In Part 1 we got to neither of the topics mentioned in my headline. We’ll get to the first today.
At Joe Walsh’s Town Hall Meeting in Crystal Lake’s McHenry County College, he was focusing on the fight between supporters of big government and smaller government when we left him yesterday.
Walsh cited Thomas Jefferson as the father of the small government movement, pointing out the author of the Declaration of Independence warned Americans that they would have to stay informed and involved or they would lose control of their nation.
“Too many Americans are uninformed,” Walsh explained.
Then came the words in the headline:
“I’m coming out!”
Joe Walsh
“Truthfully, I’m not a Republican.”
And, “for full disclosure, I may run again.
“I’m a Tea Party conservative first and a Republican second.
“I’m coming out of the closet.
“From this point forward I’m a Freedom Fighter.
“If you want me to run as a Republican or get my support as a Republican, you have to earn it.
“I’m coming out of the closet and this is how I’ve felt for four years.
“I’m building an Illinois conservative movement of Freedom Fighters.”
Here is what was on an arm of one of those attending the Town Hall Meeting who agreed with Joe Walsh and was motivated to see petition signatures later in the day.
Moving to another topic, he talked of his faults.
“Everybody knows my faults,” he declared, listing them faster than I could write.
Walsh explained that he had pledged he would not serve more than six years when he ran.
“Now I’d have liked to serve more than two years,” he said, provoking laughter from the crowd.
Joe Walsh
He explained that he would have known if he had done a good job:
- “if the Democrats make me the number one target in the House and
- “if most of my Republican colleagues didn’t want me there”
He said both goals were reached.
Walsh commented on his relationship with House Speaker John Boehner whom he liked as a person, but “if I had been in Congress last January I would not have voted for him.”