By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY— Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard warned young republicans gathered in Birmingham last week that infiltrators will be entering “our primary.”
These outsiders will challenge incumbent republicans. “from the right and from the left,” cautioned Diamond Mike.
Hubbard raised the specter of “The Others,” coming to displace our kind. The “others” are the democrats, who will pretend they are republicans. But who is a real republican?
Hubbard said he raised $10 million dollars to fight the insurgency but he needs the troops to beware of the dangers of donkeys in elephant suits. However, Hubbard forgot to mention that many of the incumbent republicans he is fighting to save were democrats just a few short years ago.
Representatives like Steve Hurst, Lesley Vance, Mike Millican and Alan Boothe all became Republican shortly after the 2010 elections.
Later, Representative Alan Harper switched to join the Republican ranks, as did Senator Jerry Fielding. Hubbard spent big buck to unseat liberal democrat Fielding only to find a few years later that Judge Jerry would gladly switch parties for a few plum assignments from the party elites. One more Obama democrat born again by Hubbard’s gospel of power and greed.
If you go back just a few more years you’ll find that a large percentage of today’s GOP stalwarts where what Hubbard refers to as liberal democrats. By the way, where are all these liberal democrats Hubbard is protecting us from?
What Hubbard really means by protecting GOP incumbents is he wants to persevere the supermajority that does his bidding.
Hubbard also told the young republicans that the Alabama Education Association, “has made it clear that republicans are going to have alternatives in the republican primary.” According to Hubbard any candidate that takes money from the AEA is not a real republican.
And, does Hubbard mean that teachers, school workers or anyone who supports the AEA are not welcome in the republican primary?
Does he mean that those who work in our school system are not welcome in the republican party of Alabama?
If every incumbent republican who took AEA money had to resign from office, there would be few left in the legislature, including Hubbard.
Over the last three years the triumvirate of Hubbard, Marsh and Billy Canary—of the Business Council of Alabama—has replaced Paul Hubbert and Joe Reed of the AEA as the state’s political power brokers. Now, the BCA not the AEA sets the political agenda. The BCA bosses believe what is good for Big Business donors is what’s good for Alabama.
One sitting republican senator lamented in private, “We have just scrambled the alphabet, we traded the AEA for the BCA”, meaning individual legislatures don’t do what is best for the citizens of their district but what is best for the special interest BCA.
So, it is, that the citizens of Alabama are left to feed off the crumbs that fall from the corporate table.
Many Tea Partiers wonder why Common Core was not shutdown in the legislature, just like many social conservatives question why, alcohol bills fly with ease through both Houses. It is because the republican’s are controlled by the BCA just like the democrats were beholden to the AEA.
But in most respects Hubbard, Marsh and Canary are worse than the AEA. They are crooked power-mongers with a lust for more.
One life long GOPer said, “It took the democrats 136 years to become the party of corruption it only took us three.”
Yet, what do we hear publicly from our republican elected leader, “All is well.”
Hubbard told the young Republicans, “we’re in the incumbent protection business right now.”
We can only pray that the voters will awaken to the fact that Mike Hubbard and his followers are the Real Fake Republicans and remove him and his kind from office. Or, perhaps even better that Special AG Matt Hart will channel Elliot Ness and bring this would-be Capone to justice.
Beware…
