Rally around freedom

Jim DeMint is really a great American, and he's taking steps to be a great leader of the Republican party. This is from his superb op-ed in Friday's Wall Street Journal:

To win back the trust of the American people, we must be a "big tent" party. But big tents need strong poles, and the strongest pole of our party - the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats - must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can't agree on that, elections are the least of our problems.

Freedom will mean different things to different Republicans, but it can tether a diverse coalition to inalienable principles. Republicans can welcome a vigorous debate about legalized abortion or same-sex marriage; but we should be able to agree that social policies should be set through a democratic process, not by unelected judges. Our party benefits from national-security debates; but Republicans can start from the premise that the U.S. is an exceptional nation and force for good in history. We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them

Read the whole thing here. It's a nice reminder that the talk of conservatives/Republicans/center-right folks trying to "rebrand" themselves isn't really about rebranding so much as it is about returning to the core principles of the coalition. We can disagree on some of the ends, but the means - personal liberty and freedom, not government dicate - are the means through which we must operate.

Thank you Senator DeMint.

Principles

President Obama says [Commerce Secretary nominee Judd] Gregg withdrawal was "somewhat of a surprise."

I'm sure it was. Gregg stood down because of principle. Obama thus far had only lost his nominees - Tom Daschele, Bill Richardson, and Nancy Killefer - because of a lack of principled behavior. I understand that can be confusing.

Obama took blame for the Daschele thing, saying he "screwed up." I thought he was too hard on himself over that. Daschele screwed up. Obama just had the unfortunate situation of living with the consequences.

But with the Gregg thing, Obama really did screw up. He pulls out a Republican Senator in a Dem-led state but fails to get a Democrat put up as a replacement. He picks a guy who looks like a hypocrite because he once tried to shut down the Commerce department and now was tapped to lead it - even, reportedly, campaigned for the role. And in the boldest political power play, he plucks the Census out from under the Commerce Secretary's purview, taking away what would have been arguably be the most important role of the new Commerce head.

If Obama and his team want to admit to screwing something up, it should be the process they have gone through during the Gregg nomination. Kudos to Judd Gregg, though, for standing on principle.

Thank you for 2008, and some hope for 2009

For many people, 2008 ended with no more sentiment than "good riddance."  For me, it was bittersweet.  The now-finished year treated me well - my first full year of marriage to my wonderful wife; a (largely free) trip to Colorado, where I learned to ski and didn't die trying; hiking around in the Swiss Alps and even popping into France for breakfast; buying a house in a wonderful neighborhood where we actually know (and like!) the neighbors; continuing to grow and learn professionally with great colleagues; and so much more that to mention it would risk driving you away from these posts forever.

It wasn't all perfect.  The Braves disappointed us all (again).  Small-government conservatism was thrown under a TARP by the Bush administration and a new administration will likely not help bring it back, which leaves it to those of us who still espouse true conservative principles to continue to claw our way back.

For 2009, I continue to be optimistic that the Obama administration won't be a complete disaster, though I'm less enthused for what could come out of Congress.  I'm also optimistic about the economy - but only if government can stop meddling long enough to allow Real People to make some decisions for themselves.

As is the tradition for anyone with a modest case of punditry, I'll venture a few predictions for where we'll be on Jan 1, 2010:

• Obama will have 65%+ approval ratings, bolstered by nearly 50% approval among Republicans but hurt by the disappointment of the fringe Left
  
• The Big Three automakers will be the Big Two
  
• The Dow will be back to 10,000 but not to 11,000 yet.
  
• The Yankees (ug) will win the World Series; the Braves will pull in a modest yet still disappointing 3rd place in the NL East
  

That's all I got.

To everyone who made 2008 great, thank you.  I look forward to live, work, and play with you in 2009.

GOP leadership changes?

I've asked a lot of my more politically connected friends what the chances are of a change in the top leadership for Republicans in the House and Senate when they caucus next month. Most of them tell me "Not much." Boehner has no real opposition for majority leader, though at least Pence is in the running for conference chair.


On the Senate side, I've been exceptionally surprised at the lack of chatter about replacing McConnell. Here's a guy who is only 214 votes and a run-off away having the filibuster lost on his watch and who nearly lost his own bid for reelection in Kentucky. Why would the GOP want to keep him in a leadership position?


Finally I've found at least one voice who agrees with me on this, in an opinion piece today from the DC Examiner.

In 2006 you settled on Mitch McConnell as your leader and quite frankly, the Republicans in the Senate and across the country have very little to show for that decision. We're down six seats in the Senate -- and they're still counting.

Moreover, Mitch McConnell, who supported the Bridge to Nowhere twice, who led you into a disastrous fight on illegal immigration, and who did little to strike back against the Democrats who were slandering the GOP on an almost daily basis, actually campaigned on bringing home pork to Kentucky.

Republican Senators, in their choice for minority leader, get to pick their chief spokesman for their legislative agenda and for the principles they wish to advance....or, in this case, defend. If the GOP really wants to begin the long climb back, it has to stick to principles. My hope - and the hope of so many disallusioned conservatives - is that they will use those principles to pick their leader rather than vice versa.

O'Rourke accounts for our sins

PJ O'Rourke is mad at everyone:

What will destroy our country and us is not the financial crisis but the fact that liberals think the free market is some kind of sect or cult, which conservatives have asked Americans to take on faith. That's not what the free market is. The free market is just a measurement, a device to tell us what people are willing to pay for any given thing at any given moment. The free market is a bathroom scale. You may hate what you see when you step on the scale. "Jeeze, 230 pounds!" But you can't pass a law making yourself weigh 185. Liberals think you can. And voters--all the voters, right up to the tippy-top corner office of Goldman Sachs--think so too.

We, the conservatives, who do understand the free market, had the responsibility to--as it were--foreclose upon this mess. The market is a measurement, but that measuring does not work to the advantage of a nation or its citizens unless the assessments of volume, circumference, and weight are conducted with transparency and under the rule of law. We've had the rule of law largely in our hands since 1980. Where is the transparency? It's one more job we botched.

Mostly, though, he's mad at conservatives for not making the most of 28 years on top (he dates being on top all the way to Reagan and dismisses the '93-'94 period, I suppose). His rant - which is quite lengthy - is half over-the-top and three-quarters spot-on.

What he does not offer are any ideas on how to fix it, though he seems a bit fatalistic and unencouraged that we shall ever get the opportunity in the lifetime of anyone alive today. But perhaps conservative leaders will read it and be jolted into reality, causing some smart thinker to begin getting us out of this mess.

Principles matter

From the Politico, the People magazine of politics:

Only 36 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the GOP "does an excellent or good job" of "standing up for traditional GOP positions" on issues like reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, and promoting conservative social issues.

That's a decline of 25 points since July 2004. In fact, it's the lowest Republican rating for the GOP since Pew began tracking the issue in 2000.

If it turns out to be a subway race between Giuliani and Clinton, Pew further found that two-thirds of Republicans say their vote for the Republican would be more accurately described as a vote "against Clinton" and "not for Giuliani."

Principles matter. Poll after poll after poll - for three years now - is telling the Republican party leadership they need to fix their tune on solid conservative principles and yet they continue to defy that. If they don't get with it, why shouldn't they get their clocks cleaned next year?