Political News On Steele, Bipartisanship, Stevens, Greenspan: Are These Now Trivial?

I’ve been communicating on the Internet for about 15 years, mostly with email and in Blogging beginning in early 2007. I’ve always tended to have spurts when I wrote about a lot of things and have quoted Wm. F. Buckley’s explanation of how he produced 3 columns a week: “I’m reliably provoked at least 3 times a week.” That’s still the case now, and a few things have bothered me the past day or two. But, I’ll try to mention them before what seems to me a bigger question.

There is much comment for the past day or two in political talk, right, left, and supposedly neutral, about RNC Chair Michael Steele and the reports of supposedly extravagant expenses and a charge by some apparent lackey of around $2000 at a girly bar. Steele responded on Good Morning America, Monday morning. Today, a substitute on a conservative talk show called for Steele’s resignation/replacement. His justifications seemed misplaced to me and the whole idea looked like a trap. I was thinking that he’s just a sub, so ignore it and go on, and I did, to another station. But I returned near the end of the next hour for the next program, to find him still on on the same topic! Before I had left I had already heard what I had feared: conservative callers (lemmings?) calling in their affirmations: “Yeah! Show that we don’t approve of the extravagance and contradiction to the values of much of the party!” If there were more of it, I might have pulled my hair out!

The guy complained repeatedly of living large with chartered planes and limousines, an $18,000 office redecoration, and the girlie bar charge. OK, tell the flunky who put a girly bar charge on the party credit card that that was not prudent or even that he’s canned. $18,000 in office redecoration is probably the smallest office update of the CEO of the smallest corporation. Chartering jets for meetings or to entertain donors (or clients or prospects in the corporate world) is really not news, either. And not only company officers, but every corporate salesman rents limos to appointments or at airports. I was one. So, some people who work at other jobs aren’t familiar with that. But please, let’s have some perspective, people! You spend money for what you are courting. The RNC is trying to raise hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. You don’t do that from an office in a garage! And the guy in charge ain’t in gym shoes and a Volkswagen.

I don’t agree with everything that Michael Steele says, but he isn’t the problem and this is a setup. As I knew they would, media are already reporting on infighting and disarray in The Republican Party. Listen, the great momentum of the Republican Party over the past year, is the movement of large numbers of Independents and Democrats in reaction to Democrat excesses. How soon we forget. Remember Scott Brown in Massachusetts in January? All these people need is an ambiguous Republican Party to encourage them to stay home and let the Democrat base minimize their losses in November. The old line says that Democrats are the Dangerous Party and Republicans are The Stupid Party. They’ve well shown how they are dangerous. Is it our turn to be stupid?

Also, John Kyl was on FOX News Sunday and responded to Chris Wallace, who read a quote from Kyl before the health care law passage in which he said the Democrats’ methods in the health care process were threatening future bipartisanship. Wallace asked, “Does that mean after the health care passage Republicans won’t cooperate with the president and Democrats. Kyl said, “No, not at all.” I like John Kyl and I know it’s standard politics to be all “bipartisan.” But these are non-standard times. In my lifetime of massive debts, this one is scarcely comprehensible, let alone manageable even under ideal circumstances. In one year, these people have spent more money than every government in U.S. history PUT TOGETHER! So perhaps some Republicans need braces for those weak political knees. Correct answer: “With the financial calamity we are looking at, I have ZERO interest in any “bipartisanship” that means an inch of government growth or spending one thin friggin’ dime! Next question.”

Along similar political lines, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens who will be 90 in a few weeks, is declaring his intention to (finally) retire soon. FOX’s Brit Hume, whom I also like very much, gave the conventional prediction of easy confirmation of a liberal replacement. Kyl had also been asked about this, but refused to rule out a filibuster, saying that he didn’t think judicial nominees should be filibustered, but “We can see how that would work out if only one side respected that.” Democrats had distinctively filibustered Bush’s judicial nominees until a deal was made to keep Republicans from changing the rules on judicial nominees, an ealier incarnation of “the nuclear option.” Again, the times are unique and critical. So, you want to win back Congress to undo some of this social and fiscal mess? And, you’ll go to all that trouble only to watch The Supreme Court can strike down much of your work with jurisprudential misconstructions? Take your conventional etiquette. Put Obama on notice: “Send us activist legal designers and we’ll filibuster them so fast it’ll make your head spin.” Conventional wisdom says he’ll take his obstructionist case to the people. They should say as he did about health care repeal: “Go for it!” Let the people decide if they want judicial tyrants to replace an unconstitutional legislative. I feel not only right about that, but pretty safe, right now.

But all of this will seem triviality when big problems hit that mean bond downgrading, default or hyperinflation, all of which are on the porch steps. Yesterday, we posted a Harris County GOP link to a petition calling for a special session to renounce federal health care, and it got a lot of attention.. Set aside the that cruel reality that humans don’t behave to comport with liberal fantasies, and will FORCE at least great qualifications. The unprecedented assertion of states looks to me like the only way out of this mess and also the endless ridiculous arguments of national social engineers, which I’ve had up to my neck. Take your fantasies elsewhere!