Dear Readers,
About a week ago I had some family and friends over to my house for a Meet and Greet with Jeff Smith. It was a real pleasure to have Jeff Smith over. He is a very great, passionate speaker. I hope you get the chance to hear what he has to say and see first hand why he'll be a better Representative than Jeff Flake.
During the Meet and Greet, I conducted an informal interview, and I tape-recorded it, and I just finished typing most of it up so I could put it on Telemoonfa Time.
The text has been slightly altered to make it all smooth and flowy. If you’ve ever transferred a large chunk of spoken text to written text, you know what I mean. Also, some of the unimportant parts have been cut out. Enjoy.
[Editor’s note- here’s a little context to introduce the transcript. Jeff Smith asked me what I was going to do with the recording of our interview. I said I was going to type it up and put it on my blog. He said what’s your blog called. I said it was Telemoonfa Time. He said, “Oh, you’re Telemoonfa?” and I said yeah.]
Telemoonfa: Yeah, I write about you on my blog. I hope nothing that I’ve written about you has been, like-
Smith: I don’t think so. Look, I love it when people take their own initiative and truly it’s nothing that I’ve instigated. I didn’t put anyone up to it. People of their own accord want to write something about me, I think it’s great. It’s better than if it came from my own campaign blog.
Telemoonfa: Right, yeah. I hope there are a lot of readers on Telemoonfa Time, mostly for my own narcissistic reasons, but I also appreciate getting the word out about Jeff Smith and conservative values.
Smith: Thank you.
Telemoonfa: OK, so I think everyone’s met you pretty much. I have a few questions, and feel free to artfully dodge them, if you want to.
Smith: Doesn’t that go without saying? [laughs]
Telemoonfa: [laughs] Right, yeah.
Smith: Don’t I always have that option?
Telemoonfa: Yes, you do. I’ve divided my questions into three segments. The first segment is called “Getting to Know Jeff Smith,” the second segment is called “On the Issues,” and the third segment is called “The Two Jeffs.” So the first segment is “Getting to Know Jeff Smith.” Where are you from, and where are some of the places that you’ve lived?
Smith: Right now I live in Gilbert. I’ve lived there for seven years. It’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere in my life. I’ve moved around, as fate would have it, quite a bit, and we love it here. With what I do, I’m a stock and options investor, and I could do that from anywhere, and we choose to make Gilbert our home, and we love it. We’re very involved in church there. My kids have a lot of good friends and for the most part, we’re pleased with the schools there, and so that’s our home. I was born in San Diego. My Dad was in the Navy. He was in the nuclear submarine program under Admiral Rickover. We moved around. Hawaii, Washington, back to San Diego when he was in the Navy, but he did not make a career out of it. He was a family man, and being on a submarine for four months or six months at a time was not really conducive to raising a family, or his idea of family life, so he got out. His job took us out to the east. We lived in Connecticut for a while. I lived overseas in Narobi Kenya. That’s where I graduated from high school. From the International School of Kenya.
Telemoonfa: So you’re a Kenyan?
Smith: [laughs] No, I have a US birth certificate. I was born in Balboa Naval hospital in San Diego and I’m happy to show my birth certificate to anybody. In my own career we moved around a bit as well. I was talking about how I worked for Lucent Technologies for a while. That took us over to Bangkok Thailand, where my youngest daughter was born. We’ve had a couple of opportunities to live and work overseas, and they were fabulous experiences, but they also really helped me gain a special appreciation for this country and for the blessings that we enjoy as Americans.
Telemoonfa: Great. What kind of education do you have?
Smith: I got an economics degree from BYU and then worked at a bank for a few years and then went back and got my MBA from Business School Emory University in Atlanta Georgia, and focused more on marketing, but it was marketing, finance, and a lot of general business stuff.
Telemoonfa: I’ll just point out now, because I might forget it later, that I find it really interesting that you majored in economics and you got a Master’s of Business Administration, whereas Jeff Flake majored in political science. I think that’s an important distinction for us all to remember, because, one’s kind of career oriented outside of politics, and one’s kind of career oriented inside of politics. I think that usually the business majors and the economic majors are a little more level-headed and realistic and practical than, say, the guys I hung out with, the English and drama students, and the political science students. I also knew a lot of people in the political science department at Northern Arizona University, and a lot of them leaned to the left, especially a lot of professors. So I think your education is a great selling point that you have.
Smith: Thank you. As best I can tell, Jeff Flake has never had a job in the private sector. He was over in Africa, doing what I’m sure was noble work, but it wasn’t competing in the marketplace, and he came back and he was director of the Goldwater Institute. Again, a fine organization, but that’s not what I would consider a private sector experience. He wasn’t competing in the marketplace.
Telemoonfa: Hmmm… I sort of covered question 3. I have a lot of questions. I’m going to have to hurry up. You have a lot of experience working in the private sector, tell us a little bit about that experience.
Smith: I worked for a bank, and then out of grad school I went to work for AT&T and Lucent Technologies and so I’ve got international experience in the wireless telecommunications industry. I was there for the good times and the bad. When the bottom fell out of the telecom industry, it became apparent to me that this was not going to be a career for me after all. At one point I thought that I could spend my whole career there. But that’s when we came out to Arizona and I co-founded a financial advisory firm. That was a big change. New industry. New state, new career, new everything. But I was a partner in a financial advisory firm and that was a legitimate small business where we had employees, and we had to worry about cash flow and being profitable and making payroll and growing the business. So, from both of those, the big company experience and the small company experience, I gained a real appreciation for the kind of environment we need, the political regulatory environment, that is hospitable to economic growth, and to job creation and wealth creation. That’s what we’re so lacking right now. The policies that are being pursued in Washington are so wrong headed. They’re taking us in exactly the wrong direction. They’re trying to get more and more government involvement, more and more, you know, command and control, centrally planned economy kind of stuff. I just think that’s the wrong way to go.
Telemoonfa: What political figures, historical or modern, inspire you, and why?
Smith: I love James Madison, the father of the Constitution. I can’t say I know every detail of his life, but he was the guy who basically gave- he was the principal architect of the Constitution, and of the Bill Rights, and he was well-schooled in some of the guys like John Locke and Montesquieu. Our Founding Fathers borrowed heavily from these guys. And that was so important. When they wrote the Constitution- I call it a radical experiment that’s been wildly successful. Never had a country based on the idea of such limited authority for the central government, and given so much power and authority for self-determination to the people, and it was huge. And that’s what I think we need to get back to. We’ve gone so far a field from that.
Telemoonfa: It’s really great to hear people talking that way about the Founders. What political books and publications inspire you, and why?
Smith: Gosh, there’s a lot. I’ll tell you, I love Ann Coulter. I read Anne Coulter. I think she’s brilliant. I think she’s willing to say things like they are when so many out there are worried about political correctness. Telemoonfa: She’s kind of sassy sometimes. Smith: She’s sassy, yeah, but that aside... until recently I was a big fan of Newt Gingrich. But there’s some things about Newt Gingrich that kind of bother me lately. I think the guy’s very smart. Dinesh Dsouza. He wrote “What’s so Great About America,” and he wrote “What’s so Great About Christianity.” And both of those are very good. He’s one that’s more willing to take on the social issues.
Telemoonfa: What is the job description of a Representative? In other words, what does a Representative do?
Smith: I know that you have to show up to vote, you have to research and understand the bills that are presented to you. At a higher level, a Representative representatives the people of his district. Representatives are popularly elected. Of course Senators now are also, but that wasn’t originally the case. That was not the intention of the Founding Fathers. Do you guys all know about the Seventeenth Amendment? Before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were not popularly elected; they were appointed by the state legislatures. That was intentional. The Founding Fathers put that in place as another safeguard for states’ rights. Since 1913, Senators have been popularly elected. They still have six year terms, which I think is awfully long. They’re accountable to the people like the Representatives are, but they’re no longer, you know, so much looking out for states’ rights and I really think that’s kind of upset the balance of power between state government and federal government, as was intended originally. Representatives run for reelection every two years, which is awfully quick. So if you don’t like your representative, you don’t have to put up with him for very long. Popular elections and frequent reelections I think really holds Representatives accountable. Or it should. That being said, there’s a lot of Representatives that have been there for thirty, forty years even though they have to run for reelection every two years.
Telemoonfa: A lot of times when people ask politicians about their beliefs and opinions about things, the politicians don’t really have the power to do anything about a lot of stuff.
Smith: That’s a good point. I’d just like to say that I am careful not to try to over-promise. I’m not so delusional to think that I can single-handedly turn back this growth in the size and scope of government. That’s what I stand for. That’s what I believe in. That’s what I will work for. But you’re going to have to send me and a lot of people like me to Washington and then as a group we can actually start to do that. And I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen across the country this year. I think a lot of folks like me you know, small government, free-market types will get elected and those are the guys that I need to become buddies with, and as a group I think we can really make a difference.
Telemoonfa: That ends segment one, “Getting to Know Jeff Smith.” Now it’s time for segment two, “On the Issues.” What will you do as a representative to create more jobs and boost the economy?
Smith: I think the best thing we can do is create an environment hospitable to economic growth. We need to make sure that the rule of law is in place, where contracts can be entered into and enforced, so business can take place in an orderly fashion, so people can trust that their counter parties will hold to their commitment. Then we need an environment where private property rights are protected. We need free market capitalism. I think the incentives that are there in a free market capitalist system are very powerful, where people are free to invest their own time and money and sweat into a business that they think and hope will be profitable. We need to give them the freedom to pursue that, of course within the bounds of what’s ethical and legal. But beyond that, let them pursue their fortune, and if and when they achieve it, let them keep it. Don’t try and appropriate it, don’t try to take it away, don’t try to spread the wealth. They worked for it. They earned it. They get to keep it. That’s private property rights. On the other hand, if they aren’t successful, they need to be allowed to fail, because too many times government intervention is there intended to shield people from the consequences of their poor decisions or irresponsible behavior. If people are allowed to behave irresponsibly in pursuit of riches, and yet not face the consequences, that creates what we call moral hazard. The opportunity to fail creates a powerful check against irresponsible behavior. So people need to be allowed to keep what they make when they’re successful. They also need to be allowed to fail as well. That’s what happened in the whole housing crisis, the mortgage industry, right? The very existence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is basically the government saying “We’re going to put our good housekeeping stamp of approval on whatever mortgage you decide to make.” Well, people figured out, “Guess what? I can make a lot of money lending money with abandon, to whoever, regardless of their ability to pay or not. And guess what, if these people can’t repay, I’m not the one left holding the bag.” That’s the root cause of all this reckless lending that took place and guess what happened. The bottom fell out of the housing market, all these people defaulted, and we, the taxpayers, are picking up the tab. Meanwhile, all those guys that made all that money, they’re able to keep it. Was there greed involved? Sure. But they were only responding, they were acting in their own self interest, and they had figured out the system, that there was a safety net there. So it works both ways.
Telemoonfa: How do you feel- well, I was going to say, “How do you feel about taxes,” but we sort of already covered that.
Smith: Cut them.
Telemoonfa: Yeah.
Smith: I don’t like them. Go to a fair tax. Get rid of the income tax.
Telemoonfa: I went to one of your campaign organizing meetings, and I saw a sneak preview of a pamphlet, and part of the pamphlet was devoted to comparing you and Jeff Flake. Jeff Flake, it seems like Jeff Flake has been pretty good at cutting earmarks and fighting earmarks. And every month or something, maybe it’s even every week, he has his egregious earmark of the week, and it’s pretty cutesy. But, really earmarks are only 1 % of the budget and social security, Medicare and Medicaid and Obamacare pretty soon and other entitlements – the entitlements are the bigger giants that we need to concentrate on more, right?
Smith: Much more.
Telemoonfa: So we spend the most money on social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and other entitlements-
[a guy leaves (because he had to go to work, not because he wasn't enjoying himself.)]
Smith: Thank you for coming. If you like what you hear, take a yard sign and drop a check in the donation bucket. I need to raise money guys. I’m sorry if that sounds crass, but that’s part of the deal.
Telemoonfa: Yeah. I just want to say, the first time I ever donated to a political campaign in my life was to Jeff Smith’s campaign. I gave Jeff Smith twenty-five dollars.
Smith: Yeah, you did. Just the other day. I appreciate that.
Telemoonfa: You’re welcome. That’s how much I believe in him. I’m upset when I hear about politicians who get dirty money, and so I know that if I’m giving a politician a little bit of money, that’s clean money.
Smith: Yeah, that’s the cleanest money, money coming from individuals, not unions, not PACs, it’s not any of those other special interests.
Telemoonfa: Yeah, so, if you like what you hear, please do make a donation to Jeff Smith’s campaign. So, like I was saying, Jeff Flake rails against earmarks a lot to look like conservative and to keep his constituents a little bit happy, I suppose. But really I don’t think he’s done much to fix social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and other entitlements programs that are like 60 % of our budget.
Smith: That’s about right. Defense tends to be another 20 % - 25 % and then everything else makes up the remaining 15 % or so. Then earmarks are 1 %, maybe less.
Telemoonfa: For the most part, earmarks are bad and we should fight them.
Smith: I am opposed to wasteful government spending as anyone, including Jeff Flake, but I appreciate you giving us some context, and putting stuff into perspective. Jeff Flake has taken principled stands generally against wasteful spending, and I have no problem with that. Now, I don’t think we can say that he’s been very successful. Despite all his efforts, pork barrel spending continues. Now I will say in his defense, if you’re the only guy out there in Congress, it’s hard to stop that.
Telemoonfa: But I also think maybe it might cross his mind that if he votes no when nearly everybody else votes yes, that allows him to look good, without him actually effecting any change. I think if it was a close vote, he would think a little bit harder about the way he was voting, but if he knows that a bill is going to pass overwhelmingly, then he knows that he can vote no and look good. But the cap and trade vote was very close. Very close. And he didn’t show up.
Smith: Didn’t show up at all. That was the thing that first got my attention and I said, “This guy is not the good conservative that I thought he was and that everybody else seems to think he is.” Then when I learned that he’s also proposed his own carbon tax bill, a bill that will impose an increase in tax on carbon for the next thirty years, I went, “Wow, he really has gone off the reservation and bought in to the whole idea that CO2 is a pollutant that must be reduced and regulated and taxed.”
Telemoonfa: I’ll just skip ahead to that question since you’re on it.
Smith: Well you brought up the cap and trade vote.
Telemoonfa: Right. Yeah. OK. Global warming. Is it real? If it is real, what, if anything, should we do about it?
Smith: Global warming may or may not be real. I don’t know. Man-made global warming I do not believe is real at all. I think it’s a total hoax. I think it’s a progressive social agenda masquerading as science. Frustrated leftists needed a place to go after the Cold War, and they found a home in environmentalism. In environmentalism they found a cause so compelling and grandiose, that well-meaning people are apparently willing to abdicate critical individual liberties on behalf of this grand cause. “Save the planet.” Well, if it’s for the planet, then OK, I will allow you to dictate the kind of light bulbs that I can have in my house, and I’ll sort through my trash on a weekly basis, and I’ll buy the hybrid car. And that’s all well and good, and if that makes people feel good, then, fine, go for it. But I believe that the leadership of the environmental movement has been hijacked by people who truly do not have the best interest of the planet at heart. They found a way to control the people. Wow. If we say that something is in the name of saving the planet, people will do whatever we tell them to do, or ask them to do, right? That’s my problem. Look. I’m all for clean water and clean air. That enhances my standard of living. But the environmental movement has gone so far beyond that.
Mystery Guest: And I think also, you look at the people who believe in man-made global warming, and they don’t really have that much of a science background. I didn’t major in science, but I know enough about it and I like it, you know. But I mean, just to cool this house- it takes a lot of energy to cool something like this. Man-made effects have very little to do with something of the size of the Earth- a volcano erupting puts out more CO2 then the whole world combined for I don’t know how many years.
Smith: Water vapor is like 97 % of the greenhouse gasses. We could eliminate all CO2 emissions, which of course would put us back to an agrarian economy. We’re all out there having our mules pull plows, and we’re sewing our own clothes and growing our own food, and we’re still not do anything to reduce greenhouse gasses. It would be a drop in the bucket. These people want to convince us that C02 is a horrible, horrible thing, and they’re able to get people to march in lock step with what they say. And that, to me, is the most dangerous part of Flake’s carbon tax proposal. He thinks he’s being cute. He said we’re going to put a tax on carbon and then we’re going to have a commensurate decrease in payroll taxes, so that the measure would be revenue neutral. Now, decreasing payroll taxes, I’m fine with. I think that’s a good idea. But why would you do anything that’s revenue neutral? You’re not raising taxes, you’re not lowering taxes. The whole thing is stupid. You’re just changing what you’re taxing. And he’s on record as saying, “If you want less of something, you tax it,” which I agree with. If you want more of something, you reduce taxes or eliminate the taxes. He’s right. Well, he’s basically saying, “we’re going to tax carbon, because we want less of it.” Why? You don’t propose such a measure, unless you’ve bought in to the whole man-made global warming hype. And that is dangerous, because that opens the door wide open for the federal government to come in and start regulating every aspect of our lives that involves energy usage. They can start telling us how many miles a year we can drive our cars. I can just see them putting together their whole chart. Down on the left side is all the cars that are out on the road, and on the right side is the annual mileage allotment, and if you’ve got a Prius, well, you can drive 14,000 miles a year. If you have a Suburban, only 6,000 miles a year. I’m not saying this is what they have, but I can guarantee you they’re coming up with these types of things, and things much more Draconian than that. That’s the least of the crazy things I can see these environmentalists dreaming up all because we have legitimized the idea that CO2 is a pollutant. I can hear Nancy Pelosi saying, “We’ve got bi-partisan support for carbon reduction legislation because a conservative like Jeff Flake has actually proposed his own carbon tax.” That to me is the most frightening thing. And I haven’t even talked about the terrible effect it will have on our economy. The rise in our electricity rates. The cost of gasoline. It will kill jobs. It will raise the cost of living for families. It will be horrible. And then there’s the whole New World Order global government aspect to it. A lot of people believe it. I think there’s some legitimate concern there that through carbon reduction we’re going to essentially ultimately eliminate the sovereignty of the United States and we’re all going to fall under one global government. Something that used to be a crazy conspiracy theory a few years ago, I don’t think it’s so crazy anymore. Stuff that I thought was crazy nutcase thinking a few years ago that are now the law of the land today, like socialized healthcare. So I don’t let anyone roll their eyes at me anymore and say, “Oh, you’re just exaggerating. That’s just hyperbole. Oh, that would never happen.”
[Some Mystery Guests talk for a while about global warming, socialism in Europe, "free" school lunches, etc.]
Mystery Guest: That’s probably one of my biggest desires. I want to change the mindset of Congress from providing people things, back to just equal opportunity.
Smith: Equal opportunity rather than equal outcome. Absolutely.
Mystery Guest: That’s what I want out of anybody who represents me.
Smith: Well you got it here. This experiment in socialism- in trying to equalize outcome for people has been tried and tried over and over again throughout history, in many different countries. You never find an ideology with such an unblemished record of abject failure. Socialism never has worked. It never will work. And we’ve got these radicals in our government today insisting that they’re going to send us in that direction, and we need to try this experiment in socialism one more time. Somehow, “this time it’s going to work.” It’s insane.
Telemoonfa: Amen. Alright. Next question. Education. I was a teacher for a year. [pointing at a Mystery Guest] He was a teacher for a few years. We’ve seen some of the problems in funding. I’ve seen a lot of the problems. One of the things I wanted to harrumph about- I don’t know if I’m using that word right. I’ll edit that out. [laughter] All that excessive money that’s spent on excessive technology on schools I think is a little too much. And the company that I work for now, we make the best 3D movie screens in the world. Well, a guy who claimed to represent a whole bunch of schools claimed that he wanted to buy a whole bunch of really nice 3D movie screens for every school in America, and so it’d be great for our business, but those things are so expensive, and they’ve already got enough screens in schools.
Smith: Are kids going to learn better in 3D than in 2D?
[laughter, smiles]
Telemoonfa: What would you do as a Representative to help education?
Smith: My goal is to get the federal government out of education. I’m not going to give you some 18-point plan on how to fix education. My goal is to abolish the Department of Education, cut the taxes that fund that behemoth, that huge bureaucracy , let’s keep that money here in the states, and let the states manage education. Some may say, “Cut the federal department of education? He must hate education.” No. I’m a big fan. My kids go to public schools. The question is simply, who should be in charge? Who should be managing education? Should it be this monolithic bureaucracy in Washington D.C. taking all the tax dollars, and then doling the money back to the states, only as long as they comply with No Child Left Behind? No. That money should stay here. Get the federal government out of education completely and let the states, or even a more local level, quite frankly, but I’m running for a federal office. I can only do so much. But my goal would be to get the federal government out of it. As a general rule, I would like to push decision making authority as close to the people as is possible. Now you can’t do that for everything. That’s why we have state government. That’s why we need a federal government. I’m not for anarchy. I’m for the federal government doing those things that’s it’s supposed to do. Have the federal government stick to the enumerated powers in articles one, two, and three, and that’s all they do. Everything else, per the tenth amendment, should go to the states. That’s how the Founders intended it. That’s how it should still be today.
Mystery Guest: I hope if you do get elected you can get rid of a lot of government subsidies. I think with energy, it’s not fair to subsidize wind and solar and tax oil and gas. Either subsidize all forms of energy, or subsidize none of them.
Smith: I agree. You know, there’s a lot of good reasons for trying to get us off of oil, certainly off of foreign oil. From a national security standpoint, I agree with that. I am very concerned about overreaction to the big oil spill, you know, shutting down all off-shore oil drilling, that’s only going to make us more dependent on foreign oil. I would love for some entrepreneur, some smart person working out of their garage to figure out a way to make solar and wind economically viable. I hope they do it. I hope they commercialize it. I hope they become obscenely rich doing it. Because we will all benefit from that. The idea that solar and wind aren’t economically viable because we haven’t put enough federal dollars into it is crazy to me. They’ve been studying solar and wind for decades. Since at least the sixties, right? At some point you bump up against the laws of physics. If it’s not economically viable, it’s just not. And I’m not interested in continuing to pour more and more tax dollars down the wind and solar drain. If something is going to work, smart people in the private sector are going to identify that. The personal computer didn’t need a whole bunch of federal dollars in order to get that thing off the ground. Smart people figured it out. They took the risk with their own money and equity and time and effort and they made that thing viable. And yeah, people have gotten rich from that. And I’m glad they did. Because we all benefit from it. Because every house now has three personal computers and they’ve dramatically changed the way we live our lives. That’s how this is supposed to work. I would hope that wind and solar would follow suit. But right now, and I don’t claim to be an expert, but these things aren’t ready for prime time. They are not anywhere close to being able to provide the energy needs of this country. Unless the environmentalists have their way and we all go back to an agrarian society, reading by candlelight and cooking over an open flame, well then, maybe yeah, solar will do the trick for what we need. But I’m not interested in going back to that kind of lifestyle.
Mystery Guest: One of my father’s best friends and business associates was in an oil company in California, and this guy made a lot of money. But he also diversified into a lot of other things. Roofing, tile, he went into paper, you name it, graphite, anything that he could branch out and do. Because he had a lot of money, he was able to go into a lot of different things and find out ways to make more. The entire time I knew him he was after a battery, he was after wind, he was after solar, anything, geothermal, anything he could take money from besides oil. He spent a lot of effort, money and energy, taking new energy from anything but oil. If it were profitable, he would be doing it now. If it was out there, and it could be sold, he’d be buying it. But it’s not there. They haven’t figured out how to make a battery that would run forever and that you could run your car off of. It’s just not feasible. And the more we get government in the way, the less chance we’ll ever have of figuring it out.
Smith: Right. They’re going to tell us that if we just put a few hundred million dollars into it, and we’ll get off of foreign oil. Baloney.
Mystery Guest: What do you feel your chances are of being elected?
Smith: My chances? I actually think they’re good.
Telemoonfa: I think so too.
Smith: I talk to a lot of people like you guys who get it. We’re tired and we’re scared of this huge new growth in government, and they see that Flake has become part of the problem. He’s no longer part of the solution. I know we’re going to be competitive. I really do think we can win. I don’t think it’s going to be easy. I’m having to work all day every day to get the word out that’s there is an alternative to Flake. I’ll tell you what when I give speeches, when I go to some of these groups, they may or may not love my message- well most of them do, but even if they don’t, they love the idea that for the first time in six years Republicans in this district have a choice. I’m just too dumb to know that Jeff Flake can’t be beat, you know what I mean? That’s why I went ahead and got my name on the ballot. But I actually know that he can be beat.
Telemoonfa: Oh yeah. Definitely he can. Now, McCain should accept the invitation by JD Hayworth to debate, and you have- have you formally challenged Flake to a debate?
Smith: I have not formally, but we’re going to. We’re going to very soon. I’m going to send him a letter, and formally challenge him to a debate.
Telemoonfa: Has he challenged you?
Smith: Oh no, that’s the last thing he wants. But other groups, I know, have contacted him and said, “We want to invite you to a debate with Jeff Smith,” and he has so far, declined.
[Editor’s Note: It looks like there will be a Flake and Smith debate afterall! On July 24th at high noon! Additional details forthcoming.]
Telemoonfa: I don’t mean to do personal attacks, but Jeff Flake seems kind of vain to me. He has the brand new iPad, by the way. He has all the new cool gadgets. He spent a week alone on an island and took pictures of himself with his shirt off looking all hunky. I’m not making this up. Congress was in session or something, and he said, “I just wanted to get away,” and he wanted to live like Robinson Crusoe or something and he kept a diary and he published it on the Internet, to show everybody.
Smith: Well, he took pictures- it was just him with a tripod and a great camera and then ended up sending the pictures to the Washington Post. What’s interesting is he missed the cap and trade vote because he said, “Well, I couldn’t disappoint my family.” His daughter had the beauty pageant, right? Well, those pageants last all week. And in fact he could have cast his vote against cap and trade – I hope so – he says he would have voted against it. But then he’s proposed his own carbon tax so who knows. He could have still done that and then been down there in Mobile Alabama the next night to support his daughter. Look, I’m a family guy. I understand you want to support your daughter. That sounds like it was a big deal for her. But he actually could have done both. The point is, he hid behind his family obligations as an excuse for missing the cap and trade vote, yet the next opportunity he had to be home for a week and be with his family and have town hall meetings, he took off to a deserted island, and took bare-chested photos of himself that made their way into the Washington Post.
Mystery Guest: What would you do if they plopped down a 2,000 page bill and asked you to vote on it? Would you read it? Or what would you do?
Smith: I actually propose a constitutional litmus test. Any piece of legislation, or frankly any existing law, bureaucracy, department, program, whatever, the first question I’ll ask myself is, “Is this a proper role for the federal government to fill?” Whether it’s 2 pages or 10 pages or 2,000 pages. If it’s not a proper role for the federal government to fill, like socialized healthcare, I don’t know that I’d even need to read all 2,000 pages. No. I don’t want the federal government involved in things that they’re not supposed to be involved in.
Mystery Guest: Would you vote yes without reading it?
Smith: No, I would not vote yes without reading it. Absolutely not.
Mystery Guest: I think a lot of Congressmen did on that last one.
Telemoonfa: What can we do to help your campaign?
Smith: Ah, that’s the best question I’ve heard yet. [laughter] We need money. That’s how it works. Jeff Flake has a million dollars, and any time a challenger goes up a five-term incumbent, there’s a significant disadvantage financially. The truth is, I don’t need to match him dollar for dollar. I don’t need a million dollars to get the word out. The way that you win a campaign against someone that has a lot more money is through the grassroots. It’s doing stuff just like this Meet and Greet. We’ve got a lot of volunteers that we’ve attracted, and we’re putting them to work. We’re reaching out to people. And we’re asking people what they can do and saying, these are the things that we need. Host a Meet and Greet. Call people. Walk your neighborhood. Write letters to the editor. Write letters to KFYI. Write letters to Jeff Flake and demand that he debate Jeff Smith. These are all things that regular people can do that don’t cost money. The grassroots effort is highly labor intensive, but it’s not real money intensive. The grassroots and word of mouth is the most powerful and effective way of getting the word out. And what I would really like is if any of you have heard something that you agree with and think you could support, then you could host a similar Meet and Greet. Invite your friends and neighbors and in two weeks or whatever we’ll come back and we’ll do this again with another group of people. And then it’s like, they told two friends, and they told two friends, and then pretty soon the word gets out.
Sincerely,
Telemoonfa
This is a painting of my closet in my bedroom when I was younger. My closet had boxes of canned wheat, an acoustic guitar that I tried to learn for about a month, a bright red tie, a white church shirt, a big green coat that I think was corduroy, and, well, you can see some of the other things I had in there.
A still life from high school art class. That was a real cow skull we drew. I think schools nowadays need more cow skulls.
Oh what wonders scissors, multi-colored construction paper, and a glue stick can produce!
I think the term for this style of painting is monochromatic. I started with orange paint, and then mixed it with only either black or white paint. 
This is a picture of Telemoonfa crushing evil businessmen. (I had a very dumb attitude about businessmen and Wal-Mart and stuff like that when I was a teenager. Thank goodness now I've seen the light of capitalism, conservatism, and the entrepreneurial spirit.) You see, once upon a time Telemoonfa was not only my online codename, but a character in silly comic books I drew called "Particle X Warrior." Telemoonfa was a big green blob, and he was some kind of deity or supernatural creature. All Telemoonfa ever says is "Bloopdiewhoop!" and he has those little guys with the red heads that worship him all the time.
It's a sexy glowing newt or something.
Chalk, pen. I remember spraying hair spray over the chalk drawings so the chalk wouldn't smear. Spraying the hair spray was fun.
These people are so happy.
