Some conservative commentators defiant, others glum

The Seattle Times ^ | Thursday, November 9, 2006 | Howard Kurtz

[indcons]

Conservative commentators were bloodied but unbowed Wednesday.

After a day in which Republicans lost their grip on the House and before Democrats were declared winners of the Senate, too, some of the right's most prominent voices found little cause for discouragement.

"Democrats, in my mind, don't have a mandate because they stood for nothing," radio host Laura Ingraham told her listeners Wednesday.

"Republicans lost last night, but conservatism did not," Rush Limbaugh said on the 600 stations that carry his program. "The Democrats beat something last night with nothing. They advanced no agenda, other than their usual anti-war position."

Two distinct camps quickly emerged among the columnists, talkers and bloggers who spent much of the past six years defending the administration. One carried an air of defiance, the other a mood of resignation that what President Bush on Wednesday called an electoral "thumping" was perhaps deserved.

[mtairycitizen]

I know somebody who admitted to being in therapy
when somebody pointed out is Kerry bumper sticker.

I hold my head high. I am not scheduling any session.

[balk]

Where will Israel be when it gets attacked again by emboldened Islamofascists who know a weakened President will not be able to intervene?

[Alex Murphy]

Dear Lord,
I pray that those of us who lost this election will show honor in our defeat and move forward with class.
I pray that those who won will be graceful and remember that their victory is temporary.
I pray that those who narrowly lost, will acknowledge that the voters did not really care if they won or not, or they would have won decisively.
I pray that those who are honestly concerned for our future will be raised up, and the light will shine upon them.
I pray that those who are self-serving will be dragged down and see defeat.
I pray that our troops will be protected by those who are responsible for their safety.
I pray for our president, that he will demonstrate true leadership and avoid falling into a quest for a legacy.

Well put!

[piceapungens]

Hey, guess what party American Jews voted for overwhelmingly. Democrats by a margin of 87%.

[pabianice]

That Bush utterly failed to show our success in Iraq is inexplicable and unforgivable. How is it possible that in five years he did not show how we have saved the Iraqi people? I really want to know how any administration could be this tone deaf and just plain stupid.

My Vietnam buddy's son in Iraq, surrounded by "terrorized children" per John Kerry

[midnightcat]

what a beautiful picture

[napscoordinator]

The Republicans lost like adults, the Democrats like the spoiled brats they are.




I am so proud to be part of a party that acts like us! We really showed class with our extremely temporary defeat!!!

[jveritas]

Good

[YdontUleaveLibs]

You nailed it, excellent points all. The way I see it though for the next year or so before campaigning starts again, the Demonrats will give the GOP plenty of ammo to fight them. Conservativism didn't lose, conservative light did. I am not a conservative so much as I want a strong national defense most of your points are gained by presenting the solution to having a strong defense, for that I look to Republicans not the "can't we all just get along" Demonrats.

Wonder Warthog, absolutely right most Conservatives are acting like grownups, displaying a wide range of emotions but not having a tempertantrum.

Everyone, please buck up it is going to be a long 2 years, but the party can and will rally.

[pwatson]

Several things of note came out yesterday.
1. 33% of the born again Christians voted for Democrats.
These are the dummies who are not in to the Blogs and fell for the MSM Lies. How in heck can a conservative Christian vote for the Communist agenda that is unchristian in every way?
2. A huge amount of the Hispanic vote did not go Republican over the Illegal Immigration issue. Not a surprise the Democrats demonized the Republicans and the House and Senate stood by with a dumb stare like a deer caught in a cars headlights just before they got run over.
3. A majority of the losses were Blue states where the independent voters went back to the Democrats due to war fatigue.
4. The good news is the Blue state losses were mostly RINO's.
5. I heard several 20ish year olds calling in to talk radio who had been voting Republican and voted Democrat over the war and corruption. This shows they are too young to remember the 1980-1994s when the Democrats were raising taxes, and generally screwing up Capitalism and Defense. That tells me they are ignorant and fell for the MSM lies. These folks will totally Freak out when they see their taxes go up, housing cost go up, and how they the newest middle class will bare the burden of the Democrat agenda.

[OldFriend]

Name one right wing talker who defended President Bush for the past six years.

[TBP]

The lowlights of the party come to mind in a fast and furious way. In no particular order:

1) The passage and signing of McCain-Feingold;
2) The Meiers nomination;
3) The curious inattention to the border problem, with our national security at stake. Who among us would not have started building a fence on 9/12/01?
4) The continued immigration of large numbers of young Arab males;
5) This country’s continued, and highly exasperating, dependence on foreign oil;
6) The continued kowtowing to the minority party on matters of foreign policy, including, but not limited to, the abandonment of the Bush doctrine;
7) The Administration’s timidity in the Gulf region following the fall of Hussein;
8) The Administration’s timidity in defending itself on the matter of WMD;
9) The Administration’s timidity in holding Syria and Iran accountable for the foreign murderers that enter Iraq across their borders – and the accompanying habit of drawing a line in the sand, then another line, then another line…

Not to mention:

The largest entitlement program in 40 years
Increasing the Federal role in education, which is not constitutionally authorized (and not even getting vouchers in the deal)
The failure to defend itself on Katrina dn point out the greater errors of the Democrat mayor and governor
Massive ag spending
Spending overall: domestic discretionary spending has increased 8.2 percent per year under Bush, up from 2.3 percent per year under the Klintoon regime.
Amnesty for illegals, whcih stands a better chance of getting passed today than it did last week.
Unwillingness to do anything for the pro-life cause.
Kowtowing to the Red Chinese, from apologizing to them after they shot down our airplane and held our people hostage to letting them board our naval ships and watch our military in action.

I'm sure I've also missed a few.

[Obadiah]

It is very hard to argue against your well reasoned points, although, I would add some observations.

It has been the standard operating procedure of the the Democrats and their MSM allies to search out a lone high profile Republican and work and work to demonize him and make that person the emblem of all that is wrong with humanity. They then use that person to personify, to put a tangible face on, to brand the ills of a party on that person.

To date and in recent times this procedure has been supremely effective with Republicans thus far not finding both the intellect nor the intestinal fortitude to combat.

To date, this Maoist strategy has effectively and successfully been used against the following:

Donald Rumsfeld
Newt Gingrich
Tom Delay
Mark Foley
George W. Bush
Trent Lott
Denny Hastert (resignation effort)

And what has been the usual Republican response? Toss the Democrats another scalp hoping it will make problems go away and stop the mean editorials.

Until we grow a backbone and stand up to this Maoist tactic I fully expect Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats, and the MSM to continue deploying this, so far, very successful strategy.

[jveritas]

Stop the doom and gloom man. You are being very negative. This is not a trait of conservatism, we are very optimistic people.

[sachem longrifle]

I agree. My mom even commented that the Republicans are behaving better than her own party after losing. No calls for succession, dividing America into blue states verses "Jesus land," no threats to leave, no claims of "we wuzz robbed, no claims of how we are superior, and no "the voters are dumb and I hate America," cries. The conservative movement is the winning movement. The GOP abandoned it just to be liked by the press

[indcons]

Depends on what you mean by defense.

If we count the Harriet Miers and Dubai Ports fiascos, then the list of 100% right talk radio supporters might be quite thin. If we leave these issues off the table, I would say that Pres. Bush was supported a LOT by Rush and Hannity (they are the two hosts I listen to regularly).

[OldFriend]

So you prefer the union thugs who cannot pass background security checks to be running our Ports? You bought into the union label I see.

I cannot comment on Harriet Meiers, I know nothing about her that wasn't blown out there by the brilliant talk show hosts on our side.

[Inwoodian]

How about:
1) Playing nice-nice with his adopted brother, Clinton
2) Failing to take on the partisan media
2) Keeping Scott McClellan employed
4) Taking the blame for Katrina
5) Compassionate Conservatism

[JamesP81]

Its great to be a conservative!

You know, it's what I keep telling people, but they just don't seem to listen.

It is hard, grinding work trying to police your own party. I spent so long trying to explain to libertarians that abortion and euthanasia were not only immoral and unlikely to play with most conservatives, but that they aren't consistent with protecting people's rights either. I spent so long explaining to people I'm in church with that any kind of censorship (internet or otherwise), education spending, and govt charity are bad things and that those things are rightly within our purview as messengers of the Gospel (especially the charity part). It surprises me how many so called conservatives will support censorship of speech to promote 'peace'. They told me I was nuts, and that I was completely wrong. They didn't listen to a thing I said.

But they're listening to me today.

I hate trying to deal with the wrong headed ones in my own camp. But I don't have to now, because they all just got smacked down. Politically, thing have gone into the toilet, but interestingly enough, this is when I'm at my happiest best. I have a large, strong, but inept left-wing enemy facing across me just begging for a fight, and the nanny statists in my own party are going to shut up for a while so I don't have to worry about them.

We lost this one, but I tell you the truth: today is a good day to be alive, and to be a conservative.

[af_vet_rr]

I'm unbowed and defiant. I owe the Democrats nothing and I feel liberated. Its great to be a conservative!

Exactly. I'm the same Conservative I was 30 years ago, and I make no bones about it. While I hate that Democrats won office, I'm glad to see more than a few RINOs go, as well as to see the RINOs remaining realizing that they had better start acting like Conservatives or they could be the next ones to lose office.

Now if we can just work on putting Conservatives in office to replace the RINOs that lost, or the RINOs that should be booted, then 2006 will be seen as the starting point of the GOP getting back to its roots.