5. March 2009 by David A. Peterson.

There has been a lot of talk in the past few weeks about the turmoil in the Republican Party. Hopefully it came to a head this week with the attacks on Rush Limbaugh from both the left and unfortunately the right as well. I say hopefully because the Republican Party needs to move forward in a hurry.

President Obama appears to have a team in place to silence Limbaugh who is describe by the White House as the de facto Republican leader. There is no doubt that Limbaugh is the conservative voice of about 20 million Americans. This team to discredit Limbaugh is reportedly led by none other than White House Chief of Staff  Rahn Emanuel.

 FOXNews.com points out that the war on conservatism doesn’t stop with Limbaugh. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is constantly “singling out” other conservative economic voices like Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli.

Politics is a nasty business, and the current Democratic team is using words and actions to silence as many opposition voices as possible. This current regime is starting to look a lot like the republic of Venezuela. Some of this was surely expected.

What I didn’t expect but I have observed is that the conservative voice has been just as hurt by none other than the conservative leaders opening their mouths before they had a coherent thought. I mean really, what idiot would want a country to fail. That clearly is not what Limbaugh was thinking but unfortunately that is what it sort of sounded like when he blurted it out. The poor guy has spent the better part of a month trying to defend his erroneous thought that was better left unsaid.

Then to boot, Michael Steele, the RNC head honcho, jumped into the conversation and tried his worst to put down the guy that speaks to 20 million conservatives everyday. Naturally that backfired, and now the appointed leader of the party looks like an idiot for saying something stupid.

 At the end of the day what is really happening with the conservative movement is that a very private policy conversation is being held in the open. “Leaders” who should know better are using their various bully pulpits to promote their own voice and advance their own agenda without regard to how it affects other “leaders.”

The overall effect on the party using this form of communication is that conservatives really do look like right-wing kooks. If you don’t agree with any one of them then you must be a dreaded MODERATE, certainly not a true conservative.

The problem with that message is that the “leaders” haven’t defined what the party’s conservative policies will be over the next 4 years. With the next national election less than 2 years away these “leaders” need to step up and start LEADING.

If I was to send a letter to each “leader” it would probably start like this:

 Dear Mr. Steele,

It is your job to pull the conservatives together, not to fragment the members into individual fiefdoms so you can divide and conquer. If you can’t do that then please step aside. And above all, please think before you speak.

Dear Mr. Limbaugh,

Just like during the Clinton era your popularity will probably rise as the liberals do the things that silly liberals do. However, what you need to do is to decide what your role in this journey will be? Currently you are allowing yourself to be used like a puppet by the liberal left. You would never have allowed that to happen in 1996. In 2009 you have become the message instead of the messenger. 

Dear Conservative Team Leaders,

We only have a few months left to get the message straight. If we fail in 2010 then the liberals will have a mandate to bankrupt the country. Let’s face it, we know what the liberals want to do, we just don’t know what we want to do. This looks fairly simple to me - we just need a true leader. Will one of you please step up and lead?

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4. February 2009 by David A. Peterson.

Now that we have had a few days to digest the House’s portion of the Economic Stimulus Package you have to sit back and ask… “What was the House thinking?”

I take a pragmatic view of the overall U.S. Congress. When I see something as wild as Nancy Pelosi’s version of the Economic Stimulus Package I just figure that someone within the 535 member House and Senate would stand up and say “this is nuts.”

As it turns out the Senate is doing just that. We see some economic reality setting in. But the House… “What were they thinking?”

One of the reasons that I don’t comment on an issue at that very moment is that…

• I might not understand the entire issue.
• I might be a little too emotional and my fingers may type something hellish that I might personally regret in a few days.

Again I’m a bit pragmatic in my approach, I try to be practical and I try to think about what in our recent history would have caused such an outcome. But for the life of me… “What were they thinking?”

The House vote last week was recorded at 244-188 with 11 Democrats joining all the Republicans in trying to defeat this bill. As we now know this bill is so loaded with pork that it became embarrassing for the White House. Even though it is embarrassed the White House is still saying that the differences between the House version and the Senate version are minor.

Huh?

The National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers was reported by FoxNews.com as saying that all those  against this current economic stimulus plan  “aren’t prepared to support major action to help the economy.”

Huh?

Now that is about the dumbest thing I have heard in a while. Mr Summer just indirectly said, or better yet reading between the lines… “that if you don’t agree with us in our methods then you are just flat out a villain, an idiot, and it is because of you that the national economy continues to flounder.”

That is not very bipartisan. In fact that is politics as usual. Personally I have a sneaky suspicion that President Obama would like to break the bill up into 2 parts - stimulus issues and social issues. Unfortunately he is not currently strong enough to carry this load.

The good news is that even though the Rebulican’s were getting “railroaded” last week their economic message is getting out. Normally the major news media just rubber stamps the Democratic position on these social issues. But this time the Democrats made a mistake, they rapped totally unrelated social issues up into an emergency stimulus bill.

Every American saw this happening and the major media had to report it as well or they would have missed the first major story of the Obama Administration.

Republican’s and their tax relief message are getting a tremendous amount of positive press. Even the media outlets that openly hate conservative positions are treating their competing plan with some openness.

The only people not listening is the House leadership. I think the President, a good portion of the Senate Democrats, and the American public would like to split this current version of the bill into two parts. Let’s take care of the economy and THEN go look at the social issues.

Senate and House Republicans are finding their voice and it is bringing the party together. This message of “take a look at our tax relief plan, it will save jobs, create new jobs, and get the economy moving,” is resonating across the country.

Now that is a message - our plan creates jobs - keep it up. Stick together. All of America is now taking a look at the House version and collectively saying… “What were they thinking?”

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