It was a great pleasure to see Admiral John Poindexter at the Pumpkin Papers celebration on October 30. I’m a big fan of Admiral Poindexter, with whom I had an important meeting at a critical point during the Reagan administration.

The background is this: Indiana Senator Dick Lugar had pushed sanctions on the anti-Communist government of South Africa, sanctions which once placed in force would, and did, benefit the Communist-dominated African National Congress.

Pat Buchanan and I drafted a veto message of the sanctions legislation which had been approved in Congress and sent to President Reagan’s desk. President Reagan, with minor changes, signed our draft veto.

The question then became ‘would the veto be sustained?’ I requested and received a meeting with Admiral Poindexter, then the President’s National Security Adviser, who strongly agreed with President Reagan’s opposition to sanctions, and, with White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan. They asked for advice on how the President’s veto could be sustained. I said, ‘The answer is simple. Have the President send a message to every person who contributed $1,000 or more to those Republican Senators up for re-election in 1986, urging that they contact those Senators and ask that they vote to sustain his veto.’ Poindexter and Regan agreed and said they would take action.

After several days had passed with no action being taken, I called Admiral Poindexter to see where matters stood. He told me that White House Political Director Mitch Daniels (a former chief of staff to Senator Lugar) had strongly objected to the implementation of my proposal, saying it would lead to the defeat of the Republican Senators who voted to sustain President Reagan’s veto.

Accordingly, those 1986 candidates for re-election to the Senate voted to override the President, and sanctions were imposed. Sadly, every one of those Senators up for re-election in 1986 whom I urged be contacted, went down to defeat. They included Marlowe Cook of Kentucky, James Abdnor of South Dakota, and others.

Mitch Daniels wasn’t really working for Ronald Reagan. He was working for his Indiana colleague, Dick Lugar.

In the Soviet Union, they had a "ministry of culture". I wish the days were past when we imitate the Soviet Union.

Two organizations parallel to those in the Soviet Union are the National Endowment for the Arts, our ministry of culture, and National Public Radio (NPR), our "official" instrument of news, opinion, and culture.

NPR has always had a leftward slant (which will undoubtedly be reinforced by their new chief executive fresh from her labors at the left-wing New York Times):

We mourn the passing of our friend, Marshall Fritz, founder of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State.

He died on Election Day, November 4, 2008, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Marshall is survived by his wife of 44 years, Joan, his son, Eugene, his three daughters and their husbands, Susan and Christopher Bethea of Clovis, Lucie and Tony Ruiz of Fresno, Ann and Kyle McKenna of Pittsburgh, twelve grandchildren and his brother, Russell Fritz of Baja, Mexico.

Studs Terkel was a left-winger, but a very charming and interesting left-winger, whom it was my privilege to meet more than a decade ago and by whom I was interviewed at length for one of his books.

Studs has now gone to his reward at the age of 96. I am glad I had a chance to meet him.

We have work to do in rebuilding opposition in Congress to the North American Union (NAU).

We have lost 12 co-sponsors. Nancy Boyda of Kansas was defeated for reelection. Barbara Cubin of Wyoming retired. David Davis of Tennessee was defeated. Jo Ann Davis of Virginia died. Terry Everett of Alabama retired. Duncan Hunter of California retired. Charles Norwood of Georgia died. Ralph Regula of Ohio retired. Bill Sali of Idaho was defeated. Jim Saxton of New Jersey retired, and Tom Tancredo of Colorado retired, and Virgil Goode of Virginia who has apparently been defeated, with a recount pending.

The remaining co-sponsors in the 111^th Congress are:

• Michele Bachmann of Minnesota Spencer Bachus of Alabama
• Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland Rob Bishop of Utah
• John Boozman of Arkansas Paul C. Broun of Georgia
• Lincoln Davis of Tennessee John J. Duncan, Jr. of Tennessee
• Mary Fallin of Oklahoma Virginia Foxx of North Carolina
  Trent Franks of Arizona Scott Garrett of New Jersey
• Kirsten Gillibrand of New York Phil Gingrey of Georgia
• Sam Graves of Missouri Dean Heller of Nevada
• Darrell Issa of California Walter B. Jones, Jr. of North Carolina
• Marcy Kaptur of Ohio Steven LaTourette of Ohio
• Frank Lucas of Oklahoma Kenny Marchant of Texas
• Jim Marshall of Georgia Thaddeus G. McCotter of Michigan
• Gary Miller of California Jeff Miller of Florida
• Jerry Moran of Kansas Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania
• Sue Wilkins Myrick of North Carolina Ron Paul of Texas
• Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota John E. Peterson of Pennsylvania
  Ted Poe of Texas Heath Shuler of North Carolina
• Cliff Stearns of Florida Bart Stupak of Michigan
• John Sullivan of Oklahoma Lee Terry of Nebraska
• Patrick J. Tiberi of Ohio Zach Wamp of Tennessee
• Robert J. Wittman of Virginia

Please join our efforts with your maximum donation, by signing up to receive our email alerts, by taking action and telling your friends.

The popular vote for Obama on November 4 makes the work of The Conservative Caucus (TCC) even more urgent and more important.

We are ready to lead the way against

1. restoration of the Fairness Doctrine,
2. the unconstitutional award of voting privileges in the Congress to D.C.,
3. socialized medicine,
4. amnesty for illegal aliens,
5. higher taxes and spending,
6. more Federal involvement in the indoctrination of students in the government schools,
7. elimination of the secret ballot in union elections, and
8. drastic cuts in U.S. defense spending, particularly with regard to SDI, space programs, and the U.S. Navy.

Please join our efforts with your maximum donation, by signing up to receive our email alerts, by taking action, and telling your friends.

It is not correct to say that Barack Obama is America’s President-elect.

Yes, he did win a majority of the popular vote and pluralities-plus in states with a majority of the Electoral College votes.

However, until the votes are cast by electors meeting in the 50 state capitals plus D.C., no decision will have been made as to the identity of the next President, and it can also be argued that no person is President-elect until the votes are counted in January in a joint session of Congress.

I wish no harm to befall Mr. Obama, but should events conspire to immobilize his candidacy prior to December 15, whether because of his failure to meet the Constitutional test for natural born citizen, a problem of health, or, an accident, or a physical attack, the decision would then fall to the electors at their meetings on December 15.

It is conceivable that, in such circumstances, the electors would divide their votes among John McCain, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

I encourage you to carefully read the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution which spells out the procedures which are to be followed:

"The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;—The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; —The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President—] The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

I did 30 minutes this evening with John Clark of "America Betrayed". Clark is the founder of Americans for Immigration Control with whom I began working on the immigration issue in the 1990’s. We discussed the failure of the GOP to follow through on promises concerning immigration which they made during the mid-1990’s under the Clinton Administration, and how the leaders of the GOP, both George Bush and John McCain, have concluded that efforts to gain support from Hispanic voters, legal and illegal, and to foster good relations with Mexico, take precedence over the expectations that were raised in years gone by.