Archive for November 9th, 2007

The Wall Street Journal had this interesting article on Democrats having a tough time living up to their paygo promises. Apparently talking tough about balanced budgets is easier than achieving them. After reading the article you get the idea that Democrats are only using half of the paygo rule. It has two parts you know: 1) Pay for new spending with tax increases, or 2) Pay for new spending by cutting spending elsewhere. So far Democrats have only discovered the first part and I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to find the second part.

Balanced budgets are good, and we need them. But you don’t have to achieve a balanced budget by raising taxes. Republicans overspent and paid for it in 2006. Democrats are doing the next worse thing by overspending and then forcing taxpayers to take pay higher taxes to make up for it. Perhaps if some people would realize that when you cut taxes you raise revenue and if you stop spending money on wasteful projects you have more money for legitimate projects, we might get a balanced budget.

Oh, the Blue Dogs from Indiana (Hill, Ellsworth, and Donnelly) all voted for SCHIP expansion. That project was supposed to be funded by….drumroll…a tax increase on tobacco.

As my colleague Jim Banks mentioned below, Dr. James Dobson may be about to endorse Mike Huckabee. Another heavy-hitter in pro-family circles has already lined up behind Huckabee though.

On Thursday Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, one of the leading decency organizations in the country, endorsed Gov. Huckabee in his bid for the presidency. That according to a press release from the Huckabee campaign which can be found here.

Wildmon was careful to point out that his endorsement was on a personal and not organizational level. However, his position as a pro-family Christian leader means that his support of Huckabee was a boost for that campaign. While the Values Voters have hitherto not expressed support for any single candidate, more endorsements like this could make Huckabee their man.

Republican presidential candidates need to have the support of the Values Voters if they are to win the primary or general election. The fact that millions of evangelicals stayed home in ‘06 was a contributing factor to the Replican’s loss of Congress. As it now stands, Romney and Huckabee are going head to head to prove their conservative credentials on social issues in a battle to unite evengalicals behind their respective candidacies.

Fred Thompson’s entry into the race was watched by the Values Voter bloc as they, along with perhaps every subset of the Republican Party, wondered if he would end up being their man. Thompson’s wishy-washy stance on a Constitutional amendment limiting marriage to it’s historical definition of one man and one woman, combined with his recent ambigous remarks (which may have merely been a very poor choice of words) on abortion make his candidacy less and less appealing to those who (like this author to an extent) make social issues their defining focal point.

Without a doubt if Huckabee were to win the nomination he would play very well in Indiana against a Clinton campaign. Unlike some of the other candidates on both sides, Huckabee has very little if any of the aurora of Washington surrounding him.

Update On Dobson Rumor: The American Spectator, which originally released the story about a Dobson endorsement of Huckabee, has updated their story to reflect a new development in the story.  Check it out here.

Dobson Endorsement of Huckabee Rumored

My former boss, Focus on the Family Founder Dr. James Dobson, is rumored to be considering an endorsement of Governor Mike Huckabee for President. Such an endorsement would help a candidate like Huckabee in Indiana among social conservatives who are still undecided about their Presidential choice.

From Jim Shella:

November 8, 2007 12:20 pm

Here’s one to watch:

Democrats are making noises about a possible repeal of the October hike in the local income tax before they lose the majority on the City County Council in January.

Would that be viewed as vindictive politics, or the right thing to do in response to Tuesday’s vote? How could Republicans vote against it? Would the Mayor sign it? How about the next Mayor? Will Republicans do their own repeal in January, if the Democrats don’t?

If there’s a repeal can Republicans cut enough spending to make up the gap, or will we see a return to overcrowded jails?

This is going to be interesting.

There is no “undo” option in politics, nor punting to the other team when you lose.

Certainly, the Democrats are welcome to attempt their tantrum.

It will just reaffirm for the people of Indianapolis the very reason that the threw them out in the first place.

Greg Ballard won the election; it is now his turn.

He can choose to keep the Democrat tax hike or cancel part or even all of it.

But it should be his decision, and that of those that won on Tuesday.

My own devious answer to any Democrat shenanigans would be for the Republicans to deny them a quorum at any meeting at which they might attempt such tantrum stunts by walkouts and similar parliamentary and protest measures.

The GOP now has the upper hand again in Indianapolis.

The sooner they enlighten the Democrats about the consequences of this development, the better it will be for everybody.

Granted, I suppose that Peterson and Monroe Gray could try to lock the Republican council members in the room, just like they tried to lock the people out, but that would likely blow up in their faces PR wise.
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As the effects of the collapse of the Peterson machine in Indianapolis are still reverberating across Indiana, it occurred to me that Jonathan Weinzapfel, the mayor of Evansville, won a very easy election for which he raised a large campaign war chest.

Mayor Whiny still has most of that money (around half a million bucks, by most estimates).

With Schellinger likely damaged by the fall of Peterson and the body blow suffered by the Marion County Democratic Party, might the ambitious mayor of Evansville seek to try his hand in the Democratic field?

He’ll never be able to run for Congress so long as Brad Ellsworth holds the 8th District seat.

Besides, even if Mayor Whiny is plotting a Senate bid in five years (presumably against Lugar or Lugar’s former seat), it will be hard to roll that state campaign money over into a federal campaign.

The intricacies of campaign finance law would tend toward the money going for a state election.

He could be considering a run for Attorney General or another lesser statewide office, but his ego might be too large for him to consider running for such down-ticket positions.

What’s that leave?

As a young politician (Weinzapfel is in his early forties), he might be more tolerant of being lieutenant governor (in expectation of running for the top job soon after) than being one of the state’s lesser elected functionaries.

In that case, he might be shopping around to see which of the top two candidates will make him the best offer to be their number two.

But if his ego won’t let him wait, half a million is a lot of money.

It would be a nice nest egg to start a gubernatorial bid.
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