Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

Hoover had so much dirt on John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon that he was untouchable.   If Hoover was ever taken down, he’d take some big boys with him.  The FBI was as independent as could be, because he had files on half of Congress as well.  Nobody messed with Hoover.

James Comey has put himself in the catbird seat, and restored the Bureau’s independence.  If Clinton wins he can dump enough on her to get her impeached.  She’ll leave him, and the Bureau, alone, or else.  If Trump were to stumble into an upset, he probably doesn’t want to fool with Comey either.  Trump’s dirty too, just not as filthy corrupt as Clinton.  If anybody’s going to fire Comey they’d better be clean as a whistle.  Not too many are.

I don’t know if this move was made, in part, to quell a brewing insurrection within the Bureau.  Comey’s #2 is dirty, he’s taken McAuliffe money through his wife’s State Senate campaign.  The guys he aced out for the #2 job want a piece of his ass.  A lot of FBI guys are all pissed off about a lot of things.  This latest move by Comey lets out some steam.

It’ll cost Clinton a couple points, but not the election.  It just reinforces what everybody already knows.  She’s a lying criminal.  Ho, hum.  We all knew that.  Because Comey has given Clinton something to yell about, she can try to deflect the blame on him, by demanding a release of the basis of his decision.  But because an investigation is underway he won’t say any more, and Clinton is well aware of that.  She’s just putting on a diversion.  It will work well enough.  She’s got nothing else to say.

As a political spectator sport, 2016 has been the best ever.  Now we’re all waiting to see if they’ve got some more stuff on Trump, or some other crazy thing happens.  Right now you’d have to guess Clinton wins by a couple, getting Pennsylvania.  It’s amazing Trump could get that close.  Only because he’s up against Clinton.  Against a normal Democrat, like Biden, he’d be lucky to get 150 electoral votes.

I’m glad it’s going to be closer than it looked, pre-Comey.  I was worried we might lose some State Legislative Chambers.  But as our chances of holding the Senate improve, so do our chances down ballot, where it matters for Article V.  I’m counting on winning the Kentucky House, and making it a target.  I’ve met our man there, Jim DeCesare, and know a little bit about the Minority Leader, Jeff Hoover.  We’ll do fine in Kentucky.

Not as well as we did in Tennessee, though.  We totally kicked butt in Tennessee.  Fruth worked his ass off, and we got a unanimous vote in the Senate and only two nays in the House.  Fruth had these guys sold.  I got to meet our man in Tennessee, Rep. Dennis Powers, a couple years ago.  From Jackboro, an insurance agent, and the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.  Babbie and I were touring Nashville later that year, and I stopped by his office near the State Capitol and left him a note of appreciation.

Of all the State Capitols I’ve visited I like Nashville the best.  It’s quite a place, and reeks of history.  One of our greatest Presidents, James K. Polk, is buried on its grounds.  Under Polk, we got Texas, California and Oregon, and practically all points in between.  How many Presidents can say that?

And the House Chamber is just beautiful, all old wood, with a vault for a ceiling.  It’s big, for a House of 99 members.  It’s a perfect restoration, and probably cost a fortune.  A lot of history was made in that chamber.  It’s one place I’d like to revisit.

 

One of the new deep thinkers on the right, Ross Douthat of the NYT (natch), is in a dither about the plight of the conservative intellectual.  Populism is too much for him to handle, and he’s lost in the woods, and doesn’t know where to go.  Richard Fernandez sets him straight at PJ Media.   You don’t have to read his whole article.  His final line says it all.  Trump is leading this movement primarily because no one else is.

Trump is ignorant, but he’s not stupid.  He figured things out right away.  People were so pissed off that they’d vote for a reality TV star who was a sexist pig, as long as he told them what they wanted to hear.  Because he was telling the truth, and they knew it.  They’ve been screwed over in the new economy, and nobody really cared.  They weren’t the right type of people.   They’re collateral damage, and a declining force in our society.   To hell with them.

The first wave of populism was led by Andrew Jackson, and it succeeded.  He killed off the Second Bank of the United States and began the Age of Jackson.  Donald Trump is no Andrew Jackson.  If he was, he’d win in a landslide.  He’ll lose because of his pride, his inability to admit error, his refusal to acknowledge his past sins.  It certainly won’t be because of his populist message, which boils down to America First.

What do you think Mike Pence will say in his concession speech?  It’s all over, we’ve lost the country, we can’t ever get it back?  Or, rather, don’t give up, fight on, and never never surrender?  Which is it?

And if it’s the latter, who will lead the fight?   Trump, the loser?  I don’t think so.  The reason he’ll lose is because of who he is, and no other reason, and everyone will know it.  And he’s not going to change.  Take Trump out of Trumpism and you’ve got a winner.  And who is in a position to do that?

I wonder about guys like Douthat and Fernandez.  Have they ever worked on a campaign, or run for office, or directly helped a candidate get elected?  What have they actually done in their lives, besides scribble?

I see where the Koch brothers are scaling back.  What a couple dopes.  They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and have nothing to show for it.   Meanwhile the BBA Task Force, working on a shoestring, has got 28 States, and a clear path to 34 and the first Amendment Convention in American history.  And we’ll get it done in 2018 at the latest.   With  no help from the Kochs or any other big donor.  Everybody wants to have conferences and discussions and write policy papers  — and accomplish diddly squat.   We’ve got two guys, Loren Enns and Bill Fruth, who, at great personal cost, are out meeting State Legislators and lining up votes.   Have Douthat and Fernandez ever accomplished as much?   I guess they’re above such actual, real, work.

These guys are thinkers, not doers, so I guess that makes them intellectuals.  They have their place, just as William F. Buckley did.  People like Reagan and Pence are doers, not thinkers.  And lest you forget Reagan was no intellectual.  With him, it was America First, period.  Deep thinkers like Buckley wanted to give up the Panama Canal.  That just didn’t cut it with a common sense patriot like Reagan.  Mike Pence is cut from the same cloth.

A lot of people don’t realize yet that from the ashes of the Trump fiasco a new leader has emerged.  He’ll take Trump’s populism and ground it on constitutional principles, and the Great Republican Division will be over.  Thank God we’ve got Mike Pence.

 

It’s never been told.  Obama’s written three autobiographical books, Pence none.  If you run for President, you have to write a book, and Pence is no exception.

I believe everybody who works for Trump’s campaign has to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  But Pence doesn’t work for Trump or his campaign, so he can give us the inside story of the circus we’ve all been witnessing.  He won’t have to get into the gory details, but they’ll be enough juicy stuff to sell a lot of books.  If he doesn’t get a $5 million advance he needs a new agent.  With that money he can relax for a while, and lay low, writing his book.  As far as the chaos which will soon engulf Washington, he can stay out of it, until he’s ready for the book tour, traveling all across the country.  It’ll be like a campaign, massaging donors and selling books.  Signing your book for someone is a way to guarantee their vote.  If Pence is elected President, that book will be a family heirloom.

Of course, he’ll want an occasional  break from all that book writing.  The BBA Task Force will ask him to go to South Carolina, for sure, to lobby the State Legislators on our behalf.  I’ll bet he’d be quite effective, and would make some good friends that might come in handy down the road.  We might ask him to go to Virginia as well.  Bill Fruth is getting the lay of the land there, and it turns out the Virginia Senate is as dysfunctional as South Carolina’s, and that’s saying something.  But Mike Pence could take care of it for us, if he’d be willing.

I’ve been writing this blog, and working with the BBA Task Force, for three years now.  For the very first time, I have complete confidence we’ll get to 34.  We see a path.  New obstacles may arise, this won’t be easy.  George Soros and company are determined to stop us, and they’ve got all the money in the world.  But like a lot of foreigners, Soros doesn’t understand this country, and how strong it is.  I honestly believe that this man hates the United States of America, and all that it stands for.  Because it’s better than anything he’s got, and he knows it.  So he wants to tear us down.  He hasn’t got a chance.

Rep. Matthew Monforton broke the Bullock sex scandal in Montana on his blog, Republican Uprising, on Sept. 27th.  Ten days later I wrote about it on this blog.  One reason for coming to Bozeman was to try to convince the Gianforte campaign to make use of it.  The day after I got here I was watching the NFL when a Gianforte commercial came on, using the stuff from Monforton in a very clever way.  They just didn’t tell Monforton they were going to do it.  These guys are obviously pros, and they don’t need any help from me.  So back to the Gold Country on Friday.

If all goes to plan something special will happen this summer, right before the Eclipse.  It could happen.

Bill Fruth, the BBA Task Force Iron Man, is learning a few things on his latest road trip.  The main lesson is that a Clinton Presidency may be what finally makes some people accept the “risk” of convening an Article V Amendment Convention.  There is no risk involved, but you can’t convince some people of that.  These are the Republican State Legislators who have blocked us in AZ, ID, MT, SC, VA, WI and WY.  They’re afraid the liberals and moderates will pull some trick on everyone, and wind up gutting the Constitution.  This is tinfoil hat stuff, but many of them have had this nuttiness drilled into them by the John Birch Society, and they won’t budge.

Until now, with the growing prospect of Clinton back in the White House and the Senate under Chuck Schumer.  Now they’re scared.  Now they think we’re losing the country, and are afraid we won’t ever get it back.  Now some of them at least are willing to take another look at Article V.

While I was off frittering away my time on the Cruz campaign, the Task Force, most notably Fruth and Loren Enns, was laying the groundwork for 2017, and things have never looked better.   We can actually get this done this year.  Virginia is the key.  They’re only in session six weeks next year, which in Virginia is an election year.  And some election year it will be.  In 2017 the Slimeball, Terry McAuliffe, will be seeking a second term as Governor, VP Tim Kaine’s replacement (probably Rep.Bobby Scott) will be seeking the right to serve an additional year in the U. S. Senate, and the entire House of Delegates and half the State Senate will be up for election.   A lot of politics goin’ on down theah.

But House Speaker Bill Howell is an ardent Article V man, and the politics of passing an Article V BBA Resolution in Virginia will never have been better.  And Fruth has a plan, a good one.  And if we get Virginia we are on our way, glory hallelujah, we’re on our way.  And if we get Virginia we’ll have Hillary Clinton to thank for it.  It won’t be the last gift she gives.  Her entire Presidency will be a gift.  It will be a complete mess, and in four years this country will be ready to throw her and her party out on its ear.

I didn’t see it happening like this.  This is not the way I figured it would all work.  But it makes sense.  There’s great polarization in this country.  A lot of people really hate each other.  And it’s not going to get any better.  Sometimes you have to hit bottom before you can start back up.  And the ship of state is about to run aground.

I saw a poll today that made me feel better, feel like I’m not alone.  It compared Trump’s vote before and after the Access Hollywood tape.  Same pollster, two polls, one before, one after.  The big change was non-college white men.  He lost ten points in this, his base.  So I’m not the only one who realizes he’s a sexual predator who takes advantage of women.  Women like the wives, and daughters, and mothers of these guys.

When that tape came out the election was over.  The next two weeks are about the Senate, the House, the Governors, and the State Legislators.  A lot’s on the table.

The Era of Good Feelings, from 1808-1824, was fairly uneventful, politically.  Eight years of Madison, then eight years of Monroe.  But it was also a time of the first corruption of the federal government.  And the principal sources of that corruption were the East Coast money men, and their Second Bank of the United States (1816-1836).   Andrew Jackson’s 1824 Presidential campaign was an attack on that corruption.  He won a plurality, but the election was taken from him by the House of Representatives, in the famous Corrupt Bargain that made John Quincy Adams our 6th President.

We’ve had 24 years of continuous corruption, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve, the modern day version of the Second Bank of the United States.  Trump, warts and all, is another Jackson, an angry populist.  And in denying him the Presidency, the Establishment will have won only a tactical victory.  Jackson had four years to get ready, and in 1828 he won an election that was truly historic, ushering in the Age of Jackson, and the triumph of the common man.

2020 isn’t going to be like 1920, as I’ve been arguing.  It’s going to be like 1828, and will be the beginnings of a new political era in this country, one of decentralization.  And Article V will be leading the way.

Because of his pride, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land.  Because of his pride, Trump will never become President.  He should settle for that.

Mike Pence understands all this.  That’s how he and Kellyanne Conway manage to keep plugging away, with their chins held high.  He’s stumbled into the greatest political opportunity he could have ever dreamed of.  He knows how to do all this stuff.  He wanted to run for President, was ready to be President, but he was too normal, and normal never caught on.  Now normal is the new cool, as far as Presidential candidates go.

Gianforte had it all figured out, and looks to me like the next Governor of Montana. This is a smart man.  He’s going to be a great governor.  We need to make sure he’s up to speed on Article V.  That will be after the election.

The New Corrupt Bargain was the alliance of the media and the government against the people.  The government and the media feed off each other.  The media and the government are the same thing.  They won this round.  Now comes round two.