Question of the day: Does the GOP have enough balls?
And no, I’m not talking about basketballs or baseballs or golf balls. You know what I’m talking about — excuse the language, but we need to be blunt. And you know that it’s the question that will hang over the Republican Party from now until November as it tries to persuade the base — let alone the American electorate — that it can provide a real alternative to the current crop of big government corruptocrats in power in Washington.
So: Does the GOP have enough balls to fight the Left or doesn’t it?
You know about my doubts. You’ve heard my warning about McCain Regression Syndrome.
Now, I want you to read every word of what Andy McCarthy has to say about the GOP leadership’s abandonment of Jim Bunning — and what it says about the lack of Republican fortitude in the war against the permanent, ever-growing Nanny State.
Andy speaks the truth. Hard truths. And fiscal conservatives/Tea Party activists need to shout them from the rooftops. I’ve invoked Phyllis Schlafly many times over the past year in urging the GOP to provide true choices instead of echoes. Actions speak louder than words. So, alas, does feckless inaction:
Maine’s Susan Collins took to the Senate floor to assure Americans that Bunning’s radical views about Congress’s not spending yet more billions it doesn’t have “do not represent a majority of the Republican caucus.” And sure enough, they didn’t. Once Bunning backed down, the measure passed by a whopping 78-19.
Think about that. We are talking about $10 billion in a year when Leviathan is slated to spend a total of $3.6 trillion. The majority of Senate Republicans joined Democrats in concluding that the allocation of every one of these 3.6 thousand billion dollars is so vital that not one of them could be sacrificed in favor of unemployment insurance. So another $10 billion just gets heaped on the already unfathomable trillion-dollar deficits stacking year upon year.
The pols call these mounting months (now years) of unemployment benefits “temporary,” even though the real unemployment rate remains in the double digits and no relief is in sight. The “temporary” label is a budgetary trick. It enables lawmakers to sidestep “PAYGO” — Pay As You Go — restrictions that require the federal government to pay for current obligations out of current revenues. Democrats recently made a big show of reinstituting PAYGO — but not until after they’d blown deficit spending through the stratosphere.
It was a bit of theater Democrats had good reason to believe they could pull off. When Republicans controlled Congress, they made a mockery of PAYGO entitlement restrictions, particularly when it came to enforcing Medicare cuts that were required by law. As the Heritage Foundation’s Bruce Riedl observes, PAYGO was a gimmick to project the illusion of fiscal responsibility even as budget deficits soared. Thus it comes as little surprise that, even as President Obama’s sudden paeans to PAYGO ring in our ears, Democrats are slyly sidestepping it.
Besides unemployment compensation, what is in the bill Bunning was blocking? The proposed goodies include public funds to prevent what would otherwise be a 21 percent reduction in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Of course, these are exactly the sort of steep cuts that enacting Obamacare would accomplish. Given that enacting Obamacare is the Left’s ne plus ultra, why not just let the Medicare payments get slashed now? Because Democrats realize that if people get a load of how Obamacare would actually work before it is a fait accompli, they will scream bloody murder. So the game is to make certain that doctors don’t feel the pinch now, just as the game is to pass Obamacare now but delay its implementation until 2013 — allowing Obama and Democrats to get through the 2010 and 2012 election cycles without being held accountable for the epic disaster that will be government-controlled medicine.
In sum, Bunning’s battle gave Republicans a chance to make points about runaway deficit spending, the fraudulence of PAYGO posturing, the foolish redistribution of wealth to create expensive and unproductive government jobs, unemployment-benefit extensions that Democrats refuse to pay for and that actually increase unemployment, and the monstrous rationing that would be wrought by Obamacare. So, did Republicans rally behind Bunning? Not a chance.
Why? Why abandon this fight when the GOP has the facts on its side? Why no enthusiasm when a year of Obama’s forced march to crony socialism has the public more receptive than ever to the case for slashing government? Simple: Republicans are afraid of being demagogued — as Democrats and the media demagogued Bunning — as wanting to cut off funding (i.e., money we don’t have) for unemployment insurance and the usual laundry list of other Big Government baubles like COBRA coverage, satellite TV dishes, the “highway trust fund,” etc. Republicans also did not want their own sorry PAYGO history rehashed.
Here’s the sad truth: For all the shining they did at last week’s White House “summit” on health care, when it gets down to actually putting the brakes on the Big Gummint Express, most of today’s Republicans are AWOL. They’re great at the debate society. But making the fight on something concrete, really saying no when it means grinding redistribution to a halt, means taking the slings and arrows. No thanks, they say, let’s just make the whole thing go away on a voice vote, the sooner the better. Indeed, while Senator Bunning should be lauded for engaging this fight, it is telling that he took it on only after deciding not to seek reelection.
…Democrats know the electoral setbacks will only be temporary. They are banking on the assurance that Republicans merely want to win elections and have no intention of rolling back Obamacare, much less of dismantling Leviathan.
For my money (while I still have some), that’s an eminently sound bet. The Bunning battle, in which the GOP was nowhere to be found, is the proof. Bunning just wanted Congress to live within its gargantuan means. Yet, the Washington Post ridiculed him: “angry and alone, a one-man blockade against unemployment benefits, Medicare payments to doctors, satellite TV to rural Americans and paychecks to highway workers.” That’s outrageously unfair, but it is a day at the beach compared to the Armageddon that would be unleashed upon any attempt to undo Obama’s welfare state on steroids.
As it turns out, Republicans didn’t have the stomach for a fight over wealth transfers that plainly exacerbate the problem of unemployment. Why would anyone think they’d take on a far more demanding war, in which Democrats and the legacy media would relentlessly indict them for “denying health insurance to millions of Americans”?
Even if the GOP gets a majority for a couple of cycles, even if President Obama is defeated in his 2012 reelection bid, Obamacare will be forever. And once the public sees that the GOP won’t try to dismantle Obamacare, it will lose any enthusiasm for Republicans. Democrats will eventually return to power, and it will be power over a much bigger, much more intrusive government.
Health care is a loser for the Left only if the Right has the steel to undo it. The Left is banking on an absence of steel. Why is that a bad bet?
So dead-on. So painfully dead-on. Where’s my famous head-banging-against-the-wall graphic? Ah, there it is:
Like I said this morning, I don’t want to hear the preemptive Republican promises to “repeal Obamacare later.”
Stop. It. Now.
As long as Beltway GOP hacks see this as a cynical marketing campaign and not an ideological battle, we are screwed.
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Enough or Any????
Well said, Michelle.
So long as the majority of the GOP consists of power-/status-hungry baby boomers, and geriatrics who needed to retire in the 1980s/09s, no, they do not and will not.
Too many of them “want theirs” and even though the system is unsustainable, too many of them will not be denied “theirs” – the rest of us be damned.
There must be something in the water in dc that make all there unable to have brain cells that function. It could effect other organs also! This malady seems to fatten wallets, ignore the citizens who voted for them, and lie to those citizens to get re-elected. If we could find out what is in the water and get a cure, America might recover. Until then, we are BOHICA daily!
L
I think Bunning was a warning shot across the bow…a message to the Progressives we have maneuver left at our disposal and we will use them. Bunning was just the instrument to show them the example.
I think the Conservatives will FIGHT -using everything they have, and when enough of them stand up, their RINO colleagues will follow suit out of survival instinct. How difficult is it to turn a RINO herd?
A couple of Senators and a handful of Congressmen, that’s it.
The RNC, NRSC, NRCC are all populated with eunuchs.
The only way to cure what’s wrong with the GOP is a wholesale replacement of elected officials and staff.
Starting with King Weasel, John McCain. The most important date this year is Aug. 24, AZ primary, when AZ can rid us of the poster child of “bipartisanship”, which we all know by now means doing what Democrats want. It has never been a two way street, nor have they ever attempted to meet us halfway.
Nope. Next!
If there is one unfortunate habit the Republicans have is promising to take on an issue after they are re-elected, instead of stopping it when they could. That is, they let the s@#t hit the fan, and at most you will get a little paring of the program, but never its repeal.
e.g. Public Television, Brady Act(Bob Dole’s little promise to the NRA in 1993 which he renigged on by 1996), and a whole host of other programs. Feel free to chime in!
This is why voting for conservative candidates from the get-go is vital. The LOTE practice has lead us to this current situation where Obama believes-rationally-that once this Health Care Leviathan is in place it won’t be repealed…he is betting on enough people voting LOTE instead of voting conservative.
Prove them wrong.
While I agree with Bunning, his move was bad politics imo. It gave the Democrats a talking point to slam Republicans, and it was horribly misreported by the media (shocking right?. What Bunning did was bad politics, not bad policy. If Republicans want to oppose spending as Bunning did, they need to set up the argument and articulate it beforehand. I know there are pure-politician republicans who will shift their position to placate/ please the media, and they need to be replaced. I just don’t think the Bunning incident is representative of this problem.
Answer: NO
Democrats aren’t the only ones that will be shown the door in November. I’m expecting many conservatives to replace RINOs in Congress. Rubio is an excellent example of a conservative replacing a RINO (Crist) in Florida. Although Crist isn’t currently in the Senate, he was a 30 point favorite over his nearest challenger only months ago.
The RINOs and cowards are exposing themselves and they will be replaced eventually.
Anyone have a vote count on this one? I’ll see if I can dig one up…
We need to swarm the cowards that abandoned Bunning.
Otis #9
In other word you would support Sen. Bunning if he lied and became a hypocrite?
I’m a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, and I find your language crude.
I feel right at home.
This what I fear (if I may also be blut). The GOP makes a show of opposition, wins big in November then comes back with a mandate to repeal this awful bill but reneges. I can easily see a McCain-led GOP arguing that it would be too contentious to retract this bill and that America has suffered enough contentiousness, that it would be better to modify the bill than to repeal it.
August 24 Arizona. Get the job done for America. Deny the GOP nomination to McCain, the second half of the Kennedy/McCain twin tower progressive offense. America is depending on you.
We’ve gone from balls to exposing themselves. An interesting morning….
Anyone who is surprised that the Republicans acted the way they did with Bunning’s attempt to make the Senate abide by its own rules hasn’t been keeping up with current events.
These are the same feckless cowards and unprincipled opportunists that so disgusted the electorate that we allowed sociialists to take over Congress and a Chicago gang of Marxist thugs to desecrate the White House.
They’ve listened to the tea party movement and rather than heeding the warnings they’re trying to coopt it and use it for their own purposes. Their attitude seems to be the same one gun owners have been dealing with from the backstabbing ba***ards for years.
“Give them lip service, use them and after the election, ignore them. After all, where else are they going to go?”
We’re going to get more of the same unless and until we have a massive bloodletting in the Republican party.
No, the GOP doesn’t. They will run on the ‘vote for me because I’m not them’ vision of the future (just like Obama).
It won’t be long until the interest we pay on our debt is over 1T/year.
Like Olberman STILL harps on about the number of days its been since ‘mission accomplished’, SOMEBODY in the media on the right should post daily the amount of interest we all have to pay because of the debt. Money we pay in interest is money that could be going to other important government programs.
This is the real reason that the fed keeps the rates low (and they have to). Once rates start going up, the interest payments will skyrocket and we’ll be in trouble.
No, nobody on the R side has any balls to stop the spending except people we all agree to not like (Ron Paul).
Yep, at some point a stand has to be made. Spending is spending, and it would serve all politicians well should they stand up and say they will begin with their own earmarks.
Yes, there was a level of hypocrisy with Sen Bunning do what he did, but that is not the point. Either you believe the spending should stop, or you continue to feed at the trough like the many other duplicitous forked tongued double speaking politicians.
Was it lip service that was given by the Reps, saying they have made mistakes in the past and will no longer do so?
Time to put up, shut up, or leave office.
I guess this is a time we can be cynical and dismissive…
or we can be active and supportive of doing the right thing.
I think the better question is always…
DO WE HAVE ENOUGH BALLS?
Do we have the resolve to keep the pressure on?
Speaking for myself, I do. I’m prepared to do a lot more than that, as I know many of you are, too.
Be strong. Be hopeful. Be committed.
NO
How is it that WE have to have enough balls?
It’s a shame that any of them get to win.
Voting is like when you get in trouble and dad says go get a switch for me to beat you with so you’ll learn.
You can pick a little bitty switch, but you still will get punished and it’ll hurt.
R or D. How about this. . . if I didn’t have to pay taxes, I wouldn’t care who was in government.
We can’t win. We just have to pay taxes for the privilege of being ‘represented’.
The biggest financial scam in the world is the government. They can take your money or throw you in jail. I wish I could run a business like that. I’d probably be pretty successful in generating revenue.
At least 52% of the voters do not. Not sure about most of the rest.
If you vote for an incumbent this year, except in very small handful of districts, we’ll get no where! We need to be focused on the primaries, and turn out these country-club repulican RINO’s.
I dream of a Republican Congress where the majority are Freshmen! These primaries are where the change has to come!
Here in Delaware the GOP’s choice to fill the Senate seat Biden used to occupy is Mike Castle, who loves every chance to get photo ops with the Dems, sponsored the new semiautomatic weapons ban, campaigned for federal stem cell funding, and voted enthusiastically (and is unapologetic now) for cap and trade.
I’m so sick of the one-way-street of leftward compromise, where compromise means “govt grows at twice the rate of inflation” rather than 3x. So you’ll “progress” to wherever that takes you at 65 mph instead of 85 mph.
I believe progressive GOPers like Mike Castle (figuratively) give conservatives the finger behind our backs when they’re with their “cool friends” in the media and Washington.
I’m curious what others think. Do you vote for the “progressive” GOPers because they’ll vote with you 60% of the time? Holding my nose to vote is getting very old.
I understand that if others around the country say it’s better to have an R for the sake of gaining a majority (even if unreliable), maybe I should brave the stink and vote for him.
It’s not just that the GOP has lost their balls, they have lost their rudder.
Each time the GOP tacks toward a conservative course, they feel compelled to come about.
Agree
No, and that’s not what Otis said.
The GOP should have talked up PayGo (always) and (if they were going to do it now – more on that though) made that the sticking point, and not let the MSM paint it as a lone wolf stopping unemployed Americans from eating, or whatever.
Right now we need to stop ObamaCaresless. It’s THE thing that needs to happen, and it was (IMO) poor timing by Bunning to raise this issue now. You may NEVER in your lifetime get another chance to stop Socialized medicine. Yes, pay as you go, but at the moment there is another GIGANTIC issue at stake.
No. That is NOT true now. Moreover, nothing BIG I can name in American history has been done by a majority. It always has been done by committed minorities…at least initially.
I don’t know how Michelle feels about this, many of us commenters refer to them as “Malkins”…
As in,
How apropo! It will catch on. Hat tip to ya, ITTRP.
On March 4th, 2010 at 3:14 pm, zyzzyg said:
Well said.
There are some things on which we all agree.
This might sound tripe or facetious, but really, why not create a line chart or scale or percentage list of just how conservative each Republican/Conservative pol is, from Hercules strength conservatism to docile “reach across the aisle and get it cut off” Rodney King wimp? At a glance we can see who crosses the RINO red-line threshold and everything else. That’d make it easier to target the kinks in the armor.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
On March 4th, 2010 at 3:35 pm, Hangfire said:
Thanks, but I don’t really deserve the hat tip. I think it started on Hot Air back when they ran a clip of Michelle saying “balls” on Fox News…
That is exactly what Otis said.
This is the crux of the matter.
The sweeping 1994 Republican mid-term wins were quickly brought to naught when they tried to stand on budgetary principles, and threatened to shut down the federal government over said principles — only to be successfully tarred by the donks and their media arm.
The perception — that Republicans are a bunch of heartless, selfish, grinches who don’t care about the American People and who were only interested in bringing down Clinton no matter the cost to the country — became reality.
Fast forward to today: the donks have already made perfectly apparent their game-plan to paint the Republicans into the same corner again, with a collection of bills that (1) are ostensibly meant to address some sensitive public relations issue like unemployment, and (2) in the new era of trillions of dollars, meant to make it look like those mean old Republicans are stiffing poor, hard pressed ordinary Americans over what is now “chump change” — a few billion here, another few billion there.
It’s a sound strategy. I’d expect the donks to employ it in an election year. You either get pasted in the press as stereotypical mean-spirited Republicans who don’t give a damn about suffering people if you fight, or you get pummeled by your own base as a bunch of castrati if you don’t. Either way, you lose.
I hate the donks, but I give them credit for political hardball. What they’re doing is very clever.
Assuming donkeycare becomes law this year, what Republicans would need to roll it back would be not a majority, but a super-majority in the Senate. We can’t do that in 2010 — even if we won every single Senate contest in November, we’d still be short of a super-majority needed to override a certain Hope-a-Dope veto.
And of course, winning even a majority becomes much more challenging in an environment where not only are the donks and the media blasting you as a bunch of Neanderthal reactionaries whose only agenda is to tear down poor Hope-a-Dope — and whose only answer to any problem is “No!” — but also getting blasted by a lot of conservatives who seem to be itching for any excuse to throw up their hands and walk away in disgust if the Republicans don’t walk right into the donks’ trap.
Not an enviable position to be in.
So…
1. Republicans alone cannot stop donkey-care if the donks go forward with reconciliation;
2. It is impossible to gain a veto-proof Republican majority in the Senate in 2010 even in the best-case scenario, so there’s no roll-back possibility before 2013 (again, even in the best-case scenario);
3. For Republicans to roll-back donkey-care would actually require a 65-70 seat super-majority in the Senate, because to win 60 solid conservative votes will require a tent so big that a lot of not-completely-reliable Republicans will also be in the majority party.
While #3 above might be possible if the public anger at donk totalitarianism leads to a mass slaughter at the ballot-box in the next two elections, I’d say that the prospect of that happening is remote — especially if, as seems probable, conservatives take to fighting one another over who is/isn’t sufficiently “pure” instead of focusing like a laser on the donks.
What’s left is… having to rely upon the donks to save us from donkey-care. Having to depend on “a few good donks” to step up and do the right thing is a sure-fire way to be reaching for the extra-strength Alka-Seltzer, hmm? Talk about your “Hail Marys.”
It’s that, or a successful legal challenge that results in the Supreme Court slapping donkey-care down as unconstitutional. Either way, it’s hard to come up with a realistic scenario for Republicans by themselves to do anything to stop this train.
Give the Republicans credit. They have worked extremely hard to deserve the weak-kneed reputation they have.
Only principled actions with boldness and candor over an extended period of time will reverse this perception.
You have a serious reading comprehension problem.
Didn’t one of the austere Republicans already say if Obamacare passes, they weren’t going to try and repeal it? There was no objection to this in GOP circles.
. Who is you in your statement? If it were up to me it would already be dead, if you mean you as in the USA, then we (USA) are very capable of addressing more than one problem at a time. It is no time to be a coward and not back someone who stood alone to fight the Senate who wants to break a law they just passed. If the fight against the MSM is frightening because their reporting sux, then just give up now.
The Senate is breaking the pay as you go law they just passed and good for Sen. Jim Bunning for standing for law and rule. There is not better time for the truth then the present, not the future.
Bravoes Michelle!
The Republicans who seem to have the biggest cojones these days are the ones who weren’t born with any. Maybe Michele Bachmann has enough extra to pass around.
Obama says we’re “hung over from a long national party” (odd choice of words for a guy who was just told to chill on the boozin’ don’tcha think?), and I can’t help but agree with him considering who America woke up with.
Me? Get serious lady…
You bet the Republicans had better grow a spine (I prefer that analogy
. I was very disappointed that the rest of the other 18 Republicans who voted “no” did not stand with him. And where was Kit Bond? He was reaching across the aisle again. They had better fight this health care bill with everything they have. Otherwise, we will all be out in the cold in the new Marxist government!
Answer of the day: NO. The Congress needs some Tea Party members to give the GOP some spine or balls. Instead of “brass”, the GOP has been exhibiting Nerf.
Unfortunately one of the profound differences between the two parties is that the democrats are the real deal. If you are liberal/progressive/whatever you can count on the Democrat Party delivering 90% of the time and fighting as hard as they can when they are unable to do so. Year in, year out, the Party stands by its base.
As for the Republicans, maybe 10% of the time. As the great Thomas Sowell has pointed out many times, Republicans go to Congress to make deals with Democrats. If you don’t believe me, ask any Bush, ask McCain, ask Snowe, ask, ask, ask. I wish it were otherwise but wishes do not make the world go round.
So the quick answer to MM’s mostly rhetorical question is No. Once DemDeath passes, the Republicans even with the most massive majorities imaginable, will do little but tweak it.
You must be a freakin’ riot at family gatherings, Michelle!
*Well they certainly have had enough balls to saddle up this socialist horse that P-BO is now riding, whether it be Medicare changes, S-chip, being advocacy pimps for illegal alien amnesty, or all this outrageous spending!
*The real question is do they have the spine and courage to go forth from this point and espouse constitutional conservatism above all else?; Jim DeMint, Tom Coburn, Steve King and a few others come to mind; We need to support and encourage them while at the same time doing whatever it takes in building momentum to rid the Senate of John McCain and his ilk; The GOP can NEVER be trusted if they refuse to repudiate the damage McCain and Grahamnesty have done and continue to do to our beloved country!
When and if Republicans start taking tough, maybe they can work on repealing Bush’s massive entitlement program.
We conservatives are the RINOs now. The party left us a long time ago.
Do non-Marxist Democrats have enough Malkins to stand up to the Narcissist-in-Chief?
Yes, and thank you.
IMHO – NO!
How can we trust a party that has wimped out on everything since 2006. Nobody took a pulse then to see if they were even awake, much less alive. When Pres. Bush was getting roasted over hot coals by the press and the Demwits, they ran for cover like cowards or would try to not sound like a dreaded ‘cowboy’ and put a more nuanced spin on what Pres. Bush had said. I want some common sense ‘cowboys’ to step up, run for office, and clean the place out in D.C., and that may mean more than a few indictments for fraud and collusion. It’s going to take a slew of them.
Until the party can clean up it’s act my wallet is still shut. And, yes, I’ve made that abundantly clear to them.
They DON’T have the cajones because their ranks are filled with “electable” types who talk big but aren’t in it for the fight.
)
This is one of the reasons I quit listening to Hugh Hewitt (well, that and his program was cut from our local affiliate.
But seriously, he and the Medveds of the world always end up backing the GOP insider (read, “RINO”) as the more “electable” candidate, issues be damned. My argument is that you can MAKE someone electable by giving the articulate, principled candidate the forum to air their views and get a hearing and then get behind them! But instead, we always get the retreads pushed on us.
I’m so tired of the conception that in order to be make it to DC, you have to be a known player that’s been in the machine for 90 years. The Dems sure blew that away arguably first with Clinton (a guy who even Michael Moore once said didn’t have a snowball’s chance), but more clearly with Obama.
Practically a nobody that blew on to the national scene with basically one big speech in 2004 (I think it was) with zero credentials and, “Boom!” he’s in the White House.
Even liberal GOPer Scott Brown got in. When are we going to have the guts to take a chance on principled folks regardless of their pedigree or connections to the party? Principled truth MAKES electability!
Republicans go along with this INSANITY but never manage to get the other side to go along with them. It amazes me that after 10 years of the GWOT, we can’t even get Congress to authorize letting Reservists collect retirement at 55 years old, but “temporary” unemployment is a must. /insert head banging graphic here.
If this is how it is going to be, NOW can we start talking about a 3rd party? While we still have a country left??
I agree.
Would only add that, while the “Syndrome” may be named after McCain,
it is more likely that more damage could be done by a Romney or Gingrich.
The GOP must here and now learn (or forever STFU):
“Politics” does not equal “Governance,”
just as “bravado” is not “courage”…
…which we are so in need of now.
I’m still somewhat hopeful that Obamacare won’t pass. But should it occur, I’m curious about the following scenarios…
1) A number of states are considering propositions exempting themselves from federal health care. Seems that is a potential battle down the road.
2) Even if the Senate were unable to repeal Obamacare, couldn’t a Republican house deny the various departments and agencies funding, and basically stop O’care from functioning?
3) I’m sure there are going to be a number of constitutional challenges to Obamacare.
Another observation: with the State controlled media slowly dieing on the vine, it seems that Republicans should not have to fear their power if they have to dismantle Obamacare.
Question of the day: Does the GOP have enough balls?
NO.
I found them!
It feels a little silly to have to point this out, but…
the ONLY reason we are at this juncture is that the GOP DID have the balls to vote “NO!”.
You may return to wallowing in your cynicism, if you think you must…
(Personally, I suggest you get on the telephone to EVERY elected official you think will hear your calls on this.)
I don’t think that’s going to work this year.
Even stupid people know that the federal government is out of money. They know that difficult choices need to be made.
Children don’t fault their parents for making lifestyle cuts when times get tough. An overwhelming majority of Americans will respect those that are willing to make the necessary difficult choices.
I just hope the Republicans and moderate Democrats understand this.
The simple answer is NO.
To elaborate, if they did they could have or should have shown them by now. They’ve all gotten too comfortable and want us Fat, Dumb and Happy and out of their way.
Answer of the day: NO
“Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a Golden Age and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?”
Federalist 6 Alexander Hamilton
While they technically may have that “equipment”, we also have to remember that they are the ones who brought Obama in to school them at their own retreat and who jumped at his at call to help save the government-run healthcare at the Obama Heatlh Crisis Summit.
So the real question should be: Can the GOP muster even the minimal amount of basic gray matter and common sense required to operate what “equipment” it may have?
If they ain’t part of the solution, they’re part of the problem, period.
The most important duty of the GOP is to find strong candidates to run against Democrats.
In order to clean the House and the Senate in 2010, we need electable candidates in EVERY SINGLE DISTRICT.
So far, I haven’t been able to find a Republican who is running against Rep. Pete Stark in California’s 13th District even though the filing deadline in California is next week. If you know who is running against Rep. Stark, please tell us!
Call your local and state GOP offices to make sure they have strong candidates lined up to run for every office on the ballot in your district.
I’ve been questioning whether or not they have anything in their nutsacks for years.
I believe they, the GOP, should all buy themselves some giblets.
Dan Riehl
Now, see, THAT’s what I’M talkin’ about…!!!
Conservatives need to find candidates who support the radical idea of rolling back government. I am not talking about slowing the rate of increase in government. I am talking about reducing the size of government.
So far, the only candidates we have seen advocating such policies are folks like Ron Paul who are easily portrayed as nuts.
If we can’t find these candidates then our only other option appears to be the Jeffersonian option…
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” — Thomas Jefferson
corkie #58
I’ve think you’ve hit on something that is begging further developement. We’ve been taking on every issue and discussing it in piecemeal. We’re broke and owe our very souls to the company store (China). We need to re-brand “it’s the economy stupid” and work it to death. Every bill that comes up, every expenditure, even their very salaries in D.C. needs to be made fun of for the idiocy that it is, scorned and treat them like the lepers they are. I believe that even Demwits and Independents would get on board with this. Since politics is nothing more than PR these days you have to start somewhere.
GUMBALLS!!!!
I wouldn’t be concerned about the GOP having balls,I’m wondering if they have the brains to realize that Bunning was just telling them what WE THE PEOPLE want.Not all of the dirtbags up for re-election are Democraps.Unfortunately here in Demsylvania they are all Democraps.
CRAP
Dan Riehl has been setting the right tone lately for dealing with the crime syndicate that has taken over our government.
“Possibly it wasn’t too important for the world to know that we couldn’t be bought, but I did want Al Capone and every gangster in the city to realize that there were still a few law enforcement agents who couldn’t be swerved from their duty.”
Eliot Ness
Found it.
MM: Things you can’t say on Fox News
HotAir: Video: Michelle gets bleeped on O’Reilly
That was November 13, 2006.
It looks like the “Malkins” Hat Tip belongs to BigOrangeAxe
That’s the earliest record I can find of the term “Malkins”.
It didn’t take long to catch on…
You nailed it Michelle …
The answer to your question is an emphatic “NO”.
This generation’s Republican politicians are cowards; interested in holding onto power at all costs, as opposed to living up to conservative principles.
Balls? As in two? With all due respect, I don’t believe one can accurately refer to the GOP’s testis using a plural word.
How effective was it? There were more effective ways – and times – to make the PayGo argument.
I assure you, I’m no lady.
After Michelle has been in CO awhile she’ll resort to ‘cojones’ like many of us do. That should send O’Reilly into a tailspin
I just watched that video for the first time in over three years.
WOW!
Go watch it, and not just for the humor factor. Watch it and listen to what was said, keeping in mind not only what happened then, but what has happened since, and what is at the forefront of Congress RIGHT NOW.
No, but they do have the balls to try to make out-of-control entitlement programs exponentially worse!
Let’s see if Non-Marxist Democrats in the House have the balls to stop the Marxist Democrats.
And let’s see which Republicans have the Malkins to truly stand up for conservative principles.
Yes most republicans have the balls, unfortunately they’re all hollow.
These GOP eunuchs don’t have the Malkins! They all need to go sing for their lunch elsewhere.
Does the GOP have
enoughany balls?There, fixed it for you…
The problem is the GOP leadership wants to go back to 2006, not 1776.
Even after the complete lack of support Bunning received; the way the GOP holds conservative candidates like Rubio, Williams, etc in disdain in favor of RINO’s – and yet folks *STILL* think the GOP can be saved, reformed whatever.
If we are relying solely on the GOP, we are doomed.
So what do we do? I don’t think *anyone* believes the GOP will mend it’s ways within… heck… perhaps a generation or more – if *ever*.
Third-party talk just starts flame-wars. You can be banned at redstate.org just for *mentioning* a third-party.
I fully understand and agree that when the country split 50/50, the party that doesn’t split itself will always win. However, I have yet to hear a believable idea/argument as to how the GOP can be salvaged, reformed, woken-up, whatever. Regardless, we are stuck with the GOP for the forseeable future.
So, I’ll hope for the best; pray for a miracle; support the candidates I like directly; starve the GOP of my financial support and hope others do the same.
Yes, but in the meantime they’ve taxed you for it… and THAT’s a one-way bottomless-pit.
I wager that at that point, (i.e., after a couple years of taxation for “healthcare”) the majority of people having noticed no decline in the system (because only the pay-in has commenced, not the control & rationing of service…) will reason:”It isn’t so bad… Let’s go full-bore at it!”
The Progressivians (you know, that “R” party…) will re-nominate McCain, pressure the state level to open all the primaries and cry “Tally-HO!”
And just where you might ask are they off to at such turtle-passing speed?
Why, to sign the foreclosure papers with the USA’s largest creditor, of course: China.
You’re right, Michelle. And so is Andy. Unfortunately.
Sen. Bunning made a valiant effort if only to make a point about the startling hypocrisy the Dems have regarding PAYGO. Unfortunately, Bunning and the Repubs have their own PAYGO hypocrisy to explain and dissect. My question is: when will one of these parties stop acting like preening teenagers living for today and start planning and thinking about tomorrow? We’re headed toward a financial tsunami what with social “insecurity,” medicare, and medicaid goin’ broke.
As a generation X, thirty-something taxpayer I’m tired of payin’ for other people’s whims. I want the freakin’ GOP to grow a pair and DO THEIR JOBS!!! This latest installment of GOP insanity just offers the same one party sameness that got them on the outside looking in. And yet they still don’t get it. The wonder twins of Maine really do think that being compassionate panderers of the weak and less fortunate will get them accepted and reelected.
How wrong they are… what’s the point of being Dem-lite when you got the real deal already? The GOP needs to grow a brain and thick skin because, if anything, taxpayers need somebody who will stand up for them and say NO. HELL NO!!!
There’s just no public or political will to do away with the social, welfare state which is currently bankrupting Europe and making a laughing stock of the EU. Even Glen Beck posed a poignant question on his show today: China has become the governmental model for the rest of the world and now Europe thinks it should go that way. Will the USA do the same?
All it takes is bankruptcy and an uninformed, passive American public to make it happen.
An Aside:
I used to listen to Mark Levine — I thought that, as youngsters go, he had a well-proportion blend of skepticism and optimism.
A few weeks ago I changed my mind after hearing him berate those who talk third party.
Let me ask this:
If a shop-keep know that regardless of a product’s quality you’ll keep buying it, what incentive has he to improve it?
Isn’t this the Conservative’s argument against state-planned economies?
Therefore, if we don’t threaten, (and then finally if necessary, follow through) to take our business elsewhere — i.e. our votes & our campaign funding — why would they listen to us?
We as good as told them to take our money (and our Liberty)… Just pat us on the head, speak the magic phrase: “I am a Reagan Conservative” and we’d be happy regardless of what they actually did in either House of Congress.
Look at Ol’Johnnie, he’s an example near to hand: He’s beloved by every incumbant for his Protection-act! So what if it stomps the 1st Amendment flat! They’re much too important to have to justify what they do! After all, he had Trillions of dollars to
wastespend, and only so many years left to do it!And his seat was safe…
If we had spanked the GOP after Reagan, when The Pretend Conservative George Bush was first running after Reagan’s 2nd term, we’d not need such a gigantic correction now. How could anyone believe that the man who coined the phrase “vodoo economics” believe in a free market economy? Of course he worshipped goliath-government!
And I said the same about his son, too.
Don’t misunderstand – I think they’re alright as people, we just need to keep people who worship all-encumbering, suffocating government away from our government!
As I’ve said: I knew him from Texas, and his little clone, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, too…
Hey, for someone who disliked the policies of his predecessor’s, he sure does a lot of TV spots with-em!
Go ahead, let the barbed sputterings fly!
“I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she’s one of the great American success stories,” McCain said
“I agree with his goal,” the Arizona senator said Monday of Gore’s idea. “I may disagree with all the ways of getting there. But I again want to emphasize my respect for the former vice president’s leadership on this issue and his continuous leadership. And I am in no way trying to get into a fight with him.”
Quoting John McCain’s comment in 2004:
“I believe my party has gone astray. I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy.”
Until McCain is a FORMER GOP Senator, there is little hope of reforming the party.
On March 4th, 2010 at 8:35 pm, martin.musculus said:
I agree.
I think one of Reagan’s biggest mistakes was keeping George H.W. Bush as his running mate in 1984. I can understand Reagan choosing Bush in 1980 to unify the party, but Reagan could have picked absolutely anyone he wanted to in 1984, and still won. And naturally, Reagan’s VP had the upper hand in winning the 1988 Republican nomination.
Anyone remember how George H.W. Bush treated Ronald Reagan during the 1980 Republican Primaries?
And remember how George H.W. Bush stayed seated while his peers stood and applauded Reagan during this?
George H.W. Bush is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
George H.W. Bush is a Rockefeller Republican, not a Goldwater or Reagan Republican.
I think it is no accident that George H.W. Bush nominated Justice Souter to the Supreme Court.
McCain has never been one of us. He’s always been one of them.
He considers us the enemy…
If a shop-keep know that regardless of a product’s quality you’ll keep buying it, what incentive has he to improve it?
People who condemn third party support as wasted votes and causing “perpetual Democrat majorities” turn the perpetuation of the RINO party and the continued advance of socialism into a self fulfilling prophecy.
Whenever I hear or read someone praising Newt Gingrich as a great conservative this is what I think of and I say to myself, “What an ignoramus!”
In a word, no.
At least half of them are progressives.
Most of the rest are cowards. If not physical cowards, then certainly intellectual and moral cowards.
A few are still OK.
The most important group however are the progressives.
There really is not much difference between a progressive who belongs to the Democratic party and one that belongs to the Republican party. They both think like … progressives.
Progressives think that the gov’t should administer the country, as if it were one big corporation with a central management group. But the truth about reality is that the more the gov’t involves themselves in, the more they screw up. It’s reliably true every time. It’s inherent in the nature of the things involved.
It’s unavoidable, regardless of party or policy. It has to happen that way. It’s natural.
The best gov’t is the least gov’t needed to defend us from anarchy. Anything more is poison.
It’s just like chemo-therapy. You use it if you need it, when you need it, and no more than is needed to kill the cancer, because it’s poisonous and too much will kill you.
The Republican progressive will usually be a little more hesitant to implement progressive goals where the Democrat progressive will be a bit more aggressive. Other than that, no difference, zippo, nada, nuttin’.
It’s true, as Coulter says, that there are lots of bad Republicans but no good Democrats.
That, unfortunately, is not enough to save our bacon in the current crisis.
Toss all the bums out and put in real AMERICANS.
Otherwise, as God is my witness, we’re done for.
Hey GOP:
I DON’T CARE WHAT COLOR OBAMA IS…STOP HIM NOW!
The man is a menace to our nation, culture and constitution.
Leaving Bunning to twist in the wind really pissed me off!
Its not the governments job to correct the people, its the peoples responsibility to correct the government.
Its why incumbents are an endangered species.
This is fantastic! McCain is now demanding an apology from JD Hayworth for running an ad mocking him by showing in blue war paint as “nominee for best conservative actor. That is rich!
Last week, McCain was running ads that purported to “prove” that Hayworth is a birther. His proof? An audio clip of Hayworth introducing a birther guest on his radio show by accurately stating the guests arguements. Yes, those words came out of Hayworth’s mouth but he was doing the polite thing of making sure he understood his guest’s positions. McCain is the one who should be apologizing.
This is the same McCain who frequently chastises his fellow Republicans for failing to honor the long Senate tradition of collegiality and comity. Apparently, McCain saves his dirty lies for when he is running for something… like how he smeared Romney in 2008.
Can we please put this guy out of our misery once and for all??? Please???? August 24. The end for McCain.
Correction: McCain has demanded that the ad be taken down. It’s that other “nominee for best conservative actor”, Jon Kyl, who is demanding an apology.
RINOs of a feather flock together.
“Enough balls”? Hard to have enough of something one obviously has NONE of to begin with!
A bigger bunch of sissies could only be found by attending a DNC rally.
One of my all-time favorite Dilbert cartoons…
Yes, just when Rush and Levin are making the case that there’s a huge difference between Republicans and Democrats, this comes along to prove them wrong. Here was a chance to prove that they really are for smaller government and reduced spending. But only one man stood up to be counted. The rest were nowhere to be found.
Jim Bunning didn’t want to kill the bill. All he wanted was to have it paid for. Was that too much to ask? They could have done it easily by using unspend stimulus funds, cancelling funding for research into the mating habits of bisexual tree frogs, or just by taking away the wasted funding from John Murtha airport. But no, standing up for conservative principles is just too much of an effort to ask of our fearless Republicans.
I’m tired of empty talk. I could give you quote after quote of Obama promising to balance the budget, to pay as you go, and to eliminate earmarks. But he has no intention of doing any of those things. He just wants to take credit for saying he will do them.
It seems to me that Republicans are no different. They talk the big talk at Tea Parties, in campaign speeches, and on FOX News. But what do they do when they actually have a chance to make a difference and hold the Democrats’ feet to the PAYGO fire? They run and hide.
They talk really, really conservative when they’re out of power. But what did they do when they did have power? They grew the size of government and spent more money than they had. Why should I be convinced that they won’t return to their old ways when they’re back in power again? To me, the Jobs bill proves they are a bunch of cowards who haven’t changed one bit.
The choice shouldn’t be whether we take the express train to bankrupcy or we take the scenic train. One goes a little slower but they both end up in the same place. There is another choice. We can replace these cowards with true conservatives in the next Republican primary.
Michelle, what it says to me is that the Republicans have given up on the “Republic” part of their name. They are after the Fascist total government just as much as the Democrats are after the Communist total government. Either way we end up with a government that tells us how to wipe our asterisks.
It’s time for our country people to make a choice. We take back our government and make it under 1/4 its present size in a rapid series of draconian cuts or we accept being owned by the totalitarian state, whatever it is.
{^_^}
Oh yeah, I forgot another one that we decided we hate but is a star on fiscal conservatism. . .
Mark Sanford.
Yeah, he’ll be gone soon. HURRAH! There has never been a politician who has gotten a divorce in history! Throw him under the bus! Make sure you run over him twice because he was the only guy that turned down stimulus money.
The GOP / conservative establishment make sure to bash the most conservative for one thing or another. They don’t want anyone killing the grade curve and making them look bad.
If we find fiscal conservatives, maybe we should give them a break on some other things. But I know, I know. . . we hate Sanford.