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Political Hay
The Recriminations Begin
The economic tsunami, which is washing away home values, stock portfolios, jobs and economic growth, may be the root cause of Senator John McCain's present electoral difficulties; but that is not inhibiting the round of recriminations within Republican and conservative circles.
The Arena on Politico's website offered a range of opinions on McCain's recent blast at the past eight years of Republican governance.
Saturday's New York Times ran a story relating arguments, back and forth, on whether or not the McCain campaign took Florida for granted by remaining silent on TV far too long.
There are also reports of sniping back and forth between the staffs of Senator McCain and Governor Palin. One of McCain's staffers unhelpfully called her a "Diva," which is the genteel form of the "B" word. You would hope that kind of snark would be left to MSNBC's on-air personalities.
And in Sunday's Washington Post, neoconservative commentator and former Bush speechwriter David Frum, citing grim polling data, the worst for the GOP since Watergate, recommended that the national party apparatus quit pouring money into McCain's futile effort, including his long-shot attempt to win Pennsylvania, and put that money into close U.S. Senate races. Given likely Democratic control of the White House, the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, argued Frum, the Republican Senate Caucus will be the only viable political institution which can fight a rearguard action or execute blocking maneuvers against the excesses sure to come.
Call this triage on the Potomac.
For political junkies this sort of Monday morning quarterbacking is great fun and is a relatively harmless way to pass the time, a bit like wondering what it would have been like if the Confederacy had won the Civil War or Hitler had occupied England. OK, but can't it wait until after the voters actually vote on Election Day?
But the more serious questions, both for the Republican Party and, more generally, the conservative movement, really extend to the last eight years as noted, quite rightly, by Senator McCain himself, the quintessential party maverick. There will be no replay of this miserable, late-breaking general election campaign; but there is all the time necessary, eight years, actually, to reflect on the matter of recovering core principles for right-of-center governance during the GOP's time in the political wilderness -- even if McCain can pull off another miracle. Republicans are still headed for catastrophe in the House and Senate.
THE QUESTION, simply stated, is: What is the future path of the GOP? Will it continue to support outrageous levels of domestic spending, unsustainable expansion of entitlement programs, and cascading debt, while fecklessly permitting the build-up of relentless pressure for higher taxes, which will stifle economic growth and job creation?
Will the GOP get a grip on itself, recover its historic identity, and reclaim the role of fiscal grown-up? This is a very difficult task for the party of Lincoln since it has, of late, supported high-spending, deficits, and mounting debt normally associated with Democratic policies. It is hard, maybe impossible, to argue for fiscal restraint during a recession. But it was unprecedented that Republicans would throw fiscal constraint to the wind during the good times just past.
In fact, Republican lawmakers will most certainly have to support deficit spending, i.e., a "stimulus package," until the economic bleeding stops. Everyone from Larry Kudlow to Robert Rubin seems to be on board for that kind of major tourniquet.
The indefensible Republican spending binge, soon to be followed by a defensible bipartisan one, could, to the extent that it becomes a permanent state similar to that persisting in European countries, lead to more government bureaucracy, higher taxes, a constricted private sector and much lower economic growth and job creation.
A permanently, relentlessly growing federal government will also undermine America's military strength, the third pillar of the old Reagan platform. Both traditional Reaganauts and neoconservatives need to understand that America's international standing and military strength are largely dependent on the nation's economic vitality.
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M. Tobias| 10.26.08 @ 9:33PM
Fiscal conservatism and entitlement reform. Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, in the 1994 Contract With America. Remember that? How long did that last? It lasted until the liberal and moderate Republicans caved to the Democrats and started throwing their own people [conservative Republicans] under the bus. The modern Republican party is not the "Party of Lincoln", it is the "Go Along-Get Along" party. The Democrats have never been out of power in Congress, because the Republican Party was never truly in power.
Now it may be too late. If Barack Obama wins the White House and Democrats gain a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, it may be a very long four years. If Conservatives were in control in both the White House and Congress today, it would take years to get the entitlement deficit under control. Not to mention the general fund deficit. After a 4 year tsunami of liberal spending and the decrease in investment revenue due to the increased taxation that will be needed to fund it, this country will be beyond bankrupt. Government is not the answer, it is what it has always been; the problem. The bigger the government, the bigger the problem.
Anthony| 10.27.08 @ 1:34PM
It would be nice if the bloodletting at least waited until after the election, but then again, our elites in the conservative movement seem not to have any respect for the elective process either. The Republican party brought this upon itself. It lost its soul and its principles and our representatives were only interested in their incumbancy. The rot exists both within the party and Washington itself. Whole institutions ,like the MSM, have also become corrupt, hence failing to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities. So has secondary and higher education, albeit not in any dereliction of the Constitution. It's been a process that's been 40 yrs in the making. The perfect storm may be upon us. If Mcain looses, it will demonstrate once and for all what moderate Republicanism gets you. If he looses, it will because he was abandoned by those who touted him the most in the beginning, the media and the moderates. McCain ran a terrible campaign because he was still too much a Washington insider, which is why Gov. Palin has had the impact she has. I don't know whether it's the MSM spreading its rumors, in order to effect this election with all this McCain-Palin sniping, but regardless, we should not pay it any attention. I say vote as if your life depends upon it. If you can't bring youself to vote for McCain at least vote against Obama. A vote for Gov. Palin is a vote against the MSM who have sought to destroy her. Wouldn't you just love to see their faces on election night if their efforts on behalf of Obama failed? In any event, let's wait until Nov 5th to start the fingerpointing. Then, on Nov. 6th, we can start the rebuilding of the Republican party, win or lose. And yes ,even if McCain wins, things need to be changed, big time. Oh, and let's not forget, the Democrats were where we were not so long ago; and under an Obama presidency, as Joe Biden has warned us, things will heat up sooner rather than later. The hangover from Obama mania will come quickly and will be painful. Perhaps pain is the only thing to get people to awake from their stupor and get our institutions back on tract.
disgusted| 10.27.08 @ 2:14PM
We're Screwed '08...
...sums it up perfectly regardless of who wins on Nov. 4th. America as we once knew it - as our parents, Grandparents, and Great Grandparents knew it - is officially dead.
BD57| 10.27.08 @ 2:47PM
IMO, a big part of the problem is the approach Republicans have taken to tax cutting since Reagan - we've repeatedly agreed to take more & more people off the tax rolls completely in return for lower rates for the people who actually pay taxes.
On the surface, it makes some degree of sense. In practice, though, we've created a larger & larger class of voters who have no personal investment in tax cutting.
These folks are rational in a way:
If politicians aren't going to put more money in their pockets by cutting their taxes, then they're going to want the politicians to "put more money in their pockets" by creating / increasing new benefits, etc.
For them, a buck they get to spend from a tax cut and a buck they don't have to spend because a government program is providing the goodie they desire are very fungible.
We're getting to a tipping point (if we're not there already), where the people who want their goodies can and will consistently outvote the people who get taxed to provide them.
OCPatriot| 10.27.08 @ 3:51PM
I have been listening to all of the recriminations, the self-loathing, the but-if's, the shoulda's and, above all, the laments of the so-called Republicans and Conservatives who went along with the program to (a) destroy the economy, (b) the military, and (c) the Republican Party, In the beginning, there might have been the excuse that, "We didn't realize what we were doing." But, as it got worse and worse, and started downhill, both with George W. and then the panel of GOP candidates, all flawed, I heard no outcry at how destructive it was or how it would ruin all of the three elements I mentioned above. Denial is one part of it. Stupidly following the label of "Republican" when the truth was it had nothing to do with real Republican principles such as fiscal responsibility or honest marketplaces, is another. But what astonishes me is the denigration of the brightest spot in the whole universe of past Presidents, the prosperity everyone enjoyed under Clinton with Rubin's guidance, which gets bad-mouthed and re-written. Bush started with an amazing surplus, left to him by Clinton. (I'm tired of people claiming the existing President has no responsibility for the state of the nation or the economy, by the way, and harkening back to the past Presidents or pretending that an economic tsnuami arises all out of mischance with no one behind it.) Under Clinton, stupid though he may have been in his personal life, we did enjoy real prosperity. Prosperity is not the sole province of the Republicans, and if you're practical you can separate out what nutures it and see it in the things both parties do, and can do. In fact, if I look at George Bush the first (it's the economy, stupid) and George Bush, his son, I see a terrible economy that we had; and the same goes for Jimmy Carter. But don't keep pretending that the Republicans have a lock on a good economy; the record does not prove it. I happen to believe that McCain doesn't know where he stands now; he has changed positions so often he's lost; he has no consistency and he can't even control his own campaign; so how can he control an administration? So, you can not vote (probably a vote for Obama); vote for McCain; or vote for Obama and hope he does bring some change. I learned long ago that Life doesn't give you good choices, usual it's the lesser of two evils; and Obama today seems to be the lesser of two evils over McCain's zigs and zags and negativity and promises such as "I know how to get Osama Bin Laden," but it's a secret how he'll do it; and, I'll take care of you if you're a veteran, and voting so badly the Veteran's organizations rank him near the bottom. Woulda, shoulda, coulda are all bad words, as far as I'm concerned.
OCPatriot| 10.27.08 @ 4:13PM
Three truths about taxes, by the way. One, U.S. businesses, because of loopholes, pay some of the lowest taxes in the world. Add subsidies, like the agricultural and oil subsidies, and it is more apparent. Yeah, the published rate seems high but it aint. Two, there has been a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the upper class via Bush's tax cuts for the rich (McCain really hasn't disavowed them yet), the biggest in our history. All taxes are socialistic, because they distribute the wealth as the government decrees; in Alaska, for example, there is redistribution of the taxes you and I have paid to the federal government that is being given to the residents there (I call that socialism). Taxes, by the way, pay for the programs the government runs; some of these are beneficial, some are destructive; and some, like McCain's healthcare insurance, are designed for a specific group, in this case Senators in the U.S. Senate.
Saxxon Domela| 10.27.08 @ 8:34PM
In 2000 and 2004 the Republican presidential campaigns featured state of the art, "on the ground" efforts, such as the 72 Hours campaign. This time, the opposition has out planned, out thought, and out spent the McCain campaign. Enough said!
Caroline | 10.27.08 @ 8:50PM
Once again, in deciding what made McCain go down, there is no mention of illegal immigration and McCain's support of amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal aliens in this country. That alone has turned large numbers of Republicans against him. McCain has repeatedly stated that he was proud of the illegal alien parents of an American Olympic contender and that he plans to take up his disastrous immigration plan when he gets into office.
Chris| 10.27.08 @ 10:14PM
If Barack Obama wins and the Democrats get a super majority, the remaining Republicans in Congress don't have to be responsible for anything. They should force party line votes on everything. Nothing to lose.
This article is flawed in the effect the any Republicans left matter and have to be good government types. These Republicans will be treated as lepers and true outcasts. Just remember when unemployment is in the double digits and the stock market goes sideways in the bottom of the tank people will be looking for something different so be different.
Osamas Pajamas| 10.27.08 @ 10:27PM
PUT A CORK IN IT.
As usual, Republicans just can't keep their traps shut. Not even for another 9 or 10 days. They just run off at the mouth, evidently on the assumption that they are going to lose, anyway.
Perhaps they are right, that they deserve to lose --- but America does not deserve to have OhBummer as President.
Graham B. Patterson| 10.27.08 @ 11:25PM
Conservatives begin taking the Republican Party back the day after the election. We start by forming "The Sons of Liberty" used by our forefathers to raise consciousness of the oppression we faced. We start now to liberate ourselves from the evil hydra of socialism, political correctness and apathy. Who will join me to jump start this organization?
GBP Jr., North Carolina
Diane Smith| 10.28.08 @ 1:51AM
Since we are such a split down the middle "United" States - how much trouble would it be to have a President Obama of the Democrat United States and a President McCain of the Republicans?
It goes this way. Audit IRS returns. Put the money paid by registered Democrats in one pile. That will be Barry's to redistribute for four years.
Tax $$ paid by Registered Republicans goes in another stack - to be administered by John McCain in any hare-brained Repubican way he chooses. For four years.
No changing parties, now. We each get separate budgets for the next four years, based on what each registered Democrat and each registered Republican has paid in the way of income taxes...
Whoops, not fair? you say, considering the number of young voters who have never worked, welfare recipients, felons and low income wage earners in the Democrat Party? Of course, its fair. They have Hollywood, don't they? It all averages out. Republicans will pay their taxes to the Republican Administration.
Democrats pay their taxes to the Democrat Administration and Obama gets to play fast and loose with Barbra Streisand's fortune, redistributing it to troubled youth in South Chicago. They can stop dealing dope and mugging old ladies.
Welfare recipients collect their checks from the coffers of the party under which they are registered to vote. Democrat welfare recipients look to Obama, elderly Democrats, who were told by Obama that McCain wanted to mess with their Social Security now have the security of collecting it from Warren Buffet. You couldn't ask for better underwriting! Middle class Democrats get to look to Obama for their tax cut and filthy rich Democrats have the joy of having their wealth redistributed.
Same goes for the Republican Party. Registered Republicans who are on welfare, collect their checks from the pot o'gold at the end of the Republican Rainbow (which is where Obama dreamed of skimming all that wealth from to redistribute) Republican Social Security recipients receive their checks from the Republican Social Security pool, etc.
In addition to no one getting to change parties during this four year experiment, each party makes his own rules regarding qualifications for going on welfare. Contrary to long held Democrat thinking, needy and worthy are not the same thing. Democrats may have their definition of worthy and Republicans will have theirs.
Since we have plunged into the morass of UNemployment recently - what is it? Only 93% of the people who want to work in this country are able to? - I have noticed a few banners on store fronts that say NOW HIRING. In one store I went to their personnel department, looked around until someone asked me if they could help me. I asked where applicants applied for employment. She said "Right here." and asked me if I was interested in part or full time work. I said "Neither, I just wondered where the hordes of unemployed might be." She gave me a tight little smile and said "Probably at the unemployment office getting a check for not working."
Happy (unemployed) Days are here again.....Oh, and in the separate governments we seem to yearn for, given this over-heated campaign, each will have its own Human Resources Dept. You will have the shallow wading pool of Democrat Unemployment funds to draw upon. See how Obama feels about extending that little program!
It would never work. It makes too much sense.
Don| 10.28.08 @ 2:58AM
Give me a call when you guys get serious about running an opposition party. Until then, I'll be trying to figure out how to help the Constitution Party supplant the Republican Party.
McCain's nomination only proved what a lot of us have suspected for some time now. The GOP brand is dead; it was an inside job. The neo-cons finally finished it off.
RIP, and good riddance.
Diane Smith| 10.28.08 @ 1:25PM
And another flaw in my Democrat United States and Republican United States of America. Inside one year the Republican United States of America would be extending Foreign Aid to the Dems. Pie in the Sky doesn't come cheap!
Tom| 10.28.08 @ 10:21PM
Unfettered globalism has destroyed the GOP.
When the median wages of the middle class decline, the Republicans cannot win.
Ms. Know| 10.30.08 @ 12:16AM
He is out because of the media. They tie him daily, along with the liberal illuminati, to the Bush Administration. However, the elitist were in support of Bush too, but no one, including the bias media discuss that.
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