Here is what I just sent to him:
"Dear Representative Issa,
While I sincerely appreciate your Congressional record, your latest remarks, as featured on the Fox News website, were rather alarming.
In short, Sir, former staunch Republicans like myself have left the party in lieu of the TEA Party because we saw our principles "compromised" extensively over the years. The impetus of our departure came not during a Democrat administration, but by a perceived abandonment of principles at a time when Republicans controlled all three houses during the Bush Administration.
It's a shame, really, that the coalition we are building between Reagan Democrats, fiscal independents, and hard line Conservatives is apparently going to be tossed under the bus in favor of a more "friendly" and compromising GOP.
Unfortunately, I believe that what your comments have done is not reframe the current movement in a more media-friendly light, but instead prompt the local groups to rally against your re-election in the next session.
Do not presume a Republican victory will be a mandate to continue governing in the same old fashion. It is a mandate to start dismantling the over-reaching monstrosity the Federal Government has become and paying down our exhorbitant federal debt.
If the Republican leadership doesn't understand that in this cycle, they will be replaced in the next.
Sincerely,"
TheWriterTX
A few weeks ago, other FReepers and I had to endure some annoying poster telling us we were being duped by Meet the Press because of something Boehner said on the show. Boehner talked about “compromise” but this slef-satisfied poster was telling US that WE were the ones who didn’t get it.
The next day, Republicans all over were shouting “NO COMPROMISE,” and Boehner had to “reframe” his comments, because other FReepers and I were indeed correct.
I don’t think Boehner’s a bad guy. I just think he’s another D.C. pol who isn’t even aware that he’s behaving like a battered wife.
In my lifetime—today I turn 45—I’ve NEVER seen a genuinely conservative Republican Congressional majority. Again—NEVER. They talked the talk while Reagan was president, sometimes, but even then they had this tone about them, that they envied Reagan’s ability to deal with those little “citizens,” but they weren’t really with him to the core. By that I mean I always had the sense that they would jump ship on Reagan if the polls went a certain way.
I am not a far-right Republican. I’m a conservative, but I acknowledge that in the end this indeed means compromises will end up being made. That’s merely acknowledging reality.
That doesn’t mean compromise is something I would ever think about if it came, for example, to defending this country, individual rights, or abortion. (Why would I compromise on ending the killing of the unborn? So Chris Matthews will love me for five minutes?)
So compromise should be seen as an alternative to total defeat, not something that’s our starting posture. When I read things like Issa’s comments, I see someone who, like John McCain before him, wants to be loved by the media more than the things I find important.
So when people tell me, “No, you have to look at what he’s saying...” I just shut down. Because I’ve been down this path over and over again.
For nearly two years now I have been skeptical of Sarah Palin’s ability to be president. Recently someone whose opinion I deeply respect surprised me by casually revealing he liked Palin. He made me see her from a different angle, so to speak, and when I looked around I realized how very different she is from people like Issa. She isn’t ashamed to have my positions—why can’t the rest of this ridiculous party admit they ARE ashamed, and get the hell out and join the democrats, if that’s what they really believe?
Sorry, Mr. Issa, if your opening play amounts to “I won’t win if you’ll let me break even,” you’re not on my side.