Miscellaneous

In politics, like poker, you’re always looking for a tell.  Kasich’s letter was a tell.  Pence’s speech at ALEC was a tell.  Even Al Melvin’s embrace of the BBA in his campaign for Governor of AZ was a tell.  Scott Walker is facing a rogue DA, and he’s got to get reelected, big.  And there’s his run for President looming.  If he decides to come out for the BBA the way Kasich and Pence have, we’ve got ourselves a serious tell.  I’m dying to find out.  I guess I’ll ask Gary Bantz about it.  He’s tight with our Wisconsin sponsor, Chris Kapenga.  I’m not. 

What this is telling us is that in 2014 high profile Republican candidates are going to be pushing the BBA.  They’re sincere, of course, but they’re doing it because they see it as a winning issue.  This should trickle down to state legislative candidates.  All good.  This could become infectious.  Snowball.  In my opinion the 2016 nominee will be either Walker, Pence, or Kasich.  If all three are pushing the BBA, it’s a high profile national issue.  All good.

Another tell is the dog that didn’t bark.  Where the hell were the Democrats in Ohio?  Where was the AFL-CIO?  Where were the teachers?  The whole crew that led the rescission campaign.  That’s a tell.

We may have the big mo.

 

 

Idaho looks good.  Our sponsor, Sen. Marv Hagedorn from Meridian is on the case.  Leadership on board.  He’s going with the Delegate Limitation Act.  I think most states will.  Gives more assurance to people worried about a runaway. 

Birchers and Eagle Forum not a force.  Lots of Tea Party, and they’re the key.  I’ll do my bit.  Marv’s setting me up with Nate Shellman, KBOI 670 and Kevin Miller KCI 580.  They’ll have a lot of Tea Party listeners, who I can hopefully interact with.  In Idaho, they’re the guys.  Lauren Enns of IAmAmerican will talk to Marv about doing an event in Idaho.  I saw, on the internet, a local TV station up there do a piece on Marv and Article V.  Very good stuff.

Got rebuffed in Kentucky, but no big deal.  All I need are a couple college kids who want to play a little politics.  I should be able to find them.  Reached out on Facebook to Alissa(?) Scott, the western director of the College Young Republicans.  If she likes me she’ll help me out.

What I want to do in Kentucky is what I did in Alaska in 1986.  Wally Hickel and State Senator Arliss Sturgulewski were in the Republican primary for Governor.  Former Governor Jay Hammond couldn’t stand Hickel and he liked Sturgulewski, so his political guy, Bob Clarke, decided to make a hit on Hickel.  One of Bob’s rules was that his name never be mentioned.  I guess because it would be a link to Hammond.

So naturally he called me.  We were best buddies.  I lived with Bob most of my eight years of being in session in Juneau.  He drank Scotch and I drank beer.  We really got along.  And I agreed with Hammond.  I was running unopposed for reelection to the State House, so I had the time.

Bob got ahold of this college kid, John Ericson, or something like that, and he signed the papers to form Bipartisan Alaskans Against Hickel (B.A.A.H).  Like the sheep.  I set up the P. O. Box and the bank, Bob got the money from somewhere, and we had ourselves an organization!

We ran some pretty vicious attack ads on Hickel.  Nothing personal, but we made him look real bad.  It made a big stink, but the only name the press could associate it with was the kid, and he was out of state.  They looked all over for this kid.  It was a big deal.

Finally the heat got too strong and we got the kid back in town for a press conference.  We prepped him quite a bit, and he was flawless.  But I had to be there with him, in public.  I’m the House Minority Leader, and I figured these people in the media knew what was going on.  They knew how I felt about Hickel.  But none of them liked the son of a bitch either, so they all let it slide.

Wrote a letter today.  From the Reagan Project.  It’ll go to every Republican candidate for the state legislature in a target state.  Probably 1,000 to 1,500 people.  The people in Lew’s office will do all the work.  We include model legislation, an Article V BBA Pledge, and the Reagan letter.  We’re trying to get these guys on board.  If enough of them sign the pledge it will really help the cause.

And I’m trying to spread the word.  The letter used a lot of language from the mission statement at the front of this web site.  I’m trying to educate these guys.  Get them jacked up.

I think I like this letter.  I sure hope it works.  I like my punch line at the end, “When Reagan asks, at the close of the letter, ‘If not now, when?  If not us, who?’ –  he’s talking to you.”

My big Oregon plan won’t work.  It’s too late to introduce an Article V Resolution.  Dang!  I thought it was a hell of an idea.  Oh, well.  But I’ve got a really good contact, Steve Zelinga, in Senate Minority Leader Ferrioli’s office.  And I’ve got the Larson show.  I may still run down to Salem to meet these guys.  It would be fun, and useful.

Sent an email to the head of the Kentucky College Young Republicans.  If my plan works out, this kid is going to have the time of his life, something he’ll remember forever.  I’m jealous.  I wish somebody did for me what I’m going to do for this kid.  Wesley Scott is his name.  I bet he’s a great kid.

So the Obamacare debacle rolls along.  All kinds of bad things could be happening over the next three or four weeks, as the insurance policies purchased through the web site go into effect, or don’t.  The whole damn thing is such a mess, I’ve got to believe knowledgeable and politically savvy Democrats are hitting the bottle pretty hard these days.  I’m sure there are a lot of bright people trying to figure a way out of this mess.  Not Obama, though.  The Democrat’s Dear Leader is off to Hawaii with the fam, golfing and having fun on the beach for 17 days.

Now, to me, if I’m a Democrat, I’ve got to find this pretty offensive.  But for some reason (because he’s black?) Obama gets a pass.  I wonder how much longer that’s going to last.  The man was totally oblivious to the work involved in turning immensely complicated legislation into a social program.  It’s kind of a big deal.  This is his signature legislation, even though he had nothing to do with writing it.  It’s his ticket into the history books.  I don’t think it’s  because he’s lazy, though he is.  I think it’s because of his incredible ignorance about the real world.  He had nothing to say.  He had no idea what they were actually doing.  If he asked questions he was afraid they’d be stupid ones, which would expose his ignorance.  Better to inspire the work of others than to learn how to do it yourself.

The man has spent his life in an academic cocoon.  He knows nothing except what he reads in books.  He’s been thinking big thoughts for so long now, they’ve crowded out any real world experience.

So far, then, the scenario I envisioned two months ago is playing out.  A political crisis, or fundamental and deep political realignment, may be taking place.  If it is, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime to seize the moment, and do things, politically, that were previously unthinkable.  Like Article V passage of a series of Liberty Amendments, beginning with a balanced budget.  If the November wave is big enough, it could all really happen.

I, personally, am very happy to be involved in this.  I think I bring something to the table.

I’ve been in politics for 50 years, one way or another, and of all the people I’ve met, and got to know personally, the finest without doubt was Jay Hammond.  He was elected Governor in 1974, while I was studying for the bar exam.  I worked on his successful reelection in 1978.  You may have heard of the Alaska Permanent Fund.  It’s worth around $30 billion.  Every year, for the last 34 years, all Alaska residents, man, woman, and child, get a dividend check between $900 and $1500. 

One man, and one man alone, is responsible for that.  Jay Hammond.  It wasn’t easy.  When this started the Prudhoe Bay oil money was just starting to flow into Juneau, and the state legislature was licking its lips.  The Permanent Fund law took one fourth of the money off the table, and they fought like wildcats to hang on to that money.  I won’t bore you with all the details, but Hammond basically bludgeoned the legislature into passing the legislation.  He would not take no for an answer, and as a former legislator himself, he knew what he had to do and he did it.

That’s a legacy.  Why there’s not a big statue of Jay in Anchorage is beyond me.  Instead, they do things like name the Anchorage International Airport for the big hog, Ted Stevens.

The first thing I did in Alaska politics was piss off U.S. Senator Mike Gravel.  I was studying for the bar, but I had time to write a letter to the editor to the Times.  Gravel was running against a Bircher, C. R. Lewis, and was beating him up over it.  My letter said Lewis may be a Bircher, but, so what?  Is the Senate going to be run by Birchers?  Gravel, on the other hand, was a snake, and the Senate was full of them.

The second thing I did was piss off U. S. Senator Ted Stevens.  I was making good progress in politics.  Reagan was running against Ford for the nomination, and they had an  Anchorage office.  My law practice was a little slow, so I went in to volunteer, and they put me in charge of the district where I lived.  I made some cold calls, and got some Reagan people to show up at the Republican Party Precinct Caucuses.  We took it over, and then we took over the district.  I had the votes.

So we decided who the eight delegates to the Republican State Convention would be.  Me, of course, and all the people who had helped the most and wanted to go.  Ted Stevens personal secretary lived in the district, and she wanted to go.  Everybody knew who she was.  She and Ted were tight.  But she wasn’t for Reagan, so she couldn’t be a delegate.  I made her the fifth alternate.  Boy, was she pissed.

So she told Ted all about it, and he had a hard on for me ever since.  Which was fine.  He was an irritating little bastard.  We were preordained to be enemies 

I don’t take shit from anybody.  Ted didn’t like that.