Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

Every athlete knows the importance of the follow-through.  Once you hit or release a ball, it will not reach its intended target unless the athlete stays engaged until the projectile is well on its way to the desired destination.

If the 2010 election was about cleaning out the entrenched political elites who have run up a staggering national debt and mortgaged our future, then the 2012 election must be about the “follow through.”

Gone are the days when voters can afford to wake up a couple of weeks before an election and, once it’s over, hit the snooze button for another two years. Read the rest of this entry »

The bobble heads who rule the two major political parties refer to outsiders as “wing nuts,” which is short for “right-wing nuts.”  No bobble head ever views a left-winger as a “nut.”  If so, he or she keeps quiet about it.   To do otherwise might make one appear  “extreme” and the left-wing bobble heads, which dominate the news media, would say or write mean things about them.

Bobble heads are those little plastic dolls that are images of major the political figures. They show up every election year on the dashboards and office desks of the party faithful.  Unfortunately, party leaders, behave in much the same way as these miniature  characters.   With the slightest breeze or movement, the heads of these dolls bob up and down on a spring.  They are incapable of nodding right to left as if saying “no.”   In fact, the party establishment seems incapable of saying “no” to anything proposed by the party’s top elected official, no matter how unreasonable or harmful an idea may be.     Read the rest of this entry »

Next week, Arizona voters have a chance to do something really important for the Republican Party.  Eliminate a key RINO (Republican in Name Only) and clean out some deadwood in the United States Senate.   John McCain has been a major stumbling block for conservatives for decades.

In an interview with Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum said this about his former colleague.  “ On almost every major domestic policy issue that I dealt with over the last six years anyway when I was in leadership of the Senate, John McCain was not just on the other side . . .  (he was) condemning people who hold the position opposite to you and sort of buying into these fallacious arguments that the left would argue on and everything from . . . importation of drugs to global warming to immigration.”

Unfortunately, Arizona voters have short memories.  Maybe it’s the summer desert heat.  Maybe it’s their age.  (Arizona has a larger than average retirement community).    Maybe they are blinded by the beauty of Sarah Palin who had no choice but to endorse her former running mate.  More likely, it’s his $20 million media blitz against a worthy primary opponent, J.D. Hayworth. Read the rest of this entry »

When an earthquake hits, once the shaking stops, those still standing breathe a sign of relief.  The uneducated assume the danger has passed and go on about their business.  The wise, head for an outdoor clearing or seek appropriate shelter knowing full well that the first tremor can be a foreshock of a much bigger earthquake to follow.

On Saturday, a political earthquake occurred in Utah.   Senator Robert Bennett, an 18-year veteran and a member of the Upper Chamber’s Republican ruling elite, lost his bid for another six-year term, when he was  denied his party’s nomination at the state convention in Salt Lake City.

It’s hard enough to defeat an incumbent congressman in a primary and next to impossible to defeat a sitting senator!  Was this the “big one” in 2010, or simply a harbinger of things to come?  Read the rest of this entry »

The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program. Coming in a close second is the congressional incumbent.

He or she could be a complete nincompoop but, once in office, a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate has a staff that is tasked with carving out pork barrel projects to send back home so their member of Congress can say to the voters, “Look what I’ve done for you!” Read the rest of this entry »