RedArizona

Only twice in history has the American public held Congress in as low-regard as they do today, and in all three instances, Democrats were in control.

By the numbers, the Democrat Congress’s approval ratings have sunk to an abysmal 18-percent according to the non-partisan Gallup Poll, as reported by UPI. And, according to Gallup, Congress’s ratings have dropped this low only twice before: in August of last year and in March of 1992.

If you’re looking for proof of the incompetence of this do-nothing Democrat Congress, look at the price of “regular” the next time you drive by a gas station and then think about this: the only idea Democrats in Congress have suggested to combat gas prices is to raise the taxes on oil companies. NOTE TO OUR DEMOCRAT READERS: This would further increase the price of gas.

When the price of gas spikes over $4.00 per gallon this summer, we at RedArizona are guessing the Democrat Congress will look back at 18-percent-approval-ratings as “the good old days”.

As Jerry Kammer of the Arizona Republic’s Washington Bureau reminds readers, Senator John McCain won his most recent reelection with 77-percent of the vote. Our state’s senior US Senator currently leads either potential Democrat nominee by (depending on which poll you look at) between 9 and 16 points statewide here in “Red Arizona”.None of that matters to Marie Weeg, executive director of the Arizona Democrats, or her dedicated band of open-borders, tax-hikes, big government, gay marriage, trial lawyer liberals who run the Arizona Democrat Party these days.

But for Weeg, a recent Idaho transplant and recent grad school grad, all hope is not lost here in Arizona. Despite Senator McCain serving Arizona for more than two decades, Weeg was recently quoted as saying “I don’t think most people really know who John McCain is.” This leads Weeg and her band of scofflaws to think McCain is vulnerable right here at home, when the truth is it might simply be that Maria Weeg doesn’t know much about John McCain.

OUR VIEW: In politics, there is such a thing as “spin”, which is the way people like Maria Weeg put a positive note on a very depressing situation. However, if she actually believes the silliness coming from her mouth, we at RedArizona suggest drug-testing at the AZ Democrat Party immediately.

Interested readers may CLICK HERE for the Arizona Republic story in which AZGOP Chair Randy Pullen and Congressman Jeff Flake have a good laugh about the silly things Maria Weeg says.

Each month, RedArizona will offer readers an exclusive interview with a rising-star in Arizona Republican politics. This month, Arizona Republican House Speaker Jim Weiers was kind enough to take some time between cleaning up the governor’s budget fiasco and his busy campaign to answer a few questions from our editorial team. We are indeed grateful. As promised, Speaker Weiers’ answers are complete and unedited. And, as always, we hope our valued readers enjoy the following “Republican Stars in Focus” series as much as we enjoyed working on it.

REDARIZONA: As Speaker, you have the sometimes unenviable task of not just keeping the Governor’s anti-jobs, anti-families agenda in check, but also keeping a slim Republican majority united. What are your biggest challenges? What have you found most rewarding?

WEIERS: Indeed, moving Arizona forward, strengthening families, promoting public and private education and getting out of the way of business provides a wide array of challenges. Republicans, who have been in the majority at the House since President Lyndon Johnson, have varying beliefs about how to create a better Arizona. I work with each of them to accomplish their goals for improving Arizona. When it comes to most core issues, the House Republicans are virtually united in our efforts to become competitive in our property and income tax structure, protect human life, control our borders and protect the environment.

REDARIZONA: We’ve asked this question of our first “Republican Star” and we’d like to continue: While Democrats seem intent nationally on dividing themselves in a bitter political fight, what advice can you offer Republicans to further unite and forge a stronger, more successful party in the coming months (or years)?

WEIERS: Republicans need only coalesce around the virtues of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The Republican Party has prospered for so long because we are the party of grand ideas and innovative solutions to big government. If we continue to push for lower taxes, personal responsibility, choice in education and effective and efficient government, Republicans will always win even if we lose the occasional election.

REDARIZONA: You were personally a top Democrat target in 2006 but in 2008 there seems to be a renewed Republican strength developing. To what do you attribute the shift here in Arizona?

WEIERS: I expect I will continue to be a top target for the state Democrat Party. I live in a district that is competitive between the two parties. While most districts lean one or another, I enjoy the campaigning that must be done in a competitive district. While Democrats nationwide have seen a resurgence, the Grand Canyon State will buck that trend. There are very good reasons Republicans are giving Arizonans to continue to support GOP candidates. The governor vetoed my bill that would have stopped a $250 million property tax increase next year. With that veto, all of us will see a substantial increase in our property tax bills next year. Without the votes to override her veto, Arizonans are stuck with that decision. Also, legislative Republicans are the only group effectively dealing with illegal immigration. From worksite enforcement to enabling local law enforcement to pursue illegals, Republicans want to secure our borders over the objections of most Democrats.

REDARIZONA: The new Democrat majority in Congress in Washington has consistently earned the lowest approval ratings of any Congress since pollsters started tracking public opinion of the legislative branch. What do you and Arizona Republicans “get” that national Democrats don’t?

WEIERS: Under the Copper Dome, the Legislature is addressing issues important to Arizona families. Relief from a massive tax increase, sealing the border, public school reform and transportation are being addressed at the Legislature. Congress, it seems to most people, is much slower at addressing these important issues.

REDARIZONA: Democrat leader Phil Lopes quickly regretted suggesting releasing criminals from prison as a means to help balance the state budget. We have a suspicion that this isn’t the only example of complete insanity to come from “across the aisle” in a typical legislative session. Even without naming names, can you give us a few examples of bad Democrat ideas your Republican majority has successfully made sure never saw the light of day?

WEIERS: Democrats have proposed everything from rolling back the tax relief plan of two years ago, ensuring a tax increase for the middle class, to universal health care to requiring environmentally friendly hybrid cars to make a certain level of noise, which would effectively kill the hybrid market in the state. Democrats often work hard to come up with ideas that would hurt businesses and ultimately families. It has been my job to stop such terrible legislation.

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RedArizona would like to again thank state House Speaker Jim Weiers (R-10) for taking the time to join our readers in this informal Q&A. He is indeed one of our “Republican Stars” and we appreciate the opportunity to share a little of his thoughts with the visitors to our site. Stay tuned, dear readers, for another edition of “Republican Stars in Focus” coming in June!

In the wake of two not-surprising congressional special election losses that surprised the party’s Washington, DC establishment (the same “brain trust” who managed to turn George W. Bush’s landslide re-election victory into one of the closest of the modern political era), former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich has offered up a 9-step course of action to get the Republican Party back on track, and back into the majority.”Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November,” says Gingrich.

Step one, says the former speaker, is to repeal the federal gas tax for the summer (the McCain plan, we’d like to note).

Interested readers are encouraged to CLICK HERE to read the entire Gingrich memo to congressional Republicans. Following his advice, it’s actually possible to see a path back to the majority.

For conservatives looking at the 2008 presidential race, one of the most compelling reasons to vote for Senator McCain is that his judicial nominees will easily trump the liberal, pro-abortion, big-government liberals that either Clinton or Obama would send to America’s highest court.  In a major address this morning at Wake Forest University, Republican presidential nominee/Arizona US Senator John McCain said, in part:

“I will look for accomplished men and women with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment to judicial restraint. I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist — jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference. My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power. They will be men and women of experience and wisdom, and the humility that comes with both. They will do their work with impartiality, honor, and humanity, with an alert conscience, immune to flattery and fashionable theory, and faithful in all things to the Constitution of the United States.”

Interested RedArizona readers may CLICK HERE to read Senator McCain’s speech in its entirety.

RedArizona is pleased to announce that Arizona House Speaker Jim Weiers will be our featured guest for the May 2008 “Republican Star in Focus“!

Speaker Weiers was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 1995. In 2001, he was elected Speaker unanimously in the often hotly divided House. In addition to guiding the House through some very historic times, Weiers has also served two years in the State Senate.

From his website and his many stories, we’ve heard often how Speaker Weiers’ political hero is Ronald Reagan, and the two Republican leaders have quite more than just a few similarities. “They are both intensely dedicated public servants,” says Arizona Republican Party executive director Sean McCaffrey. “They both respect their colleagues, they both are committed to crafting bipartisan solutions whenever possible, but neither was willing to sacrifice what was right for what was politically expedient.”

Speaker Weiers is a successful businessman, a devoted husband, a proud father and grandfather. And, now, in addition to the many, many awards and honors he has deservedly received over the years, he has the distinction of being the second “Republican Star in Focus” on RedArizona later this week!

In just 16 months in office — and just 16 months with Democrats controlling Congress as the majority party — gas prices have skyrocketed and the U.S. economy has ground from a bustling world leader to a sluggish near-recession.

For Arizona freshmen Democrats Harry Mitchell (5th District) and Gabrielle Giffords (8th District) who campaigned on protecting the Bush tax relief packages and reducing gas prices, let’s look at their record:

• Mitchell & Giffords repealed the Bush Tax Cuts
• Mitchell & Giffords’ Democrat leadership proposed the largest tax increases in American history
• Mitchell & Giffords have done NOTHING while gas prices have risen by more than $1.25 per gallon to record, all-time highs, today reaching an average of $3.60 nationally for unleaded and $4.25 for diesel.
• Mitchell & Giffords have done NOTHING while industry experts announce gas could top $7, $8, $9 or even $10 over the next 24 months.

Nevermind that America’s children continue to drop lower and lower on the global science and math tests because neither parents nor school districts will soon be able to afford to get their kids to school with gas prices like these.  Frankly, unless you work for MoveOn.Org or some other fat-cat, special interest making money off billions of dollars in corrupt federal earmarks, the Mitchell-Giffords legacy after just 16-months is a very costly failure for the Arizona people they purportedly represent.

Such is the legacy of Mr. Mitchell and Mrs. Giffords, after just 16 months in office.  Can Arizona afford any more?

2000 Democrat nominee Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet. 2004 Democrat nominee John Kerry voted to fund the War in Iraq before he voted against it, perfecting the art of flipping-and-flopping like a dying fish right before our very eyes. 2008 Democrat presidential nominee-wannabe Barack Obama, the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, might only be able to bowl a 37 (ouch), but he sure can flip-flop.

Today, Barack Obama said he would be “stupid” not to listen to General Petraeus about how to conduct the war on terror. “I will listen to General Petraeus, given the experience he’s accumulated over the last several years,” Obama said.

However, just after Gen. Petraeus’s recent testimony before Congress, Obama called for American to “immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq,” in direct contradiction with Petraeus’s recommendations. Petraeus had just testified that a premature withdrawal by the United States would have “devastating consequences.”

As if waffling about the war on terror and the lives of U.S. soldiers and the future of Iraqi democracy weren’t bad enough, Mr. Obama once again waffled on his own middle class tax hike on capital gains. Today, on FOX News Sunday, Senator Obama suggested his plan to raise the top rate of taxation on investment income (capital gains) might go as high as 20-percent. Back on March 30th on CNN, Senator Obama suggested he would raise top rate of taxation on capital gains to 28-percent.

Why be specific? It’s only the pocketbooks of 100 million Americans at stake. Does Senator Obama really need to have a clue?

In their first year as the majority party in Congress, Democrats sent more than $336 million in government grants and contracts to Planned Parenthood, according to published reports.

Yesterday, Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (R-2nd District) joined black leaders including relatives of Dr. Martin Luther King, numerous church officials, and black leaders representing organizations from around the nation to protest continued federal government funding in light of an investigation that found Planned Parenthood offices in seven states were willing to accept and earmark donations for the abortion of African American babies.

“That Planned Parenthood is willing to take the first civil right away, life, it’s easy to step over and take over any other civil right,” Congressman Franks said in his address to the crowd, according to the Human Events article linked below. “I believe America will be the country that will turn the tide of killing the unborn across the world.”

Interested readers may CLICK HERE to read the full story of Congressman Franks at the pro-life rally.

According to researchers at the University of California, China surpassed the United States in CO2 emissions in 2006, becoming the world’s foremost greenhouse gas polluter. Previous estimates had pegged the date for China to assume the dubious #1 rank as late as 2020.

According to an Agence France Presse (AFP) article published last week, the University of California researchers found that by 2010 ”there will be an increase of 600 million metric tons of carbon emissions in China over the country’s levels in 2000… [which would] dramatically overshadow the 116 million metric tons of carbon emissions reductions pledged by all the developed countries in the Kyoto Protocol.”

Contributing to the problem is China’s economic growth, which has led to the opening of a new coal-fired power plant each week to ten days on average for some time, according to the New York Times and other sources.

Interested readers are encouraged to CLICK HERE for the complete story from AFP.