Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Recent Entries
Freaky Deaky Cafe
Quick Hits Trump Rules Out Further Debates, Declaring "I Won" Ohio RINO Governor Sends $2.5 Million and State Troopers to Springfield, Ohio Fact-Checking the "Fact"-Checkers: ABC "News'" "Moderators" Straight-Up Lied About Live Aborted Babies Being Killed The "Department of Homeland Security" Will Designate January 6, 2025 a "Special Security Event" Due to a Four-Hour Riot Four F***ing Years Ago Even CNN's Liberal Freak Jake Tapper Knocks Kamala Harris For Refusing to Answer Questions In the Debate The Morning Rant: Misanthropic Version Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 9/12/24 Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« Colorado Exchange Director Indicted For Fraud And Theft At Previous Job |
Main
| ObamaCare Payment Rates Lagging So Hey, Maybe We Need Another Level Of Plan! »
February 14, 2014
Why I Refuse To Cheer The GOP “Establishment”Yesterday I went on a Twitter rant (that’s what it’s for, right?) against Mitch McConnell’s debt ceiling shenanigans (the old, vote for cloture when you could stop it but against the bill on final passage when you can’t trick).
He followed up by saying he’d be writing more about it later. Still, all of that notwithstanding, many conservatives have of late demonstrated a worrying tendency to believe that the virtue of their grievances and the legitimacy of their pursuits must automatically translate into political victory — and that if these do not, that this is the fault of the leadership of the Republican party. I appreciate that this is difficult for some to hear, but I would venture that the opposite is the case. In my estimation, the only thing of which Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have been guilty in the past few years is to have worked tirelessly within political reality and to have reacted sensitively to the hands that they were dealt. The hysterical epithets and acronyms, the witless talk of the amorphous “Establishment,” and the lucrative fundraising e-mails all to one side, there is little that either man could have done differently while their party controlled just one half of one branch of government. Charles is correct that defeating the debt ceiling hike was a losing game for the GOP. That’s why I opposed pretending to use it last fall. You can’t play chicken when you announce that you will turn away first. McConnell knew this and yet he and other Republican leaders talked up a fight on the debt limit. Don’t blame me for holding them responsible for their failure to deliver on their rhetoric. As an aside, why are people dumping on Ted Cruz for the debt ceiling vote? He didn't spend weeks saying the GOP would refuse to hike it without any strings attached. That's what McConnell, Boehner, Ryan and the rest of the "establishment" were saying. Why is Cruz the bad guy for trying to make them live up to their commitment? It seems rather strange to get mad at the guy who pointed out the lie rather than the liars. I will give McConnell begrudging credit that in its own way his vote for cloture a brave and unselfish. McConnell, like Obama, is a politician so I don’t hold his shifting positions against him as some sort of character flaw. It’s more an occupational hazard. That doesn’t mean that I should salute him for it either. For a party that enjoys such little power in Washington, this has been pretty good going and, unfashionable as it is, I feel that I should buck the trend and praise the party for playing a difficult round adroitly and with foresight. Well done, McConnell. Well done, Boehner. Now win the Senate in November, and give ’em merry hell. I have no faith that given more power, even the Presidency, the current GOP “establishment” will behave any better then they are now or have in the past. I don’t come to this simply as a nihilistic hater but as McConnell’s debt ceiling history shows, as someone who is well acquainted with what the party and its “establishment” history. Others may have more faith in their latest promises that they’ve seen the light and will stay on the straight and narrow hence forth but I see no evidence of it. In fact there are many reasons to believe the exact opposite. Remember when the sequester was supposed to be the Holy Grail to be protected at all costs to trade for entitlement reform? Or when every dollar of debt hike was supposed to be offset by a dollar or more of spending cuts? They couldn’t rollover fast enough on that to get the spending moving again. I was not originally a fan of the “tea party” and I’m still not truth be told. I find it too emotion based and agree much of what its opponents say…it’s not interested in creating converts but enforcing discipline, it’s unrealistic about the popularity of the policies it prefers, that losing running candidates like Christine O’Donnell in deep blue states is preferable to winning with a sellout RINO (Note I said “deep blue” not purple or red states) and so on. I view these faults, perhaps with more hope than reason, as growing pains that can be worked out over time. As I’ve said before I get why the GOP moves left…math. At this moment it’s easier to be just a little less liberal than the Democrats to win votes but that doesn’t actually move the ball in the proper direction for conservatives. Someone and some group of people are going to have to make it worth the while of the GOP to do that. Right now the best tool the “tea party” has is to make the GOP fear the right more than they are tempted by moderate left. In time I’d hope that would expand to winning over converts so the GOP will see the right as a constituency large enough worth wooing with more than words. Until we have a sufficiently large carrot, we will have to use the stick. I don’t know that the current “tea party” is interested in taking this path and perhaps I will find myself cursing them as well. Only the future will tell that story. But the history of the Republican party is well known to me and plenty of other conservatives. It’s clear, at least to me, that the GOP is a hopeless broken and corrupt vessel for conservatives under the leadership of the likes of McConnell and Boehner. If you want to change the way business has been done under Democrats and Republicans alike, at some point you will have to change the people doing that business. | Recent Comments
haffhowershower:
"Possible conversation sometime in the future.
P ..."
This is not CNN: "Taylor Swift music is not Iron Maiden, thus it is ..." BurtTC: "@Breaking911 🚨Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D- ..." Boulder Terlit Hobo, not dead: "I'm of partial Jewish heritage, so basically not J ..." Romeo13: "326 Musk is an African American after all. i wo ..." Soothsayer:: " I very rarely walk down the magazine/book aisle ..." JackStraw: "If leftist hack like Blumenthal is saying this it ..." Eeyore: "Tren de Aragua, the Violent Prison Gang Newcomers ..." BEN ROTHLESBERGER: "That's funny, cuz all her songs are single songs.. ..." Jim Goose, MFP motorcycle policeman: "Avenge me too! (I'm a bit extra crispy) ..." Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon: "I know who Taylor Swift is. I might recognize her ..." Oldcat: "Musk is an African American after all. i wonder ..." Recent Entries
Freaky Deaky Cafe
Quick Hits Trump Rules Out Further Debates, Declaring "I Won" Ohio RINO Governor Sends $2.5 Million and State Troopers to Springfield, Ohio Fact-Checking the "Fact"-Checkers: ABC "News'" "Moderators" Straight-Up Lied About Live Aborted Babies Being Killed The "Department of Homeland Security" Will Designate January 6, 2025 a "Special Security Event" Due to a Four-Hour Riot Four F***ing Years Ago Even CNN's Liberal Freak Jake Tapper Knocks Kamala Harris For Refusing to Answer Questions In the Debate The Morning Rant: Misanthropic Version Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 9/12/24 Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |