Current Executive Director for the American Majority of Texas and Oklahoma (www.AmericanMajority.org), Drew Ryun recently served as Director of Government Affairs for the American Center for Law and Justice in Washington, DC as well as Main Representative for the European Center for Law and Justice at the United Nations in New York City.
A twice-published author, Drew has appeared frequently as host and co-host of Jay Sekulow Live, a nationally syndicated radio show with 2 million listeners. A former Deputy Director in the political division at the Republican National Committee during the 2004 election cycle, Drew has played a key role in organizing grassroots activities for House, Senate and Presidential campaigns.
Currently residing in San Antonio, TX, Drew and his wife Becca direct the Jim Ryun Running Camps every summer (www.ryunrunning.com) and are the parents of two daughters, Skye and Lily.
A former scholarship runner at the University of Kansas, Drew graduated cum laude with majors in History and English in May of 2000.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those held by Drew Ryun and do not necessarily represent the views of his current or previous employers.
Archive for December, 2008
12 19th, 2008
Though I don’t have a dog in this fight (yet), I read with interest the Politico.com story this morning regarding the official retirement of Senator Sam Brownback, the announcement that Congressman Jerry Moran will run for the vacated seat and talk that Moran will have to first win a primary against Congressman Todd Tiahrt and then potentially a general election against current Democrat governor, Kathleen Sebelius.
A couple of thoughts on this. Yes, Moran may have more money in the bank that Tiahrt ($2.5 million to $1 million), but it is very well known in Kansas that Moran does not like hard campaigns and if he doesn’t think a victory is assured, he falls back to the fact that he will win his Congressional seat for as long as he wants to. Also, Moran has never had to run a hard campaign-both Tiahrt and Sebelius have. If Tiahrt does announce a bid for Brownback’s Senate seat and this is followed by an announcement by Sebelius that she is also running, watch for Moran to back out. He’s already done it twice in high profile situations, the last being his candidacy/non-candidacy in the 2006 governor’s race.
And bottom line, no matter who emerges from a Republican primary, this is not going to be an automatic win for that Republican. Sebelius is tough and she can win this seat.
I blogged a few weeks ago about Jarrett and her connections with corrupt entities in Chicago politics (and ACORN to boot!). Shortly after his win on November 4th, President-elect Obama named Jarrett as a senior advisor, which meant she would one, set up an office in the West Wing and two, not face the harsh lights of a Senate confirmation. According to the Politico, Jarrett is now a part of the Blagojevich indictment as the Obama advisor who was attempting to see how much money Obama’s Senate seat was worth to Blago. Not good news for Team Obama as one of its inner circle is now in hot water with the FBI.
And if I am Jesse Jackson, Jr., I started sweating at 6:15am this morning when this story broke.
12 9th, 2008
It’s always fascinating to me when the media writes stories like the one that appears in the Politico this morning. The story itself is about the lack of transparency that the Obama transition team offers. There is a blend of purely political, c3 and c4 entities working on the transition and no one seems to know where lines begin and end.
Yet in this story calling into question the transparency of John Podesta, his position at Center for American Progress and his heading up the Obama transition, the Politico trots out “expert” Melanie Sloan from CREW who says, “What problem? There is no problem here.”
What the Politico either fails to note (and it’s not because the writers there don’t know) is that CREW, Center for American Progress, the Democracy Alliance-all of these are groups of the far Left, funded by many of the same donors, working towards the same goals. As this story in the Washington Post from 2006 notes, all are connected, all are working together and none of them would ever blow the whistle on the other because it would be the same as calling a foul on oneself.
From the Politico this morning:
“The executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Melanie Sloan, said, “I don’t see a problem” with the Democracy Alliance appearance or the New York event. (A participant at the Democracy Alliance gathering, she also confirmed that Podesta made no news there.) “Anybody for the past eight years giving to CAP would have known that the people involved in CAP were likely to be in the next Democratic administration,” she said. Major Democratic donors, she noted, are “exactly who gives to CAP anyway.”
12 8th, 2008
From the AP:
“Calling in ‘gay’ to work is latest form of protest
Dec 8, 7:22 PM (ET)
By LISA LEFF
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Some same-sex marriage supporters are urging people to “call in gay” Wednesday to show how much the country relies on gays and lesbians, but others question whether it’s wise to encourage skipping work given the nation’s economic distress.”
This will only be the latest form of embarrassment for this crowd after losing on Prop 8 in CA (and their ridiculous riots afterwards) so I say, “Go for it. There aren’t enough of you for us to miss you.”
12 8th, 2008
A great op-ed from newly minted Republican House Conference Chairman, Congressman Mike Pence, appeared in the Washington Times this morning. It’s what we’ve been saying for the last few weeks. Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 because their base, the conservatives, saw them as frauds. Here is Pence on The Republican Future.
As a side note, kudos to Pence for surrounding himself with such a great staff in his leadership office. Marc Short, Matt Lloyd, Josh Pitcock-these are some of the really good guys working here in Washington, DC.
