His slavish praise of Bush and lack of criticism of Bush for all his anti Conservative positions such as illegal alien amnesty, not protesting the persecution of the Pendleton 8 and the Murtha Haditha fiasco, supporting Dubai ports and allowing Geneva accords to apply to terrorists demoralized the Conservative base. This caused the fiasco of a candidate like McCain.
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Rush has to get onboard the no more Rino train. His Conservative standing is very weak at this point.

FactsofLife on October 27, 2009 at 6:44 PM

I heard him regularly dump on Bush for amnesty and the prescription drug benefit, slamming Murtha, and he did not let up on McCain even after the nomination. His hissing Queeg-croak McCain impression was brutal.

He has done a U-turn of late. For the last few years he was proud not to adopt the Republican label. Now apparently he wants to “take back” the party. I don’t think he’s going to get any traction.

That is why I use the train anology to describe the difference between the Democrat Party and the Republicans under their current leadership. The express train to fascism versus the slow freight to the same destination.
Why would any sane Amercan want to be on either?

If you’re a Republcian nominee, which Scozzafava is via her selection by the local Republican committee, the NRCC sends you at least some money. No questions asked. But, perhaps I’m mistaken.

Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 5:49 PM

They didn’t send any money to David Duke.

But I’d vote for a rock if it was running against Obama.

But NOT if that rock had won the Margaret Sanger Award.

It is NOW time for conservatives to lead and let the moderates get out of our way.

Democrat-45% chance of winning

Republican- 5% chance of winning

Other (Hoffman)- 50% chance of winning

patch on October 27, 2009 at 7:51 PM

So she has basically a snowball’s chance of winning, but an even chance of getting the Democrat elected.

Great job there, RNC. What would we ever do without you?

Seriously. Millions of us are thinking very, very hard about that question right now.

http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/trading/t_index.jsp?selConID=699145

Democrat-45% chance of winning

Republican- 5% chance of winning

Other (Hoffman)- 50% chance of winning

Please note, it’s not generally accurate until there has been about 2,000 trades.

Here’s hoping for some CONSERVATIVES to vote for next election.

FloridaBill on October 27, 2009 at 3:54 PM

Why should they run conservatives? You voted for their candidates last time, didn’t you?

I assume the answer is that, a la Gingrich, they don’t want to send a message to would-be third-party challengers next year that the GOP might support them over its own nominees if they manage to muster some critical mass of grassroots enthusiasm.

To them party, and the perks they personally get from it and their egos, is clearly more important than country.

Isn’t the GOP, by its very nature, a conservative party? Isn’t conservatism in its DNA? If so, why would they let some liberal represent their party? WHy would she want to join the GOP. Surely the only attraction to her is political sabotage.

To me this all implies that Republicanism is NOT synonymous with Conservatism. If so, then perhaps it’s time to reflect on what Republicanism does mean? What are the core values of the GOP that are exclusive and not specifically conservative. And are these exclusive Republican ideals important in this day and age? Is the “Republicanism” redundant in the light of liberalism and conservatism?

Rush is just another ayatollah. He will push the GOP no matter what.
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True_King on October 27, 2009 at 4:03 PM
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You are just another fool who knows nothing about Limbaugh and yet still has an opinion on him. You aren’t worth my invective.
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Jaibones on October 27, 2009 at 5:51 PM

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Rush’s approach is obviously one that is similar to Newt’s. He didn’t support Tancredo or Hunter in the primaries.
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His slavish praise of Bush and lack of criticism of Bush for all his anti Conservative positions such as illegal alien amnesty, not protesting the persecution of the Pendleton 8 and the Murtha Haditha fiasco, supporting Dubai ports and allowing Geneva accords to apply to terrorists demoralized the Conservative base. This caused the fiasco of a candidate like McCain.
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Rush has to get onboard the no more Rino train. His Conservative standing is very weak at this point.

As I recall, Reagan used the “Eleventh Commandment” about not criticizing fellow Republicans, to protect conservative Republicans from attack by liberal Republicans during the Goldwater period. However, Reagan was a Big Tent conservative who friendly to moderate and liberal Republicans who were friendly with conservative Republicans. The liberals that Rush mentioned and that Reagan told to take a hike were those who were attacking the conservatives.

I know it may be difficult to believe today and from recent history, but liberals and conservatives often had a lot more in common back then. There were some broad areas of general agreement, such as national security.

I agree with Rush on the NY-23 special election and third parties. We aren’t a parliamentary system. Third parties rarely win. And there are indeed purple districts and states where one has no choice but to vote the lesser of two evils or not vote at all. And moderate Republicans can be much better than liberal Democrats.

To me, voters rule. Period. If we as Republicans want to set some boundaries for what is and is not acceptable to be within the GOP, I’m fine with that, but the boundaries need to be large enough to accommodate candidates and voters who are not purely conservative on every issue, as even conservatives disagree amongst ourselves on many conservative issues. If don’t make the rules accommodating enough, we are telling everyone but ourselves, “My way or the highway.” And I don’t think that’s an approach that will win the most American voters.

320 First Street SE · Washington, DC 20003
Privacy Policy · (202) 479-7000

Ask for a refund….get their attention….the tea parties have set the stage do some arm twisting. NO CASH FOR RINOS

The RNC has become a party of ad hoc policies, determined not as a result of firmly-held core principals, but on the basis of backroom bartering with Democrats relating to the division of tax dollars (aka pork).
molonlabe28 on October 27, 2009 at 5:07 PM

If I thought the RNC was actually bartering on the issue of conservatism vs. liberalism, I could at least theoretically try to support them. We take one step forward, they take one step back…

But it never, ever works that way. The face the RNC presents to us is that they’re “limiting” the growth of government by convincing the Democrats to take only half of everything they ask for today, and waiting to take the rest until next year.

In reality, Republican and Democrat Congressmen are doing nothing but negotiating with each other on how to split the ever-growing pile of federal money among themselves.

When those conference room doors close, they must all just sit down and laugh their asses off at us.

I hope that Scozza stays in the race and garners about 15% of the vote.

[molonlabe28 on October 27, 2009 at 5:07 PM]

There area a lot of vagaries to a really good assessment of Hoffman’s chances. Despite the R-41/D-31 break, it’s spurious for AP to say it’s a purplish district.

McHugh had been representing at least part (how much I don’t know) of the district since 1993 and took over the 23rd after the 2000 census related redistricting. He won in 2008 with 64% of the vote and in 2006 with 63%, both when the R’s had disastrous down years. McHugh had a lifetime ACU rating of 75%.

If you take the 31% Dem enrollment and multiply by total ballots in 2008 (261K) you get 80K which is 10K more than the total votes the Dem received and note that there were 42k Blanks in that election. I mention this because offhand
I’d say that Scozzafava will not be pulling from the Dem fold here and the WOR (only pulled 5K in 2008 and 3.5K in 2006) will be practically negligible this time around since Scozzafava has it and there’s no way now that that line will go R.

It’s best that Scozzafava drops out for the guaranteed Hoffman win. The biggest unknown in my opinion is not the breakdown but the turnout. The above numbers are based on regular Nov voting years, and I haven’t seen how special election turnouts go in the 23rd nor have I seen the ballots for the various counties to gauge whether turnout might be paltry or big, but I think this vote will depend on who wants it more and gets their voters to the polls.

Rush is just another ayatollah. He will push the GOP no matter what.

True_King on October 27, 2009 at 4:03 PM

You are just another fool who knows nothing about Limbaugh and yet still has an opinion on him. You aren’t worth my invective.

I though the NRCC had standard rules and procedures. If you’re a Republcian nominee, which Scozzafava is via her selection by the local Republican committee, the NRCC sends you at least some money. No questions asked. But, perhaps I’m mistaken.

Maybe Scozzafava is so far left that the GOP fears her dropping out of the race would free up more votes for the Democrat at this point than for Hoffman. In which case, propping her up is actually helping the conservative win.

I believe this is correct.