Posted on 01/22/2013 7:00:57 AM PST by cotton1706
In 2010, when Scott Brown ran for Senate in the special election that followed Ted Kennedy’s death, his campaign attracted sensational attention and an outpouring of financial support from Republicans across the United States. In 2012, Brown failed to defend his seat against Elizabeth Warren, in the most expensive congressional race in the nation (and the most expensive contest in Massachusetts history). Now Brown has a chance to run yet another senatorial campaign — this time, it seems, against his most formidable foe yet: 20-term congressman Ed Markey. If the Republican Party has any sense, any esteem for fiscal conservatism, and any regard for the views and values of young, educated Republicans — in short, any thought for its future as a party — it will not waste any more money on Brown.
Support for Brown from forward-thinking Republicans would be a misallocation of resources, and would undermine the party’s most important principles and long-term aspirations. More than enough funds have already been spent on a politician who undermines the party’s commitment to fiscal responsibility; votes erratically and unpredictably; ran a shameful, embarrassing campaign in the last election; and has little chance of winning in the 2013 race.
On fiscal issues, Brown has criticized spending cuts, and in an open letter expressed eagerness to work with Sen. Reid and the Democrats to fight spending reductions. Shortly after he was elected, he was one of only a handful of Republicans to support President Obama’s deficit-increasing “$15 billion jobs bill.” More recently, after publishing some incoherent and embarrassingly misinformed tweets, Brown was perhaps the most vocal Republican to praise the White House’s shambolic (and inaptly named) “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” and strongly urged the House of Representatives to pass it. Earlier in 2012, Brown voted against both a Republican proposal to extend tax cuts for all Americans and a Democratic proposal to extend tax cuts for the middle class; he was also the only Republican who voted to support Obama’s request to increase the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion.
Brown has made wholly contradictory statements and votes on many topics, including tax increases, the Ryan budget, don’t ask-don’t tell, and cap-and-trade energy policies. On other issues, Brown combines some of the most retrograde positions of both parties. He is staunchly pro-abortion, but opposes gay marriage. He is a “proud union member” who is much-derided in Massachusetts for his climate-skeptic comments. He’s voted against the environment and also against efforts to curb uninhibited deficit spending. In short, this self-styled moderate is a confection of backwards-thinking and morally bereft positions from both parties, and his positions are out of touch not only with his New England base, but with the future of the G.O.P.: young fiscal-conservatives.
Scott Brown’s 2012 campaign was roundly denounced by all manner of media outlets as being one of the ugliest and most “bizarre” in recent memory. As a Massachusetts voter, and a former supporter of Brown’s, I can only agree. The campaign was utterly disgraceful. Brown’s key talking points involved: describing himself as “bipartisan”; denigrating Elizabeth Warren for self-identifying as a “native American, a person of color … which,” as Brown cringe-inducingly declared time and time again, “you can see she’s not”; and referring to his opponent as “Professor Warren.”
Now, if Brown runs, he will probably face 20-term Democratic congressman Ed Markey. Markey is unapologetically partisan, and has been seen in his district only occasionally since first heading to Congress in 1976. But the Massachusetts (and national) Democratic machine has closed ranks around him and he is poised to face little primary opposition.
Markey’s official challengers have yet to announce themselves, but — as a Massachusetts Republican — I can only hope that the G.O.P. does not continue to sink its resources into another Scott Brown campaign. Brown has not only shown himself to be incompetent, inconsistent, and ill-informed, but he threatens to draw both the Republican Party and the nation in a dangerous direction.
As much as Scott Brown is a RINO, better to have him versus Ed Markey. And besides on Ed Markey, IMHO Ed is a real tool to be polite.
Not in MA
The only reason he won before was because of Obamacare - the great-scary unknown...and Coakley was a wackjob - but so is Warren so that's not a reason that will hold up anymore.
Unless there's momentum against a big Dem policy in the country - Most MA voters will not vote for a Conservative.
Many Unenrolls and Dems voted for Brown for that one Obamacare vote, the tea party momentum worked for him, the message was clear and we all worked it (knowing he wasn't a conservative).
The unenrolled/dems that I know voted for Brown all voted for Liawatha this time around. Complacency has again settled over MA.
That includes much of my charitable donations, which I can justify because our nation is collapsing from a magnitude of unresolvable problems, and I see it as vital that we cushion the fall the best we can and hope it's relatively peaceful. Hopefully we come out of it with our freedom, and in the best economic and defensive position as possible.
Regardless of what the final tipping point is, It will cost lives when it comes. Not just out of some sort of violence either. Trying to work on helping achieve the best outcome of a bad situation is Charity my eyes.
“Unless there is a better, viable, candidate on the hook please remember this: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.”
It’s the GOP Establishment that needs to understand this! They have sandbagged GENUINE, Bible-believing conservatives left and right (see Sarah, Angle, O’Donnell, Akin) and keep pushing candidates who “can win the moderates” (McCain, Romney, Brown, etc.).
The GOP Establishment would rather have President Obama and Democrats in power than GENUINE conservatives.
It’s high time to throw the GOP the ash heap and start anew with a REAL conservative party.
I’m not going to waste anything on any republican.
Yes, 2012 was enormously telling. But keep in mind that the powers that be and all their games were exposed. They had no choice. They had to pull out all the stops. The establishment’s manipulation of the republican debates and the primaries so that their selected candidate would be nominated. Their outspoken aversion to real conservative candidates. Their denial of those that were elected to postions of leadership and committee assignments.
Keep in mind that in 2012 we defeated Richard Lugar and worked very hard to take out Orrin Hatch, forcing him to vote conservative to keep his seat. Lindsay Graham will also have to vote conservative all down the line if he wants to get re-elected. Deb Fischer defeated Bob Kerrey in NE. And had the republicans listened to Sara Palin and nominated Sara Steelman for the senate, there would have been no Akin rape story and she and Richard Mourdock would likely to have been elected.
The keys to victory in 2014 will be the individual primary races. The establishment republicans will work to defeat any conservative that runs or challenges an incumbent. And the democrats will help the republicans because they want to split the party to further marginalize conservatives.
However, I will work to help any conservative who runs. I want Graham, McConnell, Cochrane, Alexander, Isaakson, and Collins to be either primaried or defeated.
I didn’t see any conservative suggestions as an alternative? Since you left his office blank in November, are you enjoying Elizabeth Warren as your Senator?
I live in a very rural conservative county in Missouri and Akin sabotaged himself. He made stupid statements and took Claire McCaskills advice to stay in the race, while Sarah Palin and Alan West were begging him to drop out. You can’t blame that on anyone but Akin.
I said that I hope Keith Ablow will run. He’s hinted that if Brown and Weld bow out, that he might be interested. I’ll vote for him.
I have no regrets about leaving my ballot blank. I will not reward a worthless politician with a vote just because he’s just slightly better than the other guy/girl. Warren is no different than Kennedy and hardly any different than Brown so it doesn’t really feel all that different.
The republican caucus in the senate is more conservative with both his and Snowe’s absence. Brown, Snowe and Lugar were replaced within the caucus with Flake, Cruz and Fischer. And we’re much better for it. And the democrats have fewer republicans they can turn to for cover. Graham, Collins, Isaakson, Cochrane, Alexander and McConnell will be looking over their shoulders whenever they vote. The pressure is on them to be more conservative, not on us to be more moderate. And that’s how it should be. Vote the right way or lose your office. We’re not being fooled anymore!
It is true that Todd Akin made some inarticulate statements.
However, had the GOP supported him, instead of tearing him down and disowning him, he would have won.
Rove and the other GOP bigwigs all but told the voters of Missouri not to vote for Todd Akin.
The loss of this seat lies squarely on the shoulders of the GOP.
I gave money to brown when he ran the first time, but his record of blowing joi-jon kerry in the senate mens room and kissing obama’s halfrican ass left me no reason to give him anything in the general and he’ll rot south boston before I give him another dime.
You may be right about MA being lost. But we might as well try nominating a conservative. The moderates certainly can’t win and refuse to fignt the liberals.
In the mean time, we can increase the conservative numbers within the republican caucus. We have a good chance of taking the seat in WV. And we can also take back AK and NC and Franken in MN is very defeatable. Levin and Lautenberg may retire and Landriu and Pryor and Johnson and Shaheen can be defeated with the right candidates.
Fresh blood is the answer, not tired old moderates like Tommy Thompson.
Massachusetts needs to get behind a real Conservative like Sean Bielat. Though, he needs a lot of dough to get his message out.
In Southie it's pronounced;
"fkim."
Agreed! Scott Brown = loser. I guess that means the GOP will nominate him?
Bull excrement.
>>We have been subjected to this argument for years and I’ve heard that stupid, liberal quote any number of times.<<
How’s that obozocare workin’ for ya? And the locks on your guns are pretty useless against the Feds and his immaculatory term II (handcuffs off).
Good work last November!
Now you’ll get an ultra-lib instead of a RINO that can be controlled.
Your anger shows your inner remorse.
Note: if there is someone better (like, oh say my local guy CRUZ!!!! who I worked for and voted for even when they said he could not win) do the work.
But given obozo vs. Romney in C minor, vote Romney, not obozo — the latter which is what staying at home or 3P did.
Your way of thinking is how we end up with people like Romney, who lose, and Brown, who lose.
Conservatives literally supported everybody BUT Romney last year. But the powers that be said it must be Romney. Only Romney can win. He’ll get the independents. He’ll get the Reagan democrats. We can’t go for broke with a real conservative. It’s far too risky. We can’t dare nominate Palin or Cain or Bachmann or Santorum, or Perry, or God forbid, somebody who actually attacks the media and the democrats and causes people to get to their feet in cheers and go to the polls in droves, Newt Gingrich. Oh, no. The perfect is the enemy of the good. We must nominate the most moderate man we can find. We must destroy every conservative that gets in his way. And THEN, we can count on the conservatives to vote for whomever we nominate because they have nowhere else to go.
How many times do you think people will fall for this same trap? This same song that the republican establishment has been singing since Hoover’s defeat? We can’t have Taft, we’ll nominate Willkie. We can’t have Taft, we’ll nominate Dewey. And then we’ll nominate him again. We can’t have Taft, we’ll nominate Eisenhower. Nixon could win with Goldwater as VP but nope, we’ll get Nixon to choose Lodge. Damn, Goldwater somehow won the nomination so we’ll work to defeat him. Now that he’s defeated, we can go back to our old game. Nixon again. We can’t have Reagan, we must renominate Ford. We can’t have Reagan, we’ll support Bush. Thank God Reagan’s done. Now we can have Bush. Too bad Bush was defeated, we’ll nominate Dole. Oh, good, another Bush, but we’d rather have McCain. Oh, good, now we can nominate McCain. And then Romney. And who will be next? Who will be the next nominee that the republican party will force upon us and expect then demand that we vote for because there’s nowhere else to go.
I and a lot of others are not playing the game anymore. We’ll vote for conservatives or we’ll stay home or leave our ballots blank. Because the moderates will either lose or get elected to screw us over just as the democrats would. The answer is to not support moderate republicans ever and support only conservatives all the way down the line. I’ll work to support any real conservative and will work to defeat any moderate.
>>Your way of thinking is how we end up with people like Romney, who lose, and Brown, who lost<<
Hows that obamacare working fer ya?
My way of thinking got us Ted Cruz who, running on a Tea Party platform, defeated the “shoo in” local RINO. And he CONTINUES to represent the Tea Party ideas AFTER election (a rarity).
Don’t tell me what “my kind of thinking” accomplishes. It is “Perfect or Nothing” thinking that got our butts handed to us in 2008/12 and I fear 2014.
You are dangerous (not in a good way).
And on second read:
You would NEVER have voted for Reagan! Way too moderate for the likes of you.
As for “I and a lot of others are not playing the game anymore. We’ll vote for conservatives or we’ll stay home or leave our ballots blank.” Yesterday obozo thanked you for your vote. The rest of us thank you as well for obozocare, Feds standing over our guns, more Americans than ever on the dole (maybe I’ll just stop working and join them).
THANK YOU FOR BEING POLITICALLY PERFECT!!! THE NEXT GENERATION OF SLAVES THANK YOU AS WELL!!!
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