Well, like many conservatives, I am somewhat disheartened about the state of the Republican Party in Illinois. The Land of Lincoln, our first Republican President, barely has a recognizable Republican Party anymore. I cannot bring myself to vote for Judy Barr Topinka, nor will I throw my vote away by casting a protest vote for our current Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Fortunately, we Illinois conservatives do have a choice. A man who shares our values. His name is Randy Stufflebeam, and he is the write-in candidate for the Constitution Party. I will be voting for my first third-party candidate this election and urge others to do the same. Check out his conservative credentials at his website Run Randy Run. Make sure to look over the instructions for casting a write-in vote.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Re-thinking Hastert
So, having given it a little more thought and more reading, I have decided not to sit out the election for Congressman for my district. "The Coach" will be getting my vote. Here is a letter to the editor I submitted which summarizes my reasoning:
Dear Editor,
As one of the so-called values voters that the media talked so much about a couple of years ago, I was almost taken in by the Democrats' incessant harping over the Foley Scandal and their efforts to taint the entire Republican Party. However, I decided to take a little look at their own record and found that once again the Democrats are full of hypocrisy, double standards, and outright lies.
Former Democratic Congressional Page molester Gerry Studds died this past week and top Democrats nearly fell over each other to get to microphones to praise the former Massachusetts Congressman. What I find interesting is that many of these same Democrats are demanding the resignation of Speaker Hastert over the Foley matter. Compared to how Democrats handled the Studds case, Hastert has performed well in dealing with a similar ethical challenge.
Studds, along with Illinois Congressman Daniel Crane (a Republican) admitted to having relations with underage pages in the 1980s. Crane apologized for his acts while Studds was somewhat more defiant and even lamely argued that as a gay man it was "more complex" for him to "live a meaningful private life." In other words, Studds felt there should be a different standard of behavior for gays.
Mind you, this involved actual sex, not emails and instant messages. What did the Democratic leadership of the House do in defense of ethics of virtue? Practically nothing! Both Crane and Studds remained in office. Crane failed to gain re-election and Studds continued to serve for years. Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. did not go to the men and demand their resignations, as Speaker Hastert did with Foley. Nor did he call for a criminal investigation, as Hastert has also done. Nor did he call for reform of the page program itself, a move Hastert has also initiated.
The Democratic Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Louis Stokes felt that humiliation was punishment enough for Crane and Studds. It took the efforts of Republican Robert Michel of Illinois to push for official censure instead of a wrist-slapping reprimand over some vigorous Democratic opposition. Republican Newt Gingrich even called for their expulsion.
There have always been and always will be scandals, after all the men and women in our government are human. But it is how leaders deal with such issues that reveals their character. The Democrats have shown that their calls for HastertÂ’s resignation are pure politics and the record shows they donÂ’t hold their own leaders to such standards. Are they demanding the resignation of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for publicly cavorting with a teenage girl and plying her with alcohol at a gala well before she has reached the legal drinking age? Bill Clinton (a respected Democrat involved in a sex scandal) pardoned Democratic Congressman Mel "Did I win the lotto" Reynolds, who had sex with a 16 year old campaign worker and was also charged with child porn! Did the Democrats criticize the pardon? Hardly, Reynolds was even hired by Jesse Jackson (another sex scandal) for his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
It almost seems that inappropriate sexual behavior by a Democrat is considered a virtue. In the GOP it gets you booted out of office, among Democrats it gets you re-elected, praised, eulogized, pardoned and hired. Hastert still has my confidence and my vote.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Watching From the Sidelines
Haven't posted in awhile. Been a little busy with being a Scout leader, a dad, work, etc. etc. I've also been a little distracted by something I usually don't pay much attention to - College Football. See, out here in corn country we have this little college called Northern Illinois University. And NIU has this little tailback named Garrett Wolfe. If you haven't heard of him, you will. A couple of weeks ago my youngest son and I had a Scout outing to watch a game and camp at the University. What a treat to watch this talented young man run around, through and over Buffalo defenders. I have never been into football to this extent, but now I find myself reading the sports pages before I read the front page and the editorial page. I spend more time following Wolfe's chances for the Heisman than reading blogs.
You can check him out (including articles and highlight video) here.
As I said, I have enjoyed watching all this from the sidelines. Now it seems I will be watching the remainder of this election season from the sidelines as well. With the revelation of the Mark Foley scandal I have very disturbing doubts about people I once respected, including my own Congressman, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
From all appearances it seems as if Foley's actions were known by Republican leaders and kept under wraps. One public reason for that is respect for the privacy and wishes of the parents. But their secrecy kept a predator in a position to victimize more young men. As for the defenders talking about legal technicalities, such as the age of consent in Foley's home state of Florida, that dog just won't hunt. I have never considered the law to be the definer of what is right and wrong. The law is merely a minimum standard, we should hold ourselves to something higher.
Foley should have been run out long ago. However, it also seems the Democrats knew of this and held onto the news so that it could be trotted out just before the election at a time that Democrats were slumping in the polls. Not to mention the way Democrats are feigning disgust and shock at this when they recently gave members of their own party a pass on occasions when actual sex with minors took place. I speak primarily of Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts who continued to serve after it was revealed that he did much more than exchange revolting e-mails to a male page.
Then there is Barney Frank using his position to fix parking tickets for his male lover who was using the Congressman's apartment to run a gay prostitution ring. Frank still serves as a respected member of the Democratic party.
President Clinton commuted the sentence of Democrat Mel Reynolds who had sex with a sixteen year old volunteer for his campaign then pressured her to lie about it.
You can read more in a great editorial over at Yahoo News
So, I hold both parties accountable for this. Neither has shown themselves worthy of my trust. I am one of those values voters that were so much in the news a few years back, and I take those values very seriously. My primary concern is not which party holds power, but which politicians reflect sincerity in upholding the values that make this nation great. Right now, they are in very short supply. This isn't just a political horse race, this is our leaders showing us they care more about public opinion and politics than about decency and integrity.
So, unless something dramatic changes, I will likely sit this election out. Does that mean there is a chance that Republicans will lose the majority and Democrats gain it? Yep. Does that mean Denny Hastert could lose to John Laesch who is acting every bit the political opportunist as his Democratic leaders? Yep. Laesch is a moonbat, but Hastert is beginning to look very dishonest. I prefer to vote for someone rather than against someone, and I don't like lesser of two evil choices.
The simple fact is that from the Democrats I expect nothing better. I am not disappointed in the way they have handled this, it is par for the course. From people who want my vote, I expect much better; morally and politically. The way they have handled this was not just wrong, but stupid.
With so much else going on that is so important, especially during a time of war, the Republicans chose to overlook repugnance in their own midst and try to keep it secret. Hopefully they will learn their lesson. But for now, I will be staying home this November as there really is no race: local, state or national that I feel compelled to vote in. I was already planning to abstain in our state's governor race and now I can't vote for Speaker Hastert.
I will instead follow the Heisman voting, where of course I don't have a vote. Go Garrett and Go Huskies!
You can check him out (including articles and highlight video) here.
As I said, I have enjoyed watching all this from the sidelines. Now it seems I will be watching the remainder of this election season from the sidelines as well. With the revelation of the Mark Foley scandal I have very disturbing doubts about people I once respected, including my own Congressman, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
From all appearances it seems as if Foley's actions were known by Republican leaders and kept under wraps. One public reason for that is respect for the privacy and wishes of the parents. But their secrecy kept a predator in a position to victimize more young men. As for the defenders talking about legal technicalities, such as the age of consent in Foley's home state of Florida, that dog just won't hunt. I have never considered the law to be the definer of what is right and wrong. The law is merely a minimum standard, we should hold ourselves to something higher.
Foley should have been run out long ago. However, it also seems the Democrats knew of this and held onto the news so that it could be trotted out just before the election at a time that Democrats were slumping in the polls. Not to mention the way Democrats are feigning disgust and shock at this when they recently gave members of their own party a pass on occasions when actual sex with minors took place. I speak primarily of Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts who continued to serve after it was revealed that he did much more than exchange revolting e-mails to a male page.
Then there is Barney Frank using his position to fix parking tickets for his male lover who was using the Congressman's apartment to run a gay prostitution ring. Frank still serves as a respected member of the Democratic party.
President Clinton commuted the sentence of Democrat Mel Reynolds who had sex with a sixteen year old volunteer for his campaign then pressured her to lie about it.
You can read more in a great editorial over at Yahoo News
So, I hold both parties accountable for this. Neither has shown themselves worthy of my trust. I am one of those values voters that were so much in the news a few years back, and I take those values very seriously. My primary concern is not which party holds power, but which politicians reflect sincerity in upholding the values that make this nation great. Right now, they are in very short supply. This isn't just a political horse race, this is our leaders showing us they care more about public opinion and politics than about decency and integrity.
So, unless something dramatic changes, I will likely sit this election out. Does that mean there is a chance that Republicans will lose the majority and Democrats gain it? Yep. Does that mean Denny Hastert could lose to John Laesch who is acting every bit the political opportunist as his Democratic leaders? Yep. Laesch is a moonbat, but Hastert is beginning to look very dishonest. I prefer to vote for someone rather than against someone, and I don't like lesser of two evil choices.
The simple fact is that from the Democrats I expect nothing better. I am not disappointed in the way they have handled this, it is par for the course. From people who want my vote, I expect much better; morally and politically. The way they have handled this was not just wrong, but stupid.
With so much else going on that is so important, especially during a time of war, the Republicans chose to overlook repugnance in their own midst and try to keep it secret. Hopefully they will learn their lesson. But for now, I will be staying home this November as there really is no race: local, state or national that I feel compelled to vote in. I was already planning to abstain in our state's governor race and now I can't vote for Speaker Hastert.
I will instead follow the Heisman voting, where of course I don't have a vote. Go Garrett and Go Huskies!
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