Conservatives and Republicans

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
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More on Coburn and what appears to be a nascent conservative revolution:

Wall Street Journal Editorial

Coburn the Barbarian
October 21, 2005

On current trends, freshman Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is soon going to need a food taster to accompany him to the Senate dining room. Which is all the more reason for the rest of us to admire his political nerve.

Mr. Coburn yesterday took to the floor not once, but twice, to force his colleagues to defend some of their more egregious “earmarks,” or pork projects they plan to funnel to home states. The Republican dared to use the “p” word (“priorities”) and suggested that taxpayers might be better served if hurricane relief was offset by deleting earmarks for a sculpture garden in Washington state, an art museum in Nebraska, and a Rhode Island animal shelter, among other national necessities.

Washington Democrat Patty Murray escalated immediately to Defcon 1, vowing that if her colleagues so much as blinked at her sculptures she’d personally see to the untimely demise of their own projects. Mr. Coburn lost 86-13. The miracle is he got 13.

Senator Non Grata returned to the floor later in the day, this time to suggest shifting $223 million from the infamous “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska to a bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Alaska’s alleged Republican Lisa Murkowski responded that the very idea of refusing to spend $4.5 million per each of the 50 residents on Alaska’s Gravina Island – so that they would no longer have to take a seven-minute ferry – was, well, “offensive.” As we went to press last night, the vote on this amendment was still being tallied, but you already know how it turned out.

Rest assured that none of this is making Mr. Coburn popular with his colleagues, Republicans or Democrats. The Senate is a club and one thing that is beyond ideology is “earmarks.” They’re almost considered to be a perquisite of service, like a golf membership for a CEO (at least before Sarbanes-Oxley). Mr. Coburn is risking his dinner invitations by daring to shine a public light on his fellow Senators as they practice their everyday, routine outrages. Good for him, but he’d better hire a bodyguard.

22

[quote]rainjack wrote:
Marmadogg wrote:
I have been refering to this the entire time I have been posting in this area.

Uncle Ronnie’s 11th Commandment has held the GOP togther (to their detriment) until now but the wheels have fallen off the cart.

It is disappointing it took this long.

FYI - Republicans have not bickered liked this in at least 10 years. It has been a very long time coming.

You couldn’t be more wrong. Republicans bicker all the damn time. In fact it was only in 1994 that there wasn’t been a bunch of infighting.

The wheels are not anywhere near falling off - that is just wishful thinking on the part of the ABB crowd.

But you guys just keep wishing and clicking your heels together. God knows it’ll take more than the platform the loser left has to beat the Republicans.[/quote]

RJ-

Can you tell me why Rove’s lawyer is trying to sell out Libby in the press?

The GOP has been following Uncle Ronnie’s 11th until this Spring. Iraq, oil prices, Katrina, Delay, Plamegate, etc. Have made sure the wheels have come off of the cart. Bush has control of changing the preception on all of these items but he does not have the will to do so.

I have my popcorn…this will be almost as good as Clinton’s fiascos. I miss Ken Starr’s wasting of 5 years and $70 million tax dollars with nothing to show for it…

DU’ers are getting ready for Fitzmas.

23

[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
Don’t any of the commenters who constantly berate conservatives as being blind Bush-cheerleaders want to chime in? This article reiterates many of the complaints that conservatives on this board have voiced regarding the President.

Don’t forget that there are two standards of judgment in politics. There’s the absolute standard, and in this case a lot of conservatives aren’t happy with the administration and the leadership of the Republican party.

Then there’s the comparative standard – and that, my friends, is why so many people stick with Bush and the Republicans even though they have low approval ratings: They don’t see the Democrats as being any better (and in most cases they seem them as being worse).

[/quote]

Great point, but doesn’t there come a time at which you decide being a conservative is more important than slavish devotion to the party or the president? A lot of people have already reached that point: Powell, Scowcroft, David Brooks, etc. I voted for Bush twice, the second time with real enthusiasm, and I don’t think I have much to show from it. Aside from John Roberts, a big one, is there anything the 2nd term of Bush has given us that is markedly better than a Kerry administration would have been? (We wouldn’t be out of Iraq under Kerry, despite the MoveOn crowd and other idiots in his base, and we might be prosecuting the war more effectively than we are under Rumsfeld). I thought the Bush Doctrine, the overturning of 50 years of supporting dictators in the Middle East, was visionary, but it’s been executed so badly it may not matter much. What a waste.

24

[quote]Marmadogg wrote:
RJ-

Can you tell me why Rove’s lawyer is trying to sell out Libby in the press?

The GOP has been following Uncle Ronnie’s 11th until this Spring. Iraq, oil prices, Katrina, Delay, Plamegate, etc. Have made sure the wheels have come off of the cart. Bush has control of changing the preception on all of these items but he does not have the will to do so.[/quote]

All this stuff that you are salivating over is way too far from next November to be nealry as damning as you want it to be - and that is assuming anyone but the rabid ABB crew even gives a shit about ‘Plamegate’. This is an inside the beltway event that only the political snobs in DC care about.

But we’ll see in a little over a year how bad of shape the Republican Wagon is in. All I can say is at least the right has a wagon. It seems as if Dean and the Deaniacs have sold their wagon in an effort to keep Err America running.

25

American politics is a big pendelum that swings back and forth, back and forth.

That is what keeps us from being completely great or completely fucked up.

26

[quote]rainjack wrote:
Marmadogg wrote:
RJ-

Can you tell me why Rove’s lawyer is trying to sell out Libby in the press?

The GOP has been following Uncle Ronnie’s 11th until this Spring. Iraq, oil prices, Katrina, Delay, Plamegate, etc. Have made sure the wheels have come off of the cart. Bush has control of changing the preception on all of these items but he does not have the will to do so.

All this stuff that you are salivating over is way too far from next November to be nealry as damning as you want it to be - and that is assuming anyone but the rabid ABB crew even gives a shit about ‘Plamegate’. This is an inside the beltway event that only the political snobs in DC care about.

But we’ll see in a little over a year how bad of shape the Republican Wagon is in. All I can say is at least the right has a wagon. It seems as if Dean and the Deaniacs have sold their wagon in an effort to keep Err America running.
[/quote]

Hey Freeptard (that word is hilarious!),

I want the GOP to be controlled by true fiscal conservatives not your tiki pals in the Democratic party.

The change is already happening. The right wingnuts in the GOP are getting jacked up as I write this.

The Democrats are so disorganized that they will not take control of the House but it is much more possible now because of the arrogance of at the upper levels of the GOP.

I loved Clinton’s impeachment hearing. That arrogant trailer trash poser deserved what he got and so will the Bush administration.

The rule of law matters more when you undermine national security than when you lie about a BJ.

I am not surprised you do not agree.