Am I My Keeper’s Brother?

The loony left has been in such disarray recently that they’ve forgotten how to focus their own vile rhetoric. They claim that all opposition to socialist Barack Obama is based in racism. They find hidden messages in every criticism, all of those messages pointing to the alleged racial inferiority of blacks. And most of all, God forbid a conservative should use the word “ape” in any reference to Democrats and particularly to President Obama.

As always however, the left feels free to say any damned thing that comes into their minds, however offensive and racist. They don’t even try to justify it because they firmly believe that only conservatives can be mean-spirited and therefore what liberals say is always sugary Rodney King-like “can’t we all just get along?” Some of these closet racists are at least moderately subtle, but that doesn’t apply to Bill Maher, Monarch of the Mad Mouth.

HBO’s resident leftist cuckoo (also occasionally known as Lord of the Loud Mouth) has just hit his favorite target—Republicans—and he has done so by using the very “ape” language about a rising star in the Republican Party that even a Ku Klux Klan grand Cyclops would be tempted to avoid. Right after declaring that Republicans have nominated a man for the presidency who belongs to a religion that is stupid but very much in keeping with a nation that is also stupid, Maher went after Rep. Allen West. West is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a conservative, and, uh, black.

So this past Monday, Maher sneered his best sneer and called the Republicans the Party of the Apes. Without taking a breath, he then called Republicans crazy for not rejecting West’s allegations of communist sympathy within the left wing of the Democratic Party and at the White House (pictured is Maher after being told a daily ration of bananas is not in his contract).

Now there’s simply no way of getting around what the two statements run so closely together actually mean. The thought is simple. Republicans are the Party of the Apes, and Allen West is the most dangerous ape in the party. Nice, huh?

Two names, just by themselves, prove that West is neither crazy nor stupid. Van Jones and Anita Dunn are former high-ranking advisers to Barack Obama who were tossed under the bus only after highly-public revelations of their philosophy and loyalties overcame the administration’s attempts to downplay Obama’s leftist sympathies. Jones is an [allegedly] former member of a communist-front group and spouts Marx on a regular basis, and Dunn named her favorite political philosophers—Mother Theresa and Mao Tse-Tung (pronounced “mousey dung”). So much for Rep. West being crazy.

In case you didn’t catch the reference the first time around, Maher wrapped up his mad rant with a discussion of the past two decades in politics with: “The idea that the blame for our government’s dysfunction is equally shared by the parties is just a giant, steaming mound of horses—t and anyone who pays attention to politics over the last twenty years knows it.” And now, returning to his original thought, he concluded on his blog with: “Or as I like to call it, ‘The Rise of the Party of the Apes.’”

Maher claimed that Rep. West had said that there are eighty communists in the US House of Representatives. That is not at all what West actually said when discussing communist influence on the views of certain House members. And West didn’t even bring up Barack Obama’s beloved communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. He could have added “and one communist-inspired resident in the White House.”

Maher skipped right past the usual liberal pejorative and didn’t call Rep. West an “Oreo.” He pointed straight at the trees and called a black Republican an ape. I know I’m stating the obvious here, but I need to say it before I explode. If Jay Leno, for instance, had called the Democrats “the Party of the Apes led by Barack Obama,” he would instantly have been terminated by NBC and sent back to his automobile and motorcycle collections. But when it comes to a leftist defending leftists, the mainstream media either entirely ignore the vicious and racist remarks or explain them away with “well, he’s just a comedian, so you can’t take it too seriously.”

Barack Hussein Obama and his Democratic colleagues have no legal or political obligation to denounce or even recognize Maher’s venom. But don’t they have a moral obligation to do so? Particularly in light of Maher’s million dollar donation to Obama’s campaign? I guess that’s another liberal one-way street. The liberals and the mainstream media will circle the wagons and defend this comic’s right to be both racist and unfunny. But at least as Eric Holder might put it, Maher’s not a coward about race. Maher is too busy frothing at the mouth to hide his inherent racism.

God, it felt good to put that “racist” shoe on the other foot, even for a brief moment. Unfortunately, I won’t have a lot of company, and none at all in the mainstream media.

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Allen West’s “Gaffes”

Having failed to make Santorum the nominee (and with Ricky now dropping out of the race), the MSM is now trying to destroy various Republican VP candidates before Romney makes his choice. Last weekend, Politico took a shot at Rep. Allen West by listing his ten biggest “gaffes.” Of course, these were not gaffes, they were just things liberal do not want to hear. Let’s look at some of West’s finest moments:

1. The Right Principles: Allen West espouses all the right principles. West summarizes these nicely in several of his supposed gaffes.

● Here is West describing the economic foundations of America while attacking the Democrats for undermining them. To Obama, Reid and Pelosi, he says: “Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”

● West has also made the same point more positively: “This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.”

● And here is West explaining why he supports the Tea Party. Notice the reference to limited, constitutional government: “I think that if we get back to some basic fundamental principles, we can make sure that we resolve the issues. And I think that that's what the Tea Party was all about. It's getting back to a constitutional conservative government. And that is limited, but it's also effective and efficient. I think that that's what we'll be able to do.”

2. A Fighter Not A Lover: West also has a strong track record of fighting back against the Democratic smear/propaganda machine. Here are a few more of his “gaffes.”

● First, West is clear that the Democratic party is bad for blacks and others who get trapped in the dependence the Democrats hope to engender: “So I’m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”

● He also makes no bones about the Democrats' willingness to lie and cheat and use any means to smear and destroy those with whom they disagree: “If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the [Democratic] Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine.” This one really got the left upset, but if the jackboot fits....

● He has fought back against that vile Gollum-like create Debbie Wasserman Shits. . . er, Schultz, whose hateful public pronouncement would actually have made Goebbels blush. Indeed, he called her “the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable” member of the House. Then he added, “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, and therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!”

● And when he was later asked what he thinks whenever Shultz’s name is mentioned, he said this: “I need a bucket.”

● Lastly, he gave us this one which I think of as “speaking truth to the power-mad”: “I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.”

What’s more, Allen hasn’t been blinded by the mob over the past two years like so many others. He’s recognized that you can’t play “take it or leave” in our form of government, and he’s recognized that you can’t build anything by destroying the Republican Party. He has proven to be a savvy operator and yet has maintained his principles. We need more Republicans like this.

BONUS ROUND: Here are some of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s recent quotes:

● On Paul Ryan’s budget: “As a result, many seniors in America will be forced into poverty, and worse. Some seniors will end up dying because they are forced to put off getting that pain checked out due to huge out-of-pocket costs that will skyrocket for them. This plan would literally be a death trap for some seniors.”

● Calling ObamaCare “ObamaCare” is “a disparaging reference to the President of the United States.”

● Schultz said it would “belittle” minorities to extend hate crimes laws to veterans: “It really is belittling of the respect that we should have for [minorities] to suggest that members of the armed services have somehow systematically been the victims of hate crimes.”

● She held a rally to attack Allen West (before his election). At the time, she explained the difference between her crowd and the Tea Party thusly: “I don’t see any swastikas or any pictures of the President in black face or burned in effigy here. The difference between the way we express our First Amendment rights and the way I’ve seen Tea Party extremists—Republican Tea Party extremists—express their right is dramatically different.” So the “difference is different?” Bright.

● Then she despicably tried to latch onto the Giffords shooting by dragging her own daughter into it, and by trying to define the Giffords shooting as a result of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law: “After my daughter heard that, you know, Gabby had been shot, the first thing she asked me was, you know, ‘Mommy, are you going to get shot? Does that mean you're going to get shot? But Mommy, Florida's going to pass an immigration law like Arizona and then people are going to be mad at you.’”

She’s a real piece of shitzu poo.


Don't forget, it's Star Trek Tuesday at the film site!

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Despicable Newt

Romney’s win last night likely decided the Republican nomination. What I want to talk about today, however, is the damage being done to conservatism by the desperate and despicable creature that is Newt Gingrich. Specifically, he’s been smearing Romney and anyone he thinks supports Romney in ways which are causing long term harm to the cause of conservatism, and it’s time for conservatives to turn their backs on this troll.

Let’s start with Romney. Newt has been slandering Romney in ways that will make it very hard for Romney to beat Obama. Indeed, he’s engaged in a scorched earth policy premised on the idea that we better pick Newt or Newt will make sure Obama wins:

1. Newt has repeatedly called Romney a liar, dishonest and pathetic, when Newt’s actually the one who’s been lying. A reputation for dishonesty is nearly impossible for a politician to live down and harms everything they do because much in politics relies on trust.

2. Newt has made misleading attacks on Romney for investments made by the blind trust Romney is required to use to hold investments. These attacks are anti-capitalist, class warfare attacks and further suggest fraud or tax evasion on Romney’s part.

3. Newt promoted a ridiculous conspiracy theory involving Romney trying to unseat Allen West, suggesting that Romney seeks to destroy the Tea Party.

4. Newt has recycled Rick Perry’s vile “heartless” attack for Romney’s stance on deporting illegal immigrants, a stance shared by all conservatives.

5. And vilest of them all, Newt has tried to inflame religious bigotry while smearing Romney as anti-religion. Observe. Newt began this smear by suggesting that Romney hate religious freedom:

“I think Governor Romney is extraordinarily insensitive to religious freedom in America and the Obama administration is clearly engaged in a war on religion.”

He then told Fox News that Romney made a decision to cut Medicaid funding for health services which would benefit Jewish and Catholic facilities. This was an attempt to both claim Romney didn’t care about religion and to imply that Mormons could not be trusted to protect other religions. And if you think I’m overstating that, look at how he repeated this on CNN:

“You want a war on the Catholic Church by Obama? Guess what: Romney refused to allow Catholic hospitals to have conscience in their dealing with certain circumstances. . . . Romney cut off kosher food to elderly Jews on Medicare. Both of them [Romney and Obama] have the same lack of concern for religious liberty. . . I’m a little bit tired of being lectured about respecting every religion on the planet, I would like [Romney] to respect our religion.”

Note that Newt singles out a war on Catholics and Jews and then finishes with the suggestion that Romney is not a Christian and that he would protect other religions, but not Christianity. What Newt is doing here is playing on the religious bigotry of fundamentalists like Robert Jeffress who still view Mormonism as a non-Christian cult.

Gingrich then issued a truly despicable robocall claiming that Romney forced Holocaust survivors to eat non-kosher foods:

“As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney vetoed a bill paying for kosher food for our seniors in nursing homes. Holocaust survivors, who for the first time, were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher. Where is Mitt Romney’s compassion for our seniors? Tuesday you can end Mitt Romney’s hypocrisy on religious freedom, with a vote for Newt Gingrich. Paid for by Newt 2012.”

When confronted about this robocall, Newt denied having any knowledge of it and incredibly then said, “You might check and see whether the accusation is true.” Note the lack of condemnation of the call and, more interestingly, his adoption of the message.

This is all despicable and will not only dampen conservative support for Romney, but will hang around his neck in the general election and throughout his Presidency. These aren’t policy disputes, they are bigoted smears and slanders.

And it’s not just smears against Romney which are the problem. Indeed, Gingrich has been busy reinforcing generations of leftist attacks on the foundations of conservatism:

● His attacks on Romney’s wealth and investments and Wall Street bankers have been anti-capitalist.

● His attacks on Romney’s immigration policy play right into leftist claims that conservatives hate immigrants and are “heartless” on the issue.

● His attacks on Mormonism feed fundamentalists who oppose all but their own sects.

● His attacks on the Republican establishment, particularly his false description of them and the conspiratorial nature of his attempt to claim victimhood, widen the gap between Tea Partiers and the Republican party, again splitting natural allies.

● He undercut conservative attempts to reform Medicare and Social Security (the Chilean model), and on the flat tax.

Moreover, Newt’s surrogates are smearing anyone who disagrees. Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, and George Will, all solid conservatives, have been labeled RINOs. Elliot Abrams, who pointed out that Newt is lying about supporting Reagan in the 1980s and produced copies of Newt’s attacks on Reagan from the Congressional Record, where Newt did things like call the Reagan Administration “a failed presidency,” was smeared by a Newt surrogate who suggested with no proof that Abrams was lying because he had been offered a job in the Romney administration. Another Newt surrogate smeared Matt Drudge, who does more to help conservatives than a million Newts combined, for “bias” and “being in the tank for Romney.” Etc.

In a world where liberals already smear conservatives in this manner, and thereby try to rob them of their credibility, conservatives should never give aid and comfort to liberal smears. Yet that is what Newt is doing. He is systematically burning key conservatives and conservative principles to the ground and insanely destroying the foundations of conservatism all in the name of his own aggrandizement.

Further, Newt told us last night exactly what kind of administration he would run if elected. He demanded that the Republicans in Congress give him things that cannot be delivered, i.e. a repeal of ObamaCare on the first day, and he made it clear he would lump Republicans and Democrats into the same group and fight them all if he didn’t get his way.

This troll must be stopped.

Finally, let me say a word about Herman Cain. Cain endorse Newt this week. I find this extremely disappointing. When Cain left the race, it was clear he would endorse Newt because he and Newt are friends. But Cain didn’t do that. Instead, he created this rather corny, but oddly genuine political theater of endorsing the people. This rekindled the Tea Party’s love for him and was enough that they picked him to give the Tea Party response to the State of the Union.

Implicit in all of this was that he would represent the views of the Tea Party. As such, he should have worked to make sure each of the candidates acknowledged the Tea Party and agreed to address its concerns. Endorsing Newt (or anyone) was a violation of trust. This was like being appointed commissioner of a sports league and then cheering for one team. Cain should not have done it and should apologize for it now. You’re better than that Herm.

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The Sun Doesn't Set On This West

While doing my fact-checking on the Keystone XL pipeline fiasco, I came upon several honorable mentions about one Congressman who fully understands what is wrong so far with the Republicans in general and the presidential candidates in particular. Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) calls them as he sees them, and tells the media to "stop being afraid of this president who is destroying this country."

Now isn't that refreshing? At a press conference this past Tuesday, Rep. West laid into The One and the mainstream media who think that lightning will strike them if they criticize their tin god. He also laid into any of his fellow members of Congress who might consider letting Obama get away with killing at least 20,000 "shovel-ready" jobs just to satisfy his leftist green-weenie constituency. Speaking of Obama, Rep. West said: "And here we have a president that's gone off to Australia, playing golf in Hawaii (while placing it geographically in Asia), and you guys allow him to make this decision to shut down the Keystone XL project."

Rep. West went on to say: "The media needs to call out this president and stop coming over here to the House Republicans and telling us what we're not doing. We're the ones taking action. This guy sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is destroying this country." God, how I love a Republican who isn't afraid to say what he thinks without worrying what the damned MSM is going to say about him.

Rep. West is a no-holds-barred truth-teller, which befits his military background. He knows you don't beat an enemy by blowing kisses at him. As a retired military man who has faced the enemy on the enemy's home ground, he knows how to criticize a namby-pamby president. He was blind-sided by the political generals in regard to an incident in which a terrorist wasn't treated as if he were a paying guest at the Waldorf-Astoria. His response was "If it's about the lives of my soldiers at stake, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can." Even though he would not, as a good soldier, publicly criticize his Commander-in-Chief, he is no longer restrained by that obligation.

So what does he think about the abilities of our current Waffler-in-Chief? "America needs a commander-in-chief. Instead we have a Campaigner-in-Chief, and that's what continues to happen. Whether it's the decision to go to zero troops in Iraq, which gives a green light to Iran, or whether it's the decision to shut down what you have heard is a win-win situation for the United States of America [the XL Pipeline]--we cannot continue to send hard-earned American taxpayer dollars to OPEC--nothing but despotic dictators, autocrats and theocrats. For 22 years I served in the United States military, and I've been on the battlefields in the Middle East, where the funds we are sending to these countries are in turn being turned on our young men and women in combat."

At the press conference, he was joined by a few other members of the bolder wing of the Republican House. Following Rep. West's speech, several of those House members reiterated that the decision on the pipeline was politically-motivated to push it past the 2012 election. But Obama can't even get those troops in line. The envirowackos are now quarreling with the unions which would have benefited most from the jobs the pipeline would have created overnight.

I think the current Republican presidential candidates who are sniping at each other (with a few exceptions) should take a page out of Rep. West's playbook and concentrate on the most dangerous, incompetent, dishonest, ineducable, and sneaky president in memory. Equally, they should follow Newt Gingrich's example and stop worrying about what the mainstream media will say about them being attack dogs. They're going to say that anyway, so join Rep. West and screw the MSM. And just as a reminder, attack dogs are used to bring down criminals and terrorists.

Note: If you missed the post about the Keystone XL Pipeline and want more details, here's the link: Obama Kills Another 20,000 Jobs.
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The Racial Worm Turns

If I said this, I know what the left would be calling me. But I didn't. The Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus did. And here it is: "If Barack Obama weren't the President, we'd probably be marching on the White House." Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri) was speaking about unemployment in general and black unemployment specifically.

As bad as the effects of Barack Obama's failure of leadership have been for all Americans, the effects have been far worse for black Americans. Cleaver went on to tell the Miami Herald "If former President Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching." Cleaver and the Black Caucus have been pushing Obama for months to do more to address the needs of the black community. But rather than organize a Martin Luther King-type march on Washington and let the chips fall where they may, the CBC has held back public demonstrations which might hurt the President's personal popularity (or lack thereof).

Cleaver went on to say that "there is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the President." The implication is obviously that if you hate Obama, it's because you're a racist, and the CBC doesn't want to encourage racism--even if it means allowing a President to get away with utter failure on all fronts simply because he's black (partially).

Unemployment is bad. Black unemployment is staggering, reaching nearly 50% among black youth who wish to enter the labor market for the first time. Regardless of what reason any individual may ascribe to the high unemployment rate among blacks, it is clear even to doctrinaire Democrats that the President isn't doing anything much about it. Sure, there are racists who will blame blacks entirely for their own plight, or spout ignorant race theories about black inferiority. But they are a small, intransigent and largely unaffiliated group. But there are plenty of others who say that Obama has done little--good, bad or indifferent--to change the unemployment figures. That group includes old-time civil rights advocates like me.

Although he was talking about taxes, John Kennedy said "a rising tide raises all boats." And in the employment sector, that surely includes blacks. In his lack of action and constant speechifying about jobs, Obama has failed entirely to push those unemployment numbers down. He wants to raise taxes, but only on the rich "who can afford it." He supports temporary employment relief but at the same time perpetuates the uncertainty in the market (and for potential employers and business investors) that prevents positive long-term employment decisions. He throws billions in taxpayer dollars at "green projects" about which most blacks couldn't care less (along with most of their white counterparts), and which result in net losses in jobs.

Obama has supported and encouraged policies which by his own admission will dramatically raise energy costs. Blacks are particularly negatively impacted by such cost increases simply because they have the highest unemployment rates and the lowest income rates among all racial and ethnic groups. Says firebrand leftist race-baiter Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California): "We're supportive of the President, but we're getting tired, y'all. We want to give Obama every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is." Even the Devil tells the truth occasionally when it suits his purposes. But it still doesn't explain why Waters is "supportive of the President." Or does it?

Rather than blame the President for his inaction and perpetual speech-making, many members of the CBC have aimed their blame at the Tea Party. Waters simply says it's the Tea Party's fault, and "they can go to hell." Fellow hell-raiser Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) says that "the Tea Party is the real enemy which is holding Congress hostage." Though his hesitance to demonstrate against the President simply because he is black is not particularly commendable, Cleaver has at least admitted that Obama is a major part of the black unemployment problem.

Cleaver has identified Obama as a major cause of the stagnant employment numbers, and to his credit has convinced sole conservative Black Caucus member Allen West (R-Florida) not to leave the CBC. Cleaver did so even after West said he would leave the Caucus unless fellow CBC member Andre Carson (D-Indiana) withdrew and apologized for his remarks claiming that the Tea Party considers African-Americans "second-class citizens" and would be happy to see blacks "hanging from a tree."

Cleaver is never going to be a conservative, nor even a moderate. But he is, for the time being, the voice of reason within the CBC leadership. Rep. West says that Cleaver is willing to work with him to produce a plan which will confront the horrendous unemployment rate among blacks. Cleaver himself has said that some of the things being said by other CBC radicals are counterproductive and not in the interests of the agenda addressing black unemployment that he and West are working on.

Author's note: On Tuesday, O'Reilly touched on this subject. Unfortunately, he didn't cover it well because he once again made the mistake of having Columbia hip-hop professor of economics/urban studies/black studies/fill-in-the-blank studies Marc Lamont Hill as his guest on the subject. As usual, it produced more heat than light, and Hill kept talking about "the black agenda" but couldn't explain why there should even be a black agenda. It was the same obfuscation, distortion and double-talk that liberal elites use to keep blacks on the liberal reservation. And it didn't do anything to clarify the causes behind black poverty (other than white oppression) let alone the attempts of Reps. Cleaver and West to rectify systemic problems.
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It's Republican Godzilla!!!

When the GOP freshman class came to town, people wondered what they would be like? Would they quickly fall into the arms of lobbyists? Would they quietly wait their turn, putting in their time, carrying water for their leadership? Or would they turn into a conservative Godzilla? Well, bring on the rubber suit, they’ve flexed some pretty powerful muscles this week and Capitol Hill Tower is going down!

The freshman class is 87 strong, and right away everyone knew they were different. Be it rejecting the luxury health insurance plan Congress gives itself to cutting the House budget by $35 million to sleeping in their offices, this group acted upon their rhetoric. And they say things like this, by Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) at CPAC:

“A lot of us freshman don’t really have a lot of knowledge about the ways of Washington – and frankly, we don’t really care.”

But in the scheme of things, these are token gestures, would the freshmen do more? Last week showed they would.

It began with the freshmen tripping up part of the Patriot Act. This provision likely will eventually pass (it failed because of the procedural technique the House used), but everyone was shocked. And what really impressed me about this was that the new class of Tea Party people signaled they were not beholden to sacred cows. Too many Republicans (most in fact) blindly vote for anything marked “security.” This was a resounding response that these new freshmen intend to view all actions in light of the Constitution. Hurray!

Then the big one hit. Goaded on by the Republican Study Committee, which proposed the cuts discussed here, the freshmen demanded that the Republicans include $100 billion in immediate spending cuts, as promised, in the continuing resolution needed to keep the government running. This caught the leadership entirely off guard -- notably Hal Rogers (R-Ky) the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. His original proposal cut only a third ($32 billion) of the figure the freshmen demanded.

And this isn’t even the end of the issue, because the bill now goes to the floor, where individual members can propose amendments to make even more cuts. In other words, Godzilla will get another bite.

What makes this even better, is that the leadership happily got in line with the freshmen! Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), a leader of the Republican Study Committee, met with House leadership over this issue and said they were “happy with the result” and were “receptive to going higher with cuts.” Rogers too is on board now.

Why the change? Said one insider, the hard-line approach by the freshmen stiffened the backs of the leadership:

“They understand that we will take some arrows from liberal interest groups for whatever we attempt to cut. So, we should be more aggressive.”

This is the exact opposite of the Pelosi years, where a small cabal of hard-left House leaders imposed their policies on willing and unwilling House members. The new dynamic involves a groundswell of House members pushing the leadership in the right direction. That is much more sustainable, and should embolden everyone.

The guy who explains the new relationship best is Rep. Allen West (R-Fla). Patti has been covering much of what West says, and he is impressive (he wowed them at CPAC too). Here’s how he describes the relationship between the freshmen and the leadership:

“We’ve got your back, [now] you’ve got to step out there and take a bold and aggressive look. We’re all part of that crew that said if you make a commitment and make a promise to the American people you got to stand up for it. . . . It’s important that we do the hard work because that’s what folks are expecting us to do.”

This is great. This is how a party is supposed to work, with a unified core of people supporting (and pushing) their leadership to advance party goals. This should stand us well when it comes to (1) improving the number and quality of ideas, (2) avoiding being blindsided by ideas created in a small bubble, and (3) keeping the leadership from failing to follow through.

So let me finish with some bad poetry.

Government tape is red,
Our budgets are too,
Our government's a mess,
We’re counting on you!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!


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