State GOP Establishments Attack Their Base
Across America, state Republican parties and legislators are pursuing the opponents they most despise with renewed vigor.
You would think that the targets of these efforts are President Barack Obama and Democratic Party officeholders who are hell-bent on turning America into a financially broken, post-constitutional, Washington-controlled playground safe only for crony capitalists and regulators gone wild. You would be wrong.
In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Utah, to name just four, state GOP establishments are laboring mightily to marginalize the millions of constitutional conservatives whose activist energy (but not their outlook) dates back to the beginnings of the Tea Party movement three years ago. By their behavior, it’s clear that those who run many state parties and quite a few incumbent moderate Republican lawmakers are more threatened than pleased at the results of the 2010 elections, when the GOP took back the U.S. House and significantly improved its representation in statehouses and state legislatures. Oh, they’re happy with the majorities they have, and want to pick up control of the U.S. Senate this time around. They just don’t like many of the people who won the races which gave them those majorities, would rather not see any more interlopers come in and try to upset the status quo, and are targeting several newbies for political extinction.
Six-term Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, intent on preventing another coup like the one which ousted incumbent Bob Bennett two years ago at the party’s primary convention, has been Tea Party posing ever since. “Out of the blue,” Hatch, who has been notoriously unreliable on fiscal issues (lifetime Club For Growth score: 74%, which suddenly went to 97% during calendar 2010), has taken an interest in public pension reform. Though he has two conservative challengers, Michelle Malkin noted several months ago that “vendors, pollsters, and campaign literature printers in Utah have all been scared off doing any work” for anyone not named Orrin Hatch.
In Florida, Congressman Allen West, a Tea Party favorite, has seen his name floated as a potential vice presidential nominee. That clearly hasn’t impressed the state’s legislature, which has redrawn West’s district “to include substantially more Democrats within it … many more than other Republican incumbents.” The “inspiration” for this move is state Fepresentative Will Weatherford, who just so happens to be Mitt Romney’s Sunshine State spokesperson. Why am I not surprised? In response, West announced that he will run for “reelection” in a different district.
In heavily Catholic Pennsylvania, Democrat Senator Bob Casey is extremely vulnerable, both for generally hewing to the Obama agenda and for his support of ObamaCare, which among other things has led to regulations effective next year which would force all hospitals to provide contraceptive services with no conscience exceptions. Sadly, the Keystone State’s GOP, which stuck with Democrat-turned Republican-turned Democrat Arlen Specter for decades while treating conservative stalwart Pat Toomey like a leper, is on track to blow it. Under intense pressure from Governor Tom Corbett, who seems to have forgotten that he owes his job to Tea Party supporters who latched onto his promise not to raise taxes, the party has endorsed Steve Welch over three other far more acceptable contestants. Welch voted for Obama in 2008 and supported Toomey’s far-left U.S. Senate opponent Joe Sestak (4% lifetime Club For Growth rating) in 2010. From all appearances, based on after-the-fact complaints I have read and an advance warning that it would happen from Christopher Friend, the party which opposes “card check” in union organizing failed to hold a secret endorsement ballot.
I hope that Welch’s challengers and their supporters appreciate what they’re up against. They should seriously consider uniting on one candidate, because the state’s party apparatus has surely taken notes on how to fend off status quo disrupters from Kevin DeWine and Ohio’s establishment Republicans. Having more than one candidate besides Welch will virtually guarantee the others’ defeat. Readers will see why shortly.
In 2010, DeWine, chairman of the Buckeye State’s Republican Party (or, as I prefer to call it, ORPINO, the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only), successfully fended off Tea Party-supported primary insurgents in two statewide races. At the same time, he orchestrated a campaign to protect State Central Committee supporters from Tea Party challengers which was so dishonest that it might make even Team Obama blush. It included largely false claims in flyers and ads that ORPINO’s favored candidates had “Tea Party Values,” and dispatching poll watchers throughout the state on Election Day to hand out slate cards supporting the establishment’s statewide ticket and individual Central Committee members.
yes. the emnity of the republican elite to us, however, is no surprise. we know we are directly threatening their power. the dem statists are mainly different from republican statists in that they have a grand vision driving their “fix” for society. since capitalism is the root cause of society’s ills, the solution is to eliminate capital, markets and the “class” of people who participate in them.
the republican elite statists focus on small “fixes” tailored to improve one or a few of society’s ills at a time.
both types of masterminds are natural allies against conservatives who, like our founders, advocate limited government, i.e., the minimum necessary to defend the liberty, life and property of the individual against political or criminal theft. both, in the end, lead to the same thing, tyranny.
Mr. Blumer, sorry to say it, but, there’s nothing left but to allow the whole thing to collapse. It’s one party w/two heads now. The majority of US citizens don’t vote, and of those that do, most are clueless and trapped into the party labels. The only way it has any hope of changing is for an awakening. That is in Gods hands, as I don’t see it happening any other way. If the corruption throughout DC and the States in the last 2 decades hasn’t caused people to wake up, I don’t see what will, short of the loss of their Liberties. Man, that’s a sad thought.
I have read descriptions of the redistricting situation in Florida. This was no hit on West, but a required change. Your descriptions of Ohio and Pennsylvania will have more credibility if you don’t take your positions to the level of a grand conspiracy theory against the establishment.
I’m appalled and find ‘vb’s defense far from defensible. A gullible turncoat worthy of Benedict Arnold. His ilk ought to face the firing squad for betraying the revolution.
So the essence of your post is, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”
“This was no hit on West, but a required change.”
You sound like an operative and a hack. Please post some evidence of your assertion.
Sorry, but the Vichy Republicans will have to prove to the Tea Party they aren’t selling us out again.
I genuinely like Tom, but regards Ohio – there are no clean hands. DeWine and the ORP did everything described in 2010 [and likely even more], however it is now Team Kasich engaging in the politics of personal destruction, tearing the grassroots apart and putting forth faux TP candidates who have been hand picked by Kasich staffers
All Ohio Republicans have heard the rumors about DeWine’s lack of support for Kasich in 2010, but they forget to mention that it was Kevin DeWine who asked the Central Committee to suspend the rules and endorse Kasich early so his campaign would have access to party resources; the supposed emails and memos to the contrary have never been produced but have taken on the stature of most urban legends.
This is an unnecessary and probably unwinnable fight – to replace ORP Chair the challengers will have to achieve 44 [out of 66] sure votes, suspend the rules and finally put forth a candidate to replace the current chair.
Both sides have apparently decided protecting their lobbyist buddies [Issue 2 was described as the "protect Columbus lobbyists issue"] are more important than defeating Sen Sherrod Brown and Pres Obama
The Ohio GOP establishment is playing other games as well. We’ve got a solid candidate in Bill Yarbrough, trying to bump Pat Tiberi from the Ohio 12th District. It’s got Mr. Tiberi running scared and the GOP establishment playing dirty tricks.
When Mr. Yarbough filed in November, he was clearly within the district, but the Repubs redrew the lines and suddenly Yarbrough is 400 yards outside the district for which he is running.
Then the Chair of the Delaware County GOP filed complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission against Bill on behalf of the Tiberi campaign saying Bill was a member of the Tea Party and therefore could not run in the primary as a Republican. This was done specifically so they could claim a case is pending in the attack ads Tiberi has started running. It was a political stunt – the charge was dismissed by the Ohio Elections Commission If you’re a TEA party member, or you challenge Tiberi, look out!
The attack ads further challenge Bill’s party loyalty because he once ran for a State Senate position as a third party candidate to learn the ropes, even though he has voted for our own personal RINO – Tiberi – everytime he has run.
This why I will support individual candidates and issues, but NOT the Republican Party!
Well, Tom, this is why I and a whole lot of other TEA party folks are running for the State and County Central Committees. I am running in the 16th district (western Franklin County), against the former Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Michael Colley. Two years ago I ran and the Franklin County Republican Party sent flyers to exhorting people to support Colley.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it will take a while for TEA party to gain control of the state funding machines. But when it does, it will make a significant positive difference in the everyday life of citizens.
Yes!
That’s the only way to bring about change.
Illinois repugs did the same redistricting thing to Joe Walsh.
Same people who gave Obama his senate seat by running that ridiculous carpetbagger.
I have been repeating this message in various threads, but unfortunately it is still appropriate. Very few conservatives understand just how much the GOP establishment hates conservatives. If they did understand, they would simply quit voting GOP and start their own party.
A buddy of mine started getting interested in local politics back in 1996 in Sarpy County, Nebraska (just outside of Omaha). He relayed an interesting story to me. He was attending a Republican meeting — caucus? sorry I don’t know the precise term — and all of a sudden, there was a hubbub going on at the door, with lots of folks in the audience hissing.
My buddy asked the lady sitting next to him, “What’s going on here?”
She snarled in response, “The ‘conservatives’ want a seat.” I guess maybe they may have been evangelicals as well, but don’t exactly recall.
Bear in mind: they were hissing and snarling at the very folks they expected to show up at the polls and vote the party line, at the very folks at whom they aim their money-raising solicitations. And this wasn’t some great Northeast bastion of liberalism, but Omaha By-God Nebraska; in the middle of the map of Middle America, Omaha is the bull’s eye.
There are two big-government parties in America, the difference between the two being that one of them, every election year, has to pretend to be a small-government party. A Democrat is never more sincere than when he says he wants to increase the size and power of Washington; a Republican is never less sincere than when he says he wants to diminish it.
Well, it always helps to be ignorant and paranoid to advance a conspiracy theory, but in my experience the “true conservatives” never show up for precinct meetings, can’t win elections to district committees or to state conventions, and show up en masse demanding to “have a seat” because they’re so damned wonderful and important with their ten percent of the electorate – on a good day.
I watched “true conservatives” give a liberal Democrat the governorship of my state for two terms because a decent, fiscally conservative but socially moderate businessman – in a fundamentally libertarian state – didn’t meet their exalted expectations, so they ran a hopeless Third Party and elected the liberal Democrat. I’ve watched the Sarah Palin contingent try repeatedly to actually win an election to Republican Party office and fail over and over. She won the governorship by running AGAINST Republicans and with Democrat and NP support; Republicans voted for John Binckley or Frank Murkowski in the Primary and only held their nose and voted for the Black Widow in the General. I watched Sarah Palin over and over say she wouldn’t oppose Senator Murkowski and then put up her proxy, Joe Miller, and arrange his “Tea Party” financing. When your campaign hallmark is pictures of tubby bearded guys walking in parades with AK-47s slung over their shoulders and a Glock in a thigh holster on their fat thighs, you ain’t gonna’ make it with anyone anyhow. And don’t give me any 2nd Amendment crap; I know you have the right to do it, but you also have the right to have some sense. I’ve seen my State Senate go from solidly Republican to a Democrat controlled coalition because the “true conservatives” couldn’t get their way and destroyed perfectly reliable caucus Republicans.
Many, many years ago I was your basic Southern Democrat. Like most Southerners, I thought FDR and the New Deal were a pretty good thing, and like most Southerners of the ’50s and ’60s with a little education, I thought that segregation was a relic to be discarded and the violent redneck image was something to put behind us, so I stayed a Democrat into adulthood and even after I went “North to the Future.” And then, when I was the head of the Committee on Political Education of the Anchorage Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO, those are pretty good Democrat bona fides, I found myself surrounded by leftover SDS’ers and other brands of ’60s communists taking over the Party and forcing all us “old conservatives” out. Of course, they then lost every statewide office in the State and at the National level lost election after election and even lost the Congress that they’d held for almost fifty years all in pursuit of ideological purity.
Now we on the Republican side are doing the same thing to ourselves. Sorry, you self-styled “true conservatives” can’t win an election outside the rural areas of the Country. You can’t get enough votes to put yourselves in charge of any state Republican Party, so you can’t just storm the door and demand a seat. Maybe you do need your own party so you can fight it out about who’s the “true conservative,” but you’re going to have to ally with the Republicans to have any power because you sure as Hell ain’t going to be able to ally with the Democrats on much. Nobody since Reagan has been able to define “conservative” or come up with any unifying principle other than “not Democrat.” We need to settle that argument and find a definition for the Party, but more than that, we need to defeat the communists who’ve taken over our Country, and this may be the last election in which it can be done.
“You conservative nutjobs can’t win, so we can’t possible let you try!”
Said the conservative hating party insider. If you read Redstate, you might remember the giant fit this fellow pitched when Murkowski lost the primary.
If you’d passed reading comprehension you might have seen all the warnings I’d posted to Erick and his puppies that Miller was a nutjob who might well cost the seat when they were backing him in the primary. Miller’s narrow win in the primary was a fluke brought on by a very low turnout in an otherwise almost uncontested Primary. There were only a couple of seats in the Legislature at issue, the was no real contest for either Party’s nominee for Governor, and Murkowski was safely ahead in double digits by most accounts two weeks out, so nobody paid any attention and nobody much voted. Except that there was a ballot initiative on parental notice to parents of underage females seeking an abortion and the SoCons were paying attention. Alaska has a Bible Belt that roughly runs along the roads from Wasilla to the Fairbanks suburbs, east to Tok, south to Glenallen and west back to Palmer Wasilla; if you’re driving there, once you lose the ANC or FAI radio stations, you’d best like to listen to Gospel and religious talk or have an iPod. Miller carried all the districts on those roads and a couple in ANC proper and Murkowski won all the other districts but not by enough to overcome the 4000 vote lead he carried out of the interior districts. The bulk of Alaskans woke up the next morning saw what had happened and said, “Oh, my God!”
I didn’t pitch a fit. I told them that if the Ds substituted someone with statewide name ID for their unknown candidate, they would win the seat and once again “true conservative” backing would cost Alaska a Republican seat as well as all of its accrued seniority as had been the case when RS endorsed Begich over Stevens despite my warnings that the prosecution was a sham and the “true conservatives” here went to the Constitution Party. The 10K votes that went to the Constitution Party candidate would have kept the seat in Republican hands. You might recall that the conviction of Sen. Stevens was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.
When Lisa announced the write-in run, I posted a diary in which I told them that I couldn’t follow RS’ policy of only supporting the Republican nominee and consequently I was not going to post there any longer. Erick’s puppy Leon decided to be a big man and make a big show of banning me. You can search their archives for diaries and posts by “achance” and see for yourself. My diariers there routinely had 20-40 reccomenders and went to the top of the recommended list and had dozens and often hundreds of comments. They’ve now banned practically every popular diarist most of whom gather at “United Patriots” and at a Google group we the banned along with a few of our friends have.
As to Murkowski, I think appointing her destroyed Frank’s administration and I know it dictated our labor relations policy from the outset through the ’04 General Election. We really had only one policy goal and that was to keep the unions under contract so they wouldn’t have thousands of State employees whipped up to a frenzy to go vote for Tony Knowles for the Senate seat AFSCME had spent millions to try to get. We would have wanted to do that anyway but it would have been one Helluva lot easier had Frank not made such an unpopular decision. In Frank’s defense he was confronted with appointing probably John Binckley or Sarah Palin and whichever one he didn’t appoint was going to hate him and spur their supporters to do so as well. He gave Sarah one of the cushiest patronage jobs the State had to try to keep her quiet again bringing down all sorts of heat on himself because she was so unqualified for the AOGCC the Republican controlled Legislature passed a bill, known by all around the Capitol as the “No More Sarah Palins Bill,” setting qualifications for AOGCC Commissioners. Then, as the World knows, she pulled her stunt of ratting out Randy Ruedrich over alleged political activity on Commission time and became every Democrat and the Anchorage Daily News’ favorite Republican. Along the way she’s tried unsuccessfully both personally and through her proxy Miller to take over the Republican Party of Alaska and ran her proxy Miller against Lisa Murkowski. Suffice it to say that there’s not a lot of love in Alaska Republican circles for Sarah Palin and the “true conservatives” that like her.
> Suffice it to say that there’s not a lot of love in Alaska Republican circles for Sarah Palin and the “true conservatives” that like her.
Well, since the RNC supported Arlen Specter, Dede Scozzafava, Mike Castle, Charlie Crist, and (based on your fulminations) and Murkowski, it’s questionable whether the RNC is a conservative of any sort, “true” or faux.
But the challenges against Republican incumbents from the Right had, really, little to do with winning elections. That we won a fair number of them is great. But the real reason is party discipline. The establishment GOP is always reminding conservatives that we’re a coalition and that we can’t always get what we want. Fair enough. But the establishment GOP needs to remember the same thing. They don’t throw us a bone once in a while, we get grumpy.
And times have changed. We could turn a blind eye in times past to Republican pork-barreling and snout-in-the-trough careerism, before our national debt was $16 trillion and counting. We now face an existential threat, and apparently this is news to the GOP.
@trombone – The RNC nor state Parties should take sides in a Primary absent some undeniably bad act by an incumbent. It is the Party’s job to protect and support incumbents unless they have clearly engaged in some bad act. Being disliked by a faction or being attacked by the media or the Democrats IS NOT a bad act, in fact I consider it a recommendation.
The catechism is that America is a center-right country, and that is probably true, but it is far more center than right. Admittedly those words are imprecise and actually have a more European than American meaning. America is a moderate Country leaning conservative if conservative is defined as resisting radical ideas and sudden change. American really functions on the Burkean notion of consent of the governed; only when some idea has the acceptance of at least the majority but preferably the mass of the people will the Country willingly accept that idea. That’s why the neither the radical left nor the radical right have ever really gotten a purchase.
Most self-identifying conservatives I’ve met in Republican politics are not conservatives at all; they are activists seeking to use government to order things to their liking. In my once Reddest of Red States, before Sarah Palin anyway, you could not pass a ballot measure outlawing abortion, but neither could you pass one making it legal on demand. Marajuana for personal use was sanctioned by the SC here on privacy grounds, made illegal by citizens initiative, and once again legalized in at least part of the State by the courts, but when put to the democratic test, it failed. We’ve fought back and forth over abortion but we’ve never voted to make it legal on demand nor would the people vote to outlaw it. That’s what a center-right res publica looks like though Alaska is much more secular and libertarian than some Southern states.
Fundamentally, the Republican Party seeks to establish a coalition ranging from the center to the right; it is not the conservative party nor the libertarian party, though it tries to accomodate both and certainly is friendlier to both than are the communists, er, excuse me, Democrats. And yes, I stick by it; social conservatives couldn’t carry more than 10% of the districts in the Country any more than radical leftists could carry any districts outside the Bluest cities and college towns. Fiscal conservatives can carry a far broader constituency and can often reach from the most conservative well into the more liberal constituencies; everybody with a spouse, kids, and a mortgage understands fiscal conservatism, at least in their own lives.
I’ve paid my dues and worked my way through. Sorry, I’m just not very receptive to people I’ve never seen before showing up and saying “we’re the real Republican Party and we’re taking over now.”
I’ve paid my dues and worked my way through. Sorry, I’m just not very receptive to people I’ve never seen before showing up and saying “we’re the real Republican Party and we’re taking over now.”
Well, Art, that’s a damned shame you feel that way, but it’s nice to see you admit it. You’ve ‘paid your dues’; you’re a paying Team R Big Club Member, and you, and your ilk, are therefore responsible for screwing up this nation almost as much as have the Team D LeftLibProggs who’ve also paid their dues (but are much more effective than you can dream of ever becoming). It seems to me that you and your fellow Team R sorts have failed to keep the much-vaunted ‘center’ correctly centered. What you’ve done, you soft GOP Establishment wanna-be elites, is allow the Center to drift to far-left, by giving in to the weak-tea Crists and Murkowskis far too much, over these failing years. You needed some TEA Party ‘bark’, but instead of embracing their fire you’ve given ground to the Left, incrementally, and by doing so you’ve allowed the GOP to become little more than a Club for sentimental hangers-on, like yourself. Weak, soft, and failed.
It’s time to stir up the GOP pot. Past time really; you GOP’ers who defend the status quo are as much an enemy to the TEA Party, and to the survival of this Nation, as are the far-Left Democrats.
Get ready for real CHANGE.
Well, when the self-styled true conservatives and the tubby bearded guys marching in 4th of July Parades with an AK slung over their back show me that they can do something other than f*(k up an anvil with a toothpick, we might have something to talk about. Sarah Palin was instrumental in electing Mark Begich (D-Alaska). Sarah Palin and Joe Miller and some Outside bunch of nuts almost cost another Republican seat and basically made Lisa Murkowski into a free agent; she damned well don’t owe the Party or the Tea Party anything and can do as she pleases. Nevada was ready for Anybody But Reid and a bunch of effin’ nuts served up the one person the gaming industry couldn’t abide. Maryland could have given us another Senate seat and a bunch of effin’ nuts served up another effin’ nut and gave the seat to an avowed Marxist.
If you’ll look at my history on various boards, I’m on the record with my problems with the Rotary Club Republicans. Hell, I could be sitting in a pretty cushy, or at least well-paying, appointment right now except when I saw that nobody had any stomach for what had to be done or for the kind of person who could do it, I ran as fast as I could and shouted back at them, “let me know how all that turns out.” That said, the answer isn’t the “repeal everything since TR crowd,” the American people really, really like most of that stuff and the people that don’t can only act as a brake unless you can get out there and get elected to Party office, form a party that can get on ballots, or get yourselves elected. The people you all so much want to hate are the people who’ve shown the ability to get 50% + 1 to vote for them; none of the people doing the complaining have ever done that. When you’ve gotten yourself elected or appointed to ANYTHING, let’s talk.
> The RNC nor state Parties should take sides in a Primary absent some undeniably bad act by an incumbent. It is the Party’s job to protect and support incumbents unless they have clearly engaged in some bad act. Being disliked by a faction or being attacked by the media or the Democrats IS NOT a bad act, in fact I consider it a recommendation.
You’ve just explained why I no longer give money to the RNC. I think it’s the Party’s job to forward ideals, not incumbents. You see their job as seeking to elect self-described Republicans, no matter what their record. That’s what led the RNC to support Arlen Specter.
> The people you all so much want to hate are the people who’ve shown the ability to get 50% + 1 to vote for them; none of the people doing the complaining have ever done that. When you’ve gotten yourself elected or appointed to ANYTHING, let’s talk.
How about working for your money? Before we know whether conservative ideas can win in the electoral marketplace, these ideas must be presented, fought for, defended. How are you planning to do that with Mitt Romney? Same way as Bush?
And if we do win a nomination, promise not to torpedo us the way Rove did O’Donnell? Fat chance.
Why don’t you just admit that the GOP establishment would rather lose an election with a moderate than win it with a conservative?
10%? Puh-leeze. The GOP spends every campaign season blowing kisses toward the Right and invoking Reagan’s name like it’s sacred for a mere 10%? Sell that to Jon Corzine, apparently he’ll buy anything. If that were true, I would not just report that the GOP hates conservatives, I’d also advise it. But conservatives, as self-defined anyway, comprise the largest ideological block of voters in the country. But I’m guessing you already know that.
And thanks for confirming my thesis. Conservatives, this is what the GOP thinks of you. I, for one, plan to vote accordingly.
Three Words; H. Ross Perot.
They still have not learned the lesson of “Read My Lips.”
For years I worked with a guy who called every pot hole in the road a Sheffield. This went on through Cowper, Hickel, Knowles, but when Murkowski became governor, the potholes became Murkowskies. That pretty well sums up my feelings about Frank baby. And if you put lipstick on a rino, it’s still going to be Lisa.
I agree that this election is the last chance. There’s one problem that needs to be solved and all the others become manageable. It’s the elephant in the room nobody talks about very loud. They don’ talk very loud because both parties are guilty. That elephant is corruption. Will we ever get entitlements under control, if we don’t control corruption? I don’t think so. Afterall what are entitlements except a way for corrupt politicians to buy votes.
I don’t know how far up the ladder Fast and Furious reaches. If it doesn’t reach to Holder, he’s certainly putting on an excellent guilty act. If things reach to Holder they almost certainly reach to you know who. Given the charges that could come out of this and the penalties involved, I’m assuming these guys are playing for all marbles. I would be.
For what has been done to our freedom over the last fifty years, I think the American people deserve a crucifixion. Luckily there may be a Messiah available.
And here in MA, when the head of our state republican party’s personal contributions were examined it was found the he only contributes to democrat candidates. Republican party is broken and cannot be fixed. The USA truly needs a second party. The republican party operates as the slightly less liberal arm of the democrat party.
And to quote Mort Sahl, “If you give the people a choice between a Democrat and a Democrat, they’re going to choose the Democrat every time.”
An essential name is missing from your piece: Bush.
Ronald Reagan’s worst decision may have been to help the Bushes attain power.
The same thing happened in Missouri, where a former Ambassador marshaled the St Louis Establishment to drive out a Tea Party conservative from an open House seat. They tried to buy off Tea Party support with promises of jobs and eventually threats, all the while complaining that anyone would dare run against them.
The only remaining candidate is known for calling conservatives “stamp licking peons” for daring to thwart Bob Dole in the 1996 caucuses.
I SAY IT’S TIME TO RETURN FAVOR: Not vote for Romney and start (or split the Republican Party into-conservatives and squid).
Probably not in the fall, but soon thereafter, it may be time for the tea-party to purge the RINO’s and let them try and win an election on their own. After what our elected officials, in the House,have done for us, we have a lot of work to do, as far as removing RINO’s from there too. Boehner is from Ohio which, after reading these comments explains everything. He won’t support the tea party,or their ideals, he’ll just take the power they allowed him to have.
TIme for new leadership in the House and the Senate.
An extraordinarily well-written and powerful piece, full of hard facts. A real eye-opener. Thank you for bringing this to light. The news is disturbing.
I support Romney only because there is no viable alternative and O must go. I am no fan of the GOP establishment. Here in New York, the GOP is weak and ineffective, they induce many an eye-roll. But I have always said that the Tea Party will grow. They tried to kill it in its cradle, but failed. This is significant. It will take years for it to build the kind of infrastructure enjoyed by the entenched GOP.
It may be as much about one’s job or title as much as it is the level of conservative commitment. In a perfect world, we’d think the goal of righting the country would be the most important. Thus, it is not always the case.
Six-term Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, intent on preventing another coup like the one which ousted incumbent Bob Bennett two years ago at the party’s primary convention, has been Tea Party posing ever since
I’m not seeing how that constitutes an “attack” on the Tea Party or an attempt to “marginalize” ir. Isn’t it a good thing if Hatch moves right?
The “inspiration” for this move is state Fepresentative Will Weatherford, who just so happens to be Mitt Romney’s Sunshine State spokesperson. Why am I not surprised?
You think that Romney ordered Weatherford to get rid of West? That’s simply nuts. Redrawing the district maps was mandatory. As the new kid, West got the short end of the straw. That’s life. No crazy conspiracy theory is neccessary to explain it.
“As the new kid, West got the short end of the straw.”
And not the Dems? Apparently there’s been a lot of musical chairs going on to straighten things out.
As to Utah, Hatch’s recent move to the right doesn’t look genuine. My understanding (couldn’t find enough detail to put into the column) is also that the party made some attempt to do something about how the state party’s nominating convention is organized to better protect incumbents. And I made the point that the word has gone out to vendors not to do any work with Hatch challengers.
And those getting the short end of the straw always seem to be conservatives, don’t they? Funny how that works…
Tom, your desciption of events in Ohio is quite one-sided. Kasich is basically trying to purge the party chair who lead the party to a huge win. That would be a tough lift at any time but is especially so for a governor who is the least popular state wide elected official. Kasich is looking over his shoulder at Husted because Husted is a lot more popular than him. My view is that Kasich should concentrate on doing a better job as governor, repass at least the popular parts of SB5, and things will work out ok.
I guess erasing a projected $5 billion deficit without a tax increase in an economy which at the national level hasn’t exactly recovered doesn’t impress you. What would?
“it’s clear that those who run many state parties and quite a few incumbent moderate Republican lawmakers are more threatened than pleased at the results of the 2010 elections, when the GOP took back the U.S. House and significantly improved its representation in statehouses and state legislatures.”
That’s because most politicians, both Democratic and Republican, want their voters fat, dumb, and stupid. They don’t want them to read, let alone do any research into the issues that matter the most to our country these days. And the politicians certainly do NOT want the people to do “silly” things like read the Constitution or actually attend town hall meetings. No, what a “waste” of time that would be, right?
Politicians in both parties have had it so soft for so many years. In a country where barely 50% of the population votes in an election, politicians bank on the fact that you are stupid and get most of your information from television commercials. In a country where most people can’t name either the vice president, their own senator or congressman, let alone who the Speaker of the House is (fat chance to that), politicians want you to get all of your news from Jay Leno, David Letterman, or Jon Stewart. A very few voters will also have their political views shaped by the mainstream media and, well, we all know who they are going to support (and it sure ain’t the Republicans).
That’s why the Tea Parties scare politicians to death. The Tea Parties showed all politicians that people CAN read, they ARE smart, and that they DO take an interest in who is governing them. Not only that, they actually have a copy of the constitution and are fond of referring to it when making a point. To a politician, that alone is like showing a cross to a vampire. And to make things even worse for conventional politicians, the Tea Parties only elected people who swore they would actually do what the people elected them for, which was to cut taxes, cut spending, and reduce the size of government.
That’s why the Tea Parties have to go. They stand in the way of the RINOs and the liberal Democratic politicians to continue growing the size of government. Remember, you are talking to politicians who have made politics a business, and if anybody is seen elbowing in to their territory, they need to be destroyed. Just like the Union leaders at SEIU can’t stand the fact that some states actually do NOT want unions running their governments. Just ask the governor of Wisconsin how safe it is to take on the unions for the benefit of his own state and his own people.
But what the politicians always forget is that there are Americans out there who do take an interest in who’s governing them and that there are people who do take in interest in how our government is run and how our money is spent. Remember, folks, the politicians work for us, not the other way around. We DO have a say in the matter and the elections of 2010 made that point very, very, clear. But what we need to do now is keep up the pressure. Nobody said this struggle would be short or easy. When you go into a den of thieves, don’t be surprised if they want to fight back when you try to throw them out. We can do it. It takes patience, strength, and a lot of character, three things that Americans fortunately have a lot of. We will show Washington that we can make a difference by electing the people who actually do represent us, and not themselves.
So be of good cheer, America. Vote this November and keep the Tea Parties close to your hearts. We will continue the struggle, if not for anything else just to educate the public on what is actually going on in Washington. Together we can certainly make a difference, just like we did in 2010. Don’t let anybody tell you your vote doesn’t matter because, as always, that’s what the life-long professional politicians want you to believe. And even if we don’t get the perfect Republican president, if we can hold on to the House and get the Senate as well, that will be a lot. And the Democrats know it.
I don’t know any longer, Tom.
Please tell me ahead of time which of these Republicans are unacceptable and which are acceptable.
And…what CONSISTENT criteria we can use to judge, not after the fact “principles of convenience”.
Chris Christie? Nikki Haley? Susana Martinez? Marco Rubio? Allen West? John Thune? Tim Pawlenty? Eric Cantor? Bobby Jindal? Haley Barbour? Rick Perry? Newt Gingrich? Mitt Romney? Kristi Noem? John Kasich? Ann Coulter? Charles Krauthammer? Brit Hume? Rich Lowry? Our host, Roger Simon? Ace of Spades? Allahpundit? The guys at NRO? The folks at Commentary? Stephen Green? Ed Driscoll? Ron Radosh? Rick Santorum? Mark Steyn? Mitch Daniels? Paul Ryan?
By the standards of what purity would you throw all of them out of YOUR “Republican Party”.
Since at one time or another I have heard folks who seem to have the code book on this “RINO and pundit” offender catalog include EVERYONE in the above paragraph…please let us know what qualifies and what disqualifies each.
Former Democrat pal and endorser…person who advances their causes? Get rid of Perry and Gingrich out of the gates.
Votes inconsistently and supports suspiciously on “Democratic” issues? Dump Santorum and Christie.
Has some amorphous and ambiguous “squishy” attitudes toward social issues? Get rid of EVERY author with a by-line here at PJM. They are all center right, but live and let live on social issues from what I can tell.
Frankly, there is NO Republican Party without the center-right. At all. In America.
If you want to throw them out of the party, you have no party. If that’s fine with you…if you wish to form a DIFFERENT party…then, maybe it’s time.
Form a party of righteous purity, where nobody who differs from lockstep fealty is welcome. You will mirror the Democratic Party, who are throwing out their “squishes”…the Blue Dogs.
And you will eliminate virtually all of those listed who are the future of the Republican Party. Go for it.
Split off and form your own party. You will have all the loudest and angriest voices.
Probably could steal away some of the Ron Paul neo-nazi thunderings…or maybe form a coalition party, if you can buy into the isolationist, blame America mindset. Not likely you would get West, Jindal, Haley, Cantor, Rubio, Martinez to buy into the Jew hating, black hating, Hispanic hating of the Ron Paul newsletter crowd, however.
And, you aren’t going to garner the votes of the center-right…which makes up the LARGEST bloc.
So…throw out ALL the “squishy” middle you so despise.
You form your own party, they form their own party. The “establishment” and all the best center-right thinkers in the “punditry”.
Who wins ultimately in that scenario?
America? Clearly not.
Your pure party? I would bet heavily against it.
This mentality of blaming some mythical “establishment” and some tinfoil hat “conspiracy” by the “punditry” with them…is sour grapes mixed with pixie dust.
You can’t name a standard by which someone is acceptable until after the fact. And, if virtually EVERYONE in the REPUBLICAN PARTY is unacceptable who is currently IN or WRITING IN SUPPORT OF the Republican Party because they are too center right for you…then who is the Republican In Name Only…the ones who make up virtually everyone…or those who don’t?
We either have to build this bridge or burn it. From the loudest and angriest voices agreeing with you…they are shouting “burn it!!!”
Your choice.
Either way, so be it.
Uh, excuse me.
The column is about the unwillingness of the establishment to accept anyone who won’t do the go-along, get-along routine.
Sensible conservatives have bent plenty of times, and for decades have usually not gone after RINOs unless they crossed certain lines. Mike DeWine on ANWR and Gang of 14 was a big problem for me, but after a 2006 primary during which the ORP sent out a stalking horse candidate to marginalize a legitimate challenger, I still voted for DeWine against Sherrod Brown. I have no doubt that if the insurgent candidate had pulled off the long-shot upset, the ORP would have pretended he didn’t exist and guaranteed his loss (if properly funded and promoted, he would have had a better shot in the general than DeWine, even in 2006).
It’s the establishment that’s applying the litmus tests and acting like children, cfb.
This leads to potentially the biggest problem of them all, which is that the GOP establishment and its pundit class constitute the sorest of sore losers. They have expected genuine conservatives to swallow their pride for decades and vote for moderate squishes who were in some ways barely better than their Democratic brethren (e.g., John McCain, Bob Dole, and Gerald Ford nationally, as well as more state and local candidates than one can hope to count). But as was the case in 1980 with Ronald Reagan, it appears that there is no establishment desire to reciprocate and provide meaningful resources to the winners if their people lose, starting with Mitt Romney and his acolytes at the national level and moving on down from there — even if it leads to Barack Obama’s reelection.
Here’s my problem with conflating the state level argument against a single scumbag, and trying to impute that to a broader “establishment and pundit class” argument.
I buy the one-off argument against the scumbag in Ohio. I do NOT buy the “establishment and pundit class” argument. Eric Cantor has been in John Boehner’s grill…their staffs can barely stand to be in the same room together. Which one is the “establishment”?
How about Daniels? Christie? Paul Ryan?
Who is the GOP “pundit class” and what have they opined about the scumbag in Ohio?
The “expansion” of the argument is where it loses potency. If you had held fast to the exposure of Kasich’s enemies in Ohio…you had me. And…I would have carried that message far and wide. Tried to help you blow it wide open.
Once you lumped in the argument about “establishment and pundit class”, you lost me. I believe it’s a myth. Sour grapes and pixie dust.
It’s Gingrichery sleight of hand. HE needs it…because he’s running as one third-Reagan torch bearer, one third-McCain anti-”establishment” “maverick”, and one third-Obama, magical transformer and big idea carny barker.
But nobody with a lick of sense is buying this nonsense about an “establishment/punditry” cabal that “controls” voters with their voodoo.
I want to hear MORE about the scumbag in Ohio, that interests me. And, I would like to help Kasich crush that.
I want to hear LESS about some mythical group of unicorns and voodoo pixie dust controlling national voting patterns.
The (national) establishment argument is largely based on how we’ve been fed the Romney “inevitability” meme since October. The establishment includes the politicians and the donor base.
It’s a little old (Dec. 2010), but there was a poll indicating that a lot of Romney supporters would go to Obama if Romney’s not the nominee, which indicates that RINOs despise those on their right far more than those on their left.
The pundit class would include Ann Coulter, who seems to have lost her mind (three Cheers for RomneyCare?), National Review, and a whole lot of others who are so nonchalantly betraying what they said were their principles … for exactly what?
Eric Cantor has been in John Boehner’s grill…their staffs can barely stand to be in the same room together. Which one is the “establishment”?
What makes you think they cannot both be? Just because they occasionally lock horns with each other does not mean they cannot hate the GOP base as well. Maybe if they had membership cards, snazzy T-shirts saying OFFICIAL GOP ESTABLISHMENT DARK OVERLORD, and met in a double-secret Star Chamber you would be convinced.
Once you lumped in the argument about “establishment and pundit class”, you lost me. I believe it’s a myth. Sour grapes and pixie dust.
It’s Gingrichery sleight of hand.
Really? Gingrich’s fault? I thought you didn’t believe in conspiracies. At any rate, we can do a little state-by-state look. Just try to convince yourself that GOP political leaders often hate the base and work to pull the party to the far Left:
1. Florida: the GOP bigwigs in Washington endorsed Charlie Crist in the primary and sent him money – something almost unheard of.
2. Texas: David Dewhurst is being promoted by the Texas GOP party at the expense of Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz.
3. New York: When Republican Congressman Bill Owens stepped down to join the Obama administration, the state & local GOP bigwigs chose to nominate the far-Left Dede Scozzofava rather than hold a primary that she would certainly lose. Scozofava (endorsed by Gingrich BTW) ended up endorsing the Democrat to the expense of the Conservative Party candidate. “ACORN Dede” now occupies a sinecure in the Cuomo administration.
There are more, but you get the picture. Or maybe not. Regardless of what you think, there is a loathing of the base by the GOP establishment which pulls as many dirty tricks as it can to keep conservative out.
Well, if it’s that important to you I recommend you find a Tea Party and surrender as quickly as possible.
Oh- was that not how you had taht worked out? Too bad. Bend and spread ‘em, or watch the Democrats win.
I always vote for the second worst candidate.
When ever good things happen in government, they happen because of the middle.
I know YOU won’t understand this, but there are others who will read this that will.
By the standards of what purity would you throw all of them out of YOUR “Republican Party”.
Enough with the “Purity Test” nonsense.
No one is looking for a Purity Test. They are looking for a Loyalty Test.
They want the people they vote for to represent them to Actually Represent Them!
They want a candidate who’s first loyalty is to the people who actually went into the voting booth and pulled the lever with their name on it. Not to Washington and the Status Quo – Or, more importantly, to the current meme being given by the Talking Heads and the Sunday Shows.
Chris Christy is NO Conservative in my book. But he’s putting the people who elected him FIRST and FOREMOST in everything he does. LOYALTY!
George H.W. Bush said the right things, he even did some of the right things, but when it came to a showdown, H.W. Bush sold out the people who voted for him and was Loyal to Washington D.C. H. Ross Perot would have been a 3 Percent footnote in the 92 election had he repeated what he said at the 88 convention to George Mitchel – “READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TAXES!”
Political machines, R or D, do not like it when their status, their deals, and their control of operations are threatened. Expect them to strike back if they suspect even a miniscule loss of power. And since when do you believe anything the party hack politicians promise? They simply are not used to being held accountable and they do not understand the TP movement at all, they just see it as a trend they can try to use to their advantage. Well, get ready, the TP folks are just getting started for 2012, expect to see this movement grow stronger and stronger. And Republican mainstream RINO actors had best take notice.
The Tea Partiers want to not be the party of go along to get along, agreement in the middle, we can compromise people.We no longer can exist as a party and deal with a political opponent grown so far left as to threaten our Constitution,financially ruin the future security and abundance of our children and grandchildren and,put our country in peril from having a reduced military,
and no coherent foreign policy.We are the canary’s in the mine telling the rest of the Republicans that doing business as usual will not work,and will finish us as a country.
I’ve come to the conclusion that “compromise” is one of the most deadly word games in politics followed closely by the new meaning of “tolerance.” The majority of the time when conservatives compromise with the Marxists the Marxists win by incrementalism. Eventually, little by little, the Democrats have met all their expectations and conservatives are left holding an empty bag. The same thing applies to tolerance. The new definition of tolerance is you must now accept that which you believe is wrong or immoral or there is something psychologically or mentally wrong with you. One is now expected to be tolerant towards evil and intolerant towards that which is good. The true tea party conservative knows the difference and is precisely part of the reason that the GOP Political Machine is threatened by them. Give me more hot strong tea please and no sugar.
Warlord,
Did you support Herman Cain’s coherent foreign policy? I don’t recall it being a very important topic.
Although perhaps not as public nor as large, we have some similar issues here in Colorado. The Republican establishment dearly wants to hang onto power while promulgating policies that are anathema to us ideologically conservative voters. Many of us have taken to making contributions to specific candidates rather than the party. It is a dangerous game the GOP plays – opposing the left while losing support on the right.
Tody’s NYT second lead headline:
SEC IS AVOIDING
TOUGH SANCTIONS
FOR LARGE BANKS
And so the aggrandizers continue to rule the roost.
Things will only get worse until we get courageous conservatives to rout the limousine conservatives out of the GOP — OR establish a new party of the people, faithful to the founding legacy — see first half of Federalist No. 57.
IS THERE NO CCONSERVATIVE TO CITE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FONDNESS FOR FUNDRAISERS WITH A $35,800 PRICE OF ADMISSION AS PROOF POSITIVE THAT HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE AGGRANDIZING CLASS? (I cannot expect Mr. Romney to make this point perfectly clear to the American people.)
Amen to this. As I looked out over the sea of white heads at the Pa Republican State Committee meeting I was reminded of the power hungry women at the state Women’s Federation who went out of their way to eliminate any potential threat to their power. After watching this for some years, I resigned as a director and watched as one of those potential leaders had to do an end-around to the National Federation to achieve some effective action. They endorse and then watch their chosen ones lose elections on both the local and state level.
I get the feeling in 2016 we will have a new party to support, The Tea Party. I’m in!
Well the answer is pretty simple. Start taking over the closest ward nearest you. Generally there are only a few real “party activists” who dominate the organization, if you are truely motivated then you should be able to muster up enough people to get elected and start cleaning house.
As for “teaching the establishment a lesson”, don’t withhold your vote (job one is to ensure Obama is not re elected. Job two is to ensure any local democrat is thrown out of office), but you can withhold your cash. Showing up to vote costs you nothing, as does word of mouth advertizing for the Republican candidate, but not donating and filling the coffers of the “establishment” will hurt them big time.
Putting the two together will ensure a Republican house and Senate come election day (plus State houses, govenorships and even Mayoral and alderman seats), and sets the stage for a longer term overhaul of the GOP starting from the bottom up.
Thucydides,
You are absolutely right. This country has drifted leftward because we let it happen incrementally, bit by bit; and that’s how we will have to take it back.
And another thing…
> Well, it always helps to be ignorant and paranoid to advance a conspiracy theory…
I never attribute to a conspiracy what can be simply explained as a shared attitude.
So stay classy, Art.
Want to send a message to the GOP? Leave them. I did day before yesterday and it was cathartic. The only choices that the two parties give me are slow suicide and fast. I called the RNC and the California GOP and told them I was leaving and why. Their answer was ‘our way or the highway, good luck with that’. I have been active in the Tea Party movement from the beginning and the reception from the GOP was always cold. The Tea Party did all the ground work for the mid-term victories and did the party’s work in Wisconsin for Scott Walker and forced a debate on Obamacare. They could have gotten in front of the Tea Party, they took our work and now you see the reward. The system is broken and needs to be fixed, Romney will continue to blur the Republican brand leftward. Isn’t that where Obama was going with our country? After Dole and McCain I can’t in good conscience vote for Romney, fool me thrice? If I write in the candidate I want, at least what transpires won’t be my fault. I don’t think it would be the end of the world if Obama won another term, it might draw the conflict to a head and that would be better than handing the country over to a handful of plutocrats and political handlers, and I would emphasize “handful” here. There is not a dimes worth of difference between a plutocrat that backs the Democrat Party and one that backs the Republican party.
Gallifet,
The tea party movement has had its successes and it’s failures. Scott Walker was a success, so was Allen West. We’ve had many others. Do you honestly think the entrenched powers-that-be are just going to hand over the levers of power without a fight?
This is the beginning of a long war to move this country toward its founding principles. To further our objectives we first have to blunt the opposition, and that means getting rid of Obama. If Romney is the GOP nominee, then vote for Romney. If for no other reason, do it for the symbolic message that socialism will not be tolerated in the United States. Romney’s being a RINO is no secret, but at least he does not hate this nation’s founding principles – Obama does.
Not voting for the Republican nominee may give you a moment’s self-satisfaction, but a vote for anyone other than the Republican nominee is a vote for Obama. You can tell yourself otherwise, but if you don’t vote for the GOP nominee, what transpires after an Obama win will absolutely be your fault.
“but a vote for anyone other than the Republican nominee is a vote for Obama.”
This is why the parties are screwy. This mindset right here that tells you that no matter who it is vote the R candidate over the D candidate regardless of how close they are to your particular views.
Put aside your views and everything else and vote for whoever the establishment puts before you regardless of their record.
I’m reminded of a story a few yeats ago of a soldier who raped an Afghan woman. Do you think she went by the same thing you call us to? The idea that being a member of a group with a certain reputation trumped the personal feeling that something was not right?
One must wonder.
“If for no other reason, do it for the symbolic message that Socialism will not be tolerated in the United States.”
Wayne, my write-in would deliver that particular message much more effectively.
See: RomneyCare
The world wouldn’t come to an end if Obama were reelected. I’m not going over that barrel, and I’m not dying on Romney Hill either.
The best thing about this site? It keeps the nutjobs off the street and in their basements next to their gunsafes.
So by making silly slanderous comments like you’re you’re putting yourself in with the “nutjobs,” eh? Don’t worry, we had you pegged from the first word.
I have but one issue with Tom Blumer’s article, the use of the term ‘crony capitalists’.
I have been corrected for using this term>I was advised, that they are more correctly identified as -Corporate Socialists- for that actually is what these ‘folks’ are and I think you will agree, that it is a better description.
It also stops socialists getting away with attacking ‘capitalism’ per se.They have to own up to their hypocritical involvement in the corporate business world.
In effect this makes RINO’s also Corporate Socialists too, just the same as their UK equivalents.
Ok, if you’re that unhappy that one summer of TEA Party gatherings didn’t sweep America to a future of constitutional piety and lean government then go right ahead and start your own 50-state ballot-qualified political party. And good luck with that.
With a lot of hard work – and I mean a lot as in it will suck up the whole of your personal life for the forseeable future and beyond – you might just grow your baby into something larger than the Libertarian Party. And maybe as influential. (There’s a reason Ron Paul isn’t seeking the Libertarian nod again. One lesson was enough even for him.)
Those who are complaining about the choices somebody else recruited for their party’s local committee posts, city council candidate, and on up to the presidential primary contenders are forgetting that, well, somebody else did the work. Where were you? Blogging, or not even that – just reading blogs. Wow, a big help that was.
So many middle-of-the-road Republicans criticize tea partiers and conservatives for their “purity”. Is it purity to believe in following the law? Are conservatives and tea partiers radical because they want to adhere to our founding documents? Are conservatives and tea partiers radical because they want to significantly reduce the cost, size, and scope of our federal government?
If we are created equal, why is there Affirmative Action? If we have inalienable rights, why does the Federal government violate the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments so many thousands of times per day. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, why are activist judges overruling duly constituted state tax and marriage laws. Is there a middle-of-the-road Republican position on any of this?
Oops, left off my pseudonym.
“f we are created equal, why is there Affirmative Action?”
Because there is a lust for reparations & white people in positions of power want to do something they think is worthy of absolution for being descendents of slave owners.
“If we have inalienable rights, why does the Federal government violate the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments so many thousands of times per day.”
Because they can. People in positions of power refuse to do anything about it & those of us who’d like to do something don’t have the power to do anything about it.
“If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, why are activist judges overruling duly constituted state tax and marriage laws.”
Again, because they can. Judges are appointed for life. Whoever made up that law should have been shot, IMO.
What’s even worse is that Welch got the endorsement after major pressure from Gov. Tom Corbett.
Pa. residents vote for Sam Rohrer this April 24
Will the oppressor let go the oppressed? Was there ever an instance? Can the annals of mankind exhibit one single example where rulers overcharged with power willingly let go the oppressed, though solicited and requested most earnestly? The application for amendments will therefore be fruitless. Sometimes, the oppressed have got loose by one of those bloody struggles that desolate a country; but a willing relinquishment of power is one of those things which human nature never was, nor ever will be, capable of.
Virginia Ratifying Convention Thursday, June 5, 1788
You misunderstand the Pennsylvania situation completely.
1) Welch supported Sestak against Curt Weldon in a congressional race. Not Pat Toomey. Curt Weldon was about as corrupt as a congresscritter can get.
2) While I agree the state committee should have stayed out of it, they decided to endorse because they were afraid that former Democratic COMMITTEEMAN with tens of millions of dollars to spend– Tom Smith– would win a primary with seven people in it.
2.5) In this regard, they were actually trying to ensure the LEAST conservative candidate was not selected in the primary.
3) All the candidates had an opportunity to secure that endorsement (except for Smith, really) and all of them tried.
4) If you go to the trouble to learn about Welch you would, actually, discover he is very temperamentally suited to winning the ring suburban counties of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which is key to winning a statewide election in PA.
4.5) He is, in fact, very conservative on fiscal issues, and as a successful entrepreneur and person engaged currently in incubating multiple businesses, he understands economic and technological issues far, far better than the other candidates.