Whew! It’s over. It seems as if the past five days were 10 days long. The Houchen for Congress team that traveled to DC to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference, meet with individuals and groups to seek help with the campaign, and to solidify contacts previously made, has been successful and is more than ready to return home to beautiful Eastern Oklahoma to meet and talk with the good citizens once again.
The last day of events included speeches from “the heavy-weights” (as some media outlets reported) and in most instances they were correct. Newt Gingrich entered the hall to the old and tested rock tune by Survivor…”Eye of the Tiger”. Personally, I didn’t care for the “rock-star” entrance but it was catchy and most of the folks felt fine with it. His speech wasn’t as “Rockin” as his entrance, though it was fairly good.
Ann Coulter’s cuts and jabs at the entire Progressive machine was…how do I put this…not really able to receive a Rated G status but I do like her irreverence of political correctness…she pretty much just tells it the way she views it.
LtCol. Allen West offered a very nice patriotic and moving speech while Bob McEwen probably made the most sense of the day with his very concise and common-sense filled descriptions of what it truly means to practice the principles of economic freedom.
During this last day we still met with groups like RightMarch PAC and Republican Liberty Caucus, who have already endorsed the Houchen for Congress campaign, and with new endorsers and supporters we will begin announcing shortly.
Then came Glenn Beck and his chalkboard. The only criticism I will offer of his speech was his stated belief that he had not heard the Republican Party “apologize” for its Progressive tendencies of the past. Michael Steele may not have but I have certainly heard our own State Chair, Mr. Gary Jones, say publicly that the trouncing received in ’08 was due to Republicans losing their way and not steadfastly holding to those Conservative principles we are supposed to uphold. Mr. Beck…once again Oklahoma is leading the way and you either ignore it or just don’t know about. Look into us a bit more Mr. Beck, maybe you’ll see why we are the reddest of the red states and why we need a little more Oklahoma in Washington and a whole lot less Washington in Oklahoma and around the country. Other than that, I thought Glenn’s speech was entertaining and slightly enlightening.
At the conclusion of the last day of events I was able to meet with American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene and discuss the journey we have embarked on in Eastern Oklahoma to unseat Mr. Blue-Dog himself…Dan Boren. Mr. Keene was very attentive, kind, and very interested.
We also met and spoke with Mrs. Herring of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame. She was the philanthropist who supplied many of the “resources” necessary to help the Afghans defeat the Soviets in the 1980’s.
This morning, I once again met with an old friend from our days, a couple of decades ago, at Sears Automotive…ChucK Southard, now President of Evertson International, INC. He looks and acts just like he did way back when and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to catch up with him and his all-grown-up daughter once again.
Real quick summation here: I did not hear one single new major theme, point, proposal, or policy statement that I haven’t already been talking and/or writing about across Eastern Oklahoma over the past 10 months. Rule of Law, Constitutional Conservatism, limited government via limited spending, economic freedom, individual Liberty, personal responsibility, even the Oklahoma born phrase, “Kneecap and Tax” (originally coined by 2004 Rep. Candidate Wayland Smalley and adopted by yours truly the next day) was proudly proclaimed on the stage and to millions of TV viewers. Capitol gains and personal tax reductions, energy dependence via domestic production and nuclear energy, strong national defense, and abolition of Departments of Energy, Education, and Agriculture. Even the notion of “governance is busted” (remember the article and speeches some 9 months ago on “American governance is busted…and it needs new batteries”) was tossed about during this past week, not only at CPAC but on many of the print news magazines, newspapers, radio, and TV news shows.
More to come on this last topic in a bit…stay tuned to Houchen for Congress!
Howard Houchen's Blog 