GOP leaders warn of election disaster

Politico ^ | 5/6/08 | JOHN BRESNAHAN

[Dawnsblood]

Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and present Tuesday: Your party’s message isn’t good enough to prevent disaster in November, and neither is the NRCC’s money.

The double shot of bad news had one veteran Republican House member worrying aloud that the party’s electoral woes — brought into sharp focus by Woody Jenkins’ loss to Don Cazayoux in Louisiana on Saturday — have the House Republican Conference splitting apart in “everybody for himself” mode.

“There is an attitude that, ‘I better watch out for myself, because nobody else is going to do it,’” the member said. “There are all these different factions out there, everyone is sniping at each other, and we have no real plan. We have a lot of people fighting to be the captain of the lifeboat instead of everybody pulling together.”

In a piece published in Human Events, the Republicans’ onetime captain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warned his old colleagues that they face “real disaster” on Election Day unless they move immediately to “chart a bold course of real reform” for the country.

And in a closed-door session at the Capitol, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told members that the NRCC doesn’t have enough cash to “save them” in November if they don’t raise enough money or run strong campaigns themselves.

Although a top House Republican brushed aside Gingrich’s broadside as “hype from a has-been who desperately wants to be a player but can’t anymore,” the harsh words from Cole were harder to ignore.

“It was a pretty stern line that he took with us,” said one House Republican.

[samtheman]

I'm sorry, Bill, I can't go along with you on this.

Gingrich drops skepticism on global warming

In a Capitol Hill debate about global warming touted by its moderator as a "smackdown" between former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Gingrich praised Kerry's recently released book about environmentalism, acknowledged that global warming is real, and offered what amounted to an unexpected apology for his party's inaction on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.

"I'm not going to stand up here and defend our failure to lead," said Gingrich, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and plans to release a book in the fall burnishing his environmental credentials. "There has to be a green conservatism."

Once you "admit" to a problem that is false, you are committed to dealing with that problem. Even if his solutions aren't by-the-book socialist wreck-the-economy whacko-schemes, by agreeing with the Whacko Premise in the first place he's opening self up to, at the very least, compromising with the whackos on "solutions".

Reminds me of an old joke:

Man: Will you have sex with me for a million dollars?
Woman: Yeah, sure.
Man: How about for a dollar?
Woman: Leave me alone, creep.
Man: Well, we've established what you are, now we're just negotiating over price.

Gingrich has established himself as a Global Warming Slut. It doesn't impress me that his "price" is higher than Kerry's or any of the whacko left.

[Jimmy Valentine]

No. I know my moderate Republicans; dumb as dirt.

You will win no sucker bets from me today.

[Fishrrman]

“I just don’t see Obama winning. I can easily see McCain faced with an overwhelming opposition Democrat majority in both houses, though”

And that alone is better than either alternative:
1. “I can easily see Hillary welcomed by an overwhelming and approving Democrat majority in both houses”
or...
2. “I can easily see Obama welcomed by an overwhelming and approving Democrat majority in both houses”
......the latter being the worse. NO Democrat would DARE oppose the policies and initiatives of the “first black president”.

I would much, MUCH prefer McCain - no matter how he is detested here - in a 4-year (or at least 2-year) stalemate with Congress in which next to nothing gets done. In this case, the government that will govern best is a divided government which will “govern least”.

That will give us four years to rebuild - IF rebuilding is even possible at this point. It’s been discussed here before, but the electoral demographics of the nation have changed irrevocably in the years since Reagan. They continue to change, and in 20-25 years will be as different from now as today is from Reagan’s time.

We have seen whole states “tip” to being one-party states, with no effective opposition possible any longer. So many non-Europeans have been admitted to America since 1965 - not only illegally but LEGALLY as well - that the traditions of conservatism, long rooted in the sensibilities of ethno-Europeans, is now diluted and in many places all-but-disappearing.

I daresay - and expect to be flamed for saying - that John McCain may actually be the most _conservative_ Republican to win presidential office for many years to come, assuming Republicans are able to continue to win that office.

- John

[whd23]

Joseph Lieberman (big liberal) and Zell Miller (big conservative) seem to have integrity and to be honest.

Integrity? Never forget that Joe Lieberman stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Al Gore and his attempt to toss out the votes of our men and women in uniform during the Florida debacle.

Joe can bite it.

[RetiredArmy]

I agree with you 100000000000000000000000000000000000% I am locked and loaded.

[Cacique]

Conservatives need to abandon the GOP. Conservatism is a movement, NOT a political party. The GOP has outlived it’s usefulness.

[MeekOneGOP]

“There is an attitude that, ‘I better watch out for myself, because nobody else is going to do it,’” the member said. “There are all these different factions out there, everyone is sniping at each other, and we have no real plan. We have a lot of people fighting to be the captain of the lifeboat instead of everybody pulling together.”

- - - - - -

With McRINO as the nominee, who could expect anything else???

We need another REAGAN CONSERVATIVE type that will LEAD this nation.

[Man50D]

We are quickly headed to a one party political system.

We're already there. That's why McCain is the GOP front runner.

[Bushwacker777]

McCain got the nomination thanks to some anti-Mormon bigots voting for Huckabee.

[BelegStrongbow]

Hmmm...so now that you’ve damned both their houses, pointed out that the Federal government is fatally flawed and cannot be successfully run even by those who are trained for life to do so, what do you suggest?

Myself, I blame us, the voters. We’re the ones who continue to fall for the gag that we can have something for nothing and a lot of what our neighbor has, if we vote for the right thief. That alone is the force driving politicians to move left: that is where ideologues go who are willing to promise to steal more effectively than their opponent and that’s what people secretly want (no matter how loudly they decry that in public). It’s pretty tough to campaign to have people be sensible when the other candidate is promising to loot those ‘other folks’ one can pretend not to know are under assault on one’s own behalf. That’s the hill McCain has to climb, given he won’t take off the gloves and engage in the fistfight. His other option is to try to be a sensible thief, who will manage the stealing process with decorum and who won’t say a single negative word about the other candidate, who is likely to promise jack-booted thugs at the voters’ neighbor’s door unless they fork over for them. In the spun world of media, most people will then discreetly pretend they don’t realize that the same people who must fork over are the ones on whose behalf the gelt is being gained. Thus, the only power has been to interfere with ordinary life for a buck. Talk about a redundant job. But, clearly there’s a sizeable chunk of the working population capable of and willing to engage in such persiflage for a living. Guess they’re hooked on the free cars, the sense of dominance and the illusion of grandeur. Personally, I’d rather live in the woods, but that’s me. I just work to disengage myself from the web to the extent I can and keep my head down.

It’s time not to look like a nail, in other words.

[BelegStrongbow]

I understand what you feel as I disobeyed the Commander and voted Conservative in NC myself, but what it proves is that most people hear one thing and cannot hear two. It’s a severe risk to run and we may well live to regret it, but Rush did make both points over and over again. What this proves is that the urge to mess up Democrat politicking proved far more resonant than the theme that said, ‘oh by the way, this is what you do when you don’t have something constructive to do on your own party side.’ I heard that instruction pretty clearly, but that might just mean I’m singular or at least unusual.

Truth be told, the Dem candidates are so egregious in NC this year that anyone willing to be labeled a Republican has to be more satisfactory. I still preferred Fred Smith (and voted so) though it made little difference in the end. Once again, the voters are being suckered with panem et circenses (it works every time) and the whole process is being drawn leftward as a result. How do you compete when your opponent says, ‘hey, I’ll gladly steal Joe SixPack’s lunch for you’? Do you say ‘I’ll ask him politely if he’ll share’? Somehow that seems weak, in the circumstances, and I suggest anyone using that tactic will lose.

Americans seem in the mood to thwack and to steal this year. Gotta really despise such cavilling, but gotta live with it when so many are so casual about going ahead with it.

[Dixie Yooper]

Truth be told, the Dem candidates are so egregious in NC this year that anyone willing to be labeled a Republican has to be more satisfactory

Today is Thursday. Whatever happened Tuesday is water under the bridge. We now have a ballot (short of a VP) for November, and a group of Republican candidates that regardless of who they may have been up against a few days ago (or months ago), are still standing much taller on the issues than those who are on the Democrat's side of the ballot.

Go McCain!

Go Dole!

Go McCrory!

Go Rouzer!

[WOSG]

“Hope people here like Black Liberation Theology, Kwanza and Al Sharpton picking supreme court justices.”

Yup.

[PhilDragoo]

A memo to the Republican National Committee:

You persist in coddling illegals--John McCain retains Juan Hernandez, and the candidate will pander to La Raza: this alone may alienate (pun there, hope you choke on it) the base from the standard bearer.

Item the Second: the junk science raping of America aka Global Warming, aka Climate Change, aka The Screwing of America: tell your standard bearer to back off--if he refuses, you may as well have signed a Friendship Pact with George Soros and the ChiCom beetles in Beijing.

Item: tell your standard bearer to start fighting the enemy: Obama, Hillary, Islamists, and to cease fire on friendlies--if he refuses, you may have killed your troops.

Why isn't John McCain pushing for drilling ANWR and getting the oil elsewhere in CONUS? Why isn't he pushing for refineries and nuclear power plants and junking CAFE standards? Why is he wooing the Left and pissing off the Republican base? Does he want to lose like a good little Manchurian Candidate?

If you keep beating us, our morale will not improve--we'll simply bang the phone down when you call, slam the door in your face, shred your mailers, label your email IP address as Junk.

Our immune system sees your candidate as an infection; our white cells are attacking John McCain.

Have a nice day.

[ntnychik]

That about covers it. Great post.

[MeekOneGOP]

BIG bump to ALL that, my friend!!

BUUUUUUUUUMMMMP !!!

[Dawnsblood]

Except Phil our “Anti bodies” should be more dedicated to attacking the candidates that did not promise security first. I refuse to attack good as the the enemy of perfect. I will support conservative candidates on the down ticket. Plaes do at least the latter...

[Liz]

Why isn't John McCain pushing for drilling ANWR and getting the oil elsewhere in CONUS? Why isn't he pushing for refineries and nuclear power plants and junking CAFE standards? Why is he wooing the Left and pissing off the Republican base?

Why, indeed? Keep in mind, were these pertinent questions posed at a McC campaign stop, the questioner would be summarily dismissed, possibly ejected. McCainiacs don't want pertinent questions being asked.

McCain is the Trojan horse candidate....what is he hiding from the electorate?

Courtesy of Phil Dragoo.

[Tennessee Nana]

what is he hiding from the electorate?
___________________________________________________

That he wears pink Dr Seuss jammies to bed ???

[Liz]

....to go with the pink jammies, he wears his tickly feather-trimmed slippers.......