The Founding Fathers would be appalled that the Senate has morphed into the House of Lords … where the faux-royals dispense their largess, often without regard to the citizens of the United States.

It’s bad enough that Illinois Governor Blagojevich allegedly tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate Seat for personal gain, but the antics of Caroline Kennedy take the cake. Even Obama had more experience than Kennedy when he became Illinois’ de facto Senator. How arrogant of Kennedy to cop a Clinton attitude and ignore the media at will?

Wannabe Senator Caroline Kennedy (and when convenient) Schlossberg …

One need only look at the unseemly behavior of Caroline Kennedy to see the entitlement culture of the elite in full effect. Mounting a campaign, complete with an “upstate listening tour,” and courting the various movers and shakers in the hopes of pressuring New York Governor Patterson into selecting a sketchy dilettante for a Senate Seat. I say dilettante because even her supposed credentials as an author of constitution-related books demonstrates a liberal viewpoint and a total lack of scholarship when it comes to getting quotations correct.

“In the news reports of Caroline Kennedy's aspirations to be a Senator, the talking heads have noted that her qualifications include being a ‘Constitutional lawyer’ who ‘wrote a book about Constitutional law.’”

“I happen to have that book: In Our Defense, The Bill of Rights in Action, by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy, William Morrow & Co., NY, 1991. Here is what the Constitutional scholars Alderman and Kennedy had to say about the Second Amendment, on page 100:

[Under the controlling authority of the only Supreme Court case to address the scope of the Second Amendment, U.S. v. Miller, the court concluded that ‘the right to keep and bear handguns is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment.’]

The quotation marks are theirs; this is supposed to be a direct quote from the opinion in U.S. v. Miller. Those words do not appear anywhere in the opinion. Nor is it a paraphrase; nothing even remotely like those words appears in the opinion. The word ‘handgun’ does not appear in the opinion.
Alderman and Kennedy got the opinion wrong, and they used quotation marks around words that were not quotations. What is your opinion? Intentional deception, just making up crap out of thin air a la Bellesiles? Or egregiously bad scholarship? (How hard is it to check the opinion to see if the quotation is accurate, especially a short opinion like Miller?)” <Source>

Senator Reid – corruption and campaigning …

“Sen. Reid Hits the Ground Running in Uphill Re-Election Bid”

“Sen. Harry Reid will command the biggest party majority of any Senate leader in a quarter century when the new Congress convenes in January. But the Nevada Democrat is already worried about his own re-election fight in 2010.”

Worried? Why should he be worried? Because of his seemingly corrupt land deals which required amended Senate Disclosures? Because of his anti-American rhetoric when it came to the Iraq War and our troops?

“Sen. Reid, perhaps the most-vulnerable Democrat who will face re-election in a midterm race that is likely to favor his party once again, began interviewing campaign managers last week. The Senate majority leader also recently stepped up fund-raising.”

One of the most dangerous threats facing our nation is politicians who are switching into the 24/7 campaign mode: where their votes are allegedly for sale and the public be damned.

Bitter, sour and stupid … what a combination?

“Sen. Reid, however, faces a potentially tough fight. A recent Research 2000 poll of likely voters put his approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 54%, a possible reflection of voters' displeasure with gridlock and partisanship in Washington. And while Nevada broke for President-elect Barack Obama by 12 percentage points in November, the state voted for President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.”

Doesn’t the Senator represent the state of Nevada?

“Sen. Reid traveled to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico late last month to meet with campaign contributors. A spokesman for Sen. Reid said he expects to have $3 million in his campaign account at the end of the year, up from about $2.75 million on Oct. 1. Sen. Reid spent $7 million in his 2004 race.”

And what makes him worth a single plug nickel, if not for his  vote? Can’t be his leadership abilities because he is so hyper-partisan that he refuses to even consider his Republican colleagues when making pronouncements.

And unless the Republicans get the act together …

" ‘Republicans are going after Harry Reid's Senate seat in 2010, and we can't afford to lose a great Democratic leader,’ Senator-elect Merkley wrote in his email.”

“Who might square off against Sen. Reid is unclear. Nevada's Republican lieutenant governor, Brian Krolicki, declared his candidacy last month but was subsequently indicted for suspect accounting practices during his time as state treasurer. He has denied the charges.”

What can YOU do?

Stop electing corrupt politicians, celebrities and those so-called “elitists” who believe that they are somehow entitled to a high government post because of the accomplishments of their relatives.

Mix it up. Send some ordinary people to Congress. Start a drive to eliminate all appointments to high political office and demand that open positions be filled by elected officials. No more Blagojevich or Patterson-type appointments.

It is time that we start to take our government back from those who believe it is their government and that our money is their money to spend in any manner they wish. Mostly to aid and abet the special interests.

-- steve

Quote of the Day: ”A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” -- William James

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Sen. Reid Hits the Ground Running in Uphill Re-Election Bid - WSJ.com