Dissension In The Ranks

American News Reel ^ | 1/31/04 | Doug Thompson

[jimkress]

Had dinner with an old friend last night, a long-time Republican political operative who – in 1981 – talked me into taking a sabbatical from journalism and going to Washington as a press secretary to Congressman Paul Findley.

He’s been a Republican all his life. Grew up in a GOP family. Served more than one term as a county chairman as well as a Republican National Committeeman.

So it surprised me when he opened the dinner table conversation with: “I’m not going to vote for George W. Bush in November. I may vote for John Kerry if he’s the Democratic nominee.”

Strange things can happen in this world. Joe Gibbs can come out of retirement to coach the Washington Redskins one more time. Hell, the Carolina Panthers might even win the Super Bowl. But when a lifelong Republican tells me he might vote for John Kerry, I wait for a voice to start saying “you’re entering another dimension…next stop – The Twilight Zone.”

“I’m a Republican because I believe in less government, of letting states make the decisions that affect our lives,” he said. “I believe in a balanced budget. But my party no longer believes in any of these things. I can’t be a part of what I think is destroying this country.”

His comments echo what I have been hearing after three weeks on the campaign trail. Republicans are fed up with an administration that has created the largest federal bureaucracy ever, with record deficits and with increasing federal power and control over our lives.

But they’re not just fed up with George W. Bush, they’re fed up with a Republican-controlled Congress that passed the largest, most pork-laden transportation bill in history, that abandoned its promise to impose term limits and that broke most of the promises of the 1994 “Contract With America” that gave them control of Capitol Hill in the first place.

My friend’s theory: “You know the old bromide that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Well, my party has taken it step further. Absolute power leads to madness. It makes me, a Republican, long for Democrats back in control. That is pure madness but I can’t help it.”

I’ve been around politics as a journalist or an operative for nearly 40 years and the dissension within the GOP is the worst I’ve ever seen. At a Republican caucus earlier this week, California Republican Congressman Chris Cox headed a group of conservative members who told Speaker of the House Denny Hastert that a GOP Congress was being undermined by Bush's actions in the White House. One member reportedly said a GOP Congress could deal more effectively with a Democrat in the White House than they can with Bush.

“At least we know what to expect from a Democratic President,” he said.

[cyncooper]

You want to really scare people, just tell them that Bush really is in charge.

Scare people? I find it reassuring.

[F16Fighter]

"OMG, you don't really think that they came up with that pplan AFTER Bush talked about his, do you?"

Heck no -- they probably had a much watered-down version of the Amnesty Plan until they saw Dubya's.

All they did was condense what they thought had to be a 10-year plan, and convert it into their one-year plan.

[nopardons]

You are SO right! They're either newbies, or people with VERY old accounts, who don't mumble a thing for years on end, but crawl out of the woodwork to post utter bilge. They should just stay asleep;.

[MJY1288]

Doug Thompson has no standing anymore, he used a made up source in Capital Hill Blue to spread a rumor about this administration and never explained himself. Instead he had his staff tell everyone he went on vacation and till this day he has not explained his Jason Blair moment

[Beenliedto]

You wanna get banned, just keep on with that garbage.

I really bother you... That makes me very happy.

[A Navy Vet]

"Having just come from a California Republican Assembly endorsing meeting, they are ready to bolt from Bush's ranks and support a write-in candidacy (Tancredo) or vote for another party (like American Independent).

They're also incensed over Governor Schwarzenegger's indication that he's readying to get a new bill together to grant drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Not only are people getting ready to referend that law if it passes and is signed, they're talking ANOTHER recall against Mr. S!"

Wow! No kidding?? You just gave me some hope. Rather than sitting this one out as I said on another thread, think I'll contact the CRA. Having lost faith in Republicans, I just assumed the the CRA would sell us out as the CA Republican Party has. Do you know if they have an office in Orange County?

[arasina]

OMG, you don't really think they came up with that plan AFTER Bush talked about his, do you?

Exactly what I was going to say. You beat me to it. Even the OMG part.

[4integrity]

....Bush gets my vote based on the TERROR issue...

God bless you! It's amazing to me that some people do not understand that we will not have to worry about the economy, CFR, money to the arts etc if terrorism splinters this country or if we have a "leader" who will seek permission from ANY other country or the UN before acting to protect our own country. The war on terror is THE issue and President Bush is the only leader who has the guts to deal with this very tough and complex issue.
John Kerry may have served in Viet Nam but what did he do when he came home.....he joined with Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark. I know people who fought there...some did not come home. The accusations of Kerry, Fonda, Clark sure didn't help our military men and women fighting in VN. It encouraged the Viet Cong. Just as the disgraceful allegations the Democrats make against Pres Bush encourage terrorists today. Read about Kerry in fronpagemag.com and see what a shallow person he is. God help our great country if Kerry is elected. Hmmm, and if a Dem is elected
we will most likely have a completely liberal Supreme Court and I will no longer be able to say 'GOD'.

[Howlin]

You are as crazy as a loon if you think the Democrats EVER had anything watered down with respect to illegal aliens.

[Howlin]

Some of these people are going to give themselves a stroke over things they THINK might happen.

[HostileTerritory]

We also got the highest tax rate in US history.

What exactly do you mean by that? I'd like to make this claim to my liberal coworkers, but it's hard to square with where income tax rates were in the 1950s through 1970s.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I've not agreed with the President on some of his domestic agenda, but the real choice is between a Democrat and a Republican. Having once been a staunch Democrat, I know the difference.

I do not want our national security subject to the approval of Kofi Annan and the French, Germans and other Euro-weenies.

I do not Americans practicing Abortion-on-Demand through every trimester or beyond.

I do not want the federal tax rate for me or any of my fellow citizens to be 50% or higher.

For these reasons and more, I suggest we support the Republicans, the more conservative of the two real choices in a Presidential election.

Should we sit on the sidelines in the meantime and passively allow the conservatives to be "looked over" whenever bad ideas are adopted? Hell no. Write, call, get involved in changing the party. But abandoning the organization when that means putting a Democrat in power is suicide.

[Moonman62]

You are missing the fact that Bush is a leader on par with Reagan. In my opinion he surpasses RR. So be of good cheer. The USA has in fact, produced another leader of that order.

Reagan = "Shining city on the hill."

GWB = "New government office complex on the hill."

[MEG33]

I have been here a year.Does that mean I have nothing to say? I have plenty say about this election and none of us has a say on who comes and goes but JR.

I do notice a lot of newcomers and old timers when an election looms..the oldtimers I rarely see otherwise,they come and go.

The seldom seen oldtimers are usually not Republicans,they consider themselves the "real","true" conservatives.

[nopardons]

I don't have to " listen " to what he says. I know what the LP platform says........they're for OPEN BORDERS, MAKING ALL ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES LEGAL, PRO-ABORTION OF ALL KINDS, THE PRIVITZATION OF PUBLIC ROADS AND ALL PUBLIC OWNED SPACE,, WHICH THEY'LL SELL TO THE HIGHEST BIDDRES ( INCLUDING THE CHINESE & THE UN ! ), THE LEGALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION, EMPTYING OUT OF THE JAILS, FOR ALL NONVIOLENT CRIMINALS and more crackpot ideas. They also are against the WOT and sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq.

The thought of Russo dealing with the likes of Putin and Chirac,etc. makes mt skin crawl and knots my guts.It should do the same to yours. That it doesn't, is telling!

[F16Fighter]

"Now Bush is to blame for Kerry wanting citizenship amnesty? This is what passes for objective criticism?"

Do you think Kerry would have even mentioned an Amnesty-For-Illegals scheme without Dubya's stepping into mentioning it? Kerry's dumb but not that dumb.

Apparently Kerry is nor averse to playing one-upsmanship with a political hot potato that plays better to liberal voters in the first place. Is that a shock to your system??

[nopardons]

And I've posted far more than you have. YOU have less than nothing to say. Crawl back under your rock, Rip and go back to sleep.

[HostileTerritory]

The more this guy (nopardons) bashes conservatives and tries to insult our intelligence, the more I suspect he's a disruptor.

I'm going to vote Republican/conservative down the ballot where it counts. But I'm 27 and I know that I'll be paying off Bush's man-on-the-moon-and-Mars debt long after Howlin and her friends have moved on. I can't ignore it. It's my inheritance. I'm going into debt to buy Moon missions and Mapplethorpe art and pork for the South for Karl Rove's strategy.

No amount of personal insults, bashing, and traitorous inunendo from nopardons is going to keep me from the polls. I do think that we have many good conservatives here on FR who may be discouraged by the Bushbot rage. I hope not.

[HostileTerritory]

I love it!

CONSTITUTION PARTY BUMP !

[Beenliedto]

I don't have to " listen " to what he says.

You're a real thinker, aren't you?