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Role models are missing in today’s GOP. It used to have people like Gov. Dan Evans
Idaho Statesman ^ | 9/29/24 | Bob Kustra

Posted on 09/29/2024 6:24:25 AM PDT by cotton1706

In Evans’ case, that’s where the Seattle Times comes in. For anyone who wants to know the measure of the man, the Times did an excellent job recently of summing up a storied life and career in the service of his fellow citizens that now appears more like a memory from yesteryear rather than a reflection of Republicans in politics today. Of course, there are some good ones out there at every level of government, but over the course of my lifetime I have seen the overall quality of Republicans elected to state and national office decline.

And just to be clear. My take on things comes from personal experience, not polls, not research, not biographies of those who have served. No science here, just a gut feeling from my experience working for a Republican United States senator in the second half of the 20th century and watching the U.S. Senate legislate in those days. The qualities of intellect, integrity and a willingness to craft public policy in a spirit of bipartisanship seem to have declined on the Republican side of the aisle.

Who’s missing in today’s lineup of Republican officeholders? It is the likes of Sen. Jacob Javits of New York, Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island, Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, Sens. Lamar Alexander and James Baker of Tennessee, Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri, who seem to be missing. A list longer than my arm could fill the rest of this column and if this list looks top heavy with men, as the years passed, more women would be elected to the Senate from both sides of the aisle.

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: elections; rinos

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I really enjoy these weepy Republican nostalgia pieces from obvious Democrats.

"Oh, where have all the Republicans gone that used to help us out?? The ones that would provide convenient cover so that Democrats could pretend not to be Democrats?"

And we all know that when the Republican party nominated the most liberal Republican they could in 2008, John McCain - just the type of Republican the author and his ilk yearn for, they all voted for the Democrat.

Because they're all f'n phonies. They want Democrats in office, and Republicans who are really Democrats.

They don't want any REAL opposition to their preferred policies.

Well too bad! Evans and Specter and McCain are dead! And so are Howard Baker, Charles Percy, Arthur Vandenberg, Jacob Javits, Lamar Alexander, Margaret Chase Smith and John Chafee. John Danforth is still alive but will be dead soon. Only Democrats miss them.

Just as an aside, Howard Baker's wife, former RINO Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (now 92) endorsed Harris just this week. What a shocker.

1 posted on 09/29/2024 6:24:25 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

Dan Evan’s was milque toast.


2 posted on 09/29/2024 6:27:11 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie ("Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here I am! Send me." )
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To: cotton1706

“””Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio and is a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.””””


I find DJ Trump and JD Vance as better GOP role models.

Kustra has been hanging around leftist camps and it has messed up his head.


3 posted on 09/29/2024 6:32:17 AM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: cotton1706

Interesting that we never hear these types of complaints from long-time Democrat leaders.

So one asks the simple question: Why not? Answer: Because Democrat Leaders today actually FOLLOW the will of their voters, which is to destroy the country as it now exists.

Old-Style Republican Leaders, on the other hand, agree with the Democrats on their top priority, but prefer to do it at a somewhat slower pace. But Republican voters DO NOT want the country destroyed, which is why someone like Trump, who agrees with the Republican voters, can be on top of the party. The solution for the Old-Style types is very simple, simply LISTEN TO YOUR VOTERS and join Trump.


4 posted on 09/29/2024 6:33:54 AM PDT by BobL
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To: cotton1706

If your “willingness to craft public policy in a spirit of bipartisanship” got us to where we are now then of what use was it?


5 posted on 09/29/2024 6:35:13 AM PDT by Tom in SFCA
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To: BobL

They forgot to mention W.


6 posted on 09/29/2024 6:35:58 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: cotton1706

Lament that the generation of RINOs who are perfectly content with second-tier power and the throw offs Democrat masters deign to give them.

The number of true Republican conservatives of that generation can be counted on the fingers of one hand. They are the ones who get demonized by MSM and Democrats on a daily basis. This ‘need’ for ‘across the aisle’ cooperation is complete bullsh!t.


7 posted on 09/29/2024 6:39:08 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: cotton1706

Just another “Progressive” Republican speaking out.


8 posted on 09/29/2024 6:40:35 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: philman_36
Just another “Progressive” Republican speaking out.

Yup. "Why can't we just have more republicans that surrender to everything the democrats want?"

9 posted on 09/29/2024 6:43:29 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (Trump/Vance 2024 or GFY)
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To: cotton1706; All

BUMP


10 posted on 09/29/2024 6:49:25 AM PDT by PGalt ( Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: cotton1706

POLITICAL WEAKLINGS!


11 posted on 09/29/2024 6:51:17 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: cotton1706

My mother was Holyscroller here on Freerepublic (d. 2020). She fought the good fight against the likes of Dan Evans his entire career. In the 60’s she even had a newspaper called the “Silent Majority V.O.I.C.E. (Voters Objective Information About Current Events) where she would take on the likes of Dan Evans and his croonies, not just in Washington State, but nationally. People like Phyllis Schlafly wrote for mom’s paper. Mom hated Dan Evans, Slade Gorton, and all the other RINOs in Washington State politics.


12 posted on 09/29/2024 6:57:46 AM PDT by RainMan ((Democrats ... making war against America since April 12, 1861))
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To: cotton1706

Lamar Alexander is alive.

84.


13 posted on 09/29/2024 7:00:14 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: cotton1706

“The qualities of intellect, integrity and a willingness to craft public policy in a spirit of bipartisanship seem to have declined on the Republican side of the aisle.”

What BS


14 posted on 09/29/2024 7:24:10 AM PDT by goodnesswins (DEI....Divide, Enslave, Indoctrinate.....OR ......Didn't Earn It)
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To: cotton1706
Ex-Human Events political analyst John Gizzi weighed in a week ago with much the same blitheringly idiotic sentiment for Dear Danny Evans:

Remembering Fmr Gov. Dan Evans of Wash.: The Last Great Pragmatist

Gizzi, way back in the day, used to be an intelligent observer of politics, and I don't recall him being such a wimp. But it's clear (and not just from this one article) that like most "right wing" media commentators, he's got a wet noodle for a spine. Maybe he always was like that?

In any event, Dan Evans is hardly a role model for any truly conservative politician, and he never was. But Evans seems to be the perfect comp for current (down to 3 more months) House Speaker Mike "Ned Flanders" Johnson.

15 posted on 09/29/2024 7:25:41 AM PDT by PermaRag (Joo Biden is not my President)
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To: cotton1706

Well, the same can be said of DemocRats. They used to have role models like Mayor Richard Daley. Oh, wait, they still do. Sorry Mayor Adams, et al.


16 posted on 09/29/2024 7:25:43 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: cotton1706

17 posted on 09/29/2024 7:25:55 AM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: cotton1706

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18 posted on 09/29/2024 7:26:01 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (Kamala: "understand that some people need more, so we all end up in the same place, right?”)
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To: cotton1706

Indeed. As if the Democrats aren’t grandstanding, plundering, self-interested sociopaths only interested in public service.

I saw RFKj speaking about how his father and uncles instilled in him at family dinners a sense of ‘virtue’, public and private conduct. I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh. Womanizing, bootlegging, drinking and driving and even death - but they had good intentions!


19 posted on 09/29/2024 7:29:24 AM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: cotton1706
Howard Baker's wife, former RINO Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (now 92) endorsed Harris just this week.

The swamp was fetid already way back then. No wonder WFB used to rail on about the uselessness of "Eisenhower" republicans. Just not entirely sure Ike was the genuine problem. It's the good 'ol boyz and galz who were always just self-serving corruptocrats. The problem is that the number of people you buy off every year increases geometrically and the number of people who pay for the buying off decreases by the same amount until you are here where half your budget is paid for through seignorage on the US$.

20 posted on 09/29/2024 7:32:05 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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