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And now, a bit of praise for Mark Warner and Jim Webb, and a brickbat for Tim Kaine

Norman Leahy — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:19:34 +0000

Jim Hoeft gives his regular “Score” radio feature, the Two Minutes Drill, a video twist this week. Here, he offers a bit of praise for the flashes of independence that Democrats Jim Webb and Mark Warner have displayed during their Senate terms…while Tim Kaine gets brickbats for toeing the official Obama line so closely that it would make MSNBC blush.

Your Seven Minutes of Civilization

Shaun Kenney — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:34:11 +0000

The (polling) trend is not Mr. Obama’s friend

Norman Leahy — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:50:45 +0000

In his Two minute Drill, Jim Hoeft takes a look at the polls to see if he can spot any potential problems for the President as he begins his re-election campaign in earnest.

Sure enough, there are problems a’ plenty. The American people are deeply concerned about the economy, and Mitt Romney bests Obama on economic issues. The President even has a problem with women. The trends aren’t pointing in the right direction for Mr. Obama and it appears that whatever is left of 2008′s “hope and change” optimism won’t be nearly enough to counter his unpopular record.

“The Score” is Bearing Drift radio, and can be heard on these broadcast stations and online talk networks, in addition to being available right here, on demand, at Bearing Drift. Or you can take the show with you wherever you go through iTunes.

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The back story on Dick Lugar’s loss and the lessons it provides for future tea party challengers

Norman Leahy — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:38:56 +0000

Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar was once thought to be invulnerable. With six terms under his belt, election to a seventh seemed a formality. Except tea party activists in the state, stung by criticism that they had fractured their efforts and wasted an opportunity to elect one of their own in 2010, decided to band together behind a single challenger to Lugar this year. They appealed to FreedomWorks for support, and, once that was given Lugar suddenly found himself in the race of his career.

Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks’ director of state and federal campaigns, gives us the back story on the Lugar race, including the lessons tea party activists should take away from it (lessons they are going to have to learn the hard way, it appears, here in Virginia).

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Ron Paul’s rEVOLution…coming to a Republican party meeting near you?

Norman Leahy — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:26:50 +0000

In this special interview for “The Score,” Rick Sincere talks with Reason Magazine’s Brian Doherty, the author of the new book, “Ron Paul’s rEVOLution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired.”

It’s a sometimes quixotic, very decentralized effort that has featured both “hippies in blimps” and old-fashioned political operatives overseeing phone banks. What holds it all together is the Texas congressman and his adherents’ belief in liberty, sound money and limited (very limited) government.

The question that hangs over all of it, though, is whether the movement can sustain itself beyond Ron Paul, or if it will crash to earth like the Reform Party did without Ross Perot.

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How to build a new tax code for Virginia (without a tax increase)

Norman Leahy — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:08:14 +0000

Tax reform is an evergreen issue in Virginia. Mark Warner pushed the issue…and got a tax hike out of it. Bob McDonnell says he intends to take up the reform cause in the final year of his term.

The Thomas Jefferson Institute has put together a report offering several scenarios under which the code can be completely overhauled and done so in a way that’s revenue neutral (a technocratic way of saying there would be no overall tax increase). Michael Thompson, TJI’s president, joins us to talk about some of the specifics in his proposal (which includes ending the BPOL tax) and the prospects for reform in the General Assembly.

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The Score this week: Reforming Virginia’s tax code, the tea party takes down Lugar, Ron Paul’s growing Revolution, and the President’s poor polling

Norman Leahy — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:48:57 +0000

On this very eclectic podcast edition of “The Score” radio show…

Scott Lee gives us plenty of reasons to be thankful we live in Virginia, while I talk with the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Michael Thompson about his proposal to remake the commonwealth’s tax code.

I also talk with Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks about his group’s work alongside Indiana’s unified tea party groups to oust six term incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar in the Republican primary. Our special correspondent Rick Sincere picks up the threads of that discussion in his interview with Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty about the Ron Paul Revolution. Will it last beyond Mr. Paul, or is it a (very vocal and highly energetic) phase?

And our own Jim Hoeft plows through the polls to discover that the President has problems…on the economy, the nation’s direction, and even among women.

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Scott Rasmussen talks Senate and presidential polls, and why the November election may solve nothing

Norman Leahy — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:26:25 +0000

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, joins us to talk about political polling. It’s a bit of a sore spot (seemingly every election year) with Virginia Republicans, who tend to see polls like those produced by the Washington Post as either hopelessly biased or just plain goofy. Scott says we should all take a deep breath and look at what other polls are saying on the same subject. Chances are, if they are all showing similar results — like a tight Virginia Senate race — then that’s the story.

Scott’s a bit apprehensive about the national polls right now. This is shaping up as an “intense” year, where voters have little faith in either party and that after the election, nothing may be resolved, regardless of who wins. Without “fundamental change, we’re going to have a very difficult time heading into 2016.”

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Ken Cuccinelli on the $1.5 billion settlement with Abbott Labs and the absolute need for a Romney win in November

Norman Leahy — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:10:24 +0000

Last week, Attorney General Cuccinelli announced two separate settlements with Abbott Laboratories to resolve its criminal and civil liabilities from is fraudulent marketing of the prescription drug Depakote. It represented the second largest payment by a drug company in history. It includes criminal fines and forfeiture totaling $700 million, and civil settlements with the federal government and all 50 states totaling $800 million.

Cuccinelli explains why and how his office lead the way on this nationwide case, and how, as the baby boomers age, we can likely expect even more such cases to be brought in the future.

But it’s not all perp walks and settlements…Scott and the AG also delve into politics, and Cuccinelli explains why he thinks Mitt Romney “absolutely” has a chance to win Virginia. Cuccinelli notes that a Romney win is crucial, because the alternative is four more years of a President and an administration that are hostile to free enterprise. As “someone who deals with the business end of the Obama agency shotgun every day,” Cuccinelli says, “they are suffocating opportunity in Virginia and this country.”

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In Norfolk, an attack on property rights and free speech

Norman Leahy — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:55:12 +0000

Virginia will be voting on a property rights amendment this November aimed at preventing cases like that currently underway in Norfolk, where local bureaucrats and the city are using their last hurrah under the old property rights laws not only to take a private owner’s land (and business), but prevent him from publicly protesting that taking.

Scott Lee and RTD columnist Bart Hinkle talk about the Norfolk assault against Central Garage and how it’s not a one-off assault not only on property rights, but on free speech rights as well.

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Tim Kaine is a fiscal conservative?

Norman Leahy — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:38:54 +0000

In this installment of his regular show feature, the Two Minute Drill, Jim Hoeft gets downright agitated.

The cause is Tim Kaine, the man who, when he left the governor’s office in 2009, presented the commonwealth with that most endearing of parting gifts, a massive tax hike. That was after he’d closed the state’s highway rest areas (when he didn’t have to) but before he began touting the budget-busting Obamacare a a great triumph.

In his latest Kreskin-like effort to bend reality like a spoon, Kaine is trying to claim that he is the true fiscal conservative in the race to replace Sen. Jim Webb.

And that assertion sends Jim into full take-down mode.

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The Score this week: a pollster talks numbers, the AG gets a big win, property rights get muzzled and Tim Kaine’s rich fantasy life

Norman Leahy — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:16:29 +0000

On this podcast edition of “The Score” radio show…

Scott Lee talks with Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, about political polls — why they ask the questions they do, why an individual poll’s results shouldn’t muss your hair too much, and why he compares this election to the trench warfare of World War I.

Also joining Scott is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who brings us up to speed on the central role his office played in winning a $1.5 billion settlement with Abbott Laboratories to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from its fraudulent marketing of the prescription drug Depakote. Plus, Ken and Scott talk a little presidential politics.

Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Bart Hinkle talks with Scott about a property rights case in Norfolk, where the city’s redevelopment authority is seeking to condemn the property of Central Garage — and turn it over to Old Dominion University. As bad as this case is, the new angle in the city’s attempt to muzzle the free speech rights of the property owners.

And in his Two Minute Drill, Jim Hoeft is gobsmacked by Tim Kaine’s attempt to masquerade as a fiscal conservative.

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“The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: From Wilson to Obama”

Norman Leahy — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:02:35 +0000

Scott Lee interviews Steve Hayward, author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents.” Hayward grades the presidents, from Wilson to Obama, not on the size, amount or cost of the programs they create (and the supposed good said programs do for the rest of us) but on how closely they adhere to their oath of office.

“Silent Cal” scores pretty highly. Woodrow Wilson? The one-time Princeton president would be held back for his behavior, as would Mr. Obama and even FDR.

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The Senate debates made for good conversation, but did they change anything?

Norman Leahy — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:50:10 +0000

The Republican Senate candidates gathered for their first debate in Roanoke last weekend. It was the first of three such confabs, and as they are the only times all the candidates will be on the same stage at the same time, they take on added importance.

Or at least that’s the conventional wisdom. The reality, as Shaun and Scott discuss, is that while all four candidates handled themselves well in the debate, it probably won’t be enough to change many voters’ minds.

What’s missing is a catalyst — something that gives the challengers a clear way to demonstrate that George Allen isn’t the man he says he is and allows one of them to rise above the rest.

Bob Marshall is claiming the mantle of the “anti-Allen.” It may be nothing more than fundraising spin, but is Bob the One?

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Creating jobs v. creating value — there is a difference

Norman Leahy — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:26:21 +0000

The weak employment numbers that came out on Friday have everyone wondering when the American job creation machine will stop sputtering and start humming. But there’s an enormous difference between just creating jobs — which can be done though all sorts of nefarious means — and creating value. Scott Lee talks with Prof. Steve Horwitz about this critical difference, and why politicians on both sides of the aisle need to pay attention.

Their talk is based upon an article Horwitz wrote for The Freeman. His argument goes like this:

The next time anyone starts talking about job creation, stop listening. Jobs come into existence when entrepreneurs are free to create value. Aiming directly at job creation is a recipe for waste and poverty. Set people free to use their talents to create value for others and the jobs will follow.

That’s a lesson the political class needs to take to heart. Immediately.

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