FoodHot Chocolate (well, we are having way below average temps this week) for thought: Christine Todd Whitman and Robert M. Bostock - Free the GOP: The Party Won’t Win Back the Middle as Long As It’s Hostage to Social Fundamentalists (Via Little Green Footballs)

Four years ago … our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by “social fundamentalists,” the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it would become increasingly marginalized and find itself out of power.

At the time, this idea was roundly attacked by many who were convinced that holding on to the “base” at all costs was the way to go. A former speechwriter for President Bush, Matthew Scully, who went on to work for the McCain campaign this year, called the book “airy blather” and said its argument fell somewhere between “insufferable snobbery” and “complete cluelessness.” Gary Bauer suggested that the book sounded as if it came from a “Michael Moore radical.” National Review said its warnings were, “at best, counterintuitive,” and Ann Coulter said the book was “based on conventional wisdom that is now known to be false.” …

In seven of the nine states that switched this year from Republican to Democratic, Obama’s vote total exceeded the total won by President Bush four years ago. So even if McCain had equaled the president’s numbers from 2004 (and he did not), he still would have lost in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia (81 total electoral votes) — and lost the election. McCain didn’t lose those states because he failed to hold the base. He lost them because Obama broadened his base.

This is where I usually get into one of those long posts where I barely know when to stop (and get myself flayed), so I’ll try and be brief.

This is something that I have mentioned a few times over at Pirate’s Cove, as well as here at McCain Blogs and at Stop The ACLU. The two authors of the column call it social fundamentalists, which, quite frankly, is a bit insulting, even though I am not one. Me, I call it the moralists. In my political opinion, most moral issues do not belong as part of the core agenda of the GOP, particularly at the national level. These issue mostly should belong to individuals and to private groups. There is nothing wrong with having high morals, but the GOP as a party seems to be pushing these issues over the ones that were established per the Constitution: keeping the country running.

I guess, for me, it goes back to the fact that the Conservative movement is based on Classical Liberalism. There are 3 cores to the Democratic political model: the economic, the moral, and the political. In Classic Liberalism, the model states that government stays out of those cores as much as possible. The government that governs least governs best, but gets involved when necessary. Social Democracy is when government gets massively involved in economic issues. Classic Conservatism is when government gets involved highly in the moral core, and somewhat in the political core.

Personally, I rarely get involved in the main social focuses of the day. For instance, gay marriage. Personally, it is not a hot button issue for me. If I had to vote, I would probably vote against gay marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. But, but, I see no reason to stop homosexuals from having civil ceremonies and being considered domestic partners. If 2 people love each other, who the hell am I to stop them? This is America. Freedom. And Prop 8 is the perfect example of how it should work. Private citizens and groups doing it, rather then the national GOP pushing it in Congress.

Now, let’s look at stem cell research. The big issue is embryonic stem cell research. Certainly, the backing of this research by Liberals is because of its implications to abortion on demand, another big moral issue, obviously. This is an issue that is a hot button one for me. I think it is despicable that the Left pushes ESC research simply for abortion issues, and, the GOP has opposed the research, mostly on moral lines. Should the GOP push legislation and block federal funding for ESC research on moral lines? Yes, to some degree. But, it is a loser method. Like with abortion, the Left has won the morality of the issue by using non-offensive language, such as “the march of progress” and “blocking potential cures.” They did this with abortion with terms we all know, such as “choice,” “reproductive rights,” and “a woman’s right to choose.” Funny how under Obama’s health plans, you will be forced to get a health care checkup, loosing your “choice,” but, I digress.

We should not forget the morality of the ESC issue, but, the political party should fight it on mostly non-moral grounds. For instance, ESC research has provided no cures, no medicines, and no treatments without massive issues, usually known as “teratomas.” Monster tumors. Adult stem cell research, and now placental stem cell research, have been providing cures, medicines, and treatments. I just posted one earlier. Which is why private industry is spending lots of money on them. If ESC was so great, they wouldn’t be whining to the feds for money. The GOP should block the use of federal money for the ESC research because it is a waste of money.

Abortion is, of course, the big issue. And one I personally rarely get involved in. I hate to say it, but, it is not one of my hot button issues, except in terms of late term abortions, which are, per the doctors that perform them, performed mostly because the mother decided very late that she doesn’t want the baby, and not for medical reasons, and the issue of parental notification. I could go on and on on these issues, but, for brevity, I won’t. Just consider, though: if a minor gets busted for, well, pretty much anything, the parents must be notified! But, here we have a massive life changing medical procedure, and in many states parents do not have to be notified. Just. Plain. Wrong. The GOP could certainly fight on legal grounds on these two issues, rather then moral grounds.

Abortion on demand has been turned into a privacy issue by those who support it. And, it is the Democrats number one all-encompassing issue, make no doubt about that. So, how does the GOP fight that? They mostly don’t, not as a Party. Again, let the individuals and private groups do it. They managed to get abortion on to several State ballots, and, if we stay true to our conservative roots, that is where it belongs. 9th and 10th Amendments. Limited government, particularly at the federal level. Certainly, the national party should fight if Democrats try to expand abortion on demand.

Certainly, many people will disagree with me. Hey, it’s America, that’s your right. My opinion is that the national Party, and even the State Party’s, should ease off the moral issues that have become so prominent, and focus more on our core ideals: limited government, continued low taxes, national security, individual rights and individualism, and a government that empowers and enables, not one that does it for you.

To wrap up (got a bit long winded), I should say I am no big fan of Whitman. Didn’t care for her when I was living in NJ, and still don’t. But, to me, she is making some sense. We shouldn’t expand our base by being a be all say all Party which stands for virtually everything, at least in rhetoric, like the Democrats. We should expand our voting base by being a Party of ideas, and holding our elected officials to those ideals.

As DrewM points out at Ace of Spades HQ, Team McCain needs to have an ad out on this in Ohio. Heck, they should put together a national ad, showing what life would be like under an Obama presidency, where, if you disagree, you will be investigated

Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.

Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.

The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.

The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.

Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.

First of all, as has been said many times, isn’t this grounds for a criminal investigation of Jones-Kelley? Unauthorized access to personal records? Second, isn’t this a violation of the code of conduct for Ohio employees? I work for a really, really big company, and it would be grounds for discipline up to and including termination. And I have seen this in action. Not against me, but, other employees. This goes for other companies, as well. Of the employees involved, the only ones not terminated were those who owned up to it and had clean records. Jones-Kelley lied.

Third, wasn’t it the Left who pitched hissy fits over a simple program that cross-referenced phone numbers called to determine if there were terrorism links, and no other personal data was provided without an actual warrant? Yes, they did.

Anyhow, Sue, Joe, Sue!

Others: Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Ms Placed Democrat, The Underground Conservative

When Surrendie first heard this story late Thursday, he said “Mine! Mine! Mine!” And, since I usually avoid arguments with poo flingers, I said, “sure.” Raleigh N&O

Kay Hagan has filed a lawsuit against Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The Democratic Senate candidate announced this afternoon that she will sue her Republican opponent and the Elizabeth Dole Committee over a television ad that criticizes her for attending a fundraiser hosted by the founder of an atheist group.

“In filing this suit, we’ve made clear that these kind of despicable tactics will not be tolerated, and our campaign is moving forward with the most important task at hand: defeating Elizabeth Dole, and giving North Carolina’s families a voice in the U.S. Senate that they’ve been sorely missing,” said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan.

Surrendie is thrilled by how cool that is. Hagan has surrendered to the Barry way of doing things. Smear your opponents, lie about your own positions, then, if someone fights back, let your visceral response to be to investigate the lights out of them, and, file a lawsuit.

Now, to be clear, I do not think much of the Dole ad (below the fold), which, whether it is factual, stretches the truth, is false, is a waste of time and money, in my opinion. The whole atheism thing shouldn’t cause any contretemps for Hagan. People can be atheists, and shouldn’t be denigrated for that. It is their choice in our land of freedom. On the flip side, this has exposed not only this tremulous, friable Democrat candidate for high office, but, is a continuation of the Democrat playbook, and should give a big heads up over what the Obama presidency years will look like. And they will also be listening to the atheists would will force their agenda on others, rather then just live and let live.

Anyhow, Dole and her campaign say the ad is truthful. You decide.

To follow up on the story where several Ohio agencies did investigations into the background of Joe The Plumber, we get

Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.”

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System.

Amid questions from the media and others about “Joe the Plumber,” Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments.

Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said. It is unclear if Wurzelbacher is involved in a child-support case. Reports state that he lives alone with a 13-year-old son.

“Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look” at them, Jones-Kelley said, citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. “Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way.”

Ah. So they just do that on anyone who gets famous. Is she serious? Joe should file a lawsuit against her and the department for violating his civil rights and privacy. Maybe the ACLU of Ohio, or even the national office, would care to help? Interesting how it also seems to be Democrats who use government offices to check people out for the hell of it, eh?

Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland [who appointed Jones-Kelly this past January] is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.

Did I forget to mention that Jones-Kelly is a maxed out Obama donor? Ace has the scoop on that. Nothing political in the investigation, though. Are Democrats taught to lie like that, or is it just natural?

In the comments, Dave points out that the crisis that Joe Biden was referring to will probably be Iran and an attack on Israel, and the “unpopular response” will be Barry ignoring the situation and doing nothing, except, perhaps, some strong words and a complaint to the the United Nations, which has been oh so sympathetic to Israel over the past 30 years, eh? He could well be right

Top officials in Iran are proposing a preemptive strike against Israel to avoid an assault on its nuclear reactors, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.

Senior Tehran official Dr. Seyed G. Safavi said at a recent briefing in London that the proposal followed threats by Israeli authorities, but a possible preemptive strike against Israel has not yet been incorporated into Iranian policy.

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in June that Israel would be forced to strike Iran’s nuclear reactor if Tehran continues to pursue its controversial uranium enrichment program, Haaretz reported.

The question is, are these “just words?” So often within the Western World, we tend to think of these types of ultimatums and threats as school yard taunts, to be ignored, right up to the point that an actual physical attack occurs, then the media and Congress tries to fix blame after the fact, usually after saying, “they are just words, so don’t worry ’bout it.”

It’s like the whole August 6th PDB “Bin Laden determined to strike the US” issue. If Bush had tried to institute measures to search people at the airports, because the time was non-specific, he would have been skewered, and we would have been told the threats were mostly empty. What happened afterwards were typical blame games. When Arabs and Muslims and others in the Middle East make these types of threats, they should be take seriously.

And when you are dealing with paranoid nutjobs, you should be even more worried

Are America and Israel using specially-trained pigeons to spy on Iran?

That’s the question being raised by new reports out of Iran that its security services have arrested two suspected “spy pigeons” near its well-guarded Nantaz nuclear site.

One of the pigeons, security officials said, had a black-coated metal ring and invisible strings.

Ah-ha!

Clearly a spy pigeon.

This isn’t the first time, either. And they arrested spy squirrels last year. Paranoia and nuclear weapons are not the greatest of mixtures.

Senor Boehner

House Republican leader John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to a grass-roots community group that has been accused of voter registration fraud.

“It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law,” Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.

He also wants an investigation into ACORNS links to Fannie Mae. But they are all little darlings, I thought!

Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed.

“I regret it. I paid the price for it,” he said.

Mitchell was convicted last year and spent nearly three months in prison. He’s one of the few ACORN workers convicted of voter registration fraud.

Mitchell said ACORN threatened to close the office if he and his team didn’t meet their quota to register 13 to 20 voters a day. So, without consulting their supervisors, he said, they came up with a plan.

“We came up with the idea: Let’s make fraudulent cards. I tell my crew, ‘I don’t care how you get ‘em, just get ‘em,’ ” Mitchell recalled.

They took addresses from homeless shelters, used fake birthdays and Social Security numbers and took names from baby books to create voters out of thin air.

OK, so, he and the others involved were just trying to make money and keep the office open. Did that translate to fraudulent votes? Probably not. And this all begs the question of how many of the fraudulent registrations lead to actual fake votes. But, there is another problem with the registrations, and that is public perception.

There are many people who do not follow politics like we do, believe it or not. I would probably not be off base to say that most Americans of voting age do not pay that much attention, except what they are fed in the news while reading a paper or watching the evening news. But there is little consideration of what they are being fed. And that makes a difference.

If you saw everyone buying tickets for a particular movie, might you not think “gee, it must be super! I think I will get a ticket and go see it, too.” When the average American reads and hears that people are registering as Democrats in a much larger proportion then as Republicans, might they not think “gee, the Dems must be doing something right. I think I might vote Democrat this time.”

That is the question that The New Republic asks, and attempts to answer. After six paragraphs of leadup and discussing John McCain, the writers finally get to their defense of spreading the wealth

But let’s get back to this apparently controverisal phrase–which, I gather, is going to remain prominent in McCain’s campaign rhetoric over the next few days. What, exactly, is so awful about “spreading the wealth”?

Government performs certain essential functions, from education to national defense. It must raise money to do that. Charging everybody the same tax rate might sound simple. But it would actually impose a much harsher burden on the poor, since they end up spending much–if not all–of their incomes on the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter. As one famous 18th century philosopher argued,

“It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expen[s]e, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

Another rationale for progressive taxation is the fact that random chance has profound effects on everybody’s financial well-being. (A guy named John Rawls once wrote a thing or two about this.) Mandating economic equality–i.e., carrying out a truly socialist agenda–would obviously be wrong. But there are compelling moral and economic arguments for asking the fortunate to pay a little more in taxes, in order to blunt the influence of chance on people’s lives.

That’s it. That’s what they got. The famous 18th century philosopher is Adam Smith, a name that probably a good chunk of people may have heard, but, with todays education, do not know what he stood for.

Anyhow, government has certain functions, and some people are luckier then others, so, we need to redistrubute success. That is their argument, which, to be honest, is more then any other liberal/progressive outlet has attempted. Most of them have focused on Joe the Plumber, as we all know.

Yes, government has certain functions, but, one of them, per the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is not to play Robin Hood. It is not there to punish success. Yes, Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress the power to lay taxes, but, nowhere does the Constitution suggest that people who work hard, do well, and succeed should have to pay a disproportionate portion of the fruits of their labor to people who sit on their buts watching TV most of the day.

Should we help our fellow citizens? Sure. Works a whole lot better when it is handled by State government, local government, and local organizations, such as churches. But we should not help at the expense of others, performed at the barrel of a jail cell.

Every election year, I hear something that sets off an old, long running argument, namely, that I hate Get Out The Vote. In this case, I was listening to The Sports Reporters, and during the parting shots, one of them (missed the name) was talking about athletes telling people to get out there and vote, because it is “your civic duty.”

We get this every time. Celebrities, athletes, politicians, pundits, the various Parties, etc and so on, keep telling us to get out there and vote. But, is it your civic duty? No. Your civic duty is, if you say you are going to vote, to get out there and learn about the candidates, the parties, what they stand for, what their background is, and where they will take you, your town, your State, and your country. Without knowledge, the whole process becomes a wet t-shirt contest.

We get treated to a constant dose of thongs and see thru shirts in the form of 10-30 second soundbites and how good the candidates speak, along with how they look, all designed to get a bunch of drunks to scream the loudest.

It doesn’t matter who started it, but, GOTV has basically created a large segment of mindless voters, screaming “take it off!” They vote their hearts, they vote their feelings, they vote because it looks good. And that is as far as it goes. It’s wet, almost naked, and bouncing.

That’s the short rant. Sigh.

What kind of cheese should we send to the New York Times? Court Ruling May Impede Thousands of Ohio Voters

More than 200,000 registered Ohio voters may be blocked from casting regular ballots on Election Day because of a federal appeals court decision on Tuesday requiring the disclosure of lists of voters whose names did not match those on government databases, state election officials and voting experts said.

In other words, who the hell are these people? Do they live in Ohio? Are they Ohio residents? Do they appear on voter roles in other states? Do they even exist?

The court decisionrequires Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state, to provide the names to local election officials by Friday. Once the local officials have the names, they may require these voters to cast provisional ballots rather than regular ones, and they may ask partisan poll workers to challenge these voters on Election Day. Both possibilities could cause widespread problems when the voters show up at the polls.

If she had done her job in the first place…. And now an appeal of the decision has gone to the Supreme Court, saying Republicans had 2 years to challenge. Perhaps the Ohio GOP thought the Ohio Sec of State would do her job and follow the law

Federal law requires states to verify voter registration applications with a government database like those for driver’s licenses or Social Security cards. Names that do not match are flagged for further verification. Since Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, the decision will probably affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. Polling in the state shows Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, with a slight lead on his Republican challenger, Senator John McCain.

Social Security data indicate that Ohio election officials found more than 200,000 names that did not match this year; state election officials say their analysis of the data indicates that most of these are individual voters, not duplicate registrations. But Ms. Brunner said that problems with the databases could very well be why the names did not match.

So, do your job and investigate. Why do Democrats always think that the law doesn’t apply to them?

Expect the usual suspects on the left to call this “GOP voter fraud.” When it is ACORN registering Mickey Mouse and the starting offensive lineup of the Dallas Cowboys, eh, no big deal, they haven’t voted, but, unknown people who will probably vote Dem being forced to possibly use a provisional ballot? FRAUD! I wonder how many of those 200K will actually show up?

The Ohio Republican chairman, Robert T. Bennett, called the court ruling “a victory for the integrity of Ohio’s election.”

“Once again, Jennifer Brunner has wasted valuable taxpayer dollars only to have her partisan agenda rejected by a court of law,” Mr. Bennett said.

Yeah, but, somewhere in Liberal World, it is the Republican’s fault for bringing this issue to light.

Of course, we have all heard the Obamazombies talking points: bad voter registrations are not voter fraud, because they haven’t voted yet. It’s not disenfranchisement, because no one is being stopped from voting. So, they see nothing wrong with all the fraud going on through ACORN. Perhaps we should just call it election fraud, to satisfy the Left’s sense of proper naming

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Ohio’s top elections official to set up a system by the end of the week to verify new voters’ eligibility and make it available to Ohio’s 88 county election boards.

The full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court’s ruling that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must use other government records to check the thousands of new voters for registration fraud.

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit had disagreed last week, but the full court’s ruling trumped the panel’s decision.

Finally, some sanity. Of course, you know the Left will not like this very much, despite their constant calls for election reform since they lost in 2000.

Allahpundit has it covered, and has some video showing how the ACORN narrative has finally broken through to the regular MSM.

Related, Barry brings up the “D” word

“But this isn’t a situation where there’s actually people who are going to try to vote ’cause these are phony names,” Obama said. “And, it’s doubtful (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Tony Romo (whose name has been fraudulently submitted) is gonna show up in Ohio to vote. So this is another one of these distractions that gets stirred up in the course of a campaign.

Uh huh. And, if this was a non-partisan group that happened to be registering primarily Republicans, would you be so blase’ about it, Barry? As Powerline points out, Barack is completely indifferent to the election fraud. And, sure, someone who registers as Mickey Mouse is not going to show up. But, the very fact that ACORN dupes are going there shows the lengths they will go to perpetrate other election fraud, such as registering people who aren’t legally eligible to vote, registering dead people, registering people in multiple states and voting precincts, and then the people do go and vote.

Joe Biden goes down the wacky distraction avenue, as well.

I guess it is all a distraction when out of state Obama activists are registered in Ohio in violation of the law, ie, they do not reside in Ohio. Who wants to bet that they have absentee ballots in for their home states, too?