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Republican National Committeeman from Arizona Bruce Ash tackles the pressing issues of the day.
This week's commentary:
Gabrielle Giffords and her secret earmarks
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Dear Friends,
It has recently come to my attention that Arizona’s two Democrat freshmen members of Congress, Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell, have not disclosed their earmark requests to us, the American people.
For those of you who don’t know, earmarks or pork-barrel spending, are taxpayer funded projects that are specially requested by members of Congress for their districts.
The Democrats in Congress are planning on spending a record 64 billion of YOUR hard earned dollars on “pet” projects. That’s 64 billion that could have been used to cut taxes or shrink the size of government. The arrogance of the Democrat conference and its two newest members, Giffords and Mitchell, is simply stunning.
It is very hypocritical of Mitchell and Giffords to not disclose their requests, this in light of the fact that they both campaigned on a platform of reforming Washington and more transparency in government.
I’m asking all Arizonans to call Gabrielle Giffords at 520-881-3588 and Harry Mitchell at 480-946-2411 to express your outrage at the secrecy surrounding their earmark requests. Call them and ask: “What are you trying to hide?”
Sincerely,
RANDY
Pullen: “It’s time for all earmark requests to come out of the shadows”
PHOENIX, AZ – Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, chided freshmen members of Congress, Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell for keeping their earmark requests secret and hiding them from the public.
“When both Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Giffords campaigned last year on a platform of transparency and accountability, it seems appalling and hypocritical that now they seem to want to keep secret how they plan to spend taxpayer money,” said Pullen.
Pullen continued, “Those that have the privilege and honor to serve to serve in the United State Congress should strive to make government more efficient, more open, and more transparent. Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords seem to have forgotten that they work for their constituents and not the CIA. Keeping secrets like this is just bad public policy.”
“It’s time for all earmark requests to come out of the shadows,” concluded Pullen.
For more information, please contact Brett Mecum at 602.957.7770 or at bmecum@azgop.org.
Julie is a single mother, who was brought to America by her father when she was eight years old. She married young and worked to make her life better. She had two little girls, then found herself a divorced, single mom who wanted a better life for her children. She is their sole support as the lead manicurist for Saigon Nails in Green Valley and is buying her first home. She has not taken aid and proudly is head of her household.
Last year, Julie mentioned to LD 30 Republican Chairman Patti O'Berry that she was longing to be an American citizen. She knew that Patti was a Republican, as they had many political discussions. Julie had been waiting a very long time and was getting anxious and worried about the length of time involved in the citizenship process. Patti offered to call and write Senator Kyl on her behalf. She did so and his staff responded. They did what they could, but as the months continued to go by, it still did not seem like Julie was any closer to fulfilling her dream.
One day, when Julie was doing Patti's nails, they were discussing the Immigration Bill. Julie expressed her fears that "all the citizenships would be given away to illegals", before she could get hers. Patti assured her that would not happen and that she would again contact Senator Kyl on Julie's behalf. Patti made the call to Senator Kyl in early May, with wonderful results in June.
In the middle of June, Julie was notified that she would be taking the oath of citizenship on June 29th at 1p.m. Julie invited Patti to attend. Patti had become, what Julie dubbed, her "American Mom." To make the event even sweeter, Julie's mother Ni arrived in Tucson for a two month visit with her daughter. Ni did not know until she arrived that she would witness her daughter become a United States citizen.
Following her oath of allegiance and the signing of her citizenship papers, Julie's first act as an American, was to register to vote, yes, as a Republican....
***
Pictured above from left to right: LD 30 GOP Chair Patti O'Berry, Mimi, Julie, Daisy, and Ni
Here is my son Sam, painting citrus trees in our neighborhood this summer to earn money. He has quite a business going. And guess what? He is making a lot more money than working at a local fast food restaurant. Once again proving that Americans will do the work if the pay is good.
~RANDY
Dear Friends,
I hope you and yours had a wonderful Independence Day! You know things are returning to normal in politics when Republicans are unified and Democrats are angry!
A conversation I had yesterday with a group of Republican businessmen and women included the following topics: border security, the need to cut Arizona’s corporate income tax, the need to strengthen our schools, and how we were planning on winning back the 5th and 8th Congressional Districts next year. In short, it was a great discussion – an exciting exchange of ideas and a reaffirmation of values.
A conversation I had the following day with a Democrat friend of mine went something like this: “Randy, how could President Bush pardon Scooter Libby? Don’t you people have any scruples? Hillary Clinton will bring some much needed fresh air to the White House, let me tell you!” (I deleted the expletives.)
It was at this point I just about spit out my coffee. First, our office has been receiving phone calls overwhelmingly supporting President Bush’s decision to commute the prison portion of the sentence of Scooter Libby. Why? Because the American people understand that Mr. Libby shouldn’t be the fall guy for the actions of others in a complicated case. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald had to stretch to bring charges against Mr. Libby.
To hear Democrats blather about pardons and sentence reductions, however, is truly amazing. Among the pardons that Bill Clinton handed out, some were completely outrageous. Included in the charges that Mr. Clinton believed pardonable offenses were: “Wire fraud, mail fraud, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, criminal forfeiture, income tax evasion, and trading with Iran in violation of trade embargo.” And these were just for Democrat Party major-donor Marc Rich! Also, Henry Cisneros was pardoned by Bill Clinton for the same offense as Mr. Libby.
Democrats have about as much credibility talking about good-government as they do talking about fiscal responsibility. If their budget had passed this year, estimates tell us that it would take between $400 billion and $700 billion in tax hikes to pay for.
Democrats have about as much credibility talking about good-government as they do talking about foreign policy. Between Democrat US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bouts of declaring surrender to the terrorists in Iraq, Democrat US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was off in Syria negotiating with state-sponsors of terrorism against the direct wishes of the State Department and the professional diplomatic corps, who then had to clean up her mess.
Face it, the Democrats aren’t interested in governing; they are only interested in elections. This is why they perform so horribly at the former, and why Americans today hold them in such low regard. With an all time low approval rating of 14%, Democratic leaders in Congress have demonstrated in less than five months why they will lose control of Congress next year. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid’s approval ratings are at disastrous levels. Voter confidence in the Democrat Congress’s ability to complete even the most fundamental tasks has eroded to the point where they aren’t just a do-nothing Congress – they’ve become a “stopped-trying” Congress.
As for the Republicans, I’m proud of our GOP voters around Arizona and America these days for talking about ideas and acting on them. I’m proud of our GOP leadership here in Arizona – where our legislative leaders are working to protect veterans and children and make our state more business-friendly. I’m proud of our next generation of candidates and party leaders who are working hard across our state for the 2008 elections – registering voters, raising money and campaigning on honest ideas.
It’s not just a cliché when I close each of these notes with the fact that I’m very honored to serve you as chairman. I feel that our Arizona Republican Party is at the forefront of many of our political debates today, and that our activists, PCs, party leaders and elected officials are leading our state and nation in some very exciting directions. That, my friends, bodes well for our future as a party – and as a state.
Proudly in your service,
~RANDY
"Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!" ---George Washington
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2007
OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES, OUR SACRED HONOR
by Mark Alexander
Our nation began with these stirring words in the Declaration of Independence:
"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Now, 231 years later, they still ring true.
We may envision the Founders as rash, rowdy rebels. Not so. Already accomplished in fields of endeavor, they were settled in character and reputation. They deemed their decision necessary, and their first thought was of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." They were men of purpose and principle, who well understood the peril of choosing to declare independence from Great Britain. Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams, "Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants?"
The Founders reasoned that the colonials were compelled to the separation, outlining a detailed list of particulars describing the King of Great Britain's "long train of abuses and usurpations" that could end only in an intended "absolute despotism" and "establishment of absolute tyranny over these states." They appealed that the free citizens they represented therefore had both a right and a duty "to alter their former systems of government" and "to provide new guards for their future security."
They further explained, "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." They had been patient, measured and restrained in responding to the incursions on their freedoms but could be so no longer.
The central passage of the Declaration's opening is the document's most famous, suggesting the form of government truly fit for a free people:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.---That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,---That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The Founders sought liberty, not license---rather than a loosening of restraints, a freedom to pursue right. The objective was citizens' safety and happiness, later called "the common defense," "the general welfare," and the "blessings of liberty." The mottos of the American Revolution were "No King but King Jesus!" and "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."
Given their experiences with a leader who had violated the laws supposed to control his own conduct as much as theirs, the Founders sought to avoid the instability of democracy or of oligarchy, in which one or a handful of people can overturn the foundations by a simple vote or decree. Fisher Ames warned, "The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty." John Witherspoon referred to pure democracy as "very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." The Founders ultimately chose a constitutional democratic republic---based on the foundation of the reliable rule of law, responsive to the people's "consent of the governed" through representation of the citizens, predicated on the virtue of the people.
The colonists came to these shores with a learned tradition of liberty, and this new land offered a manner of living that further taught freedom. Our performance in upholding this heritage is mixed. We are divided as a nation, no longer pressing toward unity and allegiance to shared principles. Facile commentary lauds comity as the antidote for what the Founders derided as faction, applauding the elitist establishment fetish for bipartisanship. But they are exactly wrong. Indeed, bipartisanship today is more akin to factionalism than are those adhering to the two major political parties out of principle.
There remains one crucial question: What are we willing to risk to salvage the heritage our Founders handed down to us? Our warriors in the field have demonstrated that they stand in the direct line from our Patriot Founders---prepared to sacrifice all in service. Many activist citizens gave time, effort and resources to turn aside the Senate's recent attempts to foist a dangerous change in immigration laws on the nation. But the United States as a nation is not as secure as at its tenuous beginnings.
The signers of the Declaration concluded their treatise, "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Do we citizens, inheritors of the Republic bequeathed us, still stand ready to hazard even half so much?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader." ---Samuel Adams
Dear Friends,
The staff and I at the Arizona Republican Party would like to wish you and your family a very happy Independence Day. While you might be out barbequing, spending time with the family, watching various fireworks displays or taking advantage of all that our great state and nation have to offer, please take a moment and remember our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardsmen who are overseas bringing the ideas of freedom, liberty, and justice to the far corners of the world.
We must continue to cherish, respect, and preserve those guiding principles that our founding fathers outlined in the Declaration of Independence and work to ensure that their words and ideals continue to endure the test of time.
On this, the 231st anniversary of the birth of our nation, America should continue to serve as a guiding light for those who haven’t yet embraced the ideals of freedom for all people. We should rededicate ourselves to the work of overcoming tyranny and oppression from afar as we strive to build a stronger nation and a better world for all of our children. We should remember to thank our leaders today in whose resolve these battles are waged, and we should remember fondly those leaders of yesterday in whose dreams our great nation was born.
From my family to yours, please have a happy and safe Independence Day.
God bless,
RANDY
PHOENIX, AZ – With Congress on a week long break, Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, suggested to Arizona’s two freshmen members of Congress that they stop with the useless political rhetoric from the DCCC playbook and start actually doing their jobs and pass meaningful legislation when they return to Washington.
“Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell may have joined their fellow Washington Democrats in supporting the liberal fringe of their party, but they have done little to address the real issues facing Arizona and America,” Pullen said. “The American people have made their opinions quite clear: the Democrat-led Congress has the lowest ratings in the history of congressional polls. The Democrats’ have done little since taking power other than engage in political rhetoric and partisan attacks. Unfortunately, the victims are the people who elected them.”
Since taking control of Congress in January, Democrats have worked overtime to appease their far left constituencies. They:
• Promised to address and fix the rising gas prices, but have done nothing to address the problem. Since Democrats took over Congress, gas prices have gone up, not down.
• Tried to force and early retreat from Iraq and delayed funding to our troops.
• Supported the addition of pork spending on non-combat related items to the Iraq funding bill.
• Supported stripping away privacy rights and the right to a secret ballot in the union formation process.
• According to the NRCC, Gabrielle Giffords has voted with liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi an astounding 96% of the time, while Harry Mitchell votes with her 90% of the time.
“With all the bad Democrat legislation and support for Nancy Pelosi and her extreme liberal agenda, Arizonans and Americans are much better off when Giffords and Mitchell are on vacation and away from Washington,” quipped Pullen.
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PHOENIX, AZ – Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, challenged Governor Napolitano to enforce the new immigration legislation that was signed into law today.
“It’s interesting to me that if Governor Napolitano had enforced propositions 100 and 200 after they had been overwhelmingly approved by Arizona’s voters, there would have been no need for the state legislature to act,” said Pullen. “The Governor is clearly maneuvering to find political relevancy and ensure some form of political longevity for herself.”
HB 2779 requires employers to identify the legal status of their employees, HB 1265 requires the courts to deny bail to illegal aliens, and HB 2467 requires proof of identification for access to state administered services.
“Previously, Governor Napolitano had taken no action on the immigration question other than to blame the federal government and weaken the enforcement of Propositions 100 and 200.
“The real test is to see if Governor Napolitano chooses to actually enforce the new legislation she just signed into to law. To the Governor, all I can say is: do your job,” concluded Pullen.
For more information, please contact Brett Mecum at 601.957.7770 or at bemecum@azgop.org.
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Arizona Republican Party
3501 North 24th Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85016
602-957.7770
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