The Government Shut Down: We Need Another Daniel Webster by Gregory Hilton

This note was written in 1996. Ted Kennedy's brother John F. Kennedy devoted a chapter to Webster in "Profiles in Courage." JFK also chaired the committee which selected Webster as one of the five greatest Senators of all time. The other Senators were Henry Clay (KY), John C. Calhoun (SC), Robert LaFollette (WI) and Robert Taft (OH). Their portraits are on display in the Senate Reception Room.

The major issue on Capitol Hill this week is Friday’s expiration of the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. If the debt is not cut or the ceiling raised, the government would have to be shut down on March 4th. The situation is similar to the 1995 confrontation between President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich when the government was shut down twice.

John Quincy Adams: A Gentleman Would Not Campaign for President by Gregory Hilton

"The Adams Chronicles" was a 1976 Emmy award winning series which covered 150 years of family history. This episode portrayed the future first family at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776. Back row, John Quincy Adams, Abigail Adams II, First Lady Abigail Adams. Front row, Thomas Adams, President John Adams and Charles Adams.

John Quincy Adams was intent on being President of the United States in 1822. At work he focused on what would become known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” It would be named after President James Monroe, but it was Adams idea. The election was two years away but Adams fretted because few people were coming forward in support of his candidacy.

The Real RINO’s and the Republican Civil War by Gregory Hilton

Some conservatives are annoyed because Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) did not vote with the GOP the first time the financial reform bill was considered. I was also disappointed, but at the same I understand Massachusetts is not Utah. We cannot expect hard core conservatives to represent the Bay State.
Aside from Brown, there is no other Republican in the Bay State delegation. There are 40 members of the State Senate and only four of them are Republicans. Not one Republican represents the six New England states in the House of Representatives.

Iraq’s WMD, the Last Debate With Senators Byrd and Kennedy by Gregory Hilton

The two lions of the Senate are gone now, but their unfortunate legacy in national security policy remains. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) would have been shocked to see today’s Boston Globe which reports his GOP successor holds not only his Senate seat, but also his decades long claim to be the most popular politician in the Bay state.

Looking Back at the Massachusetts Miracle: Scott Brown Changed Everything by Gregory Hilton

The Class One United States Senators from Massachusetts include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Henry Cabot Lodge, John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. On January 18, 2010, the name of Scott Brown was added to this list.

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) enraged many conservatives this week. He met privately with President Obama on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the Kerry/Lieberman climate change bill. Upon leaving the White House, the Massachusetts lawmaker said:

I basically told him that I’m not in favor nor could I support a national energy tax or a cap-and-trade proposal, but I am very excited about working with him in a bipartisan manner to come up with a comprehensive energy plan to address a whole host of issues: wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, conservation, incentivizing businesses, providing grants and loans to our businesses.

The cap and trade proposal is being advocated by Brown’s colleague John Kerry (D-MA), but the Republican continues to refer to it as cap and tax. At the end of their meeting, Obama redeemed the promise he made to Brown on election night.
The President invited the Senator and his daughter Ayla (a star on American Idol) to play basketball with him at the White House. Senator Brown’s victory in the special election last January to replace the late Ted Kennedy was a major triumph for the Republican Party. It was not only a GOP win in the Democrat’s Vatican City, but it brought the liberal super majority to an an end.
Prior to Brown, Democrats had 60 seats and they had no incentive to work with Republicans. The super majority allowed Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to run the Senate by a series of cloture votes. Reid filed cloture on every important issue. This brought debate immediately to an end because there were not enough GOP Senators to stop cloture.
The tactic ended with Brown’s election as the 41st Republican. His victory allowed the GOP to keep any filibuster alive and block Democrats from automatically enacting legislation.
Brown has not changed his campaign rhetoric from last winter. One of his major themes is that a trillion dollars in stimulus spending has still not created one new permanent job. Nevertheless, Brown will not be confused with hard core conservatives such as Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), and he did join Maine GOP Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in supporting the financial reform bill. Last January’s stunning triumph has now been forgotten by several conservative activists:

• Melissa Jenkins says “So far voting Brown has had ZERO benefit for the Republicans. He will vote with the Democrats, he is a fool and a tool! He is completely clueless and way in over his head.” She now regrets not voting for the libertarian candidate even though she realizes this would have resulted in a liberal Democratic victory.
• Kristen Hornbrook says “I smell bribery! This man stripped off his clothes for Playgirl magazine. To me that puts his ethics into question.”
• Morgan McComb of Irving, Texas says “I never trusted nor supported Scott Brown. What a looooooooser.”

What these conservatives fail to recognize is that Brown’s election has already resulted in significant change. The Democrats still have 59 votes for the rest of this year, but without their super majority they are unable to enact the most radical aspects of the liberal agenda. For example, if Brown had lost, the prospects for cap and trade and union card check would have improved significantly. Some of Brown’s conservative critics are now blaming him for the passage of the health care reform bill. The Senate passed the health care bill prior to Brown’s election. In fact, that is the major reason it was passed. They knew it would never be enacted if the Democrats did not have 60 votes, which is the number required to invoke cloture and end debate. Brown was not a member of the Senate at that time. After cloture the Democrats only needed 51 votes.
A Major Setback for the Radical Left
Brown’s victory really resulted in a four seat gain for the GOP. Unlike health care reform, Majority Leader Reid can no longer count on the backing of Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Ben Nelson (D-NE). Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), 54, said the Brown win changed everything, and one month later he shocked the nation by announcing his retirement.
Both Arkansas and Indiana are expected to fall to the GOP this year, and while Nelson is not up until 2012, he is already trailing Gov. Dave Heineman (R-NE) by 30 points. The Brown triumph brought a halt to a wide range of liberal legislation, such as the attempt to spend $400 billion this year to create a promised 5 million new job. Labor unions wanted to pay for it by enacting a tax on stock, bond and currency trading.
Extravagant spending proposals such as those advocated by organized labor and Moveon.org are impossible without a super majority. Even the Obama administration has changed its rhetoric in the new political climate. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the $400 billion jobs program is a bad idea, and the Majority Leader told the Daily Kos he no longer has the votes.
God Bless The RINO’s: They Were There When We Needed Them
Many of the Brown critics are libertarians, but ironically it was the Libertarian Party which allowed the Obama agenda to be enacted in the first place. Third party Libertarian candidates gave Democrats their super majority. They defeated GOP Senators Norm Coleman (MN), Gordon Smith (OR) and Slade Gorton (WA). They also gave Democrats the Governor’s mansions in Washington state and Wisconsin, and they provided President Obama with his margin of victory in Indiana and North Carolina.
There were many liberal Republicans in the 1960s Senate, but that is not true today. The few moderates that remain almost always vote with the GOP when they are needed. That did not happen with the three defects on the stimulus, but 95% of the time, moderates stick with the GOP on close votes. That is especially true in this session of Congress.
The complaints about “RINO’s” (Republicans in Name Only) from some “constitutional conservatives” are also ironic. They castigate moderates for deviating from the GOP platform, while at the same time these isolationist conservatives oppose the U.S. role in Afghanistan and Iraq. The libertarians and the Pat Buchanan paleoconservatives are the real RINO’s.

BOOK REVIEW: “True Compass” by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, reviewed by Gregory Hilton

PHOTO: Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) in 1965 (NY TIMES).

I just finished reading Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass.” A conservative does benefit from some of Kennedy’s observations, and this is especially true when he discusses how the Senate changed from 1963 to 2009. The late Senator was proud of his close friendships with conservatives Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), and said cross party friendships used to be essential to passing legislation.
He noted that rarely happens today and the atmosphere is far more partisan. One reason is that few lawmakers remain in the nation’s capital over weekends where they could develop bonds with their colleagues. The bipartisan dinner groups are long gone.

Did Democrats Believe WMD Existed in Iraq? by Gregory Hilton

Vice President Joe Biden recently told talk show host Larry King that Iraq “could be one of the greatest successes of this administration.” American troops left all Iraqi cities and towns in June of 2009 and significant force reductions are now happening. President Obama had nothing to do with us. The Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq lays out the timetable for withdrawal, and this was signed by President Bush. It was Bush who set up the schedule and agreement to pull out of Iraq by 2011. The Obama Administration is just following Bush’s plan.
Another myth is that Democrats were skeptical about the Iraq’s WMD. The quotes below demonstrate many prominent Democrats were concerned about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction stockpiles in Iraq prior to the U.S. liberation. Please note that Senator John Kerry was a member of the Intelligence Committee in 1999-2000, and had access to the collected information on the WMD programs well in advance of the time when George W. Bush was President. The result is that Kerry was convinced the stockpiles existed.

“One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.”
President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

“Iraq is a long way from USA but, what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face.”
Madeline Albright, Feb. 18, 1998

“We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.”
Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.”
Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force– if necessary– to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA), Oct. 9, 2002

“Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation … And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction… So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real …”
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA), Jan. 23, 2003

Will Liberal Democrats Listen to the Message From Massachusetts? by Gregory Hilton

Republicans throughout the nation are thrilled with the victory of United States Senator-elect Scott Brown. Only 11% of Bay State voters are Republicans, and this seat has been in Democratic hands for 57 years. Brown will fill Ted Kennedy’s vacancy and be the first Republican in the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation.
No one is claiming the Bay State is turning Republican but voters did send a profound message. Democratic elected officials are asking themselves if they can not win in a state which they carried by 26 points in 2008, where in the world is it safe for a liberal to be a running for federal office in 2010?
Brown raised over $12 million online which a a new record for a Senate candidate. He raised about $1 million/day during the final week. In claiming victory at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel last night, Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) said:
“I thought it was going to be me against the machine. I was wrong. It’s all of us against the machine. You have shown everyone now that you are the machine.” Predicting a cascade of election surprises throughout the nation, Brown said, “Let them take a look at what happened in Massachusetts. What happened here can happen all over the country. When there’s trouble in Massachusetts, there’s trouble everywhere, and they know it.”
If Democrats now moderate some of their views it would be a boost to their outlook in the 2010 election. There is a battle underway between liberal and moderate Democrats, and health care is now the focal point. The reactions of some prominent Democrats and journalists to Brown’s victory appear below:
Terry McAuliffe, former Chairman, Democratic National Committee, “This is a giant wake-up call. We have to do a much better job on the message. People are confused on what this health care bill is going to do.”
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA): “It would only be fair and prudent that we now suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.”
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI): “It’s probably back to the drawing board on health care, which is unfortunate.”
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN): “Many of our people are in denial, but if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope they will wake up. We can not have the furthest left elements of the Democratic Party attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country. . . Moderates and independents even in a state as Democratic as Massachusetts just aren’t buying our message. They just don’t believe the answers we are currently proposing are solving their problems. That’s something that has to be corrected.”
Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D-Boston): “I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican replaces Ted Kennedy. I think Scott Brown caught the wave of anger that’s out there, and the wave of anti-Obama.”
Former Mayor Raymond Flynn (D-Boston): revealed after the vote that he had supported Scott Brown. He said, “People feel like their vote is being taken granted with this powerful, one party state, and with one-party government in Washington. People want a little coalition, and a little respect… I don’t know how you regroup from something like this. There are going to be a lot of problems in the Democratic party from here on out.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo (D-KY): who is running for an open U.S. Senate seat, “The President is especially unpopular in eastern Kentucky. An Obama visit would not help Democrats.”
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA): “It is really time now for Democrats to shift their attention to issues that will enjoy broad public support.”
Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL): “When it happens in Massachusetts, it really throws us a curve. It’s a big deal for a lot of members here.”
Politico: “Think back a year ago and imagine someone saying Obama would throw his support behind Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia and Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts — and lose all of them. Think back a year ago and imagine someone saying he would celebrate his first anniversary without having gotten health care, financial regulation or energy legislation signed into law. And that less than 50 percent of the public would hold a favorable view of his presidency.”
The New York Post editorial entitled “Heck of a Job, Brownie!”: “This is the fifth time in three months that Obama has focused his star power to effect political and policy outcomes — losing each time. It didn’t work in Virginia and New Jersey, where he roller-skated in for Democratic gubernatorial candidates Creigh Deeds and JonCorzine last November. Or in Copenhagen, when he popped in to tout Chicago as host for the 2016 Olympics.
“Or in Copenhagen again, last month, at the global climate-change conference. And now this. . . Brown won. Coakley lost. But, obviously, so did Obama. Here’s hoping the president understands why.”
The New York Times: “What happened in Massachusetts on Tuesday was no ordinary special election. Scott Brown shocked and arguably humiliated the White House and the Democratic Party establishment. . . States do not come more Democratic than Massachusetts, the only one that voted for George McGovern over Richard Nixon in 1972. . . Most ominously, independent voters seemed to have fled to Mr. Brown in Massachusetts, as they did to Republicans in races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey last November. It is hard not to view that as a repudiation of the way Mr. Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have run things.”
The Los Angeles Times: “The Democratic Party’s defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday — the loss of a single, crucial Senate seat — will force President Obama and his congressional allies to downscale their legislative ambitions and rethink their political strategy.”
Dr. Stuart Rothenberg, GOP political analyst, “This is the biggest political upset of my adult life.”
I am also wonder if some prominent Democrats will now retract some of their comments about the moderate Brown. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called Brown a “far-right tea-bagger,” Chris Dodd (D-CT) said he was a”right-wing radical,” and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) claimed he had “right-wing views” and “radical record.”

National Security and the Massachusetts U.S. Senate Race by Gregory Hilton

The past few days have brought bad news for Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in the January 19th special election to fill the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s (D) vacancy. Her performance in last night’s debate was dismal, her opponent raised over $1 million on line yesterday, and today her TV ad misspelled the word “Massachusetts.”
The biggest surprise to me was Coakley’s confusion regarding the most basic aspects of our legislative process at the federal level. She has no legislative experience which was apparent last night. She didn’t even know the House and Senate healthcare bills had to go to conference to be merged before going to both houses for a vote.
As the debate demonstrated, on national security issues the choice is clear. Coakley believes there are no terrorists left in Afghanistan and they have all gone to Yemen or Pakistan. President Obama certainly does not believe that, and he emphasized the threat of terrorism in asking us for an additional 35,000 troops. Coakley said, “If the goal was and the mission in Afghanistan was to go in because we believed that the Taliban was giving harbor to terrorists. We supported that. I supported that. They’re gone. They’re not there anymore.”
Coakley also wants to give full Constitutional rights to terrorists. She clings to her sophomoric arguments despite the fact that our soldiers when caught have been dragged through the streets, hanged on bridges and are beheaded. The people we are fighting are savages, and they do not recognize the distinction between civilian and military courts.
I am not an Obama fan, but the President is correct in saying “We are at war.” He is also correct in calling attention to nuclear weapons in Pakistan and emphasizing that they can never fall into the hands of the Taliban. State Senator Scott Brown (R) and over 95% of House Republicans support Obama’s troop surge and the President’s new counter insurgency strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Coakley is with the opposition.
The Attorney General lists her foreign policy experience as visiting her sister who lives in London. As a Senator, Obama voted to extend the FISA wire-tapping law. This past September, he sent a letter to Congress asking Congress to extend three expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Once again, Brown and Congressional Republicans support the President on these national security matters, but Martha Coakley is on the other side. Coakley says she will “happily” oppose our wartime Commander-in-Chief as he confronts a war against terrorists.
On other subjects, Coakley said “we need to increase tax revenues.” She claims it will only be on the “wealthy,” but a tax increase on the magnitude needed for health care reform makes it impossible that only the rich will be taxed.
The debate was amazing even before it began. When he walked in, Senator Brown went over to the Coakley sign-holders, introduced himself and shook their hands. Several of the sign holders greeted him enthusiastically and said they were voting for him! They were holding Coakley signs because they were being paid $50 by their union, the SEIU.
Massachusetts has been losing population and it has a high cost of living. The state pays for the education of young people but they end up moving away because of no job growth. Companies have also been moving their offices to more tax friendly states.
I am surprised organized labor is so supportive of Coakley. They apparently do not realize why so many union members are out of work. The private sector has dried up and a major factor is the taxes and regulations imposed by the state legislature and the U.S. Congress.
I hope Massachusetts will start to turn things around and with Scott Brown they have the whole package. He started off with nothing, worked his way through college and law school, and joined the military. He understands business, and has been a public servant opposing tax increases on the local and state level. Supporting Scott Brown is a vote for change.

Democrats Anxious Over a Once-Safe Seat: Ted Kennedy’s Vacancy

The above headline is from today’s New York Times. The article by Abby Goodnough notes the Democratic Party nominee “seemed so certain of winning the special election on January 19 that she barely campaigned last month. . . even in this bluest of states there is a sense the balance of power has shifted dramatically from just a year ago. . . A Brown win remains improbable, given that Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1 in the state and that Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has far more name recognition, money and organizational support.
“But a tighter-than-expected margin in the closely watched race would still prompt soul-searching among Democrats nationally, since the outcome will be the first real barometer of whether problems facing the party will play out in tangible ways at the polls later this year.”
Coakley continues to have solid support from Democrats, but half the voters in Massachusetts are independents. Some of the reasons those independents might consider the GOP candidate are outlined in the below article by Howie Carr of the Boston Herald.
Feeling blue? Take a second look at Scott Brown
By Howie Carr http://www.bostonherald.com |
You may be a Scott Brown voter if:
• Your federal income taxes are going through the roof in 2011 when the Bush tax cuts expire – and Martha Coakley thinks that’s just wonderful.
• Your local property-tax bill is rising almost as fast as the value of your home is dropping.
• You did at least some of your Christmas shopping in New Hampshire to beat the 25 percent sales tax increase the Democrats imposed on working people.
• You own a package store and you’re getting killed by the new 6.25 percent sales tax on alcohol, on top of the 37 percent excise tax.
• You’re still waiting for that property-tax relief that Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) promised you in 2006.
• You’re in a union, and you’re going to have to pay a 40 percent tax on your “Cadillac” health-care plan if Martha Coakley gets a chance to vote for Obama’s health-care rationing bill.
• You’re on kidney dialysis and you have to pay for your treatment . . . but illegal aliens don’t.
• You watch the crime wave emanating from the State House and wonder why the attorney general can’t seem to find one single solon to arrest. The feds have no difficulty whatsoever nailing lawmaker after lawmaker on serious felonies.
• You believe that if the governor’s appointees rubberstamp a utility-rate increase, and then the next week Gov. Deval pockets campaign contributions from the same power company’s executives, perhaps the attorney general should at least have a comment.
• You’ve had to wait hours in line at a Registry office to renew your driver’s license after they shut down your local branch because of the state’s alleged fiscal crisis – but they still want to give free tuition at state colleges to illegal aliens.
• You would like to send a message to the limousine liberals who are driving this state and this country off a cliff.