Posted on 05/17/2006 2:35:19 PM PDT by LouAvul
Conservative Republicans gathering to talk about the upcoming elections normally would be a welcome event for national party leaders. But not this year.
The Republicans who got together last month FOR the Pennsylvania Republican Assembly (PARA), a grassroots group dedicated to electing conservatives, represent what could be the biggest threat to the GOP this year: a disgruntled conservative base.
"It's pretty clear at some level that Republicans in Washington have lost their way," former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey told the group at a Pittsburgh Holiday Inn. "We're discovering that a lot of Republicans are very disappointed with this Republican Congress. It most likely will manifest itself with low turnout if something doesn't happen to turn this around."
President Bush's plummeting approval rating and the public's increasingly tenuous support for Republicans in Congress is starting to be a familiar story -- but it may have reached the point where leaders won't be able to energize the GOP base to come out for this year's mid-term election.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday found that Republican disapproval of the president has doubled in the last month, 16 percent to 30 percent.
"They're acting like Democrats," said Ray Horvath, referring to Republicans in Washington. "But they can't get away with it forever because there are a lot of us that are tired of it."
Horvath calls himself an issue-voting conservative. Several Republicans who turned out to join PARA said issues like illegal immigration and "out of control" domestic spending are reasons for their lackluster enthusiasm. Most important, they are disappointed in what they see as conservative principles touted in the GOP's 1994 "Contract with America" being tossed aside in order to attract more middle-ground voters.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
If you want conservatives, crybabies
VOTE FOR THEM IN THE PRIMARIES!
If it weren't for Free Republic being in California, I'd say let's wall off the coastal states.
Ahhh CNN...loving the infighting and hoping it means a dem windfall in November.
Yep "illegal immigration issue only" republicans doing the jobs democrats can't.
That's because the GOP is no longer a conservative party (except on tax cuts and judicial appointments).
The last 6 years have shown this abundantly.
>>Conservatives' ardor for GOP cooling down <<
And CNN joins with the NY Times and the Washington Post in being happy about it.
I'm pretty happy with the house, I am pretty happy with some in the senate. I respectfully disagree with the president on immigration, but he isn't running (don't tell the dems, they think he is). I won't set out the '06 vote and will never, never, never ever vote for a dem, even at a local level. Even a good dem adds to the overall dem majority and that ain't good.
See my tagline.
I'm not sure they ever knew the way to begin with. I think the problem is that we didn't elect enough conservative Republicans. Some of the Rs have always been moderate-to-liberal. Some of the others talked a good game but when it came time to act showed their true sentiments. The answer is to get rid of as many of these fools as possible in the primaries and replace them with conservatives.
"We're discovering that a lot of Republicans are very disappointed with this Republican Congress."
Count me as in that group as well.
The GOP's ding dong has disappeared.
It's time to regrow it.
I'll be voting 3rd party where available in November. I am registered as a Republican.
The MSM is head over heels in love with the "teach 'em a lesson" conservatives.
We have been electing politicians on talking points rather than actions.
It's about time we wised up to the real problem.
That can be fixed.
Count me as in that group as well.
Not me. I am in the very pi$$ed off category myself. I passed "disappointed" about 15 bloated spending bills and ignoring 12 million illegals crossing the boarder ago.
There's no question they are happy. They see us devouring ourselves. They win either way. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We are indeed hopelessly divided. The issues we have come to the cliff over are not easily given to compromise. It's Goldwater/Rockefeller and Reagan/Ford only without candidates being the focal point for dispute.
Each time there was a party rift this big, the GOP got beat. The moderates voted for Johnson in 1964, and many conservatives sat out or voted for Carter in 1976. Both sides have been guilty of taking their ball home.
1992
Or put another way 'Mexicans are doing the job that Bush won't'.
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