Our choice in 2018 will be between Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Sandinista Lisa Brown. Lisa came by that nickname honestly. At the tail end of the 45 year long Cold War, Lisa, a full grown adult in her 30’s ended up on the wrong side. She went to Nicaragua to help the Sandinista government as an economics professor. Here is a link to an old UPI article about the distress of Lisa and her fellow volunteers upon the Sandinistas losing the election in 1990. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/02/28/Sandalistas-cannot-bear-to-see-the-Sandinistas-lose-power/4413636181200/
Lately Lisa Brown has been Chancelor at the new WSU medical school in Spokane and is now running for Congress. Below is a letter to the editor describing why I think she is unsuited for this office.
After appointment to her $300K Administrative Bloat position at one of our TWO ! State Funded Medical Schools in Spokane, Lisa Brown joined a “Fact Finding” trip to Cuba. From stateofreform.com “What motivated your participation in this trip to Cuba?” Lisa’s answer- “The health care focused nature of the trip, especially the chance to learn more about Cuba’s neighborhood based primary care system since we’re opening a community based medical school here at WSU in Spokane”
There are four things to “learn” about the Cuban health care system.
- When Fidel needed good medical care, he imported a Spanish Doctor or went to Spain.
- Cuba is a prison. What works there is not appropriate here
- Cuba is a Communist Dictatorship. Their statistics on infant mortality and anything else are self-serving lies.
- A Doctor in Cuba can make more moonlighting as a prostitute in a tourist hotel.
The KGB used to call people blinded by their left wing preconceptions “useful idiots”. Lisa earned her nickname “Sandinista Lisa” in 1990 as a volunteer supporting the Sandinista government.
We don’t have a good choice, but we do have a clear choice. I’ll have to vote for Cathy again.
If I run in 2020, see below.
Before you make your decision on this office please watch these two YouTube videos.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers reply to President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address.
My State of the Union Reply YouTube Video
There is a message in the race for the Republican Nomination for President that should be considered in this Congressional race. The establishment candidates have done poorly with the voters. The anti-establishment guys, Trump and Cruz were the last two standing. Now it looks like we have Trump as our nominee. Jeb Bush, the establishment favorite, spent $130 Million to little effect. The message is that the Republican Base is fed up with the Republican Establishment. Keep that in mind because there is nobody more Establishment than Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
I have voted for Cathy McMorris Rodgers 6 times now and will again if I have to, but I am running against her for Congress. There are three main reasons :
- Disappointment with her 2014 Miss Congeniality reply to the President’s State of the Union Address.
- her support for passing a “comprehensive immigration bill” in 2014,
- she is part of the inept, timid and bought off Republican leadership that often does not fight.
State of the Union Reply: In 2014, a couple weeks before the State of the Union Address, President Obama threatened to use his pen and his phone go around congress if they would not make the laws he wanted.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers was chosen to give the State of the Union reply. It was an example of inept and timid. She had 10 minutes of unfiltered access to the whole country. She wasted 5 minutes on her unremarkable life story and the rest on boilerplate politician vision drivel, and by the way, Obamacare is bad. That is it, a total waste of time. It was like she was running for Miss Congeniality. I was disappointed and a little embarrassed for her.
If I had given the State of the Union reply:
- I would have called out the President on his threat to use “my pen and my phone” to go around Congress and rule by executive order like in some Banana Republic
- I would have called out the President on Iraq. He was handed a Victory in 2009 that had cost us 4,500 lives and a Trillion Dollars. It was his to consolidate, not throw away. He threw it away. By 2014 the disaster in that region was already unfolding. Cathy did not mention it.
No one will mistake me for Miss Congeniality.
On Immigration: In the last 20 years we have had the House 16 years, the Senate 12 years, the Presidency 8 years. We had all 3 from 2003 through 2006. Our immigration laws have not been enforced for the last 20 years. This is not an accident, it is policy. It is a dishonest policy of both parties. Our labor market is flooded with millions of desperate illegals and and nearly a million H1B Visa tech workers, effectively indentured to the companies sponsoring that visa. This holds down wages for the benefit of big donors and pleases the Open Borders crowd at the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and the US Chamber of Crony Capitalists. The Republican Establishment is bought off. The short sighted stupidity is that these immigrants incubate future Democrat voters. There is no way the Republicans can out pander the Democrats to win these people’s votes. We are importing a Democrat majority.
In 2014 Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Immigration. Cathy came out for passing a “comprehensive immigration bill” that summer. She said she’d support a bill that grants legal status to undocumented immigrants, allowing them to remain in this country to work and go to school while they wait their turn in the current system. “We’re going to have to push that this is a legal status, not amnesty,” she said. They get to stay, it is amnesty. We know they are not going to pay a fine and back taxes and learn English or be deported. We have 20 years of history to look at. HOW STUPID DOES SHE THINK WE ARE? Republican leaders dropped this plan when Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated in his 2014 primary where immigration was an issue. Trump’s early momentum was due to the Republican base’s fury at the Republican leadership’s dishonest immigration policy history.
- I will always demand enforcement of immigration law, as written, and sponsor or support efforts to accelerate deportations of all illegal aliens convicted of crimes.
- I will never vote for amnesty, by any name, and as a start, I would sponsor or support efforts to quickly deport any illegal alien who does not speak, read and write English at a 6th grade level. This inability is prima fascia evidence of a short residence here and / or lack of interest in assimilation to our culture. If they don’t want to assimilate they should not be here. My goal would be to deport at least half of the illegal aliens and turn off the magnet of jobs and the social safety net that draws them here. This will be a humanitarian nightmare, but it must be done for the good of our country and for the good of the failing states producing the immigrants. See my Immigration page for a full discussion.
On many issues I would vote like Cathy, but on some vital issues I would buck the leadership, for example:
- Unlike Cathy I would have voted against the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015” that turned the Treaty Clause of the Constitution on its head and gave Obama his Agreement without consent of the Senate. This act was a gutless plan to fail. See the Republicans Plan to Fail page for a long discussion.
- Unlike Cathy I would have voted with the majority of Republicans to use the 2015 Debt Limit Extension to fight for significant budget cuts. She voted with Republican leadership and Democrats to pass the Extension without a fight.
They don’t have to win every fight, but they must fight, to set the stage for the next battle. Keep in mind that after the 2013 Government Shut Down over the debt limit extension, Republicans got the blame, but they still made historic gains in the 2014 elections, increasing their majority in the House and retaking the Senate.
- There have been dozens of symbolic votes to repeal Obamacare, in the face of a certain veto even if the bill got through the Senate. But in the 5 years since Obamacare became law the Republican leadership can’t come up with a replacement bill. They want to beat something with nothing. It makes them look stupid.
We need a Representative that is more interested in representing the Republican base than advancing up the “leadership” ladder. That would not be Cathy.
We need a Representative that is more interested in protecting our borders, our jobs and the composition of our electorate than in insuring a constant influx of cheap labor for big donors. That is not Cathy.
We need a Representative that will try to use the position to engage with constituents and try to lead when important decisions come up for a public vote. An example would be our current choice for the Republican nominee for President. A leader would engage in the conversation with their constituents over the clear choice we had between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. She would state her preference and the reasons for it. Instead, Cathy has her finger in the wind, she would not take a position or discuss the issue. At a Town Hall in Dayton on April 6 and two in Pullman on May 3 Cathy would not state a preference and in Dayton would not even commit to support the nominee of the party. At that point I would have supported Ted Cruz with enthusiasm.
Now Trump is our nominee and I will vote for him. A week after Cruz and Kasich dropped out, Cathy is still doing her fan dance on endorsing Trump. She had her chance to endorse a candidate during the primary and sat on the fence. Her endorsement would have shown us where her head was at and whether she had any political courage. Her fan dance now, and thinking that her endorsement matters now, does show us where her head is at. It is where the sun don’t shine.
See my Trump for President page. Since he has been all over the place on many issues and less than specific about how to achieve his goals it is kind of hard to know how he will govern. We will survive Trump with our freedom intact because he will be so closely watched by everyone. The Press will start doing it’s job of holding the President accountable rather than cheer leading for Obama. If Hilary wins, our freedom is in danger since she will get a free pass from the Democrats and the Press. In 8 years she would get to nominate up to 5 new Supreme Court Justices. Hilary’s court would soon allow “Hate Speech” laws restricting our First Amendment rights. The Second Amendment will be reinterpreted to eliminate the individual right to keep and bear arms.
We need a Representative that will be strong vocal opposition to Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump if warranted, unlike Cathy who failed to use the opportunity of her 2014 State of the Union reply to call out the President. I would not miss such an opportunity.
If you were happy with the inept, timid, bought off and often stupid performance of the House Republican establishment leadership under John Boehner, then Cathy, his loyal lieutenant is your choice, because no one is more establishment than Cathy McMorris Rodgers. If not, vote for the other Republican in the race for Congress for Washington State District 5, Tom Horne.
Interesting topical LINKS, some linked in text above.
1. 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/28/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address
2. 2014 Republican response to the State of the Union address, by Cathy McMorris Rogers
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/state-of-the-union-2014-cathy-mcmorris-gop-response-102772.html
3. Candidate Obama’s promise to fundamentally change the Unites States of America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrefKCaV8m4
4. 2/10/10 Biden declaring Iraq as one of the “achievements of the Obama administration”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/02/vice-president-biden-iraq-could-be-one-of-the-great-achievements-of-this-administration/
5. Crony tainted green energy boondoggles
Solar Reserve – Crescent Dunes project: $737 Million loan guarantee. Long list of crony connections http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/maritanoon/2012/06/29/obamas_greenenergy_cronycorruption
Article with a list, with short descriptions, of 15 green energy companies most of which received loan guarantees, most of which have Obama / democrat crony connections and have gone bankrupt. Starts with Solyndra. Lots of links in the article to specific cases.
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/maritanoon/2012/09/30/obama_never_admits_green_failure
6. Obama’s Pen and Phone statement
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/01/14/obama-on-executive-actions-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone/
7. “A bipartisan plan was passed in the Senate last spring but made no headway in the Republican-controlled House. McMorris Rodgers echoed the concern brought up by many in the chamber, saying she wants to see stronger border security. But she said she’d support a bill that grants legal status to those undocumented immigrants working toward citizenship, allowing them to remain in the country to work and go to school while they wait their turn in the current system. “We’re going to have to push that this is a legal status, not amnesty,” she said.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/apr/25/mcmorris-rodgers-says-aca-likely-to-stay/