The Honeymoon is Over

I just had the opportunity to listen to RNC Chairman Michael Steele's address to the state GOP chairs. Great speech. 5 highlights:

Point No. 1:

"People are sick of politicians and political parties who never own up to their mistakes. We have done so. We lost our way on spending and we owned up to that. We came to Washington to change it and in some ways we let Washington change us, and we owned up to that. We’ve taken some important steps to recover our values and our senses, and we can say we see the world with a clearer head and a sharper vision.

The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done. The time for trying to fix or focus on the past has ended. The era of Republican navel gazing is over. We have turned the corner on regret, recrimination, self-pity and self-doubt. Now is the hour to focus all of our energies on winning the future."

Point No. 2:

"We are going to take the president head-on. The honeymoon is over. The two-party system is making a comeback, and that comeback starts today.

The Democrats are in power. They wanted it and now we are going to make them own the results of their arrogance of power: Policies that are hurting the long-term health of our country. We are going to give voice to the growing chorus of Americans who realize that there is a difference between creating wealth and redistributing wealth. And we are not going to be shy about it. Simply put, we are going to speak truth to power."

Point No. 3:

"We’ve seen strategists writing memos and doing briefings urging that Republicans avoid confronting the President. Steer clear of any frontal assaults on his Administration, they warn.

They suggest that instead we should go after Nancy Pelosi, whom nobody likes.

Or Harry Reid, whom nobody knows.

Or this Tim Geithner fellow, whom nobody believes.

Or maybe even Barney Frank, whom nobody understands.

You know the thinking. In the same way that the Democrats target conservative talk show hosts and former vice presidents, we should also engage in some misdirection, just like they do.

The argument goes that we should be careful here, because the polls suggest that President Obama is popular.

Well, the president is personally popular. Pity the fool who paid for a poll to figure that out. Folks like him. He’s got an easy demeanor. He’s a great orator. His campaign was based on change and hope. He’s young. He’s cool. He’s hip. He’s got a good looking family. What’s not to like? He’s got all the qualities America likes in a celebrity, so, of course he is popular.

There’s only one problem. He’s taking us in the wrong direction and bankrupting our country. Were it not for that little detail, I’d be a big fan too."

Point No. 4:

"The honeymoon is over. We are going to challenge those policies that we believe are wrong, and we are going to do so without apology and without a second thought.

But there is a very important distinction I want to make here.

We are going to take this president on with class. We are going to take this president on with dignity. This will be a very sharp and marked contrast to the shabby and classless way that the Democrats and the far left spoke of President Bush."

Point No. 5:

"Let’s look at the first 100 days of President Obama’s “reign of error” in a factual manner, not in terms of his speeches, but in terms of his actions:

• Under President Obama the federal government is now in the banking business.

• Under President Obama the government now makes cars.

• Under President Obama our country has amassed debts that will take generations to repay.

• Under President Obama America is increasingly in debt to foreign countries, from China to the Middle East.

• President Obama now wants to cap and tax every single American into paying higher utility rates.

• President Obama and his allies in Congress have now put their taxing eyes on soft drinks.

• President Obama and Democrat leaders want a brand new tax on our health care benefits and are devising a plan to give federal government bureaucrats control of our health care system.

• President Obama is backing a plan to take away the basic right of every American worker to cast a private ballot.

• President Obama has for the first time in our history politicized the US Census process by putting political appointees in his White House in charge of it and wanting a corrupt, fraudulent organization to run it.

• President Obama and his far left allies are flirting with an attempt to squelch the basic freedom of speech of our nation’s airwaves.

• President Obama’s Attorney General is trying to use Mexican drug gang wars as a reason to advocate a new gun ban in America.

• President Obama’s Administration has disparaged our war heroes and veterans by suggesting that they are a threat to our safety, when the truth is they are the cause of our safety.

• The president, who thinks that every student should be able to go to college, is cutting much needed funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

• The president, who pledged that he would create millions of jobs through federal public works projects, now requires project labor agreements on such projects which effectively denies small and minority owned businesses access to those jobs because they are not unionized.

• And the one the galls me the most: While the president sends his kids to a private school, he is at the very same time taking away opportunity scholarships from poor Hispanic and African-American kids right here in our nation’s capital.

Those are the facts of the president’s first 100 days."