But, can she sing?

The talk shows were having a good time today playing the recording of Democrat New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton singing off-key.

Frankly, that would not bother me a twit if I thought she were the better candidate. In fact, if I thought she would make a good president, I wouldn't care if she couldn't spell potato either!

It's working!

Did you hear the news? There were more than insurgents killed in weekend fights in Iraq! This is a new development. Yes, it is with great sadness that we acknowledge more American deaths. That is sad. That is war.

Politics makes the strangest alliances, especially in 2008

Someone once said politics makes strange bedfellows, and that’s perhaps never been truer than it will be for the 2008 presidential election.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul filed the necessary papers on Jan. 11 to form an exploratory committee in order to raise funds for a possible presidential run in ’08.

While this story garnered all of almost 4 inches on page 4A of the next day’s San Antonio Express-News, I would have missed it completely if not for an alert reader’s e-mail. Obviously, Paul is an underdog.

While the traditional media overlooks his campaign in favor of the likes of Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, and Hillary Clinton, the blogs are all over it. The raves for Paul are filling the blogosphere faster than you can say cyberspace. Now the nine-term congressman from southeast Texas is the darling of the anti-war crowd as well as Republican-leaning Libertarians and Libertarian-leaning Republicans, and those in the Constitution Party and other fringes. Interesting bedfellows, indeed!

A more genuine candidate than Dr. Ron Paul is not likely. He speaks his mind, votes his conscience, and doesn’t play Washington politics. In fact, he doesn’t play politics, period. Paul is a friend of small business and may be the taxpayers’ best friend.

He may be anti-war but he is not anti-American. He is a statesman and perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime candidate. He loves this country and, despite his age, can work circles around folks half his age. “We have a hard time keeping up with him,” one of his staffers said to me when he visited Floresville a few years ago. Paul’s district included Wilson County for a brief time following one of the redistricting attempts.

If the Republican Party actually would nominate him, it means they really would have to make a change toward limited government. That in itself makes it unlikely.

While I’m not anti-war or anti-Bush, I am pro-listening to the solid reasoning of Ron Paul. Had anyone been listening in 2001, we might not be where we are with the War on Terror.

A press release from Paul’s office dated Oct. 11, 2001, shows that he presented Congress with a chance to give President Bush more options in fighting terrorism. “The President promised the American people that the federal government would use every available resource to defeat the global terror network,” Paul stated in that release.

Western intelligence in the Middle East is exceedingly limited, said Paul. “We should avail ourselves of the assistance of those with better information to track, capture, or kill bin Laden,” he said. Legislation he introduced would have allowed Congress to narrowly target terrorist enemies, lessening the likelihood of a full-scale war with any Middle Eastern nations. The legislation also threatened terrorist cells worldwide by making it more difficult for our enemies to simply slip back into civilian populations or hide in remote locations.

Every terrorist would have become a marked man, Paul concluded. “Congress should … give the president another weapon to supplement our military strikes.”

Perhaps Paul’s approach would have worked. We’ll never know, but it makes sense.

His ’08 campaign will be faced with having to attract sufficient financial and political support in order to launch a full-fledged campaign. He is expected to formally announce his bid in the next week or two, his staff said.

It will be a grassroots campaign at its best. Politics does, indeed, make strange bedfellows.

The State of the Union 2007

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, made the following statement Tuesday regarding the President’s State of the Union address:

“The President laid out a comprehensive, forward-looking agenda that addresses many of the key issues facing America today. As Governor of Texas, the President had a strong record of accomplishment in working with a Democrat-controlled Legislature. It is my sincere hope that Democrats in Washington will likewise work to meet the President halfway. The 110th Congress has started on a strong bipartisan note, but a lot of hard work remains. I hope both parties will continue working together in the best interests of the American people.”

War on Terror / Victory in Iraq
“The one thing we should all agree on is that our military men and women serving in Iraq, and their leaders, should be given a reasonable chance to execute the President’s plan. The President has made clear that the consequences of failure pose a serious threat to our nation’s security and economic interests. So the United States must unify in its effort to achieve victory and avoid playing politics with national security.”

Immigration Reform / Border Security
“I remain committed to seeking a comprehensive solution to one of the top domestic issues facing our nation. Congress has taken some steps in the right direction to secure our borders, but we can and must do more. This comprehensive effort will require improving border and interior enforcement by equipping law enforcement agencies with the additional personnel, up-to-date technology and infrastructure needed to carry out this vital mission. Also, we should implement a successful employment-verification system, which includes adequate information-sharing and the ability to identify theft and document fraud. And we need broader reforms of our broken immigration system to restore respect for the rule of law, while also protecting our nation’s security and the U.S. economy.”

Energy Independence
“President Bush continues to address a pressing challenge—increasing domestic energy production and decreasing our dependence on foreign sources. Greater energy independence is a key to our economic and national security. We need a consistent and strategic energy policy that efficiently utilizes our domestic resources, diversifies our energy sources, and invests in new and cleaner technologies, rather than to pursue expensive or punitive patchwork policies that do not produce long-term solutions. I will continue working with my colleagues to develop such solutions.”

Education Reform
“As we move toward re-authorization of No Child Left Behind, it’s time to return education decision-making authority to the state level, and renew our focus on results. Education is best left mainly to parents, teachers and local school boards. This is in the best interest of our country, our states, and most importantly, our children. I’ll soon join Sen. DeMint in introducing the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act of 2007, which will allow states flexibility in funding and innovation in programs to best serve their students. It will give parents and teachers greater influence in what happens in classrooms across America everyday.”

Access to Health Care
“I applaud President Bush’s efforts to address the rising cost of health care, increasing accessibility and affordability. Many Americans will see tax relief under this plan. It will also begin to level the playing field for those who do not get health coverage through their employer. This plan promotes a market-based solution to the increasing number of uninsured Americans. And it will allow more Americans to choose the coverage they want and retain it even when they change jobs—providing true portability and ownership of health insurance. In addition, I’ll soon co-sponsor legislation that builds on the President’s proposal and provides tax credits to low-income Americans to purchase health insurance.”

Economic Growth / Fiscal Responsibility
“As a result of the pro-growth, low-tax economic policies of President Bush and Republicans in Congress, more than 7.2 million new jobs have been created since 2003. The last thing we should consider doing now is raising taxes—as some Democrats would like to do. What we must do is rein in wasteful government spending and reform entitlements, which is perhaps the greatest long-term fiscal challenge facing our country. I believe the President is committed to greater fiscal restraint, and I hope my Democrat colleagues will work with us to tackle the serious economic challenges ahead while continuing to create good, high-paying jobs.”

Sen. Cornyn serves on the Armed Services, Judiciary and Budget Committees. In addition, he is Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee’s Airland subcommittee.

Cautious message of hope for the coming year

If we ever forget that we’re One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
— Ronald Reagan

Focusing on the Christmas message last week was difficult enough, but perhaps even more difficult to write is the New Year’s column for this week. It’s a struggle to come up with the usual words of inspiration, hope, and optimism.

Looking back on 2006, one sees the monumental problems that only will continue to fester in the coming year. Let us remember the words of Ronald Reagan, and take them to heart.

Truthfully, the year ahead will be filled with challenges that must be met.

Locally, our cities and towns each face their own difficulties and internal power struggles as they attempt to promote their economies. Wilson County is challenged with issues such as clean air, preservation of its water supply, transportation issues, and politics.

Texas has it own formidable obstacles, as its Trans-Texas Corridor puts it right in the midst of the NAFTA Super Highway controversy.

In Congress, newly elected officials are faced with programs, policies, and procedures already set in place. Hampering any progress, of course, is the usual politics of Washington, which will prevent any meaningful changes from either side of the political spectrum.

Foreign policy will continue to be affected by the big bullies in Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China, as well as all the little, ferocious factions in such miserable places as Nigeria, Darfur, Sudan, and other God-forsaken places whose citizens are being held in a stranglehold by terrorists. Terrorists by any other name still are terrorists and those people most certainly terrorize their populations.

And for the sake of the free world, all Americans must meet the challenges posed by terrorists throughout the world.
Aside from the global scene, there still remains the immediate need to deal with Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. Despite the best heroic efforts of our fighting forces, the Western media continues, even if unwittingly, to take the side of the enemy, presenting a pretty dismal picture overall.

But we Americans are a resilient people whose history is one of having fought valiantly for the freedom we now enjoy. Perhaps, however, it’s a case of having become too accustomed to the niceties that previous generations have earned for us through their sacrifices. Perhaps it has become more important for us to enjoy these luxuries at all costs.

Or, in the more eloquent words of William Somerset Maugham:

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too.

As we forge ahead in 2007, this is a lesson that must be learned if we are to continue as a free nation. Pray that it be so. -