I know the Republicans had few, if any, real choices in opposing this bill. Ultimately, the voters of this country failed us by electing 60 morons to the Democratic majority.

But the Republicans are once again failing us. McConnell is just the tip of the iceberg. I think he is a good man…just not a good leader. Leading an opposition is different than governing. In many ways, it is like leading a Rebellion…you fight for the cause, not to be popular.

That is why Newt Gingrich was so effective in 1994. He didn’t care if he was liked…he just wanted to win the public discourse. Of course, that hurt him when he became leader.

We need Republicans willing to stand up at all costs for our rights. We are passing the largest power grab in American history, and the opposition party is basically going to leave quietly in the night.

This is why, when I said a few days ago, I think this is an opportunity only if the Republicans take hold of it. I fear they will let it slip through their grasp. This is an epic failure for the conservative movement…and I really don’t know who will lead us out of this morass.

http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=9145

He’s whining now about how the Dems killed the chance for “Bipartisanship…but in the end…he’ll fall all over himself to pass it!

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

LOTS was riding on this. It appears we stand to lose LOTS, if this bill does eventually get signed into law.

Personally, I don’t plan to just shrug my shoulders and pay higher taxes and medical insurance premiums for poorer health care.

If the Senate GOP leadership has convinced themselves that they’re off the hook for Obamacare passing, because they only had 40 seats—think again.

We Republican activists aren’t stupid. We know the Senate GOP had some ammo left. Maybe not much, but some.

Maybe they would have lost. But, as eburke so perfectly said over this weekend—-if they weren’t willing to die on this hill, then what hill WERE they willing to die on? Perhaps none?

Over the Christmas holiday, I expect the Senate GOP to tell us what tools they plan to use to stop Obamacare. If they really believe they have no chance to stop it, they need to tell us why, convincingly.

Otherwise, I expect them to enjoy Christmas Day, then start shaking the rafters on Decembefr 26th to rally the nation against Obamacare.

If they don’t, they should expect a lot of us to start looking for new GOP Senate leadership in 2010.

Couldn’t we hacve put out a long amendment, War and Peace Length and demand that it be read under the universal consent rules? They could not have pulled it out from the middle of reading.

If it squeezes closed any tighter the ink will start bleeding out.
How do we get rid of this guy….?
This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Democrats would not hesitate for a second to be obstructionists just for the sake of making a point.Being partisan road blockers is policy.
The Republicans…..?
Always trying to be polite.
Where has it gotten them.
40 seats.

Look at McCain. Perfect example. He never had the moxie to drop the hammer on Barack Obama during the campaign or unleash Sarah Palin as his proxy to slice the guy up.
They certainly could have made folly of all the dumb things Joe Biden said but chose not to.
Obama’s team never had any such reservations about getting dirty.
They personally smeared Sarah Palin and branded McCain’s supporters as racist hillbilly rednecks and McCain never once stuck up for his supporters or even for Palin for that matter.
They even tried to portray McCain as some old senile fart
Meanwhile McCain was admonishing people who dared to call attention to Obama’s legal middle name and wouldn’t even go after him on the Rev. Wright thing or Bill Ayers.
I call it a lack of political ruthlessness.

Who occupies the White House and who will never set foot there without an invitation….?
It’s leadership like that that makes me embarrassed to call myself a Republican.

…unless you’ve got more brains or more will than the other guy.

McConnell probably does have more brains than Harry Reid. Hell, my dog has more brains than Harry Reid.

What he doesn’t have is the will. Reid is willing to do ANYTHING to get where he wants to go. McConnell is a guy who won’t go there. Doesn’t want to get his hands dirty.

It’s time for leaders with balls.

That “messaging” strategy was fine for a while. But when it became clear it wasn’t going to work, it was time to fight to the death.

I posted before that this was always going to be the Alamo. McConnell probably saw that, too. And I don’t blame him for ending up at the Alamo.

The problem is, when you get to the Alamo, you go down fighting. You don’t surrender the Alamo. Leonides didn’t surrender at Thermopylae, and MacAuliffe didn’t surrender at Bastogne.

McConnell surrendered at Christmas. Because he wanted to go home.

Pussy.

New leader, please.

But on this whole matter, you’ve proven yourself to be nothing more than an armchair quarterback (and Senate Parliamentarian).

I post this at the risk of a ban from RedState, I know.

Erick, you simply have not the first foggy clue about Senate procedure, rules, or an effective strategy. You run this blog to generate hits, and spitting nails generates hits. I get that.

However, you should at least have your facts straight.

1) Whether the vote is held at 0800 Thursday or later in the evening DOES NOT MATTER except symbolically to simpletons that think that a meteor might hit Reid’s apartment in those seven hours. He has the votes. He bought them. After the filibuster is broken, that final passage vote amounts to a fart in a tornado. It’s simply delaying the inevitable.

2) The minority can’t force a vote on JACK. They can offer a motion to table, which would promptly be defeated on a simple majority. They can do this into perpetuity, but it’s pointless.

3) I’m convinced that even if the entire GOP Senate caucus showed up in the Senate chamber on Thursday morning with machine guns and held the Dems hostage, it wouldn’t be enough for you.

4) Your vitriol directed at McConnell is entirely misplaced in re the elections. He is not the chair of the NRSC. He also doesn’t make the decisions about who will be funded.

5) Suffice it to say that your irresponsible fear-mongering about the “un-repealable” provision is just that. The parliamentarian ruled that it didn’t require a supermajority. Any serious observer would conclude that if that’s the case, it also won’t require a supermajority to dispense with the provisions you cited.

I conclude, Erick, by telling you as someone with intimate knowledge of what’s going on, either you are completely bereft of a clue about how the Senate operates and what options were available to the GOP, or, you’re simply generating traffic.

is that you fight to win.

From my perspective, the Republicans in the Senate, with only 40 votes, had a major influence on the health care bill outcome. For liberals that, in itself, would be a victory.

But conservatives, even knowing their representatives are in the minority, demand more. That is cool because demanding a lot makes your reps work harder. Libs don’t do that and elected Dems know it.

You guys fight the good fight!

THE SIMPLE MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE IS “NO”. Americans don’t need much explanation because we are fully aware of what will happen if such bill becomes a law.

Gosh! The problem with this current crop of R senators is their beltway-mentality of “business as usual” approach, thus … their LACK OF PASSION.

The whole country is in a serious calamity and yet these people are still “CALM’ even at the middle of the huge firestorm.. No wonder why they are now a MINORITY.

It’s now time for the Rs in both houses to bring the case of Obamacare and Cap-n-Trade into the streets. If they can’t or don’t, LET THE TEA-PARTY DO THEIR JOB BY MARCHING INTO THE DC once again.

Ryan and Bachmann should be promoted as SENATORS. The passion of these two congressmen are strongest.

What a truly sad Christmas it is!

But Roberts and Alito were good SCOTUS appointments. No?

You actually make my point. You conservatives have the “eye of the tiger” fight. No compromise and keep fighting. You must know that liberals are way more squishy.

we need a U.S. Grant. Or run some conservative Iraq war vets. It would be
the MSM’s worst nightmare. Imo, one reason the media never covered the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was to prevent any of the brave soldiers from getting any publicity. That publicity, and those stories of the great sacrifice and success could justifiably turn into a great political career.
So Iraq and Afghan are the greatest stories never told….

We need to turn the Congress over to a new hardened generation, tempered by war, unafraid of dictators, ready to subsume the mantle of leadership of our great country. Liberty and grateful appreciation of all those that gave their lives that we may enjoy it.

This is what I’m hearing…. By agreeing to move up the health-care vote from evening to morning on December 24, the Senate GOP got some concessions. They got a vote in early January on giving TARP money back to the Treasury (instead of letting Obama use it for yet another stimulus in blue states). Also, they got a vote on stopping the EPA from regulating carbon emissions.

There will be a cloture vote on December 23 (tomorrow), and if the Dems win that, there will be final passage around 8:00 AM on December 24. Then the House and Senate will have to reconcile their bills, and that may well spell doom for this legislation, especially if the GOP gets its act together and offers a comprehensive substitute bill that does what the Dems says they want: saving lives of people who would otherwise die.

Senator Cornyn says: “There were extensive conversations about how do we keep the time we need to expose the deficiencies of this bill and, of course, the sweetheart deals that produced it, but yet show respect to people and their families, let them get home at least in time for Christmas Eve.”

the GOP leadership is when it takes on Democrats.

Bottom line is that conservatives have put liberals in power by actually voting for them. I love to pick on Arkansas so here goes. The majority of Arkansas voters are conservative in that they’re pro-life, defenders of 2nd amendment rights, believe in a strong military, are opposed to high taxes, are less inclined to a union mentality, and have an entrepeneurial spirit. YET some of that majority of conservatives go to the polls and vote for Blanche Lincoln for Senator. I want to scream, “She’s got a D by her name you idiots! She will vote against everything you conservative Arkansans believe in.” Yet vote for her they did. Twice.

I don’t need precinct captains, conservative blogs, lots of ads, or the perfect conservative Republican candidate for me to know that a vote for someone with a D by their name is a vote for higher taxes, bigger government, a weaker military, welfare, activist judges, or limited property rights. Someone with an R by their name might not be conservative on all those points but no matter who they are they’re closer to my ideal than ANY DEMOCRAT. I”m nearing 50 and I figured that out all by myself when I was about 10.

So someone tell me how an improved leadership gets conservative voters to move beyond stupid.

As soon as I heard it this morning I posted but I didn’t remember exactly what he said, it’s even worse reading it: “MCCONNELL: Let me just add to my good friend the majority leader, he and I have an excellent relationship, we speak a number of times in the course of every day and have no animosity whatsoever, and we are working on an agreement that will give certainty to the way to end this session and hopefully the two of us together can be recommending something that makes sense for both sides in the not-to-distant future.” And then he caved. Not excellent, Mitch.

to see if anyone came here and said, hey we got some heavy concessions from Reid, so complex and special you can’t imagine. And we know for a fact he respects us and won’t renege or do something screwy. First, the political class is not adversely affected by the fact that we are now very close to a Banana Republic run by gangs. Anyone on the right who’s been in DC for a few years or more has been watching crimes take place and doing nothing about them. This country has been lost. That is the problem. McConnell publicly criticizes the party as a dwindling, meaningless group in the southeast. His constant preoccupation should be that during his presence in DC our country has been lost. He saw the rise of the sub prime scandal which could easily have been stopped, the ascendancy of Soros and Goldman Sachs, the ascendancy of the fraud of global warming and cap and trade which could have been stopped easily years ago, to name the biggest ones. People that have overseen these things, who did not loudly take steps to stop them, should retire from public life in my view.

Our leaders are no longer leaders.

As our party has shown so many times before, leadership is bestowed based upon seniority and the ability to make deals, to ‘reach across the aisle’.

Where is the leader who says, “Follow me”, even though the fight will be long and dirty and defeat appears inevitable?

Why has the word fight been redefined to mean ‘we have an excellent relationship, no animosity whatsoever, and are working on an agreement”? Most especially when the one you’re working to agree with recently likened you & yours to slaveholders?

When I see, hear and read these things I swear I can hear Rod Serling’s creepy ‘Welcome to the Twilight Zone’ music playing in the background.

But, thank goodness to our agreement,’my good friend’ and I will at least get home for Christmas. And, as a bonus, he gave up some things to our side that surely would have caused him problems next year!

Merry Christmas to all! (signed) Leader Mitch

Welcome to the United States Senate in…….the Twilight Zone.

I can find no profit in being tired. (Mark Twain), so only join in this afternoon.

I’m just watching this Inside vs Outside debate, and note one thing, and one thing only…it seems the Betas are on the inside, protecting their turf, their rice bowls, and have no reason to ever let the scent of Alpha’s back into the House and Senate chambers.

You guys on the outside, you all talk like Alphas and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. (Sorry i don’t know you bettre from your posts.)

Time will tell.

But your sentiment is correct. There is a culture of niceness on the GOP side in Washington that actually should have ended with the ’92 debates when a smart-ass from Arkansas called a sitting president “Mister”, while now calling down the Secret Secret if you so much as think, Hey Bub!

I only have to be slapped once before I know there is an SOB with a red hand. My culture of niceness changes right then and there. I get downright surly..and actually have been since those ’92 debates.

“That” culture of niceness has to end, for it has been one-sided well over 16 years. That’s long enough for a go-along-to-get-along army of Betas to infest GOP staffs in Washington.

As for me, I’m very interested in peering a little more deeply into that culture of niceness, for there are other troubling things…naivete?, on the take?, in the know?…besides mere cowardice or stupidity, that marks the seeming unflinching acceptance of so much protracted slapping.

It has to go, but like a cancer, you want the other organs to stay safe.

All I know, Erick, is that what the Insiders seem want to most protect is “process”. which means they either don’t want to fight, or know what it means.

Will no one rid us of these psuedo conservative self servers?