GOP establishment "quietly declares war" on Tea Party

[Michchamp]

link. article is long, getting in a lot of punches at both the GOP establishment and the Tea Party (I had fun reading it), but these are the essential news items for the TL;DR crowd:

"The news came in the Wall Street Journal, where the Chamber of Commerce disclosed that it will be teaming up with Republican establishment leaders to spend $50 million in an effort to stem the tide of ?fools? who have overwhelmed Republican ballots in recent seasons. Check out the language Chamber strategist Scott Reed used in announcing the new campaign:
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'Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates? That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.'
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...
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If you spend years letting your voters think Saddam Hussein was an agent of al-Qaeda, that passing a national health care program will result in the formation of Stalinist "death panels," or that Barack Obama is secretly a foreigner, you?re going to end up with some loopy candidates prone to saying crazy things that will turn off voting majorities, which in turn will make it hard to the deliver policy objectives you actually care about for your big-money donors.
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The Republican establishment is only just figuring this out. Hence this new $50 million initiative, which according to the WSJ will involve the Chamber working with party leaders in?an aggressive effort to groom and support more centrist Republican candidates.?
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this should be entertaining...

 

[Thumb]

I don't know about entertaining, but it's certainly what we need. We can't get anything accomplished with the far right attempting to block everything and not willing to compromise. More centrist GOP and Democrat candidates are what we need to get this republic working properly again.

 

[Michchamp]

I don't know about entertaining, but it's certainly what we need. We can't get anything accomplished with the far right attempting to block everything and not willing to compromise. More centrist GOP and Democrat candidates are what we need to get this republic working properly again.

Well... I think we need more leftist GOP & Democratic parties in order to get the republic working, but the way the lens to view politics is clouded, it's difficult to use labels to define exactly what one means. what is "the center" today would be branded extreme right in Eisenhower's day

if this strategy they laid down in the article succeeds in turning back the clock to the beginning of the George W. Bush years (which haven't really ended in terms of policy) we'll continue down the course of increasing income disparity, the highest incarceration rates in the world, increasing %'s of the population at or below the poverty level, and a less mobile society where it becomes impossible to escape your social class.

from the article, all the more "centrist" Republicans did was delivery horrible corporate welfare:

"...the important thing was that in the end, Cheney’s energy buddies got their Clear Skies Act, the biotech donors got their Prescription Drug Benefit Act, the consumer credit vampires got their Bankruptcy Bill, and so on."
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[Thumb]

I agree the more left the better, but baby steps and all. Getting the extreme and far right to move center would be a big enough task, expecting them to move left of center will probably happen around the time of personal transporter devices and time machines.

 

[Gulo Blue]

'bout time. Even though now is not the time for strict fiscal conservatism, I do wish there was a voice in D.C. that was an actual fan of it. A few Tea Partiers would be welcome if they did what they claim. But the movement was hijacked very early on. A universal healthcare system created with input and compromise from genuine fiscal conservatives could be a beautiful thing. But you need conservatives that cooperate and compromise rather than obstruct. Instead we got a system that protects private profits and passes the buck the healthy members of the middle class...furthering inequality.

And I don't know about it still being the G.W.B. years. You are aware that Obama is in his second term, right?

...or maybe Hoke is struggling because Carr left the cupboard bare....

 

[byco42]

Republic? That vanished 100 years ago.

 

[Thumb]

Republic? That vanished 100 years ago.

That made me think of this:

 

[Michchamp]

...

And I don't know about it still being the G.W.B. years. You are aware that Obama is in his second term, right?

...or maybe Hoke is struggling because Carr left the cupboard bare....

you misunderstood me; what I was trying to say was only that the damaging laws and regulations signed by bush or passed by his administration are all still on the books, still continuing under Obama. we did not really "change course" so to speak in January 2009.

 

[Michchamp]

That made me think of this:

now I'm ready his post in that voice too

 

[Monster]

It's about time. Ever since Obama was elected, all of these Palin/Bachmann/Cruz types of assholes have grown in number. I don't mind traditional republicans that used their brains and didn't have to go so far to the right, but these people are pure scum. And not to mention all of the conspiracy theories.

 

[jswain]

The estalishment republicans have been at odds with conservatives, ie, now tea party, since Reagan emerged in the 60's...but they fail to see their candidates dont win.
Ford, dole,mccain and Romney

 

[Thumb]

Romney was not a tea party candidate, he just pretended to be and pandered to them in the hopes of getting a massive right-wing shift to beat Obama.

Really nobody on that list outside of McCain's running mate Palin was really ultra-right.

Ford lost because the nation was still fuming over Tricky Dick/Watergate/Pardon. Dole never had a chance in hell of beating Clinton, the economy was doing great, and we had a budget surplus. McCain torpedoed himself as soon as he said the name 'Palin' out loud.

The problem will be who they nominate in 2016, the GOP is so divided right now.

 

[jswain]

Romney was not a tea party candidate, he just pretended to be and pandered to them in the hopes of getting a massive right-wing shift to beat Obama.

Really nobody on that list outside of McCain's running mate Palin was really ultra-right.

Ford lost because the nation was still fuming over Tricky Dick/Watergate/Pardon. Dole never had a chance in hell of beating Clinton, the economy was doing great, and we had a budget surplus. McCain torpedoed himself as soon as he said the name 'Palin' out loud.

The problem will be who they nominate in 2016, the GOP is so divided right now.

I think u misunderstood..that list is the establishment candidates..not conservatives

 

[Gulo Blue]

I think u misunderstood..that list is the establishment candidates..not conservatives

I went through the same misunderstanding..."Wait! Those guys weren't hyper-conservative! ...oh..."

 

[Michchamp]

The estalishment republicans have been at odds with conservatives, ie, now tea party, since Reagan emerged in the 60's...but they fail to see their candidates dont win.
Ford, dole,mccain and Romney

so who was Bush? Ronald Reagan? were these hacks "real conservatives" or establishment republicans?

get real...

 

[jswain]

so who was Bush? Ronald Reagan? were these hacks "real conservatives" or establishment republicans?

get real...

Reagan wasnt backed by the establishment. First the wanted Ford, then HW
They wanted mccain in 2000