Rob Steele is Tea Party with a capital 'T'

From Eric Dondero:

Could the Wave be so big that it will sweep away a 55-year incumbent Democrat?

From Market Watch, "Longest serving Democratic congressman in trouble?" Oct. 10

The longest serving member of Congress may be in trouble if a new poll is to be believed. Democratic Rep. John Dingell, who’s been in Washington for 55 years, trailed Republican challenger Rob Steele 44% to 40% in a new poll. The historically Democratic seat represents the western suburbs of Detroit, but it’s become more conservative in recent years owing to redistricting changes.

Washington insiders began to wonder last month if Dingell was in trouble after he sent out an urgent fund-raising appeal to donors.

“This year I need your maximum financial contribution to my campaign,” Dingell wrote to supporters in September. “My opponent is running with the tea party and he claims he will invest his quite substantial personal fortune in his effort to defeat me. He is running around with a poll showing that I am vulnerable.”

Libertarian proposal for HSAs proves popular

Libertarian columnist John Fund of the Wall Street Journal points out:

The Dingell family has held the Congressional seat in southeastern Michigan for nearly eight decades. Rep. John Dingell, now the longest-serving member of Congress, inherited the seat in 1955 when his father died after 23 years in office. The seat has been a family preserve since the dawn of the New Deal.

That's appropriate given that Mr. Dingell has been a cheerleader for big-spending programs and universal health care throughout his career. But even in a district that includes the liberal bastion of Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, this may not be the best year for an 84-year-old incumbent to be running on a pro-Big Government record.

Mr. Dingell's Republican opponent is Ann Arbor cardiologist Rob Steele, who says he decided to run after Mr. Dingell helped ram through "insane spending" programs that passed with many House members not even reading the bills.

From his campaign website on Taxes Dr. Steele says simply:

The tax system must be flatter, fairer and simpler for the taxpayer at a level that does not punish success.

And on his area of expertise, Health Care Reform, Steele takes a page out of the libertarian Cato Institute guidebook, calling for HSAs:

Consumer choice and responsibility, price transparency, equal tax treatment of the employed and self employed, in combination with Health Savings Accounts, are more cost effective for the patient and providers. Many of these principles have kept the health care costs in my own business flat for the past 5 years. Medicare is already broken, with high levels of fraud, claim denial, and decreasing provider base. Taxpayers simply cannot afford another massive, inefficient, government-run program.

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