Comments on: Joe Scarborough: How History Repeats Itself

By: luze

luze — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:38:03 +0000

You kinda make it seem like Lois Benson was a political flip-flopper when you wrote, “Benson, a Republican who turned Democrat then turned Republican again” but the truth is if you moved to Pensacola as a Republican back in the late 70′s, early 80′s, as she did you basically HAD to become a Democrat in order to have any significant voice in the political conversation. The Democrat Party WAS the party of the South. The Republican party had NO voice so being a Republican back then, especially as it related to local politics, was useless. That she then turned back to being a Republican doesn’t say as much about her changing her beliefs as it does about the South changing its voting behavior and leaving the Democrat Party.

By: scubadiver49er

scubadiver49er — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:00:01 +0000

From another of Jeff Danklefsen’s supporters on Ethan Hastert.

“Ethan Hastert is a young attorney located in Elburn, (Illinois) with no worthwhile experience. He is probably a nice guy, but that is nepotism at its worst. His dad did a decent job of serving us, until the last year or two. Then he “did a number on us,” possibly in anticipation of retiring. I know dozens of Republican voters who are STILL “steamed” about that. And now he wants his son to take his place? No thanks. Ethan Hastert’s only “qualification” is that his dad was Speaker. Now I wouldn’t give Denny Hastert the time of day. He has forfeited all the honor and respect I once had for him. There are some decent candidates running. The RNC’s action is an insult to (the Illinois) 14th District GOP voters. The RNC should “get lost.” All it has done lately is screw up, waste money, lose elections and alienate GOP voters. Conservative voters are the largest voting bloc, but the RNC has been working overtime to drive them away”.

Me again. I’m also one of those still “steamed” that Hastert quit on us in this District, IL-14. Jeff, a real conservative who believes in upholding our Constitution, is my guy, and many others as well, and I don’t want his efforts short circuited by the NRCC or the RNC, who know absolutely NOTHING about what’s going on back here. Please go to this site for more!! You will not be disappointed in what you’ll see.

www.jeff14.com

By: Jack_Savage

Jack_Savage — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:24:21 +0000

I would be interested to learn more about it. The last thing we need is another Hastert in the House.

By: scubadiver49er

scubadiver49er — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:22:02 +0000

Here we go again. Conservative Jeff Danklefsen is running for the IL14 seat in Illinois on the Republican ticket, and will have his name on the ballot in the upcoming 2010 Primary. I found out yesterday that the NRCC has already “anointed” Hastert Jr. who is a moderate at best, to represent the constituents in this District. Hastert Sr. didn’t properly plan for his successor and left us high & dry, to where Dem. Bill Foster got himself elected on BHO’s coattails. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!! Mr. Sessions & Co., WE THE PEOPLE want to choose who will represent us in the upcoming 2010 election, and not who YOU decide, in some out of state committee, who doesn’t represent what WE want. Will you ever get this message??? I wonder how many other Districts he’s done this to? I’ll bet more that we can guess, and maybe as far as “preselecting” all of them?!?!?

By: Chieftain1776

Chieftain1776 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:59 +0000

I’m pretty sure I originally got it from Redstate. The whole thing is remarkable stuff, just substitute Ron Paul for Ross Perot. Here are some snippets:

The Democrats came out of the political wilderness on Tuesday. The Republicans entered it.

The Democrats set aside all the self-doubts, the years of feeling on the wrong side of history, the election nights when the proud party of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy seemed consigned to a painful irrelevance.

Ahead is the challenge of governing, and the clear accountability that comes with controlling both Congress and the White House. No more political cover for the Democrats, no more room for fingerpointing between Capitol Hill and the White House, no more excuses.

But the Republicans face the hard, brutal struggle of deciding who they are, resolving the tensions between moderates, conservatives, evangelical Christians, country-clubbers, supply-siders, suburbanites — all the disparate elements held together by Ronald Reagan that collapsed under President Bush.

…
Republicans, for their part, face a much more fundamental task, as any Democrat who tried to pick up the pieces after 1980, 1984 and 1988 will attest. Their long hegemony in Presidential politics is over, and it did not leave the lasting gains in Congress or below that many Republicans had hoped for. Their political professionals seem sapped by the long, enervating campaign of Mr. Bush, and the exit polls carried chilling news, notably the strength of Mr. Clinton among the young.

The faultlines in the party are clear, beginning with the social agenda of the religious right, including abortion. And ahead lies the challenge of finding a new governing conservatism that can regain the loyalties of voters who seem to demand a new domestic agenda and who simply seemed to lose faith with the Republicans on the economy, as they lost faith with the Democrats 12 years ago. All of this will play out in the early jockeying for 1996. Appeal to Perot

Many Republicans are expecting a fight as the party enters its wilderness sojourn. “The first verbal assault will come from the right, which will argue that if the Republicans were just purer, they’d be in no trouble,” said Representative Jim Leach, a moderate Iowa Republican. “The second assessment, from the more mainstream and the public at large, will be that the party has become too co-opted by narrow groups.”

Mr. Leach added, “I personally think a great challenge for the party will be to establish a sense of tolerance.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/05/nyregion/1992-elections-world-analysis-dawn-new-politics-challenges-for-both-parties.html?pagewanted=all

By: bart

bart — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:11:54 +0000

with your thesis, Eric. JBRISTOR called it correctly. Joe’s current ridicule of the far right, on air and in his recent book, is the real Joe.

By: Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:56:55 +0000

I knew that didn’t sound right. Misread the article. Fixed.

By: vamoose

vamoose — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:46:36 +0000

“Note that the Contract With America was not unveiled and signed until two weeks before the 1994 election.”

CWA was introduced on September 27, 1994 on the steps of the US Capitol. That would be five weeks before the election. Still, that’s a relatively short period in the context of campaign time lines.

By: BigGator5

BigGator5 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:36:43 +0000

As the adage goes: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Let’s not repeat it again in Florida.

By: Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:34:04 +0000

We’re looking at the same race from two different perspectives.

Locally, yes, the tax issue was a big one.

Nationally, Benson had NRCC backing and Scarborough was painted as fringe inside the beltway for being a budget balancing pro-lifer.

By: clement

clement — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:31:35 +0000

By: jbristor

jbristor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:23:56 +0000

Actually, Scarborough was elected because the city of Pensacola and Escambia county were being poorly run. Benson had previously served on the City Council a couple of years before and the City passed a 65% property tax increase… Benson got caught up in the “through the bums out” while Scarborough was known for collecting 3,000 protest signtures in 1993. His contacts from the irate petition signers plus some intelligence use of some local 30 minute cable ad buys, sealed the deal. I was there and the race had very little to do with pro or anit abortion.

By: spoutinghorn

spoutinghorn — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:12:53 +0000

Probably the reason why Joe S has such disdain for the GOP establishment to this day.

By: cooperscopy

cooperscopy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:07:48 +0000

It’s becoming clear the NRCC is out of touch with the country, and has completely misread what the tea party/town hall events this year have meant. Conservatives no longer want squishy rino republicans and are going to challenge them with conservative alternatives in primaries all across the country. The eight years of Bush’s out of control spending blurred the lines of fiscal sanity between the parties, and conservative want that line reestablished….