Getting voted back into office is all most of these people care about. If they know that voters are paying attention to their votes — and that they won’t tolerate any more massive give-aways of tax dollars for ludicrous purposes — maybe eventually they’ll get the message and stop voting for this crap.

Bush has threatened to VETO this farm bill… or are you so busy with EVERY McCain speech that you missed that little tidbit…

If McCain came out hardcore about being agains this bill, the Dem talking points would be all about “see? Just like Bushy”… it would be ALL over the press.

Romeo13 on May 19, 2008 at 2:42 PM

Wasn’t your original question something like “where’s McCain been all these years on the government spending issue?” or something like that? Thus my poke at your trying to tie McCain to Bush, when Bush never saw a spending bill come out of a GOP congress that he wouldn’t sign.

Great post patrick neid.

Bush critics always point to his low–the lowest–approval rating of a sitting President in modern times. The war tends to be the main culprit but I think they are wrong.
To repeat what I have said here and over at CQ’s, had the repubs balanced the budget and shamed earmark writers in the public square they would have gained seats in 06 and approached veto proof majorities in 08. Bush job ratings would probably be recording setting despite the war.

Independents, who do the electing, want only two things from repubs–fiscal restraint and small government bias. All the other nit picking about who’s a conservative and who’s not they could care less about.(inside the beltway crap) That’s what makes them independents. They would vote for the devil himself if he promised a balanced small government.

What’s truly remarkable, and attests to the shear stupidity of repubs as a group, is all this was predicted by 100′s of notable pundits back in 2003, 04, 05 and 06. Trott-like they didn’t listen. They didn’t even listen after 06. I’m not sure the left over from 08 will even listen. They will rationalize that back benching isn’t so bad.

Wow. To have lost so much.

funky chicken on May 19, 2008 at 2:19 PM

How about old enough to have been in the miltary, under CARTER?

Typical personal attempt at an attack… missed the mark a bit… better improove your spotting ability (which I also used to do… shore fire support stuff, but that was under Reagan… hmmm Boarded ships under Bush 1 during Storm… shall I continue?).

Bush has threatened to VETO this farm bill… or are you so busy with EVERY McCain speech that you missed that little tidbit…

If McCain came out hardcore about being agains this bill, the Dem talking points would be all about “see? Just like Bushy”… it would be ALL over the press.

Bush signed all those GOP porkfests for years while McCain and a tiny band of folks opposed them. The others gained favor among bloggers in 2006. Don’t you remember porkbusters?

McCain, Sessions, Coburn, DeMint, sometimes Cornyn

funky chicken on May 19, 2008 at 12:53 PM

Sigh… every speech? No, but do you really think the MSM would not take the opportunity to use this to link him to Bush if he was actualy making it an issue?

As I used to say to my X wife… “if a man is speaking in a forest, and theres no woman there to hear him… is he still wrong?”

How about an AD about this? How about he goes back to the Senate, does the job we pay him to do, and he makes at LEAST a speech about it…

This is a bill which spends $1000 for every man woman and child in America… on crap… this IS a big deal.

NO, because both Ford & Rockefeller were far more liberal than McCain ever was. And McCain will choose a conservative VP.

I wish he would. A guy like Steele, maybe. You know, a REAL conservative. But of all the possibilities touted in the press, is there one who would “balance” the ticket, or simply be a younger version of McCain?

What’s the value-added in that?

It is said that we get the leaders we deserve. While I’d rather write in “none of the above,” do we deserve Obama right now?

When they realize the difference between talk and action, Republican leadership will have taken the first step towards winning back the public’s trust.

That’s right. But, unfortunately we won’t see action. Not gonna happen. Those in Government, NOT ALL (there still are some God-fearing men and women working in Government) but the MAJORITY in the Republican party are corrupt Robber baron conservates. By the way, when I say the conservative movement in America is over, I mean it, BUT, I’m mainly referring to the Republican leadership, the GOP establishment, the money-con, greedy-cons… I’m not talking about grassroots conservatives… conservatism still resides in it’s American citizens, just not in their Republican leadership… and if any of you think I’m picking on the Republican party, the Democrats are much WORSE and even MORE CORRUPT!

What concerns me is how many trillions of dollars we are going to waste on this boondoggle that could have gone towards worthwhile projects or left in the pockets of the taxpayers! I don’t have a problem with real environmentalism but this kind of nonsense is truly nuts.

JohnAGJ on May 19, 2008 at 12:51 PM

You and me both. But again, Obama will cost much more in pretty much all ways.

No-brainer.

That may date me…..there is an old joke for people who waste lots of money…. He spends like a drunken sailor.

Also, did you notice how NBC edited his SNL appearance…..left in all the jokes about his age (which were kinda cute) but chopped all the funny stuff about how he has opposed spending even if it hurts his own state….and because of that AZ now has no paved highways and kids have to drink cactus juice?

He talks about it….it just doesn’t get reported.

Insofar as domestic policy is concerned, the exception being judges where the president has the initiative, it hardly matters who wins in November. There will be a sufficient number of Dhimmis and Rinos to override any veto, It is still posssible to block this bill if sanity returns to a few members, but after the elections there will be at least 5 more D senators and probably 50 more Ds in the house. The true one party system looms on the horizon. The only hope is for a revival starting in 2010 before the illegals get the right to vote Dhimmicrat.

Yeah, the global warming stuff is crap. But I think that is going to go out of vogue with another cold winter or two, and I think the GOP is gonna be a lot more willing to look at, you know, actual data. The dems won’t admit that AlGore is a total fraud for decades, if they ever do.

What concerns me is how many trillions of dollars we are going to waste on this boondoggle that could have gone towards worthwhile projects or left in the pockets of the taxpayers! I don’t have a problem with real environmentalism but this kind of nonsense is truly nuts.

I don’t think politicians have that kind of self awareness usually. Much better to blame the voters for being too afraid of hearing the truth.

Snort.

It’s not the way they’ve voted for almost eight years, and George Bush deserves a healthy share of the blame. Not only did he wait a very long time to discover his veto pen, he proposed and pushed through hefty increases in federal spending while Republicans controlled Washington. The GOP had no problem porking bills up at a historical rate without any meaningful opposition on spending.

The GOP wants to position itself as the party of reform, and they talk a good game, but they refuse to act.

Exactly right. Its one of several key reasons why the GOP is crashing.

If the GOP is going to act like a bunch of Democrats, why vote GOP?

.

You know, you come across with some intelligent commnents, and then give us that kind of crap.

I doubt it is any more unsavory than what the Religious Right has been serving up for quite awhile now. Get used to it because the other Republican and GOP-leaning voters are sick of their crap, let alone their faux whining about being “abused”. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black…

funky chicken on May 19, 2008 at 11:52 AM

OK, big question…

IF McCain is an anti big spending guy, why is he NOT talking about this on the campaign trail?

Its a GREAT issue for conservatives… he should denounce this in the LOUDEST way at every stop… and yet… to date… except for one speech, he remains pretty silent.

Yeah, the global warming stuff is crap. But I think that is going to go out of vogue with another cold winter or two, and I think the GOP is gonna be a lot more willing to look at, you know, actual data. The dems won’t admit that AlGore is a total fraud for decades, if they ever do.

BUT he dug his own political grave by being so vocal about gay marriage and other social issues over many years.

Now why are you “abusing” that “neglected” wing of the GOP? ;-)

funky chicken at 12:44PM

Thanks for your opinion, but I’ll take Santorum’s word over yours.