Imagine belonging to a club, one that affords the most this country has to offer - its own barber shop, cafeteria and dining room, banking facility, free parking on-site and at the airport, at-will seating at almost every restaurant in town, all that.
Couple that with a sizeable staff, budget and a job that requires you only to appease the party in power, and to make the odd trip back home to stand up on a stump and lie about what you did. You still have the power.
Democrats (and the Administration) in charge realize the value of sharing a bit of that power...it is needed to keep the appeasement coming; it is called second-tier power. Just like when Alexander conquered a country, he would leave one of the local appeasers in power....share some of the wealth.
That's our Senate, and the higher ups in the House. They don't want to upset the cart and would be willing to do anything to keep the status quo. Nothing that goes on in the rest of the country affects them; they are immunized against it, mainly by exempting themselves from the deleterious effects of their own laws.
They crave the attention on the Sunday shows, they get their bottoms powdered and their cheeks and asses kissed - when they appease and are 'bipartisan'. They know the majority of their constituents don't watch them, it is just for DC consumption.
All of them, McCain, Cornyn, McConnell, Graham, Boehner (and his second) are pleased as punch to step up and have us out here in realville give up the fight because "we can get them later if we just WAIT until 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020....wait until they are ready to retire.
Damn them all.
PS Krauthammer can suck it, too. He's just trying to keep his token faux conservative moniker so he can stay on that Sunday gravy train too.
I heard Rush interview him too. The only thing I can say, is that the term “stupid party,” is well earned.
I think it’s helpful to sometimes reevaluate everything you think about politics and policy. With a clear conscience, last December after the Boehner/fiscal cliff cave-in, I considered why exactly I was a republican. I joined the party 35 years ago having been an independent before that. The only areas of concordance with the Republican Party were things they had historically supported but have recently abandoned. I saw no mainstream republicans supporting balanced budgets, reduced social spending, aggressive defense of personal freedom particularly for 1st and 2nd amendment rights and federalism. Everywhere I looked I saw democrat-lite republicans and me-too leftists.
An honest evaluation of the Republican Party vs. the Libertarian Party showed big areas of disagreement with both. Both parties have too many people supporting abortion, for example. There are many other areas of disagreement but ultimately I have to side with the Libertarians for the following reasons. They are more true to what they preach. They are not hypocrites. They understand that ALL spending has consequence and deploying the military should only happen if US interests are at stake.
There are many other reasons. Again I find much to disagree with the Libertarian party but I joined and, for me, the fit is better. Rather than attack the Libertarian party I ask you to carefully evaluate what the Republican Party has become and see if it still fits you.
Maybe a big part of the problem is that they live in DC, not in their home state. So they are separated and isolated from the people they are supposed to represent; their major feedback is through the liberal media. The liberal political consultants they keep hiring do not help at all.
It seems that our elected officials undergo a sort of Stockholm syndrome once they get to DC.
It’s time to bring the Senators home. Have them set up their offices in their home states (preferably their home towns, not the state capitals), and keep their contacts with other politicians limited to VTCs. With modern technology, they certainly do not need to be physically present for any Senate business.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
We have met the enemy and it is Republicans who just want to receive the perks of office while kissing the asses of Democrats.
Exposure.
Republicans KNOW who their enemy is. It is CONSERVATIVES.
If a third party were to announce and if a dozen or so senators and a sizable block of congressmen immediately announced their affiliation with it then such a party would have immediate credibility. That is not outside the realm of possibility given the split in the GOP between the establishment and the conservatives.
The title and the premise are garbled. ‘Conservative’ republicans of the true type know who their enemies are. ‘Establishment’ republicans have no allies except those that bring money; they are whores.
The premise feeds into the liberal media talking points:
> “I can understand and appreciate the knowledge that if the Democrats stick together in the Senate, there is little the Republicans can do to stop Obamacare, either by repeal or by defunding. The process laid out by Ted Cruz was never going to be an easy path and was always likely ***doomed to failure***.”
Doomed to failure...doomed to failure...doomed to failure...
Again and again we hear the parrots in the political aviaries squawk about how Ted’s effort is “doomed to failure”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ted’s strategy is sound but requires republicans in Congress to fight and for democrats with a conscience to stand on principle. Even if zero democrats stand on principle (and some joined House republicans on the CR), republicans can still win.
Only 41 Senators are needed to block the approaching move to cloture.
IF 41 Senators vote against cloture, THEN Harry Reid must decide EITHER to allow a vote on the CR WITH DEFUNDING Obamacare language as-is OR not allow a vote. In either case as expected the government will be unfunded and will shutdown but the blame will be on the Senate. This is the strategy.
What is doomed to failure is the Senate democrats passing the original CR. But then they and they alone are responsible for shutting down the government as the original CR funds all of government except Obamacare.
The way the Senate democrats escape responsibility unscathed is to pass a vote for cloture, strip how the defunding language and send it back to the House. Even in this eventuality the House republicans can still win by passing smaller funding CRs for essential spending and then denying an increase in the debt ceiling.
It’s not over and we need to let Congress know that this fight is in no way ‘doomed to failure’.
The logo for the GOP should be a plain white flag with GOPe on it in red, white and blue stitching. That is what they stand for, it should be their “symbolâ€. Anybody contributing to the GOPe today is NUTS! Why not give the money to the Democrats, at least they stand for SOMETHING.
Its time for a second party because there is no difference between the two parties in dc.
Andy dean can KMA.
Which is why the entire cesspool needs to be flushed and rebooted. Those unctuous miscreants stopped doing 'the people's business' many decades ago.
They know who their enemy is. It is you and I.
I’d be happy to support a 3rd party, but a 2nd one is needed first. People need to learn to abstain when voting unless there is a candidate without a D or R appended to their name. Throw out all incumbents.
Cruz was supposed to sit there like a good boy and vote ‘present’ until the good ole boys decided he was ready for more power.
This thing that Cruz started is gaining momentum and it looks to me as though the GOP elites are taking notice. I saw Rove on Greta last night, and he was falling all over himself praising Cruz’s intentions (although “respectfully disagreeing” with his style).
The Republicans could have embraced the Tea Party movement. Instead, they fought with it. Now all the GOP establishment can do is whine about the Tea Party.