If you think you’ve heard them all, try again.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) claims that the Democrats are “playing it straight” regarding their possible attempt to sleaze ObamaCare into law without making House Dems actually vote on the matter.

I’m pretty jaded, but this one takes the cake:

"We are playing it straight," Hoyer insisted. He said American voters would not care what process Congress uses to enact a sweeping health care overhaul and would focus instead on the merits of the new law.

At the same time, he defended the use of the procedural sidestep, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that she was considering employing. He cited statistics that, he said, showed that Republicans had used "deeming" process about twice as often as Democrats over the years.

Hoyer did not specify what period of time or what types of legislation were approved using the procedure.

When, exactly, did the House Republicans ever use this tactic?  Honestly, I’d like to know.  IF – and that’s a BIG IF – Hoyer is not lying, I want to know if any of these GOP pirates are still in office.  If they are we should find primary opponents for those guys.  Proposing to pass legislation without actually voting on it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  It doesn’t matter if the GOP did it in the past, it’s WRONG.  But even IF Hoyer is telling the truth, I guess his Mom never taught him that two wrongs don’t make a right.

I’m a conservative, not a radical.  However, if House Dems actually use this tactic of “deeming” a bill to have passed to force ObamaCare on an unwilling electorate it’s time to take to the streets.

Back in the early ‘80’s, I remember my Intermediate Macroeconomics professor wasting half of a semester extolling the virtues of Marxist economic theory.  One day, I simply had to ask – Does anyone, even YOU, actually believe this nonsense?  His response?  “Well, it’s a valid economic theory”.  Well, I have finally come across someone who actually seems to believe that nonsense.

cassandra_m, over at DelawareLiberal, extols the virtues of Cap and Tax by claiming that Delaware has made over $2 million from selling “carbon credits”.  Sorry cassandra, Delaware TAXED power companies an ADDITIONAL $2 million.  You can call it whatever you want, but IT’S A TAX!  It’s a transfer.  It produces NOTHING!

Here’s how it works in the real world (vs. the imaginary, Marxist, MoveOn.org world):

Power companies are TAXED $2 million for “carbon credits”.  One of three things occur.  One, your power bill rises to make up for the lost $2 million.  Two, instead of raising rates the power company simply takes a reduction in profit.  This means that money will not be returned to shareholders to be put to a PRODUCTIVE use or needed capital upgrades will not occur.  The capital expenditures actually CREATE WEALTH and help to GROW THE ECONOMY (so does returning the money to shareholders).  Three, there is some combination of one and two.

Something tells me that cassandra sat in on the same economics class as WCBOE superintendent John Fredericksen.

As if there was ever any doubt, the answer is …

BIG LABOR and the LOONEY LEFT

“Unstable Isotope” (and appropriate name if ever there was one) over at DelawareLiberal tells all how it really is in the world of Democrat politics:

The party has united behind the bill. 83% of MoveOn members support its passage and organized labor has threatened to primary Democrats who vote against reform. At the same time, the opposition to the bill is weakening and is less organized. The Democratic party’s fortunes in 2010 and beyond are tied up in this bill and I think most Democrats know this.

That’s right folks!  America is OVERWHELMINGLY opposed to ObamaCare; but that doesn’t count.  No – 83% of MoveOn.org members and the SEIU want it.

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 has a great piece about Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) (along with Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)) being the only person to stand up and fight the extension of the Obama PORKULUS.  Bunning deserves our gratitude.

While his colleagues were watching the Olympics or fundraising, it was Bunning who stood firm and kept objecting to attempts by the Senate majority to sleaze through more wasteful spending.  I wonder where his colleague and fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell was?

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.

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.

President Barack Obama will be paying a visit to Baltimore Friday.  Obama is scheduled to visit an unidentified small business and address a retreat of House Republicans.  Given that Congressional Dems seem to lock the GOP out of everything meaningful going on in Congress, I thought it was mighty kind of the Republicans to invite the left’s once upon a time messiah.

I was wondering if Obama was going to hand out any “cash from his stash” while visiting Charm City.