Ed Maulbeck spent the bulk of his adult life as a member of the Navy, in service of the United States.

Now as candidate for U.S. Congress Ed stands out as the man who does not mince words. He tells you without reservation or pause where he stands on the issue, and in debates has been noted for holding his opponents to similar standards.

Ed and I sat down for a bit at his campaign office in Ocean View, and discussed life, politics, the race, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

When and why did you decide to get into the race?

Ran into Glenn Nye at an event in the summer of 2008 and to be honest I thought he was a little rude, but in hindsight I think he was actually shy. I looked at his resume, and said you know maybe this is something I should be doing. When I was younger I worked as a carpenter, and moved up to foremen, before joining the Navy to become a SEAL. I think I have the broad experience this district needs in its representative.

The wheels are flying off this country. I made the decision with the love and support of my wife of 20 years. She knew that I needed to do this, that we needed to do this.

There are a lot of candidates in this race. How is your campaigning style going to give you the advantage?

Maulbeck and wife, Maria.

I think I have knocked more doors than any other candidate. Also, I do not have a paid staff. We are working only with volunteers. Our support is not paid for. I have a “Kitchen Cabinet” of 10 individuals, and my wife is my campaign manager. Other campaigns can’t buy the motivation and creativity we have in our campaign.

Why do you think we have so many Navy SEALs in this race?

I can’t answer that because I was the first of these six Republican candidates to file as a candidate. Maybe, because every SEAL needs a swim buddy (chuckle).

What would you say is your pet issue?

My personal dilemma is earmarks, because I could never with a straight face bring this bacon home to the district. I am the only candidate who is also an acquisition professional so I have seen how DoD earmarks don’t work. It is often the wrong money, in the wrong place, in the hands of the wrong vendor. When you jam this money into the districts the taxpayer gets little to no return on the investment, and America loses. I might end-up being the poster child for the end of earmarks because the country can’t afford it.

What is the number one issue you are hearing from citizens?

People are pissed off and worried. While knocking on doors I also hear from Democrats that they too are scared about the direction of the country. Many Democrats even say they will vote for me in the primary because they can tell from meeting me that I’m a good person with good intentions.

Glenn Nye voted with Republicans on a number of the larger policy battles during his first term. Where do you draw a distinction in the general election?

He voted for Pelosi, and he voted for the first distribution of TARP funds. I see him as a young, vulnerable, freshmen Congressman in a “right of center” district. Democrats let him vote the way he does because they know how vulnerable he is. He voted against health care, but should that be a pass for him? Absolutely not, last summer when Representatives went back to their districts most of them had town hall meetings. Nye had none and was not accessible. Nye is a party puppet, someone who is controlled. I am the exact opposite of a party puppet.

Do you support offshore drilling here in Virginia?

Yes, but I also support proper environmental protection and safeguards.

What about the hesitancy from NASA and the Navy?

The Navy is paid not to bump into stuff out on the water, and so I do not think this is a real concern. I am very confident that between NASA, the Navy, and the oil companies we can figure out an amicable solution.

Do you have any additional proposals for meeting America’s energy needs?

For Virginia possibly wind power. I support a wind farm off the coast, but that is something I see going off the southern coast of Virginia. The infrastructure/grid to get the energy to market is south of the City of Virginia Beach that is where we can plug directly into the grid.

Do you support tax incentives to help jump start green energy businesses and initiatives?

Go Maulbeck!

I do not support the type of tax incentives that are needed for a specific type of energy in order to make it competitive. However, I am a huge fan of hybrids and diesels. I’d love see a diesel hybrid on the U.S. market. I own the “green car of the year,” the most fuel efficient production vehicle available in the U.S. I can cream a Prius on the highway in my 2009 VW Jetta clean diesel. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records for traversing the continental U.S. at an average over 58 mpg. That has never been done in a production car. Maybe I’m the green candidate? If elected this is the car I will be driving back and forth to Washington. We even used recycled materials for our commercial campaign signs…

If you could show people one place in the district to sum up the best we have to offer where would it be?

It depends on the person really. I would not necessarily show them the Oceanfront. Actually, this building (The Ed Maulbeck for Congress Headquarters) we are in has the highest view in East Beach. The 4th floor is a roof top deck. From there you can see the tops of the Navy ships in Little Creek Harbor, and on a clear day Fort Monroe and the Chesapeake Bay almost up to the Eastern Shore. Often when the wind is right you can hear Colors on Base. It sends a chill down your spine.

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.

I think we could have gotten the 10% unemployment rate for free, and we did not need to pay tens of billions of dollars for it. We cannot keep extending unemployment benefits and expect people will get back to work. As for the “Obamacare” Bill… I’ve only met one business person who is happy health care passed. Everyone else understood their lives just got worse, however, they just don’t know exactly how to quantify it yet. It seems like everything our President is doing is counterintuitive to creating jobs. Yet, even with all of this going on we have federal jobs fairs going on like crazy. Are we out of our minds! We have no business hiring more government employees.

I will not make empty promises. I don’t have all the answers, but I am a quick study. If elected, I guarantee you will always get a conservative and patriotic vote from someone that listens to you. If there are Republicans that are not acting like Republicans, I will make them act like Republicans. If no one has the stomach to lead this effort than I will lead it. The stakes are too high, we must take back our country!

If you could meet one person throughout history who would it be?

Benjamin Netanyahu. I think he is a courageous man. Look what happened recently at the U.N. with Iran’s Ahmadinejad. The way he handled himself was very inspirational. He is a scrapper, and I like that.

Have you gotten a lot of support from your military colleagues?

Yes I have. I am also the only candidate in this race that has devoted the bulk of my adult life to service to my country on active –duty. I joined the Navy at 23 years old, I served 8 years as an enlisted SEAL and then over 12 years as a SEAL Officer and retired 18 months ago.

Do you think the primary has been unfairly weighted for Scott Rigell?

It is a very interesting race, because someone with a lot of money can pull this off while the others are busy fighting with each other. Rigell is the proclaimed front runner. According to the National Republican Congressional Committee you wouldn’t know there was another candidate running in this primary. Gary Byler (Republican Chairman of the Virginia’s 2^nd Congressional District) told me straight up not to run because they had chosen their nominee. The Party doesn’t get to pick the nominee the voters do!

Do you think that money is diluting our democracy?

Absolutely, and I don’t think it’s specific to this race. I don’t think that our Founding Fathers ever envisioned a multi-billion dollar industry that markets and packages poor political candidates.

A couple of your opponents are discussing term limits. Do you support them?

I do not support them; we likely would not be having this conversation if we had quality political leadership. I think things could get even worse with more turnovers; turnover will not create the quality leadership that we so desperately need. I’m more interested in getting quality representation than in kicking people out of office.

What do you think the biggest eyesore in the 2^nd district?

All of the political signs. Almost all of the other candidates have illegally placed commercial signs throughout the district. There are no “Ed Maulbeck for Congress” signs illegally placed anywhere, I know because I placed all of them with volunteers.

Thai food or burger?

I like to go to Costco for a hotdog. It’s fast and cheap $1.69.

What are your thoughts on national immigration policy?

I do not support what you would call amnesty. We have great federal laws on the books that we have chosen not to enforce for some time. I think we could do three huge things as a country. We need to change the environment so that no one feels comfortable enough to come live openly in our country illegally, without the fear of being caught. There needs be criminal penalties for companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. If you are in our country illegally you should never feel comfortable enough to show up at our hospitals. If you show up it better be life-threatening and you should expect to then be deported… with the bill. I look at controlling our borders more as a national security issue.

What we have created is a major human issue by turning our backs to our own immigration laws for decades. We have illegal immigrants with children throughout the school systems. How do we now deal with this, is the big question. I have a buddy who reported illegal immigrants to federal authorities; they treated him like a criminal and never followed-up on this legitimate complaint. This is the problem.

Social security seems to be a metaphorical fiscal sword hanging over our nation. Do you have a specific proposal for how we can continue to provide this, or some other retirement security?

How do we deal with it? Now that we stole from it, citizens are owed a return on their investment in Social Security. We dare not tell those close to retirement that what the paid into for a life-time is not there for them. Could we phase out Social Security? The government proved they can’t save our money better than we can. The problem is: it is near impossible to get rid of these social programs once started.

Everyone seems to be anti-taxes in this race. Do you have any specific stances in regards to tax policy that make you stand out?

Some of the candidates signed up for Grover Norquist’s pledge. I won’t sign up for something that will limit my ability to do the right thing. If you pay no taxes now, I will not guarantee that you will not have to start paying some at some point in the future. That being said I would like to reduce the overall tax burden to those that do pay taxes. In principle, I love the FairTax, the idea of taxing consumption and not income is the ideal model.

However I have my reservations. Part of the FairTax Bill entails a multiple year transition while retaining the 16^th amendment; I think that is a huge leap of fate. You would have both of these taxes running concurrently. The proposed FairTax would be a 23% sales tax by the federal government. If this became the case I have to say as a common sense guy there would be many unreported financial transactions that the federal government will never see a penny on. Also to think the IRS is not going to be needed anymore, as many do, is simply not correct. We would need a huge policing force to enforce this new tax, and there would still be significant personnel involved. This is a really rough time to turn the entire tax system on its’ end. We have an extremely weak economy right now.

As a Navy veteran, what is your take on the “Save the Carrier” effort?

I see the carrier move as something that has already occurred. The Navy is pulling the trigger on the move. The money to fund the move is planned to go to the Navy this October. What the Navy is doing now is contract development to execute the infrastructure upgrades to Mayport, FL. Those upgrades will be underway well before the 112^th Congress goes into session. As a newly elected Congressmen that is feeling the pain of over $1.1M a day being sucked out of the economy, what are you to do at that point? As for Congressman Nye and Senator Webb, shame on them. Florida finally pulled this one off as they were both asleep at the switch.

I would really like to see them fight for our region’s proper share of the new Littoral Combat Ship fleet. With this class of ship also come mission modules for the modular ship. We need to ensure the proper deployment of those assets in the region also. The problem is no one seems to be talking about the Littoral Combat Ship.

What is the best movie you saw in the last year?

Avatar, in 3-D Imax.

OK onto the real important stuff… meat and potatoes. Best rock band of all time?

I think the best “artist” of all time is Alice Cooper. I have been a fan since I was 12 years old. I also really like Ted Nugent.

What is your favorite Alice Cooper song?

Elected. (note from Jay- watch this video now)

Does your campaign have a theme song?

No, but that might be it.