Posted on 11/07/2002 6:25:30 AM PST by Illbay
The focus for FReepers in the election cycle just concluded was to take back the Senate. 77% of FReeperdom opined that this was "critical."
This has now occurred, and congratulations are in order.
Now, we have to reset the agenda. Of course, there are many agenda items already set, such as homeland security, confirmation of judges, making tax cuts permanent, passing a budget, etc. And before we know it, the 2004 election cycle will be upon us.
But before ANY of that can take place, I submit there is one item that is MOST important, before all of those.
The Senate is ours, but only just. One less Senator, and we'd be back to "parity," with Mr. Cheney representing the tie breaking vote--and we all remember where that led.
The new majority leader is likely to be the OLD majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi. It should come as a surprise to few here on FR that Sen. Lott has a very, very small coterie of admirers here. In short, we consider him basically spineless, and far too accomodating to the Democrats, not to mention "moderates" and RINOS such as McCain, Snow, Chaffee and others.
When the Senate proceeds with its business next year, the Dems will have had months to recover from their defeat. If the past is any indication, they will come back swinging, under the assumption that "stupid people" elected Republicans, and any "mandate" from "stupid people" can be ignored. This is precisely what happened after 1994--when the shift that gave the entire Congress to the Republicans was far more dramatic than this year--and by the next year (with Boy Clinton's help) they had painted the Pubbies into a corner. I don't believe the Republicans have EVER really taken the initiative as a result.
It's time to help our Republican Senators, in particular, to see that you cannot accomodate Democrats. They don't accomodate; they see any attempt to "reach out" to them as weakness, and they take full advantage.
After the 2000 election, even though the Dems were still in the minority, they took advantage immediately to demand "power sharing." Mr. Lott, of course, was quick to accomodate them, and the result was that a few months later they were calling Tom Daschle "Majority Leader."
This time, it can't happen. Democrats have to be kept on the defensive, and off balance. Things are far too critical now. Beside the war on terrorism, we have judges to confirm, and much critical legislation to pass. We have no time for Democrat shenanigans.
But we KNOW those shenanigans are going to occur. Believe me, it's NOT going to take long for the Dems to rally. They are infallibly convinced of their own superiority. They are willing to stop at nothing to get their way.
I propose that we begin discussions on how we can help Mr. Lott, for one, grow a spine. He and the Republican Senate leadership need help from loyal conservatives to see the evil that they face (you'd think they could see it for themselves, but they continue to surprise me).
This, to me, is JOB NO. 1 for Free Republic at this time. I'd like to solicit ideas on how to accomplish this. FR has proven to be a great voice for responsible government. This task is tailor-made for us.
FReegards to all.
The vast majority does not want to take responsibility for their own lives.....we'll always be the underdog..
"Another Vanity on Vanities" by Jim Robinson
"Vanity: Please help prevent the vanity explosion" by Jim Robinson
Anyway ... he's right. This is a task tailor-made for us. One thing we could do is bombard Trent's inbox (snail mail and e-mail) expressing our concerns about his lack of spine.
The other thing is to bombard the inbox of any Senator we believe has the muscle to stand up to the Democrats and hold on against the Press attacks.
I therefore present these three choices:
Senator MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY)
Senator LARRY CRAIG (R-ID)
Senator RICK SANTORUM (R-PA)
It brings me in mind of the claims by many FReepers that the barrage of information that came to be known as the DSL ("Degrees of Separation List") that was sent at great expense to every Senator during the Clinton Impeachment trial by FR activists, though it didn't result in the thug's impeachment, nevertheless swayed many Senators to vote for his ouster.
I have always been skeptical, but FR is first and foremost a place for Activism (hence this LEGAL VANITY post!) and it seems to me that Mr. Lott needs to hear early and often, that he is not there to play "nice" with Tom Daschle.
I know we're not supposed to "gloat," according to our President, but we have a lot of crucial things that need to be done. Those efforts are going to be seriously hamstrung if Trent Lott attempts to "reach out" to the vanquished Democrats.
We worked hard to defeat them. But our own defeat can be snatched from the jaws of that victory by our own "leaders," such as Trent Lott.
We haven't had him to kick around much; now we have to deal with him.
He is the Weakest Link, and there's no getting around that. This d*mned "collegiality" that we're always hearing exists in the Senate ONLY seems to work one way, and we're here to remind them of that as often as we can.
Trent Lott is OUR chihuahua--even when he has the majority.
Now he has an insurmountable majority, AND the White House to help him with his missing cojones.
We have to go under the assumption that he is going to be there, and we're going to have to deal with him. Despite all the speculation about who could succeed him, no one will. No one is challenging him, and we have to deal WITH LOTT.
Our job #1 right now should be the defeat of Brown Roots.
After that, job #2 should be identifying and building grassroots networks for solid conservative candidates for 2003's few elections and for 2004's complete slate of elections.
The idea is NOT to get the slimmest of majorities and then start internal catfighting. Save that for where our own internal battles, and the wounds they cause, won't endanger our tenuous hold on the reigns of government.
Or how about this quote from Illbay on another "vanity" post: "How about "follow the rules of the forum?"
You've lost your argument, Illbay, unless, of course, the "rules" don't apply to YOU.
In Breaking News? Illbay, this is another reason why you ain't the person to be leading the charge on the proliferation of vanity posts - and there are plenty of ongoing threads on this general subject where you could have placed it. Throw in your flame-bait vanity from a short ways back, and your tendency to get abusive, and you're one of the leading offenders against FR posting rules.
Pass the hat, please. Thanks.
Perhaps he thought that some animals are more equal than others?
I guess they aren't... the article was pulled from Breaking News.
Hoist with his own petard... oh, the cruel irony!
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