"12FOR12" - A MUST VIEW List!

What's  "12FOR12"?

Well, first a little background, for those who may not know how the United States Senate is structured.  It is divided into 3 Classes, with one Class being up for re-election every two years.  For instance Harry Reid was in Class III whose term expires in January 2011.  He will not be up for reelection until 2016 (Thanks Arizona!)  The terms of Class I expire in January  2013 - hence they are the next ones we can actually focus on.  Class II will be up in 2015.  You may click on the Class links to see which group your US Senators are in if you do not know already.

So,  "12FOR12" is my effort to list 12 Senators who are up for reelection in 2012 who absolutely MUST be defeated!  And there are some very "special" folks on this list.  I have not put them in an order yet, that will be for a follow-up post.

Opposing candidates have already announced or will be announcing shortly.  You need to be aware of who they are.  If there is not a constitutional conservative running against these who are bent on dismantling all that has made this country work - you need to help your state party find one.  You CANNOT sit on the sidelines and just "hope everything works out".  Or decide not to be involved because"They are all crooks".  It will only change if WE MAKE THE CHANGE.  We need to work like its 1776 - and multiply that exponentially to reach the masses in this digital age.

OK - Here we go:

Dianne Feinstein  (D-CA) 

Incredibly intelligent but a  strict party line voter - in DC since 1992

Chair, Committee on Rules and Administration (One Hundred Tenth Congress), Select Committee on Intelligence (One Hundred Eleventh Congress).

Claire McCaskill  (D-MO)

Elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013.

Though she is new, she is willing to be a frequent mouthpiece for the left and is very canny regarding communication.

  Bill Nelson  (D-FL)

 Another strict party line voter who is completely oblivious to and dismissive of the   millions of conservative voters in his state.  Nelson was a candidate for nomination for governor of Florida; crew member on the twenty-fourth flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, January 12-18, 1986; Florida treasurer and insurance commissioner 1995-2000; elected to the United States Senate in 2000, and again in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013.

Bernard Sanders (I-VT)

Independent means avowed Socialist in this case.  Sanders was elected as an independent to the One Hundred Second and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1991-January 3, 2007); was not a candidate for reelection to the House of Representatives but was elected as an Independent to the United States Senate in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013.

  

Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Lugar has too long a track record of crossing the aisle when it was not good for the country.  He could be in the dictionary next to the definition of RINO.  He cannot be counted on to do the right thing.

Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

If you have been paying attention at all - she has been at the crux of every vote that has gone the way of the progressives.  She thinks not at all of the country at large but only of her folks in Maine.  Snowe must GO!   18 years of waffling as one of the 100 most powerful legislators in the country is about 17 years too many! 

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)

Party line all the way!!  Elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1977, until May 15, 1990, when he resigned; appointed to the United States Senate on April 30, 1990, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Spark Masayuki Matsunaga and began his term May 16, 1990; elected by special election on November 6, 1990, as a Democrat to complete the term ending January 3, 1995; reelected in 1994, 2000, and 2006 ; chair, Committee on Veterans Affairs (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses).   He has been in DC for 44 years!!

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

Elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1982; reelected in 1988, 1994, 2000, and again in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013; chairman, Senate Impeachment Trial Committee (1989-1991), Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 3-20, 2001; June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003], One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses).

Again 40 years is too long!!

Well if you are counting you will notice that there are only 8 so far - Here is the rest of the Class I list - what are your recommendations for the last 4 of my "12 FOR 12"?  Note  - Ben Nelson was on my list until he decided he would not run for reelection.
Also - if you know of open seats from Senators who have retired or as seat that is open for some other reason, please let me know in the comments.

Democrats

Republicans

Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI) Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM) Brown, Sherrod (D-OH) Cantwell, Maria (D-WA) Cardin, Benjamin L. (D-MD) Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE)  (D-PA) Conrad, Kent (D-ND) Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY) Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN) Kohl, Herb (D-WI) Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV) McCaskill, Claire (D-MO) Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) Nelson, Ben (D-NE) Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI) Tester, Jon (D-MT) Webb, Jim (D-VA) Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)

Barrasso, John (R-WY) Brown, Scott P. (R-MA) Corker, Bob (R-TN) Ensign, John (R-NV) Hatch, Orrin G. (R-UT) Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX) Kyl, Jon (R-AZ) Lugar, Richard G. (R-IN) Snowe, Olympia J. (R-ME) Wicker, Roger F. (R-MS) Independents Lieberman, Joseph I. (ID-CT) Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)

Disappointed - but not in Herman Cain

To all my friends in the local party, on Facebook and on Twitter, I think I have figured out why I am not joining with you in deciding what I will do now that Herman Cain is out of the race.

I believe it is because I am very angry - and bitterly disappointed.  Not at Herman Cain, however. 

I firmly believe he the biblical thing and honored his wife and protected his family from the merciless attack on his character for the last six weeks.  I honor his wishes and look forward to how he will participate in the process in the future.

Mine is a two-fold anger. 

Anger first and foremost at having yet another person who I loved and admired ripped from my life through no fault of their own.  I have lost many folks in my lifetime and Herman Cain's loss is nearly as deep as losing a family member.  He inspired me to believe in this country and her possibilities again.  He inspired me with the story of his life.  He inspired me because I believed that he  could help unite our country and our government to some common purposes again, rather than the alarming level of division and strife we are experiencing currently.  Last, I LIKED his ideas and wanted to see them fought for.  I believe he will continue to fight for those ideas - especially tax reform - and I will support him in that.  Will he endorse someone?  He says he will.  Will he consider a VP slot?  He has said in the past that he would, for the right candidate.  But that will all pale in comparison to the visions I had of a Herman Cain presidency.

The second part of my anger is at a system that asks for new ideas and then chews up, spits out and stomps on the folks that bring them so the gravy train of massive government is not stopped.   Examine this GOP process and ask yourself some questions.  What other candidate, other than Sarah Palin, has been put through the crucible of complete media dismissal and derision that Herman Cain has? 

First - he was perpetually dismissed as a serious candidate by ALL news outlets - including Fox News.  Side note, I now consider Fox News NO DIFFERENT from any other MSM who taking a store off the AP wire and "report" on it 24/7 with no research.  It did not matter that he was a Mathematician, Physicist, Computer Scientist and highly regarded business leader.  Since he had no title other than "SUCCESS" in front of his name, he was continually dismissed as a "pizza magnate".  What the heck is a pizza magnate?  Or only as CEO of Godfather's Pizza - he had MANY titles after that.  He brought fresh ideas, unmatched oratorical skills and ability to draw people to those new ideas.  The media found EVERY possible way to dismiss and attack those ideas rather than actually examine them factually. 

THEN - when it seemed, hmmm, "the people are actually buying into this guy Herman Cain - no matter how we have tried to dismiss him", then the bimbo eruption was brought on by, I believe, the Obama machine.  Did I hear any prominent females come to his defense?  The only one was Ann Coulter who recognized the attacked for the Axelrod produced destruction machine that they were.  Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity on the same show said he had to prove the attacks untrue.  Wow, way to support your fellow conservative.  Not one candidate, all of who he had been very civil to, stepped up and said "Whether this is true or not, the relentless 24/7 attack on this man has got to stop so we can fight the battle of ideas and he can have a chance to actually respond".  Not one. 

Not one media talking head or candidate had the courage to say - "we have met this man, we have worked with him in radio, we have been hugged and high fived by this man - this is not the person he is". NOT ONE

The attack was relentless, merciless, bereft of facts or any actual journalism, and a complete disservice to the American people who were robbed of the one candidate who inspired them the way Reagan did.  By the way, if Reagan had run in the age of social media and 24/7 cable news - he never would have been elected.

I won't choose another candidate yet.  I chose Mr Cain because I felt like he was anointed for this time.  No one else attracts me.  I don't regret one minute of the time I spent educating people about him and fighting for his candidacy.  Will I allow Obama to be reelected?  Not if I can help it.  I just don't know how I am going to fight yet. 

There are state and federal races I also need to look at.  But before any of that, I am going to take some time and prepare my heart to celebrate the arrival of the Savior who brought Light to a darkened world.  America will remain standing as long as God allows.

America - We CAN emerge victorious!

This has been a hard couple of years for millions of Americans.  Some people are feeling hopeless.  Some are saying it will all be OK if the government will take charge of the Wall Street Fat Cats.  Some feel it will be alright when there is a conservative revolution in November and all those big spending radicals are swept out of DC.

I believe the answer lies much deeper.  America will emerge from this stagnant quagmire when Americans develop honorable character and a pioneering work ethic and the government decides to get out of business's hair, and give them some freedom to innovate and create without volumes of growth hindering regulations.

America will emerge victorious when people stop expecting a handout and develop some grit.

• Accepting a hand up in a time of need is nothing to be ashamed of.  
• Expecting others to support you and provide your housing, childcare and education, while you provide no effort to help yourself is shameful - no matter your race or age.   
• Asking the government to continue unemployment benefits because you won't take whatever work is available until the ideal situation comes along - that is shameful. 
• Big business expecting the feds to bail them out if they have poor corporate policies - that is shameful.  
• Filling the air with REAL hate speech - like calling everyday working folk, stay at home moms, and retired people - who assemble peacefully to voice their  objections to a broken government and its policies - to call them all manner of vile names - that's shameful.  These people are NOT racist and NOT violent - they are simply NO LONGER SILENT. (and they leave all windows intact and the grounds clean when they rightfully assemble)
• Having an "historic election" in 2008 - and having only 63% of registered voters turn out - that's shameful.

You get my drift.  We need to develop backbones and a moral compass.  We need to read and keep ourselves informed of current events - get our heads out of the sand.  We need to research candidates records and mark ballots based on that knowledge.  We need to not be afraid of a hard day's work and be willing to do whatever work is available to take care of our obligations.

We as a country need to start teaching our children and young people how to become civil, polite human beings.  That is part of character.  They will be in charge one day.  If we think we are struggling for peace now, wait till this generation of children and young people moves into leadership.  Many of them are grand human beings.  Many of them are good kids who have not been taught the value of hard work, honesty, keeping commitments, a kind word or the importance of researching the truth for themselves rather than accepting internet blurbs and TV sound bites as truth.

We can be victorious if we remain true to the ideas that made this divine experiment called America the most unique and inviting form of government and society the world had ever seen.  If instead we allow power hungry government zealots to turn us into controlled, weak parasites of their "largesse", our country will die, and we will have allowed it.

They will only stop and consider their plans for controlling more and more of our lives if all of us - whatever our color, political persuasion, gender or profession - if we all rise up and tell them to STOP - they will respond.

When the government gives you money with one hand, it attaches a chain of obligation and control to the other.  We fought to end slavery of one kind.  Are we willing to so easily slip into the slavery of  government control of every area of our lives?  Control of YOUR banking and investment transactions is next.   Get off the couch, call your congressional reps and senators, and tell them enough is enough.  Stop passing legislation that will affect every American without reading it and then acting pompously when people dare question you - That is shameful!

I support Herman Cain for President in 2012 because he upholds these ideals.  You may have another choice and that is okay in our democratic republic.  What is not okay is to sit on the sidelines and hope everything is going to be okay.  What is not okay is to complain about the choices and not vote at all.. 

This year WILL be a truly historic, tide-turning election.  Whether is it is a refreshing rolling tide in the morning son or a tsunami of destruction is up to us.

The Hidden Election Workers - Who will win them?

Every candidate studies demographics in the primary and caucus states in national elections or locally in state/district, etc - and then if they make it through to   be the nominee, they do more sorting to see who will vote, who will donate, etc.

The one demographic they miss out on is "Who will work?"!   I am going to share that there is a group in this country that is gold for any  candidate to latch onto early in their campaign.

Here are the characteristics of this hidden, golden demographic:

• Female 

• 45-65 

• Not senior citizens and not soccer moms 

• Living independently for whatever reason (divorced, widow, never married) 

• No children at home or near by 

• They need a mission 

• Little discretionary income -But energy and drive and the frustration level with currrent economics and politics to do the HARD work of campaigning - phone canvassing, knocking on doors, preparing literature, hosting campaign tables along with social media and other activities.  (and they'll also give $5, $10, $25 when they can) 

• They remember Reagan and are looking  for candidates like him - with leadership, independent ideas,  character, charisma and the ability to engage the public.

If YOU meet these characteristics - like your author - find someone you believe in and get busy!

If you are a potential candidate - don't overlook us - you will be glad you took the time to listen and show us how we can get involved!