Red State Alert: Tomorrow's (Wednesday) column will be about a great, conservative institution:  Grove City College, which is 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, just off I-79.  I'll tell you why I much prefer it to the Ivies and other "prestige" institutions.  Thursday's column will return to a big question: are people like Bob Novak, Pat Buchanan, and George Will really "conservatives?"  Or are they right-wingers of another era who are increasingly out-of-step with today's conservatives?  I think they're the latter.   


I just read David Strom's TH article, "The End of the World," and I thought: "If the end is near, I'd better do some more jokes, so . . .

Here the world's coming to an end, and I had something important to do and I FORGOT WHAT IT WAS.

The world can't be coming to the end because that would mean my wife's soap operas would have to come up a conclusion.

If the world came to an end, who would be left to despise the liberals?

If the world came to an end that would mean the guy with the sign was right!

Another TH article says "Democratic Leaders Discuss New Iraq Plan": I hear it involves having the soldiers discard their guns, wave little white flags, and sing, 'Give Peace a Chance.'"

New jokes, every day, all the time -- unless the world truly does come to and end!YOU'RE ALWAYS WELCOME AT THIS BLOGS, WHICH OPERATES 365 DAYS PER YEAR WITH NEW COLUMNS (AND ORIGINAL HUMOR).  THE GOAL IS TO MAKE THIS A MUST-SEE SITE, AND YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME.  PLEASE BOOKMARK THE SITE AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS!  In the last 5 days, we've had an incredible 1,000-plus visitors.  Thanks to all of you.

 

 

Question:  Can Heather Wilson part the waves?  Answer: No, but if you read about her life, you’d swear she can walk on water.

 

Question: How does somebody like Congressman Jack Murtha look at Heather Wilson?  Answer:  Sort of like a vampire who’s just been hit between the eyes with a silver bullet.

  

“For all have sinned, all have fallen short of the Glory of God.”  (St. Paul in Corinthians)

 

Many years ago, a man named Mickey Littman, father of my first girlfriend, Judy, took a standardized New York state test in 8^th grade mathematics.  He got everything right.  However, when the test was returned, it had the 100% crossed out and replaced with 99%.  Next to the adjusted grade were these words: “Nobody’s perfect.”   When I heard the story, I said, “True, nobody’s perfect – except Mickey!”

 

 

And, just maybe, Heather Wilson, a member of the House of Representatives from the 1^st Congressional District (CD) of New Mexico.   Her electoral victories there – and she’s won four times – are surprising, because the 1^st CD (Albuquerque and surrounding area) is heavily Democratic in registration and went strongly for John Kerry in 2004.   She’s an Anglo who gets elected and re-elected in a district that’s 43% Hispanic.

 

Frankly, she’s one of the finest and smartest elected officials in the country, and if things were fair in politics, she’d be inaugurated someday as President of these United States.  As it is, she’s under constant attack, most of it mere mudslinging, from liberals. 

 

In fact, one of the few accurate points in Bob Novak’s recent column on Republican House members is that the liberals have set their sights on defeating Heather. In the last election, George Soros types from across the nation poured in millions of dollars to defeat Heather.  To the credit of 1^st CD voters, the effort failed. 

 

In 2000, the national Republican Committee directed significant campaign funds her way, on the grounds that Heather had “star power.”  Frankly, national Republicans need to do that with more young candidates – like Diana Irey of PA – who have great potential but limited access to campaign funds.

 

In the 2006 contest against a Hispanic opponent, state Attorney-General Patricia A. Madrid, 211,000 were cast -- and Heather won by 871. The Democrats run candidates of Mexican heritage against Heather – her opponent in the previous two elections was Richard Romero – and she beats them.

 

Who is this “awful” Heather Wilson that the liberals love to hate?  She’s the wife of a respected Albuquerque lawyer and the mother of two young children.  Also,

she’s a graduate of the Air Force Academy and is the first female veteran elected to the U.S. House.  She has a Master’s Degree and a doctorate from Great Britain’s Oxford University. 

 

How did she get to Oxford?  She won a prestigious – and rare – Rhodes Scholarship. 

After leaving the Air Force in 1989, Wilson served as Director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control on on the first President Bush’s National Security Council.  Later, she founded Keystone International, Inc. in 1991 to promote business development in America and Russia.  In the mid-1990s she served as Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Children, Youth and Family.

In the House, she serves on two important commttees, Energy and Commerce and the Select Committee on Intelligence.  She’s an active member of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's caucus

Her husband prefers to stay out of the limelight.  Like Heather an advocate for youngsters, he spent his young adulthood caring for foster children.  He adopted one, a son, who’s now a successful musician in Europe and remains his adoptive father’s greatest fan.  He assists Heather with the care of their children.   

She’s obviously impressive, but don’t get the idea she’s a goody-goody.  In her 2004 campaign, opponent Richard Romero ran ads suggesting that she’d indirectly aided bin Laden by voting against a bill requiring the close screening of cargo containers.

Wilson fired back with an ad reminding voters that that capital-punishment-opponent Romero  “opposed the death penalty for child molesters who kill their victims."  Memo to future opponents: Don’t get his woman angry.

You may be thinking what I do:  that somebody like Heather probably should scare away serious competition.  But the Democrats would like nothing better than to destroy her. 

 

In 2006, she faced her strongest opponent, liberal Democrat and New Mexico Attorney-General Patricia Madrid, herself a take-no-prisoners campaigner. 

 

The two women had some memorable debates. 

 

What did Heather Wilson say about immigration, a touchy subject in a district with so many Hispanics?  She said that she was against amnesty and strongly for border security.  Her opponent, Madrid, played ethnic politics, waffled all over the place, and basically embraced amnesty.

 

Also, what did Heather say about another difficult issue: abortion?  She said she was pro-life and opposed abortion except in case that truly involved rape, incest, or the life of the mother. 

 

On the other hand, Madrid said she wanted to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare.”  Those are liberal code words that essentially stand for maintaining the status quo. 

 

Throughout the campaign, Madrid attacked Heather constantly.  For instance, she raised the issue that, in 2002, Heather had received $3,000 in campaign contributions from a group associated with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

 

(Madrid neglected to mention that her own Political Action Committee had accepted a $100,000 donation from a New Mexico gambling entrepreneur.  Madrid had done him a big favor with a decision she made regarding a gambling application by an Indian tribe.)

 

A 2002 campaign contribution of $3,000?  Please.  The Wilson-Madrid race wasn’t only monumental in its national implications but in its cost, which added up to $7 million-plus.  Sad to say, perhaps, but in modern federal politics, $3,000 is peanuts – and certainly not enough to influence a person of Heather’s stature. 

 

By now I hope you’re getting the point.  The Democrats, desperate for their “jobs” (elected or appointed offices that they see as lifetime positions) will stop at nothing to do damage to people like Heather. 

 

Of course, that fact deters other good people from running for office – so we end up a Congress loaded with corrupt liberals like Howard Jefferson ($90,000 in the freezer),  Alcee Hastings (impeached and convicted as a federal judge and later elected to Congress), and John Murtha (voted one of the 25 most corrupt congressman).   They hang around forever, plotting how to get rid of people like Heather. 

 

What can you do to keep people like her in elected office?   You can support Heather by contributing – even $10 or $20 would help – to her campaigns.  Also, you can contact friends or family who live in the metropolitan Albuquerque area and urge them to support Heather.

 

If you’re REALLY serious about re-electing her, think about spending some time in the area in October or November as a campaign volunteer.   God willing, I’ll be there for a day or two.  (I can’t afford it, but I can’t afford not to.)

 

Granted, as St. Paul – and Mickey Littman’s math teacher – put it, nobody’s perfect.  We can’t claim perfection for ourselves, and we shouldn’t demand it of someone like Heather Wilson. 

 

But we need to acknowledge the tremendous contribution this woman has made to her district and nation.  She deserves my support – and yours.


ALL YOU EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MSM -- in response to Hugh Hewitt's blog saying that no network evening news program attracts even 3% of the American people:

"The Center Will Not Hold"

I think the link to the golf tournament may be preferable. The 3% figure is misleading. Network AND cable (even, sob, our beloved Fox) news are incestuous. They all play the same car bombings 24X7 -- that is, when there's no new footage on Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, or Knute the Panda. Network news is totally incoherent, and a shocking number of people who watch it thus have no consistent view of the world. That's why the audiences end up full of fear (of Iraq, of their health, of their shadow) and loathing (of GWB, of their government generally, of anyone -- like us -- who says things are unsettling). The media convey a message of individual powerlessness, because they focus only on things where the "center does not hold" and we are helpless to prevent -- mindless school shootings, celebrity rants and drunkeness, tornadoes, global warming, idiocies by Harry Reid, etc.. They intensify the sense that things are happening over which we have no control, and thus we need the government to save us! I write on my own site that the things the media "teach" us are mostly balderdash, but I don't yet have 3% of the American people to read my columns. I'm working on it, trust me. Come visit -- and ask 9 million or so of your fellow Americans to join you! We can either do something positive -- or wait for the end together. It's your choice. steve maloney (still fighting the good fight in ambridge, pa)

ON TH TODAY, THERE'S A HARD-TO-FIND PIECE ABOUT WIKIPEDIA, THE ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA THAT'S OFTEN VERY BIASED AGAINST CONSERVATIVES AND FOR LIBERALS.  WIKIPEDIA, UNLIKE SAY, STEVE MALONEY, PORTRAYS HEATHER WILSON AS A POLITICAL SLEAZEBAG, WHICH IS -- TO PUT IT NICELY -- A DAMNABLE LIE.  THERE'S HOPE, THOUGH, GO TO HTTP://CONSERVAPEDIA.COM, WHICH IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO WIKIPEDIA.  IF YOU HAVE EXTRA TIME ON YOUR HANDS, GO THROUGH THE PROCESS I DESCRIBE BELOW IN MY COMMENT.  YOU'LL FIND WIK'S FOOTNOTES IN CONFLICT WITH THE WILSON ARTICLE.  WIK ALSO "LEAVES OUT" DAMAGING INFORMATION ABOUT WILSON'S LAST OPPONENT, A LIBERAL.

Ah, Wikipedia.  Here's an exercise: read the article on Heather Wilson in my blog on Tuesday (today).  Then, read the "Wik" article on Congresswoman Heather.  Next, read the footnotes (especially the last one about Heather's stepson and husband, who get along great, which the article doesn't suggest is the case.  Finally, read the opensecrets.org. piece about Heather and the 2006 election, especially the section dealing with Heather's opponent's receipt of $100,000 from a N. Mexico gambling kingpin.  At the end of that process, you'll know everything you need to know about Wikipedia and its bias.  The publication hates Congresswoman Wilson and throws more mud than the Miss. River.  Alternatively, just read my piece, and you'll get the essence of Heather.