Posted on 05/27/2005 4:14:58 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher
After all the glowing words surrounding the Senate "compromise" in which the Republicans folded their hand despite holding all the high cards, it is worth taking a look at who won what and why.
The biggest winner is Senator John McCain, who once again sold out both principles and party, to the applause of the mainstream media. Not only is he assured of good publicity, he has pulled the rug out from under Majority Leader William Frist, his probable chief rival for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination.
Winning a showdown with the Democrats by using the so-called "nuclear option" to stop the filibustering of judicial nominees would have given Senator Frist the kind of name-recognition that McCain already has and would be a major achievement to solidify the support of the conservative Republican base.
Now, after having been blindsided by the McCain mutiny, Frist looks ineffective as Majority Leader and questionable as a potential President of the United States.
Those who claim that Senator McCain has forfeited the support of the Republican base by selling out his party must not realize that McCain never had the support of that base in the first place, as shown by their votes in the 2000 Republican primaries.
Senator McCain has lost nothing. If Hillary Clinton is the Democrats' candidate in 2008, what alternative would the Republican base have? Vote for Hillary?
If nothing else, Senator McCain has undermined Senator Frist's authority as Majority Leader in the Senate and made himself the media's favorite Republican. Whether or not that can be cashed in for a 2008 Presidential nomination, McCain has raised his own stock and lowered that of Frist. He is in a position to rule or ruin.
Is Senator Frist a weak Majority Leader or does he just not have the troops required to get the job done? Senator Frist is a surgeon but he can't transplant backbone to Senate Republicans who don't have any.
A Senate Majority Leader today may or may not be able to rule with an iron hand, the way Lyndon Johnson did when he held that title half a century ago.
I don't know Senator Frist but I know someone in Tennessee who does know him and thinks highly of him. I am inclined to think highly of him myself, though I have met him in person only once, when we sat at a dinner table in the White House with the President of Kenya and Mrs. Bush, among others.
What struck me was Senator Frist's mentioning that he was familiar with Kenya from having been there during one of his trips to Africa to perform surgery on African children. Being a humane and decent man is not something to sneeze at but, in politics, the question about decent people is whether they are sufficiently on guard against people who are not so decent.
Senator Frist may have expected that he could rely on his friends in the Senate to stick by him in a showdown. But Harry Truman once said that, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
Those of us who are not privy to what goes on behind the scenes in Washington cannot know how savvy or how tough Senator Frist is as Majority Leader. He may be getting all the mileage he can out of the kind of people who make up the Republican contingent in the Senate.
Being the leader of Republican Senators who include John McCain, Arlen Specter, and Olympia Snowe, among others with minimal or non-existent party loyalty, cannot be a picnic. Moreover, even if Senator Frist is an effective leader, that is not enough unless he also looks like an effective leader -- which he certainly does not at the moment.
As for any Presidential ambitions, the Republicans have often had more people who would make good Presidents than they have had people who would make good presidential candidates -- and that is what you have to be in order to reach the White House.
This is a low point. But it has long been axiomatic that "in politics, overnight is a lifetime." It is a long time before the 2008 elections. In political terms, there is still time before the next Supreme Court nominee reaches the Senate, even if that happens this year. How that time is used is what matters.
And that's what many pundits and the vast majority of Freepers don't take into consideration. When McCain was thrown overboard in the primary in 2000, those who were the masterminds of it have been backhanded by McCain since then.
Neither McCain or Frist can become president. McCain is a jackass and lacks principal. Frist doesn't "look" presidential, among other things.
McVain is NO FRIEND of republicans! He is an egotistical crybaby ahole jerk!
I'm sorry this is B.S.! McNuts basically stated yesterday on Imus that Frist knew everything from the get go!! Now, I don't know if McNuts went against Frist wishes and Frist was too much of a whimp to stop McNuts, but I wouldn't doubt it!
Now, watch as Bolton gets the shaft by these 7 dems in drag!
The agreement made by the infamous 14 initally made Frist look foolish. But now the failed cloture vote on Bolton's appointment has backfired on them. Frist has an opportunity to make McCain, Warner, Graham, et al look foolish. He better take it.
Maybe McVain and Bucannan can start up a 3rd party call The RINOs!
Pass the strawberries, and who has the ball bearings?
My last remaining interest in the Republican Party (the very last and only) is to destroy the McCain candidacy in 2008.
2008 is a long way away, but I think it's a safe bet that McCain has no shot at the nomination, no matter haow much the NYT and the WP wish he would get it. He would have to get through the primaries first, where I vote and the NYT does not.
ML/NJ
The Republicans CAN’T SEE THE TREES FOR THE FOREST!!!
The same thing is happening to the Republican Party that has happened to the Democrats!
Zell Miller said, “There are strangers living in my basement…”
The Democratic Party was taken over by the Socialists subversives’ years ago.
Now WE refer to them as RINO Republicans.
They aren’t RINOs they are SOCIALISTS DAMN IT!!
Their goal is to control BOTH parties!!!
It’s WORKING!
The article says: Senator McCain has lost nothing. If Hillary Clinton is the Democrats' candidate in 2008, what alternative would the Republican base have? Vote for Hillary?
I generally agree that McCain has lost nothing. He never had a chance to win the Republican nomination. The only chance this will hurt his is if he somehow did win the nomination. In that case I, and many others like me, would not vote. Ask Bob Dole about that option.
This is the one statement that stood out for me. Will the base vote for Hillary? No and yes. They will not physically go out and vote for Satan's Prom Queen (I love using that - thanks to the Freeper who came up with that name). But they will stay home. This is evident in the last 4 elections. 92, 96, and 2000, the majority of the base stayed home because they either did not like the Repub candidate and did not trust him. The base saw what kind of man W is and went out in droves. I do not know if the politicians in DC noticed this or not, but the base will stay home and trust in God rather than go out and vote for McCaniac, Frist, Rudy, Pataki, Jeb, or Santorum. I think they will come out for George Allen.
i honestly believe the media (and not just mainstream) is misunderestimating how republicans feel about McCass
the only way he's going to find his way to the white house is if he's hillary's running mate
JMHO
John McLame, just another political whore of the Jim Jeffords Scarlet Letter Academy!
I tried to be optimistic even are Reid and Dean were declaring victory Tuesday. But yesterday's block of closure on Bolton was Reid showing all that they (Democrats) were the big winners this week. Democrats will veto Republicans actions in Senate and a small group of Republicans led by McCain will join them.
I agree, as of today, I think George Allen is a real possibility, he has been outstanding thru the FilliB kerfuffle, looks & sounds like a Prez. I will not be surprised if he is the Candidate in '08!
Assuming that the race is between McCain & Hillary, which I think is a pretty big assumption at this point....the "center" - both GOP and Dem - will at least consider McCain. I know liberals who like him a lot, and I know moderates who would not vote for Hillary!
If the conservative base stays home, or even if they vote for a third party candidate, I can't see that they've done themselves any good in terms of practical results, although voting for a third party candidate would at least be a clear indication of their desires -- assuming such a person received enough votes to make a difference.
I think they will come out for George Allen.
I don't think most of the country has even heard of George Allen. He's going to need a lot more name recognition to be a viable candidate. Of course, a lot can happen in the next two years.
Exactly, if 8 years of Droopy-Draws Clinton has shown anything
it's that the country can survive just about anything. There is no reason to elect another ineffectual RINO to office. Bush seems to be shoring up our military and polishing the American image while opening up the borders to illegals, increasing the burden on the US social services and medical system which will either destroy the system or lead to nationalized health care, and doing a little to lighten the tax burden. (Well, he can't do EVERYTHING.) There is no point in sending more RINOs to DC, if the Leadership can't lead or act like winners. I'd say teh focus should be on building strong local organizations that will eventually force the national 'leaders' out. Once again, mASS. provides us with an outstanding example of what should NOT go to DC.
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