Tiahrt's Troubles

Let’s Just Say This Is Trouble

2010-06-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

I usually like to write some sort of deeper analysis than just a one-sentence joke with a link, but there’s really not much more I can write at this point other than to say that these poll numbers are definitely trouble for Todd.

http://www.kctv5.com/politics/24070470/detail.html

Troublingly Yours,

Publius

Left Behind by the KRA

2010-06-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

Today in Topeka, the Kansas Republican Assembly (KRA) announced its endorsements for the upcoming elections and shockingly Mr. Tiahrt was not on their list of true conservatives to vote for. For those unfamiliar with the KRA and its organization, this is basically the most conservative organization in the state. People that really want to fight for conservative values join the KRA, and the KRA helps its membership determine which traditional conservatives they should vote for.

In order to be endorsed by the KRA, a candidate for office must receive two-thirds of the vote during a meeting of their general membership. This practice is instituted to ensure that the organization only puts its support behind the most conservative candidates that it can find, and in practice it is a good way to determine whether or not a candidate in any Kansas election is really seen as a traditional conservative amongst the most right-wing members of our state.

While Mr. Tiahrt has spent much of the past year trying to portray himself as the true conservative in his Senate race, it is truly shocking that he was not endorsed by the KRA. It appears that the traditional conservatives of the KRA either do not believe Mr. Tiahrt is conservative enough, do not trust that he is honest enough, or believe that his seemingly more moderate opponent in the election is actually the more traditional conservative. After all of his hard work trying to portray himself as a true conservative, Todd Tiahrt has failed to get the endorsement of the truest conservatives in the state.

This is an incredibly troubling turn of events for the Tiahrt campaign, and one that could be very difficult to come back from. If Mr. Tiahrt’s entire strategy in this race was to portray himself as more conservative than his opponent, this is a critical endorsement to lose from one of the most conservative organizations in the state. It will be interesting to see how the Tiahrt campaign explains this colossal failure, and if they are able to competently convince voters that the KRA is wrong and that Tiahrt should be elected because of his conservative values.

Desperate Times. . .

2010-06-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and it looks like Todd Tiahrt has finally reached his breaking point. Television ads from the Tiahrt campaign are suggesting that the candidate is quickly losing ground to his opponent while his website has busted out all of the stops with their “Moran Mythbusters” series that looks like something that would fit better on a cable television show than it does as a part of a political campaign. Let’s take a look at these developments:

In a recent television ad, the Tiahrt campaign claimed that Mr. Moran isn’t actually the fiscal conservative that he has been claiming, and they cite six votes to prove it. Of those six votes, five of them actually predated Mr. Moran’s time in Congress, and are actually from the early 1990s when he was a state legislator. This ploy by the Tiahrt campaign shows that they are desperately turning to whatever means they can to try to perform some sort of high stakes magic trick.

Their incredibly tenuous claims that these votes represent a troubling pattern of behavior, and that they show how Moran is willing to betray Republicans, are completely ridiculous and unfounded. Votes from the state legislature are about very different issues than votes in Congress, just as votes from 20 years ago were made under completely different circumstances than those that would be cast in the next two or three years. For the Tiahrt campaign to claim a link between these votes and Moran’s future congressional actions is far more than a reach.

This pattern of reaching deep into Moran’s record to make far-reaching claims is continued on the “Moran Mythbusters” pages of the Tiahrt website. Much of their supposed “evidence” on these pages goes back several decades, and even the descriptions of recent evidence is laced with confusing double-speak and even double negatives that make it nearly impossible to understand the truth behind what they are selling.

I’m not even going to get into all the double-speak and irony within their earmark pages, as I have well-documented Tiahrt’s addiction to earmarks. What I really want to know about this Mythbuster series is if the Tiahrt campaign got permission from the Discovery Channel program to ostensibly use their trademarked symbol and graphic as a part of their political campaign. While I don’t really know much about the Mythbusters show, I feel like the Discovery Channel would certainly want to stay out of the political fray of this mess.

I am wondering if Mr. Tiahrt’s campaign is actually illegally utilizing the Mythbusters symbol on their website. He better hope somebody out there can find some answers to these questions before Tiahrt digs himself too deep of a whole with this Mythbuster charade.

Mythically yours,

Publius

Empire State of Mind

2010-05-28T07:17:00.000-07:00

As many of you have undoubtedly read, Mr. Tiahrt’s campaign recently released a campaign ad that criticized his opponent for raising taxes. Putting aside the dubious and unjustified claims about the differences between Tiahrt and Moran’s respective votes related to raising and lowering taxes, the most interesting thing about this commercial is the fact that it featured several shots of tax forms from the state of New York.

Sure this is just a minor detail from yet another attack ad, but the problem I have with this is that it shows how aloof Mr. Tiahrt is from the people of Kansas. While I doubt that Mr. Tiahrt personally oversaw every shot of this commercial, I also doubt that any reasonable Kansan would inexplicably use the New York tax forms when creating the advertisement. The appearance of these forms in the commercial is symbolic of Mr. Tiahrt’s inside-the-beltway preferences, and the likelihood that the ad was created by some east coast political operative.

Mr. Tiahrt might make claims about how great of a state Kansas is, and he might make claims about all of the work that he does to bring jobs to the state; but when push comes to shove it seems completely evident that his campaign must be paying people outside of Kansas to run his campaign and to make his commercials. Why wouldn’t Mr. Tiahrt use his campaign funds to keep jobs and money within the state?

Todd Tiahrt is a long-time politician that doesn’t live in Kansas and only really seems to care about Kansans because they have propped up his east coast lifestyle for far too long. I believe it is time to allow Mr. Tiahrt to leave behind Kansas for good and do whatever he is going to do after his political career is over [Publius Prediction: Mr. Tiahrt gets a job with some really shady lobbying firm.]

Yours on the range,

Publius

Ready, Set, Go Get Negative

2010-05-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

While I know that the best place to go for impartial unbiased information about the state of this race is not the Moran campaign; I think we need to take a quick look at the polling numbers that were released the other day. [Note: This isn’t to say that the Tiahrt campaign would are wouldn’t give better polling numbers than the Moran camp, just to say that when these numbers are released by any campaign we should proceed with caution]

First, a quick run-down of the information released:

1. Moran: 67% favorable—7% unfavorable
2. Tiahrt: 50% favorable—12%unfavorable
3. Moran holds a 2:1 advantage on the Republican Ballot test
4. Moran leads 51%-33% among Tea Partiers
5. Republican Primary voters believe that Tiahrt is running a more negative campaign (although there aren’t numerical statistics about this)

That last item is the most troubling one out off all of them for Mr. Tiahrt. In fact, when I first heard about the first couple statistics, my initial reaction was to make my write-up about how Tiahrt’s only option would be to go negative with his campaign. Apparently the voters already believe that Tiahrt has gone negative with his campaign. What is he going to do now? Get more negative??

I think that Kansans should want a candidate that doesn’t have to stoop down low to highly negative and controversial advertising in order to win an election. In fact, I make an effort to vote against candidates that go negative just out of principles. Why would we want a person representing us that is unable to run a nice and clean campaign? We should be voting for our senators for the things that they bring to the table, and not the things they claim their opponent has done in the past or will do in the future.

Negative campaigning is almost always based in truth, but twisted to the point where it is a lie. It isn’t a way to convince the voters to vote for somebody, but a way to manipulate the voters into believing something that isn’t true. If Mr. Tiahrt makes this campaign a negative mudfest, I can only hope that Kansas voters see through it and make a more classy choice.

Positively Yours,

Publius

Who’s on Campus?

2010-05-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

In a close race where every endorsement matters, last week Mr. Tiahrt received a big one from the Kansas Federation of College Republicans (meanwhile, his opponent, Jerry Moran, was endorsed by the important Kansas Farm Bureau). While touting his new endorsement, Mr. Tiahrt claimed that it was important and meaningful because it was the first time that the Federation had endorsed a candidate in a primary fight.

This is great news for Mr. Tiahrt, and he should be really happy with the endorsement and tout it all he wants. This endorsement will undoubtedly help him gain some support among younger voters which will be great for his campaign. My problem with Mr. Tiahrt’s actions is that soon after he was endorsed by the College Republicans, he then began to twist and turn things and be untruthful and ingenious with voters in public.

Last Saturday, Mr. Tiahrt wrote an editorial in the Morning Sun in which he was ostensibly talking about the importance of debates, while criticizing Mr. Moran for turning down the opportunity to debate him at an event that was sponsored by the Kansas Federation of College Republicans. Now, I might be reading too carefully; but it seems to me like there is conflict of interest here.

If the Kansas Federation of College Republicans wants to start endorsing candidates, that is fine with me. I didn’t go to college in the state of Kansas and am not a part of the organization. I really don’t care who they endorse. The problem with such an organization endorsing a candidate; however, is that they shouldn’t then expect the other candidate to come to events that they organize. If the College Republicans really wanted to have a fair and honest series of debates, it surely would have been in their best interests to withhold their endorsement until after the debate series.

Because of this, how can we blame Mr. Moran for not wanted to attend a debate that is sponsored by an organization that wants his opponent to win? How can the debate possibly be fair and unbiased if its organizers publicly say they are in favor of one candidate.

Furthermore, I believe that Mr. Tiahrt should refrain from criticizing Mr. Moran for turning down the chance to appear at an event that was organized by a group that recently endorsed Mr. Tiahrt. Mr. Moran should have the right to a fair and unbiased debate, and we should afford him the opportunity to turn down debates that will ostensibly be unfair. Mr. Tiahrt disingenuously attacks Mr. Moran for not agreeing to the debate, because the whole idea of this debate is flawed from the outset. By painting the issue in broad strokes about debates and geography, Mr. Tiahrt missed the more important issue that this debate couldn’t possibly be fair.

It’s just another reason why I don’t trust Mr. Tiahrt to be honest.

Endorselessly yours,

Publius

What’s the Truth About Taxes?

2010-04-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Last week Mr. Tiahrt sent out a letter to his supporters that said, “I have never voted for a tax increase. Never, not a single time. And you have my word that I will continue to oppose tax increases and support tax cuts in the U.S. Senate.” He continued to criticize his opponent (Rep. Jerry Moran) for continuously voting to increase taxes and for failing to vote for the Bush tax cuts.

On a policy note, this letter makes me wonder what Mr. Tiahrt’s plans are for paying for the massive size of our federal government. One of the most troubling issues that America faces today is the growing national debt, and a budget that is nowhere close to being balanced. If Mr. Tiahrt isn’t willing to raise taxes, what specific government programs does he want to end? Is he willing to end his massive and irresponsible pork projects in an effort to balance the budget?

While the policy implications of Mr. Tiahrt’s letter are certainly questionable, the real problem with this letter is that much of what he writes is completely false. As the Dodge City Globe pointed out, Mr. Tiahrt has actually voted in favor of tax increases as recently as last month (on a measure that Mr. Moran actually voted against). Furthermore, Mr. Tiahrt’s claim that Moran voted against the Bush tax cuts is clearly false. Mr. Moran actually voted FOR the Bush tax cuts.

It’s still relatively early in this campaign, but it has become obvious that there is no lie that Mr. Tiahrt won’t tell in order to get ahead. If Mr. Tiahrt is willing to obviously LIE to his supporters about his and Mr. Moran’s records, what else is he willing to do? If we can’t trust Mr. Tiahrt to be truthful with the people that are already supporting him, how can we trust him to be a truthful representative for all of Kansas?

The truth is that we can’t trust him.

Publius

Who Says Pigs Can’t Fly?

2010-04-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Citizens Against Government Waste (a conservative think tank whose objective is to create a more fiscally responsible government) released its Pig Book “Oinkers” of 2010 awards that, “Recognize Dogged Perseverance in the Mad Pursuit of Pork.” The organization presents these awards to the Congressmen that most represent the grand tradition of extraordinarily wasteful Washington spending.

Coming as no surprise to this blogger is Mr. Tiahrt’s appearance on the list (along with Senators Roberts and Brownback) under the “Plane Waste Award”. The three representatives are criticized by CAGW for $3,500,000 in federal funds that were used to build the National Institute for Aviation Research. This spending was particularly criticized because its clients are all major aerospace companies that could (and SHOULD) pay for this program on their own.

Yet again we are witnessing Mr. Tiahrt’s actions not match up to his words. Time and time again he makes claims about being a true conservative, but time and time again we hear about congressional watchdog groups giving him poor ratings for his excessive and wasteful spending in Washington. How can we believe this rhetoric?

What makes matters worse is that the announcement of the “Oinker” award came one day before Mr. Tiahrt was actually endorsed by the Tea Party Express. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the entire point of the Tea Party movement to encourage smaller government with less waste? How does Mr. Tiahrt and his pork barrel politics represent the values of the Tea Party movement?

All together, the endorsement and the oinker give me a very troubling view of the Tea Party Express’s means for vetting candidates it should endorse, as well as the problem with rhetoric in our country. Tea Party Express seems to be endorsing Mr. Tiahrt NOT for his conservative principles (which truly don’t exist) but for some sort of nebulously rhetorical reason that I can’t quite understand.

In any event, if Kansans (especially members of the Kansas Tea Party movement) want a true conservative to represent this state in the Senate, it seems impossible at this point to believe that Mr. Tiahrt is the man for the job.

Oinking All the Way,

Publius

A Flimsy Excuse

2010-04-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was discussed in various publications (here, here, here, here, and here) how Mr. Tiahrt’s offices increased their spending by 11% in 2009. These are, by the way, his taxpayer-funded congressional offices (not to be confused with his campaign offices, although does Tiahrt really know the difference?). These increases, it was reported, included a 22% raise in payroll that brought Tiahrt’s government office payroll above $1 million.

Coupled with last week’s report that Mr. Tiahrt spent $107,000 of taxpayer money last year on franking mail, and we get a troubling picture of a Congressman that sure talks a lot about reducing federal spending, but makes sure to do his part to spend as much taxpayer money as possible. If Mr. Tiahrt was actually serious about lowering the amount of money spent by the federal government, it would be nice to see him start with the only part of the budget that he individually has direct control over.

It might be a small part of the budget, but it’s the little things that make a big impression on voters.

The problem for Mr. Tiahrt, when it comes to these little things, is that he feels an incessant need to make excuses for shortcomings such as these; excuses that bring about further questions regarding how his operations are run and if he is actually the true conservative that he has spent so much time touting himself as.

The Obama Excuse

Responding to the questions surrounding Tiahrt’s increase in office spending, Tiahrt spokesman Sam Sackett claimed that the increase in expenditures was a result of the election of President Obama and the increase in phone calls to the offices that came with it. According to Sackett, Tiahrt’s office averaged 50-60 calls a day during the Bush administration, and has averaged more than 200 calls a day since Obama’s election. “We had to employ a number of people to answer phone calls,” Sackett said, in his attempt to deflect the criticism.

The problem with this excuse is that it fails to acknowledge how congressional offices actually operate because the phones in most congressional offices are answered by UNPAID INTERNS. When I worked as an intern in a congressional district office several summers ago, my primary job was to answer phones and record constituent opinions. Nobody in that office that was actually on the payroll answered the phones unless all of the unpaid interns were already speaking with constituents.

If Tiahrt’s office was really getting so many more calls because of Obama’s election, they would have just hired more unpaid interns to pick up the phone (and believe me, you can ALWAYS find high school and college students to work internships). Obama complaints are never actually going to translate into casework (the stuff that the paid employees at district offices do) or more legislative research (the stuff that the paid employees in DC do); unpaid interns can very easily be trained to answer the phones and log the complaints about Obama into their Congressional database.

The Obama Excuse also makes little sense because Mr. Moran is not making a similar excuse. If Tiahrt needed to hire more people to deal with an increase in complaints regarding President Obama, wouldn’t Mr. Moran also need to hire more people to deal with these same complaints from his constituents? Moran ostensibly represents an even MORE Conservative district, and should get even more complaints (or is there another reason why the frontrunner to replace Mr. Tiahrt right now is actually a Democrat).

It’s impossible to fully believe The Obama Excuse because Mr. Moran’s payroll actually decreased in 2009. I think it’s fair to assume that both offices would get a reasonably similar increase in phone calls and complaints, and for this reason it makes no sense that Mr. Tiahrt would need to increase payroll, while Mr. Moran decreases it.

Clearly, something out of the ordinary is happening here.

The Blame Game

The most troubling thing to me about The Obama Excuse is that it disingenuously sends the blame about the increase in payroll towards the President. It looks to me as if Mr. Tiahrt’s people are trying to blame Obama for the fact that their office had to spend more money. You can think whatever you do about Obama, but their attempts to spin the issue this way reek of attempts to make it a partisan issue.

I feel like Tiahrt’s people are trying to harness voter discontent for the Obama administration to somehow spin it into making people think that Mr. Tiahrt was forced by the President to spend more money on his payroll. While I don’t believe their Obama Excuse, I also see it as a flimsy ploy to gain support from people that are upset with Obama.

Do they really need to stoop this low?

The Tiahrt Five

Another reason why The Obama Excuse is so baseless is the fact that more than half of the increase in spending went to five people that are not only also paid by Mr. Tiahrt’s Senate campaign, but include four recently named members of the campaign leadership team. Even if the increase in spending was about the Obama calls, Mr. Tiahrt wouldn’t really be having his leadership team be fielding these calls, would he?

The fact that so much of the spending increase went to people that also work on his campaign makes me wonder if the increase in spending is tacitly connected to Mr. Tiahrt’s campaign activities. While his spokesperson makes clear that most congressmen have dual-staff employees being paid by both the federal government and the campaign, it is striking to me that Tiahrt’s people would even come close to flirting this line considering their recent scare with the Congressional Ethics committee.

As I’ve written on numerous occasions, there is a fine line between the activities of a campaign and those of the federal government, and this large increase in spending on staff payroll gives me the impression that Tiahrt’s office and campaign might have been crossing that line.

How To Operate a Payroll

At a recent town hall meeting Mr. Tiahrt spoke about how his experience as a former businessman has taught him how to meet a monthly payroll. While I’ll let you decide if his experience at Boeing actually helped to teach him about meeting a payroll like a small businessperson, I think his recent payrolls clearly show that he does not know how to manage one.

Everybody knows that the economy has been rough, and we all have heard as much about how the federal government has been spending too much money. Mr. Tiahrt has been telling us these things for the better part of the past year, but he has apparently not been listening. Most families know what it takes to cut back on their household spending in times like these, but Mr. Tiahrt is proving to us that he does not know how to cut back.

Once again Mr. Tiahrt has proved to me that he is not a true fiscally conservative deficit hawk. While Mr. Tiahrt consistently claims that he cares about lowering the deficit, he consistently acts in ways that are contrary to his supposed beliefs. If we can’t trust Mr. Tiahrt to lower his own staff’s expenditures, and we can’t trust him to be honest about why he is spending more money (as I don’t believe The Obama Excuse), how can we possibly trust him to honestly work to lower the budget deficit?

Without Excuses,

Publius

What Year Does He Think This Is?

2010-03-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Over the past month I’ve spent so much time writing and thinking about ethics violations and earmarks that I barely want to write about politics anymore. Because of this, I want to switch gears today and talk about an actual policy position that Mr. Tiahrt holds; a position I vehemently disagree with (and one that I actually did a significant amount of research on a couple years ago for a paper—I got an A by the way).

That is, his support of the embargo of Cuba which he recently described by saying:

“I’m for free trade, just not with Cuba. They’re a state-sponsor of terrorism, they don’t pay their bills, and trade with Cuba will largely benefit the Castro regime. With expanded trade and travel we would just be funding the Castro brothers and the Cuban communist party. We should not change our policies without seeing any changes from them.”

What year does he think this is?

By any objective or subjective measure, the Cuban Embargo has been an immense failure for the US government. For fifty years this policy has failed to bring ideological change to Cuban politics (i.e. the Castros are still in charge), it has economically punished the innocent citizens of Cuba and given the regime an excuse for their failures, it has helped to foster a negative international image of the United States foreign policy, and (most importantly for Kansans) it has unnecessarily removed a viable market for exports.

To support this policy is a mistake that cannot possibly be grounded in a sound and logical analysis of the current global system. It is a policy from the past that needs to be ended, and Mr. Tiahrt seemingly fails to understand that.

I believe that we should end this embargo for several reasons. First, the travel of Americans and their technology can only help to change the ideology of the island. Anybody that has spent significant time living and working in a non-democratic country (which I have), knows that just small interactions with Americans can go a long way to changing the way people think. Americans in Cuba would help them ideologically.

Second, and more importantly for Kansans, Cuba represents a viable and lucrative export market for Kansas farmers. The island already imports goods from the rest of the world, but would certainly switch their imports to our agricultural products (which would be cheaper because the US is far closer to Cuba than any other country) bringing more money to Kansans.

Finally, the old policy has been a failure. If fifty years of failed policies isn’t enough to convince Mr. Tiahrt that we should change, then I don’t know what is.

I guess I just hope that he fails in his effort to retain them.

Hoping to one day smoke a Cuban cigar within the borders of Kansas,

Publius

Who Is Publius?

2010-03-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Shortly before 500 BC, Publius Valerius Publicola was one of the key founders of the Roman Republic. In his position as Roman Consul he created a series of laws that were very popular and important. These laws could almost be seen as an early list of rights in the Roman Republic. His name Publicola translates to “friend of the people.”

More famously, the legacy of Publius can be seen in the Federalist Papers of 1787-1788 which were collectively written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the Publius name. As we all know, the Federalist papers were published as individual essays that advocated the ratification of the constitution. More important to the present day is the historical usage of these papers to determine the original intent of the framers of the constitution.

I chose the name Publius in order to call back to the work the framers did. They were advocates of freedom and our republic, and I believe they wrote under the most famous political pseudonym in history. While the work I do on this site could never possibly be mentioned in the same breath as their work, I have chosen the name to honor them and the memory of their essays.

I am not going to reveal my true identity, but I would like to take a moment to write about who I am not. I am not currently working for any politician or political entity. The best way to describe my current job is to say that I am working in education for a Christian religious organization, and I have a lot of free time at the office.

It has been suggested in the comments section of this site on several occasions that I am a Law Professor from Texas by the name of John Blevins. I can assure you that this is false. For Professor Blevins sake (who I had never even heard of before reading the comments, but I’ll assume that he’s a nice and fair man), I am going to delete any future comments that explicitly name him.

Friendly yours,

Publius

Fighting for Something

2010-03-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Mr. Tiahrt criticized his opponent for the US Senate seat (Rep. Jerry Moran), for not being present during Sunday’s critical health care debate. Mr. Tiahrt claimed that instead of being on the floor fighting against ObamaCare, Mr. Moran was taping some sort of television commercial. Expectedly, Mr. Moran’s people have fought back against the claims saying that they are completely untrue and baseless. They say that Mr. Moran didn’t film a commercial, and that he was on the floor when the House session began.

Honestly, I have no idea which side is correct in this. This writer seems to think that Mr. Tiahrt’s claims are dubious, but this is really the type of “he said, she said” situation where it is impossible to know who is telling the truth and who is just spewing rhetoric. Because of this, I was going to leave the situation alone and not even mention it.

But then I read yesterday that Mr. Tiahrt was missing votes on Tuesday so that he could—well, I actually don’t know what he was doing during these votes. Tiahrt missed the vote on H.Res. 1186, which designates April as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. He missed the vote on H.R. 3976 which extends mortgage and foreclosure protections to SERVICE MEMBERS through December 2015; and he missed the vote on H.R. 4592 which authorizes funds to create a program that will help to train veterans for employment in energy-related positions.

Does Todd Tiahrt not care about our nation’s service members?

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Tiahrt has spent the earlier part of this week launching claims about his opponent that are incredibly dubious. Meanwhile, he was actually missing votes in the house that are important pieces of legislation. Sure, his presence at these votes would not have had any impact on the outcome, but it is just another example of Mr. Tiahrt spending his time fighting for himself instead of for the Kansans and, more importantly, the American veterans.

I don’t know who’s right in their “he said, she said” argument, but I do know what Mr. Tiahrt is fighting for: himself.

Fightingly yours,

Publius

It’s Not Always about Partisanship

2010-03-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Over the past month I’ve written a lot about Mr. Tiahrt’s alleged ethics violations and subsequent acquittal from the House ethics committee (and the subsequent House resolution asking to look into that acquittal), and I have read a lot of your feedback in the comments sections of this site. While I am always supportive of healthy political discourse, one recurring comment/complaint that I have seen is about the legitimacy of the Office of Congressional Ethics as a non-partisan office. Some complaints include:

“He has been targeted by Pelosi's pet committee. Why can't conservatives see through this?”

“Only CONSERVATIVES are yet to be cleared, It's not fair to your readers to leave out facts.”

“The OCE was created by Nancy Pelosi and 5 of the 8 board members are democrats.”

“The fact is OCE made this political.”

If there is one thing I hate, it’s when people use the word facts when they fail to site actual facts; and if there’s another thing I hate, it’s when people create partisanship out of issues that are decidedly non-partisan. While it is true that the OCE was formed in a Congress led by Nancy Pelosi, and it is true that the independent leader of the OCE is a registered Democrat, the FACTS just do not support claims that the OCE acts with political motivations.

Last year the OCE recommended twelve cases to the Congressional Ethics Committee for further review. Of the 12 Representatives that were recommended for further review, 10 were Democrats and only 2 were Republicans (one being Mr. Tiahrt). Given these FACTS, there is no logical way to conclude that the OCE is acting in a political and partisan manner unless you believe that it is working against the Democratic Party.

It’s not always about partisanship. Just because Nancy Pelosi worked to create the committee does not mean that it is a corrupt and evil Democratic institution out to conquer the world. The fact of the matter is that examining what the OCE has actually done reveals that any bias against Republicans (or shadowy control by Nancy Pelosi) is simply not evident in the actions of the Office, and anybody that tries to contend differently is clearly being ignorant of the facts.

Factually Yours,

Publius

Tiahrt Goes Blogging, Hypocrisy Prevails

2010-03-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Recently, the Pittsburg Morning Sun has given Representatives Tiahrt and Moran a forum where they can blog about issues that are important to Kansans and Americans. Like most messages coming out of Tiahrt’s campaign, this blog entry is abundant with hypocrisy and lacking on straight talk.

While much of the entry is an exercise in rhetoric and nothing else, the most glaring section of hypocrisy comes when Tiahrt (or whichever one of his staffers actually penned the entry) wrote, “For years I have been fighting for reduced spending . . .” As loyal readers to my blog would know, this is just not true. According to the 2009 Club for Growth RePork Card, Mr. Tiahrt has voted in favor of anti-Pork amendments an upsettingly low 29% of the time.

Todd Tiahrt’s voting record is synonymous with wasteful spending and it is just untruthful to try to convince the public otherwise. It is sickening how he and his campaign release writing like this with a straight face, and act like Mr. Tiahrt is a true conservative that has been fighting earmarks for all of his time in Congress. He just hasn’t been doing this, and we should know better.

Wastlessly yours,

Publius

No Show in Johnson County??

2010-03-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

What was Mr. Tiahrt doing yesterday?

According to his advertised events and the Johnson County GOP Weekly E-mail, Mr, Tiahrt was supposed to have town hall meetings at libraries in Olathe and Shawnee, however he did not show up to these events. While supporters were waiting, Tiahrt’s staff and campaign never let anybody know that he was not going to be there to fulfill his obligation.

Furthermore, staff at the libraries had no idea that the events had been (apparently) cancelled. Librarians at the two locations were left confused and annoyed because they set up for and expected town hall meetings that the Tiahrt contingent apparently believed were unimportant.

Now I don’t know why Tiahrt refused to show up at these events. In all likelihood he had a very good and serious reason for blowing off his supporters; but regardless of why he didn’t show up, he and his staff had an obligation to not only contact the libraries, but also the Johnson Country Republican Party (that was promoting the events) and the supporters that actually showed up to the events.

By not showing up at these events, Todd Tiahrt has again demonstrated that he cannot be trusted. If Kansas voters cannot trust him to show up to events that he planned and promoted, how can he possibly be trusted to effectively represent the interests of this State as a Senator. Little things like this show us what a person or organization is made out of, and right now Mr. Tiahrt is again proving that promises and obligations mean nothing to him.

Trustworthily Yours,

Publius

The Story Never Ends. . .

2010-03-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

As we all know, Mr. Tiahrt has recently been mired in ethics violations and accusations that he pushed through earmarks for the clients of a lobbying firm (PMA) that had donated to his campaigns. While Tiahrt and his aides were recently exonerated from wrongdoing by the Ethics Committee (despite the fact that the OCE recommended Tiahrt and Representative Peter Visclosky (D-IN) be further investigated); the situation is continuing to rear its ugly head.

Yesterday afternoon it was reported that House lawmakers had passed a resolution demanding the Ethics Committee reveal details behind its investigation into the subject. Earlier this month it was reported that the ethics committee did not subpoena or interview anybody, and they apparently did no further research than the OCE; this despite the fact that the OCE recommended Tiahrt and Visclosky be further investigated.

It now appears that members of Congress want more answers after public backlash against the process (and similarly the decision) from watchdog groups and writers from both ends of the political spectrum. Making matters worse for Mr. Tiahrt, is that this is clearly NOT a matter of partisan politics as Republican Representative Jeff Flake (AZ) is leading the charge for greater transparency and answers about the actions of the ethics committee. This isn’t one party trying to take down members of another; this is a bipartisan effort to find answers about the potentially corrupt activities of Mr. Tiahrt and his Democratic colleague (Visclosky).

What is even more troubling for the Tiahrt camp is that his staffers are continuing to pretend that nothing is wrong here, and are going out of their way to portray this never-ending ethics inquiry into a simple issue of partisan politics.

In the wake of backlash against the non-action of the Ethics Committee, Mr. Tiahrt’s Communications Director Sam Sackett wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal defending Tiahrt. While it is completely understandable that Sackett would write such a letter claiming that Tiahrt “did the right thing,” what is troubling is that the communications director attacks the editorial board of the Journal (probably the most highly respected newspaper in the country, as well right-leaning) and then attempts to link all of Tiahrt’s critics to Nancy Pelosi and partisan politics. Sackett writes:

"Nancy Pelosi’s mistakes in this Congress are too many to list. It is surprising the Journal would defend her creation of yet another government bureaucracy to oversee congressional ethics.

"Despite Rep. Pelosi’s desire to bloat House governance, along with every other part of government, when the dust settled on these inquiries, no complaint, allegation or negative finding was ever found to justify the Office of Congressional Ethics’s review of Mr. Tiahrt. It is all there in black and white."

First, nowhere in the original Journal Editorial does the newspaper actually defend the creation of the OCE. We can argue the merits of the OCE all day long, but when push comes to shove this is not about Nancy Pelosi or the merits of the OCE. This is about whether or not there was wrongdoing, and the original Journal Editorial clearly takes the position that there was.

Second, Tiahrt’s staffer’s attempt to change the story from Ethics violations to partisan disputes reeks of a staff that knows they have messed up and that they dodged a bullet with the Ethics Committee. Again, if this was a partisan issue, than why is the other Congressman that is under fire with Tiahrt from the Democratic Party? This is clearly not a partisan issue, and Sackett’s attempts to pawn it off as so are disingenuous and just another instance of Tiahrt’s slimy political rhetoric.

Third, Sackett claims that there was never anything to justify the OCE review, when the OCE itself believes that there was wrongdoing to justify this review. If we want to talk about what is in ‘black and white’ Sackett should actually read the OCE report which requests the Ethics Committee do a further review. Furthermore, this recent resolution proves that other members of Congress (from both parties nonetheless) believe that there is still more to the story. They have apparently read what is all there in black and white in the OCE report.

What does all this mean for Kansan voters?

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt and his staff are continuing to be disingenuous about these issues of ethics. Even if they did nothing wrong, their attempts to turn this into a political issue reek of the same old Washington politics that voters around the country have had enough with.

Furthermore, Sackett’s letter shows that Tiahrt isn’t committed to cleaning up Congress. They dismiss inquiries into ethics violations as “wasteful government spending”. Shouldn’t taxpayers be willing to pay the cost to get a clean and ethical government? This view of ethics investigations as wasteful is highly troubling.

Finally, the congressional resolution shows me that Tiahrt and Visclosky are not even seen to be innocent by their own peers. This begs us to ask questions about whether Todd Tiahrt is actually so corrupt that other members of Congress want to bring him down.

This story just continues to get more interesting.

Ethically yours,

Publius

The Still Forgotten Fourth

2010-03-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

Todd Tiahrt is moving on.

In a move he claims is for the good of Kansans and America, Todd Tiahrt is leaving behind his much beloved and controlled congressional seat in the 4th district for a chance at greater fame and personal glory in the United States Senate. While I have discussed this before, I must bring it up again because the Democratic Party is now attempting to capitalize on Mr. Tiahrt’s abandonment of his district.

The DCCC has recently launched a Red-to-Blue campaign that is targeting eleven congressional seats around the country to take out of Republican hands, and Mr. Tiahrt’s beloved 4th District seats is one of them. With the outlook for which party controls Congress next year tightening, is it really best for America and Kansas if Mr. Tiahrt is elected to the Senate and his party loses his former seat?

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt should work harder to ensure that his seat remains in Republican hands, and right now he simply isn’t doing enough. While Tiahrt might say that he is a conservative first and a Republican second, the ability for lawmakers to pass a conservative agenda depends on the Republican party having control of Congress and in an election season that is shaping up to be tight, EVERY SEAT COUNTS.

It’s certainly too late for Mr. Tiahrt to drop out of the Senate race and start a House campaign, and I’m not asking him to do this, all I am asking him to do is show a little more support for the conservative candidates in his former district and to try his best to actually help America instead of merely working for himself.

Selflessly yours,

Publius

Why Can’t They All Just Work Together?

2010-03-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana announced that he will not be running for re-election this November; a move that has been dissected by many writers around the country as incredibly troubling for centrism in America. During his announcement, Mr. Bayh seemingly derided Senators from both sides of the aisle for an increasing amount of dysfunction and an inability the two parties have to get anything done in the upper chamber.

While you can be happy or sad that Mr. Bayh is leaving the Senate, just as you can agree or disagree with his assessment of the Senate, I think we can all agree that the Senate is looming with dysfunction right now, and we need new voices in the chamber that can work together (even across party lines) to get things done. In these times of trouble we need Senators that have a mutual respect for one another and an ability to work together on important issues.

Because of this, it is troubling to me that Mr. Tiahrt has only one sitting US Senator (Jim Inhofe) endorsing his campaign for the Kansas seat. If we need Senators that are willing to work together and support each other, how are we supposed to trust that Mr. Tiahrt can work with the Senators we have if only one is willing to endorse his campaign?

Of course Mr. Tiahrt has gotten a steady stream of endorsements from people that have (at various times in their lives) been involved with the political system, including the Senate; but most of these people are not currently members of the United States Senate.

To date Mr. Tiahrt’s campaign has been endorsed by Former Senator George Allen of Virginia (a man whose most famous political moment was a racially charged comment during a doomed Senate campaign); Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (who’s 2006 re-election defeat was by the largest margin for an incumbent in twenty-five years); and Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (who, apparently, has conservatively spent $1 million dollars in taxpayer money since he retired). While these are fine endorsements, they do not do enough to prove to Kansas voters that Mr. Tiahrt will be able to effectively work with the other members of the Senate if and when he is elected.

If Mr. Tiahrt wants to prove that he can be a part of a newer and more effective Senate, he needs to show that he has greater support of sitting Senators in his bid for election. He needs to gain more endorsements from sitting senators, and he should probably diminish the amount that he touts endorsements from men that have been voted out of the chamber. Without the support of sitting Senators, I see no way that Kansas voters can trust Mr. Tiahrt to be an effective legislator for the state, and for America.

Endorselessly yours,

Publius

The Rest of the Story

2010-03-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

Several summers ago I worked in a congressional district office during an election season. Being an unpaid intern, my job mainly consisted of typical intern work: answering phones, taking messages, calling agencies and waiting on hold, and occasionally moving a file cabinet or two. Because I worked in the district office, almost no part of my job had any connection with the campaign.

Some people might not know this, but federal laws prohibit campaign work from happening in the official offices of congressmen. The work of a campaign and a congressional office must be strictly separate. Because of this, whenever anybody called our office that summer asking for information about the campaign, all we could do was give them the number of the campaign office, and if somebody tried to drop off a donation for the campaign, it had to be directed towards the campaign office.

Like all congressional offices, some activities manage to permeate this strict division. On several occasions, when people dropped off donations to the office I worked in, I (being the intern) was directed to take them to the campaign office. This walk would always serve as a physical representation of the required separation as I had to walk a couple blocks down the street, around a corner, and into a completely different building where the campaign offices were located.

This was a lot of separation.

I’m sharing this story because I believe the OCE report on Mr. Tiahrt’s activities begs us to ask questions about the separation between Mr. Tiahrt’s campaigns (if not this year’s, but previous years that are already documented) and his official congressional staff. Again, I would like to direct attention to the report and pages 175 and 176 where it states:

36. The Board notes that the Legislative Affairs Director of Teledyne Controls, when interviewed by the OCE, stated that Jim Richardson, Representative Tiahrt’s MLA, was present at all fundraisers he attended

AND

40. Many of the emails submitted to the OCE concerning fundraising were authored by the Jeff Kahrs, Chief of Staff.

From the looks of it, Mr. Tiahrt’s official staff (in fact, his Chief of Staff) was engaging in business that should normally be confined to the campaign. While most Americans might not see this as a huge problem, it is again an instance of Mr. Tiahrt and his associates bending and breaking the rules in order to create an advantage for the Congressman.

As much as he might want Kansans to believe otherwise, Mr. Tiahrt is fully entrenched in all of the evils of the Washington establishment. He doesn’t appear to care about honesty, or about the needs and desires of our country, rather his primary concern seems to be for himself and advancing his political career.

The story never changes: Kansans deserve better.

Separately Yours,

Publius

A Closer Look

2010-03-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I wrote about the recently released OCE report regarding Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement with the PMA scandal, and today I’d like to continue that discussion by taking a closer look at the report to find out why the OCE was unable to produce sufficient evidence against Mr. Tiahrt (even though they apparently believe he is guilty). To begin, I would like to direct attention to page 164 of the report just under the heading Introduction where it states:

Representative Tiahrt would not consent to an interview with the OCE, nor would he allow members of his staff, the Chief of Staff and Military Legislative Assistant (“MLA”), to be interviewed by the OCE.

Further, to the bottom of page 181 which states:

The Board notes that because the OCE was unable to interview Representative Tiahrt or his staff, the Board is unable to conclude whether the Member was aware or not that the donor linked the contribution to an official act.

In these two instances, the board is not only saying that Mr. Tiahrt was uncooperative, but they are saying that his cooperation in the case would have proven once and for all if he is innocent or guilty of the accusations against him. If Mr. Tiahrt actually was completely innocent of all wrongdoing, wouldn’t he embrace the opportunity to go in front of the Board and make his case? His refusal to participate or allow his staff to participate in interviews with the OCE creates the appearance that he is guilty of all the charges made against him.

Furthermore, what is even more troubling about this episode is that Mr. Tiahrt’s failure to participate in the investigation flies in the face of what he told the public. Last fall he said, “We have fully complied with the OCE request and are more than willing to discuss our process further if there are any additional questions.” If Mr. Tiahrt was ‘more than willing’ to discuss the process his staff undertakes, then why is it that the OCE felt differently in their report.

If we are to trust the OCE report (and I have no reason not to), we have to conclude that Mr. Tiahrt was lying to the media last fall. His claim that he was “more than willing” is completely contradictory to the OCE report. Last fall, Mr. Tiahrt made sure to give off the appearance that he was fully complying with the investigation when in reality he wasn’t assisting or complying with it at all.

Throughout this entire ordeal, Mr. Tiahrt has lied to voters about his compliance with the investigation, while he has refused to talk to a board that could show the public that he truly is innocent. Why would Mr. Tiahrt refuse to talk if he is innocent? Only he can answer this question, but he apparently sees no reason to address it as he recently said, “Today I received absolute vindication.”

Clearly Mr. Tiahrt believes he did nothing wrong, and he might be right, but if this truly is the truth, then why did he refuse to discuss it with the OCE and why did he lie to Kansas voters about his cooperation? Washington bureaucrats might not care about the answers to these questions, but voters should seek them out long before they grant Mr. Tiahrt higher office.

Openly yours,

Publius

If the Glove Doesn’t Fit. . .

2010-03-01T07:14:00.001-08:00

Over the past several months, I have been very critical of Mr. Tiahrt’s alleged involvement with the PMA earmarks scandal that send defense contracts to the clients of the former lobbying firm in exchange for campaign contributions. During this time people wondered what I would say if Mr. Tiahrt was acquitted by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).

Well, Mr. Tiahrt was recently acquitted of wrongdoing by the OCE and I honestly wish that I could take back the negative comments I made towards him about this situation. I wish that the world was that clear cut and that all politicians went to Washington to do what was best for America. I wish that the OCE once and for all admonished Mr. Tiahrt of all wrongdoing.

I can’t do these things, however, until we discuss (as Paul Harvey used to say), “the rest of the story.” So I’d like to direct your attention to the top of page 182 of the PMA report which reads:

Given that the documents the OCE has obtained through its investigation show potential connections between appropriations requests from former PMA clients and campaign contributions from the same clients to Representative Tiahrt, without further information that can only be obtained through witness interviews, the OCE cannot fully assess Representative Tiahrt’s role in the former clients’ intentions to make contributions based on receipt of earmarks. In the event that the OCE is unable to obtain information necessary to reach this determination, and there is probable cause to believe the allegations based on obtained evidence, the Board may refer the matter to the Standards Committee for further review. The Board finds that the evidence gathered in the OCE’s review supports a finding of probable cause.

While the OCE failed to find Mr. Tiahrt guilty in the PMA investigation, it appears that the investigators believe that he is guilty. This distinction between what the investigators were able to find and what is probably true is one of the classically murky situations that is best exemplified by former NFL running back OJ Simpson.

As we all know, Mr. Simpson was acquitted of murder in the highly publicized 1994 murder trial, but what many forget is that Simpson was later found liable for the wrongful death of his ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman. The two juries in these cases might have seen the same evidence but came to wildly different conclusions because of the different standards that are applied to civil and criminal court. The jury in the criminal trial had a reasonable doubt that Simpson didn’t commit the murders, while the jury in the civil trial found that there was a preponderance of evidence to find Simpson liable.

The PMA investigation is similar because while the OCE could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Tiahrt gave defense contracts to the clients of a lobbying firm in exchange for campaign contributions, the review did support a finding of probable cause. While Tiahrt was acquitted by the ethics committee, the committee seemingly believes there is a good chance that he is guilty.

I believe that Kansas voters should treat themselves as the civil jury in this case. Looking at the findings of the OCE, Kansans should ask themselves the question: Is Todd Tiahrt probably guilty of these ethics violations? If Kansas voters believe that Todd Tiahrt is probably guilty of these violations, then they should also see him as a liability to hold their Senate seat, and should vote accordingly.

Suspiciously yours,

Publius

The Forgotten Fourth

2010-02-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

Is Todd Tiahrt’s biggest trouble the fact that he has seemingly abandoned the Kansas District that he has represented for nearly two decades?

News came out of the 4th District recently that a Democrat is actually leading all Congressional candidates in that district in campaign contributions as his Republican adversaries are waging a bitter fight to see who will become the party’s nominee. Has Todd Tiahrt put the Republican Party at risk in his home district by running an unlikely Senate campaign as opposed to continuing to represent the fourth?

While Mr. Tiahrt is currently trailing in funds and support, he has also failed to tap a successor to take his place in the fourth district. He might say that he is a conservative first, but shouldn’t part of his duty as a Republican congressman be to help ensure that his district remains in GOP hands a year from now? The fourth district was a Democratic stronghold for years, and Democrats view this seat as a possible pick-up in an otherwise bleak year.

Todd Tiahrt is continuing to show that he has no sense of loyalty to the GOP and that he is bad for the party. He needs to do something now to make sure that the 4th District remains in Republican hands.

Rememberingly Yours,

Publius

But Where was Todd?

2010-02-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, the sprawling Tea Party movement finally coalesced itself into something resembling a national organization by having the first ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. With key speakers such as Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin rousing the crowds of the Convention, Kansas voters need to be asking the question: Where was Todd Tiahrt?

Time and again Mr. Tiahrt has said that he is a conservative first and a Republican second, but if this was really true then wouldn’t he want to be present and active at the first national meeting of the conservative movement that has been sweeping the nation for nearly a year? It makes no sense why this ‘true conservative’ would not be at the Tea Party Convention—unless he was worried about being labeled as too conservative.

The thing about the Tea Party is that while most real conservatives in America strongly agree with their founding and their merit, there are many moderates across America that see the movement as a national punch-line. By neglecting to go to the convention, is Mr. Tiahrt trying to gain the acceptance of this group of non-conservative Americans?

If this is the case, then Mr. Tiahrt is again showing how he will put his desire for political gain in front of what he claims to believe or what he actually believes. By not attending this important convention, Mr. Tiahrt is again proving that he has become a dishonest Washington insider like so many other politicians before him.

However, I think there is a different reason for Mr. Tiahrt’s failure to attend the convention.

Last month I questioned Mr. Tiahrt’s logic in participating in an ill-advised conference call with the Maryland Independent Party. Those that have listened to ‘the call’ know that it ends with the organization criticizing Mr. Tiahrt’s conservative credentials on abortion and then proceeding to fight amongst themselves for a really long time. I believe that Mr. Tiahrt stayed away from the Tea Party Convention because he and his advisors were worried that he would again be called out by a true conservative organization for his credentials as a true conservative.

As far as I can tell, the biggest issue for most factions of the Tea Party movement is the excessive government spending. The movement wants less government spending and they are seemingly angry at all of government: Republicans and Democrats. Because of this, I believe that Mr. Tiahrt was afraid that the Tea Party Conservatives would question him about his votes for stimulus packages when other representatives voted against all the stimulus packages last year.

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt and his staff were fearful of a repeat of ‘the call’ and decided to keep him away from the meeting of true conservatives that might damage his conservative ‘reputation’. I believe this stimulus issue could be even more damaging for the Tiahrt Campaign seeing as his opponent for the Senate nomination is one of the 17 Representatives that never voted for a stimulus.

At the end of the day, I don’t know why Mr. Tiahrt did not attend the National Tea Party Convention. Maybe he was afraid of being questioned about his credentials or maybe he did not want to be associated with the movement. Either way, this is a movement that Mr. Tiahrt should associate himself with if he wants to be known as a true conservative, and for now Kansas voters are just left to ask why he wasn’t there.

Tea-Drinkingly Yours,

Publius

What Does He REALLY Believe about Illegal Immigration: PART 2

2010-02-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I wrote about Todd Tiahrt’s unclear stance on illegal immigration. While Tiahrt had claimed that he was true conservative and that he was strong on illegal immigration, he supported the DREAM Act (a position that put him in hot water with many true conservatives).

Recently, Mr. Tiahrt has apparently changed his views on illegal immigration by introducing the Fairness For American Students Act, which would close current loopholes that allow children of illegal immigrants to gain access to in state tuition, even when students from neighboring states are not eligible to pay this tuition.

While I commend Mr. Tiahrt for changing his views on immigration, I again must question what he really believes when it comes to illegal immigration. While he is now seemingly taking a strong stance against illegal immigration, Kansans have to question the timing of his announcement as it came just days before the largest meeting of Kansas Republicans.

I believe that it is disingenuous for Mr. Tiahrt to change his positions and views all the time, and that it is even more troubling that he would change these positions so close to an important political gathering. What is obvious here is that Mr. Tiahrt wanted to bolster his ‘conservative’ credentials going into the important meeting, but what remains to be seen is whether or not he will continue to support these types of immigration laws in the future.

Consistency is important for politicians. Not only do they need to support their rhetoric with actions (such as voting for or introducing legislation), but they also need to support these actions again and again on a consistent basis. Mr. Tiahrt has proven that he is not only inconsistent with his voting record, but he is also inconsistent with his actual position on issues that impact Kansas voters.

Changing his position on the eve of Kansas Days just shows that Mr. Tiahrt is not the honest and forthright politician that Kansans should be looking for to represent them in the higher chamber of Congress. The state deserves consistency, and it deserves honesty, and Mr. Tiahrt is proving to have some trouble with both of these things.

Consistently Yours,

Publius

Tiahrt's Troubles Twitter

2010-02-05T22:04:00.001-08:00

Inspired by the tweeting sensation Vicki Tiahrt, I've created an accompanying twitter account to supplement this site. You can access it at:

https://twitter.com/TiahrtsTroubles

I plan to update it daily to highlight the antics of Mr. Tiahrt. With his campaign solidifying itself as the challenger campaign of desperation, I'm sure there will be no lack of material to discuss.

Yours in Tweeting,

Publius

Money Talks

2010-02-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

I hate being righteous, but yesterday's predictions came to fruition today. Todd Tiahrt's campaign released their 4th Quarter numbers, and they were far more damaging that expected.

Mr. Tiahrt's campaign raised a measly $195K and spent $271K.

Yes that is correct fellow Kansans. Mr. Tiahrt, the denizen of fiscal conservatism outspent himself once again, dwindling his Cash-On-Hand to a paltry $1.32 Million. Mr. Tiahrt's opponent raised $404K and has over $3.7 Million Cash-On-Hand.

These embarrassing numbers, coupled with the new poll showing Mr. Tiahrt 7 points behind lays the groundwork for a possible exit from this race, and retirement to the Tiahrt home in Virginia.

In the next couple of days, I will provide full analysis of the finance report. Suffice to say, there appears to be a reason Mr. Tiahrt has elevated the petty rhetoric of his campaign.

Cents-ibly Yours,

Publius

Where's the G's?

2010-02-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

February 2nd, and still no sign of Todd Tiahrt's campaign finance reports...

Both his Republican and Democrat opponents have released their financial statistics, but Mr. Tiahrt seems unwilling or unable to produce the Year-End report for the Federal Election Commission. The deadline for reporting was yesterday, however, Mr. Tiahrt apparently took advantage of the loophole that stipulates finance reports must be postmarked by February 1st.

This action is likely indicative of several troubling items for the Tiahrt campaign.

First, poor fundraising numbers are likely. It is improbable Mr. Tiahrt managed to raise the $400k+ that his Republican opponent secured. But then again, Mr. Tiahrt claims time and time again grassroots is how he'll win the election. I find it ironic that Mr. Tiahrt was unable to run away with a decisive victory at the Kansas Republican convention, a meeting of the most dedicated grassroots activists in our great state.

Second, it is almost certain he was unable to keep pace with his Republican opponent in building the Cash on Hand statistic. As I previously wrote, Mr. Tiahrt spends his campaign cash quicker than Martha Coakley can throw a foot in her mouth.

Finally, the biggest question, "What is Mr. Tiahrt hiding?" Why is this routine process taking so painstakingly long? Wouldn't a fiscal conservative have the most basic synopsis of the financial health of his campaign ready within quick order; Mr. Tiahrt has now wasted over a month putting this report together, and now is delaying the damage a few more days.

Mr. Tiahrt, it's best to admit bad news up front. Ask John Edwards.

Disclosingly Yours,

Publius

Home is Where?

2010-02-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

At the Kansas Republican convention last week, Mr. Tiahrt spoke out against apparent criticisms against his family by declaring, “I just think going after the families is out of bounds.” While I certainly agree that unwarranted criticisms against families are something that should be kept out of this dirty political process, I disagree with Mr. Tiahrt’s complaints as he was responding to criticisms that were decidedly NOT about his family.

Tiahrt was responding to his opponent’s (US Representative Jerry Moran) claims that Mr. Tiahrt moved his family out of Kansas to Washington. Mr. Moran’s main criticism of Mr. Tiahrt is that Tiahrt moved his family out of Kansas (while Moran continues to live in Kansas) and is therefore out of touch with Kansas voters. Setting aside Moran’s assumption that Tiahrt must be out of touch with Kansas voters because he no longer lives there, I want to look at the response from Mr. Tiahrt.

Instead of actually responding to the legitimate concern (that Mr. Tiahrt is more of a Washington insider than he is a Kansan), Mr, Tiahrt attempted to de-legitimize these comments by making false claims about how his family had been criticized. Not only was his family never criticized, but this response seems to be intentionally withholding important information from the voters that Mr. Tiahrt is asking to elect him to the Senate.

Mr. Moran’s criticism was not addressed towards the Tiahrt family because it addressed actions that Mr. Tiahrt himself took. Would the Tiahrt’s live in Northern Virginia now if Todd was not a US Representative? NO. Do we even know if Mr. Tiahrt's children wanted to move to Virginia before their father was elected? We have no idea. I don’t personally know the opinion’s of Mr. Tiahrt’s family (except, of course, what I can glean from his wife’s Twitter account), but I fail to understand how it is a criticism of them that they moved to Northern Virginia because of their father.

The larger problem with Mr. Tiahrt’s comments, however, is the snide way in which he attempts to brush off a legitimate criticism (that he is out of touch with Kansans) by making an illegitimate one (that the original comment was insulting of his family). I think we need Mr. Tiahrt to explain to Kansans how he is fully able to understand the needs and concerns of Kansas voters, if he doesn’t even consider the state his primary residence.

Deep down, the core of this issue is that Mr. Tiahrt has become more of a Washington insider than he is a representative Kansan. He doesn’t honestly answer a criticism when asked, but he dodges by making an even worse criticism of his opponent in the process. This is not the type of behavior that Kansans should expect from somebody that is claiming to represent them (even if he is no longer one of them), it is the type of behavior we should expect from somebody that is deeply entrenched in the Washington establishment—somebody that is accused of ethics violations, attends White House Christmas parties, and writes earmarks like it is his job.

I think Mr. Tiahrt needs to answer this criticism about why he no longer lives in Kansas, and how he can properly represent Kansans while he lives in Virginia; and I think he needs to answer this criticism without making further baseless remarks.

Critically yours,

Publius

45 Days . . . and counting

2010-01-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week news officially broke that Mr. Tiahrt is now under investigation by the House Committee on Standards for his involvement in the widely publicized PMA scandal that has been reported by many news outlets and discussed previously on this blog. Not only is Mr. Tiahrt under further investigation, but he is the only Republican of the PMA Seven to be further investigated by the House Committee on Standards. The basics of the case are that Mr. Tiahrt allegedly put earmarks into bills that gave contracts to clients of now-defunct lobbying firm PMA in exchange for political endorsements.

While Mr. Tiahrt claims that he is happy these investigations are going public, and hopeful that he will be soon exonerated of the charges; I believe that Mr. Tiahrt and his staff are probably shaking in their pants.

Time and again Kansas voters have been told by Mr. Tiahrt that he is the conservative choice for the Senate and that he will fight wasteful spending in Washington, but everybody knows that the most wasteful form of spending in Washington is the earmark process that only help a small group of the elite and powerful. If Mr. Tiahrt has been involved with creating these earmarks—that alone would be cause for Kansans to vote against him in this summer’s election, but if he was helping to write these earmarks in exchange for campaign contributions, I believe that would necessitate his resignation from Congress as well as removing himself from the current Senate campaign.

Luckily, there is now a time frame.

Kansas voters will not be forced to make a decision simply based on the rhetoric that politicians have been throwing around, but they will have definitive knowledge of Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement in the situation when they make their decision this summer. Either Mr. Tiahrt’s claims of innocence will be backed up, or he will be revealed as a lying Washington insider that should have no place representing the people of Kansas.

I can’t wait to see the results.

Patiently yours,

Publius

In Whose Town Hall?

2010-01-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Recently, Mr. Tiahrt staged a controversial event that is being described by some as a town hall meeting, and by others as a campaign rally. Mr. Tiahrt appeared at the event in the City-County Building in Salina (a building that is strictly prohibited from hosting political rallies), and used the event to answer voters questions and to ‘outline the differences between himself and his Senate opponent’.

While Tiahrt (as well as the Saline County Commission Chairman) are claiming that the event was not a political event, I believe that the facts of this event show that it was clearly a political rally. First: the event was announced by Tiahrt for Senate. Second: materials advertising the event were paid for by Kansans for Tiahrt. Third (and most importantly): the event was held in a city outside of Tiahrt’s home district.

I believe that any event held outside a congressman’s district (when that congressman is running for Senate) should be considered a campaign event. Never mind the fact that this event was clearly promoted as a campaign event, or that Tiahrt used his time at the event, the simple fact is that this event would not have happened if Todd Tiahrt was not currently running for the US Senate.

Voters should find this troublesome because the campaign is showing a clear recklessness towards keeping the business of the campaign separate from the official business of Tiahrt’s congressional office. I understand that sometimes these things will be intermixed, but they can’t possibly try to pretend that this event in Salina wasn’t part of Tiahrt’s campaign.

When viewed in a vacuum, this event is a pretty trivial part of understanding Todd Tiahrt; but when viewed alongside his other blunders, this event helps to show that Mr. Tiahrt clearly has a knack for skirting the rules and doing whatever is best for Todd Tiahrt.

Should Kansans expect better?

Town Hallingly Yours,

Publius

Hang Up the Phone Todd

2010-01-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

Recently, Todd Tiahrt was involved in a ‘conference call’ for the Maryland Independent Party (you can listen to it here, but I warn you it is painfully long to listen to). During the ‘conference call’ the group describes themselves as “Recovering Republicans” who are working to support candidates from other political parties that match their agenda.

While they claim to have a broader agenda, it appears that this is simply an ultra-right-wing fringe, lifer birther group.

The group starts their discussion with Congressman Tiahrt by pressing him on the issue of whether or not Obama meets the citizenship qualifications of the Presidency. They press Tiahrt about why he didn’t speak up when the Electoral College votes were counted. The conference call then moves forward dissecting their opinions of how Naturalized citizenship works. To his credit, Tiahrt largely stays out of this ridiculous discussion.

The moderators of the call then move the discussion toward their main issue, which is the pro-life movement and Congressman Tiahrt’s support of the Stupak Amendment. It is here in the discussion that Tiahrt must fend off the groups advances as they senselessly attack him for not being 100% behind the pro-life movement and for supporting the Stupak Amendment (even though no Republican voted against the Amendment).

I believe that Tiahrt was correct in supporting the Stupak Amendment, and justifications he gives for his actions are also sound and logical. The problem for Mr. Tiahrt, however, was that he wasn’t dealing with sound and logical people in this conference call. And further, he becomes incredibly defensive, angry, and at times belligerent during the call. While their objectives might be worthy, this group does not have a rational method for obtaining them.

Not only are the group’s methods questionable, but they speak like a bunch of angry schoolchildren. After Tiahrt finally leaves the call, the in-fighting amongst the contributors sounds like to a brother and sister fighting over the last Christmas cookie. These people make the partisan bickering of a show like the ill-fated Crossfire look like a pleasant discussion. None of the contributors seems knowledgeable, respectable, nor classy.

My question for Mr. Tiahrt would be: Why did he and his aides choose to put him on this conference call? Is he so desperate for endorsements that he felt he needed to take part in this craziness? Is he trying to prove to Kansas voters that he really is a hard right conservative who’s views are not in line with the majority of Americans?

I think somebody in Tiahrt’s campaign screwed up with the vetting process of this organization, and that Tiahrt never should have been allowed. His appearance on the call, through no fault of his own, helps to align his views and opinions with those of a disorganized and disingenuous organization that is seemingly separated from the realities of Washington politics and the real world.

If Todd Tiahrt wants to prove that he can represent all of Kansas, he needs to stop palling around with groups that make him look like an idiot and start appearing with grown-ups.

Yours in the mainstream,

Publius

The Left Company

2009-12-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

Recent days have seen the internet and newspapers flooded with lists declaring the top ten [insert item here] of the decade. While there have been lists about movies, music, moments, people, and events; the most interesting list for Kansas voters should be conservative interest group Judicial Watch’s list of Washington’s Ten Most Corrupt Politicians.

Being a conservative interest group that has famously championed the issues of transparency and accountability for government officials, it should come as no surprise that the list is a who’s who of the liberal elite. Members of the Obama administration (including the commander-in-chief himself) and prominent Democratic congressional leaders fill the list from top to bottom. If you read in depth however, you will see that there are a few less prominent Republicans included in the list.

Of interest to Kansas voters, is the fact that Todd Tiahrt is included in the list with John Murtha and the PMA Seven.

For readers that are unfamiliar with Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement with the PMA scandal, it essentially involves Mr. Tiahrt and other members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense steering earmarks towards clients of the lobbying firm PMA in exchange for political contributions. Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement in this scandal should be troubling to Kansas voters because it exemplifies Mr. Tiahrt’s dishonest behavior and desire to be a Washington insider.

Furthermore, Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement in these alleged events are so corrupt, that they earned him a place on a list of Washington’s most corrupt politicians. Even more disheartening is that this list was published by an organization that clearly has a bias in favor of conservative candidates. If conservative-biased Washington organizations take issues with Mr. Tiahrt’s actions, shouldn’t the people of Kansas expect more from a man that is running for a senate seat?

Mr. Tiahrt’s involvement in this scandal not only demonstrates Mr. Tiahrt’s dishonesty, but it once again puts him in the company of the liberal East Coast elite that clearly does not share the interests of the people of Kansas. Mr. Tiahrt should think twice before becoming embroiled in corrupt activities, and he should remember that he is in Washington as a representative of the people of Kansas.

I think Kansas deserve better.

Honestly Yours,

Publius

JT J.D.

2009-12-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about blogging is becoming a part of the community of bloggers and sharing information with each other. I’m only one person, and it’s difficult for me to do all the research that is necessary to keep Kansans informed. Because of this, and in the spirit of the Christmas season, I would like to share my gratitude for the Kansas Kid Conservative who brought to light another controversial Tweet from Vicki Tiahrt.

He transcribed her tweet by writing, ‘“Jessica [The Tiahrt's daughter] passed the bar exam, she passed, she passed, she passed!”’

While the Kid Conservative believes he is using sarcasm in describing this Tweet as controversial, I believe that it is far from sarcastic given the fact that Mr. Tiahrt has previously spoken negatively about lawyers. It makes no sense to me that the Tiahrts would be pleased with their daughter becoming a lawyer given Mr. Tiahrt’s previous criticisms of lawyers.

Don’t get me wrong, it IS a big deal that their daughter passed the bar. My father is a lawyer and has told me countless times how difficult the test is; I have nothing but the utmost respect for lawyers and their profession, and likewise Jessica Tiahrt.

My problem is that less than a month ago Mr. Tiahrt was criticizing a profession that his own daughter is about to enter. What kind of parent does that?

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt’s comments about lawyers (coupled with his daughter's career) demonstrated that he is a person that will say anything in order to gain a political advantage. He didn’t hesitate to criticize his daughter’s profession [who knows if he actually meant what he said] when it could potentially hurt his opponent, and I am scared what else he will say or do in order to get elected.

This incident is just more evidence that Todd Tiahrt is a man who will do anything for a political gain, and a man that cannot be trusted by regular Kansans like the rest of us.

Litigiously yours,

Publius

What Does He Really Believe About Illegal Immigration?

2009-12-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

In a perplexing turn of events last weekend, Representative Tiahrt chastised the Congressmen and Senators who he claims have voted to provide illegal immigrants with health insurance. His claims stem from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that was passed in February (legislation that Mr. Tiahrt opposed).

Tiahrt states that his vote was to oppose a bill that makes it “easier for non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to obtain benefits.” However, like most things Mr. Tiahrt claims, there is much more to the story. If you look more carefully at the legislation, you will see that his statements regarding SCHIP benefits for illegal aliens are decidedly false, and that his motivations are suspect

In actuality, under no circumstances does SCHIP allow illegal immigrants to enroll or participate in its benefits. The bill specifically prohibits the inclusion of illegal immigrants, and only allows the possibility for legal immigrants to apply. This legislation, therefore, actually closes the loophole in the current law that does not have citizenship requirements.

Furthermore, current Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, supports the SCHIP program. His stalwart opposition to illegal immigration doesn’t conflict with his SCHIP vote (as Tiahrt would have us believe) because he took the care to actually understand the legislation before making a decision on it. Unlike Tiahrt, Roberts realized that the current law was promoting illegal immigration, thus he supported the necessary changes.

If Mr. Tiahrt’s motivation for opposing the SCHIP is because of his supposedly stern stance against illegal immigration, he should have done a better job of determining the impact that this legislation would have on immigrants (both legal and illegal). If the principles behind his decision were in line with his rhetoric, then his vote appears to be one of negligence and haste.

I believe, however, that Mr. Tiahrt is actually all talk. He knew what he was voting for, and he knew that his vote would support and promote illegal immigration. While he might talk like a true conservative that is ideologically opposed to illegal immigration, I believe that Mr. Tiahrt is actually sympathetic towards liberal and Democratic positions of illegal immigration, and his votes back me up.

In 2007, Mr. Tiahrt was a co-sponsor of the 2007 DREAM Act (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). This piece of legislation was, among other things, an attempt to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. While Tiahrt’s efforts to get this legislation through Congress ultimately proved to be futile, it has recently been reintroduced for debate.

Again, Mr. Tiahrt didn’t just vote for this legislation that used our tax dollars to provide incentives to those that fail to follow U.S. law, but he was actually the co-sponsor of this liberal legislation. Are these the actions of a true conservative?

On the issue of illegal immigration, Mr. Tiahrt has again proven to Kansans that he is NOT the true conservative he claims to be. He has been given a D- grade for opposing amnesty and illegal immigration, and it comes as no surprise that he failed to win the endorsement of former U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo, the leading opponent to illegal immigration in the United States.

What is most troubling about this issue, however, is that Todd Tiahrt continues to manipulate Kansans with his rhetorical claims about being a true conservative. He says he is opposed to illegal immigration, but then goes out of his way to support multiple pieces of legislation that promote it. I believe that Tiahrt should answer for these disparities. If he really is opposed to illegal immigration, he should vote like it; and if he wants to lend support for unlawful residents, then he should be honest about it.

Either way, when it comes to Tiahrt’s positions on illegal immigration, Kansans are decidedly not getting the representation they elected nor the representation they deserve.

Legally yours,

Publius

Republicans Second?

2009-12-16T06:30:00.000-08:00

In her recent interview with the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle Vicki Tiahrt makes an often used argument in proclaiming that she and her husband are, “conservatives first, and Republicans second.” It’s tough to argue with her use of this rhetorical device as many politicians have used countless sound bites that attempt to align themselves with causes over parties.

My question for the Tiahrts, however, is if this decision is one that was made by their own disposition, or if it is one that was made out of political necessity.

Last week, Tiahrt received a foursome of endorsements from conservative leaders: Kay James, the President of some random DC interest group; Colin Hanna, the President of another random DC interest group; Mathew Staver, the founder and Chairman of yet another random DC interest group; and Morton Blackwell, some activist from Virginia.

While I offer my congratulations to Mr. Tiahrt for receiving the endorsements of these conservative leaders, I fail to see why the people of Kansas should care about what these people think. Not only do none of these people live or work in Kansas, but they seemingly have no connection to our great state. Who are these people, and why should we care what they think?

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt and his wife are positioning themselves as “conservatives first, and Republicans second” because these are the type of endorsements that are flocking to the Tiahrt campaign. Sure, they are probably great people and upstanding citizens (I won’t pretend to have any idea who they are), but they have no reasonable connections to the Republican party in Kansas (or even the US Senate).

If the Tiahrt campaign really wanted to represent Kansas, they would position themselves as conservatives AND Republicans first, because these two things are NOT mutually exclusive. However, the Tiahrt campaign is having difficulties referring to their candidate as a true Republican because they have failed to receive a significant number of endorsements from current Republican officeholders and party leaders.

While the Tiahrts continue to call themselves conservatives first as they wait for more Republican endorsements, I’ll keep watching as they try to make their case for the primary . . . the REPUBLICAN PRIMARY.

Republicanly yours,

Publius

Through the Years They All Will Be Together

2009-12-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

Unlike most members of the blogosphere, I prefer not to write extensively about rumors and speculation. Not only can this type of journalism (and make no mistake, blogging is the future of journalism) be unsavory and libelous, but I believe that it leads people to diminish the relevance and stature of my work. With that said; I keep hearing the same rumor from a variety of sources in Washington and Kansas, and I feel that it is time to address its importance and significance.

Todd and Vicki Tiahrt recently attended a White House Christmas Party.

The rumor actually makes sense to me. President Obama seems like a cool guy, so I’m sure it would be fun to sing Christmas carols, drink Egg Nog, and discuss Tiger Woods’s marital problems with him. If I had the opportunity to go to a White House Christmas party, I’d even offer to bring the nutmeg. The problem is that I’m just a regular American who is not trying to run for United States Senate.

Todd Tiahrt IS running for Senate, and when you are an elected official representing a constituency (and seeking to represent a larger constituency) these parties have a significance greater than Winter Lager and Frank Sinatra songs. The Tiahrts' wining and dining with liberal elites in the White House seriously undermines his ability to properly represent the best interests of regular Kansans like you and me.

Furthermore, this ‘Candy Cane Summit’ as I like to call it brings to question the honesty and effectiveness of Mr. Tiahrt’s criticisms of Obama as the “most liberal President ever.” If Obama’s the most liberal president ever, then why would a Congressmen and Senatorial candidate who describes himself as a “true conservative” want to share cocoa and Christmas cookies with him?

I believe that the Candy Cane Summit gives more credence to my belief that Todd and Vicki Tiahrt are more interested in participating in the DC lifestyle than they are in representing the opinions of true conservatives across Kansas, as well as the rest of the heartland.

If the Tiahrts want to stand under the mistletoe with the Obamas, that’s fine with me. I just don’t want them to do it while representing the state of Kansas, or pretending that they are true conservative Republicans which they are not.

Dreaming of a White Christmas,

Publius

Tweetahrt’s Trouble

2009-12-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

Politics is a pretty dirty business, and as a personal rule I usually like to keep the spouses, children, and other family members out of my critical attacks. It’s difficult enough when these people have to see their husbands, wives, parents, and children take heat for trying to serve their country in a way they see best, but to attack spouses and children is classless.

But I’m going to make an exception today.

Mr. Tiahrt’s wife, Vicki, has recently been put on the national stage by The Hill for a virtual rampage of Republican bad-mouthing on her Twitter account. Calling her a “loose cannon,” The Hill compiles many of Mrs. Tiahrt’s Twitter posts including attacks on U.S. Senators McCain, Coburn, Thune, and DeMint; U.S. Congressional candidate and current Kansas State Senator Tim Huelskamp; and the largest interest group for fiscal restraint, The Club for Growth.

The list is practically a who’s who of people that haven’t endorsed Tiahrt for his Senate bid, so let’s break down Mrs. Tiahrt’s attacks one-by-one (using more than the paltry 140 character limit).

1. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that’s beneficial for the Tiahrts to attack sitting Republican US. Senators. Assuming their plan is to win this senate race, wouldn’t attacking future colleagues not only breed hostility, but also decrease Mr. Tiahrt’s clout and effectiveness should he win? These tweets show an utter lack of statesmanship from the Tiahrts, and would make the meetings of the Senate Spouses club very awkward for Mrs. Tiahrt (seeing how much she loves the D.C. lifestyle).

2. Assuming Mr. Tiahrt wins the primary (which is not at all a given, seeing as he is currently behind in the polls) these criticisms would highly reduce the chance that he gets the fundraising support of these GOP heavyweights for the general election (as well as any future campaigns for any office).

3. It’s highly amusing that she would attack State Senator Tim Huelskamp for being endorsed by a highly regarded conservative PAC considering that Huelskamp is seen by many Kansans as the most conservative candidate in the 1st District race. Are the Tiahrt’s trying to align themselves with the conservative wing of Congress, or are they trying to attack that wing?

4. Why would she bemoan the Club for Growth? Attacking the conservative PAC makes little sense for a candidate that is trying to position himself as the most conservative option. I assume she just wanted to take away legitimacy from the organization that recently rated her husband as a measly 29% against earmarks. If the Tiahrt’s really think they have a conservative argument against the Club for Growth, maybe they should make that argument using a medium where you don’t have to use numbers such as 2 and 4 in place of actual English words.

While I do hate to criticize spouses, Mrs. Tiahrt is continuing to throw herself into the conversation, meaning stories like these will most likely continue in the future.

Twittingly yours,

Publius

Not a Pro at Prose

2009-12-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Before I leave Mr. Tiahrt’s Op-Ed piece from the Washington Times to die the horrible death that happens to seldom viewed internet pages, I must conclude my discussion of the piece by writing about the parts of it that are so obvious they often are overlooked. While you might be expecting me to now offer more places of hypocrisy or irony, I am going to keep this post to sheer idiocy.

And by idiocy, I mean the prose with which Mr. Tiahrt expresses his off-the-mark opinions.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware that Kansans didn’t elect Mr. Tiahrt for his beautifully articulate writing, but the format and scope of his Op-Ed is incredibly incoherent. While he starts by criticizing Senator McCain for advising and supporting like-minded political candidates, he magically and mysteriously uses a string of buzz words like “spins out of control,” “bailout, “tea party,” and “fair tax” to bring his argument around to a place where he nonsensically criticizes McCain for running the ‘wrong’ type of Presidential campaign.

While there is hardly any internal logic to the structure of his piece, the format makes it painfully difficult to read.

As a blogger, I’m accustomed to reading and writing one sentence paragraphs. Stylistically they work great to emphasize certain points and break up the monotony of essays, stories, and opinion pieces. However, any middle school student could tell you that one sentence paragraphs are incapable of conveying an argument. Short paragraphs might introduce an idea, but they end before the writer even has enough space to scratch the surface of the idea, and there is no way that a writer can make a convincing argument without supporting their ideas.

This is exactly what Tiahrt attempts in his Op-Ed.

Through a series of one sentence paragraphs, Mr. Tiahrt introduces his (or probably somebody elses) ideas that are a mere collection of buzz words. Before he even gets a chance to discuss these ideas—to discuss how a different position by McCain might have changed the presidential election or why these issues are critical to current affairs—he moves on to yet another buzz word. This should be troublesome to Kansans because the entire Op-Ed piece is a veneer that Tiahrt is painting over what appears to be the crux of his entire piece: that he is bitter because he did not receive the endorsement of Senator McCain.

He writes:

“But I am troubled by reports in recent weeks that Mr. McCain has been, as Politico put it, ‘working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image’ and has ‘emerged as a political godfather’ to moderate candidates including my opponent in the race for the Republican Senate nomination in Kansas.”

Mr. Tiahrt’s is troubled by the fact that Senator McCain endorsed his opponent, so he believes the best way to improve the situation would be to slander the Republican stalwart with a mish-mash of buzz words and a pop culture reference or two thrown in for good measure. The secondary headline of the piece reads, “McCain moderation is politics of convenience,” but isn’t it Mr. Tiahrt that is practicing the politics of convenience by turning against John McCain?

I think if Tiahrt really wants our support, he should take the gracious route and accept that Senator McCain doesn’t feel comfortable supporting his campaign. He shouldn’t attack McCain with bogus arguments or call out McCain for things that the elder senator actually should be doing. If Todd Tiahrt wants to be a United States Senator from the state of Kansas he should exhibit a little more classiness and restraint in future editorials.

He should support all of the buzz words with facts and leave the one sentence paragraphs to us in the blogosphere.

Editorially yours,

Publius

Let’s Talk About 'True Conservatism'

2009-12-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

Allow me, if you will, to delve a little bit further into the hypocrisy of Mr. Tiahrt’s recent criticism of US Senator John McCain. You see, while I previously talked about the lunacy behind Mr. Tiahrt’s claims that McCain should have ran a more conservative campaign last fall; I failed to mention the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of Mr. Tiahrt’s proclamations of real conservatism.

That hypocrisy lies in the fact that Mr. Tiahrt himself does not practice the true conservative principles that he idealizes.

True conservatism means decreasing the size of government. True conservatism means cutting back on wasteful spending. True conservatism means a complete refusal of earmark legislation and pork-barrel politics. Todd Tiahrt’s congressional record does not back up his oh-so-often-proclaimed ‘true conservative’ ideals.

According to the 2009 Club for Growth RePork Card, which compiled the voting record for 68 anti-Pork amendments this year, Mr. Tiahrt has voted in favor of anti-Pork amendments an upsettingly low 29% of the time. This means that our ‘True Conservative’ Congressman has voted in favor of wasteful spending more the twice as often as he has voted against it.

Even more shocking, is how these pork projects might not just be any old excess. According to a Washington Post story from earlier this fall, Tiahrt is one of seven congressional lawmakers (mostly liberal Democrats by the way) on the House Appropriations committee that worked to steer over $200 million in earmarks towards the increasingly shady PMA Group.

Not only are these actions decidedly NOT those of a fiscal conservative, but they are potentially illegal.

All these things would be troubling in and of themselves, but when they are considered in light of last week’s critical Op-Ed, we see a far more hypocritical Tiahrt that is more of snake than a GOP elephant. You see, John McCain has spent much of his illustrious Senatorial career championing legislation against pork-barrel earmarks. McCain has consistently been rated above 85% by the Citizens Against Government Waste, and had a 94% rating from the Club for Growth in 2007.

Furthermore, McCain authored the Line-Item Veto law that would work to prevent wasteful spending, and has championed the cause of taking wasteful spending out of government.

This is the opinion of a true conservative, and these are the actions of a true conservative. Mr. Tiahrt should take notice.

Conservatively Yours,

Publius

Really?

2009-12-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Mr. Tiahrt authored an Op-Ed piece in The Washington Times which he opens by writing, “Like most Americans I am grateful for Sen. John McCain’s heroic service as a fighter pilot, a prisoner of war and, for nearly a generation, a member of the House and the Senate.”

No writer, politician, Republican, Kansan, or even American should feel a need to write a sentence as blatantly and disingenuously foreboding as this one is, because no true Republican (or American) should ever voluntarily write what followed it. What followed was a shallow and vain attempt to attack Senator McCain for continuing to lead the Republican Party in the direction that McCain believes it should be taken.

I don’t know if Mr. Tiahrt understands the American political system, but this piece is seemingly attacking the Senator from Arizona because he is now supporting candidates that share similar views to his own. Isn’t this what Americans are supposed to do? Isn’t this the essence of American politics?

Mr. Tiahrt continues his mockery of an Op-Ed by attacking McCain for not running a conservative enough campaign and claiming that, “Mr. McCain’s passive campaign of halfway steps and compromise measures allowed the most liberal, least-experienced presidential candidate ever to post a decisive victory”.

This begs the question of what would have happened had McCain run the right-wing campaign that Tiahrt would have wanted. Clearly none of the Obama voters would have shifted to McCain had the later run a MORE conservative campaign, and more than likely any moderate McCain voters would have shifted to Obama and given the ‘most liberal, least-experienced’ candidate an even MORE decisive victory.

Tiahrt’s electoral math just does not add up.

This editorial not only proves that Mr. Tiahrt is out-of-touch with the majority of Republicans that actually agree with McCain’s center-right principles, but it also lends the impression that Mr. Tiahrt is an unintelligent politician that apparently does not even understand the American political system.

It is the majority of Republicans that nominated McCain for the presidency roughly sixteen months ago, and it is this majority of Republicans that will continue to fight for constructive solutions to the economic crisis as opposed to giving vague rhetoric that isn’t backed up by facts of opinions.

Mr. Tiahrt should be ashamed of his ungrounded attacks on Senator McCain. Tiahrt claims that he is grateful for McCain’s service to America, but he sure has a funny way of expressing his gratitude. McCain is not only a true American hero, but a true Republican that will continue to do what he believes is in the best interest of the Grand Old Party and America alike, and it would not be in the best interests of ANY Republican to attack him in such an inflammatory way.

Sensibly yours,

Publius

Outspending Himself

2009-12-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Todd Tiahrt claims that he is a true conservative "committed to fiscal restraint", but how could he possibly be committed to a responsible fiscal policy when his own Senate campaign is not fiscally responsible?

It's no secret that Mr. Tiahrt has a penchant for spending in Washington D.C. (his latest Club for Growth rating is lowest amongst the Kansas Republican delegation). Recently, however, Kansans have learned the true extent of Mr. Tiahrt’s free-spending ways when his campaign reported their finances to the Federal Election Committee.

In the 3rd Quarter of 2009, Mr. Tiahrt took in $341,000 and spent $353,500. Ironically, most of this money was actually used by the campaign to pay the firms that they have hired to raise money for them (talk about wasteful spending).

I would like to lead my fellow Kansans in urging Mr. Tiahrt to run a fiscally responsible campaign, not only to back up his claims of true fiscal conservatism, but also so that his credit score remains reasonable.

Unrestrainedly yours,

Publius

Conservative Values?

2009-12-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

"This campaign's not about me, but about standing tall for conservative values, your values." - Todd Tiahrt

You, my fellow Kansans, can watch Mr. Tiahrt say this for yourself at his website, www.toddtiahrt.com. You can also see him recite the word values so often that it seems the only thing he actually values is the word ‘values’.

While the hypnotic repetition of the video can certainly put fellow Kansans into a coma, the hypocrisy of it all is more than evident given the recent news regarding Tiahrt for Senate employee, Field Coordinator Jase Stanton.

On November 18th, Mike Mahoney from KMBC News broke the story that Stanton was recently charged with aggravated sodomy and aggravated assault surrounding an event that took place in July 2008. Stanton has a plea hearing December 9th, but has preliminarily pled not guilty. Stanton did not reveal the charges to the Tiahrt campaign when hired.

I find this report troubling for several reasons.

1. There appears to be minimal if any due diligence on Tiahrt's part in hiring Stanton. Wouldn't a quick criminal records search be the first task an employer/candidate does when hiring staff?

2. These are serious charges by any standard.

3. It all comes back to values.

Sexual Assault and Aggravated Sodomy are not "conservative values" or "our values". If Todd Tiahrt believes that his values are one and the same with those of Kansans, then he must explain this apparent discrepancy. I might not agree with every position of my representatives, but if these truly are the values that Mr. Tiahrt endorses than I believe he should be honest and forthright with Kansans about these beliefs.

I want honesty when talking about what people value, and I believe that all Kansans should expect the same.

Your Valued Writer,

Publius

Welcome

2009-12-02T06:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Tiahrt's Troubles, the blog dedicated to following the missteps, mistakes, and mischief of Todd Tiahrt, Congressman from the 4th District of Kansas and current candidate for the United States Senate.

I'm here to keep you, fellow Kansans, informed about the campaign of this mad man as well as his increasingly unsettling votes and activities. While I am confident that Tiahrt's free-wheeling, inside-the-beltway personality will not lead him to a Senate seat, I hope to help bring his ideas back to main street (because we all know how rare it is to see Todd in-state).

Stay tuned for future updates, and keep reading.

Yours on the Range,

Publius