Month: December 2014

Freshman Senator Jeff Wasserburger has agreed to sponsor if we can’t get Sens. Bebout or Scott.  Jeff served several terms in the House a while back, so he knows the ropes.  We want to start in the Senate.  Freshmen Reps. Dan Laursen and Tyler Lindholm are on board.  Rep. Dave Miller will give us a vote, but doesn’t want to take the lead.  We’re having an NFIB cc on Tuesday evening.

It’s a start.  The bill will be introduced.  Jeff is on Appropriations, so that will take the bulk of his time.  I have doubts we win in 2015 without the active support of senior Senate leadership.  We’ll bring in Natelson.  Hell, for him it’s a two hour drive north on Interstate 25 to Cheyenne.  He told me he’d look forward to talking to Wyoming legislators  — a lot like his native Montana.  I would go as well.  We’ll try to gin up some grass roots support.

It’s a damn short session.  I think, on a bill like ours, we need to have our ducks in a row right from the get go.  Tough to do, but we’ll try.

In 2016, on non-budget items, you need 2/3.  If we get a majority, but not 2/3, we could ask Gov. Matt Mead to call a quickie special session.  It would take place immediately upon adjournment of the regular session .  Mead seems like a reasonable guy.  I bet Kasich could talk him into it.

The last time I was in Cheyenne I was romancing my bride to be.  She flew in to Rapid City to meet me.  I was working on the Pettyjohn family ranch south of Kadoka.  We drove to Cheyenne for the Frontier Days rodeo, and couldn’t find a place to stay.  So I drove a few miles out of town and we slept in a cow pasture.  A bunch of cows were looking at us when we woke up.

She can’t say she didn’t know what she was getting into.

Since we ‘ve got Senate President Niederhauser (a Task Force co-founder) presiding, and Sen. Curt Bramble carrying our bill, all we’ll need to work on is the House (in the State Senate of Utah, if Curt Bramble carries your bill, it passes the Senate).

We need 38, and start out ten shy.  There are eleven new R’s, and two that didn’t vote earlier this year.  So we win if we get 10 of 13 targets.  We don’t need to turn one nay to a yea.  Though we’ll try that, of course.  The NFIB and the Utah Libertas Institute will try and generate calls of support from constituents of targets.  We’ll try to bring Natelson in for Jan. 12-13.  I would probably go too.  Meanwhile Reps. Powell and Greene will work the freshmen.

When we lost back in April I wondered if my visit to Salt Lake had done any good.  There was one guy on the Committee I testified before that I thought I connected with.  We had a little back and forth.  It was fun.  A guy named Mike Noel.  Earlier he’d heard me give my pitch to the Conservative Caucus.  I was sitting outside the chamber later that day and he walked by, and we exchanged nods.  We thought he was kind of on the fence, and the way he looked at me I thought we’d lost him.  He looked kind of apologetic.

Kraig tells me today that he gave an impassioned floor speech on behalf of our bill.  And, even better, he’s the new Rules Chair.  We’ll get the committee we want, Revenue and Taxation.  And, mucho better, he’s best buddies with the new Speaker, who voted against us last year.  Kraig thought we had a good shot at turning the new Speaker, Greg Hughes.  With his best buddy helping out, it’ll be a lot easier.

I remember kind of liking Mike Noel.

Now that I am, for the moment, in the Kasich camp, it’s worth comparing him to the rest of the field.  In ascending order:

Christie  — Not only will the NRA take him out, he’s got other problems.   “Double Down” was a pretty good book on the 2012 campaign.  It says when Romney vetted Christie as a possible VP pick, there were some questionable deals in Christie’s background, serious enough to eliminate him from consideration.  Joisey is a place where a lot of questionable things go on.  And I don’t think his bully act has legs.

Bush  — It’s not only that everybody is sick of Bushes.  He’ll have to defend his brother’s record.  Enormous deficits, bullshit policies like “No child left behind”.  And thousands of fine young Americans in an early grave because of his lunatic nation building.  He took the Republican brand down, and we’re just starting to get it back.  Fuggedaboutit.  Your dumb shit brother with his compassionate conservatism (read “soft”) ruined your chances.

Cruz  — I don’t really know why, but I don’t like the guy.  Smarmy, cocky, self-absorbed.  He’s a great example of why a high IQ is of such limited value in politics.  He lacks judgment.  He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.  Call back in 2024.  And in the mean time, study up on Article V, smart guy.

Jindal  —  He’s on board with Article V, and that says a lot.   Impressive guy, smart as hell, but not much of a politician.  Good governors figure out how to work with their legislature.  From all I’ve heard, most of the R’s in the Louisiana legislature can’t stand the guy.  But what an HHS Secretary!

Walker  — Dullsville.  Too bad, but being an effective communicator is part of the job. A year ago I told Rep. Chris Kapenga, our guy in Wisconsin, that he needed a speech coach.  He said they’re working on it.  I haven’t seen any improvement.  Plus, for some reason he won’t come out for Article V.  That does not speak well of him.

Perry  — He’s all Texas, all the time.  W not only screwed his brother Jeb, but made people sick of the whole Texas thing.  Biddulph says he’s with us on Article V, so I’m sympathetic to him.  He’ll get over The Big Flub from 2012.  Good record and all, but a Governor in Texas doesn’t have all that much power, so he’s claiming credit for things he had little to do with.  And, did I mention , he’s from Texas.

Pence  — He gives a good speech, and is an out front guy on Article V.  Excellent record in Congress and as Governor.  But nothing stands out about the guy.  Why Mike Pence?  I don’t know.

Paul  — It’s between him and Kasich, as far as I’m concerned.  We are in a libertarian moment, and he’s timing it right.

Kasich  —  I always liked the guy.  He’s got a good attitude.  Plenty smart, good on his feet.  Good record, on the Budget Committee, and as Governor of the must win state for R’s.

And he’ll be campaigning for Article V.

Bill Fruth has a meeting Friday with Merle Madrid, Gov. Kasich’s public liaison.  He’s handling Kasich’s efforts on behalf of an Article V BBA, or, put another way, on our behalf.  Kasich has publicly committed to go on the campaign trail on this issue.  By establishing this line of communication, Bill, and the Task Force, will be able to assist Kasich, and make his travels more productive.

Our goals, and his, are, of course, not identical.  We want him to go to Boise, Cheyenne, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and Richmond.  Richmond, Virginia may appeal to him, as would Columbia, South Carolina (the third state on the nomination calendar, after Iowa and New Hampshire).  Bill checked with our man in South Carolina, Charleston County Republican Chairman John Steinberger.  He said, Come on down.  The Party would have an event for Kasich the evening after he testifies before the legislature (if that is, in fact, what he would do).

At the Liberty Congess in  Philly, Dick Morris said we’d get the public’s attention when the Presidential candidates start talking about our issue.  Even though he made a fool of himself with his confident predictions of a Romney win, Morris is no dope.  He played a major role in getting Clinton reelected.  And he’s right.  The media, Fox in particular, can’t wait to cover the Republican nomination fight.  It will drive ratings.  A horse race with so many legitimate contenders is fun to follow.  So a Kasich trip to Columbia would make news, even if it’s not, technically, presidential campaigning.  It’ll do.  For political junkies, it’s mainlining.

[In this vein, Dave Biddulph avers we’ll soon be getting help from retiring Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma.  It won’t get as much play, but he could help, a lot.  Insiders in Conservatism Inc. have respect for Coburn.  He’s as straight a shooter as there is.  He’s a local hero back in Oklahoma.  All the Republicans love this guy.  If he could get us Oklahoma, we’d be tickled.  I actually don’t think we get Oklahoma without him.]

In the mean time, what are the leventy-leven contenders doing?  Doing all the same old same old.  Iowa, New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Iowa.

I’ve been trying to get into Kasich’s head.  Hell yes, he wants to run.  He’s 62, and it’s now or never.  He made a token run 16 years ago, and learned from the experience.  But announcing early would be wrong for him.  He’s a Governor.  It’s a big job.  And campaigns burn cash.  He can’t be sure how he’d fit in the field until the field is formed.  Are Bush and Christie in or out?

So he waits.  But he’s stuck in the backwater of Columbus.  How does he get out and test the waters, without appearing to do so?  Keep his name, and the prospect of his running, in the conversation?

Campaign across the country for the most important part of the Constitution, Article V.  And a BBA.  The answers.

I think I am getting into Kasich’s head.  And what I’m finding is one smart son of a bitch.

He’ll be the mainstream conservative, the go to guy when Bush and Christie flame out  — and flame out they will.  Bush fatigue is not as prevalent as Clinton fatigue, but close.  And the NRA will take out Christie  —  a gun grabber is not going to win the Republican nomination.  Those Midwest white guys who refused to vote for Romney are a key demographic.  They all have guns.

Everyone else in the field will try to be Captain Conservative.  Kasich will have the more moderate vote all to himself.

He won’t allow himself to be called a moderate, of course.  And to prove his conservative bona fides he’s the one guy who grabbed the BBA through Article V and ran with it.  If he’s as smart as I think he is he will talk as much about Article V as he does about the BBA.

Article V is the most libertarian part of the Constitution.  Everybody who’s pissed off at the federal government is going to love it, once they understand it.

I don’t know if Kasich has the balls to go all the way with Article V  — to point out that it, in essence, creates a Fourth Branch of the Federal Government.  The Federal Legislature, which would come into existence with the routine use of Article V, has supreme power in our constitutional system.

If Kasich has the vision to see this, and promote it relentlessly, he could actually win.

I’d support him.