Tomorrow (Tuesday), the Senate Republican caucus will meet in Washington to organize itself for the upcoming Congress.  More importantly, they will be debating new rules.

Senator Jim DeMint and others are pushing for a rule to BAN EARMARKS for Republicans – and he needs your help.

Currently, there are about a dozen senators that support the ban, but that’s not enough.

All conservatives should contact their Republican senators and let them know that you support the ban on earmarks.  Let them know that it is important for Republicans to set an example of fiscal responsibility and transparency.

It’s important that you contact them as soon as possible.

Call them, email them – or click here and send them an online fax.  You can even use our fax portal to send a note to all Republicans at once if you like.

Again, the meeting is next Tuesday, so contact them soon.

Now that we are seven months removed from the fight over the single largest expansion of government in US history, it’s a good time to take stock and point out some silver linings.

In a perverse sort of way, ObamaCare may be the best thing that could have come out of Obama’s first term as President. Had he and the Democrat leadership opted to push a more limited program that only extended to those who couldn’t afford health insurance, Americans may have gone for it, thus locking in yet another entitlement program that would metastasize beyond its original scope. But by overreaching they made the water so hot that the frog of public opinion can’t wait to leap out.

#1: It will eventually result in real conservative health care reform

The direct result of passage of the bill was the creation of a massive issue for opposition to organize around. So massive in fact that it may ensure that it will eventually be overturned in its entirety and replaced with a more market driven reform, something conservatives probably would have been otherwise unable to achieve without ObamaCare.

Democrats theorized that, as time progressed, the controversy would subside and Americans would come to like what the Democrats had done for them. Not so. The majority of the public saw passage of the bill in the face of massive opposition as an exercise in arrogance. A recent Rasmussen survey shows that fifty-one percent of Americans believe the new law will be bad for the county, and fifty-six percent favor its outright repeal.  read more »

Some general thoughts and observations on the 2010 Republican primaries:

Conservative Republican primary voters are angry.  OK, that’s obvious, but it’s who and what they’re angry at that is important.  For now, they are angry at anyone who even looks like they’re part of the "establishment", the result being a long overdue house cleaning.  For their part, most in the Republican establishment don’t seem to really have a gut level grasp of why.  Conservatives are not just angry and looking to take it out on someone, they are upset with having the GOP run by people who patronize them and then set about undermining their goals, or at least fail to effectively advocate them.

“Establishment” candidates have gone down hard.   The NRSC's endorsed candidates have now lost eight primaries to DeMint/Palin endorsed, Tea Party supported candidates.  They caused the problem by picking candidates that didn't represent the views (or ardor) of Republican primary voters in those states.  This is not a geographic phenomenon, it is national; as losers from coast to coast can attest.  However, some have decided to forgo the Republican label and run as Independents in November, (such as Florida’s Charlie Crist and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski).  This has only confirmed what many conservatives believed about them to begin with, that being that their primary concern was power itself, rather than conservative principles.  read more »

…. And it didn’t take more than a couple of shakes of a lamb’s tail either. For loosely organized, totally independent entities the Patriot groups are far faster and far more efficient than the US government under Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the Cirque Du Marximus.

Some would argue that it wouldn’t take all that much, and while I’m willing to grant some truth to that, I think all of us would acknowledge that our own party has a lot to do and not much time in which to do it, without taking any resources away from the drive towards November.

They’re talking about as many as 100 seats which could fall to Conservative candidates in the House of Representatives. Our Republican leadership has got to learn something it never did figure out when it had power before… how to lead. Instead, it forgot who and what we are supposed to be… and stand for.

These ‘moderate’ establishment types may be arrogant and devious, but even they recognize that the much joked about and maligned Tea Party Movement has become a political juggernaut. It was surprising that some of those guys didn’t suffer whiplash, with the speed that they changed direction on the Christine O’Donnell issue.

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Some general thoughts and observations about the Republican primaries so far...

* Conservative Republican primary voters are angry.  And for now, they're taking their anger out on anyone who looks "establishment".  The result is a long overdue house cleaning.  The establishment doesn't really grasp what's going on here at the gut level.  People are not just "angry" and looking to take it out on someone.  We're upset with having our party run by people who patronize us, then set about undermining our goals, or at least not effectively advocating them.

* The NRSC's endorsed candidates have now lost EIGHT primaries to DeMint/Palin endorsed, Tea Party supported candidates.  They caused the problem by picking candidates that didn't represent the views (or ardor) of Republican primary voters in those states.

* The "establishment" has only made things worse (for itself).  By openly attacking candidates supported by the Tea Party movement they have enflamed the grassroots with new passion.  Lesson: don't shoot a hornet's nest with a garden hose.

* We don't need the Senate.  Not right now anyway.  If the GOP takes the Senate (along with the House), it becomes easier for Obama to demonize Congress in his 2012 re-election bid.  Better not to have complete "control" of Congress when he's running for re-election.  Until we have a Republican President, it really doesn't matter as much.  There's no appreciable difference between having 49 Republicans in the Senate or 51, other than committee chairmanships.  So long as Obama is President and has veto power, a majority in the Senate doesn't really matter.  read more »