Posted on 03/09/2007 6:44:43 PM PST by LdSentinal
Periodically, I get e-mails from supporters of the presidential candidacy of Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter who express disbelief, befuddlement or fury, or a mix of all three, at my flat contention that he is a populist demagogue and anything but a principled conservative. These folks cannot fathom any talk that he's not free-trade, small-government Ronald Reagan reincarnated.
Here's a typical example of Hunterista reaction to my comment that he's been against trade deals that have been important boons to our economy:
You're supposed to be a columnist, an informed person. This is not an informed statement.
OK. If you don't believe me about Duncan Hunter's RRRINOitis, here's what the influential, admired-and-respected-in-conservative-circles Club for Growth has to say about him:
Like most Republicans, he's strong on tax cuts, but he's been part of the big government spending spree of the last 6 years. He also has a protectionist streak in him. Here are some of the more troubling votes:
NO on NAFTA YES on No Child Left Behind YES on Sarbanes-Oxley YES on the 2003 Medicare Drug Benefit NO on CAFTA YES on 2005 Highway Bill YES on the 527 bill (like most Republicans, he flip-flopped, having first voted NO on McCain-Feingold) Hunter also went 0 for 19 on the Flake anti-pork amendments.
Despite being a member of the Republican Study Committee, Hunter frequently votes NO on their fiscally conservative annual budgets (2006, 2005, 2003...)
We gave him a 49% on the 2005 Club for Growth scorecard. That places him 187th within the House GOP conference, out of roughly 230 members.
National Taxpayers Union shows a more telling trend. He was strong in the early 1990s, getting "B's" and one "A", but as time went by, like most politicians, his score dropped. For the past few years, he's been getting "C's".
Those Cs are incredibly generous. As CATO noted last year, with Duncan Hunter cheering him on ...
... President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton's last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush's first term.
The Republican Congress has enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
The GOP was once effective at controlling nondefense spending. The final nondefense budgets under Clinton were a combined $57 billion smaller than what he proposed from 1996 to 2001. Under Bush, Congress passed budgets that spent a total of $91 billion more than the president requested for domestic programs.
And as bad as things are on the budget front, they're about to get a whole lot worse because of a pending nightmare that Duncan Hunter -- supposed tough guy, supposed truth-teller, supposed fiscal conservative -- has chosen to ignore. To borrow from what I wrote last year ...
... the single worst problem facing this country in coming years, with the possible exception of nuclear terrorism, is dealing with the massive fiscal impact of baby boomers retiring. As we slowly transition from a nation where there are 4 working adults for every adult getting Social Security and Medicare to a nation where that ratio is 2 to 1, we will face an incredible fiscal squeeze.
As a veteran member of Congress, Duncan Hunter knows this. He's heard the warnings, seen the bipartisan studies. So what did this self-declared fiscal conservative do in 2003? He voted to make the problem much, much, much worse by extending prescription drug benefits to seniors, three-quarters of whom already have coverage. The money that was saved by all the triumphant stands he claims to have taken is infinitesimal compared to the staggering long-term national debt he helped add with this one vote, which was tantamount to civic arson.
Yeah, right, our Duncan's a fiscal conservative. ... He loves spending your grandkids' money, and by the truckload.
Duncan Hunter is no Ronald Reagan. To those who say Ronald Reagan really wasn't Ronald Reagan -- that government didn't get smaller when he was president -- well, he tried harder than any president in modern times to get Congress to control spending and wipe out whole government agencies. By contrast, Hunter and the GOP Congress of 2001-2006 kept the national credit cards hanging on a string around their necks for easy and constant use.
Politics is evolving due to the internet. The states are moving their primary dates. And daylight savings time is also being moved up and extended.
Is there nothing that stays the same anymore?
I guess it's good manners to trash a socon candidate on a socon forum in favor of a cross-dressing liberal candidate? But, but but he'll WIN. And drive the republican party leftward, if not split it permanently. Some candidate ya got there.
Matthew 16:26
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:25-27
It appears to me that there are some folks here who are bandwagon jumpers, trying to get in the front of a parade to show off. However, by judging how many crickets there are on rudy threads, the support is an inch deep. Also, there are a lot of freepers who've wandered in here from other places on the web after being mistreated, found freepers to be very nice people and started to think of themselves as freepers/conservatives without ever checking the mission statement. Then they're surprised that these freepers who've been so friendly won't just give up a couple of issues in order to vote for their so-called frontrunner candidate.
Presenting HONEST FACTS that differ with another's is NOT being disrespectful. Perhaps you're sleepy. It IS late.
Yeah, and "Honk If You've Sacked Troy Smith!"
Duncan Hunter is the first politician that I heard speaking LOUD & CLEAR about the China threat.
Is there nothing that stays the same anymore?
Fire is hot
Water is wet
and algore is STILL dumber than a small pile of rocks.
I've been saying that all along. Why swat this fly? If he's just a 1%er and will always be a 1%er, they have no reason to waste their time. But their actions speak louder than their words, and they know as well as we do that FR represents the socon base, which is a good indicator of how millions of votes will turn. I've even had one rudy supporter say that we should vote straight republican and leave the top spot blank. That's some candidate they got there for the republican party.
And from Rudy's archives:
Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani, 107th Mayor
Opening Remarks to the N.A.R.A.L. "Champions of Choice" Lunch
The Yale Club, Thursday, April 5th, 2001
As Delivered
Thank you very much for inviting me to say a few words of welcome. This event shows that people of different political parties and different political thinking can unite in support of choice.
In doing so, we are upholding a distinguished tradition that began in our city starting with the work of Margaret Sanger and the movement for reproductive freedom that began in the early decades of the 20th century.
excerpt http://www.nyc.gov/html/rwg/html/2001b/champlunch.html
Not only is Rudy pro-abortion, but he acts as if Margaret Sanger, PP's founder, who ESPECIALLY wanted minority and poor peoples' preborn babies to die, and started her evil work in NYC, is something to be proud of.
Perhaps. It is time for bed. Good night.
LBT
-=-=-
I'm hoping there will be good news in the air for the Hunter team. Stay tuned.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy also?
The REPUBLICAN PLATFORM is conservative.
RINOs want to change the Republican Platform.
'night. Sleep well.
"I'm hoping there will be good news in the air for the Hunter team. Stay tuned."
Hmmmmmm. Let me know what you hear.
Watch it, Algore could most definitely be the Rats' nominee---or deign to run as the "experienced partner" VP with Obama.
The GOP needs to be on guard for this turn of events.
Is there nothing that stays the same anymore?
***Principles. Stay true to them and you won't notice the other things.
Here's an analogy to work with. Take a small box and fill it with some rocks. Then add some rice, filling it to the top.
Now take all the same stuff, but in a different order. Put in the rice first, then add the rocks.
What you'll find is that if you put in the big stuff first, the small stuff will fit around it. But if you put in the small stuff first, the big stuff won't have room.
The republican tent is the box. The Big issues are the socon issues, to be put in first. The little issues are things that can be accommodated around the bigger stuff.
A candidate who tries to focus on the smaller issues first and leave out the bigger issues has no way of getting all of us into the tent. He splits the party. The candidate who gets the big stuff right and as much of the little stuff that will fit, he can fit more into the tent. We're often amazed at how much rice can keep fitting in.
Rudy flunks some of the big issues, and on some of the little issues it looks to me like anyone else's rice would do just as well.
Another K Street Republican
If your candidate is so galdarned good and unbeatable, why is it that Hunter, McCain and Giuliani all came in a statistical dead heat at Spartanburg. Go back one more straw poll and Hunter beats McCain in his own home territory. That ain't tooth fairy garbage. Believing MSM polls about their favorite darling candidate is believing in the tooth fairy at this stage. The early democrat leader in the polls last time around was Dean, and we all know what happened to his lollipop & tooth fairy parade.
Oh yeah, the GOP would run scared if Al Gore were nominated /s
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