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The premise that conservatives are not getting enough from this reasonably conservative Congress and President is the fundamental flaw in the whole column and thought.
Why not give credit where it is due - Roberts and Alito as justices; economic grwoth is booming, thanks in part to Bush tax cuts; efforts to win the war on terror have require re-upping the Patriot Act etc.

"You'll find a prime example of this with my next-door page neighbor today, Tony Blankley, perhaps the smartest man running an editorial page in America today. The bottom line of my esteemed counterpart at The Washington Times is that Republicans who decide to sit out this election -- no matter how disgusted -- are "stupid." There's no better guarantor of handing federal power to those dastardly Democrats than for Republicans to not vote, he says."

Blankley merely states the obvious. If the GOP vote is depressed, the Democrats win. If the Democrats win, the body politic moves left. As it happened in 1974 and 1994, if that shift is big enough, it has enduring impact. It is indeed 'stupid' for conservatives to sit out this election and expect good things to happen to conservative issues...
MORE LIKELY, IT WILL SET CONSERVATIVES BACK YEARS IF NOT DECADES.

Will a Democrat House help us stop amnesty for illegal aliens? No, it will make it inevitable.
Will a Democrat House help pass social security reform? No, it will make it impossible.
Will a Democrat House work better on war on terror issues and fight the fight in Iraq the 'right way'?
NO, of course. A Democrat win would make it harder in Iraq and on other fronts of the war on Islamofascist terrorism.

"Read the bill of particulars for yourself and I'll bet you'll come away angry. Mr. Blankley wants you to pay no attention to the recidivists behind the curtain who, once every two years or four or six, make grand promises of fealty to conservative and party principles only to repeatedly fail to deliver."

What failure to deliver? So in the midst of a war, we ended up being big spenders (not much different from Reagan's record in the 1980s).
We have an economy that is humming along. Here is what the GOP delivered:
1. Multiple tax cuts under Bush - Democrats voted against it and stopped making them permanent. If Democrats win in November, we risk seeing hugh tax increases happen as these tax cuts are undone.
2. Energy bill that finally got us moving against on nuclear power.

"They, and he, then employ the defense that Republicans on their worst day are better than Democrats on their best."

It happens to be true. As bad as some Republicans were on amnesty for illegal immigrants, it was a near party-line vote when the Democrat amendment came up that would give away social security benefits to illegal immigrant who were using fake documentation for work. Democrats for it, Republicans against it.

It was a Republican idea and it took Republican votes in the House to pass the enforcement-without-amnesty bill, HR 4437.

"What's the definition of insanity again? In this case it's constantly returning Republicans to power and having the audacity to expect different results."

The real audacity is claiming that there is nothing good in the performance of the GOP. Tax cuts, bills to go after terrorist groups,

The real insnaity would be to repeat mistake of 1974!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1722899/posts

"And then this absolutely damning statement: "The problem for Republicans is that they seem to have run out of ideas. They now ask for votes on two levels, neither of which is appealing. The first is that Democrats would do a worse job than Republicans, which is like choosing which of the two ugly sisters to take on a date. The second is that they crave power for its own sake."

That's simply an incorrect statement. The biggest idea in governance in recent years is the fixing of social security so it endures. Bush and Republicans have pushed that idea, but Democrats oppose them. Yet what on the Democrat side is new?

The Republicans have not run out of ideas so much as run

"That said, Mr. Thomas offers that the Republican trump card is national security; the GOP "can better defend the country." Well, doggone it, Cal, they certainly didn't do so on Sept. 11, 2001, now did they."

Yikes, falling for blaming Bush for 9/11?!? Funny, I thought it was a secret Al Qaeda operation, and one that was planned since 1995 btw.

What Cal means on national securityare the GOP bills and Democrat response:
1. On missile defense of America — Democrats voted against it.
2. On the Patriot Act — Democrats voted against it.
3. On tapping foreign terrorists' phone calls to the U.S. — Democrats voted against it.
4. On tracing terrorists' money flow between foreign banks — Democrats voted against it.
5. On building a border wall to control illegal immigration and stop dope — dealers, terrorists and criminals — Democrats voted against it.
6. On interrogating captured terrorists — 194 Democrats just voted against it.

"Rush Limbaugh calls people like me "cut-and-run conservatives." "

... if the shoe fits. Fact is, there is a way for conservatives to win and ways to lose. 'Stay home' is a sure-to-lose strategy.

"Yet he says this concept of the GOP base being disillusioned and planning to stay home on Election Day is a contrivance, a "conventional wisdom" inspired and spread like manure by liberals."

That is because every conservative with half a brain that I know is well aware of the danger of liberal Democrats in power, and we will do anything we can to stop it. It's hard to believe any thoughtful conservative would buy into such a counterproductive idea. It's either naivete or subterfuge.

"Look, folks, it's time to take a stand. Returning this current crew of Republicans to power will only embolden them to spend more time, not less, off the conservative reservation."

Not at all. The time and the place to make the conservative case to Republicans is every day of the year - through lobbying, media, activism, and simply speaking out - except for election day. On election day, its not about influencing what Republicans will do, but influencing who

On that day, winning isnt everything, its the only thing.

There is only one party that even listens to conservative views, the Republican party. the Democrats are hostile to conservative views and so it is

"It is time for the GOP base to deliver a very big SMACK. It's the only way to start the process of true Republican/conservative reclamation."

How will making Casey Jr your senator help make Republicans more conservative?!? How will it help the country get more conservative, when you give Democrats veto power over judicial nominations?!?

"As for those Democrats who likely are to gain power, they're so bad that their return tenure will be a very brief blip -- just enough time to scare the pants off the American people and better set the stage for real conservatives and real Republicans to rise again and start setting this country straight."

This kind of thinking is completely at odds with reality.
Once the Democrats have the majority, they have many tools at their disposal - money, influence, etc - to cement the majority. I heard the same nonsense about Clinton being a one-termer. so much for that.

Or think again about 1974:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1722899/posts

Fellow Republicans and conservatives, do what you must on Nov. 7. But I, for one, refuse to yet again enter my polling place, vote for the usual GOP suspects ... It's time for the long-spanked to do some spanking."

We've not been 'spanked' not by a long-shot.
You are not 'spanking' anyone but fellow conservatives. your lack of common sense will force the rest of us conservatives to bend over and take it from the liberal Democrats. The illogic is stunning! Rush is right, this is 'cut-n-run' conservatism. you are in the foxhole and are deciding to run away from the fight.

The Democrats have moved farther left then they have ever been. Ever. And to blindly hand these leftists a majority they dont deserve is dangerous in the extreme.

My motto is different:
Broken-glass time, Republicans! Save the Congress!