In Praise of Smoke-Filled Rooms | National Catholic Reporter

In Praise of Smoke-Filled Rooms | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Cantor will, of course, survive his challenge and remain unchallenged due to effective gerrymandering, although he would have absolutely no hope of winning the Senate in Virginia.  Also, he won't be speaker until Boehner steps down - and someone may jump over him even if that occurs.  As for smoke filled back rooms, they do exist - there are just two of them in the GOP.  The party leaders are smoke free and the Tea Party has plenty or herb burning - and they make their decisions to challenge the leadership based on a snootful of marijuana.  The Tea Party, the local Republican leadership (when they are not the same thing - they are in Virginia) and the teachers unions (the backbone of NARAL) have power because they have a good list of followers - as well as a list of phone numbers to give to aspiring members of Congress to call for support.  These phone lists do not come out of nowhere, they are in back rooms.  It was in a back room where Mayor Barry made a call in my pressence (and as I later figured out for my benefit) stating why Kevin Chavous had no chance at winning the Democratic primary in 1998.  Had Marion been just a little more obvious or I a bit less dense, I would likely still be employed in DC politics or even have my own list to call.



Oh, back to the NEA and NARAL, support for the right to have an abortion - or put negatively to not have abortion regulated by the police state - is not the same thing as advocating it as a solution to a particular person or group of people.  You might judge Planned Parenthood by that standard, but not NARAL and certainly not the NEA, which has a larger agenda having to do with good schools and the fair treatment of teachers in a climate where they are often scapegoated by principals who are both too soon out of graduate school and too easy to pander to parents whose kids are on a bad track - mostly from bad parenting.  Some principals know how important discipline is and they can transform a school - even one that has been racially gerrymandered to fail.  They can't succeed, however, without good NEA members who are at the heart of the Democratic "back room."