From the Archives: Tim Kaine argues for balancing individual liberties, communal responsibilities

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on July 3, 2011. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  With the impending nomination of Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) as the vice presidential running mate of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Tim Kaine argues for balancing individual liberties, communal responsibilities

Former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who is also the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is currently a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Jim Webb.

On July 2, Kaine came to Crozet, in western Albemarle County, to celebrate Independence Day two days early: marching in a parade and speaking at a festival at Claudius Crozet Park sponsored by the local volunteer fire department. Kaine’s likely Republican opponent in the 2012 election, former Governor and Senator George Allen, was also present, and the two men described each other as “competitors and friends.”

Just before the formal program began, Kaine spoke to the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about current issues, including the impending congressional vote on raising the national debt ceiling, and what he hopes to bring from Virginia to the national stage.

Debt ceiling limit

“My assessment of the situation” with regard to the debt ceiling vote, Kaine said, “is I can’t believe they let it get as close as they have. You shouldn’t be playing brinksmanship with things like threatened government shutdowns or threatened default on debt payments.”

Even so, he added, “we’ve got to find a resolution. I think the resolution is one where we increase the debt ceiling limitation but in exchange we have to do a combination of significant cuts [and] finding more revenues.”

To get more revenues, he explained, will require “closing loopholes on certain businesses and individuals that don’t need them.”

That should be followed by making “more investments in transportation and education to grow the economy. That’s the best anti-deficit strategy of all.”

Getting libertarian votes

Asked how he would appeal to libertarian-minded voters in the coming election campaign, Kaine said that he would talk about his record.

“I am very much a supporter of individual liberties,” he explained, adding that “yet we’re in this mixture, where we have individual liberties -- and that’s the great thing about our country -- but we also have communal responsibilities. Just trying to find that right balance is important.”

Kaine noted that “we do pretty well on that in Virginia. My basic campaign message is, ‘America has challenges, Virginia has answers,’ so I’ll be talking about the way we do it here in Virginia.”

From Virginia to D.C.

The former governor gave three specific ways that he plans to take lessons learned in Virginia to the national level.

George Allen and Tim Kaine, July 2, 2011

First, with regard to the “challenged economy,” he said, the way Virginia “went from low income to high income [was] by going from low education to high education. Education innovation is the best economic development and jobs strategy.”

The second lesson is “fiscal responsibility,” he said, explaining that “I had to make more cuts than anybody who’s ever been governor -- but there’s a right way and wrong way to do it. No across-the-boards, don’t shred the safety net, and don’t do the kind of gimmicks like default on the debt payment stuff. Just make hard decisions.”

The third thing he offered is that, in Virginia, “we have some balance and civility. We still listen to each other instead of just trying to out talk each other, and that’s what I want to take” to Washington.

Kaine may still face a primary challenge for the Democratic Senate nomination from Third District Representative Bobby Scott, who announced on July 1 that he is delaying his decision on whether to get into the race. Former Governor Allen also has several challengers for the GOP nomination, including Tim Donner, David McCormick, and Jamie Radtke.

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Suggested Links

At his 17th Shad Planking, George Allen lays claim to a ‘libertarian streak’
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With the demise of the Examiner.com publishing platform, the original URL for this article is no longer available.

From the Archives: Gary Johnson optimistic about Libertarian nomination prospects, praises Weld

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on May 27, 2016, during the Libertarian Party's national convention in Orlando, Florida.  The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued Friday, July 1, and its web site is scheduled to go dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Gary Johnson optimistic about Libertarian nomination prospects, praises Weld

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and he is looking to repeat that in 2016. In an exclusive interview today with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Johnson praised his proposed running mate, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, and talked about his appeal to both conservatives and liberals, and raised the prospect of being invited to the presidential debates this fall.

Asked about his expectations for the convention this weekend, Johnson stated flatly: “I hope to be the Libertarian nominee for president, and I hope the Libertarian Party chooses Bill Weld as the vice presidential candidate. I really believe that we have an opportunity here to actually get elected.”

He explained that he and Weld came together based on a common bond forged in the 1990s, when both were serving as governors of their respective states.

'Smartest guy in the room'

“I connected with Bill Weld when I first became governor” of New Mexico, he said, explaining that they met at his first meeting of the National Governors Association.

At that time, he said, Weld had the reputation of being the smartest guy in the room. When he got to the NGA meeting, Johnson said, “Yeah, he was the smartest guy in the room but along with being the smartest guy in the room, he was classy, and classy was based on humility.”

Becoming ticket-mates for the Libertarian presidential campaign “didn’t involve a sales pitch on my part,” Johnson said, adding that Weld “was really enthusiastic. Thhe intention here is to actually be a team. He doesn’t want a staff as Vice President of the United States because staffs divide people. I think that speaks volumes about what the two of us can accomplish.”

Noting that the libertarian Cato Institute had rated both him and Weld highly on their “report cards” of the nation’s governors, Johnson said “That’s what we are carrying forward: I mean, genuine libertarian representation, fiscally conservative, socially liberal. These have been our careers, both of us.”

Remembering their years as governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts, he added that “for me, I always tried to emulate Bill Weld. Bill Weld was on a pedestal for me.”

It was, Johnson said, “Beyond my wildest dreams, [that] Bill Weld be a part of this ticket, running for President of the United States. I just hope we emerge from the weekend with this intact,” with the vote of the convention’s delegates approving the two as a ticket.

Asked what voters he and Weld will be aiming at in the general election campaign against Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Johnson said that “by ‘aiming at,’ I think there will be enough attention given to us that, given the message, and given the experience, this is going to be more of a phenomenon of people just understanding what it is that we represent, and I think that it has absolutely broad-based appeal.”

Siding with Bernie
He pointed out that, when he takes the quiz at ISideWith.com, aside from the other candidates for the Libertarian nomination, he is closest to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

“I side with Bernie 73 percent of the time,” Johnson said, pointing out that “those same Bernie Sanders supporters are going to find the reverse being true. They’re going to find themselves philosophically siding with me more than they do Hillary Clinton.” He conceded, however, that “when it comes to Bernie, look, we agree on so much but when it comes to economics we get to a ‘T’ in the road: he goes one way, I go the other.”

In response to attacks from National Review and other conservative outlets that have expressed fear that a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Hillary Clinton, Johnson acknowledged that it is a myth that Libertarians draw more votes away from Republican candidates than from Democrats.

“I think it’s an equal draw from both sides. I describe libertarian as being the best of both worlds. In the three national polls where my name has appeared, they have actually done an analysis and determined that I draw more from Hillary. At the end of the day,” he said, “I think it ends up being 50/50.”

A debate invitation?

Public opinion polls are fundamental as to whether Johnson and Weld get into the televised presidential and vice-presidential debates in the weeks before the November election. The Commission on Presidential Debates has set a 15 percent threshold in survey support for issuing invitations to participate in the forums.

“Rick,” Johnson said, “I don’t think there’s any question that we will be at 15 percent if we’re in the polls. That’s really the key, is being in the polls.”

What’s additionally significant to being in the polls, he said, “is that the Libertarian nominees, president and vice president, are going to be the only [third-party] candidates on the ballot in all fifty states,” which gives them more than a theoretical chance of winning electoral votes, or even the election.

Suggested Links

LP presidential hopeful Gary Johnson calls two-party debates a 'waste of time'
Belafonte criticizes Barack Obama on civil liberties in Charlottesville
Libertarian Party chair Nicholas Sarwark predicts ‘epic’ national convention
Scholar reflects on why Africa was absent from final presidential debate
Gary Johnson presidential campaign racks up endorsements

Original URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/gary-johnson-optimistic-about-libertarian-nomination-prospects-praises-weld

From the Archives: Gary Johnson optimistic about Libertarian nomination prospects, praises Weld

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on May 27, 2016, during the Libertarian Party's national convention in Orlando, Florida.  The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued Friday, July 1, 2016, and its web site is scheduled to go dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Gary Johnson optimistic about Libertarian nomination prospects, praises Weld

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and he is looking to repeat that in 2016. In an exclusive interview today with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Johnson praised his proposed running mate, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, and talked about his appeal to both conservatives and liberals, and raised the prospect of being invited to the presidential debates this fall.

Asked about his expectations for the convention this weekend, Johnson stated flatly: “I hope to be the Libertarian nominee for president, and I hope the Libertarian Party chooses Bill Weld as the vice presidential candidate. I really believe that we have an opportunity here to actually get elected.”

He explained that he and Weld came together based on a common bond forged in the 1990s, when both were serving as governors of their respective states.

'Smartest guy in the room'

“I connected with Bill Weld when I first became governor” of New Mexico, he said, explaining that they met at his first meeting of the National Governors Association.

At that time, he said, Weld had the reputation of being the smartest guy in the room. When he got to the NGA meeting, Johnson said, “Yeah, he was the smartest guy in the room but along with being the smartest guy in the room, he was classy, and classy was based on humility.”

Becoming ticket-mates for the Libertarian presidential campaign “didn’t involve a sales pitch on my part,” Johnson said, adding that Weld “was really enthusiastic. Thhe intention here is to actually be a team. He doesn’t want a staff as Vice President of the United States because staffs divide people. I think that speaks volumes about what the two of us can accomplish.”

Noting that the libertarian Cato Institute had rated both him and Weld highly on their “report cards” of the nation’s governors, Johnson said “That’s what we are carrying forward: I mean, genuine libertarian representation, fiscally conservative, socially liberal. These have been our careers, both of us.”

Remembering their years as governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts, he added that “for me, I always tried to emulate Bill Weld. Bill Weld was on a pedestal for me.”

It was, Johnson said, “Beyond my wildest dreams, [that] Bill Weld be a part of this ticket, running for President of the United States. I just hope we emerge from the weekend with this intact,” with the vote of the convention’s delegates approving the two as a ticket.

Asked what voters he and Weld will be aiming at in the general election campaign against Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Johnson said that “by ‘aiming at,’ I think there will be enough attention given to us that, given the message, and given the experience, this is going to be more of a phenomenon of people just understanding what it is that we represent, and I think that it has absolutely broad-based appeal.”

Siding with Bernie
He pointed out that, when he takes the quiz at ISideWith.com, aside from the other candidates for the Libertarian nomination, he is closest to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

“I side with Bernie 73 percent of the time,” Johnson said, pointing out that “those same Bernie Sanders supporters are going to find the reverse being true. They’re going to find themselves philosophically siding with me more than they do Hillary Clinton.” He conceded, however, that “when it comes to Bernie, look, we agree on so much but when it comes to economics we get to a ‘T’ in the road: he goes one way, I go the other.”

In response to attacks from National Review and other conservative outlets that have expressed fear that a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Hillary Clinton, Johnson acknowledged that it is a myth that Libertarians draw more votes away from Republican candidates than from Democrats.

“I think it’s an equal draw from both sides. I describe libertarian as being the best of both worlds. In the three national polls where my name has appeared, they have actually done an analysis and determined that I draw more from Hillary. At the end of the day,” he said, “I think it ends up being 50/50.”

A debate invitation?

Public opinion polls are fundamental as to whether Johnson and Weld get into the televised presidential and vice-presidential debates in the weeks before the November election. The Commission on Presidential Debates has set a 15 percent threshold in survey support for issuing invitations to participate in the forums.

“Rick,” Johnson said, “I don’t think there’s any question that we will be at 15 percent if we’re in the polls. That’s really the key, is being in the polls.”

What’s additionally significant to being in the polls, he said, “is that the Libertarian nominees, president and vice president, are going to be the only [third-party] candidates on the ballot in all fifty states,” which gives them more than a theoretical chance of winning electoral votes, or even the election.

Suggested Links

LP presidential hopeful Gary Johnson calls two-party debates a 'waste of time'
Belafonte criticizes Barack Obama on civil liberties in Charlottesville
Libertarian Party chair Nicholas Sarwark predicts ‘epic’ national convention
Scholar reflects on why Africa was absent from final presidential debate
Gary Johnson presidential campaign racks up endorsements

Original URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/gary-johnson-optimistic-about-libertarian-nomination-prospects-praises-weld

From the Archives: William Weld cites Hayek’s ‘Constitution of Liberty’ as libertarian inspiration

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on May 28, 2016, during the Libertarian Party's national convention in Orlando, Florida.  The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued yesterday and its web site is scheduled to go dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.


William Weld cites Hayek’s ‘Constitution of Liberty’ as libertarian inspiration

William Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts who is seeking the Libertarian Party’s nomination to be the vice-presidential running mate of former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico, spent Saturday morning and early afternoon meeting LP convention delegates one-on-one and in small groups, asking for their votes in Sunday’s balloting.

Weld and Johnson together took questions from a sometimes skeptical audience upstairs from the convention floor, where a debate over changes in the party platform was going on. Johnson invited “hardball questions” posed to him and Weld, and fielded them enthusiastically.

Media attention

After the Q&A session in the Johnson campaign suite, the two former governors waded through the crowd of delegates in the exhibition hall of the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, chatting with delegates even as they were surrounded by a scrum of reporters, TV camera operators, and radio microphones. Johnson had pointed out that at the LP convention in 2012, there were 20 requests for press credentials; this year, he said, there were more than 250 such requests, indicating an unprecedented level of interest by the news media in the Libertarian presidential and vice presidential nomination contests.

Governor Weld spoke briefly with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about how he came to be a libertarian, what he accomplished in office in Massachusetts, and how he plans to help build the Libertarian Party as a vice presidential candidate in 2016.

Weld discovered he was a libertarian in law school, he said, reading Friedrich Hayek’s books The Constitution of Liberty and The Road to Serfdom.

“I had been thinking about the size and role of government ever since reading political philosophy at the college level but I would say that thinking crystallized with those two books in law school,” he explained, eventually leading to his formulation that “the government should stay out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom.”

LGBT equality
As governor of Massachusetts, he said, “I most certainly did make the government smaller and less intrusive than it otherwise would have been.”

One policy area in which he is most proud, he explained, was in the expansion of the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. He pointed out that he had appointed Margaret Marshall, a refugee from apartheid-era South Africa, to a seat on the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Marshall eventually wrote the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which acknowledged that the Massachusetts constitution forbid discrimination against same-sex couples in terms of marriage rights, and the law could not prevent lesbian or gay couples from marrying.

“I was pushing gay and lesbian equality in office in the early ‘90s when no one else was touching that,” Weld said. Consequently, he added, “marriage equality is now the law of the land, largely as the result of a judicial opinion written by a woman that I appointed. So yeah, we got there -- two decades later but we got there.”

Growing the Libertarian Party
When asked how he plans to use his candidacy to promote and build the Libertarian Party, Governor Weld said that he had “told Gary one thing I very much enjoy – this is, if nominated, if Gary and I are nominated – one thing I really enjoy is fundraising, particularly at the national level. I think the Libertarian Party can be helped by that.”

He added that he also plans to campaign alongside other Libertarian candidates for public office, whether for Congress or state and local offices, to help them win recognition and election.

“My intention,” he said, “is to try to help down-ballot candidates as well as ourselves.”

The Libertarian convention will hear nominating speeches for presidential candidates this afternoon (Saturday, May 28) and the vote for both presidential and vice presidential candidates is scheduled to take place by noon on Sunday, May 29. The convention continues with Libertarian Party business through Memorial Day on Monday, May 30.

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Original URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/william-weld-cites-hayek-s-constitution-of-liberty-as-libertarian-inspiration

Spiro Agnew Resigned as Vice President 40 Years Ago Today

Another piece from the archives, marking the 40th anniversary of Spiro T. Agnew's resignation as vice president on October 10, 1973. Agnew left office under a cloud in the midst of the unfolding Watergate scandal, leading to the first use of the 26th Amendment procedures for selection of a vice president by Congress to fill a vacancy in that office. (Previous vacancies had gone unfilled throughout the rest of the presidential term.)

This article appeared in The Metro Herald in September 1996 as "Spiro Agnew: Up from the Memory Hole?" It was written on the occasion of Agnew's death on September 17, 1996.

- - -

Early in 1973, a Sunday "Doonesbury" comic strip by Garry Trudeau showed eight panels of the south portico of the White House. Phones are ringing; suddenly a recording answers: "Good morning! This is the White House. We are sorry but all our lines are busy right now. Please hold on. A service representative will be with you in a moment." There is a beep and a pause, followed by: "Good morning. Thank you for calling the White House. May I help you?" "... Ah ... yes," says the caller. "I'm trying to reach Mr. Agnew." Comes the reply: "Speaking."

To many people, this is the predominant image of former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who died late Tuesday evening [September 17, 1996] at the age of 77. In the swirl of controversy that defined the Nixon White House -- Vietnam, Watergate, the Energy Crisis -- Agnew was a but a blur, a minor player relegated to the lower levels of the administration; indeed, he was little more than a messenger or telephone operator.

Plucked from obscurity on [August] 8, 1968, by Republican presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon to be his running mate, Spiro Agnew had served as Baltimore County Executive and Maryland's Governor. Though some may claim he remained obscure throughout his truncated tenure as Vice President, the fact is that President Nixon assigned him major duties in both the domestic and foreign policy realms. Those who do remember him recall his lurid turns-of-phrase in his role as the administration's political attack dog.

"Nattering nabobs of negativism" was how Agnew characterized the press in one memorable speech in 1969. Spoken by Agnew, that phrase is ascribed to speechwriter Patrick Buchanan. (Is it necessary to ask, "Whatever happened to him?")

Spiro T. Agnew as Maryland governor

A year later, during the midterm election campaign, Agnew spewed forth against the administration's liberal opponents, saying that "ultraliberalism today translates into a whimpering isolationism in foreign policy, a mulish obstructionism in domestic policy, and a pusillanimous pussyfooting on the critical issue of law and order."

Agnew did not limit his criticism to Democrats, either. During that year's campaign season, he turned his sights on New York Senator Charles Goodell, who as a "Rockefeller Republican" was fairly liberal in his voting record. Goodell was in a tight three-way race that included Conservative candidate James Buckley. Nixon was upset by Goodell's attitude toward the administration's Vietnam policy, and wanted to undercut his re-election efforts in an attempt to favor Buckley.

So Agnew was sent out on the attack. At a meeting of newspaper editors in New Orleans, Agnew suggested that Goodell's most recent statements about Vietnam were wildly inconsistent with the statements and votes he had made as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. By comparing his earlier and later statements, Agnew said, "you will find Goodell is truly the Christine Jorgensen of the Republican Party." (Jorgensen, in the 1950s, became the first person to have a successful sex-change operation.) Ms. Jorgensen, by the way, was not pleased at the comparison and objected to being used by Agnew as a "political pawn." (Goodell, by the way, lost his race to Buckley, who lost in turn to Daniel Patrick Moynihan six years later.)

Nonetheless, Agnew's role in the Nixon administration was more than just fodder for the media. Behind the scenes he performed important tasks. Henry Kissinger notes in his memoirs, for instance, that Agnew was one of the administration's point-men in the negotiations to end the Vietnam War, and during the drawn-out bargaining of late 1972 was always on stand-by, ready to fly to Paris to sign a peace treaty on the President's behalf.

Agnew's downfall, of course, was petty political corruption. I remember clearly the night of October 10, 1973, when Agnew resigned the vice presidency. My high school classmates and I learned a new Latin phrase: "nolo contendere" (no contest), the plea entered by Agnew that was short of an admission of guilt but still earned him punishment for accepting bribes (and failing to pay taxes on his bribery income) while he served, not only as Governor of Maryland, but as Vice President.

Strangely enough, Agnew treated his graft practices with an eerie sort of lightheartedness. One of the contractors who had delivered thousands of dollars in bribes to Agnew was being pressured to give money to the Nixon re-election campaign in 1972. After hearing his complaint, Agnew said to the man: "Tell them you gave at the office."

Agnew resigned; Nixon appointed Gerald R. Ford to succeed him. When Nixon himself resigned just 10 months later, Ford became "the accidental president." Had Agnew forestalled his own troubles for less than a year, he too could have been president -- and perhaps the second U.S. chief executive to resign in disgrace. What an ironic twist to history that would have been.

'America Could Use a Good Dose of Calvin Coolidge' Revisited

Three years ago today, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an opinion piece I wrote and headlined it "America Could Use a Good Dose of Calvin Coolidge."

Somehow that entire day's newspaper failed to be preserved on the Times-Dispatch web site. (Try it: you'll get a 404.)

A few paragraphs of the article made their way into a blog post later that day, but the whole thing has been unavailable (except in print, or perhaps on microfilm) since July 4, 2010.

I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit "America Could Use a Good Dose of Calvin Coolidge" today, given the Coolidge revival that I reference in a piece I published on Examiner.com early this morning.

In that piece, based upon an interview with the Heritage Foundation's director of American studies, Matthew Spalding, I note that a number of scholars have lately begun focusing their research and writing on the man from Plymouth Notch, Vermont:

Several books on Coolidge have been published recently, including Amity Shlaes' best-selling biography, Coolidge; Charles C. Johnson's Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America's Most Underrated President; the National Notary Association's similarly titled Why Coolidge Matters: How Civility in Politics Can Bring a Nation Together; and Calvin Coolidge: A Documentary Biography, by David Pietrusza.

If anything, the mood of the country in 2013 makes the headline even more relevant now than it was in 2010.

So here is my Times-Dispatch op-ed piece on Calvin Coolidge, now accessible through a Google search.

Most Americans know that two of our country’s Founders – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson – died within hours of each other on the Fourth of July in 1826, the 50th anniversary of American independence.

Fewer might be aware that, five years later, the fifth President, James Monroe, also passed away on the same date.

Fewer still know that Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, was born on the Fourth of July in 1872.

The much underrated Coolidge is a unique American success story. First elected to public office as a member of the city council of Northhampton, Massachusetts, Coolidge climbed the ladder of government service to clerk of courts, state representative, mayor, state senator, lieutenant governor, governor, vice president, and President of the United States. No other president, before or since, has had such an extensive and varied career in elective office.

In his 2008 book, The Cult of the Presidency, the Cato Institute’s Gene Healy wrote that Coolidge is remembered “mostly for his reticence and for fiscal policies that combined Yankee parsimony with generous tax cuts.”

That “Yankee parsimony” is on display in a short film that is thought to be the first time a U.S. president appeared in a “talkie” – a movie with sound. In this four-minute clip (viewable on YouTube), Coolidge says that he wants to “cut down public expense. I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”

“Liberty” is a theme that appears again and again in Coolidge’s speeches and essays. In 1924, Coolidge published a volume of his writings, called The Price of Freedom. For a man known as “Silent Cal,” Coolidge was unexpectedly loquacious and sage.

In his short (437-word) inaugural address as vice president, Coolidge, referring to the responsibilities of the United States Senate, said that body’s “greatest function of all, too little mentioned and too little understood … is the preservation of liberty. Not merely the rights of the majority, they little need protection, but the rights of the minority, from whatever source they may be assailed.”

Coolidge took his oath of office seriously. He believed that, under the Constitution, the authority and reach of the federal government were severely limited and that the rights of the people were expansive. And he ran a tight ship: The entire White House staff under Coolidge consisted of fewer than 40 people; the Obama White House has more than 60 working in the press office alone.

Addressing the American Bar Association in 1922, Coolidge remarked:

“So long as the National Government confined itself to providing those fundamentals of liberty, order, and justice for which it was primarily established, its course was reasonably clear and plain. No large amount of revenue was required. No great swarms of public employees were necessary. There was little clash of special interests or different sections, and what there was of this nature consisted not of petty details but of broad principles... What the government undertook to do it could perform with a fair degree of accuracy and precision.”

Then came the big “but”, as Coolidge lamented the growing size and scope of government in the previous two decades:

“But this has all been changed by embarking on a policy of a general exercise of police powers, by the public control of much private enterprise and private conduct, and of furnishing a public supply for much private need.”

After 88 years, these words could have been written yesterday.

Perhaps being “born on the Fourth of July” imbued Coolidge with a predilection to take the Founders at their word when they said they were creating a republican government of limited and specified powers. Perhaps his views simply reflected his sober, thrifty New England upbringing. Perhaps he was just unusually intelligent.

Whatever the case, we could use a solid dose of “Silent Cal” in the 21st century.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Richard Sincere is the author of Sowing the Seeds of Free Enterprise and The Politics of Sentiment. He blogs about politics and culture at www.RickSincere.com.

For further reference, check out my report on Amity Shlaes' lecture at the Heritage Foundation in February; my audio interview with her at CPAC; and my Virginia Politics on Demand post on Coolidge and civility.

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Recent Articles on Examiner.com: Politics 2012

Recent articles I've written as the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner include Labor Day interviews with Constitution Party presidential candidate Virgil Goode; U.S. Senate candidates from Virginia Tim Kaine and George Allen; U.S. Senator Mark Warner; Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte; and Goodlatte's Democratic opponent, Andy Schmookler.

Two-part interviews were necessary for Libertarian vice presidential candidate Jim Gray ("Libertarian VP candidate Jim Gray warns of ‘obese federal government’" and "Libertarian VP nominee Jim Gray reflects on electing judges, Gary Johnson") and for George Mason University economist Peter Boettke ("GMU economist Peter Boettke asserts the ‘dismal science’ can be 'entertaining'" and "Economist Peter Boettke deflates candidates’ concept of ‘energy independence’").

Charlottesville-based historian and prolific author Arthur Herman merited an interview divided into three parts: "Historian Arthur Herman explores America’s World War II industrial effort," "On D-Day anniversary, historian Arthur Herman recalls WWII industrial effort," and "World War II industry effort led by Ayn Rand-type characters, says historian." The Herman interview is also available as a Bearing Drift podcast and in consolidated form on Book Reviews by Rick Sincere.

Intermixed with all this are interviews with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling,Governor Bob McDonnell, Northern Virginia businessman Tim Donner (on his remarkable recollections of the events of September 11, 2001), and Delegate David Toscano.

Other authors who have spoken into my microphone include Jonah Goldberg (who talked about his fascination with witch hunts). political commentator Michael Barone, pollster Scott Rasmussen, and David Lampo (on his book, A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights).

 There were several articles on reactions to the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling ("Conservatives decry Supreme Court’s health-care ruling," "Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says Obamacare decision is 'a win for liberty,'" "More Virginia politicians react to Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling," and "Gay and libertarian GOP groups critique SCOTUS Obamacare ruling").

Congressman Robert Hurt (R-VA5) reflected on the meaning of the Fourth of July and reacted negatively to calls to impeach Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts.  And Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reacted positively to the idea of marriage equality for gay men and lesbians.

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Craig Shirley Recalls Reagan's 1980 Presidential Campaign

During last weekend's annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the Intercollegiate Studies Institute sponsored a colloquy between Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, and Craig Shirley, author of the books Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America (2009), about the 1980 presidential campaign, and Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All (2005), which is about the 1976 campaign.  Shirley is president and CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs and a longtime political operative who has worked on a number of high-profile campaigns.

The forum, which took place in a smaller conference room while the bulk of CPAC attendees were in the main ballroom at the Wardman Park Marriott were listening to a speech by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and a panel discussion on freedom of speech on college campuses moderated by Ron Robinson of the Young America's Foundation (which, perhaps ironically, now owns the Reagan Ranch).

Perhaps 100 or 125 people were lucky enough to hear Shirley's presentation and Barnes' perspicacious questions, which stimulated an entertaining and informative conversation punctuated with funny anecdotes and the retelling of famous Reagan quips (such as his reply to a questioner who asked how a meeting with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu went:  "Tutu? So-so").

I posted a small snippet of Shirley's recollections of Ronald Reagan a couple of days ago.  That was just an appetizer.  Here is the main course.

Part I includes an introduction about ISI (founded in 1953) and of the speakers:

Part II covers Reagan's self-deprecating sense of humor:

Part III includes the discussion about Reagan's libertarianism and the Briggs Initiative:

In Part IV, Fred Barnes asks about the Carter briefing books that were stolen and provided to the Reagan campaign before the most-watched presidential debate in American history:

In Part V, Barnes asks, what is it that Reagan had that Republican candidates running for president now don't seem to have? Answer - "He was genuine":

In Part VI, Barnes reminds us about the top figures of the Republican Party -- Howard Baker, John Connally, Phil Crane, George H.W. Bush -- who were seeking the 1980 nomination, and asks how Reagan was able to get them to "eat his dust":

In Part VII, you can hear me ask a question about the effect of the debate with John Anderson, the one Carter refused to participate in. (At 2'20", this is the shortest of the nine segments posted to YouTube.)

In Part VIII, an audience member asks for more Reagan jokes, and Fred Barnes answers that there is "an inexhaustible supply":

Finally, in Part IX, an audience member asks about the contentious relationship between future President Reagan and future President Bush and how they patched up their animosity. Shirley notes that ill-will between the two of them dated at least to 1978, when Reagan endorsed George W. Bush's opponent in a Texas congressional race, irritating George H.W. Bush:

My short, introductory comments before each video segment are meant only to give the flavor of the conversation. There is a lot more substance to be found in listening to the whole hour.

More video from CPAC 2010 can be seen here and here.

McCain-Cantor?

The Virginia blogosphere is atwitter over the news that the McCain campaign is vetting Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA7) as a potential vice-presidential running mate.

The Write Side of My Brain cites the Associated Press, which says McCain's HR team has asked for "personal documents" from Cantor. For his part, citing the Politico's version of the same story, The Right-Wing Liberal refers to this as "the equivalent of meeting the parents."

Consertiva photoshops McCain and Cantor together, saying "Please, oh please, let’s have a McCain-Cantor / Obama-Kaine fight in November." Shaun Kenney points out, quoting Fox News, that Cantor has already raised $10 million for the McCain campaign, adding:

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less? All Eric Cantor folks. $10 million? That's more than either Virginia Senate candidate has been able to raise thus far (and Cantor does it in one shot).

The Washington Times has also picked up the story, though without a byline it is difficult to determine whether the paper did its own reporting or is just rehashing the AP's earlier report. The Times notes:

The youthful Virginia lawmaker has been a visible McCain surrogate for weeks, appearing frequently on cable news outlets chiefly to promote the Arizona Republican's positions on domestic and economic issues. He has been a forceful critic of Democrat Sen. Barack Obama's resistance to lifting the federal ban on oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

While the talk of "Cantor for Veep" is exciting to us Virginians -- a state that hasn't seen a vice-presidential candidate on a major-party ticket since John Tyler in 1840 -- I stand by my March 5 prediction that McCain's running mate will be former Ohio congressman Rob Portman.

(For those who want to hear Eric Cantor exhort Americans to "Drill here, drill now, pay less," check out this two-minute video summary of the Virginia Republican convention.)

Portman for Veep?

Confused readers may infer from the headline above that Natalie Portman, a popular and comely actress best known as Princess Amidala in Episodes 1, 2, and 3 of the Star Wars movies and for her most recent role as The Other Boleyn Girl (or does she play the other Boleyn girl?), is under consideration for vice president. Not so.

No, the Portman in the headline is former Republican Congressman Rob Portman, who has also served as U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Capitol Hill is buzzing with the possibility that John McCain, who sewed up his party's nomination for President yesterday with sweeping victories in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont, will choose the former Member of Congress as his running mate.

Portman brings a lot to the table as a potential vice-presidential candidate. Born in 1955, he adds a youthful profile to a ticket that will include the oldest-ever major-party presidential nominee. He has administrative experience as the head of two large executive-branch agencies. Not only does he have direct legislative experience from his days on Capitol Hill (1993-2005), but he has worked as a legislative liaison in the administration of George H.W. Bush.

Moreover, Portman is a popular vote-getter from the swing state of Ohio, which is a must-win for any presidential ticket. (Had Ohio swung the other way four years ago, President John Kerry would be seeking re-election today.) In each of his six elections to Congress, Portman trounced his Democratic opponents, never falling below 72 percent of the vote in those contests.

Right now, Portman's potential as McCain's choice is under the radar, although a few mainstream publications have mentioned his name among a long list of possible running mates. (Among these mentions are Foreign Policy, the Mail & Guardian in South Africa, and the New York Times.)

McCain has six months to choose a running mate, and his choice must be ratified by the delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in September. No doubt McCain and his advisors are going to wait to see what the outcome of the Democratic party's nomination contest before making any final decisions.