The Political Fish

Thursday, Senator John Cornyn (R-AZ) took on the Obama administration for the White House staff, including Linda Douglass, who put out the blog entitled “Facts are Stubborn Things”. Flag@whitehouse.gov has enraged the public, as the administration has now started a citizen-snitch campaign. Not to imply nefarious use of the information that will be gathered, but exactly what is the purpose? Are they really going to try and answer all of the “fishy” information? Not likely. John Cornyn sent a letter to the President asking some pointed questions and using some tough language regarding this issue. Thank God for John Cornyn. The Senator notes:

I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Sen. Cornyn wrote. “You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.

See his letter here in PDF format.

Former Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum sounded off on this issue on Fox News this past week.

Ironic that the administration is referring to genuine dissent as the mob, Nazi tactics, bought and paid for protesters, manufactured anger and other pejorative terminology. It is actually the pot calling the kettle black. Did they really miscalculate the passion that the healthcare debate would stir up? There is hardly a more personal issue to Americans. Everyone does, or eventually will need healthcare. Those who disagree with the government takeover apparently now carry swastikas and are fascists bent on the destruction of this country. Right.

The John Dingell townhall was clear evidence of the new route to stifle dissent. I call it Stacked Deck Democracy. Dingell brought in supporters from ACORN, the SEIU, and the UAW to be seated prior to the arrival of normal citizens. This has been happening across the country now, as other Congressional leaders are either cancelling the townhalls altogether or stacking the deck. One example is the new “telephone townhall” that Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) is instituting, for fear of an ambush he says. Classic coward. Show up and discuss with the people why you want to sell them out. If you don’t like what they have to say, maybe you just send their information to flag@whitehouse.gov Its what the President has requested. But only for informational purposes of course.

Welcome to Hope and Change in America.

The GOP has been in attack mode for the last few weeks. The attack machine of the so-called “conservative” party has been in overdrive. Unfortunately, they have been attacking all the wrong things. Most recently, you have the Republican hit machine taking swipes at the fact that President Obama took his wife out on a date this past weekend. The argument can be made (and its a good one) that this was an excessive abuse of his power. It was fiscally irresponsible, and could have even been poor judgement. All these things are probably true. At the end of the day, it will leave no lasting affect on the course of our country. It speaks only to the hypocrisy of our President as he calls on the nation to sacrifice and live within our means. This is obviously an issue for us to pay attention to. But is it really an issue that demands full blown attacks and statements and the “righteous anger” of the GOP? Follow me here for just a minute…

At the same time the GOP machine is taking major swings at the President for taking his wife on a lavish date, the same GOP who is outraged at this “heinous” lack of judgement have come out and basically admitted that Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed.  Senator John Cornyn has all but disavowed any criticism from “non-elected” officials and has withheld any statements against the Judge. Does it make sense to have such a strong backbone on something as inconsequential as a Friday night on the town, and then morph into a spineless blob on an issue that will directly effect the Constitution, the citizenry, and the Supreme Court for what is likely to be decades??

Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is the politically expedient thing for the GOP to do.  To filibuster, or to give her a major fight could possibly anger a growing political demographic. However, it appears to have not harmed the Democrats when they put Miguel Estrada through the ringer. They seemed to have come out on top of that argument.  At some point, politics needs to be put aside to stand for something that you believe in. Why are Republicans willing to compromise on issues that fly in the face of the core values of our country?? The problem with the GOP is that they truly do not believe in anything at all. The Democrats have been successful because everyone knows what they stand for and what they are all about. Their core values fly in the face of everything that is conservatism. Yet the GOP wants to embrace them in the middle of the road on these issues to try and sway the moderates. Its poor strategy. At the end of the day, Dems are likely to continue voting for Dems. As long as the GOP continues to alienate their base, they will continue to be an irrelevant fixture in the 2-party political arena.

When the GOP decides to stand true to its core beliefs, you can rest assured that their will be another “Republican Revolution” like we saw during the Clinton years. The public is fed up with the corruption, hypocrisy, and duplicitous behavior of the Dem Congress. Eventually they will get fed up with the socialistic drive of this president. At this point there is no viable alternative…the GOP needs to become the alternative soon, and if they can’t, dissolve it all together and create a real conservative party.