When it comes to the GOP I am freshly out of loyalty. I look at the field of United States senators who claim affiliation with the Republican Party from safe seats and I ask, what have you done for the conservative cause lately?
What has Lindsey Graham done from his safe seat in South Carolina? He has been more than a nuisance, more than an obstruction, he has been an active agent against conservative principles.
What has Mitch McConnell done? He has colluded with Karl Rove to siphon off donor monies into campaigns to defeat conservative Republican challengers who bear the label "Tea Party," even applauding the treachery in Mississippi.
What has Lamar Alexander done from his relatively safe seat in Tennessee? He's been on the wrong side of every issue including amnesty.
What have of the placeholders done, Mike Enzi, Thad Cochran, John Cornyn and the others? What have they done to advance conservatism? Too hard a question? What have they done to impede Obamas tyranny? Still too hard?
Do you really believe that these guys will repeal Obamacare? Do you really believe that these guys will fail to endorse amnesty? Oh they might give you a head fake but if their votes are needed they will betray us. Some like Alexander and Graham at least are upfront about it. The rest are skulking around the cloak room ready to do the bidding of K St. or of the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.
I don't give a damn about conservative credentials if they are not worth anything. To be worth something conservatives from safe seats must do something. Yes, I judge senators from safe seats more harshly than those from marginal seats. No apologies.
Let's put the fear of God in some of these placeholders and turncoats to "encourage" the others.
I do not support Lamar Alexander in his primary later today, I have been speaking against him for months.
Enzi, and certainly not the solidly conservative Roberts do not compare to him. They are NOT in the same boat, not to me, Enzi is much more conservative than Lamar and Roberts is more conservative than Enzi.
And who the opponent is MATTERS, A LOT, not a little, not hardly at all like Enzi’s opponents pretended (they rarely defended or even MENTIONED Liz, just attacked Enzi), A LOT. Liz Cheney over Enzi? Hell no! If someone to his RIGHT had run, I probably would have supported him/her. Cheney is to his left. And if Roberts isn’t from Kansas anymore she sure as hell isn’t from Wyoming, she should have run in Virginia where I would certainly support her over liberal rat Mark Warner.
Some random doctor running a campaign made of hot air against proven conservative Roberts? Hell no.
As for Mitch McConnell, his opponent Bevin was a Paulbot loser who lied about his education, I certainly would have supported someone BETTER than McConnell rather than some bum who would have lost badly to the rat, Alison Grimes and would vote like Ron Paul if he had somehow miraculously won (he polled ahead of her only because she hadn’t starting attacking him yet, he would have had close to no chance, especially after that cockfighting nonsense). It’s a testament to McConnell’s lack of popularity than he did as well as he did, he was never someone that could take out a Senate leader.
I did not support Graham, who richly deserved defeat, but no one capable of beating him ran in the primary, his easy win was to be expected.
I did not support Cornyn either but his main opponent, Steve Stockman, is a sleaze-bag (look at how he filed on the last day to try and help a crony win the nomination for his House seat) who never had a chance so HIS easy win was to be expected as well.
Joe Carr, Lamar’s primary opponent is a GOOD candidate and he’s running against someone that actually deserves to be replaced. That makes all the difference to me. I also supported McDaniel, a good candidate, against Cochran, a lousy Senator who deserves to be replaced, unlike Roberts.
I don’t go in for this blanket beat all the incumbents stuff, especially if the primary opponent is WORSE than they are. I see a lot more nuance here than you do. Putting Roberts in same boat as Lamar! and pretending that just anybody would be an improvement, doesn’t fly with me.