McGovern's Conversion To Conservatism

Last Friday's Wall Street Journal featured a remarkable editorial by George McGovern entitled "Freedom Means Responsibility." To read his latest piece is to, I believe, witness the final conversion of Senator McGovern into a man of truly conservative values.

Some passages from his editorial are,

"Nearly 16 years ago in these very pages, I wrote that "'one-size-fits all' rules for business ignore the reality of the market place." Today I'm watching some broad rules evolve on individual decisions that are even worse.

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.

Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned: Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states.

Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all.

Economic paternalism takes its newest form with the campaign against short-term small loans, commonly known as "payday lending.

With payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee -- usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.

Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn't perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who's familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next."

That last line is amazing to read. I'm old enough to remember McGovern's run for the Presidency, so this is particularly sweet to read. Imagine him, a former ultra-liberal Democratic US Senator, acknowledging the 'law of unintended consequences.'

It harks back to his reflections on attempting to run a B&B some years ago. Whether he appeared on Firing Line with Bill Buckley, or merely wrote about it in the Journal, I recall that he seemed a truly chastened man. His admission of frustration in dealing with the very same laws and paternalistic attitude he had helped craft as a Senator was gratifying to watch.

McGovern closed his piece with these words,

"Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.

Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.

The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else."

I could not put it better myself. Nor, I think, could any conservative of longstanding beliefs in that vein.

William F. Buckley, Jr. On A Liberal Democrat President

As part of my recent memorial post to William F. Buckley, Jr., I found and embedded several vintage Buckley video clips from 1968.

The occasion was his, and Gore Vidal's employment as conservative and liberal, respectively, commentators for the Democratic Party's nominating convention for that year.

In addition to the two clips which I found for the prior post, there is an additional one from the set. This clip continues each commentator's views, this time, as explained by ABC's Frank Reynolds, on how the candidate of the 'other's' party would govern as President.



Isn't Buckley still more or less describing liberal Democrats? Chilling, no?

And didn't Vidal off-handedly sniff that Nixon might be a 'statesman?' Which, in fact, is exactly that for which the former cold-warrior became known- opening China and, to some extent Moscow, to the West.

It took the former anti-communist bulldog, Nixon, to credibly thaw relations with the two major Communist powers, despite Vidal's doubts.

Yet Buckley's characterization of a hypothetical Humphrey Presidency isn't all that different than what one might expect from Hillary or Obama today, is it?

Scary.

The Second "Super Tuesday" Results

It's been a while since I've commented on the Presidential campaigns. This morning, in the wake of last night's significant election results, seems a propitious time to revisit them.

If you are a conservative and/or notionally Republican-leaning, all is right with the world today.

McCain won convincingly, Hickabee has finally faced reality and conceded, and the Democrats will remain at each other's throats until Labor Day.

Hallelujah!

Truly, it can't get any better than this. Confusion to the liberals, while the conservative-to-moderates can coalesce and see the clear differences between the ever-more-left-moving Hillary and Obama and the centrist-conservative McCain.

If Obama had managed to win Texas and Ohio, or either one, he might have driven Hillary out and begun to swing into general election mode. As it is, both will push each other further left to try to cinch their party's nomination.

In the meantime, the fights over the Florida and Michigan delegations, plus the now-important, secretive 'superdelegates,' will put the Democratic Party on display before the American electorate as pandering, inwardly-divided and craven. Both candidates will be trying to out-grovel the other as they pander to the extreme left of their party.

Meanwhile, McCain can finally be recognized by the sitting President as his party's candidate. Party-level fundraising, with the assistance of President Bush, can begin. McCain has seven months to prepare for the final month of the general campaign.

Hard as it is to believe, the Democrats may actually be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, again, this year. You'd have thought, last summer, that it was a cinch that a Democrat would be sitting in the Oval Office at this time next year. Heck, most of Wall Street thought so, judging by their rush to back Hillary and Obama.

Not now.

Instead, many financial service firm leaders are watching in dismay as their pet liberal candidates now turn on American business, the better to garner extremely liberal votes.

As one Fox News Network guest pundit opined a month ago,

"If the Democrats can't win the White House this time, they should fold up their tent and close down their party."

Well said.

My First Memory of William F. Buckley, Jr.

It's been a week since the death of William F. Buckley, Jr.

As a conservative, I would be remiss if I did not write something in his memory. This is a week late simply because I've been so busy with other matters.

In the intervening week, many media sources, especially mainstream print and network, have produced and aired/printed exhaustive treatments of Mr. Buckley's full and amazing life and influence on modern, post-WWII American politics.

Thus, I'll make my own small contribution a personal one.

Growing up in downstate Illinois about the time Mr. Buckley founded National Review, I, of course, had little knowledge of him in my pre-school years. However, as a late pre-teen, I was treated to live coverage of the Democratic National Convention being held just upstate from us, in Chicago, in 1968.

My very first awareness of Mr. Buckley came from his stint as the conservative half of the original 'Hannity & Colmes' team during that convention. ABC hired Buckley and Gore Vidal to represent conservative and liberal views, moderated, if you can call it that, by then-news anchor Howard K. Smith.

Originally, for this post, I expected to write about the exchange still etched in my memory. Then, I thought....YouTube!

And, what do you know, but to my wondering eyes appeared the clip of the very 3 minutes or so of my first memory of the late Mr. Buckley in action. Good thing, too, because I was off in my memory by four years. I thought this interaction occurred in 1964. But the content is just as I recalled.

So, without further introduction....

Buckley v. Gore at the 1968 Democratic National Convention on ABC



Note the era of conservative suits and somewhat restrained manners. Until, that is, Gore calls Buckley a 'crypto-Nazi.' Then Buckley lets loose on the live feed with words for which, today, he'd probably be called on to recant.

Ah, for the simpler times of old.....

As a further tribute to Mr. Buckley, here is a clip of him espousing his views on the necessary qualifications for the Oval Office occupant circa 1968. I think Buckley is still on target today, as well.

Additionally, this clip portrays Buckley behaving quintessentially. The verbiage, mannerisms and delivery are just classic.

Like Reagan, he'd been gone from the public scene for a while before his death. Never the less, I'll still miss him, as well.

Buckley on Presidential Qualifications for 1968





Still makes sense, doesn't it?

McCain, The NY Times, & Campaign Funding

Last week's news was full of the ill-advised, largely-unsourced New York Times smear...or, as a liberal would call it, 'story-' regarding John McCain and a female lobbyist with business before the Senate Commerce Committee back when the Republicans were in the majority.

At least one of my liberal Democratic friends avers that the Times is 'the national paper of record,' and 'unbiased,' so if it prints a story, then it's true.

Honestly, this is one problem in our country today. Liberals are so far left that they can't even see how slanted and liberal the three broadcast networks and the Times have been for at least two decades.

There is effectively no 'moderate' newspaper anymore. Most of the daily print media is liberal, while the Wall Street Journal editorial page tends conservative. Its news pages are a toss up.

Among television networks, the ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN are all solidly liberal, while Fox is news-neutral, and even issue analysis-neutral, but editorially largely conservative.

The fact that the McCain story elicited as much furor against the Times as it did questions of McCain's conduct, which is generally considered above reproach, tells you what you need to know about the Times smear piece.

However, as the Wall Street Journal noted last week, the Times story obscured the real McCain story in this campaign season. That story involves how his campaign is twisting itself into a pretzel in order to try to raise funds while conforming with campaign finance laws co-authored by....John McCain.

I have to say that I am actually pleased to see this. Maybe now McCain will stop being so sanctimonious and 'holier than thou' about campaign funding legislation.

From the passage of McCain-Feingold, I felt that both co-sponsors should be summarily disqualified from running for President on the bases of idiocy and attempting to deprive the American voter of his/her freedom of speech. And, in fact, portions of the ill-advised law have been struck down precisely for first amendment violations.

McCain is currently involved in sleights of hand such as filing an intent to request public funding in the general election, in order to use that intent as collateral to borrow money now. But he's not actually, according to his campaign, declaring to use public funds.

Earlier in the race, he pledged his donor lists as collateral for a loan.

Of course, if McCain had used the common sense with which he evidently wasn't born, he would have not only not sponsored his campaign finance 'reform' bill, but repealed the existing laws. And, then, passed a simple bill allowing any candidate to take any amount of money from anyone, provided the candidate publishes, within two days of the donation, in two venues- online and in print- the name, address, phone contact number of the donor and amount of the donation.

That's all you really need. If the Chinese army wanted to fund Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign, so be it. I'd rather just know it, than know that Slick Willie lied about it and covered up the contributions.

So now McCain is caught in his own web of complex, silly campaign finance regulations. It serves him right.

Too bad the Times didn't print that story. Easily sourced, important, and relevant.

Guess that disqualified it from a Times cover piece, eh?

Weak-Willed Boehner Loses His Way

Today's Wall Street Journal carried a brief editorial piece on House Minority Leader John Boehner's backsliding on a key Republican objective- to be seen as regaining the party's sense of fiscal restraint. The link may, or may not work after today. In case it doesn't, the entire text of the editorial, "GOP Flake Out," appears below in italics.

"House Republicans have been taunting Democrats for turning down their offer to eliminate spending earmarks, and Democrats reply that the GOP isn't serious. The Republicans seem intent on proving that Democrats are right, as GOP leaders showed last week in denying Arizona's Jeff Flake a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. Flake is the scourge of earmarks and the last person Members of either party want on Congress's main spending committee. He would have been a whistle-blower for taxpayers, in particular against the powerful Democrats who get the most earmarks now that they are in the majority, such as Pennsylvania's Jack Murtha. But Republican spenders couldn't tolerate someone who would call out their pork too.

House Minority Leader John Boehner has been warning his party that it won't take back Congress until it swears off earmarking, so he must be getting comfortable with his minority status. He handed the Appropriations seat to Alabama's Jo Bonner, who had less seniority than Mr. Flake (three terms to four) and also votes routinely for spending that Mr. Flake opposes. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, compared voting records and found that of 50 amendments on the House floor to strike specific earmarked projects, Mr. Flake voted for all of them.

Mr. Bonner voted against 49 of the 50. He voted to save, among other national priorities, the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service ($200,000) at City College of New York, a fake prison in Kansas ($100,000), and $150,000 for the American Ballet Theater in New York City. He'll fit right in at Appropriations."

I consider myself to be a conservative-leaning independent, not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican.

Thus, I want to point out to the 3-4 people who read this blog on an average day that I am an equal-opportunity critic of both parties.

In this case, it's clear that the GOP should put Jeff Flake on the Appropriations Committee. Let's review the situation. Flake hails from Arizona, as does...oh, yes, that's right, the GOP's Presidential candidate come November, John McCain. And McCain has just fired a volley at the two Democratic contenders for their party's nomination, Hillary and Obama, over earmarks.

And the sitting Republican President, George Bush, made a major issue of earmarks in his State of the Union speech, as well.

Doesn't it make perfect sense for the Republicans to adopt a "zero earmark" strategy and stance? Install Jeff Flake on Charlie Rangell's corrupt, overspending Appropriations Committee, and bird-dog the profligate spender to his eternal distraction?

Of course it does! Think of the great headlines all during the months leading up the the first Tuesday in November of this year.

Instead, Boehner plumped for a conventional spender, GOP-style, Jo Bonner.

There goes a perfect chance for McCain to link up with fellow Senators and his own state's Representative, Flake, who would be his inside guy on the House Appropriations Committee.

Is it too much to ask, or expect, that the Republicans, now in the minority in both Houses, and in a tough, some would say uphill, fight to keep the White House, all sit down and align their objectives, methods and actions?

So long as hacks like Boehner wilt under party pressure, cave in to conventional spending temptations, and name fellow-hacks like Bonner, instead of Flake, to Rangell's committee, the GOP will truly deserve to remain in the minority.

It's a shame. I grew up living in Bob Michel's district in Illinois. Just across the river from Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen's home in Pekin. Michel was the amiable, harmless lapdog of whatever Democratic House Speaker, in those days, Mike Mansfield, happened to be in office at the time.

It took a changing of the guard, with Gingrich and Armey in the lead, to finally bring down the corrupt Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas, publish the Contract with America, and send the Democrats into the minority for a decade.

Now, with memories of hack Denny Hastert being fresher than those of Gingrich, I guess Boehner's settling into the Minority Leaders offices.

Maybe he even has an old picture of Bob Michel on his wall, dug out of some musty old Congressional storage room.

Hillary, Bill and The Puerto Rican "Terror Pardons"

The Wall Street Journal published a superb editorial on Tuesday of this week. Penned by Debra Burlingame, sister of "Chic" Burlingame, the pilot of AA Flt77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001, it is entitled "The Clintons' Terror Pardons."

For any voter in this year's Presidential election, it's eye-opening, "must" reading.

Because of the length of the piece- nearly a full page in the WSJ- I won't attempt to quote extensively from it. Tempting though that is.

Instead, I'll just provide a very brief summary.

As Hillary began her run for a New York Senate seat, her husband, Bill, arranged unrequested pardons for several participants in the Puerto Rican terrorist bombings of several building in NYC on New Year's Eve, 1982.

Ms. Burlingame's editorial details how Slick Willie evaded various Constitutional checks and balanaces by doing a favor for his wife's election campaign. He wasn't guilty of directly benefiting from the pardons. His wife was. She even admitted to several enraged Puerto Rican politicians, who were angry that some special arrangements which embarrassed the FALN terrorists had to be made, because the terrorists did not intend to comply with the usual conditions of their pardons.

The bottom line is that Slick Willie pardoned 16 FALN terrorists in order to get his wife elected to her Senate seat. So badly was this handled that, according to Burlingame, even the NY Times disclosed it in a piece entitled "Bill's Little Gift." Hillary had to backpedal from supporting the pardons when the whole mess became public and drew the ire of the general populace, because both civilians and law enforcement officers had been killed and/or seriously injured in the attacks.

As Burlingame points out, as Bill was talking tough against the Middle East terrorists, he gave unrequested pardons to the FALN in order to secure the New York Hispanic vote for his wife.

How despicable is that? Sadly, how typical of the Billary? He commits a smarmy, sleazy act. She initially accepts it. Then, upon being confronted with it publicly, feigns horror and shock. But, in the end, it has its desired effect and Hillary accepts the gift.

Remember this as you watch the home stretch of the Democratic Presidential primary race. The Clintons will do whatever it takes to win, no matter what principles are shredded, who is maligned, or, probably, what damage it does to their own party.