Month: June 2017

Congressional term limits were popular back in 1998, when Jim Demint first ran for Congress from South Carolina.  He pledged, if elected, to serve only three terms.  A lot of people have won election after making that promise.  Demint was one of the few who kept it.

The voters rewarded him with a Senate seat in 2004.  In his entire Congressional career he was about as conservative as anyone in Washington.  He left the Senate to run the Heritage Foundation, which he recently parted ways with.  Most recently, he wrote the forward to Congressman Ken Buck’s Drain the Swamp.

Today he’s featured in an article at Hot Air, in which he comes out for the use of Article V.  He says, “I finally realized the most important truth of our time.  Washington D.C will never fix itself.”

If Washington will never fix itself, what’s the point of trying to elect constitutional conservatives like Jim Demint and Senators Cruz and Lee and Sasse?  These men, as smart and honorable as they are, are fighting a hopeless cause.  All they can do is play defense.  Washington will fight any change which takes it power and returns it to the states, and the people.

So Demint has signed on as a senior adviser to the Convention of States Project( CoSP).  But there are problems with that project.  They use a multi-subject Resolution, which makes getting to 34 twice as hard.  And one of their subjects calls for an essentially open convention, free to propose anything that reduces the power and scope of the federal government.

That broad authority for an Amendment Convention plays right into the hands of our opponents.  The only way they’ve stopped us is through fear of a runaway convention, proposing radical amendments to the Constitution.  CoSP feeds that line.

There is only one way the CoSP has any chance of succeeding.   We must get to 34 with the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force.  We need seven more states by the end of 2018.

At this moment, the Republicans are at their high water mark in control of state legislatures.  This is as good as it’s going to get.  We have total control in 32, and in two more, Alaska and Colorado, Article V BBA Resolutions were passed long ago.  I voted for the Alaska Resolution in 1983 as a State Senator.

And they won’t be rescinded, at least until the end of 2018, because of Republican Senate Majorities.  It’s possible that the Alaska and Colorado Senates may fall to the Democrats in 2018.  Then their BBA Resolutions would be rescinded and the entire Article V movement would be facing the end.

Alternatively, the Democrats could win the U. S. House in 2018, and Nancy Pelosi would rather die on her sword than see an Article V convention.  So, realistically, it’s 2018 or bust.

Once Jim Demint understands all this he’ll be one of our strongest supporters.  He’ll find out about it from the Phoenix Convention of States in September.  He might even want to drop by.

I haven’t seen the country so divided since 1968.  There was a lot going on back then.  The Martin Luther King assassination, the Bobby Kennedy assassination, the anti-war movement, President Lyndon Johnson’s sudden decision to retire from Politics, the riots at the Democratic Convention, George Wallace’s candidacy,  and on and on.

When Nixon was elected a lot of people were as disgusted as they now seem to be with Trump.  Nixon tried to compensate for his personal sense of insecurity by being the tough as nails political operator, but he made mistakes, and the Deep State took him down.

Now, 44 years later, the Deep State is once again trying to overturn an election, and unseat a President.  And Donald Trump is helping them do it.  This man is a fool.

A real man can’t be bothered by every slight he may receive.  You brush it off, or ignore it, and stay focused.  Trump’s not a big enough man to do that.

It’s a huge character flaw, but it’s not enough to cost him his Presidency.  Lord knows, we’ve had Presidents with character flaws worse than Trump’s.  There’s no excuse for trying to take out a President just because he’s an a– hole.

This whole Russia thing needs to end, and every time Trump tweets about it, that end is delayed.  This is costing him, and the Republicans, politically.

I hope the Democrat candidate wins in Georgia.  Trump needs to listen.  And then maybe he’ll shut up.  And if he’d shut up it will all blow over.

So where does the answer to all our problems lie?  Not with Trump, that’s clear by now.  Is Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell going to step up and assume national leadership?  Is any Republican in Washington capable of accomplishing an agenda?

I wouldn’t bet on it.  For change to come, it must come from the states, and their legislatures, through the use of Article V.  That’s how this country gets fixed.

Let that be the message of the Phoenix Convention of States.

“All the little birdies on jaybird street                                                                                         Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet”

When you think you’ve got something figured out, and everyone tells you you’re flat out wrong, it should at least give you pause.  So it is with Trump and his tweets.

Because we only get one President at a time, and because I think Trump, politically, is primarily motivated by love of country, I want him to succeed.  Even the Never Trump crowd wants him to succeed.  And everyone with any sense that I know thinks Trump should have stopped tweeting when he was sworn into office.

Former FBI director Comey claims it was Trump’s tweets that led him to leak his accusatory memo to his law professor buddy.  And the word from Britain is that Trump’s cutting tweets about London Mayor Khan were a drag on Prime Minister May and the Conservatives in today’s election.

Trump let Donald Jr. take over the tweeting duty today.  And he let his personal lawyer make the response to Comey’s testimony.  It turns out his son tweets just as well as the President.  And if you’re going to hire a professional advocate to speak for you, let him do his job.

As a result, we watched Comey hang himself while he attacked the President, without distraction.  There’s a lesson here.  Old dogs do learn new tricks.  (I speak from personal experience).  Let’s hope President Trump has realized he should no longer dialogue with the public in 140 character blurts.  This is not a perpetual campaign.  He’s running a government.

His wife and son will be joining him in the White House next week, and none too soon.  I never paid much attention to Melania Trump before the overseas trip, except to remark on her beauty.  She showed me something in Rome.  In Saudi Arabia, she refused to cover her hair.  But at the Vatican, meeting the Pope, she wore a black veil.  That’s a statement.

It turns out she’s a Catholic, which is no real surprise.  Slovenia, her birthplace, is a Catholic country, part of the Holy Roman Empire.  I’m not being cynical here, but this is attractive to a lot of Catholics in this country, among whom I count myself.

She also showed some spunk, slapping Trump’s hand away from her when he extended it.  Bravo, Melania!  Maybe she can keep him away from his twitter machine.

David French is one of the brighter lights over at National Review Online.  Today he’s out with a piece saying America is headed for a divorce, reds from blues.  It’s something I’ve been thinking about as well, but I don’t want a divorce.  I want a legal separation.

In a divorce you have a property settlement, each party taking their fair share.  I wouldn’t mind, at all, seeing the rest of the country separate itself from coastal California.  But they can’t have San Diego or San Francisco Bay.  Those are two of the reasons we took California away from Mexico in the first place.  They are two of the finest natural harbors in the world, essential to our national defense and commerce.

The terms of a legal separation between red and blue state America would be tricky.  So, for the time being, French has an interim solution  —  federalism.  What a concept!  Who would have thought of that?

As far as counting on Congress to advance the cause, forget about it.  Through its control of the vast federal government, the power of Congress, and each member of it, is magnified.  And when you empower a Congressman you make it easier for him to raise money.  And raising money is mainly what Congressmen are interested in.

President Trump likes power.  I think it invigorates him.  Cutting back on the federal government reduces his power.  I don’t think it really appeals to him.

So how, precisely, can the cause of federalism be best advanced?  With judges?   To a small degree, yes, but we need a bigger club.  Where, perchance, might we find it?  Let’s look at the Constitution!

When you come to Article V, read it carefully.  And use your imagination.

 

 

 

 

The head of the FBI works for the Attorney General, who is a member of the President’s cabinet.  His agency conducts investigations for, and makes recommendations to, the Justice Department.  It has no authority beyond what that department grants it.  The director of the FBI is hired, and can be fired, by the President.

J. Edgar Hoover wanted his agency to be free from any control, and this dangerous legacy lives on in the person of James Comey.  A federal agency, like the FBI, which is unaccountable is incompatible with the Constitution.

When Hoover retired his deputy director, loyalist Mark Felt, was offended that he was not named to replace him.  He had no respect for the new acting director named by President Nixon, Patrick Gray, who was not a law enforcement professional.  At the end of his life Felt admitted that he, indeed, was “Deep Throat.”  He had destroyed Nixon’s Presidency, and he wanted that understood.  You don’t mess with the FBI.

James Comey is no Mark Felt, and the issues surrounding his dismissal by Trump are trivial.  Far from being another Watergate, this is nothing more than a political red herring.  The media will obsess over it for a while, and then the story dies.

What concerns me is that some within the Deep State may be so opposed to our normalization of relations with Russia that they have seized on this story to stymie it.  It’s not going to work.  Trump knows what he wants with the Russians, and he’s going to get it.  The stakes are too high to be deterred by fake news.

Trump may be tweeting a lot in response to Comey’s testimony.  He’ll feel better after firing off a few tweets, and he’ll have some valid points to make.  His Twitter account is partly responsible for his election, and it’s hard to give up.

On some level, it’s as though Trump doesn’t realize what the American people expect from a President, any President.  And that is decorum.  We’re a conservative people, and we traditionally expect our Presidents to abide by certain norms of behavior.  What’s acceptable in a Presidential candidate is not proper for a sitting President.  Tweets just aren’t presidential.

Bill Fruth, National Co-Founder of the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force, has the Phoenix Convention of States website up and running.  It’s at bbaplanningconvention.org.  I urge you to visit and learn more about it.

We haven’t had a national Convention of States since before the Civil War, and this is a major political development.  Bill is working in close consultation with a committee of the Arizona legislature, led by Speaker J. D. Mesnard.   I’ll be announcing major decisions concerning the convention here at the Reagan Project, or you can check the website.

I’m very excited about the direction the Convention is taking.  These Arizona legislators, particularly Speaker Mesnard, get it.  This will be a meeting with vast implications, and everyone involved is taking it very seriously.

Three months from now, history will be made in Phoenix, Arizona.

Back in the 1950’s, as Alaska prepared for statehood, its political leadership had some big decisions to make.  Virtually all of Alaska was owned by the federal government, and statehood meant that some of that land would be granted to the new State.  What land should Alaska select?

Underpaid geologists working for the territorial government wanted the most valuable oil prospects, and their knowledge of Alaskan geology led them the barren wastes of the North Slope.  It was determined that the best land of all was in what is now Area 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But this area was off limits.  Not because it contained wildlife, but because the Department of Defense wanted it for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line for detection of incoming Russian bombers.

So Alaska settled for the area just to the west, in what is now the great Prudhoe Bay oil complex.  But the geology of this frigid, desolate and barren country hasn’t changed.  The best place to look for oil in the United States remains Area 1002.

Normally when I put a piece out in American Thinker I am subjected to a certain amount of abuse by the commenters, but not so today.  Actually, a couple of them reminded me of some salient facts about the chances for oil in Area 1002.

At the end of the 1980’s Chevron drilled a couple of wells around Kaktovik, just to the west of Area 1002, on private land.  The results have never been made public.  When I was in the Alaska Legislature, none of us knew what they found, and as far as I know very few people know today.

Were they dry holes?  In the oil industry, word of a dry hole spreads quickly.  The best indication of what they found is that the oil industry is still itching to get in to Area 1002.

Qaaktugvik (Kaktovik) is an Inupiat Eskimo village, and the only inhabited part of the area around Area 1002.  It was founded in the 1950’s as a result of the installation of the DEW line.  293 people now live there.

The only employers in the village are the North Slope Borough (NSB) and the school district.  Since it taxes the oil industry that operates within its boundaries, the NSB is one of the wealthiest boroughs, or counties, in the country.

The Inupiat people of Alaska, the ones who live nearest Area 1002, are all for development.  Right now, they have enough money to buy an island in the South Pacific and move the entire population 10,000 to it.  The weather would be better, but these are Inupiat, and they are stubborn people.

In my office I have a traditional Inupiat sled, crafted from the baleen of a whale and tied together with string made from seal gut.  My Uncle Fritz got it from the Inupiat in the 50’s, when he lived with them for a time.

In the early 50’s Tennessee Miller was hired to build a winter ice road from Fairbanks north bring supplies for the construction of the DEW line.  Uncle Fritz was part of that crew.  He loved the Eskimos he met when they reached the Arctic Ocean.

This oil, in a sense, really belongs to these Inupiat.  They’ve been there for 2,000 years, surviving in the most hostile environment the earth has on offer.   If you’ve got any heart at all, you’ve got to love these people.  And they want to get the oil out.

For once, let’s listen to the Native people of America.