The left will try their best to minimize the damage done but the bluedog Democrats are now on notice….pass fiscally irresponsible bills like ObamaCare and your toast. As for NY-23, a few good articles…first from Roger Simon:
Now I realize that the surprise loser there, Doug Hoffman, ran as a Conservative, not a Republican. But I submit in this case that was a distinction without a significant difference because virtually all the Republican establishment had lined up behind Hoffman by the day of the election.
So why – in what was clearly a Republican year – did Hoffman lose? Well, there are several reasons and, yes, the Democratic victory was narrow, thinner than the five or so percent that went to withdrawn Republican nominee Scozzafava who herself endorsed the Democratic candidate. Still, the 23rd is a safely Republican, even conservative, district. In a year where the GOP racked up a 20% margin in Virginia and coasted easily in Jersey, a state in which Obama romped in ‘08 by 16%, what was the problem?
Well… I might as well say it… social conservatism. America is a fiscally conservative country – now perhaps more than ever, and with much justification – but not a socially conservative one. No, I don’t mean to say it’s socially liberal. It’s not. It’s socially laissez-faire (just as its mostly fiscally laissez-faire). Whether we’re pro-choice, pro-life or whatever we are, most of us want the government out of our bedrooms, just as we want it out of our wallets. Read the rest of this entry »
A mentor once told me, speaking of the Republican Party, “This isn’t a religion for me. I’m a Republican because it’s the party that I believe is best suited to promote my values and my vision. If it stops being that party, I’ll find another one.” The abandonment of Dede Scozzafava by the conservative voters in her district is that threat put into action. If the Republican Party has moved so far away from its conservative base that it has turned to promoting liberals like Scozzafava over real conservatives, simply because they think they have a better chance of winning an election, then it is time for a change.
One of the fundamental issues that I have with today’s Republican Party is that we allow ourselves to be defined by liberals and the liberal press rather than defining ourselves. As a former county party chairman, I had to live with county and state by-laws that forbade party officials from endorsing candidates in the primaries. It never happened in my county, but the fact that I might have one day been forced to officially support a liberal candidate always festered in the back of my mind.
The problem is that the National Republican Party, together with state and local parties, spend more time, money and effort trying to include everyone in the “big tent” than they do standing by the core conservative values that should be guiding them. I can understand how easy it is to fall into the trap of believing the goal is to elect people with R’s at the end of their names. Obviously, without enough R’s the party loses majority control of government, but this ignores the reality that control by Republicans isn’t the real goal. The real goal is holding our nation true to the conservative principles by which it was created.
Talk Radio personality Andrew Wilkow likes to say, “Individual Patriot first. Conservative second. Republican third.” What he means is that it is our first duty to be individuals who support our country, that we can do that best by living and promoting our conservative principles, and that the Republican Party is the currently the best tool that we have to do it with. If the Republican Party ceases to be the best tool for that job, then we are left with a couple choices. We can throw out the tool and get a new one, or we can refurbish our current tool and make it work how it’s supposed to. Read the rest of this entry »
The news keeps getting better regarding the Hoffman, Scozzafava, Owens race. Scott Johnson from Powerline relates a conversation he had with a friend and “principal of the political consulting firm of Red Sea LLC and the polling firm Basswood Research,” Jon Lerner.
Following up on Rothenberg’s column, I called Jon to ask for his take on the congressional election. He made so many interesting points that I asked him to reiterate them briefly in a message for Power Line readers. Jon writes:
To recap our discussion of NY-23, I have done three surveys for the Club for Growth. The initial survey was conducted at the very outset of the race, before any advertising was done by anyone. At that time, “Republican” Dede Scozzafava held a narrow lead. But it was apparent that her lead would not withstand the heat of battle.
About half of her support came from Democrats in the Watertown area who knew her pro-labor, liberal voting record and liked it. The other half came from Republicans who did not know about her liberal record but were supporting her because she was the Republican candidate. Once Democrats quickly learned that they could vote for a real Democrat, Bill Owens, they left Scozzafava. And once Republicans learned how liberal her record was, and that they had a conservative alternative in Doug Hoffman, they also left Scozzafava. Read the rest of this entry »
So what’s their excuse today, now that they are witnessing President Obama’s executive leadership in action? Well, for one, more Americans are discovering their inner conservative. If 8 years of President Bush in no small measure lost us the ‘08 election and set the conservative movement one step back, President Obama in one year’s worth of governance will most likely cost the Democrats 2010 (actually, Dems in Congress who choose to ignore the voices of their constituency will lose seats) and propel conservatism two steps forward.
The other side of this is that Obama supporters might not have jumped ship yet, because they have not been keeping up on the issues, other than to read the latest DNC talking points and Kos misinformation. According to the latest Pew Research Center’s latest News IQ Quiz. Mary Katharine Ham blogs:
His warning about the value of freedom and danger of big government is even more relevant today!
“A Time for Choosing” otherwise known as “The Speech” was delivered in a broadcast in support of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential election. The name of the program, “Rendezvous with Destiny” marked the beginning of Reagan as a national political figure. It turned out to be Reagan’s rendezvous with destiny…
“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”…
Lieberman did say he’s “strongly inclined” to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he’ll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn’t changed first…
“I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,” Lieberman added. “It’s just asking for trouble – in the end, the taxpayers are going to pay and probably all people will have health insurance are going to see their premiums go up because there’s going to be cost shifting as there has been for Medicare and Medicaid.”
Since that statement came out earlier today the Reid camp…or cheerleaders….have tried to spin it so it doesn’t sound as bad as it really is. I mean how can it be bad if Joe will vote to open floor debate on Reid’s bill? Of course they are leaving out the other vote…the one that closes debate and moves the bill to a vote. Joe says he will NOT vote for that if the public option is there.
The National Republican Congressional Committee remains committed to embattled GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava in the upstate New York House special election, even as many of the party’s top names throw their support to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.
Two party officials tell POLITICO that the NRCC will continue to air TV ads propping up Scozzafava in the days leading up to the Nov. 3 contest and plans to keep up a near relentless barrage of press releases slamming Hoffman.
Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and has a close relationship with leading labor officials in her region, has been the target of sustained criticism from conservatives who claim she is too liberal for them to support her candidacy.
Hoffman, an accounting executive, is attracting an ever-growing group of conservative backers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) have also endorsed the third-party candidate.
Public and private polls have shown Hoffman gaining on Scozzafava but both trail the Democratic nominee, attorney Bill Owens.
Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.
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Conservatism is most prevalent among Republicans. However, the overall increase in this ideological stance since 2008 comes largely from political independents, among whom 35% say they are conservatives thus far in 2009 — compared with 29% last year. Independents have also become more conservative on a number of specific policy issues, including government and union power, the role of government relative to promoting values, gun laws, immigration, global warming, and abortion. Republicans, most of whom considered themselves ideologically conservative in 2008, have also grown more conservative on several of these issues this year, while less change is seen among Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »
Here the disconnect between Good’s op-ed, and the actual content of the study begin. Good has chosen to focus on race and racism… and dances around the study’s finding that the discontent of “weak” partisans… Republican and Independents… appears to have nothing to do with race.
According to most conservatives in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has officially gone over to the dark side. Under the guise of ‘bipartisanship,’ Graham has signed on to one of the left’s most ambitious plans to impose a socialist agenda in America – government control of the formerly free market through implementation of cap-and trade, the 1,400 plus page Waxman-Markey bill approved earlier this year by the House.
The main (scientifically unproven) premise of cap and trade is that the earth is melting and government must step in to save the world. Of course, it will be expensive, but hey, this is Mother Earth we’re talking about. And its urgent and essential that the government immediately establish a $700 billion “market” for business to buy and sell “steadily declining number of permits for creating carbon emissions.”
In a New York Times Op-Ed Graham co-authored with Sen. John Kerry cutely entitled ‘Yes We Can’ (get it?) Sen Graham states “..we agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security.” Huh?
Conservatives disagree. Conservatives, real conservatives, believe the fact based studies based on science that stand in direct opposition to the dire reports issued by bureaucrats at the United Nations and embraced as fact by the left. Read the rest of this entry »
“Today we reached a critical milestone in our efforts to reform our health care system, the president said this afternoon,” speaking from the White House Rose Garden.
Although the bill drew an “aye” vote from one Republican senator, President Obama touted the bill as a proposal having both “Democratic and Republican support.”
“After the consideration of hundreds of amendments, it includes ideas from both Democrats and Republicans, which is why it enjoys the support of people from both parties,” he said.
The president thanked in particular the senator who cast the lone Republican vote, Sen. Olympia Snowe from Maine.
Democrat….er, “Republican” Senator Snowe caving to the Democrats is not surprising. Just look at her scorecard at Club For Growth:
No…not surprising in the least and I suppose the ignorant claim that her defection is proof that the bill is bipartisan should not surprise us either coming from this administration. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes Ronald Reagan, a former New Deal Democrat, by his own admission was converted to Conservatism by Whittaker Chambers an admitted former Communist (capital C), and former Soviet spy, and his book Witness.
Whittaker Chambers was a complex man, early in life, he became caught up in the idealism of Soviet Communism and its purported benevolence toward the common man. Whitaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers April 1, 1901. He was raised in a household with a mentally ill maternal grandmother that caused dissension and apparently drove his father to leave his family. His father supported the family with weekly checks of eight dollars from that time.
Whittaker attended Columbia University, but left school after creating controversy by writing and reviewing his own play, A Play for Puppets, as the editor of the school’s literary magazine Morningside; the play led to a controversy among faculty and students that eventually ended up in the New York City newspapers; the play was considered blasphemous and the notoriety eventually drove Chambers away from academia.
During this period Chamber adopted his mother’s maiden name Whittaker, he later used the name David Chambers.
In 1924, he read Lenin’s book, Soviet’s At Work, he found it to be a compelling book that reflected his family experience that reflected his family’s experience as he wrote “in miniature the whole crisis of the middle class.” He became a Marxist in 1925 and joined the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). He wrote for and edited The Daily Worker and The New Masses newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »
The conservative’s in this country are lowering the discourse in politics today…according to Pelosi and the left. Of course this fails to explain the lowering of discourse by Rep. Grayson who told everyone from the floor of the house that Republicans want people to “Die quickly.” Hell, the very same person who demanded the house censure a man whose only crime was yelling during a Presidents speech, and apologized for the outburst, now defends Grayson…confirming her hypocrite status (like we needed another confirmation).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says there’s no reason for Rep. Alan Grayson to apologize for his “Die quickly” remark, since Republicans have made statements just as outrageous as his.
“If anybody’s going apologize, everybody should apologize,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. “We are holding Democrats to a higher standard than their own members.”
She deemed the flap over Grayson’s remarks a distraction from the healthcare debate.
“Typically, Republicans would like to use this as distraction because they have no plan,” Pelosi said.
Republicans, who have been eager to compare Grayson’s remark to Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) “You lie!” outburst, said Pelosi’s refusal to call on Grayson to apologize meant that she condones “despicable” conduct. Read the rest of this entry »
