Being a Republican...

Being a Republican today is like cheering for the home team franchise after they have moved to another town.

The betrayal by Bush and company is too much to bear.

First and foremost, the primaries must be closed so we do not get another disaster like John McCain as nominee. They remain open in many critical states.

Coburn Gets It

Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. Tom Coburn had some good postmortem analysis of the Election. Here is Coburn's:

“Although this election represents a short-term setback for Republicans, it could be an important turning point for the Republican Party and, more importantly, the country. Every incumbent was reminded that the American people, not party establishments, hold the reins of government. Throughout our history, when the American people rise up and force change our country benefits. In our system, the wisdom of many individual voters still outweighs the wisdom of a few,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Many factors contributed to these election results. The American people obviously are concerned about the conduct of the war in Iraq. Members of both parties have an obligation to work together to offer creative and constructive solutions that will help our troops accomplish their mission.

“The overriding theme of this election, however, is that voters are more interested in changing the culture in Washington than changing course in Washington, D.C. This election was not a rejection of conservative principles per se, but a rejection of corrupt, complacent and incompetent government.

“A recent CNN poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe government is doing too much while only 37 percent want government to do more. The results of this election reflect that attitude. Among the Republicans who lost their re-election bids a surprising number were political moderates who advocated a more activist government. Several Republican members of the appropriations committees, which have been on a spending binge, also were not re-elected. On the other hand, the two Republican senators who pulled off the most impressive victories were unapologetic conservatives, Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John Ensign (R-NV). It is also notable that the Democrats who won or who ran competitive races sounded more like Ronald Reagan than Lyndon Johnson.

“This election does not show that voters have abandoned their belief in limited government; it shows that the Republican Party has abandoned them. In fact, these results represent the total failure of big government Republicanism.

“The Republican Party now has an opportunity to rediscover its identity as a party for limited government, free enterprise and individual responsibility. Most Americans still believe in these ideals, which reflect not merely the spirit of 1994 or the Reagan Revolution, but the vision of our founders. If Republicans present real ideas and solutions based on these principles we will do well in the future.

“What Republicans cannot continue to do, however, is more of the same. Our short-term, politically-expedient, bread and circus governing philosophy has failed. Iraq is an important issue in the minds of voters but it is not the only issue. Our majority was severely weakened by a long series of decisions that pre-date the public’s current concern about Iraq.

“Republicans oversaw a seven-fold increase in pork projects since 1998. Republicans increased domestic spending by nearly 50 percent since 2001, increased the national debt to $9 trillion, passed a reckless Medicare expansion bill and neglected our oversight responsibilities. While some of these decisions may have helped secure specific seats in the short-term the totality of our excess did not secure our majority, but destroy it.

“There should now be less doubt about whether overspending and pork projects are bad policy and bad politics. This year, in particular, pork did not save our vulnerable incumbents but helped drag them down. The challenges facing our country are too great and complex for members of Congress and their staff to continue to be distracted by endless earmarking.

“Some have said that Republicans and Democrats now need to govern from the middle. I disagree. We do not need to govern from the center as much as we need to govern from conscience. When politicians have the courage to argue their convictions and lose their political lives in an honest battle of ideas the best policies will prevail.

“The American people do want civility but they also want real debate. Civility does not mean an absence of conflict, but a return of honor and dignity in our politics. The great debates in American history like the Lincoln-Douglas debates or the debates about the Constitution were intensely confrontational, but no one feels soiled after reading them. That same quality of debate is possible today if politicians put their country first and party second. The problems facing our country are too great to not have these debates. Voters are bored and tired of partisan role playing in Washington. The answers to securing Iraq, winning the War on Terror, and preventing the impending bankruptcies of Medicare and Social Security will not be discovered by portraying the other party as the focus of evil and corruption. If we don’t debate these issues with honor and agree on solutions we will be the first generation of leaders that left the next generation worse off, and we will see our relative power in the world diminish.

“One of the great paradoxes in politics is that governing to maintain power is the surest way to lose it. Republicans have the ideas to solve our greatest challenges. If we focus on ideas, our majority status will take care of itself,” Dr. Coburn said.

New RINO Video. Thanks for the Memories

Neocon = RINO

It has finally been said. Watch with splendor as nation-building neocons stab the president in the heart after they advised him to pursue neocon liberal policies. Whether he was dragged into or actively desired these policies remains to be seen. Given his performance on the border, it seems to be the latter.

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

Vanity Fair

This Just In...

The stakes are huge. The left wing/terrorist alliance has been in full swing since late 2002. It is our job to make sure the left wingers in the alliance are not in the Republican Party.

Peggy Noonan Gets It

Posted today:

One is that it's clear now to everyone in the Republican Party that Mr. Bush has changed the modern governing definition of "conservative."

He did this without asking. He did it even without explaining. He didn't go to the people whose loyalty and support raised him high and say, "This is what I'm doing, this is why I'm changing things, here's my thinking, here are the implications." The cynics around him likely thought this a good thing. To explain is to make things clearer, or at least to try, and they probably didn't want it clear. They had the best of both worlds, a conservative reputation and a liberal reality.

And Republicans, most of whom are conservative in at least general ways, and who endure the disadvantages of being conservative because they actually believe in ideas, in philosophy, in an understanding of the relation of man and the state, are still somewhat concussed. The conservative tradition on foreign affairs is prudent realism; the conservative position on borders is that they must be governed; the conservative position on high spending is that it is obnoxious and generationally irresponsible. Etc.

As the loyal Rush Limbaugh has stated on several occasions, "Bush is not a conservative." His massive growth of the government, free-for-all borders, and nation-building make him a dangerous RINO who must be stopped at all costs.

The Stakes. Thank You RINOs

Top 10 Worst Democrat House Chairmen in Waiting

Ranked by the editors of HUMAN EVENTS.

If Democrats are successful in taking over the House this November, congressional committees would lurch to the left with Democrat majorities and far-left chairmen. Here are the 10 House members who would inflict the most liberal damage.

10. Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.) – Financial Services
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 4%
Ultra-leftist and ethically troubled Frank (his boyfriend was found to be running a male prostitution ring out of the congressman’s apartment) has a record of heavy class-warfare rhetoric and of supporting policies dangerous for a leader of the Financial Services Committee.

9. Rep. George Miller (Calif.) – Education and Workforce
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 5%
A California leftist who helped create the No Child Left Behind Act, Miller would support the bill only if it didn’t include vouchers. He is a constant critic of Bush for not spending more on schools, despite the fact that federal education spending has more than doubled since.

8. Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) – Homeland Security
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 10%
Thompson has helped to keep the U.S. dependent on foreign oil by opposing drilling in ANWR and the easing of rules for building new refineries. He also voted against the Patriot Act and the House border-security bill.

7. Rep. Alcee Hastings (Fla.) – Intelligence
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 6%
Would-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) would likely snub Intelligence ranking member Jane Harman (Calif.) and appoint Hastings, a former federal district court judge who was impeached and removed from the bench by Congress for corruption and perjury.

6. Rep. Tom Lantos (Calif.) – International Relations
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 8%
During the Reagan Administration, Lantos opposed funding for the Contras and pushed for a nuclear freeze. He is a supporter of the International Criminal Court and opposed President Bush’s abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

5. Rep. John Dingell (Mich.) – Energy and Commerce
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 12%
Dingell’s record of opposing drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and off the coasts of the U.S. and his support for higher CAFE standards would make him a dangerous anti-energy Energy chairman.

4. Rep. David Obey (Wis.) – Appropriations
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 10%
A classic big-spending Democrat, Obey opposed an attempt to cut $58 billion in mandatory spending and last year’s final budget that held discretionary spending to $843 billion and made room for $70 billion in tax cuts. He supports using tax dollars to pay for congressional campaigns.

3. Rep. Charlie Rangel (N.Y.) – Ways and Means
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 4%
Rangel has opposed income-tax cuts since he was elected in 1970, including the historic Reagan cuts of 1981 and each of the Bush tax cuts. He supported Clinton’s record tax increase and would likely push for higher taxes and allow the Bush cuts to expire.

2. Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.) – Government Reform
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 5%
A far-left Hollywood Democrat, Waxman has demanded multiple investigations of the Bush Administration and would lead them as chairman (though he opposed a probe of former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger for stealing classified documents).

1. Rep. John Conyers (Mich.) – Judiciary
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 5%
Conyers has already called for an impeachment investigation of President Bush, and his staff produced a report outlining charges that “clearly rise to the level of impeachment.” With a Chairman Conyers, watch for Bush to face an impeachment inquiry.

Top 10 Worst Democrat Senate Chairmen in Waiting

Ranked by the editors of HUMAN EVENTS.

If Democrats are successful in taking over the Senate this November, congressional committees would lurch to the left with Democrat majorities and far-left chairmen. Here are the 10 senators who would inflict the most liberal damage.

10. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) – Energy and Natural Resources
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 13%

The quiet Sen. Bingaman, who is consistently wrong on issues ranging from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Kyoto Protocol climate-change requirements, would be dangerous for American energy policy.

9. Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.) – Budget
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 20%

One of the Senate’s biggest class-warfare bloviators, Conrad has consistently argued against tax cuts and was a leading opponent of the early Bush budgets that provided tax relief for American families.

8. Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) – Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 5%

Kerry voted against the Bush tax cuts, opposes repealing the Death Tax and supports hiking the minimum wage. His chairmanship would be a disaster for America’s small businesses.

7. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va) – Intelligence
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 10%

Rockefeller is demanding a full-scale investigation of how America was “lied into” the war in Iraq and has been a vocal opponent of the NSA’s surveillance of international phone calls.

6. Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) – Foreign Relations
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 14%

Biden, a self-absorbed know-it-all on every international issue, has been one of the most outspoken critics of UN Ambassador John Bolton and a repeated advocate of appeasing America’s enemies.

5. Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.) – Armed Services
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 7%

Levin, who supported Clinton’s Kosovo raids but opposed the Iraq War, has repeatedly accused the Bush Administration of misleading the U.S. into war. He has been a long-time opponent of Missile Defense.

4. Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) – Environment and Public Works
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 3%

A global-warming alarmist and Kyoto Protocol supporter, the ultra-liberal Boxer is sure to advocate a far-left environmentalist agenda for this committee.

3. Sen. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) – Health, Educations, Labor and Pensions
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 3%

Liberal lion Kennedy would use the leadership post on the HELP Committee to push his leftist social ideas on such issues as stem-cell research, minimum wage and the federal role in education.

2. Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) – Appropriations
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 30%

Byrd is the Senate’s most senior member and the king of pork. He has never seen a tax dollar he couldn’t spend and would likely lead the way to even larger federal deficits.

1. Sen. Pat Leahy (Vt.) – Judiciary
Lifetime American Conservative Union Rating: 6%

A leading obstructionist of President Bush’s judicial nominees, Leahy and committee Democrats would see to it that no conservative nominee to the Supreme Court or other vital post on the federal bench would be confirmed.

Chris Shays- When Liberals Attack

Photo: Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., left, embraces Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., on Capitol Hill on February 14, 2002 prior to a news conference to discuss campaign finance reform.

From Westportnow.com

The New York Times, which two years ago endorsed incumbent Republican Rep. Christopher Shays for re-election in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District over Democratic challenger Diane Farrell, a former Westport first selectwoman, today endorsed Farrell in November’s re-match.

Yes, the Treason Times after endorsing him against the same opponent two years ago, smells blood in the water and is sacrificing one of their useful tools because they sense a real chance at a Dem takeover. Why gnaw at the GOP from within when you can throw them out of power? This should be yet another lesson to any "new tone" RINO. You will have no support in the end.