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Not Joining the Club

By W. James Antle, III on 4.29.09 @ 3:52PM

I don't disagree with anything Ramesh Ponnuru says here. Some of the Club for Growth's chosen battles can reasonably be second-guessed. And risks that made sense when Republicans were in the majority might not be worth taking when Republicans are barely clinging to even a semblance of influence over legislative outcomes. But as I said yesterday, if you were going to make a list of things that cost the Republicans seats in the last two election cycles, I think the Club for Growth would have to rank pretty low on that list.

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Bo Darville| 4.29.09 @ 4:59PM

If true rock-ribbed conservatives always won, Santorum not Specter would still be in the Senate.

John| 4.29.09 @ 5:30PM

Isn't that the way? Compromise the candidate by causing a major part of his base to stay home because he supported the wrong candidate... and then blame the candidate for losing PRECISELY because he disgusted and disillusioned his base... and they stayed home.

Santorum lost because he supported Club Senate Candidates. His base which is more PRO LIFE Than party labels would suggest... However, as in many heavily Catholic communities they prefer for the supposedly PRO-LIFE Democrats (wow is that oxymoronic or what?) . They voted for the horrid and pathetic Casey.

Well Casey has turned out to be not so PRO-LIFE afterall, and Toomey IS Pro-Life.

I tell my Democrat Catholic friends... To be a pro-life Democrat is to be a good and decent crewman on Hell's Galley... The inescapable truth is that no matter how good a crewman you are, you are still pulling an oar for Satan.

Many in the GOP have allowed the Radical Chic to brow beat, cajole, lie, and fool it into believing that there are great benefits to being a "Democrat".

The Evil Party purchasing the Souls of the Stupid Party for the faint hope of popularity.

IF THE GOP goes back to being the Conservative Party again, it will begin to win, again. If it continues to chase the fluff... it will find itself scattered to the winds... powerless, and laughed at by the Democrats who led them into the barren wilderness.

I am beginning to see a glimmer of hope... real hope... and it isn't connected to "The One" and his minions.

r/John

Real American| 4.29.09 @ 7:29PM

Of course, had Toomey won in 2004, then the conservatives in Pennsylvannia would have had less reason to be pissed at Santorum for supporting Specter in the 2004 primary. It probably wouldn't have saved him, but the GOP did stay home in 2006 in a big way, which did cost him.

Anyway, had Toomey beaten Specter and prevailed in 2004, then conservatives would have had a reliable voice in the Senate and perhaps not been so panicky on the bailouts. He definitely wouldn't have voted for the Porkulus bill.

Specter deserves all the ire that he's received. It certainly isn't Toomey or the Club for Growth's fault that he's a spineless liberal.

Old Texican| 4.30.09 @ 9:44AM

I love the "honest crewman pulling an oar on Satan's galley" metaphor above. Thanks for that, John.
You know, "Conservativism" might soon be an obsolete term. Four years from now there might be little good to "conserve".
What is a good term to denote "going back to former freedom on a reverse course?"