Month: March 2015

We got through second reading in the Wyoming Senate, but we’re not done yet.  Amendments were adopted on the floor, which the House must concur in before final passage.  And we’ve got third reading in the Senate.

But it looks good.  If we do get Wyoming the Reagan Project Achievement Award* for the State of Wyoming will go to Senate Majority Leader Eli Bebout.  Sometimes what you hear going into a state proves out.  I was told get Eli Bebout on your side and you’ll get a bill.  I was told right.

The amendments shouldn’t matter too much.  The aggregation of 34 Resolutions by Congress is not judicial, or quasi-judicial.  It is a political act, performed by politicians.  If the Republicans in Congress want to aggregate, they will.  If they don’t, they won’t.  They would be fools not to, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Dave Guldenschuh is a lawyer in Rome, Georgia who got the CoS bill through the Georgia legislature.  I didn’t think anybody, in any legislature, was going to be able to do what Dave did.  That bill is a tough sell, while the BBA sells itself.  Dave got fed up with the people at CoS and has joined our team.  We’re hoping he’ll be able to spend a couple days in Oklahoma City, on the ground in the Capitol.  Sometimes a person with an outside perspective can spot things.  We lost Montana (thank you, George) but we had a shot because of what I learned on the ground in Helena.  We almost got the Democrats only because of what I learned there.

I think the way to get to Idaho Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis is through his peers, to wit:  lawyers in leadership.  We know of several we can get, and will get more.  These people can assure him that they, and the other legislative leaders they know, will never allow a runaway.  They won’t let it happen, and they, collectively, will be running the show.

It as a big win in Cheyenne today.  For me, especially.  I’ve spent the last week thinking about Wyoming, and was sure I had it figured out — that we were going to win.  If I was wrong, then I was missing something, something I wasn’t smart enough to see.  That’s a bad feeling.

My wife and I saw Kevin Costner in “McFarland” last night.  Great movie.

It gave me an idea.

Hope for the best. The vote in the Wyoming Senate will be a few hours from now, and it’s too close to call.  The Gun Owners of America are fighting us, and may be having an effect.  These people are crazy.  The way they raise their money is by claiming the NRA is weak on the Second Amendment.  When we were fighting for concealed carry in Alaska our problem was Commissioner of Public Safety Brian Porter.  He was the former police chief of Anchorage, and a friend.  These whack jobs came on my radio show and started making threats against him.  I shut them up, quick, and we got our bill.  Like I said, they’re crazy.

When I was in college I got sucker punched, square in the nose, by a very strong guy.  I remember what it felt like.  That’s what a loss in Wyoming would feel like.

I didn’t go down.

I think Wyoming Senate Majority Leader Eli Bebout gets Article V.  That federalism, the division of power between the states and the federal government, with the states supreme, has been under attack for 100 years.  And that Article V is the means provided to us by the Framers to defend and reassert federalism.

While we were waiting for the Rules Committee to convene, a college intern, assigned by Bebout to research Article V, told me he was amazed at what he’d found.  He’d read some of Natelson’s stuff, and realized that Article V was the keystone of the Constitution.  This was what he reported to Bebout.

I got a chance to chat a bit with Eli.  We’re of an age.  A smart guy, and a patriot,

I’m glad he’s on our side.

I think Senate President Phil Nicholas looks at an Amendment Convention as an opportunity to exercise some on behalf of Wyoming.  As he explained in the Rules Committee, Wyoming is uniquely vulnerable in any “Grand Bargain”  to balance the budget.  It is heavily reliant on a mineral royalty arrangement it has with the federal government.  Most big mines in Wyoming are on federal land, and Wyoming is not entitled to share in royalties.  It gets some through some federal law or program which would be on the chopping block in a budget deal.

It’s generally understood in the Capitol that Nicholas is the sharpest knife in their drawer.  He would lead any delegation to an Amendment Convention, and with one vote of 50 would have as much power as anyone.  He could form an alliance with Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. I happen to know the Republican leadership in all of them, excepting Idaho.  Nicholas is as bright, or brighter, than any of them. With almost 20% of the votes needed to form a majority of 26, this alliance could play a key role in the organization and functioning of the Convention.  As a leader of this group, if not of an even larger one, he could ensure that whatever Amendment comes out of the Convention would protect Wyoming to the greatest extent possible.

This is why I think Nicholas will help us.  With three out of 535, Wyoming is more vulnerable in Congress than it would be in an Amendment Convention.  The Grim Reaper of budget cuts is coming, and he could save Wyoming’s bacon.  A challenge, and, politically, the opportunity of a lifetime.

I actually kind of like Nicholas.  He reminds me a little bit of me.  What people call his arrogance is just impatience with the slow witted.  You get tired of having to explain everything to people, and get short with them.  This might be an issue if he runs statewide.  It won’t hurt him at the Convention.

To be a leader there you not only have to be smart, you have to be seen as smart.

The greatest leader I personally knew was Gov. Jay Hammond of Alaska.  In 1978 he won the nomination of the Republican Party, and, effectively a second term, by 97 votes over a divided field.  I was Chairman of Hands for Hammond, a volunteer group, and I figured that without the contribution I made he would have lost.  Of course, there were about 100 other people who could make the same claim.

They finished the pipeline during his term, and wealth began to flow into Juneau  in astonishing amounts.  The Legislature was determined to piss away every last dime, but they met their match with Jay Hammond.  He clubbed the legislature like a dog, and they gave him 25% of the money, constitutionally.  It’s up to $50 billion now.  It’s like every Alaskan is born with an $80,000 savings account.

Jay was a preacher’s son from New England who flew Marine fighters in WW II.  He came to Alaska after the war, became a bush pilot, and married Bella, the prettiest Eskimo girl in the state.  This was a man’s man.

As I look back at a lifetime in politics, I really don’t have a lot to show for it.

But Jay Hammond was a friend of mine.