Michelle Malkin brought a banquet hall full of partisan Republicans to their feet Friday with a blistering attack on the Obama administration and on Republican elected officials who betray the principles of their party.
Living up to her reputation for acid rhetoric, the conservative author, blogger and commentator addressed an audience of 850 at the state Republican Party Convention on what she labeled the “culture of corruption” — the title of her best-selling book on President Barack Obama, in which she asserts that he exported the corruption of Chicago politics to the White House.
Corruption is nothing new in politics, she said, but “the sliminess, the stench has been overwhelming . . . and unprecedented” in this administration. “The good news is they have been met with an unprecedented push-back from both sides.”
From the federal stimulus bill to health care reform to Obama’s proposed Wall Street reforms, she says, Obama has engaged in “pay to play” politics in the best tradition of a Chicago pol.
Malkin, a former columnist at the Seattle Times, said her experience in that bastion of liberal politics provided her with valuable background on “so many of these corruptocrats” who are now part of the Obama administration.
Among “the creatures (Obama) dragged with him,” she said, are former Gov. Gary Locke, now U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and former King County executive Ron Sims, now deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Gov. Chris Gregoire could join that list, she said, if she is offered the job of U.S. solicitor general.
She also heaped scorn on the administration’s failure to deal with the immigration crisis and on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, pleading, “Can we have (Washington Attorney General) Rob McKenna for attorney general?”
Malkin listed the fundamental principles of the Republican Party as limited government, a strong national defense, “an unapologetic defense of life,” “borders that matter,” the rule of law, and ”the moral defense of capitalism.”
She said the 10 most chilling words she has heard from Obama were these: “I think at some point you have made enough money.”
“He uttered those words while he was peddling his financial reform,” she said. They prove that the President favors wealth redistribution, she said, and that he sees businesses as merely “dutiful growers of the collective economy. “
But she did not spare former President George W. Bush in laying blame for the financial meltdown that led to the massive bailouts of Wall Street, which she opposed.
“It was Republicans, and a Republican president, who pre-socialized the economy and paved the way for Barack Obama,” she said.
She also took a swing at Sen. John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent in 2008, saying “The Republican candidate we had at the time was offering a plan for homeowners underwater on their mortgages that was even more generous than Obama’s.”
Malkin had positive words for the Tea Party movement, saying it was a tax revolt first and foremost.
“The counterinsurgency is a rejection of big government by both parties,” she said.
She called on the assembled politicians to choose good candidates who will carry the party’s torch.
“I could write an entire encyclopedia” on the corruption of the present administration, she said, “ but all of it will be for naught if we don’t have good people, good contrasts for the people who hold office now.”
Preceding Malkin at the podium in the ballroom of the Hilton Vancouver Washington, state Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, said he believes the Republican Party has a chance to regain control of the Senate this year.
“I’ve never seen the slate of candidates that we have this year running on the Republican ticket,” he said, ticking off the names of several candidates, all of whom have private sector experience.
“We have a great opportunity to take back the state Senate.” If that happens, he said, “It will be my honor to write a balanced budget. “
“We need seven,” Zarelli said, “but deliver eight!”
The convention continues today with adoption of a party platform, consideration of resolutions, and speeches from candidates for Congress and the U.S. Senate.
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
