Fellow Laderians,

The Republicans are all atwitter after having won two governors elections and, in a stunning upset, the U.S. Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy and his brother John for decades in Massachusetts. Former Vice President Dick Cheney predicts this will be a banner year for the Republicans. And by all outward appearances, he may be right. But the Republicans fail to mention that a Democrat won a Congressional seat in Upstate New York that has been held by the Republicans since before electricity.

But could it be that the voters are finally throwing the bums out of office, something I've been advocating for decades? What has happened in the four major elections since President Obama was elected is the people voted the incumbent out of office or, if the incumbent wasn't running for reelection, the voters tossed out the incumbent's party.

We won't know for sure until after the Congressional mid-term elections in November, but it's clear the voters are sick and tired of the partisan gridlock and the wasteful pork-barrel spending that has held our government and the economy hostage for decades. Remember when George H. W. Bush was elected President with a pledge of "no new taxes?" Early in his administration, he had to push through an emergency relief program – resulting in the biggest tax increase in U.S. history – because the run-away spending was threatening to destroy the economy. What happened? Rather than use the increased tax dollars to reduce the deficit as planned, for every dollar raised by the tax relief package, Congress spent another $1.20 in new pork.

When President Obama was elected a little over a year ago, the people really did vote for change. But instead of change, what the voters have gotten is "short changed." Virtually every single bill sponsored by the Obama administration has been filibustered by the Republicans in the Senate. What used to be a political tactic that was rarely used by the minority party has now become a threat with every piece of legislation sponsored by the Democrats. Is it possible that the Republicans don't agree with every single piece of legislation sponsored by the Democrats? Or are the Republicans simply trying to destroy the Democrats and the Obama administration so they can rise to power again. You decide! But remember, it now takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass any meaningful legislation when a simply majority of 51 votes was all that was required in the past.

Six Republican Senators recently voted against a bill to create a deficit-reduction commission even though they themselves cosponsored the bill! Huh? The Dems are no innocents either, recently paring a jobs-creating bill from $85-billion to $25-billion because the bill contained Republican-sponsored tax relief for big business.

That piece of legislation did finally pass this week with a 62-30 vote because newly-elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and two other Republicans voted in favor of it, signaling to the voters that "throwing the bums out" may, in fact, break up the partisan gridlock. If I'm right in my assessment, the old-school, career politicians in both parties may be in trouble this fall. I, for one, hope so!

                                            Jim Schmitt, Editor and Publisher