Posted on 06/27/2014 5:11:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it’s not the tactics themselves that bother them as much as the attention those tactics are receiving from conservative voters.
Says Red State’s Leon Wolf, “If any of these bastards want to avoid the fallout they should go on the record.”
According to these conversations [with two Republican Senate staffers], some $800,000 was raised for Cochran by his Senate colleagues after the McDaniel victory in the primary’s first round, largely under the rubric of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This wasn’t seen as a particularly controversial matter at the time; the NRSC is an organization by and for the Republican members of the Senate and Cochran had raised money for his colleagues in the past, so there would have been no reason to deny him help. “It’s just what you do,” said one of the staffers. “It’s generally accepted that we probably can’t win the Senate if we lose our own people, so when Cochran’s people ask for help raising money, the answer is yes.”
Though there were published reports to the effect—and Barbour was open about it—that Cochran’s runoff strategy was to “expand the electorate” by seeking Democratic votes in a Republican primary, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to where the funds being raised would go. And moreover, when Cochran lost a close race to McDaniel in the first round, there was a general assumption that his goose was cooked. “Nobody thought he’d win regardless of what he did,” said the staffer. “If you’re an incumbent and you’re behind a challenger that close to avoiding a runoff, you’re usually behind the eight-ball.”
As such, the staffers say, it wasn’t until Wednesday, when the fallout began to descend, that Cochran’s tactics became an issue. And now, several senators are more than a little uneasy with those tactics, which they feel responsible for since they raised money for Cochran.
AmSpec offers no names but says there’s “soul-searching” going on among “the Senate’s more outspoken conservatives” for not doing more to help McDaniel when they had the chance. *cough* (Rand Paul, of course, seems to think it was just awesome that Cochran won his party’s nomination with votes from the other party.) Was this, though, as Mollie Hemingway thinks, ultimately a pyrrhic victory for the GOP establishment? Before you say yes, tell me what you’re willing to do to punish the party for kitchen-sinking a guy who not only received the most votes in the first round of the primary but who, by wide consensus, won more Republican votes in the runoff too? Withholding donations is fine, but don’t kid yourselves: Money’s the one thing that GOP incumbents and the NRSC don’t want for. If they lose $10 million from the base in boycotted contributions, Sheldon Adelson can make it up for them in one check to the right Super PAC.
Are you willing to go this far?
Should the Republican establishment in Washington get away with tarring its own voters as racists? Should the Republican establishment in Washington get away with comparing its own base to Klansmen?
If there is no penalty for doing so, they will keep doing it. If there is no consequence, they will attack their own base to preserve their power. They will learn no lesson. In fact, some of you may want to donate to Travis Childers, Thad Cochran’s Democrat opponent. I cannot say that I blame you.
Cochran will now put the highest bidders first. The GOP will carry out this tactic of calling you racist klansmen Nazis everywhere it works. I would like to see the GOP get the majority and oust Harry Reid as leader. But I understand if you think Mississippi can still be sacrificed.
All true. If Cochran trounces Childers in the general election, the lesson learned by Republican incumbents will be that there’s no cost to beating conservative challengers by any means necessary. You guys will always turn out for them in November on the theory that the Democrat is worse, no matter how nasty to you they are in the primary, so they might as well be as nasty as they like. The question is, is the Democrat worse this time? He may be worse than Cochran on policy, but is he worse than the filthy patronage system that supports Cochran and which he supports in turn? That’s what you’re voting for, whether you like it or not, if you vote for Thad.
There are risks here. Electing Childers could give the Democrats the 50th Senate seat they need in the fall to preserve their majority. (Biden would cast the deciding vote in case of 50/50 ties, of course.) That’s not a big risk on legislation given that Republicans will control the House but it’s a huge risk on Supreme Court nominations, if/when Harry Reid ends up nuking the filibuster and allowing confirmation by simple majority vote. If O knows he can get a nominee through with just 51 votes, he’ll feel safer nominating someone who’s further left. Also, the more seats you hand to Democrats now, the better position they’ll be in come 2016, when they’re expected to clean up in battleground states. Sean Trende thinks there’s even a (small) chance that Democrats will win a filibuster-proof majority. If you sacrifice Mississippi now, you’re making that marginally more likely.
The counterargument is simple, though: If not now, when? The GOP might do well enough in the fall to retake the Senate even if they lose Mississippi. If they don’t retake it, that’s not a disaster — this is, by Nate Silver’s estimate, the “least important election in years” because control of the upper chamber matters so little. The GOP will have more leverage over Court confirmations if they have a majority, but who knows if there’ll even be a vacancy on the Court? And gridlock on legislation is a fait accompli given Obama’s standoff with the Republican House regardless of what the Senate does. If you’re unwilling to risk a protest vote for a Democrat after the grotesque spectacle of a group of GOP cronies using liberal votes to prop up an elderly man whose heart isn’t in it anymore, you’ll never be willing. And if you’re unwilling, maybe it’s time to stop complaining about Cochran and cronyism and the rest of it and accept that this is who we are and who we’re going to be.
Actually we should give the GOP Establishment a 50-50 senate just to make a point. Mississippi voters should either leave Cochran’s name blank on their ballots, or they should vote for the Democrat.
The DC GOP senate is so darn liberal they’ll probably vote for all of Obama’s Supreme Court Nominees anyway. You can look at the nominees they’ve already voted for and see I’m 100% right!
Who will no doubt 'evolve' within six months after being elected, to assent to every pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro-Obamacare vote for the next six years, and perhaps beyond. I will not touch an establishment candidate with a ten-foot pole, but I will not touch a Democrat candidate with a twenty-foot pole.
Sorry, I have more faith in the conservatives in MS. As “conservative” as the state is (relative to others), it’s not 100% conservative, even among Republicans. I think the state’s conservatives knew full well who they were voting for. There just may not be quite so many conservatives as posters here are assuming.
He has been in congress and during his tenure in congress he earned the pro-life awards and the NRA rating AND he bucked Nancy Pelosi and voted against Obamacare.
I want Thad Cochran to lose by 30 points and I could sleep peacefully at night knowing that I supported his pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Obamacare opponent.
Childers' voting record is no doubt more conservative than many of the North Eastern Liberal Republican Senators as well as a couple of Arizona Senators.
Could someone explain how this (Democrats voting in a Republican primary - not the rest of the dirty tricks) is any different from 2008 when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Republicans cross over and vote for Democrats in primaries to keep the Democrat’s primary season running longer?
I thought it was a terrible idea then, and it is a terrible idea now, but don’t see how it is different.
It was Childers who brought the legislation/lawsuit against Washington DC when they restricted gun rights. It wasn’t Cochran. It wasn’t even John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, Lamar Alexander, John Cornyn, etc., etc., though they were in a far better position to be able to do so.
Childers is MORE conservative that anyone I just listed....all republicans.
Both parties had primary votes on June 3. The dems selected their candidate with a decided majority of the votes.
The republicans did not, thus the run-off. Having voted in the democratic primary on june 3, the dems who voted already selected their guy. Thus, they were INeligible to vote in the June 24 Republican primary runoff.
Any who voted in the dem primary on june 3 and subsequently voted in the republican primary on june 24 broke the law.
And anyone who encouraged anyone to do that also broke the law. In fact if there was a conspiracy to solicit illegal votes, that would be a felony.
I’ve been telling them for years that I support Conservative candidates and not the Charlie Crists and the Scuzzafavas of the Republican Party. Then, Do it! Send those checks to the Conservative candidates!!
Now, I’ll say, call Haley Barbour for a donation! They haven’t got a dime of my money in a long time and THE GOPe NEVER WILL!
I would deduce that it’s every single Republican senator whose mouth has been sealed shut on the subject. That means ALL of them.
Some were duped on the tactics, maybe all of them were shocked, but they bought it this time, in more ways than one.
No more senate campaign coercion. No different from forced union dues, Red.
They deserve to lose, but think of the consequences. Unless we get the Senate, Reid will stay in and I doubt that our country will even make it intact to 2016.
I think there should be a major stink, accompanied by legal challenges, because this went way beyond the usual Republican on Republican viciousness. GOP candidates never attack the Dem - they’re sweet as pie to the Dem, even those candidates who are theoretically “conservative” - but they always go after each other with no holds barred.
That’s got to stop, but we’ve got to get a numerical majority in the Senate and keep the House. It’s all a numbers game.
I saw where McDonald quoted a law that said a voter has to intend to support the person in the general that they supported in the primary. Unfortunately, that law is not valid - it was previously invalidated.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-mcdaniel-democratic-votes-for-thad-cochran-were-illegal/
I have also heard what you mention (that those who voted previously in a primary are not able to vote again).
The question I asked is rather different - why is it okay for one party to meddle in the business of another, but not the other way around?
I thought it was dirty pool in 2008 when Rush suggested it, and think it is dirty pool now, but at the time, many supported Rush.
Carl (the communist) Rove is going nt need a personal protection detail. Even that won’t prevent him being sent a premature ticket to hell.
So you'd rather have your daughter raped by an acquaintance than someone you don't know. Gotcha!
More and more these cretins have show themselves to not be “we”
That would be a very stupid law.
I thought it was dirty pool in 2008 when Rush suggested it, and think it is dirty pool now, but at the time, many supported Rush.
It's perfectly legit for one party to mess with another's primary. If one can gain an advantage, and it's allowed, why not?
The problem in this particular case, though, isn't with the Democrats. It's with Republicans smearing fellow Republicans with racist accusations...and seeking Democrat help to pervert a Republican primary.
Big difference.
Same here. What difference DOES it make? We still have nothing but commie basted jerks who would benefit. Chris, Ted, Sara and other like minded leaders need to form a group and let loose the Kracken! Surely the Conservatives across the land would make the best of the opportunity to at last have one of their own to fill the office. No more party unity of support. There is NO party. Just a group of power hungry drunks.
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