Frank Creel vs. Tom Davis - VA 11th District

From: Frank Creel [fcreel@crosslink.net]
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 8:15 PM
Subject: August 26, INCLetter
for August 26, 2002

This newsletter is published by the Independent National Committee (INC), a coalition of political parties dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the Constitution; to the sovereignty of the United States of America; and to the guidance of Providence in the formulation and execution of our national policies.
We offer in this newsletter an alternative perspective on national issues and invite the American people to compare our positions with those of the Democrats and the Republicans, who, in our view, have not proved themselves worthy stewards of our national destiny. Readers are invited to visit the INC's website at www.usincspot.org.

Readers can also gain a wider understanding of the principles that motivate the INC by visiting the websites of entities exhibiting sympathy or giving their unqualified support for the INC such as the Independent American Party at www.usiap.org , the Tennessee Independent Party at www.tennesseeindependent.tripod.com , the Constitution Action Party at www2.ari.net/home/CAP/ and the Prohibition Party at www.prohibitionists.org.

FOR THE REASON EXPLAINED IN THE SECOND ITEM, BELOW, THE INCLETTER WILL BE SUSPENDED FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS!!!

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America has reached a critical foreign policy juncture. The choices we as a nation make in the next three to six months will be among the gravest and most consequential in our nation's history. The wrong choices could well set us on a path at the end of which our very survival as a politically unified and economically vibrant country could become problematic.

The extreme gravity of the situation is highlighted in part by the notes of caution recently sounded by such stalwarts of the Republican establishment as General Brent Scowcroft, Jack Kemp and Dick Armey.

My own judgment is that their warnings were too timid and joined by too few others to restrain the war fever being pressed upon President Bush by the clash-of-civilizations hawks, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, Richard Perle, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. I hope I am wrong about that.

I believe I can speak for the entire Independent National Committee in insisting that, prior to any invasion of Iraq, Congress must be fully consulted, that the proposed invasion be thoroughly debated in both Houses, and that there be formal authorization by public recorded vote of the Commander-in-Chief's proposed military action. These are bare necessities for the maintenance (restoration?) of our constitutional order.

Due regard for the lessons of searing national experiences also demands caution. Vietnam, for those who remember it, taught us that any military undertaking beyond the continental, insular and territorial dimensions of our nationhood must have the understanding and support of the American people. Neither undebated nor hasty war can claim historical warrant in the American tradition. Again, I think all or most of the INC's executive committee can endorse this rooted perspective on the American experience.

I stress that what follows from here on represents my personal judgment and that it may or may not reflect even the majority opinion of the INC. I present these views because I consider it my duty at this grave time and in the trust that they will receive a considerate hearing by those who may not have a settled opinion. I also hope that those who disagree will indulge me and be assured that I will continue to give their views a considerate hearing.

America will be in the gravest peril of its history if it embarks on a war with Islam. We have unparalleled wealth and unchallengeable military resources; but economies are fickle beasts, and military might without a steady underpinning of prosperity can be rapidly depleted. Demographically, because our civilization is so firmly embedded in the contracept-and-abort hedonism of our age, we are at a distinct long-term disadvantage.

We should not delude ourselves. If we slide into a war with Islam, it could last a century or more. The cost in lives and treasure and liberty would make the Thirty Years War look like child's play.

None of what I have to say on this subject should be taken as an apology for Islam. The Koran has both peaceful and warlike passages, and throughout history Muslims, much like their Christian adversaries, have alternately availed themselves of both. Contemporary Islam does, indeed, appear to be growing progressively antagonistic toward the rest of the world. This unfortunate development may have a lot to do with Muslim resentment having an inverse relationship with their distance from past glories.

September 11 was either a proper or perverse expression of Islamic principle. If the latter, it should have been condemned by Islamic orthodoxy much more quickly, universally and vigorously than it was. If the former, if, that is, Osama bin Laden's Islam is the true Islam, then the decent Muslims of the world should be reexamining their adherence to it.

In the final analysis, however, such considerations are an internal matter for Muslims to decide, and the Christian West can have little influence over the course of that internal argument. Our efforts are best directed toward living our Christianity, both as individuals and as nations, as well as we can, and toward discerning where our permanent national interests lie.

We have no interests to be served by entering into a protracted period of hostility with the Muslim world. Those who seem so eager to push us in that direction are serving something other than the interests of the American Republic.

When I was 15, I had a teacher, a Catholic priest no less, who advocated a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The USSR, he argued, was in the control of communist madmen who would have no compunction obliterating us as soon as they were able to accomplish our destruction. Therefore, it was our moral duty to strike first. Don't ask me how a Catholic priest can justify advocating an action that would result in the slaughter of millions of innocents.

We now know that, even though we considered Stalin and Khrushchev murderous madmen, they could be successfully deterred, and the arguments of that priest are now clearly exposed as alarmist, even quaint. The Perles, Kristols and Wolfowitzs of our time will eventually seem equally quaint, armchair strategists who have never seen a day of combat but who nevertheless find themselves qualified to goad history's most good-hearted nation into a terminal struggle with one-sixth of the earth's population. Fools they are, as are any who follow after them.

Jingoism confused with patriotism leads, more often than not, to objective treason against the nation. May God protect us from that folly.
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The reason the INCLetter will be suspended for the next three months is that I am on the ballot in the 11^th District of Virginia, running as an Independent against Tom Davis, fifth-ranking Republican member of the House. Davis is going for his fifth term and presently serves as chairman of the Republican National Congressional Campaign.

I jumped into the race after it became clear that the Democrats were not going to field a candidate against Davis. This was partly because Davis won in 2000 with 62% of the vote, and the Democrats preferred to divert their campaign cash into tighter races - but also, partly, because Davis is a typical, "moderate"; Republican, a Republicrat, whose views and votes don't endanger core parts of the Democratic agenda.

With no Democrat in the race, I reasoned, this would be an opportunity to gain some exposure for the Independent alternative to the Republicrats. With no lesser-of-two-evils calculus operative in the campaign, people could safely vote their consciences, and we would discover at the end of the race just how large and energetic the pro-life, Second Amendment, right-to-work, school-choice and national sovereignty constituencies are.

So I am running for Congress. My campaign website is at FrankCreel.org.

I am not naive about my chances. Davis has almost a million dollars left over from his last campaign and can easily raise much more than that. He has the Chamber of Commerce endorsement and rich developers (the social equivalent in Northern Virginia of the world's J. R. Ewings) firmly behind him because he is so firmly in their pockets. His name recognition, of course, is close to 100%, a lot of voters think highly of him, and he is a smooth campaigner.

No political analyst in his right mind would think I have the slightest chance of upsetting him.

Still, as I said in my first press release, this is America, and we hold elections, not coronations. Davis clearly does not feel threatened and will undoubtedly do his best simply to ignore my candidacy and trust that the media will do the same.

Also, Davis has already committed a serious campaign error, the kind of mistake a political novice like myself might be expected to make.

On August 6, Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican whose stands on the issues are virtually identical to mine, won a special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat. The biggest issue in that race was Cuccinelli's vociferous opposition to a regional sales tax referendum on the November ballot.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is, in effect, saying to the voters of Northern Virginia: "Look, we tax you a lot but can't afford to fund all your transportation needs. So we're graciously giving you an opportunity to tax yourselves some more to make up the difference."

That doesn't sit well with a lot of voters.

Davis had supported Cuccinelli's "moderate" opponent in the primary. After Cuccinelli's special election victory, the topic of the day was how important his opposition to the sales tax referendum had been.

Davis's public response last week was "not much." And he came out in support of the sales tax hike. My reading of that is that his overconfidence caused him to take an avoidable misstep.

What really makes the race interesting are the national implications. If this no-name, low-budget political novice knocks off the chairman of the Republican National Congressional Campaign, it would be a political earthquake off the Richter scale, especially if it cost the Republicans their majority in the House. More important to me, it would give those pro-life, Second Amendment, right-to-work, school-choice and national sovereignty constituencies a major boost onto the national political stage.

If you are a member of one or more of those constituencies, you will not find a congressional race in the country where your political dollar will be more leveraged IF I should eke out a victory. And, because Davis is so weak on the issues and slippery in his principles, I think I can beat him if I can spend one dollar for every ten Davis spends. If you can't send cash (Creel for Congress, P. O. Box 1430, Centreville, VA 20122), at least send up some prayers.

When I discussed with my family whether or not I should undertake this Quixotic adventure, my daughter extracted only one promise from me: That I remember to have fun in the doing of it.

That, I am working very hard to do. It will be even more fun if I can count on your support.

Frank Creel
Chairman, Steering Committee

As for welfare and subsidies, I am a strict contructionist of Article One Sec. 8 and very much opposed to an expansive reading of the "general welfare" clause (which Madison rightly pointed out would have the effect of negating Art. One Sec. 8's enumeration of powers).
The part of the War on Drugs aimed at destroying crops overseas and interdicting supplies is a waste of resources, which should be directed toward reducing internal demand. That, in turn, is primarily the job of parents, schools and churches, but it would also be nice to have capital punishment for drug kingpins, with the only escape from the death penalty being a plea bargain based on a capital conviction of someone higher up in the supply chain. And, finally, such laws should be enacted by the sovereign states, not by the federal government, which, because power corrupts, seems to have the nasty habit of making everything it touches rotten to the core. If there weren't so much money in the drug business, fueled principally by American insatiability for the stuff, overseas poppy and coca farmers would be planting something else, and drug kingpins wouldn't be so wealthy that they can raise private armies.

Independent faces uphill battle in race
By MICHAEL NEIBAUER
Journal staff writer

Frank Creel is fighting the good fight, and losing.

The Arlington resident is an independent candidate running on the Constitution Party's ticket against four-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-11th District. Davis defeated his Democratic challenger two years ago by 28 percentage points, but has no major party opponent this year.

``I think it's going as well as can be expected," Creel, 61, said Tuesday. ``He's got a lot of money in his war chest, universal name recognition and I think he's a pretty effective campaigner. People don't take my campaign seriously."

A political novice, Creel estimates 90 percent of district residents don't know he's a candidate. He doesn't live in the 11th District, has raised a couple hundred dollars and has only a few volunteers, mostly high school students he said are ``just doing their homework."

And if taking on a popular congressman wasn't difficult enough, Creel also is playing tug of war for attention in the year of the sales tax referendum, a ballot question he vehemently opposes, but Davis supports.

Creel had no intention of raising the referendum, a regional half-cent sales tax increase for transportation, as an issue during the campaign until Davis endorsed it.

``I think it's Tom Davis who's acting like the political novice, not I," he said. ``It's not even a federal issue, and he federalized it."

Raising the sales tax, Creel said, will create new bureaucracy but not fix Northern Virginia's transportation mess. The answer lies in smarter growth, staggered work hours and strengthened local government zoning power.

``I have a chance," Creel said. ``I think this is going to demonstrate the power of single-issue politics."

Larry J. Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said the referendum might be Creel's only opportunity to garner some name recognition and send a message. If he can connect with the anti-referendum forces, he could, at least, get some votes.

``He has absolutely zero chance of winning, or even coming close," Sabato said. ``If you're a third-party candidate in this kind of environment, you better try to ride a wave to shore. And the biggest wave in Northern Virginia is the tax referendum."

Creel follows the Constitution Party's credos, which are pro-life and include unconditional gun ownership, limited government and elimination of the federal income tax.

Under his proposal, the personal income tax would be phased out over 10 years and replaced with a corporate income tax. The corporate tax would then be eliminated after another decade and substituted with ``the original constitutional order," a reliance on custom duties and apportionment to the states.

It is a workable proposal, Creel said, as long as it is accomplished in conjunction with a forced downsizing of the federal government.

``I'm an incrementalist," he said. ``I understand you can't administer shocks to the economy."

Creel also opposes a war with Iraq. He said it would have ``long-term catastrophic political consequences" and domino into a war with the Middle East, one the United States might be locked into for 100 years.

He retired two years ago from the Department of Commerce after a 27-year career. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and served in Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader, for which he earned a Bronze Star.

Davis' campaign, meanwhile, says it is not taking Creel's challenge lightly.

``We're taking our race extremely seriously as we always do," said John Gibson, Davis' campaign manager. ``We have opposition on the ballot, but even if we had no opposition on the ballot, we'd still do mailings."

Davis met Creel once, at last month's Centreville Day Parade. The challenger has asked Davis to debate, but has not yet received a response.

``Tom is a strong believer that once you stop working," Gibson said, ``people take you for granted."
http://cold.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/ffx/story.cfm?paper=ffx&section=fp&snumber=05

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