Posted on 05/13/2012 7:32:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Republicans are under attack from the highest towers of official Washington — the gnashing of chattering-class teeth now even more pronounced following Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s decisive victory over 36-year incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dick Lugar.
Two weeks ago, even before Mourdock’s triumph, the Washington Post published a column, entitled, “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.” Authors Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute are the resident scholars (read: apologists) of our nation’s capital or, as Post columnist Ezra Klein described them, “the two most respected, committed scholars — and defenders — of the U.S. Congress.”
That serves as both hoity-toity street cred for the national political class and, considering congressional approval ratings, an ugly black-eye before the American people.
“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years,” wrote Mann and Ornstein, “and never have we seen them this dysfunctional,” adding, in phony non-partisanship, “Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”
“Our advice to the press,” the pair generously offered, “Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views.” Put in layman’s terms: “When you do your reporting, slap a finger or five on the scale. Tell people to vote for the Democrat.”
What else can be done? Apparently, Republicans cause gridlock. Especially conservative Republicans concerned about the federal government’s splurging of our tax dollars and adding a trillion more in debt every year.
When Republicans don’t agree with Democrats, how can government grow?
Like Mann and Ornstein, Mark Mardell, the North American editor of BBC News, understands. He too bemoans Lugar’s ouster, “If you think you have seen gridlock, just wait and watch Goldwater’s final victory”
Goldwater?
Noting that when Ronald Reagan captured the White House in 1980, George Will quipped, “It took 16 years to count the votes, and Goldwater won,” Mardell added that with Mourdock’s victory, “Goldwater has now won his campaign to purge his party of moderates; it has just taken him 48 years longer than he had hoped.”
Indeed, Goldwater did help define conservatism as favoring less government, and his 1964 presidential campaign led to a more pro-free market GOP. His ideas captured the majority of rank-and-file Republicans.
Just as Mourdock’s ideas won last week. The voters, the people, decided. It’s called “change.”
Much was made of Lugar not having lived in the state since 1976, and certainly 36 years in office is enough for any man. Meanwhile, Mourdock endorsed congressional term limits, as well as pledging to keep at least a crash pad in the state. Both important issues affecting the degree of representation citizens receive.
But mostly Mourdock defeated Lugar because the incumbent Senator favors a deal-making Washington that continues to tax more and deficit spend, while the challenger favors reducing the planned growth of government in the coming years. When Mr. Mourdock goes to the U.S. Senate, the people who sent him there want him to stand up to block, to gridlock wasteful, deficit federal government spending.
Lugar favors the continued advance of the Washington, so beloved by Mann and Ornstein and the Washington Post, where the federal government is the well-compensated fix-it man for every problem. Lugar’s defeat is a repudiation of every good, true and beautiful thing they stand for.
Toward the end of yet another diatribe against the unreasonableness of conservative Republicans, Ezra Klein confessed the obvious, “Whether the Republican Party is ‘the problem’ is a subjective judgment. Perhaps you loathe taxes and, in the face of all available evidence, consider global warming a hoax. In that case, the Republican Party is doing exactly what it should be doing.”
I loathe taxes as much as the next guy, but the issue is really federal government borrowing and spending. That threatens our very survival as a society.
And, yes, it was Barry Goldwater in his 1964 acceptance speech upon winning the GOP presidential nomination, who proclaimed, “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
“Bipartisanship has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy,” Richard Mourdock said during his campaign. “We don’t need bipartisanship, we need application of principle.”
Being serious and committed to restoring fiscal sanity to Washington is no vice.
Even the dread gridlock would be a welcome change over out-of-control spending and debt. To paraphrase Patrick Henry, the Revolution’s great firebrand: “If this be gridlock, make the most of it.”
obama offers $150K bribe to jeremiah wright!....
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_bribe_to_silence_wright_io9jneobl3fUF0cb7LpcNM
The elephant is afraid of the squeaky mouse, so the mouse prevails until it gets stepped on. The elephant has been taking ballet lessons so it is very nimble when it comes to keeping its feet off the pesky mouse.
“Even the dread gridlock would be a welcome change over out-of-control spending and debt.” - posted article
“Socialism is Legal Plunder”
“For there are two kinds of plunder: legal and illegal.”
“I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft or swindling — which the penal code defines, anticipates, and punishes — can be called socialism. It is not this kind of plunder that systematically threatens the foundations of society.” - Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850
DEPOPULATE socialists, their enablers, their co-workers from the body politic.
“Between a fire and a fire brigade, there can be no compromise” Ray harbin.
Ray was right. America must be either a land of individuals or devolve back into the slough of collectivism in which the rest of the world is mired.
America was an exception in history. The collectivists want to destroy American Exceptionalism.
They nearly have - how many students now have ever been exposed to the American Exceptionalism concept?
Before answering, consider that on this forum, the spell check function tags ‘exceptionalism’ as a misspelled word. The rot of collectivism has spread throughout American society.
“The rot of collectivism has spread throughout American society.”
Collectivism = The Borg
Romney is FOR global warming hooey, state-run medicine, the gay agenda, activist judges, and subsidized abortion. He's a statist liberal registered as a Republican. And for "the elephant" to allow pure fear to dictate empowering him is crazy like a mental patient.
I would sooner have the devil as president than a Judas to be saddled with supporting.
I got a call from the NRC yesterday, I almost had a stroke. Of course they want money for Romney. My wife said the call lasted an hour but I don’t think it was half that. I didn’t attack the caller but I rebuffed what he was telling me about Romney. My main point of contention with the NRC is that they are supposed to be neutral in the nomination but they never were. They can call me again when and if he gets the nomination, he still doesn’t have the commited delegates. I told him this was like a bad snakebite and I wasn’t going to cut my foot off til the gangrene sets in. I’m praying for a miracle.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is calling you?
Well-stated, ‘Guru. BTTT!
“We don’t need bipartisanship, we need application of principle.” Amen
Never mind the old elephant fears mouse story, what is it with the elephant acting afraid of the jackass?
He got his PhD from the people's republic of UMichigan in 1974, 38 years ago. Not exactly "over forty years" of studying Congress and gubbermint, unless you count his idiot college courses. Writes columns for liberal rags and spreads his spew on CBS News at election time.
Just another phoney-baloney beltway suck-along pundit. Tells you a lot about the AEI, btw.
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