Posted on 06/27/2007 1:13:38 PM PDT by .cnI redruM
It’s not as if we haven’t tried this one on for size before. A GOP incumbent senator convinces himself he’s landed gentry, rather than a public servant. He disses his constituents and could care less what he at one time proposed a conservative should stand for. He then gets challenged in a senatorial primary and thanks to generous support from the NRSC, holds on by the skin of his teeth and runs in the general election.
This scenario has played out twice in recent election cycles. In 2004, Arlen Specter wore out his welcome with a baronial arrogance that made the greybeards believe that Lowell Weicker had moved south to the Keystone State and reentered the US Senate. Pat Toomey threw down the gauntlet to Snalin’ Arlen and nearly put him out of the GOP’s misery. The Rhode Island RINO, Lincoln Chafee, displayed what the New York Times would call independence as a GOP Senator. Islamic scripture would more accurately characterize this behavior as Dhimmitude. He went so far as to vote against George W. Bush in the 2004 Election and to vote with his fellow partisans less than 50% of the time on major pieces of legislation before the Senate.
The Former Mayor of Cranston, RI, Steve Laffey, a Republican in real life, as well as in the newspapers, decided that he’d seen enough cheesy episodes of The Lincoln Chaffage Show and went after him in the GOP Senatorial Primary. With massive support from all two GOP apparatchiks in Rhode Island, Chaffey managed a 54-46 win over Laffey.
He then proceeded to convince the NRSC to drain serious campaign money from Jim Talent, Conrad Burns and George Allen. This was then squandered in defeat against Sheldon Whitehouse, a man seen more frequently on milk cartons than in the well of the US Senate. Meanwhile, George Allen, Jim Talent and Conrad Burns put together lost Senate races by fewer percentage points than Lincoln Chafee in 2006.
We now gear up for 2008. GOP incumbent Chuck Hagel has deported himself in a manner that leads me to compare him unfavorably with the humble catheter. The former was designed to aide in urination, Chuck Hagel is a p---ing tool just for fun. While Hagel’s voting record on some issues is vastly less toxic than Specter of Chaffey, his attitude and demeanor display a fundamental lack of respect for the rest of his party, and for the people who sent him to Washington, DC. He has grown insular and arrogant and has long outstayed his welcome.
His major disagreements with the Conservative Base Voter of the Republican Party are on issues that stand atop any list of key issues for 2008. He disagrees with us on Iraq and on Immigration. This, in and of itself, should not be an automatic firing offense. If we keep John McCain around after The Climate Stewardship Act, ideological disagreement alone does not provide just cause.
Hagel goes beyond that by calling anyone who disagrees with him a coward. We expect the Chicken Hawk taunt from Howard Dean of Kosland, or from Edward Kennedy (D – Chappaquiddick Harbor). We don’t expect that sort of asinine behavior from someone outside the Donkey Party.
Hagel has gone so far as to shoot commercials for MoveOn.Org about the War in Iraq. Becoming a guest employee of George Soros is a prime indicator that the time has truly come for a Republican Senator to move on. He’d have to help Michael Moore shoot his next movie to be any more blatantly rude and offensive.
Fortunately, purging Hagel from our body politic like the intestinal blockage he truly has become, does not imply handing his seat over to the dark side of the force. Nebraska State Treasurer Jon Bruning (Shameless campaign website plug inserted here) has decided to make this Republican Senate Seat once more Republican. He polls well against Chuckles, and is raising the money that Chuck Hagel wishes he could pick off an incumbency tree for a quixotic run at The White House.
So that brings us to the question de jour. Are Republican Senate Seats a viable vehicle to defend conservatism? If so, why do we have Chuck Hagel in one, instead of a conservative? These are questions we need to straighten out in the public mind.
Firing Chuck Hagel makes tremendous sense. It reassures the base that we aren’t Tweedledummer to John Kerry’s Tweedledumb. This Senatorial Primary gives the GOP the opportunity to assert internal discipline on our congressional caucus. As a wake up call to our arrogant senators, it would be even more effective than the recall of Gray Davis.
The GOP can actually become a conservative party. It has to start by selecting conservative candidates and requiring that they remain conservative throughout their careers. Firing Chuck Hagel prior to election 2008 would answer a very important question being asked all too often about the GOP. Can this party be saved?
Europe is lost in 5 to 7 years to mass civil war and unrest in class of civilizations, they’re own military leaders have stated this to be the case, we are on the heels ...
Keep fighting the good fight.
I personally no longer think that this party will be saved, if it indeed can be.
(Will the last person out please turn off the lights? Thanks.)
“Can this party be saved?”
Defeating the Grand Sellout will be a start. Senior Lott and the like should be targeted for replacement.
When the Titanic went down, there was a point after the bow broke off and sank when the stern settled back into a level position and seemed to float for a while more. They said the voices of the people who rode on the stern when it went up to nearly vertical and then down ‘sounded like the wail of crickets in the night’.
I suppose we could say the GOP is back on an even keel even though the constituents sound like the wail of crickets in the night.
When that party ceases to stand for the values it's members hold dear,it's time to leave that party.
Ronald Reagan switched parties,as did Abraham Lincoln.
I have no qualms about leaving a party,that does not represent my views.
Just unbelievable strategic cluelessness.
I thought I would like it when other conservatives started sounding like me, but...not so much. I'd rather have been wrong, and the country on the right course after all.
“Can This Party Be Saved?”
Yes, that’s possible. Go through the following thread, and read some of it carefully. Some of the answer to the question is there.
FRED OR DUNCAN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1856668/posts
Then ignore the bandwagon illusion set up by the media, and vote with your conscience.
Does he really have a bigger head than anyone else in Congress?
It sounds like you're trying to piggyback your views on the war on the dissatisfaction with the immigration bill.
People ought to hear both sides and make up their own minds, and not get pushed into anything by sheer abuse of the man.
Agree with you about the shoe salesmen, though. Their calling's no worse than anyone else's.
We still have some of those. We'll get rid of the bad ones.
sw
I'm disappointed.
We've been through a helluva lot worse than this.
Guess I'm more optimistic "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
Given the GOP’s virtually infinite capacity to learn the wrong lesson, I’d have to say it’s extremely unlikely.
My days of supporting the Republican Party are gone, never to return.
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government (Party) when it deserves it.”
- Mark Twain
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