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Blood on the Potomac
Blog ^ | May 25, 2005 | Frank M. Pohole

Posted on 05/26/2005 6:08:38 AM PDT by Cacique

Blood on the Potomac

 
 
On May 23rd in a scene reminiscent of Caesar's assassination seven backstabbers on the Republican side committed an act of betrayal worthy of Brutus. We might as well remember this day as the Ides of May. The left as it has for most of history has shown it is more adept at power politics than the center and right. Next to Brutus, Benedict Arnold and other famous traitors we may now add the name of John McCain. The left was looking for a fiddle to play and they found a violin in John McCain.
 
V. I. Lenin had a dictum, ignore you are a minority, act as a majority, act as if you are in charge.  He understood that what mattered was the exercise of power, not how much support you had. Lenin had his Kerensky, Hitler his Chamberlain and the Democrats have John McCain and his willing accomplices. For McCain his treason had several objectives. He has presidential ambitions that were thwarted by George W. in 2000. It's no secret that the man bears a mean grudge. The other reasoning behind the move is the fatal reasoning of "centrists" everywhere. The belief that if they compromise with their opponents and meet them "half way" they will reciprocate and throw their support to him later on. But as centrists have learned before in history the hard way. You cannot feed a shark a finger and expect him to be well fed.
 
What point are elections if when we elect a majority the left manages to move the goalposts and plays us for fools. I was under the impression that when you lost elections you don't get to make the rules and you don't get to make policy. But it appears in the delusional surreal world of the senate the rules of the real world do not apply. Our idiotic Republican leadership allowed the democrats to change the rules to require 60 votes for cloture. That's because we have supposedly 55 votes. Suppose we had elected 61 senators on our line. Does anyone think they would not have attempted to change the rules to make 75 votes necessary for cloture? What a bunch of saps we are when we let them get away with it.
 
In Lenin's day the Bolsheviks (which means majority) had only 11% of the votes in the Duma. Yet they managed to run circles around Kerensky and his moderates. The Bolsheviks in our own senate appear to have learned their lessons well. History repeats itself.
 
Conservatives too need to learn a lesson. They have invested too much emotional capital in the Republican party and have forgotten that Conservatism is a political movement, not a political party. By investing themselves in the Republican party they have become what blacks are for the Democrats. A huge voting block that can easily be ignored. Once again we have been disappointed with our "leaders" and like a battered wife, we keep going back for more. I am not sure the answer is a third party. Perhaps merely the threat of one will suffice. But we can no longer compromise. We cannot continue to vote for RINOS as the lesser of two evils. We need to make clear that our support will go only to true conservatives, both our money and our votes.
 
There is blood on the Potomac. Our republic was stabbed again. Not mortally yet, but one must wonder how many pints of blood loss we can endure. We may have won elections but it appears we haven't learned to be in charge. In politics, perception is reality and right now Republicans can only be perceived as losers.


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: 109th; betrayal; fillibuster; senate
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A few thoughts of my own.



1 posted on 05/26/2005 6:08:38 AM PDT by Cacique
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To: nutmeg; firebrand; RaceBannon; Dutchy; PARodrig; rmlew; hellinahandcart; ...
ping



2 posted on 05/26/2005 6:11:20 AM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Cacique

bump


3 posted on 05/26/2005 6:13:27 AM PDT by cyborg (tagline under construction)
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To: Cacique
What the silly seven did was beyond belief. Each and every one of them knows that the "agreement" binds them to the Democrats. How foolish. It is going to be difficult for them on the one hand to pretend loyalty to the Republicans while they are voting with, and supporting, the Democrats. Their hearts are obviously with the Jackalocrats, so they may as well give it one last hurrah, and switch parties and give their beloved jackals one last majority in the Senate. It is my hope that the voters in their States will not be amused, and will throw each one out when election time rolls around.
4 posted on 05/26/2005 6:29:47 AM PDT by Enterprise (Coming soon from Newsweek: "Fallujah - we had to destroy it in order to save it.")
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To: Cacique

Good one!


5 posted on 05/26/2005 6:32:30 AM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: LegendHasIt; Enterprise; cyborg; Cacique; RightOnline; JudyinCanada; ConservativeMan55; durasell; ..
The most galling aspect of this whole charade was Lindsay Graham's assertion that, by averting a showdown in the U.S. Senate, these intrepid "moderates" had preserved the rights of the minority.

This may come as a surprise to Lindsay, but it's the primary responsibility of the minority party to fight for the preservation of minority rights.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that I don't believe the judicial filibuster to be an inherent "right," I don't see what obligation the GOP has to protect the rights of its competitors.

I suppose that Mr. Graham also feels that a mongoose has the moral obligation of allowing a cobra to have an equal chance of killing it.

Methinks someone needs to take a remedial course in Poli-sci 101.

6 posted on 05/26/2005 7:03:28 AM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham

amen


7 posted on 05/26/2005 7:04:28 AM PDT by cyborg (tagline under construction)
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham

BTTT


8 posted on 05/26/2005 7:08:48 AM PDT by international american (Tagline now flameproof....purchased from "Conspiracy Guy Custom Taglines"LLC)
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To: God luvs America; k2blader; Irish_Thatcherite; AuH2ORepublican; Marie Antoinette; fatima; Coleus; ..
A post mortem on the apostasy of the infamous SEVEN.

(Audible groan.)

-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)

9 posted on 05/26/2005 7:21:04 AM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham

May all 7 get re elected posthumously.


10 posted on 05/26/2005 7:28:46 AM PDT by international american (Tagline now flameproof....purchased from "Conspiracy Guy Custom Taglines"LLC)
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: Do not dub me shapka broham

So *what happened* to Graham? Way back during the impeachment trial he seemed really solid. His new title go to his head? Trying to make a name for himself? I'm sure "Mud" isn't what he was hoping for...

*sigh*

He coulda been a contenduh.


12 posted on 05/26/2005 8:12:13 AM PDT by Marie Antoinette (The same thing we do every day, Pinky. We're going to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Countdown to #8)
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To: international american; Mike Bates; tuliptree76; chicagolady; scross7
That's how they do it in Chicago.

DALEY STYLE!

:7)

-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)

13 posted on 05/26/2005 8:35:11 AM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham; Berosus; blam; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; ...

"I was under the impression that when you lost elections you don't get to make the rules and you don't get to make policy."

That's only for Republicans.

Thanks, Dub, for the ping.

I think we all recall how, when the deficit-prevention measures were passed -- those later overturned in court, due to "Democrats" bringing suit -- that the idea that two-thirds majority would be needed to overspend was rephrased as meaning that one-third plus one could "hold the Congress hostage". But filibuster, that's okay...


14 posted on 05/26/2005 9:56:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: SunkenCiv

thanks for the ping.

The only thing worse than having no power is being afraid to use it when you have it.

And the specious arguments reached new lows. The fact that the Constitution hands minorities power by making all States have equal votes in the Senate, does not mean additional power constitutionally belongs to the minority. In fact it implies the reverse. If the Constitution wanted to give minorities power it knew how to do so.


15 posted on 05/26/2005 10:08:45 AM PDT by dervish
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham; All
Thanks for the ping.

While I agree with the point of your post, the thing that stands out in my mind was the recurring theme heard from those offering apologetics for the compromise, that theme being that somehow the institution of the Senate had been saved.

This is true - and frightening.

The institution has placed itself above and beyond the will of the electorate and not for the first time. If ever there were an example of government functioning as a "good 'ole boy's club" rather than responding to the needs of the Republic, this is it. The Senators have demonstrated conclusively that fear for their own institution (including their perks and pension funds) carries more sway than the manifest will of the American People.

Electoral mandates now mean nothing more than "Maybe we can fool them one more time", and conservatism, along with Constitutional Originality has very few friends on Capitol Hill. The institutionalism which has corrupted the administrative branches of government, including the department of State and the intelligence community, now has adopted the veil of "moderation" in politics. I can't help but remember something of the Goldwater campaign in 1964, about "extremism in the defense of liberty.....and moderation in the pursuit of virtue.....". Who was it that said "You are neither hot nor cold, I spit you out of my mouth"?.....Oh, Yeah...It was God.

I keep coming back to Ayn Rand, speaking through her character John Galt in the novel "Atlas Shrugged":

"In any compromise between Good and Evil, it is only Evil that can profit."
16 posted on 05/26/2005 10:47:14 AM PDT by shibumi (I' goth en' haba goth - haba mellon!)
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To: shibumi; dervish; SunkenCiv; Marie Antoinette
It really makes you wonder about the utility of the 17th Amendment, doesn't it?

What were the Progressives fighting for, if not accountability of these Senators to the American public?

:(

17 posted on 05/26/2005 11:50:12 AM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
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To: shibumi
"In any compromise between Good and Evil, it is only Evil that can profit."

That is so very true!! Take the Good Friday Appeasement for example!

18 posted on 05/26/2005 2:48:09 PM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite (Orwellian Relativism: All philosophies are equal, but some philosophies are more equal than others.)
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham
Haven't seen ya round in a while.

Well said BUMP.


19 posted on 05/26/2005 3:06:57 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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To: shibumi; All

20 posted on 05/26/2005 3:15:20 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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