Posted on 09/28/2007 6:46:32 AM PDT by Maneesh
I was at the Ogonowski - Tsongas debate in Andover, MA yesterday. No surprise from Tsongas who came across as a big govt liberal who will be the lapdog of Pelosi and Hillary. She said what a liberal democrat is supposed to say and will most likely win the seat because she is a Democrat in MA (that is usually all it takes here).
Ogonowski's performance is what concerned me. He flat out said that the decision to go into Iraq was wrong and we should never have gone in. He did say that now that we are there we should not advertise a time table for surrender and stay and finish the job. Did he say this to appeal to the linguini spined MA moderates or does he reallty believe this ?
The other observation was that he kept saying " People are sick of partisan bickering" and I will get along with Democrats and Republicans. His demeanor was very subdued and nice without any passion. Is this focus group tested behavior from the RNC in 2007 ?
I want a partisan and passionate congressman that believes in their principles and will not change just to get along. The more conservatives dilute their message and passion, the less likely they are to win.
I hope Ogonowski was behaving this way just to appeal to the confused moderates and independents in Kennedyland. For Republicans to win they have to go back to their conservative roots and not be afraid to say it with passion.
Not in Massachusetts.
Thanks for the report. Interesting.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
How did you beat my post? Milliseconds? (just kidding)
No problem :)
I’d like to see two contests run here to see which performs better, Og running as a Republican Conservative, and what he’s doing now... :-\
I give him credit for running in the most Dem/liberal state in the nation. If I lived in his district in MA, I would certainly vote for him over Tsongas. There is a reality you have to deal with, i.e., your constituency. Northeast Reps cannot be elected as staunch conservatives. We [GOP] either have to just stop participating in the process or find candidates who have a shot at being elected. I would much rather have a Shays or Nancy Johnson or Ogonowski in Congress than a Waxman or Nadler or Tsongas.
42 (7 seat loss) is absolute worst case scenario (and near impossible, to be honest), which would make the election the worst since 1958 and worse than last year. More likely is 46-47 (2 or 3), but with a 14% approval rating for the rodent run Congress, we should be regaining our majority, not slipping further back. If Hillary wins, I wouldn’t want to be a rodent running for reelection in 2010.
I still have my concern that one of the big reasons we have slipped in these places is because we have simply failed to provide a genuinely honest ideologically different candidate from the rodents. Reagan didn’t compromise himself when he ran for President in this state and won — twice (even with an all-liberal rodent and (2 in ‘80; 1 in ‘84) liberal RINO delegation). MA is not as liberal that the lopsided all-rodent delegation would have you believe, but if you’re a voter who has no real choice, why bother voting ? We ought to run “Hi, I’m a Conservative, and this is what I believe in” candidates, fully fund them, and see how well it goes. I think we’d be mighty surprised to see we’d start to score some wins... if only we had the courage.
I got a call from an Ogonowski operative about a month ago. (Before the primary.) She asked me my two biggest concerns. I said immigration and Iraq. She quickly signed off. She didn’t want to know if I was for victory or defeat in Iraq. I think when she heard immigration and Iraq she more or less figured I fit some template, the template of a broken glass Republican. It I am one, Dukakis, Carter and Clinton made me one.
Bingo. Wishy-washiness gets Republicans nowhere. You don’t see Mrs. Tax on Gas reigning in her moonbattery. He ought to be ripping into her as an embarrassment to her late husband and the state.
The other issue is that at the national level, Republicans can no longer hold the mantle of limited government which would actually attract a lot of fiscal conservatives to our party. What they say and what they do are so different on the spendikng issue that it dilutes their credibility on every other issue.
A useless seat at best. We lose it in the next census. But I find a disturbing trend among MA Republicans who seem to be running against the war. Bob Hedlund comes to mind. They are pathetic.
We will agree to disagree. My daughter attended school in MA for four years and I grew up in NY. MA is the most liberal state in the nation. There is a reason that gay marriage is legal there. I am amazed that Romney was ever elected governor.
MA politics like those in NJ are about the spoils system, political favors,and cronyism. It is corrupt.
It is possible to run against the President and Congress and still be a Conservative. Issues such as spending, illegals, etc. He can give a more definitive response on Iraq along these lines, “Nobody wants to go to war. But the question is whether we fight international terrorism there... or withdraw and prepare to fight it here in the streets of Lowell and Lawrence. Which would you folks prefer ?”
House/Assembly--141 Dems/19 Reps
Senate--35 Dems/5 Reps
Yes, you told me that. I would've grown up in NYC had it not been for a slimeball leftist weasel named Lindsay. My family was part of the million people exodus from the city between the mid '60s and 1980. I'm quite sensitive to the damage these people cause.
"MA is the most liberal state in the nation. There is a reason that gay marriage is legal there. I am amazed that Romney was ever elected governor."
MA leans liberal, but it is not 100% liberal. The Republican party in the state surrendered to liberalism rather than getting with the Conservative program, so as a result, you have a large chunk of residents with no party that supports their views. We're failing to take advantage of that fact, and that's why the state has a 100% rodent federal delegation and almost 90% rodent legislature. The state isn't that liberal and that rodent to excuse such a ghastly representation. That's my point. We are long overdue to take the war to the enemy camps and start scoring some victories.
"MA politics like those in NJ are about the spoils system, political favors,and cronyism. It is corrupt."
I know that, I've written about it endlessly. The Republican party's failure there and in NJ to combat it is the reason it continues to falter (and the NJ GOP was the overwhelming majority in the '90s... and now it is at post-Watergate levels and heading towards MA moribundity). Again, we need to fight and take these places back ! Abandoning them is not an option.
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