Dick Armey Blasts Losing GOP: They Said “Stupid Things”

Newsmax ^ | Monday, 10 Dec 2012 10:05 AM | (Newsmax Wires)

[Olog-hai]

The Republican Party and stupid statements by some candidates are to blame for GOP losses in last month’s congressional elections, the former leader of a tea party group said Monday.

Dick Armey, who until recently led the conservative group FreedomWorks, said some GOP candidates said “stupid things” that party leaders should have taught them to avoid saying. He said Republicans had a lot of candidates who did “dumb things” during their campaigns.

Armey, a former Republican House majority leader from Texas, did not specifically mention controversial comments about rape by GOP Senate candidates in Indiana and Missouri that contributed to their defeats in November. Republicans had been hoping to win control of the Senate but ended up losing seats instead, and they lost strength in the House as well. …

[ansel12]

So you are a grassroots up, tea party guy?

[Resettozero]

He is one of the genuine conservative leaders who has stood on principle for years.

I could agree with this statement: He is one of the genuine Republican leaders who persuaded us he was a true conservative for years.

It is a shame that we don’t have dozens more like Armey still in congress.

We do. That's a big problem. He fooled me more than once, but I'm not buying his style of "conservatism" any longer.

[wildbill]

I’m just an average guy with some opinions of my own, based on my experience in business and politics over fifty years.

I used to be quite active in Republican politics in Texas when there were virtually no Republican office holders, especially in San Antonio, a Dem bastion. You couldn’t get much more grassroots than that.

So a bunch of us led what I guess you’d call a grassroots movement to build a party. I ran campaigns and was county chairman for folks running for State office like Governor so I have some basis of experience in campaigns and candidates.

One of the lessons I learned early is that you have to have intelligent candidates who can navigate the traps set by the media. And that you have to weed out the kooks, radicals and tin-foil hat candidates.

They always show up first at a grassroots movement because the only way they can get any recognition at all is to be first in line. And then they claim the mantle of leadership.

This is just my experience as an active political operative back in the day.

[ansel12]

I would say that the right wing, grass roots of the party has a better record than the party’s left wing.

Romney was an absolute disaster, one that has hurt us incredibly, one that we can’t be sure hasn’t ruined the party, Romney was the great victory of the party pros who have pushed him for 7 years, and it may be the end for conservatism.

I guess you prefer Crist over Rubio, and Trey Grayson over Paul, Arlen Specter over Toomey and wanted Dewhurst in Texas instead of Ted Cruz, and support the party leadership when they come out against the republican primary winners in Senate races, as they did with Miller, O’Donnell, Akin, and others.

Grassroots conservatives made 2010 a history making victory, and in 2012 as the rinos were destroying the party with the failed Massachusetts governor, Palin gave us Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer.

[wildbill]

You seem determined to put me into a political niche that you have imagined.

Too bad you weren’t around when the Republican party went down to its absolute worst defeat with Barry Goldwater carrying the conservative flag.

The truth is that the US is a center right country that gets frightened by absolutists ideologies of left or right.

I support Reagan’s 11the Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican.

Next, I absolutely loathed Specter, preferred Rubio over Crist and Cruz over Dewhurst. I think Rubio and Cruz give us some smart young Latinos. Didn’t know a thing about Grayson and sorta like Paul and his Dad on some issues, but think his Dad’s good ideas were outweighed by his radical ones and his past history. Saying you won’t take responsibility what went into a newsletter that you published is cowardly.

The strange thing to me about seriously right wing conservatives is that they blame their losses and inability to nominate an ideologue on a conspiracy of “rinos”, the GOP ‘elites’ and ‘establishment.’ It’s always ‘those guys’ fault. And “We’ll get ‘em next time if we can stop them from running and the voters just listen to us.

But there is no conspiracy. Those folks simply don’t think like you do and they have a right to their opinion, don’t they? If they get elected, the voters liked them and their message better than yours. End of Story.

The truth is the right wing of the Party or Tea Party simply can’t find a Presidential candidate that can get enough votes—even in the relatively small confines of a Republican primary.

Trust me Ansel, Presidential politics is about the art of gathering votes, not who has the purest ideological message.

[ansel12]

Seriously? you Romney rino anti-tea party anti-grass roots people coming off one of the most destructive losses since Goldwater because of your choice, and you think the conservatives are the problem?

If we Reagan republicans can’t figure out to how rein you guys in, and get you to stop campaigning against GOP nominees who are too conservative for you, then your party is doomed to irrelevance.