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.
“Since those days, I’ve occasionally branched out and suggested some policy or position that doesn’t reflexively mirror some bedrock conservative outlook.”
Unfortunately for you, that’s precisely how we judge you.
eeewwwwwww! They're having sex in the pool? I bet they drink the water too.
What I want to know is this.
If the President is elected by the Senate (electoral college), then why do was have a ‘popular’ vote?
Nearly every one who's really politically active and aware knows about this. I would bet that most FReepers know about it.
This is actually a pretty weak, poorly composed article. He starts off saying that conservatives use the label RINO way too often. He veers off into defending the START treaty, then wanders back into defending Republicans who had the courage to be Republican when "Republican wasn't cool, then defends Johnny Isakson again. What was his point, again, anyway? Defending START? Defending RINO's? Defending Republicans who voted for START? Bueller? Bueller?
The author is a RINO. Voting for that START treaty was nothing more than a surrender of national security.
The problem is that Conservative voters and citizens are not changing...its the GOP politicians and the GOP talkers who are changing....moving to the left
Mr. Matt Towery,
We regret to inform you that some wuffied asshat wrote an article on Townhall.com and put your name on it.
I am sure the real Matt Towery is not such a whiny girlyman
Sincerely,
Popman
Actually, here in the South people started turning Republican because the Democommies became social liberals. The country clubbers are a lot like the NC GOP for the last century- just go along, get along, and take permanent minority status, unless the Democrats become so corrupt that it becomes impossible to leave them in power- which is finally what happened in Nov. In my book, such people might as well be Democommies.
Egg nog? Egg nog?
I prefer Mark Steyn’s brilliant name for them: DIABLO
Democrats In All But Label Only
Either you believe in freedom and support the Constitution, or you don’t. Expansion of government, increased regulations and higher taxes all result in less freedom.
Choose your side wisely. I choose freedom.
The most damaging amendments were the 13th and the 19th.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
Would Progressive suffice? =.=
Some seem to treat the term like a new toy or like a naughty name that's really fun to say over and over.
A RINO (or a DINO, for that matter) was someone who fairly consistently voted and advocated for the primary (i.e. defining) positions of the other party. Today the term gets thrown around any time someone in your own party disagrees with you.
I say address substantive differences in policy/tactical views in substantive terms.
This bashing of RINO exposers does not take into account mini/maxi and Mega RINOS..
There are degrees of RINOism..
You also have you're stealth RINOs.. and deep cover RINOs..
Not to speak of Independants(MurCOWski) claming to be RINOs..
I watching to see if Boehner places Murcowski on any committees.. (as a republican)..
Shes NO LONGER a republican BUT an Independant..
If he does he NEEDS a primary challenger in the next primary..
Senate Republican Voting Yea in Lame Duck Session | ||||
Bill | S.510 FDA Food | DADT Repeal | START Treaty | HR3082 Budget |
Alexander (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
Barrasso (R-WY) | Yea | |||
Bennett (R-UT) | Yea | Yea | ||
Brown (R-MA) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
Bunning (R-KY) | Yea | |||
Burr (R-NC) | Yea | Yea | ||
Cochran (R-MS) | Yea | Yea | ||
Collins (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
Corker (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | ||
Ensign (R-NV) | Yea | Yea | ||
Enzi (R-WY) | Yea | Yea | ||
Grassley (R-IA) | Yea | Yea | ||
Gregg (R-NH) | Yea | Yea | ||
Hutchison (R-TX) | Yea | |||
Isakson (R-GA) | Yea | |||
Johanns (R-NE) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
Kirk (R-IL) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
Kyl (R-AZ) | Yea | |||
LeMieux (R-FL) | Yea | |||
Lugar (R-IN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
McConnell (R-KY) | Yea | |||
Murkowski (R-AK) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
Roberts (R-KS) | Yea | |||
Sessions (R-AL) | Yea | |||
Shelby (R-AL) | Yea | |||
Snowe (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
Thune (R-SD) | Yea | |||
Vitter (R-LA) | Yea | |||
Voinovich (R-OH) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
Not Voting | ||||
Bond (R-MO) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
Brownback (R-KS) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
Bunning (R-KY) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
Gregg (R-NH) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
Hatch (R-UT) | Not voting |
I agree lets just call them card carrying morons.
Maybe our Townhall buddy can give us a label to pin on Iaskson for co-sponsoring and threatening to vote for S.510 the Food Safety Act. The only reason he and our other potted plant Chambliss backed off was the deafening roar of disapproval from the good citizens of GA.
What label should be given to Isakson for standing up on the floor of the Senate and speaking eloquently in favor of the Service Act. A bill that basically gives Obama his Civilian National Defense Force and adds 250,000 new employees to the govt payroll and 250,000 new foot soldiers to the Democratic party.
No I think we got it right the first time. Johnny Isakson is a RHINO. Plain and simple.
True.
I also think there's another issue when we start looking at state reps. Simply, they are supposed to be representative of the views of their state. I don't like it, but apparently Snowe and Collins, at least for the time being, hold views that the people of Maine agree with -- at least enough to keep getting them reelected. Liberal states elect liberal-tending reps. That's the way it is.
Sure, we can (and should) try to grow the conservative movement in the more liberal states. But rather than focus on "getting rid of" Republican Senators that the people of that state seem to actually want to represent them, why not realize that, at least for now, that is the best available "R" we are going to get out of that state and instead focus on growing our majority by targeting other states.
One can wail all he wants that the people of Maine or Massachusetts or wherever have elected a liberal Republican, but if the people of that state are generally liberal, this is the way it should work.
The larger the majority we can cobble together, the less influence the more liberal Republicans will have. And the greater the likelihood that we will be able to put conservative Republicans into positions of leadership in the Congress.
But wailing about the fact that a generally liberal state elects generally more liberal representatives seems pretty unhelpful to me.
As long as the 100 precenters are throwing a fit, and complaining that politicians are acting like...well politicians, not toeing the FR line......
In Praise of Mitch McConnell
Legal Insurrection
December 22, 2010
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/12/22/in-praise-of-mitch-mcconnell/
This is not the post you probably were expecting from me given my harsh and as always prescient criticism of Republicans in the lame duck session. I was screaming capitulation! before screaming capitulation! was fashionable.
Notwithstanding the lame duck session, give Mitch McConnell some credit for the war which has been fought the past two years.
(Snip)
Against overwhelming odds in which the defeat of the Obama agenda was not possible, the best that could be hoped for was to get Obama and the Democrats stuck in the mud, to have them advance to places they did not want to be, and to set up the stage for the electoral counterattack.
Im not a military historian or tactician, but I do understand the concept of prepping the battlefield. That is as true in politics as in war.
For his role in prepping the 2010 political battlefield, for getting Obama and Democrats stuck in the mud of their own creating, and for giving us the possibility of significant gains in the coming years, Mitch McConnell deserves our praise.
______________________________________________
My man Mitch!!!!
Boehner is in the House. "Murcowski" is in the Senate.
This is how a Beltway RiNO tells all the Tea Party mouth-breathers and Flyover-country knuckledraggers to ESAD.
Nice trope, dope. See you in a couple of years.
Boehner will be Speaker of the House and Murkowski is in the Senate so it will be up to "Mike" McConnell to place her.
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