Mark Reed For Congress 2012

Above, Armand with Mark Reed.

2012 will prove to be interesting in the new 30th Congressional District.

First, we have Rep. Brad Sherman facing off against Rep. Howard Berman for the Democratic nomination for congress. Berman is better known in the West L.A. area. But he and Brad Sherman find themselves in the newly-formed 30th C.D. So now they are fighting like two roosters.

Frankly, it is a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. These are two hardcore left-wing liberal statists. Berman has been a career politician (allied with Rep. Henry Waxman, they formed the Waxman-Berman political machine back in the 1970s while in the California state legislature) who has been in Congress since 1983. Essentially, Berman is a political dinosaur.

Sherman is no better, policy-wise. But at least he is of the San Fernando Valley. They both supported Obamacare and the failed 2009 stimulus package that has put this country on the verge of bankruptcy.

It is questionable whether a Republican can win in the new district, but of the two GOP contenders, Mark Reed and Susan Shelley, Reed appears to be able to wage more of a campaign. He has big-name endorsements, more organizing and has already begun raising campaign funds. Since he ran in 2010, Reed has some built-in name recognition.

I am sure Shelley, a writer, is a good person, but it is my considered opinion that Reed would wage a stronger campaign in 2012 against Berman or Sherman. Accordingly, I am supporting Mark Reed again this year for Congress.

I've met Mark and he would be an excellent representative for the 30th district in Congress.

We need someone in this district to hit the ground running. Reed can do that.

Tell Waxman and Stupak To "Go to Hell!"

Above, Rep. Henry Waxman.

The overreaching Democrats are overreaching again. This time Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich), (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations sent out letters (go here to see one of them) to the nation's health insurers demanding information on executive compensation, premium rates and a whole mountain of data by September 4.

This is nothing less than an Alinskyite tactic of intimidation and, as some has described, "a fishing expedition that smacks of McCarthyism."

Talk show host Hugh Hewitt (who is also an attorney) described it best:

This letter is a straightforward bit of bullying --an attempt by Waxman and Stupak to silence any segment of the private sector that might be inclined to fight back against the takeover of American medicine by the federal government. It is intended to make the health insurance industry fear opposing any part of the Obama-Pelosi scheme to remake American health care.

The Washington Post described the letters as follows:

They requested detailed information on the compensation packages of the companies' highest-paid employees, as well as information on the companies' boards, conferences and events they sponsored, the profitability of the individual health-care products they sell and revenues earned through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Most of the data is already available in public filings by these insurers.

The CEOs of each insurer should write back to Waxman and Stupak with one sentence, "Go to hell!"

These Democrats works for us, not the other way around. Each week since the election, the Democrats are acting more and more like dictators. Waxman and Stupak should pound sand.