FOLLOWING UP


Let’s follow up on some previous topics covered in this column:

1) Iraq: as I have previously written, the situation in Iraq is inviting the Iranians to covertly take over their long-time enemy. The dithering by the newly elected Iraqi government has allowed more Iranian infiltration of the Iraqi bureaucracy - not to mention that the key Shiite leaders are all loyal to or are ‘owned’ by Tehran due to their years in exile there. The incoming Prime Minister lived for years in Tehran and has continuing ties there. This is a very worrisome development.

2) The Social Security Debate: this is going nowhere for President Bush and the GOP. The more it is talked about, the less popular it is. No wonder Representatives and Senators prefer to talk about steroids or filibusters; the more they do town hall forums defending the Bush privatization plan back in their districts, the less popular they themselves become. So mere political survival dictates that they dump the topic and find something else to talk about.

The President has missed the boat on his second term agenda.

Illegal immigration, the exploding cost of health care and the rising cost of gas at the pump are much more immediate and pressing problems; by almost ignoring them, GW Bush has frittered away some of his hard-won political capital from last year’s election.

3) Illegal immigration: when Hillary is to the right of the White House on an issue you know you’re in trouble.

The Bush position - giving amnesty to illegals already here without calling it amnesty - is very, very unpopular - especially with his conservative base. As the economy slows, the stock market stagnates and gas prices soar, the Bush White House will see its base softening in their support of the lame-duck president.

The Minutemen on the Mexican border and Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s controversial comments about “closing” the border to Mexico highlight the explosiveness of this issue.

And, of course, there is the post- 9/11 Homeland Security issue here, too: how long until AL Qaeda infiltrates more murderers into the US across this sieve of a southern border?

4) Energy: three years ago in this column I projected a July 4, 2002 speech by the President entitled Project Independence in which an oilman president and vice president (Bush and Cheney) would use their post-9/11 credibility to announce a joint government-private industry (Detroit) project to begin in two years manufacturing only hydrogen fuel cell cars, trucks and buses.

This radical proposal - pooh-poohed at the time - would by now already be weaning us from imported oil from Arabs, Iranians, Venezuelans, Russians and Mexicans. How can we rely on those countries for such a crucial commodity? In the name of our national security - not to mention our faltering economic position - it is total insanity to rely on those nations for the oil with which we power our country.

Leading the way on the mass-production of hydrogen fuel cell engines will indeed shake things up. But it will wean us from our addiction to foreign oil, it will radically change our foreign accounts balance (for the good!), and it will go a long way toward cleaning up the environment, too.

Plus we can sell these new cars, trucks and buses worldwide and again lead the way in pioneering a new technology.

We must do this for all these reasons; ‘can’t’ cannot be in our national vocabulary.

5) The so-called hunt for Osama Bin Laden: do you really believe that the United States of America - if her government really, really wanted to - could not track down and capture or kill this international terrorist?

It is a national disgrace that the leader of the 9/11 attacks is still on the loose, still taunting us with audio and video tapes, and still inspiring tens of millions of wayward Muslims to hate the USA.

He must be brought to justice for what he has done.

And the Bush Administration has clearly re-focused itself to Iraq and devoted over $300 billion on that war while Osama remains free.

Can anyone tell me that we have given an equal effort to get Osama?

No!

6) 2008: Hillary is the Democrat and who knows who is the GOP nominee? But it is way, way too early for 2008; we have so many crucial problems to solve now that we can’t be worried about the next election.

Whether we even address these problems will determine what happens in 2008.

And, so far, Washington DC is seemingly oblivious to these problems.

No wonder so many people on both sides of the political aisle - are disillusioned.

HUMILITY



GW Bush is in political trouble; his poll rating are declining and his second term agenda - Social Security Reform - is getting less support the more he talks about it. Gas prices are soaring and the stock market is dropping. A majority of people ‘disapprove’ of his performance as President and an equally large majority believe the nation is on the ‘wrong track.’

Tom Delay, Mr. Bush’s Texas ally up on the Hill as House Majority Leader, is in political free fall with the possibility of legal jeopardy creeping around the corner.

What has happened to these two powerful politicians just five months after being re-elected?

Why are they declining in popularity?

Why can’t Mr. Bush expand his support the way Ronald Reagan could when he won re-election in 49 states? With re-election out of the way, why can’t he successfully appeal to the other half of the nation and get them to support him or at least to like him?

Why is Mr. Delay under daily bombardment and criticism that is now beginning to spread into his GOP flock up on the Hill? Why is he the target for things that many other politicians do all the time?

The answer to all of these questions - in Biblical terms - is simple: pride.

Or, in secular terms, arrogance or hubris.

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

All the Bushes - parents and GW Bush - have a problem with their arrogant demeanors. Having dealt with them, I can tell you that they are dismissive, condescending, rude and frosty to those they deem ‘disloyal,’ meaning those that dare to disagree with them. As Dick Cheney once remarked, “You don’t want to cross the Bushes; they have the longest memories of anyone in politics.”

The first President Bush used to rip apart staff with this quote: “If you are so smart, how come I am President and you are not?”

This President Bush has alienated virtually everyone he has met who did not agree with him. Scores of foreign leaders can’t stand him because of his dismissive treatment of them. Political leaders here who criticize anything Mr. Bush has ever done or said are immediately frozen out and never invited back.

Ronald Reagan could charm those who disagreed with him and often even win over the other side; GW Bush doesn’t even try.

The so-called debate over Social Security is a perfect case example:

GW Bush’s aides urged him in January not to take this fight on as the centerpiece of his Second Term; he dismissed them.

His staff arranges phony town halls all over the nation where the President answers ‘questions.’ But it has been revealed that these ‘questions’ are pre-screened, the audiences are selected from local GOP groups and they even have a dress rehearsal the day before. And no dissenters are allowed inside.

No wonder this ‘debate’ over Social Security is a failure!

If a President cannot hear all sides - or refuses to - he is missing half of the nation.

This is a pride or an arrogance that displeases God. And it fails politically, too.

The same applies to Tom Delay. He is caught up in the vortex of media criticism, possible legal troubles and plummeting public opinion polls. Why him - and not dozens of other Member of Congress?

Because he is arrogant and brusque and rude and full of himself.

There is not a shred of self-deprecation or humility in the Tom Delay people see; instead there is an inflexible hardness and arrogance that turns people off.

Both George W. Bush and Tom Delay love to quote the Bible. But they need to behave as Jesus taught: be humble.

It may already be too late for both.

THE BUSHES AND THE CLINTONS



It is now clear: the George Bushes and Bill Clinton are genuine pals.

The former President George HW Bush has often said of Clinton, “I like the guy!”

Now it is clear that the current President George W. Bush also likes his predecessor so much that he now asks him for foreign policy advice and last week even praised Clinton’s own proposed Social Security reforms.

Last week in Rome for the Pope’s funeral, the President even invited Clinton to sit in on his morning CIA briefing and asked his advice.

What ever happened to W’s 2000 campaign mantra, “I am going to restore honesty and dignity to the White House”?

Here is what happened:

1) W - and his Dad - never had a problem with the Clintons; they just cynically played on the anti-Clinton- Monica-Impeachment Fever to win the 200 campaign. Proof? How the Bushes never pursued any investigations of the Clintons’ criminal behavior in selling pardons for cash for their Presidential Library and for stealing and/or destroying White House property when they left office.

2) American politics has devolved from a meritocracy into two simultaneous dynasties - the Bushes and the Clintons. The Bushes ‘own’ the GOP machinery; the Clintons ‘own’ the Democratic establishment and fund raising machine.

3) Just as the two major parties - with isolated examples of winning third party candidates - control who can win elections, these two family dynasties control who can be nominated inside their respected parties.

4) The Bushes and Clintons use each other - to each family’s benefit. Example: W’s Social Security campaign is floundering. Polls show that Republican voters are lukewarm supporters while Democrats totally oppose it. So what does President Bush do? He praises Clinton’s proposed reforms from a decade ago and strategically leaks this to the media. His hope is to broaden his plan’s appeal and to start to pick up Democratic support for his privatization plan.

5) Bill Clinton - never to be trusted for one nanosecod - should never be underestimated either. He is using the Bushes, too. By going with the former President Bush on the Asian Tsunami Relief effort, it keeps Clinton in the news and on the road. Thus his speaking invitation and fees are increased. Plus, by hanging out with the Bushes, he is helping Hillary seem more mainstream for her 2008 presidential campaign.

6) Hillary’s entire focus the last six months has been a cosmetic ‘move to the center.’ First she claims she wants to “find common ground with the Pro Life Movement.” This from the most ardent abortions rights advocate ever to run for public office.

Then she comes out against illegal immigration while the President offers quasi-amnesty to illegals already here.

Then she attacks the Hollywood entertainment community for pushing sex and violence in children’s entertainment - even though she and her husband annually raise tons of dough from these very same Hollywood lefty fat cats.

And then this weekend she goes to Minnesota and unloads on the “right-wing robots” who run Capitol Hill - but never -ever - mentions Bush by name.

She, too, is playing the two-dynasty game!

One family scratches the other’s back.

Conclusion: it just isn’t American to have only these two political families dominating American politics.

It isn’t good for the country - and it isn’t good for the two political parties, either.

The whole thing is so cynical and hypocritical.

Liberals supposedly love diversity - except when it comes to their party’s nomination.

And Republicans supposedly believe in merit - except when it comes to who runs every aspect of their party.

You know what?

It is time for a change.

MESSENGERS FOR GOD




The death this week of Pope John Paul II is serving God’s purposes yet again:

This wonderful man personified all that is good in mankind: kindness, compassion, tough-minded persistence in the face of adversity, a selfless belief in helping only others, and an impish and self-deprecating sense of humor.

The world-wide outpouring of grief and respect - and celebration of his life - is an even larger version of what happened last June when a very similar man, Ronald Reagan, died.

Those two travelers - the Polish Pope and the former Hollywood actor-turned-anti-communist politician - changed the world despite heavy carping and criticism from the Left. And despite facing death, too.

In 1981 these two God-sent Messengers of Truth were both the subject of assassination attempts - as was a third equally crucial figure, Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, who was killed that year by radical Muslims, led by a man who today is Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman Al-Zwahiri.

The fourth member of this Divine Leadership Class - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - was also the target of an assassination attempt at a Conservative Party conference.

The so-called mainstream media - which tilts way to the left - is already concentrating on changes in the Catholic Church - gay marriage, abortion and birth control, and women priests - and is down-playing the real legacy of Karol Woityja: the ending of the Soviet Empire from within without firing a shot!

This was the reason God gave us this Pope and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Any and everything else they may have done pales by comparison.

For forty years Moscow had been the major threat to the West - and trillions of dollars were spent in hopes of ‘containing’ this massive threat (the author of this ‘containment’ policy, diplomat and scholar George Kennan, just died 2 weeks ago at the age of 100).

With Reagan and Thatcher leading from the free West, the Pope’s miraculous ascension to the Papacy from behind the Iron Curtain after Pope John Paul I’s mysterious death after only 31 days as Pope, was indeed Divine Providence. God had a Plan - and that plan was to take down the Evil Empire without a mass slaughter of innocent people.

And when evil - in the form of a Soviet KGB-ordered and Bulgarian-hired assassin shot the Pope - it was Moscow’s desperate attempt to stop the internal unraveling that they knew would ensue from John Paul’s charismatic ability to inspire millions.

For years here the mainstream - i.e. left-wing - media pooh-poohed the Soviet connection as if to say, “How could anyone believe Moscow and the KGB could do such a thing?”

Indeed, this is how the Soviets - and now the Russians - have behaved for decades! Just ask new Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko about the dioxin poisoning he suffered last August - clearly at the hands of Russian agents desperate not to lose control of the vital Ukraine.

The death of this wonderful Pope is more than the end of another papacy; it is the culmination of further proof that God indeed has His Hand in our affairs - in a crucial fight against the Devil.

This fight is still raging with radical fundamentalist Islam now our main enemy - with Chinese Communism rapidly gaining.

We need new leaders who understand the threat - and how to combat it.

We must never back down - and we need to emulate the Pope: the truth will win out. We are on God’s side in the epic battle.

HARVARD STILL HATES AMERICA


In 1978 - after four years as an undergraduate at Harvard College and in my second year as a student at Harvard Business School, I couldn’t take it any longer.

My rage over the hypocritical liberalism at Harvard drove me to write a book - HARVARD HATES AMERICA - which, when it came out, caused quite a stir around the country.

That book tried to describe the basic thinking of the Liberal Mind:” we liberals at Harvard are smarter than the average American and therefore we are more qualified to make crucial decisions than are the (stupid) American people themselves.”

I can not describe to you how many times during those six years at Harvard that I ran into students, teachers or Harvard administrators who preached one thing - usually the massive redistribution of wealth by Washington - but then hopped into their fancy European cars and drove into Boston for lunch! In other words, “do as I say, not as I do.”

This inbred arrogance at Harvard made me become a conservative. And once I figured out what phonies these liberals were - and still are - I had no choice but to fight them every step of the way. Harvard Hates America was my first shot at the liberals - and at academia.

Of course the hardest part of writing Harvard Hates America was getting it published; established publishers wouldn’t touch it! The editors were all liberals - many had attended Harvard - and in those days conservative books just were not getting published.

But God had a plan and brought me to Henry Regnery, the publisher of Bill Buckley’s epic book, God and Man At Yale.

Mr. Regnery loved my book and agreed to publish it - and to heavily promote it.

It sold very well and earned widespread publicity.



We are now 26 years later - and guess what?

Nothing has changed!

Harvard is still hopelessly left-wing.

And so is almost all of academia nation-wide. A new study just released finds that teachers at American colleges - by their own description - are 72% liberal and only 15% conservative.

And at the more ‘elite’ colleges and universities, 87% are liberal and only 13% are conservative.

Fifty percent of these teachers identify themselves as Democrats and only eleven percent as Republicans.

What I saw as a student at Harvard in the 1970's has only grown and multiplied exponentially since then. This disease of the Liberal Mind - with its inherent anti-Americanism - which I now call Politically Correct Liberalism - has spread all over our nation since then. And it is now heading down into high schools, too.

Two months after the 9/11 attacks, my friend and agent, Theron Raines, a long-time friend of Newsmax.com, called me and said, “John, it is finally time for you to write Harvard Still Hates America.”

The more I thought about it, the more I saw he was right: while the rest of America had united in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Harvard was still as anti-American as ever. And anti-Americanism was thriving all across American academia, aping Harvard.

So, over the course of the next 8 months, I indeed wrote an entirely new book - Harvard Still Hates America - Even After 9/11.

By the fall of 2002 the book was ready to be submitted to publishers and Theron Raines began circulating the manuscript. He and I both thought it would be an easy ‘sell’ to publishers; after all, the publishing world had woken up, hadn’t they, to the selling power of conservative books?

Just look at the best seller list: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Mike Savage, Mark Levin and many, many other conservatives dominate the list.

But then something odd began happening: Harvard Still Hates America - Even After 9/11 got turned down for all sorts of reasons: “LeBoutillier isn’t qualified to write this book,” (even though I have two degrees from Harvard and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College); “LeBoutillier isn’t a conservative,” (even though I am indeed a true-blue conservative with a great readership for my columns and I had the most conservative voting record of any Congressman from New York - including Jack Kemp - when I was in the House); “the book is well-written but.....” (The catch-all phrase when an editor just doesn’t want to publish a book.

One thing is true: I am not at the moment a TV or Talk Radio personality; I do not have that built-in forum from which to push the book. But all those conservative media personalities listed above - and almost all of talk radio around the nation - agree 100% with the premise of Harvard Still Hates America - Even After 9/11. Those hosts will publicize the book!

And Newsmax.com has a huge readership that would love to learn just how innately anti-American Harvard is - even in the wake of the devastating attacks of 9/11.

(I purposely wrote the book to focus only on the aftermath of 9/11 - and not to include the Iraq War - because 9/11 did not divide this country; it brought us all together - except for Harvard and other leftist faculties around the country.)

So here we are two and one half years later: Harvard Still Hates America - Even After 9/11 is waiting for a publisher.

By the Grace of God, someone out there will see the need to publish - and publicize - this book.

We can make the same kind of noise today as my first book made over 25 years ago.

And, in the process, we can teach the American people that Harvard and its liberal sycophants still hate America, still have disdain for American values - and condescendingly denigrate the American people as too stupid to make it through a day.

Harvard Still Hates America - Even After 9/11 is awaiting its fate.

Who wants to step up and deliver the message to the American people?

ANSWERED PRAYERS



Here is an invaluable exercise for us all to try:

Sit down with a pad of paper and try to remember back through the high - and especially the low - points of your life. Try to remember the prayers you uttered in those times. Were you asking for something in particular? Try to reconstruct what it was that you desperately pleaded with God to help you with.

Take your time as you review these moments in time; you’ll be surprised as they come back bit by bit.

Write down these prayer requests. And keep doing so as you remember more and more the things you asked God for.

As you pretty much wrap up your list take a good, hard look. It is likely that you will discover one of the keys to a happy life right in front of you: most of your prayers were indeed answered - and the ones that were not answered were ones that it was just as well went unanswered.

This little review is a wonderful way to demonstrate this most basic tool of life: prayer works when you pray honestly from your heart with openness and truth.

Just two days ago, in talking with an old college friend - an unmarried woman - she mentioned that she had never married, despite 3 engagements, but she so very, very much still wanted to be married.

My response was simple: “You must pray daily - and ask God simply, honestly and openly to bring the right man to marry into your life when the time was right. Period. If you do this, God will indeed answer that prayer - on His own time. Guaranteed. It will happen.”

She was stunned and almost speechless on the phone. She stammered a bit and replied, “Really? You think so? You’ve given me such hope!”

Since that phone call, it has hit me how many millions of people ‘missed the lesson of prayer’ somewhere along the way in life.

Without prayer there really is no happiness in life. Sure, there can be tremendous material gain and competitive success without prayer of faith. But really what does that buy you?

As the Beatles sang, money “can’t buy you love.”

But prayer can - and will.

And so, too, will prayer help us in the most dire of circumstances: the failing health of a close relative, the loss of a job, the despair of a wrong turn in life, a lost love or any other awful dilemma.

And yet so many people don’t practice prayer - or do not know how to.

Here is the key: speak to God as a child speaks: simple, direct and not complicated. You don’t have to recite a pre-written prayer, although you can if you choose. Just speak to God as the Father He is and ask for what you want.

This prayer must be from the heart - and for something you really need or want.

Don’t pray for trivial junk that by tomorrow you won’t care about anyway; pray for the things that touch your heart. And for things that persist in your soul - the things that matter in your life.

And you can also pray for guidance in decisions where you are confused.

Remember this: there is a God who wants all of us to be happy in our lives. When you are not happy, you need to ask God to help you get back on the track to that lifetime of happiness.

If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.

But if you do ask, you will in most cases have your prayers answered.

GOP: OFF-TRACK



The Republican Party has gone seriously off-track in recent days.

As the ‘conservative’ political party, the GOP is supposed to believe in and to practice the policy that the less federal involvement the better. This has been the ‘conservative’ position for decades - and the very reason that we rose to national power under President Reagan and then re-took the House and Senate after Hillary Clinton’s power-grab attempt to nationalize health care.

Last week - in the course of two days - the Republicans who control the House of Representatives acted like liberal Democrats by first butting into baseball on Thursday and then butting into a family’s suffering on Friday.

Baseball is a private business; do we need Congressmen commenting on the aptitude and competency of the baseball commissioner? Are they qualified to even express an opinion over the running of a business they have never even worked in?

Yes, Mark McGuire embarrassed himself at that committee hearing. But these same Congressmen who heaped scorn on the use of steroids by these players all posed in the anterooms with the same players and even asked for autographs!

Then the next day they turn their (short) attention spans to the tragedy in the Schiavo family: a case that has been looked at by Floridian courts for over a decade.

Why, suddenly, do these Congressmen in DC know more about this case - and about Florida law - than do Florida judges and doctors?

How dare the too-ambitious Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a former heart surgeon, say that he can diagnose Terri Shiavo from a 30-second TV news clip? How irresponsible can you get? I can diagnose this: Frist has a terminal case of Potomac Fever!

These Republicans - so-called ‘conservatives’ - have now fallen into the habit of meddling in everyone’s - and anyone’s - business.

They have opened Pandora’s Box: what internal family dispute can not now be grist for their mill? A child custody case? A divorce which involves controlling shares in an important business? Disputed ownership of a valuable asset? Why can’t - and why won’t - the Congress now feel it is suddenly their business to intercede?

The liberals were always the ones who fell in love with massive federal power. And it ultimately led to their political downfall.

Now the Bush Republicans have fallen in love with it. From the very ‘nation-building’ that then-candidate GW Bush criticized in 2000 to the massive new Department of Homeland Security and now their intrusion into baseball and the Schiavo Case, these ‘conservatives’ have become Big Government Republicans.

They spend money like liberals, they run up the debt like liberals and they ignore their own past beliefs like liberals. If it quacks like a duck....

Fiscal responsibility is out the door nowadays; the very same Congressmen who balanced the budget with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office now are presiding over massive federal debt and over-spending with GW Bush calling the shots.

And one case that calls for intervention by the Feds - stopping the influx of illegals - is ignored! GW Bush even wants to give them amnesty!

Yes, the Republican Party is seriously off-track. Their saving grace is that the Democrats are so left-wing and out-of-touch that they are no threat to Republican power.

But conservatives are left to scratch their heads and ask, “Who speaks for us?”