Posted on 02/02/2007 8:49:13 PM PST by Valin
Senator McConnell: The NRSC Will Support Senators Who Vote for Levin-Warner Posted by Hugh Hewitt | 6:41 PM Which means that 32,000 pledge takers won't be supporting the NRSC (or those senators who vote for Levin-Warner.)
There is still some hope, however, that a unified GOP caucus will kill Warner-Levin quietly by refusing to allow a vote on it at all.
Transcript of my conversation with Senator McConnell.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell updates on the Iraq resolutions to come next week.
HH: Joined now by the leader of the Republicans in the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell. Senator McConnell, welcome. Good to talk to you. You just heard Hillary Clinton say she doesn't have the 60 votes. Is she right?
MM: Yeah, she's certainly right. Until Monday, the Democrats have been denying us an unfair process. And until they agree to a fair process, there'll be 49 unified Republican saying no to cloture on a measure that Harry Reid is trying to bring up. So he'll have to negotiate with us, and when he does, there'll be more than one option, and we'll have several different votes that will be interesting for you to observe.
HH: Senator McConnell, obviously, they would like the Levin-Warner resolution to have a straight up or down vote. So I want to understand. The Republicans will not vote for cloture, correct?
MM: That's correct. And you know, in the Senate, I don't know why anyone would be whining about a 60 vote requirement in the Senate. That's the way it's been for many decades, and certainly a matter of this importance will be dealt with in a 60 vote context, like virtually every other important matter in the United States Senate.
HH: Now Senator McConnell, John McCain, working with Joe Lieberman and John Cornyn and others have drafted a resolution. How many of the 49 Republicans do you think are going to support McCain-Lieberman-Cornyn?
MM: Well, we'll find out next week. I'm not going to make a prediction about the outcome, but we are optimistic that it will get a healthy vote for that, and we're optimistic, more importantly, that the Warner proposal, which the Democrats now support, that will not get 60.
HH: Do you expect some Republicans to support the Warner proposal?
MM: I think that will be the case. How many is not clear yet, but our effort is to try and prevent the Warner proposal, which has now been adopted by the Democratic majority leader, to get 60 votes.
HH: Are you aware of the NRSC pledge, Senator McConnell, in which 30,000 people have said they're not going to support the NRSC if Republicans voting for Warner, who are up for reelection, being supported by the NRSC?
MM: Well, I'm sorry that people feel that way. You know, we have to try to keep a Republican majority. We can't get a 100% loyalty on every issue, and we are going to support the nominees of our party, because if we can get a majority, then we have the committee chairmen. It prevents a lot of problems that we are likely to have, as this Congress is a result of not having the committee chairmen. I can understand people's frustrations, but we do support Republican candidates who are incumbent United States Senators.
HH: And that's not going to change under any circumstances, no matter how they vote?
MM: It's never been otherwise in my memory, and some of our members from different parts of the country are quite different, philosophically, from others.
HH: We have about 45 seconds, Senator McConnell, and I'd love to keep you. I know you're rushing from appointment to appointment, though. Have you seen movement in the Republican caucus this week towards supporting victory in Iraq, which wasn't there two weeks ago?
MM: I think we've made some incremental progress. It's not as much as I had hoped. We'll probably still have this debate next week, and we'll know how this first skirmish with the opponents of the war are going to come out. Let me just end by saying, Hugh, that our goal ought to be to win. And the way to win is to have a stable government and a relatively quiet Baghdad, and that's what the President's trying to achive, and we ought to support him.
HH: I agree with you, Senator McConnell. I wish you can get your colleagues to do so, because it's going to be tough supporting the NRSC if they don't.
End of interview.
It's all very nice of senators to want to get reelected, which is all this is about. But to oppose the president's military tactics in the middle of a war is lower than low, our soldiers die out there and any senator voting for this, in my mind is a degenerate.
Will just have to support individual senators not the NRSC. The rinos are not getting my money.
From this year forward, I intend to divert my RNSC contributions into expanding my KOI swamp. The RNSC can go to hell.
I heard this tonight...
I also saw Sen. Susan Collins on Sissy Chrissy Matthews' show last night...and he was asking her about the Republican caucus lunch on Tuesday...that he had heard that there was some "fighting" going on..
He asked her if Dick Cheney, who was at the caucus lunch, was trying to push the Senators around to doing what HE and the President want them to do...
She said that they aren't allowed to tell what happens...just what they themselves say...but she said SHE did some "heavy debating"...but laughed guiltily, when Chrissy mentioned "fighting"...
Of course that peanut brain, Collins said that we have to send a signal to the Iraqis that they have to do more and they won't if we send more troops...blah, blah, blah.
Of course it doesn't matter to them that the extra troops would be helping OUR troops also...NOOOOOOOO.
For some reason they think that treating the Iraqis like a kid that needs to know that he gets punished for not doing his homework, is moronic and dangerous to our national security.
11-7 republicans. They just do get it! When a "republican party reptile" like Hugh Hewitt takes them to task they would do well to listen.
No, McConnell ... there is a difference when we're talking about the primary. We want those mutts OUT and replaced with electable true conservative patriots. THEN, we'll help out for the general election.
Do=DON'T.
Memo to self: Read the darn reply BEFORE you hit the post button. Then you won't look like an idiot.
I quit supporting ALL the national Republican groups 10 years ago. I give directly to the candidates who I support.
So here's a suggestion, McConnell - why don't you do what's right, and you'll get those votes from "frustrated" voters in the end anyway? Worrying about other Republicans saving their own asses first is NOT going to get them re-elected!! Either support the President or pull the rug out from under our troops, you can't have it both ways!
LOL...that DOES make a difference in that last post to me.
I told a fundraiser that...or words to that effect...just this evening before hanging up on him.
I'm getting tired of hearing fear mongering about "what Hilary will do." I'm also more afraid of what the GOP senators won't do to support the GWOT.
Okay...Hilary's still worse!!!
Exactly! I am not giving money to any group that supports these Senators that vote for Warner-Levin. Besides Sen Inhofe is up for reelection and I will give him my money direct. NRSC can go pound salt!
I'll be at CPAC next month. McConnal is supposed to be there. Can't wait to see what he has to say when the Q & A starts after his speech. Maybe I'll get some face time with him.
I believe the title is very misleading. More correct is RNC WILL SUPPORT ALL REPUBLICANS REGARDLESS IF THE VOTE FOR OR AGAINST LEVIN WARNER.
Then please kick his arse for me :) A repeat of the support of idiots like Lincoln Chaffee is unacceptable. [Beldar] Unacceptable [/Beldar]
Glad to hear this. That envelop they sent me will be returned empty.
THE GOP ISN'T LISTENING!!! DON'T SEND MONEY TO THE GOP, LET THEM STARVE.
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