Kansas Republican Politics

"You wouldn't believe how desperate Democrats are for a mission."

2006-03-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

"You wouldn't believe how desperate Democrats are for a mission."
-Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council -- March 22, 2006

That's what the Democrat leadership has to say about their plan for the future, that is their lack of a plan for the future.

Mr. Reed is co-author of a new book, with Congressman Rahm Emanuel, called "The Plan", which will lay out their Party's plan for the future. The book is due out by Labor Day, it is so far from hitting book shelves that you can't even buy it on Amazon yet.

There are a slew of books coming out from Democrats all promising a plan for the future, at KRP we can't wait to find out what the long awaited plan is.

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Amending the Constitution

2006-03-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

From the Kansas City Star:

"With a 66-58 vote, the House killed a proposed constitutional amendment that would have blocked the judiciary from interfering with the Legislature’s power of the purse. The vote was 18 votes shy of the two-thirds majority required for constitutional amendments.

The amendment, which would have had to be approved by voters, would state that neither the executive branch nor the judicial branch can force the Legislature to set spending levels, except for specific reasons already in the law.

The state constitution already says the power to appropriate lies with the Legislature. But some lawmakers say more is needed to prevent the Supreme Court from interfering with budgeting, after the recent ruling by the court ordering the Legislature to spend more money on schools."

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Sebelius Gambles with Education

2006-03-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Monday told lawmakers to increase school funding and pay for it with expansion of gambling or face a possible special legislative session.

ÂPassing an inadequate school finance plan is the fastest way to guarantee another special session,Â Sebelius said as the Legislature appeared deadlocked two weeks before the end of the regular session."

So this is how Governor Kathleen Sebelius wants to pay for the State's education bill, with gambling. How the state can buy land, pay to build a casino and bring in enough money to fund an increase in education funding in six months is a mystery to me, but that is what the Do Nothing Governor wants to do.

Gambling could bring in more money for the state, in fact it could eventually make a nice contribution to funding education, but tying her demands for state run casinos to this year's education funding is wrong and irresponsible.

The Governor's efforts to bring more gambling to Kansas is not a problem in our eyes, but needlessly holding our children's futures hostage to get her unrelated demands certainly is a problem.

Perhaps the Governor Sebelius could kill two birds with one stone. She could force school children to build and work in the State Casino to show them how bad life can be for kids who don't finish school. She could just have them sit and watch the people of Kansas lose money at the State Casino so they can better understand how poor people who don't understand statistics get screwed out of their hard earned money by gambling.

Of course that plan would require creating three or four new school districts for each casino, hiring a superintendent and ten or so administrators for each of the districts.

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The Do Nothing Governor

2006-03-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

Kansas Governor Race has a good post about the concealed carry bill pending in the Kansas Legislature.

Will Governor Sebelius veto the bill? Well, that would require her to decide to be Governor for five minutes.
Sebelius vetoed similar legislation in 2004, it will be interesting to see if she sticks by that decision, or if she has an election year conversion and allows the bill to become law.

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Barnett on Fiscal Responsibility

2006-03-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

"Barnett continues, "Kansas once had a proud history of low deficits and fiscal discipline. The sound principles of fiscal restraint and responsibility have been thrown out the window and substituted for a credit card under the current governor. Just like families and businesses across the state, we will not spend money we don't have.""

Unfortunately under Governor Kathleen Sebelius Kansas's debt load has skyrocketed, leaving future Kansans with a huge bill for the spending that she wanted but couldn't pay for.

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Democrats Can't Do Better

2006-03-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

From Today's LA Times:

"Yet somehow the Democratic Party still can't do any better than "America can do better."

"You can do better" is what you say to a dim child whose grades were even worse than expected. Is this really the Democrats' message to the nation: that we don't need to be quite as pathetic as we now are, though excellence is certainly beyond our reach?

This slogan speaks not of hope but of hopelessness, of scaled-down ambitions, of dreams deferred and dreams denied.

It's the smallness of it that kills me. This nation began with a dream — a crazy, risky, breathtaking dream of freedom, justice and equality. Sure, we've never truly achieved that dream, but for much of the last century, it's been the Democratic Party that has helped keep that dream alive. So how can it be that, today, Democrats don't seem to stand for anything at all?

Part of the problem is ambition and cowardice, which together make a lethal combination. Too many would-be Democratic leaders think that "playing it safe" is the way to go. They're fine with criticizing the administration, but the minute they take any flak themselves, they go scurrying back into their holes. In place of a willingness to take risks and speak from the heart, they offer a craven and misguided dependence on polls, focus groups and "expert strategists.""

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What Has Barry Done Lately?

2006-03-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Democrat poster boy Barry Obama came to speak to a group of Democrats in Topeka, because of poor planning some of them had to watch Barry's speech on TV in another room.

For most of his life Senator Obama was known by his family as Barry, then he decided to enter politics and decided Barry was a little too plain so he decided to start going by Barack, KRP is kind of a traditional blog, so we will stick with Barry, if that's okay with you.

Last year Barry gave a good speech at the Democrat National Convention and the Dems decided that a young, kind of ethnic Senator with a funky name is just what their party needs.

Now Barry is a good figure head for the Democrats because he is good at giving speeches, good at sounding compassionate, but bad at coming up with ideas, a perfect fit for today's Democrat Party. Now don't get me wrong, Barry is clearly for bunnies, sunny days, rainbows, good schools, clean water, apple pie and not executing innocent people, he has clear stands on the important issues of the day. As a charismatic leader Barry doesn't bother with the silly issues like Social Security, the deficit, or the War in Iraq.

Barry is hard hitting, he is strongly in favor of uniting our nation and bringing people together, not dividing them.

So Barry got together with some other Democrats they know they don't like George Bush, but don't know what they would do differently. They know that if they could have traveled through time, and knew what they knew today, they would have opposed the war back then. They know they don't like the deficit, but don't have the guts to say "tax increase". They know they are for something called "Democrat Values" but none of them will admit what Democrat Values mean for public policy.

In the halls the activist whispered the forbidden phrases "tax increases for the rich" which starts at about $32,000 in Kansas, universally bad health care for all, removing testing standards from state schools. The activists what they want to do but try as they might, Barry, Dennis and Kathleen just won't admit it.

So Barry did what Barry does, he gave a nice speech and played the golden boy, he sold his tie to a rich Democrat for $7,500 and got back on the plane.

Good job Barry, another week down, no policy ideas from the Democrats.

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Barnett Opposes Sebelius Education Plan

2006-03-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

Senator Jim Barnett, Republican candidate for Governor, is voicing his opposition to the plan being debated in the legislature, which has now picked up support from Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

According to Barnett:

"The bills that have passed one house this session and the education bill
the Governor has crafted behind closed doors puts the state budget in the
hole over $800 million dollars by 2009," stated Barnett. "The only way to
pay for this spending is with tax increases or state-owned gambling. And I
donÂt believe the people of Kansas want either."

"The governor's proposal is a Trojan Horse. It may be attractive on the
outside but has an unpleasant surprise hidden within higher taxes and
state-owned gambling."

"Kansas is at a crossroads. Down one road is a real future with more
funding for our schools, targeted tax cuts for taxpayers, business providing
more jobs, and a government that lives within its means. Down the other
road is the false promise of a state government on a spending spree, with
higher taxes and state-owned gambling as the only way to pay the tab."

Barnett makes a compelling case that the expansion of government and the soaring debt load that unfunded government spending requires have hurt business development in Kansas.

The Governor, well the Governor was busy at a Democrat Party fundraiser with Barry Obama this weekend and could not be reached for comment.

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State Senate Introduces Education Plan: Sebelius MIA

2006-03-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

Today the Kansas Senate introduced a plan that would increase funding by $660 million. The plan is the work of Senate Republicans, but enjoys bi-partisan support.

Both the Kansas House and Senate leadership have developed new education plans, Governor Kathleen Sebelius has still not proposed a plan for Kansas school funding.

Since making education funding a major part of her 2002 run for Governor Sebelius has failed to even propose a budget for education in two of her three years in office.

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Where is the Governor's Education Plan?

2006-03-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

A month ago, Governor Sebelius announced that she was finally "working" on an education plan. It was good news because last year Sebelius failed to propose an education budget. In Kansas education is by far the largest and most important part of the state budget.

Since making education a central part of her 2002 campaign for Governor Sebelius has had a less than stellar record of well, doing anything about education. Two years ago she proposed a tax increase that the legislature decided would be bad news for the Kansas economy.

Two years since her last attempt at education, two legislative sessions and a Supreme Court case later, and Governor Sebelius has no clue what to do to improve education in Kansas.

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Democrats Announce Child Care Plan: Forced Labor

2006-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

House Democrat John Conyers has been illegally misappropriating government resources by forcing his staffers to baby sit his children.

"In letters sent separately by each woman to the House ethics committee, the FBI and the U.S. attorneyÂs office, they allege that Conyers demanded that aides work on several local and state campaigns and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children. They also charge that some aides illegally used ConyersÂs congressional offices to enrich themselves."

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Legislative Progress

2006-02-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it that tomorrow the Legislature will begin consideration of a bill that will increase funding for education $500 million dollars.

It is good to see that after dealing with the pressing issues of where breast feeding is legal and how high a child's booster seat needs to be, the Legislature found time to debate education. This is a definite improvement over the past two sessions where the Legislature dealt with education (the biggest item in the state budget) after the end of the regular legislative session.

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Moore's Unfounded Arts Claim

2006-02-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Dennis Moore, who has had problems with the truth during recent campaigns, recently wrote a column alleging an insanely high return on government investment in the arts:

"The numbers are impressive. For every $1,000 spent annually by a non-profit art business, the community reaps three full-time jobs with $90,554 in annual household income, an additional $2,623 in annual revenue for local governments and $3,479 for state governments. Specifically, a 2004 study to assess the effect of the non-profit arts industry on the five-county Kansas City metropolitan area found that the industry generated $297 million annually, created 4,516 full-time jobs, and drew $3 million in revenue for local governments. These numbers reflect only the direct economic benefits."

In the article Moore references an unnamed study from an unnamed source as the source for his claim.

Local Radio talk show host Jerry Agar reported that he called Moore's office and asked for a copy of the unnamed study Moore refers to in the article. Despite being told by Moore's staff that they would produce the unnamed study, 24 hours later Agar had not received the unnamed study.

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Odds on 2006 Elections

2006-02-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

According to current quotes on Tradesports.com:

Republican win in KS Governor '06: 18%
Republican win in Presidential '08: 50.3%
Republican Congress '06: 88% Senate 73% House
Top 4 Republican nominees: Allen, McCain, Giuliani, Romney
Top 4 Democrat nominees: Clinton, Warner, Edwards, Gore

Discuss amongst yourselves, but we need to get to work to change that Governor number.

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Pickell "Republican for Moore"

2006-02-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

In what may be a crippling blow for his fledgling candidacy for Governor, Tim Pickell has been identified as a "Republican for Moore" and contributed money to the Democrat Congressman's campaign.

Pickell, who did not host a reception, passed out information at Kansas Day indicating his support for Republican unity, an unusual move for someone who had been part of the most divisive group in recent Kansas Republican politics, and a group that was instrumental in the defeat of Republican candidates from all parts of the Republican ideological spectrum.

The guys at Fire Kansas Democrats deserve credit for the research.

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Sebelius "working" on Education Plan

2006-02-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

After two years without proposing an education budget or a plan for improving education in Kansas, Governor Sebelius has finally started working on a plan.

Previously Sebelius had proposed raising taxes on the middle clas by $300 million per year to support education.

From the Kansas City Star:

"Jennison said Sebelius isn't showing any leadership on the biggest issue facing her and legislators: the need to find more money for public schools because of rulings by the Kansas Supreme Court.

Many fellow Republicans are saying the same thing, because Sebelius hasn't outlined a school finance plan since her ill-fated proposal in 2004 to phase in a $300 million tax increase over three years ago.

"This race, in our opinion, is about one thing: It's leadership," Jennison said. "I really don't think the governor fulfilled her role as governor."

Sebelius and her aides have said the governor is working with legislators who are drafting school finance legislation this year. Spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran noted that Sebelius recently said she is pleased with the cooperation she has seen from Republican legislative leaders."

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Solid Performance from Barnett

2006-02-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to see State Senator Jim Barnett (running for Governor) speak earlier this week.

All in all Barnett put in a solid performance for a candidate early in the election cycle. Barnett focused primarily on economic issues, discussing the policy research he has done regarding the sub par economic growth in Kansas. Barnett stressed the importance of balancing the budget, attracting business and innovation to Kansas, and improving education.

During the Q&A session Barnett showed a thoughtful grasp of issues, even when questioned by two Democrat party activist who tried to challenge him.

While Barnett didn't blow e away, it was a very solid performance that demonstrated that he has solid credentials and has put some serious thought into the key issues facing Kansas.

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Kansas Day News and Gossip

2006-01-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

Fire Kansas Democrats has a great post, with even better comments covering the Kansas Days news and gossip. Check it out.

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Hopefully Not the Last

2006-01-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

From today's Kansas City Star:

"In her State of the State address Jan. 9, Sebelius touted her administrationÂs work to improve the Kansas economy. She also took a little credit for the 2005 Âmeth billÂ that made it harder to buy large quantities of medicines used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Republicans objected, pointing out that Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt and Attorney General Phill Kline were leading advocates for the bill.

A day after the speech, Republicans released a list of talking points that criticized SebeliusÂ claims. It was the first time that had occurred while Sebelius was governor."

Maybe we have found part of the explanation for why many Kansans hold a favorable opinion of do-nothing Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

A Republican Party that performs the basic elements of politics is a definite boost the the hopes of GOP candidates this year.

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Five Days to Kansas Days

2006-01-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

Only five days to go until Kansas Days, the Republican Party's annual convention and love / hate fest.

Will a candidate for Governor or Third District make an impact and rally support this weekend? Will the fueding factions of the party meet and reconcile (at least a little) or will this be the most divided Kansas Days ever?

Give your opinions in the comments and then get ready for an interesting weekend.

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Ben Hodge on eminent Domain

2006-01-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

Ben Hodge, Chairman of the Johnson County Committee on eminent Domain shares his views on the issue here.

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Back in Action

2006-01-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the hiatus, but Kansas Republican Politics is back in action.

What a great time to get back into things, Governor Sebelius just gave the state of the state address, saying little, but kicking off her "Do Nothing for Four More Years '06" tour.

The Legislature is getting ready to consider an education package that will add $400 million in new annual funding for education, on top of the $300 million per year they added last year for a grand total of $700 million per year in new funding over two years. Remember that education was already the largest part of the state budget before all of this new funding, and none of this goes to the Universities.

The odds that the legislature adds $400 million, 98%. But wait until next year when they do a follow up survey after the increase in funding. Do you think the next survey will show education under funded, or properly funded? My money is on under funded. Government is a hungry beast and the more you feed it, the more it wants to eat.

The Congressional race kicks off in two weeks at Kansas Days in Topeka, Ahner and Schwab head to head, is anyone else excited by the prospects of these two guys? When I think of strong leaders with real plans for the future, well right now Ahner and Schwab aren't exactly at the top of the list, but I remain optimistic, we'll get an update on that one soon enough.

In other words, KRP is back in action, if you have a good story idea or good gossip, let us know.

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Access to Kansas Campaign Finance Reports

2005-12-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

Earl Glynn has a new post about improving public access to Kansas campaign finance reports. Glynn details the sad state of public access in Kansas and provides links to the newly available finance reports

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Doug Patterson Has Gone Crazy

2005-12-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Johnson County Republican Party Chairman Doug Patterson's point by point personal attack on almost everyone associated with the Kansas Traditional Republican Majority.

Patterson's attack is vicious and uncalled for. It is an totally inappropriate use of his office and it blows the lid off of the idea that the Johnson County Party will be united against anyone in 2006.

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Kansas Traditional Republican Majority

2005-12-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

The Kansas Traditional Republican Majority is a new moderate Republican group.

According to the KRTM website:

Our agenda is comprehensive. We are addressing a broad spectrum of issues and our doors are open to people of differing views, cultures, backgrounds, and approaches. We are reaching out to disenfranchised Republicans - people who are distressed by the politics of hate and intolerance that too often dominate the Party - and to others attracted by a thoughtful, centrist approach to Republican politics. Such an approach allows us to explore multiple perspectives without fear in order to reach reasonable, fair-minded, fiscally sound, and responsible solutions. It demonstrates inclusion, respect, reason and, yes, compassion.

While the group is clearly a moderate group, it will be interesting to see if it acts as a group that deepens the current divide in the Kansas Republican Party, or if it actively works to find common ground.

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Delay Cleared of Conspiracy Charges

2005-12-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today Tom Delay was cleared of conspiracy charges. The charges were brought earlier in the fall by a Democrat prosecutor in Texas.

While Delay still faces money laundering charges, Delay's defense team has moved to have those charges dismissed as well.

The Democrats have based an important part of their public message on the idea that the Republican Party is corrupt, the dismissal of charges against Delay is a serious blow to the credibility of many Democrat officials and Democrat writers.

This follows a pattern where Democrats have made baseless charges against prominent Republicans only to see charges eventually dropped. In the past couple of months Democrats have alleged charges against Delay, Vice President Cheney, Senate Majority Leader Frist, Karl Rove, and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, only to see those charges dismissed or proven baseless.

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Lower Education Standards Equal Less Learning

2005-12-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Wichita Liberty has a good post about the problems that arise when local education leaders lower standards to inflate local test scores and their own performance.

In short, education officials have found a way to make our poorly performing Kansas schools look good its simple, lower the bar and more students can pass the test, unfortunately that doesn't help students who will still have to compete against peers in Asia who are actually learning the skills they need to compete in the 21st century economy.

In Kansas, according to Standard & Poor's Statewide Education Insights, about 60% to 70% of students are proficient in reading, as evaluated by the Kansas state reading test. But on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, only 33% to 35% of Kansas students are proficient. A similar discrepancy exists in the math test scores.

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Good Economic News From the New York Times

2005-11-29T21:07:00.000-08:00

The New York Times finally realized that the economy is doing pretty well.

"Gasoline is cheaper than it was before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Consumer confidence jumped last month and new home sales hit a record. The stock market has been rising. Even the nation's beleaguered factories appear to be headed for a happy holiday season.

By most measures, the economy appears to be doing just fine. No, scratch that, it appears to be booming."

The article goes on to say that so far in 2005 the economy has created over 1.6 million new jobs.

The amazing thing about the article is not that the Times finally noticed that the economy is doing well (only three years late) it is that after complaining about the Bush economy during the campaign, the New York Times can write an entire article about how good the economy is and never mention President Bush's role in it.

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Why Conservatives Will Hold the Kansas Board of Education in 2006

2005-11-29T14:12:00.000-08:00

A week ago I thought the conservative members of the Kansas Board of Education were done for. I thought the foolish vote to change the way Kansas teaches evolution would have surely been the end of the conservative majority on the board. I thought it would take a real bunch of idiots, real single minded foolishness on the other side to re-elect the current members of the KBOE.

Then I heard about KU professor Paul Mirecki and I instantly knew that the KBOE will stay in conservative hands. You see, Professor Mirecki has now become the poster boy for the "evolution" crowd, the problem for them is that Paul Mirecki is an unreformed, out in the open, bigot.

In a recent e-mail Professor Mirecki wrote:

Ã“The fundies want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class under the category Ã‘mythology,Ã’Ã” Mirecki wrote.He signed the note Ã“Doing my part (to upset) the religious right, Evil Dr. P.Ã”

ProfMireckiMereki works for the State of Kansas, and is proposing using taxpayer money to promote his own religious bigotry. If you aren't sure that what he said amount to bigotry, change two things, one pretend George W. Bush said it, and second change the target. If Bush said he wanted to give the Jews a big slap in the face, or that he was "Doing his part to piss off the gays" or Muslims, or blacks, there would be no question.

MireckiMereki gave a half hearted apology.

Ã“I especially regret that the e-mail betrays what I have consistently practiced in the classroom during my sixteen-year teaching career at KU: I believe that civil discourse is vital to a democratic society, and we must, especially in a university environment, be able to discuss differing points of view in a open, fair and civil fashion. I have always practiced my belief that there is no place for impertinence and name-calling in a serious academic class. My words in the e-mail do not represent my teaching philosophy or the style I use in class."

Right, I'm sure his students (especially in light of how distinguished scientists who support Intelligent Design have been treated) knowing that the whole reason for the class is to give their beliefs a "slap in the face" and to piss them off will feel very comfortable and like their views will be discussed in an "open, fair and civil fashion."

So what does one bigot professor have to do with the KBOE?

The reason it is important is that it confirms everything I think the average Kansan feels about the players in this debate. Most Kansans believe in evolution, most people want evolution taught in public schools, including the conservative board members who voted to include intelligent design in the Kansas curriculum, a point those members should stress during the upcoming campaigns.

Like most people, I believe in evolution, it doesn't conflict with my faith because, like most people I don't read all of the Bible literally. I have to admit that when I first heard the ID side makeargumentguement last springintriguedreagued and I eagerly awaited the rebuttal from the evolution crowd, I am still waiting for that rebuttal. The evolution crowd refused to testify in front of the KBOE and that made me wonder, iargumentgrument is so water tight, why not present it in public? I started to wonder if maybe we should teach ID in schools.

Then the evolution crowd started the ad hominem attacks, never dealing with the substance. They claimed that they were right, they were smart, they were science and if you disagreed with them you were just a dumb religious fundamentalist. Gentlemen, I think thou doth protest too much. I began to seriously wonder how weak the real case for evolution only education was.

But in the end I, and many Kansans, put away the feeling thactualactuall factual evidence for evolution may not be rock solid, and the feeling that the people dogmatically defending the prohibition on teaching alternate points of view, were, well, anti-religious more than they were "pro-science"

I still think teaching ID is a bad decision, if for no other reason than the bad press it generated for our great state. However I have no question that the most vocal opponents of ID are opponents because of their religious bigotry more than for any high minded defense of science.

The real problem is that how and what our children are taught and how much we will spend teaching them has become a dogmatic political issue for both sides rather than looking out for the best interest of Kansas children.

I think the ground is now set for the conservatives to hold onto the KBOE if they run a good campaign. People don't want to be slapped in the face or pissed on, and they don't like voting for people who want to slap them and piss on them.

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LJ World Article on Kansas Political Blogs

2005-11-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

Joel Mathis has an article in today's Lawrence Journal World about political bloggers in Kansas. Overall a pretty good article, a lot of good press for Fire Kansas Democrats. Unfotrunately, no mention of Kansas Republican Politics

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Fire Kansas Democrats

2005-11-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Our friends who brought us Fire Dennis Moore have broadened their focus with their new blog, Fire Kansas Democrats.

The work they were doing on Dennis Moore alone was impressive, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with on Kathleen Sebelius and the rest of the Kansas Democrats. From reading their comments section, it seems they already have the Dems' panties in a bunch.

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Phill Kline's Strong Start

2005-11-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

How do you know Phill Kline is running strong? Kline spoke to the KU College Republicans on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning the University Daily Kansan ran an article about Kline, an article that should be described as, well kind of positive. The UDK article provided Kline's perfectly reasonable explanations for many of the things liberal opponents distort.

Any time a conservative like Kline gets even a luke warm story like that, you know he is running strong.

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Cheney Fires Back

2005-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

Vice President Dick Cheney continued the Adminstration's attack on critics of the war in Iraq.

"In such an environment people sometimes lose their cool, and yet in Washington you can ordinarily rely on some basic measure of truthfulness and good faith in the conduct of political debate. But in the last several weeks we have seen a wild departure from that tradition. And the suggestion that?s been made by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this Administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city... Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions. They arrived at the same judgment about Iraq?s capabilities and intentions that was made by this Administration and by the previous Administration. There was broad-based, bipartisan agreement that Saddam Hussein was a threat ? that he had violated U.N. Security Council Resolutions ? and that, in a post-9/11 world, we couldn?t afford to take the word of a dictator who had a history of WMD programs, who had excluded weapons inspectors, who had defied the demands of the international community, who had been designated an official state sponsor of terror, and who had committed mass murder. Those are facts. What we?re hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war. The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out. American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions and desert temperatures ? conducting raids, training Iraqi forces, countering attacks, seizing weapons, and capturing killers ? and back home a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie. The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone ? but we?re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. We?re going to continue throwing their own words back at them. And far more important, we?re going to continue sending a consistent message to the men and women who are fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other fronts. We can never say enough how much we appreciate them, and how proud they make us. They and their families can be certain: That this cause is right ? and the performance of our military has been brave and honorable ? and this nation will stand behind our fighting forces with pride and without wavering until the day of victory."

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Democrats: Dishonest on Iraq

2005-11-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already seen it, you need to watch the new GOP video, Democrats: Dishonest on Iraq. The video is about five minutes long, it is news footage of top Democrats talking about their assessment of the threat they believed Saddam Hussein posed to the US before the war in Iraq.

These people (Howard Dean, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton) all saw the pre war intelligence and came to the same conclusion, that Iraq had, or was building a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and posed a grave threat to the US. Today these people would have you believe that they didn't believe Iraq posed a threat to the US, and would like to place the blame at the feet of President Bush.

A bipartisan review of the pre war intelligence shows that there was no effort to influence, shape, or alter the unanimous conclusion of intelligence agencies around the world that Iraq posed a threat to the US. Democrats would like you to believe otherwise, but have never produced any evidence to support these claims.

They have tried to pretend like they didn't see the intelligence before the war, they have tried to pretend that Bush "lied" or somehow mislead them, but they have never been able to prove it. They have tried to politicize the investigation into prewar intelligence.

They were for the war when it was popular, now they are against it when it is unpopular, substituting their own political preservation for the protection of our nation and the Iraqi people.

While the political impact of hearing Democrats repeat the positions they are now trying to run from, and trying to pretend they never held, the political implications pale in comparison to the implications for our national security.

The people in this video (Howard Dean, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton) should be embarrassed about how they are trying to mislead the American public, but they should be ashamed of the way they have turned defending our nation and the war on terror into a political game. National security isn't a game, it is serious, it is literally a life and death issue.

Democrats can change their positions on issues, they can mislead voters by "reframing" things, but their inability to make a commitment to preventing attacks on our nation makes them unfit to lead.

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Democrat Values Don't Include Balanced Budgets

2005-11-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

The Democrat Party has a new plan, they now want to be the "values party" you can't listen to their leaders without hearing about Democrat values.

Now when most people think of things the Democrat Party values they probably think of high taxes, wasteful government welfare programs, and taxpayer funded "art" that isn't fit to be sold in a respectable adult bookstore. The Democrats want to change that, they want you to think of fiscal responsibility, national defense, church, mom and apple pie, you know, the things most people associate with the Republican Party.

Now, that would be great, if the Democrats really wanted to balance the budget, fund the defense of our nation, and go to church, the problem is they don't. Representative Dennis Moore is a great example, he tells voters he supports fiscal conservatism, education, and national defense while on the campaign trail, unfortunately by the time he gets back to Washington he forgets those promises, Dennis Moore has a liberal voting record that bears little resemblance to his campaign rhetoric. Most people would call that a lie, the Democrat buzz word is "framing."

So that brings us to Kathleen Sebelius. Governor Sebelius has recently been named one of the top 5 Democrat Governors by Time. According to Time:

Through spending cuts, fee increases and some borrowing, Sebelius was able to balance Kansas' budget in her first year in office without raising taxes or cutting funding for education.

Now, I don't know how you balance a budget through borrowing, it seems to me that if you need to borrow, you haven't balanced your budget. That is the key to the "Democrat Values" they don't want to balance the budget, that would require spending less, so they just "frame" the budget into balance.

I think the difference between "fee increases" and "tax increases" is a distinction without at difference, both take more money away from Kansans and result in higher spending.

The Time article gets at the core of the "Democrat Values", they don't want to do the policies most people like, but they want to talk about it. No matter how much they say they are the "values party" the Democrats have a long way to go before they actually are.

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Dean, Democrats Have no Plan for Important Issues

2005-11-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

Democrat Party Chairman Howard Dean appeared on NBC's Meet the Press this Sunday.

Given the opportunity to appear along side by side RNC Chairman Mehlman, Dean refused to share the stage with Mehlman, insisting that he would only appear if it were in a format where he could not be challenged by his Republican counterpart.

As the interview progressed it became clear why Dean was reluctant to confront Mehlman head on. When confronted with poll numbers indicating that Americans in general, and independent voters in particular believe the Democrat Party lacks a plan for the future, Dean replied that the Democrats have a plan. Dean refused to give any details about the plan.

When asked what the plan was by host Tim Russert, Dean replied that they will make the plan public in the near future. Russert continued to push, explaining that Democrats only talk about broad goals like better healthcare, or protecting Social Security without ever actually suggesting new policies, Dean had no policy details. When Russert pressed for a time table, Dean would only commit to sometime in 2006.

This is similar to John Kerry's mysterious "three point plan" that he mentioned in Presidential debates, a plan he would never explain in public, but sometimes told people they could read about on his website.

Twelve months after the 2004 election, twelve months before the 2006 mid-term election, and Howard Dean can't explain what the Democrats would do differently. If the party chair can't come up with a policy plan now, that is a sign of the total intellectual vacuum in the Democrat Party.

In Kansas we can see this in the lack of leadership demonstrated by Governor Sebelius. Last year she didn't even propose an education budget, the biggest, most important issue in Kansas, the biggest part of the state budget, and the Democrat Governor didn't even propose a budget. MIA on the biggest issue because she didn't have a plan, and didn't know what to do.

The Democrats don't have a plan, they don't know what to do, they don't know how to make the country a better place. Dean's performance this morning should demonstrate to everyone that the Democrat party has no new ideas, no solutions to the big issues of the day.

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Kline Attack Blog

2005-11-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Democrats have started a new (anonymous) blog to attack Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.

While the blog states that one of its goals is to raise money for Democrat Paul Morrison, who actually runs and will write for it is unknown.

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New Kansas Governor Blog

2005-11-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

There is a new Blog dedicated to the 2006 Kansas Governor's race.

It is an anonymous blog, so it is unclear who runs it, if they are a Republican or Democrat, or what agenda they may be promoting, but more info makes for an interesting race.

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Dennis Moore and Late Term Abortion

2005-11-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

Fire Dennis Moore has a good post today about Dennis Moore and partial birth abortion. The article highlights some of Dennis Moore's most egregious votes supporting abortion on demand, including partial birth abortion.

The comments discussion is also really good with great abortion polling numbers and documentation of the American Medical Association's position that partial birth abortion is never the right medical procedure.

Just another example of how Dennis Moore is aligning himself with the radical left wing of the Democrat party at the expense of ordinary Kansans.

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"Bush Economy" Created New Jobs in October

2005-11-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

from The Wall Street Journal

Nov. 4, 2005

Employers added 56,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in October, bouncing back from a
hurricane-induced loss in the prior month. The unemployment rate slipped to 5%.
Average hourly earnings edged higher.

For more information

I think John Edwards' new, top 1%, better of two Americas, investment banking job is in that 56,000.

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Libby Pleads Not Guilty

2005-11-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

Former White House aide Scooter Libby today plead not guilty to charges that he lied to a grand jury.

Despite unfounded allegations by Democrats, neither Libby nor Karl Rove have been charged with revealing the identity of a covert operative, despite a two year investigation by a special prosecutor.

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Kansas Republican Party Platform Update

2005-11-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

According to sources, the Johnson County Republican Party Platform meeting on Saturday was generally uneventful. The event had limited turnout from moderate Republicans and generally focused on reaffirming the Party's commitment to core conservative issues.

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"Bush Economy" Continues to Boom

2005-10-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

from The Wall Street Journal

Oct. 28, 2005

U.S. economic growth sped up in the third quarter despite the impact of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally
adjusted 3.8% annual rate, the Commerce Department reported.

For more information

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Kansas Taxpayer Bill of Rights and Higher Education

2005-10-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Americans for Prosperity has been out supporting a Kansas Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which essentially requires the State to limit spending increases to inflation plus population growth. If the State wants to raise spending at a higher rate, they would have to put the increase to a public vote.

Earlier this week the Kansas Board of Regents came out in opposition to a Kansas TABOR arguing that limiting spending growth would lead to cuts in funding for higher education and devastate Kansas Universities. Colorado is the model for the Kansas TABOR and today AFP has a response to the Regents. You can see their full Kansas vs. Colorado since they enacted TABOR comparison here.

"While it isn't surprising that the Regents took a position against giving Kansas citizens the right to approve taxes, it is a little unfortunate they didn't engage in more academic inquiry. The reasons the Regents state for opposing the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights just don't hold up to any scrutiny. "U.S. News ranks the University of Colorado higher than K.U. And Colorado State was ranked among the 120 best universities K-State wasn't ranked. Kansas doesn't have a state university among the best 120 masters-level universities in the county, and Colorado does. "Both K.U. and K-State have higher in-state tuition than the Univ. of Colorado.

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Paul Morrison to Challenge Phill Kline

2005-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison announced today that he will challenge Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline in the 2006 general election. Morrison will switch parties and run as a Democrat.

Morrison's decision to abandon the Republican Party that has supported him through his 17 years in public office will surely be seen as a blow to the County Party and County Party leadership.

However, the move may say more about Morrison's political intellect than the merits of either party.

Phill Kline is a strong campaigner, especially in a Republican primary. Kline has won tough campaigns against both Greg Musil in 2000 and David Adkins in 2002. Nobody is more loved by the moderate wing of the Republican Party than David Adkins, and Kline beat him decisively in the 2002 primary, ending Adkins' political career. As Attorney General Kline has done a good job and compiled a record that will play well in the upcoming election. Coupled with the advantage of incumbentcy and high state-wide name ID, beating Kline will be tough, and beating him in a Republican primary will be impossible.

However, in a general election, Kline may be more vulnerable. In the last election Chris Biggs ran a tough race against Kline, and with the benefit of a well coordinated Democrat campaign effort state wide, Biggs narrowly lost to Kline. The race was especially close due to a large amount of bad blood left over from the bruising Republican AG primary, as well as a divisive GOP Governor primary.

In the primary Morrison would be up against Kline in front of only Republican voters and stand no chance, in the general Morrison starts with Kansas' 30% Democrat base, who hate Kline. From there Morrison has a good chance at picking off the moderate Republicans who strongly dislike Kline, give Morrison another 10% of the vote, giving him a good base of 40% of voters.

Kline will pick up the 75% of the Republican party made up of conservatives and moderates who like the job Kline has done as AG, that gives Kline about 40% of the vote.

That leaves unaffiliated voters and 5% of the Republican vote up for grabs. Not a clear win for either, but definitely a better picture for Morrison than a run at Kline in the GOP primary.

How the pro-life Morrison will play with Dems, and if Dem. AG hopeful Chris Biggs will clear the field for Morrison remains to be seen.

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Bush's Real Approval Rating

2005-10-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

Fire Dennis Moore has a great article today deconstructing the new Survey USA Presidential approval polling number for Kansas.

FDM digs into the poll and finds that the sample is flawed, over representing "independents" and under representing Republicans. When FDM adjusts the sample, the numbers come back with a 51% approval rating for Bush in Kansas. Not a big win for the President, but much better than the bad numbers that Survey USA originally came up with.

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Brownback on Miers

2005-10-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback has been identified as a "Profile in Courage" by the National Review for his stand on Hariet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court.

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Cheers for Tom Coburn

2005-10-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Senator Tom Coburn twice took to the Senate floor to fight spending earmarks of dubious value, in both cases Coburn lost by wide margins and the Senate approved additional, wasteful spending despite the nation's large fiscal deficit.

In the first case Coburn spoke against a taxpayer funded sculpture garden in Washington state. In the second case Coburn suggested that instead of building a $223 million, federally funded bridge to an island in Alaska inhabited by only 50 people, our nation instead spends that money rebuilding the bridge from New Orleans north across Lake Pontchartrain.

Coburn's attempt to reign in spending should be applauded. While these projects are only small drops in a very large federal budget, they are, or would have been, a good start.

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How Bush Can Get Back on Track

2005-10-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger has a compelling article about how President Bush could recapture the momentum in light of his recent stumbles.

Henninger recommends four steps: Withdraw the Miers nomination and replace her with Judge Edith Jones of the Fifth Circuit, make a personal address to the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, nominate a successor to Alan Greenspan (whose term ends in January), and take a firm position on spending.

It is a tough formula, but one that would work, and one President Bush can pull off.

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Johnson County Republican Party Platform Update

2005-10-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Johnson County Republican Party is beginning to provide more detail about the Party Platform meeting on October 29th.

Interested Republicans can now download a form to provide input (six to 25 words) on the Party platform.

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Kansas Republican Platform Committee

2005-10-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Johnson County Republican Party will be holding a hearing on behalf of the Kansas Republican Platform Committee on October 29th at 10:00am (9:00 according to the Party website).

According to a postcard sent out by the County Party, only written statements of 25 words or less will be accepted via a form to be posted at an unknown future date at the County Party's website.

Details regarding what issues will be discussed, how to submit comments, who input will be accepted from, and how to submit comments, are unclear at best, more to come as more info is released and clarified by the county party.

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Democrat Opponent for Dennis Moore

2005-10-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

Thomas E. Scherer has announced that he will challenge Dennis Moore in the Kansas Third Congressional District Democrat Primary in 2006.

Scherer will provide Democrats the opportunity to vote for a legitimate liberal candidate against Moore, who while racking up an impressively liberal voting record in Congress, continues to talk the moderate Republican game on the campaign trail, alienating many Democrats and making them wonder what Moore really stands for.

Should be interesting to see how many Democrats line up behind Scherer, and to see if the primary makes Moore define his position on important issues more clearly, something Rep. Moore has refused to do since his election to the US House.

Roundup

2005-10-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

David Lindstrom won the Fire Dennis Moore Straw Poll this weekend Lindstrom pulled in 39% of the site's growing readership, pretty impressive for a candidate in a fractured party and in a race that has received so little coverage from the mainstream press.

The Lawrence Journal World continues its attack against Bob Corkins this morning. This time they turn a one sided story about an argument with Audrey Langworthy into a story about how Corkins wasn't a good lobbyist.

The Johnson County Sun's continued its pro-Dennis Moore bias this week. The Sun provided no coverage at all of Moore's recent vote against the energy bill, a bill that will stimulate refinery construction and could lead to lower gas prices for the middle class. After covering Moore playing a guitar in a school two weeks ago, and Moore signing on to a burn prevention bill last week, apparently the Sun didn't have time to cover how Moore actually votes on major legislation. Apparently the Sun had to clear space for their riveting article about the governor speaking to a women's group.

Fire Dennis Moore Straw Poll

2005-10-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

The fine people at Fire Dennis Moore have two new straw polls up.

Their previous straw polls for Kansas Third Congressional District candidates have provided interesting insight into who may be winning the horse race to take on Dennis Moore in 2006.

This time, the guys at FDM also give you an opportunity to vote for the Republican candidate to take on the Governor in 2006.

Go vote at FDM today.

Dennis Moore Opposes Lower Gas Prices

2005-10-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Last night the House of Representatives passes an energy bill that includes a number of provisions that would lead to lower energy costs for the middle class.

The bill includes, among other measures, incentives to build new refinery capacity. Due to environmental regulations there has not been a refinery built in the United States in the past 30 years. The lack of necessary refining capacity is one of the key factors that has driven up gas prices over the past year.

Rep. Dennis Moore voted against the bill.

According to sources Moore changed his vote on the legislation at the last minute, under pressure from Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi.

New Day for Kansas Republicans

2005-10-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

Kansas Republican Politics will be the website that brings the Kansas Republican Party back.

We will be focused both on developing excellent policy ideas that improve life for all Kansans and on identifying and helping strong candidates.