Liberal and Loving It

Congratulations to the Iraqis

They held the election and the Iraqis came out and upon possibility voted. And voted in massive numbers. And regardless of who wins the election when the counting is over, the people have struck a clear vote for democracy over terrorism.

And as much as I think the civilian leaders in the Pentagon have done a horrible job in Iraq, the U.S. military and the Iraqi forces showed that they can do the job. They provided a safe election day.

The next steps will be hard. And there will be defeats along the road. But today is a gigantic victory for a decent future in Iraq. And it's success is due first and foremost to the Iraqi people who came out to vote. And secondarily to the U.S. military.

It's a good day.

To the brave 30

The 29 Marines and 1 Naval medic who dies in the helocopter crash on the 1/26 were from the Kaneohe Marine base - near where I grew up and where my parents live. It's a gigantic loss for the community.

The Marine base opened it's gates today so people could stop by and there has been a never-ending stream of people bringing flowers to place at the base memorial. My mom says it is an incredible show of support for the soldiers and it has meant a lot to the Marines and their families.

And to those who died, this quote from the memorial at Kohima seems most appropiate:

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today

Reapportionment

There is a lot of discussion about ways to improve reapportionment with one of the end goals being a more competitive environment. But the proposed rules tend to be impartial design of congressional districts, geographic sanity, and cultural homogeneity.

For example, here in Colorado there is one district that is basically the City of Denver and a second that is a large chunk of the surrounding suburbs. The districts were drawn up by judges and make a lot of sense in the way most people look at how districts should be drawn.

But by definition, the Denver district is Democratic and the suburban district is Republican. I do not think the constituients of either district are well served when they have an incumbent that is basically elected for life.

It also leads to representatives that play best to the base as the primary election is the election that matters and therefore you end up with representatives that are very liberal/conservative.

I think the two main goals of redistricting should be competitiveness and geographic sanity. Take the circle that is Denver and the suburbs, split it in half, and make that the two districts. Each district would then be a very competitive race. And the constituients in each district would be served by a representative very aware that winning 50%+ of the vote in the next election will be a lot of work.

This country is founded on capitalism and the invisible hand of the free market. We should have this in our congressional races.

ps - And to eliminate the changes made in districts to make sure the incumbent remains in their district, waive the residency requirement for any incumbent who is redistricted out of their own district.

Trackbacks: Mudville Gazette, ColoradoPols

Emergency Replacement of Congress and the President

There has been numerous discussion recently about what should be done if a terrorist attack were to kill the President and many members of Congress. You don't want 4 remaining congresspeople running the government. At the same time, these are elected bodies and should be replaced by elected representatives.

So here's a thought. In the event of a substantial number of deaths (say the President and Vice President, over 10% of the Senate or House, and/or 3 members of the Supreme Court), the replacement works as follows.

To replace the President & Vice President, the nation's Governors meet with each holding the number of votes equal to their state's electoral vote, and elect a new President and Vice President from among themselves.

To replace a Senator, all member's of that state's Senate vote, and must elect a new Senator from among themselves.

To replace a Representative, all member's of that state's House who's district overlaps in any way with the congressional district must elect a new Representative from among themselves.

To replace a Supreme Court justice, the same thing with the members of the federal circuit courts voting.

In this manner, each replacement candidate is an individual that was elected to a comparable position, by the same voters in the case of the Senate & House, and is elected by people who themselves were elected.

The Greatest Politician I Know

My mom has been a state representative in Hawaii for 14 years now. And she influences my view of politics more than anything else. Why?

Well first, she works her ass off. I won't say how old she is (but hint - I'm 49), but at her age she walks her entire district going door to door before each election - twice. She goes to every event of any kind in her district. And when a constituent calls with a problem, she goes to work on it right away. She invests the effort that Lyndon Johnson was reputed to make.

Second, the Republicans are a very tiny minority in Hawaii (they caucus in a broom closet). Yet she has managed to pass good legislation, stop bad legislation, and improve legislation. She loses more battles than she wins due to the overwhelming Democratic majority. Yet she keeps pounding away and making a significant difference.

Third, she does her job. She reads every bill. For those of you that haven't seen the legislative process up close - this is almost unheard of. And she doesn't just read them, she figures out what is going on in them. At least twice each legislative session I get a call from her and she is asking me questions on technology using words that are the purview of us geeks - wantsing help in figuring out the details.

In short, she is an extreemly effective politician that expends incredible effort. And in return she has earned the unofficial title from some of the newspapers of "Hawaii's Den-mother."

So speaking to my fellow Democrats (yes my parents are Republicans so of course I became a Democrat), take some lessons from politicians like my mom. Winning the presidency is easy compared to running as a Republican in Hawaii.