True Enemies

In his first address to the Loudoun County Republican Committee, the new chairman referenced political opponents as “enemies” to be defeated. Now, that first meeting was a train wreck for many reasons, but I want to focus on this one word because I think reveals, perhaps inadvertently, the mindset of the new leadership of the Committee.

“Enemies,” to my way of thinking, are Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il, cancer, and lima beans. Democrats are not “enemies.” They have a different agenda based on a different set of beliefs relative to the role of government. They do not seek to destroy the nation. They are not trying to kill us. Now, like lima beans, they may make us gag from time to time, but most elected Democratic politicians seek to do what they believe is best for the country, state or county.

The vitriol spewed from the chairman, intentional or not, simply engenders the divisiveness that has, at its highest level, both paralyzed Congress and marginalized the role of the minority party. It has no place in politics at any level. Indeed, the language used by the chairman and others calls to mind George Washington’s warning about political parties as creating “ill-founded jealousies and false alarms.”

My fervent hope is that our new chairman can keep the proper perspective on politics and parties for everyone’s benefit.

True Leadership

Three times just today, I saw candidates refer to popular opinion of their respective constituencies as their divining rod in deciding how to vote on any particular issue. While pollsters certainly profit from that approach, our elected leaders must be something more than mere chart followers. Allow me to set them straight.

A leader takes the path directed by his heart and mind - regardless of its popularity. The successful leader takes that path and convinces the rest of us of its merit. A leader need never, and should never, look to an opinion poll to determine his own beliefs or position on an issue.

While I'd like to take credit for first articulating the philosophy, the sentiment, if not the words, comes from Richard Nixon's book, In the Arena. It may or may not have worked out that well for him, but Nixon's approach to leadership certainly resonates with me.

Pardon the Imposition

This is about par for the course. Obama imposes a health care program upon us that most of the country disapprove. Obama imposes false deadlines for our withdrawal from Iraq that jeoparize our troops' safety. Obama imposes new limits on nuclear weapons without consent of the Senate. If figures, then, that Muslim "leaders" (formerly known as terrorists) would request that he impose peace in the Mideast by simply directing Israeli leaders to submit to Palestinian plans.

I happen to LIKE it

"Like it or not" the US is a superpower?! Yet more irresponsible comments from America's Apologist-in-Chief.

Keep in mind, he was responding to a question - not simply reading from a teleprompter loaded with prepared remarks. Does he really believe that being a superpower could ever be a bad thing or was it just (another) unscripted gaff? At any rate, McCain's response well exceeds anything I could write here, ""We are the dominant superpower, and we're the greatest force for good in the history of this country, and I thank God every day that we are a dominant superpower."

Huckabee's Crash and Burn

It shouldn't come as a suprise that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee opposes gay marriage and gay adoption, but really. Is his latest message likening adoption of children to the adoption of puppies really appropriate? If I'm an adopted kid or the parents of an adopted kid, gay or not, I'd be extremely offended by those remarks. At any rate, Huckabee, though allowing himself to be painted as a nutball, has now crashed and burned. Don't expect him to get anywhere in 2012.

Unfortunately, it's the lastest, but I'm sure not the last, example of right-wing craziness that must be controlled if Republicans are to win in 2010 and 2012. Where the heck is Steele on this?

Greed is ... well ... Bad

Fannie Mae execs blaming competition for their irresponsible (and illegal) lending practices is really simply masking the real motivation behind it - greed. Now, I'm all for business, and even risky business practices have their place. However, where Fannie and Freddie were chartered for a particular purpose and received federal subsidies to meet that purpose, there's no excuse for their executives going so far off the deep end.

Though there's no excuse, there is, however, a reason: Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the other Fannie Mae puppets in Congress who refused to rein in the mortgage behemoths. Why haven't they been called to testify before The Meltdown Commission?

Buckley Is At It Again!

This really gets my goat. Supervisor Buckley again manages to vote against a budget that raises property taxes, thus, being able to deflect (on paper) the claim that she's a tax-and-spend liberal. The reason she voted against it, though, is that the budget cut the school budget. You'll recall last year, she also voted against the property tax increase - because it wasn't HIGH enough.