Larson Should Stop Trying to Be Serious

When John Larson won the open Congressional seat in 1998, both Republicans and Democrats agreed he had found the level of his own incompetence. Larson would be a natural for the Congress with all its traditions, fanny patting, false humility and "Hail Fellow Well Met," culture.

While in the minority, Larson was able to keep the usual federal grants coming, rarely tend to the annoying political chores at home and make friends in the Democratic ranks. Larson liked to hang around the power restaurants and meet important people. He got caught by Vanity Fair in December 2001 for having too good a time enjoying wine and song a few days after September 11th, but hey, that's John.

But now, the world is getting into a bit of bind with higher energy costs, terrorism and worst loss of value in the real estate market since the Great Depression. Now John Larson has to get serious, and that is a scary proposition.

Republican Joe Visconti see this for what it is. He understands he has a chance to convince the voters of the First District that they do have a choice and can pick someone who understands energy is in the ground and the terrorists won't give up and that housing isn't something that has to be devalued to be saved. Joe has actually worked for a living, hired and paid people to work and raised children as a single parent.

Every time Larson steps to the microphone, the case for Visconti is made.

On Monday, Larson came to the Legislative Office Building and demonstrated why he can't be allowed to wander around Washington without adult supervision.

He appeared with the usual charts and graphs and rhetoric about who is to blame for the energy problems in the country. And of course, none of it has been the responsibility of the Democratic Congress.

Larson has blamed the speculators as being the problem. Speculators should be reigned in, regulated and should be made to take possession of what they are bidding on or no deal. Also, Larson wants to a Level 3 Inspector General, whatever that is, to the oversight of the commodities markets dealing with oil.

Pardon me, but even Jim Amann understands the laws of the free market.


Speculators are investors - they provide liquidity in the system and they play a critical role in marketplace. Any who buys oil contracts does so to "hedge" against increase in the market. Sometimes they win, when the market goes up. Sometimes they lose. Airlines and other fuel dependent industries, which is almost everyone, have to play in this game. Larson's bill would bring the economy to a standstill.

And he misses the one area which could help, requiring some of these speculators to post 50 percent of the value for the contract, rather than the 10 percent that exists now. That would seem reasonable.

And if that weren't enough for one day, Larson went on to dismiss the idea that we could make some dent in the oil problem by simplifying exploring and digging for more oil. He also propagated the lie that since oil companies haven't drilled in land under lease, they are deliberately not exploring to keep the price of oil artificially high.

It is a FACT that the oil companies have concluded that there is no oil in these locations, but there are millions of additional acres that the companies can't get to because of off-shore prohibitions.

But that didn't stop Larson from trying to be funny.

Larson became confused and mistook a blue's singer for an investment banker, calling bottom-line investor T. Boone Pickens, - "T. Bones Pickens" named after the old Mississippi Delta guitarist or Nashville music producer.

"Even T. Bones Pickens, for God's sakes says no we can't drill our way out of this problem," Larson said, chopping the air with that JFK flair.

Visconti, interviwed on WNPR, said it simply - "it's in the ground, we have to go get it."

And that is the difference between someone who understands the basics.

Conservatives Will Be There for McCain

Saturday, during a panel discussion in New Haven on the Presidential race, pollster Lydia Saad of Gallup, noted how conservatives and hard core Republicans have not shown enthusiasm for Sen. John McCain unlike their liberal Democrat counterparts have toward Sen. Barack Obama.

The "enthusiasm factor" for McCain is somewhere around 50 percent while 85 percent are wetting their pants for Obama. By this measurement, coupled with "right direction, wrong direction," and "any term that has Republican as a prefix" show that we should probably just inaugurate Obama now and save on the stamps.

My response is based on the observation that the Democrats have had their most spirited and well-funded President primary since 1968 and we have been pulverized by media images of both Obama and Hillary Clinton. If Republicans were prodding, polling, calling and mailing two candidates and it was covered in the manner we have seen, almost to the point of tears - then there would be significant more buzz.

Also, McCain's first generated his buzz was in 2000 when he was new, different and challenging the Bush Machine. McCain's zealots - McCaniac's - carried their fervor into the convention in Philadelphia and beyond for the next three cycles when he was the most sought after headliner around the country, raising money for Congressional, U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial candidates. He has a lot of good will out there. There were plenty of conservative incumbents who swallowed their pride and begged McCain to come and do a fundraiser. He did without hesitation and broke his back for Bush in 2004.

Nobody turned John McCain down for a joint appearance, and from my experience, Conservatives are if anything, loyal and steadfast.

The noise one hears now is from the professional conservative media class, the self-appointed keepers of the flame who came in Washington midway through the Reagan first term, rode along with Gingrich and have been living well thank you very much.

McCain is not impressed with many of them because most talk a good game but never risked everything or put anything on the line. And, he doesn't kiss their collective asses or show up at the Heritage Foundation to faun over the big donors.

Maybe he should. Maybe McCain should go on Russ Limbaugh or Sean Hannity and tell them they are right about everything. But no one would believe it. That is not John McCain and that is why he is still in this race.

Obama's First Broken Promise

It was not surprising that Barack Obama broke his first campaign pledge yesterday by not agreeing to federal campaign financing limits that have been observed by both sides since 1976. Initially, Obama had agreed to take the $85 million that each major party candidate receives for the balance of the campaign following each party's national convention.

Sen. John McCain has agreed to this idea and will keep his word, something that Barack Obama just can't seem to do. And this is a critical element in this race as voters size up their choices. Being President, Leader of the Free World and head of the only Superpower on the globe requires one to keep one's word. It comes in handy with our friends and critical against our enemies.

But what about the practical realities of winning this Election faced with less money? I assume many of you are very concerned about the Obama ATM, where money can now be spent to overwhelm our efforts with relentless media, mail, paid staff and a gold-plated kitchen sink. Add to this the almost laughable free pass the mainstream media is giving Obama, heralding him as a Messiah to cleanse the American political scene of the evil stain of the Republican brand?

Money is important and critical to the operation of any political operation. We can attest to that here at Republican HQ. But just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you are genius and convince people by simply buying every available spot on "The View."

And the history books are littered with candidates who thought they could simply buy the love of the voters – Ned Lamont and Ross Perot come to mind. Money and the reality that there is a lot of it have a corrupting effect on campaigns, despite the best of intentions and most disciplined management. People get soft. They think money will take care of their work. If events are not going well or the message is not working, buy another 2,000 points of television or send out more flyers. Money also makes consultants rich and that hurts moral for the paid staff, who think they deserve bonus for working 18-hour days.

Money cannot make up for passion and believing in one’s cause. In 2000, many of us here in Connecticut believed in a guy from Arizona when the rest of the money and establishment were lined up with George W. Bush. We liked Bush, but we saw something in McCain that made us feel good about politics again. Many of us spent days and weeks freezing in New Hampshire. We grabbed lawn signs from the snow banks, wiped them off and used them in Connecticut weeks later for our winning primary. Some of us went on to help in South Carolina and other states, on our own dime. We came up short, worked hard for Bush, but we never forgot that experience.

This year Sen. McCain had a lot of money early. He was the favorite and consultants got rich, people got soft, thinking the money would take care of the work needed to win the votes. There was division within the McCain camp about people getting well off and McCain getting nowhere. The Senator cleaned house, got back to basics, got back to his message of standing for what he believed in, even when it’s not popular. His core workers worked for free, Republicans started listening. The Straight Talk Express, which was on blocks, started rolling again and started winning.

The McCain campaign has had its up and downs, but it is humming again. They are raising money. Sen. McCain is being proved right on the war in Iraq. We are winning there and despite the media’s attempt to ignore it, the public is seeing it, too. Sen. McCain’s Energy proposals are right on the money, too. He wants to drill, build 45 new nuclear plants and develop alternatives not plant windmills in our backyards and put on sweaters. The public likes that, too. And they trust and respect Sen. McCain as a leader. He is still in a virtual tie with Obama nationally and in many critical states. The last poll in Connecticut had Sen. McCain within three points in a state that the Democrats treat as a layup.

And we will have the money. The Republican National Committee has $55 million to use for Sen. McCain and counting. The Democrats have a fraction of that. There are also other political groups who will weight in as well.

But we need to be organized and work on the ground floor. Getting our people excited and out there is our job. If we do what we know we can do, we can win Connecticut and get Sen. McCain into the White House, reelect Chris Shays, oust John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy and get the Legislature in Republican hands.

It can be done and we will do it. It just takes believing in a cause greater than our own interests.

Barry's "Butt Out" Moment

It's oh those little lies that often speak more about one's character. Witness today's assertion from Barack Obama that he has been sneaking butts on the side during the last months of the campaign. This admission contradicts his campaign's assertion a month ago that Barack had put the pack down.


But like any good liars, the Obama people decided to change the subject when caught. So the Obama campaign accused Sen. John McCain of being a crazed warmonger for implying that the outright withdrawal of American combat force in Iraq shouldn't be a priority to long-term stabilization in the region.

The Obama people are so hysterical and dangerously stupid about foreign and military affairs that they think they can position McCain as some blood thirsty nut job every time he utters a coherent strategic comment.

McCain has simply stated what we all know to be true. We cannot unilaterally withdraw troops through press release. That would put a bulls eye on their backs and embolden the enemy. And there is successful historic precedent to do what McCain is suggesting - withdraw American forces to the high ground or another site to monitor and stand as a deterrent to the crazed militants who want to cut off our energy supply and destroy Israel. That is what the U.S. has been doing in Asia and Europe for the last 60 years.

But back to Barack's nicotine habit. Interesting that his campaign put out a one-page medical report on their candidate and there isn't a peep out of the media about full disclosure. McCain puts out a War and Peace version and people say he's lucky to be walking in the upright position.

Oh well, McCain was in New York City last night and he looked like a million bucks. and he did put the butts down 28 years ago.

And if you are bored, click here, and watch the Saturday Night Live clip on Obama and Hillary.

Well, Not As Tough As We Thought

Okay, I was wrong about Hillary Clinton. I thought she would hang in there, hold her delegates and say "there are 18 million voices must be heard." I thought Harold Ickes, Jr., would be there right next to her with Mandy Grunwald, Maggie Williams and Howard Wolfson, all with their lances pointed, like the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

But what a bunch of weenies. They got scared off by Howard Dean and Keith Oberman for Lordy sake!

It is truly amazing, even by national campaign standards for a candidate to send some many conflicting signals in one news cycle. During one period, the rumours ran the gamut from Hillary is off to Denver to Hillary is going to appear at Sen. Obama's side in St. Paul. Last night, a web cam was planted outside Hillary's ridiculous mansion on Embassy Row in D.C. as she welcomed the nominee into her parlor.

You would have thought is was Stalin, Churchill and FDR meeting at Yalta.

Today, Sen. Obama returned to Chicago and bragged that he would be ready to open the 2016 Summer Games in the Second City as he "winds down my second term in office."

Well, well, I guess that takes care of that now, doesn't it?

John McCain needs to lose the lecturn and get around people. Once he does that, and he will, the voters will see a guy who can handle any issue and has some real life experience to fill out the story. Voters like stories and McCain is a great story with more chapters to add.

Obama is a preener, a poser, a lightweight but one of the most gifted performers in recent memory. At some point, the fawning press will lighten up because it has to. You can stay puckered up like that forever. It hurts the muscles around the mouth.

And the Clinton people? Some might hook with Obama and counsel will be sought and files exchanged. Everyone will play nice for the cameras and Hillary will be on game face to retire her debt and find her staff jobs. She is more decent about that than people give her credit for. But whether the local forces at the precinct level will fall into line is the great mystery.

People hold grudges in politics longer than in other professions - sometimes till the other world beckons. It may come down to how many conservatives get over themselves and work their cans off for McCain versus how many union halls fill up to make calls for Obama.

The Man To Bring to A Knife Fight

Each day it seems, the Democratic Party continues to implode. The venues change and despite the claims of the punditry that "this race is over tomorrow," the sun never rises for the liberal media so they can finally crown King Obama.

There is this pesky problem called the Clintons, led by Harold Ickes, Jr. a genetically enhanced stone cold political killer without peer. Maybe Jim Baker could take him or the late Lee Atwater, but no one has the skill sets of Harold Ickes, Jr. His dad was FDR's prime operators during the New Deal, and the old man got there by tangling in the world of Chicago politics, circa the 1920's and 30's. Ickes was inside the White House, organized several oppo efforts to beat Bush 43, ran Hillary's Senate campaign in 2000, tried to be DNC chairman and lost to Howard Dean and always lurks in the shadows, holding his piece.

So it was only a matter of time before the Clinton's turned to Harold Ickes, Jr., after the "inevitability tour 2008" came apart under the direction of Mark Penn. Ickes had barely been on the job 10 minutes before he put Penn through a wood chipper, blaming him for everything wrong with the Clinton message and operation.

Ickes restored discipline, ditched Patty Soltis, and brought his cold stare and ruthless approach which served the Clinton's interests so well. Hillary became St. Joan of the working people, began to question whether Obama had the nut sack to play in the big leagues and tarnished every Obama win as a sham or meaningless.

It kept Hillary going, hoping for another screw up or act of fate.

With all but two western states left, both of which have voted Republican for the last 50 years, Ickes and the Clinton forces did battle at the DNC in Washington over the weekend to settle the matter of seating Michigan and Florida delegates to the Denver conclave.

Ickes saw his opening when the DNC approved seating 50 percent of each state's delegation, mirroring what the RNC did for the same infraction, holding their primaries early.

But in Michigan, where Obama wasn't even on the ballot and did so by his own hand, the front runner got five delegates less than Hillary.

'I want to tell you that Senator Clinton wishes to reserve her right to take her concerns to the Credentials Committee," said Ickes, to a roar of supporters. Outside the demonstrators marched and later the next day, Hillary won Puerto Rico, 2-1.

The talking heads poo-pooed such nonsense. Once Montana and South Dakota vote, then the Super Delegates will flock to Obama and other party "elders" will gather to praise Hillary and tell her to move on. A less than flattering Vanity Fair article about Bill and his Billionaire Booty Call Club is very timely.

But don't tell that to Harold Ickes, Jr. He is just getting started.

What Appeasement Meant in '39 and Now

It is unfortunate that a slow-witted radio talk show host was put on Hardball the other day to explain the historical references of Neville Chamberlain to Barack Obama apologist Chris Matthews.

Matthews routinely invites lightweights from the right to do battle with him on his comical "news" program that quickly evolves into an hour of why Barack Obama should be both deified and elected leader of the free world. Matthews was the person you might remember, who said he had "chills running up his leg" after Obama addressed one of his scrubbed crowds earlier in the campaign season.

But back to 1938 for a moment. Arthur Neville Chamberlain, a Conservative who had worked his way up the Tory leadership ladder, became Prime Minister of Great Britain a year earlier, replacing Stanley Baldwin, who had consistently ignored warnings by Winston Churchill of the growing German war machine. Chamberlain had made his mark retiring World War I war debt as Chancellor of the Exchequer, our equivalent of the Treasury.

In March, without firing a shot, Hitler took Austria and set his sights in Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, where German speaking people formed a majority. Chamberlain flew to Munich and met with Hitler and his Mussolini to arrange for the surrender of this territory without the Czech government being present.

Chamberlain returned to London and stood on a tarmac waiving a limp piece of paper declaring he had secured "peace in our time."

Within a year, Germany had unleashed its full fury, England declared war in the fall, and Winston Churchill emerged to succeed Chamberlain, who joined the unity cabinet before dying of cancer six months later.

One definition of appeasement is the acceptance of conditions that set terms for surrender. In return, those agreeing to those terms keep what they have and allow others to pay the price.

In his show where Matthews somehow parsed the argument that Chamberlain didn't appease Hitler simply for talking to him. I assume that "talk" led to the Munich agreement, and Chamberlain's trip on bended knee showed western civilization that the British Empire did not have the stomach to stand up to fascists.

As Obama excoriates John McCain on not speaking to the fascists leaders of Iran, North Korea and the like, one can only wonder how truly tone deaf the Democratic Party has become to national security issues. A public dialog merely validates these leaders in the eyes and sends the message that anything is negotiable. Iran says Israel must be destroyed, so maybe that is negotiable. Iran wants to robustly develop its nuclear arsenal, so maybe that, too, is on the table.

How about North Korea? Maybe they should be allowed to develop some medium range missiles nuclear tips to defend themselves? Obama has declared his opposition to a trade agreement with South Korea, which only strengthens its ally and allows it to sustain its own military and make and lessen our commitment. But, maybe, that too, is negotiable, if only we can talk.

In October, 2000, Madelaine Albright brought a signed NBA basketball when she met Kim Jong Il and "talked." It was a parting gift to both Kim and the Bush Administration, coming with a week to go before the 2000 Election.

A few years later, North Korea lobbed a missile over Japanese airspace.

That is appeasement.