Posted on 07/20/2010 5:21:35 AM PDT by Islander7
Former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), now a D.C. lobbyist, warned that a robust bloc of rabble-rousers spells further Senate dysfunction. "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott said in an interview. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."
But Lott said he's not expecting a tea-party sweep. "I still have faith in the visceral judgment of the American people," he said.
The GOP’s counterinsurgency by spenders
By Marc A. Thiessen
Tuesday, July 20, 2010;
The Republican establishment in Washington is bracing itself for an influx of fiscally conservative insurgents this fall, as Tea Party candidates from Utah, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada and other states have either secured their party’s Senate nominations or are running strong. Bemoaning the earthquake their arrival on Capitol Hill portends, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told The Post this past weekend, “We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples” in the Senate, adding “as soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”
Jim DeMint can rest easy. It is unlikely that folks like Mike Lee, Ron Johnson or Sharron Angle will be co-opted if they win. But come November there may be some new Republican senators eager to join the club. While the media has focused on the rise of the Tea Party movement and the success of conservative insurgents in GOP primaries, there is another smaller insurgency taking place under the radar screen — a quiet insurgency of more moderate Republicans for whom fiscal discipline is not a top priority.
With the departure of Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party, it seemed as if Republican moderates were a dying breed. All that was left of the troika that put President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus over the top were the women from Maine — Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe. But then Sen. Scott Brown arrived in January, and he has hewed a centrist course — recently joining Collins and Snowe in providing the GOP votes needed to pass both President Obama’s big spending “jobs” bill (a.k.a. “son of stimulus”) and his financial regulation bill filled with budget gimmicks that will eventually add more than $5 billion to the deficit. Judging from the comments on Brown’s Facebook page, many Tea Party activists believe they were duped. But the Republican senator from Massachusetts is simply voting like, well, a Massachusetts Republican.
Others may soon join the big-spending ranks. In Delaware, one of the most liberal Republicans in the House, Rep. Mike Castle, is the favorite to become the state’s next senator. And in Illinois, moderate Republican Rep. Mark Kirk holds a narrow lead in the Illinois Senate race for Obama’s seat. Both have weak records on fiscal issues. Castle rates a lowly “C” from the National Taxpayers Union, while Kirk gets a slightly better “C+” rating.
In North Dakota, Republican Gov. John Hoeven has a huge lead over his Democratic opponent and will almost certainly be elected to replace retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan. Hoeven is a solid conservative on many issues, and he would certainly be an improvement over Dorgan. But he is a big spender. According to the Cato Institute, he has raised per capita spending by almost 7 percent annually since 2003. In just two legislative sessions beginning in 2007, Hoeven presided over a whopping 60 percent increase in spending. Last year, North Dakota Democrats even launched ads declaring Hoeven the “biggest spender in North Dakota history.” While he is not a deficit spender, he is not, suffice it to say, a spending hawk in the Tea Party mold.
Then there is Rep. Roy Blunt, who is running slightly ahead Secretary of State Robin Carnahan in Missouri. Like Hoeven, Blunt is a conservative on many fronts — but spending is not one of them. Blunt has been a prolific earmarker during his 12 years in Congress. In 2010 alone, he has requested $153 million in earmarks — prompting Carnahan to swear off all earmarks in a bid to get to the right of Blunt on fiscal issues. Carnahan campaigns as if she were the Tea Party candidate, accusing Blunt of having “become famous for his pork-barrel spending” and calling him a “prodigious porkmeister.” This month, Blunt responded with an ad promising he would vote as a fiscal conservative in the Senate: “Irresponsible spending and crippling debt are killing jobs today and our children’s future tomorrow. That’s wrong and I’ll fight to change it.”
Blunt is not alone in trying to regain ground on fiscal discipline. In the current environment, even GOP moderates are tacking to the right on fiscal issues — at least rhetorically. Kirk recently warned that Illinois is rapidly falling into the same financial situation as Greece (his opponent is, conveniently, of Greek descent) and declared that “Spending is not the way to go.” Even Castle’s campaign Web site warns, “The federal debt continues to grow out of control and threatens American financial stability and economic growth.” Of course, how they vote once elected is a different story.
In this year’s election, the driving force behind the conservative insurgency is a demand for fiscal responsibility. So it is ironic that the GOP revolution of 2010 may well sweep some big-spending Republicans into the Senate. If several Tea Party candidates stumble and fall, there is even a chance the big spenders could even make up a majority of the new Republican senators. That would undoubtedly bring a smile to Trent Lott’s face.
Marc A. Thiessen is a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “Courting Disaster.” He writes a weekly column for http://washingtonpost.com.
hmm.... so that translates to “let the congress and senate keep doing what their doing.....screw the Constitution.”
When I heard his remark about “co-opting them” I was as mad as I’ve ever been, I must say.
Pride cometh before the fall.
I know it is hard to believe, but Trent Lott came to Congress as a Reagan Republican in the House of Representatives. He is a prime example of how Washington changes people into servants and lackeys of the state.
He like a wife who goes back to her abusive husband...he got raked over the coals unfairly, but he continues to swoon over the D.C. machine.
Double ditto.
Far better a dysfunctional Senate than the bunch of anti-American thieves and robbers we have now.
” He is a prime example of how Washington changes people into servants and lackeys of the state. “
I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant by “co-opt”....
Frankly, (since I stopped reading the article at "former") I don't know what a "Jim DeMint disciple" is. But, I find that phrase rather insulting, to say nothing of bordering on the religiously inappropriate.
Hey! How's THAT for victimhood? I have been practicing...
This American is filled with odium for this cross dressing p*ssy lobbyist who thinks his advice is wanted.
Yes, Rush took him down big time yesterday. He needs to ramp up the discussion of “the ruling class” and how so many Pubbies are little more than prostitutes trying to squeeze their way in for their own piece of the power pie.
The more I think about what Rush said, the more it makes sense. How else would you explain a McCain candidacy (or a Bush, Jr. or a Dole candidacy, for that matter). Republican candidates are not being picked by the people—haven’t been for quite a while
Former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), now a D.C. lobbyist, warned that a robust bloc of rabble-rousers spells further Senate dysfunction. “We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples,” Lott said in an interview. “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”
This is what we are up against, fellow conservatives. The RINOS now control the hierarchy of the Republican Party.
By the way, Lott just became a multi millionaire, as his own little whorehouse lobby firm was just bought out by the largest and most profitable lobby house in D. C.
If you’re a fricking Lobbyist, you sure as HELL don’t want a bunch of patriots to gain power, do you?
” Lott is every bad as a liberal communist Democrat.
Worse, even. Cuz he’s inside the gate. “
WINNER!
“I still have faith in the visceral judgment of the American people,”
This was his most disingenuous statement. How can he have faith in a people he is not listening to?!
What’s a four-letter word for irrelevant?
I want to know who the "WE" is...
We will see.
Trent Lott, you fey, doughy cheerleader....SHUT UP
I swear my head’s gonna explode
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