The American Spectator

rick| 4.28.09 @ 2:52PM

you are hilarious! after jumping all over "No one could argue" you offer these gems:

three decades of unconscionable pandering to liberals

cravenly shifting with the prevailing winds

will be less useful to the Democrats now than he ever was when he had an "R" beside his name

Really? You have some proof? Those are broad strokes, any kind of facts will do to support them. I'm particularly interested in that last one.

Then again, I suppose your written word is good enough around these parts.

Right.

diamon sforza| 4.28.09 @ 3:02PM

Even better than that will be the loss of influence for the other two RINOs from Maine.

Competing in the even better category will be the loss of cover for the other 59 Democrat senators when it comes to voting for the upcoming menu of leftist causes.

But perhaps based on the tepid response from the Democrat Party is they now have an unreliable Senator to hand hold and buy off.

Our last presidential contender should join him as should the two undistinguished Senators from Maine.

spaz| 4.28.09 @ 3:05PM

John McCain lost the election "because of his support of the Bush bailout"?

Boy, you people really do live in a fantasy world, don't you?

That's OK. So long as conservatives stay in denial about why they really lost the last TWO elections and how out of step they are with the rest of the country, their return to power is going to take a long, LOOONNGG time.

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 3:40PM

If you guys can't see why Specter's departure from the GOP is a bad sign --

Well, so much better for the good guys.

Keep the aspidistra flying!

Bob| 4.28.09 @ 3:51PM

What are you smoking, RSM? It must be some pretty good stuff...

The truth is that you are arguing for a small tent of strict fiscal/social conservative ideologues. I'm afraid the world is more complex than your simplistic mind. People are voted in by the electorate and their viewpoints are mirrored by the people they elect. The Republicans are moving to the extreme right and the Democrats have opened their tent. Pro-life Democrat Senators like Casey can be elected in places like PA. Perhaps his "bi-partisan" views are reflective of the people who voted for him? Both Democrats and Republicans?

And please give me the name of your dealer... I haven't smoked any really good stuff in years...

John| 4.28.09 @ 4:13PM

As a buddy of mine just told me:

Now he will have to stab Republicans in the chest, instead of the back.

This is ABSOLUTELY NOT a blow to the GOP, since the only thing that it removes is a number of R's in a column. Spectre wasn't close to a "moderate" he was a flaming Liberal. His loyalty was totally dependent on how much Arlen's ego was stroked...

There are disadvantages... however. At least with a self-interested Spectre occasionally deigning to help out with stopping bad Democrat (redundancy alert) policy and law being implemented, there was a chance to staunch the flow of blood. The problem with that scenario is that the patient is as brain damaged as the average BotPoster...

So... we let the corpse go.. mop up the floor, and start again. Toomey has pretty clear sailing in PA, though that Socialist Peoples' Republic is most probably lost forever.

Bye Bye Arlen... please move slowly... 'cause it would give me a great deal of pleasure to see the slammed door hit you sqare in the...

Well y'all get the picture.

Maybe it's time to give California to Mexico, everything north of the Ohio River and East of the Mississippi to Canada... and restart as a nation at liberty again.

:-/

John

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 4:20PM

John --

You perfectly represent the deficiency in current Republican thinking:

You write, "Toomey has pretty clear sailing in PA, though that Socialist Peoples' Republic is most probably lost forever" (sic).

You mean Toomey has "clear sailing" for the nomination, I presume.

But you forget... We actually still have ELECTIONS in this country.

Elections are when votes for each party's nominees are counted. Whoever gets the most VOTES wins -- not the most favorable postings on Am. Spec.

But you're right: as long as Republicans do everything in their power to make their party the party of disgruntled, resentful, middle-aged, Southern white men -- PA is probably lost forever.

And why should PA be with you? I think many people there would take exception to you referring to that state as a "People's Republic."

If Alabama and Texas are your model of the only acceptable state in the Union -- well, you're in for a long time in the wilderness.

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 4:21PM

Not that there's anything wrong with Alabama or Texas, mind you. I love both of those states. But we have different states in this country, and different regions, and that's not going to change anytime soon. It used to be that Republicans didn't need concepts like this explained to them....

John| 4.28.09 @ 5:12PM

Ah yes... the TP-Bot... [insert smirk here]

Calling yourself Tom Paine is sort of like Sanjaya putting Caruso on an album... You are most definitely not Thomas Paine... Fredrick Engels maybe... NOT Tom Paine.

My late mother always told my Aunt (who is a rabid vote for any R -Republican) - "You gotta staand for something."

What you are proposing is that The Republican Party just go and fashion itself as a shadow of the Democrat Party, and mind its manners, peas and queues... and go along with the "Program"...or perhaps the more English tony looking "Programme" would suit...

Either way, what you propose is that the Republican Party merely cease to be the Republican Party.

The GOP has lost the last several elections because it has done just that. Pardon me if I don't take your advice on how to run an Army General McClellan... I rather prefer to win... not surrender to the enemy.

Tootles ... Mr. Sunshine Patriot... Tootles...

John

Big Jim| 4.28.09 @ 5:18PM

Good luck to the jack-asses with this unprincipled man who cares for only himself and what he preceives as "his" senate seat. Remember this is the load that voted "not proven" at Clinton's senate trial. This is just another attempet to garner attention, feel important and protect "his seat". I hope the people of PA see him for what he is, a jerk. If not, when he dies he'll be replaced by the next Gov., who will undoubtedly be a Republican.

jaywhite| 4.28.09 @ 5:56PM

I agree Spector is a snake. I don't buy the Stalinists now have a "filibuster proof " majority. Spector would have never voted with the Republicans. You Stalinists can smirk now. But when the incompetent clown in the White House, spends our country into a FDR like 8 year depression, the Stalinists, won't have World War II to bail them out like the scummy cripple FDR had. You also won't have the devil incarnate billionaire Soros to fund the ruination of this country. He can't live forever.

jaywhite| 4.28.09 @ 5:58PM

Spector was democrat in his voting. After 8 years of FDR like spending drives the economy into another depression, you dems won't be smirking, when you lose both houses and the White House.

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 6:32PM

John --

A political party need not be a fanatical sect. Indeed, the Republican party once included conservatives and rather liberal people. When it had a larger "tent," it was more powerful, more useful to the country, and much, much more interesting. And remember, Reagan was such a great president because he drew people from all over the political spectrum. My family were Democrats until Reagan came along, like many others, but they have never become big fans of Tom DeLay, Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter, and I won't hold my breath until they start watching Glenn Beck either.

Again -- it's typical and incredibly fitting and just that you guys don't even see what's wrong with Specter's departure.

If nothing else, you should be able to hold this idea in your mind: it's a democracy: democracy is about counting; it's about VOTES; and you guys just lost one. Cause for celebration, I guess.

John| 4.28.09 @ 7:05PM

A fanatical Sect... humm you have accurately described the Democrat Party... Nature Worship, Fascist Corporate Statism, Cult of Death Utilitarianism... Rabid spittle-spewing epithet hurling hate mongering... line toeing serfs for followers... Mindless adherence to Agitative Propaganda...

Sounds just like the Democrats to me...

TP-Bot... thou are PROJECTING... look it up... you push your worst traits on those whom you have decided to treat as an object of your basest hatreds, fears, phobias, and general disturbances.

The Intolerance is yours child... the bigotry and social stratification is a playground for you and your odd feudalism.

Your religion worships death, hates humanity, and despises its greatest achievements.

Sad. TP-Bot. Sad and dangerous. Your ways threaten to destroy all the good about the United States of America, and substitute Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" in its place.

Peace, Love, and Bobby Sherman...

John

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 7:14PM

John,

You don't know anything about my religion, sir, and you completely missed the point of my post. It's not the nature of the Democrats that's in question. We won the past two major elections by bringing in hundreds of thousands of Republicans and a vast majority of independent voters.

If you don't see that as a problem for Republicans, then you don't understand American politics. I think that pretty much goes without saying, but I'm trying to have a civilized exchange here.

As for your wild and absurd accusations and characterizations of the Democratic party:

Sir, you should temper your words. You just sound like an hysterical ass when you accuse Democrats of hating humanity and worshiping death. The only people who would take such nonsense seriously are already convened in your little echo chamber, chanting the shibboleths and slogans of the Limbaugh party with you. What about the 125 million voters who don't hold your views?

Oh, forget it. What am I doing? I'm pretending we're having a discussion. What do you know about Aldous Huxley, you fool? I know what projection is: it's one of Freud's defense mechanisms of the ego. Can you name even one other defense mechanism?

Simply put, you're just the kind of know-nothing that the party of Joe the Plumber is counting on. But I have news for you: there just aren't that many people who fit the bill anymore, and your share of the total votes being counted is going down every year.

Teflon93| 4.28.09 @ 7:18PM

For the fact-challenged, Arlen Specter's LIFETIME rating from the American Conservative Union is 44 percent.

This means he voted with the liberals 56 percent of the time.

Given space limitations---the Internet is only so vast---Mr. McCain could hardly have enumerated all of Specter's various apostacies.

Tom Paine| 4.28.09 @ 7:49PM

Arlen Specter is responsible for Justice Thomas being on the bench. For God's sake, if he's a "liberal," who is conservative?

You have maybe 5% of the electorate that is ideologically that conservative. Maybe 10%. But not more. And you're going to win elections that way? Good fortune to you.

By the way, the number of people who call themselves Republican has gone DOWN about 7% since the inauguration of Obama.

Looking good, guys.

Raoul Ortega| 4.28.09 @ 8:50PM

Arlen Specter is responsible for Justice Thomas being on the bench

Which is why somebody is going to try to Ned Lamont him next May. The Hard Left neither forgives nor forgets.

JP| 4.28.09 @ 9:53PM

TP,
"It's not the nature of the Democrats that's in question. We won the past two major elections by bringing in hundreds of thousands of Republicans and a vast majority of independent voters. "

You Dems better begin thinking about the nature of your party. In just 120 days you guys borrowed as much as Bush and the GOP did in 8 years. Since 20 January, the US is losing on average 600,000 jobs a month, and the banks are still not lending despite 0% interest rates. If spending $5 trillion cannot stop the job losses, you people can kiss the moderates and Republican cross-over votes good-bye.

Since Feb 09, the number of prime home borrowers who are in danger of default has grown from 400,000 to almost 820,000. No matter how much Obama and the Dems don't want to, they must govern. And governing isn't about giving away freebies. And we haven't even begun to factor in the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, or the possibility of huge taxes on energy via Obama and Congress.

Enjoy your majority while you have it; it will be very short lived. Also, enjoy Spectre. He has no loyalties and will turn on a dime if it benefits him

Teflon93| 4.29.09 @ 10:24AM

Once again for the fact-challenged:

Self-identification of conservatives in polling continues to outstrip self-identification of liberals, 2:1 to 3:1 in most polls of the last generation.

But don't take my word for it---count the pols who run as "liberals". Not who ARE liberals, mind you, but who run specifically as "proud liberals". Even Hillary Rodham felt the need to resurrect the long-dead "progressive" label.

Liberalism is so popular that all the power-hungry pols on the Left run away from that label as though confronted with actual labor.

Teflon93| 4.29.09 @ 10:29AM

And yet again for the fact-challenged:

Per Gallup:

Jan 30 Republican - 27% Independent - 35% Democrat - 36%

Apr 20 Republican - 27% Independent - 36% Democrat - 36%

So the "7% decline in Republican party affiliation since Obama's inauguration" appears to be simply made up, especially since the "leaners" have swung the GOP's way by 4% over the same period.

Here's the Gallup link:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/Party-Affiliation.aspx

Basil Plumley| 4.29.09 @ 10:52AM

... and from the latest Rasmussen:

For just the second time in more than five years of daily or weekly tracking, Republicans now lead Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38% would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent (31%) of conservative Democrats said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate.

Overall, the GOP gained two points this week, while the Democrats lost a point in support. Still, it’s important to note that the GOP’s improved position comes primarily from falling Democratic support. Democrats are currently at their lowest level of support in the past year while Republicans are at the high water mark.

Hey, JP
I found this statement of yours ironic:
He has no loyalties and will turn on a dime if it benefits him

Just like a "magic bullet".

Basil Plumley| 4.29.09 @ 10:56AM

Bob

You said-And please give me the name of your dealer... I haven't smoked any really good stuff in years...

The way you have been posting, it has probably been days, maybe hours ......

The Strategic MC| 4.29.09 @ 6:11PM

"...the number of people who call themselves Republican has gone DOWN about 7% since the inauguration of Obama."

In other news, doctors are reporting a 7 % INCREASE in leg injuries due to people jumping off of bandwagons.