This is a guest posting I wrote for On the Kansas Trail, a blog published semi-weekly by Vicki and Jessica Tiahrt.
On Saturday, June 26 the Olathe Republican Party hosted their annual picnic and straw poll. Candidates from Kansas’ Third Congressional District and those running statewide were invited to attend, pass out literature, and set up booths. Each candidate was also given a small allotment of time to speak.
I had worked that morning at the Edgerton, KS parade, so I arrived right after the picnic started – hundreds of people were already there, talking with candidates and their volunteers. The first thing I noticed, however, wasn’t the delicious smell of hamburgers being grilled by State Representative Arlen Siegfreid, but the sheer number of red Tiahrt shirts! With the estimated 800 or so in attendance, over a quarter were wearing the signature Tiahrt red, while nearly a hundred more proudly displayed their Tiahrt stickers.
Throughout the late morning and early afternoon, the buzz built as it neared time for Congressman Tiahrt to address the red shirt-saturated crowd. People were constantly coming up to our booth to speak with the Congressman and to snap a picture with our proudly displayed life-sized cutout of Gov. Sarah Palin, one of Rep. Tiahrt’s most recent endorsements – a list filled with conservative super-stars that builds daily.
When the Congressman was finally able to take the stage a few minutes after 1:30, the crowd erupted in to the loudest screaming, applause, and cheering heard for any candidate – many times over. In fact, Rep. Tiahrt was unable to begin speaking for over a minute as the crowd slowly quieted down enough to hear the microphone.
Todd spoke of our need as a nation to return to stalwart conservative values and of the ever-growing list of leaders and voters who have endorsed him. He discussed how he spent over ten hours on the floor of the House of Representatives fighting endlessly and tirelessly against Pres. Obama’s so-called healthcare reform package (while his opponent recorded videos outside the Capitol).
With the determination he used to fight to destroy the government takeover of healthcare, the dedication he used to never vote for a stimulus package, a bailout, or a tax increase, and the inspiration he gained from working to make a starting position as an underclassman on his high school football team, Todd Tiahrt will do something D.C. hasn’t seen in years. He’ll bring common sense to the madness. It’s not so much how long you’ve been in Washington, but how much Washington is in you.
With thundering interruptions every forty-five seconds, the Congressman was nearly unable to finish his speech during the allotted time. Those in attendance clung to his every word, cheering as loudly as possible. When he finished, they chanted “Tiahrt! Tiahrt! Tiahrt!” and applauded him for two solid minutes before the announcer was forced to re-take the stage.
As if anyone needed reminding of the incredible momentum building behind the Tiahrt campaign, Todd won an astronomical 73.6% of the straw poll vote, besting his opponent by an almost three-to-one margin, proving once again that he is the REAL DEAL for Kansas.
This weekend was a busy one for those of us volunteering for the Todd Tiahrt for Senate campaign. I took the two and a half hour trek up to the Kansas City Metro Friday night to help out with the numerous events the campaign had planned.
This morning, Michelle Hucke, George Weston, and a few others walked in the Edgerton parade. We met many families in Edgerton, and greatly enjoyed the time we spent there.
I’ll post a picture as soon as it comes up on Facebook
The biggest news of today, however, came out of Olathe, KS, where the Olathe Republican Party hosted their annual picnic and bell-weather straw poll. This yearly event has become a solid indicator of the end result of races in Kansas.
Today, in a stunning and thunderous victory, Congressman Todd Tiahrt won an incredible 73.6% of the straw poll vote, beating Congressman Moran’s lackluster 26% and leaving the other two candidates to mop up the rest.
This absolutely phenomenal outpouring of support by voters from all across Kansas is just another indication of the tidal wave of momentum that’s building in the Tiahrt campaign. We had supporters from as far away as Western Central Kansas, from Pittsburg in the South, from El Dorado, and, of course, the majority from the JoCO and KC Metro area – but even if you just included our KC Metro supporters, we still would’ve won over 69% of the vote. There were literally hundreds of “red shirt” Tiahrt supporters in the crowd!
Todd Speaking in Olathe
When Todd got up to give his speech during the candidate forum section of the event, he could barely get a word in edgewise over all of the screaming, cheering, and applause. In fact, the crowd was so thoroughly excited that he almost went over his allotted time trying to finish his speech! When he finished, we left the stage to a solid several minute refrain of “TIAHRT! TIAHRT! TIAHRT!” chanting coming from every “red shirt” Tiahrt supporter under the pavilion. Needless to say, the (very few) supporters of our opponent didn’t stay for very long afterward.
Kansas needs a conservative Republican representing them in the United States Senate, and that’s why I’m supporting Todd Tiahrt. That’s why Gov. Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Dr. James Dobson, and the Kansas Federation of College Republicans are, too. Won’t you join us?
In the past few days, we’ve been given two huge endorsements, one by the Queen of Conservatism, Gov. Sarah Palin, and the other by the second-most listened to talk show host in the USA, Mr. Sean Hannity.
Said Gov. Palin:
I’m happy to endorse Todd Tiahrt’s campaign to be the next U.S Senator from Kansas. Todd is a protector of our Constitution, a pro-family, pro-Second Amendment Commonsense Conservative who has never voted for a tax increase and has fought to end the wasteful spending coming out of Washington. He didn’t just stand on the sidelines complacently, but instead actually battled against the bailouts, the debt-ridden stimulus spending, the cap-and-tax energy schemes, and Obamacare. In fact, remember on the day Obamacare was being debated, Todd Tiahrt was on the House floor all day working to defeat it, and he’s helped lead the charge to repeal and replace Obamacare the moment it was signed into law. We can count on Todd to take on the liberal spending agenda of the Obama administration and fight for lower taxes, more individual freedom, and less government intrusion.
Please join me in supporting Todd Tiahrt’s campaign by visiting his website atwww.ToddTiahrt.com and following him on Facebook and Twitter.
- Sarah Palin
Todd Tiahrt: Palin Approved!
Now, I have to be honest. When I heard this news, I literally began running, jumping, and screaming. Sarah Palin is my hero, and for her to give us the honor of recognizing Todd as the true conservative that he is – it was just almost too much!
Then, as if you could actually top the Palin endorsement, Sean Hannity followed her lead and jumped on board Team Tiahrt as well, offering what some have said was a nearly two minute endorsement on-air on Friday, June 25. How awesome is that!
Momentum is skyrocketing for the Tiahrt campaign! We are excited and THRILLED at these endorsements and glad to have both Gov. Palin and Mr. Hannity on board!
For the sake of transparency, I wanted to let my readers know that I’m now volunteering with the Todd Tiahrt for Senate campaign as the Labette County coordinator and as part of the broader Southeast Kansas Power Team, headed by my good friend Michelle Hucke. I also wanted to say up front that I am receiving no financial or other compensation for this volunteer position or for any Tiahrt articles, images, or other items on my blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
But while we’re on the subject, I want to tell you why I support Todd.
I hope it’s become apparent to my longtime readers and Twitter followers that I’m not about furthering any one person’s agenda just because their rhetoric sweeps me off my feet. For me, it’s all about the conservative movement and how we, as citizens, can bring our government back inside the bounds we’ve set for it.
Every once in a great while, there comes about a candidate that truly has the ability and backbone to work for this same grand goal. In this Senate primary, that man is Todd Tiahrt.
As I hope you have seen, I don’t back candidates lightly. If you recall, it took me weeks to decide whether or not I would help the (pre-Palin) McCain campaign by doing anything besides voting for it. It wasn’t until after Palin was named VP nominee that I even campaigned for it instead of simply against Obama.
Once you meet Todd and his family, you instantly understand. Instead of the usual political garbage, you get authenticity and a feeling that you’re speaking with someone who’s actually listening, not just doing the head-bob that politicians are so good at. Fifteen seconds later, and after his surprisingly firm handshake, you realize he’s just like you; you come to understand that he could just as easily be your children’s football coach or the man who owns the local real estate agency. That’s because that’s who Todd is: a genuine, caring, and intelligent man who is one of us. Instead of D.C. changing Todd, Todd has changed D.C.
For me to support, endorse, and actually work for a candidate, I have to truly and wholeheartedly believe in them and what they stand for. #RealDeal is not just a Twitter slogan. I hope my support solidifies that idea for you, because it’s completely true.
Todd Tiahrt is that man, and he’s the real deal, Kansas.
Add it to my Christmas list: Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue was released this Tuesday. I’m anxious to read it, and from the excerpts I’ve been able to soak in, it appears to be a solid book.
I wanted to share a solid interview Palin did with Sean Hannity earlier this week. It’s one of her best and most decisive interviews I’ve seen and answers some of the biggest questions all of us have had regarding her decisions and the McCain campaign’s choices.
When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed Congress earlier this year, I knew it was only the beginning of a long four years under the Obama Administration. When President Obama was elected, he promised us, repeatedly, (Can I get a “Let me be clear…” anyone?) to run a transparent and honest administration, a goal I hope any political opportunist candidate lives up to.
However, mere months after the implementation of this so-called stimulus package, we’ve learned the “jobs saved or created” numbers were falsified and that someone got a little lax with their number checking regarding Congressional District numbers. But the whole point of this whole kerfuffle isn’t the fact that some Congressional District information was iffy.
The real issue here is the sanctity of the American Republic. What time machine did we step into that dropped us off in an alternate-universe called Soviet America? As The Next Right wrote today, “Politicians lie,” but never before in American history have we had an executive branch so blatantly use the 1984 treatment on figures and data with the expressed intent of creating more support for a political agenda.
But with lax legislative language regarding the posting of “estimates” (h/t TNR) of jobs created (or saved, whatever that means), it’s no wonder we’ve ended up where we are today. Language such as this is nothing more than a cop-out on the part of our elected officials. They provided enough wiggle room for themselves to claim accountability, but, at the same time, offer some justifiable deniability. It’s just “politics as usual” in Washington, to quote my favorite former Governor; we’re still beating the same dead horse named corruption. The problem is, she’s not really dead; the sleaze bags in Washington just renamed her.
Final thought: how much better would the world be if America could trust her leaders?
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has the political world reeling with her surprise resignation of the governorship on Friday from her Wasilla, AK home. Many conservatives, myself included, were in shock and disbelief after hearing the news. I was about to board a plane when I received a frantic text message from my younger sister: “Sarah Palin resigned!!” A quick Google SMS search returned no results, so I texted back, “Are you sure?!” As you may have gathered from my posts, I’m a huge Palin fan, and I was worried such a move would ruin the former VP-nominee’s future political chances.
Later that night and into the next morning, when I’d had a chance to read the transcript of her presser, I began to understand her reasoning. The fact is, no matter what she tried to do for Alaska, she would be unfairly brutalized by the press. Her effectiveness in Alaska ended after her McCain handlers forced her to continue the retched Couric interviews way back in the fall of 2008. She needed a chance to take a step back and regain control of her own public image, to give the American people, and the only way to do that was to cut her losses and leave elected office to travel the lower 48 (edit 1) to fill her rightful role as an independent leader of the conservative movement.
In recent days, Gov. Palin has been dropping hints of working toward a “higher political calling” and talked about how she feels she can do a better job helping the people of Alaska and the nation, along with conservative candidates, outside of the governor’s office.
So don’t lose heart, America! Sarah is just being Sarah and taking risks and wild leaps of faith no one else would dare do. She’s not leaving politics, she’s just following a different path. Will she run for Senate, write her book, or jump on the speaking circuit? Who knows? What I do know is anyone who counts her out is simply afraid of who she is and what she can become.
P.S. Don’t forget about SarahPAC! I’m guessing once Palin’s thrown off the restraints of public office, we’ll see her political action committee spring into even more abundant life.
Finally, we have it. Today Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska launched SarahPAC, a Political Action Committee dedicated to furthering conservative ideals and raising up worthy candidates. Specifically, the PAC believes in fighting for freedom and confronting “the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination” in the areas of health care, education, and government reform. Sounds like my kind of PAC!
“Drill, baby, drill!” lives on with SarahPAC as well. The PAC’s official site lists energy independence as a “cornerstone of … economic security.” As we learned from the campaign trail, the governor supports real energy independence, not just sources propped up by government spending and subsidies.
Keeping with the Rebuild mantra, the Governor and her PAC also believe that the GOP is in the process of reclaiming its conservative ideals and backbone with what it calls an “historic renaissance” and seems to follow the big tent conservatism idea with by “build[ing] a better future for all.”
We need someone like Gov. Palin to lead our party into the future. We need a leader with charisma and conservative ideals, and I believe she is the perfect match.
Continue to watch this space for more information. I’m encouraged by and supportive of Gov. Palin’s decision to form a national PAC, especially when so many conservatives have become disheartened and disenchanted with politics as a whole. I’ll be donating money, and I encourage you to do the same.
Joseph Cao became the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress Saturday night. Isn’t it wonderful how a Vietnamese-American can run for Congress and be elected? Look how far America has come! Isn’t it great?! Nothing like this has ever happened before!
Now wait a minute. What’s wrong with the paragraph above? One word: racism.
It’s true: Representative-elect Cao accomplished a great and commendable feat indeed with his election, for it proves once again how everyone has a chance in America. However, I like to think this isn’t a new development. I’m not denying racism exists, but I like to hold to the idea that everyone is created equal and has equal opportunities in our grand land. Some, convinced that race was the major factor in Cao’s win, not his conservatism, will most likely come out in the following days and advocate “forced diversity”, an idea that we should handpick minority candidates for their PR and vote-getting benefits, but I would argue that in order to move the conservative movement forward, we should focus not solely on gender, race, or, to a lesser extent, age, but more so on the issues and experience each person brings to D.C.
[I do not believe Cao was picked for this reason, and I am only using his name because of his recent victory. I'm using this as an example to prove my point. This idea is also yet another big reason as to why McCain lost.]
If we begin to pick and choose candidates based solely upon their race, how does that make us any different than those who voted for Obama simply because he’s black? I am by no means saying our party should remain (or become, in all reality) the party of grumpy old white men (thank goodness we’re not). However, diversity is not, nor can it be, a forced concept. A more diverse party base will occur naturally as we return to our Conservative roots. We will attract minority voters. How is forcing diversity any different than artificially saving a bank or insurance company by propping it up with tax-payer dollars? Forced diversity is not the answer.
For our country to move past racism, we must not ignore, but respect, race and ethnicity, but it must not someone’s sole qualification for office. We’ve seen where that can take us. Many said it was racism not to support Obama, but, in the same vein, why was it not sexism to bash Palin? Disclaimer: I am from a mixed ethnic ancestry, which includes Native American, European, and Jewish forefathers. I’m also a white male, which supposedly means I’m an ignorant bigot. Not true, but yet another example of discrimination.
My point is this: voting for someone based upon their race is just as bad as NOT voting for someone based up on their race. It’s still racism.
I say this to the Republicans who think we should be actively and seeking out minority candidates for the simple fact that they’re not Caucasian. Minority candidates will come on their own once we get a clear message that actually appeals to voters (i.e. true conservatism).
Each person should be viewed for who they are, individually. This gender and racial stereotyping nonsense has to stop. We are all Americans, equally. You are no less of a citizen if you are in the minority or the majority.
Just ask newly-elected Representative-elect Joseph Cao, Conservative Republican. Oh, and by the way, he’s also a Vietnamese-American who emigrated here after the Vietnam War.
——
I know I said some tough things in this article. If you’d like to discuss them further, or even put me on what you think is the right track, please leave a comment below. It was not my intent to lessen the importance of someone’s racial or ethnic background, but to point out that people have so much more to offer than their skin color or ancestry.
[This is an edited version of this post. I decided I'd tried to stuff too much into one article.]
Last night, Republican from LA-02 Anh “Joseph” Cao, whom I’ve mentioned here by name a few times before, won his bid for election to the U.S. Congress and defeated the indicted Rep. William J. Jefferson. Jefferson is accused of bribery, money laundering, and misuse of office. Cao will be a dedicated conservative, at least according to his campaign web site (See Ethics Reform and Public Safety and Economic Recovery). My biggest congratulations go out to Representative-elect Cao and his campaign staff and family. He’s exactly the type of man we need in Congress, especially from an area so fraught with corruption like New Orleans.
We had another victory last night in Louisiana’s fourth Congressional district. Republican John Fleming beat out Democrat Paul Carmouche with a 48%-47.7% margin. Carmouche has promised a recount, since less than 500 votes separate the two candidates. Provisional ballots have also not been counted, which could, but shouldn’t, tip this in favor of Democrat Carmouche. This win, coupled with Cao’s, was somewhat of a balance of power-swinger: Republicans now hold 6 out of the 7 seats in Louisiana’s Congressional Delegation.
I caught wind of Fleming’s bid for Congress late in the game, but I’m thinking I’m even happier for his election than for Cao’s, a man whom I respect (and whose campaign called me at 9:15 CT Friday night to travel to LA and help out in the office [I live in Southeast Kansas and said, "Sorry... do you have an online phone bank?!]) and admire. The more I look into Fleming, the happier I get. Take a quick look around his “Issues” pages, “National Defense” and “Republican Party & Conservative Values” in particular. The man campaigned on exactly what we have all been saying all along! Someone invite him to #TCOT! He mentions “radical Muslims” as one of the sources of terror in the world, a brave, but very true statement: the media won’t even call them “Islamic” any more. He also says we need to return to our Reagan-esque roots, that we got kicked out of Congress not because we were too conservative, but because once in power, we weren’t conservative enough! He sounds like my kind of Representative!
With Saturday night’s two victories, we have gained one seat in the House of Representatives and held another, bring the Democrats net gain down one.
Main point: Yes, we won two major battles last night in electing two more Conservative members of Congress (at what point do we drop “Republican” and “Democrat” in the U.S.?), and yes, we have reason to celebrate, but we should not think we have reformed the party enough or that we are by any means yet ready for 2010 midterm elections just because we’ve now won three special elections. We still have plenty of work to do, and it begins on the grassroots level, as I have mentioned many times before. The point I’m trying to make is that we can never let down our guard, we can never believe the job is finished, even if we elect a Republican majority in 2010. We must be always reforming, always looking for ways to eliminate pork and government waste. We must protect the helpless and punish those who hurt them. Government must grow smaller. That is the future of the Republican Party, with the Conservative Movement steadily at the steering wheel.
