Category Archives: Conservatives not Wanted

Aftermath

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If nothing else, the government ‘shutdown’ and debt struggle has allowed us to definitively weed the the useless pols in Washington from the productive Congressmen. Of the Missouri congressional delegation, four voted to support Reid and Obama—that’s what the vote really was all about. Those MO Congressmen were Lacy Clay, representative from St. Louis, Emmanuel Clever, representative from Kansas City, Claire McCaskill, democrat senator, and Roy Blunt, GOP establishment senator. Roy Blunt’s votes validate the ‘Replace Roy Blunt‘ movement that is growing in the state.

The Senate passed the ‘Run up more debt’ bill by a vote of 81-18. It’s easier to document who, among the GOP senators voted against the bill—and against Reid, Obama and McConnell, than it is to document those who supported Reid and Obama.

Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.)
Marco Rubio (Fla.)
Rand Paul (Ky.)

These first three are expected to be front runners for a conservative presidential candidate in 2016 according to WaPo. I have my strong doubts about Rubio. He’s burned all his bridges with the Tea Party and grassroots conservatives.

Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa)
Dean Heller (Nev.)
Ron Johnson (Wis.)
Pat Toomey (Pa.)
Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.)
Pat Roberts (Kan.)

Two Senators face strong opposition in the next election. Liz Cheney is said to be running against Enzi and Milton Wolfe against Pat Roberts.

Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.)
John Cornyn (Tex.)
Mike Crapo (Idaho)
Mike Lee (Utah)
Jim Risch (Idaho)
Tim Scott (S.C.)
Jeff Sessions (Ala.)
Richard Shelby (Ala.)
David Vitter (La.)

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who would probably have voted, “No,” did not vote. He was recovering from heart surgery. (From The Washington Post.)

There is a graphic, if you follow the link above, that depicts the actual breakdown by political party.

The House—John Boehner approved the Senate bill. Boehner had to enlist Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats to get that approval. In the end the Senate bill passed in the House on a vote of 285 to 144.

Locally, I was gratified to see all of Missouri’s GOP Representatives voting against the Senate bill and Boehner. The only two MO representatives who voted yes were democrats Clay and Cleaver. I have had some harsh words for GOP Representative Vicky Hartzler over her votes on the massive Ag bill earlier this year. I have to applaud her for her votes on this bill. She stayed with her constituents.

The votes from the Kansas congressional delegation was more mixed.

Kansas:
• Sen. Jerry Moran — Yes
• Sen. Pat Roberts — No
• Rep. Kevin Yoder — No
• Rep. Tim Huelskamp — No
• Rep. Lynn Jenkins — Yes
• Rep. Mike Pompeo — No
— Kansas City Business Journal

To say I’m disappointed in Senator Jerry Moran and Representative Lynn Jenkins is an understatement.

So where do we go from here? As usual, Erick Erickson from Red State has thoughts on that.

Much cynicism has been expressed over the past month about the effort, led by Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, to fight Obamacare. It was about money or defeating Republicans or something other than what it was about — undermining Obamacare with a united front.

It was always about undermining Obamacare, despite the claims of others. But, those of us who were in this fight against Obamacare have been quite open that we knew there were side benefits. This fight would expose conservative activists to the frauds they have funded.

Men like Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and others have preached a great sermon against Obamacare, but now conservatives who supported them see that these men have refused to actually practice what they’ve been preaching. They’ve refused to stand and fight with the rest of us.

The fight was always about Obamacare. Today we know we must keep fighting and fight harder against even our own supposed side. But we always knew the fight would force the charlatans of the GOP out of the shadows into disinfecting sunlight. It has happened as I wrote it would almost a month ago.

Now conservatives can keep advancing. They should not be disheartened.

In reality, the GOP of a decade ago would never have fought like it has fought now. The party that gave us No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, and TARP would never have stood for two weeks embarrassing Democrats with short term spending bills.

Ted Cruz and Mike Lee may not have been able to strike a death blow to Obamacare today, but they were able to fight a fight that would have been impossible before them. They have now made it less and less possible for Republicans to collaborate with Democrats to fix or stabilize Obamacare.

So we must advance. Two Republicans in the Senate caused this fight that their colleagues would have surrendered on more quickly but for them. Imagine a Senate filled with more. We have an opportunity to replace Mitch McConnell in Kentucky with a better conservative. We should do that. We have the opportunity to send a strong conservative from North Carolina and we should do that. Same in Colorado. Kansas looks to be in play. Chris McDaniel will declare his candidacy for the Senate in Mississippi. Conservatives will rally to him quickly. Tennessee could be in play too.

The establishment has given conservatives a brilliant opportunity to advance against them and then against the Democrats. As Obamacare now goes into full swing, conservatives can show that they tried to stop it while Mitch McConnell and so many others sat and watched from a cozy booth the Capitol Hill Club leaving the fighting to others while they did everything possible to undermine the fight.

As more Americans watch Obamacare fail them through the Republican primary season, conservatives will be able to put the focus on Republicans who funded Obamacare instead of fighting it. Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress will find their names on ballots in 2014. They cannot hide or escape fate.

Conservatives must advance — ever advancing against the Republicans who have folded in the fight against Obamacare. We will not win all the fights. But Ted Cruz and Mike Lee show we do not have to win them all. We just need reinforcements.

The last time the major leaders of an American political party tried to compromise their way to power, the party broke apart giving us the Republicans. This fight too will break apart the GOP. There will not necessarily be a new party from it, but there will be a fundamentally altered party of new faces fueled by a grassroots movement now able to connect with each other and independent from Wall Street and K Street funders.

Never before have the people been less dependent on a party apparatus to play in primaries. Conservatives now have groups like Heritage Action, Senate Conservatives Fund, Madison Project, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, For America, and others to fund and rely on.

Grassroots upset about this fight should be encouraged. We’d have never gotten this far with the GOP before 2010. Imagine now the possibilities in 2014 if we make examples of a GOP that refused to fight Obamacare.

2014 must now be about advancing, ever advancing, even through the ranks of the GOP to have the fights that must be had.

Republican leaders in Washington want you to get off the field.  Instead, get involved and get even. — Red State.

Our enemies have chosen us. Now it is time for us to choose their replacements.

 

 

 

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Friday Follies for October 11, 2013

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The Shutdown continues. The Washington GOP leadership is quaking in its collective boots. Boehner and his pet House buds went to the White House yesterday with a debt limit deal—give Obama everything he wants for two or three months. Obama, apparently told Boehner that only acceptable solution, to Obama, was complete GOP surrender on everything. No debt limit deal.

Now, Boehner has no idea what to do next. Obama will invite Senate ‘Pubs in for a meeting. He expects McConnell to kow-tow like he expected Boehner to do. Will McConnell? Perhaps. But he has no power either. All spending bills—budgets, fund allocations, debt limit increases, must originate in the House. All the Senate ‘Pubs can do is to cheer them on, like Cruz and Lee have been doing—cheering for change, cheering to defund Obamacare. On those issues, McConnell could not care less.

But, outside the beltway, people—voters, are watching and they don’t like what they see. They are seeing a complete power grab by Obama and Reid. They don’t like it. Neither do they like the aimless, wishy-washy, sometime leadership by the House GOP. Boehner is completely ineffectual as a leader. Given his preference, he’d rather just cave than actually put up a fight. A leader and a fighter, Boehner is  not.

Scanning the internet headlines this morning, I found these three articles. All speak to change coming to the GOP, to politics-as-usual, to the country.

Third Party Sentiment Grows

Gallap conduct a nation-wide telephone poll last week of 1,000 voting age adults. No one party was selected over the other. Sixty percent of the respondent said a 3rd party was need, neither party was responsive to their voters.

In U.S., Perceived Need for Third Party Reaches New High

Twenty-six percent believe Democratic and Republican parties do adequate job

by Jeffrey M. Jones, October 11, 2013.

This article is part of an ongoing series analyzing how the government shutdown and the debate over raising the debt ceiling are affecting Americans’ views of government, government leaders, political parties, the economy, and the country in general.

PRINCETON, NJ — Amid the government shutdown, 60% of Americans say the Democratic and Republicans parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that a third major party is needed. That is the highest Gallup has measured in the 10-year history of this question. A new low of 26% believe the two major parties adequately represent Americans.

Trend: Perceived Need for a Third Major U.S. Political Party

The results are consistent with Gallup’s finding of more negative opinions of both parties since the shutdown began, including a new low favorable rating for the Republican Party, and Americans’ widespread dissatisfaction with the way the nation is being governed.

The prior highs in perceived need for a third party came in August 2010, shortly before that year’s midterm elections, when Americans were dissatisfied with government and the Tea Party movement was emerging as a political force; and in 2007, when the newly elected Democratic congressional majority was clashing with then-President George W. Bush.

A majority of Americans have typically favored a third party in response to this question. Notably, support has dropped below the majority level in the last two presidential election years in which Gallup asked the question, 2012 and 2008. Support for a third party was lowest in 2003, the first year Gallup asked the question. That year, 40% thought the U.S. needed a third party, while 56% believed the Republicans and Democrats were doing an adequate job.

The article continues with the statement that democrats and republicans equally felt the need for a new party(s). When voters from both sides feel the same way, the leadership of both parties need to heed the news.

Red State Secession

Pat Buchanan has a column out at the WND website. Like most of Buchanan’s writings, he wanders around the world for half the column until getting to the point. He may be slow getting to that point but when he does, he is accurate.

Is red state America seceding?

Pat Buchanan covers many movements across U.S. to divorce from urban rulers

In the last decade of the 20th century, as the Soviet Empire disintegrated, so, too, did that prison house of nations, the USSR.

Out of the decomposing carcass came Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Moldova, all in Europe; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus; and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

Transnistria then broke free of Moldova, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia fought free of Georgia.

Yugoslavia dissolved far more violently into the nations of Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo.

The Slovaks seceded from Czechoslovakia. Yet a Europe that plunged straight to war after the last breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 this time only yawned. Let them go, all agreed.

The spirit of secession, the desire of peoples to sever ties to nations to which they have belonged for generations, sometimes for centuries, and to seek out their own kind, is a spreading phenomenon.

…

What are the forces pulling nations apart? Ethnicity, culture, history and language – but now also economics. And separatist and secessionist movements are cropping up here in the United States.

While many red state Americans are moving away from blue state America, seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.

The five counties of western Maryland – Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll, which have more in common with West Virginia and wish to be rid of Baltimore and free of Annapolis, are talking secession.

The issues driving secession in Maryland are gun control, high taxes, energy policy, homosexual marriage and immigration.

Scott Strzelczyk, who lives in the town of Windsor in Carroll County and leads the Western Maryland Initiative, argues: “If you have a long list of grievances, and it’s been going on for decades, and you can’t get it resolved, ultimately [secession] is what you have to do.”

And there is precedent. Four of our 50 states – Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia – were born out of other states.

Ten northern counties of Colorado are this November holding non-binding referenda to prepare a future secession from Denver and the creation of America’s 51st state.

Nine of the 10 Colorado counties talking secession and a new state, writes Reid Wilson of the Washington Post – Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma – all gave more than 62 percent of their votes to Mitt Romney. Five of these 10 counties gave Romney more than 75 percent of their vote.

Their issues with the Denver legislature: A new gun control law that triggered a voter recall of two Democratic state senators, state restrictions on oil exploration and the Colorado legislature’s party-line vote in support of gay marriage.

…

If America does not get its fiscal house in order, and another Great Recession hits or our elites dragoon us into another imperial war, we will likely hear more of such talk.

Talk of secession has been around since the founding of the nation. Legally, it was settled by the Civil War—once a member of the union, the United States, always a member. No breakaway allowed.

That hasn’t stopped the talk, however. When the federal government and its leader(s) actively ignore, conspire to ignore, and violate the law and the Constitution, the illegality of secession loses meaning.

The South lost the Civil War for a number of reasons—lack of population, lack of industry, lack of capital and lack of allies…the South was outnumbered, out produced, outspent, and alone. The conditions today, are not the same. If the central government falls into turmoil and disarray, breakaways may succeed…for awhile.

Take that! You establishment buzzards!

Ann Coulter has a new book out, one written in her usual sharp and biting tongue. This time she’s aiming at the ‘Pub establishment, not the dems. The subject is a change for her. She has a reputation for being a GOP establishment shill—most of the income to her consulting company, comes from the GOP establishment. She won’t be winning new customers with this book unless it is from the Tea Party or the dems.

New Ann Coulter book rages at GOP with ‘change or die’ theme

By PAUL BEDARD | OCTOBER 11, 2013 AT 10:38 AM

Best-selling conservative author Ann Coulter, who has used her nine books to launch vicious attacks on Democrats, is turning her guns on Republicans in a new book out Monday, calling Florida Sen. Marco Rubio a hypocrite, urging donors freeze contributions to the GOP, and demanding that only governors or senators run for the party’s presidential nomination.

Her point in “Never Trust a Liberal Over 3 — Especially a Republican” is to shake the party out of its doldrums in time for the 2014 and 2016 elections.

“Elections matter. We’re trying to make the country a better place. But if our candidates don’t win, we can’t do that,” she writes. “This isn’t a game. We aren’t picking basketball brackets. Bad things happen when Republicans lose elections and Democrats have veto-proof majorities,” she adds in the book provided in advance to Secrets.

While she is most noted for skewering liberals in her weekly columns and nine previous New York Times best sellers, “Never Trust” puts her on a path for a head-on collision with the establishment Republican Party and even a favored 2016 presidential candidate as she urges the GOP to purge itself of failed tactics, lazy consultants, and gripless potential candidates.

Take Rubio. He is one of the party’s leading 2016 candidates, but Coulter dresses him down for promising effective immigration reform while campaigning for the Senate but spitting out a more liberal alternative once elected.

She quotes him slamming amnesty for illegal immigrants as a Senate candidate in 2010. “And then he got to Washington and his big legislative initiative was a path to citizenship for illegal aliens! Yes, Rubio’s plan to solve the problem of illegal immigration from Mexico is to bring them all here,” she scolds.

The fashionable pundit pummels the party for wooing untested politicians for president. “Why are any congressmen or businessmen showing up in our presidential primaries? They are never going to get the nomination,” she says.

The solution is a governor, just like four of the last six presidents. “I don’t care if it makes you feel good, conservatives: Do not ever, ever considering running a presidential candidate who has not been a senator or preferably a governor. No, not even our beloved Ben Carson. What are we concentrating on? That’s right: winning.”

What Coulter overlooks at this point is that our last two Presidential candidates met Coulter’s criteria. McCain was a US Senator and Romney was a Governor. Neither worked well for us.

And to grab that gold ring, she demands that musty political consultants be swept out of the GOP. She blames them for losing four Senate seats the Republicans thought they should have won in 2010 and 2012.

“Republicans were screwed by campaign consultants fleecing deep-pocketed candidates rather than doing the work of electing Republicans,” she says. “Republicans should refuse to give money to the party until we have the names of these people [failed consultants] and a blood oath that they will never be hired again.”

Coulter takes shots at Tod Akin and Marco Rubio alike. I didn’t vote for Akin in the Primary, I backed another. But, after he won that primary election, I backed him. Akin lost, not so much for what he said, but because his party turned on him and caused his campaign more damage than his opponent, Claire McCaskill.

Akin was betrayed by his party. The dems, if that had happened to one of their candidates, would have closed ranks and rallied around him. That, too, is another failing of the GOP.

 Change is coming. It is coming to the GOP, to the central government, for better or more likely worse, and to the nation. Hiding from these trends, ignoring them, will not prevent those trends nor the coming events. The days of the ostrich response is over. The time to prepare, for any or all the scenarios, has come.

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Friday Follies for September 27, 2013

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Quote of the Day:

“…the fresh crop of newcomers — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas — are children of the new age — noisy, rambunctious, impatient and impenitent, even. They’re not coming to town to carve out a sinecure, to be carried out feet first a quarter of a century later leaving no impression but the shape of their ample bottoms in an easy chair. They’re neither impressed by the ritual of “the world’s oldest deliberative body,” nor respectful of the ivy-encrusted tradition that binds it to the past. They’re contemptuous of all that. For better or worse, they’re coming only to do a job.” — Wes Pruden, The Washington Times.

***

If you were to draw back and review the events of the last few weeks dispassionately, you would see what is hidden from the GOP establishment. The Republican Party is dissolving.

If we are to believe the GOP establishment, Obamacare will collapse of its own impracticability. All we have to do is wait. The New Boys (a term I’ll adopt in want of a better one,) say, “No! Kill it now before it irretrievably damages the country.”

Those two viewpoints reveal the dichotomy of the GOP, the division between the establishment who wants not to make waves least they be damped, and those who knows the waves are coming regardless and we’ll all be wettened in the deluge of failing liberalism.

Wes Pruden, in the article that I took his quote above, notes the changes and the divisiveness within the GOP. The New Boys have come to town with an agenda. It’s not their agenda, it is the agenda of their constituents that says, “NO MORE.”

It is increasingly apparent that the divisions will not—can not heal given the intransigence of the Washington establishment. I now believe it is only a matter of time before the conservatives of the GOP depart. They will declare themselves ‘independent’ one by one, no longer giving allegiance to the GOP. At some point, they will declare a unity of goals and principles and a new party/association/alliance will emerge and the two-party system will dissolve.

Pundits will declare than our government was designed as a two-party system. That is not true. It was envisioned to be without political parties at all, but, given human nature, people of like opinions will gather and merge into political forces.

Perhaps it is time for the two-party system to become a three-party system. The libs should applaud. After all, the nation will then follow the multiparty politics of their beloved Europe.

Betrayed by the establishment—again

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Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are in a battle. they are battling Harry Reid, Senate dems, Obama and the GOP establishment. The issue is that Ted Cruz and Mike Lee want to block Reid’s amendment to the CR that would remove the defunding of Obamacare. That means, an amendment that would allow funding of Obamacare.

McConnell won’t help and can’t understand why Cruz is filibustering. Either McConnell is astoundingly stupid and therefore unfit for the Senate, or he’s an active supporter of funding Obamacare. On second thought, McConnell is probably both.

The real issue is the Ted Cruz and Mike Lee won’t kowtow to McConnell’s magnificence and that of the rest of the GOP Senate leadership. Consequently, McConnell will try his best to torpedo Cruz’s attempts to keep the defunding Obamacare in the CR.

Erick Erickson, from RedState, posted a column about Cruz’s fight and McConnell sabotage. I’m not a Erickson fan, his writings are a bit too raw for me, but in this case, he’s nailed it.

A Cruz Missile Launch, Like a Light, Shows the Cockroaches Scurrying

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  September 24th, 2013 at 04:30 AM  |

A curious moment happened on Fox News Sunday. Chris Wallace told Karl Rove that a number of Republicans in Congress had sent him opposition research on Ted Cruz once Fox announced Cruz would be on.

Rove responded. He said this was all happening because Cruz and Mike Lee had not worked out strategy in the regular Senate Republican Conference lunches on Thursdays. Rove said that was what was supposed to happen. Except that for a year now, Senate Republicans have routinely leaked the proceedings of those meetings to the New York Times and Washington Post in ways designed to harm Cruz, Lee, and others who side with them.

In fact, as one Senator noted in last week’s meeting, this would not be happening but for John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell choosing not to lead. Had Lee and Cruz approached their Senate colleagues, they would have been dismissed. I can say this confidently because it has happened repeatedly and since their election to the Senate their Republican colleagues have routinely taken to “on background” leaks assailing them.

…

Let’s be clear here — absent the American people lending a loud, clear voice for Cruz and Lee, the Republicans will cave. They will not stand with Cruz and Lee unless dragged kicking and screaming against their will. I hope they will. I hope a collection of House conservatives will stand strong and force the issue. But the majority of them will betray Cruz and Lee. In fact, Senate Republican Leaders have built up so much irrational hatred of Cruz, they want him to fail just so they can say they beat him — damn the Obamacare implications. Their pride comes before the nation.

Cruz only needs a few dozen Republicans in the House to stand firm to be successful. He might get that. But the bulk of the GOP in the House will try to cut a deal with the Democrats and move on.

Like a light switch flipping on, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are casting light on the scurrying of Republican roaches in and out of the Capitol. Republican congressmen and Senators are now openly attacking Cruz and Lee. Outside groups like Americans for Tax Reform and outside media interests like the Wall Street Journal are amplifying attacks made by the establishment GOP against conservatives. Lobbyists are up in arms.

Mike Lee and Ted Cruz are showing the leadership skills others have claimed for themselves and conservatives now see just how badly they’ve been played by their so called leaders and many outside groups that have hung for too long on the conservative label while really being affiliates of the Republican Party itself. Because of Lee and Cruz, polling against Obamacare is up and the GOP’s favorability is up.

Even more importantly, the Republican base’s willingness to get back in the game has gone up too in the aftermath of a bitterly depressing 2012 election that saw a good bit of disengagement by the base. Conservatives may see their leaders now as the pathetic lot they are, but they have also seen real leadership in Cruz and Lee. They’ve also found real voices on the outside like Heritage Action for America and the Senate Conservatives Fund with which they can engage for education and motivation.

The column continues at the RedState website. I urge you to read it all.

John Cornyn, R-TX, sent out an e-mail proclaiming support for defunding Obamacare all the while supporting McConnell’s schemes against Cruz and Lee. I see our own Roy Blunt sent out a similar message. I don’t see him supporting Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, either.

Erick Erickson and RedState aren’t as big as some of the other internet media outlets, but others have taken noticed of McConnell’s spitefulness, too. Byron York, writing in the Washington Examiner, had this to say.

GOP flinches at Obamacare plan devised by Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee

By BYRON YORK | SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 AT 6:31 PM

There are 44 Republicans in the Senate not named Ted Cruz or Mike Lee. By and large, they have been quiet during the various twists and turns in the effort to defund Obamacare. This week, they’ll speak.

Cruz and Lee took to the Sunday shows to advocate a complex plan under which Senate Republicans would filibuster the House-passed continuing resolution that also denies funds to Obamacare. Of course, that is the very bill Cruz and Lee asked the House to pass. But under the new scenario, filibustering the House bill would somehow pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to grant concessions that would allow Republicans to successfully defund Obamacare. So Cruz and Lee advocate filibustering the bill to “preserve” it.

What York doesn’t say is that Cruz and Lee are filibustering Harry Reid’s amendment to the CR that would reinstate funding for Obamacare.

All that might take time, Cruz and Lee concede, and the clock is ticking toward a possible government shutdown. So in the interim, instead of closing the government, they want the House to pass a number of spending measures to keep agencies up and running.

It is a very far-fetched scenario. The question now is how many Republicans will go along with it.

In July, Lee circulated a letter asking his fellow GOP senators to pledge to “not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare.” Just a dozen — out of a total of 46 Republicans in the Senate — chose to sign. Since then, a couple more have come along.

But the bottom line is that about one-third of the Republican caucus has signed on to the plan. That’s a minority of the minority in the Senate.

Ask defunding advocates about the letter today, and they get a little irritated. “The letter is irrelevant,” says one GOP aide who supports the defunding strategy. “It is totally meaningless. It was simply a signal to our leadership of what we intended to do.”

Maybe so. And perhaps there are many more Republican senators who are on board with the plan. But there’s a strong possibility that lots of Republicans will choose not to go along with Cruz and Lee’s complicated bank-shot strategy. They are all opponents of Obamacare and all support defunding Obamacare, but they don’t want to be involved in a gambit they believe will result in failure and possibly a government shutdown. — The Washington Examiner.

The issue is that McConnell and Cornyn don’t want to be seen as the ones who “shutdown the government.” Some of us thing that’d be a good thing, shut it down and let Obama take the heat. No, they’d rather let Reid reinstate Obamacare funding and send the bill back to the House—where Boehner, in the conference committee, would rubber-stamp the change and Voila!, Obamacare is funded!

So, readers, be prepared to be sold out by the Washington GOP establishment, again. It’s getting to the point where voting for a democrat against McConnell and Boeher, would almost be worth the effort just to get rid of those traitors once and for all.

Tax and Spend

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It’s Fall and two monstrous spending bills will be working their way through Congress. The first is the Continuing Resolution, the democrats spending solution that bypasses the budget process. The second will be the Debt Limit.

Depending on your viewpoint, there has been significant progress on the Continuing Resolution—removing funding for Obamacare. It’s a step but it doesn’t address the validity of Continuing Resolutions as a budget substitute.

Some House conservatives are going further—replacing Obamacare with another system. I haven’t read all the few details yet but I wonder about the wisdom of replacing one horrific government operation with another government operation. The rough outline presented so far retains government-sponsored insurance pool and federal subsidies to selected groups. So far, I have yet to find any substantive improvement in the new bill over Obamacare. Supposedly, the ‘new’ substitute would eliminate some taxes.

Big Whoop!

There’s more to Obamacare than taxes, it is an entire system of federal mandates that robs us of personal choice, selection and plans for our own future.  I would hope the ‘Pub alternative fulfills its hype. Given the leadership of Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, et. al., I have strong doubts.

According to the Heritage Foundation, Boehner has been forced to allow a version of the CR to go forward without Obamacare funding. That limited CR will go to the Senate where Harry Reid will stick Obamacare funding back into the CR. It will then return to the House where dems hope Boehner will cave and allow the funding to remain.

At best, the CR will ping-pong back and forth, from the House removing Obamacare funding, to the Senate that restores it until one side blinks. The dems hope, and I expect, that side will be the ‘Pubs. The way to end that cycle is to remove RINOs like Boehner, Cantor and McConnell from any leadership role in Congress and come the primaries, send them home—permanently.

The other spending bill is the increase of the nation’s debt limit. Obama wants us to believe, 'RAISING DEBT CEILING DOES NOT INCREASE OUR DEBT'. Yeah, and pull my other finger while you’re at it. We know now that we cannot believe anything from the pathological liar in the White House.

Obama and the dems both claim that failure to pass either bill, the CR or increase the debt limit, will shutdown the government. Many of us think that would be a good thing. We note that the government shuts down every weekend. We have sufficient income to pay the basic bills, pay for the entitlements of Social Security and Medicare, meet our debt and interest payments, and maintain the vital departments, such as Defense.

The dems disagree and if any spending cuts were made, they would target Defense and the vital programs of government instead of weaning the parasite class that keeps the dems in power.  Boehner and the GOP establishment are preparing to sell us out again by agreeing to a 1-year increase of the debt limit. John Boehner is morphing into Obama—you can’t believe a word that come out of his mouth.

In the end, if either bill passes both Houses of Congress with no funding for Obamacare, Obama will veto it. Next he’ll shutdown the government and blame the ‘Pubs. We know what happens next. The ‘Pubs get weak-kneed and give in.

Am I confident we’ll be able to defund Obamacare? No. The track record has been established in Washington beginning in the early Bush administration. Whenever a tough decision is required from the ‘Pubs, they will duck and weave and give in to the dems. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and other conservatives are fighting this record and practice. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by the weak-willed and the ‘Pub democrat-lite members of Congress.

Yes, it is a pessimistic day.

Random Shots for Wednesday

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I’m surprised how many readers liked my post for Monday, August 12, 2013, titled, Planes. Many were pilots…or inactive pilots like me. There are no ‘former’ pilots, only those who are current and those who aren’t.

I was rushed for time Monday morning. I could have written it better. I wish I had, especially that sequence of landing a small plane. It’s difficult to describe for those who’ve never done it…the feel and feedback from the rudder pedals, slipping to compensate for a crosswind, the flare…those last few floating feet before touchdown that seems to last forever.

I thank all you pilots, active and inactive, who liked the post.

***

I  am a Mark Levin fan. I usually listen to the first hour or so of his dailyl broadcast on KCMO-710, 5PM. He has been hitting the ‘Pub establishment hard this last week…harder than usual.

Part of it is PR for his new book, The Liberty Amendments. His book outlines a plan to restore the Constitution to that originally envisioned by the Founders.

But the book isn’t what has Levin in the news. No, it’s his prognosis for the ‘Pub party and that prognosis is poor…very poor.

Mark Levin: ‘Entrenched’ Republican ‘losers’ may cost GOP the House in 2014

Jeff Poor, Media Reporter, 12:17 AM 08/14/2013

Conservative talker Mark Levin blasted Republican House leaders on his Tuesday radio show, warning that by attacking more conservative members of the GOP, Speaker John Boehner and prominent Reps. Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor are throwing away the 2014 midterm elections.

Levin, author of “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic,” said the GOP establishment’s disparagement of conservative colleagues, could be a disaster in a midterm “turn out the base” election.

“This is my great fear,” Levin said. “My great fear is that guys like Boehner, and quite frankly Paul Ryan, and Eric Cantor and his goofball [Kevin] McCarthy — they don’t get it at all. Midterm elections in particular are base elections, they are turnout elections. And they’re doing everything they can to turn us off, to turn us off. Where are they standing ground and keeping ground and fighting? Instead it’s, ‘No, no we’re not going to shut down the government.’ Even if that’s your ultimate view, why do you reveal that to the leftists and the media? It’s like playing poker and the idiot shows his cards — and that’s what he does. ‘Hey, look at this.’”

“And also, amnesty?” he continued. “Pathway to citizenship? This is their number one issue. No. And then we have Obamacare. The president of the United States, rubbing the Republican’s nose in it,acting like he’s king, and as I’ve been saying and now others, an imperial president. ‘No. we’ll follow this part of the law. No, I’m suspending this part of the law. No, I’m deferring this part of the law.’ What the hell is that? And what are the Republicans doing about it? Now the typical Republican response would be ‘well what do you want us to do about it?’”

The conservative talker encouraged Republicans in the House and Senate to use any means necessary to draw attention to President Barack Obama’s attempts to thwart the law and/or the Constitution, including obstruction tactics.

“Here’s what I want you to do,” Levin said. “You fools should have been, time and time again, every time he has violated the Constitution, you should have made an issue about it,” Levin said. “You should have punished him in some way — denied him some appointee, obstructed some piece of legislation. Draw attention to this lawlessness so the American people after a year, or two, or three of you consistently explaining it and hammering away at it would in fact be aware of what you’re trying to do and say! But instead, what do we get? What do we get? We get John McCain attacking Ted Cruz. What do we get? Chris Christie attacking Rand Paul. What do we get? Karl Rove attacking Mike Lee. The same dug-in entrenched losers who may well cost us the House of Representatives in the next election.”

Levin speculated as to what would happen if the Democrats regained control of the House and who the so-called Republican establishment may blame for it.

“And do you know what Obama will do again if he controls the whole damn thing?” Levin added.  “And he’s banking on it. That’s why he’s putting all these things off. He’s sucking people in to vote for him and then he’s going to drop the hammer. Then what do we do? ‘We don’t control any — one half of one third or anything else.’ And what are the Republicans going to do then? Blame the conservatives? Blame the tea party? What are they going to do then? ‘We can’t control anything. We don’t even have one half of one third — of course you don’t. Look what you’ve squandered, the opportunity. This president is pathetic. His policies are a disaster. We have sustained high unemployment, sustained housing problems. The economy is still on its back. He won’t secure the damn border. He’s hollowing out the military. He’s hollowing out NASA. What the hell? He’s handing you the issues to run on. And what do you do? You attack conservatives. Brilliant.”

If you’ve ever listened to Levin on the radio, or via his pod and internet ‘casts, you’ve heard this theme before. The Republican Party is dying, poisoned from within. It is a Truth and many in the party, in and out of Washington, refuse to listen.

***

A Colorado District Judge ruined that state’s liberal scheme to derail the recall elections of three democrat legislators. In his decision, the mail-in ballot scheme and no-show voting was rendered ineffective. How? The Judge ruled in accordance to the Colorado state constitution.

Judge rules to uphold the Colorado Constitution

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 – Red Pill, Blue Pill by Al Maurer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., August 13, 2013—Monday evening Denver District Judge Robert McGahey ruled in favor of the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit to allow candidates up until 15 days prior to the September 10 recall election to qualify for the ballot. This ruling upholds the state constitution, which mandates it.

Under the recently-enacted House Bill 1303, state election law was changed to allow all mail-in ballot recall elections. To meet the deadlines imposed by such an election, candidates were given only until July 29 to collect 1000 signatures—10 days from when Gov. Hickenlooper belatedly set the election date.

Potential candidates now have until August 26 to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot, making it impossible for county clerks to then print and mail ballots to voters. The election, therefore, will now be an in-person one.

In choosing between the state constitution and the recent statute calling for mail ballots and early voting schedules, Judge McGahey said it would be an “absurd result” to ignore the constitution’s direct wording on recall candidates.

In addition, Judge McGahey ripped the legislature for “Writing an election law so clearly non-compliant with the state Constitution….With all due respect to the legislature, it did not consider or ignored the clear language of Article XXI – I find that both sad and, frankly, shocking.”

The major parties did not agree.

The dems protest because their vote fraud scheme was foiled. The ‘Pubs don’t like it either because it ruins their plan to be the only opposition to the dems. That ‘Pub view may have some merit if the votes to oppose the dems are diluted among several candidates.

There is a companion article here. I suppose it’d be too much to hope for that the ‘Pubs and Libertarians jointly submit a candidate against the dems. Yes, I suppose it would, and, that’s too bad, because now the opposing votes against the dems will be diluted among two or more candidates.

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I’d like to make a followup to a post I made some months ago. That post was about the Cass County Lincoln Day dinner and guest speaker Tom Schweich, Missouri’s Auditor. In the last two paragraphs of that post, I wrote:

I applaud Schweich’s attempt for unity. He has a steep road to walk. I like Schweich. I voted for him in his last election and will probably vote for him in the next one. However, his attempts to heal the party will fail as long as the state’s party hierarchy maintains their paternalistic attitude and their continued efforts to control the central committee.

Unless there is significant change, they will fail. Ed Martin unseated David Cole as Chairman of the MO Central Committee. Martin ran for Attorney General as a Tea Partier. I’ve met him and I was impressed with him. He now has a formidable task, the reunification of the Missouri Republican party. I await him to begin that reconciliation—before it is too late.

Since April, when I wrote the post above, I’ve met a number of times with Ed Martin‘s Political Director Steve Michael. At one meeting, he was joined by Bob Evans, the Heritage Action Regional Coordinator for Missouri who was formerly a member of the St. Louis Tea Party.

In a different meeting, he met with some grassroots folks to expand and reinforce Ed Martin’s links with the conservative base—a base that is losing its ties with the Republican Party. Another brief meeting was when Steve Michael spoke at a Cass County ‘Pub gathering last week.

In April, I asked if Ed Martin was willing to reach out—and listen to, the conservatives, Libertarian Republicans and those whose loyalty isn’t necessarily with the Republican Party. I can now say, “Yes, he is.”

There’s hope yet for the survival of the ‘Pub party in Missouri…but only if Ed Martin and the ‘Pub state central committee really listens and heeds those who are feeling disenfranchised with the ‘Pubs.

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Conservatives fight back…in the Primaries.

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The next election cycle is coming in 2014. It’s an off-year election, one-third of the Senate and every House seat will be on the line—the ballot. The ‘Pub establishment from Renice Priebus and Karl Rove, to the national campaign committees are targetting conservatives. The conservatives and the Tea Party are fighting back.

Regional conservative groups are organizing opposition. These groups and the Tea Party have been used by the establishment for the last time. This election, the ‘Pub establishment pols will have opposition. As the establishment as sown, so shall they now reap.

Mitch McConnell’s primary opponent comes out swinging

Alex Pappas, Political Reporter, 11:39 AM 07/24/2013

The Kentucky businessman who launched a Republican primary challenge against Mitch McConnell on Wednesday told The Daily Caller he’s running because conservatives have a “tremendous level of dissatisfaction” with the Senate minority leader.

“There’s a tremendous level of dissatisfaction with the fact that for 30 years, he’s been just a big government guy,” Matt Bevin said of McConnell. “He votes for every bailout, he votes for every piece of pork, he is a huge fan of earmarking — it has been temporarily banned, as you know — but folks like Mitch McConnell have made a career of greasing the wheels for themselves and for others.”

During a phone interview an hour before he formally announced his campaign at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfurt, Bevin also laid the groundwork for the argument that McConnell is more concerned with his leadership role in Washington than in representing Kentucky.

“I live in the same town as the man, and I’ve literally never seen him one time,” Bevin said of McConnell. “Ever. And it’s not like we move in entirely different worlds. I’ve never seen him one time, except when he was speaking at a political event. Fifteen years. In the same town in Kentucky. That’s odd. And I’m not alone in that.”

Bevin slammed McConnell as a “big proponent of increased taxes,” a “proponent of pork barrel spending” and as “someone who doesn’t have a tremendous amount of respect for the constitution.”

…

“McConnell has voted for higher taxes, bailouts, debt ceiling increases, congressional pay raises, and liberal judges,” the announcer in Bevin’s ad states.

As for McConnell, his new ad slams “Bailout Bevin” for taking $200,000 in state government money last year after his Connecticut factory, which wasn’t insured, burned down.

…

Asked to respond to that ad, which claims Bevin is “not a Kentucky Conservative,” the businessman said that he’s “far more conservative and have spent far more time in Kentucky in the last 15 years than Sen. McConnell has.”

“With respect to a bailout, it’s interesting that a guy who has voted for literally a trillion dollars worth of bailouts for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Wall Street banks, etc., is taking issue with the fact that the people of a town and a state wanted to do something for a business that had burned down, that is historic, that is the oldest family run business in their state, and wanted to gather around, rally around, and do what they could to ensure that those jobs were saved,” Bevin said. “That these employees were not dumped onto the public system.”

Bevins may not be the best candidate, but he certainly can’t be any worse than Mitch McConnell.

John Boehner should take note as well. Every seat in the House is up for election—that is election, not re-election.

Our own Vicky Hartzler should be another establishment rubber-stamp looking over her shoulder. She hasn’t found a pork project yet that she’s hasn’t liked. She rubber-stamped the first Farm Bill with its massive overspending for Food Stamps, crop subsidies and price supports that benefit large and corporate farms. Subsidies and price supports that she and her farmer husband take accept.

When the 2nd version of the Farm Bill, minus the Food Stamps but containing all the pork, was presented to the House, she voted for it again! More pork, more spending, more waste and what is her response? “The catfish duplication was removed.” Big freaking deal! A few paltry millions removed while voting for BILLIONS more in spending.

If the Republican party doesn’t get it’s collective head out, they may, like their Whig predecessors, find their party being split and the ‘Pubs ending up on the historical trash heap. When a vote for either of two parties produces little difference, what other option is left?

‘Pubs, it’s time to consider the welfare of the nation, not for the welfare of your political ambitions and your financial pockets.

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