You’ll recall over a year ago, the AJC reported that Oxendine’s campaign for Governor got $120,000 in $12,000 installment from 10 Alabama PACs connected to Oxendine’s friend, and hunting partner Delos “Dee” Yancey III.

Well, the State Ethics Commission opened an investigation, and subpoenaed the 10 PACs in Alabama. The PACs told the State Ethics Commission to get bent, the SEC’s jurisdiction doesn’t apply in Alabama. So the SEC subpoenaed Yancy’s firms in Georgia.

Those firms dragged their feet, then filed a lawsuit in Fulton Superior Court saying that the State Ethics Commission shouldn’t be allowed to do their job this close to an election, because some members might be politically motivated. Who ever heard of political appointees being politically motivated?

Anyway, Fulton Superior Court Judge Kimberly M. Esmond Adams ruled that all hearings into this matter be postponed till she holds a hearing on the matter. After all, why should GOP Primary voters be informed about the candidates they are voting on.

The State Ethics Commission held some debate on what constituted “this matter” – the subpoenas from the firms in question or the entire Oxendine investigation. They had initially determined that the court’s ruling applied to Yancey’s firms only, but today the AJC is reporting that the State Ethics Commission has decided to cancel a scheduled hearing into the entire investigation.

Clearly someone has something to hide.

Similarly, my decision to vote for the Democrats in the Gwinnett races is easy. The Gwinnett County Commission voted earlier this year to have the county run all trash service. While trash service is hardly the most critical issue facing me and my family the fact that my trash bill went up 40%, not to mention that Republicans are supposed to be for LESS Government means that the elected GOP leadership has lost its credibility with me. I will not be voting for the Democrats as much as against the Komissars on the Gwinnett Commission.

That leaves me with the question of who will receive my vote for President, Senate and US Congress. For those who haven’t yet figured it out from my previous posts, I’m livid at the Republican Party. Christopher Buckley said it best in National Review: “Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.” And let us not forget the hysterical theatrics that has become airport security and the gross incompetence that was the Katrina effort.

Ronald Reagan famously said: “Government is not the solution to our problems, Government is the problem.” George W. Bush said “When people hurt Government has to move.” I guess it’s true, George W. Bush does hate black people (whites, Asians and Hispanics too) if he thinks that when people are hurting that they need more problems. Of course, that is not how Bush, Cheney, and Rove think. They, along with the majority of the GOP leadership in Congress, believe that Government is the solution to all problems, so long as the right Republicans are running things. It is for this reason that I can take some solace in the fact that President Obama will have Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and 59 other Democratic Senators. Together they will use all the expanded powers of Government that Bush and those who supported him created. If Hillary’s FBI files were a concern in the 1990s, image the fun Attorney General Clinton will have with the Patriot Act and warrentless wiretaps.

The GOP had a once in a lifetime chance to actually do something positive for this country. Instead of reform, we got the K-Street Project. Instead of fulfilling the Contract with America they passed No Child Gets Ahead. Instead of Energy Independence, they monkeyed around with Daylight Savings Time.

Finally, let’s not forget the $1 Trillion dollar bailout. I don’t object to bailing out Wall Street. Wall Street is the oil pump of our economy – generating the lubrication that moves money through out the American and Global Economies. Without Wall Street, our economy would be stuck in the 19th Century. Edison, Bell, Ford all were possible because of the capital created by bankers and investors in New York. I don’t object to rich CEOs getting bailed out. I object to anyone who makes bad decisions getting bailed out.

But what I most object to is the fact that Henry Paulson and George Bush screamed “OMG its the end of the world!!!!,” and within a week Congress spent several hundred billion dollars. This is the same George Bush who screamed that Saddam Hussein would be nuking American cities if we didn’t go to war. The same George Bush who said that Al Qaeda would hijhack more airplanes and kill more Americans if we didn’t pass the Patriot Act. Bush’s modus operandi for getting his legislative initiatives passed by Congress was to threaten Armageddon. And by and large, the GOP dominated Congress blindly followed along. Including John Linder and Saxby Chambliss.

Both of those gentlemen have demonstrated that they are not independent thinkers, and that they will blindly expand government whenever the White House screams bloody murder. Neither of them deserves to be sent back to Washington DC. But that doesn’t mean I won’t vote for them. While Linder has been a do-nothing in Congress since he became a cult-leader, he did oppose the bailout bill. While Chambliss blindly followed the President on the War, entitlement expansion, and the nationalization of the banks, he did have the foresight to support immigration reform.

John McCain has been different. John McCain, unlike certain Presidential Candidates, opposed the Bush Administration’s bad policies while still in office, not after he lost reelection and was desperate to stay politically relevant. John McCain opposed No Child Left Behind. He opposed the Prescription Drug Benefit. He called for more troops in Iraq while Rummy was letting soldiers die rather than admit his mistakes. John McCain has been steadfastly opposed to earmarks. Finally, he bucked his own party’s base to try and solve the tough problem of illegal immigration – in a limited government, free trade manner. It’s for these reasons John McCain is one of the few Senators whom I respect. We don’t agree on everything. I think McCain-Feingold was a bad and unconstitutional law. He has not convinced me that government action is needed to combat climate change, although I remain open to being convinced. I find the rhetoric about greed a bit disturbing. It was greed that funded the likes of Edison, Bell and Ford.

The other choices on the ballot are pathetic. A US Senator who hasn’t finished his first term. Who runs on a campaign of “Change” yet selects a running mate who was first elected to the Senate while John McCain was still a POW. A man who promised to clean up politics, who then reneged on his public funding pledge. Who wants to punish hard work and success in order to “spread the wealth around.”

How about a washed up ex-congressman, and a Vegas bookie? Anyone who thinks Sarah Palin is unqualified yet votes for Wayne Allan Root is a hypocrite. Barr might have been credible if he ran against Saxby & Martin. Buckley might have been credible if he ran for the state house. But neither have any interest in elective office. Like all top-ticket LP candidates, they run to gather a database of fan-boys who they can then bleed for whatever scheme they dream up for after the election. Unfortunately, they bleed folks who, if they were really interested in personal financial responsibility, should be saving and investing their money so that they won’t need to be dependent on government largess.

So I think I will vote for John McCain. Despite the horrid campaign he has run, thanks in large part to the same advisers and myrmidons that have made George W. Bush the worst President since FDR, I still respect the man, and find it hard to vote against him. Especially since to vote against John McCain will mean a vote for one of two greatly pathetic tickets.

The dilemma is with regard to Senator Chambliss and Congressman Linder. There is much to be said for giving the Democrats the 60+ votes needed to ruin this country quickly rather than slowly, so that reform, revolution and rebuilding can begin sooner rather than later. I’m not entirely sure I want to jump into that briar patch. I’m not of the financial means to retreat to a villa off the coast of Italy and watch the empire burn. Perhaps it would be better to delay the pain and suffering till I’m in a better position to bug out. And the larger and harder the drubbing the GOP gets, the faster it will attempt to reform itself and present an actual alternative to the big government Democrats.

Sic transit gloria America

“A new poll shows that the two longtime Republican elected officials from Alaska, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, face serious obstacles to winning reelection.”

The GOP will never regain a majority until it sheds itself of the likes of Young & Stevens.

While it might be premature (he hasn’t announced) I’m endorsing one of the strongest fiscal conservatives in the General Assembly: Senator David Shafer.

Senator Shafer is a tireless champion for the taxpayer. He has opposed tax increases, even when the Republicans proposed them! He has led the charge on both zero based budgeting and spending limitation. His zero based budgeting bill passed both the Senate and House this year, and his idea to return budgetary surpluses was incorporated into Senate Resolution 20, and at least one version of the Speaker’s tax reform initiative.

Most big thinkers are not effective lawmakers, but David is the kind of guy who both thinks outside the box and knows how to translate ideas into law. Tapping the Tennessee River to secure a long term supply of water for North Georgia, creating a privately funded Umbilical Cord Blood Bank to save postnatal tissues and encourage nonembryonic stem cell research and deregulating cable and telecommunications to improve customer choice are among his many initiatives.

David is talking with financial backers and I have no doubt that he can raise the money to be the effective. He is one of the top GOP fundraisers in the state, with a large network of donors and plenty of political IOUs from the candidates and elected officials he has helped.

He is the type of candidate who can bring the various factions of the Georgia Republican Party together. He was an early and strong backer of both Casey Cagle for Lieutenant Governor and Karen Handel for Secretary of State, he will be able to work with the next Governor, no matter who that might be.

If you agree with me that David Shafer would make a great Lieutenant Governor, drop David an email david at vote david dot com and encourage him to run.

Still, if any of us had been secluded for the past seven years, a description of the Bush years without attribution would likely have had most any Republican assuming a Democrat had been in control. Is there an explanation for this? The first one would be that all politicians disappoint. By definition. Beyond that, given the statist direction taken by the Republican party in this decade, it’s fair to ask if it any longer represents laissez-faire growth. Many would point to the even harsher anti-growth views held by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but it seems a lot of their stances at present are pure politics.

Even if they’re not, it would be hard to find an administration in modern times that has been more interventionist than the present one. That in mind, stinging losses for the GOP may be just what the doctor ordered. Indeed, maybe the pain of being out of power will force them to look inward, and in doing so, perhaps understand that when a Democrat runs against a Democrat, a Democrat always wins. ( RealClearMarkets – Articles – Is the GOP Still the Party of Economic Growth?)

Last week, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) vetoed a transportation bill that included a provision objecting to the federal REAL ID Act. The bill would have required the federal government to pay 95 percent of the cost of issuing national IDs before Minnesota would participate.

Sign me up! I’m all about forcing House Republicans to abandon Bush’s support for No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, earmark abuse and run-away government spending. I find it curious however that Speaker Pelosi would want to help House Republicans abandon the very mistakes that helped her get where she is today.

Perhaps she realizes that its easier to be in the minority and whine and complain than actually build coalitions to get legislation passed.

I still think its a trick.

When Wall Street is donating to the Democrats you know the GOP has f’ed things up royally.

Some well-known business leaders have openly changed allegiances. Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive John Mack, formerly a big Bush backer, now supports Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. John Canning Jr., chairman and chief executive of Madison Dearborn Partners, a large private-equity firm, now donates to Democrats after a lifetime as a Republican. Recently, he told one Democratic Party leader: “The Republican Party left me”

Its not just a few people who have jumped ship, donations are down across the board:

Federal campaign-finance reports document shifting support in some quarters of the business community. Hedge funds last year gave 77% of their contributions in congressional races to Democrats, up from 71% during the 2004 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan analyst of campaign finances. Last year the securities industry gave 45% of its money to Republicans, down from 58% in 1996, the center said.

“Personally, I would not have gone on Dobsons show and made a confession of any kind,” says Armey, who counts himself a Gingrich admirer. “My own view of the troubles of the Republican Party is that there have been many times over the years that Republicans have gotten themselves in trouble with the electorate by trying to make the Jim Dobsons of the world happy. But it isnt possible to make Jim Dobson happy. His occupation is not to be happy. Why give him what he will never receive?” (Ever the Speaker – washingtonpost.com)

Republican’s obsession with pandering to evangelicals turns off a large portion of the conservative/libertarian independents. They tolerated it when Republicans were cutting government, taxes and defending the nation. But when the Republicans in Washington increased government spending and screwed up the liberation and rebuilding of Iraq, while spending their time being complete media whores over Terry Schaivo, that middle dropped them like the lying sack of …. they were.