THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

Today I am driving from Inyo County in Central California to Ridgecrest to speak to the GOP ladies there. Then it is off to see friends in Lancaster before making it back to Los Angeles.

Last week at the Oklahoma City Winter Conference of the National Federation of Republican Women, I got to meet former Oklahoma and CFL quarterback and Congressional leader JC Watts.

Mr. Watts is a religious man, and his passions for football and politics took a back seat to his ministry. Listening to him speak is soul inspiring.

I showed him a copy of my book "Ideological Bigotry," and told him that my life as a minority conservative was dedicated to fighting it. He responded, "I’ve been there man. Believe me I know."

He was in fine form from the minute he received a standing ovation to begin his remarls.

With that, I present the wit, wisdom, and warmth of JC Watts.

"When you stood up I thought you were leaving."

"In 1994 when I ran for Congress, the Oklahoma Federation of Republican Women gave me a check for $400. That was a lot of money for an Oklahoma seat back then. I didn’t know whether to cash it or hang on to it."

"Without Young Republicans and the Republican Women, there would be no JC Watts standing here."

"Today I am returning a $400 check. This is for the Oklahoma Federation of Republican Women."

"The College Republicans knew what my comfort foods were."

"In 1995, I weighed 249 pounds. I was one biscuit away from 250 pounds."

"I got confused when I read the Scriptures. Paul said we should buffet (buff it) our bodies. I thought he said we should buffet (buffay) our bodies."

"We should be inclusive but inclusion does not mean we abandon our values or who we are."

"When I started out in Eufalah, Oklahoma, big crowds would gather around. They were curious. They wanted to see what a Republican looked like."

"The Democratic leadership does not represent all Democrats. There are a whole lot of Democrats who agree with us."

"I have a plane to catch. So as Elizabeth Taylor says to her husband, I won’t keep you long."

"I said I would serve six years. I served eight. I didn’t keep my promise."

"The RNC was trying to maintain control, and they knew that if I stayed one more term, they would not have to spend one dime to keep the Oklahoma 4th District safely Republican."

"I have two kids in college, one at Tulsa and the other at Oklahoma. I am a United Negro College Fund."

"Now I am going to movies in the middle of the week. I used to go Sundays after Church."

"After 25 years of marriage, when my wife says something, I now realize that it is not abuot listening to what she says. It is about listening to what she means."

"When I tell her I am going to Walmart for 30 minutes, she does not care that I am going to Walmart. She just wants me to tell her."

"At 6:30pm, I like to watch Sportcenter. At 6:20pm, my wife came to me with a problem. At 6:26pm I figured out the solutrion and at 6:27pm I told her I had the solution. I still had three minutes until Sportcenter. She told me she did not want a solution. She just wanted to talk. She wanted me to listen to her."

"In politics, we listen to respond. We need to listen to hear."

As Glenn Beck says, if we ever get out of the mold of just saying things as conservatives and not by what is right, God help us."

"We are an exceptional nation, not an average nation. The other side wants us to be average."

"We are a nation of men like Henry Ford. He gave us the vehicle. Today they are the company not owned by unions and the federal government."

"There is a generation of kids today only knowing dependence on government."

"In DC children are no longer talking about what they want to be when they grow up."

"The strength of America is not in agriculture or energy or technology. It is in the people. It is in us. It is in our hopes, dreams, ideas, and goodness."

"I was a state official for 3 days in 1991 before the Gulf War began. If we traded our weapons for their weapons, we still would have won because we have our people, our human resources."

"The Gulf War was won with 10% smart weapons and 90% smart p0eople."

"Technology keeps growing. When I entered congress in 1995 a Blackberry was a fruit."

"Tell your grandmother that you want to Google her. Then you will look in the mirror and see false, false, false, and crown. She’ll slap your teeth out."

"An I-Phone and the internet means nothing if you can’t operate it."

"We can’t take leaps in politics because we are not concerned with the processes."

"It is not about being left-wing or right-wing. Pay attention to the bird. The bird is dying."

"I don’t want my kids to have a normal nation. I want them to have an exceptional nation."

"We don’t have a health care system in America. We have a sick care system. Everything is built around sick patients."

"We go around the world trying to help them with health care. If free markets, transparency, property rights, and low taxes are good enough for Kenya and Russia, then why not here in America?"

"In 1995 we inherited a welfare problem. We fixed it. They called us insensitive."

"They measure success by the number of people on welfare. We measure success by the number of people who move off of welfare and on to a better life."

"We are in a state of gracious decay."

"Gracious decay is taking place in Europe at Kumbaya conferences where they twiddle their thumbs."

"I will say this. President George W. Bush kept us safe. He protected us."

"The more we remove God from our public square, the more we contribute to the weakening of our nation."

"It is extremely difficult to comprehend America without God."

"The left want sus to depend on government."

"Not everyone agrees with me. Disagreeing with me shows how exceptional America is."

"America is not perfect. Even if we were perfect, the day I was born we became imperfect."

"I want our kids to dream."

"Most of my black football teammates started out as liberals. Then they got their paychecks and wanted to know who this FICO fellow was."

"I was a Democrat. Then I met former Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles. He sounded like my dad."

"The Church does not look like me. It looks like Heaven."

"The Republican Party does not look like me. It looks like all of us. I am a black man. NFRW President Sue Lynch is a white woman. Our Oklahoma party chairman is a white man. We are all Republicans."

"We are all sitting at the head table. Look at us. We are different, but the same. This is what the head table looks like."

I would like to thank JC Watts for firing up the room, and more importantly for giving me things to think about for many years to come.

The Republican Party is lucky to have had him, and America is blessed to have had his service.

He is a husband, father, retired football player, retired political leader, and man of the cloth.

He is you and me. He is us. He is American.

For that reason, he is exceptional.

eric

The Tygrrrr Express is bound today for Inyo County. Inyo is located in Central California. I will be speaking to their GOP. The warm welcome was extended by party chairman Thaddeus Taylor, who in an irrelevant tangent bears a slight resemblance to actor Jeffrey “Hey Now Hank Kingsley” Tambor.

I will not be covering President Obama’s interaction with Brett Baier because the only substance was provided by Mr. Baier. Mr. Obama made it clear that once the health care bill is passed, we will all see what is in it. He does not want to talk about process, which is his way of telling us all to shut up and do what he says. At least it was nice of Mr. Obama to finally realize that Fox News is not the enemy of America. If it still is, then Mr. Obama should be arrested as a collaborator. I look forward to the next time Fox News is demonized.

Yet today is sadly about Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden is the Barney Fife of the administration, a bumbling fool that seems to disobey the rule about keeping silent and being thought as such rather than speaking and removing all doubt.

Biden was sent to the Middle East so that Obama could try and get health care passed without potential stupid comments getting in the way.

Biden got into a dustup with Israel when they reminded him how little he mattered. What it lacked in politeness, the message resonated as truthful. The conflict over Israelis building on their own land led to temper tantrums by Biden, Hillary, and Obama. Mr. Obama deliberately picked the fight because he needs to attack somebody that he perceive will listen. The entire world stands up to him, so Israel was supposed to be an easy win.

The dustup had finally appeared to have settled, when Biden opened his mouth again.

At the Radio Correspondents Dinner, his attempt at a “joke,” was just plain stupid.

“I just got back from the Middle East. It’s great to be back in America where a boom in construction is a good thing.”

Maybe if a suicide bomber blew this guy’s hair plugs off, he would understand what Israelis go through every day.

The hypocrisy with which the media treats this man is ridiculous. Sarah Palin says things in a folksy manner, and is treated as if she were a moron. Joe Biden is a walking, talking gaffe, and the media shrugs it off by saying, “oh, that’s just Joe being Joe.”

Being a Democrat means never having to apologize for idiocy or other qualities that would get Republicans crucified.

This is the man who made a remark about Indians and 7-11. Somehow he was treated differently than George Allen, who made a very similar remark.

This is the man who expressed praise at how clean and articulate a black man running for president could be.

This is the man who wanted Iraq divided into three parts.

Now this is a man who finds humor in bashing Israel for having the nerve to try and survive knowing that the current administration is throwing them under the bus.

Barack Obama claims that we should be humble in our foreign policy, yet spends every waking minute away from health care trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government.

Joe Biden finds humor in all of this.

Maybe Saint Patrick’s Day had something to do with it. After all, this administration is very green, at least in terms of experience.

Joe Biden has 30 years of experience as a gasbag. If being the Mayor of Wasilla and the Governor of Alaska is insignificant, then surely being a Senator of Delaware is even less than that.

Israel is the size of Delaware, but Delaware is not under attack every day from Massachusetts or Iran.

Joe Biden is too intelligent to be so dumb as to write notes on his hand like Sarah Palin and the rest of the commoners. He does not need a teleprompter like his boss. He just recites the lines from others like Neil Kinnock and plagiarizes the words as his own.

Yes, it was 20 years ago, but why should this guy get a free pass? Why should “just Joe being Joe” be an excuse? When did speaking in an imbecilic manner become acceptable?

His idiocy is growing exponentially.

Thankfully the joke attacking Israel bombed, as did most of his jokes.

It was not funny, nor is the idea that a man who gets paid to take Obama’s kids to school publicly celebrates the lack of real actual work he does while collecting a paycheck as other Americans struggle.

Only a man this obtuse could take a potential international incident that was finally being smoothed over, and reopen the wound.

Israel has always stood besides America, and the current hostility in this administration toward Israel is long past excessive.

The vice president should do what everybody from the president to ordinary citizens in America and Israel expect from him. He should sit down, be quiet, and look like he is doing things.

There must be a ribbon cutting ceremony or funeral he can attend.

Speaking of funerals, more Palesimians tried to murder innocent Israeli today while Joe Biden was Bidening…excuse me, I meant clowning…around.

Dick Cheney is retired, but somebody please find an adult somewhere and send this kid Biden back to the minor leagues of Delaware Triple A where he belongs.

eric

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton expressed to Israel that they had their poor little feelings hurt. They were made to feel “insulted,” as if Israel told them that they don’t matter.

For once these people are perceptive. They are right. They don’t matter.

Joe Biden is the Barney Fife of the administration. Barack Obama is desperate to pass a health care bill, and he cannot afford to have anything or anyone screw it up for him. Coincidentally, Joe Biden was sent overseas on a useless trip. Expect this to occur every time a critical domestic debate occurs.

For those who have missed the last few decades, water is wet, the sun rises in the East, and Palesimians blow stuff up because that is their hobby. Taking up tennis or macrame does not have the same lure as bombing discos and pizza shacks.

Some Arab rejects who have been kicked out of every Arab nation they have ever lived in are now trying to take over all of Israel. Those who do not read Islamist textbooks in elementary school know this.

Now Israelis are building on land they own. This bothers Palesimians, because if Jews are building homes, it means they still exist. People who build homes have not been murdered, because dead people make lousy carpenters.

Luckily for Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to surrender. Bibi 2.0 understands that it is better to be strong and temporarily isolated than weak, beloved, and dead.

If ever there was a time for Bibi to commence mass building of homes, now is the time.

Barack Obama is on the ropes. He is obsessed with health care. Nothing else has his attention right now.

Additionally, Bibi has calculated that the penalty for saying no to Obama is…absolutely nothing.

Barack Obama tried to pressure Israel last year, and a 6% approval rating in Israel knocked him back on his ballet heels.

This week the White House officially surrendered. Sending Joe Biden to the area is proof that it is not a priority. Israelis then built, Biden and Hillary cried, and Bibi offered conciliatory words while building continued.

Hillary did not even fall back on diplomatic nonsense about how settlements are “unhelpful.” “Unhelpful” is the word used by diplomats to describe Palesimian murder of innocent Jews.

For those who still think that Israeli settlements are bad for peace, it is time for the finest mind on Earth to give a cold reality check to the geographically and logically challenged.

Sir Charles of Krauthammer laid it all on the line. The Earth intellectually shook, the world got quiet, and eternal knowledge poured forth from the wise man in glasses with the calm voice and the cerebrum of 100,000 men.

Mr. Krauthammer’s words are exactly like those of Obama and Biden except that his are correct, and they matter.

“The Secretary of State said that Israel has to show it is serious about peace. That is an insult. Israel has been looking for peace for the last 62 years. The Palestinians have not made one concession or taken one step for peace.”

I am less eloquent than Sir Charles, but I have a challenge for those who favor pressuring Israel out of a combination of ignorance and hostility.

Name one promise the Palesimians have ever kept (besides the vow to kill Jews. It has to be something positive).

Violence has not been reduced because Palesimians have seen the light. Israel just has better security. Palesimians are still trying to murder Israelis at the same rapid clip they always have.

Until the murderous death culture of the Palesimians changes and all violence ceases, then not one minute should be spent focusing on Israelis building places to house their families.

The only insult in this situation is the Obama administration continuing to insult the intelligence of people by trying to convince them that up is down, black is white, and Palesimians are normal. Suicide bombing is not normal.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Barney Fife need to spend less time harassing Israelis trying to build things and more time disciplining Palesimians and Iranian mullahs who blow things up.

Keep building Bibi. Build Bibi build. Build now, build early, and build often.

Your enemies can’t stop you, and your American “friends” are running away faster than a Palesimian with a dysfunctional suicide vest.

eric

A couple of days ago, I spoke to the National Federation of Republican Women in Oklahoma City. After one day of rest, today at lunch I speak to the Westchester Republican Women near LAX airport. Then in the evening I address the Culver City chapter of American Congress for Truth, Bridgette Gabriel’s group that focuses on combating Radical Islam.

While I had planned to spend more time this week on events in Oklahoma City, that will have to wait. Today is the battle over health care reform.

While this is a major issue, I have repeatedly refused to cover every nuance. All health care all the time is not my focus. I would cover an actual bill becoming law. However, a column in the Jayson Blair Times spurred me into action.

Before getting to the worst of society, that being the JBT, the best of society is fighting tooth and nail to defeat Obamacare. The NFRW has a link to every critical member of congress. Flood them with how you feel so this bill can be defeated.

http://www.nrcc.org/codered/targets

While I am opposed to this bill, I am aware that supporters of the bill will be calling their representatives and telling them to vote yes. This is democracy. If the people want this bill, and heaven help them if they do, then this bill will pass. All I ask is that whether for it or against it, liberal or conservatives, people conduct themselves honorably. Principles can be liberal or conservative, but people should at least have principles in some form.

This brings me to the Jayson Blair Times, run by people who have none.

Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger is human garbage. He is a vicious, left-wing bully who is willing to help drive his own country and his own newspaper into the ground in order to advance liberalism by any means necessary.

Despite repeatedly being cited for fraud, plagiarism, and overall shoddy journalism, the JBT finally today decided that we would all be better off if every human being lowered themselves to the pathetic gutter standards of the JBT.

A column on RealClearPolitics linking to the JBT said it all.

“Anti-Abortion Dems must cave for the good of reform.”

Are you kidding me?

For the umpteenth time, I am totally neutral on the abortion issue. I respect the fact that people have deeply held diametrically opposed views on this issue. If you feel that all pro-choicers are baby murderers or that all pro-lifers are intolerant religious zealots, shut up and get away from me. I prefer reasonable discourse.

Abortion is an issue that splits Democrats internally and Republicans internally. The health care bill the Democrats are trying to pass has been held up because Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer have a very different abortion position than Bart Stupak. Those ladies are pro-choice and Stupak is pro-life.

The Stupak Amendment continues the ban on government funding for abortion in health care. Right now abortion is an “elective” procedure, as is laser eye surgery, liposuction, and rhinoplasty. Making abortion an elective does not ban it. It just prevents taxpayers from paying for it. After all, taxpayers are not paying for lip rolls. Critics of this current law say it discriminates against poor women.

Again, I have not taken sides. However, if the goal is to pass a bill, a fight over abortion gets in the way. Therefore, if Democrat had an ounce of sense, they would remove the issue from the table and fight the abortion war later. This has to be done through status quo. Whatever the current law is now, leave it alone. If currently abortions were funded by taxpayers, continue that. Right now they are not, so the Stupak Amendment preserves the status quo.

It is Boxer, Pelosi, and her ilk that are getting greedy by trying to ram pro-choice provisions into a bill that is controversial enough without those provisions. Even many pro-choicers feel that if a woman wants an abortion, she should pay for it. In most cases, pregnancy is preventable.

Yet despite the fact that abortion is the policy fight, the JBT article is not about abortion. It is about a toxic lack of integrity.

Why the heck should pro-lifers cave for a “greater good?” Why should they abandon their principals just for a bill? What about pro-choicers caving? Why is it the pro-lifers that must cave? The JBT answers that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/opinion/15mon1.html?ref=opinion

“We strongly support a woman’s right to choose…”

That’s it. The JBT supports it, so everybody else should just shut up and drop their objections.

This is how liberals work.

When a liberal tells a conservative to “be bipartisan,” the liberal is really telling the conservative to “shut up and agree with me.” Liberals are noble and virtuous, while conservatives are either evil or imbeciles.

Who the heck am I to tell Barbara Boxer to stop being pro-choice? Who am I to tell her to just give up her deeply held belief that a woman has a right to choose?

Well who the heck are the left-wing human garbage at the JBT that have the right to tell Bart Stupak to stop being pro-life?

This man has a deeply held principle. He is fighting for what he believes in his heart is morally right based on his religious beliefs and convictions. This is what politicians are supposed to do.

There are plenty of self-serving politicians in existence. There are plenty of politicians willing to sell out their constituents in a heartbeat. Bart Stupak is acting on principle.

Only in a morally (and in their case, financially as well) bankrupt institution as the JBT should politicians be told to sacrifice their deepest principles to get a bill done just because the JBT supports it.

Anti-Abortion Democrats are told that for “All Americans,” they need to “show statesmanship.”

Liberals have not compromised an inch on this bill. Oh, sure, they have surrendered like Frenchmen when faced with the threat of being fired. Governing would sure be easier if those d@ng constituents would just shut up. That is not the same as coming to the table and truly wanting to be bipartisan.

Barack Obama wants to remake the entire health care system. For some on the far left that is not far enough. Adding an abortion provision is a poison pill, but these liberals are poison themselves.

Sure, some can say that Stupak is offering the poison pill because it is his amendment, but again that argument fails because Stupak is trying to preserve the status quo. Boxer and Pelosi are the agents of “change.”

Again, I oppose this bill. Yet I oppose it on principle, and those principles have nothing to do with abortion. The bill is a financial time bomb.

This is America. We can disagree, but we cannot and should not ever just betray who we are for the sake of expediency. If we do that we are nothing but empty shells.

I will not attack the patriotism of those favoring Obamacare. I believe they are wrong but well-intentioned.

I have only scorn for the Jayson Blair Times.

If the Obamacare bill funds euthanasia, then the Gray Lady should be the first one put to death like Old Yeller.

To hell with the JBT. Whether pro-choice or pro-life, liberal or conservative, don’t be like the JBT. Follow your principles.

eric

I had the honor and privilege of attending the National Federation of Republican Women 2010 Winter Conference in Oklahoma City.

http://www.nfrw.org

The Rennaissance Hotel is within walking distance of the Oklahoma City Memorial, making for a poignant weekend.

As expected, the conference itself and the people involved with the NFRW are fabulous.

My attendance came about because a couple of ladies in Texas took a chance on me. Toni Anne Dashiell (who was not in attendance) invited me to speak to several hundred women at the Texas Federation of Republican Women 2009 Convention in Galveston. At that event, I met Borah Van Dormolen, who recommended me to national headquarters. I again thank Toni Anne and Borah for their friendship.

At this time I want to say that anybody who thinks our current president (or any president for that matter) runs the world has never been to a meeting and met the ladies of the Republican Women’s Federated.

At the TFRW Convention, several of the ladies were talking to Governor Rick Perry. I innocently asked what they were asking the governor. One of the ladies kindly looked at me, smiled, and said, “They’re not asking the governor anything. They’re telling the governor what they want.” Sure enough the governor was obediently nodding his head up and down, and I am sure whatever he was being told, he did. When I attended the NFRW conference, I certainly knew my place.

I was one part of a very lively weekend.

The keynote speech at lunch was given by former Oklahoma and CFL football star and house leadership member J.C. Watts.

(In an irrelevant tangent, Mr. Watts is very religious. Therefore, when an Oklahoma woman once told me that she was guided in life by JC, I thought she meant Mr. Watts. I am Jewish, so it did not occur to me that she meant the other JC. She was amused.)

J.C. (the current living one) lit up the crowd and inspired us all.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele was not in attendance, but a representative from his office was there. Angela Saylor specializes in outreach, and she is bright, capable, and exactly what the RNC needs. I got to speak with her at length over dinner, and she is as intelligent and savvy as she is delightful. She was there to help the RNC and NFRW synergize.

As for the ladies themselves, they are awesome. There are three states in the union where I am fairly well known now, that being California, Arizona, and Texas. Those ladies greeted me very warmly, and introduced me to as many of their friends in the other 47 states as time allowed.

(I wish my networking for dating was this successful.)

Unlike liberal women in Los Angeles, these ladies also knew their football. The ladies in attendance from Wisconsin are all pro-#4 (Brett Favre for the non-football educated). They love their Green Bay team, but have no grudge against him for leaving.

NFRW President Sue Lynch is from Wisconsin. She is pro-Packers, pro-Favre, and quite beloved by her Republican Women compadres. Leadership starts at the top, and she has the group ready for 2010.

The slogan of the NFRW is 5W: “When Women Work, We Win.”

I will be blunt and say that without the NFRW, the Republican Party would not win much of anything, anywhere. These ladies are the ones who do everything from holding fundraisers for candidates to knitting sweaters for the troops. They are also a volunteer organization. They give their time because they deeply believe in Republican principles.

They do not get involved in issues that divide Republicans, nor do they make endorsements in primaries.

They understand that what unites us is what makes us stronger as an overall party.

I spent a decent amount of time getting to know many of these women.

Suzanne Crow of Louisiana made sure that I had a smooth experience. I did, and she was the reason for that.

Freida Von Schillen of New York took me under her wing for a decent amount of the convention.

Lisa Roper of Texas was one of the younger ladies there, and she is obsessed with helping the group as a whole get younger. The future depends on this.

Marilyn Davis of Texas helped me get to the airport. This might not seem like much, but it was. Like the Republican Party itself, I often have a dreadful sense of direction and need a Republican woman to straighten me out down the right path.

Carrie Almond of Missouri has a high energetic voice like Victoria Jackson, but she is no “dumb blonde.” She is a top notch number cruncher and a fashionista. Needless to say, she had plenty of tips for me. Between Carrie and Freida, I eventually managed to keep my elbows off the table during dinner. They also gave me a hard time for noticing that one of the members was very easy on the eyes, which I definitely noticed. Nevertheless, it was good-natured ribbing by new friends.

Friendship. That is what made this conference so enjoyable for me. Yes, there was serious business to get done, at that weekend and on into the future. Yet making friends I will have for life is what makes conferences like this such a joy for me.

Only in America could a 30-something Jewish fellow from Los Angeles bond with (mostly) Christian ladies who were (slightly) older than me from all around the country. This is done when people are united to advance deeply held principles.

It was a thrill meeting nationwide members of the National Federation of Republican Women. While I was the one speaking to them, the education I received from them was equally if not more invaluable.

After all, men have not always done a great job running the world.

When women work, we win.

This conference was held in Oklahoma City, which has felt great pain but maintains great pride. On September 11th, 2010, the ladies will be wrapping up their next conference in Charleston, South Carolina.

The soldiers in that military area will be heralded as the heroes, but let’s not underestimate others with a different type of boots on the ground organization.

Long live the ladies of the National Federation of Republican Women, and their state and local chapters everywhere.

eric

After several days in Florida and then Oklahoma City, it is time to get back home to Los Angeles. Speaking to the National Republican Women’s Federated was enjoyable, but now it is time for another enjoyment, sleeping in my own bed.

Therefore, today is some very quick NFL 2010 musings regarding offseason comings and goings.

The Carolina Panthers cutting Jake Delhomme is sad. Not only did he deserve one more year to turn it around, but watching John Fox cry when announcing his release makes me think that maybe the release was premature.

The Chargers cutting Ladanian Tomlinson was expected, but he would be a good fit with the Vikings to replace the departed Chester Taylor.

Taylor seemed to be chasing dollars. I think if you have a chance to win it all, you stay with that team. The Vikings, with Favre back, are title contenders.

The Bears had better be contenders or their will be mass housecleaning. Between Julius Peppers and Chester Taylor, Jay Cutler has help on both sides of the ball. The biggest addition was Mike Martz as offensive coordinator. If Cutler fails, Lovie Smith is gone. A healthy Brian Urlacher would help immensely.

The Raiders were right to retain rights to Bruce Gradkowski. He can play.

The Jets releasing Thomas Jones surprised me. He runs for hard, tough yards. He reminded me of Curtis Martin and Lamont Jordan in terms of grit. He seems to fit with the smashmouth Rex Ryan attitude. It will be interesting to see what transpires for the Jets and him going forward.

Anyway, these are brief musings. I have a plane to catch.

Home sweet home awaits.

eric

I cannot be in two places at once. This weekend is the California Republican Party State Convention. I cannot go because I am in Oklahoma City. Today I am speaking to the National Federation of Republican Women. I am humbled by this honor.

Yet last weekend also had a pair of amazing events. The Republican Jewish Coalition had their 25th anniversary celebration in Las Vegas.

http://www.rjchq.org

The keynote speaker was Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour. Other luminaries included Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota.

I would love to tell you all about it.

Yet I was not there.

I was at the California Republican Assembly 75th anniversary celebration in Orange County, at Knottsberry Farm. I got to speak in front of gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner. Congressmen Darrell Issa, Ed Royce, and Dana Rohrabacher were the other speakers.

While the CRA event was amazing, I bet the RJC event was as well. Yet I was not there.

The CRA had me as a speaker. The RJC had a full lineup. I have spoken to many RJC chapters, with more to come. Yet I could have gone as a guest. I didn’t.

I made a cold, business decision. The CRA event put money in my pocket.

So what is wrong with this?

Well for one thing, Jews are my people. As fabulous as Christian America has been to me, I sometimes feel a sense of isolation being the only Jewish guy in the room. This was not the case at the CRA event, but I passed up the chance to be with my fellow Jews in favor of a chance to pursue the almighty dollar.

If I had a chance to do it over, I would have changed nothing.

I need to make a living. I just wish I did not have to rely so much on Christian America. With 70-80% of Jews being liberal, I have no choice. I need to eat.

I hope one day that I can speak in front of many more Jewish organizations. Until the Jewish community breaks away from liberalism, this will not happen.

The RJC is fabulous. The CRA was ludicrous.

I only regret not being in both places at once.

I had to choose, and I made the right choice for me at the time.

It briefly felt isolating, but so is having no money to buy food.

I did the right thing.

eric

The Tygrrrr Express is Oklahoma City bound. Tomorrow I am speaking to the National Federation of Republican Women at their winter conference. It is my biggest gig yet, and a humbling honor to be invited.

Before getting to the main event, a couple of quick political notes are in order.

Harry Reid’s wife and daughter have been in a car crash. While I do not agree with his policies, I met him and his wife Landra a few months ago. Landra Reid is one of the loveliest most delightful women I have ever met. She was nice to me even though I was a conservative Republican. They have their golden anniversary coming up, and I hope it is a happy occasion. Joe Biden lost his family to a car crash, and I hope Harry Reid is not put in that same awful position. In a tragic coincidence, Harry Reid and Karl Rove have both had a parent commit suicide. This is another reason why we need to separate policy from politics. We see the power, but we do not see their inner pain.

Yet politic does matter, and today is about President Obama continuing to act like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

Yet in the tradition of Larry King, I am diverting into ridiculous tangents totally unrelated to this topic.

I almost never cover pop culture except to discuss what screwups they are. Today I have to praise Betty White. The 88 year old White will be hosting the May 8th episode of Saturday Night Live. She has the stamina of people half her age, and this gig is not charity. She was hilarious in her Super Bowl commercial this year, and the former Golden Girls actress has new legions of fans. I hope she hosts the show again when she is 100, and that Willard Scott calls her in front of all of us.

Ok, now back to my typical grumpy self.

Barack Obama is a two year old. He attacks people personally. Then they dare to defend themselves. Then the people defending themselves are accused of a lack of decorum. President Obama then piously explain why we all need to dial it down. What he means is that everybody except he should do this.

There is an unwritten law that when an administration leaves power, they should shut up. Sadly, only Republicans ever obey this law anyway, but that is for another time.

President George W. Bush has stayed quiet, dignified to the end. Yet Vice President Dick Cheney and former political consultant Karl Rove have hammered the Obama administration.

Place the blame on Barack Obama. It is also customary for a president to stop campaigning after he wins the election. His constant criticism of the Bush administration gives Cheney and Rove every right to hit back.

If Obama wants Cheney and Rove to stop, then he has to stop. We get it. He doesn’t like his predecessor. We are long past the point for him to shut up and deal. If he keeps it up, they should keep hammering him back.

While going after predecessors with such reckless abandon is strange, attacking the Supreme Court publicly is downright bizarre.

Barack Obama went after the Supreme Court in his State of the Union speech. This is unprecedented. The justices show up to the speech out of politeness. They are guests in his home. You don’t invite guests into your home and publicly insult them.

When President Obama mischaracterized a recent court ruling, Justice Sam Alito whispered “not true.” Alito was blamed for violating decorum. The man was silently muttering and a camera picked it up. Why does Barack Obama get to slander people with impunity? Why shouldn’t Alito correct him? Obama is a president, not a king.

Now Chief Justice John Roberts has stated that he thinks justices attending the politicized annual speech is a waste of time. He is right.

Some will say they should go out of tradition, but perhaps Barack Obama can obey tradition and not lash out at them like a baby wanting his bottle.

(The totally nonpartisan congressional parliamentarian ruled against Mr. Obama recently on an aspect of health care and reconciliation. I wonder if this formerly noncontroversial figure will now be attacked as a right wing hack for doing his job.)

John Roberts is one of the finest legal minds on Earth. He is an intellectual giant. I will say that on legal matters, he is smarter and better informed than Barack Obama. I know the world thinks Obama is a genius, but when was the last time Obama picked up a legal text? It is the height of arrogance to think that he knows more than somebody who analyzes the law every day of his life.

Barack Obama is no dope, but his skills could be rusty as anybody would be after so much time away from the law. John Roberts is in the trenches.

Why should John Roberts spend his valuable time away from dissecting important legal issues that affect our nation to attend some dog and pony show where a toddler president insults him due to a disagreement brought on by the toddler’s ignorance?

The liberal media thinks that all Obama critics are either evil or imbeciles. Obama should be able to lash out with immunity.

That doesn’t cut it. Until he starts treating his opponents with dignity, he deserves the blowback.

John Robert is an adult. Mr. Obama could learn from him about decorum, civility, and the law.

The first lecturer just got lectured to by a better informed man.

Deal with it Mr. Obama. Then knock it off.

eric

Last night was some partying in South Beach, which reminded me that I love Spring Break. Today I speak at lunch at a fashion show to the East Broward Republican Women. In the evening I have the Cooper City/Davie Republican Club. Both of these events are in Fort Lauderdale.

As exhausted as I am, I had to weigh in about several New York Democrats.

Yes, they are a disgrace. However, most people fail to understand the real disgrace.

I will quickly take them one by one before getting to the scandal nobody wants to discuss, and why this bothers me so much.

Eliot Spitzer was a scuzzbucket. None of the others compare to him. He is a horrid human being. None of the three current New York Democrats reach his level.

Start with Charles Rangel. I will begin with something positive. The man served America honorably in the Korean War. I give him all the credit in the world for that.

My problem with him is that he has played the race card more than once, and compared conservative tax cutters to the KKK. He gets away with it because he smiles. He is “Good ol’ Charlie,” the lovable rascal.

Is he crooked? Of course he is. Should he go to jail? If found guilty, sure. Will he? Of course not.

As for David Patterson, I am disappointed in him. I really had high hopes for him. I disagreed with his liberal ideology, but I really thought it was awesome that a blind man could lead New York. I felt it was another barrier that had been broken down. Also, when Governor Patterson immediately disclosed his past infidelities and drug use, I felt he was going to bring in an ethical administration that was the anti-Spitzer.

Initially he seemed to be like David Dinkins, a good guy that was not tough enough for the job. He was weak. Yet his intervening on behalf of one of his subordinates who beat up a woman was stupid, reckless, and possibly illegal. Richard Nixon taught us that blind loyalty is not the answer. Sometimes friends have to be cut loose, especially when they break the law.

As for Congressman Massa, he is slime. I watched his interview on Glenn Beck, and I felt like I needed a scrubbing. He also served his country honorably, but his short congressional career has been dishonorable. His allegations about Rahm Emanuel are believable, which is why I do not believe them. Rahm Emanuel is every bit as awful as he is made out to be, but because he is such an easy target, I think he might be innocent this one time. Massa has no credibility, and unless he has proof of what Rahm did, I am not jumping on the Rahm bashing train on this one.

Yet these corrupt New York Democrats have me angry. I am deeply offended by their screwups for a reason that nobody is talking about. The whispers are already beginning.

You know what whispers I am talking about.

People are saying that New York politicians are becoming like “those people.”

That’s right, I’ll say it. We are on the verge of being seen as…

New Jersey.

This cannot ever happen. New Jersey gave us Jim McGreevey, Jon Corzine, and a million other corruptocrats ranging from crooked politicians to clergy men on the take.

New Jersey makes Pinochet’s Chile seem ethical.

I don’t care if Rangel, Patterson, and Massa go to jail. Just get them out of New York. Deport them to Trenton.

When football coach Sam Wyche saw the home crowd at a Cincinnati Bengals game throwing trash on the field, he angrily picked up the microphone. He yelled at the crowd to be civilized, thundering, “You don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati.”

Well my message to these New York politicians is to knock it off. You represent New York, not New Jersey.

I live in Los Angeles, but I am a New Yorker until the day I die. I was born and raised there. New Yorkers are my people. When somebody does something stupid in California, making it the national laughingstock, I can say that I am a New Yorker living in California.

I am proud of my Brooklyn heritage. I am proud to be from New York.

I never want being from New York to be a source of shame.

So take Spitzer, Massa, Patterson, and Rangel, and deport them to Atlantic City.

Some people obsess over Obama’s birth certificate. Well they need to obsess over the birth certificates of the above New Yorker politicos. Find me evidence that they are really Jerseyites. Perhaps they would then under the state constitution be ineligible to serve.

The day the New York Jets and Giants call themselves New Jersey, NYPD and FDNY will engage in cross-border violence. This must be prevented now.

New York Democrats can either act like New Yorkers, or move to New Jersey.

Tony Soprano is from Jersey. The Statue of Liberty is a New Yorker. That settles it for me.

New Yorkers will tolerate many things, but being compared to New Jersey is not one of them.

New York civilization is on the line.

Clean up your act guys. We are not them. The whisper campaign must stop.

The next New York politico to screw up should be waterboarded behind the Log Flume at Six Flags Great Adventure, located in…well, you know. The place where hidden crimes are a way of life.

eric

I had the honor and privilege this past weekend of attending and speaking at the California Republican Assembly 75th Anniversary Convention in Buena Park, California.

http://www.californiarepublicanassembly.com/content/cra-call-convention

Buena Park is in Orange County, and the event was held at the Knottsberry Farm Hotel.

While Knottsberry Farm is a well known amusement park that turns into Knotts Scary Farm on Halloween, the Knotts family is actually fairly religious. In addition to their spiritual beliefs, they were also great with food. The fried chicken and blackberry pie at the luncheon was from Mrs. Knotts’s very own recipes.

I would like to thank Ken Mettler, President of the CRA, and beloved CRA member Peggy Mew for the gracious invitation. Baron Night, head of the Buena Park CRA, had the responsibility as head of the host city CRA with making sure the trains ran on time.

The Saturday luncheon featured four speakers. Congressmen Ed Royce, Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, and me. Many people looked at me initially and probably thought about James B. Stockdale minus the heroism.

“Who am I? Why am I here?”

As I spoke, Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner both sat at tables in the front. There is nothing like giving a speech and knowing that one wrong word could get me waterboarded by the next governor. Thankfully both of them had kind words for me.

I let the crowd know that the day after the primary, I will immediately fall into line behind the winner and support them in the general election. I hope all right of center voters do this without hesitation.

I did add a couple of new lines, including an opener, “Anybody who thinks that Barack Obama runs the world has never attended a meeting of the Republican Women’s Federated.”

Congressman Rohrabacher offered a stinging defense of American liberty. He is the original surfing congressman. He brought a surfboard with him to the stage, and publicly endorsed Steve Poizner for governor as they took a picture with the surfboard together. Congressman Issa offered his endorsement to Ms. Whitman.

On Saturday evening, a gala dinner had Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe as headliners. Hannah and James are the two young people that exposed criminal enterprise ACORN. Mr. O’Keefe has even been arrested in an attempt to silence any ACORN critics. Andrew Breitbart has taken them under his wing, as ACORN is suing him as well.

I had extensive amounts of time to talk to Hannah and James. They are good young citizens. The only people against them are those who still believe ACORN is a law abiding entity.

James O’Keefe has his legal defense fund up, and anybody that wants to support a young man exposing leftists corruption should help this young man.

I also managed to make friends with some of the Orange County Young Republicans, briefly performing for them at a late night party.

Sunday was the day for formal endorsements.

For the senate race to fire Barbara Boxer, Chuck DeVore easily defeated Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell on the first ballot.

(DeVore and Fiorina both spoke to the Los Angeles County Young Republicans Friday night, and DeVore appeared to be the heavy favorite.)

The governor’s race required a second ballot, but Mr.Poizner got the endorsement.

In the hotly contested Superintendent of Special Instruction, Diane Lenning came out ahead of Lydia Guiterriez. George Runner got the nod for the Board of Equalization,

I had the pleasure of meeting Republican Assembly members from all over America, including the National Republican Assembly president and his wife. I even received an offer to speak at a San Juan Capistrano Independence Day Tea Party, in addition to speak in Rhode Island. I have never been to Rhode Island, so of course I want to go there because it is there.

Like good conservative citizens, we left the hotel as spotless as we found it as Baron Night made sure that every sign was picked up. We were not going to be like environmental protesters leaving our signs on the grass.

While there was plenty of serious politicking, and plenty of socializing, the best aspect of the CRA Convention was seeing old friends and making new ones that I will have for life.

Happy 75th Birthday CRA.

Well done Buena Park!

eric