Posted on 11/08/2006 4:50:12 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Republicans lost control of the House, and perhaps the Senate, because they abandoned their conservative principles and in the end stood for nothing, Rush Limbaugh said today.
In his Wednesday broadcast, America’s top talker said that until Republicans begin asking themselves what’s wrong with themselves they are never going to fix their problems.
When things go wrong, Rush said, "you must look inward and ask first, ‘What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? What mistakes did we make?”
Commenting that although Republicans lost, "Conservatism did not lose, Republicanism lost last night. Republicanism, being a political party first, rather than an ideological movement, is what lost last night.”
The Democrats, he said "beat something last night with nothing. They advanced no agenda other than their usual anti-war position. They had no contract — they really never did get specific. Their message was one of ‘vote for us; the other guys have been in power too long.’”
Rush further admonished, "There was no dominating conservative message that came from the [Republican] top and filtered down throughout in this campaign.”
He added that if there was conservatism in the campaign, it was on the Democratic side: "There were conservative Democrats running for office in the House of Representatives and in a couple of Senate races won by Democrats yesterday.” He cited James Webb as an example.
He also said it was conservatism that won fairly big when it was tried yesterday, but it was Democrats who ran as conservatives and not their GOP rivals. He added that the Democratic leadership had gone out and recruited conservative candidates because they knew liberals could not win running against Republicans in red states.
Rush quoted Thomas Sowell as explaining that the latest example of election fraud is actually what the Democrats did — they nominated a bunch of moderate and conservative candidates for the express purpose of electing a far-left Democratic leadership.
"The Democrats could not have won the House, being liberals,” Rush said. "Liberalism didn’t win anything yesterday; Republicanism lost. Conservatism was nowhere to be found except on the Democratic side.”
The root of the problem, Rush said, is that "our side hungers for ideological leadership and we’re not getting it from the top. Conservatism was nowhere to be found in this campaign from the top. The Democrats beat something with nothing. They didn’t have to take a stand on anything other than their usual anti-war positions. They had no clear agenda and they didn’t dare offer one. Liberalism will still lose every time it’s offered.”
Republicans, Rush said, allowed themselves to be defined. "Without elected conservative leadership from the top Republicans in the House and Senate republicans are free to freelance and say the hell with party unity.”
That leads, Rush said, to the emergence of RINOs — Republicans in name only.
Republicans in Congress, Rush explained, were held captive by the party’s leadership in the White House. They were put into a position of having to endorse policies with which as conservatives they disagreed.
"The Democratic Party,” Rush went on to say, "is the party of entitlements; but the Republicans come up with this Medicare prescription drug plan that the polls said that the public didn’t want and was not interested in. That is not conservatism. Conservatives do not grow the government and offer entitlements as a means of buying votes. But that’s what the Republicans in Congress had to support in order to stay in line with the Party from the top.
"It is silly to blame the media; it is silly to blame the Democrats; it is silly to go out and try to find all these excuses,” Rush said. "We have proved that we can beat them … we have proved that we can withstand whatever we get from the drive-by media. Conservatism does that — conservatism properly applied, proudly, eagerly, with vigor and honesty will triumph over that nine times out of 10 in this current political and social environment. It just wasn’t utilized in this campaign.”
Rush also blamed the failure to embrace conservatism on Republican’s fear of being criticized from those in the so-called establishment. Republicans, he charged, go out of their way to avoid being criticized, fearing they will be characterized as extremists and kooks.
As a result conservatism gets watered down, and the GOP loses the support of the nation’s conservative majority Rush stated.
Anything can beat nothing, Rush concluded, "and it happened yesterday.”
Are you a one issue voter?
There are no easy answers to yesterday's loss.
And frankly, I'm sick of the Monday morning quarterbacking too.
African American families and Hispanic families live conservative lives, want school vouchers, oppose gay marriage, and yet they vote against their best interest by voting dem. We will never understand that.
Well said, Rush.
Also, I don't think that "Stay The Course" ever was a good campaign theme for the war in Iraq.
Bush should have said, "We all want to get out of Iraq. There are three specific things we are looking to make happen so we can bring our troops home...:"
But unfortunately, all we heard was "Stay the Course."
I disagree,ohio was lost because of corruption period.Backlash was coming.Massive numbers of people are moving south as well.Lackluster performance all the way around. Now lets watch how the dems really screw it up. will be fun to watch in a sick sort of way.
I disagree,ohio was lost because of corruption period.Backlash was coming.Massive numbers of people are moving south as well.Lackluster performance all the way around. Now lets watch how the dems really screw it up. will be fun to watch in a sick sort of way.
Well now that they own the glass house, I guess we can throw stones for a change. Offense is the word now. Watch them screw up in the next two years when they don't get anything done at all and we will have another Republican President in 08.
That was like Mark Levin tonight. Said that he felt all along that Allen and others would lose, he just didn't want to say it to his audience....the audience he claimed later "he would never lie to." LOL. That kinda thing, coupled with his incessant fixation on Wiener Nation just about has put me off.
"The #1 issue was corruption scandals."
It was cumulative. And it was never answered in a way to show the "party" got it, was doing anything about it.
Hastert didn't impress me, over his handling of the latest item.
Corruption was number one. I think it then went Terrorism, Economy, Iraq, Immigration.
Yet many also claim Iraq was a big item. Iraq is going to be dealt with, by a new SecDef, a Baker/Hamilton (Select/ bipartisan of course)Committee, etc.
The only thing done about immigration was a very last minute fence deal, so representatives could go back and campaign on it.
Some how this reveals the voters KNEW it was a last minute deal, and they were NOT impressed. Like: "that is the best they can do, with 6 years in the majority?"
Etc.
Stop confusing the bashers with historical precedences that bely Rush's wisdom!
I don't know .....people are changing. I live in a community where the Homeowners actually WANT US TO INCREASE the MONTHLY MAINTENANCE.....to 'pretty the place up!!' I was speechless.....this isn't just one meeting....they are FIGHTING to increase the maintenance fee!!
Some states are just so liberal and so corrupt that more than 10% margin is needed to win an election.
Don't fake your link. Newmax is not an Australian news outfit.
From what I can see, Rush ain't wrong!
I suspect you are wrong about Rush handing the stem cell issue to MO. It was a lot closer than they wanted because Rush brought the topic to the forefront. Perhaps he was clumsy, but in the end people realized that they had been deceived. Not everyone wanted to believe that so they voted YES.
You have a good point. Better than Rush's explanation. But I thought Allen was supposed to be squeaky clean. Foley came out of nowhere (pardon the pun.) Hastert was nicer than Santa Claus hisself....and they dirtied him up pretty well.
I don't see William Jefferson's cold-hard cash having any negative effects.
Rush said he had 'special circumstances', which to me is an excuse. If conservatism always wins, it wins without exception. He directly contradicted himself today by saying conservatism always wins yet had no rational explanation of why Hayworth, Talent, and Allen lost.
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