RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

One of the advantages of going to elaborate gala's, other than dressing up real pretty, is being able to hear amazing speakers and getting to meet them. Saturday night we went to The Annual Wildcatter's Ball. The Speaker was James Baker, former Reagan Chief of Staff, Bush Senior's Sec. Of State, and later Bush Senior's Chief of Staff as well. These are just a few things he has accomplished. Here is his full biography. I know he took a lot of heat during the Reagan years, but what I remember most about him is his strength and dignity during the 2000 election mess. After the dinner I got to meet him and tell him how much I appreciated that.

I also asked him if he had heard of the political bloggers. He said he had. I told him that I was one and that there were many very good ones if he wanted to check them out to come to my website and click on the links. He asked what my blogger name was and wrote it down, so if we see a "JamesB" commenting on here, would that be too cool, or what?

The one thing he spoke of during his speech is not mentioned in his biography. He made his money by being an original "wildcatter." Which is someone who takes a chance on his own to find oil. He drilled 2 wells at his ranch and got lucky. And that is basically about all it was back then. Luck.

I have noticed on other sites when liberals argue, they put down the oil industry or accuse Bush of really only being interested in oil in the middle east. First and foremost it is important to know that the free flow of oil from Iraq might be good for the world, but the oil industry in the U.S. does not benefit from it. It brings the price of oil down. We would rather find oil here anyway. If oil is Bush's real agenda, he wouldn't have the Texas oil industry behind him on it, that is for sure.

Everytime you fill up your car, or heat your home on a bitter cold day, you should thank the oil industry. It seems to get a bad rap, but the people in it are the best people. From Engineers to Geologists, they work hard and go through more layoffs and then hiring back than just about any industry I know. It seems every time I got pregnant (4 times) our company would announce a layoff. We got lucky and that never happened to us.

Anyway, one of the great things about living in Texas and getting to go to some of the events is meeting some of the people I admire the most. I once even told Democratic Senator John Breaux from Louisiana why he didn't come over from the dark side. He answered "It's too late now for me, honey."

I asked Ken Starr what was the worst thing about the whole Clinton/Lewinsky mess. He said "The whole thing."

I asked Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey why he was leaving. He said "Those people there (Washington D.C.) are not normal." Heh.

I am not trying to name drop here. I have just been lucky to live in Texas where a lot of great politicians come from. And I am one of those who just go and introduce myself. I am not shy.

So before you get the idea that I actually have some kind of real life, these events only happen about twice a year. There were many times I had the opportunity to get more involved in the political process here, but I had these babies and I just couldn't leave them for any amount of time. I campaigned for Jack Kemp when he was running for the Republican nominee for President in '88 and I had just one little baby boy then and I knew I just couldn't get up every morning and kiss that little guy goodbye. So when I was done with that, I stopped the active campaigning. I just gave money after that. And I of course talked anyone who would listen to me into voting Republican. I did stay involved in pro-life activism, but not surprisingly, they don't care if you drag your babies along with you.

So, I think I will go turn up the heat. It's COLD today....;-)