What I find so mind numbing about all this is hearing now what I heard 20 years ago…and it hasn’t changed…Democrats keep advancing the ball toward the Socialist end zone and we keep giving ground because we’re in prevent defense instead of on offense…

Well…we’re in the red zone and they’re about to win the game with a last second touchdown…the time for prevent defense has long since past…either we focus on aggressive Defense…with the entire team focused on stopping them and those on the team who refuse to stop turning over the ball to the other team need to assume a long overdue seat on the bench! ONce they’re stopped…we can’t afford to let them have the ball again…we need to stay on offense and start focusing on reducing the size and scope of government. I’m not talking about limiting the amount of growth in government but in driving it back towards it’s natural constraints as prescribed in the Constitution!

Something like that is what I’d do with “our” errant three senators; get a committment on procedural votes including cloture votes and if they won’t give it, who needs them in the caucus? Then they can officially suck up to their Democrat “friends.”

BTW, wasn’t WV the home of the Hatfields and the McCoy’s? That is what this thread is starting to sound like.

Ace, I respect and admire you for sticking with your principles and opinions as to the fate of the Republican Party. It seemed a no-brainer to me that we were told at the ballot box in 2006 and 2008 that when you become a slightly darker shade of pale, the real Democrat/Liberal will win every time. With the Liberals you know how they are going to vote every time. With the quasi-Republicans you just never know what surprise good or bad might be lurking around the corner, which spells no confidence to the discipline Republicans need to grab onto and hold if they ever dream of coming out of the wastelands.

From the comments on this thread, and on the site in general there is no sense of unity between the moderates/compromisers and the principled conservatives. The party is as broken as it ever was, and I don’t have much hope that Steele will rally anyone into one place, particularly using language like “hip hop.”

But by your math 2 or three good appellate and circuit court judges at the expense of hundreds more is a victory because we avoided being excessively partisan and we cat 1% of what we wanted!

The same thing happens in Senate races in states like MA.

What some Republicans fail to get through their thick skulls is that Republicans simply *can’t* win in certain Blue States (remember – Arnie only got in on a fluke). ECons like to pretend that everything is SoCons fault, but the fact is *neither* ECon or SoCon policy (or even NatSacCon) plays in states like CA – these guys (the majority Coastal voters) are Commie Red, Red, Red and will be for the forseeable future.

So rather than wasting resources on these states, we need to run against them nationally, and scare places like OH and WI that “if they’re not careful, they’ll become just like CA & MA”.

But in states like CA, the GOP should focus on the inland GOP areas, and basically write it off statewide and Coastally (failing some massive scandal that tarnishes the Dem brand statewide – but those only come along every couple of decades) – it’s not worth the time or the effort.

But what do I know…I don’t understand Politics…and I’m unteachable!

I know your experience…but I also can see 70 years of history and what doing what you guys advocate have gotten us…

But what do I know…I’m un-teachable!

You clearly don’t get politics.

I know you don’t win buy constantly giving the other team the ball…and you don’t win by having 4 members of your team insisting on giving the other team the ball!

they won this time and in 2006 using a 50 state strategy! and they did it running Conservative Democrats to attract conservative votes

You’ll say that yeah…that’s why we need to use moderate Republicans just like the Dems used Conservative Democrats….but that’s not the point at all…you keep telling me how the Demographics are against us…but you refuse to acknowledge that the Dems win elections by acting like us…they win elections by using Conservative Democrats to defeat us…but when it comes to governing…those Conservative Democrats toe the line because the Dems make them toe it….they don’t bend over and take it!

I’ll say it again…we lost because people don’t see a difference between us and the Democrats…We lost not because there were more Democrats voting in 2006 and 2008…we lost because Conservatives were so disheartened an d didn’t turn out and the polls show it as a fact…so spare me the crap please…

We don’t win with these guys we lose…and the Stimulus bill is yet one more example of what we get by allowing to run rampant and force their view of the world on the rest of us!