If the GOP doesn’t adopt and implement a “scorched earth policy” prior to the 2010 mid-terms, it may be too late to save our Republic. It will almost certainly be too late to save the GOP, as it will have lost the will to fight, along with any hope of regaining its credibility with the American electorate.

Our current federal debt obligation is approximately $63.8 Trillion, and will likely increase an additional $3.5 Trillion by the end of 2010. Many economists are predicting a “double-dip” in 2010, and given the 111^th Congress and its propensity to spend other people’s money, the federal debt obligation may exceed $70 Trillion.

Even though many are not yet born, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are broke. The first baby-boomer will turn 65 in 2011, and the debt obligation only skyrockets from that point going forward. The unemployment rate will undoubtedly reach double-digits later this year, or early 2010. The GOP can go-along-to-get-along and share the blame for the impending fiscal disaster, or stand up and fight both tooth-and-nail against the progressive’s agenda of redistribution, and stop the madness.

If the partisan press successfully deflects the blame for the impending fiscal crisis away from President Obama and the Democrats, even just a little, there will be no GOP advantage in 2012, and no grin. The foundation must be laid now, and the GOP must be battle-ready before the 2010 mid-terms.

The fiscal battle is but one theater.

The federal judiciary is another, and of equal importance, as it directly impacts the constitutional principles of our Founding, and thus, the longevity of our Republic.

Allow these words from Thomas Jefferson to provide food for thought regarding the federal judiciary, judicial activism and future confirmation battles:

“The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our Constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to forget the maxim, ‘boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem.’” –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 1820. ME 15:297

“It has long been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression,… that the germ of dissolution of our Federal Government is in the constitution of the Federal Judiciary–an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow), working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the States and the government be consolidated into one. To this I am opposed.” –Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821. ME 15:331

“At the establishment of our Constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions nevertheless become law by precedent, sapping by little and little the foundations of the Constitution and working its change by construction before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life if secured against all liability to account.” –Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823. ME 15:486

(Note: Mr. Jefferson didn’t always hold this less than honorable opinion of the federal judiciary. It was earned.)

We (our constitutional Republic) can’t afford for the GOP to wage a defensive battle in response to President Obama’s agenda of redistribution and empathy. The stakes are too high. The GOP must seize the initiative and adopt a scorched earth policy that forces President Obama and the Democrats to defend everything.

Fiscal Responsibility and Judicial Reform are good starting points. Follow-up with Energy Independence, Education, Taxes, National Security and Entitlement Reform before President Obama and the Democrats have a chance to respond to the prior. Repeat the cycle as often as necessary, but stay ahead of the Democratic response.