"Steele-ing ourselves"

Like the old comic Eddie Lawrence used to ask; "What's the matter, bunky?" You say that you're not happy that the RNC Chairman didn't tell Sean Hannity that he thought the party could re-take a majority of the House of Representatives in 2010? You say that you're confused because he used to seem like a real 'go get em' kind of guy before he was elected? You say that you'd have liked to hear a little more "Mike London" and a little less "Al Groh"? (ask any UVA football fan what that means...)

Lost in this brouhaha is a qualifying statement that Michael Steele made right after the ill-fated, poorly received; "No, I don't think so." He said that he felt this way because he; "didn't know all the candidates, yet." I hate to say this to the faithful (But, I have been saying this to my radio show audience for some time before Mr. Steele's comments...); He's right. As Pete Townshend once wrote (in the Who's "Join Together"); 'It's the singer, not the song, that makes the music move along."

Can you name (without checking Wikipedia) the GOP chairman in 1979? Or the Democrat chair in 1959? Or even 1991? It was the CANDIDATE that inspired the community, not the party leadership. (BTW, the answers are; William Brock, Paul Butler and Ron Brown.) At a recent meeting, a local contractor said that he knew many young co-workers that are "prime candidates" for party membership; hunters, fishermen, Constitutional Conservatives, who showed little interest in joining the GOP. This is not an indictment of local chair Christian Schoenewald (who I count as a close friend, and a great party leader) or even Michael Steele (who I've met and thought he was much more inspiring than he's become lately), it just makes Steele's point about not knowing the candidate yet.

For example, here in my Virginia home there are 7 people, all with really interesting and diverse backgrounds, running for the GOP spot on the ballot to face Tom Perriello for the 5th District seat in the Virginia delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. I bring them all on to my radio show every Friday to answer three questions and, more importantly I hope that their visits will inspire some of the citizens to 'join together' so I put all of their contacts out on my website so that listeners can volunteer to help.

Which one is MY favorite? Though I run the risk of being lumped together with Michael Steele, I don't have one, yet. I'm hoping that one will, by the June 8th primary, become that person that inspires Constitutional Conservatives like myself up and down the 5th District and sweep into the house with the new majority leadership. Maybe that's more like what Michael Steele should have told Sean Hannity.

For now, though, let's do what we can to help the Haitians.

"Thanks for all the Fish"
JT

"It's a bit nutty." - A. Powers

Once finished getting a legal education at U.Va thanks to the G.I. Bill, Mike Stark has moved on to No-Va to continue promoting his socialist agenda and stopped calling my show to rant. He was back in his collegiate stomping grounds at Congressman Tom Perriello's town hall meeting in Charlotttesville (Which he misidentifies in his blog entry as a "tea party." Wouldn't Tom have been surprised!) and tried to turn the table on me. He wanted to corner me into tripping over my ideology and my healthcare reform plan (The one Eric Cantor, Diana Furghcott-Roth and Grace-Marie Turner said was so brilliant but Tom misunderstood.) but was unsuccessful so therefore claims to have "taken it easy" on me. Before you go read this or watch me brilliantly spar with him on video, I should warn you that several things that his readers said about me are not suitable for younger readers.

"A bag of tea with Joe Thomas"

Who REALLY cares about 'the poor'?

Today's "blog-cast" - Overheard at lunch with Bob McDonnell the other day; A listener was chastened for going to meet the GOP candidate for Governor of Virginia with the following; "Why do you like HIM? He doesn't care about the poor!" Well, let's look at that....

Government efficiency (and other oxymorons)

Today's "blog-cast"; The root of the word 'politcs'; Creigh Deed's proposal to make Virginia's government more efficient by adding more of it, the erroneous presumption that anyone, in Gov't especially, has any influence on someone's "Capital-L" Life and why Jefferson didn't like Cities.