Posted on 05/03/2014 7:48:25 AM PDT by cotton1706
A long and revealing article in National Journal explains how the GOP establishment is focusing on its real enemy, tea partiers and other conservatives who have the temerity to offer primary voters and alternative to get-along-go-along candidates who will do the bidding of party elders and allow immigration amnesty, while not frightening big money donors from Wall Street.
Josh Kraushaar and James Oliphant mainly focus on the North Carolina primary, where incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan is vulnerable, and where the establishment has picked its man, State House Speaker Thom Tillis. They write:
…the emerging establishment strategy [is] to engage its own roster of outside groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a coordinated effort to ensure that the most electable GOP candidates get nominated, especially in pivotal Senate contests.
Instead of merely handing out endorsements, these groups are spending big on expensive advertising campaigns on behalf of their favored candidates. They're quietly circulating opposition research raising questions about tea-party challengers' fitness to serve. And they're even airing positive testimonials—an approach once considered the domain of the candidates themselves, not outside groups. (The New York Times reported that more than a quarter of the ads from super PAC American Crossroads so far this cycle have had a positive spin; not a single one did in 2012.)
McConnell former Chief of Staff Billy Piper says that McConnell learned from two veteran Republican senators who managed to beat back conservative opposition with aggressive tactics. In 2010, John McCain won decisively by raising big money, moving to the right on immigration, and casting his opponent—former House member and talk-show host J.D. Hayworth—as out of the mainstream. Two years later, Orrin Hatch attacked outside conservative groups that attempted to paint him as a moderate, winning two-thirds of the GOP primary vote against an
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Their days are numbered. There's always another election coming up. And we're not afraid of their "warchests" anymore!
Their days are numbered. There’s always another election coming up. And we’re not afraid of their “warchests” anymore!
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Their days may be numbered as far as influence goes, but I don’t see anyone digging them out of the GOP. They have entrenched there for twenty six years now and won’t give it up.
I’m voting for the primary opponent to my supposedly conservative congressman, and I am going to vote for Karen Handel over the 4 RINOS running against her in the primary for Georgia’s upcoming open Senate seat.
The GOP RINO establishment think they can ‘defeat’ me, but they have lost my vote, and the votes of millions of conservatives in this country. You RINOs out there just wait and see what you’ve done come this November. If you think the 5 million conservative votes that stayed that cost you the Presidency in 2012, you take a look at what you gain in RINOs in November.
Hard to understand why the GOP establishment is so stupid. Money and power and selfishness must be more important than the nations welfare. Thus the mess we find our nation in today. Sad that most politicians have no decency and do not believe in truth and virtue and honesty.
The GOP RINO establishment think they can ‘defeat’ me, but they have lost my vote, and the votes of millions of conservatives in this country.
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That is the heart of it. 2012 was the bridge too far, but they still think it is under control. The Geriatric Old Plotters have shattered the old base, and think they can pick up sufficient social liberal - fiscal conservatives and ‘ethnics’ to make up for it.
They are wrong.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Don’t take the bait.
GOPe is short sighted and self serving with empty rhetoric. Let’s not be like them.
Yes, we are “blessed” with NO ONE conservative (including Handel) to vote for in GA...
I have dropped out of all but my LOCAL Chamber and would encourage everyone else to do the same... They are using our money against us...
It’s come down to corporate America and their own candidates (RINOS) against US... They don’t like conservatives because we will call them out when they act against our interests...
Need proof? Chambliss & Isakson...
“...GOPe is short sighted and self serving with empty rhetoric. Let’s not be like them.”
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Yes, the GOPe is clearly short sighted and stupid. But they are feverishly working to preserve their dominance of the party and are waging war on us. We need to defeat them and replace them with reliable constitutional conservatives wherever that is possible.
Yep, the same lie Juan told to revive his dead-in-the-water presidential campaign during the 2008 primaries: secure the border first, get tough on enforcement
Can anyone name a single tough enforcement proposal the weasel Juan has made since 2008? And the GOPe will use the same sort of lies to try and hoodwink the voters again this year: use Alinsky tactics against conservative opponents and pretend to be more conservative until the primaries are over.
But I guess it continues to work for them.
The real political schism in America isn’t between Democrats and Republicans.
That is just a theatrical production put on to distract the little people.
The real political schism is between the political establishment elitists and patriots who believe in America, the US Constitution and the rule of law.
Republicans fight conservatives because they do not want changes to the corrupt system they and the democrats have built.
The only change they want is to get their turn to be first in line at the pig trough. Other than that they want things to go on just as they are.
Conservatives are the enemy of republicans and democrats because both parties are guilty of greed, profiting from their government positions, misgovernance, corruption and crimes against the Constitution.
Think about how republicans handled the power they had as the majority party when Bush 43 was president.
It was not much different than haveing democrats in the majority.
If republicans (not conservatives) ever win the presidebncy and a senate majority they will just go back to stuffing their own pockets and lying to voters.
To my mind, Handel at least has some integrity. Her situation with the Susan G. Komen foundation and the support of the Planned Parenthood Abortion Mills convinced me of that. This, coupled with Sarah Palin’s endorsement has cemented my resolve to vote for her.
Were one to peruse recent polls here in Georgia, they would find Handel in a near tie with the GOP favorite.
The GOPe is living in the moldy, smelly basement of the house.
Yes, but not replace them with Democrats.
I can't give this analysis much credibility given this sentence - Hayworth had some things in his voting record which McCain was able to exploit to paint him as a "pork-barrel spender", was able to paint Hayworth as a "huckster" due his appearance in an infomercial promoting a product that later was revealed to be a scam, not to mention he had Sarah Palin campaigning for him.
So incumbent candidates don't like having primary challenges and they want to win those elections. Wow, that's a newsflash - who would have thought people running for office want to defeat their opponents? That's quite a conspiracy!
Oops! I meant to post my above comment to your “house divided against itself cannot stand” comment.
So true. Getting rid of these RINO parasites is like scraping gum off the bottom of your shoe. Its dang near impossible.
The key would be reliable - AND credible. Candidates who raise $10 million+ dollars then lead off with a cheaply made ad declaring “I’m not a witch”, go into a room of Hispanics and just blurt out “You all look Asian to me”, go to a cockfighting rally and speak on behalf of this great “heritage” then claim when caught “I didn’t know I was at a cockfighting rally” as an excuse (even after video emerges showing him there with speakers discussing cockfighting), have your bodyguards arrest a reporter, etc. are not the type of candidates to do it and can be used to destroy the credibility of strong conservative candidates in general - “don’t vote for one of those - they’re an embarrassment”, etc. Running these kinds of candidates only strengthens the establishment but destroying the credibility of the opposition.
“Yes, but not replace them with Democrats.”
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For the Senate (with its 6 year terms and the closeness of which party has the majority) I agree. For the House I’d also agree as a general rule, but there are exceptions.
Back in 2008, when I was living in Maryland’s 1st Congressional district, we were represented by Wayne Gilchrest who was a RINO’s RINO (he was rated THE most liberal Republican in the House). The 1st District is a “red” district and should have been represented by a conservative.
After 18 years of him being in Congress, the “base” finally had enough of Gilchrest and in 2008 he was successfully primaried by Andy Harris. In the primary the RINO Gilchrest was financially supported by the national republican committees and national organizations such as the NRA. Despite the huge financial advantages he had, Gilchrest was defeated by Andy Harris (who was “Tea Party” before there was a Tea Party) in the primary.
In the following general election the RINO Wayne Gilchrest did NOT support Andy Harris but, on the contrary, supported his DimocRAT opponent Frank Kratovil. The bitter Uber-RINO Gilchrest also had kind words to say about Obama.
The DimocRAT Frank Kratovil NARROWLY won that 2008 general election but, after one term, two years later Andy Harris ran against Kratovil again and defeated him by 14%. Andy has won reelection handily since the 2010 election and has been a reliable conservative in Congress.
Moral of the story: Sometimes having a DimocRAT in office for a single term is the price we must pay to flush a RINO turd down the drain. Things are much fresher after the turd is gone—never to be seen again (and NEVER to cast progressive votes in Congress again).
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