Seymour Tea Party

I was honored to speak at the Seymour Tea Party yesterday-- and further honored to represent Travis Hankins at the event.

It looked like there were about 100 in attendance when I was there. (The Seymour paper estimated the crowd at 150 in their story.) Compared to the Tea Party event in North Vernon on Saturday, this one had less overt support for the three prominent congressional candidates. Of those with t-shirts, there were a few for Young, a few more for Sodrel, and the most (by about 3-1) for Hankins.

I was scheduled to speak last-- which would have been advantageous. But they were late in starting and I needed to get back to Jeffersonville to lead the college Bible study at Southeast--So. IN., so I went first.

Even so, beyond laying out Hankins' principles and policy positions, I was able to highlight important aspects of Sodrel's record and anticipate/mitigate some of Sodrel's lame rationales. (That said, I never referred to him by name.)

It was a fun environment since the setting allowed (begged?) for audience participation. So, I asked the audience whether the spending and debt of George Bush and his Republican President was ok with them-- and they yelled back NO!

I asked them whether they'd vote for a candidate who had taken their money 10 times to fund Planned Parenthood-- and they yelled back NO! I said that knocked out the Democrat.

Then, I asked them whether they'd vote for a candidate who had taken their money 2 times to fund Planned Parenthood-- and they yelled NO again! And I said that knocks out one of the GOP candidates.

I asked them whether it was ok to describe yourself as fiscally conservative (FC), but then to have a fiscally liberal record-- and they yelled back NO! I said that knocked out Baron.

Then, I asked them whether it was ok to describe yourself as FC, but to have a fiscally moderate record-- and they yelled back NO! I said that knocked out one of the GOP candidates.

I expanded on that by closing Sodrel's favored loophole: at the debate, Todd Young reminded voters about his ratings from FC watchdog groups. Sodrel replied with ratings from conservative watchdog groups. So, I told the Tea Party audience that "this candidate" tries to explain his fiscal voting record away, by referring to conservative-- rather than FC-- ratings.

Sure enough, Sodrel tried the rationale when he spoke-- and then added this lame remark: that most of the CAGW numbers were related to "one representative's" amendments which did not pass.

First, why would Sodrel disparage Rep. Jeff Flake as just some representative, rather than lifting him up as a FC hero? This is indicative of Sodrel's FC problem.

Second, why didn't those worthy amendments pass? Precisely because Sodrel and so many other GOP get-alongers failed to stand up as FC's!

One last fun line: I said that one candidate's slogan in this race is "life experience counts"-- and I said that's true. But unfortunately, his political experience counts too.