Month: April 2015

This is a rising star in Ohio Republican politics.  The Republican political establishment in that state has promoted him throughout his legislative career.  Now he’s 49, Senate President, and term limited.  I don’t know his next move.  I suspect he wants to run against Democrat Sherrod Brown for the U.S. Senate in 2018.  He’d be a perfect candidate.

Bill Fruth knows these people; he’s from Ohio, was a small town Mayor there when he was in his 20’s.  Bill was the first person I talked to about the Reagan Initiative.  I respect his opinion.  He was intrigued, but cautious.  He did not discourage me from pursuing it, but he wanted to keep quiet about it.  I told him that I was going to try to sell it to state legislative leaders around the country, and he discouraged me from talking to Faber about it.

Unless he convinces me otherwise, I’m going to tell Faber about it next week, and ask for his help.  He’d make a good national Co-Chairman of the Seattle Summit, except for his ties to Kasich.  We don’t want to be seen as tied to any one Presidential hopeful.

Ohio is part of coal country.  Not to the extent of West Virginia or Kentucky, but coal is big in Ohio.  Faber’s number one political contributor is American Electric Power, which burns coal to generate 2/3 of its juice.  AEP, along with every other coal burning power generator in the country, is in the crosshairs of the EPA.  They want it to stop burning coal.  Faber would love to be able to do something about that.  With the Reagan Initiative, he can.  He can be a leader on this issue, the kind of leader who gets rewarded with election to the United States Senate.

Faber totally gets Article V.  When Fruth reached out to presiding officers around the country, including some Task Force Co-founders, for help in Wyoming, only Faber responded.  He wrote a letter to Wyoming Senate President Nicholas the day he was asked.  That spoke volumes to me.

Faber’s a very bright guy. Maybe he can tell me what’s wrong with the Reagan Initiative.  Whatever he has to say, I’ll be listening very closely.

We’ll have an awards dinner the night of August 3rd, and we should have a guest speaker.  I’m going to ask Kasich.  He was on Meet the Press today, in top form.  When he’s on, he’s really good.  He’s inching toward running.  I’d be shocked if he didn’t.  He would be a very serious candidate, with a legitimate shot.  He’s the only one in the field that I, personally, might prefer over Rand Paul.  It depends on how hawkish he is in the Middle East.  If he starts sounding like some of these other guys, all macho and kick ass, I couldn’t support him.  Paul showed me some balls last night in New Hampshire.  He goes on an antiwar tear, and pulls no punches.  Kasich would have to show me he won’t fight a war for Israel before I could support him.  We want out of the Middle East.  We’ll guarantee Israel’s security, but beyond that, it’s not our problem.  We don’t need their oil anymore.  The Asians and Europeans do.  Let them figure it out.  If the Shia and the Sunni, and everybody in between, want to kill each other for the next hundred years that would be a great human tragedy.  There are great human tragedies playing out all over the world.  Let’s help out in some that don’t require us to go to war.

If Kasich can’t come to Seattle I’m going to invite Rand Paul.  He hasn’t really pitched in on Article V the way Kasich has.  But he’s all in.  I’d like a chance to talk to Paul about the Reagan Initiative.  I think it’s his cup of tea.  What part of the Reagan Initiative wouldn’t he like?  Politically, the down side to the Reagan Initiative is it’s a declaration of war on the environmental left.  But if I’m a Republican, I want these crazy bastards screaming at me.  I’d want them to come to my rallies, and try to disrupt them.  I want to get picketed.  I want these nut jobs throwing tomatoes at me, or worse, preferably.  So there is no down side politically.  If you’ve got the balls.

When I ran for the Senate in ’82 no one knew who I was.  I was a small time lawyer who’d been in the state eight years.  I’m not really a very sociable guy.  I stuck close to my family and a few of my drinking buddies.  Outside of politics, I really didn’t know anybody.  I’d never met the Republican candidate for Governor, Tom Fink, whose help I needed badly.

So I read in the paper that Fink and the Democrat, Bill Sheffield, are having a luncheon debate at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.   This is a big deal, 500 or more people.  Both these guys are former Presidents of the Anchorage Chamber.  So I go and find out they’ll take questions from the audience.  I get first in line at the mike.

Sheffield was running a TV ad all over the state, except Anchorage.  It was called Rhode Island Red.  It said Fink was the candidate of Anchorage, and Anchorage alone, while Sheffield was the candidate of all Alaskans.  So I get to ask the first question, “Bill, you say you want to run a campaign that brings Alaskans together.  How does that TV ad you’re running, Rhode Island Red, fit in with that strategy?”

It shook Bill pretty bad.  He wasn’t real bright, and had a slight speech impediment, so he had a hard time saying anything.  People in the crowd were starting to laugh. It was brutal.

I got that Fink endorsement.

When I got out of Cal in ’67 I decided to go to Europe.  My former girlfriend, Melody Magdalena Papini, was going, so I figured I would too.  I only had about $600, but I got a charter from Oakland to London for $125, and I was going to hitchhike around, and stay at youth hostels.  It worked out. I wandered all over the place for six months, from North Africa to Tehran.  Had a lot of adventures.  I even ran into Melody at the youth hostel in Rome.  She was a beautiful girl, had a classic Italian look. But she didn’t want me, and so that was that.  I found out a few years later that she died of hepatitis at a hippie commune in Colorado.  Very sad.  She never figured things out.

When I got back I planned on going to law school, but I wasn’t ready.  I didn’t know what to do.  So I went up to Alaska to meet my Uncle Fritz, and that was that.  I found a home.  I came up in June, and went out to Jewel Lake to go swimming.  It was 84 degrees, and the girls were in bikinis.

I loved Alaska.  Everything about it, except the weather, and when you’re young and strong you don’t let things like that bother you.  I got a job in the warehouse at Northern Commercial.  I would have gone commercial fishing or crabbing, or worked construction,  but had no idea how to get one of those jobs.  You had to know somebody, and I didn’t know anybody.  I made three friends, Ron Nash, a local, Steve Kaminski, from Waupun, Wisconsin, and Dennis Jorgensen from El Cerrito, California.  I nicknamed Ron the “Ratman”, because he had a kind of rodenty look.  He didn’t mind.  We rented places together for almost a year.  I became good friends with these guys.  I didn’t really have many friends in college, outside of the Young Republicans.  That’s how I met Melody, was the YR’s.

Looking back, this was an important time in my life.  These were just regular guys, and we hung out like regular guys do.  It helped me get my head on straight.  One time we got in trouble, and it pisses me off to think about it.  We met this young Native kid, we called him the Cloud.  He was a space cadet.  He was hanging out at our place one time and the cops come and arrest us all for marijuana possession.  We didn’t smoke dope, at least Steve and Dennis and I didn’t.  But they found some pot somewhere and arrested us all.  Steve didn’t know what to do, and pled guilty, like a fool.  They actually locked him up for two weeks.

Dennis and I pled not guilty and got a lawyer.  I remember going to the law library down at the court house to look up the law.  I was very disappointed to see that it took eight volumes to print the Alaska Statutes.  Alaska had eight volumes of law?  I thought this was the last frontier, for Christ’s sake.  We got off, and that was that.  But talk about your bullshit.  I’ve never cared much for authority.  I don’t think I ever had a real authority figure in my life, except Uncle Fritz.  Maybe that’s why I’m a political libertarian.

The founders were libertarians, at least the Virginians, like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Marshall.  The list goes on.  The Puritan New Englanders were founders too, like Adams.  Adams was not a libertarian.  Far from it.  The legendary fight between Adams and Jefferson was the precursor of most political battles in this country ever since, right down to today.  We’re with Jefferson, our opponents are with Adams.

Jefferson called himself a Republican, and he won that battle.  But the descendants of Adams, modern Democrats, have been running this country for the last 100 years.  Our fight, today, is Jefferson’s fight.

Unlike Adams, Jefferson was a very cool guy.

They used to want a revolution.  Times have changed.  The spiritual heirs of the 60’s rebels are quasi-fascists, determined to use the power of the state to impose their will on the rest of us.  They want to regulate our lives.  It’s everywhere, at all levels of government.  People have about had it.  They want something done about it.

Enter Article V.  The Reagan Initiative adds two legs to the BBA stool.   First, the Federal Lands Commission, second regulatory reform.  The idea of regulatory reform came to me as a way to sell, politically, the Lands Commission.  I figured you’d get the coal states and a few more in the Old Confederacy and you’re at 26.  Regulatory reform fits within the scope of the call because it will massively increase federal tax revenue, and will also reduce spending.

But what, exactly, do you mean by regulatory reform?  What the hell is it?  I hadn’t thought that completely through, until I was sitting off in the woods last evening.  Then it occurred to me.  I don’t have to answer that question.  That’s up to the Convention.  They’ll figure it out.  It’s really just a political question.  How far do you want to go?  Under Article V, you can go as far as you want, as long as you can sell it, politically.  You could go whole hog, and dismantle the entire administrative state in one fell swoop.  The EPA and every other federal agency could be entirely stripped of their power.  They are parallel states, and unconstitutional.

That’s what they’d do in a perfect world, but that’s strong medicine.  It’s a bit much to take in one gulp.  The minimum would be the REINS act, already passed by the House of Representatives.  It requires Congressional approval of expensive regulations. It’s pretty weak.  Somewhere between REINS and abolition is the political sweet spot.

The thing is, this Convention will have some very bright, conservative, even libertarian people.  From every state in the union.  So you can go to the delegates from the ratification swing states and ask them.  Will this sell in Minnesota, and Maine, and Washington?  If they say no, you don’t go there.  That’s how you decide how far to go.  The voters in those states decide.

How far do they want to go?  I don’t really know.  Washington Senate President Pam Roach was the second person I tried to sell the Reagan Initiative to, after I went to Alaska.  She’s very conservative. A Mormon, a grandmother.  She told me about an anti-tax initiative that had recently been approved by the voters of Washington.  She said outside of about six legislative districts in inner Seattle the rest of the state is pretty conservative.  So maybe these people really want to take a bite out of the administrative state.  Make every regulation require Congressional approval, not just the big ones.  Hell, I’d go further, but it’s a good start.  This Amendment Convention will be the first, but it won’t be the last.

The thing is Minnesota and Maine are similar, politically, to Washington.  All the liberals are clustered together, and most of the state is fairly conservative.  These people are not Alaskans, but they’re not metropolitan types either.  They’re the kind of people who like all those Alaska reality shows.  They’re Alaskan wannabes.  For the purposes of Article V, they’re the swing voters.  I met Minnesota Speaker Kurt Daudt on the phone last week, and I expect to meet him in person in Seattle.  I’m very hopeful of getting a Maine leader there as well.

Nothing needs to be decided yet.  That’s for the Convention.  That’s a relief, quite frankly.  I’m not qualified to come up with an answer.  And I don’t have to.

That’s a big decision, one best made by a group, not one person, certainly not me.  I’m impetuous, and it’s better I don’t act on my own.  I’m not suited to be an executive.  People used to try to talk me into running for Governor, or Mayor of Anchorage.  I was never interested.  Had no desire for the job.  It’s a lot of work, for one thing.  Who needs that?  And dull work, being in meetings all the time.  Besides, my second attempt at running for office was also a failure, and I wasn’t sure I’d win.  I’d of run for Congress in a heartbeat, but never had an opening.

I ran for President of the UCLA Student Bar Association on a libertarian platform.  If elected, I would abolish it.  My campaign consisted of a poster I put up in the main hallway, explaining my candidacy.  A vote or me was a vote against sandbox politics.  My competition was another couple of chalkboard monitors.  I got a quarter of the vote, barely missing a runoff.  It was a relief.  Dismantling the Student Bar Association would have involved some work, which I wasn’t interested in.

I didn’t expect to win.  People knew I was conservative, and very few at UCLA were.  After my altercation with Henry McGee, and the “D” that came with it, I pulled in my horns.  Occasionally I was tempted, but pretty much held my tongue.

The only time I lost it was when some twitty little undergraduate came into class one day and told us we should go on strike to protest Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia.  That set me off.  He starts out by saying he knew we were all against the war.  I cut him off, and told him he knew no such thing.  He goes on for a while and finally I had enough.  I asked him what the hell are you even doing here?  I basically invited him to leave, and he did.  He pissed me off.  Nixon was trying to get us out of that God damn war, with some semblance of national honor left.  And this little punk wants to go on strike.

It’s no wonder I lost that election.  It was the last executive position I would seek.  The Presidency of the third grade, and now the Presidency of the Student Bar Association.  The only political losses I have suffered.

A guy like me works better in groups.

Do or die in the Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday.  Gary Banz is cautiously optimistic.  CoS is up in the House on the same day.  Gary is cooperating with them, and believes it helps us.  Dave Guldenschuh will fly in Sunday night, which we all feel good about.  He’s got a Georgia drawl, which probably won’t hurt in Oklahoma.  We’ve done, and are doing, all we can.  No more cutting bait. Time to fish.

No sign of a break in the South Carolina Senate, the most bizarre legislative chamber in the country.  The House leadership promised Kasich a floor vote.  He’s in state for a couple days, and will meet with them and call in his chip.  You make a promise, you keep it.  That’s politics.  It’s the only way things can work.  We think we have the votes in the House.  Passage there might put a little heat on the Senate, though I wonder.  Those old boys just do what they want to do.

Hal Wick went to see Senate President Andy Biggs in Phoenix.  He got nowhere.  Biggs wouldn’t give him his email address, wouldn’t give him his business card.  He told Hal about a book he wrote, “The Con of the Con-con.”  Hal said he’d like to read it, and Biggs offered to sell him one for $15.  He’s a sweetheart.  A lot of people on the Task Force are going to try to generate grass roots support in his district.  The idea is if he’s barraged by requests for our bill, he might soften.  Most politicians would.  I haven’t met Biggs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he blew everybody off.  He’s bullheaded, and proud of it.  The Reagan Initiative ( a supply side BBA) might appeal to him, but maybe not.  Arizona may be the 34th state.  The Governor, who’s with us, is the only person who can force a vote in the Senate.  He’d have to call a special session to do it.  It may come to that.

Utah Rep. Ken Ivory leads the American Lands Council, dedicated to the transfer of federal lands to the states, or to the private sector.  He’s been at it for years, with a little success lately.  Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski passed a bill to transfer lands 51-49.  It was a show vote, not binding, really.  But a good sign.  Ken has agreed to make a presentation at the Seattle Summit. He knows this issue cold, and is a good advocate.  This will help.

New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell gave me an email introduction to her Speaker, Don Tripp.  I made an email pitch for the Summit.  I hope he can come, and I hope he can convince Senate President Mary Kay Papen to come.  This is a little tricky.  The Governor and the House in New Mexico are Republican.  The Senate’s Democrat, and they fought all session long, to a dead heat.   Nothing got done.  Bad blood, no doubt.  Maybe the Reagan Initiative will be something they can work together on.  It’s good for New Mexico.  Jobs, jobs, jobs.  I’m hoping.

Looks like I’ll be going to Savannah in mid May for an ALEC meeting.  I’ll be talking about the Reagan Initiative, and not just to legislators, but private sector people as well.  There are lot of private sector people at ALEC meetings.  I will be very interested in their reaction.  If they’re smart, they’ll help.  I’m not counting on it.  When it comes to politics, a lot of people in business are dumber than stumps.  I don’t know what it is.  They’re not stupid people.  Take Einstein, the smartest man of the 20th century.  I’ve read of couple biographies of him, and learned about his “politics”, if you can call it that.  The politics of a halfwit.  Amazing.  All these brainiacs at Google and Apple are the same way.  In my personal experience, the most incompetent politicians I have known have been engineers.  You get more sense from a bus driver.  They think in straight lines, in black and white, right and wrong.  That’s not politics.

I had a roommate like that at Cal.  Tom Bull, one of the brightest guys in his field, physical chemistry.  Cal was, and is, I believe, one of the top schools in the country in this area.  He knew I was into politics.  He wasn’t really.  He didn’t know enough about politics to have an opinion.  He just had an attitude.  He used to tell me how much better everything would be if scientists made all the decisions.

That is a scary thought.

Mary Kay Papen is an eighty year old grandmother who is President of the New Mexico Senate, and a Democrat.  The Association of Commerce and Industry bestowed the title of “Jobs Legislator” on her.  She’s no tree hugger, and this term in the Senate may be her last.  The New Mexico legislature was gridlocked this year.  The Republicans took over the House for the first time in forever, and they and Republican Governor Martinez fought the Democrats in the Senate to a draw.  Nothing got done, to the embarrassment of, I’m sure, Senate President Papen.  From what I’ve read, it wasn’t her fault.  She’s a conciliator, not a political hack.

I think the Reagan Amendment might appeal to her.  It would be good for New Mexico, and her grandchildren.  Her involvement would make it bipartisan.  Somebody has to be the leader and spokesperson for the Seattle Legislative Summit, or SLS.  It can’t be me, that’s for sure.  That would be weird.  I’d rather stay behind the scenes.  Mary Kay would be perfect.  She won’t have to do anything, really.  Or not much.

We’ll need a Co-Chair from the East.  A Republican woman would be best.  The more women, the better.  There are some men that could do it.  Senate Presidents Long and Faber of Indiana and Ohio come to mind.  But a woman would be much better.  With few exceptions, a woman who achieves a leadership role in a state legislature is a tough and savvy politician.  And it’s harder for the media to attack a woman.  People don’t like that.  Who I want is Joni Ernst, from Iowa, but she got elected to the U. S. Senate.  I want someone like Joni Ernst.  She’d be Co-Chair with Mary Kay, but she could also  use her involvement with the SIS to get elected to higher office, Governor or Senator.  The kind of woman I’m looking for is ambitious.  The hunt is on.

I’ll bet I find her.