Finding Wisdom in the Wreckage ( Now is the Republican's Time to Learn)

The American Thinker ^ | 11/09/2006 | J. Peter Mulhern

[oldtimer2]

Read this article and Hugh Hewitt's article in Townhall today and you will have all the information you need to know what happened on Tuesday.
Now we need to work to correct these flaws.

[George W. Bush]

The RNC absolutely torpedoed two good candidates ... Harris in GFL, and Graf in AZ.

Harris wasn't a good candidate and was up against a smooth Dim. (On election day, I saw her out on a freeway, waving signs. Sad.) And Graf was running on border issues in a very liberal district. The RCCC intervening hurt him but I'm not sure it defeated him. Boy, are those Graf supporters mad at the RNC. But the perps have left the RCCC.

Not sure either was ever electable unless we were having a very good year.

[Regulator]

Compassionate conservative = big spender from Texas

Yup!

[oldtimer2]

note polite placement of the "f"

Also note the yiddish definition of Schmuck: as in the nickname Schmucky Chucky

[LS]

Why was Republican turnout higher in 2006 than in 2004?

It would be an easy analysis if the Rs had stayed home. But they didn't. They voted D.

[SirLinksalot]

They voted D

Source please ...

[Kenny Bunk]

Harris wasn't a good candidate and was up against a smooth Dim

She was plenty good enough. And, this was a very important seat. The very least they could have done is back her up. Naive old me. I thought the point of belonging to a political party was that they supported candidates who came up through the party process.

The BushBots were down on this candidate from day 1. Hanging is too good for Mehlman.

[Kenny Bunk]

... a dangerously narrow reelection victory against an inept candidate... who should have been buried under a landslide that would have mmade 1972 look like a squeaker.

A sterling example of vintage Rove handiwork ... turning a humdrum landslide into an exciting nail-biter, which we almost lost, at phenomenal expense.

[LS]

Uh, obvious? Since R turnout was higher than 2002, and since D turnout wasn't higher, seems reasonable. The discussion point was that they "stayed home." We DEFINITELY know they did not.

[Kenny Bunk]

They voted D.

Perhaps the idiot-savant Rove and his rat pack of the leading gay thinkers in the Republican Party finally managed to drive the Reagan Democrats back to the Democrat Party.

[George W. Bush]

She was plenty good enough. And, this was a very important seat. The very least they could have done is back her up. Naive old me. I thought the point of belonging to a political party was that they supported candidates who came up through the party process.

In a good year, they would have. And she would have won, I think. They knew it was tough and they worked on races they thought they could win. They lost all those races so the point has probably become moot.

I'm not saying they did the right thing by dissing her and intervening against Graf. It was just wrong and they get no money from me, in part because of this. But in an election that was such a disaster for us, it's hard to say that anything could have won those two races for us.

It's not so much their lack of support for Harris and Graf that is damning. It's their public rejection of them and disrespecting their state party and nomination process that really should make people mad at Mehlman and the GOP. They had no right to use GOP money and power like that. Nothing entitles them to that. Chairment like Haley Barbour would never have pulled this crap on the state parties.

[George W. Bush]

Perhaps the idiot-savant Rove and his rat pack of the leading gay thinkers in the Republican Party finally managed to drive the Reagan Democrats back to the Democrat Party.

[4Freedom]

"Compassionate conservative = big spender from Texas."

Here we are 6-years-later and look where compassionate Conservatism has got us.

This Magoo threw money around like a drunken sailor and has left future generations with the bill.

[BLS]

"Voters didn’t like events in Iraq two years ago and they put President Bush on probation."


True. To those who disagree, can you name me one MOH winner from this war? One Silver Star winner? Too many in this country believed we would wade through Iraq within a year or two. For whatever reason, they believed that. I personally have seen no forward movement since the elections of the current Iraqi government. Not saying there isn't any, just saying that in America 2006, perception IS reality.

[SirLinksalot]

Uh, obvious? Since R turnout was higher than 2002, and since D turnout wasn't higher, seems reasonable. The discussion point was that they "stayed home." We DEFINITELY know they did not.

What about this --- Republicans came out in force and still voted GOP but were overwhelmed by INDEPENDENTS plus DEMOCRATS.

I think this is even more plausible.

[George W. Bush]

This Magoo threw money around like a drunken sailor and has left future generations with the bill.

Politically, he's left our claim to be the grownups on fiscal conservatism to be laughable. We can claim it. The voter only has to point at the debt. And we didn't spend that much on Iraq.

So much of it was pointless spending: got us no votes, didn't help the economy much, corrupted our party, made the observant voters cynical about us. Heck, I'm cynical about us on spending now.

[George W. Bush]

To those who disagree, can you name me one MOH winner from this war? One Silver Star winner?

And no military funerals. Hiding the bodies that come back, sometimes failing to ensure they receive their due honors. And no video of 9/11 on TV or anywhere else.

They did their best to make it an invisible guns-and-butter war. It's bad. Always bad. Bad, bad, bad.

When you fight, fight to win. Go all the way.

[George W. Bush]

What about this --- Republicans came out in force and still voted GOP but were overwhelmed by INDEPENDENTS plus DEMOCRATS.

I heard on TV that somebody did a big stats study over the last fifty years on this election already. Their early results were significant: many old-time Dims from the South who hadn't voted since '90 came out and voted.

I think they elected those Blue Dogs. I've been waiting to see more info from this study. The South's realignment to the GOP can no longer be taken for granted. They never really did like the Yankee GOP, as we well know.

[jmc813]

OK, step one: after the next attack, assuming that America survives it, we need to shoot every registered Democrat in this country before we do anything else.

I really really hope that you are joking. If not, the way you are taking this is extremely unhealthy.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I really really hope that you are joking.

Son, the folks who threw baggies full of s*** at me when I got back to The World are now running Capitol Hill.

We cannot fight an external enemy unless our house is already in order. Allowing Democrats to run around loose during this war has, as it did in Vietnam, proven to be akin to allowing the German-American Bund and the Silvershirts to run around loose in 1942.

If not, the way you are taking this is extremely unhealthy.

What this country did is extremely unhealthy. Suicide is generally bad for your health.