Livingston Tells Murray, "Goals will not change..."
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Congressman Bob Livingston. Congressman Livingston will be elected as the new Speaker of the House on January 6th. Already he has Secret Service protection. After his election he will be third in line to be president after Al Gore. This is a powerful position, one that Livingston is taking over from Newt Gingrich who departed after the dismal failure of the Republicans to pick up seats in the last election.
Mr. Livingston made it very
clear to me during our luncheon meeting that there would be no big changes in the
Republican Party under his leadership. In fact he told me that the goals set by Newt
Gingrich would not change. He said that after it became apparent to Newt Gingrich that he
could not win the Speakership in January, Gingrich put his full support behind Livingston.
Congressman Livingston also told me that Newt Gingrich had been very helpful in the
transition of power.
The Speaker designate made it very clear that there would be no big changes. He said, I am just the new administrator." I took this to mean that he would not be a major advocate of social issues as Newt Gingrich certainly was not. He said that the Republican Party was like a big ship with a lot of people running around on deck, but the boat was still headed in one direction. What does this mean? Does this mean social conservatives can run around on deck, but he is the captain of the ship and it goes where he says it goes regardless of what we want? There is one problem with this philosophy ... the crew may just find another boat to sign on to if they don’t like the direction in which his is headed.
Only one bit of really good news came from the meeting as far as I am concerned. It looks as if he plans to appoint my good friend, Mark Neumann, as the head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Mark gave up his congressional seat in Wisconsin to run against the great detractor of human life, Senator Russ Feingold. Mark won in 70 of 72 counties ... He lost the election only because busloads of homosexuals showed up in Madison to vote for a lesbian running for Congress. In her district there was a 70% voter turnout while state wide the figure was about 34%. (In Wisconsin, anyone can register and vote the same day. About 50,000 homosexuals showed up a the polls, registered and voted. Neumann lost the election by only 32,000 votes.) Please pray with me that Mark Neumann receives this appointment as he is a good godly man.
A final note. In the photograph of the future Speaker of the House and my self you may notice I am wearing a lapel pin. The pin has the word "Faith" under a cross. Every time I go into meetings with congressmen I wear some type of lapel pin or emblem to signify to them that I am there to represent what is right in the eyes of God.