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3/10/2009
Burri: Conservatives coming out of the woodwork?
The Republican Party of Sauk County held its annual Lincoln Day Dinner this past Saturday. A month ago, we'd hoped to get 30 or maybe 35 people. We got about 70. A lot of those were new faces, never before seen at a Republican event.
We can thank our new chairman for that, but we should also thank President Barack Obama.
Other successes around the country can be attributed to him, as well, at least in part. According to this report, 500 angry demonstrators showed up on a cold and wet Green Bay day to protest federal spending. This report pegs the same demonstration at 1,200 people.
That's in addition to the 800 activists who showed up at AFP's Defending the American Dream Summit in Milwaukee.
They had 120 protesters in Olathe, Kansas – the third protest in as many weeks in the Kansas City area. They had "several hundred" in Harrisburg, PA; over 300 in Lafayette, LA; and fifteen thousand in St. Louis.
That was just this weekend. There are more such protests on the way.
And why? Because the federal government has spent more in the past two months than in seven-plus years of the War on Terror and Hurricane Katrina combined. Republicans and conservatives are finding themselves compelled to get up, get out, do something.
Now, about that Obama Administration:
The federal government, under full Democrat leadership, is quadrupling the deficit. They're spending money so fast that, by comparison, President Bush looks like a fiscal conservative. So fast that inflation is almost sure to follow.
The Dow Jones is under 7000 and still dropping. Unemployment is 8.1% - a number unheard of for the last 25 years, and the numbers of jobless are growing faster today than they have at any time since 1939.
Can we lay all the blame at Obama's feet? No, we can't. We can wonder, though: with unemployment so high, why can't the White House find enough people to fill the positions they need filled?
Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer – they all withdrew from Cabinet nominations over money scandals. Judd Gregg withdrew over disagreements. Sanjay Gupta withdrew even before nomination. They're actually having to ignore tax law infractions in order to keep people in Cabinet-level positions, and that's just the top spots: they're having trouble filling deputy positions, too.
Not since Bill Clinton went through three Attorney General nominees has an administration had so much trouble.
And the president must wish he'd had even more trouble. Maybe if Hillary Clinton had been forced to withdraw, we'd have been spared the embarrassment of seeing her – America's top diplomat – hand the Russian foreign minister a gag gift with a mistranslated Russian word on it.
Budget cuts must really be hurting the State Department. They can't afford a part-time translator. Or a dictionary.
Or a protocol office: President Obama made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic – well, mostly on that side – for a…let's just call it a lackluster welcoming of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife. No state dinner, very little warmth, and a very mismatched gift exchange.
I'll repeat what I've said before about that: partisanship has to stop at the water's edge. Let's not take too much pleasure in our president's faux pas, especially if it requires us to agree with foreign mockery. Anybody can make a mistake.
Heck, anybody can make a dozen mistakes, especially when you've been promoted to CEO right out of business school.
Still, conservatives can take heart: they're moving in one direction; President Obama in another. This will, I think, become a trend.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck - right?
As Mr. Burri rightly points out, thousands of fiscal conservatives are making time to express their frustration with the outrageous spending by hitting the streets in protest. Don't take this as a sign that the Republican party will rise from the ashes, at least not just yet.
Rewind 8 years. A Republican President, Republicans in control of both the House & Senate - the 'perfect storm', if you will, to bring about the much longed-for smaller government with lower taxes and greater ability for the citizen to succeed.
What happened? The Republicans did what Republicans are often accused of doing by their liberal critics - they took care of their biggest financial supporters with all kinds of Pork (yes, the very same Pork we're protesting against now), and forgot why they were elected.
We (the people) elected the Republicans because we wanted a duck and the Republicans quacked like ducks. After giving these politicians a chance to fulfill their mission, we (the people) didn't like being told one thing and seeing things play out exactly the opposite.
Republicans lost their control in congress and eventually the White House. Why? Certainly in part because moderates and uninformed swayed left to follow the pop culture, but also because conservatives saw what happened during the Bush administration and swayed right. We didn't want more false conservatism.
Apparently many (6 - 8) "Republican" Senators failed to notice and are continuing to 'load up' the Omnibus Bill and take care of their special interests. They'll vote yes today and spend way more of our money than they should.
Republicans are continuing their attempts to quack like a duck ("less spending, less spending"), but they're still walking like Rinos.
Jeff Riedl (Tue Mar 10 07:51:18 2009)
One thing I keep seeing left out of much debate about President Bush and the spending while he was in the White House, has to do with the many things he faced (and conquered). Example: First he inherited a recession from Clinton. Then 9-11. Then Katrina. Then was forced to start the Homeland Security agency which cost billions. (And evidently worked). Then the Wars. And yes they were necessary. None of the above were very cheap and he did very well with them all. There were a few rough moments as with everything of those magnitudes, but eventually successful. U never hear the press or even Conservatives giving credit. He had to spend money. Forced into it. Then you also hear all the liberals ridiculing the economy he left. Well the Dems took over Congress in 2006. Congress has the purse strings and passes all spending legislation. Not the President. So, any economic downturn was the result of the Dems, not President Bush.
John Hyland (Tue Mar 10 08:45:27 2009)
I predict a Republican landslide in 2010-except for the fact that, as Jeff points out, they have destroyed their credibility. Maybe incumbents should be challenged wholesale, so Republicans might regain some political currency?
And John, Bush did NOT have to spend as much as he did. He NEVER vetoed a spending bill. He went along with just about everything the Dems could want. Oh, correction, there is no limit on the amount of spending a Dem could want, as current events prove. Question is, are Republicans going to stand with the Dems, or stand on principle? My guess is a combination, and our problems will get worse, because too few politicians will want to honestly address root causes.
Support HR 1207, audit the FED
END THE FED!!
Ken Van Doren (Tue Mar 10 09:24:15 2009)
I'm glad conservatives are coming out of the woodwork. Our democracy is strengthened by ideological differences. We finally have a cerebral administration - more conducive to having this type of discussion. The wish list of social spending needs to have some limits.
Beth Egelhoff (Tue Mar 10 09:56:39 2009)
A cerebral administration. Hmmm. I won't argue the intent of the thought, mostly because you're my dear, left-leaning daughter. Cerebral comment on your part......
Jo (Tue Mar 10 10:09:34 2009)
Beth, the trouble with "cerebral" academia nuts is that too often, there's no common sense between their ears. Read up on Austrian economics--you'll find it enlightening.
emily matthews (Tue Mar 10 10:49:36 2009)
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