Gramm softens the anger against McCain

Houston Chronicle:

The atmosphere was tense when former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm made a guest appearance at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans.

Just a few days before, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a fellow Texan and a fellow conservative, had denounced Gramm's close friend John McCain before the same audience and said a McCain candidacy would be disastrous for the GOP.

Gramm tried to quell the insurrection by pointing out, in his Georgia-Texas drawl, that he was not in lock step with McCain. "I didn't agree with the guy on campaign finance reform," said Gramm. "I don't agree with him on global warming.

"But on the things that are important to us, he's with us," said Gramm, who then launched into a litany of McCain's conservative positions on issues such as spending, defense, free trade, abortion and judges.

Gramm's soliloquy changed the mood in the room, according to several who were there. And it's just one example of the mostly behind-the-scenes work the Texas GOP elder statesman has been doing for his longtime friend and political colleague.

...

Who gave McCain advice on his campaign's budget when he was broke and counted out by nearly every pundit in America?

Phil Gramm.

When former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney aggressively courted the GOP's influential economic conservative wing, who was there to help McCain craft a tax-cutting, pork-busting agenda that would appeal to Wall Street and Main Street conservatives alike?

Phil Gramm.

And when the economy, a weak link for McCain, became the dominant issue in the campaign, who did he turn to for tips on humanizing the debate?

Yup, Phil Gramm.

...

There is more. Conservatives trust Phil Gramm more than they trust McCain and that is why he has been so important for the McCain campaign. My favorite Phil Gramm moment came in the debate over Hillary's health care proposal when Michael Kingsley asked him if he wanted to be responsible for killing the health care bill. Gramm response was classic. "I will wear it like a badge of honor." Kingsley was expecting spin and excuses and got an honest answer which left him speechless.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more