Posted on 02/10/2008 3:07:11 PM PST by smoothsailing
Rampaging RINOS
Conservatives should think twice about bolting the GOP
Sunday, February 10, 2008
By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If you read the threads on conservative Web sites (which these days takes a strong stomach), you'll encounter frequently the acronym "RINO." It stands for "Republican In Name Only," an appellation that self-styled conservative purists apply to any Republican who disagrees with them about anything.
That epithet has been applied most frequently to Arizona Sen. John McCain. But his former chief rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney, also has been derided as a RINO, as have former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Every GOP candidate who rose above the asterisk level in the primaries has been called a RINO.
The epithet is ridiculous, because it assumes that being conservative and being Republican are identical. Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower were good Republicans, but they weren't conservatives. Nor were Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Bob Dole or George H. W. Bush.
A political party is a conspiracy to obtain power, nothing more. In democratic politics there is nothing wrong with that, because the conspiracies are peaceful, open and -- in a two-party system -- moderating. For Republicans to be successful, they must embrace moderates as well as conservatives. This means moderates get to lead from time to time.
But the dyspeptic denizens of the Right believe in addition by subtraction. To make the GOP stronger, moderates must be calumnized and driven from it. Polemicist Ann Coulter is so angry with Mr. McCain's occasional........
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I dont support McCain and I’m a RINO? What a complete tool. McCain voted against tax cuts, supports liberal judges (Alito is “too conservative”), supports limits on free speech, and would make 20 - 30 million illegals citizens, supported by your tax dollars. Captain Queeg does not represent my views. He would make a great Democrat nominee! I wont vote for him. I would vote for Obama as a way to punish the GOP elite that forced Captain Queeg on us. The GOP abandoned me for I left it.
Odd isn't it?
When we stand our principals, we are "Self-styled Conservative purists".
When they agree 60-70-80% of the time with Democrats and stab us in the back politically time after time after time, they are "independent thinkers, mavericks, moderates".
Absurd for people who have never had any loyalty at all to the GOP to now scream bile at us about how we have to be loyal to them.
Wrong. McInsane isn’t a RINO, he’s a RINORAT.
This is the liberal rag in my neck of the woods.
He’s also a dangerous lunatic.
No way McLAme.
that was a real barfer..
Memo to Jack: Kiss my butt.
McCain Kennedy,
McCain Lieberman.
McCAin Edwards
Kerry-McCain proposal
Dr. Juan Hernandez, McCain’s radical Hispanic outreach director
NO WAY, NO HOW!!
Because they have an exaggerated sense of both their numbers and their worth, the RINO conservatives assume the first is what will happen. But it might not.
"RINO conservatives"...That's the problem with insult slinging. It's dumb.
Well, I'm just going to be a conservative "maverick" and not vote the Republican party line. Hey, it was good enough for McAmnesty!
Take a hike, Jack. Conservatives don't need to be lectured by a RINO.
Oh, dear. Another GOP apologist is calling me names.
The answer is STILL: NO VOTE FOR MCCAIN.
Yea or they just start competing for the liberal vote and we all have to pound sand. Which do you think the beltway crowd is apt to do?
BTW, we live in the same neck of the woods! :)
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