Nov 08 2006
Olberman and Bin Laden Are Celebrating
With the current numbers 27 House seats and 4 Senate seats lost the conservative movement better take a good hard look at what happened. All their frustration with Bush has now left him as the only thing standing between our sanctity for life and fetus harvesting for spare parts. Remember when the House refused to compromise on illegal immigration? Well now there will be nothing done about it for two more years. We needed the hispanic voters (you know, the ‘legal’ immigrants) on our side yesterday. I don’t need an exit poll analysis to know the hispanics sent a message.
Bin Laden and Zawahiri and all the rest of the goose-stepping Islamo fascists are probably besides themselves with glee right now. And every brave Iraqi who stood up to take control of their country, who braved suicide bombs to vote, are probably cowering in fear. The Democrats are coming, with people like Keith OIberman at their head spewing insults and conspiracy theories. The terrorists know they have us on the run now. They want us out of the ME and they want to take on the EU to form their caliphate. The attacks on us will escalate. Once the herd turned, all the terrorists need to do now is scare us into a stampede.
Bush is all that stands in the way of rampant liberals. He and our military are going to have to weather a storm of witch-hunt investigations from the House. It seems the country said “what’s the harm, how bad could it be”? – and therefore voted for ‘change’. We shall see how bad it is. But those celebrating indicates it could be a lesson we did not need to learn.
Any conservative out there who wants to blame Bush is perpetuating this defeat. He has been solid and true to his positions. We voted him in – warts and all – and he deserved and still deserves our respectful support. I am not talking blind obedience – simply respectful support. It was internal recriminations that pushed the non-aligned voters away from the Reps. The insult of “RINO” should be banned from all serious, mature talk. It is a tiresome insult. Trying to define ‘good’ and ‘true’ reps verses all the others simply shrinks the pool of support. That too should have seen its last days, unless the reps want to remain a minority party. Insulting Hispanics and Muslim allies with wild and broad accusations does not win elections or pass Bills. We have two years to learn these lessons, and probably others
The Dems learned – to some degree. I am afraid it is only a facade and the sad truth will come out over time. But the Dems recruited conservative Democrats, people who are not like Pelosi and Kennedy. And that is how they won. They moved towards the common center. Ned Lamont lost – he was too far left. He did not hide his core beliefs well enough to pass muster. A lot of good people lost yesterday and the ‘payback’ so many called for over the year is now upon us. Hopefully the country will not be punished too hard for all our misteps – but with the characters now setting the tone (Olberman and Bin Laden), I am afraid things might get pretty rough.
I do want to thank all who stopped by the Strata-Sphere yesterday. It was a record day for us and it was an honor to spend election night with you good folks. Hope things stay well with you all.
One last thought on MD: I am really disappointed that African Americans have yet to stand up and be their own representatives. They lean on the Democrats way too much. Michael Steele was the best candidate in the country, yet party alliegance was stronger than hometown pride in PG County. That is one change I was really hoping to see happen. Not as much for reps, but for my neighbors across the river who deserved a national representative like Steele. Hope the Dems return the favor – but history shows they won’t.
Update: I have to disagree with someone I have got to know better during this election (by reading him more regularly) and who I admire – Hugh Hewitt. Hugh is blaming the Gang of 14 for the defeat we faced yesterday, but that group succeeded in getting conservative judges and justices to the bench without any filibuster. DeWine did not lose because of that – he lost because of the scandals plaguing Ohio. The center of this country (‘moderate’ is an innacurrate term since it implies a lack of passion) still decide the winners in these races. I have a lot of respect and trust in America and Americans – therefore their decisions, made en masse cannot be that wrong. The question for Reps is why did the people, especially in the middle, turn their backs on them. As I said, I did not turn my back. But I understand why many would. They were just RINOs anyway.
I have to say that I think most of you guys really missed the mark. Especially Retired’s rant.
I voted Republican in the 90’s because they were going to restore fiscal and moral responsibility to the government. Then there was the GWOT, and I thought we needed a strong, resolute government that would protect our best interests. Lord knows the Democrats wouldn’t provide that… they can barely agree to tie their shoes.
I do believe we Republicans defeated ourselves in this election, but not for all the circumstantial reasons Retired rattled off. I myself am very disappointed. I’m disappointed in the moral shortcomings of our elected Republican leaders. It turns out, they might not be as virtuous as they say and (as I do with my children) the most important way to demonstrate your values is to personally adhere to them.
As for the GWOT, it seems like our military has no plan. Our beloved troops are being embarrassed in Iraq, and not because of the do-nothing-ocrats. I thought our military was supposed to be fast-acting, quick-adapting, winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis we went there to liberate. Well, we’re not leading. Leadership is why I elected Bush!
I don’t know. I’ve been let down by our congress and our president. I don’t know what the answer is, but it isn’t blaming everyone else and making up excuses. We need to fix our party, but we need to work together.
Why the Republicans lost….
The short answer: President Bush and the GOP majority in Congress share the blame. But not for the reasons the media is reporting this morning.
……
Steven, since you seem to have a reading comprehension problem, I will say this loud and clear; I BLAME THE REPUBLICANS FOR THE LOSSES YESTERDAY.
Point 1) Republicans are no more corrupt than Democrats. Probably a lot less where the truth known. But we out our own, the Dems circle the wagons and protect the corrupt pols on their side. Case in point: William Jefferson. Why hasn’t Pelosi demanded Jefferson’s resignation?
Point 2) Winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. Gee, have you forgotten that we bailed on them in 1991? Or have you forgotten that they have been indoctrinated into thinking all infidels are evil for the last 1500 years? How do you propose that we change the hearts and minds of people who think we should be dead because that is what their religion tells them (you know, we, the infidels) when they have had 1500 years to build that mindset?
So in your disappointment in our party you attack me with your comments about “ranting” and “rattling”? If you are going to slam me, address me personally, not speak of me in the third person like I am some non-entity. And people like you are the reason we lost. Just too much MSM Kool-aid, I suppose.
AJ,
” I have a lot of respect and trust in America and Americans – therefore their decisions, made en masse cannot be that wrong.” –
Even the majority gets it wrong sometimes. As Lincoln said: You can fool all of the people, some of the time.”
We know the MSM is the enemy, but the Republicans in both houses deserve no respect whatsoever. They could have defended the President, condemned our enemies , challenged the congressional turncoats and touted the economy. Instead, they have been AWOL. I blame this weak and inept Republican Congress for the losses.
Agree with Limerick and Retire05.
Retire, the GOP certainly sat back and let their reputations and ideas be destroyed and distorted without challenge.
Don’t deserve to win in that case.
The Senate Republicans never had a majority based on conservative principles; therefore, it makes that much more difficult in getting things done.
Mark78, because the right lost sight of their conservatives values, do you think that was really a reason to elect the left that thinks parents do not have the right to know someone is taking their minor daughter over a state line for a medical procedure that could be life threatening?
America just chose the greater of two evils.
I said before that this election would be a referendum on the MSM. unfortunately, it was – the MSM won… again. We have had for 30 some years an unelected, unaccountable, leftist media that holds incredible power over the thinking, the direction of this country. Somehow we gave them that power, and so far we have not been able to break it. The internet, the blogs, have made a difference, but the MSM still has incredible power as was just demonstrated.
You can take all the individual factors that are cited – Iraq, War on Terror, “corruption” (give me a break), Harriet Myers (who?), economy (?), Bush Lied (he didn’t), etc. Individually, none of them amount to anything, but individually the MSM blew every single one of them up into a huge factor that, by itself, had a great impact on the psyche of the electorate. Compound that by MSM blowing every single one of them up way out of proportion, while at the same time downplaying much worse issues on the liberal side. As someone (Talent?) said, it was a headwind the conservatives could not overcome. The headwind was artificially created and enhanced into a hurricane force that drowned out anything else. How could most normal Americans who only watch CNN an hour every night come away with anything other than the country was on the verge of disaster. If I watched CNN every night, or read NYT every day, I would be a blithering idiot too. I can’t blame the electorate – I wish more would try to discern better – but how? I blame the MSM. The constant drumbeat of misery, destruction, evil BushRoveCheney, it weighs on people until they decide it’s “time for a change”.
The fact that we have an unelected, unaccountable, entity in this country that holds such incredible power should bother everyone – conservatives, democrats, liberals alike. That they wield it in a fashion that negates the entire electoral process this Representative Republic was founded on should scare everyone. Libs should be scared that it could work the other way at some point, and as a conservative, that would bother me just as much.
AJ, I disagree with Hugh on his point that the media had no effect – he says we had the same media in 2002, 2004. I think it has been much, much worse over the last couple of years out of desperation as they have gone beyond blatant, to completely on the other side in many cases. They have become desperate because of the alternate media – and they won again – this time. We knew they would become desperate, and that it would get ugly, as blogs like yours continue to expose the corruption.
I don’t necessarily disagree with Hugh on his McCain comment. I think he meant it in the way that I think of McCain – and frankly the rest of the Republicans in congress. I can’t help but compare President Bush to William Wallace in Braveheart – where he is repeatedly left standing on the battlefield alone, while his “compatriots” have created appeasment “deals” that ultimately led to their and their country’s demise while he still stood firm. He may even come to the same end during the next two years as the libs quarter him in public “investigations”. One satisfaction is that he will ultimately be regarded as one of the greatest Presidents ever – while the McCains will be relegated to the dustbin of history like their counterparts in Scotland.
Hey, no complaints of election fraud today? I guess it was insurance for them.
Rummy is leaving. Who is next?
AJ,
Good post. Bush is our last line of defense.
Bill in AZ,
Well said and well meant!
most of you sound like democrats–dicussing talking points ad nauseum. this is why we lost:
“while “we†did a lot of the things, the thing we did the most of was spend money. we spent so much we spent our way out of control. literally. we threw the gipper under the bus. if we learn anything the next two years i hope that is it. a republican’s first task has got to be reducing the size of government or at least stopping its growth. over the last six years it has grown at a record pace. they deserved to lose.”
ronnie has been rolling over in his grave!
if you look at the platform of most of the dems that beat the repubs it was spending–they ran as conservative democrats who want to balance the budget or at least cut spending. do they really want to balance the budget? i don’t know. but americans certainly will vote for somene who does and that is what they did yesterday. the contract with america in 94 was about that. it only took the repubs 68 years since newt left to run us into the ground. i say good riddance to the lot of them. we will survive the next two years. the dems can only be ankle biters. however we had better bring forward serious fiscal budget crunchers if we hope to regain power. all this other crap is deck chairs on the titanic. get real. if you run the country into the ground, as the repubs have done with their “bridges to nowhere” they deserve to be booted out. if you can’t balance your checkbook i don’t want to hear about any of your other ideas. it’s that simple. what does it matter if bush’s tax cuts helped revive a broken economy and then congress pisses it away?
the real price we are going to pay—open borders. on the bright side–roberts and alito are on the court.
rummy is leaving is bullshit; it won’t appease the party of Traitors!
it sends all the wrong signals, to the wrong people at the wrong time…
UBL/Al Qaeda, the Jihadis are dancing on our graves, and laughing!
The Leftotraitors will not stop at Rummy, they’ll be after Cheney to step down, and impeach Bush….
This is just bullshit…
dale,
they just asked bush if cheney should go like rumsfeld……..
Dale in Atlanta: “Let the party of traitors, surrender their necks to the Jihadi butcher knives; I’m not so inclined; right now, the most important thing, is to isolate them, expose them for what they are, and try to EARN back the trust of the electorate by 2008!”
Hey Dale,
You’re right. By and large, the Republicans did a bang-up job of losing themselves control of the house, and probably, the majority in the senate. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you would have preferred their continued corruption and perfidy to voting for traitors, is that right? Traitors like James Webb, Sec. of Defense in the Reagan administration, who was so disgusted with the Bush admin.’s Iraq debacle that he switched parties to run as a Democrat? Traitors like Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs serving in Iraq? Iraq veteran Tim Walz of Minn., who upset the incumbent in one of the state’s most histrically republican districts? Are they all traitors, too, Dale? Really,Dale, you’re quite cavalier in flinging that charge about.
I voted for the Dems in this election. I’m proud to have Democrat and civil rights leader John Lewis represent me in the 5th congressional district of Georgia. He was beaten senseless and nearly killed in the sixties standing up for equal rights for people of color. But since he opposes the war in Iraq and is a member of the “party of traitors”, that makes him a traitor, right? I gave money to help Democrats like Walz and Webb and worked phone lines urging people to vote for Democrats in districts all around the country. Furthermore, I have no plans of surrendering my neck to Jihadi butcher knives, or, especially, to the ignorant likes of s.o.b.s like you. But, all this aside, I assume that, by your ridiculous standard, I’m still a traitor. Well, Dale, I’m really sick and tired after five years of hearing fools like you scream traitor at any and all who disagree with your deluded perspective of the so-called “GWOT” . I’m really sick and tired of, after nearly 3000 American soldiers killed, 22,000 wounded- many maimed for life, God only knows how many innocent Iraqis killed and a remaining population collasping into sectarian violence and civil war, listening to your insane and irrational fears of having your throat silt by invading Jihadis. I’d be a better man if I could ignore all the self-styled super-patriots who would, it seems, given their rhetoric, love to prosecute, jail, and put to death thousands of their fellow countrymen. Because isn’t that what you do to traitors? Lock up ’em for life, put them in internment camps, put them to death? You can’t just disagree about Iraq with your political opponents. You can’t just engage in vigorous debate about what is the best strategy for fighting Islamic terrorists. No, you have to impugn their love of country, you have to declare that the Democratic Party and millions of Americans are actively seeking to subvert the republic and bring an islamo-fascist reign of terror down on America and their own famalies. The fact of the matter is, Dale, is that you loathe and fear your own fellow countrymen a hellva lot more than any jihadist. Isn’t that the truth of it?
Well, Dale, as both you and I live and work in Atlanta, and as you loathe the “party of traitors”, want to “expose” and “isolate “them, here’s a concrete opportunity to face down someone you’d call a traitor. I take exception to being called that by the likes of you. Great exception. In fact, if you’d like to, I’d be glad to afford you the opportunity to call me a traitor to my face. You obsequious, pusillanimous toad.
The Anchoress has another brilliant post.
The right lessons learned and it was the MSM that won this election. They waged a better campaign than both parties together. They have waged a better war than the terrorists combined.
I agree with every word she wrote except about Pelosi. She will be Speaker.
Take a look at her post……The Anchoress is like AJ and gives very good advise and a view from middle America.
Patrick: sorry, can’t see it, at work and no CNN! But I’m not surprised!
Stand by for 2years of mayhem and surrender, by the Treasoncrats!
“rummy is leaving is bullshit; it won’t appease the party of Traitors!”
By “Traitors”, do you mean all those people in the military who publicly called for his resignation Monday?
I hate to tell you this, but Rush just brought up Rummy’s resignation on his radio show and said that the “war crimes” investigations are coming. So instead of telling the Dems to calm down and work with Rummy and the White House…he threw him under the bus. Nice!
Are we being sold out?
Carol
pelosi demanded that rumsfeld be fired one hour before bush’s news conference. it must just be a coincidence…… 🙂