LinkSwarm for October 4, 2013
October 4th, 2013Constitutional Democracy At Work
October 3rd, 2013Liberals have staged another one of their regular hissy fits over the government shutdown. What they don’t seem to realize is that this is exactly how divided government is supposed to work. The Founding Fathers were tremendously suspicious of investing too much power in any one person, which is exactly why they set up the executive legislative and Judicial branches in opposition to each other. This is why the executive and legislative have to work together to pass laws, and why the House and Senate must agree with each other. If everyone gets a veto on the process, then no one portion of the federal government can seize power over another. By refusing to go to conference, Harry Reid is shirking the legislative branches constitutional duty to pass a budget.
Forcing the White House and the Senate to come together and negotiate is part of the constitutional design. This is why Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill had to negotiate compromises during several shutdowns in the 1980s.
But Obama, as he’s proven time and time again, is no Reagan.
Can Anyone Successfully Primary John Cornyn?
October 1st, 2013There’s been a lot of criticism of John Cornyn in Tea Party circles over his failure to back Ted Cruz in procedural votes on the ObamaCare defunding fight. Given that, the muttering over someone primarying Cornyn have grown much louder.
Can anyone take Cornyn? It’s something of a tall order. He had some $6 million on hand as of the July reporting period, and any potential candidate will have a much latter start than Ted Cruz had when he beat David Dewhurst.
I queried a few people more tied-in than I, and three names of possible Cornyn challengers came up:
(Unmentioned by anyone, but someone who’s family connections would bring instant media coverage: George P. Bush. But name recognition and family connections only take you so far. Bush would go from an overwhelming favorite for Land Commissioner to a distinct underdog in a Senate race, plus there’s no guarantee he would be any more conservative than Cornyn. And Tea Party opinion of the Bush Dynasty is not exactly one of, shall we say, unrestrained affection.)
It’s going to be a tall order to take out a sitting U.S. Senator, barring scandal or even more deviation from conservative principles. But of those mentioned, McCaul probably has the best shot to beat Cornyn.
Canseco Running Against Gallego Again
September 30th, 2013Francisco “Quico” Canseco is gearing up to take U.S. Congressional District 23 back from Democrat Pete Gallego. Canseco lost the by just over 9,000 votes in 2012, having beaten Ciro Rodriguez for the seat by just over 7,000 votes in 2010. CD23 is the biggest “swing” district in Texas, and Canseco probably has a good chance to take back the seat as Gallego will have to win in 2014 without a boost from the Obama campaign.
More on Canseco’s Facebook page.
LinkSwarm for September 27, 2013
September 27th, 2013Another Friday, another LinkSwarm:
Cruz Filibuster Fallout
September 26th, 2013A roundup of reactions and fallout from Ted Cruz’s mammoth 21-hour anti-OabamCare speech effort:
- There is new leadership in the GOP, whether the party wants to admit it or not: Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions
- The popular reaction to Cruz will be immediate and noticeable; the more the old bulls carp, the more the public will rally to Cruz’s side.
- conservatives understand that rather than form a third party, their only hope is to seize control of the corrupt, rotting hulk of the GOP.
- The Cruz faction in the Senate, and its allies in the House (whose leadership is now up for grabs) must now press their advantage. The louder the Democrats squawk, the more they are wounded; the one thing they’ve long feared is a direct assault on their core beliefs as translated into actions, and the deleterious effects of Obamacare, just now being felt by the population, are the most vivid proof of the failure of Progressivism that conservatives could wish for.
- There is no reason to think the Tea Party, if properly organized and harnessed, cannot be even more potent next year than it was in 2010, especially now that its members know the government really was out to get them.
Everyone know the real problem in Washington, D.C. is not that the debt limit is too low, it’s that government is too big and spends too much money that it doesn’t have, and meddles in things best left up to free citizens. Just as Ted Cruz did, we need to make those same points over and over again in the ongoing debt limit and ObamaCare battles, because we’re right.
The UN Arms Treaty: It’s Baaaaack!
September 25th, 2013Because those bitter rednecks clinging to their guns and religion (also known as “voters”), Obama hasn’t been able to disarm law-abiding Americans the way he would like. What to do, what to do?
Hey, how about using that UN Arms Treaty to disarm Americans?
You know, the one Secretary of State John Kerry just signed?
John Lott notes that
The Arms Trade Treaty will regulate individual gun ownership all across the world. Each country will be obligated to “maintain a national control list that shall include [rifles and handguns]” and “to regulate brokering taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms.” In fact, the new background check rules approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee include just those rules — a registration system and a record of all transfers of guns.
Will Obama even submit it to the Senate for approval, knowing he doesn’t have even 50 votes in the Senate for it, much less the 67 votes required to ratify it?
Ted Cruz vs. ObamaCare
September 25th, 2013When I went to sleep, Ted Cruz was filibustering against ObamaCare.
I just woke up, and he’s still at it.
I’m in the awkward position of supporting Ted Cruz et. al.’s attempt to defund-via-narrow-procedural-filibuster-followed-by-Democrats-blinking strategy while also believing that the effort is almost certainly doomed to failure. The reason it’s doomed is that it requires complex (and somewhat counter-intuitive) Senate rule voting maneuvers, and for Harry Reid and the Democratic majority to give in on key points, which I think is very unlikely. Nor do I agree with the “repeal it now or we’re stuck with ObamaCare for all time” rhetoric. There are no lost causes in American politics, because there are no won causes. The Great Recession isn’t making Obama and the Democratic crony cohort any more popular, making a GOP takeover of the the Senate in 2014 (and of White House in 2016, very possibly by Cruz himself) increasingly likely.
But I do think Cruz’s filibuster is necessary because he’s making the case for repeal and forcing the GOP establishment to either back him or show their true colors. All signs point to ObamaCare becoming more and more unpopular as time goes on, making repeal a winning issue. But the first step is actually fighting for repeal, and Ted Cruz is there.
Here’s the opening of Cruz’s filibuster:
Mickey & Ted & Amnesty & ObamaCare
September 24th, 2013Harping on a theme he’s harped on before, Mickey Kaus dinged Ted Cruz (again) for not opposing illegal alien amnesty with the single-minded focus Kaus thinks he should. (“You didn’t clap loud enough! Tinkerbell is dead!Amnesty is Alive!”) This criticism is misguided:
- Mickey Kaus is a Democrat and an ObamaCare supporter, albeit an entirely more reasonable example of each than usually found, as well as an amnesty opponent. Thus dinging Ted Cruz for fighting ObamaCare rather than amnesty is basically saying “A Republican senator is fighting hard against a program I support but not fighting hard enough against a program I oppose.”
- Ted Cruz has long been a fervent opponent of both ObamaCare and illegal alien amnesty, but has always been more fervently against ObamaCare, proclaiming that we should “repeal every syllable of every word of Obamacare” as one of his stock talking points from the very beginning of his campaign.
- Those doubting Cruz’s opposition to amnesty should take another look at what he said about it back when I interviewed him in 2011:
- Cruz fought and voted against amnesty when it was before the Senate, but now it’s before the House. Given that whole “bicameral legislature” idea, the issue is beyond Cruz’s legislative purvey.
- While I won’t go so far as to declare amnesty dead (as some have), if only because the GOP establishment seems to have a limitless appetite for suicidal compromise, its chances this legislative session do look slim, and all that was accomplished without Cruz taking the leading role against it.
Given all that, Kaus continuing to harp on Cruz’s appears to be of an idee fixe on Kaus’ part than real criticism.