Bob Corker derides the stimulus compromise

being debated in the United States Senate

Not to be misunderstood – I’m a strong believer in low taxes and creating a structure in this country that people can count on to move ahead and to make investments, but with that has to be the reality that spending has to be under control.

…
I would just ask that my colleagues consider this…That, number one, we call this package what it is: a political stimulus package. That we begin, today, dealing in a bipartisan way with the tough decisions that we have to make. And if there are anomalies out there that we need to deal with, where people truly are being hurt, let’s deal with it. That we adopt the … Conrad-Gregg bill to truly deal with long-term entitlements, and that we ask the administration when they bring their budget forth on February 4, to bring forth a real budget that lays out to the American people the deficits that we will have to deal with in the future.

It is indeed a political stimulus package (although not quite as bad as Obama’s tossing of the jingle, and Hillary’s ridiculous subsidies for heating oil), and will likely have little real effect on the economy. What Corker is calling for is akin to what Mitt Romney has already proposed – broad based tax cuts, of both marginal rates and capital gains.

The similarities between our junior senator and Romney are striking. If you supported Bob Corker in 2006, the lone Republican winner in an otherwise disastrous midterm election, I can’t see how anyone but Mitt Romney would be your logical choice.

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John McCain will make a visit to Nashville this Saturday at Montgomery Bell Academy, his first visit to Tennessee in the 2008 campaign cycle.

Reportedly hosting the event will be popular ex-governor Don Sundquist, widely known for his ultra conservative pro-income tax stand with House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, and his wholesale abandonment of the Tennessee Republican Party. Rumors are that a photo-op with the House speaker is scheduled for Sundquist and McCain at the Capitol right after the event.

John McCain, so confident in his conservatism, is now readily masking it, campaigning in a must-have primary state with a former GOP governor reviled more than Steve Spurrier.

Mitt Romney = Winfield Dunn.

McCain = Sundquist.

Choose wisely.

UPDATE

Well, McCain is being endorsed by practically everyone but Jimmy Naifeh.

Byron York has good analysis in National Review Online

That, not Wright’s wide-ranging social theories, is what forced Obama to denounce Wright at a hastily arranged news conference Tuesday. By questioning Obama’s honesty, Wright was striking at the heart of the Obama campaign. The most damaging thing Wright could ever say is that he knows, based on his long personal relationship with Obama, that Obama agrees with him but can’t say so publicly for political reasons. Put another way, if voters believe that Obama fundamentally rejects Wright’s views, they might question Obama’s judgment in remaining close to Wright for 20 years. But if voters believe that Obama secretly agrees with Wright but is putting on another face to win an election, then all is lost. “People could ask why somebody with good judgment would take so long to do this,” a Democratic strategist told me Monday night. “But that’s certainly better than the subtext being that Obama is an angry black man, because if he’s an angry black man, then he simply cannot win, period.”

It’s a Democrat contortionist’s nightmare, and a Republican strategist’s Utopia. Obama’s greatest asset – his credibility – has been challenged in a most distructive way. He has had tried to have it both ways, and in the effort, has shown himself nothing more than an average politician, rising above absolutely nothing. The hope (sic “hype”) is dead. Long live the reality.

Not to say I don’t appreciate larger-than-life political leaders. We n�ed more of them, but Barack Obama never was in that class. He gave a good speech or two, rested on his laurels, and attempted to fly-over the Wright controvery as if his level of accountability rose above that of a mere mortal’s. His mentor is an unapologetic leftist, no different than the padowan Obama, but the learner has refused to pitch his true colors as part of his presidential campaign. He is being forced to decide. And in his speech yesterday, finally decrying Wright as a nut job, has left thinking people wondering what Obama is really about anyway.

Barack Obama has confirmed the old canard about a star that shines twice as bright lasts for half as long. In his case, his brightness was inflated by a complicit cheap-date media. Now we see him for what he is – a lightweight. I do hope he wins the nomination.

Things are better now. And I like this.

This morning on MSNBC, former General Wesley Clark, best known for laying a complete egg in his bid for the 2004 Democrat nomination for president, pronounced that because John McCain had no military command experience, his military credentials are questionably suited for the presidency.

Political junkies all around the world either smacked their foreheads or laughed out loud. I think I did both.

Only then, in an epiphany, did I realize that the military acronym “CO” actually stood for “Community Organizer.”  If it is otherwise, Clark’s screwball standards just damned his preferred candidate’s campaign to oblivion. If McCain’s 5 1/2 years as a POW, coming back to serve another eight years in the Navy, and in all, being a graduate of the Naval Academy, is irrelevant to McCain’s credentials to be president, then Obama ought to pack it up and go back to his comrades in Illinois.

Of course, unless Barack Obama’s executive experience in organizing communities is more substantive than John McCain’s military career. I’ll let the Obama-ites make the case for that one.

What’s worse, however, is Barack Obama’s faux slap-down of Clark, claiming that supporters of both sides should be held accountable for denigrating the other’s military service.

What military service a McCain surrogate would smack down of Obama’s is still entirely unclear at the time of this writing. Perhaps we will learn something new. Maybe his organized community troops called him “sarge” or something. I don’t know.

What we do know for certain is that a) Wesley Clark is an embarrassment to himself, and b) Barack Obama is manipulative and disingenous. These two things are certain, and the latter is starting to manifest itself more as a character trait than an anomaly.

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It is clear after the results in Florida last night that Mike Huckabee has run dry of the electoral ethanol he picked up in his surprise victory in Iowa eons ago.

The choice now is an Edwardsian one. All simply depends on how much writing Huckabee is wanting, and willing, to see on the wall.

Continuing his run for the presidency makes the road harder for Mitt Romney. Now, I’m not sure what Huckabee’s intentions are, but helping throw the election to John McCain doesn’t seem to suit his greater stated ideological purposes – unless, of course, Huckabee is indeed the most liberal Republican candidate remaining.*

* Yes. I have defended John McCain. However, in order of preference (and conservatism), my roster goes 1) Mitt Romney, 2) John McCain, and 3) Mike Huckabee. McCain is no ardent leftist, but he is an inferior choice to Mitt Romney. My position on the topic is effectively explained here

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John Edwards, the preferred Democratic candidate of white males over forty, has dropped out of the Democrat Party presidential primary.

Camp Hillary offers a collective Cheshire grin, as it is clear who this helps, and it’s not Obama. Word from all the news stations is that both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns are clamoring for Edwards’ endorsement of their respective candidacies. Obama is sending flowers. Hillary is mailing Fantastic Sam’s gift certificates.

The only thing that could hurt Hillary Clinton here, or at least negate any positive effects, is an outright endorsement of Obama by John Edwards. Edwards has been coy about what his next steps are going to be. The only way he can be a true king maker is by endorsing Obama, and helping him in the South, where Obama is not likely to garner as much support. This is a risky play. On the other hand, a Hillary endorsement could come with an ambassadorship.

Kim McMillan’s interest in the governorship throws her in with already-declared (sorta) Congressman Lincoln Davis,likely candidate Harold Ford, Jr., and the lingering former Nashville mayor, Bill Purcell. Bill Frist and Ron Ramsey have shown interest on the Republican side, and there are rumors that Marsha Blackburn and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam are also considering a run as well.

I am curious to see McMillan’s income tax spin, as she was a vocal supporter back during the tax revolt days. Even better, with the state’s budget this year and next in the tank. If the state needed an income tax in 2002, when the last budget deficit loomed, why now does the state not need an income tax in in 2009 and 2010? Consistency and expediency are often cantankerous bed fellows, as McMillan will soon to find out.

This is utter poppy cock.

First, we are told by Obama himself that that he didn’t know much bad about Jeremiah Wright. Obama had no disdain for Wright at the beginning of the disclosure, only the things he said, which (ludicrously) Obama claimed to have not heard. Then, we heard that Wright isn’t just about what we hear – that his offensive remarks were outside his usual message of hope (hear Arizona, ocean front property, and bridge, Brooklyn). Finally, we are told by Obama today that Wright is “rambling”. Obama has thrown Wright under the bus, and Wright counters with a mean ECW move and tosses Obama under the bus. Both come off flat.

Take note. This is the Democrats’ frontrunner’s relationship with his pastor and mentor. Say that again. Hear it for what it is, not the utterly inane spin that Obama’s campaign is pushing.

Indeed, judge for yourself, those of you who have mentors, and /or pastors. Make a quick conclusion as to whether you’d entertain such a relationship in the first place. After twenty years of courting Wright’s church for political gain, Obama bails. Good move, Barack. You should have done it yesterday.

As the man who speaks to 20 million from noon to three said today, Obama is synonymous with “toast”.

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Catherine is being brought up in a political household. We often have conversations about the upcoming election at the dinner table and, although her contributions right now are “I don’t like peas” and “Are you done with your chicken, mama?”, I know some of the information is seeping into her brain.

She recognizes Barack Obama and often calls out “Obama!” when she sees him on the TV. However, we had a weird moment while waiting in line at Food Lion last week. She pointed to a magazine with Obama on the cover (not hard to find) and yelled, “Daddy!” (more…)

From the trails of Ohio

The ACLU has gone to court to force Cuyahoga County to abandon plans to use a new voting machine in the March 4 presidential primary election because it does not provide a way of notifying voters about ballot errors. Voters in other Ohio counties will use equipment that does alert voters to errors and the ACLU says that puts Cleveland-area voters at a disadvantage.

Is the ACLU really sure they want machines to tell a voter when they vote Democrat?

This post is the result of my observations over the last month.

Barack Obama has had trouble in his quest to, well – be a politician. As in, not in the negative qualities we always project upon our pols, but in the everyday, rough and tumble aspects of public service. When he was politically spawned under the North Star at the Democrat convention in 2004, he was beyond reproach. During most of the campaign, and his legendary string of eleven primary victories, he was beyond reproach. An entire cable news network panted after him on a nightly basis.

Now, things are different. And they are largely different because Obama wasn’t ready for the sure-fall. He’s more Buffalo Bills than New England Patriots.

The Jeremiah Wright controversy is all his, and grows with every Robin Williams-like appearance his mentor makes. The total disregard he demonstrated about rural values, and the simultaneous dismissal of certain valued constitutional rights, is an ongoing liability. Even worse, whenever he is asked entirely relevant questions regarding these self-made issues, he gets perturbed. It’s as if, in running for the highest office in the land, anything that has veered off-script that may indicate his true views is beyond comment. That is, to twist the magic carpet he rode in on, truely hopeful.

Hillary Clinton is the tortoise. She has plodded along, but she has been there before. She is the beneficiary of Obama’s arrogance. None of Obama’s troubles have directly stemmed from the Clinton campaign. In fact, despite her husband’s apparent onsetting dementia, Hillary is still afloat. What was initially her biggest asset has turned into a straight-up liability, and she is still on the cusp of swaying the super delegates (see also the endorsement of North Carolina’s governor today). She had no money, she was in dire straights, and now she’s back.

Obama wasn’t ready for this. He faked it for awhile, but he isn’t prepared for this sort of campaign. If he does end up in the general, I hope all my liberal friends can make peace with the phrase “President McCain.”

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An impressive group of Nashville area legislators endorsed Mitt Romney yesterday

The state lawmakers endorsing Romney Monday included Sens. Jack Johnson of Brentwood, Diane Black of Gallatin, Mae Beavers of Mt. Juliet and Reps. Phillip Johnson of Pegram, Debra Maggart of Hendersonville, Charles Sargent of Franklin and Susan Lynn of Mt. Juliet.

Former Republican governor Winfield Dunn, previously a supporter for Fred Thompson, also came out for Romney.

For the first time in quite awhile, the Tennessee presidential primary is going to matter – a lot. As such, Huckabee was in the state yesterday, offering his usual assortment of populist pandering

“There are a lot of people running for president who will have to explain why their positions now are so dramatically different than they used to be before,” Huckabee said. “I don’t have to do that.”

If I were a tax-loving fiscal liberal like Mike Huckabee, I’d think “change” wasn’t such a bad thing. It’s not where you were, it’s where you are, and where you’re going. Take Bob Corker, for instance. Even Steve Gill can’t find anything bad to say about his voting record in the United States Senate. I, like many others, supported Bob Corker because I believed he was a principled conservative, and we were right. The same holds true for Mitt Romney.

On the other hand… if you want to further empower an already bloated federal government, you’ve got yet another former Arkansas governor waiting for your support.

Well, hell if we know.

Last November, Barack Obama thought the Washington, DC handgun ban to be constitutional. This past week, he declared his belief that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to bear arms.

Conveniently now in general election mode, Obama looked to the recent history of Al Gore’s 2000 gun problem, and quickly shifted gears.

But since we are told that Barack Obama is different, a change agent, the sacred lamb from God, etc. (monkey or Judeo-Christian, one is now unsure), we must look at this change of position not as that of a politician, but as that of a highly moral, well-trained lawyer, who once held the highest law school student post in the land as the editor of the Harvard Law Review. His legal research skills should be second-to-none. He ought to already have had a well-defined take on the meaning of the Second Amendment.

Despite his flipping and flopping about, he does, actually. His real beliefs were exhibited in November, 2007, when he declared he did not believe in the individual right to bear arms. But now, with the new opinion in Heller, and the impending importance of those rural voters he contemptuously tolerates to his electoral chances in November, the tune must change. He has put down the trigger lock and picked up the banjo.

This is an important inconsistency – any time a candidate unequivocally poo-poos an express constitutional right then makes a 180 degree turn it’s news. The bigger story here is that Obama is just another politician.

Except that he is worse, in that his true ideas, which he is daily attempting to mask, are more fit for the socialist democracies of yore than the free capitalistic republic of tomorrow.  He will not run as a proud liberal. He will not tell use what all his proposed “solutions” would really cost the American taxpayer. Some of his more sparkling generalities betray his true intent (like wanting supreme court justices to “feel”, instead of think), but with great determination he is coding every far left policy proposal he would enact once elected. Plus, he’s already playing the race card, blaming the Republicans for doing it last week, when in fact no Republican has the guts to even touch upon the topic.

It is clear now. Barack Obama must be the love child of Al Sharpton and John Kerry.

However, Obama is messianic in one way – never before have we witnessed such a charlatan pitching his case so eloquently for ultimate power, while poorly pretending otherwise. The facade is a-crackin’. Let’s everyone grab a hammer.

Come on, now. It’s obvious why you are shouting out the name Barack Hussein Obama at every opportunity. You want voters to think he’s a Muslim and therefore scary and dangerous. Don’t play these cutesy little games.

I’ve listened to various radio talk shows over the past 24 hours (as is my norm) and I’ve heard statements from the hosts such as:

“What if I started saying John Sidney McCain? What’s the difference? I’m just saying his full name.”

“It’s the liberals who want to think there is an ulterior motive here.”

Really? Do you actually believe that? I actually get kind of embarrassed for you while listening.

I was in Target a couple of weeks ago and the cashier offered this opinion:

“I’m so tired of Obama. I hate hearing him talk. I heard he’s a Muslim and his real name is Hussein. His first name sounds like Osama. I bet they’re related. We don’t need that in this country. He would probably help the terrorists.”

So, take comfort, those who enjoy shouting “Hussein” from the rooftops! Your secret plan is working.

There are MANY reasons that I would never vote for Barack Obama for president. His middle name is not one of them.

From the Associated Press

Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported.

Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual.

…

The story, which appeared on the newspaper’s Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. It said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee for violating probation after allegedly hitting her mother.

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist has been catching a lot of heat for his comment that Senator Obama is “John Kerry with a tan.”

First of all, how dare he insult Kerry’s fine conservative record (relatively speaking) by comparing it to that of Obama?

Second, I cannot believe that Norquist injected race into this election! I thought we were going to get to November without anyone mentioning that McCain is white and Obama is black. Haven’t we gotten beyond the point in this country where … oh, wait — (more…)

Jeremiah Wright’s rambling screed yesterday in front of the NAACP can’t be good for Obama. Jim Henson himself would be proud, and maybe a little jealous, of the array of voices he has mastered. Wright does a mean Kennedy. He’s operatic, too.

Sadly for Obama, Wright spent a great portion of his remarks making excuses for the academic failure of black children in urban schools, focusing on the legitimization of ebonics and the differences in learning styles, as if that somehow explains high illegitimacy rates, fatherless homes, gang appeal, and a victim mentality. Yeah, it’s just that they’re different, and the white man doesn’t understand.

Barack Obama has lost the reigns on his mentor. Throwing the pastor under the bus seems to have rankled the relationship. Wright has scheduled a bona fide speaking tour, and is set for the National Press Club today. Presumably the message will be the same. Anyhow, it is clear that Jeremiah Wright no longer has a vested interest in a Barack Obama presidency.