Mitch McConnell as Leonidas:
Posted on 01/07/2010 4:57:46 AM PST by Zakeet
Conservatives want Thermopylae. Congressional Republican leaders instead imitate the Confederate defense of Atlanta -- the one that led a local editor to write that General Joseph E. Johnston's reputation had "grown with every backward step."
[Snip]
In the battle over health-care policy (and in most other big fights in recent years), Senate Republicans likewise have maintained unity, have arrayed themselves on favorable ground, have performed every technical maneuver with flawless precision -- and have yet to win a single major battle about which conservatives care deeply. And like the local Atlanta editor in 1864 praising Gen. Johnston's retreats, the McClatchy newspapers even published a story last month about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's parliamentary tactics headlined "Skillful McConnell leads GOP opposition to health bill."
[Snip]
What infuriates conservatives is the attitudinal signals the Senate leadership sends. The health care bill is treated as just another piece of legislation -- certainly more important than most, as Atlanta was a more important city than most, but not ground to be defended by every available means, to the death, as if a civilization hangs in the balance the way Greek civilization was threatened by the Persians. Yet for millions upon many tens of millions of Americans, the health-care battle is indeed their generation's domestic version of the Greco-Persian War, and nothing less than a Thermopylae-like stand will be acceptable. These middle-Americans don't want amendments to the bills. They don't want to force bill supporters into tough votes that will be used against them in the 2010 fall campaigns. They don't care about positioning for future battles on other legislative subjects, and they don't give a flying expletive about maintaining the alleged dignity of the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The author does more than lament the ObamaCare problem.
He also presents a number of practical solutions for how the Pubbies can prevent the Libtard monstrosity ... how they can grow a pair of stones and do battle with the Rats, Rat style.
Read the entire article! Summarize the attack plan at the end of the piece. Contact every Pubbie senator. Express your opinion as strongly as possible. Explain that they will also be held accountable if the Libtard garbage passes.
In other words, goose the b*st*rds hard, and goose them good.
Health care costs, and expenditures are a real problem. Stopping Obama/Romney/GOP Lite care won’t ease these problems.
Government is most of the problem. The GOP could not even stop Public Broadcasting, or the Department of Edjamaktion, or the 20,000 useless in the Department of Now Worse Energy Since Carter era.
I have great faith, and will bet that the GOP doesn’t do squat.
Wish it wasn’t so, but like loaning money to a crack junkie, I wouldn’t believe it would come back either.
GOP, the Other Losers.
( Yeah, yeah, I know, Conservatives are ‘influencing’..some day...er...decade....our Conservative hack won’t drift...why you can put them in whorehouses with billions for years and booze and drink and ....why it is all duty and humanity!)
Great read..
Problem....
The GOP are spineless cowards.
Solution...??
It IS a good article! The only phrase that makes me shudder is comparing Schumer to Sherman...the large head will now get larger.
This guy is right - fighting a battle by the rules is NOT going to defeat this. Defeat is possible.
“That horse ain't gonna get you there.”
Problem....
The GOP are spineless cowards.
Solution...??
Would it were that simple.....the truth is bigger than that...
Too many good Americans still think we have a “two” party system. In the end..the RINO’s are just as happy with this “healthcare” bill as next time around its their turn to play with the goodies looted from flyover country. They’re not about to let Mr. Brown interfere with that in any way.
The Dem-Republican Good Cop-Bad Cop con routine is the longest running, most successful play of that con anywhere in the world. Congress has been its master since the mid-70’s. Its why we’re where we are today.
The real game is DC versus Flyover Country. It does’nt come to an end until all in Flyover Country finally get it. IMHO, they are just starting to wake up.
No...the Pubbies are not about to get in the way of a “goodie” express being driven by the Dems...that bill is chockfull of stuff to horse-trade around Washington for another generation.
“In the end..the RINO’s are just as happy with this “healthcare” bill as next time around its their turn to play with the goodies looted from flyover country.”
And the RINO’s control the GOP. Only hope is a coup.
We need a Senator Leonidas to step foward. Mitch McConnell ain't him.
Mitch McConnell as Leonidas:
No he’s not.
Bump for later reading.
If the Republicans take back the House next year it will be the most stunning reversal of electoral fortune in the history of the Republic. Dems will be on the run and Republicans will know that they were elected precisely because people are angry about Obama’s many power grabs. If the House refuses to pass any budget that funds any part of Obamacare or includes the taxes required to feed that beast there will be nothing either Senate Democrats or Obama can do about it.
If the House just said no, the Dems would be left with a choice between letting Obamacare go or shutting down the federal government as they fight to preserve the most unpopular legislative initiative in living memory. Behind door number two is a political disaster that would make the one they just survived look like a stroll in the park. Everyone in Washington remembers the defeat Republicans suffered when they tried to play hardball with the budget to effect an unpopular policy change. The Dems don't have the guts or the cohesion to stick to their guns in the face of political annihilation.
The Republicans are spineless. Many of them will be looking for an easy out. Pushing the Dems to the wall won't come easily to them. Few Republican politicians will want a climactic confrontation with a governmment shutdown in the balance. But they won't have a choice. They will have a mandate from an agry electorate. They have learned that breaking faith with their voters leads to years in the wilderness. Either they advance into enemy fire or we shoot them in the back. They aren't heros, but faced with that choice they will advance.
The Dems are in a no win situation. Passing Obamacare will almost certainly cost them all the political capital they will need to keep it long enough to put it into effect. It is a mistake to underestimate the enemy, but it is also a mistake to overestimate him. We need to see the tactical and strategic situations as they are, not through the distorting lens of fear. Fight tooth and nail, by all means. But fight secure in the knowledge that , one way or another,the bad guys are going down.
Bump for later.
Prophetic words, those.
Bookmark.
“Prophetic words, those.”
Yup. I was in my full prophetic trance mode with eyeballs rolling back in my head as I wrote them.
Good article. Naive conservatives here have said once it is passed, we can repeal it in the future. This explains why that is a fantasy, and why we must act to stop it now.
Why don't they insist the money go into a lockbox? That the Democrats NOT spend one nickel of it? Like Casey Stengel watching his inept Mets, I keep wanting to ask of our Republican "leaders" in Washington... "Can't anybody here play this game?"
Most of them would be just as effective at stopping this onslaught of legislation if they were dead. And that's a fact.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.