Ken Blackwell’s Case For Republican National Committee Chair

I’d like to see Ken Blackwell become the next RNC Chairman. He would be great for the GOP and the right man to get the party going in the right direction again.

Amanda Carpenter over at Town Hall has this:

If elected RNC Chairman Blackwell’s mission would be to change the culture of the RNC, which he thinks has become too dependent on Washington connections cultivated with the soon-to-be nonexistent Bush Administration. To help make the break, he’s pitched RNC members on a new revenue sharing program that would kick-back ten percent of net fundraising proceeds to state parties. “The whole fundraising apparatus is so inside-the-Beltway oriented that I have seen a true responsiveness to my revenue sharing program,” Blackwell said, “No longer are we going to send a staffer to state and then act as if they were my Whip.”

That would certainly be a good thing. But what I like the most is the following:

He spoke frankly about his desire to steer the RNC in a conservative direction, even amid an environment when many politicos say the organization needs to become more moderate in order to compete in future elections. “We want to know that folks are not going out and embracing candidates who only believe in 20 percent of our platform,” he said adding, however that he recognized “the political realities in Rhode Island are different than Mississippi. He said the GOP platform is “just a collection of papers if people are not living it.” When asked how he might influence candidates to embracing the full platform he referred to Rule 11 of the party’s rules which prohibits the RNC from contributing money to any candidate who is not formally nominated by the party. “I might make that a little easier to invoke,” he said.

That would go a long, long way to getting the RINOs out of the party and replacing them with candidates who are more solidly Conservative. This is what the party needs more than anything else.

My vote is Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Blackwell’s Case For RNC Chair
Amanda Carpenter
TownHall.com
January 8, 2009

Let The McCain Mutiny Begin! Excerpts From John McCain’s Speech Last Night

Senator Obama has been cut off at the knees. First his right knee, then his left knee. John McCain and Sarah Palin have stolen Obama’s platform and made it their own. The McCain/Palin ticket now represents true change while the Obama/Biden ticket represents more of the old, stale, self-serving politics that have been going on in the halls of Congress for longer than it ever should have.

As such, John McCain is staging a mutiny. It is a mutiny that began in the Republican Party and now, with his acceptance of the Republican nomination for President, it is a mutiny against the establishment of powers that be in Washington D.C. I would be proud to call myself a McCain Mutineer.

What does this mutiny entail? You can learn that from various points he made during his speech last night. Here are some excerpts:

I’ve fought corruption, and it didn’t matter if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. They violated their public trust, and they had to be held accountable.

Being that Nancy Pelosi has failed miserably in her promise to end corruption in Congress, it will be the McCain/Palin administration that will finally begin the work that Nancy Pelosi never even started. And what makes this issue stand out in contrast to the Obama/Biden ticket is that there is no equivalent of a John McCain or Sarah Plain in the Democrat Party. None. No Democrat is standing up to the corrupt or questionable behavior of other Democrats. No one.

And this:

I’ve fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names.

I have no doubt whatsoever that when Senator McCain spoke those words, hundreds of members of Congress had to go and grab a bottle of Tums or Rolaids to counteract the acid reflux that results when fear suddenly enters the body. This is the promise of a transparent government. Senator McCain has just promised the American people that bills and legislation that get passed as a result of back-room deals made outside the view of television cameras will be made public and he will reveal the names of those who made the deals and what they were personally expecting to get out of those deals.

We Mutineers have chosen our ringleader well.

And one of the most refreshing points on the current state of affairs in D.C. is thus:

We lost — we lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties — and Senator Obama — passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust when we valued our power over our principles. We’re going to change that. We’re going to recover the people’s trust by standing up again to the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.

The ship of state will set a new course, under a new captain. And the baseline of that new course will be the basic principles that the GOP adheres to:

In this country, we believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential, from the boy whose descendents arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers. We’re all God’s children, and we’re all Americans. We believe — we believe in low taxes, spending discipline, and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk-takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor. We believe … We believe — we believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life … … personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don’t legislate from the bench. We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods, and communities. We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of Americans, government that doesn’t make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.

And the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama have become unambiguously clear:

I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open… I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it. My tax cuts will create jobs; his tax increases will eliminate them. My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat … … where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.

And every mutiny is usually the result of some sore point among the crew that the captain is not adequately addressing or simply ignoring altogether. Here is what John McCain said:

Education — education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained, but what is the value of access to a failing school? We need… We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice. Let’s remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work. When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parent — when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have the choice, and their children will have that opportunity. Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucrats. I want schools to answer to parents and students. And when I’m president, they will.

As a parent of a teenager who would have been forced to attend a sub-standard public school had we not the means to send him to a private school, I can certainly relate to this. The McCain Mutiny is spreading farther. And it will continue to spread as the American people become more and more aware of the power they hold as individuals empowered with free will under the law.

And the big issue on all Americans minds, whether Democrat or Republican:

My fellow Americans, when I’m president, we’re going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We’re going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much, and some of that money… We’ll attack — we’ll attack the problem on every front. We’ll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells off-shore, and we’ll drill them now. We’ll drill them now. We’ll — we’ll — my friends, we’ll build more nuclear power plants. We’ll develop clean-coal technology. We’ll increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We’ll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles. Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and restore the health of our planet. My friends … … it’s an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature, and we’ve faced greater challenges. It’s time for us to show the world again how Americans lead. This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity, jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.

Senator McCain knows, as most of America does, that the main component of the current economic downturn is rising energy prices. Senator McCain also knows you counter that by producing more energy. Senator Obama thinks that this can be solved by levying more taxes on those who produce the energy.

His final plea to the American people:

I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your president. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank him, that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on Earth. And with hard work — with hard word, strong faith, and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight for what’s right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America. Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

The battle is joined. It is us against the establishment. In the 1980’s we had the Reagan Revolution.

Today, we have the McCain Mutiny.

Onward to November!

You can access the complete transcript of the speech on-line here:

RAW DATA: Transcript Of McCain’s Nomination Speech At Republican Convention
FoxNews.com
September 4, 2008

Some Interesting Quotes From Last Night’s RNC Activities

Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Like him or hate him, he made a very profound comment to Alan Colmes on Hannity & Colmes last night. I am certain that the left-leaning media is going to completely ignore it or at best white-wash it so that no one recognizes it, but I caught it and I am going to pass it along to you.

When Alan Colmes asked Mayor Guiliani about what achievements Sarah Palin had as Governor of Alaska, the Mayor responded that Gov. Palin stood up to corruption in her own party and further went on to note that she has no counterpart in the Democrat Party. Not satisfied with that answer, Mayor Giuliani also noted how Barack Obama came from Chicago and yet made no effort to clean up the corruption there which meant either Obama was blind or there was no corruption in Chicago at all. Most rationally thinking people who know something about the politics in that region of Illinois can see that Obama must be blind.

Sean Hannity himself noted a few other things that were very important in helping us understand how Old Media has marginalized itself. He noted that many aggressive and belligerent questions have been thrown at Gov. Palin concerning the pregnancy of her teenaged daughter, but not one major media outlet has ever questioned Barack Obama on his relationship with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Such is a prime example of the irresponsibility of Old Media.

But, I would like to have a look at Sen. Fred Thompson’s speech. Certain items stood out either because they were humorous, humorously true or just plain truth. Let’s look at a few of them.

On Gov. Sarah Palin:

Now, she’s from a small town with small-town values, but apparently that’s not good enough for some of the folks who are out there now attacking her and her family. Some Washington pundits and media big-shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. I say give me a tough Alaskan governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state of the union and won over the Beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week. But it’s pretty clear the selection of Governor Palin has got the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. And no wonder: She’s a courageous, successful, reformer who’s not afraid to take on the establishment. She has run a municipality, and she’s run a state. And I think I can say without fear of contradiction she’s the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose … with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt. OK.

And as Mayor Giuliani noted, Gov. Palin does not have a corruption-fighting counterpart in the Democrats.

Sen. Thompson also said something that the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, William Jefferson and many other corrupt members of Congress should be terrified of:

When she and John McCain get to Washington, they’re not going to care how much the alligators get irritated. They’re going to drain that swamp.

We all know about Nancy Pelosi’s deal with T. Boone Pickens and how she has direct influence on legislation that could funnel money in the form of Federal subsidies to the North Texas Wind Farms. Something like that is exactly what the McCain/Palin Administration would go after. If Pelosi were smart, she would be afraid … very afraid.

On Sen. McCain:

Strength, courage, humility, wisdom, duty, honor. It’s pretty clear there are two questions that we’ll never have to ask ourselves: Who is this man? And can we trust this man with the presidency? He’s been to — he’s been to Iraq eight times since 2003. He went seeking truth, not publicity. When he travels abroad, he prefers quietly speaking to the troops amidst the heat and hardships of their daily lives. And the same character that marked John McCain’s military career has also marked his political career. This man, John McCain, is not intimidated by what the polls say or by what is politically safe or popular. At a point in time when the war in Iraq was going badly and the public lost confidence, John stood up and called for more troops. And now we’re winning. … For years, members of Congress, Republican and Democrat alike, have gouged the taxpayer with secret earmark spending. Well, he has never sought an earmark.

When Barack Obama was taking criticism for not visiting the troops, he finally went to Iraq, but only to those places where the cameras were rolling for him. When he discovered that reporters and cameras would not be allowed into the hospital, he cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Just not enough attention for him there.

And we see a comment about Fiscal Conservatism. That is a major issue for us Republicans. We will finally get someone in the White House who will truly fight for economic sanity.

This is key too:

Now, our opponents tell us not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they’re not going to tax your family. No, they’re just going to tax businesses. So unless you buy something from a business, like groceries or clothes or gasoline, or unless you get a paycheck from a business, a big business or a small business, don’t worry, it’s not going to affect you. They say they’re not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the other side of the bucket.

The Republicans understand that it is the consumer who ultimately pays taxes. The Democrats think that money is magically created by businesses and therefore can be confiscated at any time for any reason.

It was a fantastic speech by an exceptional man. Feel free to read the entire transcript on-line here:

RAW DATA: Fred Thompson’s Remarks At GOP Convention
FoxNews.com
September 2, 2008