Who Says Pigs Can’t Fly?

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

But Where was Todd?

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