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FReepathon Day 47!!
Posted on 11/16/2011 9:57:19 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
The former senator and envoy says it will likely take a major scandal to trigger a change.
PORTLAND - Like most Americans, former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell said, he tends to look at the past through rose-tinted glasses.
But even with that in mind, partisanship in Washington wasn't as bad when he was in the Senate as it is now, Mitchell said Wednesday morning.
Mitchell said the structure of the political system leads to the heightened partisan atmosphere -- and that's responsible for the record low approval rate of 9 percent for Congress in a recent poll.
"It's worse now than it's ever been," Mitchell said, but don't expect anyone in Washington to come up with a solution unless the public demands it.
"As long as they (voters) tolerate it, even though they complain about it, it will continue," he told the audience at the Portland Community Chamber's "Eggs & Issues" breakfast.
Mitchell, who served in the Senate from Maine from 1980 to early 1995, said the roots of the intense partisanship are in the House, where redistricting has eliminated most competitive seats. With one party in control of a district, he said, the primary election to pick a party's candidate becomes more important than the general election. And extremists in each party, he said, wield disproportionate power in primaries because those elections have much lower voter turnout than general elections.
Mitchell said it will likely take a major scandal -- possibly revolving around campaign finance, which he said is also a problem -- to make voters mad enough to demand change.
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
Is that an insider HINT on where We, The People should FOCUS our attention, make our voices roar, demand media attention and AND CLEAN UP WASHINGTON in 2012?
“Is that an insider HINT on where We, The People should FOCUS our attention, make our voices roar, demand media attention and AND CLEAN UP WASHINGTON in 2012? “
Nope. It’s a hint where the rats will try to gin something up to take control back in Washington. And, to give unions back their former monopoly on big institution contributions.
yitbos
Name one situation that George Mitchell hasn’t screwed up, Northern Ireland, baseball, the Middle East, American housing, the Senate, Iran-Contra, etc.
Yawn.
Scumbags like Mitchell, as well as the Democrat “mainstream” newsrooms, ALWAYS whine about “partisanship” when the Republicans control a chamber of Congress and are able to slow down the rats’ agenda of turning America into a full-blown, European-style socialist welfare state.
Bingo.
There is no such thing as political bi-partisanship or working together for the common good with a political party once known as democrat. When it’s so polarized and filled with hyphenated democrats that are DEMA-COMS
Trying to tell us what we should think. Stick it George.
Mitchell points out the record low approval rate of 9 percent for Congress in a recent poll—and who has been in control of Congress?
George Mitchell, socialist party hack. Senate Majority Leader until Newt Gingrich led Republicans to victory in both houses, 1994.
Mitchell went down in flames backing Hillary Care and quit the Senate.
Democrat historical deconstruction says Bill Klinton wanted to make him Supreme Court Justice and that he turned it down.
yitbos
Hey George, we already have a major scandal. It's called a government induced Depression. Voters responded by demanding major change in 2010. And they are going to demand even more change in 2012.
He was one of the most partisan hacks ever to set foot in Washington..
Obviously it's split, with the rats controlling the Senate and the GOP controlling the House for less than a year. For most of the past four years the rats controlled Congress, and for two years, the rats controlled everything, and overwhelmingly so.
The thing is, approval numbers for generic "Congress" are always pretty low, but approval numbers within districts for individual House members is usually pretty high. So, the approval numbers for generic "Congress" are largely meaningless except ionsofar as they effect the whimsical voting patterns of the clueless rabble.
“There is no such thing as political bi-partisanship or working together for the common good with a political party once known as democrat.”
I couldn’t agree more. The parties should have fundamentally different worldviews. Our party frequently pretends to. But every compromise is on progressive turf.
If he really means it, he should get ahead of it and call for the repeal of the 17th amendment and eliminate the 100 Senate elections altogether.
That would eliminate the campaign finance problem in one fell swoop.
-PJ
“There is no such thing as political bi-partisanship or working together for the common good with a political party once known as democrat.”
The solution is to drive the left entirely out of politics, out of public life, out of academia, out of the media, out of the country, and, if at all possible, out of the solar system.
Most important—and quite possibly most difficult—is to drive them out of every bureaucracy.
(When I said “drive out,” did that carry connotations of flogging them naked through the streets and into the ocean?)
I put George Mitchell in the same league as Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi,Barny Frank, and Harry Reid.
Democrat historical deconstruction says Bill Klinton wanted to make him Supreme Court Justice and that he turned it down.
I remember reading a story years ago (when Trent Lott was dumped in favor of Bill Frist), that George Mitchell was basically forced out by the Clintons. They wanted someone more loyal to them or more of a clintonite soldier, and Mitchell wasn't that guy. He fought with them over a couple of things, and they got him dumped.
The story about a SCOTUS job was just to give him some dignity/keep other democrats from knowing that they wanted him out.
Clintons don't have friends, they have allies and hacks, and if you don't serve their purpose, your toast.
Keep in mind, I'm not saying he was a good guy or anything by any stretch of the imagination, he was a socialist through and through, he just wasn't the loyalist to the clintons that they wanted.
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