Thursday.....Politics.....Ask Not.....

One liberal commentator gave this advice today in an opinion piece: Democrats should wage a cavalry-charge battle.....The Republicans play hardball while the Democrats play badminton.....Democrats should say to Sens., Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Scott Brown: Either you are moderates or obstructionists.....Democrats should tap the anger toward Washington.....Democrats should go to the country in this election and hear the people's hurt, fight for their hopes and heed their message. To answer Republicans with a ferocity and determination Democrats have failed to show since winning the presidency and controlling Congress.....If Republicans want to wage a war......Democrats should fight them every hour of every day on the floor of Congress and say, as Clint Eastwood said: Go ahead make my day. This is a strategy without a foundation of truth, in fact it's a ruse. The Democrats are the ones who play hardball and their pitches are always loaded up with spit. President Obama's speech today on immigration is a prime example of a cavalry-charge battle, and this not only the latest, as other, equally egregious, examples are occurring simultaneously. His speech was pure deception and at times startling in its candor as he said being an American is not a matter of blood or birth, it's a matter of faith. No it isn't, it's a matter of law. This from a man who may be in office because of his belief that "being president is not a matter of a birth certificate." These comments made are part of a plan to turn a losing hand into a winning hand by accusing their opponents of cheating and while everyone looks at them, pulling aces out of their sleeve. And what are the Republicans doing while this is going on? They are caving in on another Supreme Court nomination because they do not want to appear to be swinging their badminton rackets too hard. One Progressive Era reform was the adoption of the 17th Amendment in 1913. The Constitution called for legislators to name the Senators from each state. The amendment changed that to the people electing Senators. It was meant to stop big business from bribing legislators into naming crony Senators. The result is that we now elect Senators who then spend their six years preparing for their reelection. The cronyism, the greed, the power hungry and fame enticing lure of the office is not a Constitutional problem...it is a human problem. It would be very difficult to defeat a sitting Senator for he (her), and others like him (her), have garnered power and influence that would force their challengers to wage an uphill battle, almost a Sisyphean quest. There are some strong Republican voices in the Senate but the others should give voters pause as to whether it truly is, as one Republican operative said to me when I showed the slightest bit of reservation for Pennsylvania Senatorial candidate Pat Toomey over his failure to support a New York Conservative over a liberal incumbent Republican, Oh, but consider the alternative. Maybe its time for Republican Senators in office to consider the alternative in voting for America's future or living in a totalitarian society. John Kennedy stood at the Berlin Wall and said in German I am a Berliner. I paraphrased that in an earlier blog in that we should have stood with Honduras in their crisis and said I am a Honduran, but even that does not give me the right to make their decisions. I am for any Latino escaping the turmoil of their own country, if that be the case, and becoming Americans! I am for excellerating the citizenship process! I'm for throwing a party for them! But being an American is one who respects the rule of law and is willing to defend it. It is being one who loves its heritage, especially its opposition to tyranny from without and discrimination within. It is being one who is viligant against tyranny, not beneficiaries of it. It is being one who lives by its Constitution and not one who seeks a living constitution. It is being one who says Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.