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.”
....pleasant.
Let's make this quicker...which weren't.
Rush is a good guy and what he said was correct for the most part IMO.
Thanks...coming from someone who supports the LP victory yesterday I take that as a great compliment.
Rush should go back to his opening...
AMERICANS HELD HOSTAGE!!!!
Day Two: Various elected Democrats today vowed to create a National Health Care system, thereby providing full doctor care to any and all people living on US soil.
No, Rush is on the money. Wish he had a been a bit more critical before the election tho...
You're wasting your time you know. You aren't supposed to vote for the candidate that appeals to you. You aren't allowed to form your own opinion. If you didn't vote for CWO's candidate then you are a nutjob. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that think like CWO. /sarcasm
I mean, I agree with you, Rush is on the money. lol
***Rush thinks that conservatism is found on the Democratic side. I think Rush couldn't be more wrong.***
You pay attention enough to know that but a great deal of the electorate does not. So in the sense that they claimed conservative credentials (pro-life, pro-gun) Rush is right.
Who? Allen and Santorum bear the scarlet letter ("L"). McCain is unacceptable to a fairly large faction of the party.
That's what I've been trying to tell everyone. Run a RINO and you'll revive the '92/'96 Perot party!
We must find a conservative to lead us to the WH and regaining Congress. I believe we can do this by 2008 because in reality our losses were not so huge that we can't make up for it if we can find ourselves a Reagan/Gingrich spokesman.
At this point, I dont necessarily buy into the view that either Allen or Santorum would be labeled as 'losers' in a run for the Presidency.
Maybe so, but I think we need several weeks or months away from the bitter pill of Tuesday's GOP loss.
I don't blame any of these fine Republicans: Santorum, Allen or even my local GOP candidate Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a devout fabulous father of six who also lost by 1,000 votes.
Consider::: On Tuesday night, the volunteers at our local Republican campaign headquarters were calling and calling stacks and stacks of phone numbers of normally reliable Republicans, yet they would not come out to vote.
Why? I am certain it was not Santorum, or Michael Fitzpatrick.
The Republican dilemma is that most people know in their hearts that we MUST continue a shooting fight with Muslim extremists in Iraq or elsewhere, but they just cant stomach to see our fresh young American boys coming home maimed or dead.
Freedom exacts a heavy price.
Unfortunately, an additional 10-percent of Americans on Tuesday decided LOUDLY that they refuse to pay the price.
The President should have engaged all of America in how vital and critical this war is and made us all a factor in obtaining victory.
He should have appealed to our Patriotic Spirit, rather than Mrs. Clinton's form of Patriotism, as criticizing the President, which is all we got from the democrats and the old media for 5 nasty years.
And, furthermore, the President took a wild left turn when he proposed the administration's "Guest Worker Program", leaving our borders wide open, unprotected, and sending the National Guard without the tools to protect us from the invasion of illegals.
The problem the democrats have now is coming up with an agenda other than investigating the heck out of the Bush Administration, and again pulling out our troops just like the scumbags did in Viet Nam. If that's all they've got besides the usual gay marriage stuff, and more entitlements, and more nannyism, IMHO, I don't think they will hold the Congress.
The United States has become antiquated with it's death penalty, it's inadequate social programs to feed the poor and provide healthcare for the masses. The antichrists spirit has finally gained a strong-hold in the nation. A continued and rapid downhill race toward the voids and values of darkness are the future of our nation. The fact that Nanci Pelosi is two breaths away from the Presidency is a very good illustration of how evil slowly and deceitfully works it's way to power. They "masqurade themselves as angels of light." Fear not, there evil ways will be discovered, their evil ways are know by the Judge of all the earth, and they will meet their fate in the "judgment to come."
For those of you who know the truth, "let your hearts be not troubled." God is still on the throne!
I voted a straight Republican ticket (Crist, Harris, and some small time local guys), regardless of whether they were good conservatives, because electing the alternative (Dems) is unthinkable to me. 'Course, we got the unthinkable anyway.
Much as I disrespect much of what the Repub Party seems to have become, a big government party with nebulous principles, I am sick at heart that the voters turned them out and put in the leftists.
But I can still see clearly enough that our guys, from Bush on down, are partly, or even mostly, responsible for this debacle. They did a lot of things wrong and they totally didn't bother to go for some beautiful opportunities.
IMO the voters didn't reelect Santorum et al because they belong to the Repub Party, the party that everyone's angry at. Being on the right side of the issues isn't necessarily enough if your party isn't seen to be there as a whole. At least that's what I think.
I love Rush now that he finally has the guts to bash Bush.
GWB is a failure.
Glass half full, while he was only useful as a number,..Linc Chafee is FINALLY gone
Bill Clinton is a scumbucket but he understands one thing... ELECTIONS.
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