I will argue that it has nothing to do with philosophy.  It’s about power.  Erickson and DeMint believe in a core set of principles.  DeMint has already been attacked by NRSC chair John Cornyn (R-TX) for not towing the “party line” on several races.

There is only one solution.  Conservatives need to take back the GOP.  If your state chair, committeeman or committeewoman voted for Michael Steele (for RNC chair), they should be challenged and defeated.  If your local and district chairs aren’t conservative they should be challenged as well.  If your state party is organized in such a way that it can be nothing more than irrelevant (see Maryland for a prime example), plan and execute the long battle of reforming it.

Sadly, we have to be careful for what we wish for.  The  Jeff Frederick debacle at RPV is an excellent case on point.  Frederick decided he wanted to be RPV chair.  He attempted to portray the incumbent chair (former Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager) as some kind of raving lefty.  Hager is a great conservative with an outstanding record of service to his state, his country and his party.  Hager just isn’t as rabidly doctrinaire on some issues as Frederick and his supporter would have liked.  So, what was the result?  They attempted to destroy the character of one of the finest men I have ever known.  Frederick was elected and then proceeded to pillage and burn.  Fortunately, the RPV State Central Committee (hardly a bunch of moderates) had the good judgment and intestinal fortitude to remove Frederick.

As conservatives, we need to stand firm.  We need to fight hard.  We also have to exercise good judgment in the battles we wage AND … be careful what we wish for.

MPPI Senior Fellow Marta Hummel Mossburg tags RNC chair Michael Steele for the rank hypocrisy of his book – "Right Now: A 12-step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda".  While Mossburg hits Steele on many of the right specifics, she should have expounded more on her “Ignatius Reilly” theory of the Michael Steele persona.

Steele’s problem is a simple one – he believes in nothing.  Michael Steele has shown himself willing to pander to almost any audience at the drop of a dime.  He’s conservative.  He’s cool.  He’ll use scarce RNC resources to back an unapologetic left-winger in the NY-23 race.  He’ll take credit for the victories in Virginia and New Jersey, when he had absolutely nothing to do with them (and the RNC’s contribution was an appreciated one of finance and a few bodies).

Michael Steele is the embodiment for why tea party activists, and the conservative movement in general, should look at the GOP as ONLY a means to an end and hold them off with a ten foot poll.  Sure, various state parties (such as RPV) should be looked on as allies.  Some state parties, such as MDGOP, should be viewed as irrelevant except for their easy access to the ballot.

If grass roots conservatives are serious about enacting positive change, they should start by ensuring that their state and local parties are run on conservative principles and by people who have, at least, some clue about grassroots politics and how to win races.  As an example –

I recently attended a meeting of a local GOP central committee.  When one individual (not a member) brought up the need to reach out to groups like the tea partiers and AFP, the response from several members was:

Why should we?  They need us.

NO!  As Republicans WE NEED THEM.  Honestly, if the two men who made that statement had not been elderly, I would have punched them both in the mouth.

Yet, this is the underlying attitude from too many in the GOP.  Sure, they want tea partiers and AFP members to knock on doors, make phone calls, write letters, and stuff envelopes.  Then, they want those people to go home.  It’s 1975 – 1980 in the GOP all over again.

Sure Michael Steel will pander; so will many other “GOP leaders”.  However, if we are serious about electing good, solid, fiscally responsible candidates who respect the Constitution then we need to take control of local and state parties where conservatives are not respected (but not demand some ideological purity test).  We then need to demand of state party chairs and their national committeemen and women that we need REAL conservative leadership at the RNC.  That means dumping Steele.  If some RNC members were moved by racial concerns, they should be reminded that Ken Blackwell (a true conservative candidate for RNC chair) was black the last time I checked.  While Blackwell was my number 2 choice in the race that saw Steele elected, he surely wasn’t a distant two and was (and would be) someone that conservatives would be proud to call as their national chairman.

Michael Steele is worse than Ed Gillespie (an RNC chair under George W. Bush).  At least Gillespie is an accomplished political operative.  He just isn’t a conservative.  However, Gillespie reflects a view of the Republican party which is sadly shared by Michael Steele:

According to the Union-Leader, Gillespie "said in no uncertain terms that the days of Reaganesque Republican railings against the expansion of federal government are over. . . . No, today the Republican Party stands for giving the American people whatever the latest polls say they want. . . . The party’s unofficial but clear message to conservatives is: Where else are you going to go? To the Democrats? To the Libertarians? They don’t think so."

No Ed.  No Mike.  Conservatives will simply work for conservative candidates and tell the rest of the GOP to pound salt in other races.  The ball is in the GOP’s court.  With leadership like Steele’s I think that grassroots conservative activists are in for a very sad surprise if they believe that the GOP is really on the side of Reagan conservative coalition.

As usual, last night’s Lower Shore AFP meeting was interesting.  Ed Urban of the Wicomico Tourism Board spoke about why the County Council did the right thing by spending $1.5 million of “free money” for a new parking lot at the civic center.  While I don’t thing many folks agreed, the discussion was civil.  Salisbury City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell came to explain how the current council majority AND the Ireton administration are illegally spending tax dollars WITHOUT appropriation.

For me, the most engaging moments came AFTER the meeting was over.  I listened to several good people make the argument that just because someone is an incumbent, they are somehow “tainted”.  This is a view that disturbs me greatly.  Experience is not a crime.  In fact, most societies have considered it a virtue.

When discussing a possible run for office by an incumbent in another office, the response by several people was that this gentlemen had already served in government and was now corrupted by “the good old boys”.  I asked if there was any evidence to that statement.  No, there wasn’t.  “But what has this person accomplished?”  I explained that this person was one of only two people in county government who had proposed tax relief during the last four years.  That didn’t seem to matter because this individual had not been able to garner the requisite number of votes to gather a veto-proof majority.

While everyone has a right to their opinion, I like a little logic in my debates.  Using this version of “logic”, we should throw Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen off of the Salisbury Council because they don’t vote with the majority.  Forget the fact that their vocal opposition has embarrassed the current majority out of wasting more hundreds of thousands of tax dollars than they already have.  Using this “logic” voters should fire such fiscal and constitutional stalwarts as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ).  While I whole heartedly agree that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) should be summarily thrown from the House leadership, there conservative voting records don’t merit their being thrown out of Congress by the voters of their respective districts.

As someone who has worked for several members of Congress and helped many members of state legislatures get elected I know more than most that incumbency can (and sadly often does) ruin many promising elected officials.  That is why I have long advocated cleaning house in the Republican party before we again argue that the GOP deserves to be handed the reigns of power again.  However, not all incumbents are tainted.  I wish that all were as forthright as DeMint and Coburn; but they’re not.  Many incumbents on the GOP side, such as Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), need to go.  Just abut every Democrat does.

Just because someone is an incumbent is not reason to throw a person to the wolves.  If we do, I guarantee that certain things will happen.  One, the GOP will have a pretty good year this year.  That will happen regardless.  However, what will happen in 2012 and beyond?  The same argument of “they haven’t accomplished ENOUGH” will be used against those same well meaning folk who rode an anti-incumbency wave into office.

While I’m a big supporter of reasonable term limits, I like a little experience in my elected officials.  No, not every one should be an incumbent.  Nobody should be able to make a career out of “public service”.  Yet, struggling to do the right thing in the minority – and failing – certainly isn’t reason to rid any government of its best and brightest officials.  Such a view is almost as dangerous as allowing a potentially great movement to be co-opted (and corrupted) by the GOP.  If certain well intentioned folk in the tea party movement don’t learn this lesson, a grand idea will die a fairly quick and painful death.

Bob Holsworth at Virginia Tomorrow argues that Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli is redefining the office’s role, much like Jim Gilmore did during his term as AG.  Holsworth defines the new “Cuccinelli doctrine”:

It is the job of the Virginia Attorney General to identify and counter instances where the federal government may be unconstitutionally or illegally extending authority over the states.

Interesting.  While I question whether or not this redefinition will have the political legs of Gilmore’s move of making the AG “Virginia’s Top Cop”, Cuccinelli’s recent actions on behalf of the Commonwealth regarding states’ rights and federal mandates is more substantively important.  In a short period of time Cuccinelli is proving himself to be a conservative’s conservative.

On Wednesday Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell delivered the GOP response to Barack Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address.  You can view the speech here:

McDonnell’s message will prove important because he expressed the ideas upon which this great nation were founded and those ideas which have made our nation the greatest on earth.  While Obama wishes to continue throwing hard earned tax dollars (and even more money borrowed from the likes of Communist China) at problems, McDonnell’s message was one of self-reliance, self-sacrifice, liberty, and innovation:

Good government policy should spur economic growth, and strengthen the private sector’s ability to create new jobs.  We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation, so America can better compete with the world.  What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation, and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class.  It was Thomas Jefferson who called for “A wise and frugal Government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry ….and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned…” He was right.

Today, the federal government is simply trying to do too much.

While most Democrats and far too many Republicans seek enhanced personal and corporate power through the overreaching hand of government, McDonnell’s message was one reminiscent of Ronald Reagan:

The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper, limited role of government at every level.  Without reform, the excessive growth of government threatens our very liberty and prosperity.

School choice and educational opportunity based on merit and need rather than bureaucratic fiat are cornerstones of a conservative education policy.  McDonnell used a portion of his national address to promote those ideas.  McDonnell also asserted a belief held by the vast majority of Americans, but not those in the Obama administration or a majority of Democrats in Congress – constitutional rights belong to American citizens, NOT foreign terrorists:

Americans were shocked on Christmas Day to learn of the attempted bombing of a flight to Detroit.  This foreign terror suspect was given the same legal rights as a U.S. citizen, and immediately stopped providing critical intelligence.  As Senator-elect Scott Brown says, we should be spending taxpayer dollars to defeat terrorists, not to protect them.

Americans believe in equality of opportunity.  We know that there can never be an equality of outcomes – unless we aim for the lowest common denominator.  We also know that hard working and innovative Americans, free to excel and unhindered by unnecessary government interference are what made this nation great :

Here at home government must help foster a society in which all our people can use their God-given talents in liberty to pursue the American Dream. Republicans know that government cannot guarantee individual outcomes, but we strongly believe that it must guarantee equality of opportunity for all.

That opportunity exists best in a democracy which promotes free enterprise, economic growth, strong families, and individual achievement.  Many Americans are concerned about this Administration’s efforts to exert greater control over car companies, banks, energy and health care.

Over-regulating employers won’t create more employment; overtaxing investors won’t foster more investment.  Top-down one-size fits all decision making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market, nor undermine the proper role of state and local governments in our system of federalism. As our Founders clearly stated, and we Governors understand, government closest to the people governs best.

McDonnell’s conclusion summed up the ideas upon which our nation was founded and became the greatest nation on earth:

Some people are afraid that America is no longer the great land of promise that she has always been. They should not be.  America will always blaze the trail of opportunity and prosperity.  America must always be a land where liberty and property are valued and respected, and innocent human life is protected.

Government should have this clear goal: Where opportunity is absent, we must create it. Where opportunity is limited, we must expand it. Where opportunity is unequal, we must make it open to everyone.

Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to create this nation. Now, we should pledge as Democrats, Republicans and Independents–Americans all—to work together to leave this nation a better place than we found it.

Unfortunately, these ideas are foreign to the American left and far too many who claim the cloak of conservatism.  We need more leaders like McDonnell; men and women who understand AND believe in these core concepts.  What we do not need are those who merely mouth words in an attempt to gain votes and power.  McDonnell’s address should remind us of what we believe, AND of the danger posed by those who claim to represent us, but really represent themselves.

For a copy of the full text of McDonnell’s address, CLICK HERE.

Bearing Drift has an interesting internal debate going.  Agricola makes an excellent pitch for resurrecting the political corpse of former VA-5 Rep. Virgil Goode.  Brian Kirwin, who I’m usually in agreement with, makes an obtuse argument against it (based on term limits?).

Let’s face it, Virginia Sen. Robert Hurt (R-19) hardly possesses the most conservative voting record.  As Agricola notes:

His votes for HB 3202 in 2007, the massive 2004 Chichester tax hike, and his support for benefits for same-sex partners are decidedly to the left of the incumbent. Read that again… even Perriello, a former executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, doesn’t go so far either in his positions on fiscal policy or social liberalism.  Attempts to paint himself as something he’s not will simply fail.  Conservatives don’t trust Hurt, liberty-minded voters don’t like Hurt, Tea Party activists see Hurt as the establishment, and VA-05 activists are vehemently opposed to Hurt.  Simply raising the GOP banner and saying “vote Bad over Worse” simply doesn’t fly anymore.

I disagree that Hurt CAN’T beat Rep. Tom Perriello (D-5).  However, there is no question that Hurt is the “establishment candidate”.  House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s support is excellent evidence.  Cantor, once a genuine conservative, has sold his philosophy for the opportunity to sit at the head of the table.  Hurt appears to be struck from the same mold.  The bottom line is that we need FEWER members of Congress like Cantor, not more.

I’m not an idealist.  I’ll leave that to the Paulistinians.  We can’t implement a conservative agenda unless we win races.  However, we can’t implement that agenda by electing candidates like Hurt either.  While never a huge Goode fan, he can be expected to be more consistently conservative than Hurt.

Perhaps it is time for Goode to emerge from the wilderness.

At this time last year we were told that conservatism was dead.  The mainstream media was even claiming:

WE’RE ALL SOCIALIST NOW.

My, how things have changed in such a short period of time.

2010 can truly be a HAPPY NEW YEAR, but it will DEPEND ON YOU!  We’re in a war – a WAR OF IDEAS.  To win this war, you need to stay informed, and stay involved.

Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore has been named as the new President and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.  The foundation, and its predecessors have been a key part of the conservative movement. 

Reached at his Henrico County home, Gilmore said that he no longer practices law and plans to devote most of his time to the organization. He will also continue to serve on four corporate boards.

Gilmore was governor from 1998 to 2002. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee for 10 months in 2000-2001.  Gilmore ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008 and lost to Democrat Mark R. Warner, who had succeeded Gilmore as governor.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki has endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over GOP candidate Dierdre Scozzafava in the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  Principle over party is now the cry!

As Hoffman narrowly moves into first place in a three way race, we are fast seeing who is willing to take a stand:

• George Pataki
• Sarah Palin
• Tim Pawlenty
• Sen. Jim DeMint
• Fred Thompson
• Steve Forbes
• Dick Armey
• Tom Cole (former RNCC chair)
• Ed Meese
• David Keene
• Al Regnery
• David McIntosh
• Brent Bozell
• Jim Miller
• Richard Viguerie
• Tony Perkins
• Tom Winter
• Ken Blackwell
• Craig Shirley

Who is supporting Scozzafava?

• Michael Steele
• Newt Gingrich
• The RNCC

Gingrich has ceded all ties to the conservative movement with this move.  Steele never had any.  Their support of liberal Wayne Gilchrest merely made them look foolish.  However, this race has the potential to be as meaningful to conservatives as the 1976 GOP presidential primaries.  Assuming Hoffman pulls off a victory, Steele’s resignation should be demanded immediately.  Those on the RNC who voted for Steele over Ken Blackwell should be ashamed!  As for the RNCC, no conservative should donate a dime as long as the House GOP caucus is led by the likes of Boehner and Cantor (see below).

Worst of all – Who is standing on the sidelines?

• John Boehner
• Eric Cantor
• Mike Huckabee
• Mitt Romney

This is merely a warm-up for next year.  We are witnessing the GOP elite support statist candidates over true conservatives.  We need to support people like Marco Rubio in Florida and Chuck DeVore in California.  As Neil Stevens recently reminded us, there are two kinds of Republicans.  We know which kind our country needs.