MUTH’S TRUTHS

Limited-government conservatives were rocked last night with the news that Rep. John Shadegg (R-Arizona) was retiring after 14 years in the House. Conservatives can only hope this means a run for the United States Senate is in his future should Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) be elected president in November or retires in 2010. In any event, Shadegg is one of “us,” and we wish him well in whatever he decides to do.

In the meantime, the voices criticizing conservatives who say they can’t vote for John McCain for president are getting louder and more shrill by the day. Yet I don’t hear much criticism of Mike Huckabee for refusing to bow out gracefully and allow the GOP to try to unite ASAP. Go figure.

Anyway, the people who are lambasting conservatives who continue to object to the McCain nomination are making a big mistake. There are still nine months to go before the general election. That’s a lot of time. And time heals a lot of wounds. Many conservatives who are RIGHTLY ticked off at things McCain has done in the past will “get over it” by election day, hold their nose, and punch McCain’s “chad.”

Unless, of course, they dig in their heels because others stupidly keep telling them how stupid they are.

Everybody…chill. Take a deep breath. Or take a Prozac.

That being said, after expanding the federal government’s role in education (No Child Left Behind), pushing for the largest expansion of government since LBJ’s day (the Medicare prescription drug bill), signing instead of vetoing McCain-Feingold, spending money worse than Democrats ever dreamed and overseeing the creation of a federal “security” machine worthy of a George Orwell novel, President Bush declared over the weekend that John McCain is a “true conservative.”

Kinda like Joan Crawford declaring that Britney Spears is a good mom.

By the way, Sen. McCain was one of only eight Republicans in the Senate and 25 in the House - including Reps. Ron Paul and John Shadegg - to vote against that Medicare prescription drug bill.

And I’ll also note here that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) criticized McCain and the other conservatives at CPAC on Saturday for voting AGAINST the creation of the new prescription drug entitlement, telling the audience he was “very proud of the Medicare bill.”

No one, and I mean no one, argues that the prescription drug bill would have passed if “The Hammer” (DeLay’s nickname) hadn’t twisted so many Republican arms (and broken House rules) to get it passed. The result? CNS News reports this morning that “U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress (last month) that the $8.4 trillion in unfunded liability in the Medicare prescription drug program actually exceeds that of the $6.8 trillion unfunded liability in Social Security.” Lovely.

Recall, also, that it was DeLay who declared in 2005 that there was no more pork in the federal budget to cut, while McCain constantly rails against it.

But DeLay is the “good” conservative and McCain is the “bad” one?

Also on Saturday, Newt Gingrich delivered a major address to CPAC, saying, “I believe that this is a time for the conservative movement to issue a declaration of independence. . . . In a fundamental way, the conservative movement has to declare itself independent from the Republican Party.”

Every conservative needs to read the transcript of Newt’s remarks on this subject. Click HERE

I’ll leave you with this bumper sticker I picked up at CPAC last week: “Lib-er-al, noun, (1) Someone so open-minded that their brains have fallen out.” My home-educated daughters love it!

P.S. The post office is raising the cost of a first-class stamp…again. Talk about a first-class rip-off.

Posted on February 12th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National