The Kelo GOP

According to Bob Novak, a group of Republican mayors met for a convention in Washington, D.C. last week. Among the hot topics discussed was the Kelo decision. Not so surprisingly, these little Caesars supported this boondoggle and blatant infringement upon the Constitutional right to property. Only one mayor, from a town in California of all places, stood up in opposition to the Kelo decision, without the support of one other mayor at the conference. All other mayors, by either consent by voice or by silence, were in support of upholding the Kelo decision, which, in effect, gives them unchecked authority over all real property within their jurisdiction.

Again, these were not Democrat mayors, but GOP mayors. These are mayors of the supposed party of "limited" government.

I must agree with Thomas Sowell in his assessment of Congressional lifers. Term limits in all levels of government would be helpful in keeping our government officials conscious of whom they are working for. Unfortunately, most people who work for the government at any level obtain a sense that government is obligated to intrude in all aspects of the lives of the citizenry.

These mayors, who see their towns as their own personal Romes in a lot of cases, see it as their obligation to take property that they see can be used in a more productive manner and transform it into a tax revenue center.

Not only mayors, but government employees from all levels of local, state, and national government find that it is their duty to intrude upon the lives of the citizenry. From the local Health Department and DFACS all the way to the Justice Department, government employees have this attitude.

As I was driving out of town on business one day, I was tuned in to The Neal Boortz Show on the radio. This was pre-Kelo, and the discussion was around a local government entity using eminent domain to obtain the property of a woman who did not wish to sell in order to re-sale to a developer. A woman who claimed to work for the tax office of a particular locality called in and stated that the woman "should be forced" to sell her property if someone else could take the property and produce more tax revenue. My mouth fell open that someone, a citizen with guaranteed freedoms to (some of) the rewards of her labors, would say or much less truly believe such a thing.

But apparently, five black robes had the same idea when deciding Kelo. And so do your Republican mayors.

Beware...