Archive for the ‘Republicans’ Category
RNC Chairman Steele: It’s Partly Racism
Monday, April 5th, 2010RNC Chairman says the attacks he’s receiving are partly racism and that blacks have a smaller margin of error. I’d say that’s true for some few people, just as it’s true for some small segments who have disliked Obama from the beginning. Mostly though, it’s sore-loserism and establishment-ism and power-ism. You know, those “isms” that define Washington, D.C.
Here’s the video of the Chairman’s comments.
How about this for a theory?
1. Establishment Republicans see their power dwindling and they want to control the money.
2. The Crossroads business was hatched before last week when operatives from within this new money-seeking organization denounced their competition, the RNC–these people are going after the same dollars after all.
3. Republicans angry at Steele for saying the truth, that he’s not sure they’re ready to take the helm back, decided to gun for his demise.
You know, people are so sick of the Republicans. These guys demonstrated a frustrating inability to enact measures to trim the government’s power when they were in power.
I see nearly zero reason to believe that they govern much differently once back in power. For months, they fought the influence of the Tea Party movement and even now, some establishment candidates grit their teeth about this growing movement. They have a vision for Republicans in America–it’s big government, big business, big power.
Now, some have seen religion. They are terrified and want to get re-elected. But most who face primary challenges seem offended that they have to go through such lowly politicking to do the job they feel entitled to do.
In addition, those forming the Crossroads group, seem to ignore how this looks to people who now pay attention. It looks like the same old D.C. power plays. It looks like division and pettiness. It looks like the Mitch McConnell-Bush wing of the Republican party doesn’t want to let go.
Guess what: they were voted out for a reason.
Now, a person reading this might construe me as some worshipful devoté of the RNC and its leadership. I’m not. I’m just an observer who doesn’t believe, for one instant, that this Crossroads group is anything but an organization grown and built to support the Republican D.C. establishment while Chairman Steele is trying to strike the balance between an old and new Republican party.
Many Republicans don’t want a new party. They don’t want a younger, more diverse and more fiscally conservative party. It does not serve THEM.
They want power. It’s naive to think anything else.
So is it racism? Maybe a little bit. But really, it’s just Republican politics as usual.
P.S. The Republicans outside the RNC are questioning the judgment of Chairman Steele, right? Well, I question their judgment dividing the leadership during a year when Republicans are sure to win big because the Democrats are even more horrible than Republicans. What sort of wisdom do they have? How smart is it to divide the party on the eve of a big win. Yeah. Typical Republicans: shooting themselves in the feet.
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McCain Verses Hayworth
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010Robert Stacy McCain at the American Spectator (doing great work, by the way, subscribe to their magazine) writes about the Senate primary race in Arizona. A couple money quotes:
“Obviously, the gulf between my opponent’s rhetoric and the reality is so great it exceeds the geographic dimensions of our own Grand Canyon,” Hayworth says. “It’s more than a credibility gap, it’s a credibility canyon.… If he was really concerned about [the influence of political contributions], he certainly seems to have gotten over it very quickly.”
Whether McCain’s big money will be enough to secure his re-election, it undoubtedly gives him advantages against Hayworth, whose low-budget campaign doesn’t expect to match the incumbent dollar-for-dollar in the five months between now and the August 24 primary.
“We know we’re not going to out-raise him,” Hayworth says. “We’re not going to out-spend him.”
No way! John McCain is using big money to win an election? I thought he wanted money out of campaigns?
And then there is the recent hard tack to the right. It seems John McCain suddenly finds the border issue an important law enforcement issue:
But 2010 is not 2004, and in the intervening years, McCain led a legislative push to grant amnesty to illegal aliens — a very unpopular stance in Arizona, especially with Republican and conservative-leaning independents. (Arizona election law allows registered independents to vote in either party primary.) A Rasmussen poll last year found that Arizona voters considered immigration a more important issue than health-care reform and 65 percent said “enforcing the borders is more important than legalizing the status of those already living here.”
The immigration issue has “gotten bigger” in Arizona recently, Hayworth says, after a Cochise County rancher was found shot dead Saturday near the Mexican border, a crime that law-enforcement officials suggest was committed by illegal aliens or smugglers who have made the border an increasingly dangerous place.
“Border security is national security and it is time that we enforce the law,” Hayworth said in a press release reacting to the killing of 58-year-old Rob Krentz, whose family has owned a cattle ranch near the border for more than a century. “For thousands of Arizonans, border security is also quite literally a matter of personal security.”
I came thisclose to headlining the post “comedy gold.” What miracles hath this Hayworth primary challenge wrought!
From the man who once famously groused about conservatives’ desire to build a “goddamned fence” and then denied voting for it when pressed by Univision during the campaign, I give you John McCain — border warrior:
This is why primaries are so important. I’m guessing the reason that John McCain is finding his conservative soul is because his internal polling looks terrible.
So many of these politicians have sat in Washington, ignored American sentiment, and ignored their own constituents. There are many races where I feel less than enthusiastic about the primary challenger, but the incumbent has such a long history of betraying fiscal conservatism and self-aggrandizement, that I want them to go.
Politics should not be a lifetime sport with lush retirement package. But that’s how it goes now, in DC. Politicians get into office, get bought off by big interests, and then stay in office with the money received from those big interests. John McCain’s McCain-Feingold act made the problem even worse–but it turned out better for John McCain. The law protected incumbents.
Well, there should be no protection for incumbents. They should have to defend their positions, defend their votes and be at least marginally responsive to their constituents. I mean, at least pretend you give a damn what your voters think. Man.
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When Will The Left Stop The Climate Of Hate?
Monday, March 29th, 2010In unsurprising news today, a leftist whack-job gets arrested for threatening to kill Representative Eric Cantor. Jammie Wearing Fool has the best post on this and says:
Funny how there hasn’t been a single arrest resulting from any of the alleged acts of violence against Democrats of late but here we have a real incident resulting in an arrest.
He’s a loon. Here’s his video via Michelle Malkin:
Michelle says:
There’s some confusion about whether the LeBoon in the videos is LeBoon “senior” or “junior” (or even whether a “Norman LeBoon Jr.” exists) and it’s not clear whether the “Norman LeBoon” of Philadelphia listed in the campaign finance disclosure database that JWF links is the same one charged by the FBI. But point about the double standards taken.
In any case, this dude seems certifiably loony and dangerous — no matter which political candidates he may or may not have supported. Glad the FBI took it seriously. Period.
From the Press Release:
Today, a two-count complaint and warrant was filed charging Norman Leboon with threatening to kill United States Congressman Eric Cantor and his family, and threatening to kill Congressman Eric Cantor, who is an official of the United States, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jan Fedarcyk. As set forth in the affidavit to the complaint and warrant, in or about late March, 2010, Leboon created and then transmitted a YouTube video to Google over the internet, in which he threatened to kill Congressman Cantor and his family. No harm came to the Congressman or his family as a result of Leboon’s threats.
“The Department of Justice takes threats against government officials seriously, especially threats to kill or injure others,” said Levy. “Whether the reason for the threat is personal or political, threats are not protected by the First Amendment and are crimes.”
Crazy pants. Now, let’s see the left spin this yarn.
Podcast: Karl Rove Shames The LA Times Blogger Andrew Malcolm At The Reagan Library
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Andrew and Melissa contemplate whether Obama has a chance in 2012, the consequences of health care reform, his humiliating evening with Karl Rove and Benjamin Netanyahu’s humiliating evening with the President.
Listen here. Do it now.
Legislators Legislate. It’s What They Do.
Friday, March 26th, 2010When I send a patient for a surgical consult, I expect a surgical answer. A surgeon does surgery. It’s what they do. They cut and fix and see the world through the lens of a scalpel. It’s not right or wrong. It just is. You don’t go to a surgeon to sue a business partner or balance your books or invest your money. You don’t go to a surgeon to give you nutritional advice or to solve your relationship trouble. You go to a surgeon for surgery.
I bring up this analogy to explain Congress.
Legislators legislate. They make laws. Their constituents see problems that need solutions. Someone says, “There ought to be a law” and they make a law. Legislators legislate. It’s what they do.
In a sense, there is no “small government” Congressman because their whole purpose is to make laws. And laws, by definition, proscribe behavior. Making laws makes the government bigger and more power and more invasive in your life. This is why they are hated.
Laws, by definition, create lawbreakers. That is, until their is a law on the books, it’s not a crime to do fill-in-the-blank. Because America is drowning in laws, we’re also drowning in criminals. The government, if it were so motivated, has enough legal ammunition to put every American behind bars for something.
So when we hear Representative Paul Ryan praise a Democrat for good parts of the legislation, imagine a surgeon praising another surgeon for his “fine work”.
These guys love to make laws. They love the haggling. They love the collegiality. They love sparring. They LOVE the process. It’s fun to them. It’s like a game.
To some, it IS a game.
Who wins? Who loses? Who bested who? Who out-jousted Representative so-and-so on which morning show. It almost doesn’t matter what the law is about, really. It’s that it’s so damn cool to make a law. And even better, everyone has to do what I say. This is soooo awesome.
When talking to a surgeon friend of mine, he was lamenting the hours and the Medicaid fee reimbursement. I gloated about my free weekends, good hours and happy patients. He said,”But I get to cut.”
So for all the belly-aching you hear from Congressmen, they get to make laws. And laws make your life more constrained, more controlled and less yours. That’s the way it goes.
For fellow Americans expecting salvation from a certain party or group, keep in mind that in order to have the freedom and lack of invasive laws, Congressmen will have to work against their essential nature–making laws. Repealing laws is not a high priority with Congress, if you’ll notice.
Philosophically, they’re belief in the greatness of the individual and the force of that belief will have to outweigh their very human’s bent: to impose their will on someone else. Most of us don’t have the power bend others to our will. Congress has that power. And the power is heady stuff. That’s why there is so many big government Republicans. They wouldn’t be working in government if they didn’t think government was super fantastically great.
All legislators are not to be trusted. Their role is antithetical to freedom. It just is. That’s why there are checks and balances and separation of power, etc. That’s why there are elections.
With legislators spending all their time in Washington, D.C. (Nancy Pelosi loves it that way), they are distant from their constituents, their districts and their states. Their brains marinate in the D.C. power juice and they forget why they’re in DC. Or rather, their mission shifts to pleasing their party masters, big donors, lobbyists, etc. Those people pay the bills, after all.
The only solution is to stick on a Congress person like your life depends on it because these days, it actually does depend on it. And that’s the ultimate problem.
Eventually, the laws get more and more personal, until every aspect of your life is run by the guy who just received your vote.
Vote carefully.
The RNC Wins With FireNancyPelosi.Com
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010The Republican National Committee launched FireNancyPelosi.com immediately upon the passage of the health care bill by House Democrats. It has been a flaming success raising far more money than they even expected within hours of putting up the site.
Todd Herman, Director of New Media says:
With barely any advance advertising (ads only went up late Monday morning), these digital patriots adopted the #FirePelosi hashtag. http://www.newds.biz, which tracks conservative-leaning tweets, had “Fire Pelosi” at the top of their rankings within hours. Over 150 people per-hour were using GOP.com’s Tweet-Bomb to announce their donations and, to get the Fire Pelosi banner on the Twitter avatars. On Monday morning, “Fire Pelosi” was on Google Trends, and hours later, RNC and GOP had become ranked fourth and fifth on the same list. Embeddable widgets provided on the site were quickly posted on pages all over the internet, and less than 12 hours after Pelosi passed her disastrous bill , the RNC blew past its fundraising goal of $402,010. (We’ve since set a new goal at http://www.FireNancyPelosi.com.) Monday at 8:00, we were closing in on our second fundraising goal of $842,010.
This is a tremendous success, and full credit is owed to the new wave of online Republican activists. They who turned this campaign to remove the gavel from Nancy Pelosi’s hand into something special, and this November, they will see it through to its end. The Republican National Committee is proud to stand with these patriots.
They are only a few thousand away from raising one million dollars in 48 hours. Amazing, really. And heartening.
Want to give credit where credit is due. This is an excellent effort by the organization. Now, hopefully, the money will go to conservative candidates who will undo the mess Pelosi made.
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Guest Post: Chairman Steele’s Words On Health Care & Texas
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
This weekend, Americans across the country watched in disbelief as Nancy Pelosi ignored the U.S. Constitution and brazenly exploited the legislative process to ram a government health care takeover through Congress. Speaker Pelosi’s use of a parliamentary tactics in order to pass a partisan piece of legislation that effects one-sixth of our nation’s economy is nothing short of reprehensible – she must be stopped.
Speaker Pelosi feels she has the authority to do whatever she feels regardless of the consequences for workers and families. We saw this first hand Sunday as she forced a government health care takeover through Congress with reckless abandon. Even worse, most members of the Democrat caucus – including several Texas Democrats – were more than willing to ignore their own constituents and support her liberal agenda.
Pelosi used these deceptive tactics in hopes that the American people wouldn’t be watching closely enough to notice the simple truth. This government health care takeover will increase taxes, raise premiums and cut Medicare benefits to seniors. Not to mention the trillion dollars she is adding to the federal deficit – a debt that Americans will be paying off for decades to come.
Nancy Pelosi promised to lead the most open and honest Congress in our history, yet she hardly seems to be living up to her word. Speaker Pelosi used sweetheart deals and arm-twisting tactics in order to garner enough votes to pass this despicable piece of legislation.
Our nation needs leaders who will truly act in an open and honest manner and Speaker Pelosi hardly fits the bill. She has repeatedly treated the American people with the utmost contempt and Nancy Pelosi MUST be fired. We need Americans to speak out against this injustice and I am asking for your help to make sure Nancy Pelosi knows that her radical leftist agenda is not welcome in our Congress.
I need you to pledge your support to help fire her and every Democrat who aided her in pursuing this shameful agenda. The best way to send this message is to give these Democrats the boot and help Republicans regain the majority in the United States House of Representatives. The voice of the people was ignored on health care as Democrats across the country voted against their constituents, but with your help we will make certain to return the favor and vote against the Democrats this November.
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Meg Whitman Weirdness
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010What in the heck?
I wasn’t impressed with Meg Whitman at Western CPAC. Her delivery was flat. She seemed disinterested and bored and it was at the beginning of the campaign to a friendly audience. I don’t think she likes politics very much, but likes ruling things a lot.
P.S. I’m only interested in California because it’s so big and has so much impact on the rest of the country.
No, Republicans Wouldn’t Repeal Health Care Reform
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
One of the most maddening arguments from overly-optimistic friends of mine goes like this: Even if the Democrats pass health care reform, Republicans can run against it and say they’d repeal it and then look like heroes when they do it.
The only problem with this flawed logic? The veto pen of Barack Obama for two more years. The only other problem with this flawed logic? David Harsanyi captures it:
To begin with, there exists almost no historical evidence to suggest Republicans will possess either the fortitude or the power to undo a massive government entitlement program.
Can we trust them? Most of you will remember it was the Republican Party’s leadership that pressured conservatives to vote for the fiscally irresponsible Medicare Part D program in 2003. (Democrats like to argue that this illustrates GOP hypocrisy. Perhaps. With Obamacare, the GOP has a chance at redemption.)
Then there are conspicuous problems to consider. Republicans do not possess 60 votes in the Senate — and likely won’t for awhile. Best case scenario, they will have to deal with a president who will veto their efforts to undo the sole “accomplishment” of his presidency.
Obama spent last week campaigning for health care reform, at one point getting some college-age fans worked up about all the free stuff — “free” preventive care and “free” checkups, and so forth — they would receive if his version of health care reform passed.
Which brings us to another stumbling block. If health care is now a “right” and “free” to an ever-growing group of Americans — people who believe stuff can be had for “free” — are Republicans really going to snatch it away from them?
You can already picture the hideous debate, as Republicans fold in the face of accusations that they are working for the murderous profit- mongers against the underprivileged victims of a wretched capitalistic system. (Even today, Jim Bunning stood nearly alone.)
What, in all the years of watching Republicans in action gives any conservative, libertarian or even small-government moderate any faith in these people? It suggest a sweet idealism that I find refreshing, but also stupid.
Every shred of energy needs to be expended to prevent this disaster from starting. Those who suggest it can be repealed need to think of a drug user. Heroin is extraordinarily addictive. Stopping a person after the first hit, is nigh to impossible. After the third? Forget it.
Those who suggest repealing this bill, will be asking heroin addicts across the country to take themselves off the drug. That’s what government entitlements are: Societal Drugs. They hook a person, and he doesn’t even know he’s dying until it’s too late and his freedom is gone.
Better to hide the drugs and destroy them forever, than to allow a person one hit. This health care bill MUST be stopped now or there will be no stopping it later.
Why Rick Perry Won: Thoughts From A Texan
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Over at the New Ledger, Ben Domenech interviews Rick Perry and muses over Perry’s success. He says:
It’s a funny thing how political predictions work. When Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison declared her candidacy for the governorship of Texas, few would’ve bet against her — popular, moderate, and established, the ex-cheerleader who loves the cameras seemed a perfect fit for the limited authority (and sizable promotional duties) of the Texas governor’s mansion.
Except at some point, when no one outside Texas was paying attention, Rick Perry got good at politics. By understanding the zeitgeist of the 2010 cycle and connecting with a surprising upsurge in populism, Perry somehow managed to make an anti-establishment case to the voters despite serving as governor for a decade — an impressive feat for any incumbent.
Perhaps a small quibble: The problem for politicians is being perceived as voting D.C. interests over voting the voters’ interest. In Kay Bailey Hutchison’s case, she is perceived as D.C.
The other problem for national Republican incumbents is being perceived as standing for big government, big spending, big regulation, and big invasion into Americans’ lives. That will be a problem for state-wide politicians, too…except for maybe California.
Rick Perry was very smart over the last year and half. He had a misstep when he talked about mandating Gardisil vaccinations for all Texas girls. After that “big government intervention” backfire, Perry got the message loud and clear: Bug out.
And so he has.
More than any other politician, he has consistently told Washington, D.C. “no” for the last two years. That has won him big points in Texas and won him envy among citizens unfortunate enough to live anywhere but Texas.
It should not also be ignored that Texas is humming along economically. By Texas standards, the economy isn’t wonderful, but it’s doing so much better than the rest of the nation, citizens are wanting to keep a good thing going. Who can blame them?
Who can blame Perry for paying attention to the feeling of his constituents? Funny thing, that. So many politicians in D.C. still want to do what they want to do, not what their constituents want.
Ben asked Governor Perry about the Tea Party movement and populism. Perry said this:
I think what you’re seeing now is the result of years of people’s frustration with government frittering away their hard earned money. It was fermenting in the mind and soul of the public for years, but I think you started to see a real response to it in mid 2008. They were really frustrated with what they saw, particularly from Republicans, when it came to handling governing.
Now this is self-evident truth, unless you’re a moderate Republican hell-bent on being Porky-the-Pig. It has been utterly astonishing how arrogant and out of touch D.C. Republicans, the ones voters count on to be the grown ups, have been.
As for the populism, Perry says:
I’m not sure I’d put it as just “populist” — I’d say it was common sense. I see regular people who started to look around and see a Congress and a president who are on a path that is very socialistic. They’re seeing things happen in Washington that are way out of their comfort zone. And because of that, they’re afraid for their country.
Again, this will be considered a genius statement only because D.C. Republicans are so out of touch, or have been. And Kay Bailey Hutchison, while living and immersed in D.C. culture, totally misjudged Texas sentiment and culture. She is not alone in her Stockholm-like syndrome. Once inside the D.C. bubble, it seems rational thought and common sense go out the window. That’s why the voters nationally are anti-D.C. anybody–Republican or Democrat.
Rick Perry sums up the national mood:
That’s easy. Any Republican candidate, any Republican activist or consultant or what have you, who is not paying attention will be so much roadkill.
The gravity of this, the weight of it, the momentum — whatever you want to call it, I’m convinced it’s unstoppable. You can join with this movement, and most people who are comfortable in the Republican Party should be very comfortable with what’s being said, or you can find another line of work.
Go read the whole article. It’s not difficult to see why people look to Texas and to Governor Perry.
