Free Advice?

Senator Allan Kittleman brought this The Baltimore Sun opinion piece to my attention.

Picking up the pieces

With the loss of the governor’s office and a handful of seats in a General Assembly that was already overwhelmingly Democratic, it’s understandable that Maryland Republicans are feeling blue since the election. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s defeat is a particularly disappointing moment for party loyalists, many of whom labored a generation or more before finally witnessing a GOP governor in Annapolis. But while the setback is significant, it needn’t be long-term.

It reminds me of a post written at brain-terminal ”Earnest Advice from the Opposition“.  In which the New York Times encourages the New York State Republican Party to be more like Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A pragmatist like Mayor Michael Bloomberg could serve as the vanguard of a new New York Republican Party. He won twice in a heavily Democratic city by adding probity and managerial expertise to Mr. Pataki’s issues list. Some upstaters regard Mr. Bloomberg as too independent — their term is RINO, or Republican in Name Only. That’s a self-destructive attitude for a party on the ropes. New York’s G.O.P. should embrace the city’s dynamic mayor as its guiding star.

What the Baltimore Sun is asking of Republicans is that they be more like Democrats.  The New York Times is making the same case.

Don’t get me wrong – Bloomberg is a fine Mayor, but so was Guilliani.  Pataki was a fine Governor.  Bloomberg is the Connie Morella of New York politics.  Gulliani a moderate Republican and Pataki a conservative (for the most part) Republican.  Republicans are not in the same position in New York as they are in Maryland.  Maryland is tough.  However, their is much more to being the loyal opposition than accepting minority status.

Maryland isn’t voting on social issues as much as they are national and pocket book issues.  Republican in State wide races are not running on social issues – though many of their opponents try to make it an issue.  Local candidates do no run on social issues either.

Let me ask, how many Republican candidates for Governor or President has the Baltimore Sun endorsed?  Very few in the past 50 years.  To paraphrase: Would Peter Angelos take advise from George Steinbrenner on how to beat the New York Yankees?

If we have accepted one party rule in Maryland then this is sound advice.  However, encouraging the Republican Party to be more like Democrats will leave little room for debate on the issues.  We will be a State devoid of not a loyal opposition but of new ideas.

Is that good for Democracy?  I don’t think so.

Hardball or Hardheadedness?

I like true leadership in an elected official – and I don’t believe in pure “majority rule”. In theory, the proclamations made by our fearless leaders – who vow to stand on principle, popular opinion notwithstanding – fit my view of the role of a good leader.

However …. there is steadfast, then there is stubborn.

There is leadership that persuades through sheer force of logic, reason and passion. Then there is stomping your feet and holding your breath till you turn blue…

Then there is the current republican leadership in Washington that continues to stain all who identify themselves with the party with the splatter as they continue to stomp their bloody stumps.

Apparently the recent election results were not a referendum on policy, philosophy, or direction…. they were a challenge to find ways to jam the ideological agenda down the throats of the infidels at a more desperate pace and with less concern for even a veneer of finesse.

Local politicians will continue to bear the brunt of the backlash as frustration with the inability of the electorate to make their voices heard – and responded to – on a national level.

A previous post pointed out the extraordinarily tone deaf elections of the same old same old blundering …… leaders …. for the now minority republican leadership in the congress —- but take a good look at the in your face, bird flipping that the white house has given women of reproductive age in recent days.

” The Bush administration, to the consternation of its critics, has picked the medical director of an organization that opposes premarital sex, contraception and abortion to lead the office that oversees federally funded teen pregnancy, family planning and abstinence programs.”

This guy, Keroack, is the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, a Christian nonprofit based in Dorchester, Massachusetts which “runs six centers in the state that offer free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and counseling.” However, the more telling mission is found in its “statement of faith” where it claims to “help women escape the temptation and violence of abortion.”

It opposes contraception, saying its use increases out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion rates. “A Woman’s Concern is persuaded that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness,” its contraception policy reads in part.

“Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said “common sense” initiatives might include requiring health insurance companies to cover birth control, requiring that emergency contraception be available at hospitals for rape victims, and ensuring that sex education for young people includes accurate information about contraceptives.” OMG, heresy!
“The appointment of anti-birth control, anti-sex education advocate Dr. Eric Keroack to oversee the nation’s family planning program is striking proof that the Bush administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation’s priorities,” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

These lunatic democrats were hoping that the new congress would be able to advance programs proved to reduce unwanted pregnancies and premature sexual activity among teenagers – like education, accurate contraception information, and programs that encourage hope for brighter futures.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins sums up the desperate view “… anticipate the fiercest assault of our time against abstinence, marriage, life, good judges, and religious freedom,” Perkins wrote this week in the National Review.

The rightwingnuts are so frightened by that prospect they are determined to pre-emptively strike to cripple teen programs before the dems can turn all teens into hormone driven sex maniacs ….. wait, didn’t God make them hormone driven sex maniacs? Seems reasonable to me to arm them with birth control and high school diplomas.

But then, I’m not the President of the United States — and he “ain’t listening to nobody” — especially the ignorant voters.