The latest spending scandal should be a wake up call for the Republican National Committee (RNC).  Why would those in charge of expense reimbursements believe it was appropriate to spend nearly $2,000 on such an outrageous and offensive venue?  If the RNC wants to represent conservatives and the Republican Party, then they have to act like conservatives — in a moral, fiscal, and ethical manner. 

When RNC officials seem to think it wise to spend a grandmother’s monthly donation on wooing the younger generation by taking them to a bondage-themed sex club instead of helping to elect a conservative, a real problem exists. 

It’s time for the frat boy mentality in Washington to cease, whether it be Mark Foley, Eric Massa, or the woman staffer who was responsible for this episode; whether it be the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee.  It’s offensive when leaders of both parties engage in juvenile and irresponsible behavior and bill it to taxpayers or donors.

Democrats all over Capitol Hill are whining that the American people are mad at them.  They are pointing to some rare and frankly minor examples of that ire going too far.  My question is: What did you expect would happen when you “Stupaked” the American people?   Did you not think they would be a little upset?  There are two major things wrong with this scenario:  (1) you’re blaming the victim, and (2) you’re exaggerating. 

First, polling data for a solid year from every credible source known to man has shown that the American people overwhelmingly did not want the President’s version of health care reform.  However, the Democrats (except for a notable few) think they know what’s best for the rest of us.  Instead of focusing on improving the best health care system in the world, they radically changed it, costing us billions, perhaps trillions of dollars to insure a few more of us.  Yes, we are upset!  We’re just not excited that you’re going to send us to prison if we don’t buy into your health insurance scam and that you’re forcing us to pay for abortions with our taxes.  

No, the real story here is not a few impolite people on the right.  The real story is the restraint Americans are showing.  In most countries there would be rioting in the streets over this kind of raw power grab by government.  No, Concerned Women for America does not support bad behavior or violence.  We will, in our own very ladylike way, NEVER FORGET! 

Secondly, anyone in the public eye has war stories.  I have personally had everything from death threats, Web harassment, and vile epithets left on my voice mail.  Man up guys!  You know this is part of the job, and you get it all the time.  I am sorry that Congressman Perriello’s brother’s gas line to his outdoor grill was mysteriously cut/slipped off.  Gasp!  What are they going to do with the steaks they thawed out already?  Tsk tsk!  Just when the weather got nice.  Now that is a travesty!  

I know someone said something unkind to Bart Stupak on his voice mail, but I’d trade what his guy said with the truly ugly word I got called any day.  I am sorry it hurt his feelings. (For the record: Before Mr. Stupak joined the dark side, CWA asked its members in Michigan to contact him to thank him politely for his then-pro-life stand, as he was taking the heat from the nasty folks on the other side of the abortion issue.  Maybe they weren’t as nasty as he led us to believe.) 

This is bush league.  What’s really going on is that Members of Congress are trying to distract the public from the arrogance of power by creating sympathy.  It’s an old trick and wouldn’t work at all except that the mainstream media is complicit in the charade.  I was at the Capitol on Sunday, and Tea Party folks were yelling at anyone in a suit, including me, but they weren’t yelling vulgarities.  People who say they were are probably lying, but we will never know because the media didn’t bother to ask them to corroborate their stories.  The media would have demanded several witnesses if any conservative had made those claims.  

The same media so excited to rush to protect the “defenseless” Congressmen barely mentioned that someone set Sarah Palin’s church on fire or that private citizens in California were personally harassed and targeted for simply suggesting that there should be a ballot initiative on marriage.  The game being played here would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that these guys thwarted the will of their constituents.  I would, however, suggest that the best way to handle this is to be patient.  After all, isn’t revenge best served up cold?  Isn’t there a Biblical quote about that? 

Update:  I’ve just learned (12:50 p.m., 3/25/2010, Thursday) that someone fired a gun into Republican Congressman Eric Cantor’s (R-Virginia) Richmond office last Monday.  Rep. Cantor didn’t whine, and thus, it’s just now getting reported.  Notice that it’s an attack on a conservative who opposed ObamaCare, but that wasn’t news till now.  I just want to re-emphasize that violence is not the answer.  There are better ways to deal with bullies.

He was strong and inspiring. He was conservative. And he was a brave leader. I was smitten from the beginning. He promised me the world. But as many relationships go, he dumped me out of nowhere – and I am mad. No, I am a raging, furious conservative woman.  

Bart Stupak was the object of the pro-life movement’s affection for months now because he stood up to the abortion industry, President Obama, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and refused to allow the federal government to fund abortion-on-demand.  A profile in courage and an example for many in both parties. 

Then, in the 11^th hour, he caved. He succumbed to the pressures of the most pro-abortion Administration in history just because they said they would write on a piece of paper that the federal government won’t fund abortion. It’s not even a law the President wrote. It’s not worth the Post-It note he wrote it on. 

Shame on you Bart Stupak. Shame on all the other Members who walked the plank with you. You all sold out and scorned millions of voters who trusted you and believed in you.   

Breaking up may be hard to do but paybacks are … well, you know.

“I knew at the time that changing my vote at the 11th hour may have been tantamount to political suicide.”

— Former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-Pennsylvania), on casting the final vote for the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation.

Note to Members of Congress in moderate districts: 

He can’t save you from us!  Don’t even think it for a moment.  President Obama may promise, cajole, threaten or even beg, but don’t fall for it.  Make no mistake, if moderate Democrats or Republicans vote for anything even remotely resembling the current health care bill on process or otherwise, you will need to dust off your resume. 

This is not a new scenario.  Bill Clinton strong-armed moderate Democrats in 1993, and 34 of them are rumored to be working at 7-11 today.  As the people’s representatives, Members of Congress have one job and that is to represent the interests and views of their constituents consistent with the higher law.  Poll after poll has been taken and it is clear, no matter how well the President explains his plan, the American people have rejected it.  I am sorry.  I know it hurts his feelings, but wake up.  You all work for us, the voters, and we do the hiring and firing.  He can’t save you. 

The arrogance of the Obama Administration and Democrat leaders in Congress is astounding.  Despite several polls, including swing districts, showing that Americans don’t want the health care bill that is currently on the table, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs commented over the weekend “Whoever sits here at this time next week, I think will not be talking about health care as a proposal, but as the law of the land.”

What about the will of the American people?  And what will the Obama Administration and Nancy Pelosi have to do in order to get the votes necessary to pass health care since they don’t have them as of yet?  Welcome back, shady bribes and backroom deals!

I predicted last week in an op-ed on FoxNews.com that health care won’t pass unless government funding of abortion is taken out.  The Democrat leadership in Congress said at the end of last week that talks have been shut down in the area of abortion funding and that the Stupak Amendment, which extends the Hyde Amendment to the health care legislation, won’t be put into the final bill.  That’s a lot of key Democratic votes that Pelosi is risking over an issue that is bi-partisan and clearly unpopular with Americans, the majority of whom do not want to fund abortions with public money.

“What did Pelosi know and when did she know it?” is the question on everyone’s lips in Washington today.  Well … that and the meaning of a new sexual term that (thanks to MSNBC’s Morning Joe) sent us all running for the Urban Dictionary this morning.  Both of these are legitimate questions but I will discuss only one in this pro-family forum.  Today’s Washington Post reports that Speaker Pelosi’s office was notified in October about Congressman Eric Massa’s unprofessional and perhaps illegal behavior.  

Congressman Massa resigned on Monday in response to allegations of impropriety with very young Capitol Hill staffers.  Despite his bizarre rantings on television and Pelosi’s silly claim on Sunday that Massa’s battle with cancer somehow is to blame, this is very serious.  Apparently the Democrats learned nothing from the Mark Foley debacle in 2006.  I said then that the Republican Speaker should resign and I stand by those statements.  Capitol Hill is not a frat house and unethical behavior toward staff should not be tolerated.  The fact the Foley was targeting interns makes his scandal even more disgusting but, make no mistake, twenty-something staff need to be protected too. 

Immediately after college I was honored to serve on the staff of a Republican Member from Georgia.  For a 21-year-old, a sitting Member of Congress is a rock star.  We laughed at all his jokes and believed everything he said.   I may have been more naïve than some, but I was not alone in the “hero worship” that staff gives to sitting Members.  This relationship is usually healthy for idealistic staffers but in the cases in which Members of Congress of either party use their status to use “sexually explicit language” or to “grope” staff there needs to be disciplinary action taken immediately.  This tolerance of bad Congressional behavior is not new but it is offensive. 

Corporations go to great lengths to protect against lawsuits for sexual harassment but Congress seems to have missed the memo.  Animal house Congressional office antics died with Charlie Wilson. 

Republican or Democrat, man or woman, Members of Congress need not only to live by the same rules as everyone else, but I would argue they should set a higher standard.   Moms don’t send their kids off to Washington to get that kind of education.   Nancy Pelosi is the CEO of the House of Representatives.  Her job is to run her chamber with integrity and she blew it. 

As it stands today American mothers will have to think twice about encouraging their children to do a stint on Capitol Hill as either intern or staff.  That is truly a shame.   The American people deserve better leadership and we want to know more about Pelosi’s handling of the Massa mess.  What did she know and when did she know it?

Mawage – a Dweam within a Dweam.  That is a famous line from a movie that still has a cult following on some college campuses.  The new dreamy weddings taking place today are in the District of Columbia between “gay” partners.  As a married woman of 14 years, I wonder if they realize all the hard work that marriage really entails.  Marriage is not about a pretty wedding, although we Southern women consider that a birthright.   It’s also not just about a life partnership, although that’s a very important component.   It’s really a covenant between a man, a woman and God about a life-long commitment.  Marriage serves a very important benefit that can only be realized within the parameters of a man and wife and any children they may have.  The dictionary points out that:  In entering into a covenant, Jehovah was solemnly called on to witness the transaction […], and hence it was called a “covenant of the Lord” … The marriage compact is called “the covenant of God” […], because the marriage was made in God’s name. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/covenant  (from Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary found at www.dictionary.com).

 God Himself, as our Creator, gave us a beautiful gift – marriage – to provide for our spiritual, physical and emotional longing.  He uses marriage to undergird our entire culture and society by providing a lasting home with firm commitments to provide for the rising generation.  The exceptions serve to prove the rule even more firmly!  But, the grief that comes from defying God’s loving command is real as well.  You can read more about that in a piece published today by Dr. Janice Crouse, director and senior fellow of CWA’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, Five Myths about Same-Sex “Marriage” http://www.cwfa.org/articles/18578/BLI/commentary/index.htm.

“Déjà vu all over again” is the funny phrase that comes to mind about a not-at-all-funny issue.  During the Clinton years I stood with other pro-life lobbyists outside the Capitol on behalf of Concerned Women for America (CWA), sometimes until very late at night (in high heels by the way), helping to circulate a letter from pro-life Dems to the President regarding abortion in health care.  This letter was one of the final nails in the coffin to Clinton Care because it was proof that they could not pass the bill if it included funding for abortion.  The Obama administration’s unchecked arrogance on the issue flies in the face of the fact that the public is more — not less — pro-life now than in the Clinton years.  Gallup reports that more Americans, 51 percent of them, consider themselves pro-life now than at any time since Gallup began asking the question in 1995, http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/more-americans-pro-life-than-pro-choice-first-time.aspx.

Nancy Pelosi’s reaction to the push-back from members of her party (64 of whom voted in favor of the pro-life Stupak Amendment) verges on delusional.  I have had calls and emails from CWA members around the country asking “what is she talking about?”  My answer is that she has been doing mental gymnastics that should earn her a gold medal.  Speaker Pelosi knows that the current bill has an abortion “problem” but she chooses tacit denial to the simple fact that if she passes a health care bill without abortion coverage it will alienate her base.  If she doesn’t allow the pro-life Blue Dogs to pass another amendment then she looses their support.     

The Clintons couldn’t pass a bill containing abortion funding and neither can President Obama, no matter how well he explains it.  I shouldn’t be explaining this to Pelosi because the abortion funding is just one bad idea in the very bad bill.  But then again, she’ll just deny it.   

For more on this issue, see my piece today on FoxNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/08/penny-young-nance-obama-health-care-plan-abortion-democrats/, and CWA President Wendy Wright’s article today at Human Events, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35936/.

When did it get to be pro-family and conservative for politicians to abandon their wives and children hundreds of miles away while they galavant (my mom’s word) around Washington with adoring staff and interns?  Hasn’t the cliché and nonetheless pathetic stories of high-flying Governors and Senators cheating on long-suffering political spouses taught us anything? 

In an effort to tar opponents as being too “inside the beltway,” political strategists have made Congressional families part of the fodder.  The recent political attacks on Members of Congress for moving their wives (or husbands) and children to Washington are ridiculous and, worse yet, dangerous.  Just to name one such case, Jerry Moran has been beating up on Todd Tiahrt for bringing his wife and children to Washington back in the nineties instead of leaving them to fend for themselves in Kansas.  

Women know that spouses and families are the anchor and counterweight to the ego-stroking madness that thrives in Washington.  Too often, Governors and Congressional Members are left alone to the fawnings of staff and not made to face up daily to their own human frailty.  

Spouses and children are the perfect antidote to “Potomac Fever.”  They remind public servants in a very personal way not only of why they serve but also what they believe.  Even the normal everyday banter of telling one’s husband to pick up his socks and help with the laundry or drop by the grocery is helpful.  A child’s plea to help with homework or coach a little league game is much more likely to keep a representative in touch with constituents than leaving the family behind in the district would.  A wife’s question about her husband’s schedule and companions will do more to foster accountability in government than a million watchdog groups.  

Clearly, marital infidelity is not a new thing and will never completely vanish as the seamier side of Washington.  However, shouldn’t conservatives be above the rest in supporting each other’s family decisions?  In Todd’s case, it was not only the right decision for him, but it had ramifications that most of us can’t even fathom.  The Tiahrts tragically lost a child.  Although nothing can heal that pain aside from the supernatural balm of God’s love, they have said publicly that they are comforted that they made every moment count with him.  

Now that is real life. Shame on us!  Let’s stop holding up fake litmus tests to being pro-family and really be pro-family.