Senator Rand Paul Profiled By New Republic

By Steve Parkhurst

Leftist rag, New Republic (which loosely translated into the original German means “Sieg Heil!”) has run a cover story this week on Senator Rand Paul. While the writer clearly tried to paint a negative picture of Senator Paul, I think the article will only help Rand Paul with those on the Right.

My favorite part of the piece is this attempt to show Senator Paul as a radical in the Senate, via his authoring of legislation:

He wrote legislation in his own, Paulian way. He introduced a budget that would have eviscerated the Departments of Transportation, Energy, State, and Commerce; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Food and Drug Administration; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It would have entirely defunded the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Government Printing Office. His amendment to the Parental Consent Act warned that psychiatrists might “label a person’s disagreement with the psychiatrist’s political beliefs a mental disorder.” He authored a bill to legalize interstate traffic in unpasteurized milk. One amendment would have nullified the congressional authorization to invade Iraq; another sought “to end mailbox use monopoly.” He also offered a triad of bills intended to make senators more diligent: the Read the Bills Act, the Write the Laws Act, and the One Subject at a Time Act. None of these measures made it to a vote. When the Foreign Relations Committee introduced a bill condemning North Korea’s nuclear tests, Paul insisted on language explicitly stating that it didn’t authorize the use of force. McCain was livid: The act was already nonbinding, and he felt Paul was mocking the process.

To all of that I say “Right on!” So the radicals on the Left, including moderate Leftists like John McCain get their feathers ruffled a bit. Good! Their go-along-to-get-along approach landed this country in the mess it’s in, time for a little sorting out. By my count, that is six departments totally gone, and seven more “eviscerated” (I love that word with relation to federal departments).

Keep on keepin’ on Senator Paul. A run in 2016 may be in the cards, and more articles like this one are sure to help you.

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Rand Paul’s Message For The “Facebook Generation”

By Steve Parkhurst

Senator Rand Paul is a one man machine right now, as so many of the issues before us right now are right up his alley. Paul has written a piece for PolicyMic titled The NSA is Spying on You — Here is How You Should Fight Back. It is a short, concise assessment of where we are and he offers a little advice throughout for the “Facebook generation,” but it is this message that the “Facebook generation” really needs to understand:

This assault on personal privacy affects the Facebook generation more than anyone else. Your generation is completely digitized and uploaded. Everything you do is traceable via phone, email and bank records. And it is you, more than anyone, who should be outraged by this astounding assault on your constitutional right to personal privacy.

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If you want to enlist with Senator Paul and help him sue the federal government, check out his PAC website and get going.

Senator Rand Paul Speaks at Ronald Reagan Library

By Steve Parkhurst

In case you missed Senator Rand Paul’s speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on May 31, this is your chance. This is a great speech, full of fundamentals, and you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Lowry: Where Is Today’s Jack Kemp?

Rich Lowry has written an important column at National Review Online. He covers the RNC and asks a question we have been asking here: Where is today’s Jack Kemp?

Here are the parts you need to know:

The harsh assessment of the RNC “autopsy” committee would be that it talked to 2,600 people, yet one of its top proposals is reviving a minority inclusion council from the 1990s. It takes months of research to come up with this stuff?

But that would be too harsh. The autopsy is a good-faith effort to stare the Republican predicament straight in the face.

The RNC autopsy has stirred up another round in an intraparty debate that is yeasty and entertaining, and will surely prove largely irrelevant to the Republican future.

One facet of that ongoing debate is the fight between the grassroots and the establishment over Senate primaries, which has been raging for months and got more fuel when speakers at the annual conservative gathering, the Conservative Political Action Conference, savaged the Republican consultant class. Rarely has so much heat been generated with so little light.

Consider Ted Cruz of Texas, whose smarts and fearlessness are making him the most dangerous man in the U.S. Senate. He proves that you can be anti-establishment — he ran a grassroots insurgency in his Republican primary — and yet talented and electable.

And so much depends on substance. No “rebranding” will make a difference if Republican policy is not relevant to people’s lives. What the party desperately needs more than different marketing or new consultants are a few Jack Kemps, political entrepreneurs willing to ignore orthodoxies and evangelize for new ideas.

Kemp did his most important work as a backbencher in the House. Where is his equivalent today? Two possible Republican contenders in 2016 have demonstrated some of his entrepreneurial spirit. No committee ever would have come up with the idea for Rand Paul’s filibuster. It showed gumption and creativity, and it caught people’s imagination. But it was in a cause — preventing drone attacks on U.S. citizens — that is not pertinent to the everyday life of anyone not on the run in Yemen.

For his part, Rubio has begun to talk about college affordability, an issue that should be part of a new conservative agenda aimed at concrete middle-class concerns. All the action, though, is around Rubio’s other cause of comprehensive immigration reform.

The Republican party can study itself to death, but without some Jack Kemps, it will remain in its current stasis for the duration.

This is another reminder that there is a Jack Kemp Project forthcoming from us here at GPH Consulting. Be sure you’re on the list to be notified first about what’s going on.

Texas Republicans Know Exactly Who is to Blame for Immigration Mess

This column originally appeared over at Texas GOP Vote.

By Artmeio Muniz

April 15, 2011

While other American states and municipalities are scrambling in dealing with a porous border and a federal government that appears to care more for NCAA Brackets and Brazil’s energy development, Texas Republicans again cut through the confusion and fog of political war with today’s introduction of House Resolution 88. Texas Republicans are shoving aside the context that the media, or outside interest groups, offer up as battlefields over immigration. Instead, a bold group of Republicans are determined to focus our Republican policy proposal’s agenda on economic prosperity and national security.

In the past months, we have been on a disappointing roller coaster ride of agendas by other groups. In Arizona, what was thought to be a sincere reestablishment of rule of law, turned out to be a crusade against “Anchor babies” and a piecemeal approach that was laying down the impractical, populist legal foundation of a mass deportation by attrition approach. As the state chairman of an organization dedicated to pure, cutting edge outreach and vote mining, it is extremely frustrating to see Republican politicians punt political footballs while offering no real solutions. You know there is a yearning and hunger for leadership, when Russell Pearce masquerades as a “conservative” only to reveal that his agenda was to use the Republican Party as a tool to push forward the mass deportation by attrition agenda.

As a grassroots worker dedicated to bringing new voters to the Republican party, it is pure fratricide, straight and simple, when a leader gains the attention of the media and only uses it for an agenda that is futile and founded not on conservative principles but in the notions of the 19th century, where citizenship was discussed based on race. As a missionary for the GOP, I need sound doctrine, without hypocrisy or hidden agenda to win over voters who are experts at sensing non truths.

In Utah, fortunately Republicans have decided to respect the free market and approved a state guest worker program. Accountability and control won the day. This is a huge step forward in leadership because Utahans voted to protect and strengthen Utah. Leadership does not garner ratings on television. Taking care of business and being responsible rarely garners the attention of the media. Tragedy, conflict and political bloodshed gives ratings and fuels the vanity of politicos. Republican problem solvers like Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Mitch Daniels and even Tim Pawlenty find themselves lost in a media whirlwind of hype. The American laboratories of democracies, the states, have given us hope that within the conservative context, we can address the immigration issue. Texas appears to be tipping towards a problem solving attitude. Republicans know that the federal level must be held accountable and state measures can only go so far.

Texas Republicans, with House Resolution 88, have gotten it 100% right. In today’s political world of bubble real estate schemes, union and politician paybacks, and subsidized markets working in conjunction with lobbyists, it is very important we continue to keep an eye on the puppet-master as we deal with the immigration issue. The leviathan called the federal government and its vast tentacles of bureaucratic hallways of “experts” and political operatives is at fault. It is a slippery and cunning creature that recently has managed to escape fault and blame with its ridiculous energy policies, EPA overreach, irresponsible fiscal polices, extremely amateur foreign policy, and on and on.

The media, in its ever decreasing relevance, perhaps, is seeking its own bailout and is providing Disney-like narratives for our President. Conservatives must lead, and not fall into media traps. Conservatives must solve, not just scream “fire!” in the proverbial political theater, Conservatives must now, more than ever, fix problems at the root cause and stay away from the band aids in public policy. I applaud these Republican Legislators of Texas for reminding us that we know exactly who is at fault when it comes to our immigration system. 2012 cannot come soon enough because we will make sure that the person to blame for the continued support of the failed immigration system and his entire Democratic machine will crumble.

Clear Contrast In Tuesday’s Winners: Roy Blunt and Rand Paul

By Steve Parkhurst

The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview features two new United States Senators from Tuesday’s election, Republicans Rand Paul and Roy Blunt. As you can tell from the title The Grand New—and Old—Party, this is supposed to be a contrast between the two men. But, this whole thing borders on the absurd. Senator-elect Paul comes across very well, in my opinion. But, Roy Blunt comes across poorly, and like a complete jerk.

Time will tell if Rand Paul can be effective, especially as he goes to Washington to join with other newcomers like Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson and Mike Lee. Roy Blunt sounds like more of the same, more of what got us Obama in the first place.

Case in point:

His first speech on the floor, he promises, will be on “the out-of-control deficit.” But since, “as Mark Twain said about the weather, that everybody is talking about it and nobody is doing anything about it,” Mr. Paul plans in his first legislative act to introduce a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. And, he adds, he’ll force a vote on it, too: “People don’t like to vote against something that’s so incredibly popular.” He also wants to look hard at steep cuts in defense and entitlements, the largest chunks of federal outlays, and in one swoop antagonize many Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Rand Paul = New Thinking

Relaxed, in a open-collar blue shirt, Mr. Blunt starts off by pointing out that he was a hard budget hawk before it became popular. “I led the only fight we had in 10 years to cut the mandatory spending programs,” he says, referring to the congressional budget debate in late 2005. As whip, he recalls no one ever called to thank him. Republicans only wanted him to save their pet projects. “I think the country’s come a long ways in these five years,” he adds.

And how has he changed in the last five years?

He waves the query away with, “Hey, well, I’ve been a pretty conservative member of congress,” and then he changes the subject.

Roy Blunt = More of the Same