You Can Go Home Again

The American Spectator ^ | July 10, 2008 | Quin Hillyer

[oldtimer2]

You Can Go Home Again

By Quin Hillyer

Every so often it does a man good to go home again. On Monday night I was privileged to be asked to give a speech to the Mobile (AL) County Republican Executive Committee, which wanted a report from me as a conservative columnist on what I've seen in my two years back in Washington after spending the previous eight home on the Gulf Coast. (cut).

Finally, it is true, not some sort of pretense, that John McCain loves this country in the same deep, palpable, gut-level, and dare I say spiritual way that Ronald Reagan did.

As the old saying goes, McCain may be an SOB, but at least he is our SOB.

(cut)

I HAVE BEEN particularly critical of McCain on judicial issues, but the simple fact is that McCain's instincts, even if not deep interests, are on the correct side on judges, whereas every single judge nominated by Barack Obama would make O'Connor and Kennedy look like bastions of originalism and strict construction.

(cut)

The reality is that if on policy overall this country can at least maintain a holding pattern.

We will survive and thrive because this is, after all, still the nation that just celebrated its birthday while firmly knowing that we still are entitled by the laws of nature and of nature's God... to unalienable rights... secured by the consent of the governed... and guarded by our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Quin Hillyer is associate editor of the Washington Examiner and senior editor of The American Spectator He can be reached at qhillyer@gmail.com.

[oldtimer2]

Dead possum removal Hometown v Washington

Well, I've gotta say I was expecting some city workers to get there within another day after my call. But the city workers didn't come. Instead, some blond-haired city councilman came by with a shovel or something, probably swinging the shovel like a golf club, and scooped up the possum himself, and drove off. Who knew that being a councilman entailed giving a whole new meaning to "playing possum"?

Seriously, I've been grateful to Stephen ever since. But I can only tell the story down here, because if I tell it up in D.C., they'll get the wrong idea. If they heard about it in Washington, almost half of the Republicans in Congress would try to insert spending earmarks for their own particular districts for local possum removal. Just pass the possum pork, and put out the press releases. What's worse, probably 95 percent of the Democrats in Congress would see that and want to up the ante by creating a fully nationalized program of possum removal. Then they would offer an amendment to mandate Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements for all contracted possum removal, just to make the union bosses happy. And then they'd pass another amendment waiving the national "class action fairness act" in this instance so the trial lawyers could sue car manufacturers for building the vehicles that run over the poor creatures.

This column is a very good approximation of my feelings about this election. We need at least 4 years and maybe 8 to develop our first team.

[djsherin]

I agree.