Monthly Archives: March 2011

Chris Christie: “Are you a patriot, or are you a patron?”

I’ve taken to calling myself the political director of my office, just because whenever anyone has a question they always come to me. Yesterday is was aboot 2012 and who our options are to run against the President. The best I could come up with is “meh.” I’ll get behind anyone who can win, but as for anyone who stirs any emotion…meh.

The one cat who seems to stir any emotion is Chris Christie, which really isn’t news. Everyone is begging him to run. He keeps saying no. None of us care. I still stand by my Yes We Can/You Betcha rule that says you have to finish at least one full term of office before I consider you for President. Christie makes it hard to do so.

I’m still waiting for actual results in New Jersey. In lieu of that, he seems to be doing well with the fundraising and red meat tossing

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All Eyes on Paul Ryan

There’s been a feud brewing – half legit, half ginned up by Democrats and the media – between Republican leadership and the “tea party” over the short term budget for this year the Dems never passed last year. One side wants gradual cuts and to play nice. The other thinks gradual cuts are for RINOs. Though the real fun starts next week when Budget Chairman Paul Ryan presents his long term budget next week.

Phillip Klein from the Washington Examiner lays it out like this…

If the Ryan budget is really good, achieves steeper cuts with a full fiscal year to work with and begins to address the entitlement crisis, it will help Republicans mitigate the backlash from the base should they compromise on the short-term budget measure. That’s not to say that it will eliminate any frustration from Tea Party groups and other conservative activists, but the GOP leadership would at least have an argument to make — that they came into office nearly halfway into the 2011 fiscal year so their hands were tied on this fiscal year, but when they had more time to work with, they presented a real plan to dig the nation out of its fiscal mess. Of course, if the Ryan budget disappoints, all bets are off.

The Hill has a preview of the budget and whether or not we’re going to finally get serious aboot reforming entitlements…

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The Day I Met Shawn Michaels

With Shawn Michaels being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend, I thought we’d take a trip back in the way back machine and tackle something I’ve been wondering as of late…was I the first person to do a shoot (i.e. out of character) interview with him?

Let me take you back to the turn of the century, March of 2000. You see, long before I was spitting hot fire on politics, I was writing aboot professional wrestling for a site called ScoopsWrestling.com, under the awesomely awesome moniker of “Freakboy.” My first assignment – interviewing the lead singer of Korn at an independent show in Los Angeles run by a porn company – didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, and I needed something big to make up for it.

This was a few years after Shawn Michaels had retired the first time, and had started the Texas Wrestling Alliance. Four of his trainees had just signed deals with the WWF (one of whom wrestles today as Daniel Bryan) and I said to myself, “Self, you have an expense account at a dotcom that is aboot to go public. Why not fly to San Antonio and interview HBK?”

(Point of information: The dotcom in question – let’s call it HamSandwich.com – actually went public while I was in Texas for $18 a share. By December of that year…$.18 a share).
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Marco Rubio Announces His Candidacy for President

“What you’re seeing with Marco Rubio‘s op-ed today is a tectonic shift in the Senate power structure. Bank on it.” – THE Rick Wilson

No, he didn’t announce anything nor is he going to (psyche), but after laying low since being sworn into office, he did take a huge step back out into the national spotlight with a recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal. The big criticism of our party from within the party (the criticism from unserious liberals is Koch Brothers/Fox News/Sarah Palin) is that our leaders are afraid to make any hard decisions when it comes to the budget or debt.

Many of us are waiting for Paul Ryan’s budget next week because, while it will be serious, the reactions from within caucus will give an idea how serious everyone else is. Marco Rubio raised the bar a little by saying he won’t vote to increase the debt limit anymore unless it is the “…last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, etc”. He was not without some suggestions how…
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John Kasich: Earth’s Mightiest Governor (on Comics and Conservatism)

I’m a big fan of Ohio Governor John Kasich. He’s a member of what my crew and I have taken to call the “Shut Up and Govern” Caucus of the Republican Party. They’re the R’s who are reformers (more wonk than they are wank) who, well, shut up and govern.

There was a great interview with Kasich recently in the Washington Post detailing all the reforms he’s bringing and/or trying to bring to Ohio, and is even working with the Teach for America program (endorsed by education reform ingénue Michelle Rhee) to the state to help some of the states failing public schools.

But the key metric to any Governor is jobs. Kasich will be most judged by how many jobs, whether directly or indirectly related to his policies, have been created under his watch. This is where most on our side say that lower taxes help create jobs, and belief that Kasich believes. His lower taxes is bringing a major motion picture (and the jobs that come with it) to Cleveland…

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Maybe Mitch Daniels is a True Conservative After All

I’m a Mitch Daniels supporter, but I’m also a sarcastic prick. That’s why I love calling him an unmitigated liberal RINO who wants to wave the white flag of surrender on social issues. Do I mean it? Of course not. I do it just to piss off my friends in Indiana.

It’s a cheap dig at the truuuuuue conservatives who seem to be the sole arbitrators of what conservatism is. Most either have talk radio shows or follow whatever they hear on talk radio, and a decent majority seemed to have been vocal supporters of Christine O’Donnell’s senate campaign in 2010. They don’t like Mitch because, among other reasons, the establishment GOP likes him, he caved during the chaos in Wisconsin, and he is supporting Dick Lugar for re-election in the Indiana senate.

That’s why I find this past week to be rather humorous…
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