March 2009 – Page 2

monoblogue’s spring training

In about 3 weeks I’ll be returning to a tradition I began the first spring monoblogue operated – that of picking a Shorebird of the Week.

But there’s another pretty good team in town and for whatever reason I’d never gone to check them out until last week. At the time this game was played, SU reigned as the number one team in Division III college baseball. The opponent this day was the University of Mary Washington Eagles, who entered the Capital Athletic Conference tilt looking for their first conference victory of the season.

I saw this as an opportunity to enjoy a pleasant early spring day, check out some baseball, and work on my photography skills a little bit. The conditions were a bit different but I think I came up with some decent shots.

I’ve embedded a caption in each photo, so we’ll see how that works.

SU pitcher Eric Willey delivers to UMW batter Seamus Bergen early in the contest. The ball is actually just off Bergen's hip in the shot.

On the other side, SU batter Mike Celenza awaits the offering from UMW starter Andrew Cox.

In the third inning, Salisbury catcher Ryan Smith powered a two-run shot which put the SeaGulls up 4-1 at that point.

I took a more conventional shot of several batters to work on framing shots. Here is Salisbury's Chad Wolfe at the plate as UMW's catcher Nick Espinosa awaits the pitch as well.

One batter later, SU 3rd baseman Brian Green hit this lazy fly ball to right field to conclude the fifth inning.

As Mike Celenza of Salisbury awaited the pitch, it was interesting to note that most of the UMW players stood and watched the entire game much as they're shown here.

I call this one 'Pitcher Frame'. On deck for SU were right-handed hitter Cody Collins and left-hander Jordan Crystal, the pitcher was UMW reliever Dan Lockhart.

As would be expected, Salisbury came away with the win this day.

The outcome wasn't all that obvious until UMW fell apart in the 8th inning, committing three of its five errors and allowing the 8-spot in SU's 15-1 pounding of the Eagles.

Unfortunately, SU’s run at number one may have ended (at least temporarily) as they bowed last week at York College, 7-4. They were scheduled to play this weekend at home but rain washed out the three scheduled games, making their next home tilt a non-conference game against Virginia Wesleyan on March 26th. Their next several games will be in Florida as the team enjoys a Spring Break roadtrip.

A referendum on March 31

Depending on who wins the race, pundits will view an upcoming Congressional election on March 31 as either an endorsement or a repudiation of Barack Obama’s economic policies.

The election in question is in New York’s 20th Congressional District, which snakes along as a sideways “T” along the state’s eastern border. The race became necessary when Congressman Kirsten Gillibrand was named to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate seat she vacated when President Obama named her as Secretary of State. The battle pits Republican Jim Tedisco against Democrat Scott Murphy, with the winner serving out the remainder of Gillibrand’s House term.

So this race is a little unusual in that national attention has been bestowed upon this upstate district that lies within reach of both the minor media market of the Albany area and the huge New York City metro market. It’s somewhat analogous to our Congressional district in that it’s peripheral to a large media center but more served by a smaller one.

Needless to say, media is a large part of the effort. Here’s two ads from my old friends at Our Country Deserves Better, a PAC who’s made this race one of its major causes. They’re both attack ads, with this one hammering Scott Murphy’s disdain of the military:

This one talks about taxes:

In both cases we have a battle that sounds like our local Harris vs. Kratovil slugfest. Hopefully 20th District voters will vote in a somewhat more conservative manner than we did.

Having said that, let’s look at what the political pundits will say depending on who wins – at least the pundits who occupy the Sunday morning shows.

If Scott Murphy wins, it will be seen as an endorsement of Barack Obama’s policies and yet another blow to Reagan conservatism. Americans will be seen as more confident that the bailouts will soon work and the stimulus will indeed stimulate the economy – otherwise wouldn’t the Republican have won?

But if Jim Tedisco wins these pundits will dismiss it as a meaningless local race won by a politician with more style than substance who won based on the dirtiest ads. Of course it won’t be a referendum on Obama’s economic plans.

As I see it, if the voters of upstate New York – a state with primarily Democrats in charge and suffering from some of the highest tax rates in the nation along with the fallout from the disaster which befell the financial industry over the last year or so – replace the Democrat Gillibrand with a GOP Congressman, one would have to conclude that there are pockets of America which indeed want change, and that change doesn’t include those items President Obama has placed high on his list of priorities.

Putting Hillary Clinton in as Secretary of State may do more far-reaching damage to an Obama presidency than the threat she presented residing in the Senate if her replacement’s Congressional seat switches parties. It will be another in a recent string of GOP victories which has been little noticed since the 2008 elections (in Louisiana and Georgia), and the first in a “blue” state.

Let’s hope we wake up on April Fool’s Day to the news that a trick’s been played on Barack Obama.

And what about the blogs?

While there are some in the local blogging world who would welcome the demise of our local paper and gleefully post any scrap of bad news about its performance, the truth is that a majority of those polled in a recent Pew Institute survey would miss having a daily newspaper in their community and feel losing the paper would hurt civic life.

On the other hand, newspapers are losing their market share in the news dissemination industry, a trend that’s accelerating among younger people asked in the study.

Aside from a handful of letters to the editor I’m not one who has contributed to the local newspaper, but I do toil on occasion in the blogging business. Unfortunately I think part of the problem with the newspaper industry stems from content rather than convenience.

There’s no question that once an edition is put to bed that it’s static and obsolete. As an example, today’s edition of the Daily Times came to most homes early this morning so if you read it upon your return home from work the news is probably at least 18 hours old if not over 24 hours past. Compare this with the instantaneous nature of television, radio, or the internet and there’s no contest.

However, where newspapers can have their place is in delivering news and commentary which isn’t necessarily time-sensitive but brings key points or analysis of a particular story to the table. For example, a newspaper can go relatively in-depth with what City Council does and why they may be acting as they are on a particular issue. Where most fall short is attempting to serve the twin masters of content which is as fresh as possible (but cannot compete with other media) and laying out every possible fact and angle to a particular story. (This area is where blogs tend to shine.)

As well, the newspaper tends to be the permanent record of that which goes on in a particular community moreso than radio, television, or internet archives which are relatively sketchy for the most part.

The biggest problem newspapers have though is steadily declining revenues. As circulation falls, the amount they can charge advertisers also ratchets downward – meanwhile, the demand for print advertising drops off as well because fewer eyes are reading the newspaper and cost-effectiveness is lost. I can see where newspapers have had to cut back and several notable ones have locked the doors for good (most notably on a local basis the Baltimore Examiner.)

But in the not-so-distant future I see a day where the actual paper in a newspaper will be rarely seen. Those who put together newspapers now will become news gathering organizations slugging it out over the internet for market share, and bloggers will be among those in the fight. It certainly will further democratize (with a small “d” and not in a partisan sense) the news industry because there’s not the overhead required of raw material, distribution, and warehousing required from a newspaper (or for that matter a radio or television studio.)

Content will still have to be king, though. That’s something I don’t see changing, but I’m hoping that journalism returns to its roots of retelling the events of the day which happened instead of becoming the news itself (as I’m guilty of by citing this poll.) Sometimes you have to work to the dark side to make an argument though, and in this case I went for the greater point by using the polling data at hand.

Free thuggery

We all knew it was coming, the question was how long it would take to become a reality. The misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act of 2009” was introduced earlier this week. And my only surprise at H.R. 1409 is that Frank Kratovil’s name isn’t on it as a co-sponsor (at least not yet. The unions do have to get what they paid for last year.)

In a nutshell, what EFCA2009 provides is the opportunity for unions to twist the arms of workers so they sign a card claiming their support for a union shop. Once the union gets 50% plus 1 of the eligible employees the union is allowed in. For their part, the unions claim that management attempts the same sort of dirty tricks but in neither case should a secret ballot be influenced. Apparently unions want to reduce their chances of losing since they only win these elections about 2/3 of the time.

Because the bill has 222 co-sponsors, there’s little chance of it being stopped in the House – in truth, there’s little chance Frank Kratovil will be strongarmed into going into the record as voting for it unless there’s a procedural need to do so. Certainly he knows that the First District would probably rather see good right-to-work legislation than live by the EFCA2009.

Where this bill may be killed is in the Senate – that is if the GOP sticks together and sells its case to the American people. In all honesty we’re probably not ever going to get a significant portion of the hardcore union vote anyway so there’s little to lose by stopping H.R. 1409 dead in its tracks.

On the other hand, by allowing the plunder of small businesses by union locals thirsty for new sources of revenue from the dues they collect (much of which is immediately funneled into the coffers of the Democrats) the GOP puts itself at a severe monetary disadvantage by not stopping this bill. With President Obama already overturning a number of business-friendly provisions enacted under the Bush Administration there’s little doubt that EFCA2009 is yet another payback to Big Labor – one that could yield an even greater dividend than bailing out the United Auto Workers provided.

The group Americans for Job Security has set up a Facebook site to oppose the EFCA2009 initiative, and I encourage those Facebook members who believe that a worker’s right to a secret ballot should remain in place to join. Otherwise you may arrive at work one day to find Guido and Lefty waiting at the time clock with a paper for you to sign.

The 2012 campaign continues

And if you don’t believe me, just check out this video from the Obama front group “Organizing for America”:

You’ll notice about 2/3 of the way through that Mitch Stewart solicits e-mail addresses – again, a clever way to build up and expand the database originally started way back in Howard Dean’s abortive 2004 Presidential campaign and enhanced with Obama’s 2008 run.

Then again there’s nothing wrong with activism and involvement; it just needs to have a push from the correct direction. It’s interesting that Stewart blames “special interests” for standing in Obama’s way when it’s the special interests who have the most to gain from Obama’s agenda – that is if you consider Big Labor, supporters of a rewarmed HillaryCare, the teachers’ unions, radical environmentalists, and corporations who have gained from the massive government involvement in their affairs and are now rent-seeking as special interests – most right-thinking Americans who inhabit the producer class do believe those groups are special interests.

President Obama submitted the largest budget in American history with the largest projected deficit in American history at a time when the government is actually being run via continuing resolutions because the current budget is still being ironed out. Something about that just doesn’t make sense, particularly when it’s his party running Congress.

Seven weeks into an Obama presidency it almost appears that he’s already running the country in perpetual campaign mode much as President Clinton did during the first four years of his run. (The second term was more damage control mode thanks to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and accompanying impeachment drive. In Obama’s case the scandals seem to be falling amongst his underlings, though.)

It goes without saying that little of Obama’s agenda can be stopped in the House of Representatives and given the tendency of a small group of Senate RINO’s to place what they consider political expediency above principle it’s not likely that body will be much of a speedbump either.

But the one thing both House and Senate are afraid of is a large-scale backlash from constituents – witness the firestorm conservatives caused on immigration or the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination.

I’m considering this video an effort to short-circuit the prospect of a conservative grassroots rebellion by isolating those on the left who would be most likely to be active and sending out their competing propaganda to a list of activists all their own, one backed by much of the mainstream media. This is particularly true in our Congressional district, where a freshman Democrat who barely won election (and flip-flopped on the stimulus bill) will most likely face a strongly conservative challenger next year.

So I bring this video to your attention even though it’s from a source that would normally not attract my notice as much. It proves a point that we on the right need to stay on our toes and not let the intraparty squabbles such as Limbaugh vs. Steele or Limbaugh vs. Newt distract us from the main goal of squelching the socialist Obamanation agenda.

A bit of self-service

Many of you know I have what those in the music business might refer to as a “side project” called Red County Wicomico. It’s a website where I generally park a number of my local posts in order to bring them to a national stage. Recently Marc Kilmer (a frequent monoblogue commentor) joined my “blogpen” as a contributor and I’ll be looking for a few more good men (and women) to join up in the coming weeks and months – unlike monoblogue, RCW is meant to be multi-contributor forum. I’m just the editor and all that gives me is the power to pull anything which I don’t feel to be appropriate to the site. In that respect it’s similar to Red Maryland.

This release was sent to me over the weekend in an effort to announce their newly revamped site – I saw a sneak preview a week or so ago and it will knock your socks off too.

An Enhanced Red County is on the Way!

Red County will be introducing a brand new site next week! A new look, new features the addition of new contributors, plus a few surprises, are all part of the exciting changes in store at Red County. We fully intend to provide readers with the very best online source for regional political news and commentary and our redesigned site is just the start.

From all-star contributors to video and podcast programs, we’re excited about the re-design that’s coming in just a few days. Since it will represent a change for our readers, however, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at what is coming here.

We would like to thank our readers for their support and we look forward to making Red County your primary source for political news. Stay tuned!

One thing I’ve been a little bit lax on is adding new content to the RCW site, in part because of time demands from a number of sources. Soon that will begin to balance out and things should improve; however, this does give me the opportunity to seek out some new good local writers who could benefit from more national exposure. Red County Wicomico is actually a blog where one could write once or twice a week and not have to worry about maintenance and such. My site here is actually a bit of a throwback to the original days of blogging when it was one person and their thoughts, much like a journal.

In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the new Red County site as it rolls out. One nice feature will be the opportunity to personalize the site to have my (and my blogpen’s) most recent contributions at the top, so one can continue to stay abreast of local political news.

There’s a lot to write about over the coming weeks and months and I look forward to having my say in the fray both here and through Red County.

Carnival of Maryland 54 is up…

…and it’s up over at Insane Baltimore.

It seems a large topic of discussion on my site is also a topic on the Carnival too. I know Insane Baltimore looks at politics from the opposite side of the glass as I do but it’s handled quite well.

Once again we have taken submissions from the best blogging Maryland has to offer, and it doesn’t hurt that the lead items were mine. (You don’t always have to start with the items submitted by the guy who runs the C of M but it can’t hurt.)

To be honest though I’d push the Carnival even if my submission didn’t start this edition. The next one will be March 22nd and hosted at Boomer Twilight. If you’re a Maryland-based blogger or have something to say about items concerning the Free State, the submission form is here. I look forward to a lengthy C of M 55 in two weeks.

Quirky but appropriate

This is an unusual place from which to get a press release, but once you read this it will all make sense.

On April 15th the DontGo Movement (www.dontgomovement.com) in collaboration with Michelle Malkin, Top Conservatives on Twitter, and Smart Girl Politics will be hosting Tax Day Tea Parties in every state in America. For the Tea Parties, the Portsmouth Tea Company (www.portsmouthtea.com) will be donating one pound for every participating state. They will be providing tea similar to what was used at the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

President of the Portsmouth Tea Company, Marshall Malone, says, “It’s an honor to aid in the revival of liberty – fighting socialism rather than imperialism. The number of lives impacted is greater than our founding fathers ever imagined. We will choose our own stimulus package and offer $2 shipping until tax day.”

Communications Director Juliana Johnsons, “This highlights how many people are getting involved. We are so thankful to the Portsmouth Tea Company for supporting our cause. These are small business owners, working, everyday Americans who believe in our cause. We have more than 20 states holding Tax Day Tea Parties. We are growing every day. April 15th will be something this nation hasn’t seen since 1773.

The goal of these protests is to call attention to the unprecedented wasteful spending by the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress.
Information on the Tax Day Tea Party can be found at www.taxdayteaparty.com.

I don’t know if we’re having a local Tea Party on April 15th but if you believe the likes of Jim Ireton you’d never know the difference in the Wicomico River anyway. And what would the Chesapeake Bay Foundation say?

I can see the point, though. By having a tea party, the original colonists were hitting the British Crown where it lived, since tea was a revenue item for them. Obviously this is utterly symbolic but if it helps the Portsmouth Tea Company sell a little more tea that’s not a bad thing either.

Americans are fed up. We have a balky economy and a government that just doesn’t seem to care about anything except making itself look good and perpetuating itself. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that we are placing our children, grandchildren, and succeeding generations in a debt they didn’t create.

The environmentalists can talk about saving the planet for future generations, but strangely they are silent on saving their financial well-being and the amount of freedom they’ll enjoy. What good is a pristine planet if one is a slave to tyranny?

I figured I may as well post this today because come April 15th I doubt there will be a word about these rallies on the national network news. As far as they’re concerned the only producers in the nation who merit coverage are those who produce more government.

Same topic of discussion…

I found it quite interesting that the subject of a recent surge of comments was also the lead item in a recent Pew Research release. It showed that Rush Limbaugh draws conservative listeners. Well, tell me something I didn’t know – I’m a dittohead and conservative, so the profile is right in line insofar as I’m concerned.

What’s quite telling about this poll is the fact it was actually done some time ago but came to light again recently because of Rush’s well-publicized hope that Barack Obama fails to enact his socialist agenda.

If you notice in reading the polling data further, the two items that Limbaugh’s radio show are compared to in audience are both prime time Fox News Channel programs – The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity. Obviously one could conclude that Limbaugh has less reach; on the other hand much of Limbaugh’s audience is working during his time slot and may not have the opportunity to hear the show in whole or in part. This is true in my case since my work takes me away from a radio for several hours a day unless I happen to be traveling.

What I also found intriguing were the number of people who get their news from the mainstream media and how little knowledge they have of the three basic questions that Pew used to determine political knowledge. (I wish they would have asked about the Constitution, though.) It certainly shows why Jay Leno can get away with his humorous man on the street interviews because many people are fairly ignorant of the world around them and believe just what the likes of network talking heads tell them.

I figured since Rush was a recent topic of discussion on this site it would be an interesting piece of conversation fodder despite the poll’s age.

Further Salisbury analysis

Late edit: After the absentee ballots were counted, Bob Caldwell made a late charge but to no avail – he still fell a dozen votes short. It’s just outside the 0.5% margin which usually triggers an automatic recount.

The oddity of their system may make the results a bit tricky, but I suspect Bob Caldwell isn’t going to make up 38 votes out of the 200 or so absentee ballots left to count tomorrow. Here’s why.

Let’s say for sake of argument that there’s 200 votes left to count. Gary Comegys was named on 560 of 1,394 cards, which translates to 40.17% of the people having him as one of their two votes. Thus, it’s reasonable to expect that Gary would pick up about 80 votes out of the 200 remaining.

In order for Bob Caldwell to pass Gary Comegys, he in turn would have to be named on 119 of the final 200 ballots, or just under 60 percent. Jim Ireton won the primary by being on just over 60% of the ballots, so Caldwell would have to pull off the feat of matching the pace of the overall winner in a race where he performed 20 points worse.

By the same token, it’s all but impossible for Tim Chaney to make up 17 votes in what are probably around 40 outstanding ballots for District 1. They would almost have to be “bullet votes” for Chaney in order for him to make up the deficit.

“Bullet voting” is a philosophy that would be interesting to explore in this election. In a multi-candidate election, the principle holds that not casting a full ballot gives an advantage to the chosen aspirant because none of their opponents gain votes. With Jim Ireton winning by such a large margin it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if many of his supporters didn’t vote for another candidate, simply choosing to vote for just Jim.

But others who saw Ireton as a weaker opponent for their favorite (either Bob Caldwell or Gary Comegys) may have padded Jim’s total with their second vote to assure he would be the general election opponent. Ireton does have a few questions surrounding his earlier City Council term and Gary Comegys elaborated on one during the NAACP forum.

I don’t see this mayoral race being the runaway that the primary suggested it would be. I think it’s going to be a margin in the single digits when all is said and done, and I don’t think Jim Ireton is the shoo-in favorite some may see him as being based on yesterday’s vote. There’s five weeks of slugging it out between now and April 7th and who knows what rocks may be hidden in the mud being slung.

City of Salisbury election results (and analysis)

It was a fairly rapid count of ballots in the city election this evening as all 20 precincts were counted within one hour. When the dust cleared the results favored the Democrats in the race.

Jim Ireton swept to an easy win in the Mayoral primary while Gary Comegys narrowly defeated Bob Caldwell for the second spot, with Mike Della Penna trailing the field badly.

In District 1, the April finale is anyone’s race as just two votes separated the incumbent Shanie Shields and challenger Cynthia Polk. This sets up another possible turnover in the seat as Shields herself narrowly defeated incumbent Von Siggers in 2005 to win the District 1 bid. Tim Chaney placed third and Ralph McIntyre was fourth.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was Ireton’s margin of victory. Out of nearly 1400 votes cast (a dismal 11% turnout, which is not uncommon in city races) he garnered a vote on 60.2% of the votes cast (voters were allowed to select two candidates of the four in the field.) So Ireton was the first or second choice of a majority of the electorate; the question remaining for April is whether he’ll remain as a first choice without any Republicans in the running and with presumably a larger turnout.

With Bob Caldwell losing by such a slim margin, the pointing of blame may go to Mike Della Penna for possibly splitting off votes from Caldwell but I think more of the cause arises from the lack of a District 2 primary. This is particularly so when the candidate who dropped out and eliminated the need for a primary in that district, Bryan Brushmiller, previously ran as a Republican in 2006 for County Council. Because there were two GOP candidates it was possible to go straight ticket in the primary and perhaps Della Penna would have gained enough votes at Gary Comegys’ expense to advance Bob to the final polling.

This also sets up an interesting mayoral election because, while neither remaining candidate would be mistaken for Ronald Reagan in either the aspect of their political leanings or communication skills, Republican voters might opt for the more moderate tone and lengthier experience of Gary Comegys. But will it be enough to overcome a head start that Ireton has of about half again Comegys’ total?

Looking at District 1, the Shields-Polk battle is probably going to be the story of Election Day in April, with the contest possibly going to absentee ballots for resolution. Even moreso than the mayoral race, this race ultimately depends on who was the first choice and who was the second choice of those casting ballots today. I just have a hunch that this race will be an upset win for the challenger for the second time in a row.

The mayoral battle will also serve as a proxy for District 2. While challenger Muir Boda has already publicly announced his backing of Gary Comegys, Debbie Campbell would presumably favor working with Jim Ireton as mayor. But, one has to factor in the change in City Council should Comegys win and who would fill the District 2 seat. With the method of selecting a replacement based solely on the vote of City Council, (citing the City Charter here)

In case of a vacancy for any reason in the Council, the Council, within four (4) weeks of the occurrence of the vacancy, shall elect some qualified person to fill such vacancy for the unexpired term. In case of a vacancy for any reason in the office of Mayor, the Council, within four (4) weeks of the occurrence of the vacancy, shall elect some qualified person to serve as Acting Mayor for the unexpired term. Any vacancies in either the Council or the office of Mayor shall be filled by a majority vote of all the members of the Council. In case the Mayor or any Councilman shall fail to qualify within five (5) days of notification of election, a vacancy shall exist to be filled as provided in this section. The Council shall immediately certify any vote so taken to the City Clerk. The City Clerk shall record the vote and shall forthwith notify the person so elected, who shall, within five (5) days of notice, qualify in the manner as regularly elected city officials.

it will bear observation as to who the two competing factions of City Council (generally Louise Smith and Shanie Shields vote opposite of Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen) could agree on as a compromise candidate. Of course, all bets are off if Muir Boda and/or Cynthia Polk become Council members. Perhaps Campbell could grudgingly back Comegys if the right replacement is promised for Gary’s City Council seat, which would only be for a two-year term.

With five weeks now ticking away for tonight’s winners, look for a much more aggressive push for votes to get underway beginning tonight.

Steele vs. Limbaugh

Politico started this conservative family feud and I found out about it through both listening to Rush’s show today and from Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum. And while it sounds like Steele has done a little bit of a mea culpa since the radio show aired, this was a concern I had with his election to the RNC Chairman post in the first place. While Michael Steele is conservative in many of his views, politically he’s trying to align himself squarely in the center of the tension in the GOP between the Beltway establishment and the conservative grassroots. And we know what happens to those who inhabit the middle of the road.

Those conservative grassroots are the ones who hailed Limbaugh as a hero when he spoke to CPAC on Saturday. Whether you attempt to dismiss him as an entertainer or feel he’s the soul of the conservative movement, there’s little doubt that Rush Limbaugh has placed himself into a position of political influence. Basically he appeals to a significant voting bloc of 15 to 20 million people who regularly tune into his afternoon radio show.

Even though Michael Steele has made himself into a more noteworthy figure with frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and other media outlets, in terms of recognition he pales in comparison to Rush Limbaugh. Obviously we in Maryland know him well but someone who subscribes to a conservative way of thinking down Texas way may not know Steele from a hole in the ground.

And while Steele may get praise from the Beltway Republicans who despise Limbaugh nearly as much as the party’s legacy left by Ronald Reagan, the split in the party is what will draw the attention of pundits everywhere (obviously including me.) But I don’t really see a schism unless Steele also wishes to split from party principles, which by and large embody what’s known as the conservative movement.

The biggest trap Michael Steele could fall into would be separating himself from the grassroots who will help rebuild the party for future elections. He won election by pledging to reignite them into a volunteer force, and it wasn’t Michael’s fault at all that some GOP members of the Senate forsook principle to score political points with the punditocracy. Those three RINO’s will have to face an angry electorate, although Steele could find himself in more hot water should he overtly support them over a primary opponent (as George W. Bush supported Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004).

Much of the criticism of Limbaugh stems from the oft-quoted statement Rush made that he “hopes Obama fails.” Well, you folks can criticize me too because I agree. The election of Barack Obama was a colossal blunder.

Are you kidding me? The best I can hope for is that the country’s not in some sort of internal armed insurrection come 2013. I hold out exactly zero confidence that anything Barack Obama is doing will improve the economy in and of itself. Now we may bounce back to some extent simply based on the fact that pent-up demand can only be suppressed for so long but it’s my contention that doing what Obama is doing will only lengthen the suffering. This stimulus was a bad idea under Bush and even worse under Obama because he’s throwing more money at the problem!

The lack of confidence is signified by the utter collapse of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ markets, which have seen their overall value eroded by about 1/3 just since Obama was elected. That’s billions or maybe even trillions in aggregate personal net worth, vanished in the proverbial blink of an eye. And while it’s true that huge mistakes were made in the financial sector – mistakes which helped bring about the recession we now suffer from – I’m arguing that the steps government has taken to “solve” the problem will only make things worse down the road. Even our nation is not too big to fail.

Rush Limbaugh takes to the airwaves five days a week because he clearly and cleverly articulates a worldview that most of his listeners nod their heads and agree with. For the most part, it’s a worldview which reflects one our Founders intended our nation to follow and it’s one that unfortunately didn’t get much of a chance to be heard from in the last election. When you consider that the more popular draw on the Republican ticket seemed to be the Vice-Presidential nominee – one who articulated a more conservative stance on issues, or at least stayed truer to them – there’s no question that a number of Americans aren’t going to be satisfied if the Republican Party apparatus continues to ply a moderate course.

If Steele is truly attuned to what the grassroots of the GOP have to say he will begin to adopt the pitbull attitude that Limbaugh has exhibited since last November (and actually prior to that, since he wasn’t a great supporter of John McCain as the Republican nominee.)

We can respect our political opponents as people, but to me they’re still wrong and my job here is to help them see the light. It’s nice to have a great communicator like Limbaugh in my corner though.

Speaking of GOP nominees, the CPAC attendees preferred Mitt Romney in a straw poll of likely 2012 nominees. While 20 percent supported Mitt, 14 percent saw Bobby Jindal as the best choice, followed by Ron Paul and Sarah Palin with 13 percent each and Newt Gingrich with 10 percent. A host of other hopefuls ended up under the 9% who were undecided. (h/t Bob McCarty).