THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

For those who have not been paying attention the last 860 billion years, ultra-liberal Congressman Henry Waxman is a thug and a bully. His staff has harassed me personally for being a Republican and breathing.

For that and other reasons, I am eagerly looking forward to a Republican firing him. In the 2010 climate, anything is possible.

He has Hollywood money, allowing him to ignore the rest of his constituents.

Not everybody is enamored with him, and a couple of hundred people attended an event at the Beverly Hills High School that was dedicated to his firing.

Five Republican candidates for the 30th Congressional District in Los Angeles, California, held a debate.

Calling it a debate would be a mislabeling the event. The candidates were friendly and polite with each other, even slapping each other on the back after a good comment. Not one nasty remark was made by any of the candidates at each other. This was a lovefest, with the exception of the ire directed at Waxboy.

My friend Larry Greenfield was the moderator. Larry is the Executive Director for the Reagan Legacy Foundation and a fellow at the Claremont Institute. While Larry is known for his speaking abilities, he would freely admit that he gave himself a very limited role at this event. The candidates were all so well behaved that he simply did not need to intervene. A good moderator does not substitute himself for the candidates. Larry let the event flow, and it did seamlessly.

The event was put on by Gary Aminoff of the San Fernando Valley Republican Club and Rob Pederson of the Westside Republican Club. Gary is also the Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County.

The five candidates in alphabetical order are David Benning, Ari David, Robert Flutie, Chris Colski, and Chuck Wilkerson.

(Full Disclosure: I normally stay out of primary fights. I am backing Ari David. He is a friend, and I believe in him. The other candidates know this.)

David Benning spent 25 years in the technology industry. He is also a licensed pilot.

Ari David was a software engineer who is now in the entertainment industry. He is a stand-up comic.

Robert Flutie runs a media management business, and is also a volunteer firefighter.

Chris Colski was an engineer and an educator.

Chuck Wilkerson served in the Marines in Korea, and then became an aerospace executive.

Rather than do a complete recap, I will offer notable comments.

The candidates all gave brief opening statements.

DB: Change should be for the better. We used to try and cure people with leeches. We just sucked the life out of them. That is happening now.

AD: I am the only Jewish candidate in this race. 14% of the electorate is Jewish. Henry Waxman is no friend of Israel.

RF: I will fight for a balanced budget amendment.

CC: I am a Polish immigrant. Unlike Arnold, I can pronounce California. I campaigned for Proposition 13.

CW: 1/2 the country is pulling the cart and half the country is riding in it.

Foreign policy dominated the discussion early on.

CW: Gitmo is the mot POW friendly facility in the world. Obama didn’t go to the same school as JFK.

CC: When screening for terrorists, we must use profiling. Hooray for Nevada!

(He meant Arizona. This may have been the only “gaffe” of the evening.)

RF: I didn’t think we had a foreign policy.I was in NY on 9/11, my first instinct was to rush in and help people.

(He incorrectly mispronounced John Boehner’s name as “Bonner,” although the audience and the other candidates found it inconsequential. It is not pronounced “Boner” either. Phonetically, it is “Bayner.”)

AD: It is better to be respected than liked. Waxman is more interested in being liked by Obama than to support Israel. Iran wants nukes to direct at Israel. What if a nuke was smuggled in here from Mexico?

DB: Haiti is a legit interest because people are interested. We need to wean other nations of of foreign aid. Americans will still give to places like Haiti. Nobody can have a veto over us. Imagine the UN without the US veto.

CW: The big problem is the U.S. credibility in he world today.

CC: Only congress can declare war. Don’t go to war unless you intend to win.

RF: We have the technolgy. We should be shooting the bad guys out of the sky with lasers.

AD: What we do to our enemies is our business and their problem. The UN is a criminal enterprise. We should find Ahmadinejad and kill him.

DB: The defense budget should be more than the current 4% of GDP. We have to stay in the UN or it will be completely owned by Arab nations.

The conversation then turned to domestic policy.

DB: I am a technology guy. At age 8, I was tracking gophers. Others had lemonade stands. I was interested in solar panels. I understand that health care is not paid for when you have 10 years of taxes but only 6 years of benefits. It is harder to bring pork home when the children get the bill.

AD: Those claiming that greed caused the financial crisis are like those who blame plane crashes on gravity.

RF: I am a middle child. I know what it is like to get overlooked. I sold donuts during the 1970s gas crisis.

(He made an analogy of hard work during tough times.)

CC: Socialism is already here. Pelosi must be terminated. Recycle congress. Liberals and Neocons have destroyed America.

(The room gasped when he bashed Neocons. After the event I wanted clarification to make sure I did not mishear. He reiterated the sentiment. This was the only remark of the evening that had the crowd upset.)

CW: Cap and Trade is based on science that has been totally debunked. It is a fantasy that humans can affect the Earth. People count more than fish.

DB: The stimulus came to 400k per job. 400k creates a business, not a job. Obama says nothing on Fannie and Freddie. China is building 100 nuclear plants.

AD: My moral compass points true north. Like Reagan, we must cut taxes and grow the economy.

RF: I remember my childhood as a child of immigrants. My family came here legally.

CC: Eliminate the income tax, most programs, entitlements, and departments.

CW: California is worse off than Greece. Portugal was once a model of the EU.

Larry then asked the candidates to spend more time discussing Waxman remaining silent on Obama’s treatment of Israel.

AD: Waxman never spent one penny of political capital to help Israel. He is owed a favor by Obama and doesn’t ask for it. Obama is hostile to Israel. He didn’t criticize Pelosi’s Syria trip. He votes against missile defense. If Israel is reduced to ashed, Waxman is culpable.

DB: One of our finest allies can’t trust us. What does that say about us?

RF: Israel allows us to keep our pulse on the Middle East. Hamas and Hezbollah are the worst thing for Arabs.

(CC added nothing of consequence.)

CW: The Obama State Department killed peace to make them adversaries. Remember what happened with the Strait of Hormuz. Air defense has been modernized by Russia. Pretty soon we will be saying OBE: Overcome by events.

Larry then asked the candidates to comment on Arizona and the new immigration law.

DB: The AZ bill was bipartisan. We don’t need crazy racist claims. It has 60-31% support nationwide. We should do the same thing in CA. We need a documented guest worker program.

AD: There is no illegal immigration. There is an illegal alien invasion. AZ is free to pass a law if they choose. Democrats can’t win unless there is amnesty and illegals are all turned into Democratic voters. The USSR asked for papers, not Nazi Germany. The left ignores this. Guest workers should pay a fee at the border, and maybe they can recoup it if they leave on time.

RF: What part of illegal doesn’t make sense?

CC: The AZ bill is a backlash over the abdication of Federal responsibility. Call us racists, we don’t care.

CW: The opposition uses La Raza style Alinsky tactics. We’re pushing back. Many Hispanics have conservative values. I also favor a guest worker program. Round them up and dump them all back in Mexico is a non-starter.

Larry then asked the candidates to discuss taxes, entitlements, and fiscal responsibility.

RF: When the government has no money, they just take it from Joe Smith or Joe the Plumber. There are now more 100k earners in government than the private sector. Start by reducing the 176k Waxman gets.

CC: Eliminate the income tax. The Department of Energy produces no energy. The Department of Education teaches no one.

CW: Forget too big to fail. Bush and Bernanke should have let them fail. Government jobs produce nothing.

DB: 3 1/2 decades of deficit spending is choking us. Artificially low interest rates will increase. We should fold labor into HHS.

AD: I liked the Department of Energy when they made Nukes. At least then they did something. The Democrats use social engineering to lead to electoral dominance in perpetuity. The tax code cannot be used to pit the poor against the rich.

Larry asked the candidates about offshore oil drilling and climate change.

CC: Climate change is nonsense. Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant.

DB: I believe in partnerships between business and the environment. I am a scuba diver. I care what’s in the water. Oxygen can be toxic. Don’t let congress find out or there will be a bill for that.

AD: If the community wants drilling, the Feds and the EPA can’t say they can’t have it.

RF: No to green jobs using taxpayer funds. I was a firefighter. I did search and recovery. In NY at one point there was a lack of regulation, but nowadays costs should not be passed on to the taxpayer.

CW: The EPA is using numbers from the IPCC which turned out to be bogus. The EPA went ahead anyway. They had to save themselves, so they made up something called a CO2 tipping point. It doesn’t exist. Hearings should have us hear from all scientists, not just the IPCC.

Larry brought up the heavy Democratic registration advantage in the district, and asked if the candidates could pull a Scott Brown and get crossover votes.

CW: We have to appeal to Democrats. However, we don’t need to end partisan bickering. We need artisan bickering. It is speech. We disagree.

CC: Waxman is a liar, global warming is a lie, Waxman wrote the cap and trade bill.

RF: We are all here in unity to get Waxman out. It will be a tight race, his election is not a fait accompli. Waxman blacklisted me and my clients.

(At the beginning of the event, Larry pointed out that this was a free event, and that Waxman charges $50 to hear him speak. Larry also mentioned Waxman’s habit of targeting political opponents. Ari David and I have both been targeted. Apparently Robert Flutie has been as well.)

AD: Massachusetts had a 3 1/2 to 1 Democrat to Republican registration ratio. Los Angeles is only 2 1/2 to 1. These are better odds than Scott Brown. Democrats still think they are voting for FDR. Democrats appeal to emotional self interest, not intellectual self interest. We need to appeal to emotions, not just taxes and spending. Waxman wants vitamins and supplements to be prescription only. He wants to ban locally grown produce. These are emotional issues.

DB: Everything bad in the last 2 years, Waxman has been involved with. For 3 1/2 decades Waxman has allowed the debt to grow.

The candidates made closing remarks.

AD: We are breaking our contract with our children. I am the only candidate who can defeat Waxman. I will never get sucked into letting Waxman control the debate. I am Jewish. I will expose Waxman on Israel.

CC: We need to form groups to reduce and then eliminate the income tax.

CW: We don’t need another congressman to toe the party line and be part of the ruling class.

DB: This unsustainable fiscal policy is unacceptable. I am not abrasive. I can win over Democrats.

RF: Now the gloves come off. Every person here is 117k in debt. Even in Beverly Hills, that is lots of money. We bought US cars and helped Detroit. Obama, we don’t need your help.

I offer analysis of the 5 candidates.

David Benning: I have always had a bias toward loud people, and have seen quiet people as lacking passion. I know I am wrong about this, and have tried to catch myself. I used to think David Benning was boring and passionless. I was wrong. He expresses himself in a calm, thoughtful manner, and is much funnier than I remember. He did very well in the debate, and is a legitimate candidate.

Ari David: He is loud, a great speaker, and has the best attack lines. He is fabulous tossing out red meat to guys like me, but would have to tone it down in a mixed audience to get crossover votes. However, he is well aware of this, and is tough enough to take on the Waxman attack machine. He did very well in the debate, and is a legitimate candidate.

Robert Flutie: He is Decent, thoughtful, and self-effacing. His firefighting is commendable. However, he failed to distinguish himself in this debate. He did nothing wrong, but was overshadowed. He sat in the middle, which he remarked was a metaphor for his middle childhood. He did ok in the debate, and is a legitimate candidate.

Chuck Wilkerson served his country, and I honor his service. While nobody should say he is too old, he was slow to respond. He speaks slowly and thoughtfully, but I suspect in the modern television era he may have a tough time with Henry Waxman. It is tough to argue Waxman has been there forever when his opponent is older. Fairly or unfairly, Waxman will use this like he did when attacking John Dingell to get the Energy Committee Chairmanship.

Chris Colski is a non-starter. Abolishing the income tax is fantasy, and the Neocon remark disqualifies him. He was not seen by the audience as a serious candidate.

David Benning and Ari David did the best, Followed by Flutie, then Wilkerson, and Colski way behind.

Besides Colski, I could support any of them.

I am backing Ari David.I still see him as the Republican to fire Waxboy.

His main competition appears to be David Benning, with Robert Flutie a possibility. Chuck Wilkerson seemed to have much respect and little support, which was still more than Colski.

I asked the candidates whether they would all promise to support the eventual nominee if they were not the nominee. All 5 candidates agreed to the pledge of support without hesitation.

The California Primary is June 8th, 2010, one month away.

eric

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 9:27 am and is filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.