January 29, 2009
On the RNC Chairmanship Race (David Keene)
By Friday afternoon, the preliminaries will be over and members of the Republican National Committee (RNC) gathered at the Capitol Hilton here in Washington will choose a new party chairman.
If history is any guide, it will be a long and perhaps brutal session as six candidates seek the GOP chairmanship. Most expect multiple ballots and some are predicting that the likely winner may not even emerge until the third or fourth ballot. When Jim Nicholson was elected chairman back in 1997, he didn't even take the lead in the voting until the fourth ballot and then "backed in" on the next ballot as the early favorites cut deals or left knowing that their moment had come and gone. > Read More
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What's This December 18, 2008
In Memoriam: Paul Weyrich, Conservative Trailblazer (David Keene)
Paul Weyrich was conservative long, long before it was cool. He campaigned as a volunteer for Barry Goldwater in his native Wisconsin and won local fame as a radio broadcaster and activist there before coming to Washington to work as press secretary to then-Sen. Gordon Allot of Colorado.
While working for the Colorado senator, Paul met Joe Coors, and more than either could have guessed began with that meeting. Coors was a conservative with money who wanted to make a difference and Paul was filled with ideas as to how he could help. > Read More
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What's This November 18, 2008
Wanna Work for Obama? Then Answer Him This … (David Keene)
Those who hope to join President–elect Obama as he begins “changing” America learn, even as they apply to serve, that things have changed in Washington.
In recent years, presidents have been embarrassed by appointees who haven’t been thoroughly vetted before being named and have had to subsequently withdraw from consideration. As a result, the vetting process has gotten ever more thorough, leading many familiar with the way it’s developed to wonder why any sane person would put themselves through it.
We’re not talking here about the backgrounder an appointee or more lowly federal employee gets before being granted a security clearance or White House pass, but questions that might simply pique the interest of a reporter or congressional aide preparing his or her boss for a confirmation hearing or provide a clue to the potential employer that the applicant may not share each and every one of the new administration’s beliefs and/or prejudices. > Read More
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What's This November 10, 2008
Obama on Guns (David Keene)
Note: Though Mr. Keene is an officer in the NRA, the views expressed in the following piece do not represent the opinions of that organization. — Ed.
Candidate Barack Obama and his handlers tried, during the presidential campaign, to defang the National Rifle Association and other pro-Second Amendment groups fearful of what he might do if elected in much the way that centrist Democrats did in 2006. > Read More
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What's This November 7, 2008
House GOP Turning the Page (David Keene)
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence’s announcement yesterday that he will run for the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference is good news for conservatives, for House Republicans and for Republicans as a whole. As the party seeks to regain credibility with a public that identifies with its values, but distrusts its competence and dedication to those values, the emergence of a young generation of committed, intelligent and articulate conservative leaders like Pence is a signal to all that conservatives are prepared to step forward and lead.
What’s more, the fact that House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) is endorsing Pence for a leadership position is a sign that at long last, the existing Republican leadership in Congress is beginning to get the message that it will take the inclusion of conservatives like Pence and others to convince conservative voters that a newly energized and principled GOP deserves their support. > Read More
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What's This September 23, 2008
McCainWorld: Return to Good and Evil (David Keene)
John McCain rose up in high dudgeon the other day to essentially blame Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and former congressman Chris Cox for the financial meltdown in which the nation finds itself, in spite of the fact that the SEC — whether it might have done more or not — could neither have prevented what has led us to our current predicament nor done much about it once we got here.
Many were taken aback by McCain’s target and the personal vehemence of the attack. Cox should be fired, McCain roared, because he’s “betrayed the public trust.” George Will has pointed out, however, that this is vintage McCain, who sees the world around him in rather simple moral blacks and whites. In McCainWorld there are good guys (who might best be described as men and women who agree with him) and there are bad guys (who disagree with him for reasons that can only be described as “evil”). There seem to be very few honest disagreements in McCainWorld, because anyone of good heart would, of course, agree with the man. > Read More
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What's This July 23, 2008
Obama : McCain :: Reagan : Carter (David Keene)
As I write this, John McCain and his campaign seem to have escaped the potential damage that might have been done to them by Barack Obama’s Magical Mystery Tour of the Middle East.
The visits to Iraq and Afghanistan and the meetings with officials in both places, as well as the appealing snapshots of the candidate mingling with our troops, yukking it up with the Jordanian king and dropping by Israel on the way to Berlin were designed, one assumes, not just to show that the man from Illinois knows where these places are, but to demonstrate that he knows what he is talking about when he discusses international issues and to get American voters comfortable with picturing him not as a candidate, but as someone they can envision as president. > Read More
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What's This June 16, 2008
The Democrats Are At It Again! (David Keene)
This morning the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) charged Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg (R) with seeking to raise gasoline taxes by 23 percent. When I read this, I couldn’t figure out why a conservative Republican like Walberg would make such a proposal, though it’s always possible that he, like anyone who lives and works in the District of Columbia, might have finally simply slipped his moorings.
When I looked into the matter, however, I found that our Democratic friends weren’t quite telling it like it is. The DCCC bases its charge on Walberg’s sponsorship of legislation described in the committee press release only as “HR 25.” I assumed this must be the Republican Tax the Drivers Act of 2008 until I pulled it up.
In fact, of course, HR 25 is the legislative embodiment of the “Fair Tax” under which the federal income tax would be replaced by a consumption tax. The legislation would do away with the IRS and the income tax and has the support of a good many people in and out of Congress.
None of this appeared in the DCCC release, which simply declared that Walberg would “impose a 23 percent tax on all goods and services purchased in the United States in 2009, including gas.” The impression conveyed, of course, is that he’s a tax raiser and, indeed, that he likes taxes even more than someone like, say, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Those who simply read the release can, I think, be excused for concluding — as I almost did — that the poor fellow from Michigan had gone bonkers.
Actually, I’m no fan of the Fair Tax. I’ll leave arguing its merits to the Mike Huckabees of the world, but it represents a serious attempt to reform our tax system, and those who support it deserve better than this.
As it turns out, however, the DCCC release is little more than another sign that the 2008 campaign is under way and that rational men and women should beware.
Keene is chairman of The American Conservative Union, whose website can be accessed here.
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What's This May 26, 2008
Imitation of Life (David Keene)
Most Memorial Day moviegoers flocking to their local theaters to catch the latest Indiana Jones flick did so without realizing that the movie adventurer portrayed by Harrison Ford hero was in all likelihood modeled on a once-famous American explorer who today is all but forgotten.
Few Americans today even remember Roy Chapman Andrews, whom many believe to have been the real-life model for the movie adventurer, but his was once a household name in this country. He was so famous, in fact, that when his dog died, The New York Times ran an obituary on the dog. Andrews was a legend to boys like me from southern Wisconsin back in the ’50s because as a boy, he too roamed, fished and hunted the shores of the Rock River. > Read More
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What's This May 6, 2008
McCain and Judges (David Keene)
Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) speech today at Wake Forest in North Carolina represents a real attempt by the Republican presidential hopeful to outline a judicial philosophy that will appeal to the sometimes skeptical conservatives who make up an important part of the GOP base and to contrast his views with those of Obama and Clinton.
Those who haven’t read it should. It is a serious attempt to lay out the candidate’s thinking on a crucial issue, and while some are characterizing it as merely an attempt to “woo” the right, if he means what he says, it has to be taken as much more than that. It doesn’t answer every question or concern conservatives have raised about McCain on the issue of the role of the courts, how he would go about selecting nominees and his willingness to accept the fact that fair-minded judges who read and understand the Constitution might decide differently than he would — but it answers a lot of them. > Read More
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