David Young Begins to Hone His Message

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When David Young officially entered the race for the U.S. Senate, he made sure that people knew he was his own man and not merely a clone of his former boss, Sen. Chuck Grassley.  Having served as Grassley’s Chief of Staff for seven years, making that distinction was probably necessary, but there is little doubt that Young’s association with Grassley is what makes him a legitimate candidate to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin.

Young spoke to the Des Moines Conservative Breakfast meeting on Tuesday morning.  Unlike in his initial interviews as he entered the race, Young now seems to have honed a message that he will use across the state.  He also mentioned Grassley’s name no less than ten times during his 15-minute speech.  Being your own man is one thing, but distancing yourself from one of the most popular and respected politicians in the state was never a good idea.

There was still plenty of background information included in Young’s speech.  He talked about growing up in Van Meter a lot, and how his dream job had always been working for Grassley in Washington.  Young also hit on common themes that regularly turn up in candidate speeches like, jobs, the economy, and the debt and deficit.  He said that he favors a tax system that is flatter and fairer, although he admitted on WHO Radio that he wasn’t aware of the Fair Tax a couple of weeks ago.

Young wants permanent tax reform for individuals and corporations.    He also pushed for a balanced budget amendment by reminding those in attendance that 49 of the 50 states have some sort of balanced budget mechanism with which they must comply.  He then pointed out that Sen. Grassley is in line to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee should Republicans gain control of the chamber after the 2014 election, which would have jurisdiction over a balanced budget amendment.

As a U.S. Senator, Young said that he would strive to be an “equal opportunity watchdog,” by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.  Young stated that he learned first hand how to conduct oversight investigations from the master, Chuck Grassley.

Before concluding his remarks, Young said that we need to take an all-encompassing approach to stopping the implementation of Obamacare that includes repealing, slowing down, and defunding Obamacare.  He then lamented the fact that he remembers when you could count government scandals on one hand, now it takes two.  “In addition to a spending deficit, we also have a deficit of accountability and trust,” Young said.  He mentioned fast and furious, the IRS scandal, the AP scandal, and Benghazi.

Young concluded his remarks by saying that Republicans can beat Bruce Braley in November of 2014.  “Congressman Braley is beatable. He’s vulnerable. He’s not as well known, [or] as popular as folks think or even he thinks, even in his own district. He has a very liberal record that is out of step with everyday Iowans – even more liberal than Tom Harkin.”

For more information on Young’s campaign, go to YoungforIowa.com.

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“A Final, Crushing Defeat”

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June 18, 1815 literally was Napoleon Bonaparte’s Waterloo.

His last ditch effort to defeat the British and the Prussians, after losing to the British and being exiled on the island of Elba, became his final defeat.

After a three-day battle near Waterloo Village in Belgium, the emperor’s strategy of splitting his army to attack both the British and Prussians failed to divide them, allowing them to converge on Napoleon and defeat him..

An early morning rainstorm delayed Napoleon’s attack until the ground dried, giving the Prussians time to reinforce their positions.Unknown-4

The British and their allies, led by the Duke of Wellington, were slammed by the French but withstood the repeated assaults until the evening when the Prussians broke through Napoleon’s right flank.

Wellington then counter-attacked and drove the French army from the field.

The French casualties were 25,000 killed and wounded, 8,000 captured, and 15,000 missing.

Napoleon surrendered to the British, abdicated, and was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

Waterloo ended more than 20 years of warfare on the European continent. The word has come to mean a “final, crushing defeat.”

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First, “Pig-Roast-a-Palooza” and Now “Sausage Fest”

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Apparently, pork really is the other white meat. At least when it comes to legislative fundraisers.

Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Los Angeles Democrat, just hosted “Pig-Roast-a-Palooza on June 18.

On July 2, the legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus holds its first fundraiser “celebrating freedom and equality.”

That would be “Sausage Fest 2013.”

The pig on the “Sausage Fest” invite is in better shape than the one on Lara’s invitation but, based on the event’s name, that’s merely the whole before the partitioned. 

A “Wild Boar” sponsorship costs $6,800. A “Hot Link” $3,400 and a Bratwurst sponsorship, $1,000. 

Sausage Fest

Pork isn’t fenced by political lines.

Although the invitation is silent on the exact culinary offerings, it seems next to impossible that Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen’s Third Annual Hawaiian Luau won’t be serving pork — at least in some form.

The only details provided by the invitation to the  June 24 event — other than its time. location and  $4,100 price tag to be a sponsor — is that the menu will feature “authentic Hawaiian cuisine provided by Chef John Surla of Surla’s restaurant” in Modesto.

Traditionally, at a luau “authentic Hawaiian cuisine” includes pork — and lots of it. Most commonly, a whole pig roasted on coals in a hole for the better part of a day. Even venerable  Sunset‘s “lighter, finger-food” luau includes glazed pork buns with pineapple.

Saveuer recommends pork ribs marinated with soy sauce as  an alternative to a full-fledged carcass of kalua pork. Ribs or buns, it’s pork nonetheless.

So pass the cashiers check and the poi please, brah. 

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Doug Bailey, adviser who helped devise Lamar Alexander’s famous walk across state, dies at 79

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Doug Bailey, a Republican political consultant who helped U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander come up with the idea of walking across Tennessee during Alexander’s first successful run for governor in 1978, died last week in Virginia. He was 79.

In his new book Coup, which covers in detail how Alexander took office three days early in the midst of a pardons scandal engulfing outgoing Gov. Ray Blanton, author Keel Hunt writes that he and other political advisers, including Bailey, talked about how to reinvigorate Alexander’s image in 1977, more than a year before the election.

Alexander had lost a gubernatorial bid to Blanton in 1974. So he, wife Honey and the rest of his brain trust “began to discuss a new concept that would help the candidate shake off any vestige of his unhelpful 1974 image – that of a lawyer in a dark suit and necktie, who was mainly seen at airport news conferences.”

After Honey Alexander urged her husband to “do the things you like to do,” Alexander said he liked being outdoors and meeting people.

“Then he could walk,” Bailey said.

“So the idea was hatched: A walk across Tennessee,” Hunt writes. “A thousand miles. Six months. Shaking a thousand hands a day. Spending the nights in homes with Tennessee families along the way.”

In a speech on the Senate floor Monday, Alexander said Bailey “put all that on television, and I won the election.”

“Now, to some, that would seem like an ultimate political gimmick, but if you think about it, the idea of the walk across Tennessee was a good deal more authentic than the photo-ops and the press releases and the five-second sound bites that are often what we end up with in politics today,” he said. “But let me just say it this way: I would have never been elected governor if it hadn’t been for Doug Bailey.”

Bailey, who also worked with former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee and other Republicans around the country, went on to start The Hotline, which The New York Times called “a digest of political news, distributed by fax, that became an indispensable tool of the political trade in the pre-Web 1980s and ’90s.”

Posted In:  National, Politics, State

Wichita needs more, and willing, taxpayers

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What is the goal of Wichita/Sedgwick County Community Investments Plan?

And what of its companion websites for the South Central Kansas Prosperity Plan: Think Tomorrow Today and Let’s Talk Prosperity?

Here’s an excerpt from “Citizen Attachment: Building Sustainable Communities,” which appeared in Government Finance Review. Authors are Mark A. Glaser, Misty R. Bruckner, and Corinne Bannon, all associated with the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs at Wichita State University. HWS is facilitating the planning process for the city and county.

citizen-attachment-cover

(Nearby is the illustration used for the cover of this paper (click on it for a larger version). Does anyone else think this looks like citizens rallying to send money to the shining government headquarters high on the hill?)

Increasingly, citizens are retreating from their responsibilities to community and demanding more from government than they are willing to pay for. But changes in local government behavior can be instrumental in reversing this trend, by strengthening citizens’ commitment to the well-being of their communities. Citizens who are committed to community are more willing to accept responsibility for the well-being of their fellow citizens and are also more likely to join with government and other parties to improve their communities. Citizens who are committed to community are also more willing taxpayers — that is, when government demonstrates that it can be trusted to invest public resources in ways that strengthen the community. The central thrust of this model is getting citizens and governments to work together, but realistically, many communities will require new revenue — including additional tax dollars — if they are to assemble the critical mass of resources necessary for meaningful change. Accordingly, citizens who are willing to pay increased taxes are an important component of building sustainable communities.

More willing taxpayers.

Citizens who are willing to pay increased taxes.

I recommend you read this paper. Click on Citizen Attachment: Building Sustainable Communities.

Paul Ryan and the MD GOP on the Affordable Care Act

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As we have discussed previously this week, Rep. Paul Ryan is headlining a Maryland Republican Party fundraiser in Baltimore. Unconscionably, policies endorsed by Mr. Ryan and the Maryland Republican Party would have direct and devastating effects on people across Maryland.  In fact, Maryland’s only Republican Congressman, Andy Harris, is a supporter of Mr. Ryan’s budget [...]