It was exciting to see the piece on Kevin McCarthy in the Weekly Standard yesterday. I worked with him and against him while he was a Bill Thomas staffer, and always held him in high regard. Along with Devin Nunes in the Central San Joaquin Valley, there is some good talent to work with in advancing toward a goal of retaking the House.
But I have a question. What are you going to do with it if you succeed?
Its not enough to "get control" of policy and appropriations. We out here in the GOP wasteland really don’t care what you bring back to the District. We openly wonder why you don’t tell Jerry Lewis and John Doolittle to get out of the way. I like that you are running ads against the 30 Democrat House freshman elected in 2006. They ran to the right of most of their Republican opponents and now stand with Nancy Pelosi – so the ads are a good contrast.
I still want to know what you are going to do with the majority.
What I want to hear is this: "We vehemently disagree with the performance of the Republican Congress from 2000-06. We understand the base is upset, and we agree. We are going back to the conservative economic playbook. We will not spend money like drunken sailors. We will reform government institutions with conservative ideas. And we will run our members against GOP Senators who stand in our way."
That would be a good start.
I wish Kevin McCarthy well. It’s a steep hill to climb out there. And when your own Party members start out with a health distrust of your rhetoric, its a sign that there is much work to do in our own backyard before we attack Democrats as a primary strategy.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mike,
I had the pleasure to work with Kevin for years when he was in the Assembly. If you look back at his voting record you’ll find he voted like a principled conservative almost 100% of the time.
Kevin also is very concerned with his “appearance” in public office – meaning, he goes out of his way to be highly professional. No special interest trips, no perks – nothing that anyone could criticize.
Between the two – it shows a strong character, dedicated to doing the right and conservative thing for our country.
You may have battled with Kevin (I’ve battled with Kevin), but his record and his character should make you comfortable he will be a steady, conservative leader.
As a conservative willing to battle for our cause (so I’ve been told and accused), I’m thrilled with Kevin’s success.
We all should be.