Posted on 11/04/2009 10:28:46 PM PST by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON — Republicans emerged from Tuesday’s elections energized by victories in Virginia and New Jersey, but their leaders immediately began maneuvering to avoid a prolonged battle with conservative activists over what the party stands for and how to regain power.
The victories, in races for governor, were cast by the party’s national chairman, Michael Steele, as a sign of a “Republican renaissance.” In New Jersey, Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, was toppled by the Republican nominee, Christopher J. Christie. In Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican, defeated his Democratic opponent, R. Creigh Deeds.
Republicans said the victories showed that President Obama and his party were vulnerable on the economy, government spending and other issues.
Yet throughout the day Wednesday, Republicans grappled with the disappointing outcome of a special election for what had been a reliably Republican House seat in upstate New York. That contest became a battleground between the party establishment and a conservative insurgency demanding more ideological purity from candidates.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Viva la resistance!
RINOS better get outa the middle of the road before they get pulverized by the Mac Truck of conservatism.
Our leaders? Hahahahahahaha. Now we’re ‘conservative activists’ huh?
An interesting coincidence: Democrats and RINOs share a desire to silence the people. Fair conclusions can be made from this.
why does no one ever mention she also endorsed both McDonnell and Christie and they both won. It wasn’t like she only endorsed Hoffman. In fact, she had already donated the maximum to McDonnell from her PAC way back in July or something like that. But they only want to focus on the one election and not the other two.
He did go from 23 to 45 in 10 days and from trailing Owens by 12 to losing by 4. The key event was Dede stabbing the party in the back and throwing the race to Owens. Palin had nothing to do with that. All she did was write a few boilerplate sentences.
I mean, it’s not like she flew into NY on an emergency visit on Sunday and went up and down the district telling everyone that Hoffman is one of her biggest partners and the key to her agenda. It’s not like there were giant billboards and TV ads with her face saying Palin/Hoffman. Only to see him fall flat on his face. It’s not like she sent some of her top people to help him out. A 9 yr incumbent with unlimited cash. Doug was basically unknown as of a couple weeks ago.
But the NYT tells us NJ was no big deal. Nothing to do with Obama. No reflection on him at all.
It is nice to know that the mighty Grey Lady is now resorting to browsing her facebook page to write their stories, though. A real titan of news gathering they are. I wonder how Nagourney feels knowing he’s the top political reporter at the paper of record and has to read the facebook notes of a woman he obviously despises with all his soul.
Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, et al, you might as well be Democrats because you vote with them! Not one of you can get reelected without us! We DON*T NEED YOU.We DON*T WANT YOU. Just follow Specter on over to the evil side and get out of our way so we can get some REAL conservatives in there!!!
I composed a ScoreCard for the voting record of members of Congress. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2341921/posts
And am now doing the same for the Senate. Have the framework composed, except I need some guidance on the bills in the Senate that are revealing about the true loyalties of the members.
Any suggestions for the Senate Bills?
FYI…..
But the NYT tells us NJ was no big deal. Nothing to do with Obama. No reflection on him at all.
Rahm Emanuel 2005 : Our gubernatorial wins in NJ and Virginia are huge
Rahm Emanuel — then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and now White House chief of staff — had called us to argue the very point Republicans are now making: that the two gubernatorial contests say something about the upcoming midterms.
Here’s what we wrote then:
Democratic House campaign committee chair Rahm Emanuel, calling First Read immediately after Kaine’s and Corzine’s victories were announced, argued that it’s clear Democratic voters were already energized earlier in the year when Democrat Paul Hackett nearly won a traditionally GOP-leaning Ohio House district. “I think that’s even more true today.”
The Rinos are “grappling” with losing the New York Congressional election. I wonder if they’ve been grappling with every election they have lost over the past four or five years now? Or do they just do the same loser face things over and over again while telling everyone to shut up about it?
Adam just won a prize from our friends at the Media Research center:
The "Dewey Defeats Truman" Award for the Most Incompetent Reporting of This Year's Election.
I disagree with the MRC. Don't believe Nagourney is incompetent. He's just a liar. He writes what he writes in the hope it will confuse, demoralize or splinter the right and elect marxists.
the party establishment (national) was hoodwinked, I think they have learned a very valuable lesson.
AMEN!!! LOL
From now on, trying to ‘lead’ conservatives into voting for RINOs will be like herding mountain lions.
Sean had that idiot, wife-cheating, blow-hard Newt on yesterday.
I turned Sean off forever yesterday. Too many liberals and to much of that loser Newt.
Newt betrayed us when he was banging his assistant, cheating on his second wife, and getting blackmailed by the Clintons (IMHO). They had his FBI file.
I might also mention that after the 1994 victory, Newt led a steady declining majority.
What the GOP fails to realize is that there is enough of us to screw them out of any election at any given time if they don't give us the candidate we want. If they want to ever win a major election again, they need to ditch the RINOs or face a conservative alternative any time they run.
To hell with RINOs and the GOP for tolerating them. If we have to tear apart the party to rebuild it then that's what will happen. The "Party of McCain" can take a hike.
RINOs say the same thing about conservatives--and they are right. I say we need each other if we're going to stop Democrats. Fight it out in primaries and then stay united to defeat the Democrats. It is the ONLY way.
This is simply untrue. Oh, if it were true. The fact is there is no where near enough true purists to get elected to anything. If you want to perpetually keep Dims in power, this is a surefire way to do it.
Please back up your statements with facts. The votes are not there. Face reality.
Give me a demonstrated, documented example of Conservatives attempting to silence the people. Don’t confuse the issue by giving an example of a Conservative telling a politician to “shut up!” That kind of political brawling goes on all the time.
”I say we need each other if we're going to stop Democrats.”
Well then, the RINOs can follow and stop pretending to lead. We tried it your way in ’06 and ’08, and it was a disaster. Even prior to that we had too many RINOs in leadership positions, and all they did was to diddle around and feather their own nests, rather than take care of business. Likewise in ’76, ’92 and ’96. I’m grateful for Bush 43 because he was willing to fight the war against Islamic Lunatics, who have been attacking Western Civilization for twelve hundred years, but he didn’t do nearly enough to fight for conservative causes and must shoulder his share of the blame for the pickle we are in today.
If you think we can gain anything by working for (not with – they are all take and no give) people like General Powell or Scozzafava, then be my guest. Just don’t ask me to join you in your Kamikaze flameout.
Don't get me wrong. I am a long way from a RINO but what I'm trying to say that it is not POSSIBLE to win an election without everyone that is willing to vote Republican to hang together in our zeal to stop the RATS who are destroying our country.
I agree. The primary is the place to week out RINOs.
How? By voting against them (if I get the opportunity)? By voicing my disagreement? Must I vote for them and remain quiet, lest I be accused of trying to shut them up? That’s Liberal logic, and I’ve had that kind of garbage shoved at me for over fifty years. I’ve never bought it, and I won’t start now.
Pursuing your line of argument, I can claim that, by entering into a dispute with me, you’re attempting to shut me up. That the case? Is that how you think? Is that the reason why you assign those motives to me?
“. . . what I'm trying to say that it is not POSSIBLE to win an election without everyone that is willing to vote Republican to hang together in our zeal to stop the RATS . . . ”
What do you mean “hang together”? Hang together until you go over to the enemy’s camp? Like the gang of fourteen? Like the House members who voted for Kneecap and Tax (Cap and Trade)? Like General Powell, who deserted us for 0bama (not his first desertion – see Scooter Libby)? Like Sozzafava (we must assume she voted for Owens – she endorsed him)?
Are you one of these who considers losing to be a virtue?
Do you agree that primaries are the place to attempt to weed out RINOs but if a RINO prevails in a primary, it is more virtuous to vote for the RINO in a general than to allow the Dim attain office?
”How do you intend to win any elections . . .”
I asked you to give me a demonstrated, documented example of Conservatives attempting to silence the people in response to your accusation that RINOs are right when they say that Conservatives try to silence the people. Apparently, you could not, because you did not. Rather than admit that you could not, however, you chose to simply move on, presumably under the operating theory that maybe something else might work better than your last tactic. Moreover, I specifically asked you to not confuse the issue by giving an example of a Conservative telling a politician to shut up (with the idea that, strictly speaking, a politician is not a part of what defines “the people”), so you proceeded to do precisely what I asked you not to do (more about that later).
I also asked you what you meant with respect to your assertion that it is not possible to win elections unless we “hang together.” I then offered several examples of with whom we might “hang together.” Like General Powell or Scozzafava. If we do, will we get anything done we want done, or just what Powell and Scozzafava want done? Or is there another whole class of people out there in the wilderness just waiting for my open-armed acceptance allowing them to come back in out of the cold? If the latter, what is it that they are concealing in the hand they have behind their back? Again, just what do you mean by “hanging together”?
Finally, you accused me of trying to shut up RINOs (accusation by question). I asked you, “How?” No response. So, I ask again, how am I shutting up anyone (RINO or otherwise)?
You’ve asked a new collection of questions in your last post. It will be my privilege to answer them. However, you’ve a bunch of catching up to do first. I’m pleased to exchange ideas and understandings. That’s what I live for. I don’t, however, propose to play the Master Inquisitor asks, the Guilty Witness answers.
A new element is introduced into the conversation: independents and disaffected Democrats. In a word (two actually): Reagan voters. Reagan didn’t win their support by pandering to their irrational desires. He gained their support by wining them to his convictions. So, if people say the Reagan era is over, then they mean the era of our Founding Fathers is over (as Rush is given to say). But, we were discussing RINOs.
For our purposes I’m going to assume the term RINO to mean office seekers, but that it also includes those who generally are attracted to and vote for RINO office seekers. Correct me If I’m mistaken.
We live in a representative republic (more or less, still for a little while). When ever we hold an election everyone of us risks being on the wrong side. I’m not going to change my argument in order to make it appear that I’m on the wining side when I am not. If the electoral decision goes against me, then so be it. That’s how our system works. If the wrong decision is made, I’m not going to compound the error by pretending to lend my imprimatur to the affair, and I’m not going to accept any responsibility for the ensuing fiasco.
If it turns out that I was wrong, then everyone is free to laugh and point (even though most of them would be madder than Hell if I did the same when they are wrong). It was not RINOs who put a stop to amnesty for illegals. If they would have had their way, amnesty would have passed. If fact, they were madder than Hell that “extracurricular activities” prevented the passage of amnesty (but then RINOs are usually madder than Hell, just like National Socialists – there’s a lesson lurking in there somewhere). If this present National Socialist power grab fails, it will likewise not be due to RINO agitation, but in spite of their best efforts to push it through.
”Are you one of these who considers losing to be a virtue?”
I consider losing a natural risk any time an election is held. The alternative is conducting politics from the barrel of a gun. I’ll tell you what is a virtue: refusing to be something I am not. Winning an election purely for the sake of winning an election is a loser. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. (thanks Rick)
”Do you agree that primaries are the place to attempt to weed out RINOs . . . ”
Yes. But don’t jump to any unfounded conclusions from that response.
”. . . but if a RINO prevails in a primary, it is more virtuous to vote for the RINO in a general than to allow the Dim attain office?”
I suppose there is also a difference between a slow death and a quick death.
There now, I’ve answered all your questions (I think). There gonna be a little quid pro?
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