GOP goes on offense at Lincoln Club banquet

By CHRIS HARRIS, CJ Staff Writer

The 2009 Lincoln Club banquet was the first in almost a decade to be held with a Democrat in the White House. That had high-profile Republicans attending the annual get-together for the party’s faithful in a feisty mood.

Some of the GOP’s shining stars from the state of Kentucky came together Friday night in the Pulaski County High School cafeteria to share a meal with friends and constituents and challenge President Barack Obama’s recently approved $787 billion economic stimulus plan — one which is full of “wasteful, undirected spending,” in the words of Somerset’s own veteran U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers.

“It would be one thing if (the bill) was directed at the cancer, not the scar on top,” said Rogers, referring to the country’s current economic crisis, “but that’s not what’s happening.

“It will cause great harm in the future, possibly disastrous, as we see inflation and deflation reoccur,” he added.

Rogers hesitantly voted for the big-money bailout of financial institutions last year, but stood against subsequent economic recovery measures on the grounds that they “pumped up unproven government programs.”

On Friday, Rogers, the banquet’s keynote speaker, condemned the hundreds of billions of dollars a nation already facing a monumental deficit would spend with the supposed goal of igniting economic well-being — although Rogers didn’t sound convinced that was the whole objective.

“(Obama’s) administration is using the economic recession as an excuse,” according to Rogers, to justify a “spending spree.” He added that the bill is “full of left-leaning giveaways that Democrats have been dreaming of for the last few years.”

Not only did Rogers say that the U.S. Mint is working “overtime” printing money for this plan, “making inflation the hallmark of what Obama is forcing on you,” but the Fifth District Congressman, now in his 29th year in the House of Representatives, noted that it’s unlikely the stimulus bill will do much to actually help the average worker. Rogers stated that only 17 percent of the stimulus package would be directed at creating jobs for various public projects, and only 18 percent is purposed for tax cuts.

“The Democrats in Congress have increased the debt of this country, in one month, greater than that of the whole country for its first 200 years,” said Rogers. “This burden will be on you and your kids and your grandkids, on down the line. We’re talking huge, huge amounts of money.”

Rogers wasn’t the only one on the attack against Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress. Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, like Rogers, invoked the name of socialism, saying he never figured he’d have to explain that concept to his children — “Didn’t we slay that dragon already?” — but that Obama has reintroduced it with plans of wealth redistribution.

“We can’t abandon the principles we have — we have to adapt them to new times,” said Grayson, a regular at Pulaski’s Lincoln Club banquets. “We believe in right for private property, keeping taxes low. ... We shouldn’t be ashamed of our principles.”

David Williams, Kentucky’s Senate President, championed the GOP’s triumphs here in the Bluegrass, with this being the ninth year of Republican control of the State Senate, and said that when the plan detailing roadwork projects is released in “a few weeks,” Pulaski will be proud of the advancements made for an area that had been “ignored in the past.”

Still, Williams was on the offensive against Democrats, saying that “there are people in control of government that do not share the Fifth District’s values,” and that he believes the rival party may be trying to change the way the national census is taken by moving it from the Commerce Department to the White House, in order to skew numbers in their favor.

Ironically, the U.S. President to whom Obama has been most frequently compared was in attendance at the banquet — sort of. Actor John Mansfield appeared in character as Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the Republican Party for whom the organization hosting the dinner is named. Long and lanky, with his iconic beard and dark trenchcoat, the very image of the nation’s 16th president — whose 200th birthday was celebrated this past month — spoke on matters of freedom and education, encouraging those in attendance to teach children “what is right and what is good.”

“Our enemies are trying not to enslave our bodies, but our minds,” stated the Lincoln impersonator.

Lincoln may have felt uncomfortable sitting so close to one of the other guests at the head table — Rogers noted that his wife, Cynthia, is now on the Board of Directors for Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C., where Lincoln was shot in 1865.

As if an appearance by a former commander-in-chief wasn’t enough to make the evening special, five stalwart Republicans were named to the Pulaski County Lincoln Club Hall of Fame. Club president Chris Girdler oversaw the presentation, which inducted Rogers, Helen Hansford, Jan Crase, the late Dr. Steve Kelley, and Louise Combs — all instantly recognizable names to local Republicans — as the first class in the new hall of fame.

This was the 32nd annual banquet for the Pulaski County Lincoln Club, made up of local members of the Republican Party. Other officials who spoke included Commonwealth’s Attorney Eddy Montgomery, Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Dan Venters, Sheriff Todd Wood, Judge-Executive Barty Bullock, and County Attorney Bill Thompson.

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