That is the title of a very important post by radio talker Hugh Hewitt today http://hughhewitt.com. There are two very important points I would like to give my take on.
Firstly, that the National Republican Congressional and Senatorial Committees not waste money on candidates without a snowball's chance in hell of winning. I would refer anyone to the absolute waste of GOP cash trying to keep Lincoln Chafee's Rhode Island senate seat in the "GOP corner". I put that in quotes because Mr. Chafee was the least Republican elected official in either the house or senate. I suppose that someone has to be, but Mr. Chafee enjoyed tweaking the GOP leadership and, as they tried with former Sen Jim Jeffords of Vermont, they got burned. Also in Mr. Hewitt's post is that if necessary, yes the Republicans should get involved in primaries. The White House was very involved in the 2004 campaign of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) backing Mr. Specter to the hilt over conservative Republican congressman Pat Thoomey. We know who won that race and is still a sitting senator.
Secondly, and I think very important, is to get veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq theatre in the War Against Terror to run, especially in congressional races. The Democrat brain trust was actually smart enough to recruit en masse veterans who were opposed to the war, especially in Iraq and that translated into votes and some wins for the Dems. Imagine veterans running in the Republican camp who were for the invasion of Iraq and winning primaries and being in the front lines of the political wars winning seats for the Republicans.
The memo of Mr. Hewitt's is because the Republican committees I wrote about earlier are way behind in money to the Democrats. The Dems are banking on their base being excited to possibly retain congress and take the White House. The Republicans just don't seem to care. But they and we should care.
The question I have for disgruntled Republicans of all stripes in the coalition is this.
Do you like what the Democrat control of congress hath wrought? In other words, all the doom and gloom that many predicted has happened. The investigation machine is on warped speed, trying to find anything to nail on President Bush and even Vice-President Cheney so as to impeach both and lead Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) to become president. If it is not the investigative machine, the continued blocking of federal judical appointments? And the constant seemingly weekly votes in both houses to wear down Republicans and set a pull out date in the Iraq theatre in the War Against Terror?
Pay attention to all of Mr. Hewitt's letter. It is a big way to victory for the GOP in 2008.
4 comments:
Righty i worry about the approach of trying to get conservatives to the poles with the approach of going just to stop the democrats. it works for the left, i am not convinced it will for the right. what will get the base out is conservatisim. for this we are still looking!!
Mr. Pat,
I actually agree with what you are saying about just stopping the Democrats. That is a huge reason why I can not in good consience support Rudy Guiliani. If he is the nominee, I will simply vote for him. No telling anyone what to do. My point is that we need more conservatives to get involved and to run for office. We do not need a "motivator" like Ronald Reagan. Having this Democrat congress is enough and that is what I was trying to point out. After all, there was no Reagan to guide the Republican takeover of congress in 1994. There was former President Clinton (Bill) and that was enough.
Agreed righty. We can't just say, once we have a nominee, well, he's not conservative enough so I'm not going to vote for him. That will be death for us.
Pat, the Dems are going to do exactly that, so, unless we want to lose we will need to do the same thing.
true incog, i just don't see cons. going to the booth just because though. we need "the cause" to rally around.
Righty, you are exactly right, and my fault for missing your true point. what you have said should have been a focus of the GOP after the 04 election. some off the blame for a lackluster base now must fall at Bush's feet. and yet at the same time he still has the opportunity to energize us all, will it happen remains to be seen.
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