Month: January 2015

Sponsor Matthew Monforton may be a freshman, but he’s no shrinking violet backbencher.  He’s suing the State of Montana on behalf of the Republican Party, seeking to overturn the current primary voting law, which allows any voter, however registered, to vote for any candidate.  The Central Committee voted to join his suit just yesterday, so he’s been busy.  The Constitution’s guarantee of the freedom of association means he should win, by the way.

He tells me it’ll be a fight every step of the way, in the Judiciary Committee, on the House floor, and the same in the Senate.  Judiciary is chaired by Jerry Bennett of Libby, which is nestled in the most northwest corner of the state  — the part of Montana with the strongest Birch presence.  12 R’s, 9 D’s, so we can only lose one R vote in committee, assuming unanimous D opposition.  Montana’s a big, rural state, and committee members come from all over the place, towns like Box Elder, Havre, Hamilton and Sun River.

On the bright side we’re confident we’ll have the strong support of Speaker Austin Knudsen, a former student of Rob Natelson, and a big fan of his.  Natelson’s visit to Helena should motivate Knudsen to do what he can for us.  Depending on how much he wants this bill, that can be a lot.

We’ve got to do the robocalls I’ve described earlier in Montana.  I don’t know media markets in Montana, but I’ve spent a whole lot of time in the state, and know it’s all spread out, and thinly populated.  But everybody’s got a phone, and a call from Matthew, Kasich, or Palin may get more attention in Montana City or Joliet than it would get in a metropolitan area.

A House district in Montana has around 7,000 registered voters.  Get half a dozen calls from back home, and your ears perk up.

I may be in Helena for a while.

Kasich will get some on Fox News’ Special Report, with Brett Baier, this coming week.  They’re profiling potential Presidential Candidates.  I’ve seen Jindal and, a couple days ago, Perry.  I’ll bet the farm that Kasich comes on strong on the BBA campaign he’s launching.  This will be good.

Special Report is the only TV I watch, other than sports and the weather.  I like Baier, and the panel has Krauthammer, who’s always interesting.  It’s by far the best show on Fox News, and the most highly watched, after O’Reilly.  I’m pretty sure Article V, and the push for a BBA, have never been mentioned, so Kasich’s appearance gets our foot in the door.  At least Baier and his producers will be aware of what Kasich, and we, are doing.

So when we get our 25th (probably South Dakota*) and our 26th (probably West Virginia**) and our 27th (Wyoming?) these people will be vaguely aware of what’s going on .  Hopefully Jim Lynch, Kasich’s press guy, is calling their attention to it.  So when we get our 28th (Idaho?) in late March maybe these guys at Fox will think, Gee, maybe this drive to 34 is news.  Maybe a one minute bit could be devoted to every new state we get.  Maybe viewers would be interested in the state by state progress of this unique movement.

I can dream.

More free media is available on the Op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post.  If, and when, I get through to Palin I may suggest she submit a piece.  I’d do a draft for her.  It would be my very best work, eminently suitable for the editorial page of the WSJ or WaPo.  She can add whatever personal touches she wants.  I don’t care about the byline, it could include my name or not.  She may or may not be interested.  But this campaign for a BBA is perfect for her.  She won’t be involved in any of the Presidential campaigns, so she’ll have a low public profile for the next year or more.  This puts her in the middle of a popular and consequential movement.

How could she say no?

*Thanks Hal Wick

**Thanks John Overington

Dave Biddulph told us about robocall technology that asks a question, “Do you support a bill in the legislature that would result in a Balanced Budget Amendment for the Federal Government?”  If yes, they’re asked, “Would you be willing to express your opinion on this issue to your elected Representative in Cheyenne?”  If yes, they’re told that if they keep their line open, they will automatically be patched in to their legislator’s office, where they can leave a message identifying themselves and voicing support for our bill.

This would work in Wyoming.  The voice will be Tyler Lindholm’s, or possibly Dan Laursen’s.  The call starts, “Hi, I’m Representative Tyler Lindholm calling you from Cheyenne.  I’m trying to pass legislation which would force the federal government, though a constitutional amendment, to balance it’s budget.”  Etc.

We gotta do this.

We heard Wednesday that FreedomWorks was on board.  Today Dave says we’ve got the Tea Party Express.  We’ll see what good they do.  The Tea Party has helped a great deal in places like Ohio.  In a state where we’ve got Birch/Eagle problems a Tea Party rally on the Capitol steps would help, I think.  We have to be careful not to be identified as a Tea Party project, of course.  If, as seems likely, Gov.Kasich becomes, in a sense, the public face of the BBA movement, that danger diminishes.

The Saudis are at it again, just like in the 80’s, flooding the market.  Spot price back then got down to $8.  Reagan cut a deal with the Saudis even before he was sworn in.  They got AWACS planes, and we got to see the Soviet economy starved of hard currency.

Reagan knew how to make a deal.

It hasn’t come yet.  Will it?  At some point, when they take us seriously, the D’s will realize that putting the BBA, and Article V, at the forefront of the 2016 election will kill them, politically.  Their playbook from 30 years ago, when Lew Uhler got to 32, was to give Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum enough money to run an effective scare campaign against Article V  – the runaway bugaboo.

Their options are limited this time.  In all twelve of our target states, Republicans have the votes.  To stop us, the Democrats need to turn Republicans against us.  The runaway argument is the only one they’ve got.  Schlafly, and the Eagle Forum, and the John Birch Society, are spent forces.  Giving them money would not, at this point, be enough.

So they’ll sue, I suspect.  Find a Federal District Court Judge somewhere that they can count on, and get them to issue some sort of ruling against us.  Probably saying our Resolutions don’t aggregate.  I’m just guessing here.  Which makes today’s news out of D.C. significant.  Rep. Steve Stivers (R, Ohio) got a rule change passed by the House which sets up a formal procedure for aggregation.  This is the kind of thing which will discourage any interference from the courts.

The judiciary, as a matter of fact, hasn’t got one damned thing to do with Article V.  Any ruling, by any judge, attempting to insert the judicial branch into this process should, of course, be appealed.

It should also be ignored.

A lot of good news coming in.  We really could get a sweep in the upper plains and mountain states — SD, ND, MT, WY, UT and ID.  That’s 30, and Wisconsin, West Virginia, South Carolina and Oklahoma would make 34, and they’re all very doable.

The tide is turning.

Some people think Congress will propose a BBA itself, rather than let the states do it in an Amendment Convention.  That’s how we got the 17th Amendment.  This could happen if we get to 32 or 33 in June of 2015, and Congress has six months to react before the 2016 state legislative sessions begin.

I hope that doesn’t happen.  To get the votes of thirteen Senate Democrats I think you’d have to water a BBA down.  We’d get a better product from a Convention.  But, mainly, for me, I just want an orderly, successful Convention.  For the first time in our history the states would finally be exercising their supervisory role over the federal government.  And once it happens, it will happen again.  And again.

If we pull it off, and get to 34 this year, Congress wouldn’t be able to stop a Convention by passing its own BBA.  There’s nothing in Article V that says that Congress can avoid its responsibility to call the Convention by passing its version of what’s being sought at the Convention.  That’s bullshit.  For something simple, like repealing the 16th or 17th Amendments, it might make sense.  But a Congressional BBA and a Convention BBA are totally different animals.

Come to think of it, there might be a push to pass a BBA in Congress this year.  Why wouldn’t Boehner give it a go?  He only needs 43 D votes to pass it.  Highly unlikely, but a good issue.

Washington will be a mess in a month.  Obama overestimates the strength of his position.  And he doesn’t know how to negotiate.  It’s a lot of work, something that has no appeal for him.  No negotiation, no deals.  Fine with me.

Article V thrives on Washington dysfunction.