[[Oh, I agree. Once consensus is reached, the leadership should certainly have an obligation to fight for our agreed-upon goals.]]
The problem is defining consensus and assessing the damage that was done by all the vitriol that was spewed. Hard core conservatives like to claim 'they got Bush elected'. Reality is that no ONE group alone got him elected. Not hard core conservatives, not Christian conservatives, not pragmatic conservatives, not moderates and not neo-conservatives. If anyone of these groups had not provided the votes their blocs delivered, Bush would not be president. If, during this battle, any segment has been alienated, the damage could be irreparable. I came across this exchange on polipundit:
“Like many have posted above, I believe NOW is the time to rally the Republican Party and all other Conservatives by nominating someone we can rally around!”
Sorry…I am not in a mood to rally at the moment. I thought my party meant it when they cried for years that EVERY nominee deserves an up or down vote. What I learned over the past several weeks is that for the most part we are hypocrites and I want NOTHING to do with that way of thinking.
I remain firm behind the President as I have been all along. I have no time nor inclination to to stand around those who have been so nasty in their judgement of HM. Color me disillusioned, disappointed, and utterly discouraged. I will not be doing any rallying any time soon. You guys may have won the battle but when it comes time to work hard in 2006 and 2008 you lost. you can count me out along with many of us ‘conservatives” in So Cal. I know I am far from being alone in my position, sadly.
Good luck to you all in the next SCOTUS war. I am sitting it out.
If this type of emotional reaction cannot be assuaged, conservatives, as a whole, will be the big losers in 2006 and 2008. I do not concur with the above reaction, but I do understand the feelings behind it. The healing has to come not only from Bush to those conservatives who felt ignored, but from those conservatives towards others who did not agree with them. As much as we complain about 'RINOs', we are still not at a point where we don't need them. It is those RINOs that give us control in Congress.
I have seen some comments about focusing on defeating RINOs. Though I agree we should seek more conservative representation, to focus on defeating RINOs, instead of democrats, is self-defeating. That does not mean we should ignore trying to get RINOs replaced with more conservative representatives, but we cannot take our primary focus off defeating democrats. It makes no logical sense to defeat a RINO, who could win a statewide or district race, in a primary with a conservative who will lose a statewide or district race to a democrat.
As you can see, I fall into the category of pragmatic, big picture or reality based conservative. I share almost all the goals of hard core conservatives, but I am not an ideologue. I try to assess the political landscape rather than act like a bull in a china shop.