Newsletter Insights by Donald Katz, Esq.

SOME (INTERESTING? RELEVANT?) QUOTES:

“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government.” - Mark Twain

“Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” - George S. Patton

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from a cornfield.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” - Groucho Marx

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SOME QUOTES FROM MILTON FRIEDMAN

Milton Friedman, the late great free market economist (and Rutgers College graduate) was born around this time (July 31st) in 1912. What follows are some of his quotes:

* Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

* Governments never learn. Only people learn.

* Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

* History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

* I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

* I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.

* Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

* Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

SOME QUOTES FROM PRESIDENT COOLIDGE

Republican President, Calvin Coolidge, was born on July 4th, 1872. What follows are some quotes from President Coolidge:

* Advertising is the life of trade.

* Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of the regeneration and redemption of mankind

* After all, the chief business of the American people is business.

* All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

* Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

* Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

* Education will not (take the place of persistence); the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

* Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.

SOME TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

(Answers are below)

1. What member of the current U.S. Senate, who first took office in 1959, is the longest-term senator?

2. Name the library with the top collection of volumes in the United States. (For general information, we'll list the top five U.S. sites of collections of volumes.)

3. How much is the annual pay for the president of the United States?

4. What was President George Washington's annual salary for his term starting in 1789?

5. Was the Congressional Medal of Honor limited to those in the Army?

6. From what country did the United States purchase what is now the state of Alaska? For extra credit, how much was paid for the Alaska acreage?

SUMMER PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

In the spirit of the summer reading lists many of us remember from our school days, here are some activities or projects you may want to consider for this summer:

* Committee people or others interested in organizing or strengthening their election districts might want to hold small backyard barbecues and invite their poll clerks and/or other Republicans in their district, who are prospects to help work for the Republican cause in the election district - soft sales pitches permitted!

* Update your phone lists. Many of us have older lists of voters with phone numbers we have acquired or looked up at one time or another. Now, before the fall campaigns heat up - and you might want to call voters - why not get an up to date voter list and look up the phone numbers for those voters for whom you do not yet have phone numbers in your records? (This would similarly apply to updating other parts of your voter records.)

* This is also a good time to knock on the doors of houses without registered voters to find unregistered Republicans and register them and, of course, to find out if they need an absentee ballot or if they would otherwise like to “vote by mail.”

* Any time is appropriate to knock on doors of the registered Republicans in your district to: a) find out if there is anyone else in the household who is unregistered (elderly parents coming to live with them, children who have just turned 18, etc.) and register them if they are likely to vote Republican; b) find out if they might help the Republicans in the fall campaign - if in no other way but to agree to have a sign on their lawn or a bumper sticker on their car, (assuming any campaign will have any bumper stickers!); c) find out if they need an absentee ballot or otherwise want to “vote by mail.” (Try hard to pitch “voting by mail” to the registered Republicans who only vote occasionally - this may be a way to get them to vote in a year when they otherwise usually don't.); d) get more information about the voter. (Perhaps they will give you their unlisted phone number if you ask them in person, etc.)

* Attend the “Town Meetings” or similarly titled events which may be held by the Democrat elected officials in our area and ask them hard questions - with hard followups.

* Visit the Middlesex County Fair and - while you are there, spend some time helping out at the Republican booth.

* Find out if there are any street fairs or similar events coming up in your area - either during the summer or this fall - and help your local GOP municipal committee or the appropriate Republican candidates sign up for a booth/table and help work the booth.

* Write and send Letters to the Editor to the local newspapers supporting our Republican candidates or criticizing what the Democrats are doing. Considering what the Dems are doing, this should be easy. If you need some ideas, speak to any of our Republican candidates, who virtually all would love to see more letters to the editor printed.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:

1. The longest-term member of the current Senate is Robert C. Byrd, D-W.V. Senator Byrd is also the oldest senator, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is already the 3rd oldest senator - older than 97 of the 100 senators.)

2. The Library of Congress leads the collections with more than 30 million volumes, followed by: 2) Harvard University; 3) Boston Public Library; 4) Yale University; and 5) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

3. The president's annual salary is $400,000 plus expenses, including travel and others. (It doesn't look like the salary kept of with inflation since 1789. See the next answer.)

4. Washington's annual salary was $25,000.

5. No, it wasn't. The Congressional Medal of Honor, authorized in 1861, was for sailors and marines and was followed one year later by a Congressional Medal of Honor for the Army. (Actually, the “Congressional Medal of Honor” is a misnomer. The medal is properly called The Medal of Honor. It is bestowed on persons, in the military, that have performed their duties with valor, above and beyond the call of duty, in the name of Congress.)

6. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, which is two cents per acre. (This was a great bargain, even with inflation, especially when you consider that the Governor, both Senators and the one Congressman are all Republicans. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is slightly older than Frank Lautenberg, making him the second oldest senator.)

STATE COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT

What follows is the report of the latest New Jersey Republican State Committee meeting that State Committeewoman Rita Gallagher and I have been providing to Middlesex County Republicans ever since we were both first elected in 1992.

The latest State Committee meeting was held in our county, on Thursday, June 12th at the Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township.

Chairman Tom Wilson convened the meeting, the main business of which was the election of the Republican National Committeeman and Committeewoman who will represent New Jersey on the Republican National Committee for the next four years. David Norcross and Virginia “Ginny” Haines were unanimously re-elected to these positions.

U. S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer, (and a former congressman who previously represented a major portion of Middlesex County, spoke to the Committee. Dick said that he was treated fairly in the primary by all 21 county chairs - both those who were for him and those who were against him. Both Joe Pennachio and Murray Sabrin have pledged their support for Dick and Joe Pennachio, just this past weekend was out campaigning with Dick in Passaic County.

Dick advised that much of the campaign theme will be that New Jersey will not be well served by a senator who, 26 years ago, made a big thing about the fact that New Jersey ranked 46 out of 50 in getting money back to New Jersey - when now, in fact, we are dead last - 50 out of 50 in getting federal money back to New Jersey. Despite that, Lautenberg is a big pork barrel person - with many “ear marks” to his credit, while Dick wants to shut down this game. Lautenberg, after 26 years, will not be the agent of change the voters want. Dick will be, when he is in the Senate he will work with a President McCain to eliminate this pork.

Our own State Senator Bill Baroni (R Middlesex/Mercer) who leads the McCain campaign in New Jersey spoke for Senator McCain.

Bill emphasized that Senator McCain will be competing in New Jersey: We will be opening a headquarters in Woodbridge here in Middlesex County, McCain has visited the state 4 times in the last 5 months, the NJ campaign has already hired a campaign manager and deputy manager and is about to hire a communications director and a coalitions director. The question might be will Obama compete in New Jersey since he hasn't done any of those things.

Bill also noted that although he doesn't put that much stock in polls, the recent Quinnipiac Poll states that 26% of Democrats are not supporting Obama, that McCain is being supported by a majority of the Independents and by 83% of the Republicans.

In response to questions, it was Bill's opinion, (and it appeared to be the consensus of the State Committee as well), that Republicans would strongly support Senator McCain in November, even if they disagreed with him on some issues, based on his sharp contrast with Senator Obama and if Senator McCain didn't win, it would mean a President Obama - who according to the non-partisan National Observer, is the most liberal Senator in the entire U.S. Senate. (Even more liberal than Ted Kennedy!)

Robin Visconi, who is coordinating New Jersey's National Convention activities for the Republican National Convention in Minnesota starting on Labor Day, also spoke. She mentioned that the Honorary Delegate Badge Fee is $500.00 and that if anyone wants to attend the convention and stay in the hotel with the NJ delegation, they must reserve a room with a credit card before July 1st or there will be no guarantee that there will be rooms available. Anyone interested in being an Honorary Delegate - which includes payment of the Honorary Badge Fee - should contact her through the State Committee Office (609-989-7300) as soon as possible. Honorary Delegates will be able to attend the New Jersey delegation functions, but will only be guaranteed a single opportunity to get into the convention center.

It was also reported that Senator McCain would be back in New Jersey on August 12th for a campaign appearance somewhere in Bergen County. There is no further information available at this time.

Based on a situation which occurred this year, on the motion of Union County State Committeewoman Elizabeth Cox, the party rules for the next Republican National Convention will specifically require that every convention delegate and alternate must be a registered and voting Republican.

Finally, it was announced that the next State Committee meeting will be the week after the National Convention when we will meet to select who will be the New Jersey Republican candidates for members of the Electoral College.

Donald Katz, Esq.
Republican State Committeeman - Middlesex County and Counsel, Middlesex County Republican Organization