The idea of a Super Committee is idiotic. It’s a way to blame shift, to pass the buck so only a few have to take responsibility for an unpopular vote. A good constitutionalist could make a case that the entire process is unconstitutional. Each one of our Congressmen are to represent us, not a committee of Congressmen.

Now we learn that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) were not among the 72 House Republicans who signed a letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction asking the committee not to call for increasing taxes. In fact, there are 172 Republicans who have not signed the anti-tax pledge.

Republicans seem always to fall into the Democrat trap that if you wait out the Republicans and throw a great deal of negative press at them with the help of the almost totally liberal media, Republicans will eventually cave into Democrat demands. Democrats know they can relax because in the end, Republicans don’t like to be thought ill of. They have a terrible inferiority complex. They want to be liked; they need to be liked.

I live in the district that was formally represented by Larry McDonald. Rep. McDonald was a Democrat in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson. He, like Ron Paul, was a medical doctor. Like Ron Paul, McDonald was called “Dr. No” because he voted against every government program that could not be supported by the Constitution, even if the vote would have benefitted his district.

Unlike Ron Paul, McDonald understood the reality of foreign threats and believed it was necessary to defend against the possibility of that threat becoming a reality. He did not trust the notion that if we leave them alone that they’ll leave us alone.

Larry McDonald was aboard KAL Flight 007 on September 1, 1983 when it was shot down by the Soviet Union over the Sea of Japan. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed. His mistrust of aggressive foreign powers was no illusion.

Just like the memory of Larry McDonald has been lost on most Americans, there are still too many rhetorical conservatives who have forgotten McDonald’s principled voting record when it came to taxes. Cut taxes, cut spending. That’s how you run a country.

If you want to know if your Congressman signed the anti-tax increase pledge, go here.