Posted on 12/24/2010 7:29:13 AM PST by Kaslin
Here's both my qualifier and my bona fides for the opinion that follows: I earned my Republican stripes working for a GOP U.S. senator, for Ronald Reagan's first successful presidential campaign and for Newt Gingrich.
Since those days, I've occasionally branched out and suggested some policy or position that doesn't reflexively mirror some bedrock conservative outlook. Often some readers of this column, whom I deeply respect and appreciate, will call me out for this or that view by dismissing me as a "RINO" -- a "Republican in Name Only."
Of late, some of my friends are being labeled RINOs because they voted to approve the START anti-nuclear weapons pact with Russia. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did so following private briefings the rest of us weren't privileged to hear.
Isakson is such a RINO that he chose to first run for the Georgia state legislature as a Republican in 1974. That's when Richard Nixon had all but destroyed the Republican Party, and Democrats still ruled Georgia as all but a one-party state. To this day, Isakson's ratings as a conservative are almost always near the top.
Now he and a dozen of his fellow Republican senators, including a former presidential candidate, have chosen to act in good faith and sober reflection to pass a treaty to help limit nuclear arms. Even many of their detractors can't seem to fully articulate why they find fault with this.
Doubtless the treaty has warts. It makes little difference to me. In my years overseas in the advanced study of international relations, I learned foremost about treaties that they are made to be broken. Remember the Camp David Accords of Jimmy Carter? They were useful, even admirable. But they have hardly paved a road to a permanently peaceful Middle East.
I'd love for some of the conservatives who revere the Federalist Papers to actually pick up a copy of that body of work and read it. They might be startled to learn that the constitutional framers sagaciously designed America's lawmaking process to include a U. S. Senate that was elected not by direct vote by the people, but by state legislatures. This ensured that excessive public passions didn't drive the making of important laws and policies. I still believe the 17th Amendment, which provides for the direct election of senators, to be one of the most damaging political actions in our nation's history.
All this as it may be, I still believe that President Obama in his heart remains a stout redistributionist of wealth. If he could have kept enjoying a Congress ruled by Democrats for another two years, the lot of them might well have seriously jeopardized our free market system. Even after the Democrats' stinging defeat in November, damage continues to be done to our liberties by the president's legions of bureaucrats and policy czars.
Yet none of that can dissuade me from defending the many maligned Republicans who labored in the political vineyards a generation ago, when being a Republican meant having no more influence than the president of the local Elks Club. These brave men and women took the GOP from being all but irrelevant in Washington -- and from being too liberal under Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford -- to today's world, in which the GOP represents the governing philosophy of at least a large plurality of Americans.
Many people are unhappy that the lame-duck Democratic Congress won some final victories before exiting stage left. But Republicans are like us all: They have to play the hand dealt them. I believe they've largely done that.
As for START, among other things it calls for onsite inspections of nuclear facilities. I'm only too happy to allow Russian inspectors stateside in exchange for our own inspectors being allowed access to nuclear facilities in the Russian regions of the old Soviet Union -- a potentially unstable place and situation. I learned in my long-ago studies that treaties are only as enforceable as the parties who enter into them are willing to make them.
As for those who like to use the label "RINO" like a political bludgeon, allow me to ask this question: Have you ever been pelted by rotten fruit and eggs as you rode in a parade, only because you were a Republican? Have you ever been an active Republican in a state overrun by little else but Democrats? I have. So has Johnny Isakson.
Sometimes it seems the only way to shed the dreaded "RINO" label is to forget about pragmatic lawmaking and instead just appear on radio or TV, selling CDs, books or other trinkets, and telling everybody only what they want to hear. And that's too bad, for conservatives and everybody else.
The Republicans won vast numbers of state legislative seats by promising honest government.
Been a while since that was an attractor, but there you have it.
Again, since you are isolated in isolated North Carolina the winning Republicans in the other states have NOTHING to show you ~ besides, it wouldn't be possible to even find you ~ particularly since I-95 runs out under the Atlantic Ocean as it goes by your state.
Other than the fact that you are an arrogant jerk, maybe you don’t know what went on in the other 49 states. Ever been to Maryland. Well I can tell you as one of the “other 49 states” nothing.
If you have to cry about being called a Rino..you probably are.
NO.....
.....You vote your principles and let the chips fall where they may.
Lindsey Graham IS A RINO.
McCain IS A RINO.
They are RATS in elephant skin.
“These brave men and women took the GOP from being all but irrelevant in Washington — and from being too liberal under Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford — to today’s world, in which the GOP represents the governing philosophy of at least a large plurality of Americans.”
The term “Republican” wasn’t really fully worthy of being called conservative until President Ronald Reagan. It was Reagan that tied all the different strains of conservatism together...it was Reagan that realized that Moral conservatism was important....that is what brought the GOP to prominence.
The two senators “whose names must not be said” from Maine have been indicative of what is NOW destroying the GOP. Their, et. Al., sad caving on DADT repeal and other issues is disgusting. I’m tired of someone being able to call themselves Republican but not voting in a conservative manner. I cannot say I’m well read of START, but I know that dealing with the Devil (Russia) is a fool’s proposition.
Is RINO overused? Yes it is. On this particular Senator is it? I don’t know, but I suspect it isn’t. If for no other reason than the “lame duck” session should not have done ANYTHING accept extend government funding at FY10 level until the new congress, the Senator should have voted no. Every “GOP” Senator should have voted NO on DADT and everything except a government continuance. It was a betrayal of the voters in the election for them to allow this “lame duck” to quack.
“Let me flip that on you. Stuck as you are in horribly isolated North Carolina you can’t really know what went on in the other 49 states.”
Typical RINO argument right there..... But I digress. The fact remains is that those I deem unworthy of my money or my votes do not get them- and that includes lukewarm Republicans who pay lip service to the legs of the conservative stool that they would prefer to ignore because it “isn’t nice”.
“Again, since you are isolated in isolated North Carolina the winning Republicans in the other states have NOTHING to show you”
Yep, us poor old backward hicks hain’t got no Internet, cain’t read nohow, and cain’t get no information out o’ that thar Free Republic. Mebbe we can ask them rich folks down at the golf course... Horsepucky. Anyone that reads this forum enough, and pays attention to what happens in Congress, can figure out where the GOP gets its liberal streak from. And that liberal streak needs to be curbed- otherwise they’ll compromise away the Republic.
(plaintively) ...not even for Nancy Pelosi?
I can make exceptions of course ~ but these people gotta’ remember I’m not the Supreme Court so if they get caught........
I told Nixon he should have fought for his man else he could lose Maryland to the Union.
I was right. Nixon is dead. It's too late for those poor people in that horrid little place.
Now you want to flip back to Congress, and we have the House!
In 2012 we get the Senate too.
The "Liberal Streak" must be coming from the grease from the squarshed Democrats.
BTW, you’re the guy who said “Rather hard to stop someone from making it to the Illinois state legislature from here.” with “here” meaning North Carolina!
Self described RINO.
Or, as someone else said, POS.
You are one of those who uses the label RINO without even knowing what a RINO is. How can McCain be a RINO? He votes 98% with his fellow republicans. 2% do not make him a RINO
Republican victory does not automatically lead to a Conservative hereafter.
Yes. That's why I used quotation marks.
That's mostly because the MSM is losing its influence. They were the only ones who would actually say "it's good to be a moderate" ~ which it isn't of course.
It's either "Maverick" or "extremist"
But still, the MSM is not losing the power to define anyone at all. They still control the narrative and create images to a great degree. The truth is another matter.
I wish you guys would quit telling us that it's better to throw in with the Democrats 'cause it's not.
McCain constantly goes against the conservative grain. He is a RINO. I really do not care what you think about me or my opinion of McCain.
The Founders fixed the election cycle in an effort to avoid turning the House into the sort of corrupt Parliament in London, but it wasn't the election cycle that was the problem. Rather, it was the issue of redistricting ~ England hadn't ever had a good census system and "rotten boroughs" had popped up ~ these were territories of unknown population density but they sent a party man to Parliament.
The decennial census technique used here was adopted in England and after a few cycles the "rotten boroughs" simply disappeared.
Then there were other problems of course ~ nothing's perfect, but tossing out the flexibility of Parliamentary election cycles just to fix representational questions was, in the end, not a good idea.
I'd also like to bust up the coalition politics in this country by simply allowing every state to vote for Representatives to Congress as if it were a multi member district. A little party list voting in the mix and "they" would be more prone to represent their part of the country than they currently are to follow special interests or class conscious interests.
The Speaker of the House would continue to have his job but a delegation of Representatives would be selected to DIRECT THE POLICY at each major government agency.
The President could, as Obama has so cleverly demonstrated, be a "figurehead" who holds parties.
Instead of a President also being a Commander in Chief we'd have the Governors of the States select two of their number to hold that job each year ~ one in Washington, the other spending his time "on parade" visiting our installations abroad and meeting with various satraps, puppets and supplicant heads of state. He might well have a professional entourage along for the purpose of negotiating treaties of comity, commerce and mutual defense.
We could refer to these two positions as War Chief and Secretary of State.
This can be done with a Constitutional Amendment of about 40 words.
If you didn't do that you really CAN'T be a RINO. There's a lot of things you can be, but that's not one of them.
On the other hand he is a RICH GUY. Used to be the Republican party had a lot of rich guys. Now we don't have all of them ~ in fact, the Democrats now have a faction in their coalition that's devoted to the care and wellbeing of RICH GUYS. They get them cheap labor, lawn boys, bed warmers, and a variety of other things rich guys like.
If you take a look (Oh, no, my eyes) at McCain's pudgy daughter, she's rich too. It's pretty obvious she's tending Democrat ~ they offer her what she wants.
McCain's lost his wife to that sort of thing as well. We can only imagine what they talk about at home! It can't be good.
On the other hand he's the guy who brought Sarah into the mix.
When you start denouncing as RINOs guys who bring Conservatives forward YOU have a problem.
Lindsey Graham is a different case. He saw what the Democrats did to Senator Craig ~ not likely he's ever going to jump ship. What you have to do for him is give him the right lines to gradually move back in our good graces and he'll do what we want ~ or he'll end up like Craig Fur Shur.
Seems like Matt wants to appear good to his RINO buddies in Washington...
Asking me to read the Federalist Papers...Geesh, Guess I’ll have to go grab that, and a few other great publications by our Founding Fathers...They are not collecting dust there Matt...
Matt, if you just want to hold the water for these lack-luster elected officials, man, just come out and say it for once...Geesh...
We’ll just keep doing what we can to keep the conservative majority and still toss as many of these moderate RINO’s to the street...
Doesn’t give me any heartburn to do it either...
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