GOP Governors want a Kinder, Gentler Party

From Politics Daily,
Melinda Henneberger,
Editor in Chief


AUSTIN – Here's what I did not hear at the annual confab of Republican governors held here this week: The words socialist, extremist, or government takeover. With the focus on jobs, jobs and jobs, the only red meat was the Texas barbecue. And by design, there was no Obama-bashing.

The surest sign that leaders of the post-George W. Bush, post-Karl Rove GOP really might feel as optimistic as their talking points sound is that they are not only moving away from the last decade's focus on wedge issues and personal attacks, but are explicitly repudiating them. Rhetorically, at least, they have ditched the whole Rove approach – that the party with the angriest base will have the greater turnout, and thus will win. They see independent voters as the way to win in 2010.

"When Bush became president,'' Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said from the podium, "there was a hardening of partisanship" that worked in the Republicans' favor in '02 and '04, but against them in '06 and '08. He spoke approvingly of voters moving now towards a post-partisan moment in which "people will say 'I vote for the woman, not the party.' ''
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle followed up on that politically correct happy talk: "I hope it does go in a direction where people can work together,'' she said, and ended the session with a pacific "Aloha!''

Barbour cautioned Republican candidates to refrain from attacking the president, period: "People want the president to succeed; good Lord, they want the country to succeed, and particularly the first African-American president has a lot of goodwill. . . . We need to be careful, we need to treat the president respectfully, we need to make this about policies, not personal. . . . This is a guy people like.''

Asked later whether he meant to suggest that tea-party rhetoric was hurting his party with the independent voters it needs to win, he said no: "I'm talking about winning candidates being prudent at what they talk about.'' In the recent gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, it was the losing Democratic candidates who were relentlessly negative. Barbour called Virginia's Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell a "master'' at the new model of candidate he'd like to recruit more of: "He never got off on personalities, and winning candidates don't; they're not shrill, they're not accusatory.''

So, is the party moving away from a focus on social issues like gay marriage and abortion?
Barbour said that smart politicians talk about whatever is on the minds of voters, and right now that's not social but economic issues.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that even when social issues are broached, they should be discussed in a way that's "thoughtful, civil, respectful and a tone that's not condescending.''
It's not surprising that party leaders said they like their chances in '10, when 37 gubernatorial and 37 Senate races will be on the ballot. But Barbour went so far as to predict a 1994-style Republican blowout next year: "I was chairman of the party 16 years ago when we were similarly situated'' – having just won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia in 1993, a year into a new Democratic administration and energized by the victories of Christie Todd Whitman and George Allen. The two moments are a lot alike, he said – only "this feels better.''

ANGRY ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTEST IN D.C.

Anti-Government Demonstration Draws Tens of Thousands to D.C.

By Emma Brown and James Hohmann
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:52 PM



Conservative protesters by the tens of thousands crowded outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, a massive demonstration aimed at stopping what organizers called the over-expansion of the federal government under the Obama administration.

"Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer scorned," declared Andrew Moylan, head of government affairs for the National Taxpayer Union, urging protesters to call their representatives. "You're being ignored today by the media and some politicians."

The crowd -- loud, rambunctious and sprawling -- gathered at the foot of the Capitol after a march along Pennsyvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former President Reagan by the an array speakers drew loud cheers, echoing across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags flapped in the breeze, mingled with U.S. and Texas state flags.

"We own the dome," the crowd chanted loudly, pointing at the Capitol.

Estimates of the number of protesters varied widely but about 30,000 people have registered online for the march, according to one of the rally's sponsors, FreedomWorks, a Washington-based group headed by former House majority leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.).

"You will not spend the money of our children and our grandchildren to feed an overstuffed government," Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said of the Obama administration, drawing loud cheers from the throng on the west side of the Capitol.

"Our history is decorated by those who endured the burden of defending freedom," Price said. "Now a new generation of patriots has emerged. You are those patriots."

FreedomWorks and other sponsors, including Tea Party Patriots and ResistNet, comprise a loose coalition of conservative groups that helped organize several health-care and anti-tax rallies during the spring and summer.

At the Federal Triangle Metro stop, demonstrators emerged from packed trains and broke into a rendition of "God Bless America" as they rode escalators to the street.

"Nobody's standing up for us, so we have to stand up for ourselves," said Phil Chancey, 66, who drove to the District from Clinton, Tenn., for the rally. The sign he carried, deriding the president health-care reform plan, read, "OBAMACARE MAKES ME SICK."

Participants in the demonstrations span the spectrum of conservative anger at Obama, including opponents of his tax, spending and health-care plans and protesters who question Obama's U.S. citizenship and liken his administration to the Nazi regime. By 11 a.m., the route between Freedom Plaza and the Capitol was a sea of demonstrators chanting "USA!" and carrying signs such as, "Taxed enough already," "The audacity of dope" and, "Czars belong in Russia."

Most signs were hand made: "Socialism is UnAmerican," "King George Didn't Listen Either!" "Terrorists Won't Destroy America, Congress Will!" "The American Dream R.I.P."

Debbie Wilson, 51 of Apollo Beach, Fla., flew to Washington last Sunday to make a week out of the protest. She drove to colonial Williamsburg in a rented car.

"We want our country to go back to the roots of doing what our Founding Fathers wanted us to do -- less government in every aspect of my life," she said. "We walked the streets of Williamsburg, and it felt like we were learning how to be a patriot."

Dozens of signs mentioned Rep. Joe Wilson, (R-S.C.), who jeered at Obama during his health-care speech to Congress on Wednesday night. Dee Meredith, 62 of Callao, Va., said she had never of Wilson before he shouted at the president, "You lie!" At the rally, Meredith waved a placard: "Thank You Joe Wilson."

"We're the forgotten people, and he's given us a voice," she said.

When Armey, in his address to the crowd, referred to Obama having pledged to uphold the Constitution, the protesters shouted at the president in absentia: "Liar! Liar!"

Jeff Mapps, 29, a stagehand and labor union member from South Philadelphia, left home about 6 a.m. to come to the protest. He said he hadn't been involved in previous Tea Party demonstrations, but he watches Fox News host Glenn Beck "all the time" and he wanted to be a part of something he thinks will be historic. Beck has been drumming up support for the march.

Holding a sign that said "Preserve, Protect, Defend" on a Red Line Metro train packed with conservative activists, Mapps fretted over a "blatant disregard for the Constitution."

"We've been watching it for six to eight months," he said. "It was finally an opportunity to get involved. It's been boiling over . . . It's not just about health care. It's about so much more than that."

Anna Hayes, 58, a nurse from Fairfax County, stood on the Mall in 1981 for Reagan's inauguration. "The same people were celebrating freedom," she said. "The president was fighting for the people then. I remember those years very well and fondly."

Saying she was worried about "Obamacare," Hayes said: "This is the first rally I've been to that demonstrates against something, the first in my life. I just couldn't stay home anymore."

Like countless others at the rally, Joan Wright, 78 of Ocean Pines, Md., sounded angry. "I'm not taking this crap anymore," said Wright, who came by bus to Washington with 150 like-minded residents of Maryland's Eastern Shore. "I don't like the health-care [plan]. I don't like the czars. And I don't like the elitists telling us what we should do or eat."

UPDATE: 9/13/09 05:11

NBC Evening News last night reported crowds in Washington, D.C. to be in the hundreds of thousands and a sea of people stretching from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.

Nationwide -Tax Revolt- Report from East Coast

Nationwide -Tax Revolt- Report from East Coast


By Helaine Chersonsky

This is an observation from the Eastern shore; the Providence, Rhode Island tea party, held at the Rhode Island state house, was hugely successful. At least 2,000 to 3,000 people showed up. It was a sea of flags, placards and all ages participated; lots of young people attended which was gratifying. As I drove back to my current home in Massachusetts, the brisk spring evening held hopeful portent for me as a conservative and as an American. The bronzed statue of Nathaniel Greene; the epigram on the front of the Rhode Island state house about religious freedom gave me renewed inspiration for American revival. This is the stuff of real revolution; a revolution of activism instead of apathy, a revolution of thoughtfulness instead of negligence. People were joyful and uplifted. It was a seminal moment.

One of the founding fathers, it may have been Benjamin Franklin said, “The citizenry must be ever vigilant to keep the Republic” of America. We have left the running of our country to professional politicians, who have seduced us into thinking that they have our best interests at heart; in reality the politicians have acted like foxes in charge of our money, our freedom and our government, when it was always supposed to be the people who were supposed to be in charge of the government. That is what the founding fathers always knew: when politicians could vote themselves the largesse from the treasury into their pockets, there would be no stopping them in looting the treasury and in enslaving the general population. There is always the personal ego wish to be a king in every person; we now have 535 kings sitting in Congress, distributing largesse and abusing and oppressing regular citizens. It's time to say enough is enough and vote them out of office and establish term limits. Congressional fiefdoms have to be destroyed or they will destroy the American electorate and citizens and America will become a third-rate social experiment, without the freedom.

Tom Jenny Backs GOP Legislators Refusal to Hike Taxes

Tom Jenny, the director of the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), today applauded the announcement of a plan by Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature to cover the state's $3.3 billion FY 2010 deficit without raising taxes. Senate President Bob Burns (R-Peoria) and House Speaker Kirk Adams (R-Mesa) outlined the plan yesterday at a meeting of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC).

Burns and Adams suggested $840 million in new spending reductions, $500 million in continuing reductions from FY 2009, $1.3 billion in federal stimulus funding, $390 million in fund transfers from non-general fund balances, and non-tax revenue of $300 million. The plan may involve some short-term borrowing.

Jenny said "We're not enthused about the debt financing elements, but it's better than raising taxes during a recession."

The Burns-Adams plan stands in contrast to Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal to raise taxes by a billion dollars a year for three years, which would amount to over $300 per Arizona household per year according to AFP AZ..

Recently released economic projections by the Goldwater Institute and the Beacon Hill Institute suggest that a billion-dollar sales tax increase would cost Arizona 14,400 private-sector jobs and a billion-dollar income tax increase would cost 26,000.

AFP AZ announced that Senate President Burns and Speaker Adams are welcomed to speak at the Taxpayer Tea party at the Capitol on April 15. "We welcome participation by all public officials who have not proposed a tax increase this year," Jenny said. Congressman John Shadegg and a number of state legislators are scheduled to speak at the event, which begins at 5:30 PM on the Senate Lawn. Over 2,000 have registered online for the event.

Shadegg to Attend Tea Party

Just got information from "Friends of Thayer Verschoor," that Congressman John Shadegg will participate in the Phoenix Tea Party at the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday, April 15th, from 5:30 to 7:pm.


In a April 2 news release Shadegg had this to say about the federal budget, “Follow the path set forth in this budget and the children of the ‘Greatest Generation’ may be known by their own children as the ‘Reckless Generation’ – the generation that squandered the wealth of the greatest and most prosperous country on Earth.”