5 Do's and Don'ts for Conservatives Between Now and '08

Human Events Online ^ | 27 June 2006 | Gary Marx

[sionnsar]

Who is the alternative who can stop media darling John McCain

McCain-Feingold: What more needs saying?

[Criminal Number 18F]

His five dos and don'ts make an interesting template for judging the ostensibly conservative administration and congress

1. ...reverse the liberal activism [in the]... judiciary.
   • Bush Admin: C-. Bush has named some good judges, but in some cases only after naming bad ones (Harriet Miers). Administration support for nominated judges has been tepid at best. But worst of all, the Administration's slow nomination of judges means that there are over forty appeals and district vacancies right now, with no one nominated for almost all of them. If the Republicans lose the Senate in 2006 then Bush's advantage will have been thrown away without having been pressed ever.

   • House: N/A. The House has no Constitutional role here.

   • Senate: D. It was a mistake to leave the personally untrustworthy Arlen Specter in Judiciary. But Bill Frist's spineless non-leadership plays a role. The Administration's performance has been so bad that the Senate's nonfeasance on nominations hasn't been that spectacular, but if the Admin ever got off the dot and nominated those judges, the Senate would choke -- guaranteed.

2. Do scale back federal spending, eliminate federal earmarks and attack wasteful spending abuses
   • Bush Admin: F.

   • House: F. Both parties are staggeringly corrupt. But we can only fix our side... guys like Boehner, in the pocket of lobbyists; Hastert, who earmarked his private real estate holdings to Hillary-like profits; Lewis, who sits like Jabba the Hutt at the pinnacle of an empire of greed; and Cunninghham, who is where all 435 of these creeps probably belong: federal prison. (The other guys have Mollohan, Jefferson, Hastings, etc. not to mention Patrick ("hic!") Kennedy).

   • Senate: F.

3. Do stand up for ... heartland values
   • Bush Admin: C. Some upper-level nominees have been good on values issues (John Ashcroft) and some have been poor (Gonzales, Ashcroft's replacement). At the lower levels the gay buggernaut rolls on with the government behind it, as do such bastins of government nihilism as the education department, NPR, etc.

   • House: F. The members of the House care about nothing but enriching themselves and their cronies.

   • Senate: F. Ditto.

4. Do secure the borders now! Do secure the borders now! Do secure the borders now!
   • Bush Admin: F. This has been discussed to a fare-thee-well here on FR so I won't add heat. I can certainly defend these letter grades.

   • House: C-

   • Senate: F.

5. Do unite around one conservative nominee for President in 2008.
   • Bush Admin: C. The President should have already been working to groom possible successors. He hasn't done anything in this line.

   • House: N/A

   • Senate: N/A

OK, what about the Don'ts? My take is that they don't apply too well to a Report Card.

1. Don’t stop and lose heart for tax cuts just because the estate tax lost a recent vote in the U.S. Senate.

2. Don’t fall into the old traps of the left via self-inflicted wounds.

3. Don’t forget that traditional marriage is a winning issue

4. Don’t forget that the other side has problems, too!

5. Don’t forget to pray.

For me the most glaring omission was what remains the big issue, whether people want to deal with it or not: the war.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[the invisib1e hand]

Take your pick.

[LibertarianInExile]

"It's way too early for conservatives to pick their candidate. Instead, let's wait and see which candidate picks us. I have misgivings about each one of those listed so they are going to have to convince me they are true conservatives and not not just a CINO."

Darn right. It's not even two years before the election. We have no idea whose horses are really in the race, it's all speechifying in Iowa and NH and nothing more right now.

[cmsgop]

I thought about our exchange today and I forgot to mention one thing," The Rudy Factor" Rudy could be a steamroller in all of this, Rudy is liked by our base more than McCain and from my calculations 10 to 20% of swing Democrats.

[patriciaruth]

I admire Rudy's executive abilities and his courage, and would prefer him over McCain in a New York minute.

However, we were discussing 'conservatives' to support. And Rudy is a moderate (had to be to be elected in New York), with a messy personal history. Neither fact is popular with the conservative base.

[cmsgop]

Yes, but Rudy has appeal to both sides, Allen is my first choice right now, but I would vote for Rudy if that was all there was. The thing is alot of Dems will vote for him too,

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for your rundown.

Is Mitt Romney just "personally" pro-life, or has he also stated he is politically pro-life, willing to make political decisions based on his personal beliefs?

There is a big difference, and I don't think Romney is politically pro-life. Anyone who knows different, please let me know.

[nowandlater]

Romney is a Federalist on the abortion issue, i.e. let states decide. He has said he would nominate pro-life judges in Massachusetts, but at the same time he would honor existing law. Also, whenever a pro-abortion law has come before him, like the abortion pill issue, he has always gone in the pro-life direction.

His critics will point to what he said in 1994 when running against Ted Kennedy and what the Legislature has forced him to implement over his vetoes but what counts is who he nominates and how he reponds to pending legislation which is decidely pro-life.

[no dems]

He makes some very good points. As for this comment:

"The question all conservatives must answer is: Who is the alternative who can stop media darling John McCain from becoming the GOP standard bearer?"

I have the answer to that question: CONDI IN '08. Run Condi; run!!!

www.4condi.com

[MinorityRepublican]

I will have to say none of the above. This is the perfect time for a dark horse candidate. I have no idea who it will be.

That being said, if there's no one else better, I will settle with Rudy to continue the war on terror.

[patriciaruth]

Thank you for the information about Romney. It is good to hear.