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Posted on 11/03/2010 7:06:37 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate.
With tea party-backed candidates going down in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, depriving Republicans of what would have been a 50-50 Senate, a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states.
(snip)
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott put it plainly: “We did not nominate our strongest candidates.”
Had Republicans run Castle in Delaware and establishment favorites Sue Lowden in Nevada and Jane Norton in Colorado, Lott said, Tuesday would have turned out different.
“With those three we would have won and been sitting at 50 [senators],” he observed.
Another high-profile senator went even further, placing the blame for the Senate GOP’s failure squarely at the feet of Graham’s South Carolina colleague, DeMint.
This Republican senator said that the tea party was the “big winner” by helping bring enormous energy behind GOP candidates Tuesday, but he said that “Sen. DeMint was the big loser.”
“It’s like you’re on the five-yard line ready to score and the quarterback calls the play and some member of your team tackles one of your members and keeps you from scoring,” the senator said. “We came tantalizingly close to a majority.”
“I’m completely mystified by it,” the senator said of DeMint’s tactics.
The senator credited House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner for keeping House Republicans unified behind a common purpose but he said that DeMint took a selfish path that hurt the party’s common cause.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Today is Jim Robinson's birthday.
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Please money bomb the FReep-a-thon tonight!
The RINOs want to compromise with Obama. They’re begging him to help them assume a fetal position.
The RINOs actively subverted our candidates. They all need to go.
Trent Lott was the guy who made sure the Senate couldn’t convict Clinton and he then presided over the loss of the GOP’s Senate majority in 2000.
He needs to get lost. There is no evidence the party establishment’s preferred RINOs would have done better Tuesday. Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, McCain-endorsed RINOs, were defeated.
Trent Lott and Lindsey Graham ought to come equipped with their own barf alerts.
Looks like some senators need a phone call to remind them who they work for.
Don't believe anything if the reporter does not name names. Consider the source.
Pragmatic and conservative wings. LOL
People without principle, they generally lose - just ask McCain how well his presidential bid fared.
Trent, we used the primaries to thin the herd.
The RMPSers actually saw a few others returned to Congre$$ too. Charlie Bass .. along with Kirk. They’re like cockroaches. jmo
http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/index.php/ElectedMembers
We binged, now its time to purge the RINO’s. Nobody was going to beat the corrupt and connected Reid, Castle likely would have lost and even if he won would have jumped ship and who cares anyway since he is commie lite. We might have gotten Colorado though. Still the Tea Party and conservatism was THE reason for the bloodbath in the house and let no effinrino forget it.
Moderate and conservative wings.
GOP moderates get eaten by the Left for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Someone might want to remind our anonymous blabber here that DeMint was the first (and only for some time) guy to recognize that Cornyn’s and McCain’s butt boy, Charlene Crist, was a worthless POS and that Marco Rubio was far superior.
They might also want to remind anonymous that having the party bigwigs taking shots at Christine O’donnell and Sharon Angle - for Politico to spread far and wide, did nothing to help these women.
Lott? Oh please! The RINOS are very intimidated. Almost as pathetic as putting to death the left.
Who cares what a has-been like Lott thinks?
Lindsay Graham doesn’t even have control of his home state. DeMint and the new Governor should make it hot for him.
As for someone so courageous as to make anonymous criticisms, if he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions, why would we care about them?
As for the argument, it's nonsense. Delaware would have been far more competitive with some unified backing from the Republican leadership and without temper tantrums from Karl Rove. Nevada might have been closer if that same leadership had provided for a ground game and neutralized the MUTV effort from Reid. Colorado was lost with an exceptionally week establishment candidate for Governor hurting turnout.
Why play these games? This is all posturing for the 2012 Romney campaign.
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