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an election-year ploy designed to fire up the conservative base

I love the way they say this as though it's a bad thing. "Firing up your base" means "a conservative is saying conservative things to please other conservatives."

Well, duh. It's what they're supposed to do. It's what you hope to get when you vote for one. And, frankly, liberals are supposed to say liberal things to please liberals. That's just truth in advertising. It's when people say and do things they don't believe, purely in order to get votes, that "politics" means "dishonest."

"When I worked on [Capitol] Hill and Reagan was president, he just had a better way of going to the airwaves and co-opting his opposition," Bryant said. "I don't think [Reagan] had to bludgeon. These [Bush] guys would like to think they're as good as the team in place then, but I just don't think they're as skillful."

Keep on thinking this "ketchup lovers"! I love it when they "MIS-UNDERESTIMATE" our side...hee hee hee!!!

"Bryant said when Paige did "extend an olive branch" to the NEA, the union construed it as "showboating." Bryant acknowledged, however, that some of the resentment likely resulted from the union's backing of Democrat Al Gore in 2000".

The (No Education (in) America) (NEA) have ALWAYS been an arm of the DNC. They are precisely what Paige called them!

"From my perspective, as a lobbyist at the time, they were a little more tepid than some of us might have liked," he said. "But the reality was that WE were getting PRESSURE from our ALLIES on the Hill who felt this was the right direction to go in. Certainly our members were a little more RADICAL about how this could be happening.

"But WE HAD LOST the ELECTION, ultimately. We were on the LOSING SIDE if you will. It wasn't like we were driving policy," Bryant said. "If you have a significant number of the Democratic caucus tell you that they're going to back the president on this reform, you really can't stop it"."

This (by their own admission) is proof that the NEA is an arm of the DNC, and should be regulated by Federal Election Laws as such!!! THEY ARE NOT EDUCATORS!

"I don't know what [Paige's] personal feelings are, but IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER and WHO has it," Moody said. "He sees not only the NEA, but AFT and the other unions as POWER CENTERS and they're not always going to act in accordance with the POLITICAL GOALS of the administration. It's a power struggle."

Oh, I see! It's not about educating children; it's about YOUR UNIONS POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'Nuff said!

"But the Heritage Foundation's Krista Kafer, who testified on behalf of the No Child Left Behind Act, said Paige got it right when he ridiculed the NEA for "OBSTRUCTIONIST SCARE TACTICS."

"If you read their literature and some of the things they say in the press, they can be very melodramatic," Kafer said. "They attempt to SCARE people into thinking this is a HORRIBLE law, when in fact, what is the big deal in requiring schools to ENSURE that kids are reading and doing math at GRADE LEVEL? To hear them talk about it you'd think it was the worst thing in the world."

Truer words have never been spoken. Get rid if the NEA, and education will flourish. THEY ARE THE IMPEDIMENT TO EDUCATION REFORM, AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!

LLS