Month: June 2014

Great news about the ALEC meeting at the end of July.  The BBA Task Force will be on the program twice, at a Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon panel.  We should have a good portion, if not a majority, of the 700 hundred or so state legislators in attendance listening to the pitch.  This is in addition to having the Thursday luncheon speaker, a retired Navy Admiral, giving an address on the national debt being the number one security threat to this country, and, hopefully, the outgoing ALEC Chair following up by making an  appeal on behalf of the Task Force. 

I think all this is happening because the Peterson Foundation, on our behalf, cut ALEC a check for $25,000 or so.  Money talks — and we don’t have any. 

There are a whole lot of people I hope to get a chance to talk to in Dallas.  I hope Karl Rove is there.  If I could have a serious talk with him for 15 minutes I think I could get us some of the money he controls.  Since the Peterson people are putting up the money, they’ll probably be there.  There’s a Republican group that has $25 million to spend on down ballot state races.  Plus all the state legislators.

I’m not sure who will represent the Task Force on these two panels.  I hope it’s me.  As a former state legislator, I think I could give a better pitch than anyone else.  Dave Biddulph and Bill Fruth are the two real co-founders of the Task Force, and they’ve sunk a lot of their own money into it.  So they have first dibs.  Neither had planned to go to Dallas, but this opportunity may cause them to change their mind.

November’s only a little more than four months away, and for the life of me I can’t see how it can be anything but a tsunami.  We’ve got everything going for us.  I snapped out of my year-long funk back in October, when I became convinced Obamacare would kill the Democratic Party.  If we don’t win the Senate, and pick up at least one state legislature, I will have been proven wrong.  It’s happened before, but this time, I swear, we’re going to put them down.

This country has been moving left for 100 years.  Could 2014 herald an historic ideological and political reversal?

One can dream.

I’m so confident we’ll get a BBA I’m working on #2, which in my mind is more important then #1 — term limits.

I found out about a lawyer in Kansas City who’s decided he wants an Article V Amendment Convention to propose a Congressional term limits amendment.  His name is Aaron Cook, and he’s got a website, termlimitconvention.org.  I gave him ten names in six states to call — people who have passed a BBA Resolution in their legislature, and might be ready for #2. 

A BBA should be bipartisan — 65% of Democrats support it.  But it hasn’t been, up to now.  Democrats are afraid this will hurt them politically, and a lot of leftist Dems want to close the deficit through taxes on the rich.  Term limits should be completely bipartisan.  Everybody hates Congress and just about everybody in it.  Look what just happened to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.  Congress has a 7% approval rating  — the 7% of the country that has absolutely no idea of what’s going on.  Looking at my crystal ball, I see that 7% dwindling, as Obama and a Republican Congress wage total war for the last two years of his term. 

I’ll be staying in touch with Aaron.  He’s a political amateur, God love him, but if he’s willing to devote time to this, so am I.  We’ll find allies — hopefully a bunch of Democratic ones — who will join the cause.

Great oaks from little acorns grow.

That seems to be Obama’s attitude.  F’em.  He doesn’t really seem to care about it any more.  Very liberating for him, I’m sure, but bad — real bad — for his party.  Iraq is imploding, the whole middle east is in shambles, Marines are off Libya in case they’re needed to help in an evacuation, embassy personnel in Baghdad are being withdrawn — so what’s Obama doing?  Having a weekend of golf in Palm Springs, interrupted only by a speech on climate change.  Care about it.  By siding with the environmentalists on Keystone and carbon emissions he’s killing the Democrats in Kentucky, a coal state, in particular.  Forget about the D’s taking out Mitch McConnell.  More important to me is Democratic Speaker of the Kentucky House, Greg Stumbo.  He’s my number one target.  I’m counting on a Republican House in Kentucky, and I’ve got to believe if you’re a Democrat in Kentucky you’re in trouble.  Stay on cruise control, Obama, don’t worry about a thing. 

I know the election is four and half months away, and that I have a tendency to get too optimistic, but my God it looks more and more like a Republican wave to me.  A big, significant wave, like ’94 or ’46.  A big enough wave to give us Kentucky, and maybe big enough for Maine, Washington and Oregon.  Big enough to win Senate seats in  Iowa, Colorado, even Oregon — maybe even Minnesota.  The economy’s not going anywhere, Islamic terrorism is on a roll around the world, Obamacare is an ongoing fiasco, we’re drowning in debt, scandals at NSA, IRS, VA and Benghazi aren’t going away, and people generally have had it with the President.  It’s a perfect storm.

Of course, according to the media, there’s a civil war between the Tea Party and establishment Republicans that’s going to help the D’s.  What a crock.  This civil war has been going on since Taft and Eisenhower in ’52.  Ever heard of the Goldwater – Rockefeller fight in ’64?  Remember Reagan v. Ford in ’76?  In ’80 this same  “establishment” (meaning Wall Street and the Fortune 500) was trying to deny Reagan the Republican nomination.  John Connally  was their man, and he spent millions of their money to win One (1) delegate.  It’s the country club versus Joe’s Bar and Grill, always has been and is today.  They’ve got the money, we’ve got the folks. 

Sometimes I get so jacked up I have to have a beer.

I’ll be there for the ALEC meeting, July 30 to August 1.  There should be around 700 conservative state legislators there from every state.  It looks like I’ll be the only Task Force Co-founder there.  Dave Biddulph tells me they’re talking to the Peterson Foundation guy (the son of $ man, Pete Peterson) about arranging for one of the luncheon speakers to be a big time retired Admiral who will tell everyone our national debt and deficits are the number one threat to the security of the United States.  His speech is supposed to be very effective.  Then the Chairwoman of ALEC, Iowa House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer will get up and tell everyone the only feasible solution to these problems is the use of Article V to get a BBA.  I think she will tell everyone to get behind the effort of the Task Force.  She may call me out.  Hopefully this will convince some attendees to talk to me about getting a Resolution through in their state.

I’m only interested in talking to legislators from 15 target states:  WI, SC, KY, MT, WY, ND, VA, AZ, UT, SD, OK, ID, ME, WA and OR.  If someone is from some other state, even a blue one like California, I’ll ask them to go to termlimitconvention.org, and sign on.  An Article V term limit movement could be truly bipartisan, which would be very cool. 

I’m thinking of having our Executive Director, Scott Rogers, send an invitation to anyone who might be in Dallas, even if remotely possible.  I’ll lay out where we stand, and the political implications if we succeed, and invite them all to discuss this with me in the bar of the fancy hotel where the conference is being held.  I’ll also invite everyone to breakfast at the hotel dining room.  This is what Dave did (the breakfast part) at the ALEC meet in December.

I’ll try to talk to the media which will be there.  I don’t know if a press release would work or not.  Maybe.

Dallas could be a lot of fun.

The Virginia legislature is now Republican, and again is a target.  Actually, it’s always been a target.  If, as I believe, we don’t get to 34 in 2015, there will be a legislative election in Virginia in November of 2015.  If we’re on our game, we can inject Article V into that election, and when the newly elected Virginia Assembly meets in January 2016 we’ll be ready to roll.

To me, this is a big deal.  If, in fact, Maryland rescinds, and there is also a problem with one of the other states we’re counting on, then we’re back to 22.  I’m counting on Wisconsin, South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota in 2015, getting us to 28, under the worst case scenario.  Now, in addition to Arizona, Oklahoma, Utah, South Dakota, and Idaho, we have Virginia as a prime target. 

Because the West  Virginia Senate will be controlled by Democrats, it’s a long shot.  They will be in the majority, but there’s always a chance some may defect to a coalition, or (more unlikely) provide the winning votes on the floor.  Delegate John Overington has been working on Article V for about 20 years, and tells us we shouldn’t give up on West Virginia.

I spoke by phone with Washington State Senator Pam Roach a week ago.  She’s been in the Senate 24 years, but assured me she really wasn’t that old.  She’s in a ruling coalition with a couple Democrats, and thinks the Washington State House is probably not going to flip Republican this year.  If, as I hope, she’s being too pessimistic, Washington could become a target.

I’ve had good communication with Steve Elzinga, Oregon Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli’s Chief of Staff.  He’s been cautiously optimistic about the Oregon legislature flipping Republican.  Now that they’ve got a female pediatric neurosurgeon named Wehby running for their U. S. Senate seat, the whole Republican Party should be jacked up.  Oregon could become a target.

Rep. Roger Jacobsen of Maine and I have been in touch a few times.  He’s optimistic.  The Maine legislature went Republican in 2010, and could easily do so again.  Another target.

I like target rich environments.