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New Hampshire Debate Recap: Bachmann Belongs, Santorum Shines, and Newt Successfully Re-Boots

What The Heck Do Voters Want Anyways?: A Rare Defense of The American Politician

“They are all weasels.” “You can’t trust any of them so why should I care?” “All they care about is getting re-elected so what’s the point?”


For generations the biggest criticism of politics, and one that drives millions of Americans to “tune out,” is that politicians say one thing then do another. This is the sentiment expressed by our friends who hate politics, and we all have them, when they say various forms of the quotes listed above. The sad truth is that even for those of us who love it, it’s a point that proves hard to argue.


If the problem was this simple I would say that the solution would be equally so, but there is more at play here. The surest and quickest way to remove political hypocrisy and gamesmanship from the landscape is to stop electing and re-electing career politicians. There are certainly potential downsides to electing less experienced political leaders, I won’t go into them here, but dishonesty and duplicity are not among them. By both nature and definition it stands to reason that politicians will play politics, and that you have a much better chance of getting principled leadership and conviction from those who are not. While far from groundbreaking this logic is undeniable and the beauty of it is that it would work equally well for both sides of the aisle…a true bi-partisan solution. So what’s the catch?

While this addresses the much complained about problem of political hypocrisy, it leaves untouched a problem that no one ever seems to talk about…voter hypocrisy. That’s right, it’s time to turn the lens on the American voter and call them out for being [. . .]

New Hampshire Debate Recap: Bachmann Belongs, Santorum Shines, and Newt Successfully Re-Boots

Violence Can’t Solve America’s Problems

The shooting in at a Tucson political meeting Saturday was abhorrent.  We are praying for the injured and the families of those who died. And for the young man who thought this was somehow an answer to our nation's problems. Gabrielle Giffords did nothing to deserve this or any violent attack.  I don't know a lot about the Arizona congresswoman, but in briefly reviewing her web site, I'm struck by the fact that she has been driving a campaign for fiscal restraint, including reducing Congressional pay.  At the moment, I see her as one of the good guys.  But even people like Barney Frank and Charlie Rangel do not deserve to be attacked violently. It seems that the shooter is possibly a deranged conspiracy theorist.  Unfortunately, there are times when the lines blur between some of these folks and legitimate political advocates.  Although I've heard that there are some that are already pointing fingers at conservative organizations as if they are [...]
New Hampshire Debate Recap: Bachmann Belongs, Santorum Shines, and Newt Successfully Re-Boots

A New Year, A New Congress

Out with the old, in with the new, goes the standard cliche every year about this time.  No, this is not a reference to Nancy Pelosi's age, although incoming House Speaker John Boehner is 9 years younger.  Speaker Boehner does represent a new attitude and the resulting optimism is being reflected in the markets and the broader economy. Consider:
  • Retail sales, Christmas sales, were up significantly over 2009
  • Consumer and business confidence for November and December have inched higher
  • Jobless numbers are moving downward, evidenced by today's ADP employment report that suggested 297,000 new private sector jobs were created in December (this is a big number!)
This is not a coincidence.  This is, however a [...]
New Hampshire Debate Recap: Bachmann Belongs, Santorum Shines, and Newt Successfully Re-Boots

Steve Scheffler: It’s Time To Replace Steele

Steve SchefflerSteve Scheffler is Iowa's National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee and serves along with Kim Lehman, Iowa's National Committeewoman, in representing Iowa Republicans on the National Committee. Steve provided the following update regarding his thoughts about the upcoming RNC Chair election about a week and a half ago. I had hoped to get it posted earlier, but the holidays have been too enjoyable to focus on other things.

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As your Republican National Committeeman for Iowa, I wanted to give you an update on the race for Chairman of the Republican National Committee. The election will be held on January 14, 2011 and we will be electing a chairman for a 2-year term. I had the privilege of attending a candidate forum on December 1st and then also a candidate interview process on December 2nd. All the announced or potential candidates for chairman appeared at the interview session except for the current chairman, Michael Steele. Each candidate was given an ample period of time to make their case to be the chairman. Each of these individual interview sessions was followed by a 30 minute Q & A time. The candidates who [...]
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