Life after Souder and Gomorrah: Now what?

1. While I have no doubt that Mitch Daniels is making a good faith effort to do the right thing with regards to the special election, ideally the governor of a state should not have that kind of discretion. As we have seen in Illinois last year, this is a power that can be abused. While Daniels won't get to directly appoint Souder's replacement, there is a lot at stake in regards to the timing of when the special election is to take place. Sometime in the near future, the General Assembly should make ironclad rules about the replacement of Senators and Representatives so that the governor won't have to make a judgement call and won't be subject to second guessing.
2. Whether they are married or not, no elected official should be allowed to have a romantic or sexual relationship with a staff member. There are already rules against employing a spouse or family member, but Congress did not have a rule in place for what Souder did. If this happened in the private sector, he could have been liable for sexual harassment for taking advantage of a subordinate.

Souder resigns

Souder has admitted to an affair and is now leaving Congress. Let this be a reminder that we are all human and that we all make mistakes. This why the amount of power that we give any frail and imperfect human should be limited.

My opinion is that adultery is a private matter that should be resolved between the cheater and the aggrieved spouse. I would not rule out voting for a candidate based on an affair anymore than I would make a decision to hire or fire someone on that same basis (unless it was a relationship that presented a conflict of interest). To fire a man over an affair can potentially cause financial harm to his wife if she decides to stay with him, or leaves him and demands alimony or child support.

Charlie Butcher to talk to and about Libertarians tomorrow!

Tune in at 6:30am on Tuesday, May 11th.

Proposed national ID card

Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who worked on the outline and helped present it Thursday, said the public has become more comfortable with the idea of a national identification card.

"For a long time it was resisted by many groups but now we live in a world where we take off our shoes at the airport and pull out our identification," Durbin said. "People understand that in this vulnerable world we have to be able to present identification."

Read the rest of the article here.

Even Arizona is against a national ID card. The only way this stands a chance of happening is if the public is spooked into supporting this. Don't tell me that this crap is going to make us safer. There were more people murdered by their own family members in this country in the past ten years than by terrorists. Privacy and family are both sacred institutions in this country. If our lives are not our own, why should we care what happens to us?