Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is This 36-Year-Old Veteran the Future of the GOP?
National Journal ^ | 12/6/13 | Marin Cogan

Posted on 12/12/2013 11:19:24 AM PST by Baynative

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.—On a recent late-fall Saturday, Barbara Deuschle, a local restaurant owner, was recounting her first impression of her congressman, Tom Cotton, who is now running for the Senate. It was back in August 2011, just before the young Republican lawmaker formally announced his first campaign for the House, and Cotton and his dad came to a party meeting to get to know the faithful. Cotton was a 34-year-old political unknown who had recently lived in Washington. "When he just parachuted down into this district, nobody ever heard of him," she recalls. "I said, 'Who are you? We'd never heard of you before, where have you been? And what's this all about?' I grilled him for about 20 minutes."

There is little doubt that Cotton is winning conservative hearts and minds in Washington.

She began to piece together Cotton's personal history—born in Yell County; spent time in Cambridge, Mass., Iraq, Afghanistan, and Washington, including a stint in the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery. She had read recently that the guards who stand sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknowns are expected to have a 30-inch waist, and the diminutive Deuschle remembers gazing up at the 6-foot-5 veteran. "He's so tall. I'm looking about at his belly button. I'm seeing his belt buckle, this skinny, teeny little waist, and I said to him, 'Well, yeah, you still could be one of them,' " she recalls. "And he's so humble! And unassuming!" Deuschle was impressed, if a little suspicious. "I spent the next 10 months going around trying to figure out, 'What is wrong with him?' He was too good to be true."

(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: arkansas; cotton; gop; tomcotton
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last
To: NorthMountain

Having gone to one of those schools, I can assure you that the conservatives that go to Ivy League schools are 100% conservative, and are also toughened up by being in an incredibly hostile environment. It isn’t hard to be a conservative in a small town in rural Texas, but doing so in these factories of marxism takes a lot of courage, and what emerges is a thick skinned conservative who has the courage of their convictions.


21 posted on 12/12/2013 12:14:15 PM PST by jjsheridan5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: ken5050
Watching the third clip with that big question mark Juan Williams sitting there nodding his head disgusts me. Is is sickening how America has come to be influenced by such shallow people as the NPR affirmative action hire.

I would have liked to see Cotton and Williams go head to head on the subject of Obama's AWOL.

22 posted on 12/12/2013 12:21:12 PM PST by Baynative (Wake me up early, be good to my dogs and teach my children to pray.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: timeflies

Do you know anything about Cotton from his run for congress? Or since?


23 posted on 12/12/2013 12:22:05 PM PST by Baynative (Wake me up early, be good to my dogs and teach my children to pray.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

Cotton’s experience/background as a combat officer shows through. He doesn’t suffer fools and idiots..he just tunes them out. As do I whenever Williams is on FOX


24 posted on 12/12/2013 12:23:26 PM PST by ken5050 (I still miss Howlin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Baynative
Is This 36-Year-Old Veteran the Future of the GOP?

My guess is that McConnell, Boehner, McLame, Linda Graham and company are working behind the scenes to prevent it.

25 posted on 12/12/2013 12:25:58 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty (Who but a TYRANT shoves down another man's throat what he has exempted himself from?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Sons of Liberty

My guess is, you are right.


26 posted on 12/12/2013 12:26:41 PM PST by Baynative (Wake me up early, be good to my dogs and teach my children to pray.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
Cotton appears to be keeping a relatively low profile lately so as to not draw fire from the GOPe.

McCain endorsed Cotton for his House run.

27 posted on 12/12/2013 12:29:35 PM PST by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: jjsheridan5; Howie66

Thank you both for making the point that an Ivy League education is not, of itself, a disqualifier. I agree. I still hold it to be a negative item on a politician’s resume.


28 posted on 12/12/2013 12:31:02 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

If you want a shot an national leadership, you need someone from the Ivie’s to advance the agenda.


29 posted on 12/12/2013 12:32:10 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Baynative
When a Republican colleague from Michigan, Justin Amash, introduced an amendment to curtail the National Security Agency's data-collection capabilities earlier this year, Cotton took to the floor to slam it


30 posted on 12/12/2013 12:35:57 PM PST by kobald
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain
And I'll take this opportunity to get in another plug for West Virginia's constitutionalist, conservative, veteran Pat McGeehan for US Senate.
31 posted on 12/12/2013 12:36:55 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: redgolum

If you want my vote and my support (for what little it’s worth), you’ll need to show that your internment in marxist reeducation camps (particularly of the “Ivy” variety) didn’t poison your mind.

If you’re thinking I’m a bit contemptuous of the “Ivies” ...

You’re right!


32 posted on 12/12/2013 12:40:13 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H106iegUJpI


33 posted on 12/12/2013 12:41:07 PM PST by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

He is impressive. Not perfect. He has some black marks against him, but ultimately, he’ll make a good senator, and I have a feeling he may wipe Pryor out by double digits, ala Blanche Lincoln.


34 posted on 12/12/2013 1:37:24 PM PST by Viennacon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

After just a year on the political stage, Cotton does not have much of a political background.

These links show some of his positions/views on some topics/issues:

http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Tom_Cotton.htm

http://votesmart.org/candidate/135651/tom-cotton#.UqotnD_3sgU

http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/House/Arkansas/Tom_Cotton/Views/


35 posted on 12/12/2013 1:45:31 PM PST by TomGuy (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

I hear where you are coming from, loud and clear. People like Obama, Kerry and Clinton have done their level best to diminish the reputation of Ivy League education as well as everything else that they have come in contact with.


36 posted on 12/12/2013 2:03:18 PM PST by Howie66 (Molon Labe, Traitors!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Howie66
>> People like Obama, Kerry and Clinton have done their level best to diminish the reputation of Ivy League education

People like George Bush (pick one) haven't done the reputation of Ivy League education any favors either. While neither of them are the absolute filth that 0bama, Kerry and Clinton are, they aren't conservatives. I think Bush and Bam-Bam have more in common with each other than they have with, for example, a moderately prosperous engineer like me. They share, IMO, a "ruling-class" mindset.

37 posted on 12/12/2013 2:14:37 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

I understand Rep. Cotton has or did have a liking for “Bill” and “Hillary”. Is that true? Even AR may be over its infatuation with the clintoids, but probably not, too much to expect. AR does have a lot of very conservative state legislators, the kind that would have made Winthrop Rockefeller switch parties.


38 posted on 12/12/2013 2:18:06 PM PST by Theodore R. (The grand pooh-bahs are flirting with Christie, but it's Jebbie's turn!" to LOSE!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

No, they (either Bush) are not conservatives by any measure. Then again, they aren’t vile, evil Marxists, either. Rather, they fall into the Statist category. Only a marginal improvement.


39 posted on 12/12/2013 2:21:34 PM PST by Howie66 (Molon Labe, Traitors!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: kobald

I’m thinking there is more to this than meets the eye. I don’t hold any politicians in the highest esteem. BUt I like what I’ve read about Cotton. It might be that like most of the bills and amendments going through the sausage mill we don’t get a full view of all the attachments, riders, earmarks and so on.


40 posted on 12/12/2013 3:03:46 PM PST by Baynative (Wake me up early, be good to my dogs and teach my children to pray.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson