Everything you said was a complete non sequitur.
One more time:
The goal is to get the Rockefeller "cocktail party" wing's hands off of the controls of the party. That means retiring their war horses (Mike Castle, Lisa Murkowski) and playing Whack-a-Mole with the next wave (Mark Kirk, Chris Simmons).
My statement stands whether it is a primary or a general election.
I helped William F. Buckley and Buck-PAC dispatch Lowell P. Weicker Jr. in a general election back in 1990. Weicker probably wasn't even opposed in the primary. Should WFB and I have supported Weicker against Lieberman?
The Specters, Castles, Murkowskis, Snowes, Collinses and Kirks of the world don't simply side with the Republican caucus with a few key dissenting votes. They undermine the integrity of the party.
I am a conservative before I am a Republican. We know that Illinois can give us a Fitzgerald... a corrupt Republican party chased him out. Delaware can have a Senator Roth, we don't need a liberal Senator stooge like Castle. Alaska is culturally conservative/libertarian and can do much, much better than Murkowskis and Stevenses.
A SENATOR IS MORE THAN THE SUM TOTAL OF HIS VOTES.
A guy like Kirk will work behind the scenes to bottle up key legislation. He will be the go-to guy when the media needs a Republican Senator of standing to show how bi-partisan and reasonable the liberal position is and how narrow the conservative position is. He is an enemy. And I prefer my enemies to wear the proper markings. He is no 60%er. because he is so rabidly pro-abort he is a ZERO-percenter. You may as well ask an 1858 Republican to support a slave-holder because he toes the party line on tariffs. NO SALE.
Hey, I get to correct you for a change. Weicker was elected to Congress in 1968 and to the Senate in 1970, 1976, 1982 and was running again in 1988 not 1990. IIRC, Poppy Bush's brother, an inert insurance broker statue named Prescott Bush, Jr., a man possessed of no discernible principles other than his name was Bush and he felt entitled to serve in the Senate as his daddy did. ran against Weicker, helping to flush out the actual Republicans in the state into the open. Afterward it seemed that Prescott (wooden Prescott Bush, Jr., "Hi, Prescott Bush pleased to meetcha!" endlessly repeated) was running to blackmail Weicker into line on the unknown issue (most probably support for Poppy Bush's POTUS ambitions. We got for Prescott, the cigar store Indian, something in excess of 40% of convention delegates, twice what he needed to primary Lolo and then, after some deal was made, Prescott Jr. dropped out and was never seen again in a meaningful role in the GOP.
Arrogant sob just sees things differently from the way things are seen by thee and me. Arrogant sob likes to back ideological disasters so long as he can view them as the lesser evil without a care for long-term results or the gelding of the Illinois GOP. Strategic thinking is beyond their ken. "Me want results now" and the future be damned is, of course, not a political strategy. Actual thinking beyond 11/2/10 is not allowed.
There are two usual reasons for people to bother with matters political and they tend to be mutually exclusive. Reason #1 is an insatiable desire and passion for jobs, money and contracts which defines Illinois Combine "Republicans" and their tribe and their enablers. Reason #2 is to hold a set of principles, to hold them firmly and knowledgeably, and to act in a principled fashion so as to translate one's ideals into political reality. Reason #2 is a respectable reason as Reason #1 is not.
Even if slavery is unacceptable, tariffs might be a good idea at this point.
You may recall Lieberman's delightful commercial of 1988 in which film footage was shown of Lolo (in all of his 400 pound corpulent splendor and a speedo: EEYUK!) cavorting in Cuba with his pal Comrade Fidel; Lieberman having his in-laws show their wrists and Auschwitz tattoos and saying that if Lieberman were Senator, Connecticut would not be afflicted with news footage of him cavorting with Castro. So far, and what reason is there to doubt him (?), Joe has been as good as his word and a far superior senator to Weicker (and has served longer, heh, heh, heh!). But, but, doesn't Weicker support US Tobacco, and Pfizer and Squibb and Friendly Ice Cream and Hartford Steam Boiler and, and other businesses that he inherited? Yeah, so what? Another greedhead posing as Republican by virtue of heredity. He was also almost entirely no good, like Mark Kirk.
My compliments on your post!