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Reece Terry, publisher
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Mark Boehler, editor
4 • Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Corinth, Miss.
Who won the debate? BY DICK MORRIS AND EILEEN MCGANN Columnists
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio strengthened themselves in the fourth Republican Party debate, which was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last week. Trump regained his former form – irreverent, blunt, feisty, fearless and strong. He dished out red meat all night. His best moments were in his dissection of the excuses for granting amnesty, along with his explanation of the feasibility of deportation. He cited Eisenhower’s record, but he may as well have cited President Obama’s. In 2011, before he switched policies, the Obama administration sent over 400,000 illegal immigrants home. It is not hard to see how this could be increased to several million a year, with more manpower and resources. Trump was also excellent in his critique of the Iraq War – including his proposal to keep some of the oil revenues to compensate those wounded in helping the nation secure its freedom. Ted Cruz’s performance was very good. Aside from his clarity, style and forcefulness, his substance was groundbreaking. By tying unemployment and wage stagnation to illegal immigration, he set up the parameters of a position that can lure back the Reagan Democrats – the white, blue collar voters and co-opt the left’s issue of income inequality. He also spoke about “sound money,” and implied a return to the gold standard – a brandnew issue in the race. His answers on taxes and budget cuts were specific, but not pedantic. His refusal to bail out banks sharply differentiated him from the District of Columbia consensus. (The rebuttal – that depositors would lose their money – is absurd. We still have the FDIC and federal government behind it). Rubio’s evening showed his charisma, poise and fluency. His answers about the minimum wage and his optimism about America were moving and important. However, Rubio set himself up for a big, new negative in his proposal to add a trilliondollar entitlement in his “refundable” tax credit for families with children. A refundable tax credit is simply a welfare check in a nation where half the citizens pay no taxes to refund. When we combine this issue with Rubio’s deafening silence on amnesty – he sponsored the “Gang of Eight” bill on immigration – we see two potent negatives that can take him down. John Kasich behaved like a noisy child. Carly Fiorina was good, but her time has passed. Ron Paul was great at starting arguments, which he then lost. Jeb Bush was his underwhelming self. And Ben Carson was pathetic. He showed he really couldn’t be more specific in discussing the Middle East than to say that “there are a lot of factions,” running around. He gave no indication of the strength or knowledge a president must have to serve effectively. (Dick Morris, former advisor to the Clinton administration, is a commentator and writer. He is also a columnist for the New York Post and The Hill. His wife, Eileen McGann is an attorney and consultant.)
Prayer for today O Lord, I pray that whether I may be successful in the sight of the world, or whether I may be successful in my own sacrifices, I may have the freedom of courage, and be master of my life. Amen.
A verse to share “And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” —1 Samuel 17:29
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Number of women in Legislature decreasing JACKSON — Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn has been traveling the state telling voters the same thing months: if you want your man’s voice to be heard at the Capitol, you’d better make sure he’s a Republican. Gunn is a Republican, so of course he’s going to push the GOP. But, it’s also important to listen to the rest of the speaker’s message — because he almost always refers to legislators as men. “Who’s dictating the policy? Who’s shaping the direction of the state? It’s the Republicans,” Gunn said late July at one of the biggest political events of this election year, the Neshoba County Fair. “Every year we meet, in the fall of the year, we decide what we’re going to do, we set forth a platform, we decide the agenda. Your man, because he’s a Democrat, is not a part of that conversation.” Women make up 51.4 percent of Mississippi’s population, according to the Census website. However, women in the state have always run for public office in
significantly smaller numbers than men. Two of eight statewide offices Emily are held by Wagster w o m e n — highPettus the est number Capitol Dome ever. That will stay the same for the four-year term that starts in January, with Treasurer Lynn Fitch and Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith, both Republicans. Women held 17.2 percent of Mississippi’s legislative seats during the current term, and that will decrease to 14.4 percent in January. ■ During the current term, eight women have served in the 52-member Senate. Next term, there will be nine. That’s an increase from 15.4 percent to 17.3 percent. ■ During the current term, 22 women have served in the 122-member House. Next term, there will be 16. That’s a decrease from 18 percent to 13.1 percent.
The question of whether women will be appointed to influential legislative jobs will be answered in January, when Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves appoint committee members and leaders. At the Neshoba County Fair, Gunn publicly acknowledged the Republican men and women he said had shaped public policy the past four years, with their party controlling the House and Senate. He also exhorted voters to elect more Republicans. “When it comes to leadership positions, who do we pick?” Gunn said. “Well, we pick people who share our values, people who want to move the same direction that we want to go. So, we pull out the roster of our team and we pick leaders from that list. Your man, because he’s a Democrat, is not on that list.” Speaking to reporters in his Capitol office Nov. 4, the day after Republicans increased their House majority, Gunn repeated what he had told voters about the GOP controlling the legisla-
tive agenda. “If you send me a Democrat, then he’s not part of that conversation,” Gunn said. “He has every right that any other member does on the House floor, but they’re not going to have as much of an input. ... And I think the people, the voters, need to realize that. They just need to contemplate, ‘Hey, is my district being represented? Is my man having a voice, or is he not?’” The Associated Press asked: “What about the women?” “Man or woman,” Gunn said. “Whatever. I should have said, ‘the member.’” Wrapping up the interview moments later, Gunn circled back to referring to legislators as men. “I didn’t mean to not include the girls,” he said. AP: “The women?” “They like when I call them girls,” Gunn said, “’cause they think they’re younger.” (Daily Corinthian columnist Emily Wagster Pettus is a writer for the Associated Press based in Jackson.)
The Republican war – over war policy Rand Paul had his best debate moment Tuesday when he challenged Marco Rubio on his plans to increase defense spending by $1 trillion. “You cannot be a conservative if you’re going to keep promoting new programs you’re not going to pay for,” said Paul. Marco’s retort triggered the loudest cheers of the night: “There are radical jihadists in the Middle East beheading people and crucifying Christians. The Chinese are taking over the South China Sea. ... the world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest military power in the world.” Having called for the U.S. Navy to confront Beijing in the South China Sea, and for establishing a no-fly zone over Syria that Russian pilots would enter at their peril, Rubio seems prepared for a confrontation with either or both of our great rival nuclear powers. Dismissing Vladimir Putin as a “gangster,” Marco emerged as the toast of the neocons. Yet the leading GOP candidate seems closer to Rand. Donald Trump would talk to Putin, welcomes Russian planes bombing ISIS in Syria, thinks our European allies should lead on Ukraine, and wants South Korea to do more to defend itself. Uber-hawk Lindsey Graham did not even make the
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undercard debate. And though he and John McCain are the most bellicose voices Pat in the party, Buchanan they appear to be chiefs Columnist with no Indians. Still, it is well that Republicans air their disagreements. For war and peace are what the presidency is about. Historically, Republican presidents appear to line up on the side of Rand and Trump. Since WWII, there have been five elected GOP presidents: Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. Only Bush II could be called a compulsive interventionist. Ike ended Truman’s war in Korea and kept us out of Indochina after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. He ordered the Brits, French and Israelis out of Suez after they had attacked Egypt in 1956. He gave us 7 years of peace and prosperity. Nixon pledged to end the U.S. war in Vietnam, and did. And as Ike invited the Butcher of Budapest, Khrushchev, to visit the United States, Nixon invited Brezhnev, who had crushed the Prague Spring. Nixon became the first Cold War president to visit
the USSR, and famously ended decades of hostility between the United States and the China of Chairman Mao. Reagan used military force only three times. He liberated the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada from Marxist thugs who had murdered the prime minister and threatened U.S. medical students. He put Marines in Lebanon, a decision that, after the massacre at the Beirut barracks, Reagan regretted the rest of his life. He bombed Libya in retaliation for Moammar Gadhafi’s bombing of a Berlin discotheque full of U.S. troops. George H.W. Bush sent an army of 500,000 to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, but ordered those troops not to enter Iraq. When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Empire collapsed and the USSR disintegrated, Bush I played the statesman, refusing to exult publicly in America’s epochal Cold War triumph. It was George W. Bush who gave the neocons their hour of power. After 9/11, came the invasion and remaking of Afghanistan in our image, the “axis of evil” address, the march to Baghdad, the expansion of NATO to Russia’s doorstep, and the global crusade for democracy “to end tyranny in our world.” Result: The Republicans
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lost both houses of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 when John McCain was routed by a liberal Democrat who had opposed the war in Iraq. With the exception of Rand and Trump, the GOP candidates appear to believe the road to the White House lies in resurrecting the policies of Bush II that cost them the White House. From Marco and other voices on stage one hears: Tear up the Iran deal. Confront Putin. Establish a nofly zone over Syria. Assad must go. Send offensive weapons to Kiev. More boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Send U.S. troops to the Baltic and warships to the Black Sea. Confront China in the Spratlys and South China Sea. Responding to that audience in Milwaukee, most GOP candidates appear to have concluded that bellicosity and bravado are a winning hand in the postObama era. Yet, those nationalist strongmen Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping do not seem to me to be autocrats who are likely to back down when told to do so by Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush or Carly Fiorina. (Daily Corinthian columnist Pat Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster.)
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