I have never been happier to announce to the world that I was wrong. My sources now tell me that the Frederick County Republican Central Committee has not indicated that it was favoring one candidate over another to complete the term of Delegate Weldon who is expected to retire.
The cellphone connection, noise on the MARC train and quite possibly my readiness to believe the worst of the GOP following the NY-23 debacle, led me to the conclusion I posted last weekend.
And while I don't live in either New York's 23rd district nor Maryland's 3b, the activities of the local GOP in both places concern me and should concern all Republicans. Local politics is becoming less and less local anymore as elected officials are considering more legislation that affects an ever broadening constituency.
It is indeed unfortunate that we cannot sit by and let local politics play out. We all have a stake in MD-3b, now, as we do in all state legislative and congressional districts. So I hope that the Frederick County GOP selects the conservative candidate to represent Frederick County and all of Maryland in the General Assembly.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Have We Learned Nothing?
Recently I have become aware of certain activities of Republicans in Maryland who seem to have been in a coma for the past six months or so and are blissfully ignorant of the events leading up to and the conclusion of recent elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.
Let's start with MD's state District 3b currently represented by Del. Richard Weldon, who after being abandoned by the GOP (a la Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe) changed his party affiliation and is now an Independent. Del. Weldon is rumored to be retiring before the end of his term presenting the Frederick County Republican Central Committee with the opportunity to replace him with someone who doesn't feel abandoned by the GOP.
(Why does the GOP get to fill the looming vacancy when the seat was held by an Independent? Perhaps one my MD GOP political savants can comment.)
And who do the Frederick County Republican party pooh-bahs seem to be favoring? The Liberal, of course. Now, liberal and conservative are relative terms. That's what we were told by Dede Scozzafava's Stupid Party supporters this Fall during the campaign in New York's 23rd Congressional District. We shouldn't judge her unfit just because she was less conservative than Barry Goldwater, we were told. When we found out that she was actually less liberal than Maureen Dowd, it was too late.
The "liberal" being favored by the GOP in Frederick County, according to my sources, is Katherine Nash. She has been involved in GOP politics since 2006, as near as as I can tell. There's not much I can find on her that is a matter of recent public record, but she was according, to her posts on theTentacle blog an early critic of Gov. O'Malley and his tax-hiking Democrats. In her blog posts she comes across as more of a political operative than a passionate ideologue. But she is still young ("20-something" according to her theTentacle bio) and may therefore be a member of "the generation that gets it," as Margaret Hoover would describe those young Republicans for whom same-sex marriage is not only inevitable but a natural and inalienable right protected by the Constitution.
The "conservative" candidate, apparently not being considered by the FCRCC is Michael Hough (huff), also a member of the FCRCC and previous candidate for the District 3b seat. Hough, as you can see on his website, has taken clearly conservative positions on a number of issues and has the backing of many conservative Republicans in Maryland.
While I don't want to unfairly associate someone with Margaret Hoover or Mrs. Scozzafava, I do want to implore the Frederick County GOP not to make the same mistake that the NY-23 GOP made. I don't know whether Nash is a liberal. I assume that the FCRCC and local GOP leaders do know, however, and if they, with eyes wide open, pick a liberal over the conservative then that would be a real tragedy.
Let's start with MD's state District 3b currently represented by Del. Richard Weldon, who after being abandoned by the GOP (a la Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe) changed his party affiliation and is now an Independent. Del. Weldon is rumored to be retiring before the end of his term presenting the Frederick County Republican Central Committee with the opportunity to replace him with someone who doesn't feel abandoned by the GOP.
(Why does the GOP get to fill the looming vacancy when the seat was held by an Independent? Perhaps one my MD GOP political savants can comment.)
And who do the Frederick County Republican party pooh-bahs seem to be favoring? The Liberal, of course. Now, liberal and conservative are relative terms. That's what we were told by Dede Scozzafava's Stupid Party supporters this Fall during the campaign in New York's 23rd Congressional District. We shouldn't judge her unfit just because she was less conservative than Barry Goldwater, we were told. When we found out that she was actually less liberal than Maureen Dowd, it was too late.
The "liberal" being favored by the GOP in Frederick County, according to my sources, is Katherine Nash. She has been involved in GOP politics since 2006, as near as as I can tell. There's not much I can find on her that is a matter of recent public record, but she was according, to her posts on theTentacle blog an early critic of Gov. O'Malley and his tax-hiking Democrats. In her blog posts she comes across as more of a political operative than a passionate ideologue. But she is still young ("20-something" according to her theTentacle bio) and may therefore be a member of "the generation that gets it," as Margaret Hoover would describe those young Republicans for whom same-sex marriage is not only inevitable but a natural and inalienable right protected by the Constitution.
The "conservative" candidate, apparently not being considered by the FCRCC is Michael Hough (huff), also a member of the FCRCC and previous candidate for the District 3b seat. Hough, as you can see on his website, has taken clearly conservative positions on a number of issues and has the backing of many conservative Republicans in Maryland.
While I don't want to unfairly associate someone with Margaret Hoover or Mrs. Scozzafava, I do want to implore the Frederick County GOP not to make the same mistake that the NY-23 GOP made. I don't know whether Nash is a liberal. I assume that the FCRCC and local GOP leaders do know, however, and if they, with eyes wide open, pick a liberal over the conservative then that would be a real tragedy.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Who Will We Blame?
On Sunday, the day after the House passed legislation that will bankrupt the United States of America and lead to the demise of our constitutional form of government, I was discussing the matter with my parents. It was my mother, in response to my need to reduce seemingly incomprehensibly complex entanglements down to a single point of causation, the better to craft a solution, who asked: "Why would they DO that?" referring to US citizens and educated voters who willingly vote to impoverish and enslave us all.
Of course, the 'Why' part was not crucial to my single-point-of-causation quest, but it was and is something to think about. As I asked last week, who do they think they are fooling? Again these are educated people to whom history is known and knowable, for whom logical progressions should be easy to apply.
And of course the answer is obvious: Lust for wealth and political power. To apply this theory let us turn to one of the most underestimated and most misunderstood of American institutions, the Chamber of Commerce. Local, state and national versions of this institution made up of member businesses together represent the very fabric of life in America. Chamber of Commerce members are our employers, major taxpayers, and a voting bloc. In politics the Chamber is an influential fundraiser and contributor. Its leaders, having attained their positions by dint of knowing more members than their rivals for such positions in most cases (rather like some obsessive-compulsive Twitter or Facebook fiend's pursuit of followers and "friends") are held up as credible sources of wisdom on this matter and that.
However, as capitalists members of "evil profit-driven" corporations, they are also oppressors and exploiters of poor Latin and South American farmers, sweat-shop operators and slumlords the world over. And above all, they are....REPUBLICANS!! This means, of course, that they are racist and bigoted white men, most of the time, when it suits the Liberal Democrats.
In reality the Chambers of Commerce across the land are made up of people who are just one thing, all the time: businessmen and businesswomen. They are business leaders first, American citizens second, and they prove it with every political stand they take.
And that would be fine with me. I know where they stand and it is on whichever side stands to make the most money the soonest. But not everyone has this clear understanding of the Chamber of Commerce, and that suits them just fine. Most people, if you took a poll, would say they trust the COC in matters of finance and fiscal and monetary policy. Some of the biggest corporations in world, now owned by the American taxpayer and controlled by the Obama administration, are major members of state and national chambers of commerce. They used their power and influence on what would make the biggest and fastest buck and didn't give the American way of life a second thought.
So it is up to people like you and me, to make sure that the rest of our community is aware of what the local, state, and national chambers represent. We must demand that our civic leaders reject their counsel and stop holding them up as keepers of financial wisdom. I will stop short of demanding that the chambers of commerce stay out of politics and just do what they do the best, make money. Because they have every right to political free speech as anyone.
Next month they will oppose Cap and Trade legislation in the Senate. Good for us. The month after that they will support legislation granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Good for them, bad for us.
And it has been exactly one year since the Maryland state Chamber of Commerce promised us that we would all be swimming in money if only we would approve an amendment to the state Constitution allowing casino operators to install 5,000 slot machines in various places.
They have proven that their advice is worse than worthless, it is dangerous. The question is, what will you do about it? Who will you have to blame the next time you buy this or that political plum the chamber of commerce tries to sell you?
Of course, the 'Why' part was not crucial to my single-point-of-causation quest, but it was and is something to think about. As I asked last week, who do they think they are fooling? Again these are educated people to whom history is known and knowable, for whom logical progressions should be easy to apply.
And of course the answer is obvious: Lust for wealth and political power. To apply this theory let us turn to one of the most underestimated and most misunderstood of American institutions, the Chamber of Commerce. Local, state and national versions of this institution made up of member businesses together represent the very fabric of life in America. Chamber of Commerce members are our employers, major taxpayers, and a voting bloc. In politics the Chamber is an influential fundraiser and contributor. Its leaders, having attained their positions by dint of knowing more members than their rivals for such positions in most cases (rather like some obsessive-compulsive Twitter or Facebook fiend's pursuit of followers and "friends") are held up as credible sources of wisdom on this matter and that.
However, as capitalists members of "evil profit-driven" corporations, they are also oppressors and exploiters of poor Latin and South American farmers, sweat-shop operators and slumlords the world over. And above all, they are....REPUBLICANS!! This means, of course, that they are racist and bigoted white men, most of the time, when it suits the Liberal Democrats.
In reality the Chambers of Commerce across the land are made up of people who are just one thing, all the time: businessmen and businesswomen. They are business leaders first, American citizens second, and they prove it with every political stand they take.
And that would be fine with me. I know where they stand and it is on whichever side stands to make the most money the soonest. But not everyone has this clear understanding of the Chamber of Commerce, and that suits them just fine. Most people, if you took a poll, would say they trust the COC in matters of finance and fiscal and monetary policy. Some of the biggest corporations in world, now owned by the American taxpayer and controlled by the Obama administration, are major members of state and national chambers of commerce. They used their power and influence on what would make the biggest and fastest buck and didn't give the American way of life a second thought.
So it is up to people like you and me, to make sure that the rest of our community is aware of what the local, state, and national chambers represent. We must demand that our civic leaders reject their counsel and stop holding them up as keepers of financial wisdom. I will stop short of demanding that the chambers of commerce stay out of politics and just do what they do the best, make money. Because they have every right to political free speech as anyone.
Next month they will oppose Cap and Trade legislation in the Senate. Good for us. The month after that they will support legislation granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Good for them, bad for us.
And it has been exactly one year since the Maryland state Chamber of Commerce promised us that we would all be swimming in money if only we would approve an amendment to the state Constitution allowing casino operators to install 5,000 slot machines in various places.
They have proven that their advice is worse than worthless, it is dangerous. The question is, what will you do about it? Who will you have to blame the next time you buy this or that political plum the chamber of commerce tries to sell you?
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Who Do They Think They Are Fooling?
I am talking about the 39 Democrats who voted NOE last night, one of whom was our own Frank Kratovil. Do they really expect their constituents to believe that they voted against Speaker Peolsi because they considered the bill to be an affront to our Constitutional form of government and a threat to what is without a doubt the best healthcare system in the known universe?
By the way for excellent coverage of the vote and other recent political matters you could do worse than checking with the TCOT Report.
Do they really think their constituents are that stupid? I can't wait to hear how these same liberal Democrats who regularly nod their heads when Michael Moore and Al Gore tell us how good the Cuban people have it healthcare-wise and how badly the United States is polluting the Earth, explain how they suddenly had reservations about all the bad affects on their constituents' this bill, a bill they could never have read, would have.
I can't wait to read how the hard-hitting newshounds at the Annapolis Kapital ask Kratovil to explain why, really, he decided to vote against Pelosi-care. Here's how I think that interview would go:
And we can all thank the District 1 Libertarians who could have sent Andy Harris to Congress last year instead of Kratovil. Harris would have voted NOE for principled reasons in a vote that actually would have made a difference. But no, 8,000 Libertarians thought their candidate had a snowball's chance in Hell, when, time after time, election after election has proven otherwise. Gee, maybe the 2010 election will be different! What is the definition of insanity?
By the way for excellent coverage of the vote and other recent political matters you could do worse than checking with the TCOT Report.
Do they really think their constituents are that stupid? I can't wait to hear how these same liberal Democrats who regularly nod their heads when Michael Moore and Al Gore tell us how good the Cuban people have it healthcare-wise and how badly the United States is polluting the Earth, explain how they suddenly had reservations about all the bad affects on their constituents' this bill, a bill they could never have read, would have.
I can't wait to read how the hard-hitting newshounds at the Annapolis Kapital ask Kratovil to explain why, really, he decided to vote against Pelosi-care. Here's how I think that interview would go:
Kapital News Hound: Congressman, what exactly in the bill led you to vote against it last night when the vast majority of the Democratic caucus voted to approve it?Well, you get the idea. Perhaps one of those enlightened "Rockfish Republicans" out there would care to explain how they feel about their man in Washington's playing them for the saps that they are.
Kratovil: Well, the concept of the federal government micromanaging the health care decisions of the voters in my district just turns my stomach. I believe it was my duty to vote against this bill and protect my constituents from such an expansion of the federal government's intrusion into their lives.
KNH: But Congressman, with all due respect, we never really heard much in the way of your opposition to the bill until just a few days before the vote.
Kratovil: Well maybe that's because you never asked...
KNH: How do you answer your critics who could be forgiven for thinking that you voted against the Bill for purely political reasons?
Kratovil: I would say this, that it was my duty to represent the interests of the voters of my district who have made it clear that they did not favor this bill.
KNH: So we can assume, then Congressman, that District 1 voters did approve of the $800 billion stimulus law and the Cap and Trade legislation, both of which will adversely impact the federal deficit and the economy?
Kratovil: Yes.
KNH: What did you do, other than cast a vote you knew would not cause the defeat of the bill, to oppose the effort by the rest of the Democrats to expand the scope of government to an unprecendented degree in a free society?
Kratovil: Ummmmm....
KNH: Did you read the bill?
Kratovil: .....ummmm....
And we can all thank the District 1 Libertarians who could have sent Andy Harris to Congress last year instead of Kratovil. Harris would have voted NOE for principled reasons in a vote that actually would have made a difference. But no, 8,000 Libertarians thought their candidate had a snowball's chance in Hell, when, time after time, election after election has proven otherwise. Gee, maybe the 2010 election will be different! What is the definition of insanity?
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