Senator Allen at the NCCLC Dinner

On Saturday evening at the North Carolina Conservative Leadership Conference, we had the Honorable Senator Allen from Virginia as the featured speaker. He was there at approximately 6:30, which was when the dinner was expected to start. This seemed rather odd to me, because most people, when they reach that level of "importance" in government, simply do not have time to sit down and eat with people -- especially people who cannot vote for them (at least not this year).

The room was completely full -- not a single empty seat. There were about 300 people there, with a few even standing along the walls.

But first, a word about the dinner. For this meal, I was truly honored to be seated with not one, but SEVEN lovely ladies (for those who think that conservatives are nothing but stodgy old white men, well, this should prove they're not). They all knew one another and in fact had come to the conference together, and appeared to have really enjoyed their time there.

Thank you so much Louise, Ruthy, Michelle, Aleshia, Tiana, and Elizabeth for your lovely company and conversation during dinner (even if Michelle did get a little bored)!
We were first treated to another wonderful National Anthem -- both verses this time -- from another excellent singer. Her first name was Debra, but I could not understand her last name when it was announced, and I could not find her afterwards. Thank you for that singing, Debra.

Then they started serving dinner and former NC Senator Lauch Faircloth introduced, with much praise, Senator Allen. At this point, the servers left the floor -- so about half the people at all the tables had food and half did not.

Senator Allen went through his topics and presented his ideas. He was very charismatic and charming. He seems rather happy to be there and was glad to get the applause he did at various times throughout his speech. He is running for re-election in Virginia, and it's likely that this was at least a partial attempt at setting some ground for a presidential run in 2008. Certainly no one in this room would have attempted to dissuade him from running (but the Ogre didn't get to talk to him).

He made many, many references to Thomas Jefferson and the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson (he sat in the same seat as Jefferson in VA government). He believes that government should not take from laborers that which they have earned.

He believes that the ONLY way to reduce crime is by punishing those who commit the crimes. He doesn't care about WHY they did it -- people absolutely need to be held responsible for their own actions. He showed in the state of Virginia that punishing crime actually works.

With welfare reform, he thinks the key to fixing that system is personal responsibility. He changed the VA system so that mothers could not get any welfare benefits for new children without identifying the fathers. He claims that Virginia now has a 99% rate of paternity identification because of that system.

He believes in high academic standards and thinks dumbing down the education system is wrong.

He believes the only way to increase business is to cut taxes and regulation.

He also says that he believes he is a conservative first and a Republican second.

There are 3 key missions that he is on right now:

1. Secure our Freedom. He thinks it's right to go on the offensive and fight terrorists wherever they are to be found throughout the world. His plan for the war on terror is simple: "We win, They lose."

On the borders, he supports a guest worker system, but not amnesty. (Note: If you're not punishing the criminals, THAT IS AMNESTY, no matter what you call it.) He wants to secure our borders, but offered no ideas or plans on HOW to secure them.

A nation cannot control it's own destiny if it cannot control it's own borders.

He wants to see a legal temporary worker system, but still says no amnesty (Note: Someone please send this guy a dictionary with AMNESTY in it).

2. He wants to renew the land of opportunity with lower taxes and less regulation. He wants more energy to be created in America, no matter what kind it is:

and we could explore the north face of Alaska and it won't bother a single mosquito, either!

He wants women and blacks to be engineers (Note: WHAT? Who in the heck are YOU to tell people what THEY want to do? No, this is ANTI-FREEDOM when you look at people for their sex or skin color and determine what they SHOULD do. That's just completely WRONG.)

He promises to keep the internet free of taxation (Note: The federal government really doesn't have that power, now, do they?).

He thinks the problem in Washington is a spending problem, not a revenue problem (Note: And how many times did you vote against spending?)

To fix that problem, he supports giving the president the line-item veto, requiring a balanced budget, and adding a "paycheck penalty." This penalty would say that if the House does not have a budget done on-time, they do not get paid until the budget IS done. (Note: This drew a large amount of applause).

3. Preserving Our Values. He says that the biggest enemy of traditional values in America is the judges (Note: And the ACLU). He wants to support judges that will not legislate from the bench (Note: This makes it really sound like he's making a big push at a presidential run).

He ended with the classic:

If not us, who? If not now, when?

Posted by: Ogre at 09:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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