Eight Reasons Conservatives Should Back J.D. Hayworth Over John McCain

There's nothing more unsavory than a hypocrite, which is prevalent in politics, but can we keep it to a minimum? Arlen Specter is the front runner, voting too many times in the Obama Camp, giving RINO (Republicans In Name Only) its true meaning, and finally, the turncoat switched parties. Good riddance. Now, the rubber meets the road, and we have politicians changing like a chameleon. The mentality these days seems to be, if Obama can get away with it, why not me?

We already know about the Maine Twin Girls, but you have to laugh at the audacity of people like John McCain, who now appears to be against amnesty for illegals (after he was for it), and Lindsey Graham, who appears to now be against Cap & Trade (after he was for it). Isn't is great to have confidence in our elected officials? What is more laughable than this, is the fact that McCain seems to have grown a couple, because he is now viscously attacking his Republican opponent, J.D. Hayworth like an attack dog. Where was he when he should have been attacking the real villain during the presidential campaign?

These primaries are crucial, if we are to clean out the Republican Party, get back to conservative principles, and bring in some new blood. Down with the elites, in with the common man (or woman) who think along the lines of Main Street, America. We want people who are in politics for the people, rather than themselves. A novel idea.

Adam Graham give us eight important reasons to back the relative newbie, J.D. Hayworth, over John McCain in Pajamas Media:


Eight Reasons Conservatives Should Back J.D. Hayworth Over John McCain
The effect of a McCain defeat would send a clear message to senators across the country that they do not own the offices they hold.
by Adam Graham, February 16, 2010

Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-Arizona) is preparing to run against Senator John McCain for the U.S. Senate in this year’s Republican primary in Arizona. Some on the right, such as Glenn Beck, don’t agree with the decision of Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to campaign for McCain in Arizona.

Conservative angst over what Sarah Palin does or doesn’t do in Arizona does little good. Palin will go there out of a sense of personal loyalty to a man who brought her to national attention. Personal loyalty can run deeper than political ideology. And while personal loyalty can be to a fault, leadership is impossible without it.

The question isn’t: “What should Sarah do?” The question is: “What should conservatives do?” Whether it’s the tea party movement or the March for Life, conservatives can move from the grassroots, and the smart conservative move is for conservatives to support J.D. Hayworth.

Here are are eight reasons why:

Reason #1: It could work.

With Arizona voters, John McCain has a real problem on his hands: a lack of popularity. Super Tuesday 2008 knocked Romney out of the primaries and saw McCain’s big wins in California and New York, but the untold story may have been Arizona. McCain won Arizona’s primary, but with only 47% of the vote. Republicans across the country were willing to resign themselves to McCain to avoid a prolonged primary process, yet when the votes were counted in his home state, the majority of Arizona primary voters had voted against McCain. There’s a strong possibility they could do so again.

Reason #2: Hayworth is a plausible senator.

One big objection to a Hayworth insurgent win is what message this sends to moderates. The best message may be to run in districts where you suit the district’s ideology. If a religious conservative runs for office in Maine they would get shellacked. Party bosses don’t cry in their imported wines about the message it sends to religious conservative activists about their place in the GOP.

Hayworth isn’t running in Rhode Island; he’s running in Arizona. It’s true Hayworth’s record is unabashedly conservative. The American Conservative Union gave him a 97.50% ACU rating, which is only half a percent more than the state’s other senator, Jon Kyl, who has a 96.96% ACU rating. Kyl beat his last opponent by 10 points in a Democratic year.

A gregarious ex-sportscaster, Hayworth is sharp, eloquent, charismatic, and quick-witted. These traits will be endearing to Arizonans and make him a strong candidate in the fall.

Reason #3: Conservatives don’t owe John McCain anything.

McCain has given conservatives few favors in the last ten years, and even bringing Sarah Palin onto the national stage wasn’t that big a favor. Palin’s charisma and political talents would have brought her to the national spotlight eventually. Running in her own right, as Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney did, she would have been able to introduce herself to the American people on her terms and develop her own policy ideas. Palin saved McCain’s campaign from losing worse. (McCain had only a single-digit lead in Alaska prior to Palin being chosen and could have lost yet another state that hadn’t gone Democratic since 1964.)

Many on the right point to McCain’s 81% American Conservative Union rating as proof that he’s not that bad, but the lifetime rating is misleading. Through 1996, McCain had an 88% conservative voting record. Since 1996, McCain only had one year with an ACU rating greater than 80% (2001, when he had 81%), and four years he has voted less than 70% conservative.

McCain spent the first part of this decade playing media favorite by frustrating the aims of the Bush administration and backing amnesty and cap and trade. Sometimes he failed, as he did with opposing the Bush tax cuts. Other times he succeeded, as he did with his efforts to stop drilling in ANWR. We can be grateful that, due to the poor economy, gas prices are beneath their $4.00 + a gallon highs from two years ago. But the price of gas would be far lower if McCain hadn’t been a cheerleader against using America’s resources. His pandering to the far left on energy is taking money out of the wallets of average Arizonans, and voters should respond by making him feel their pain.

Reason #4: Life isn’t Starship Troopers.

Some Republicans will protest, “How could we not owe McCain something?” He was a war hero, spending five years as a POW. Certainly, McCain’s military service entitles him to all the benefits the government promised him and the thanks of his countrymen. Show me the paperwork guaranteeing McCain at least five terms in the U.S. Senate for serving in the military, and I’ll drop my support for Hayworth.

You won’t find it. This isn’t Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi classic, where “the franchise is limited only to discharged veterans” along with the ability to hold political office.

Most Republicans who argue that military service trumps all are inconsistent. Conservatives didn’t run to embrace anti-war Lt. Col. Paul Hackett, nor did we support Major Tammy Duckworth in her bid for the U.S. House, and Duckworth lost part of her legs in service to her country. Didn’t Duckworth’s injury earn her at least two terms in Congress? Also, if Rasmussen releases a poll showing Governor Linda Lingle (R-Hawaii) having moved to within three points of Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) in a hypothetical match-up, will McCain supporters urge Lingle not to run? Inouye earned the Congressional Medal of Honor 65 years ago.

Why the inconsistency? Simple. Serving in the military, while honorable, doesn’t mean you have the right philosophy. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can do well in political office. Grant and Taylor were great generals but lousy presidents.

Davy Crockett’s service to his country only netted him three terms in Congress. With 28 years in the House and the Senate, McCain doesn’t have room to complain.

Reason #5: There is no divine right of Republican senators.

Whatever reason one has for a primary challenge, many Republicans gasp in horror at the thought of turning out a Republican incumbent, as if they were feudal serfs from the Middle Ages aghast at the idea of challenging the king.

This is America, where senators serve at the privilege of the voters. Serving in Congress isn’t an entitlement. Our elected officials work for us, not the other way around.

Reason #6: Put the fear of the voters back into Republican senators.

For decades, primaries have been free rides for GOP senators. The last elected Republican incumbent to lose a Senate primary was Jacob Javits. Many Republican senators are out of touch with the party’s base. Republicans have given renomination to every Republican to seek reelection in the past thirty years. Is it then any surprise that they become arrogant and dismissive?

The effect of a McCain defeat or near defeat, coupled with the potential defeat of Utah’s Senator Robert Bennett at the that state’s convention, would send a clear message to senators across the country that they do not own the offices they hold. They might then learn that they will be called to account and replaced if they are not responsive to the party base.

Reason #7: Show we learned something from Arlen Specter.

In 2004, Pennsylvania Republicans could have defeated Arlen Specter in the Republican primary, but a last-minute campaign by President Bush and Senator Rick Santorum saved Specter. He paid the party back by switching parties and handing the Democrats a short-lived 60-seat majority in 2009. Conservative voters were told Pat Toomey could not win the state. However, the Democratic nominee only got 42% of the vote, with 5% going to third-party candidates. Toomey likely could have pulled out a victory.

Six years later, some pundits are raising the same fears. Be careful, there’s a dangerous Democratic candidate around the corner. Play it safe and don’t make waves.

Several reports indicate McCain considered a party switch in 2001. Shouldn’t conservatives take away McCain’s power before he decides to stick the knife in? This would be a good year to do so, because the national climate would limit McCain’s ability to stop Republicans from holding his seat without him.

Reason #8: Our long dark night will be over.

McCain famously suspended his presidential campaign and headed to Washington to fix the economy. However, he proved a famous axiom about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

The bipartisan vote for TARP made the ending to The Dark Knight look like a happy one. At the end of the movie, the “heroes” were all compromised. Even stalwarts of fiscal conservatism who had spent years arguing that big government wasn’t the answer decided to cast their vote for a $700 billion bailout, including Rep. John Shadegg and Senator Tom Coburn.

The vote cost Republicans the Senate seat in Minnesota and forced Senator Saxby Chambliss into a runoff. Not only that, it demoralized conservatives because the vote for TARP presented government as the savior able to solve our country’s problems.

For many conservatives, the GOP’s decision to chomp down on what Rep. John Boehner colorfully called a “crap sandwich” created a perception of the party as out of touch and unprincipled. The support of John McCain as the Republican presidential candidate was key to getting reluctant Republicans on board.

A McCain defeat will change people’s perception and perhaps cause some conservatives to feel like the GOP actually gets it. McCain’s defeat will allow Republicans to move on from 2008’s betrayal of principle.


Adam Graham is a contributor at Race42012.com and host of the Truth and Hope Report podcast. His personal site is Adam's Blog.

WHAT I SAID TO THE REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

We recently witnessed another photo-op, as Obama graced the Republican conference with his presence filling the room once again with more lies and re-writing history about inherited deficits. He inherited it from a Democratic congress, and forgets that he voted for every spending program from 2005 onwards. Once again he is delusional and disingenuous. He tells his own story about the economic decline, while preaching how health care will save the day. Yes, of course, Mr. President. You are not an ideologue, nor a Bolshevik.

When this administration began, we had a few Republicans cross the aisle to vote with Obama and his "transformation of the United States of America". As the weeks and months went by, it became obvious (even to the RINOs) that what Obama and his crew were doing was not good for America. Since then, the Republicans have been united in trying to stop this runaway train, with the exception of Congressman Joseph Cao - the male version of Whorehouse Mary Landreiu. He was the single Republican vote in the House to pass the atrocious health care bill, where a shaky Speaker Pelosi meekly tapped the gavel announcing the bill had passed in the late late dark of night. What a dark day in our history, and it was just the beginning.

That was the beginning of the eye-opening lesson we were all about to witness - that the Left was willing to go down in order to carve themselves out another huge piece of the private sector. God knows when they would have this chance again, and time was of the essence (you never want to waste a crisis yada-yada-yada). But, rising from the Phoenix were the Republicans -- finally -- in unison to stop this takeover.

Dennis Prager was also an invited guest at the Republican conference, along with a couple of his collegues. He writes:


What I Said to the Republican Members of Congress
by Dennis Prager, February 02, 2010

This past weekend, after President Obama addressed the annual retreat of Republican Members of the House, I, along with my Salem Radio colleague Hugh Hewitt, and John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, were also invited to address them.

This is an abridged and edited version of my remarks.

Thank you for this honor.

I have never been as proud to be a Republican as I have this past year with your unanimity in opposing Obamacare and the other bills that would transform America. Please know -- you need this feedback -- that your having been able to stand together and do this has been a luminous moment in Republican Party history.

I would like show you some of the large themes involved in your present work.

First theme: It is harder to sell truths than to sell falsehoods.

It is very easy to say, "Vote for us and we will give you, we will give you, we will give you." It is much harder to advocate what is right and to say, "Vote for us, but no, we won't give you" -- even though that is the more moral and the more American position. So you have the far more difficult task.

John Rosemond, who writes books on child rearing, says that the most important vitamin you can give to a child is Vitamin N, his term for the word "No." You have given America Vitamin N.

America needs it terribly because of another way in which God has stacked the deck against the fight for goodness in human history: Every change for good must be constantly renewed, but changes for the worse are often permanent. Goodness must be fought for every day, over and over. That is why every American generation has to be inculcated with American values. But once the change for bad is made, it is close to irreversible. The Democratic attempt to vastly expand the state's power would likely be a permanent change for the worse in American life. When they're candid, they admit that the health care bill is their way to get to single-payer medicine and, more importantly, to a government takeover of another sixth of the American economy.

You have to know how important your work is, and how many of us know this.

Second theme: You are not fighting liberals. You are fighting the Left. Democrats were once liberals. But you are not fighting liberals any longer. You are fighting the Left. And as leftists, they do not like to confront reality, even if it means rewriting it.

I'll give you two examples.

This Jew battled to keep the cross in the Los Angeles County seal. Liberals and leftists in California fought to remove the smallest image -- a cross -- from the county seal. Through my radio show, on a day's notice, we gathered about a thousand people to demonstrate at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors when the board voted. The vote went along ideological lines: three liberals to two conservatives, to remove the cross.

I remember testifying before the supervisors and telling them, "You are rewriting our county's history. This county was founded by Christians. That's why there's a cross. Had it been founded by Wiccans, I would fight to keep a broom on the seal. But it wasn't founded by Wiccans. It was founded by Christians. That's why it's named "Los Angeles." It is not "Los Secularistos." If it were "Los Secularistos," I would expect an empty seal. But it is not empty. It was founded by Christians. It's not even a religious issue. You're rewriting my history. And it's frightening to see you do that."

The other example is what is now happening with Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Everybody knows why he was voted in. It was, after all, Scott "41" Brown. We all knew why he was elected. But if you read left-wing commentators, this history is being rewritten. They say it had nothing to do with opposing Obamacare. Nothing to do with it! In the Soviet Union, it took 10 years to write Trotsky out of the Russian Revolution. But this is a rewrite of history in one week! Scott "41" Brown's victory was not about opposing Obamacare.

In fact, the Left argues that the Massachusetts voters were for the health care bill, but simply "wanted to send a message" to Washington. I must say the voters of Massachusetts are not only not bright, they must be truly stupid if they are for Obamacare and send the man who will undo Obamacare as a protest on behalf of Obamacare. This is what we are told by the Left.

Third theme: Most people on the Left are True Believers. This is critical to understand. They are willing to lose Congress; Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are prepared to lose both houses to get this through. Why? Because losing an election cycle means nothing compared to taking over more of the American economy.

I can give you an example from our side. There are many folks on our side who, if they could pass an amendment against abortion, would happily sacrifice both houses for a period of time. Understand that just as strongly as some are pro-life or religiously Christian or Jewish, that is how strongly many leftists believe in leftism. Leftism is a substitute religion. For the Left, the "health care" bill transcends politics. You are fighting people who will go down with the ship in order to transform this country to a leftist one. And an ever-expanding state is the Left's central credo.

And finally, theme four: I have a motto that I offer to you because this is the ultimate moral case for us: "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

We have to learn to make our complex beliefs simple -- though never simplistic. And this is our powerful response to government doing more and more for people: "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

And here's how we explain it: The bigger the government, the less I do for myself, for my family and for my community. That is why we Americans give more charity and devote more time to volunteering than Europeans do. The European knows: The government, the state, will take care of me, my children, my parents, my neighbors and my community. I don't have to do anything. The bigger question in many Europeans' lives is, "How much vacation time will I have and where will I spend that vacation?"

That is what happens when the state gets bigger -- you become smaller. The dream of America was that the individual was to be a giant. The state stays small so as to enable each of us to be as big as we can be. We are each created in God's image. The state is not in God's image, but it is vying to be that. This is the battle you're fighting. You are fighting a cosmic battle because this is the most important society ever devised, the United States of America.

You can easily forget the big picture -- how could you not? You're there every day, battling. You are in dense jungle -- excuse me, rainforest -- you are in a rainforest/jungle, fighting, and I am, because of the nature of my work, in a little helicopter above the jungle telling you what it is you are fighting. America really is the last, best hope of mankind.

That is how important I consider the fights that are going on now, especially with regard to the takeover of health care. How can they, with a serious face, tell us that Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security are going bankrupt, and therefore the solution is to take over more of health care? How does one say that with a straight face? How does one look a fellow American in the eye and say, "Yes, we have failed in almost every way that government has significantly intruded, and that's why we need more government intrusion"?

It is mind-boggling. But that is what has happened. People get smaller and pettier, as the government and state get bigger. That's what you are fighting. And that's why I came to tell you this is the proudest moment in my life as a Republican. Thank you for doing what you are doing.

Read more Dennis Prager here

RINOs, RINOs Everywhere

The 2010 elections are only nine (9) short months away, and the Tea Party movement has momentum on their side. One of the major objectives of the movement, and why it has caught on like wildfire, is to weed out the thinned down conservatives - those conservatives you thought were on your side, but voted too many times with Obama's socialist agenda. One of the most important lessons Ronald Reagan taught us is that when you stick to your core conservative principles -- you win.

It's one thing to reach across the aisle, but there is a big difference between the parties. One is for social justice, leveling the playing field, taking from those who have and giving to those who have not, and government intervention - the nanny state. The other is for national security, securing our borders, free market solutions, fiscal responsibility, energy independence, and most importantly - smaller government, with prudent restraints on power.

Now the task is to find and replace the Republicans In Name Only, and keep them out. We are perilously close to losing our sovereignty, and Americans are engaged as never before. Special attention is being paid to how Republicans have voted this past year, especially with the Cap & Trade that passed the House with the "Gang of Eight" votes.

We cling to our God, our guns and our country, and political correctness is on the decline. We are an exceptional country, founded explicitly on a belief in God and on Judeo Christian values, and will be silent no more.

Tom Blumer writes a very interesting piece on RINOs in Pajamas Media:


RINOs, RINOs Everywhere
by Tom Blumer, January 30, 2010

Although this quote comes from a guy at Public Policy Polling (PPP), an organization that ought to consider renaming itself Pretty Partisan Polling, it sadly describes sensible conservatism’s situation on the ground in all too many states:

One lesson that can be taken from the recent GOP successes in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia is that your party can be a complete mess and still win an election.

Hidebound country club go-along-get-along Republican Party establishments are indeed making a mess of things. In state after state, they are doing everything in their power to pretend that the tea party phenomenon, arguably the most important grassroots movement in decades, either doesn’t exist or must be stopped. They are also reflexively supporting problematic candidates whose most important features are their name recognition and the size of either their personal bank accounts or their campaign war chests. Substantive issue positions dealing with what the country must do to stop Barack Obama, his apparatchiks, and the Democrat-controlled Congress from bankrupting us and closing down what for now remains the land of opportunity are coming in a distant third.

In California, Carly Fiorina is the GOP establishment’s fave to go up against Barbara “Don’t Call Me Ma’am” Boxer. Her accomplishments as a businesswoman consist of decimating Lucent and nearly ruining HP while walking away with $42 million for her troubles. One thing Fiorina rarely troubled with is actually voting in elections. Her campaign tells us: “She voted in six of 14 elections in California since 2000. She lived in New Jersey for the previous 10 years but never voted.” In the Golden State governor’s race, they like squishy moderate and Mitt Romney pal Meg Whitman, who also “regularly skipped elections in California and several other states where she lived and worked.” Are they trying to lose on purpose out there?

In Illinois, the Republican Party apparatus is clearing the field in its U.S. Senate primary for Congressman Mark Kirk, who voted for the monstrosity of cap and trade, and whom Democrats will likely “expose as a liar and adulterer in the general election.” In Arizona, moderate John McCain has forced Sarah Palin into a lose-lose proposition: help me fend off a primary challenge from legit conservative J.D. Hayworth or be tagged an ingrate for the rest of your life if you refuse. In Florida, Charlie Crist and the GOP establishment seem to think that pulling off the nearly impossible — dragging down Florida’s economy following Jeb Bush’s amazing stewardship — qualifies him to be the Sunshine State’s next U.S. senator. Thankfully challenger Marco Rubio begs to disagree and GOP voters are coming around.

Clearly, RINO fever is bad all over. But nothing exemplifies what Zig Ziglar would call “stinking thinking” as much as the recent GOP establishment moves in Ohio.

Just two weeks ago, the situation was at least tolerable. Though what I have been calling ORPINO (the Ohio Republican Party in Name Only) was backing a residency-challenged candidate for secretary of state (more on that in a bit), it at least had the sense not to get in the way of proven fiscal conservative John Kasich’s outsider-framed effort. On January 14, Kasich selected current state auditor and rising star Mary Taylor as his running mate. This move justifiably led ORPINO chair Kevin DeWine to declare Kasich-Taylor “as strong a gubernatorial ticket as you will see on any ballot in any state.”

Then Kevin DeWine proceeded to complete his ruination of most of the rest of the ticket in the name of money and nepotism.

Until he decided he wanted to be Ohio’s next attorney general, Kevin’s relative, former U.S. Senator Mike DeWine, was last seen being repudiated twice by Buckeye State voters in a 17-month span in 2005-2006. First, despite spending $1 million, his son Pat finished a distant fourth in a June 2005 GOP primary race to fill an open congressional seat. That thrashing was accurately seen as a proxy repudiation of Mike over his participation in the Gang of 14 and other conservative-betraying votes. After yet another vote in November 2005 to stop drilling for oil in Alaska and a 2006 GOP primary where two completely underfunded challengers blockaded by ORPINO nonetheless took 28% of the vote, Mike DeWine lost his U.S. Senate reelection race against far-left Cleveland-area Congressman Sherrod Brown by a stunning 12 points.

Second-cousin Kevin and the ORPINO gang decided that this awful track record justified clearing the AG field for Mike, even though DeWine’s primary opponent Dave Yost had already racked up a 5-0 record in December and January GOP county endorsement meetings and had earned an intense level of tea party and other grassroots enthusiasm.

Nobody seems to want to own up to what Kevin and ORPINO did next, but all of a sudden early this week Yost, whose campaign slogan was “A Prosecutor, Not a Politician,” decided that he wanted to run for state auditor instead. Not coincidentally, ORPINO was also unhappy with the not-beholden CPA who had just started his own auditor campaign after Kasich selected Taylor.

So let’s review:

• At the top of the ticket, the party now has two formerly bulletproof candidates who stood around while their party apparatus rigged two down-ticket races. Their slogan is “A New Way, a New Day.” Really?
• In the secretary of state race, the party is running Jon Husted, a guy who currently represents a state senate district he admits to not living in and owns an empty house in the district he admits to not living in, while claiming that his SOS campaign headquarters is that empty house. He is supposed to convince voters that he’ll be the state’s steadfast enforcer of election laws in a state where ACORN ran wild in 2008. Uh huh.
• Attorney general candidate and Second Amendment skeptic Mike DeWine, four years removed from public office with no prosecutorial experience in almost three decades, is supposedly going to unseat a Second Amendment-supporting Democratic incumbent. Riiiiight.
• Now auditor candidate Dave Yost thinks we’ll all forget his betrayal of his supporters and that voters will be jazzed about a lawyer running for head bean-counter. Don’t count on it, bud.
• The only uncompromised candidate remaining is treasurer candidate Josh Mandel. The grassroots pray nightly that ORPINO leaves him alone.

Tea partiers who should be the Republican Party’s best friends in a state that has been horribly mismanaged during the past three years under Democratic Governor Ted Strickland are justifiably exasperated to the point where I understand that there is serious thought being given to going the third-party route in certain of the down-ticket races. I suspect that similar third-party moves are under consideration in other states and in higher-profile races. ORPINO and its compadres in other states will only have themselves to blame if this comes about.

Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.

WHAT NOW FOR THE TEA PARTIES?

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Yes, we won that very precious 41st vote, and thank God for that. Dennis Prager said, "We avoided a torpedo, but you don't win a war by avoiding a torpedo." Americans are not prepared to spend themselves into oblivion, and the Massachusetts election made that very clear.

Already we see that Scott Brown is endorsing John McCain for re-election in Arizona, and Brown is supporting Obama's commission to reduce the deficit, rather than the Conrad-Gregg proposal.

We needed to get someone into that congressional seat to stop the bleeding, but if it were a regular primary it might have been a different outcome. We have time for choices in upcoming primaries such as Florida, with Marco Rubio definitely the best conservative choice over stimulus and health care approving Charlie Crist. In California, Chuck DeVore is the conservative choice over moderate Carly Fiorina, and anybody is the favorite over moderate, illegal alien amnesty advocate John McCain in Arizona.

The struggle for the TEA Party movement is to get the RINOs out and core valued conservatives in, starting with Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. ( UPDATE: I'm hearing J.D. Hayworth may hang up his mic and run against McCain)

Andrew Ian Dodge writes some food for thought in Pajamas Media:

What Now for the Tea Parties?
Scott Brown will no doubt disappoint some conservatives, but does the movement really want to associate itself so closely with the GOP?
by Andrew Ian Dodge, January 23, 2010

Scott Brown has managed to take Ted Kennedy’s former seat in Massachusetts and swing the independent voters from the Democrats to the GOP.

The right is pleased with itself, especially the tea party movement. They believe that by electing Brown, they have driven a stake through the heart of the health care vampire.

Unfortunately — like any horror story — the villain may yet live. Democrats had already begun drafting contingency plans for Brown’s election when things started looking bad. They will consider every possible trick in the book before considering the white flag.

Conservatives may in fact be better positioned should the Democrats continue their arrogant ways and push through health care (which will probably be the Senate plan now). If the president and his party ignore the overwhelming anger of the American people, it will be curtains for many Democrats.

Alas, political observers — including this one — think that the liberals who control the Democratic Party are so dedicated to the cause of universal health care that they will sacrifice as many seats as necessary. They have been waiting 30 or more years for the right opportunity to push their socialist agenda, and would rather go down in flames than step back.

The tea party movement now has a big problem. They have thrown their lot behind a RINO in the form of Scott Brown, a man who voted for RomneyCare. Brown leans further left than Dede Scozzafava. Now the RINOs will point to his victory and see it as a sign that their “moderate” ways are vote winners, and all the angst that should be directed at the RINOs — for helping get us in this mess in the first place — may dissipate. Will conservatives be able to make a case for primary challengers against the RINOs for 2010? Will their short-term pragmatism prove too clever by half in the long run? After all, Brown did not thank the tea party movement in his victory speech, despite the many tea partiers who helped him win.

Will tea party movement conservatives be able to guide the Republican Party in the wake of a RINO being elected in Kennedy’s old seat? And what has this whole campaign done to the movement that tries to proclaim itself to be non-partisan? When the Republican Party needed them, the tea party movement fell into line. How can the movement proclaim its independence when it has just stumped for a Republican who is not even a conservative?

This special election has been a gift to the Republicans in their quest to co-opt the tea party. Surely it would be ironic if Ted Kennedy in death helped the Republican Party get back to electability. Yet Kennedy may have delivered lapsed Republicans back to the party, and split the tea party movement so it is no longer as big a threat to both parties.

Ultimately, if the tea party movement wants to see the House and the Senate spurn its liberal Democrats, they should hope for shenanigans. Voters have very short memories, and this vote for Brown may placate them. In victory, the tea party movement must continue to press its message of limited government, fiscal conservatism, and the free market.

They need to quickly return to the task at hand. Scott Brown’s election does not render the April 15 rallies less important. The movement needs to keep its eye and pressure on elected officials in D.C., and they also need to make sure Brown is seated as soon as possible.

It is up to the tea party movement regarding whether this will be merely a Pyrrhic victory in the long campaign against the socialist agenda. This is one small gain — possibly even a temporary one if Brown votes as he did in Massachusetts — in the long quest to return the U.S. back to its constitutional roots of prudent governance.


Andrew Ian Dodge blogs at Dodgeblogium.

DEDE GOES DOWN UPSTATE

What a whiner Scozzafava is. She and Obama are two peas in a pod. It's classic Aesop's Fables -- “IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET.” Sour grapes, Dede!

If the GOP is wondering why they are losing its members, they had better re-examine the saga of the NY-23 election. When Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat, it was the slap-in-the-face heard round the world. This represents everything wrong with the GOP, and why conservatives are shying away from it.

An excellent piece in the American Spectator:


Dede Goes Down Upstate
By Robert Stacy McCain, Noverber 2, 2009

Hell hath no fury like a RINO scorned and anyone who expected Dede Scozzafava to lose gracefully got a rude awakening over the weekend. Having stubbornly stayed in the upstate New York congressional race long past the point where her defeat was a certainty, Scozzafava made a tearful exit that was a masterpiece of self-pitying distortion.

"In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be," Scozzafava said in a statement issued Saturday morning. "The reality that I've come to accept is that in today's political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money -- and as I've been outspent on both sides, I've been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record."

This was a triple distortion by the liberal Republican assemblywoman who had been the GOP leadership's handpicked choice for the nomination in the 23rd District special election.

Scozzafava's poll numbers had been collapsing for weeks. An Oct. 15 Siena College poll showed she had fallen behind Democrat Bill Owens, while insurgent Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman had picked up momentum. Her support melted down rapidly after an Oct. 19 incident when her husband, union organizer Ron McDougall, called police on Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack, who had tried to get her to answer questions about her position on tax increases and "card-check" legislation. Even before the confrontation with McCormack, however, Scozzafava's candidacy failed to draw strong GOP backing in a district that regularly voted by 2-to-1 margins for Republican Rep. John McHugh, whose appointment as Army Secretary had created the vacancy to be filled by Tuesday's special election.

Hoffman's conservative campaign effectively doomed the Republican nominee by exposing her liberal voting record in the New York legislature. If Scozzafava was "unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about [her] record," that was because the charges were true. After 11 years in Albany, during which she had risen to the rank of minority whip, Scozzafava had amassed a voting record more liberal than many of Democratic assembly members. That her policy stances put her at odds with most Republican voters in the largely rural 23rd District was a liability that seems to have been overlooked by the GOP insiders who picked her for the nomination. Once the Hoffman campaign began hammering Scozzafava for her assembly record and positions on national issues, the Conservative Party candidate quickly gained ground against both her and the Democrat, Owens.

If Scozzafava's exit statement distorted both her poll problems and her record, the most shamefully false of her claims was her complaint about being unable "to back up [her] message with money." The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee had pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 23rd District in support of Scozzafava -- to no avail, since the candidate's message never resonated with voters.

After the boohooing appearance Saturday morning where Scozzafava pulled the plug on her doomed campaign, Hoffman's campaign team issued a conciliatory response and privately urged their candidate's supporters to end attacks on their erstwhile Republican rival.

While prospects for the Republican to endorse the Conservative candidate were rumored, Team Hoffman hoped that at least Dede would remain neutral. During an appearance Saturday afternoon in Plattsburgh, Hoffman himself expressed sympathy for Scozzafava. "I realize the decision she had to make today was very difficult for her," the mild-mannered accountant said during an appearance at a VFW post with former Gov. George Pataki, expressing hope of working together with her on behalf of the district's interests.

Instead, Sunday afternoon, Scozzafava plunged her knife into the back of the party that had chosen her for the nomination, when she announced her endorsement of the Democratic candidate. She had "thought long and hard about what is best for the people of this District," Scozzafava said, asserting that her concern for "honest principles and a truthful discussion of the issues" led her to endorse Owens.

Thus ended weeks of intra-party division induced by the GOP's ill-fated choice. As Michael Patrick Leahy observed, "The NRCC and RNC just spent $1 million on Dede Scozzafava. This is their reward."

The first poll published in the wake of Scozzafava's withdrawal showed Hoffman with a commanding lead over the Democrat, Owens. Even if Hoffman wins big in tomorrow's election, however, the consequences of the Republican Party's blunders in this campaign are likely to be felt far away from upstate New York. A yawning chasm of alienation between the GOP establishment and the party's grassroots has been exposed.

If Scozzafava has done nothing else, she has shown Republican leaders to be what http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/01/how-scozzafava-repays-nrcc-and-rnc/ called them yesterday: "Suckers."

SARAH PALIN STRIKES BACK

For those who mocked and savagely attacked her, take a look -- Sarah Palin is enjoying the fruits of success quietly and with poise. She has more influence than ever before, and it is growing in strength.

Using a social network, rather than the brutal media, she has put across ideas and opinions that have resonated the American people, her lastest being the endorsement of Doug Hoffman running against the pseudo Republican Dede Scozzafava. She is standing by her conservative principles, and the RINO Republicans are 'all shook up'.

Melissa Clouthier writes a compelling piece in PajamasMadia:


Sarah Palin Strikes Back
by Melissa Clouthier, October 24, 2009

“You wouldn’t believe how badly they treated her,” an insider friend told me of Sarah Palin not too long ago. I assumed this person meant the Republican establishment. One can only imagine what they’ve been up to.

So Thursday night the former Alaska governor posted the following on her Facebook page:

The votes of every member of Congress affect every American, so it’s important for all of us to pay attention to this important Congressional campaign in upstate New York. I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next Representative from New York’s 23rd Congressional district. It’s my honor to endorse Doug and to do what I can to help him win, including having my political action committee, SarahPAC, donate to his campaign the maximum contribution allowed by law.

Our nation is at a crossroads, and this is once again a “time for choosing.”

Palin has been sending a couple messages recently. First, she has, since stepping down as governor, started to communicate with the people not through the press but around the press. In other words, she’s speaking directly to the people through social media. She has had a couple well-timed and well-placed op-eds that have helped define policy arguments. However, most of the time she’s talked to the people via social media. (It should be noted that she’s been silent on Twiiter for some time — something I hope she’ll change soon.) This has had the benefit of letting the press know that she does not need them. Rather than go the Obama route and deny what is perceived as the one “enemy” to her aims, Sarah denies nearly everyone. And why not? The press trashed her with risible lies. Why give a dying breed ratings when she can reach the people herself?

Second, Sarah Palin has a massive army fundraising for her. It has been interesting to contemplate how she’s going to use that power. The GOP power brokers have certainly seemed disinterested in having her run for president, but they are very interested in her money and endorsements. The only problem is that they have, to use a vulgar turn of phrase, pissed in their Cheerios. They underestimated her star power. They misjudged her almost as badly as the left did; they thought she was just some feather-headed lightweight who would be nice arm candy for John McCain. She’d win the women vote because women are so stupid; ovaries are enough to win them over was the idea. Turns out that Sarah Palin was formidable because of the strength of her ideals, not just because of the strength of her beauty. And don’t forget the strength of her spine. This gross miscalculation has put the Republican Party at odds with their one star candidate.

The Republican establishment made another miscalculation last year. They underestimated the resolve and force of the tea party movement. These folks are ticked. They are angrier at the Republican establishment than they are at President Obama and his Marxist minions. In fact, this trouble was brewing all through the presidential campaign and even before. It all started, really, with the notion of “compassionate conservative” — an idea both insulting and inherently false. Conservatism is compassionate. Conservatism is something to be proud of, not something to hide.

So the Republicans have seemed as stunned with the tea partiers as the tea partiers are stunned at their party. The grassroots folks have had it. They’re tired of being disrespected. They’re tired of being told to pipe down and go along to get along when the candidates the party picks stink and then lose.

That brings us around to the election in New York. Local party people decided that a liberal woman would be just the ticket. The national party decided to second and third that notion. They chose identity over ideology. (This is something the party looks inclined to do in California in two races, by the way.) Ironically, some have viewed Sarah Palin as a horrible candidate because identity politics was involved in her selection. Well, the old establishment might have wanted her for her ovaries, but they got more than they bargained for in Sarah Palin. She actually believes something.

With her decision to endorse Doug Hoffman, the conservative (not Republican) candidate, Sarah Palin sends the Republican Party a very clear message. She will be using her considerable fundraising ability to fund candidates who ideologically match what it used to mean to be a Republican. Since the Republican Party, from its toes to its nose, has difficulty identifying candidates with those credentials, she’ll help them do it.

The Republican Party has a choice. They can continue to antagonize those who vote them into office or they can start paying attention. They mistakenly buy the D.C. bubble philosophy that moderation is the way to find good candidates. What they’re seeing is a base willing to lose if the Republican Party doesn’t change its ways.

A friend on Twitter said to me last night: “Sarah Palin has the base, she has to find a way to reach out to the moderates and independents.” I retorted: “The Republican party might have the moderates and independents (which I question since those people chose Obama over the moderate McCain), they have to find a way to win the base.” The base won’t be discounted any longer and they have found their champion in a very powerful Sarah Palin.

Dr. Melissa Clouthier is a chiropractor who blogs at MelissaClouthier.com and Right Wing News.

A MIGRATING MAINE SNOWE-BIRD

Fax after fax, phone call after phone call, email after email proved hopelessly ignored by many of our elected Republican officials. I am thinking specifically of Arlen Specter (jumped ship, thank goodness), Lamar Alexander, Thad Cochran, Richard Shelby, Kit Bond, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Roger Wicker, Susan Collins and especially Olympia Snowe.

These are the proud members of the RINO (Republicans in name only) Club, and should be in our sights to campaign against in the upcoming election. They are a disgrace, and have completely forgotten for whom they work. They consider their opinion far superior to ours, and Obama's speech before the joint sessions of Congress tomorrow is to convince them to vote for him -- not their constituents.

This great piece from PajamasMedia just made me furious:


A Migrating Maine Snowe-Bird
by Andrew Ian Dodge, September 5, 2009

Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine has a reputation for what her supporters call “independent thinking” — which in the past has essentially meant that she only supports her party on matters of procedure in the Senate.

Since Arlen Specter finally switched parties, Snowe has been the leading light of the so-called RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), or, rather, the most infuriating example. What has most irked people of late? Snowe volunteered to head to the White House to ensure that Obama’s socialized medicine proposal continues along its merry way. While commentators on both sides of the aisle have declared the bill rather dead, she is keen to revive it.

This is not the first time Snowe has gone out of her way to be the bugbear of the Republican Party. On Specter, she deemed all Republicans who felt he was in the wrong party constituted the “far right.” She described Club for Growth as “far right.” She has also said:

If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle.

I am sure that some of her supporters might find it unreasonable to take great exception to her labeling Republicans not in sync with her to be fascist or Nazi, as that is what “far right” is generally understood to mean. It would seem unthinkable that the veteran senator and political operative would not know what her words imply. But then again, this is a person who made it clear she was supporting Sotomayor before all the horse-trading began in the Senate. Snowe was proud to support someone who made statements that would be considered racist in extremis had they come from anyone white.

It’s not just Republicans whom Snowe upsets lately. Those who believe in the First Amendment and internet freedom are worried that she seems to think its entirely reasonable for the president to take control of the internet and limit its access in the case of a national “emergency.” Senator Snowe and a Democratic counterpart pushed this idea, to the consternation of much of the virtual world:

“We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs — from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records — the list goes on,” Senator Jay Rockefeller said.

Snowe echoed her colleague, saying: “If we fail to take swift action, we, regrettably, risk a cyber-Katrina.”

It would not shock anyone who follows Snowe to find she is keen on introducing a “trigger” to any legislation on health care. These so-called “triggers” would mean that the government could jump into health care and meddle even if a socialist option is not passed by whatever bill comes out of both houses.

Snowe seems to be trying to make herself a darling of the Obama administration, with the fact that her proposals reflect none of the thinking of her party being of no concern to her. Neither, of course, are the millions of American citizens, many from Maine, appalled by the Obama administration’s push to Euro-socialism.

Snowe is a flag-bearer for the Christian Democratic model of right-of-center socialism that pervades Europe. She and her ilk wish to reinvent the American political realm as something far more European than what we once knew.

If she were truly a Republican, she would be pushing to reform laws that prohibit companies from offering cheap health care in all states (such a law exists in Maine). But instead of standing with her party against this onslaught on the private sector, she is looking to work with Obama to come to a solution. We all know where compromise ends up in D.C. — more government involvement in the matters of private citizens. In her quest for this, her party, their principles, and the people can be damned.

Snowe may call it bipartisanship, but in the end it means a consensus towards socialism.