Posts Tagged ‘gop’
Ted’s Shorts
Written by Ted West
Thursday, 13 November 2008 19:46
5 Comments

Sarah Palin is the finest woman in American politics. Probably ever. But it took John McCain a week to get around to "defending" her from those republican elites who see her as a threat to their future in the party. And he did it with a patronizing, "I'm so proud of her and her family." Not a word of denunciation for her detractors. Your Republican wimps and cowards at work.

And speaking of cowards, the Republican Party is planning a lawsuit to overturn McCain-Feingold. Will it work? It's anybody's guess, but where were they when it was being debated and later signed by the president who ruined their party? Not a word about George Bush – again.

Last night, I heard some right-leaning talking face (sorry, they blend together) telling us what Obama needs to do when he gets into office to stem the financial crisis. It wasn't a partisan thing, he was only referring to what he felt needs to be done regardless of who had been elected. The problem: don't we have a president right now? Let me try to recall his name…. President Nero?

Do you love irony like I do? Because it turns out that McCain's campaign funds are going to be audited, but not Obama's. It's part of the requirement when you elect to take public financing, and it's going to cost McCain millions in audit fees. Meanwhile, they're going to ignore Obama because, as the story goes; he raised so much that it doesn't matter what an audit turns up.

Finally, T. Boone Pickens is shelving his windy plans, (though not his rhetoric) for now because the cost of oil is too low, he says. Thank Sky Guy for lower prices, but they mask the truth – that wind is not currently, nor will it be for a long time, a viable form of electricity on a large scale, and that doesn't even take into account the thousands of miles of eyesores it will create and to which even Ted Kennedy will attest.

Now I gotta go find some new shorts…

 
Conservative base missing in action
Written by Chad Phillips
Thursday, 06 November 2008 05:01
14 Comments

God, do I hate being right all the time. Almost two years ago to the day, shortly after the GOP lost their majority on the Hill in 2006, I predicted that Bush would be a lame duck for the remainder of his presidency, that the GOP would lose the White House in 2008, and that there would be a not so subtle shift in the tenor of the news outlets after their latest media whore was elected.

That last prediction hasn't happened, yet. But look for it in the coming weeks and months ahead.
As for the other two, well…those predictions are now academic. The question of why the election went "left" keeps coming up and most of the conservative talking heads don't have a clue as to the real answer. While they're being conciliatory and comforting themselves with the effrontery of a moderate Obama administration, I offer the following: When will you backroom GOP geniuses figure out that you can’t win elections as long as keep stabbing your base in the back?

Contrary to popular belief, the outcome of this election wasn’t just because of an electrified democrat base; it was a conservative judgment on the GOP. If they (the Republican Party) had taken my advice two years ago, we could've avoided all of this. But no. Instead of going after the true conservative base, they decided to sell us out for the squishy middle. The result has been catastrophic for the “Grand” Ol' Party both in this election and the last. How catastrophic? McCain only won 80% of the conservative vote and roughly the same amount of the Republican vote. In sharp contrast, he lost the moderate and independent vote to Barry by 39 to 60 percent respectively.

If that weren't bad enough, the dems also increased their advantage on the Hill. With the latter loss being somewhat of a question mark in many people's minds, since the democrat controlled Congress has an even lower approval rating than Bush Jr. The voters' answer??? I know; send in more liberal democrats. You gotta be kiddin’ me, right? I mean, what in the name of corn on the cob is going on around here?!!!

Some of you are asking, "What about Sarah Palin?" Doesn't she stand for the classical conservative ideals held by old school conservatives. The answer is yes, for the most part. She was much closer to the Right than the party favorites. But it was too little too late. Sadly, Palin ended up a footnote in this election and I’m sure that now what with her being exonerated for the so-called Troopergate, etc., the press will ante up a front page apology for treating her like crap, even as they licked the boots of Comrade Obama. Anyway, with all due respect to her, she was nothing more than a classical conservative concession–one the party was only willing to make after they realized their hopes of capturing the mushy middle evaporated like so many of their campaign promises.

The sad result is that we (the people) will be getting exactly what they (the party machine) so richly deserve. Their rush to sell us out has proven exactly what my good friend Ted West always says: "When you lay down with liberals, you come up smelling like garbage." This is one time where I really do hate to say, “I told you so…” Had they taken my advice and gone after the conservative vote (and meant it), they would've won this election. And now if you don't mind, I think I'll go have a beer…while I still have the money to buy it.

 
Bipartisan ethics committee throws paper at Sen. Larry Craig
Written by Chad Phillips
Thursday, 14 February 2008 05:32
No Comments

It was a tough year for Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho). In 2007 he was arrested in a "men's room sex sting" operation for which he pled guilty. He also tried to use his position and influence to procure special treatment after his arrest. Following that, he spent more than $213,000 dollars in campaign money to pay for legal and public relations expenses.

A few eyebrows were raised, but Craig went back to work: business as usual in Washington.

Then something snapped among Craig's peers when he recently tried to retract his guilty plea. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee decided enough was enough and swung into action. Did they move to censure Craig? No. Did they move to have him expelled? No. Instead, these beacons for "truth, justice and the North American way" had something else in mind for this profligate senator. They decided….to write him a letter.

Yes, it was a grand show of Republicans and Democrats putting their best foot…er, uh..feet forward to show they can truly work together to give one of their own yet another break.
They wrote:

"Your claims to the court … to the effect that your guilty plea resulted from improper pressure or coercion, or that you did not, as a legal matter, know what you were doing when you pled guilty do not appear credible."

In the same story the AP went on to report that:

"Any future use of campaign money for legal bills will be seen as 'demonstrating your continuing disregard of ethics requirements,' the ethics committee wrote in its three-page letter."

Gee…I thought he already disregarded ethics requirements when he tried to solicit sex in a bathroom of the Minneapolis airport.

And for that, he keeps his job, (sans "several GOP leadership positions on Senate committees and subcommittees") and gets a nice little letter from the ethics committee telling him he was a bad boy.

Censorship? Expulsion? Naaaaaah….he learned his lesson; We'll just, ya know…give him a piece of paper telling him he should know better and we'll let the entire free world read it. That'll teach him. When it comes to disciplining one of our own, we don't mess around.

That's what I call zero tolerance….for doing the right thing. What a bunch of pansies.