Sep 14 2010
Dirty Political Tricks, Now Where Have We Seen That Before
As I noted in the comments on another post, the spectacle unfolding in the DE GOP senate primary has become a joke. It seems the Tea Party and Governor Palin are being brought back to Earth in DE. The movement and governor have produced surprising and needed upheaval in the GOP. They did it by bringing in talent from outside the Political Industrial Complex. Talent who can bring fresh ideas, new energy and reinforced morals to the political process and government. Hopefully they will also be putting the federal bureaucracy on a crash diet and off its addiction to tax payer incomes.
In CO, NV, AK and CT we have real people running for office, not political automatons who will literally say and do anything to get elected. In NH the leading contender for the GOP looks like a wonderful person, and in SC Nikki Haley is heading to be the new Governor. Palin has backed some ‘incumbents’ as well, such as Michelle Bachman. All in all a laudable list of new blood I 100% support (though I am sure I do not 100% agree with).
But in DE Palin and the Tea Party picked a lemon. A really rotten lemon. Christine O’Donnell is so loose with the truth I doubt she is even as pure a conservative as Palin and others think. She has exaggerated her previous election performance, she has exaggerated her pain and suffering from being fired for breaking rules of her employer, she has lied about being in a Masters program, she has been forced to pay back taxes and wages to people who worked for her. She is not a proven paragon of conservative virtue. In fact she is just the opposite. It was a bad call.
And now her campaign is making up complete lies about Mike Castle – a long term member of the GOP with a known track record (one few would cheer):
The madness continues, as activists who support Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware Senate primary have stepped up their attacks on Mike Castle by alleging that he voted to impeach President Bush. That will come as a surprise to those who wonder how they missed such a vote, but Dan Riehl assures us that it is true. Not only that, he explicitly ties this claim to radio talk show host Mark Levin’s attack on us; he titles his post “Paging Powerline.” He says that he would “like to hear from Powerline as to why they are supporting someone who signed on to such ‘moonbattery’ and did such damage to our country.”
First of all, Riehl’s claim–which he says may have originated with Mark Levin–is absurd on its face. The House of Representatives never voted on whether to impeach President Bush. The vote that Riehl and other anti-Castle pundits refer to is this one, to refer Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution to the House Judiciary Committee. That motion passed; obviously it was not an impeachment resolution, or we would have had an impeachment trial. Castle was one of 24 Republicans who voted for the referral resolution, along with conservative stalwarts like Peter King, Kevin Brady, Ralph Hall, and others.
Before the gullible get all birther on me, let me remind people that sometimes it is better to let things hit the house floor and be exposed to public humiliation, especially when it comes from Kucinich. It was always a good idea to let the impeachment nuts on the left have as much air time as possible over Iraq. It helped save the surge and our victory there because the voters saw the opposition as foolish and silly. Voting to allow Kucinich to make a fool of himself is not a traitorous act to the GOP. In fact, it is a well honored tradition.
The far right is losing it. Maybe they should take a chill pill and see if they want to continue to run around and make baseless and silly accusations about others. To do or say anything to win. To become just like those they supposedly oppose.. Because it ain’t us right of center folks whose images are getting destroyed here. No one admires people who make up lies about others. Unless of course you’re a slimy DC politician – then it is your bread and butter.
I hope Governor Palin is learning a lesson here about vetting candidates, and vetting their impact on the broad base required to defeat the dems and roll back Obamacare and the out of control spending. It will take large majorities to tame the federal beast and its backers. Purity will not win this war. We cannot condone or support divisive candidates, nor can we waste our energies on flawed candidates. DE is a wake up call to all who oppose Obama, Pelosi and Reid – and their far left agenda. At the moment that is a large and diverse group. We need to keep it that way.
Update: And I fail to see how this kind of action is patriotic or inspiring:
The chairman of the Delaware Republican Party received a death threat last week over his support for Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del) over Tea Party challenger Christine O’Donnell in the state’s upcoming Senate primary, a party official confirmed to the Huffington Post.
The threat, issued in the form of an email, told chairman Tom Ross that he deserves “a bullet in the head” for backing “political ass-kissing RINO’s” [Republicans in name only].
“It is one thing to have your country screwed over by socialists, it is far worse to be backstabbed by people pretending to be your friends,” the email read. “We will either rid the GOP of pieces of shit like you, or we will start a new ‘Common Sense Conservative’ party and render you all useless.”
Like I said – take a chill pill and get back to us when your attitudes have matured.
Who make up lies about others, not how. Need to hire a typist. Me too. I makd the same keyboard errors. I guess we are not all perferct.
Refer the motion to committee! Pelosi’s way of trying to bury the silly resolution.
The real tragedy is that Ovide in NH is not getting any attention or energy and he is a legitimate conservative outsider candidate who has little baggage. And Palin endorsed Kelly. Go figure.
Tonight will be one to look for the turnout. NY and WI are the two I’m looking at for enthusiasm. NY-1 and NY-23 should be interesting because NY has no sore loser laws (like AK does, sorry Lisa). Will the losers run in Nov under a different line?
Only four states have no sore loser laws. IA, VT (surprising that none of the losers in the Dem gov primary are trying to run as IND), NY and the fourth everyone should know and if you don’t you should be banned from this site.
If Castle loses and the REP come up with only 50, I do not think that the Senator from CT will caucus with the REP. Dumping on Castle is not sending a good big tent message.
If I had to vote, at the last minute, I’d probably cast my vote for Castle and reluctantly.
But if Christine wins, by golly, the Republicans had better stand by her…even reluctantly. 🙁
Castle is in no way a Republican Senator. He votes more often then not with the Democrats. If we pick up over 10 seats in the Senate, then we won the majority without DE. I think it is time to remove those Senators that vote with Democrats (versus Republicans) and move more to the 1992 model.
Some may say we should elect candidates for strategy even if they are like Snowe – oh wait wasn’t it her vote that moved the Healthcare bill from Cloture to the floor of the Senate. Without her vote, it would have died. Oh well, let’s get more like her.
I think O’Donnell might not be the best choice, but at least she is not another Snowe. She is new and not a career candidate and yes she has made mistakes. But if we only select candidates who have made no mistakes in life, then (you finish the thought).
In regards to vetting O’Donnell by Palin. I think Palin and the tea party movement is more with removing the “old” guard and replacing with new and fresh. I recall about the vetting of Obama and some here not thinking Obama would be that bad or give him a chance. A lot of us saw the wright(ing) on the wall and new we were in for hard times and socialism. I for one didn’t think it would be that bad, but now, we need reduced spending, grid lock on more spending, repeal healthcare and extend the tax cuts.
Count me as one who was wondering how I had missed the news of an impeachment vote having been taken, since I was sure I would have heard of it before now.
Ralph Hall is on that list – Ralph was my Congressman for a number of years. (I didn’t move, but around 2000 his district did)
Not only did Ralph *always* support GWB, he and GWB have been very close personal friends for over 30 years now.
If Ralph Hall voted yes on that resolution, it was in no way an anti-Bush vote. I don’t need to know anything more about it than that.
In regards to the votes by Castle on all the Democrat bills (cap & Trade, etc.), he did vote on the resolution for the impeachment of President Bush. Granted, it was a Kucinich’s impeachment resolution, but why do it at all? Was it to be friends with Democrats? Again, it bothers me with this kind of voting just like Collins and Snowe. I do not want anymore of this type of Republican. If you want to dismiss this vote, fine. It still doesn’t change that Castle would be bad for Conservatives.
Forgot to mention; (from the Philadephia news paper)
The National Rifle Association has endorsed Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell in Delaware’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.
The NRA said Friday that it can depend on O’Donnell to bear arms. The group is asking all Delaware gun owners and hunters to vote for O’Donnell in Tuesday’s primary.
O’Donnell is challenging longtime U.S. Rep. Michael Castle, who has received a grade of “F” from the NRA for his views on gun-related legislation.
According to Powerlineblog, Castle’s vote along with 23 other Republican votes, including Ron Paul, in favor of Kucinich’s impeachment bill was to let it go to the judiciary committee and let it die there.
Also, the Castle team or webiste indicated that was the reason for Castle’s vote … to let it die in committee.
As for Palin and others, they probably vetted Castle and didn’t like what they saw in him so they endorsed Christine.
“Castle is in no way a Republican Senator.”
Yes he is. He counts as a Republican even if he only votes like one half the time. People are fixating on a tree and ignoring the forest. The goal here is to get Pelosi and Reid fired. Electing a D in Delaware does not further that goal.
We need to put a Republican on the ticket that ACTUALLY stands a chance of being elected. O’Donnell will not be elected in a general election. She does fairly well in the Republican polling but Republicans have a 22 percent minority in voter registration in Delaware. In order to have a Republican win an election in Delaware, you need someone who attracts a LOT of Democrat crossover votes. That is not opinion, that is math. If Castle is running, a lot of Democrats will probably stay home and not even bother going to the polls. Running O’Donnell could actually energize Democrats to go to the polls just to keep her out.
A “purer” conservative candidate in a deep blue state is a stupid idea because there aren’t enough conservatives in the population as a whole to get her elected. She will motivate more people to go to the polls to oppose her than she will motivate to the polls to elect her.
Sometimes you have to take 50% of something instead of 100% of nothing.
There has been as much “mudslinging” by moderates as conservatives…..as well as poor sportmanship party switching. So, I say everyone take a chill pill. Let the elections be about the issues.
As far as the “bullet to the head” threat that Ross got goes….no one condones that, and especially not Christine O’Donnell (nor her supporters):
—
“O’Donnell’s campaign said it was not responsible for the threat and the candidate, in a statement, condemned threats of violence.
“We hope Mr. Ross and his family are safe, as no one should have to go through personal attacks like this,” the statement read.”
—-
I also don’t doubt there have been some pretty wild threats thrown O’Donnell’s way.
However, before jumping the gun on accusations…..how about we let the DOJ ID the person who made the threat? For all I know it could have been a simple kook, a conservative O’Donnell supporter, a Mike Castle supporter–and false flag operation, or the same UK teen who fired off the email calling Obama a p***k.
As to the election today in DE…..I’m glad I don’t live there to be forced to make the choice. They both smell bad to me. I would probably vote O’Donnell at the end of the day.
Still would like a definition of ‘far right’. What is ‘far right’, defined by policy/philosophy specifics ? I’m beginning to doubt that you can define it.
The whole point of the impeachment resolution is that, based on Castle’s voting RECORD, it is entirely possible that he had his heart into this, is it not? Did he not go to George W. Bush with “threats” about the republican party using this vote? If this is incorrect *please* let me know. I will stand corrected.
My problem with all of this is the empowerment of Lindsey Graham, McCain, Snow, Collins, Brown to some degree, to further their coalition and therefore further their ability to block what we need AT THIS TIME in our country.
Our country is on the brink. We need CLEAR AND DECISIVE action. The American public is SCREAMING for it. Do you all not remember how close Olymipa Snowe came to voting FOR THE HEALTHCARE BILL?
And how much damage is in the Fin/Reg bill? You all have NO IDEA how AWFUL that bill is. Complete intrusion and power to those who are NOT elected. And Brown helped pass it with his vote FOR this bill. Does that suit you? Not me. Cap and Trade (among others)hangs in the balance. WE CANNOT AFFORD THIS. It is an assault on one of our most basic strengths, Capitalism. And don’t call me a far righter. I supported George W. Bush when most did not. And btw, I voted for Bill Clinton the first time he ran. (One of my biggest errors).
As far as I am concerned, everyone has an agenda and can be labeled. The bottom line is that we are desperately trying to save our country from what those who voted for Obama FAILED TO SEE..or did not want to see when WE were screaming about it. It was all there for them to see. And consequently we are all suffering because of it.
Delaware will vote for whom they want. So be it.
Jonas,
Usually I leave it for the reader to determine. But in this case it is simple. Far right is someone who denigrates allies who disagree with them on occasion. Far right people trot out the superior-inferior canard, look down their noses at “RINOs” who simply don’t agree with them. Far right are people who attack someone’s character (typically when they run out of rational arguments).
The far right demands purity and allegiance on all miniscule aspects of their agenda.
Conservatives on the other hand recognize they see eye to eye 50-80% of the time. They differ on the path, not the direction (e.g., pro life vs outlawing all abortions). They work together on common ground, agree to disagree respectfully on other grounds. Conservatives enjoy diversity of views, opinions and ideas. They shun any talk of purity or superiority.
This ain’t rocket science
Ivehadit,
Yes, Castle did. He threatended Bush one year before the vote. I don’t know if that was the only threat. Castle was very unhappy with Bush going to war in Iraq so it could be that he had every intent in impeaching Bush and now he’s backtreating on it.
Who knows….
But Mitch McConnell said today that he would back whoever emerges as the winner of today’s primary.
AJ, if we had a opposition that was acting in GOOD FAITH, we would be back to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. We all know that doesn’t exist today. Look at what George W. Bush has to say on the subject. He was disgusted by Washinton. And he had a proven track record of working “across the aisle”.
There is a total breakdown of trust in the halls of our government and I can see why. If they couldn’t work with George Bush, there is no hope. And there isn’t. Hillbuzz says the current democrat party needs to be d.e.s.t.r.o.y.e.d. And they were strong Hillary supporters.
Just heard a sound clip of Castle talking about Murkowski telling him to watch our for “these people”. THESE PEOPLE are SICK of what YOU PEOPLE have done in Washington. Can you hear us now?
Off topic (sort of) but does this just not chap you beyond measure:
“Revealed: Obama hired media expert to monitor
‘negative’ coverage of BP oil spill”
How disgusting. And says it all.
[…] sausagemaker – hotair.com 09/14/2010 Born-again fiscal conservative? Hardly. more… Dirty Political Tricks, Now Where Have We Seen That Before – strata-sphere.com 09/14/2010 As I noted in the comments on another post, the spectacle […]
Now I know you can’t define ‘far right’ with a list of policy points. Sounds like it is anyone who disagrees with you and who isn’t a leftist. You use a leftwing/MSM perjorative (‘far right’) to castigate anyone with an opinion different than yours, and you speak in pretty much the strongest, most intolerant, most inflammatory language on this blog. You bully people. Your ‘far right’ is a straw man, I think, that you use to hammer people with your opinions. You imply you are a conservative and that you enjoy a diversity of views, but you demonstrate inability to have a civil conversation with those who disagree with you, and borrow the habit of the left which relegates people who disagree with you to some label/category undeserving of legitimate consideration.
I hold a minor office as an elected public official (Republican) and understand probably better than you the ‘give and take’ of politics. I also know the various perspectives of political thought, and do not have the luxury of being as intolerant of differing opinions as you apparently are. And, I don’t call my constituants ‘idiots’ when we disagree.
Jonas,
No, I don’t distinguish on policy solutions. The only distinction policy wise is left and right. Big government verses little government. There are disagreements to how best to achieve little government, but cons want as little as possible, libs want as much.
And no, it has nothing to do with disagreeing with me, it has to do with being disagreeable and arrogant idiots! Read the test again. To be far right requires you to be arrogant and intolerant.
Which is why I wonder why anyone would want to join the far right in the first place. But if you think you are superior to RINOs and it would be better everyone agreed with you or else …
Well, it is a free country, but remember: Darwin was right.
BTW Jonas, you are not my constituent, and you are visiting in my house. Whippet forgets that at times, and shouldn’t be shocked when the owner boots him/her in the arse for being a lousy guest. Want to insult me – have at it. But be prepared for the return fire – I don’t suffer fools.
Now we can go back to a debate on ideas and options, etc. I am all up for that and I never hold bad feelings for more than a few seconds. Just not in my nature. Whippet can post all they want – just don’t insult the guy who pays the bills for the site and spends the hours sharing news and views.
I see the NRSC just said they won’t support O’Donnell but that’s fine. I have been donating to people that I believe deserve a chance like now Senator Scott Brown. I’ll just continue to withhold money from the NRSC and do my own thing.
Mitch McConnell says he will support her and that is a good thing.
I am not sure yet about O’Donnell, I get bad vibes from her but as you say AJ, let’s see if she has what it takes to build a base broad enough to win in November.