Posted on 02/24/2014 5:30:12 AM PST by xzins
The leaders of the Big Government Republican establishment are beginning to get desperate. They are finally starting to grasp that the limited government constitutional conservatives of the Tea Party movement and other liberty-minded voters now understand that the first, and most important, fights in the battle to restore America are the Republican primary elections.
In a desperate effort to hold on to power they have begun to deploy one of their oldest tactics in the 100-year civil war in the Republican Party – calls for Party unity to back Big Government Republican incumbents who have betrayed conservative principles and are rightly facing primary challenges.
Conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter whose incisive critiques of liberal policy follies and witty jibes at liberals and Democrats in general, make conservatism interesting and entertaining is only the latest in a long line of “conservatives” to get suckered into the idea that keeping establishment Republicans in power somehow advances the goal of governing America according to conservative principles.
It doesn’t and it never has.
"Of course, I love the Tea Party," Coulter said to Sean Hannity, but she limited the Tea Party movement to people in the "heart of America" who want to see change. She said Tea Party groups such as the Senate Conservatives Fund are just trying to bilk donors.
In other words, now that the Tea Party movement has grown politically sophisticated enough to adopt the tools that the establishment uses to stay in power, such as PACs, and the Senate Conservatives Fund PAC is being effective against incumbent Big Government establishment Republicans, Coulter wants to disarm the opposition.
But here’s where Ann Coulter is really full of it.
“If it weren’t for shysters running against establishment Republicans we would have 51 Republicans senators right now,” Coulter told Sean Hannity referring to the 2012 blow-ups of the Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock Senate campaigns.
Coulter’s comment shows just what a deep draught of the establishment Kool-Aid she has taken and is indicative of how the Big Government Republican establishment is desperately trying to rewrite history to advance the idea that only establishment candidates can win and that conservatives should “unite” behind Republican candidates who have records of betraying conservative principles.
Akin and Mourdock weren’t first time rookie candidates; they were experienced Republican politicians with many campaigns under their belts.
What’s more the comments that blew up their campaigns had nothing to do with the Tea Party’s limited government constitutional conservative agenda. They got suckered by the Democrats’ “war on women” strategy, put their foot in their mouth, were quickly abandoned by the GOP establishment despite conservative calls for Party unity, and consequently got beat.
As our friend Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth put it so well, “the question isn’t why Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost — we know why they lost,” said Chocola. “The question is really why did Heather Wilson in New Mexico, Rick Berg in North Dakota, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, George Allen in Virginia and Linda Lingle in Hawaii — why did they lose?”
We could add Mitt Romney nationally and Connie Mack in Florida to Chocola’s list, but you get the point.
The fact of the matter is that of the three Republican Senate victories in 2012; Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, Arizona’s Jeff Flake and Texas’ Ted Cruz all ran as Tea Party-oriented or anti-establishment candidates.
There’s no evidence that running as a principled limited government constitutional conservative automatically made a candidate “unelectable” in 2012 and a whole lot of evidence that running as a Bush-type establishment Republican did make one “unelectable,” because despite the millions Karl Rove and his establishment Republican funders spent on them they all lost.
Tit-for-tat is a poor reason to do anything, so we will forego the opportunity to explore where exactly were the establishment calls for Republican Party unity in campaigns where the conservative won the primary, such as the Goldwater, Reagan and Cuccinelli campaigns, when the Republican establishment did everything they could to undermine the conservative candidate after the primary.
Calls for Republican “unity” and a free pass in the primary for incumbent establishment Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander, Pat Roberts and Thad Cochran will only accomplish one thing; keeping ineffective and unprincipled establishment Republicans in power. And anyone, including our friend Ann Coulter, who thinks that advances the cause of conservative governance is full of it.
“If it weren’t for shysters running against establishment Republicans we would have 51 Republicans senators right now,” Coulter told Sean Hannity
As our friend Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth put it so well, “the question isn’t why Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost — we know why they lost,” said Chocola. “The question is really why did Heather Wilson in New Mexico, Rick Berg in North Dakota, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, George Allen in Virginia and Linda Lingle in Hawaii — why did they lose?”
We could add Mitt Romney nationally and Connie Mack in Florida to Chocola’s list, but you get the point.
The fact of the matter is that of the three Republican Senate victories in 2012; Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, Arizona’s Jeff Flake and Texas’ Ted Cruz all ran as Tea Party-oriented or anti-establishment candidates.
Still tryin’ t’figger out how did zero win ?
Because Romney’s strategy was to run to the left.
It failed. That simple.
Lee’s strategy at Gettysburg was a mass attack against the center of the union position. It failed. Who gets the credit(blame)? The general does.
Because to much of the population refuses to take responsibility for their own condition, and relies on the government to "make their lives better."
Electronic voting machines (ala Soros) in districts where Repub poll watchers were kept out by Dembulbs who couldn’t “find” their names on the poll watcher lists. By the time judges let them in the damage was done. Have to go back to old-fashioned paper ballots.
Ditch Mitch, in the General if necessary, to provide motivation for the others.
The problem with Ann is her two favorites in 2012 were Christie and Romney.
All still lives in the temporary fantasy world of ~ 10 years ago with the flag waving and Purple Thumbs of the GWB most popular days (short lived).
She and the Cheney’s have much in common.
Who knows... but if we did, they'd be engaged in "power sharing" in a vain attempt to get media approval, acting just like Democrats and giving Barry everything he wants.
Amen
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. RINOs/GOPe are clinging to what power they have. May their grips diminish quickly. They are so tiresome.
Coulter isn’t someone from whom I’d take advice. She’s dated Bill Maher and championed Chris Christie. Making our own knowledgeable decisions on political candidates is what we should be doing. She utterly fails to address how RINOs (GOP and RNC) have been bashing and undercutting conservatives and tea party candidates and refusing to finance their campaigns or endorse / promote them.
Arlen Spector is a great example. He actually switched parties. Governor Crist is another. I have read about many other examples but it would be great if someone had an inclusive list.
“I love the smell of desperation in the morning. RINOs/GOPe are clinging to what power they have. May their grips diminish quickly. They are so tiresome.”
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Nicely put. Ann Coulter is nothing more than a tool and handmaiden of the GOPe.
Coulter is right..... but for the wrong reasons.
Yes, we had shysters running as Tea Party candidates who were not ready for prime time or not vetted properly.
But that is going to happen with a new movement that is, essentially, leaderless.
The Tea Party will continue to have some false starts, candidates who misrepresent themselves and those who fall into the RINO vortex (Rubio).
There is nothing wrong with failure!
Coulter does ignore the progress being made by the Tea Party with regard to the message. Until Ted Cruz and others, we would only get lip service to fiscal responsibility and silence on constitutional order from our elected leaders.
Just as Obama set out to fundamentally transform this nation, the Tea Party set out to fundamentally transform the GOP.
We see the progress, but also know more work needs to be done.
Those who wish to start a third party simply do not want to do the heavy lifting required to restore the GOP to conservative principles.
In other words, they are lazy.
I suggest, we make it so difficult for the RINOs to hold onto the status quo of the GOP, that THEY go and start their own party!
THAT IS HOW WE WIN!!!!!
Electronic voting machines (ala Soros) in districts where Repub poll watchers were kept out by Dembulbs who couldn’t “find” their names on the poll watcher lists. By the time judges let them in the damage was done. Have to go back to old-fashioned paper ballots.
I have yet to hear of a single case of the RNC challenging a vote.
Maybe a more gracious way to answer Ann, is that the game has changed.
I don’t think we lie to note that the Club For Growth was more like the Club For Shrinkage in earlier years. But there also wasn’t a Tea Party.
Tea Partiers have two foes, and the “friendly” foe is the worse one.
The answer (sans cheating) could well be borrowed from the Democrats. If you really want grass roots, plant ‘em all over the place. As much as Democrats whine about what “victims” they are on the national stage, they are pushing on the local ones. Don’t depend on being a big party to sell yourselves.
And they did nothing but increase spending.
Many of them need to go if we are to ever start back out of this mess.
The time for party unity is AFTER the primaries, and yes, that includes helping the GOPe win if they unfortunately survive their primaries. We can’t afford to sit the election out if we don’t get our preferred candidates. A candidate that votes with us 50% of the time should definitely be challenged in a primary, but if they survive it, a half conservative is better than no conservative.
Again, fight them for the seat in the primary, but don’t sit out the general election as an act of revenge if the GOPe candidate wins. I say this even if they refuse to back our conservatives in turn, because we cannot afford to let any Democrat—those who vote in lockstep against us time after time—to win.
Some here want to go third party or sit out elections if we don’t have solid conservatives running. Sorry, but that’s simply a sure way to lose. Our best chance to gain power is through the GOP even if some quarters resist us. Divided (after the primaries) we fall.
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