My ancestors were Rebs, I now know how they felt in 1860. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do. If this TEA thing doesn't work, we may have to play the last card in the deck.
Posted on 09/18/2010 3:34:05 AM PDT by Scanian
Christine O'Donnell is a game-changer in the first regularly scheduled federal elections of the Tea Party era in more ways than one.
The evidence? Read the reactions of three people from various parts of the political-media establishment: Peggy Noonan ("Why It's Time for the Tea Party"), Chris Matthews ("Chris Matthews Bets Lib Guest Christine O'Donnell Wins in November") and A.B. Stoddard of The Hill ("Tea Party's Already Won").
"Experts" said Ms. O'Donnell couldn't win in the Delaware Republican primary, and many now say she can't win the general election. They have hoped that about all the Tea Party era candidates, but the vicious attacks on O'Donnell -- especially those coming from establishment Republicans -- demonstrate that the "smartest people in the room" have failed to grasp what the Tea Party knows is at stake.
The O'Donnell win is like my favorite line from the movie The Fugitive. U.S. Marshall Tommy Lee Jones has fugitive Harrison Ford cornered. Ford says, "I didn't kill my wife." Jones replies, "I don't care."
His job wasn't to sort that out on the spot. His job was to bring in the fugitive. Sometimes justice gets sorted out later.
The Tea Party has an urgent mission. Justice will be sorted out. Noonan, Matthews, and Stoddard are at least beginning to grasp what is happening. Others -- professional political consultants, the political media, the political class, indeed, all who have a vested interest in big government -- are in denial.
Karl Rove defended his self-ruinous election eve attack of O'Donnell on Fox News' Hannity show by claiming he's not a cheerleader for every Republican candidate.
Funny, prior to Tuesday night, that's exactly what he was. He was also the cheerleader for policies that ended the Republican congressional majority and is as responsible as anyone for bringing about that "Hope and Change" thing. If he was the "Architect," the people rejected his blueprint.
The media's foremost elitist "common man," Bill O'Reilly, defended his friend and Fox News colleague Rove: he opened his show Thursday by reiterating Rove's "concerns" that O'Donnell isn't what they think the ideal candidate should be.
O'Reilly was more genteel and tepid in his description of O'Donnell's opponent in the general election, a once-self-described Marxist, referring to him as perhaps a "socialist." O'Reilly said the Delaware general election pits extreme ideology against extreme ideology.
Bill, let me break it to you. One ideology is against freedom and is a proven failure.
In this first federal election of the Tea Party era, we won't get all George Washingtons and Thomas Jeffersons. We'll take a few Patrick Henrys, Nathan Hales, James Otises, and others whose names won't make the history books. The Washingtons and Jeffersons may come. This is America. We always rise to the challenge. But we ain't waiting.
The O'Donnell win is the people telling the establishment, "'We don't care.' You are failed stewards of freedom and our great national treasure, and you have messed up things so badly that you need to be replaced -- now -- before it's too late."
Now, in every election, there are disappointments on all sides. However, any losses by Tea Party-backed candidates, but especially by O'Donnell, will come with highly charged "I-told-you-so" moments.
On the other hand, wins by all Tea Party candidates -- and especially O'Donnell -- would come with hand-wringing, excuses, and a litany of "professional" reasons designed only to further the false narrative about the Tea Party.
Fox News has been a great addition to the national news media, but it tends to have an establishment Republican slant. I wish there were a non-establishment, constitutional, conservative competitor network to capture the rest of the huge American center-right market (hint, hint). We'd perhaps get a better post-election picture in the Tea Party era.
The point is, it's no longer establishment Republicans vying against Democrats. Thursday I got a mass e-mail from National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Pete Sessions with the subject line, "What's Scarier: 9.6% Unemployment? Or John Boehner?"
The purpose was to mock Democrats' recent attempts to demonize Boehner, who they assuredly now believe will be Speaker in the face of devastating losses in November.
To Tea Partiers who have no allegiance to incumbents, however, it sends the wrong message. It's like asking them: "Who's worse? Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, or the failed Karl Rove Republican establishment?"
In that regard, Sessions' e-mail is like the famous Jack Benny skit in which a thief approaches him and demands, "Your money or your life." Benny pauses. The thief then says, "Well, what is it?" Benny replies, "I'm thinking; I'm thinking."
There isn't a Tea Partier who doesn't understand the danger of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda. Any Republican taking any title for granted, however, is a problem. Now, you've got to earn it. With this first federal election of the Tea Party era, the choice is no longer between the lesser of two evils.
Christine O'Donnell is that lesson. At Friday's Values Voter Summit in Washington, she said, "They don't get it. We're not trying to take back our country. We are our country." That reminded me of another outsider derided by the establishment: Ronald Reagan.
With Democrats on the run in so many races, their resources are stretched. Democrats will need to rely on bitter Republicans to fend off O'Donnell's run in Delaware. Conservatives mustn't allow the bitter Republicans to destroy the chance to take the Senate by backing down from, or making excuses for, their establishment "friends."
The 2010 elections will show who's on our side. It's up to the people who care too much about America to no longer care what the establishment thinks of them.
USA vs Washington D.C.
And after O’Donnell wins the “establishment” republicans will continue to lambast her at every turn. This is going to be a long war. But hopefully, no more than two years.
2010 will separate the true Americans from the TRUE MARXIST.
Americans have been lulled into thinking Communism was defeated, and now dead.
That is true in central Europe where I lived for about eight years.
The red bear is not dead. It just moved to the USA, with the election of the first Marxist POTUS.
Good article, and I tend to agree. The Tea Party has won in Delaware regardless of the outcome....
I think too, there is something called timing. Palin did the right thing endorsing McCain. We have a better chance of reforming him than supporting someone early on in the movement.
Had McCain’s seat come up in two years, there’s no way he’d have Sarah’s or anyone elses support.
I like too, the comment in the article about how clueless someone like Rove is.
When people, who have never spoken up, never attended a rally, who have always taken their freedoms for granted spontaneously rise up, as in the TEa Party...you know something is happening.
Since Obama has been in office...everyday....every single day I pray to myself regarding the future of this country.
We are one click away of our nation being a house of cards. When a Supreme Court justice says that we should have distinct laws for Islam, and our president is siding with the UN to inact such laws, we know we’re in trouble.
I’m sorry, but it seems to me that Islam=Radical Islam,otherwise you’d see their religious leaders speaking out against terrorism.
I don't think you comprehend what is really at stake. It's either a successful "Tea Party" purge or Civil War II.
I'm good either way, though leaning towards the latter.
The RINO party brought this on themselves.
This guy gets it about Fox News.
They use conservatives like Hannity, Beck and Palin to draw us in so Bill O’RINOlly can give us the corporate editorial in the disguise of a “common man.”
bttt
That's good.
I'm not thrilled with O'Donnell but I don't care either. I've read the comments of incredulous democrats who would be perfectly pleased if Alvin Greene won.
The primaries are over. A "Republican" who voted conservative only half the time lost. Tough.
The DC crowd has to go, and the Republican Party needs to shut up with the "Just not THIS election" BS it's been pushing forever. They need to realize we know they value hanging out with liberal dems more than the "clutching to guns and religion" crowd who they so obviously take for granted.
Someone told me "Good luck turning back Obamacare now!" I told him that since Castle said there was no need to bother trying while Obama was in office, why'd we need Castle, his belated bill during the campaign notwithstanding?
This isn't the year for "Not this year."
Exactly! The Establishment thinks this is like the Regan Revolution and they will absorbe and difuse us and then get back to business as usual. Hell NO! America is undergoing a a colonoscopy and the polyps will be removed. A little cancer cannot be tolerated.
My ancestors were Rebs, I now know how they felt in 1860. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do. If this TEA thing doesn't work, we may have to play the last card in the deck.
Agreed,I would love to see a eal Conservative Channel that doesnt have ANY Democrat Hack Strategists,I am sick of being Manipulated, If I want to hear the Left wing Propaganda I have several outlets o choose from, I want to hear the FACTS,not a Bunch Of Blather from air heads, Fox news is beginning to get on my nerves they put idiots on just to get your blood pressure up.
There is no point in putting people on to discuss an issue just for them to make ridiculus assertions.
Yesterday they had That Tamera Holder on talking about the Tea party movement and she said that they were a Bunch of nuts who want their own island ,they want to do away with the entire Government,we cant abolish all social programs!
Now what a waste of time that is and what other than show this person is brain dead does that accomplish, they could have had a segment on people from the March to Washington or from many of the Tea parties across the country,in other words POSITIVE uplifting stories to make people want to get involved in what I see as a Battle to save the America we all want to see restored. This degrading and imbecilic programming is nothing but Depressing.
Well said!
Rupert Murdoch built his newspapers on sex and conservative economic opinion, not to mention hyped up controversy.
Then he expanded into the television business and created a fourth network with the elements other than the conservative economic opinion.
But with Roger Ailes as the head honcho, Murdoch got Fox News going with its sexy anchors and conservative opinions.
Its quite a show they put on, but it leaves me empty after awhile and I head online for some serious news and opinion.
I make it a point though to watch Glenn Beck as much as I can.
The Tea Party is the best example of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of the market.
Those involved in the legislation, regulation, and bureaucracy of political campaigns do not get it and cannot come-to-grips with the Tea Party.
We are in, what these professional political hacks would call, uncharted waters......allowing the electorate a free hand to make their voice heard.
Just like the true free-market, there are those who fear it, those who want to control it, and those who want to be a part of it.
The Tea Party is simply the private sector’s attempt to survive.
They don't see the urgency that those of us in the private sector see.
I think this also explains why so many liberals are beginning to see the light. They are liberals who work in the private sector and see (finally) that liberal policies will kill their livlihoods.
These people are trying to kill capitalism, and the Roves, Krauthammers, teachers, trial lawyers, pundits, and government workers just don't see it as an existential issue, while those of us in the private sector do.
We were looking at the unmasked face of global Islam. All of them. There is no difference between the extermists and Islam in general when it comes to their hatred of us all. They are all The Enemy. And a picture is still worth a thousand words.
;-/
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