The National Journal has released their annual liberal/conservative rankings of the US House and Senate for 2009. Here are some highlights for the Hoosier state:

In the Senate, Lugar is the 39th most conservative and Bayh is the 40th most conservative.  The troubling aspect of Senator Lugar’s rating is that there is only one Republican listed as less conservative (Olympia Snowe, R-ME). The next Republican is Susan Collins (R-ME). On the positive side, Bayh is listed as the most conservative Democrat.

In the House, there is no surprise that the most liberal member of the Indiana delegation is Rep. Andre Carson (22nd most liberal). The most conservative is Rep. Mike Pence (8th most conservative). The entire delegation ranks as follows (conservative to liberal listed in terms of the conservative ranking):

1. Mike Pence (8th)
2. Dan Burton (45th)
3. Steve Buyer (86th)
4. Mark Souder (100th)
5. Joe Donnelly (186th)
6. Brad Ellsworth (193rd)
7. Baron Hill (230th)
8. Peter Visclosky (310th)
9. Andre Carson (407th)

BTW, I find these interesting, but I have not reviewed the methodology for the rankings. I quite frequently disagree with the methods of creating scorecards like this.

Rasmussen has released a poll today on the Indiana Senate situation. They polled 500 likely voters (including my wife!) and found that pretty much any of the Republicans are leading any of the Democrats. They have published the following matchups:

Hostettler 49%
Hill 31%

Coats 48%
Hill 32%

Stutzman 41%
Hill 33%

Coats 46%
Ellsworth 32%

Hostettler 46%
Ellsworth 27%

Stutzman 40%
Ellsworth 30%

Thoughts below the fold:

The money quote is: “That would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

What does this mean for Senator Bayh’s future? I’m not sure, but he seems to be burning bridges with the Democratic Party.

John Coleman was the weatherman on Good Morning America in the 1970’s who left and started the Weather Channel. For the last few years his “retirement job” has been the weatherman at a San Diego television station. One of his passions is researching and blogging on global warming. Thursday, January 14th he aired a one hour program on global warming which is excellent in bringing together some of the current significant events regarding this issue. I highly recommend this show.

I really wish that I had time to dig into this and create a detailed review of all of the news associated with ClimateGate.

There is a blog called Watts Up With That? that examines a lot of issues regarding science and climate change. He has established a page with links to all of his ClimateGate articles.

I will try to take some time to digest this a bit and post on it.

One of the characteristics of conservatism is that it tries to look at the lessons learned in history to help make decisions for the future. That is one of the reasons that conservatives oppose the current efforts at “Health Care” or “Health Care Insurance” reform.

We can look at European health care nightmares. Or we can look to our neighbor to the north. But the examples that should scare us the most are those examples of government run health care right here in the USA. We have Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA. It is the VA that I read about today.

Before I get to the quote: I want to be clear. HR3200 does NOT require end of life discussions–but it does explicitly tell doctors, nurse practitioners and doctor assistants what covered discussions MUST contain. It is an awful section of legislation and here is where history–a very current history–instructs us. The following comes from the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal, written by Jim Towey:

If President Obama wants to better understand why America’s discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.

…
“Your Life, Your Choices” presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political “push poll.” For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be “not worth living.”

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to “shake the blues.” There is a section which provocatively asks, “Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘If I’m a vegetable, pull the plug’?” There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” “I am a severe financial burden on my family” and that the vet’s situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family.”

When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?

It is official. Scott Schneider won the Indiana Senate District 30 caucus on the second ballot tonight. I said in a previous post I said that I would give a rundown of the various candidates and what I did.

I will do so in the order that they fell out of the caucus.

Analysis below the fold:

This Tuesday, July 21st at 7:00 pm Precinct Committeemen will meet to select the successor to Teresa Lubbers State Senate seat. This seat represents the north central portion of Marion County and the southern strip of Hamilton County. There are four candidates vying for this seat: Ryan Vaughn (current Indianapolis City-County Counselor); Scott Schneider (former Indianapolis City-County Counselor); John Ruckelhaus(a former State Representative); and occasional Hoosier Access commenter Chris Douglas.

I happen to be one of 108 Precinct Committeemen who are in Senate District 30.

On Wednesday (or maybe late Tuesday evening) I will give a report of what happens and my analysis of the four candidates, even who I voted for and why. But I would like to ask a question of the Hoosier Access community.

Someone commented to me that the Indiana Senate needed new leadership which got me thinking–what is leadership? How does a Senator show leadership?

Is it someone who stands on principles even when standing alone? (Or is that just courage) Is it someone who compromises on unimportant things in order to get the main part of what they want? Is it the person who brings people together to create a consensus?

Or is it something else?

***

Added by The Directors: We’re working on some sort of coverage for the caucus. We don’t know if we’re going to have a video or audio coverage yet or if we’ll just live blog it. Stay tuned.

In the first vote of the day–which is to bring the Cap and Tax bill to the floor for a final vote–was 217-205 (11 no votes). In the Indiana delegation the votes were as follows:

Republicans:
Souder, Buyer, Burton, Pence — all “No”

Democrats:
Visclosky, Donnelly, Carson, Ellsworth — “Yes”
Hill — “No”

The Hill vote is interesting as he voted to get the bill out of committee.

The final vote is supposedly any time now.

UPDATE: Here is Rep. Pence’s floor speech today. I suggest that you do exactly what he suggests and contact your Representative.

I was reminded of my college history professor’s biography of Homer Capehart a couple of weeks ago when I saw the unusual book cover in an Indianapolis local TV news segment. On a lark, I found my copy and decided to reread it. I am glad I did.

Who was Homer Capehart? I didn’t know before I bought and read this book some 15 years ago. He was the son of a poor farmer in southern Indiana who made a small fortune in the jukebox and radio industries by ingenuity and salesmanship. In the mid-1930’s he decided to become involved in Republican politics, and did so by holding the “Cornfield Conference” on his southern Indiana farm that drew at least 15,000 Republicans from across the state and nation. He galvanized the Republican Party to oppose the New Deal and gave energy to a Party that was down and out.

Capehart became more involved in Republican politics and narrowly won a Senate seat in 1944. He served in the Senate for 18 years before losing that seat to Birch Bayh, Jr.

As Professor Emeritus William Pickett told the story of Capehart’s revitalization of the Republican Party in the late 30’s and 40’s, I saw many parallels to our situation today. Pickett writes:

Capehart helped lead the national party out of the wilderness by showing its confused leaders that conservatism, not me-too-ism, was the way to the hearts of many American voters. (p. 50)

I don’t think that there is a better prescription for the Republican Party today than that observation.

But the parallels between the 1930’s and now continue below the fold.

I have received permission to share a memo from my CEO, Charlie Smith, to the employees of my company. I think the message is relevant not only to employees but the general public. We do have a link on our website to send messages to your Representatives and Senators. I think it is important to do so.

We are writing to you to express our deepest concern regarding the future of our local petroleum industry. President Obama’s Administration has proposed sweeping changes to the tax burden on the oil and gas industry that if enacted will significantly harm our area’s oil and gas production industry, and the jobs and economic benefits that it brings to our local economies of southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky.

Taxes aimed at the local oil and gas production industry are the repeal of the percentage depletion allowance, elimination of expensing of intangible drilling costs, elimination of the passive loss exception, and a change to the amortization schedule for geological and geophysical costs.  There are others too numerous to mention.

The rest of the memo below the fold:

Here is a suggestion for a theme song for the upcoming Tax Day Tea Parties.

Note that the Indianapolis event will now occur on April 15th from 4:30 to 6:30 at the State Capital Building (moved from noon).

h/t RedState