Posted on 05/06/2009 5:58:47 AM PDT by bmweezer
Jim Bunning, the ever-shrinking junior Senator from Kentucky said something the other day that is completely right. When discussing how the Senate GOP leadership has been playing overtime with its desire to see Bunning retire next year, he said the following of his more-senior Kentucky colleague, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority leader:
“Obviously. Do you want me to spell it out for you?…Do you realize that under our dynamic leadership of our leader, we have gone from 55 and probably to 40 (Senate seats) in two election cycles, and if the tea leaves that I read are correct, we will wind up with about 36 after this election cycle…So if leadership means anything, it means you don’t lose … approximately 19 seats in three election cycles with good leadership.”Well said, Senator.
While we at the GOPNation.com have nothing bad to say about McConnell's votes on key issues, in all honesty, his leadership has been abymal. Bunning is right in commenting that under McConnell's leadership, the GOP brand in the U.S. Senate has shrunk to its lowest level since the 1979/80 session and quite frankly, that is unacceptable.
McConnell should go as Minority Leader.
Is Bunning including his own seat as a likely loss? That would be from self-inflicted verbal wounds.
Personally, I’d like to see all 535 members of Congress turned out to pasture and a whole new slate brought it.
Surely we couldn’t do any worse.
(Yes, I recognize there are a very few good congress/senate critters out there)
Bunning should not run for re-election. In a totally favorable political environment last time around he nearly lost, due to his habit of falling asleep in the Senate, mumbling incoherently when giving speeches on the Senate floor, and being a god-awful out of touch old Senate hack. IMO.
Also deserving of “credit” for the GOP losses: John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, every GOP chairman since the great Haley Barbour, including Mel Martinez, who was a disaster and Mike Duncan, ditto. The House leadership isn’t much to write home about, either.
McConnell is no RINO.
Does anyone honestly think the Dems have any fear of stone faced McConnell. McConnell projects the fact that he is a wimp, like Lott and Frist before him.
McConnell has been around for a long time—so where are the famed parlimentary manuevers that can be used by the minority to gum up the works, you know, like the Dems have done for the past eight years?
Where is the leadership? McConnell doesn’t even know what he believes, so how can he lead others?
The threat is so clear, and the danger is so grave, we cannot even muster an effective opposition with a clear message.
The only thing that has remotely opposed Obama and his thugs is the massive Tea Party movement, and that is grass roots in nature.
The only “leader” we have is Rush Limbaugh, who can adroitly explain what it means to be a conservative and an American, and why our beliefs ARE superior to the rest of the world, and FoxNews, which at least allows the conservative message to be heard and is asking tough questions of the Obama Administration.
Reid and Pelosi are lightweights, and who opposes them? A guy who can’t even raise his voice without his face cracking.
Yeah, they fear him alright.
Who would have thought Bunning would turn on McC in a vain bid to save his seat? People in KY have turned against Bunning and will vote Democrat, as they nearly always do for governor. People there expect the Democrats to “care” for them. Bunning has his assets, but the people of KY can’t see them.
The only “leader” we have is Rush Limbaugh,
I wish we had more like him especially in the senate,
Cornyn didn’t take the campaign chairmanship until after Nov. 4, 2008, as he was on the ballot. It was John Ensign who was at the post in 2008. It amazes me that with his low-key tentative personality Cornyn has ever won even one election, but Texans think he is “less bad” than his opposition.
Rush’s program is better since GWB left town, but he still has a soft spot for most things Bush.
McConnel and Cornyn should both resign.
In fact, all leadership should resign that is not totally new.
Stopping cannibalism...good theory, but when there are honest disagreements, do you mean give up your opinion?
What does it mean to stop fighting? It means one side concedes defeat, or the parties come to an agreement.
SO I think it would be good to stop eating our own, but that to me means that Colin Powell should concede that he is wrong in his opinions.
It means the RINOS should give up there accommodation culture.
Too often, people get buy making a platitude like we should all get along, without any suggestion for how people come together.
Sometimes there needs to be a fight to decide things. We are in a situation where there is no leaadership on the right or on the left that is able to bring the sides together to decide on a common vision for the future of the party. Absent that, there is a fight.
We need to start be bringing in new blood that is untainted by the greed and corruption of Washington. The entrenched members of both parties need to go.
We need a Mr. Smith to go to Washington.
yehp, Bunning you are likely to cause another loss if you run. One reason we lost seats is because people like yourself did not know when it was time to hang it up.
You are correct, of course, but in terms of efficacy, Ensign and Cornyn are interchangeable. The last two decent NRSC chairs were Al D’Amato and Phil Gramm.
I don't care if Bunning becomes a vegetable, at least he had to sense to be the first to speak out against the Bailout. McConnell voted for and supported it. My vote for McConnell last fall was the most painful I have ever had to make, much worse than my vote for McCain. I just could not bear having a Dem in that seat for 6 years. If Bunning steps down, I'm likely to go with Rand Paul. McConnell's endorsement of Greyson would be the kiss of death for him.
Isn't that what U.S. Senators are supposed to do?
[Paging Robert Byrd and Frank Lautenberg . . . please pick up the white courtesy phone.]
The author didn't say he was. From the article "While we at the GOPNation.com have nothing bad to say about McConnell's votes on key issues, in all honesty, his leadership has been abymal."
You don't bring the Marquis of Queensbury rules to a knife fight like far too many in the Republican leadership do.
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