Hennessy's View

Two weeks ago, weeks ago, how many Missouri statewide offices did you expect to flip?  Be honest.

Yes, there are great people running for Governor, Secretary of State, and Treasurer.  And we already have a fine Lieutenant Governor Kinder running for re-election.

But numerous factors, like name recognition, experience, and Jay Nixon’s weird relationship with Republican House leadership, made a major upset unlikely. And no Republicans had stepped up to challenge Chris Koster for Attorney General.

Until Ed Martin jumped into AG race yesterday.

Now, we have a fight.

Ed’s statewide name recognition, familiarity with Jefferson City, and enormous respect among grass roots put every statewide office immediately in play.

But every race will be a dogfight.  Every race will be bruising.  Every candidate will need every possible vote.

That’s why I’m thrilled, giddy, jubilant, proud, and pantingly pleased that the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition has joined the nationwide Election Day Tea Party.

And I’m more thrilled, giddy, etc. that we’re kicking off election season with the 3rd Anniversary Tea Party PLUS 7 Events That Made America America with Dr. Larry Schweikart. 

Friday is Dr. Schweikart, author of A Patriot’s History of the United States.  Larry puts on one hell of a show.  We’ll provde hors d’oeuvres, a free drink, a cash bar, and an After Party.

Saturday is a full day of getting down and dirty with winning some friggin’ elections.  We’ll have training from local and national experts, inspirational talks from Bill Federer and Dr. Schweikart, caucus training, social media training for beginners and experts, and more. We’ve taken care of breakfast AND lunch, so you can focus on the fight.

With four statewide offices now totally in play, we all need to arm our minds with the most important facts to win in 2012.  But wait; there’s more!

In St. Louis’s reconstituted 1st US Congressional District, the indefatigable Martin Baker has a chance to flip a seat that’s been Democrat since the destruction of federalism was only gleam in FDR’s eye.

Plus, we have a Saul Alinsky socialist to evict from the White House!

Please get your tickets now. Tickets for Friday’s event are going very fast, and Saturday’s moving, too.  Once they’re gone, they’re gone—we don’t have room for more.

Remember, Friday and Saturday, February 24 and 25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Clayton, MO.  Get your tickets here, today.

Still not ready to order?  Watch this.

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Ed Martin Jr. of St. Louis has redirected his fire to the Attorney General race, and this is great news for everyone except Chris Koster.

Back when Ed Martin was talking about running for the Republican nod to take on Claire McCaskill, I had another thought.  Well, a bunch of people had another thought: Ed would make an outstanding Attorney General.

*********UPDATE*********

HUGE list of endorsements on Ed’s official press release. 

******************************

I guess I was right.

I wasn’t disappointed that Ed chose to run for Todd Akin’s US House seat. Ed would make a great conservative legislator.  And as I said before, so will Ann Wagner, who can now focus on  . . . whichever Democrat decides to give a concession speech at 7:01 pm on November 6.

But, at this pivotal moment in history, as Attorney General, Ed Martin will be Missouri’s general in the war on Washington abuse.  Here’s why.

First, Ed has used his law license for the good of society, to protect life, to defend the wrongly accused, and to advance his—our—conservative principles.  He’s not a lawyer who’s in it for the money.  I’ve met some of the people he’s helped, and I’ve heard their stories.

In these battles, including a nationally covered battle against Illinois’s criminal Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ed Martin was tenacious, principled, and victorious.

Missouri needs an AG who will fight for the right things. 

Second, Ed understands that the battle for liberty over the next 12 years will be fought between the states and Washington. The states—and only the states—have the Constitutional power and the economic leverage fight Washington and win. 

The Several States vs. US Government will be ugly,long, and painful. [Insert your analogy here.]  Most people will lose their stomach before it’s over. People—even good conservatives—will want to throw in the towel and heel to the Washington monster.

Ed won’t.  He understands that Congress, with its entrenched establishment and elitist snobbery, is as close to a lost cause as you’ll find.  He wants to be one of 50 state attorneys general who, with their governors and secretaries of state, beat Congress into submission.(I said “ugly.”) 

Ed Martin has a clear path to take on turncoat Democrat Koster in November.  That fight begins today. When Ed prevails in November, Missouri will have an Attorney General who actually has read and understands the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution—and a man who’s smart to know it matters.

Previously on Hennessy’s View about Ed Martin:

Give Me 5 Minutes, And I’ll Give You a New Friend

Name the One Tea Partier in the Race

11 Minutes of Exactly What We’re Talking About

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Ed Martin spoke the the Tenth Amendment Center’s Nullification conference in Kansas City.  This is a remarkable description of the problem, the dangers, and the solutions of political seduction and abuse of power.

One point that I should have made before being prompted by Ed’s speech.  Trading Missouri sovereignty for a few pieces of ObamaCare silver is simple cowardice. Governor Nixon, and any Republican who voted for the healthcare exchange, should be retired—on their own or in a primary.

Who’s going to Jefferson City for the Special Session on September 6? I think we need some people there to help the (upper case) Republicans act like (lower case) republicans.

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In my response to Dan Riehl’s hit piece on Ed Martin, I wrote one more line than I should have. I wrote about an establishment takeover of Big Government.

Mike Flynn, the editor of Big Government, has quietly (and not so quietly) led the fight for liberty and good government for decades.  His Big Government site has been a backbone in the resurgence of our first principles.

Much more importantly to me, Mike Flynn is a friend of mine.  Sometimes my temper and emotions blind me to the real, human face at the other end of my words.  I didn’t mean to insult Mike.  I am sorry, brother. 

I am sorry, too, if I gave anyone a false view of Ed’s opponent. There is no RINO in the race for Missouri’s Second.  From the Republican primary will emerge a great candidate who will go onto to serve the district, the state, and the nation honorably and well.

On August 8, 2012, the primary over, we will take to the streets and the internet to elect a conservative member of Congress to replace Todd Akin. I don’t want to feel like a hypocrite then. I’m sure none of us does.

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I have to tell you about a man I know. He’s a good man whom I respect deeply. When I’m done, I hope you’ll have a new friend.

But first, I have tell you about microwave towers and optical illusions.

Microwaves and Curves

Has this ever happened to you?

When I was a kid, my dad worked for a company that owned a small resort for employees about 90 miles south of St. Louis, down Highway 21.

In those days, 21 was a twisty, hilly mess of a road. Those curves and hills created a cool optical illusions, though. At least if you were a kid in a car on a hot, two-hour drive. It was something like this. 

A microwave tower, visible forever, appeared, for miles to be on the east side of the highway.  Right up a few dozen yards before you passed the tower, you’d swear it was on the left as you passed heading south. 

Then, when you were just about on top of it, the road curved, the trees cleared, and the tower seemed to leap to the west side of Highway 21.

My sisters (older than me) made up a guessing game about landmarks along that road. First time players got the microwave tower wrong every time.  Until you were right there at the tower, you couldn’t tell where it stood.

A Long Way From New Jersey

When I read Dan Riehl’s hit piece on Ed Martin Jr. in Big Government, I thought about that microwave tower on Highway 21 in Jefferson County, Missouri.  I remembered that Dan Riehl lives in New Jersey, far from Missouri’s 2nd District. Clearly, Dan doesn’t know Ed. 

So let me introduce the Ed Martin I know in just a moment.

As I read on, I realized that Dan’s opinions come mostly from reading two anti-Martin blogs:  Bungalow Bill and “Fired-Up Missouri,” the Carnahan family blog.  Living in New Jersey, Dan probably didn’t realize he’s getting a distorted view of Ed Martin—a view intentionally tainted to make Ed Martin look bad, truth be damned. 

I’ll blame the leftist blogs, for example, for Dan’s confusion on the Eckersley affair.  Dan should have read the 4-part series on that case in 24thstate.com (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).  There, The Editor refuted all of the major charges leveled against Ed and Matt Blunt in a detailed, documented series of reports, concluding correctly with Memogate Explained in 30 Words or Less:

Jay Nixon’s lawyer friends sued a Republican and his staff to help Nixon’s election bid.  The case was settled when Nixon was elected and the lawyers needed to get paid.

A View From Missouri

On this side of the Mississippi, you get a much better view of Ed Martin. You’ll see the real Ed Martin that I know—unless you’re a liberal Democrat or an establishment Republican. 

If Dan spent some time in St. Louis with Ed, maybe he’d come to know the wonderful man I met about February 22, 2009. That’s when Ed saw my Facebook event for a Tea Party in St. Louis and asked if he could help. 

As I said before, Ed took a big political risk coming to that event, and he helped make that first Tea Party the success it was.  He helped steer the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition in its infancy, right up to the day he announced his candidacy for the U. S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 3rd District.

Dan could learn even more by coming to St. Louis or reading some of our more conservative bloggers.  Dan seems surprised, for instance, that Ed Martin’s establishment opponent out-raised Ed in the last quarter.  Well, Ed doesn’t have a lot of DC Establishment friends to turn to for cash.  For Ed’s support, he relies on Tea Partiers and 9-12 Project patriots, Right-to-Lifers, and even some Reagan Democrats.

Had Dan been in St. Louis a few Saturdays ago, he might have seen about 600 typical Ed Martin people at a Trivia Night in Two Heart’s banquet hall, complete with mostachioli.  The place was packed on a night that was really too beautiful weather-wise to be inside. I was there, along with all my sisters  and old neighbors from Epiphany.  It was a classic St. Louis event.

That’s the way the Ed Martin I know raises money—by having fun with the people who vote, not sipping champaign with business executives and their lobbyists.

Ed Off the Record

Then there’s the Ed Martin that you’ll never see all the way from New Jersey—microwave links or not.  I’m talking about the unofficial Ed Martin. 

Here’s one story that tells a lot about the Ed Martin I know, the one who’s running for Missouri’s 2nd US House District in 2012.

Ed asked me to speak at his New Year’s Eve Party on December 31, 2009.  The event was in far South St. Louis County, at Orlando’s banquet center.  About 100 or so people enjoyed drinks, dinner, and a midnight toast.

Late in the evening, as I was getting ready to leave, I met a family from Illinois. The man was a pharmacist.  He wasn’t a political type; he seemed uncomfortable.  In fact, I believe he and Ed might be of different parties.

“I’d do anything for Ed,” the man told me.

“Why?”

“A few years ago, the state of Illinois tried to shut me down because I refused to dispense the Morning After pill,” he said.  “I’m Catholic.”

“No one would take my case because it was too risky and too sure to lose. That man,” he said, pointed toward Ed who was a few tables away, “was the only lawyer who stepped up and offered to represent me. He came to me.  I didn’t even know who he was.”

“Ed fought like a dog for me.  He was the only one with the courage and conviction to take on the entire state of Illinois and Governor Blagojevich.” 

Ed never told me that story. I never heard him tout it on the stump in 2009 and 2010.  Maybe he did and I missed it. 

Nor did Ed tell me about volunteering to represent a man who was wrongfully accused of threatening Russ Carnahan.  Again, when most lawyers were afraid to take on the (then) powerful Carnahan machine, Ed Martin stepped up and fought for what was right.

I could tell you about the Tea Partiers I know who love Ed because he’s “not like all the other politicians.” 

One man told me, “I know a lot of Republican politicians around St. Louis. I’ve asked them what I can do, and I told them I want to get involved.  But I’m just a regular guy. They brushed me off.  I wasn’t important enough for them. So I said, ‘the hell with you.’”

“Ed, though, treats me like he treats everybody else.  I feel like I know him.  He knows me. He’s right there in the neighborhood all the time, not in Washington or Europe.”

Straightening the Curves for Dan

So, I’m sorry Dan Riehl—normally a careful researcher—missed so much on this particular story.  (We all have bad days.)  Or maybe Anthony Weiner hacked into Dan’s Big Government account.

I was warned in May (and I passed along the warning) that the Missouri Republican establish was out to destroy Ed Martin and his Tea Party supporters. Had Dan read my piece, maybe he’d have checked his sources a little more carefully before posting the shabby, undocumented hit piece.

Here in St. Louis, we know where Ed stands.  He stands with us, people who can’t really help him. He fights the battles that others won’t.  

To this ordinary guy, Ed Martin is street, and his current battle is our battle: to fix the establishment, not romance it.

P.S.  If you’re a fan of Ed’s, send a donation to Ed Martin for Congress.

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