By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Apr 27, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET  Last week’s we featured a piece by our newest Friend of RP, John Y. Brown, IV (son of contributing RP John Y. Brown, III) in which the 18-year-old Brown announced that he was breaking with family tradition to be a Republican.
We never could have imagined how popular the piece would be — but at 5,000 readers and growing, it is the most popular piece this blog has ever published that didn’t discuss prison sex.
Well, another 18-year-old Kentuckian registered to vote today. My daughter, Emily. And I’m proud to say that she registered as a Democrat. Woot!
Unfortunately her father embarrassed the family name by taking her picture in the County Clerk’s office. Oh well.
By Michael Steele, on Thu Apr 26, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  After 10 days of discussing women and the role of women in the home, the workplace or just about any other space you could think of, a number of friends began to boast (or lament) about the presidential election turning on “social issues.”
No doubt such issues are important and will be as much a part of our national debate as health care or the War on Terror. But there is one issue, perhaps not as politically hot as contraceptives but just as potentially life changing: $5 trillion! That’s a number that doesn’t roll trippingly off the tongue too often, but that’s how much the federal debt has increased since January 2009.
To be certain there have been a lot of fingers in that pot to make it grow to be as big as it is.
 During the course of the Bush administration Republicans found their mojo for Big Government Republicanism. For example, in 2003, President George W. Bush announced his administration would spend “up to $400 billion” over 10 years to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare.
Problem was by 2008, that Medicare drug entitlement program was projected to cost $783 billion over the next 10 years. And then there was the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) from which funds were used to bail out the banks and General Motors. As Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia)noted at the time, “It is now clear that the creation of TARP was a rueful mistake which has failed to provide urgent market stability, yet has put our country perilously in debt for the foreseeable future.”
Read the rest of…
Michael Steele: 1 is Not the Loneliest Number; 5 Trillion is
By Jason Atkinson, on Tue Apr 24, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET Contributing RP Jason Atkinson was recently featured in an article in the Portland Mercury entitled “Bikepartisan Politics.” Enjoy this excerpt:
 HERE ARE FIVE simple reasons why Jason Atkinson is more badass than you liberal dweebs: He’s an Oregon state senator. He’s a Republican. He’s a bike racer. He shaves his legs, which shows a profound sense of masculine confidence. And he once got shot by a gun while repairing a friend’s bike (there was a loaded gun in the saddlebag).
Now he’s (tentatively) back on two wheels after that 2008 accident—but even when he’s been kept off the roads, the Southern Oregon legislator has never quailed from a fight for bike rights statewide.
Senator Atkinson jumped into the absurd 2007 debate over requiring extra brakes on fixed gears and, more recently, tried to boost bike funding from its measly one percent of the state transportation budget.
MERCURY: How does bike advocacy jibe with your Republican ideals?
JASON ATKINSON: I fell in love with bicycles when I was a kid, long before I knew what Republicans or Democrats were. I was lucky in that I had a modest amount of talent in racing bikes, which took me all over the world to race. When I got into politics, I didn’t see bikes as a partisan thing at all. I’ve been very supportive of everything from velodromes for economic development to jumping into the middle of the fixie debate a few years ago. I think people don’t really understand what bicycle culture is.
What do your colleagues get wrong about bike culture?
Well, like, when we got around to doing the fixie bill, no one knew what a fixie was. I don’t think a lot of folks have a full grasp of the health benefits of biking. I’m not going to pick on my fellow politicians on either side of the aisle. If you ride a bike, you get it. If you don’t, you usually don’t.
Click here to read the full article.
By Zac Byer, on Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET 
Read about our new feature Gen Y “He Said; She Said”
Read Jordan Stivers’ “She Said”: Obama for President
Imagine you’re signing up for college classes. You find one that sounds too good to be true – something like “The History of Rock and Roll.” The professor sends you the syllabus in advance, and it’s everything you wanted. With excitement you show up on the first day of class ready to, well, rock.
The first class is great, but as the weeks go on, you’re thrown for a loop. First, your professor ditches Elvis and the Rolling Stones for Mozart and Bach. “It’s not my fault,” he says with his hands thrown up. “The department made me do it!” He continues to veer sharply away from the syllabus, requiring extra essays on top of the previously scheduled exams. This time he announces to the whole class: “The Dean isn’t cooperating with me!”
Finally, your professor changes the class’s meeting times only weeks before the end of the semester. Yet again he cries innocence, e-mailing all of you with this message: “I’ve been stone-walled by the registrar’s office. Don’t blame me.”
 Would you sign up for another class with him? If your boss gave similar excuses for unexpected changes to your contract or workplace, would you want to continue working for him?
This piece is supposed to be about why “my” generation should vote for Mitt Romney. I could write about Romney’s simpler, smarter tax plan. It disregards President Obama’s gimmicks like the “Buffet Rule,” and focuses on long-term solutions like a corporate tax rate that will allow American companies to compete globally and hire more workers in their twenties and thirties.
I could write about Romney’s common-sense, comprehensive debt-reduction plan. President Obama has added $6.5 trillion to the national debt in one term. The first forty-three presidents COMBINED accumulated $6.3 trillion. Romney will cap spending at 20% of the GDP, reduce the Washington waste, fraud, and abuse, and consolidate federal agencies to create a more efficient and effective government.
Read the rest of…
Zac Byer: Gen Y He Said — Romney for President
By Jordan Stivers, on Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM ET 
Read about our new feature Gen Y “He Said; She Said”
The race to the White House is off to a fast start now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee. As a Kentuckian who has watched too many horse races to count, I know that consistency of performance is the most important factor in determining who will be wearing the roses at the end of the race. In the midst of an economic recovery that has no simple or easy solutions, and high stakes for the future of our Millennial Generation, we need to place our bet on President Obama to lead us through.
The result of this election will determine the direction our country will take for years to come, and as young people we will have to live with the consequences, good or bad, of the policies of the next President. I would argue that President Obama has best represented my generation’s interests on every issue since he has been in office. From making higher education more affordable to protecting the environment we live in, from championing reproductive freedom to shaping a responsible foreign policy, President Obama has proved that he is committed to protecting our future.
 The economy is the issue that has been at the forefront of this election, as it should be. Many of us are wondering how we are going to pay off our student loans, find a good job, buy a house, and support children. While Mitt Romney seems to think that simply being a child of privilege and making a lot of money qualifies him to be President, it is President Obama who has proven that he can turn the economy back in the right direction. He understands that strengthening the middle class so that they can contribute to economic growth is the only way to truly rebuild an economy that was wrecked in the first place by Republican policies that favor the rich.
Read the rest of…
Jordan Stivers — Gen Y She Said — Obama for President
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  This morning we introduce a brand new feature at The Recovering Politician: the Gen Y “He Said; She Said” debates.
“He” is Zac Byer, a longtime staff contributor at the RP, who also happened to study at the University of Pennsylvania under the tutelage of Friend of RP (also the RP’s college roommate) Ronald Granieri. Zac is an outspoken Republican, and currently works for one of the leading minds behind GOP national strategy, Dr. Frank Luntz.
“She” is Jordan Stivers, a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky, a former volunteer for the RP, and a passionate Democrat who currently serves on the communications committee of the newly formed Young Democrats of America Faith and Values Initiative.
As you might be able to tell, “He” and “She” are dating. Or talking to each other. Or in a relationship. Or whatever Gen Y calls these types of relationships.
This morning, we will be featuring the first of their Gen Y “He Said, She Said” debates — discussing critical issues from the perspective of their generation. Today’s debate: the 2012 Presidential election. At 9:00 AM, Jordan will argue that Barack Obama’s reelection will best serve the interests of their generation. At 10:00, Zac will counter that his generation needs the change represented by Mitt Romney.
So tag along, and enjoy a younger version of Carville and Matalin. In reverse.
By Jason Atkinson, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET A great article from Oregon Live on contributing RP Jason Atkinson, and his decision to take a hiatus from politics:
Wearing rubber boots and faded jeans, Jason Atkinson shows off a bridge he built based on a Leonardo da Vinci drawing. Then there’s the horse he’s caring for that’s blind in one eye, a chicken he trained to sit and be petted, an extensive collection of racing bicycles and a YouTube video he made about fly-fishing on the Owyhee River.
And that’s just the first 15 minutes. He’s a classic never-sit-still Type A, with a cell phone that rarely quits beeping and a dozen jobs on the to-do list at his farm in the hills of southern Oregon.
For all that, Atkinson is about to “push the pause button,” as he puts it, on perhaps the most defining part of his life. After 14 years in the Oregon Legislature, including a run for governor in 2006, Atkinson is stepping out of politics and into an unpredictable future.
“I wasn’t at peace,” he says about his decision not to run for re-election this year. Under growing financial pressure at home, he also endured attacks from his own caucus for siding with the environmental lobby and became increasingly unhappy with his own party’s gamesmanship. It was time, he says, to take a break and, like thousands of other Oregonians, look for a better-paying job.
Under different circumstances, Atkinson, 42, would be entering the prime of his political career — an experienced, tested campaigner whose increasingly centrist views offer the kind of statewide appeal Republicans need to win. The fact that he’s heading for the exit ramp speaks volumes about not only his experience in Salem but also about the state of the party he says all but ostracized him.
Click here to read the full piece.
By Ron Kahlow, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET We welcome a new partner at the site, Vote-USA.org, with a piece by its founder and director, Ron Kahlow:
 With two clicks and an address, Vote-USA.org provides voters with their customized sample ballot containing pictures of the candidates and their social media links. In another click, a voter can compare the candidates’ biographical information for any office in a side-by-side manner. Subsequent clicks allow the voter to compare the views and positions of the candidates on the particular issues that concern the voter, always side-by-side for easy comparison. In addition, all of the information comes directly from the candidates themselves or is extracted from their campaign websites, i.e., there is no marketing spin or deception. That is the real power of the Vote-USA.org website. It is the ability to provide each voter the specific unfiltered views and positions of the candidates that they seek, quickly and easily. It is to enable the independent-minded voters to make their own decisions about candidates and ballot measures, and help them vote on a more informed basis.
Vote-USA.org has been providing this service to voters since the 2004 General Election. But many voters would probably ask why they have not found this resource during the last 8 years. Frankly, it is a tale of triumph and disaster, a tale of naivety, a tale of obsession, a tale of pride and embarrassment, a tale of not knowing when to give up, and a tale of David and Goliath.
My tale begins when I went to the polls to vote in the 2003 Virginia off-year election for Virginia Senate and House offices. When I entered the voting booth, I didn’t know anything about any single candidate or anything about the ballot measures. I didn’t even know there were any ballot measures. As I stood in the booth, I thought, what’s the value of voting if you don’t know who you are voting for, and making thoughtless decisions about ballot measures? Then driving home, I saw all those political posters trashing up the highways. This got my blood boiling. I thought to myself, is this any way to select the people to represent me? And, when I reached home and turned on the TV, there was an insulting, deceptive candidate-bashing political ad. The idea of spending billions of dollars to deceive me to vote this way or that pushed me over the edge. At that moment, I envisioned creating Vote-USA.org to fix this blatant fundamental flaw in our political system.
In 2003, I owned an Internet digital marketing agency, Business OnLine (BusinessOL.com), and I was convinced I could use my for-profit company resources to develop a solution to fix this problem. On a hobby basis, I built the first version of what is today Vote-USA.org and it was operative for the 2004 General Elections. I sent letters to all of the Federal and State candidates with their login credentials to enter whatever information they wanted. Few responded because the system is stacked in favor of incumbents. I was too naïve not to have realized that there was no incentive for them to change the game with this new Internet trump card. But, voters responded overwhelmingly. Remember the 2004 TV ad of people watching the number of hits promoting a product via ecommerce? Well that is what we experienced. As Election Day approached, a trickle turned into a torrent and then simply exploded. Triumph quickly turned to disaster as word spread. Our servers became overloaded and could not respond to the overwhelming demand. Frankly, for somebody in the Internet space business, this was an embarrassment.
Clearly we were easing the pain of voters because there was such enormous demand for this tool. So, the next couple years were spent attempting to rectify the problems of the 2004 elections. We built a farm of servers to handle the expected load. Since most candidates would not provide us with their information, we built the tools necessary to easily scrape their websites. Then, we hired a firm to do the scraping. We also developed tools to readily enter state election rosters.
Our efforts marginally paid off in the 2005 and 2006 elections. It seemed that regardless of how many servers we employed, the demand always exceeded the capacity. Although we keep Vote-USA.org up for longer periods of time, we could never keep the website up through the entire voting period.
But the biggest problem of all was cost. The financial resources needed far exceeded everybody’s wildest imagination. Voters were very kind with their tax deductible donations to support our operation, but this was only a very tiny fraction of what was needed. So, I and a friend covered the difference. Now, any reasonable thinking person would have thrown in the towel. But, one of my flaws is not knowing when to give up. I became obsessed with the mission and too proud to call it quits.
But that was not the end of our pains. Not long after the 2006 elections, we were hammered by the Internet Goliath Google. Vote-USA.org suddenly stopped appearing on all of Google’s search listings and all our pages had no Google ranking. We were totally blocked by Google and other search engines. We made numerous attempts, over a period of years, to find the reason(s) for this action and made numerous attempts to get the block removed. Finally, only after a very powerful Washington insider approached Google with our complaint did Google reveal the reason for its blocking action and finally we managed to resolve this problem. So, if you ask why you have not found us sooner, it is because the gatekeeper of the Internet locked the gate on us and only recently has it been opened. We believe there was nothing malicious on Google’s part. The problem centered on Google’s inability to effectively spider and index our website.
Our final, and most significant problem of voter traffic at election time has been solved by moving our website onto the cloud. We now have almost unlimited power at election time.
So, where are things today? Well we have built what we set out to build in 2003 and all of the problems and obstacles encountered so far have, to my knowledge, been solved. We are, however, without financial resources to continue; so, we manage to keep things running on a month-to-month basis. But, our most valuable asset is the will to continue regardless of what is thrown at us. And, we believe that what we are doing is not only helping citizens vote on a more informed basis but also serving as a counterbalance to the corrupting influence of money in politics. We believe that these are things worth fighting for regardless of the cost.
By Jeff Smith, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  Grassley’s tweet went too far.
Yes, the president was guilty of hyperbole: although it is unusual for the Court to declare laws unconstitutional (once or twice a year on average), it is not unprecedented, as the president said.
Still, that doesn’t mean a senator should call the President of the United States “stupid.” While microblogging encourages impulsive bursts of misplaced candor/emotion, Grassley could have easily – in 140 characters – noted that the president had exaggerated, or questioned the president’s decision to take on the Court.
I will be interested to see if Grassley notes any of Mitt Romney’s serial exaggerations and distortions, which Dana Milbank nicely sums up in yesterday’s piece “The Facts vs. Mitt Romney.”
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
By RP Staff, on Thu Apr 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET  For three generations, John Y. Browns have been active Democratic politicians in Kentucky.
John Y. Brown Sr., my great-grandfather, was an avid supporter of FDR’s New Deal while serving a term in the US House of Representatives and was a champion of various liberal causes in Kentucky’s state House for several decades.
John Y. Brown Jr., my grandfather, served one term as a Democratic governor of the Commonwealth and was the national chairman for the Democratic Telethons of the early 1970s.
My father, John Y. Brown III, was a two term Democratic Secretary of State and delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1996.
Being the fourth John Y. Brown, most people would expect that I would follow the tradition and become a Democrat. However, when I turn 18 later this month, I plan on registering with the Republican Party. It has been a decision that I have thought out fully and feel good about—even if it appears to break with a family political tradition.
 As my political philosophy developed over the years, it became clearer and clearer that I was drifting rightward. My father would tell me that he believed the temperament we’re born with influences our political philosophy—as much as our ideas and beliefs. My personal political journey has confirmed this in many ways. Every time I heard about an issue where there was major disagreement between the political parties, I found myself siding with the Republicans over the Democrats. Eventually, I stopped resisting this and embraced my inclination toward a conservative political philosophy.
Read the rest of…
John Y. Brown, IV: Why I’m Registering As a Republican
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The Recovering Politician Bookstore
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Last week’s we featured a piece by our newest Friend of RP, John Y. Brown, IV (son of contributing RP John Y. Brown, III) in which the 18-year-old Brown announced that he was breaking with family tradition to be a Republican.
