Author: Tickler

Obama as anti-business moves into mainstream discussion | The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Complaints about economic uncertainty created by Obama’s health care bill and the financial regulation bill have already been percolating for a few weeks. Much of this was kicked off by an explosive indictment of Obama’s policies by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg – who has been a key business ally of the president’s – in late June.

And though the White House feels that it has true free market believers such as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council director Larry Summers in key decision-making positions, many top business leaders see the two – who have both been in government or academia their entire lives – as poor substitutes for men or women with actual business expertise.

“One of the concerns in the business community writ large is that this administration has no former CEO – manager of a business enterprise – anywhere in this administration,” said R. Bruce Josten, a top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who oversees its government affairs division.

via Obama as anti-business moves into mainstream discussion | The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment.

The Elephant in the Room: Boldly defending marriage | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/14/2010

Back in 2004, I was part of a small group of Republican senators that forced a floor vote on a motion to consider a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. We needed 60 votes to proceed; we fell just short of 50. Many senators who voted “yea” privately castigated me for making them “walk the plank” on such a tough issue.

A majority of Americans still supports traditional marriage. It has been on the ballot in 31 states and won every time. However, the inside-the-Beltway power centers – the media, campaign contributors, and politically active special-interest groups – passionately want to, as the 2004 Massachusetts majority opinion put it, “eradicate that stain” on our country.

That’s why, when last week’s ruling in Boston knocked down the last defense against judicially mandated same-sex “marriage,” there was largely silence from the political class.

With the exception of a core group of conservatives, most politicians – including the president – continue to publicly back marriage while eagerly awaiting the day when judges will take this issue out of their hands. In this case, silence, as my former colleague Zell Miller once said, is not golden; it’s yellow.

via The Elephant in the Room: Boldly defending marriage | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/14/2010.

Charlotte zings Reid from beyond the grave – John L. Smith – ReviewJournal.com

Chances are good you never met Charlotte McCourt during her 84 years, but I’m willing to bet you’ll be hearing about her in the coming days now that her obituary has taken Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to task. It’s the kind of small story that has the potential to ricochet like a bullet through the campaign showdown between incumbent Reid and Republican challenger Sharron Angle.

Not because McCourt, who died July 8 after a long illness, was a political player or business powerbroker, but precisely because she was neither of those things. She was a homemaker, proud mother and grand mother and wife of 67 years to Patrick McCourt.

via Charlotte zings Reid from beyond the grave – John L. Smith – ReviewJournal.com.