Hello, Mrs. Cleaver

In the 1950’s, Beaver Cleaver and his family were invited into our homes every week. We met Ward and June Cleaver, parents who seemed to have all the answers. We met Wally, the older brother who had a heart of gold. We met "The Beav", whose minor misadventures always resolved themselves by the end of the program.

And we met Eddie Haskell, the friend who had a crocodile smile and a crocodile heart. Eddie was not an idealized character. In fact, his insincerity caused many of the problems that the show’s other characters dealt with.
Eddie Haskell would have fit right in with many members of the Washington establishment. They say one thing in their home districts and do the opposite inside the Washington beltway. And for over thirty years, they have gotten re-elected despite their duplicity.

Their behavior is their fault. The fact that they have gotten away with it is our fault.

This year, the mood has changed. Citizens are angry with the establishment, and looking for new faces. And many new candidates are stepping forward to capitalize on this development.

We need to be as careful of the new candidates as we should have been of the old incumbents. It’s easy to claim to be a conservative. But saying the word "conservative" doesn’t mean that the person actually IS one.

So we need to ask good questions, and check the answers we get. We need to know what the candidate has done to prove that his conservative credentials actually exist.

We don’t need those who see this year as an opportunity to add the title "Congressman" or "Senator" to their resumes. We will be able to spot these folks by the fact that they have never lifted a finger to help a conservative organization or candidate before, but all of a sudden they "care deeply" about the state of our nation and want to be elected to do something about it. The obvious question is, "Why didn’t they care a year ago?"

We don’t need those who have a track record that disagrees with their current statements. We will be able to spot these folks only by taking the time to dig through their public record. That will take work, and they are counting on the fact that we are still not motivated enough to check out what they are saying. These folks are the next generation of Eddie Haskell’s, and they are just as dangerous as their predecessors.

We don’t need those who proudly proclaim that they have no idea whatsoever about how the political process works. They will be stepping into an arena where every other person DOES know how that process works, so they will either accomplish nothing, or do real harm through their lack of knowledge.

Our Founding Fathers combined practical political know-how with principled action – we need to do the same. We wouldn’t get our teeth pulled by someone who told us that he was not a dentist, and we certainly shouldn’t entrust our government to someone who tells us that they do not know how government is supposed to work either.

The reality is that the Eddie Haskell’s of politics will always be with us. So we need to be as wise as Ward Cleaver in uncovering their insincerity and keeping them from places where they can do harm.