Posted on 05/08/2009 1:56:36 PM PDT by pissant
If there were ever a senator a party would want to show the door, it's Arlen Specter. Personally disagreeable, philosophically unmoored and fundamentally self-interested, he represents the worst of the U.S. Senate.
So the collective cry of good riddance on the right that greeted his departure from the GOP is understandable. Specter joined the Republican Party in the 1960s for opportunistic reasons, and he left it last week for opportunistic reasons – a primary challenge from the talented conservative Pat Toomey that he probably wouldn't have been able to overcome.
A better politician wouldn't have so lost the affection and loyalty of his own party – and Specter didn't stake his career on any great matter of principle, as Joe Lieberman did on the Iraq war. On the issues, Specter was reliably unreliable. He dissented from his former party not just on social issues, but on everything else.
The danger to the GOP is making good riddance an ongoing rallying cry. South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint pronounced on Specter's departure, "I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs."
This is a bracing statement of suicidal purity. If Republicans had just 30 senators, it wouldn't matter if they scored 100 percent on the Ayn Rand score card – they'd be an irrelevant rump watching the Democrats pass something like the New Deal and Great Society rolled into one.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I'll go with Jim DeMint over girly-boy any day.
Moderates?
It was the GOP that allowed “pro-choice” speakers at their conventions.
Any fifth-grade research paper would show that the DemocRATS are the intolerant party.
There’s that “M” word again. Rich has drunk the
Obama “right wing extremists” kool-aid. Too bad.
I think we actually do that these days for folks who don't have driver's licenses.
Bwahahahahaha!
See: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0111.coulterwisdom.html
Makes me wonder whose side Lowry is on in the Islamofascist War against all that is good.
I got the Moderates’ tolerance right here! Let’s not kick their ass when we throw them out the door!
How does one appeal to moderates since they cannot tell you what they believe in?
Skip the moderates. Reach out to Reagan Democrats.
Are we the right wing extremists the same ones H. Clinton used to call the right wing comspricy? I get so confused on what I’m supposed to be called these days being a middle aged Christian conservative and all that.
Rich Lowry: Specter no great loss, but GOP still must appeal to moderates
If the GOP is to win any elections they need to appeal to AMERICANS.
No more Democrat Lite Candidates running against Democrat far left candidates. They are still democrats.
Find a Republican that believes in God, a Strong Military, a smaller role for the Federal Government in peoples daily lives and that it is not necessary or required to kiss the Democrats asses to get things done and is not afraid totellthe Nation that and you wouldwin the next election in a landslide.
Problem is the National GOP is just as I said little more them democrat lite and they will not allow this type person to rise to the top.
How about if the Moderates appeal to us for a change? They are the ones that are wishy washy in their values, why do we have to give up ours?
Right! Reach to no one - Reagan was true to himself and they came. By reach they mean appeal, appeal to compromise - it’s no longer conservatism if that happens. And that’s what the libs want because conservatism sells. But the RINO’s don’t get it.
I suspect that this would not happen because the Democrats would fall into infighting. A group of Dems would emerge that would seek alliance with a solid Conservative-Republican block. That would be your ruling coalition.
We would still be unhappy, as this group of swing Democrats would probably not be a very principled lot.
I think that the GOP can appeal to moderates by sticking to its constitutional principles.
The moderates might not agree with every point of the platform, but many will respect the integrity.
Capitulating values to win in this case, where values are nearly the whole POINT, is the worst form of losing... it is surrender...
“Our healthy diet isn’t popular, let’s add deep-fried pork-lard, candy-coated MSG tablets, and nutrient-depleted processed foods to our healthy diet to make it more popular. Oh, but we’ll stick with the diet soda, that’s not too unpopular.” .... Yeah... that’s not winning, folks.
Here’s the good news in this column: Rich realizes that Republican activists have had it with turncoats but yet he still tries to spin that the GOP should continue to reach out to a group of voters largely fabricated by the MSM and Dems. But the fact that he knows that conservatives still hold influence in the GOP is good.
If they are pro-abortion, and they don't think they can support a pro-life party, then they'll have to do some tall soul searching. Which is more important to them, making sure that some women have the opportunity to end the lives of their children, or creating a country in which ALL those who are born have the chance to better their lives and the freedom to pursue their dreams, without 'big brother' taking their hard earned money, and limiting their opportunities? It's really not a tough question, when you boil it down.
I think it's interesting that moderates don't seem to want to support conservative candidates, when there's a choice between the conservative and the liberal, but conservatives HAVE supported moderates against liberals. So exactly WHO isn't being supportive of the Republicans there?
There's a lesson in there somewhere.
It is actually an interesting challenge we can make to our advantage. What they are saying is that they are so far left that they have no interest in reaching to the middle so the right must do it to win or, they want us on a holy grail run where we spend all our time looking for something we will never find.
The GOP must have four simple pillars:
Smaller Government
Lower taxes
Individual rights
Constitutional freedom
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