Former Bills’ quarterback, Congressman, Presidential contender and conservative heavyweight Jack Kemp has passed away.

Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail.

Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.

Kemp was 73.

Jack Kemp was one of the political figures who helped draw me to conservatism. Much more about Jack Kemp on Monday.

Well, the “week” is rapidly heading toward “four days”.

But I appreciate any support I can get!.

Either way, thanks for your patronage.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network brings you the best in Minnesota conservatism from 11AM-5PM.  And while I look forward to doing every episode of the NARN, I’ve been looking forward to this episode in particular.  You’ll see why.

• Volume I “The First Team” –  Brian and John kick off from 11-1.
• Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed and I are up next, from 1-3. We’ll bid Senator Spector, I’m sure, a fond and respectful adieu. With dart guns, maybe.
• Volume III, “The Final Word” – King is on next, dishing his own personal brand of conservative hurt from 3-5.  Check it out.
• And don’t forget, our long-time colleagues David Strom and Margaret Martin lead things off on the David Strom Show from 9-11AM!

(All times Central)
So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of sanity. You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• streaming at AM1280’s Website,
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• UStream video and chat (at HotAir.com or at UStream)
• Podcast at Townhall (usually uploaded by Monday morning).
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488!

Join us!

(Title: M)

Mike Dorf on the Dhidden technicality that salvages some good news from Specter’s defection:

Does Arlen Specter’s defection from R to D strengthen the President’s hand in Congress? Perhaps overall but not on judicial appointments because breaking (the equivalent of) a filibuster in the Senate Judiciary Committee requires the consent of at least one member of the minority. Before today, Specter was likely to be that one Republican. Now what?

Now, you expect the media to do to Lindsay Graham what they did to Chuck Hagel,and John McCain before him; make him their bestest lil’ buddy on the right, to try to entice him into a faustian bargain, selling his political soul for a little approving big-media spotlight.
Graham is suspect – he was on the Gang of 14 – but made of sterner partisan stuff than the hamster Specter.

Upshot: Specter may have paved the road to hell on every front but the Supreme Court.

To paraphrase the sage: “Conspiracy-wacko Liberal FREAK OUT in 3 … 2 … 1 … “

And when I say “week”, I usually mean like “a couple of days”.

The left’s got George Soros and Paul Allen and Barbra Streisand.  The right?  Well, we’ve got you, and that’s plenty enough.

OK, OK, that’s a big over the top.  But I’m passing the hat anyway.So if you’re so inclined, I’ll be everlastingly grateful for whatever spare electronic change you might toss in the pail…

Either way, thanks for your patronage.

I hope you can make it to the Tax Cut Rally tomorrow!

I will not be there – the NARN show falls smack in the middle of the rally’s time slot so it’d be dicey (and it’s pretty much a project of a competing radio station, not that I’d boycott it, per se; I just dance with the one that brung me, if you catch my drift). 

Anyway, check here for the details.  And feel free to call into the NARN between 1 and 3PM with updates; we’d love to hear how many Minnesotans have had enough.

Jason Lewis – the host I always wanted to be when I grew up, even if he works for a lesser station today – writes:

In fact, Minnesota Democrats have already proposed over $2 billion in new taxes, notwithstanding the state may receive billions in federal stimulus money. By the way, the stimulus money coming from Washington is part of the greatest spending binge in history. This has resulted in unprecedented federal borrowing as well as massive new tax increase proposals.

Because of this fiscal crisis, we are ratcheting-up our plans for this year’s TAX CUT RALLY. We have expanded the number of activities to include more booths, more points of interest, and even kid-friendly activities such as food, music, and refreshments. We might even have a prize or two for the best sign!

Don’t forget to bring a food donation for metro-area food shelves, sponsored by Hope for the City.

So bring a radio and tune in the NARN while you’re there!

Jay Reding doesn’t write nearly enough, but when he does, it’s always good.

And he does in one post what I did in about ten with my “What the hell is wrong with the MNGOP series” in this piece, “Winning on Principles”:

Everyone looks at the GOP’s problems through the lens of “conservatives” versus “moderates.” That is the wrong way to look at the issue: what this battle really is about is “principles” versus “politics.” The moderates want the GOP to play towards what they see as the political “center”—or the left. The principle-minded factions wants the GOP to stand on a bedrock of principle.

The dichotomy in Minnesota is best shown by watching “Sturdevant-approved” Republicans railing against “extremism” in the party on the one hand, and conservatives calling Tim Pawlenty a “RINO” on the other.

The moderates have a point. If you want to win as a party, you go where the votes are. It’s classic Anthony Downs, the voters fall along a bell curve and the party that can capture the most votes in the middle will win the election.

But the problem is that if the choice is between the Democrats and the Democrats-Lite, why not vote for the real thing? If Republicans start advocating for more government control, they lose the conservative and libertarian wings of the party and end up losing anyway.

Also the country; so many Democrat policies are irreversible; the nation’s addiction to other peoples’ money booms every time the Dems have unfettered power, and short of an epochal catastrophe will never go back to where it was.

There has to be room for both. The GOP cannot win by turning its back on its principles, but it has to be able to advocate for those principles. Being the best conservative in the world does absolutely nothing unless the GOP cannot get others to understand the importance of that stand.

That is the problem with the GOP today. They have no ability to connect with the average voter. They’ve lost the popular imagination, they’ve lost their political “brand” and there is no message coming from the GOP today. Even when they do have a point, they are so ham-handed in making it that they end up hurting each other.

I’ve written it before; conservatism is difficult.  When you get beyond single-issue advocacy on abortion, guns and taxes, conservatism takes some serious thought to wrap your arms around.  P.J. O’Rourke framed it well in Parliament of Whores; Liberalism is Santa Claus – happy, indulgent, with only hypothetical consequences (did anyone actually get a lump of coal?  C’mon) and, in the end, nonexistant; Conservatism is like God – there are immutable rules and consequences, and judgments get made! It can be difficult selling “abstemiousness, principle, consequences and eternal truths” when the alternative is “Barack Obama is going to pay my mortgage and my heating bill”.
It should go without saying that it’s harder when the media actively sabotages that message – and worse still when the likes of Duke Cunningham sabotage it even more.  Still, that’s what we’re here for.

Reding notes something I’ve been trying to discuss with my Dem friends:

All is not lost. Obama is a mule—a rare character that comes out of nowhere, establishes power, but leaves no lasting coattails. Obama is a rare individual, which makes him dangerous to the GOP, but the more the Democratic Party becomes a cult of personality, the worse off they are. Obama becomes largely irrelevant no later than 2016, and by then the sheen will be off.

This is a good point.  If people thought we had Bush fatigue – for an administration that, leaving the war aside and ignoring for a moment his spending (which was un-conservative but seems almost quaint looking at Obama’s budget) didn’t really do all that much – then Obama is going to leave a toxic hangover, even if he does win re-election.

Now is the time that the GOP needs to regroup and experiment.

That is what the GOP ultimately needs to do. They can’t be afraid of failure. They’ve already failed, now is the time to be bold. Yes, the GOP needs to stand on its principles, but what they really need to do is win on those principles. That means trying everything they can to advocate for their values and seeing what sticks. As badly as Michael Steele’s first weeks on the job has been, at least someone is trying new tactics.

This is a good point.  In my job – designing user interfaces – sometimes you need to show the customer a design that isn’t quite right.  It gets them thinking about what they do want things to work like – which is the goal in the first place.

Moving in a direction will help people figure out how to move in the direction.

Politics is cyclical, and the Democrats are already sowing the seeds of their own downfall. They will grow complacent and arrogant (and have already), and the GOP will get their opening. Exploiting that weakness will take time and trial. But the Republican Party must learn to stand for something and be able to make that stand one that others will join. That is a tall order, but it is the way politics work in America. Politics is cyclical, and any claim of permanent Democratic majority status is as premature now as claims of a permanent Republican majority in 2002 were then.

Heh.  Anyone remember that discussion?

Anyway – go read the whole thing.

Vice President Joe Biden, toughened by his years on the mean streets of Scranton and in the coal mines of Wilkes-Barre, went all Sir Robin on us:

Vice president Joe Biden said today he would tell his family members not to use subways in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 16 states. His remarks quickly caused a stir, drawing a rebuke from New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and later leading the White House to apologize.

The World Health Organization has raised it's classification of the swine flu outbreak to Phase Five, one step away from a worldwide pandemic.

The uproar began when Biden appeared on NBC's "Today" show and said he would advise against riding the subway or taking commercial flights and implied schools should be shuttered amid confirmation of the first swine-flu relation death in the U.S.

The National Associaton of Prison Shower-Room Nancyboys released a statement in response, telling Biden to "quit being such a friggin' pansy".

Seriously - this could still mutate into a bad epidemic.  The Spanish Flu of 1918 took one relatively mild pass through the population before it mutated into one of the worst plagues ever to hit mankind, 91 years ago, killing 50 million around the world including hundreds of thousands of Americans.

But we're not there yet, and we won't be for quite some time!

Biden must, indeed, be a living insurance policy on Obama's life.

Vandal – someone who does wanton damage,and then scampers away.

Just saying:

That wasn’t me,” President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One. It actually was him — and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years — who shaped a budget so out of balance.And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.

To be fair, he probably only voted “present” for all of it.

Meet meet the real Arlen Specter, thanks to the NRSC.

You’re welcome, Tics.  You can have him.