How Many Republicans Does It Take To Destroy The Party?
November 15th, 2006 | by Todd W |There are forty-nine Republican Senators, and this is the best they can do?
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the top Senate Republican leadership job four years ago because of remarks considered racially insensitive, won election to the chamber’s No. 2 GOP post Wednesday.
Trent Lott?! The man who killed the amendment to introduce transparency to the earmarking process? The man who said the following about a grass-roots organization dedicated to exposing pork barrel spending (Porkbusters).
“I’ll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina. We in Mississippi have not asked for more than we deserve. We’ve been very reasonable.”
We couldn’t do better than this guy? He already served five years as Senate Majority Leader before resigning over the Strom Thurmond affair. Let’s review the conservative legislative victories during Lott’s earlier tenure:
Tax cuts? Maybe.
Anything else? Anybody? Bueller?
Yeah, the prospect of Trent Lott in a leadership position is setting my conservative heart on fire.
The GOP was shellacked because of lackluster leadership, muddled ideology, and an utter contempt for the electorate. In response they give us the new ‘old’ boss, same as the old ‘old’ boss.
And then we have Mel Martinez as the head of the RNC.
OK, let’s take a disenchanted, demoralized base, and install a chairman who drafted a bill to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
It’s almost like they are trying to make things worse for ‘08.
Limbaugh ‘revealed’, the day after the election, his liberation from having to ‘carry the water’ for people who didn’t deserve it. Now granted, Rush is in a position to do great benefit or harm to the party, but for him to admit he held his nose and supported people who didn’t deserve it, all for the sake of preserving us from Democratic rule…I’m disappointed. We’ve had several terms of the current leadership, and I can’t point to a single conservative I know that could honestly declare happiness over legislative reality.
If Rush had used his power to take ‘conservatives’ to the woodshed instead of fretting about Democratic control, we wouldn’t be in a position where the Democrats now have greater respect as ‘the party of fiscal restraint’.
This isn’t a football game. We can’t be happy to get the win when our team is composed of nothing but scoundrels. Having that big ‘R’ in the ‘Party In Control’ column doesn’t mean squat when the ‘R’ ceases to mean anything of substance. I’d rather have clear differences between the Democrats and Republicans, even if that means the Democrats get a few years in office to pass questionable legislation.
Because our side seems to be inclined to pass the same questionable legislation as things stand now.
Why is it better when the GOP rammed through the Prescription Drug Act? Had the Democrats done that, conservatives would be having a seizure.
Holding on to congressional power is not worth these compromises.
And bringing back the Trent Lotts of the party will not restore the faith of the base.
Unfortunately, the ‘06 message is getting lost.
Technorati Tags: lott, senate, whip
