There is much logic to calls by Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and others for a special counsel to investigate the IRS’ assault on conservative organizations. Unfortunately this tool to restore the public’s trust will most likely not be used. A brief history: During the Watergate scandal in 1973, Attorney General Elliot Richardson appointed Archibald Cox as special prosecutor to investigate the break-in. When Nixon demanded | Read More »
Let’s not over-state the significance of this week’s emerging scandals in Washington. The history of Western civilization is a story of the rise of the standing of the individual against the coercive power of the state. From Socrates‘ poison hemlock, to the Magna Carta, to the French Revolution, to the American Constitutional Convention “we the people” gained ascendency. More recently the power of the state | Read More »
Reality bites. The rich continue to get richer while the middle class and the poor are falling behind. That’s the Democratic narrative, and it is true. Some of this is a continuation of long term trends driven largely by globalization and technology; some is an aftermath of the 2008 Financial crisis; some is a result of Obama administration policies such as Obamacare’s disincentive for small-businesses to | Read More »
One of my favorite writers, Erick Erickson, recently referred to “a time (when) distrust of government is commonly held sentiment.” Trusting government has three dimentions: are they trying to do the right things?; are they competent to do them?; and, are they corrupt? Most of the political energy goes into the first question – and reasonable people can reasonably disagree on the particulars – but | Read More »
Not since his year-long dithering before agreeing to double American troop strength in Afghanistan with a commitment to withdraw by a date certain has President Obama so clearly demonstrated his inability to make important decisions. In the interim there have been many examples of his vacillation – budget negotiations with John Boehner, the Libyan revolt, the Benghazi fiasco, and the drip, drip, drip in Syria | Read More »
Barack Obama has never seemed to be interested in or good at governing – sometimes to the detriment of the nation, and sometimes to our benefit. The paramount question four months into his second term is who will guide the ship of state through 2016. A few points in evidence: – Exhibit number one is the failed effort to do something – anything – after | Read More »
At a recent large family outing I got cornered by a liberal Democrat who was lamenting the growing disparity between the rich and the poor and the bleak prospects for the younger generation. With the hard-earned lesson that one doesn’t seek converts in such settings, we steered off to the steep financial bifurcation in sports, music, and writing. Here is what I would have liked | Read More »
One could make the case – and Dinesh D’Souza has quite convincingly – that President Obama’s policies for much of the world reflect the anti-imperial activism of his Kenyan father and, to a lesser extent, his Indonesian stepfather. Thus, his non-response to the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. Thus his retreat from Iraq without leaving any forces behind. Thus his leaving the | Read More »
Enough of being the “Party of No”. Republicans have had a tough few years trying to be the responsible parent, insisting on financial discipline and limited government. While most voters understand the need to balance their household budgets and wouldn’t want to leave their kids with a mountain of personal debt, the Democrats have benefited politically by emphasizing the specific and tangible while the Republicans | Read More »
Back in the 60′s when Berlin was surrounded by 20 Soviet Army divisions in East Germany, President Kennedy, acting as the leader of the Free World (a quaint anachronism in itself) famously declared “Ich bin ein Berliner” – “I Am a Berliner”. For the moment, the front line for our Western system of individual rights rests in Cyprus. Ironically, the attack comes from the European | Read More »
A president has to trust the common sense of the American people. On the small stuff the people, wanting to have faith in the president, will give him wide berth. (Let him flit around on Air Force One while shutting down White House tours.) On the middle stuff he can fool most of the people enough of the time. (Of course he will address spending | Read More »
President Obama’s sequester strategy has progressed through several phases: 1. Stand fast with his base in refusing any change to entitlement programs and demanding further tax increases on the rich by elimination of loopholes. That has worked several times; why not again? Plan A failed when the Republicans were surprisingly willing to accept arbitrary cuts to the military, allowing sequestration to go into effect. 2. | Read More »
Every year or so I write a piece that offends many of my friends. This is the one for 2013. We do not need to spend nearly as much on our military as the rest of the world combined, and sequestration seems to be the only way to tame the beast. Before talking about how much we need, lets put aside the question of what | Read More »
We will have comprehensive immigration reform within the next few months. The Republicans need it to survive. The Democrats cannot again stiff the demographic which gave Obama a plurality of 6 million votes in his 3 million vote victory. The policy is simple. In a brief moment of bipartisan wisdom, eight Senators worked out the framework – Schumer, Menendez, Bennet, and Durbin for the Dems | Read More »
As in finance, political bubbles are characterized by willful ignorance followed by excess, a painful burst, and broad recognition that we should have seen it coming. (We pundits often claim that we did, but in doing so, it is hard to not sound like one of Sprio Agnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativity”. ) The real estate burst of the 00′s is a classic example – | Read More »
OK, so Karl Rove can raise millions more to start another PAC to: Option A. Develop databases, software, and field offices to match Barack Obama’s vaunted permanent campaign organization which has morphed into Organizing for Action, a PAC funded by friendly corporations and George Soros and dedicated to supporting the Left’s agenda; or Option B. Focus the new Orwellian-named Conservative Victory Project, on the pointed | Read More »
In his inaugural address President Obama included much that people want to believe, including: “This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending.” Done with Bush’s “bad war” in Iraq; ending Obama’s inconsequential “good war” in Afghanistan. Smooth sailing ahead. Good enough to win reelection; freightening if he believes it. | Read More »
Praise be !!! In military terms, it is a flanking move. With the President hardly mentioning ongoing extraordinary unemployment, trillion dollar deficits, and bankrupt entitlement programs while throwing down the gauntlet of his liberal agenda in his second inaugural address, someone in the House (Budget Chair Paul Ryan) has realized that the Democrats’ weak spot is the Senate where for three years Harry Reid has | Read More »
Recent polling shows that just 8% of voters now consider themselves to be Tea Party members, down from 24% shortly after the passage of Obamacare. Peggy Lee’s 1969 classic “Is That All There Is?” comes to mind. (Do watch the video for the full impact.) What happened? At it’s height, the Tea Party tried to define itself in the mission statement of the Tea Party | Read More »
This week’s post is offered amid the ongoing pall of disappointment (find a stronger word – ed.)with the election and the fiscal cliff. Foremost: think globally; act locally. Some friends ask “What can be done to revitalize the Republican Party in San Francisco?” More ask “Why bother to try?” In the spirit of a New Year, with a new Central Committee embarking on a four | Read More »
When future historians write about the Great Obama Inflation their milestones will include the $800 billion stimulus plan, Obamacare, and the Fiscal Cliff – the compilation of all of the GOPs futile efforts to limit taxes and spending. Obama would have none of it and the Republicans in Congress whiffed. The Emotion. - The Congressional Republicans are Linus to Obama’s Lucy van Pelt. The President | Read More »
A couple of friends in London (here for the holidays) have asked “why would you Republicans risk so much damage to prevent 2% of the population from moving from a 35% to a 39.6% marginal tax rate.” Republicans are obviously terrible marketers, but there are three clear considerations as they manage their two points of leverage – the fiscal cliff, and the companion debt ceiling | Read More »
Surprise newsflash: The consensus Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who graciously protected President Obama from blame for security failures at Benghazi in October, and allowed ambitious subordinate Susan Rice to be the administration’s prime source of disinformation, misses key congressional hearings (due to a virus or a concussion or whatever), while the official administration report on State’s failures focuses | Read More »
A month after the election I am still in the “what the **** happened?” mode – beyond denial, anger, and bargaining but not yet through depression to acceptance. Elections are about the candidates, the campaigns, and the policies. The first two of these are about somebody else and in the past – not a personal problem; it is the third that challenges one’s view of | Read More »
Several years ago, along life’s wonderous journey, I had the responsibility for buying stuff – bottles, flour, spices, filling equipment, transportation services, and the like -for a couple of large corporations. In the process I learned some universal truths about negotiation- some obvious; some not – and tried to pass on some of the difficult lessons to my junior purchasing agents. In politics some is | Read More »
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