but let’s not forget that President Bush bears a huge share of the blame here. He invented the politics of self-destruction, refusing to challenge the left’s libels for eight years. Instead he flattered them, covered up for them, and even to this day is inclined to compliment Obama while Obama trashes him. Is this monumentally unintelligent strategy at all to blame for the 60 seats the Democrats have in the Senate? I believe it is the number 1 reason.

And as long as we’re talking about doing the same unintelligent thing over and over again, President Bush was a champion at that strategy. Rather than take his case to the American people, he simple doubled-down on new tone, and doubled down again when it continued not to work. In the process, he managed to so completely discredit his own policies that left-wing radicals were able to take control of the country.

McConnell may have fought badly, but he was dealing with a stacked deck from the start. And I believe GWB is greatly to blame for that, and he should not be given a free ride for what he did.

There has been no on steering the Republican ship for a long time. It is way past time for new leadership – from top to bottom.

We need aggressive, conservative leadership…someone needs to step up quickly, or we will soon not recognize our country.

Is there sanity out there?

Now, Senate Minority Leader McConnell could once again end up losing this historic battle against anti-gun ObamaCare legislation — when we have it within our power to defeat it.

There is a substantial cadre of Senate Republicans who want to slow down this anti-gun abomination. The bill that lurked for six weeks behind closed doors in Harry Reid’s office is now being pushed by Reid for Senate passage in no time at all.

Just askin’.

• Over and over again, he has gone along with agreements to limit debate time and limit the amendments that can be offered.
• Over and over again, he has gone along with agreements to automatically withdraw Republican amendments if they didn’t get 60 votes, rather than the usual 51.
• Over and over again, he has negotiated agreements which allow the meaningful Republican amendments to be easily superseded by meaningless, Democratic, face-saving amendments.

It’s clear that the more the people find out about the coming health care disaster, the less they are willing to tolerate it. Given that, the obvious strategy is to delay for time, not expedite our demise.

When your leader fails, you fail.

Erick has been warning us about McConnell for a long time. This past month has proved him right. I know we are in the middle of the game, but a new coach might not be a bad idea, especially going into the midterms. Is there no one in the GOP caucus who will stand up and pledge to be an aggressive party leader?

I wrote my thoughts on this earlier today:

http://www.redstate.com/mayhem/2009/12/19/its-time-to-hit-the-refresh-button-on-the-senate-gop-leadership/

We’ve been saying this all day…

But tonight!!!!

Coburn, DeMint, my sister’s black cat’s arse…who cares.

I even told him in a personal letter two months ago.

But if he’s been in the bag for this criminal cabal, then….

After reading hundreds of republican posts in opposition to the healthcare bill, most of you are stating the bill is “socialist”. In my opinion, that’s not an accurate description. A more accurate description would be “fascist” healthcare. What the democrats are about to do is create another huge subsidy for private industry – this time the insurance industry. While it’s true that the feds will have a huge new regulatory power with mandates that force citizens to purchase insurance whether they want it or not, why do you think the feds are doing this ? I’ll tell you why…to placate the insurance industry who has supported the bill from the start.

My point is this, McConnell might have given lip service to defeating the bill, but as long as the health insurance lobby, (which includes democrats and republicans)supports the bill, the senate republicans were never going to do anything in dramatic fashion to defeat it.

The only way to take this country back is by electing fiscal conservatives in the house who put their constituents first instead of the corporate/government establishment.

DEMS are much like the younger sibling and REPS the older more responsible sibling. The younger sibling can break every rule in the book but the older sibling, who knows better, chooses not to respond in kind.

The younger sibling knows they can push, push, push because they know they won’t get punched in the nose.

Much different with non siblings are the DEMS w/ regard to foreign policy where other countries are free to punch back. DEMS are subservient and cower to real conviction and power.

DEMS need to be confronted and challenged face to face on a daily basis. When that happens they fold like a house of cards.

This is true w/ the accomplices of the left, namely the media. They are now openly hostile to the right. Brave and unapologetic about it because they are rarely if ever challenged and confronted. I am reminded of Gingrich challenging and schooling that CNN reporter at the RNC. Total domination of the ridiculous left wing wimp in short order.

The right needs to wake up that war is being waged on them and they better start fighting back with every oz they have or its game, set, match real soon.

Bush for all the good he has done, cost us the most in the past 8 years by not challenging the left/media. By not challenging them, their message of “bush is dumb” rang true. It trickled down from the top, evidenced by the disaster of Press Sec Maclellan being there so long, the gentleman Frist, and now McConnell among the many other wishy washy RINO’s we’ve discussed ad nauseum.

It’s going to be a long hard battle ahead because we’ve allowed this disease to grow strong roots over a long period of time. You’ve heard sayings like a “10 year overnight sensation” where someone seemingly becomes famous overnight but after a little homework you find out they have been laboring hard for years building up to the breakout moment.

This rapid advance(decline of America) by the left is no overnight sensation. This has been coming for decades. The watershed moments we see today and (hopefully not) in the near future are a result of radicals and their ignorant dupes chipping away at the damn piece by piece.

This is war. Our leaders must treat it as such. There are some great manuals laying around to help us get back on track. We just have to have the mindset to recognize war has been waged a long time ago, pick up the enemies playbook and start executing the plan.

I’m not convinced that McConnell has screwed up so badly. In any event, the fight is hardly over, so it seems like a bad time for recriminations.

Were it not for the unified stance of the GOP, Nelson and Lieberman would not have been in a position to make their demands (on abortion and public option respectively). And Nelson’s demands may yet sink the legislation.

The accomodations that Reid made for Nelson are getting heavily criticized by both the pro-choice side and the pro-life side. I think the pro-choice side has much more reason to complain. As I understand the legislation, if a person wants abortion coverage, then that has to be paid for separately, and no federal money will go into that pot. Additionally, Senator Nelson has ensured that, if Roe v. Wade is overturned tomorrow, states can immediately ban abortion without running afoul of the new health care law, because states are free to opt out from everything abortion-related in this new legilsation. So, from the pro-choice perspective, this seems like a big defeat.

Despite getting rid of the public option in this legislation, and nixing the expansion of already-faltering Medicare, and despite Nelson’s work on the abortion issue, it still seems like there are big problems with this legislation.

First, the process stinks. It’s being rammed through in a rush, without any amendments except for Reid’s amendments, which is a recipe for error.

Second, we’re in the middle of a recession, which is a lousy time to experiment with a seventh of the economy.

Third, it seems like the vast bulk of the spending that will occur under this plan is postponed for several years in order to make the whole project seem less costly than it really is.

Fourth, it seems much more like a command-and-control scheme, rather than a market-oriented scheme. In other words, it’s excessively bureaucratic and intrusive. If the goal is to make health insurance affordable for everyone, then why not just offer to help pay? A million words of legalese are not needed for this.

Fifth, there’s the individual mandate, requiring people to buy insurance even if they never intend to go to a doctor. I doubt very much if the federal government has power to do that (at least not in the manner that this bill would do it).

So, the thing still has big problems. But I suspect that perhaps Senator Nelson has both improved the legislation, and kept very much alive the chances it will be defeated. Let’s not have the GOP committing fratricide just yet.

In theory, I agree with you. But the reality is, GW Bush and the republicans passed what was at the time the largest healthcare entitlement since LBJ.(prescription drugs) There are too many competing factions within the republican party to ever put up a united front against big government and corporate subsidies. If you don’t believe me, look at our nominee for president in 2008..he supported bailouts for the banks, bailouts for the real estate industry, bailouts for homeowners, etc…

Unless grass root republicans actually get off their butts and start voting for fiscal conservatives rather than the sellouts we currently have, this whole discussion is nothing more than a chirade.

Andrew, I respectfully disagree with you regarding Lieberman. His actions actually HELPED get the bill passed. By making a public announcement in opposition to the medicare buy-in, what Lieberman did was give cover to the half dozen democrats who were opposed to the medicare issue as well. As a result, Reid was forced to take it out, but by doing so, the half dozen or so democrats who would have voted no on cloture were now able to vote yes, including Lieberman.

As for the what happens next, the far left will put pressure to get some of the public option ideas reinstated in the bill. I have no doubt that they will get some of what they want. Dems have 60 votes in the senate now, and can afford to lose up to 9 votes once the final bill is voted on.

That Judd Gregg has been labeled a RINO repeatedly and wished a good riddance and now his protege, Kelly Ayotte, is being attacked for being associated with Judd Gregg. Now, McConnell is criticized for not following Judd Gregg… and the circular firing squad continues.

that the only way out of this mess is divine intervention.

The repub/dems disagree in public but in private they have a secret oath they go by and it has nothing to do with the constitution.
Call me a kook if you are so inclined, but what else is there?
They have kept him as the minority leader after 2 cycles of failure. WHY?

but the Democrats have super majorities in the Senate and House.

Using parliamentarian tactics to delay legislation will only last so long before they jam what they want through whether the Republicans resist it or not..

Elections have consequences, you’re witnessing one now.
Welcome to the People’s Republic comrades.

FWIW I do NOT care for the legislation one bit and both of my Senators are Republicans. My House representative is going to be a one term blunder but the damage has been done.

I know Erick didn’t like Wyden-Bennett, and the Heritage Foundation found fault with it even though they said it was a brave move. But, why was that option not even considered? It had bipartisan support, at least in part.

For that matter, why are the other 57 or so standing idly by while two of their number get some goodies for their states at the expense of others?

I understand the dissatisfaction with McConnell, but what about the other 57?

Do we really make things better when we frag our own side?

BTW, Does continuing to blame W for the politics of personal destruction make any sense?? You lost me on that one….

Finally the Senate GOP seemed to be responding, but by and large it was too little too late.

Do you think we’ve lost this fight? Yes, things look bad right now—but that’s not the same as them being over.

We kept the same crap weasels in charge and it’s paying off BIG…let’s keep em in after 10…maybe they’ll pass legislation to disolve the US Government and turn the continent over to the Chinese….Ole Mitch can show us the smame brilliance then as well!

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

But the Republicans in Congress have their own responsibility as well. GWB’ been out of office for 11 months now. Also, as Rush often points out, he didn’t want to play the partisan game because he felt it was beneath the office of the president. We all may disagree with it, but you gotta respect that.

Also, Bush was only responsible for his own behavior, not the Republicans in Congress. And he certainly isn’t responsible for their pathetic inaction now (not all Republican members, of course. It’s McConnell’s job to be the Republican leader in the Senate, and he’s blowing it, not GWB.

Even though I live in Manhattan and am not one of those icky southeast republicans he finds so distasteful. We are all thinking about MConnell, but he’s not thinking about us. Why it’s especially upsetting now is we again have a country with no leader. You have what you just saw in Copenhagen. Most people there were convinced long ago that American taxpayers and their children would be formally enslaved by them, legally bound over in Copenhagen. That’s why they’re mad. Soros even went in and said, hey I have one other way, and it might not bother US taxpayers so much. He comes right out and says what the whole plan was about-enslaving us. That this movement has gone this far is insane and dangerous for Americans, though it could be stopped with the right words. As someone said, “The crisis of globalization will stress humanity like never before. It’s worse than every man for himself.” Hey, McConnell, how’s this for some ideological purity: Get the UN out of my country. It is a danger to every American.

Just wanted to see if he was paying attention.

I do not understand how 59 Senators are betraying their constituents and allowing Nelson get away with making all of us pay for Nebraska’s health coverage. Seems like there should be about 20 out of the 59 that would vote to save this country.

Bill Frist also managed to let Democrats obstruct him at every turn, and we couldn’t get bupkis passed in 2005-2006 because of it. McConnell though hasn’t managed to obstruct squat in his three years, and managed to lose us 9 seats in the one election he was the Republican Senate leader.

I still think that Bill Frist deserves to be stuck in the room in the Kingdom of Heaven next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity, but I’d like to add to that: Mitch McConnell deserves the room on the other side of the noisy ice machine.

Remember that another key 60th vote is Sen. Byrd, who has been dragged onto the Senate floor for the critical votes. If something should happen to his health before January – that would change the equation completely.

And in that case, the recriminations for allowing Senate passage before Christmas could echo for decades if not millennia – especially if the House approved the Senate bill without amendment.

Which is a very real danger. Pelosi and her cohorts in their fanaticism to pass SOMETHING may decide that the Senate bill is better trusting a conference bill to pass, especially if public opinion worsens further when people actually read and examine the Senate bill.

McConnell wasn’t elected Minority leader until after the 2006 election with the new congress in 2007 when the count was 49-51. Frist was Majority leader during the 06 election which the Republicans went from 55 to 49 seats; McConnell was whip.