Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

The news from the Wyoming Senate Rules meeting is a death knell for the Compact.  Nick Dranias was at the Goldwater Institute when he came up with this scheme, and he managed to get two states.  But he’s running on fumes and it’s too bad.  He got out of committee in the Wyoming House right before us, by the same vote.  He was all jacked up.  He’s a good guy, and I hope he figures things out and joins us.

The news from the Montana Judiciary Committee today will be almost as devastating for CoS.  They put everything they had into Montana, ran a first class operation.  We both wanted Senator Roger Webb as our sponsor  — they got him.  We both wanted to turn out the grass roots.  They did, and we didn’t.  Rep. Bob Brown of Thompson Falls told me he got a letter of support for CoS from a constituent that didn’t smell right.  So he called the guy up, and the guy didn’t know what he was talking about.  It was a fake letter.  That is the last act of a desperate campaign.

There are good people working with CoS, all across the country.  Their man in Montana is an outstanding example.  He figured it out.  Hopefully the rest of them figure it out as well.

In time for them to do us some good.

Ryan Clayton introduced himself to me and Bill Fruth in Cheyenne.  He’s the executive director of WolfPac, which was formed to pass a constitutional amendment, through Article V, to overturn the Citizens United decision.  They want to keep corporate, union, and “dark” money out of politics.  They’ve passed resolutions in three liberal states, and are now working Montana.  A whole lot of Democrats, and some Republicans, believe in this. It polls well — real well.   Most conservatives, including the Reagan Project, oppose it.

Ryan’s young, smart, and enthusiastic.  I kind of liked him, though he’s a little pushy.  He managed to convince me that his effort is of benefit to us.  He spends half his time convincing his fellow Democrats that Article V is safe.  They resist, occasionally, and spout the same sort of nonsense we’re used to hearing.  He’s quite effective in convincing them, using the same arguments, and authorities, that we use.  In Montana this means we’ve got a real shot at a couple Democrats in Judiciary  — votes we need.  We’d probably get a few on a floor vote as well.

In Oregon Senator Boquist, unbeknownst to us, has filed our bill.  Oregon’s a pretty blue state, under complete Democrat control, and we’d written it off.  Ryan told me today that they’ve got a campaign going in Oregon.  If he needs help getting his bill through, he might turn to Republicans for help.  He would add our BBA to his Resolution, and make it either/or.  In other words it would count as one of his states, and one of our states as well.

It’s a thought.

Co-founder Brendan will be contacting the Montana State Young Republicans next week to recruit them to join his phone call campaign.  They’re sponsoring a debate this afternoon between a Bircher and a CoS representative speaking on behalf of Article V.  No doubt these kids are smart enough to see through the Birch bullshit, and Brendan will be able to fire them up for a BBA.  If you’re a college kid it would make sense.

Another source of recruits for Brendan are the CoS people I saw in Senate Judiciary.  There must have been a dozen, from all over the state.  They all lined up and spoke a few words for the CoS bill.  I was there as an observer, but then I saw CoS sponsor Senator Roger Webb, who we had wanted as our sponsor.  I had a nice talk with him the day before.  So I figured, what the hell, and got up and testified at the very end.  I couldn’t speak for the Task Force, but I could for the Reagan Project.  I endorsed the bill wholeheartedly, and got off a couple of my better lines.

So I’m leaving the Capitol and this nice looking young man comes up and introduces himself.  He’s the main CoS guy in Montana, the guy who got all those people to the hearing.  He’s also the guy who is debating, as I type, the Bircher at Montana State.  He thanks me for my testimony and we have a nice talk.  He now realizes he screwed up joining the CoS crowd, and should have been with us.  So when his bill dies in Senate Judiciary tomorrow I’m going to give him a call.

Except I can’t remember his name.

Or 10-11. Either way in Montana House Judiciary.  We may lose two or three Republicans, we may win one or two Democrats.  We’ll find out Friday morning.

At a meeting of Reagan Project Co-founders (Me, Darren and Brendan) in Bozeman last night we decided that Brendan and Darren should try to raise some money on this web site.  We’ll form a LLC, get an EIN, obtain 501  (c) (4) status as tax exempt, get a Paypal account, a post office box and a bank account.  Darren will do most of that as well as redo the site.  He’ll work with Brendan to get lists of target donors, and Brendan will dial for dollars.

Bill Fruth told me this morning he’s about tapped out.  Without him going to Capitols and doing his pitch we’re in big trouble. I can’t spend any more of my wife’s and my money   — she wouldn’t put up with it and  I don’t blame her.  We cannot and should not depend on yet more generosity from the Biddulphs.   That’s wrong.  Task Force fundraising has been abysmal.

I believe my boys can pull it off.

They ignore the Constitution on a daily basis in D.C., so how would a BBA be any different?

Here’s how.  Why do potential presidential contenders like Govs.Kasich, Perry, Pence, Snyder and Jindal, former Gov. Palin, and Senators Paul and Cruz want a BBA through the use of Article V?  (We don’t know the position of Bush, Christie, etc.  We know of no one against it.)

I believe all of these people want to actually balance the budget.  And they know they’ll need to go to war with Congress to get it done.  If they have the BBA at their back they can issue one promise which, if kept, will balance the budget:  a vow to veto any appropriation which violated the terms of the amendment.

The Constitution is a piece of paper, as are amendments to it.  When Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it” it was in recognition of this reality.  The BBA will work if the next President wants it to work.  Passing the amendment is not the end of this fight, it’s the beginning.  The amendment is necessary, but not sufficient.

It’s been frustrating to watch our lack of success with D’s.  We only got two in Wyoming, but then we really didn’t try to get D’s.  Maybe Montana will be different.  We managed to get the one Democrat on Revenue in Wyoming to help us get out of committee.  We may need one in Montana as well.  As of the moment we’re in real danger of losing three R’s, in which case we’d need two D’s.

Bill Fruth and I agree that, if necessary, we’ll amend our Reso to add a sunset.  None of the 24 we have contain one.  The sunset would make the Reso valid for three years.  If, in that time, an Amendment Convention hasn’t been called, it’s not going to get done.  So we’re not losing anything.  Right now the political situation in this country makes a leftist runaway an impossibility.  In ten years, who knows?  There may be rioting in the streets.  Rep. Seth Berglee (R, Joliet) has mentioned this concern to Matthew Monforton.  The sunset should help us get his vote.

Bill Fruth turned some votes in Cheyenne.  I may have helped myself with one or two.  There’s no reason we can’t do the same in Helena.

Will it be enough?

After eight years of Bush the Republican brand was dog meat.  Seven years later we’re barely above water.  And we’re going to choose yet another Goddamn Bush as our champion next year?  It’s crazy, and it will not happen.  Everybody says the polls are meaningless at this stage of the cycle, they only show who has name recognition.  And then all you read about is Jeb being the frontrunner in the polls!

For generations the Bushes have been born on third base, and have all believed they were triple hitters.  Jeb’s no exception.  He’s just another Romney, except I kind of liked Romney.  He just didn’t have balls.

W is Jeb’s tar baby.  His record was a disaster, substantively, and politically.  I’ve seen Kasich twice, in Phoenix and Cheyenne, and each time he’s pointed out that when he left D.C in 2000 there were trillions in reserve, and dimwit W blew it all. Every other potential presidential candidate knows what Kasich knows, and Jeb is going to hear about it.  Unless he’s willing to admit that his brother is a dope, he’s in a box.  And he’s not smart enough to get out of it.

I’ll get something like five minutes in front of Judiciary Tuesday morning, and I think that most of what time I have will be devoted to Democrat Zac Perry of Hungry Horse.  I’ll talk about what happens if we have a BBA.  And what Hillary would do.  I’ll tell him that after watching 34 states propose and 38 ratify, Hillary will make a political calculation that maybe she should listen.  Bill would insist on it.  And if Hillary were able to balance the budget, like Bill did, the Democratic Party could be in power for a long time.

I don’t really know what I’ll say.  You’ve got to size up the jury before you decide on your argument.  But these aren’t jurors.  You can really do some fireworks in front of a jury.  But jurors are chosen at random, and every legislator we’ll talk to is a proven political winner.  Being a state legislator is an honor that your community gives you.  Or at least that’s the way most legislators look at it.  And they expect to be treated that way.  And they should be.

When I testify, I’m a supplicant.