Lawmaker News

War changes people. After the Mexican War, contention between the urban, industrializing Northeast and the rustics of the heartland was no longer metaphysical. It began to take form as physical contention. After the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, war that had been brewing — in Churchill’s estimation — since the Boer wars began to bring blood to the streets, and it wouldn’t stop flowing until Yalta. It began in 1914, but America wasn’t fully ready to fight until Pearl Harbor, 1941. And as Ulysses S. Grant said about earlier conflict: If you didn’t serve you would be left out. We have been at war for 10 years now and those pundits, politicians and salon diplomats most reluctant to go at first lead the way here at the end against Gadhafi. Last to serve, they end up at the front of the parade when the war is over. 'Twas ever thus in war. My uncles and cousins and grand-uncles and great-grand-uncles, participants in peace and war from Cemetery Ridge to Khe Sahn, had a name for them: “flag wavers.”

I will give Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) the respect of treating him as a serious candidate for the presidency. Paul is the chairman of an important monetary policy committee in the House and potential president. If his views expressed in The Hill and elsewhere calling for rejection of any debt-ceiling increase were the policy of any president or either house of Congress, he would cause a stock- and bond-market crash and possibly a global depression.

The pure politics of this are spectacular for Democrats. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who sees her opportunity to return as Speaker, is now going to Wisconsin to directly take on Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whose Medicare plan is a disaster for Republicans.

Pelosi goes on the attack in Wisconsin at a moment when Ryan and Republicans are on the defensive about Medicare, when Democrats have a good chance of regaining control of the Wisconsin Senate in upcoming recall votes, and when Democrats have a chance of winning a House special election in New York over the issue of Medicare. That special election should not even be competitive, but Democrats might now win it.

On Sunday, Massachusetts incumbent Scott Brown delivered the commencement address at Lasell College. Commencement speeches by politicians are rarely newsworthy, but this speech was, because it exposed Brown’s penchant for political double-speak.

Instead of using the platform to inspire young people to achieve great things, as most commencement speakers do, Brown used it to launch an ad hominem attack on Democrats in the Massachusetts state House and to highlight the corruption trial of a former elected official. Surely, partisan attacks are strange subject matter for a commencement, but even stranger when you consider Brown’s distaste for what he defines as “partisan attacks.”

Most political commentators on cable and pundits in the media do fully understand one of the big sleeper issues that could dramatically affect the campaign. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) will probably be the only presidential candidate in either party taking an unequivocal position to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan and engage in a broader withdrawal of our military around the world at a time when voters are tired of war and budgets are strained to crisis levels.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) will win tonight's big Republican debate because he will be the only candidate discussing serious ideas in a Republican field that is one of the weakest in modern presidential politics.

Since most Republican candidates with a chance to win are not participating in tonight's debate, it will be a test of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. My guess is that Pawlenty will be trying to appease various Republicans while Dr. Paul will be clearly advocating his ideas and will win the battle of the sound bites after the formal debate has ended.

In the hours following President Obama’s stunning and exhilarating announcement that U.S. Special Forces had raided a compound in Pakistan and found and killed Osama bin Laden, congressional Republican leaders went out of their way to thank President George W. Bush for his role in the hunt for Public Enemy No. 1.

After two years of insisting that Bush’s responsibility for all things ended the day President Obama was sworn in, now they are pushing the meme that the retired president had a role in an operation that began more than a year after he departed the White House. This is their “none of the accountability, all the credit” messaging strategy.

A phrase recently appeared in the MSM: “anti-establishment conservatives.” Brings to mind that well-worn phrase of the ’60s, “counterculture.” But modeled for a new century and for new generations. Sarah Palin first busted out and today conservatism — from Rand Paul and Judge Andrew Napolitano to former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Donald Trump — brims with creativity. It brings a change of paradigm to American politics and culture and suggests a forceful will and intelligence at work in its desire to become real. Commentator Michael Barone compared the change to that of the ’60s. There are now three elements: Democrats, Republicans and the new conservative counterculture which has no real name yet. By 2012 it could well become the new mainstream.

Twice this week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made public statements that were later corrected, and in effect contradicted, by his spokesman. Both embarrassing episodes leave rank-and-file Republicans wondering exactly who the Speaker of the House is — John Boehner or his spokesman?

First, Boehner said he was open to the idea of repealing massive tax breaks for the Big Oil companies. Those companies, expected to report obscene record profits in the next few days, benefit from the Big Oil Welfare Tax on Americans — a tax break of more than $4 billion a year paid for with taxpayer money.

“Americans are screaming at the top of their lungs to STOP, and yet Democrats here in Washington continue to forge ahead. Why? Because they’re not listening.

”Republicans have been listening to the American people, and we’re going to continue to listen to the American people. But right now, we need Americans to stand with us to make sure that this bill never, ever, ever becomes law.” — then-House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on March 16, 2010
 
“For all those who supported the health law, it’s an opportunity to re-evaluate your vote. To listen to your constituents who are desperately trying to get your attention. You can say, ‘Perhaps this was a mistake. We can do this better.’ Or you can continue to dismiss the majority of the people in this country as not knowing what they’re talking about." — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), The Hill, Feb. 1, 2011