It always has been a two front political war.
Here’s the other front, Tim Carney at The Washington Examiner, K Street and Tea Party again fight for soul of GOP:
Big business and the Tea Party are at swords’ points once again, with GOP Senate primaries for the second straight election becoming proxy battles in the war over the soul of the Republican Party.
Conservative insurgents pose serious threats this year to establishment Republicans in at least three open-seat Senate races. In every case, political action committees and lobbyists have hugely favored the establishment pick with contributions. One reason: The GOP establishment rallies industry donors behind the Republican seen as stronger in November. A deeper reason: The revolving-door clique of K Street and Capitol Hill operatives needs Republicans elected to upper chamber who are likely to play ball.
Paul Blumenthal at HuffPo stoplights the Lugar-Mourdock and Dewhurst-Cruz match-ups as the center of the fight, Senate Races 2012: Republican Establishment Tries To Tamp Down Tea Party Insurgency:
Six-term Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) seemed all alone in facing an insurgent Tea Party primary challenge from state treasurer Richard Mourdock, who is backed by big money from the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks. In the past few weeks, however, top GOP senators, establishment Republican groups, and big-name donors have stepped in with a mix of ads touting Lugar’s long career and blasting Mourdock in an effort to save the embattled incumbent.
On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) endorsed Lugar and announced they would cut ads to support him. Last week, the American Action Network, a conservative group with ties to the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., launched a campaign of negative ads against Mourdock, costing more than $300,000. Major donors, including former fundraisers for President George W. Bush and McCain, are putting money into pro-Lugar super PACs.
You can sit it out and moan and groan, or get involved. You can support Richard Mourdock here and Ted Cruz here.
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Comments
Perry supported Dewhurst. Crikey.
Not sure Perry endorsement worth much, he has pissed off alot of his voters last few years. I hope it is considered as a good thing for Cruz.
Ted Cruz is the real deal, near as I can tell.
Dewhurst is “real”, too. Real Texas GOP machine. One BIG reason we don’t have a firm immigration law like Arizona’s.
Oh, that Daniels endorsement is a disappointment. I still have respect for the job he has done in Indiana, andIndiana voters do too.
On the other hand, the McCain endorsement carries all the impact of a limp noodle. I’d be happy about that one if I was Mourdock.
Mitch “The Truce” Daniels supporting a GOP establishment candidate instead of the more conservative alternative? Color me shocked!
ShePAC Ad – Not a War on Women, but War BY Women – Women running for Senate in the tradition of Ronald Reagan:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/04/she-pacs-new-ad-2012-wont-be-a-war-on-women-it-will-be-a-war-by-women-video/?utm_source=natalieduvalny&utm_medium=twitter
I just checked out the video. Linda Lingle, who I’ve never heard of before, is running for an open Senate seat in Hawaii. I check out her wiki profile. I don’t know how conservative she is, but a Jewish Republican female senator would be first. Hope she wins.
Please don’t forget about Orrin Hatch…
Or Republican challenger Dan Bongino [oddly, a former Secret Service agent] against Ben Cardin, Democrat, who has been feeding at the public trough for 30 plus years at both the state and federal levels. Typical liberal democrat who comes from a wealthy family that is politically connected. The sad fact is that Maryland is so “blue” that a Republican cannot win an election. Our wonderful Governor was challenged by a former Governor Ehrlich in the 2010 election. O’Malley’s campaign theme was that Ehrlich raised taxes and fees during his 4 year term and O’Malley wouldn’t. The Democratically controlled legislature ran roughshod over Ehrlich for 4 years. Since having his second term, O’Malley and his Democrat lackey’s have done nothing to rein in spending, but have raised the sales tax, tried to tax internet sales, doubled fees and wanted to increase the gas tax. So far, there is a $500,000,000 budget shortfall and he wants to call a special session after the last session ended 2 weeks ago.
I maintain that the heart of both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street is the same. The former is made up largely by disaffected conservatives Republicans that arose as a pure grassroots movement while the latter is made up largely by disaffected liberal Democrats. Forget about the George Soros money and focus on why basically like-minded people who form a majority in this country are drawn to both groups.
The Tea Party has framed the arguments much better than the OWSers but both groups are tapping into the same frustrations with an oppressive, corrupt and unaccountable establishment. We articulate our frustrations differently because we originated from different parties and brought along the different languages when we went independent.
However, there is one very important thing that the OWSers have right which we Tea Party folks are resistant too and that the OWSers are right about the 1%. It is impossible to get around these numbers:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-13-27/105637-me-80-you
Those are facts. You can frame the argument any way you want, whether it be class warfare or individual freedom but no free society with that kind of income disparity can survive. And it is getting worse.
And it didn’t start under Obama or Bush either. It’s been going on for at least 20 years. Nor did it t happen without warning. In 1998 annual Jackson Hole meeting where the Fed chairman traditionally presents an important speech, Alan Greenspan used it to continue his periodic calls to pay attention to the alarmingly widening income inequality in America
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/1998/19980828.htm
I’ve kept a copy of this speech in my “must” file ever since.
We need to have a grown up discussion in this country. Nearly half of America’s voters have abandoned one of the two dominant parties and gone independent. We need to stop talking and thinking like Democrats and Republicans. We must break down the barriers that prevent like-minded people from joining forces to fight the evil that surrounds us at every corner. We must find a way to agree on very important facts and come up with a better narrative that unites us instead of the same old tired narratives that have been dividing us for too long.
The 1% are so dominant these days that the very idea of democracy and national sovereignty now represent the final barriers preventing them from declaring themselves to be gods. The OWN our entire society, including “both” Democratic parties. We won’t be able to do anything about it until see the problem for what it is and impose the will of the great majority on the corrupt elite minority. And we better do it soon because after November, something wicked this way cometh no matter who wins the election.
And this is how we know…as I have known for some time…you are NOT a Conservative.
As you’ve said elsewhere, you do NOT believe in markets without some government entity controlling them.
Good to have these rare admissions of what you really believe, Fillie.
What utter tripe. Since you completely missed (or intentionally avoided) the very point of my post, you clearly are not qualified to be one of those adults included in that serious discussion.
We have a very big problem in this country where 1/100th of one percent of the entire population accounted for 37% of the entire gain of personal income in this country in 2010 and the rest of the top 1% accounted for another 56%. NO FREE AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY CAN SURVIVE WITH SUCH AN IMBALANCE.
Capiche? I manage a very big pile of other people’s investments and have to deal with these centrally-planned and rigged markets. Crony capitalism is NOT what America is about. Would you like to try again? Next time, try to respond to what I actually said (how many times have I said that to you over the years?) and not what you need for me to have said in order for you to launch another of your ignorant personal attacks.
Let’s see about “tripe”, shall we…
“I maintain that the heart of both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street is the same.”
Hard to “misread” that.
“I manage a very big pile of other people’s investments and have to deal with these centrally-planned and rigged markets.”
An appeal (naked, without the least support, btw) to authority fallacy.
Explain this chart…
http://blog.american.com/2011/11/the-one-chart-that-explodes-the-myth-of-us-income-inequality/
Can you read a trend-line, Fillie? Do you even know what that is? See the trends?
From your warmly recommend citation…
“The only way to redress the income imbalance is by implementing policies that are oriented toward reversing the forces that caused it. That means letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthy and adding money to some of the programs that House Republicans seek to cut. Allowing this disparity to continue is both bad economic policy and bad social policy. We owe those at the bottom a fairer shot at moving up.”
Explain to all actual Conservatives how you sponsor that COLLECTIVIST bullshit.
“Is that what they taught you at the South El Paso School of Law and Dance?”
Again with the ad hominem, Fillie? I attended BOTH a law school and an MBA program, jointly, at a rather good university in Houston.
I have lived a full life, much of it in entrepreneurial businesses. I have studied economics, both formally and informally, and would be delighted to explore your loopy LIES respecting income disparity on any basis you name.
But I know you won’t. You will run for the tall grass, as is your pattern.
BTW, I am not advocating government-mandated income or wealth redistribution. I am arguing for re-establishing a society where the income and wealth gets distributed more fairly as a result of better laws. As anyone who has played Monopoly can learned, there is a point in the game where one player gets so dominant that the game is over. If we haven’t yet reached that tipping point, we are awfully close.
From one of Fillie’s cites, which he apparently endorses…
Steve Rattner has a different opinion, saying: “The only way to redress the income imbalance is by implementing policies that are oriented toward reversing the forces that caused it. That means letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthy and adding money to some of the programs that House Republicans seek to cut. Allowing this disparity to continue is both bad economic policy and bad social policy. We owe those at the bottom a fairer shot at moving up.”
That’s Commie talk! If we allow the bottom 99% to make a fair share of the money, they would make 5% more and you know they would only SPEND it on stuff they need TO LIVE. Then our companies would have to provide more goods and services to the bottom 99% and jobs would be created and we, at the top, would have to WAIT for the money to trickle UP from the bottom as only companies that do a good job servicing the bottom 99% would increase in value.
Even worse, we may have to WORK (a four-letter word) to provide goods and services for the people who have money in order to EARN (another four-letter word) our Incomes. That’s no fun for us at all!
We like it when we get ALL the money and we create just the jobs we choose by buying really expensive cars or really expensive homes or really expensive ($8.50) burritos at CMG because you know an $8.50 burrito creates more jobs than four $2 burritos that poor people would buy at Taco Bell – it’s a Rich Person’s FACT!
My $1M, 6,000 square-foot home created 2 more jobs than the standard $250,000 2,000 square foot home and sure, you could argue that 4 could have been built instead of one for the same price and that 16 people could have been housed instead of 4 and – oops, what was my point going to be???
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Which is FALSE, and pretty much pure Collectivist pap.
http://blog.american.com/2011/11/the-one-chart-that-explodes-the-myth-of-us-income-inequality/
You are going to make an excellent slave in the “new” America just around the corner. Is that what they taught you at the South El Paso School of Law and Dance?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not to their own facts. If anyone with what I presented, please respond sticking to the facts I presented. Read the links. Those are facts. And I could post a very long list of other facts that no one wants to talk about.
That is why to be a Republican, you have to accept the rule that it is never time to do the right thing. If political agendas trump truth then all is lost. The truth is the truth. If we ALL had more respect for the truth, we wouldn’t be forever holding our noses to vote for the LOTE. “”Our” crooks are better than “their” crooks” is the standard for voting for a Republican.
We are so doomed.
I’d say one of us is doomed.
It would be the guy who wrote this contradiction…
“I am not advocating government-mandated income or wealth redistribution.
I am arguing for re-establishing a society where the income and wealth gets distributed more fairly as a result of better laws.”
You also…ALSO…are a historical AND civics boob.
Apparently, Fillie and Nanny Pelosi are in sweet, sweet accord…
“We have a clear agenda in this regard: [DISCLOSE], reform the system reducing the [role] of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns,” Pelosi said at her Thursday press briefing. “I think one of the presenters [at a Democratic forum on amending the Constitution] yesterday said that the Supreme Court had unleashed a predator that was oozing slime into the political system, and that, indeed, is not an exaggeration,” said Pelosi. “Our Founders had an idea. It was called democracy. It said elections are determined by the people, the voice and the vote of the people, not by the bankrolls of the privileged few. This Supreme Court decision flies in the face of our Founders’ vision and we want to reverse it.”
Singing from the same hymnal, sounds like.
And exactly how much are these “Republican” groups pouring into these primaries in Indiana and Texas?
Shouldn’t they be holding back and “pouring” them into the big election in November… you know… to defeat Democrats?
I wonder if donors are expecting their contributions to be used to go after Democrats. I wonder how they would feel if they knew how much of their donations were being used on inter-party fights. Perhaps that is the point of their donations, to consolidate power behind the establishment. Who knows?
This “American Action Network” describes itself as “center-right” and was founded by a former advisor to McCain. Kind of sad that they havn’t spent a single dollar against democrats:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/indexpend.php?cmte=C90011230
The very reason we MUST target our money TO candidates themselves, not bigger organizations.