"LaTourette's Defending Main Street group has identified its first project: defending Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho. The Club for Growth threw its support to a tea-party challenger, Bryan Smith, because Simpson backed the $700 million Wall Street bailout, raising the debt ceiling, and a budget deal that staved off the fiscal cliff.
...Along with LaTourette's group, another player in the battle for control of the Republican Party will be the Conservative Victory Project, an arm of the Crossroads super PAC founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove. The group plans to vet GOP primary candidates with the goal of sending the most viable conservative to the general election.
"We want to avoid situations like 2010 with (Delaware Republican nominee) Christine O'Donnell, where a candidate gains momentum and the skeletons come out after the primary," said Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio. "If skeletons exist, we'll make every effort to make sure they're known to every group that spends money long before the primary."
...The latest round of polling offered evidence of this exile: 64 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of the Republican Party in a new CNN/ORC International poll. The party's image also sunk to an all-time low in the latest Washington Post/ABC News survey.
The damage to the party is obvious in the Virginia governor's race, where two weeks before the election, Republicans are already writing off Cuccinelli, their tea-party-backed nominee. As he lags behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the polls, Republicans are condemning the state party for choosing its nominee at a convention dominated by conservative activists instead of in a regular primary. The decision prompted Lt Gov. Bill Bolling, who has strong ties to the business community, to drop out of the race."
Click through to see the races the anti-Tea Party Republicans are targeting in the future.
27 comments:
It's hard when no matter what you do, no matter if you're right on an issue or wrong, you'll get blamed and accused in the media. Republicans are the national Other. Reagan was able to overcome that but he brought significant charisma and well-grounded ideology to the table. We seem to have to choose between one or the other with current candidates.
@Paddy
I dunno. The Republican strategy, launched by Bush II was a disaster. Immigration amnesty, two wars, the mortgage meltdown.
Not that the Dems are any better.
The Republicans are the party of cheap labor. The Dems are the party of race and sex quotas and entitlement graft.
Tough choice, eh?
I sorta understand why people prefer the quotas and entitlement graft. At least the little folks get some crumbs.
I think Reagan didn't have as much to overcome, back in the day. Not to take away from the man and his accomplishments. Just that there wasn't this unremitting, instantaneous, coordinated, automatic, ideological attack from the media. It was there, true, but there were many fewer who were exposed to it. It's like the Chinese drip, the negativity, gone from a drop per second to Niagara Falls.
Upon reflection, what I'm saying is that Reagan couldn't win today. The well is that poisoned.
Reagan would win today.
And, I was a stupid kid who believed all the crazy shit leftists had to say about him, too.
Like the Demos whose big government ideas are foundering on the rocks of ChoomCare and the Stimulus, the Whigs are trying to hold back the tide of people wanting a real opposition party.
And it ain't gonna work.
Not after the mess the Whigs have made of themselves this year.
PS 60 Minutes has done a big expose of (are you ready?) Benghazi and they're actually telling the truth.
Looks like Barry may find out what the underside of the bus looks like, after all.
So we are in the wilderness...
Its happened before.
Cruz may lead us out.
I don't think so. Show me how he would win. Among whom, and against what.
Doesn't matter, anyway, as we spiral down the shithole to hell.
Reagan's appeal, his intellect and his ability to win people over is not something that can be explained.
He's an Illinoian, like me, and like Lincoln.
Reagan represents everything that is good, strong and appealing about rural Illinois, as did Lincoln. And, that's mighty powerful stuff.
Shouting Thomas and I are about the same age. Consequently, my recollection of Reagan's election is somewhat foggy, but I do remember a palpable sense that he restored a sense of optimism to the country. My dad was a typical Reagan democrat; WWII vet, blue collar union type guy who came to despise Carter. I'm pretty sure Reagan was the first Republican he'd ever voted for.
Yup, I do believe Reagan would tap into the populist core of this country even today. He had the gift.
ST, that's true. Though, I blame Bush II less than I blame Trent Lott. The Contract with America became the Contract with K Street. That's the old school Republicans still, a party of underlying corruption.
Democrats are more blatant and worse about it in many ways. But liberals are much more willing to put up with vast corruption. It's the socialist way, the caudillo way.
How do we fight against that. Reagan really genuinely believed what he was saying, really loved America, he had a way of getting around the media, becoming loved by enough (not everyone). I think the key for him too was he was folksy and polished all at once.
He was a politician who didn't act or talk or resonate "Politician." Where do we find those anymore?
Yes, what you guys speak of -- carisma, charm, appeal to the common man --- is something a politician needs to have to swim against the tide. Clinton had it in spades (contrary to present wisdom, the Democratic Powers That Be hated redneck Clinton and the DLC), Bush had it. I'm not sure who has it now. Obama really doesn't have it. If not for his father's lineage, he'd be Romney II. Romney obviously didn't have it. Scott Walker? Rand Paul? I think Ted Cruz is too cerebral. Chris Christie? He has it, even if he's kind of a blowhard and a moderate.
Reagan didn't care what his detractors said. He knew himself. He had a vision of America that was contagious.
Don't talk about what has gone wrong, talk about a new way, a way that speaks into what Americans know about themselves but have forgotten. Don't speak against academic liberalism or any of the America deserves only criticism crowd.
Give a renewed vision of who we are, the best we've always been. Dimiss the mocking that will come and go full into it.
That's what Romney and McCain missed. McCain cared too much what people thought. Romney wanted to fix the problem, but wasn't a man of the people who really liked the people.
Reagan loved American and genuinely, I think, loved people. He was far from perfect, but he had a way of letting us see the best in ourselves. And we liked that. Most of us, at least.
Pure promotion of LaTouretts'e Defending Main Street from the journalist Beth Reinhard at National Journal.
As of 6-30-2013 they had 41k in contributions and 39k on hand.
His big name supporter who is going on a fundraising tour with him is ... Olympia Snowe.
LaTourette is a small-time weasel but he's saying the things that TPTB want to hear so he gets a headline.
To Hell with all of them.
Sure. It is very important to have Republican politicians who don't hold conservative values but want to get along with Democrats and the media. That's a winning strategy.
Let's call LaTourett's syndrome.
I caught the Wall St Journal Report on Fox today and Paul Gigot and Dorothy Rabinowtiz were telling what a great candidate Chris Christie was because he could get moderates. You know like McCain. Like Romney.
LaTourett's syndrome.
Let's all get behind a candidate that the Democrats and the media pick for us. That always works.
Just because Christine O'Donnell sucked as a candidate, doesn't mean Karl Rove should have the keys.
Didn't Karl Rove give us the Todd Akin?
lol Troop. I keep thinking of the definition of a conservative...standing astride history and yelling stop. The Tea Party asks us to think about how fast things are going and what is being let go.
Let's all get behind a candidate that the Democrats and the media pick for us. That always works.
Funny how that lines up with what Karl Rove wants. Perhaps the left should re-think how much they despise old Rove and realize he's on their side.
Yes, April, the 'side' of Neoliberalism (the ultimate Progressivism).
I remember the main-stream media, especially NPR, presenting Reagan as a befuddled ignoramus throughout the '80s. It did not work because Reagan had an emotional connection with the American people.
I don't think we have anyone on the horizon like that. Too bad.
Not that I'm a big fan of Christie, but he's different from Romney, Trooper. Regular people can relate to Christie. He eats too much, he loses his temper and sticks up for himself. He's the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with. Very Clintonian.
And if he wins reelection, he'd be able to deliver a blue state for the Repubs in a Presidential election. Romney never had a chance to take his home state (that's why he never ran for reelection).
Though Scott Walker seems to lack some of Christie's personality, I think he's a better fit electorally.
People in NJ like Christie for Gov because he rides herd on the Democrat legislature and keeps them from getting too crazy.
Polls showed Christie losing the Senate race - which is one reason he ran for Gov.
He couldn't win NJ as a POTUS candidate. No (R) can.
People in NJ like Christie for Gov because he rides herd on the Democrat legislature and keeps them from getting too crazy.
Polls showed Christie losing the Senate race - which is one reason he ran for Gov.
He couldn't win NJ as a POTUS candidate. No (R) can.
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