Miscellaneous

It’s a good one, and if it works it could win us Wyoming and every other western state we don’t get this year, including Oklahoma.  I’ve started working to implement it, but it will be something that comes together, slowly, throughout 2015.  I don’t mean to be coy, but this is something that’s accomplished behind closed doors, it it’s done at all.  It’s a challenge.  I’m not the only one who’s thought of it.  Most importantly, I don’t see any downside to it.  Even if it fails, the attempt may do some good.

On another front I’ve decided to run for Congress as a Democrat.  I’ve been thinking about it, off and on, for a year, and I’m going to file the papers as soon as I get them from the Secretary of State.  It will be a lot of fun, but more importantly it will do some good.  Naturally, with my overactive imagination, I’ve concocted a number of different ways to exploit it for the cause.  One stunt that I came up with today is a doozy.  I won’t pull it off for a year, but, trust me, it’s a good one, maybe my best ever.  I can’t wait.

It’s been a good day.  It’s spring here in the foothills of the Sierras, with buds blossoming, flowers starting to bloom, and green grass growing.  A good time to be alive, and an American.  One year from now my campaign will really begin, in the same weather.  Some kids, growing up, want to be a movie star or football player.  I wanted to be a Congressman.

I was an odd kid.

It was always about Senate President Phil Nicholas.  When I left Cheyenne last week he was with us.  From what I’ve heard, his amendment today in third reading killed the bill.  So what happened?

Nicholas is even smarter than I thought he was.  Put yourself in his position.  His state is the least populous in the country.  It is extremely vulnerable to budget cutters who want to eliminate the royalty sharing arrangement it has with the feds.  If that goes it blows a huge hole in the State’s budget.  He has just a few cards to play.  One of them is Wyoming’s vote for an Amendment Convention.  As Juneau Senator Bill Ray used to say, “What’s in it for me?”  He wants to get paid.  Not him, personally.  He wants Wyoming to get something for its vote.  If he gave it to us this year he gets nothing.  If he holds out until next year, and Wyoming is one of the very last states, maybe he’ll be able to figure out a way to get paid.  What’s the rush?

I’m not mad at Nicholas.  I want to accommodate him.  We need his vote.  I can think of a couple of things that might appeal to him. I’ll try and think of more.  We’ve got almost a year to figure it out.  If we had lost for some other reason I’d be really down.  But we can work this out.

It’s just business.

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.