From Patrick McDonough, a friend who’s close to Frank Coconate (another friend) who is active in fighting the Daley administration’s politically preferential hiring and firing: “As one of your greatest fans, some of us greatly respect what Carol Marin does to fight corruption in Mayor Daley’s administration. She doesn’t accept Daley’s spin and lies. Please do another show with J. Terrance Brunner and more of Daley’s lackeys. These are classics.” …Frank Nofsinger: Tom, are you aware that a blackguard could type your exact hints into Google and come up with Robert Browning, Cardinal Newman and Thomas de Quincey? I am not entering this quiz as I didn’t recognize a one until I tried my idea…You should admonish participants to act independently and honorably or risk excommunication from your Blog.” Thanks, Frank but earlier I told them an honor code was in effect and I trust them…
To all: I can trust you, can’t I?...
Bill Pascoe: The first verse [Oh to be in England/ Now that April’s here]was written by Robert Browning in “Home Thoughts from Abroad.” Browning’s favorite line of poetry: “A man’s reach should always exceed his grasp.” The definition of a gentleman was penned by Cardinal Newman in “The Idea of a University.” The opium-eater confession was written by Thomas de Quincey…
Mike Fiasco: Bill Pascoe was correct on the first three quotes. I’ll finish up by identifying John Keats’ “The Eve of St. Agnes”. My daughter took Agnes as her confirmation name. Otherwise I might have forgotten it from my college years. Pascoe plus Fiasco equals the complete answers. To Jason: I still haven’t got around to running your good piece. Somehow limitation of time curtails me.
To all: Take a look at Jason’s latest comments in Reader’s Comments. He says I’m not much of a conservative! Can you beat that? What’s your assessment? Am I a mushy like Chris Shay? Let’s have a plebiscite!...
Grover Norquist says something I agree with: The idea that the Democrats will take either house of Congress this year is specious nonsense. Republican majorities in the House and Senate are not fragile. “They have survived a recession, two wars, trillions in lost stock market wealth, a late-breaking DUI announcement, a popular-vote-losing Republican president, the Enron scandals and the best that Bill Clinton had to throw at them—twice.” He says “Democrats point out that they only need to win a net of 15 seats to regain the majority in the House. The problem for the Democrats is the small number of targets that these 15 have to come from. Thanks to the marvels of modern gerrymandering there are probably only 16 Republican incumbents in competitive districts and seven competitive open seats being vacated by Republicans. There are 15 Democrats in competitive seats, optimistic Republicans believe, and maybe three Democrats retiring from competitive seats.
“The most likely seats to change hands are the open ones. This year there have been 17 Republican retirements and ten Democrat retirements…The Democrats’ chances of gaining a net of 15 seats are diminished by the Democrat incumbents likely to lose…To gain 15 seats, Democrats [must] defend…eleven of their most vulnerable seats and win 63 percent of competitive seats held by Republicans. Thus, Democrats must win 74 percent of all competitive races to gain the majority. Not impossible but difficult.” Your view?
Tom, I think you misunderstand my response to your quiz a couple of days ago. After identifying the Browning verse from "Home Thoughts from Abroad," I went on to add that MY favorite line of Browning poetry is "A man's reach should always exceed his grasp, else what's there a Heaven for?"
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what BROWNING'S favorite line of poetry is -- either of his own, or of others'.
Tom-
ReplyDeleteYou seem to me to be as mushy as Ronald Reagan, my kind of a social and economic conservative.
Live long & perspire!
Conservatives can still be conservatives and stray from the ranch on a few issues--I think Ronald Reagan's threshold was 80%.
ReplyDeleteTom, I always enjoyed Tom Fleming when you had him on the air. Are you still associated with Rockford Institute, or are you going the way of National Review/Weekly Standard (which really never was conservative)?
I think you do a great job advocating for conservative causes - especially for the Catholic Church and on local issues. I think you are a paleocon a majority of the time but stick to some neocon stances on some national issues (to stay loyal to a president you admire).
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have only disagreed on some national issues. Since your blog / radio show mostly touch on state and local issues I will try to stick with those but I posted a few immigration articles as the Senate bill passed yesterday and I wanted to share the reaction of Americans - both liberal and conservative - who favor controlling the borders first and no amnesty by a 2 to 1 margin.
Anyway you have been at this a lot longer than most of us and have had more impact on various issues than most of us will over the course of our lives. Some people do get more liberal as time progresses - look at Barry Goldwater's final years. If I was too harsh in my immigration bill comments I do apologize. I feel very strongly about the future of this country and I feel we may be at a tipping point if this latest assault on the American people comes to fruition. Hastert will prove if he is worth saving when this bill comes to conference.
Keep up the good fight in the Church and for Illinois - heaven knows we need some good conservatives and people like you to promote them. I hope everyone takes the time to say some prayers for the troops overseas in harms way and for all of your relatives and friends who have served over the years.
That is if you haven't reconsidered your position from several weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteThe illegal side had their days in the sun in April through Communist May Day.
The remainder of May brought in the silent majority to finally take a stand to demand that the sovereignty and laws of the United States be enforced and fought for by our "representatives".
Shay's defection from the McCain / Kennedy / Schakowsky / Pelosi side of this issue means there is hope that enough people - both conservative and liberal - Democrat and Republican - to block this debacle from happening.
America must have a legitimate immigration policy to benefit the American people. Zero tolerance on the borders is needed period before anything else is addressed on this issue.
The American people have spoken. This is Hastert's last chance to hold onto the House in 2006. I hope he chooses wisely. Unfortunately things do not look good:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060525-115533-3671r.htm