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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Re: George Will Is Blown Over By The Breeze

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 1:14 PM

As you can imagine, much has been written already about Will's controversial column, but one point has not really been made.

One premise of Will's argument is that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is essentially worthless. Will, however, fails to note he may soon be out of office.

On August 20, an election was held, for which ballots are still being counted. Currently, it appears Karzai may not reach the requisite 50 percent of the vote, and may thus have to face a runoff election.

If the anti-Karzai candidates all rally around his main foe, Abdullah Abdullah, it is at least possible Karzai will be replaced as president.

Considering Abdullah would likely be an improvement over Karzai, even if one agrees with Will about "nation building," the prudent writer might have at least postponed his declaration of failure until after the fate of Karzai was determined.

At worst, George Will is the advocating a John Murthaesque strategy. At best, he is premature ...

... By the way, I'm scheduled to be on MSNBC today between 3:30 and 4 pm EST to discuss this.

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Dog that Didn't Bark

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:29 AM

Over at American Thinker, Ken Blackwell wonders why Planned Parenthood isn't pressuring Obama ...

The Obama administration is going to great pains to deny that abortion is in their health care plan. The President himself says he prefers not to be "distracted" by this question.

As a candidate, Barack Obama went before Planned Parenthood. This evil enterprise annually kills 350,000 unborn children in the U.S. Its international arm gives powerful support to killing more than 50 million unborn children around the world every year.

In seeking Planned Parenthood's support, candidate Obama pledged that "the first thing" he would do is to sign what sponsors call the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). This misnamed legislation is often deceptively described as "codifying Roe v. Wade." That's like saying the Germans overran Luxembourg in World War II. They did that -- but so very much more.

FOCA would strike down every protective bill ever passed in Congress or in the states, every bill that even modestly protects unborn human life. Partial-birth abortion would be de-criminalized. Waiting periods would be struck down. Parental notice would be banned. Funding restrictions would be overturned. Informed consent laws, laws mandating that young mothers be offered -- not forced -- the opportunity to see their unborn child on ultra-sound--all these good, wise, and humane laws would be swept away by FOCA.

Well, we know that as President, Obama has not yet signed FOCA. Congressional liberals have not even pressed hard to pass FOCA.

Instead, the President is giving his best effort to pass ObamaCare, which he assures us does not require taxpayers to support abortion-on-demand.

Back to the dog that didn't bark. So how come Planned Parenthood isn't barking?

Read the whole thing here ...

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Brett Favre and Michael Vick Explained for the Political Set

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:51 AM

The weather is cool today in the DC-area, which, of course, makes me think it's time for football. Here's my take on Brett Favre, Michael Vick, and the politics of sports.

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Re: Dick Cheney's FOX News Sunday Spot

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:27 AM

I'll be on CNN.com/LIVE today at around 12:05 pm EST, to discuss Former Vice President Dick Cheney's calling the Obama Administration's investigation of Bush-era CIA interrogation tactics a "terrible decision." Watch here.

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Flashback: One Year Ago ...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:53 AM

A year ago today, the Townhall crew -- The best political team (not on TV) -- was in Minnesota, awaiting the start of the RNC convention.

At the time, protesters were expected to be an issue -- and Hurricane Gustav was barreling down on New Orleans. (Disaster was averted when Gustav didn't turn out to be Katrina II -- and when the hurricane provided an excuse for President Bush to skip his convention speech.)

Neither protesters, nor hurricanes, nor President Bush mattered that week, as the convention was a huge success. I think the lesson was that the things worth fearing are not the things we expect may harm us, but rather the unknown things lurking...

The week, of course, included the first left-wing attacks on Sarah Palin, as well as an absolutely amazing convention speech delivered by Palin. It was, no doubt, the highlight of the entire campaign.

This should serve as a quick reminder of what things were like just one year ago ...

By the end of September, the narrative had completely changed and everyone was talking about the bailout. They say "August is the cruelest month," but I say, "wake me up when September ends" ...

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Will Senator Hutchison’s Resignation from the Senate be Her Legacy?

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 11:17 AM

With the impending resignation from the U.S. Senate by Kay Bailey Hutchison, some are speculating her career may end on a down note.

Texas has a history of being a one-party state. Interestingly, though, that "one party" changed from Democratic to Republican.

In 1960, LBJ was on the ballot twice – once as the Vice Presidential candidate and the other as candidate for the U.S. Senate. Call it a true Texas "two-step" or the ultimate hedging of your bet, but Johnson knew how important power was and he wasn’t about to lose any bit of it. His opponent was the only Republican in the state brave enough to go against him, a thirty-five year old named John Tower.

Johnson won re-election to the senate, but Kennedy's presidential victory made LBJ the vice president, and set up a special election to replace him. Texas was as much a Democrat state back then as it is a Republican one today...simply put, the GOP didn’t win elections during the 50's and early 60's.

That all changed when several Democrats stepped up to fill the seat LBJ vacated, while the only GOP hope was John Tower. Nobody thought a Republican could win in Democratic Texas. Sound like today, just reversed?.

The problem for Democrats, as it turned out, was that so many candidates wanted the open seat, including future Speaker of the House Jim Wright, that they overwhelmed the field and diluted the Democratic vote. Republicans, instead, coalesced behind one candidate -- and Tower took the Senate seat in a runoff. That election would serve as a spark to change the dynamics of Texas politics for decades.

With the win, Senator Tower made history by becoming the first Republican to become a U.S. senator from Texas since Reconstruction -- and the first one from the former Confederacy ever to win a popular election. It became a landmark in the turning of the tide in Texas. To be sure, there were demographic and societal changes at play, but Texas' move Republican was clearly expedited by Johnson's departure from the senate.

Fast forward to today, Texas is now thought of as one of the most reliable Republican states in the union. But Democrats do believe they can change things. One sign of this is the fact that the DNC will be holding its quarterly meeting in state Capital, Austin, this September:

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine even included his optimism in an email to supporters: “Texas is an increasingly diverse state with a burgeoning and politically active Hispanic population that went strongly for Barack Obama in 2008…. (W)e have every reason to feel bullish about our chances in Texas.”

This becomes the problem for Kay Bailey Hutchison: Will she be blamed for turning Texas blue?

Rumors persist that there could be as many as ten Republicans running to fill her senate seat, versus only one announced Democrat. If those ten do enough vote splitting, as happened back in 1961, they easily could hand Hutchison's senate seat over to a Democrat. That, in itself, would be a huge loss for the GOP.

Now throw into the mix Kay Bailey Hutchison’s own shock and awe campaign needed to defeat a member of her own party, she could in fact weaken Rick Perry enough to the point where Democrats could have a fighting chance to win the governorship as well.

This one decision by Senator Hutchison could have the most far-reaching implications in modern Texas political history.

Which makes one wonder, why? More often than not, when I talk to Texas political insiders, that question gets asked the most. Why does a sitting U.S. Senator risk destroying the very party she says she puts before her own personal desires?

On the trail, Hutchison has made it a point to criticize Perry for putting the Texas GOP in peril, but now, KBH's own seat could be the biggest gift the Democrats could ever ask for.

We hear all the time about Republicans being their worst enemy. This personal agenda by Senator Hutchison only goes to reinforce that argument. The easiest solution, however, is for Kay Bailey to forgo a run for governor and stay in the senate. The campaign has been a disaster so far, and the results could be even more disastrous.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Yes, HE CAN

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 3:41 PM

Marco Rubio will grace the cover of the upcoming National Review...

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

New NRCC Web Ads Tie Dems to Pelosi

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 11:09 AM

The NRCC is running a series of web ads in targeted states, seeking to tie Democratic Congressmen to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Here's the one for Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09).

See similar videos for Rep. Suzanne Kosmas and Rep. Vic Snyder.

In other news, the NRCC has moved Republican Rep. David Harmer (CA-10) to 'On the Radar' in their Young Guns program.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Co-op Health Care Idea Divides the Right

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 8:23 AM

Abandonment is one of the most effective, though least utilized, public relations techniques ever invented. It works like this; when your prospects for success are doomed, giving up is sometimes the most unpredictable – and devastating – thing you can do to your opponents.

This technique appears to be playing out before our eyes. As Democrats appear poised to abandon their prized “public option” on health care reform the pressure will then shift to Republicans, who will face their own internecine decisions regarding whether or not to support a compromise, such as the cooperative idea -- which would entail the government setting up health care insurance nonprofits to be run by consumers. The chief proponent of the idea is North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad.

To be sure, liberals like Howard Dean, who recently referred to removing the public option as “a great mistake,” would be upset by the maneuver, but the pressure would be on Republicans. Already, conservatives are divided over what to do – and the public option hasn’t even been officially dropped yet. The conservative Heritage Foundation is on record as stating that, “Health care cooperatives can work as private entities in a private market and give another choice to families, but they have to be done right.”

Others see a co-op plan as merely a gimmick to pass a government-controlled plan by a different name. In a strongly-worded critique of The Heritage Foundation, RedState’s Erick Erickson wrote yesterday,

The Heritage Foundation, which played a vital part in building conservative support for Romneycare in Massachusetts, is setting the stage for Republican capitulation on healthcare. This is the second time in less than a year that Heritage will have been instrumental in organizing a conservative collapse in opposition to big government. The first time was when Heritage gave conservatives cover to support TARP, calling it “vital and acceptable.”

Now with healthcare, because Heritage is trying to be “helpful”, confusion is starting to crop up among Republicans in Congress at a very critical time in the healthcare debate. Capitulation and compromise are now on the table using a bastardized version of a Heritage proposal.

The fundamental problem is that many conservatives are worried the co-op idea is merely a more palatable way to get to a government takeover. This rings true, inasmuch as Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, himself said, “We're going to have some type of public option, call it 'co-op', call it what you want.”

Fair or not, Erickson is also correct in noting that the fact Heritage is on board with the notion that some co-ops might be good muddies the waters a bit. Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) tells me that ultimately the problem is that the word co-op is meaningless: “The term isn’t very telling in itself. There’s a huge range of possible policies that you could implement. Democrats are inclined to do something that’s still a government-controlled plan," says Kerpen.

Kerpen believes conservatives must oppose any proposal that includes employer or individual mandates. But co-ops that do not include either would be acceptable. But even in the unlikely event Republicans were able to hammer out a palatable compromise on health care, another school of thought says that, regardless of whether or not passing a co-op would be good or bad policy, it would most certainly be bad politics for Republicans to give the Democrats a win by helping pass a bill.

Accepting a co-op compromise – especially one which includes mandates -- would most likely deflate the town-hall attending grassroots activists who -- after years in the wilderness during the latter Bush years -- have finally found a reason to rally around the GOP. Today’s town hall attendees aren’t clamoring for conservatives to “slightly fix” Obamacare -- but to kill it.

Ultimately, Kerpen believes that just as liberals will likely be forced to abandon the public option, they will also be forced to abandon their co-op plans once it becomes clear that switching from the public option was merely a tactical move -- not a sincere, substantive change.

The real fight, then, would be fought over whether or not to implement a Massachusetts-type plan, where government mandates that individuals purchase insurance from insurance companies. This could be difficult for conservatives to stop, because, as Kerpen notes, “The insurance companies will support it, as it will be a mandate that people buy their products.”

As always, there are parallels to 1994. Ironically, the conventional wisdom is that by killing the public option and accepting co-ops, we would be moving away from a HillaryCare type plan toward a compromise solution. This is not quite right. While people think HillaryCare was a single-payer plan, it was a “managed competition.“ The Clintons called them “alliances,” not “co-ops,” but that seems a distinction without a difference. For all practical purposes, the Clinton plan was a co-op.

And -- as far as the political concerns that compromising with the Democrats could hurt Republicans electorally -- that almost happened in 1994 when Senator Bob Dole considered accepting several compromises rather than killing HillaryCare, outright.

Were it not for Dole’s concerns that turning his back on grassroots conservatives could have political consequences for his presidential run in 1996, he would likely accepted a compromise. And while it didn’t help Dole become president, it is certainly reasonable to assume that if the Republicans had agreed with a compromise – rather than killing HillaryCare outright – the Republican Revolution of ‘94 might never have taken place.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Conservatives and Foreign Policy

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 8:11 PM

Over at World Magazine, Ken Blackwell has a good piece up on Reagan, Bush 41, Truman, Kennedy, and American Exceptionalism....

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hutchison's 'Kick-Off' Announcement Draws Dozens

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:33 AM

http://images.chron.com/blogs/txpotomac/kbh%20225.jpg

This is like watching a train wreck ....

The battle for governor between the two titans of the Texas Republican Party, incumbent Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, officially kicked off this week with a formal announcement tour by Texas' senior senator.

For Hutchison, who has been struggling in recent polls, it was vitally important that the kick-off tour exceed expectations -- and allow her to dominate the news cycle. It did neither.

According to Harvey Kronberg of the quorumreport.com, the Senator who has been in Washington DC for sixteen years failed on both counts:

“The sparsely attended first announcement at Hutchison’s high school in La Marque [Monday] broke every rule of political campaign theater. It drew maybe five or six dozen folks and the empty hall was amply recorded by the Austin American Statesman's Ken Herman which has been virally distributed all day [Tuesday].

Memo to the Hutchison campaign: Announcements are made in small hotel venues where six dozen people look like they were crammed into the event.

Senator Hutchison began the race with a double-digit lead over her Republican rival only to see Governor Rick Perry pass her by double-digits in every most recent poll. This has led to staff shakeups and the bringing in of DC insiders to run the campaign. But as The Dallas Morning News reported:

“The preseason [for Senator Hutchison] has been rife with shakeouts in key staff positions, snipes at incumbent Rick Perry – over such topics as who was against Cash for Clunkers first – and garbled messages lacking a coherent framework…now that the game counts, it's time for crisp execution."

Early Hutchison campaign speeches have focused on a steady drumbeat of Perry criticism, but the Perry campaign seems to have managed to outmaneuver Hutchison at every turn:

Newspaper coverage of yesterday's events was ample. But in the Austin and Dallas TV markets, the lead in the Hutchison announcement stories we saw was the truck parked outside the event with a sign that said “Kay Bailout Express.”

It’s early and Hutchison has just formally joined the fray. But any remaining illusions about controlling the conversation in this slugfest should by now be dispelled.

Even in her announcement week, Perry is dominating earned media, social networking and the blogosphere. The Perry folks have the advantage of having run high profile campaigns since 1998 and it is evident in their multi-faceted, high saturation approach. [end of indent]

... As I have written here before, this is going to be a race to watch.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bob Novak Inspired Young Conservative Writers

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:02 AM

As we remember Bob Novak, it's important to note that part of his legacy will be the many young conservative writers and journalists he helped inspire and instruct. I've got a column up on that very topic here.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Obama Campaign Ad Firms Profit From Health Care Overhaul

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:46 PM

Bloomberg reports,

Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama's White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obama’s top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan. The other firm is Washington-based GMMB Campaign Group, where partner Jim Margolis was also an Obama strategist.

Imagine Karl Rove having these PhRMA ties while in the White House...

On the surface, this certainly looks like a conflict of interest. One wonders what other conflicts are out there ...

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ken Blackwell on Being a Bob Novak Source

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 5:19 PM

I just spoke with former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell about Bob Novak, whom he called, "The prototype of the 20th century investigative reporter."

As a top-notch reporter, Novak developed and cultivated numerous sources in key states. As Blackwell noted,

Bob was a good source for Ohio history. From really Eisenhower forward, he had great lines of communication with the political players of Ohio -- and he knew Ohio was crucial for any Republican success -- so he studied Ohio.

We would talk on the phone, and I was like any number of his sources. He would just call and it was off-the-record or on background, and he would ask probing questions. He knew the numbers, but he would also try to understand the human dimension associated with intrastate politics in Ohio.

Regarding Novak's famous conversion to Catholicism, Blackwell said that, prior to converting, as a skeptical reporter by nature, Novak fully researched the faith. And because Blackwell was then a vice president and member of the faculty at Xavier University -- a prominent Jesuit, Catholic University in Cincinnati -- Novak would sometimes ask him about Catholic history.

Prior to converting, "He kicked the tires, so to speak," said Blackwell.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Michael Williams Hopes to Replace KBH in Texas

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:12 PM

With the imminent resignation of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Governor Rick Perry has the chance to make a game-changing interim appointment.

There are many good potential candidates to choose from, but among them, Governor Perry should give serious consideration to Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams.

Beyond the obvious point that Williams would be the only Republican African-American in Congress (Oklahoma's J.C. Watts was the last), he is a talented speaker (as I learned when I recently heard him speak at the RedState gathering in Atlanta, Georgia), who is well-versed on many of the issues today's Democrats think they own, such as energy and the environment, education and urban crime.

As an energy regulator for a decade (the title 'Railroad Commissioner' is misleading; it has more to do with energy), Williams could be a highly-credible spokesman on issues such as carbon cap and trade. He has also served as a local prosecutor and a United States Department of Justice prosecutor, and as a high-level aide for George H.W. Bush's Department of Education. In that capacity, he demonstrated a willingness to take heat when he argued against racial preferences in academic admissions.

As I noted earlier, Perry has some good candidates to choose from, including former secretary of state Roger Williams and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Whomever Perry picks as the interim senator will obviously have a leg-up on winning the special election to replace her.

... Michael Williams is one to watch.