The American Spectator

Bert Spence| 12.21.09 @ 2:18PM

Quin, you are missing the point. McConnell and the rest of the leadership do not want to defeat this bill. They want it to pass so that they can run against it in 2010. It's a (flawed) tactic at least as old as renting senators. All the GOP leaders wanted to do was just enough to fool the uninformed into believing they "really tried" to defeat the bill, but they never wanted to defeat it. In their warped vision, this is the best of all situations: they get credit for opposing, they have an issue on which to run in 2010, and if they get elected, they have a giant new entitlement toy to play with and on which to spend, spend, spend just like they did after they captured things in 1994.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me about 150 times; well, that's shame on me too, isn't it?

Charlie| 12.21.09 @ 2:21PM

Here's the poem: The Last Word by Matthew Arnold
http://www.netpoets.com/classic/poems/001008.htm

Charlie| 12.21.09 @ 2:30PM

And apparently the poem is more about giving up and letting truth win out than fighting on... http://www.theepochtimes.com/n.....60843.html

But, I still agree with everything you said. Right on.

DrTomVoter| 12.21.09 @ 2:36PM

Bert, thanks for penning what I have thought for a long time. Even under the big tent philosophy, there are specifics of this bill that, properly and frequently voiced, would command opposition across a large part of the political spectrum. Instead, even today, old Mitch is spouting the bumper sticker phrases of the failed past. But, what the heck, if it will get Charlie Crist, Mark Kirk, et. al. elected, why try to do what is right for the country?

TexasTom| 12.21.09 @ 2:41PM

Great point. For our opponents, the left, this is their religion. They will say and do anything to advance their religious points of view advanced. They are even willing to lose their elected positions. I say we work as hard and vote all the bums out!

K. Lambert| 12.22.09 @ 9:09AM

Word is that he and Lindsey Graham are gay. Google "Well know Republicans Next to Be Outed." The Dems have a complete dossier on them at gay bars in the DC area. They talk a good game on Fox but then behind the scenes they do what the Democrats want them to do. There are no cleans hands in Washington except for Bill Nelson which was why he was able to hold out and get the goods for Nebraska. Think Mafia and you have the keys to the House and Senate. Sad but True.

Jane| 12.21.09 @ 2:46PM

If Hillyer is correct that McConnell blew this and decided not to fight it, then there is absolutely no reason to support Republicans. We should got third party.

Unkeeaf| 12.21.09 @ 3:52PM

You go to a 3rd Party and you will see Democrat gains in both Houses of Congress in 2010 like you can't believe. The Repubs aren't perfect - far from it - but anything but support for them is suicide for conservatives. SUICIDE.

Dave1130| 12.21.09 @ 3:55PM

Great article over at FL Pundit yesterday about this 3rd Party question:

http://bit.ly/6X9Dya

tonypal| 12.21.09 @ 4:25PM

Jane, I hate to say it, but going 3rd party is a childish response to internal republican corruption (of conservative principles). We don't need to start whining like liberals because elected republicans don't do what they were elected to do, we remove them from office via the primary process.

Anyone pressing for a 3rd party must come to grips with reality, that ours is a 2 party system. You simply cannot effect the type of change that you envision through external pressure. You need to work within the party by working to recruit, support and elect conservatives.

Notice how drive-by media types will seemingly be on your side in the coming year, pushing for so-called "tea party" candidates to run for office. Do not be fooled by this nonsense. They don't have your interests at heart.

Think this through, Jane. Before Reagan became president, the republican party was falling apart and disjointed. Conservatives were disgusted with so-called moderates who just wanted to get along, but they didn't flee the party. Instead, they followed the lead of Reagan, who showed us how it's done. Do as Reagan did, change the party from within. There are millions of people who would love to come home to the republican party. I guarantee they will if the right people are running for office. I also guarantee that they will absolutely not join a 3rd party. They never have and never will.

SoCon| 12.21.09 @ 3:03PM

Quin, what do you expect? RINOs are weak; they're part of the problem--not the solution.

JP| 12.21.09 @ 3:04PM

Bert,
You may have a point. However, never assign some act to a conspiracy when pure incompetence will do. If you are correct, then Mitch McConnel and his Senate cohorts may be in for a rude awakening. Many conservatives have not only grown weary of the GOP's political incompetence (esp in the Senate), but they've stopped listening to them altogether.

The national GOP (RNC and Congressional Republicans) appear to have an aversion to thier grass roots constituients. The Senate GOP, like thier Democratic counterparts, are so used to dealing and responding to K-Street that they forget (except for a few months every 6 years) that they represent states and not "interests". If that's the case they blew a huge oppurtunity with the tea-party movement. After expending such much energy last summer, the tea-party groups lost quite a bit of momentuem. This became obvious when the House Dems simply ignored thier own angry constituents and proceeded full steam ahead. The national GOP could have easily made both Pelosi and Reid pay for thier hubris by hosting a combination of high visibility Beltway rallies, and running ads in the districts and states of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers.

I don't think McConnel and Steele's reluctence is actually driveb by calculation but by incompetence and a dislike for the folks in "fly-over" country. Our GOP lawmakers may have come from the Heartland, but thier home is DC.

around the track| 12.21.09 @ 3:15PM

I have to disagree on this one, and I have had very little confidence in Republican leaders and their tactics since Gingrich led the 94 victories.
McConnel had no leverage. That's exactly why many of us conservatives feared sixty Ds. They are clearly the party of the left---all this baloney about moderate Ds is just that: baloney. The caves by Lieberman----don't get me going about how some on the right have made him an object of political respectability---Landrieu, Nelson and any other so-called moderate are not a surprise to me. At least the Maine "twins" held, and that could be due to McConnel.

Ken (Old Texican)| 12.21.09 @ 4:04PM

Yeah Quin,
I have been frustrated by wimpy Republican leadership as well.
Even John Cornyn, my Senator, whose solid personal views I can appreciate has sorta' disappointed me.
I have written over and over begging him and his fellows to get out on the capitol steps and bring down thunder and lightning on a daily basis in front of the cameras and tea-partiers who will stand there with them and cheer their lungs out.

I'm serious. We need more than "collegial business as usual" out of our guys.
I would even have them walk out on the slam dunk votes and call a rump Senate meeting on the steps.

PS: Orson Scott Card's new novel is out in hard-back. "Hidden Empire".....whoahhhhhhh! chills. too close to home.

Blacque Jacques Shellacque| 12.21.09 @ 6:53PM

Is McConnell a Loser?

Sure looks that way, don't it?

bluecollarbytes| 12.21.09 @ 7:25PM

Passionless comes to mind, and assumptions- that the public will figure it out on their own with no discernible education from Republicans who should be connecting voters natural fears with identifiable conservative ideology. Some reports have Republicans thinking they will run on Health Care concerns in 2010. Can't wait to see how that shakes out, as Sen. Grahamnesty drones on about broken procedures, McCain is expressing his hurt over his cherished Senate, and Newt devises a way to make govt-controlled health look conservative. By the way...where is Romney? If anyone in high-profile politics is capable of warning/shouting/educating the public about business strangulation at the hands of Leftist ideologues, I would think it's him. Huckabee's TV show is going along fine despite revelations that his judgment in matters of law & order is deeply flawed...and something he still clings to since 'rich white criminals get away with stuff poor black folks don't'.

At this point, our opposition is being led by some who seem most upset with 'radical changes' in Senate procedure.

It's pointless to whine about 'being left out'. If Republicans had won the kind of majority including presidency that the ObamaShow won, we conservatives would rightly expect them to Use their power to fulfill the agenda...which as I remember included a 350 billion dollar home mortgage rescue fund and a govt-forced Health Care reform of some kind....and a new tone in Washington...cause McCain can work on either side of the isle....oh yes, and a Lieberman/McCain Global Warmist bill that takes a kinder gentler approach to wrecking the economy. We might even be looking at the specter of a new Republican stimuless (with Democrats getting their fair share to distribute among their financial backers and special self-interests) There was other good stuff in there, minus passion & conviction.

Someone made a comment on the latest AmSpec ACORN story that once/if Republicans won, they would likely ignore the ACORN epic. This makes perfect sense given the fact there's been NO transformation of current leadership.

Jumping on the Tea Party movement or merely trying to tap into its revenue stream hardly qualifies as leadership.

We suffer from years of one-sided debate, Democratics on the one side pushing full steam ahead with their ideological goals, calling opposing Republicans nasty names, while Republicans prove they're not so nasty- by caving, albeit at a slower rate than complete capitulation.

Becky| 12.21.09 @ 7:55PM

I like the attitude of the guy at ilovemycountry.com that wants to try to kick all the bums out, dem and rep.

Republicans are responsible to do whatever is in their power and ability to block legislation that is 2000 pages of unread gibberish. If their best isn't good enough, they have failed. If you almost get the rocket out of the atmosphere, it is not considered a good try.

Instead of rolling over and worrying about being called the party of no, they should be concerned about being no more mister nice guys. It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it and take on the pigs in the democratic trough.

bluecollarbytes| 12.21.09 @ 8:21PM

Republicans should be running as the Party of No:
No govt. controlled health
No Global Warmist give-aways of American wealth and sovereignty.
No apologies to the world for American history.
No ACORN/Govt pact to usher in socialist tyranny.
No more cult worship.
No more linguine-spined 'conservatives' meeting Leftists halfway...as Leftists continue to run Left.
No more knee-jerk me-toism every time Democrats throw a tantrum over the latest "unmet needs".

But I won't count any new Republicans till they're hatched.

philfl63| 12.21.09 @ 8:18PM

Why are you surprised? This McConnell windbag is just another career politician playing the game. He stands in front of the cameras preening and rebuking the DemocRats, and then he sticks his head back in the public trough. None of the cretins sitting in Congress gives a damn about the U.S., their constituents, their oaths, or the Constitution. Their only priority is keeping their place at the government teat and playacting the role of representative for as long as possible, and then it is a job as a lobbyist. God help us.

Andrew| 12.21.09 @ 9:44PM

Quin,

Your point about McConnell meeting with Dem Senators to try picking them off may be valid, but the best way to pick off Dem Senators would have been to actually try addressing their concerns about health care, instead of the GOP only talking about MONEY, COST, TAXES, DEFICIT, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Despite their smarmy hypocrisy, it's apparent to me that many of the Dem Senators do actually want to save peoples' lives. The GOP has yet to offer a strong, cogent alternative way to achieve that goal. That would be one of the best ways to win over Dem Senators and greater numbers of citizens.

I just read an article on the ABC News web site titled: "Uninsured More Likely to Die, Study Finds
Simply Lacking Health Insurance Can Increase the Risk of Death by 40 Percent" (Sep 18, 2009). If that notion is incorrect, then GOP Senators need to prove to the public that it's incorrect. But if it's correct, then something needs to be done.

The House GOP proposed an alternative plan which would not make a dent in the number of uninsured in this country; the Congressional Budget Office found that, by 2019, according to that GOP alternative, “the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be reduced by about 3 million relative to current law, leaving about 52 million nonelderly residents uninsured.”

If the GOP would propose a common-sense, market-based, non-intrusive, economical way to save the lives of millions of people alive today, then the GOP would be on much more solid ground here. If the federal government does not have constitutional power to solve this problem, then the GOP should explain how the feds can cooperate with the states to solve it.

Yosemeti Sam| 12.21.09 @ 11:26PM

What's past doesn't necessarily portend prologue.

Democrats stick together like Persian crazy glue.

Everybody - and their brother/sister - knows it.

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

Allow, for this existential moment, that Mitch McConnell maintained solidarity amongst
his own party colleagues to set the historical
tableau of the '40' against the Democrat
Persians rampaging through the countryside
of Americana and doing their 'business' on the
Constitution.

Anna Keppa| 12.21.09 @ 11:39PM

Now, what possible inducement could McConnell give a wavering Dem that Reid could not just trump, but trump decisively?

After all, anyone wavering on the issue couldn't be wrestling with principles, just making political calculations.

A coupla hundred million for your state (and your vote), and a whorish Dem will not only be bought, but he/she will stay bought.

Next to that McConnell was holding a pair of deuces.

As to the canard that the GOP wants to run on repealing the legislation rather than defeating it upfront: is that what they did with the Immigration "reforms" of 2008?

@philfl63: why don't you come back when you can post something beyond a string of empty and unsupportd ad hominems? You give this forum a bad name.

@ Andrew: "Despite their smarmy hypocrisy, it's apparent to me that many of the Dem Senators do actually want to save peoples' lives. "

Oh yeah? then why don't the bill's provisions kick in NOW rather than in 2014??? Demtroll: get thee gone!

Andrew| 12.22.09 @ 1:12AM

Oh, I'm sorry Anna Keppa. I didn't realize that anyone who doesn't completely demonize Democrats must be a "Demtroll." Geez.

Lots of legislation doesn't become effective immediately. The reasons for that fact are diverse and varying; and, many of those reasons reflect poorly on the legislators (e.g. accounting gimmicks, reluctance to face consequences, et cetera). But delaying the effect of legislation doesn't necessarily prove the legislators are indifferent to their stated purposes.

TPL| 12.22.09 @ 7:58AM

McConnell is as repulsive as Ben Nelson, and represents the corrupt, cynical, pork-spending, constitution-trashing, intellectual vacuousness of the modern GOP. He should have been thrown out of the leadership position several election cycles ago, along with Boehner. Here we are years after the implosion of the GOP, and the same failures are *still* in the same positions. Unbelievable.....

TennesseeVolunteer| 12.22.09 @ 9:05AM

Quin, great job! We have to be clear with the republican leadership with what we expect in the future or they will be voted out. McConnel is a Senator. not a leader. A real leader would have led the charge, even if a failed one. this health care bill is just too dangerous to let stand.
In 2010, we vote. NEVER AGAIN.

scott| 12.22.09 @ 10:14AM

I've ALWAYS thought McConnell a go-along, get-along Senator. He tries to make it look more and more, right up to the last minute, like he's hammerin' away at the enemy, but they're all doing that gag now. He's wallpaper.

Bob Miller| 12.22.09 @ 10:29AM

For years NY State has had an official Conservative Party. Sometimes it endorses Republicans, sometimes it runs candidates (such as James Buckley, elected to the US Senate). This should be considered at the national level.

rt| 12.22.09 @ 10:38AM

YOU BETCHA!

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