Posted on 01/12/2009 3:27:57 PM PST by americanophile
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The 111th Congress has just barely begun as Senate Republicans brace for more grueling elections in 2010 which threaten to further weaken the party's influence in Congress.
The latest setback for the party came Monday, when Ohio Sen. George Voinovich -- the 72 year-old two-term GOP senator -- announced he will not seek reelection in 2010. That leaves Republicans with a highly vulnerable seat in a perennial swing state that has drifted Democratic in the last two elections.
Voinovich's decision sent Ohio Republicans and Democrats scrambling ahead of what will likely be a competitive primary on both sides, and virtually guarantees the GOP will have to spend significantly more money defending a seat that otherwise would likely have been a safe bet.
"Republicans are starting the cycle on the defensive once again, it's a familiar but uncomfortable position," said Nathan Gonzalez of the Rothenberg Political Report.
Voinovich is the most recent in a string of Republican senators -- some from crucial battlegrounds states -- to announce his retirement, rattling Republicans in an election cycle that already promises to be difficult.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You know what the biggest problem was in the ‘08 election cycle for President ? We didn’t have the best and brightest running. Fred Thompson was the only legitimate candidate with a claim to being Conservative. Duncan Hunter also had legitimacy, but he wasn’t going to win a general election. The other candidates were absolute losers and phonies. Huckster and Slick Willard, two failed left-wing Governors who murdered their state Republican parties. Giuliani, a law and order liberal. Ron Paul, a moonbat. McCain, well, you know what he is.
We should’ve had top calibre name Conservatives of accomplishment. Gov. Mark Sanford of SC, Haley Barbour, Jeff Sessions, Dave Heineman, Tom Coburn, Don Carcieri, Jim DeMint, etc. We didn’t have leaders running, we had people of enormous, indeed GINORMOUS egos that had next to zero credibility. With Thompson’s withdrawal, we were left with an awful (best of the worst) nominee with McCain, essentially precisely how John Kerry got the nod with the Dems in ‘04. But at least the difference between Kerry and McCain was that the former actually went after his opponent. McCain couldn’t stop attacking people who dared criticize the False Messiah on the GOP side. And when it appeared he might actually win right after he chose Gov. Palin, he sabotaged himself and the campaign so the media would be nice to him again. The whole thing was sick, dysfunctional and a NON-election. I didn’t even cast a vote in the primary because there was no one to vote for who was qualified and accomplished to be President. None.
I cast a vote for McCain in November (although my state was never in doubt, it went against the False Messiah as though he was George McGovern), but mainly because I was voting for Palin, who was more qualified to be President than any of the other 3 running for Pres and VP. Sadly, she was too green to have run this past year for the top job, but now is poised to be the singlemost qualified Conservative to run in 2012 now.
Ron Paul was a giant among pygmies. Moonbat? i suppose you were one of those who used that term as Paul constantly, and presciently, warned that the Fed and the federal government, through its spending policies, was setting the stage for a financial crisis.
Hunter was a big government Republican who supported the prescription drugs boondogle, no child left behind, the bailout, and just about every pork barrel barrel spending program ever proposed.
I’m sorry, I misspoke.
Ron Paul is a WORLD-CLASS moonbat paleo asshole and hater of Israel. A sad, senile anti-Semite buffoon.
I must assume you mean not worth the effort?
This statement is an example of what I am talking about. We are never going to agree on who is the brightest and best. There is no such thing as consensus.
I've been involved in the political process for many years. I've had to come to accept that there are those I respect for some reason or another choose to support a candidate in the caucus process that I would not consider supporting.
Then the next election cycle comes around and there's a new alignment. All of a sudden that person that I thought was nuts for supporting the candidate they chose to support before was now supporting the same candidate I was supporting.
These cycles go on and on. It is becoming very worrisome now because I have never seen Republicans so fractured.
I am all for duking it out in a primary but then we must come together if we're ever going to have a chance to take back our country.
I am not optimistic for many reasons but Republican behavior is one of the reasons.
Some of consider losing winning. I consider losing losing and we may never be able to recapture what we've lost.
If it happens, it will happen in the House. The situation in the Senate is not as promising.
That works, it takes two houses of Congress to pass legislation. The framers of the Constitution saw the House as the best check on a rogue executive branch that seems to have Congress in it's mitts. We need only suffer through two years of excesses before the grown-ups can come back to take charge.
I couldn't possibly disagree with you more. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which individuals have "gotten the job done" and walk the walk and talk the talk vs. people who do nothing but talk and take an opposite position to everything they've done up to that point. It's why most of those candidates were an absolute joke. The best and brightest didn't run. Many didn't want to have a media gynecological exam of their lives, either. After the hatchet job that was done in going after Sarah Palin and her family, one could understand.
"These cycles go on and on. It is becoming very worrisome now because I have never seen Republicans so fractured."
The big problem is lack of strong, coherent leadership. We had this same enormous problem post-Watergate. Worse yet, you have the same characters being rewarded time and time again with leadership roles when they need to be booted out. I cannot fathom the intelligence of a party that would keep someone like John Boehner in charge after he presided over the party losing 60 seats in 2 cycles. That is incompetence. It's no wonder we earn the moniker of "Stupid Party" with antics like that. Even in seeing his equally incompetent party Whip, Roy Blunt, replaced, it turns out, he just created a side-leadership job for him. Absolutely incredible.
"Some of consider losing winning. I consider losing losing and we may never be able to recapture what we've lost."
Sometimes you have to lose in order to clear out the dead wood, especially when we cannot clear it when we're in power. Think back to 1976. If Ford had won that year, there would've been no Reagan in 1980. The GOP would've continued to shrivel to total irrelevence under a liberal Republican President, and things would've ended up even worse as a result. I thought McCain was going to be a disaster as President, like Ford Redux. I wish we didn't have to go through the pain and hell of Carter and the False Messiah, but it may be what it takes to get this party to get its proverbial act together and that the country gets scared straight by incompetent, juvenile non-leadership in the WH.
Gov. Mark Sanford of SC
No way! South Carolina has the third highest unemployment in the country. Why would you want someone like that in a time with economic hardship? He can’t even get his RED state in order. Forget him!!!!!
Grow up.
Exactly, not worth the effort because it’s a hopeless situation. Just a reminder, no GOP candidate has ever won the presidency in the 20th or 21st century without Ohio...Try and think about that one before you write off an entire region...there has been far to much writing off by the GOP. It bit them in the a$$ in 2006 and 2008. Where I sit, not a pretty picture for 2010 either. Just a hint smart a$$ remarks like yours are why the GOP is in so much trouble...when you are in a hole, quit digging.
Actually, that seemed to be the point I was responding TO. I was simply confirming what the undertone was.
Very strange response. I guess you just agree with me which is cool.
I’ve had it with entertaining you Slick Willard trollbot juvenile, ignorant attacks on actual accomplished Conservative Republican leaders like Mark Sanford, ones who can actually list names of other Conservative Republicans they helped elect to office in their state instead of a laundry list of Democrats like your Socialist idol helped out, so you can kiss my ass and grow the f**k up already. Have a nice day.
I see...sorry it’s late. Yeah, I think it’s dire in Ohio...things can change, but the GOP absolutely must not keep going on TV bashing Auto’s and the Mid West in general. Here in Ohio, we are working hard to turn things around...if people feel (to your point) that it’s not ‘important’ to the GOP, it makes a difficult job almost impossible.
Have a nice evening...if you post back, I probably won’t get it until the morning. I taped 24 (great show) and watched it later-no commercials and just thought I’d check out Free Republic....my obsession before bed.
You and Al Sharpton seem to be use the same approach. Scream “racist” and “anti-semite” rather than present facts. That kind of bigot-baiting, a la Jesse and Al, is getting old. Those who use this approach obviously don’t have the facts on their side. They just have emotion.
I think you must’ve taken a photon torpedo hit to the brain. Doctor Demento is an Israel hater and apologist for the Palestinian terrorists. Before you start extolling the virtues of your idol, you might read up on him. For whatever good stances he takes are outweighed by his EVIL and ignorant positions such as what I just told you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2163393/posts
I didn’t see you in this thread, Hoss. That is, unless you quietly agreed with his anti-Zionist attacks ? BTW, the Sharpton and Je$$e Jack$on comparisons are a hoot. They hate Jews, too, just like that assclown.
“They suck we gotta get a new “insurgent capitalist” party going and start from scratch.”
Yeah, right.
New 3rd parties have such a fantastic winning record.
A far more probable path to success would be what worked before for conservatism: Work to strengthen the GOP as the party with the right philosophy.
Reagan did just that, and it yielded 1980-2008, minus Clinton. Twenty of 28 years. GOP years, not some pipedream 3rd party.
Start WITH something—the GOP and build.
NOT start with nothing—3rd party.
Less Republicans in Congress is last thing we need to happen in 2010.
Nut I’d gladly ‘risk’ the seat to get someone better rather than see Voinosnitch returned. The old fool is prime to be upset by a rat anyway.
Don’t be overly glum Bronx. What we had in 2006 in 2008 was anti-Bush toxicity not some great sea change. Demoralized conservatives plus heightened Obama turnout spelled disaster.
Walberg’s seat absolutely should not be rat held and will be a top target to reclaim. We’ve been a pathetic minority in congress before with rats occupying GOP seats. These current wounds are sadly largely self-inflicted but time can change things again.
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