Michael Reagan Gives Keynote Address at Jay Webber’s Reagan Day Dinner

    On February 6^th, America will celebrate the centennial anniversary of one our nation’s most popular contemporary Presidents……..Ronald Reagan.

Events to commemorate the day will be held throughout the nation. But here in New Jersey, one man has championed the cause of our state’s annual contribution to insure the continuation of the Reagan legacy with our celebration.

On Friday, February 4^th, Assemblyman Jay Webber is conducting his 8^th annual tribute to America greatest modern champion of freedom at a dinner that will be featuring Michael Reagan as its keynote speaker.

Michael is the eldest son President and is a conservative political commentator and the author of several books, including On the Outside Looking In: Twice Adopted and The Common Sense of an Uncommon Man; The Wit, Wisdom, and Eternal Optimism of Ronald Reagan.

Assemblyman Jay Webber

With all the events that are being conducted to commemorate the Reagan centennial during this first weekend in February, to have Michael Reagan join us in New Jersey is a testimonial to Jay Webber, the importance of his annual celebration and the great appreciation that many in New Jersey have for Ronald Reagan. Assemblyman Webber had to pull many strings to pull this one off and the fact that he could get Michael Reagan to attend New Jersey’s Reagan Day Dinner, out of all those occurring on this same night, is an indication of just how influential and respected the Assemblyman has become in conservative politics.

Assemblyman Webber is truly a rising star in New Jersey. He is among the hardest working, most principled, fair minded and conservative legislators the state has ever seen. And like Ronald Reagan, Jay Webber is not an angry conservative, he is an optimistic one, with common sense, and innovative ideas. Webber is also a leader who can articulate the conservative cause in a way that resonates with people of any political stripe. All of which probably accounts for the deep sense of appreciation for Ronald Reagan that led him to become the founder of the annual New Jersey Reagan Day.

According to Assemblyman Webber:

“We owe it to Ronald—to his ideas and historic accomplishments—to celebrate his 100^th birthday with freedom-loving Americans and to work together to turn the tide in America toward freedom”.

This year’s New Jersey Reagan’s Day dinner is sure be the best yet—-one that will be fitting for the extra special occasion of a centennial celebration.

Event details:

• Friday, February 4^th,2011
• At the Sheraton Hilton
• 199 Smith Road, Parsippany
• 6:00 p.m. Doors Open
• 6:30 p.m. Program and Dinner
• Tickets: $45.00
• RSVP’s Required

To request reservations click the invitation below

Reince Priebus Elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee

Newly elected RNC Chairman Reince Priebus

    On the seventh ballot Reince Priebus (pronounced /raɪns ˈpriːbəs/),  the Chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Priebus went in to the race as a frontrunner and as a favorite of the grassroots.  He was also supported by Republican activist, prolific fundraiser and lobyist, Henry Barbour, nephew of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

On the final ballot Priebus garnered 97 votes to Saul Anuzis’s 43 and Maria Cino’s 28.

85 votes are needed to win.

In his acceptance speech, Priebus urged all of the Republican National Committee to come together and promised to work with everyone. “We all recognize that there is a steep still ahead and the only way to face it is to work together” said Priebus

He reminded delegates that each of them are the employees of the Republican voters and that it will be their responsibility to restructure financial operations, hiring top notch staff and beating President Obama in 2012.  Priebus also stated that he wanted to shape the GOP into a truly conservative Party that elected conservative candidates.

Some suggest that being supported by the nephew of the influential Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour,  this is a signal that Governor Barbour is on track to winning the G.O.P.’s presidential nomination.

But aside from rumors of  Haley Barbour’s influence in this election for Chairman, Reince Prebius in his own right came to the position of Wisconsin State Party Chairman in 2007 and by 2010 he took a considerably blue state and helped win a U.S. Senate from Democrat stalwart Russ Feingold, took back the historically Democrat seat of powerful Congressman David Obey as well as other House seats and helped capture the statehouse with Republican Scott Walker.

The election of Reince Preibus marks the beginning of a new page for the Republican National Committee after some of its most historic electoral gains in history. While Mike Steele was energizing force that had a part in those election victories, he did little to insure that the RNC developed a strong and reliable fundraising operation and left the RNC with a large debt. Steele was also criticized for not reinforcing an effective organizational strategy for strengthening the grassroots of the Party.

More About Reince Priebus:

Priebus was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin and graduated from George Nelson Tremper High School in 1990. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and English in 1994 from University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (where he was student body president), worked in the Wisconsin Legislature for a year, and then went to law school, receiving a law degree from University of Miami School of Law in 1998.  During his time there, he interned for the NAACP legal defense fund in Los Angeles.  In 1998, he joined the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Milwaukee.

In 2004, in his first bid for public office, Priebus unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Robert Wirch for a seat in the Wisconsin Senate, where Priebus reportedly spent $384,486 to Wirch’s $182,595.

Priebus was elected state GOP party chair in 2007,  the youngest person ever elected to that position.  In 2009, he became general counsel of the RNC under chairman Michael Steele.

Fallout From the Tucson Memorial Service

    Recently I have been receiving some sharp criticism from the side of the aisle that I sit in. My fellow followers of conservative ideology were taken back by my praise of President Obama’s handling of the tragedy in Tucson and the speech he offered at the Tuesday evening memorial service on the campus of Arizona University.

Indeed some of the voices on the right that I most respect were not in agreement with my positive characterization of the President’s handling of the situation and the speech he gave. Leading conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin denounced the Arizona memorial and in his own way essentially described the event as a campaign rally and equated it to the shamefully exploited and disrespectful memorial service that was given some years ago in Minnesota for Senator Paul Wellstone.

Wellstone’s tragic death in a plane crash, just weeks before Election Day, was turned into a political convention that launched the campaign of Wellstone’s replacement on the ballot, former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Another acquaintance of mine wrote on Facebook “it was a pep rally…they passed out t-shirts for God’s sakes….”

Sentiments like hers were most common. They are also hard to dispute.

T-shirts certainly were handed out and although I question the poor taste of such branding, I do not question the intentions and I am also cognizant of the fact that the T-Shirt gimmick was not the inspiration of the White House or DNC operatives. This was all initiated and coordinated by the University of Arizona and its president, Robert Shelton. But here too, I do not believe that the University leadership meant any real political message. I believe that as is the case with most institutions of liberal bends, the ingrained fear of deep psychological wounds scaring mass groups of youngsters for life, led them to try and create a theme that could help insure that students walked away from the memorial with something positive to focus on. In this case they tried to make that focus one which stated that from this tragedy, hope can rise if we unite against the type of hate and anger that led to these shootings.

No matter what the intention though, it was not one that was orchestrated by President Obama or his political operatives.

Other aspects of this memorial service worthy of critical discussion were the often inappropriate cheers that rang out from the audience and even worse, the boos that were offered when Arizona’s Republican rose to speak.

While uncalled for and disturbing to me, this too I can not blame on President Obama.

The audience was predominantly made up of University of Arizona students, a group of young, not so bright, cocky, college age kids, kids of the age group that went gaga for the President when he ran in 2008 and voted for him in historic numbers. They are of a liberal mentality, a mentality that is often based on hypocritical thinking. That is why they led partisan cheers and jeers while they sat at a memorial service for the dead, and  demonstrated their partisan tendencies, while wearing their T-Shirts that touted the importance of unity and listened to a speech by the President that called for us to tone down our differences. No one ever claimed that today’s college kids were a particularly bright and respectful lot.

However, I feel it is important to separate the audience’s actions from the Presidents.

That distinction is quite important and if conservatives fail to make that distinction, they will be putting our cause at a great disadvantage. If we fail to properly acknowledge the fact that President Obama tried to change the national storyline which blamed the shootings on conservative, anti-government dialogue, and if we fail to acknowledge the meaning of the words he spoke and the message sent in his handling of the shootings in the days that followed, then we will be risking our own ability to be taken seriously.

The best example of the harmful atmosphere created by not giving credit where credit is

due, can be seen in the years of George W. Bush’s presidency. No matter what President Bush did, he was attacked. Once the shock of 9/11 wore off, the left lambasted President Bush and hung him in effigy for everything and anything that he did, regardless of its merits. For many of us, it got to the point where we knew that no matter President Bush did, he would be attacked. This in turn led conservatives to ignore the left’s criticisms of the President. We just could not take their irrational treatment of him seriously.

Now in turn, conservatives can stoop to the same level which our loyal opposition held for many years or we can approach our political differences of opinion in a way that will give people no reason to not take us seriously. In this case, by not acknowledging the positive way in which President Obama held the nation’s hand during this unsettling event, will be weakening the position that we will be in, the next time that we disagree with the President on those policy positions that we find most important.

As I stated in my initial assessment of the President’s speech at the memorial service in Tucson, he rose to the occasion. He convincingly did his best to diffuse the national debate that tried to lay blame for the shootings at the feet of people like Sarah Palin and groups like the TEA Party and he did so in a way that still honored the victims in a respectful and dignified manner. For this we must thank the President, not attack him. For this we must depart from political partisanship and as Americans support our President. If we fail to do that, we will be acting just as distastefully and disrespectfully as the audience at the memorial service that booed Arizona’s Governor.

Steele Withdraws from Reelection for RNC Chairman on 4th Ballot

   Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Steele has pulled out of his bid reelection to a second term as chairman. The move indicates that he knew he could garner enough delegates to win.

The process that elects a Republican National Committee Chairman usually consists of multiple counts until one candidate has a clear majority and in hammering that majority together, an intense deal making machine goes in to work. For his part in that process, after the fourth round of balloting Steele withdrew from the contest and threw his support behind Maria Cino. What deal was made, no one knows, but if Cino can hold on to all of Steele’s votes, she would be able to win on the fifth ballot

After the fourth ballot, the count stood at; Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Preibus had 58 votes to Former Deputy RNC Chairman Maria Cino’s 29, Michael Steele’s 28, former RNC Co-Chairman Ann Wagner’s 28 and Former Michigan Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis’ 24.

President Obama Rises to the Occassion and Helps the Nation Heal and Unite

   Last night at a memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting tragedy, President Obama confronted what is a time of great suffering and grief for our nation with dignity and skill. The President deftly paid due tribute to those who were killed and wounded in the massacre and while never allowing the focus of his remarks to stray far away from them, he also led the nation in a corrective direction for the storyline that has since followed the tragedy.

In a very poignant statement, President Obama successfully used the power of the bully pulpit to rise above politics and lay to rest the partisan political exploitation of the tragedy that some have pushed in the days following the massacre.

“Yes, we have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future.  But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.” said the President.

He added “at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds“

On this somber occasion, President Obama and the entirety of his speech provided our nation with some much needed positive perspective and unifying hope. He successfully combined the somber sentiments of the situation with a mix of enthusiastic optimism for our ability to heal, in a way that few have the oratory skill to fuse together in one speech.

“I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us — we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.” said President Obama.

Tonight President Obama acted and led in a way that should make us all proud. As is the case with most who find themselves charged with the responsibility of presiding over our nation during times of crisis, President Obama rose to the occasion and all of us should be proud and grateful for that.

In some perverse way, the tragedy in Tucson afforded President Obama with an unintended opportunity that he unintentionally took advantage of, an opportunity for the American people to gain greater confidence in him, his leadership and his judgment. Of course, the totality of all the issues facing this nation will quickly test that confidence and his political judgment and leadership, but for one of the first times in his presidency, President Obama has bonded with the American people and afforded himself a wealth of wiggle room in the months ahead.

TEA Party Must Have A Say In the Redistricting Process

  After a year when millions of Americans began taking their civic responsibilities more serious than ever and joined together in the TEA Party movement in an attempt to change government for the better, it would be a shame to see that activity end after just one election cycle. It would be an even greater shame to see all that they have achieved in such a relatively small amount of time, reversed by politics as usual. Having gotten involved in the elections and having changed the results of those elections, the TEA Party has a responsibility to see their efforts through. Not only must they stay involved and keep those officials they carried to victory true to their words, they must now take the time to deepen their political involvement and effect those areas of politics which often get little attention but carry more weight than the results of just any one election cycle.

In 2011 one such area which requires their attention is the redistricting process.

This once every decade event, shapes the political landscape of every state in our nation as well as national government. It determines the districts which we elect our leaders from. Everything from City council lines to legislative districts and congressional districts are drawn. Left to their own devices, in the hands of politicians the process becomes one known as gerrymandering. It is an underhanded practice that divides communities not along geographic lines but along political lines. Left in the hands of politicians and political parties, redistricting is based on how they can draw districts that contain a majority of votes for their Party’s candidates.

This gerrymandering process undermines the electoral process. It helps determine election results before campaigns have even started by insuring that a minority of one Party and the majority of the other constitute the makeup of enough districts to elect a majority in state legislatures and the House of Representatives, thereby insuring one Party or the other, control of those legislative bodies and the legislative process.

Gerrymandering is the reason why so few seats in Congress are competitive. It is why the defeat of less than 14% of incumbent House members in 2010 was considered a political landslide. It is why out of 435 seats in the House of Representatives, only an approximate number of 100 of them were really contested. The other 335 were forgone conclusions.

This is unacceptable for those who have a vested interest in fair elections and the democratic process. This should be unacceptable to those who consider themselves a part of the TEA Party and are fed up with political games as usual and political sleights of hand. It should be intolerable to those who wish to see their elected officials elected based upon their qualifications, their beliefs and their effectiveness, not just simply their Party registration.

That is why it is important that the TEA Party not rest on their laurels for too long. They have tasted victory in 2010 but that now means that in 2011 they have a responsibility to fulfill. They can’t just effect the outcome of one election and retreat back to their less civic oriented days of casual or occasional political involvement or concern. They must continue to learn about the behind the scenes political process that cheats us all out a fair process. They must work as hard as they did to effect the elections of 2010, to now effect the process that effects those elections.

During the next few months, state legislatures across America will be begin to slice and dice the political maps. In the vast majority of states, the process is run and determined by each state’s upper and lower houses of the legislature and the Governor. For some states that means one Part is in total control of the process. In other states it means that Republicans and Democrats are both involved in hammering the new district lines together. But even in those cases, political deals are cut in order to save one legislator other.

That is why the very next mission of the TEA Party must be to interject itself in to the redistricting process. They must educate themselves about the process, establish their own suggested guidelines in drawing the new district lines and demand that those guidelines are heard and applied, fairly and properly.

In New Jersey, thanks in large part to Assemblyman Jay Webber, the Chairman of the Republican Delegation to the New Jersey redistricting Commission, at least four public hearing swill be held in order to get the publics input on the redistricting process. It is an opportunity which we she seek more of and must take advantage of.

Those hearing are currently scheduled as follows;

• Wednesday, January 12 6 pm Rutgers Law School, Newark
• Thursday, January 13 6 pm Hudson County Community College, Jersey City
• Tuesday, January 18 6 pm Rowan University, Glassboro
• Thursday, January 20 6 pm Ocean County Administration Building, Toms River

Arizona Shooting Prompts Lawmaker to Make Percieved Threating Symbols and Speech a Federal Crime

   Pennsylvania Congressman Robert Brady is drafting proposed legislation that would make the use of threatening language and/or symbols in regards to federal officials, a federal offense.

The move is a political reaction to the tragic assassination attempt of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords which took the lives of six and injured 14 others including the Congresswoman.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, most political leaders acted quite responsibly and instead of trying to politicize the massacre and exploit it for political points, they offered respectful messages of unity and heartfelt condolences and prayers. But a din of noise did come from other sectors of the left as they quickly tried to connect the shooting rampage to conservative, anti-government sentiments and personalities such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

Now only two days after the tragedy, some politicians are trying to jump out in front of the issue by proposing legislation that is suppose to prevent future such massacres.

Brady’s proposal may or may not have good intentions. His desire to not even wait till the first of the victims are buried before he politicizes the event by turning it into legislative action, makes one wonder if he is just trying to get his name out there or really trying to solve the problem that we face with violence of the likes that we saw in Tucson. Further reason to question his intentions is his proposed legislation’s inability to actually prevent a repeat of what we just saw.

The motives behind the attack in Arizona are still not fully understood and all the facts surrounding the case are still not public. Yet Brady’s unwillingness to wait for these facts has him proposing a legislative solution to an incident that he does not yet know all the facts about. But beyond the lack of knowledge regarding the situation Brady is trying to propose a solution to, is the lack of viability that his solution has.

Brady proposes to make the use of language and symbols that can be perceived as threatening, illegal. Whose perception will be the rule of thumb? Who will determine whose perceptions are used to declare a symbol or a string words as threatening? Just how much speech and freedom of expression would Brady’s new measure eliminate from public use?

Perhaps Rep. Brady should take a deep breath and allow all facts to come out before he tries to implement a new gag order on the American people as whole. Maybe he should begin to understand the message that Americans sent during the 2010 midterm elections when they said they want less government, not more government and an even bigger nanny state than we had before those elections.

The Shamefull Attempts to Exploit the Arizona Shooting Massacre

    The recent shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona was an American tragedy. Regardless of the titles or positions held by those who were victims of this senseless act of violence, the devastating blows to the lives of the individuals and families involved is an unacceptable and intolerable circumstance which must be combated with a reaction that is civilized and based upon facts, not irrational emotion and insidious innuendo.

The attack was an assault on every American and every aspect of American life. It was not an act of violence against Democrats, Republicans, whites, blacks, Southerners, New Englanders, Muslims, Christians, heterosexuals or homosexuals. It was not an attack upon any of the too many divisions that we differentiate each other by. It was simply an attack on life as we know it.

Yet in what has become an increasing tendency to divide and take sides, many factions on the political left have chosen to exploit this national tragedy and use it to score political points in a game that tries to conquer by dividing. The bodies of six victims were barely cold before individuals tried to make the right a target of accusations. We hardly knew the name of the innocent nine year old girl who was shot and killed before extremists on the left uttered the name Sarah Palin and tried to connect political discourse to senseless violence. We hardly knew the full number of victims before some exploiters tried to turn human tragedy in to political benefit and hypocritically enhance the divide that defines the ideological discourse that exists in America today.

What I found most surprising in the immediate fallout of the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gifford was how the majority of our political leaders acted unusually more responsibly than much of the public. Instead of being political, our political leadership acted responsibly and compassionately, while certain sectors of the public acted with sharp tongued political precision. Be it Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner, ideological division was replaced with a call for respectful condolences.

But since then , the public debate driven by the left has been based on a storyline that claims political discourse has turned into public violence because of conservative sentiments. Some fronts claim that political violence is on the rise because of racial intolerance of our nation having its first African-American President. Other quarters claim that political violence exists because of rising conservative oriented anti-government sentiments.

Yet in their hatred of the right, the left neglects to hold itself accountable for the words of those within their own ranks. They neglect to include the rhetoric of the Barack Obama supporting New Black Panther Party which has called for the killing of white babies. They neglect to mention the words of a black rap artist who after President Obama won the election declared it is time we get the whites out of the White House or the words of former liberal Congressman Allan Grayson who stood on the House floor and declared that the Republican Party wants you dead. They neglect to mention the words of Hillary Clinton who tried to explain away the perjury of her husband by claiming the inception of a “vast right wing conspiracy”. The left neglects to mention the countless bombings carried out by the leftwing, anti-government Weather Underground and its friend of President Obama, Bill Ayers. Those who wish to try to blame the bloodbath in Tucson on conservatives overlook even the earliest of facts surrounding the event. They overlook the fact that the preferred reading material of the lone gunman, Jared Loughner, was not a book by Glenn Beck or a speech by Sarah Palin but the rather Mein Kampf and The Communist manifesto.

Let their be no denying that political divisions obviously do exist. They always have and they always will. If you think thepolitical  rhetoric of today is over the top, review the dialogue and debate involved the discourse of the election of 1800.  If you would like a real example of real political violence, the experience of the oxymoronic period of American history known as the Civil War is one example. That was political division. But to define ideological dialogue and commentary as the root cause of true evil in our society is a disingenuous and simplistic exploitation of human suffering.

To accuse a Glenn Beck of inciting violence when he calls for political “revolution” after specifically stating that violence is not the answer, is nothing more than political exploitation, it is not a sincere representation of reality. The tabloid talking heads like Beck, Limbaugh, George Schultz, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Jack Cafferty, and others are indeed representative of passionate political pros, but they can not be blamed for pulling a trigger that kills the constituent service aide of a Congresswoman.

In a day and age when commentary, opinion and news is overloaded by 24 hour news cycles, the internet, blogs, cable television, and radio, the mantra of “if it reads it bleeds” is truer than ever. In order for ones message to be heard over the static of over saturation, public figures are often forced to use forceful rhetoric and while that is not an excuse for irresponsible language, it is a cause for written and verbal flourishes that evoke colorful but symbolic imagery. If such rhetorical language is suddenly unacceptable, then maybe it is time for our society to tackle its interminable case of attention deficit disorder. Maybe it is time for society to put our priorities in order and instead of making stars out of the casts of scripted “reality” shows and highlighting the asinine and dangerous stunts of the cast of Jackass, and start focusing in on actual reality.

Perhaps the violence of the Youtube generation is due to the proliferation of idiocy and violence that is glamorized by an entertainment industry that rewards rappers for singing tunes about women being “hoes” and “bitches”. But to blame a Sarah Palin for an assassination attempt because she “targeted” her political beliefs, is nothing but a shameful scapegoat and example of despicable political exploitation at a time when we must be united in prayer for the lives lost and the ones hanging in the balance after an act of violence that is tied to the hands of one man who was the leader of no political Party and the voice of no group of sane Americans.

The shooting rampage that Jared Lee Loughner went on is something that should be prosecuted, it is not something that should be exploited for the shallowness of empty political rhetoric and superficial electoral divisions. If we are to combat future such tragedies we must deal with the facts not the partisan political emotions that shroud the facts and cloud the real reasons behind another day of violence in America.

Speaker John Boehner Reacts To Gifford Shooting; “An Attack on One of Us is an Attack on All of Us”

Speaker of the House John Boehner issued the following statement regarding the shooting of three term Congresswoman Gabbrielle Giffords (D-AZ);

“I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff. An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country.”

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot in Arizona

In a tragedy that is still unfolding, Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head by what would seem to be a lone gunman who fired anywhere from 12 to 15 shots, hitting at least 11 other individuals including members of the Congresswoman’s staff. Early reports indicate that there were  four fatalities at the scene, possibly,  including a child.

Congresswoman Gifford was outside of Safeway Market where she was holding a Congress On Your Corner event that is meant to allow the Congresswoman to communicate with and assist her constituents.

It is as of yet unknown what was behind this assassination rampage but the gunman was apparently wrested to the ground by bystanders and taken in to custody at the scene.

God bless the Congresswoman, her family, staff and constituents and let us continue to pray for all the other victims.

Early reports indicated that the Congresswoman died but a hospital spokeswoman reportedly confirmed that she is in critical condition and undergoing surgery.

The shooting marks the end of the first week of the 112th Congress in a way that will have chilling effects for a long time to come. First reactions from Speaker John Boehner is that this was a senseless tragedy and he adds that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.