Month: February 2015

Tuesday’s vote in the South Dakota Senate now looks iffy.  South Dakota is divided politically by the Missouri River.  West River is where the whackos live, and they’re up in arms.  Sen. Monroe from Pierre is feeling the heat from them, and he’s wavering.  He’s our 18th vote, and if we lose him we’ll have to try again next year.  Sen. Ernie Otten is carrying the bill in the Senate, and between him and Hal will do all they can.  The quality of the Senate floor debate apparently was not the best.  Loren Enns and others are preparing talking points for the floor Tuesday.

Tuesday’s vote in the Montana House is anybody’s guess.  The Tuesday vote in the North Dakota House looks like a lock.  For some reason there don’t seem to be a lot of crazy people in North Dakota.

We’re up in a South Carolina Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday, and Sen. Lee Bright from Spartanburg is wavering.  He knows what he should do.  The Campaign for Liberty, a Ron Paul offshoot, is spouting the same old stuff, and the calls he’s getting have him concerned.  These people are so deluded that they actually believe that the 2nd Amendment would be in danger at an Amendment Convention.  It’s ignorance, pure and simple.  Sad to say, these people are dumber than stumps.  Talking about the law and political reality to them is like trying to explain an internal combustion engine to a Neanderthal.  It just doesn’t work.  Charleston County Republican Party Chair John Steinberger will tape the robocall into his district.  He sounds like he’s from South Carolina, which I think is important.  We also have a shot at Democratic Sen. Thomas McIlveen .  Gov. Kasich will be in Columbia Wednesday and Thursday.  Sen. Grooms, our sponsor, may get a continuance of the hearing if Bright would benefit from a chat with Kasich.

Dr. Coburn will be addressing the Oklahoma Republican Caucus on the 23rd.  Sponsor Rep. Gary Banz has the bill in House Rules on the 25th.  Kasich will talk to Coburn next week.  We’re still not sure if Coburn understands the difference between our bill and CoS.  I think it’s fair to say that no one has more respect in the Oklahoma Legislature than Dr. Tom Coburn, for good reason.  If they won’t listen to him, they won’t listen to anybody.

So, a busy week.  If we do wind up losing South Dakota it’s not the end of the world.  Next year we’ll have even more momentum than we have now, and we can give it another go.

Not so in Montana.

Three Democrats got us out of committee.  We’ll probably need more on the floor vote, Monday or Tuesday.

As I’ve said repeatedly on this blog, we may get Democrats, but not as the deciding votes.  Oops.  I wander around the woods in the evening drinking beer, and thinking deep thoughts.  Some of them are better than others.  That was not a good one.  I don’t think we get there without Montana.  And we won’t get Montana without Democrats.

I guess my perspective was skewed by my experience in Salt Lake, where the D’s wouldn’t give me the time of day.

The Birchers did it for us.  Ellie Hill, from Missoula, is the leader of the three, and the sponsor of campaign finance reform through Article V.  I’ve known a lot of legislators over the course of my life.  There are good Democrats and bad Republicans.  She’s a good Democrat, and a good American, who is just disgusted with the corruption of our politics by obscene amounts of money.  Most Americans agree with her, so she’s got a shot.  One of my better deep thoughts is that no Article V movement can succeed without supermajority support in both parties.  She’s got that, I believe.  As does the BBA.

So Ellie has studied Article V, and read Natelson, and knows full well that it poses absolutely no danger to the Constitution, that it is, in fact, critical to the design of the Constitution.  It gives us a way around a corrupt Congress.  And so these crazy ass Birchers come filing in to Judiciary spouting the most absurd bullshit imaginable.  And it’s killing our bill.  She sees it happening.

And it pissed her off.

Our successful vote in the Montana House Judiciary Committee this morning is one more sign that the political tides have shifted, at least with respect to a BBA through Article V.  Other indications are:

1) Kasich’s decision to go whole hog with our movement.  Kasich’s smart.  He sees something.

2) Idaho Speaker Scott Bedke taking it upon himself to invite Gov.  Kasich to his state to promote our bill.  This came out of the blue.  We got nowhere in Idaho last year.  With Bedke taking the lead, we could pick it up.  It’s a state we’ve got to have, and we’ll need real leadership to overcome the Birchers.  He can provide it.

3)  Utah sponsor Kraig Powell tells us we ought to get Utah this year.  Utah is a hard state, a lot of Birchers and Eagle Forum folks.  I saw this first hand in Salt Lake last year.  Something’s changed.

4)  Wyoming.  We had no idea of what we were going to find in Wyoming.  My previous efforts to reach out to Speaker Kermit Brown went nowhere.  I did manage to get a couple freshmen to sponsor the bill, but they weren’t going to get it passed unless leadership wanted it.  It turned out they did want it.  Winning was big.  Winning 44-16 tells you something major is happening..

5)  South Dakota.  Hal Wick has been trying to pass our bill there for 35 years.  He never really got anywhere.  Finally, finally, he got it through the House.  Hal gets a ton of credit.  But something changed.

We’ve got a shot in Montana for a lot of reasons.  Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.  But the real reason we can win is because the people of Montana want this bill.  The Birchers can’t prevail against the people.

I think we may be in a virtuous circle.  The coming wins in South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota will reinforce our position in the remaining states.  Every win we get builds momentum.  And every win means we’re closer to the day when the American people realize there is something that can be done, it’s not hopeless.  Everybody, right, left, and center, has given up on Congress.  Article V lets us say to hell with Congress.  The beltway elites can be overcome.  We don’t have to play Hunger Games.  There’s hope.

If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I get carried away sometimes.  I’m a passionate man.  But I’m no dope.

This could happen.

We had a vote to spare.  Sponsor Matthew Monforton said he’s never worked harder on anything in his life.  I told him it was for a good cause.

It is.

That’s when we expect the vote.  Matthew thinks he’s got eleven.  The Soros email and the robocalls may push us over the top.

Ain’t politics fun?