Republican Self-Defeat

WSJ ^ | 11/11/05 | editorial

[machman]

Republican disarray on Capitol Hill reached self-ramming speed yesterday, as both the House and the Senate abandoned key policy priorities as they tried to pass a budget. Hide the children because this is getting ugly.

In the Senate, Maine's Olympia Snowe helped to scuttle even a single-year extension of the current 15% tax rate on dividends and capital gains that is due to expire in 2008. Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley was thus forced to postpone a committee vote on extending a tax cut that has been crucial to an economic rebound that since mid-2003 has been marked by 10-straight quarters of nearly 4% average growth. Tell us again why Republicans need 55 Senators?

[BlackElk]

Nancy Johnson is not only worthless but her husband, Dr. Ted Johnson, is an abortionist in New Britain.

[DM1]

hey great thanks throw us Conservatives trapped in Blue states under the bus
I live in NH we still have two pretty conservative Senators yoiu know

[Arizona Carolyn]

I hope everyone here reads this.... somehow years ago I made it onto the email list for Wilderness Society and get all these disgusting emails from them... this one, today angered me beyond belief.. actually more at our weak-kneed GOP as anyone... but I wanted people here at FreeRepublic to read their crowing email...

BTW... please feel free to share this with everyone you know I don't have a ping list...also, just as I was sending this I got a call from the Republican Congressional Committee asking for a donation -- I told the lady that I did contribute a week ago to the party, but I'm so mad at the GOP right now I'm not sending a dime and I invited her to pass that on... she asked why I was angry and I told her one word: ANWR.

Anyway, here is the email:

You Rocked the House!

Dear Carolyn,

Thanks to your efforts, we have won a stunning victory in the House of Representatives for our treasured wildlife.

Yesterday afternoon, House Republicans yanked the Budget Reconciliation Bill off the House floor. But the real victory came Wednesday night, when proposals to legalize harmful oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts were dropped from the bill.

Yesterday afternoon, House Republicans yanked the Budget Reconciliation Bill off the House floor and with it a proposal to legalize harmful oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts. This kind of conservation win is almost unprecedented in this Congress, and it happened because of your efforts!

This week, thousands of wildlife supporters from across the country rocked the House, calling their Representatives to let them know that America’s great wild places aren’t for sale.

Over the last several months, you’ve sent more than 120,000 messages to Congress. And your donations have helped us place crucial ads like these in key Congressional districts --advertising that has helped mobilize America’s pro-wildlife majority, and steel the resolve of our allies in Congress.

Thanks to you, polar bears, caribou and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s other special wildlife have a reprieve from Big Oil’s senseless and ceaseless drive to drill in their home. And Florida and other coastal states need not sacrifice their coastal areas to offshore drilling.

Unfortunately, the battle to save the Arctic Refuge’s wildlife from harmful oil drilling is far from over.

As you know, the Senate last week passed its own budget bill that legalizes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), who will serve on the House-Senate conference committee on the bill, have made it clear that they will not agree to any final measure that does not include Arctic drilling.

Indicted former House Majority Leader Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX), a drilling proponent, has also made his intentions clear. He’s quoted in today’s New York Times saying that "chances are very good" that the drilling provisions will reemerge. Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA), who inserted the drilling provisions into the House bill, indicated to the San Francisco Chronicle that he would be unwilling to support any final bill that didn’t include drilling.

So, while we’ve won an important victory, our work is far from finished. America’s wildlife is counting on us to keep standing up to Tom DeLay, Richard Pombo and others in Congress who would sacrifice the natural legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.

In the days ahead, I’ll be writing to let you know how to help secure final victory for our polar bears, Arctic foxes, and other beloved Arctic wildlife. We'll need your continued help to support the heroic moderate Republicans and Democrats who won this round. They need to know that America's pro-wildlife majority stands with them as they prepare to again face off with DeLay, Pombo, Stevens, Domenici and other drilling proponents.

For the moment, though, please accept our gratitude for all you’ve done so far. Your efforts are making a difference!

Sincerely,

Rodger Schlickeisen

President

Defenders of Wildlife

[Arizona Carolyn]

I sent an email to Trent Franks to let him know the troops aren't happy about this.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Except in this case it was congress -- seems with DeLay gone they are falling apart as bad as the Sentate under Frist.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Dawns on me this split is exactly why Shays said he did not want DeLay back in charge... even if cleared.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Nancy Johnson is not only worthless but her husband, Dr. Ted Johnson, is an abortionist in New Britain."

---

I didn't know that about her husband. That helps explain how, since Connie Morella's defeat, Nancy Johnson has had by far the most liberal voting record of any Republican Representative. If one adds each Representatives' ACU, Christian Coalition and NTLC ratings, and subtract his or her ADA and ACLU ratings, one will find that Nancy Johnson has the least conservative voting record of any House Republican (it even goes into negative turf!).

Johnson's district gave President Bush 49%, his highest percentage in Connecticut and second highest in New England (behind the New Hampshire 1st District). It's high time we get a conservative to take out Johnson in the GOP primary.

Actually, a better course may be to convince Johnson to run for the Senate against Joe Lieberman, thus letting a conservative or at least moderate-to-conservative Republican win her House seat. If Johnson defeats Lieberman, it would be a huge victory for the GOP, since the RINO Johnson is still better than the liberal Democrat Lieberman on every issue except maybe the War on Terror (and abortion, I guess, since they are both as liberal as possible on the issue). And if Johnson loses, we won't have to deal with her anymore, and NW CT would finally have a good Representative.

If Johnson ran for the Senate, who would be the likely GOP candidates in her district? Would any of them be able to defeat her in a primaryif Johnson decided to seek reelection?

[AuH2ORepublican]

Something tells me that Sensenbrenner's and Inglis's votes were not so much votes against ANWR as they were votes against the budget as a whole (and that they thought that defeating ANWR could serve as a poison pill). I can't think of any reason why two solid conservatives from solidly conservative districts with a constituency with very few radical environmentalists would oppose ANWR.

The other votes make sense because either they are liberal or else they think it would hurt them to support ANWR. Mark Kennedy, for example, is running for the Senate in Minnesota, where being pegged as anti-environment (even if unfairly) could lead to his defeat.

[BlackElk]

This is going to have to be short for now since I am running out the door.

I lived in Connecticut from my birth during the Paleolithic Era and 2000 when i and my family fled to rural Illinois. I lived in the New Haven area, was very active in the GOP and conservative causes generally. There is little cause to hope for Connecticut but the effort should be made.

Nancy Johnson is a firm believer in the welfare state and had the gilt-edged nerve to give a speech to the Connecticut Federation of Young Republicans in favor of AFDC and Food Stamps. This was like trying to recruit Tiny Tim to be the next John Wayne.

She has no discernable religious conservatism and never did. She is an old-fashioned Planned Barrenhood Republican who is liberal on most everything else, as well. She originally ran as a taxpayer's champion shortly after there was a taxpayer revolt in her hometown of New Britain (known also as New Britsky after a heavy Polish population and one of only 6 towns in Connecticut to vote for McGovern as 163 for Nixon. That was then. This is now (gag).

THE GOOD NEWS: She must be in her 70s. She was no kid when elected to the state senate in 1976 (?) or to Congress in 1982 (?) Think lf her as Lacy Davenport without the interesting features. There will be no feminazi successor, at least as a Republican. On the other hand, she will stay put until she dies or retires. She knows that conservatives would vote as eagerly for Joe Lieberman over her as we did over Weicker. Joe is not that bad a guy. He is not one of us but he will never be comfortable being one of them either. He has come a long way since being elected to the state senate in 1970 on out-of state radical money. I think Dubya blew a chance to turn Lieberman on votes if not affiliation when New London Submarine Base was threatened with closure. If he votes for Alito on a close vote, we will know Dubya did get to him.

Nancy Johnson is NOT better than Joe Lieberman whatever the voting records may suggest. The Commie Caucus of CT Demnrats are searching out a primary opponent for Lieberman because he is not committed to the revolution or convinced that Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush financed Hitler or that Saddam loved us until we raped Iraq or whatever other moonbattism. By the time its over, Lieberman may ask the liberal CT GOP leaders to give him the GOP nomination to guarantee re-election. This has been discussed in the past in GOP circles without Lieberman instigating it (1994?). In 1988, Republicans gave Lieberman the seat and most would do it again gladly if his opponent were Weicker.

I will leave it to fellow expatriate from CT Sittnick to take it further if he chooses. Thanks for your post.

[fieldmarshaldj]

It's sad to realize the 'Rat Johnson beat when the old 5th district was merged with the 6th was more socially Conservative (Jim Maloney). John Rowland was probably the last all-around Conservative Republican elected to Congress in CT 2 decades ago (and sadly, corrupted by the "culture" in Hartford).

[fieldmarshaldj]

Miss Nancy Lee turns 71 in January. You certainly have a far higher opinion of Lieberman than I do. I think he is as phony as a $3 bill and puts on his usual dog and pony show every time he has a chance to prove he is not wedded to the mindlessness of his corrupt and amoral party, only to end up supporting them 100%. He isn't called the "Hamlet of the Potomac" for nothing. In all frankness, I thought the '88 Senate contest was the nadir of CT politics, a choice between gonorrhea and syphilis.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Well, Maloney supported the partial-birth abortion ban, but other than that he pretty much voted with the liberals. Johnson, as atrocious as she is, has a far better voting record than Maloney had.

I wonder if Maloney would make a comeback if Johnson runs for the Senate. My money would still be on the Republican, though---a New England district where Bush got 49% in 2004 would be very, very difficult for a Democrat to win.

[fieldmarshaldj]

As a percentage, Johnson's record is better than Maloney's was (hard to believe that last year, she was the most Conservative of the 3 CT GOP members, swapping spots with formerly most Conservative Robert Simmons, whose ACU rating has dropped like a rock, and now is slightly to the left of some 'Rats). Of course, Maloney should never have won his old district, as that was rather Republican (but was lost because of Gary Franks's neglectfulness).

[AuH2ORepublican]

How was Johnson's record the best in CT? I've seen her record for the 6 years before that, and she was by far the worst among CT Republicans when aggregating the 5 ratings I look at. When I added the ratings from the ACU, NTLC and Christian Coalition, and subtracted those from the ADA and ACLU, Johnson had the most liberal record of any GOP Republican. Her ACU score went up between 2001 and 2002 largely due to the fact that the votes selected by the ACU did not focus as much on social issues in 2002 as they normally do (socially conservative Democrats had terrible ACU ratings in 2002 because of that glitch), so I used the midpoint between the 2001 and 2002 ACU scores (I did the same for the ADA, which also rates them annually) and it only increased the chasm between Johnson and the next-most-liberal Republican Representative.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was going solely on her 2004 ACU rating. I actually misspoke before when I said Simmons had the lowest, it was Shays who had the lowest for last year.

Johnson had a 56, Simmons a 40, Shays a 38. Simmons had a lifetime % highest at 55, but given that he has substantially drops each year (68 in '02, '48 in '03), that won't last. All of their % are pretty piss-poor even at that. I don't think there is any excuse for any Republican scoring below a 70 (although I myself wouldn't score a perfect ACU rating - when I took the test they had a few years ago, I scored about an 88, which matched me up with the likes of J.C. Watts).

I couldn't help but noticed that Lieberman scored a goose egg both in '03 & '04. Even Chris Dodd voted well to the right of him, not to mention virtually everyone else in Congress ! And he's considered ripe for a PARTY SWITCH ? He keeps up voting like that and he'll make Lowell Weicker look like a John Bircher.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Sometimes the guy that scores a 7 in the ACU has a better voting record than the guy who scores a 0. It could be the difference between voting for President Bush's education bill (opposed by the ACU) and being so liberal that you voted against it because it was "too frugal" (which, perversely, would be treated as a "conservative vote" by the ACU).

I'll stick with looking at all 5 ideological ratings and averaging the scores for ratings that measure congressmen on an annual basis.

When I did that for the 2001-2002 Congress (I still haven't received my 2006 Almanac of American Politics---when did you get yours?), I was surprised to see that Kolbe of AZ wasn't quite as liberal as I thought (although still too liberal for a district carried by Bush in 2000 and 2004, especially on social issues), and that the insufferable Chris Shays was no more of a RINO than Mike Castle (i.e., he's a RINO, but no Connie Morella). I was also surprised to see that neither Tanner's nor Gordon's voting records were as bad as I thought, and were in the range of the type of Democrat who could probably switch to the GOP and have a smooth transition. When I get my new Almanac I think I'll rank each House and Senate member from most liberal to most conservative---I think it would give us a better picture of who are the worst RINOs and best DINOs.

[firewalk]

bttt

[fieldmarshaldj]

I don't know how anyone can claim with a straight face that someone voting zero is "with us." Lieberman is a phony, plain and simple.

I'm afraid I'm a bit behind in my Almanacs... I haven't even gotten the 2004 edition, yet, so have been having to rely on other means of obtaining my info (of course, I have some others beat, as I have all the other editions going back to the first in 1972).

As for our Tennessee 'Rats, I'd just as soon see them remain as such. The most Conservative is Lincoln Davis, but given that he comes from the corrupt 'Rat culture of our State legislature, he isn't trustworthy (and it's a district he shouldn't even have). Bart Gordon I also have little use for, and he occupies a similarly GOP-leaning district that was gerrymandered to keep him in well beyond his time. John Tanner is even worse and his support comes from the West TN 'Rat cabal still exercising substantial power in the state legislature (from which he also came). He is NOT switching material and hates Republicans with a passion.

Scooting past "Junior" Ford, it is now my Congressman, Jim Cooper, who is now the most leftist member of the delegation. He votes much farther to the left than he did when he represented the rural 4th district and is closing in on single-digit ACU ratings (hard to believe when he ran against the shrill twit Gayle Ray, our clueless former Sheriff and candidate of EMILY's List, he was the "Conservative" alternative !). He keeps a very low profile (to say the least) and has expressed that he doesn't much care for serving in the minority (after all, since his return to Congress in '03, he NEVER knew what it was like to serve in the minority party). I had hoped he would've emulated his late father, former Governor Prentice Cooper, who was a Conservative (and political foe of Gore's daddy, whom he ran against unsuccessfully for the Senate in '58), but he's voting more like Chris Dodd. I never thought I'd long for Boob Clement to be my Rep. again... :-(

[HitmanLV]

Chris Shays? I'm shocked! ;-)

[Biblebelter]

It is time to rework the Will Rogers line, I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a Republican.