August 15, 2007
Humble Pie!
By Hampton Bush
Copyright 2007
It’s amazing what having to eat a little humble pie can do!
As I read Congressman John Boehner’s Townhall article Enough is Enough I had mixed reactions. My first reaction was to yell, “Yeah! Give ‘em hell, John!” But then my common sense returned, and my memory started working overtime.
I started thinking: everything the congressman said sounds great. You know, things like how our party is sticking together now and how “we passed 15 Republican motions-to-recommit–16 if you count the immigration vote stolen Thursday night– leaving our imprint on many of the major bills brought to the floor by the Democratic leadership.”
I was thinking: Wow, Congressman! You’ve done so much, it makes me wonder whether or not we might be better off to keep our party in the minority. Certainly when we had control, we didn’t gain any bragging rights.
I’m thinking about the most pork barrel spending in our history—from Republicans! I’m thinking about the gigantic medicare drug giveaway passed under our party. I’m thinking about the bloated Education Department that never got slashed. I’m thinking about all the corruption we’ve had from our good-guy party members.
As I write this, I’m also remembering how proud I and my other conservative friends were when for the first time in 40 years we gained control of both the Congress and the Presidency. I’m remembering how mightily we battled against an incredibly determined Democrat push in the 2000 election and how Al Gore tried to steal Florida and the election. I also am remembering the exultation we felt when we finally learned we’d won.
But here’s the catch about remembering. I also remember how we thought we finally would be rewarded for all our patience, for all our loyalty to the party, for all our prayers, for all our dreams of taking our country back to its founding roots. Finally we controlled the congress and the Presidency. Finally our conservative agenda could go forward, but it didn’t, not really. I’m remembering how terribly let down we were by our “leaders”.
It’s true that George Bush nominated a couple of conservative Supreme Court Justices, and that the tax cuts helped our flagging economy and government revenues, but where did the extra revenue dollars go under a Republican congress? To pay off the deficit? No. To help promote our party’s vaunted belief in smaller government? No, sadly. What we got was bigger and ever bigger government and bigger and ever bigger government spending.
Why am I so angry, not at the very predictable liberal Democrats, but at my own party? Because the Democrats didn’t let me down. My own party did. I have a bitter taste in my mouth now that I’ve started down memory lane, and I’m waiting for an apology from our party leaders to remove that taste. I’m waiting for them to swear on a stack of bibles they won’t betray me again. More importantly, I’m waiting for some proof that they’re sincere and not just handing out another pack of sweet-sounding lies in hopes of regaining power. Maybe if our Republican congressmen can formulate another Contract with America, but this time signed in blood, maybe I’ll regain my belief that Republicans are really the good guys.
I truly hope that Mr. Boehner and his fellow Republican congressmen hear this message. I and all my conservative friends want our team to win. We’ve given generously of our time and finances in the past, and we probably will give again in the future. But right now I’m afraid we’re waiting for proof that we have a party worthy of our gifts.
We do appreciate the things Mr. Boehner listed in his Enough is Enough article, things our Republicans have achieved while in the minority. Which is why I’m still wondering why we conservatives shouldn’t just keep them there. Hmmmm. . .
Hampton Bush
http://www.goldenquill.net/blog
August 8, 2007
A More Perfect Union:
The Creation of the U.S. Constitution
May 25, 1787, Freshly spread dirt covered the cobblestone street in front of the Pennsylvania State House, protecting the men inside from the sound of passing carriages and carts. Guards stood at the entrances to ensure that the curious were kept at a distance. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, the “financier” of the Revolution, opened the proceedings with a nomination–Gen. George Washington for the presidency of the Constitutional Convention. The vote was unanimous. With characteristic ceremonial modesty, the general expressed his embarrassment at his lack of qualifications to preside over such an august body and apologized for any errors into which he might fall in the course of its deliberations.
To many of those assembled, especially to the small, boyish-looking, 36-year-old delegate from Virginia, James Madison, the general’s mere presence boded well for the convention, for the illustrious Washington gave to the gathering an air of importance and legitimacy But his decision to attend the convention had been an agonizing one. The Father of the Country had almost remained at home.
Suffering from rheumatism, despondent over the loss of a brother, absorbed in the management of Mount Vernon, and doubting that the convention would accomplish very much or that many men of stature would attend, Washington delayed accepting the invitation to attend for several months. Torn between the hazards of lending his reputation to a gathering perhaps doomed to failure and the chance that the public would view his reluctance to attend with a critical eye, the general finally agreed to make the trip. James Madison was pleased.
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General George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Philadelphia convention. |
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August 5, 2007
by Hampton Bush
Copyright 2007
Dear RNC,
I’ve been a registered Republican since my first election (Nixon vs Kennedy). And for most of those years I had to tolerate being a member of a second-class party. You know, the Dems had control of congress for 40 years. All we Republicans could do was moan about how we were treated and pray that someday we would get our chance at bat.
And then. . .and then. . .along came Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich and the ‘94 election. It was incredible. We won! For the first time in 40 years, we won! We had control of congress. Our guys had the power to block the Clinton socialist thrust. Fantastic! We now had the power to propose the changes we had been praying for. We even slashed the welfare rolls.
And then came the 2000 election. We battled mightily against an incredibly determined Democrat push. Al Gore tried to steal Florida and the election, but we won! We won! Now, finally we would be rewarded for all our patience, for all our loyalty to the party, for all our prayers, for all our dreams of taking our country back to its founding roots. Finally we controlled the congress and the Presidency. Finally our conservative agenda could move forward. Finally the good guys were in charge. Thank you, God!
But then something truly weird happened. Did our dreams come true? Far from it. While it’s true we got some tax cuts that helped bolster a flagging economy, and we got a couple of Supreme Court judges who seem to be conservative, we also got some things that left us confused and worried. How did Ted Kennedy get put in charge of writing a bill for an education department we thought was headed for the dung heap? How did we end up with more pork-barrel spending than ever before in history? Why was corruption so rampant that I was ashamed to tell people I’m a Republican? How could a Republican Congress pass a gigantic medicare drug spending bill? How did we end up with a President who doesn’t know how to spell the word veto? How could a Republican President totally ignore the will of the people for a secure border, all the while telling us how dangerous terrorists are? To crown it all, no matter how dangerous Sadam Hussein was, or how cruel to his own people, how could a Republican instigate the first American preemptive strike in history? I’ve always believed that good guys don’t shoot first.
When we were preparing for the Iraq attack, I remembered the words of Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, who wrote in his book The Crisis:
‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to bind me in all cases whatsoever to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?”
Tom Paine’s answer to his own question was, “Hell, no!” He urged all Americans to stand firm against the tyranny of the English King. I think he would have approved, too, when we attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan, because that country was the home of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist organization who murdered 3000 Americans on September 11.
But would he have approved of the attack against Iraq? I think not, because that attack looked a lot like an offensive war, a preemptive strike against a petty dictator who already had been reduced to bribing U. N. officials to get money, a dictator surrounded by the most powerful nation on earth, and trapped in a desert country with nowhere to go. Don’t get me wrong. Although I didn’t know why then and still don’t know why we attacked Iraq when we did, now that we’re there, we have no choice but to win. Otherwise the blood of our brave young men will have been wasted as it was in Vietnam. That would be intolerable.
Last night, for the fourth time in a month I got a call from RNC fund raisers reminding me how much they need the money to beat the Democrats and how far below that of the Dems is our fund raising. I confess that four times in a row I lost my cool and yelled, “You want what?”
For years I’ve dutifully donated money to the party and got my little RNC membership card. But I’m reluctant to do it again. Why?
Because I’m waiting for an apology from the party leaders. I’m waiting for them to swear on a stack of bibles they won’t betray me again. More importantly, I’m waiting for some proof that they’re sincere and not just another pack of lying politicians. Maybe they need another Contract with America, but this time signed in blood.
Until then, when they call me for money, they’re going to get the same answer: “You want what?”
Hampton Bush
August 4, 2007
By Michael Barone
Monday, July 30, 2007
From www.townhall.com
Not all is gloom out there. That’s the dominant message from the most recent Pew Global Attitudes Project’s poll of 47 nations. Pew found that there is rising or constantly high contentment all over the globe with one’s quality of life and family income. Satisfaction tends to be highest in the United States and Canada, but not far behind are Western Europe and Latin America. Even in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, about one-third are highly satisfied with their quality of life and income.
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August 4, 2007
By Rich Lowry
Thursday, August 2, 2007
From Townhall.com
From a distance of nearly 50 years, the liberalism of 1960 is hardly recognizable. It was comfortable with the use of American power abroad, unabashedly patriotic and forward-looking. But that was before The Fall.
In his eye-opening new book “Camelot and the Cultural Revolution,” Jim Piereson argues The Fall was the assassination of President Kennedy. It represented more than the tragic death of a young president, but the descent of liberalism from an optimistic creed focused on pragmatic improvements in the American condition to a darker philosophy obsessed with America’s sins. Echoes of the assassination — and the meaning attributed to it by JFK’s admirers — can still be heard in the querulous tones of contemporary liberalism.
August 4, 2007
By Tom DeLay
From Townhall.com
Friday, August 3, 2007
Last night on the House floor – that sprawling, brawling arena that was like a second home to me during my 22 year career in Congress – it seems pretty clear that a crime was perpetrated against the rule of law and the American people. A combination of arrogance and incompetence on the part of the Democrat leadership left the Rules looking like a prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Not bad for a Thursday night.
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July 31, 2007
by Hampton Bush ©2007
Musicians are familiar with this problem. You attend a battle of the bands. You’re trying to warm up your instrument, but so are a hundred other musicians. The result is cacophony.
Somehow I feel the same way when I listen to all the well-intentioned, conservative talk hosts, authors, columnists and too many blathering journalists. My brain is battered senseless. I can’t hear myself think. Worse, I can’t figure out what is important to think about. Is it that weird lady who camped out in front of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas? Maybe not. She wields no power over me, only over the noisy flock of poppinjays called the media. Is it that weird professor Churchhill who is trying to brainwash college students to hate America? Maybe. . .that seems more important because he has a captive audience. (He’s gone now, thank goodness!)
When I listen to the cacophony, I keep wanting to yell, “Huh? What did you say? Why are you saying this? Why should I listen? What does it all mean? A marine was killed? What? A woman murdered four fetuses? Huh? Wait! What?”
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July 31, 2007
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, said those words in his pamphlet The Crisis, written to bolster the flagging morale of American freedom fighters during the war for independence.
But it is Paine’s first pamphlet, Common Sense, that is credited with winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans to the goals of independence. Somehow, in his wonderfully simple and direct style, he was able to communicate the ideas of the revolution against the King to both common tradesmen and to intellectuals. The result was that almost everyone in the colonies either read his pamphlet or had it read to them, often more than once. The pamphlet was a favorite among our soldiers at night around their campfires.
Thomas Paine was born in England, but came to America with Ben Franklin’s help. A restless, rebellious spirit, he found the Colonies the perfect place to unleash his great talent as a wordsmith. He quickly drifted into journalism and applied his trade to the cause of revolution. Many historians have called him “the man whose writings made the American Revolution possible.” His best known work was entitled Common Sense, published in February 1776, several months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
I have long known of the power of Thomas Paine’s writing in helping America achieve independence from the crown. . .of its ability to inspire the passion needed to rouse a populous to war. . .but I have never really known much about the man. Thankfully, when I discovered the works of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, that ignorance was remedied.
The following are the opening paragraphs of a lecture on Thomas Paine given by Col. Ingersoll at the Central Music Hall, in Chicago, January 29, 1880, nearly 100 years after the revolution. (The excerpt is from a Chicago Times, Verbatim Report).
This editor suggests you read on, and perhaps you’ll ask as I do. . .where is our 21st-century Thomas Paine when we need him so desperately to stand against the enemies of freedom from within and without? Hopefully he or she is out there somewhere. Hopefully. . .
Editor
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July 31, 2007
Introduction
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his OWN RIGHT, to support the Parliament in what he calls THEIRS, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.
P.S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a View of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any Attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independance: As no Answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past.
Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1776
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July 31, 2007
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Full Story »