couldn’t say it better myself!

We can’t win getting rid of those that are not as Conservative as we like. We only help the Democrats take away any freedom we have.

If you voted 3rd party or Democrat with the idea that you were teaching the GOP a lesson, what you really did was allow THEM to teach a lesson to US. Thanks a whole bunch, friends.

Blame the conservatives. That is always a good strategy to fall back on. If the party is not governing with our values, then we owe them no allegiance. I fully agree that the Democrat party is terrible for the country, but you would be much better served to blame the Dem-lite Republicans that put us in that position. How about blaming Mark Foley and all the porkers who couldn’t stop feeding at the trough?

I am so tired of this rant. You know who is to blame – the RNC, the RINOs who bought into “working across the aisle”, that we needed to “enlarge the tent”. THAT is what got us into this.

You were watching in 2006, right?? Can we say Medicare Part D – so how has that worked out for the country? Folllow that with McCain in 2008 – really, McCain??? Was there ever a Democrat idea he didn’t fall in love with? Of course there is always Snowe, Graham, Collins – the left side of moderate. Did all their butt kissin’ help the country??

Positions have consequences. Individual votes have consequences. Ignoring any semblance of conservative values have consequences. Ask Snowe how she feels about her vote to move this piece of crap out of committee just to keep the debate alive. Feel good about that vote?? There may be enough anger to slide the Republicans into power in the House in 2010 but unless the Republican party rediscovers their roots our country will be lost.

So stop blaming this crap of conservatives who expect the Republican Party to be – you know – actually conservative. Look at the RNC, look at those Republicans who would rather vote as a Democrat at get to work – there is where the true problem lies.

There isn’t much evidence Republicans stayed home in 2006 or 2008. The people who didn’t understand the stakes were at the head of the party, i.e., Bush and McCain. Bush turned off independents by assuming a fetal position when the left attacked him. He gave the causually-informed voter no reason to doubt his attackers, and was not surprisingly shellacked in the 2006 midterms. And who can ever forget McCain’s apology/grovel tour of 2008? The rank and file knew that elections have consequences, but our leaders did not, and sacrificed policy and electoral results on the altar of bipartisanship. This disaster was caused by our leaders, not the rank-and-file. To a very great extent, anyway. We need leaders who understand what a deadly serious game politics is, and what stakes are involved in defeat.

For the record, I held my nose and voted for RINO McCain… and I agree with everything you said… HOWEVER:

(1) The bigger idiots are the ones who’d nominate a candidate for POTUS who voted against the Bush tax cuts because he is a zero-sum-gainer who things we put those tax cuts under our mattrises and because he doesn’t understand the fact that tax cuts spur economic growth and lead to increased revenues to the gov’t. McCain’s actual predictions of choked revenue to the gov’t during debate on the Senate floor in 2001 were proven dead wrong. Those who supported McCain in the primaries are the bigger idiots

(2) Again–I voted for McCain–but I STILL contend that the Republicans of the last decade who were in charge and in leadership were headed in the same direction as Obama and the Dems–they were just on the 30-year plan instead of the 5-year plan. Either way, we’re doomed… but we might have squeeked out one more generation of freedom with the Republicans… but our grandchildren and great-grandchildren would have lost their freedom and properity either way.

The Democrats are lemmings–we saw that last night. I am proud of my party and all its individuals. I may not always agree with Susan or Olympia or John on social issues–but by damn they believe in the basic principles of fiscal responsibility! Who was it sais we will all hang together or we shall surely all hang separately (paraphrase . I tried to preach this during last election–see what we got “teaching Republicans to be hard right?” Tyranny

(I voted for McCain in the general election, but of course not in the primary–I voted for Fred Thompson in the primary)

oops typo–said not sais

…for an ill-conceived circular firing squad streiff. Point your rhetorical guns at the real enemies of freedom.

The problem is not people who refused to made room for Arlen Specter, Linclon Chafee, or Deded Scozzafava in the GOP. The problem is a GOP party machine that has forgotten that it must answer to voters who expect it to advance common sense conservative principles instead of co-opting liberal ones. But that is beside the point. The problem and the enemy are not the same. The enemy is the Socialists who have taken over our nation, and the problems that led to their ascendancy are history, and beside the point now.

Of what use is blaming conservatives for what Socialists did yesterday? Everyone has a different limit to how far they will sacrifice their principles. I held my nose and voted for John McCain, but I’m not going to stand in judgment of someone who could not bring themselves to do it.

I think this incessant need to weed out “moderates” and RINOs is a failed strategy much like the whole “Rev. Wright…Rev. Wright…Ayers…Ayers…” parroting was. Parroting Obama’s associations may have made for a good sound bite, but it obscured the strengths of conservative policy differences. Look at how Reagan sold conservatism. He didn’t brand everyone he disagreed with a fascist because he knew that name-calling would turn off a good portion of the public who doesn’t care for hyperbolic alarmism. He made strong, principled points that the American public came to love.

If the whole debacle with Stupak taught us anything, it should be the following: Even those we have disagreements with from time to time will be with us on most issues. Stupak isn’t a “conservative Democrat”. He votes with the leadership almost 95% of the time. Is it REALLY worth it to disassociate the GOP with those who would provide majorities for purity’s sake?

I agree in the main with the point being made. But while we’re pointing fingers:

–let us BEGIN with Democrats — ALL FRACKING DEMOCRATS, starting with the evil. cynical national party
–continuing, ALL DEMOCRAT VOTERS, who reflexively vote Democrat, including everybody’s mom and dad who think FDR saved the country and that Republicans are the “big business, anti-little-guy party” and that Democrats are FOR the little guy.
–then the big media, who had every bit as much to do with 2006 as big-spending Repubs did
–fourth, the Republican establishment that selected that jerk-off, barely-Republican nominee McCain.

Then FIFTHLY, you get to these imbeciles. I was not one of them, but I am not in the mood for this. Republicans didn’t give them a particulary appealing option.

This evil happened PRIMARILY because of the evil Democrats, and only secondarily because of squishes and 1-trick pony voters who didn’t stop them.

I voted for McCain, but don’t think for a second the GOP can be counted on either. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to obstruction. The same group of people who were successful in delivering the Senate GOP to its “come to Jesus” moment was not able to get them to budge in actually doing anything the last two weeks in the Senate. The proof of all of this is here:

http://tinyurl.com/yfjfwdc

It makes me sick just to read it. I know you want to vent, but don’t think the GOP is some magic white horse you can ride into town on and save the day. They are far from it. If a RINO is fiscally irresponsible then my tent is not big enough for them. It’s that kind of thinking that gave us Medicare part D and almost landed us with disastrous immigration reform under GWB. The problem is the federal government’s lucre under both parties, but particularly the liberals. The solution never has rested with the federal powers and never will. Until people realize that, our choice will be a slow death or a fast one.

Also, Erick himself write a price titled “Fight” at around the same time as the above Senate GOP shenanigans, and even Rush Limbaugh jumped on board. The difference in the parties right now is obvious – one marches you to big government faster than the other. I am not under the illusion the current GOP (at least in the Senate) has my best interests at heart as the above story proves beyond a doubt. To add insult to injury, the guy who knew what to do – Senator DeMint – is being attacked for daring to come up with a good strategy. God forbid.

No, it is clear what needs to happen here. The failure rests squarely on the shoulders of the Senate leadership. The leadership needs a thorough cleansing. We need people who are willing to put up a fight and not just talk a lot and write stupid letters to the House thinking that is a strategy.

The proof is in the link. This really happened and should put to rest once and for all that a federal political solution exists to this problem. People are laboring under that illusion and need to change their perspective and see the hints written into the landscape in front of our faces.

The problem is that in my experience the ‘moderates’, RINOs, or whatever else they are called will stay at home if the conservative is nominated.

It is not always the case, but until ALL of us are on the same page, “Get rid of the Democrats”, we run the risk of keeping them in power.

We cannot make abortion our central issue. It isn’t a Federal question anyway. We can make sure our Reps and Senators know Article 3, Section 2, paragraph 2 allows Congress to make Exceptions and Regulations as to the jurisdiction of Fed courts.

We must require that fiscal discipline is the order of the day.

Other than that, I am ready to go after all Dems at the polling place.

people who are lambasting Toomey and chastising anyone who dares question them and their support for a fringe Republican candidate that is polling right about where Blutarsky from Animal House’s GPA was – 0.00. Some have threatened not to vote if Toomey is the candidate against Snarlin’ Arlen or Sestak.

in the primary. Elections have consequences.

With the original post. Whatever failing individual RINOs may have, they were a vote that kept Pelosi and Reid out as leaders of the respective houses. That’s always enough to get my support in a general election. If there is a lesson that needs to be taught, teach it in the primary and if the RINO wins, support ‘em to deny say the Speaker’s chair to someone like Pelosi. This is really not that hard of a concept.

Unfortunately, some people have a short memory and they forgot what liberal democrats do when they are in power judge Republican malfeasance in comparison to the utter destruction of the country at the hands of democrats in power. All the folks who bought the bill of “centrist” goods sold by Obama and the so-called Blue Dogs are responsible for this fiasco.

get united behind the republican candidates who can win elections. If the conservative candidate can win-great! If the Rino can win-great!! We just need to get these lying, devious democrats out of Washington!!!

Ok, so last night we lost a single skirmish in a war that, as Fred Graham pointed out in Human Events, is going to get waged for the next 40 to 60 years. And the first reaction is to form up a circular firing squad and start shooting ad hominem attacks at conservative voters, questioning people’s intelligence????

Wow…I can get this level of intellectual discourse watching MSNBC. How is this at all helpful?

Ad hominem attacks, of course, aren’t about debate, but rather of shutting off debate. Then again, this post seems that it really wasn’t about a debate. This was just a rant. Fair enough…maybe today is the day we can all rant and get it out of our system. Because tomorrow, we’re all going to need to be together on this to remove these Democrats and repeal anything the courts don’t find unconstitutional.

I worked tirelessly for both my Congressional candidate, my Senate candidate, and for Sarah Palin, in the vain hope she might be able to drag McCain over the finish line. Never once did I advocate “sitting it out” because I knew what Obama represented was lethal to this country. More specifically, to the ideals that this country represents.

That is not to say, however, that I couldn’t empathize with the sentiment. Let’s face it…the GOP hasn’t exactly been the shining tower of constitutional governance and conservative ideals itself for the last 10 years.

I have served as a Republican mageristerial district chairman, and on the state central committee of the GOP in my state. And I have spent time on Capitol Hill advising the Joint Economic Committee on small business taxation matters. And I am a firm believer in Reagan’s 11th Commandment — which apparently the author here feels is an antiquated notion.

And in all that, I can tell you emphatically, knowing what I DO know about GOP politics, that had McCain won, and the GOP reclaimed a majority in the House and the Senate, the unity that you see around conservative principles, federalism, and the proper role of government, or as Rep. Ryan put it so beautifully this morning, unifying the GOP around the principles of liberty and freedom, would be completely absent but for some articles in National Review that few would see.

Basic law of physics — for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This also applies to politics. The only reason the GOP is so well positioned now is because the Leftists so completely overreached, and did so in a manner despicable to every American.

In other words, while I may have disagreed with the practice of “sitting it out to send a message”, but could empathize with the frustration that sentiment represented, looking back I’d say the GOP learned it’s “lesson” quite well, and is in far better shape today than had none of this happened. Moreover, you now have one of the two major parties finally realizing that incremental socialism is like incremental cancer. It will still kill you in the end. Prior to this debate, the GOP — even when I was sitting at the state level here in Virginia, no less — paid mostly lip service to these concepts.

And in the larger context — the good of the country context — that’s a good thing. Because maybe now we will have a party that will be more proactive in defending basic principles, than in being complicit in their abandonment.

The “imbeciles” you rail against didn’t elect Obama. Independents did because the GOP had run out of ideas. These disaffected voters — most of whom were just exhausted from 8 years of Bush (a common occurrence after two term presidents. See 2000 elections and 8 exhausting years of Clinton). In 2008, the GOP offered pretty much more of the same old same old. That dog wasn’t going to hunt no matter who headed the ticket.

Yeah, elections have consequences — we all know that. But it is no less a message to not vote than it is to vote. Democrats will learn that lesson again in spades in about 8 months as much of their own disaffected “base” — the radical Left — sits it out.

But now, energized, unified, and finally embracing again both our Founder’s principles and the principles (if not the practice) that underscored the Reagan Revolution and the Contract with America, today it is OUR turn to march forward with a new vision and a new commitment, arguably because of the very trial we have just endured.

Regardless of how we got here, though, it serves no purpose, and does our cause no good whatsoever to insult, denigrate, or otherwise ostracize people whose motives, intelligence, or debating skills we know nothing about. And who’s votes we very much need in 8 months.

I don’t like it when I see Keith Olberman do it. It’s hardly any more productive or attractive when I see it here.

Where do I send the check? I believe my health care plan covers this type of procedure, so it will only be for the deductible.

Truth be told, I voted for McCain holding my nose all the way. I also dragged people to the polls who had never voted before. Why? Because an informed investigation told me the alternative was much worse. Anybody who could not make that deduction should tear up their voter registration card- permanently.

Frankly, it’s hard enough to get lazy, ineffectual Republicans or Independents for that matter up off their fat behinds to vote in any situation. But if there was any election where folks should have showed up- this was the one.

I have been to places on this planet where people would give up one left piece of a specific part of their lower extremity to be able to vote. And folks here have the stones to encourage others to not show up?

Do me a favor, don’t waste the rounds. Jump off a cliff instead.

I will simply post a link to a CBO report that was written for the republicans in 2005. Look through it for a list of broken promises and pork-laden giveaways.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7028/s1932conf.pdf

I really want to address the fantasy that we were better under the “Bush Republicans”. I really am ofended by those that want to re-write history. But it may be important to go back to the pre 9-11 days and remember what happened.

Durning that short period of the Bush presidency, I watch in disgust as The President increased the budget of The Dept. of Agricultulture and pushed a brand new entitlement program that only the lobbyists liked. Before 9-11 I believed that President Bush would be another one term president because he was not a fiscal conservative. Now before you rush to respond to the “Bush Tax Cuts”, let’s look at the big picture.

First of all I believe that you cannot reduce taxes and increase government spending at the same time. It doesn’t work in our personal lives and it can’t work for the goverment. Secondly Pres Bush increased the size of the “entitlement culture” by excluding a greater percentage of citizens from having to pay taxes. As a result of the above, you cannot state that the current healthcare bill will never stay within its budget but ignore the damage that the Drug Presciption Program will have to future budgets. The current conservative movement will not have any longlasting influence if conservatives are unwilling to objectively look at what happened and then formulate solutions to correct the mistakes.

Just six years ago The Republican Party, The President and republican leaders endorsed Senator Spector as he ran for reelection. Why? Because The Republican Party had morphed into an organization that put power over principle.

The author of this article wants to blame the voters for what we face today. But the truth is that the total responsibility for this fiasco must rest with the republican leadership. If the voters are guilty of anything, it is that we were too trusting of those republican politicians in tha past administration.

What is past is past. It is now up to us to determine the future rather than pointing fingers and laying blame. The latter is couterproductive to the cause as in the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Notes on Virginia:

Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.

“I am not going to vote for Scott Brown because he is not pro-life enough.”

Yes, a person making this remark might be deserving of some of the epitaphs you throw out in this post.

“We must choose John McCain, because only a moderate can win in this climate.”

But on the other hand, a person making this comment would also be deserving of the same epitaphs.

The problem is that there are 4 sides and not 2 sides to this coin.

1. Conservative purists who will withhold their vote if the candidate is impure, no matter what.
2. Moderate to Liberal Republicans who really want a moderate to liberal Republican party or mistakenly believe that only moderate to liberal republicans can win elections.
3. Conservative pragmatists who recognize that there is no such thing as a perfect Republican and will always vote R and support R’s because the R will always be the best electable choice.
4. Conservative pragmatists who recognize that the 2’s are in charge of the party and will remain there until what they are doing doesn’t work anymore.

The 3′s always attack the 4′s by accusing them of being 1′s. Now, I don’t think there are really very many people in group one, people who simply withhold their vote if the candidate is not perfect. But I think there are a lot of people in group 4 who either withheld their vote or their political action during the last election to “teach the party a lesson.” I don’t believe it was a particular candidate in a given race that got people to take that drastic step. I think it was the party apparatus that was disingenuously and unceasingly moving us to the left that got so many people riled up. Remember that Giuliani was the party fav before McCain was.

And whether those in group #4 were right or wrong remains to be seen, because there are 2 things going on in America.

1. Govt. Healthcare Passed = Very bad
2. Possibly greatest resurgence of conservatism in our history = Very good

It would be easy to be present in 1978 and say that the country would have been better off if Ford had won the presidency. But without any comment on Ford, would the country have been better off TODAY if Ford had won, but at the cost of the Reagan presidency? If we had to have Carter to get Reagan, then maybe we have to have Obama to get conservatives back in charge.

If McCain had pulled it out, would we have 2 new governships? Would we have a Senator from Massachusetts? Etc.

I don’t think it can be questioned that the people, the candidates, and the incumbent R’s are all more conservative than they would be if we had a McCain presidency. Is it worth the cost? I don’t think anyone can pretend to know that at this point.

Yes, I held my nose and voted for McCain, and I would do it again, but I cannot begrudge those conservatives who decided not to, because in the long run they may have been right.

… at least not enough to make the difference you’re attributing to them. The bulk of the folks who sat on their hands because the GOP needed to be “taught a lesson” were more often than not Paultards or other such idiots.

In fact, most of the people who huffed and puffed on RS about sitting it out in ’06 and ’08 did end up lining up at the polls and pulling the Republican lever. What they didn’t do was do was open their wallets, volunteer to man the banks and walk the precincts. You can’t blame them for their lack of enthusiasm; for that you can blame George “New Tone” Bush and John “Bipartisan” McCain.

’06 and ’08 were lost because the “middle”, including a great deal of so-called “moderate” Republicans went the other way.

McCain’s sudden morphing into a stalwart Conservative since his defeat shows that he knows who came out to vote for him and who abandoned him in droves. Ironically, the people he’d spent eight years poking his fingers into their eyes were loyal and the people he was supposed to bring defected to the other side.