Adam J Schmidt com

Cynthia McKinney

You may recall former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for a much publicized incident in 2006 where she assaulted a U.S. Capitol Police officer who attempted to verify her identity as she entered the Longworth House Office Building. Of course as her lawyer described it the Congresswoman was, “just a victim of being in Congress while black.”

I was working for a member of Congress at the time and found the entire episode thoroughly sickening.  The U.S. Capitol Police are the men and women who stay behind when Congress is evacuated during an emergency, and some of them have paid the ultimate price to protect our freedom.  I have a great deal of respect for their courage as well as their professionalism.  This is why I and many others were pleased to see McKinney lose her seat for the 2nd time in that year’s primary.

It seems she’s at it again though, this time inserting herself into the conflict in Gaza of all places.  Although, I guess it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise since she’s been active internationally before: she participated in a conference in Germany endorsing various 9/11 conspiracy theories; attempted to attend a conference in Syria focused on the Palestinian cause; and in October 2001 wrote a letter to Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, “in which she rebuked New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for returning the prince’s post-9/11 ‘gift’ of $10 million.”

Thanks to the good people of Georgia’s 4th congressional district however, she’s no longer doing all of this as a Member of Congress.  And for that I will always be grateful.

Tags: 9/11, Cynthia McKinney, Gaza

Here’s Johnny!

Apparently, former Connecticut Governor John Rowland was recently on the Mike Huckabee Show discussing corruption in politics.  I still keep a picture I had taken with the man at a fundraiser years ago as a reminder that people can violate your trust.  His children were a few years behind me in school growing up and my first job in politics was interning in his DC office; which was as close as I’ve come to fulfilling my dream of working for Connecticut down here.

That said, it’s good to see him take responsibility for his mistakes and I hear he’s been doing good work for Waterbury.  I’d be curious to hear his take on how the Republican Party can move forward in Connecticut, particularly since I find his early career so inspiring.  He was elected to the legislature in 1980 at age 23, won a House seat four years later, and became the state’s youngest governor in 1994.

HatTip: Iowa Defense Alliance

Tags: Connecticut, GOP, Huckabee, politics, Rowland, video

Sam the Eagle

I was briefly considering ditching the Whaler’s logo that I use on most social networking sites in favor of everyone’s favorite Muppet ‘Sam the Eagle’ when I came across this video.

While I ultimately decided to stay with my Connecticut centric branding (although it’s possible I’m the only person that sees the Whaler’s logo and immediately thinks Nutmeg State) the video hit me as a fine summation of how may conservatives and Republican activists have felt the last few years as we lost our majority in Congress and stumbled through the 2008 presidential campaign.

I urge all those who are frustrated not to give up, but instead to help Rebuild the Party.

Tags: Connecticut, GOP, Muppets, politics, Rebuild the Party

Everyone’s ‘atwitter’

This morning I noticed that both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post included pieces devoted to the increasingly popular microblogging platform Twitter.  So allow me to join the growing chorus and take this as a sign that that Twitter has in fact gone mainstream.

The Journal piece was an informative introduction to the service from their technology columnist Katie Boehret, essentially a how-to guide, while the Post provided an opinion piece by Kathleen Parker.

Unfortunately, Parker took a more ‘gorillas in the mist’ approach to examining Twitter, with a critical and condescending tone reserved for its users, and for some reason chose to include a seemingly unrelated dig at James Dobson.  But I guess that sort of thing is de rigueur at the Post.

I’ll assume that Kathleen Parker is unaware that her writing also appears on the Post’s website as she takes the time to explain for readers in great detail her first update to her Twitter account:

I recently created an account at Twitter.com. Nary a tweet have I posted thus far, yet already I have a dozen subscribers.

Who are they? How long will they wait? Why do they wait? Will they spurn me if I fail to twitter? Would a banter suffice? In the spirit of gamesmanship, herewith a tweet:

“James Dobson’s letter-writing campaign to set me straight re God and GOP appears to be backfiring. Most e-mails from his Web site the past two days disagree with Dobson.”

As my son would say, “Baaam!”

Truth be known, I confess to a certain, inexplicable calm. Gratification, if you will. Perhaps there is something to this twittering business.

yet fails to include a link to said account.  Regardless, I’m glad to see that Twitter is gaining traction outside the early adopter crowd.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter.

Tags: media, Technology, Twitter

Seriously, he’s not Hitler.

Even though I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, I’m still as skeptical of President-Elect Obama as the next Republican.  However, I think we need to take a hard line when our people go off the reservation and wander into conspiracy theory territory.  Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia recently made some unfortunate comments regarding Obama’s call for a civilian national security force that included some truly uncalled for comparisons to Nazi Germany as well as the former Soviet Union.

While I believe that Obama’s proposal raises serious questions these sorts of comparisons should be reserved for the true evil that does exist in our world.  Jonah Goldberg of the National Review explained this far more eloquently a few years back:

So it goes in our political culture, where Nazi has become so synonymous with “bad” that all bad things must be Nazi-like… Hitler holds our fascination because of his singular villainy. But this shouldn’t crowd out our ability to make distinctions. Hitler is supposed to define the outer limits of evil, not the lowest threshold.

By too commonly invoking the specter of Nazi Germany for political attacks partisans of both sides merely diminish the sense of how monstrous that regime was.  While there are many arguments to be made regarding President-Elect Obama’s policy positions this is not one of them.

Also, for the record Hitler was not democratically elected - it’s a common misconception.

Tags: comparisons, controversy, Obama, politics

Disappointment

It has been a long and frustrating evening as I’ve watched my hopes for a McCain victory evaporate.  Having first voted for John McCain for President back in 2000 as a write in candidate when casting my first ballot at the age of eighteen, tonight’s loss is particularly heartbreaking.  What’s surprising is that despite the extremely lopsided electoral outcome the popular vote currently (as of 1AM EST) stands at 51%-48% not much changed from 2004.  So despite the rather unsportsmanlike jubilation in the streets our nation remains highly polarized.

I’m also devastated by the loss of Rep. Chris Shay’s (R-CT) the last Republican member of the House from New England who survived the Democratic wave of 2006 only to be caught up in the euphoria of the Obama campaign.  I believe that my home state is ill served by going down the path of one party rule.

This view applies equally to Congress where Democrats have expanded their majorities in both the House and Senate, although it is as of yet uncertain by what margin.  I am wary of what will come from the 111th Congress without any push back from the White House.  While Obama has promised to govern in a bipartisan manner I maintain that his scant record shows little evidence that this will be the case.  It seems I will have to simply have hope that he does not act as a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Tonight will be a time for reflection, but tomorrow I will take to heart the advice I gave my Democratic friends in 2004: stop whining and start winning elections.

Tags: 2008, election, McCain, Obama, politics

Unrealistic Expectations

This is an excellent example, albeit an extreme one, of the unrealistic expectations I believe many Obama supporters have been harboring.  They’re setting themselves up to be let down when hope and change don’t fall from the sky like manna from heaven on November 5th.

HatTip: DrudgeReport

Tags: 2008, campaign, hope, Obama

A Civilian National Security Force?

Very curious to see if anyone releases a longer clip because as it is this comes off as a half-baked idea at best.  What on earth would a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just a strong, just as well funded as our armed forces look like and more importantly what would it be used for?  Very strange.

UPDATE: Seems I’m late to the game on this one.  Full write up with longer clip at Volokh Conspiracy.

Tags: 2008, Obama, politics, security force

Schwarzenegger Pumps up Ohio

This is just awesome, he should really make a run for the Senate.

Tags: 2008, McCain, politics, pump up, Schwarzenegger

The Answer is Rev. Jeremiah Wright

McCain should have never taken Rev. Wright off the table.  In our hyper-charged political environment this was never going to be a respectful campaign, and besides that Wright is the jumping off point for many legitimate questions about Obama’s judgment and beliefs.

For all his instant celebrity, we still haven’t learned much about Obama beyond the narrative crafted by his campaign.  It’s only been in these last weeks of the campaign that we’ve began to hear about his ties to the ‘New Party’ during his first years in the Illinois legislature, his years spent working with Bill Ayers while leading the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and his longstanding views about the role of government as an arbiter of economic equality.

With all this in mind ‘frustrated’ does not even begin to describe how I feel watching McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb hobbled by his candidate’s imposed restriction on mentioning Rev. Wright.

Tags: 2008, campaign, CNN, McCain, Michael Goldfarb, politics, Rev. Wright, tactics