What’s that mantra about repeating something often enough until it becomes a truth? Maybe that’s what top Democrats are trying to do in regard to the massive spending problem we have in our country right now. Pay no attention to the trillion-dollar deficit over the budget line!

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer have all said recently that we don’t have a spending problem. This week, Senator Tom Harkin publicly promoted the delusion, saying, “I want to disagree with those who say we have a spending problem.”

Kat Cammack is the 24-year-old girl wonder in House freshman Ted Yoho’s congressional office. The former pageant girl and head cheerleader is the unlikely congressman’s chief of staff, and she’s hoping to shake things up on the Hill.

Ted Yoho isn’t exactly what you’d expect to find roaming the halls of the Capitol, so it makes sense that his chief of staff isn’t either. He doesn’t come from the typical background of a lifelong career in politics or law -- he comes from the farm. Literally. Prior to challenging 12-term Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns in the primary last August, Yoho spent 30 years as a large animal veterinarian.

Anyone driving by Danny Hafley’s home in Casey County, Kentucky recently has probably done a double take over his choice of lawn ornaments. Rather than a plastic flamingo or ceramic gnome, Mr. Hafley has erected a life-sized mannequin in President Obama’s likeness. The figure is wearing a suit over jeans, and an Obama mask that was purchased after Halloween.

The statue is holding a giant slice of watermelon, but Hafley assured a local television station that it wasn’t about racial stereotyping, but because he “might get hungry standing out there.” He also claimed, “The way I look at it, it’s freedom of speech.”

If there is a silver lining to the Todd Akin story in Missouri it is that the Republicans were able to turn a negative into a postive by saying very clearly, "This is not who we are."

Akin, who is running for U.S. Senate in a tightly contested race against a female candidate, famously said that he was only in favor of abortion in the case of a "legitimate rape." He also made the statement that it was his understanding that not many rapes result in pregnancy because of a woman's ability to inhibit procreation in a hostile sexual encounter. The good news is some of the dinosaurs in the Republican Party, some of its most respected and most conservative members said, "Whaaaaaat?" and were willing to take a stand in this situation.

Mitt Romney’s advisors are no fools. He has chosen Paul Ryan, the ideologue of the Tea Party, as his running mate. And let’s be clear, in the veep vetting process, Ryan and others provided the Romney camp with several years of tax returns. Ahem.

I was hoping Mitt Romney would offer the American people a political olive branch to demonstrate his willingness to work across party lines to boost our nation. Instead, he has chosen a staunchly conservative political ally who is more concerned with beating Barack Obama than helping fellow Americans.

This tunnel-vision mentality continues to fuel the hubris of this ticket. We don’t need more entrenched partisanship, especially as vehement as Paul Ryan.

It is no secret that I loathe Mitt Romney. I think his campaign is fueled by hubris. He is disingenuous and crooked. Romney cares more about his cronies than the American people. He has no sense of what it is to be a working American and does not value the so called 99 percent. He is hopelessly out of touch. Romney has made disparaging comments about many segments of our population and continues to plaster on his Ken doll grin and coif his ever-so-perfect mane and stand on stage after stage berating Barack Obama. It seems all he can do is say “Obama sucks!” without filling in anything compelling, original, or productive. Sounds like a weak campaign strategy to me. And for the record, I do not begrudge the man his financial success. What he has in dollars he lacks in empathy and ethos. Mitt Romney needs to face up to his shortcomings and choose a running mate who will more than compensate for his dire lack of perspective.

Oh how Republicans and Democrats can squabble. We argue over policy. We talk about the constitutionality of Obamacare, the compassion for immigrants, the merits of school choice, and just about everything in between.

Not content to stop our competitiveness on the validity of our belief systems, we turn to which group is smarter. Or which possesses the more collective open mind. Who’s more content, we ask ourselves, in an endless race to prove our validity. It turns out, both groups are happier than the moderates.

There's a tempest brewing in a teapot, and who better to light the burner than the Tea Party? Seems members of the political movement have brought out the angry American in us with the Confederate flag they hoisted on their parade float. They say it's just historical, but here's the problem: they brought out that bit of "history" for the July 4th parade.

Not getting the irony yet? Perhaps a history lesson is in order: the members of the Las Cruces Tea Party celebrated our nation's Independence Day with a flag that represents a group that wanted independence FROM us!