On Thursday’s "Situation Room," CNN reporter Bill Schneider proclaimed that Republicans need to move left in order to recover from their midterm losses: Posted on 11/09/2006 4:19:09 PM PST by lowbridge
Posted by Scott Whitlock on November 9, 2006 - 18:15.
On Thursday’s "Situation Room," CNN reporter Bill Schneider proclaimed that Republicans need to move left in order to recover from their midterm losses:
Bill Schneider: "Will Republicans move further to the right? Not if they got the message of the election. Republicans lost because they abandoned the center. Independents voted Democratic by the biggest margin ever recorded. The election also provides an alternative model of a Republican who moved to the center and thrived."
Who is this shining example of moderation? Why, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He actually won by becoming a liberal, but perhaps that’s what Schneider meant.
Schneider also provided examples of new Democratic "moderates." Among these cited were Joe Lieberman, Heath Shuler, Bob Casey, and Jon Tester:
Schneider: "The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate include a lot of newly elected moderates like Heath Shuler of North Carolina, a former Washington Redskins quarterback who was courted by the Republicans, and Brad Ellsworth, an Indiana County sheriff who signed a pledge not to raise taxes. In the Senate, there is Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia, who used to be a Republican and was President Reagan’s navy secretary. And Joe Lieberman will still be around."
Joe Lieberman may support the war, but his lifetime American Conservative Union score is 17. Moveon.org campaigned for Montana Senator-elect Jon Tester (Click on Link and scroll down to Montana). And anyone who expects Bob Casey and Jim Webb to be moderate or conservative will likely be disappointed.
A transcript of the segment, which aired at 4:37pm on November 9, follows:
Wolf Blitzer: "So how will the new equation work? And can Democrats work with President Bush? Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. Bill?"
Schneider: "Wolf, there are two ways of looking at what the voters have created. You could say they voted for divided government or government of national unity. President Bush seems to want a government of national unity to succeed".
Bush: "It's in the national interest of the United States that a unity government, based upon a constitution, that is advanced and modern succeed."
Schneider: "Except that he was not talking about the United States. He was talking about Iraq, where warring sects have to figure out how to work together, same as here."
Pelosi: "Democrats are ready to lead, prepared to govern and absolutely willing to work in a bipartisan way."
Schneider: "Can it happen? There is reason for hope. The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate include a lot of newly elected moderates like Heath Shuler of North Carolina, a former Washington Redskins quarterback who was courted by the Republicans, and Brad Ellsworth, an Indiana County sheriff who signed a pledge not to raise taxes. In the Senate, there is Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia, who used to be a Republican and was President Reagan’s navy secretary. And Joe Lieberman will still be around. How accommodating will Republicans be? Moderate Republicans have diminished in number. Representatives Jim Leach of Iowa and Nancy Johnson Connecticut were defeated. So were two moderate Republican Senators Lincoln Chafee and Mike DeWine of Ohio. Will Republicans move further to the right? Not if they got the message of the election. Republicans lost because they abandoned the center. Independents voted Democratic by the biggest margin ever recorded. The election also provides an alternative model of a Republican who moved to the center and thrived."
Schwarzenegger: "We fight our causes but, in the end, we find common grounds. This is the California way. The voters have endorsed it. I embrace it."
Schneider: "If unity government is going to work in Iraq, the various parties will have to disarm their militias. Some steps toward ending the political arms race might be a good idea in this country, too. Wolf?"
Blitzer: "Give us a little sense, Bill, ‘cause you've been covering this political story in Washington for a long time. The seismic nature of this power shift that we're seeing happen right now between the executive and the legislative branches of government."
Schneider: "This is a very big shift, Wolf. We haven't seen it since 1994 and it was very dramatic then and it hadn't happened then for 40 years. Now it's 12 years later. So you can say that it isn't even once a decade we get big shifts like this."
I have not had the TV on, for now, the 3rd day and actually it is wonderful. I may just get rid of it except for watching DVDs.
Wondering how many here will get it..
Schneider is full of crap. Republicans DID move to the left, that is one reason why they LOST.
Glad to hear that!
Oklahoma is sending our current Lt Governor Mary Fallin to D. C. as the new 5th district Congresswoman. Mary is best known for getting Right to Work on the ballot after the DemocRATs stalled and stalled in the Senate. As the Lt Gov, she had the right to chair the Senate so she waited until the DemocRATs went off the Senate floor, took over the Chair, and got Right to Work on the ballot. She is going to be a great addition to our conservative House members.
The media will always try to separate Republican pols from their base.
Their objective is to co-opt the GOP leadership and leave the conservative base without a candidate.
Ross Perot--redux.
VERY perceptive.
That was exactly the purpose Perot served -- he separated many in the conservative base from the GOP candidate.
Though, in his case, I don't believe he was working at liberal (or Clintonian direction). Ross was free-lancing because he had a mad-on for George H.W. Bush.
This last election cycle is a dead cat bounce, as far as "traditional" lefty liberals are concerned. There will be some serious buyer's remorse by the time 2008 rolls around. Still, switching from the RINO to the so-called democrats is just re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic.
CNN became the cheerleader in chief for the Democratic Party this year. I don't trust a fscking thing they say.
Ron Paul got re-elected.
Kyl got reelected.
Kay Bailey Hutchison got re-elected.
Pawlenty got re-elected.
Bilbray in California got re-elected.
*MOST* GOP Senators and Congressmen got re-elected.
Michigan civil rights initiative passed 58-42.
So did the gay marriage bans in a dozen states, many of which also turned down legalizing pot.
The voters are still conservative. The party they turned away from though had issues with corruption (Burns lost directly because of this), Iraq, and related negativity about it. Many Democrats ran *AS* conservatives.
The biggest losers was the big-spending wing of the Republican party. Key RINOs lost their jobs.
ARINOld S. is a special case. you *could* run as a RINO in a blue state and beat liberal democrats. Pataki ruled that way... so did Taft in Ohio ... so did someone in Illinois (George Ryan) ... what is their legacy? All Democrat-controlled states.
RINO-ism is very harmful to the Republican party. It's hard to explain, but RINO-ism makes the party an inactive lifeless party with no grassroots. After a while the party gets swept away like a tumbleweed.
Whenever the liberal MSM gives conservatives advice ... do the opposite.
GOP to Bill: Drop Dead!
And if the GOP moved left, Bill and his CNN comrades might even vote for a Republican.
Explain the term,"center-right." I have heard that term alot lately, even on DBM
" This much is true. Why is the question. IMO, the pubs lost the center on immigration. Making 12-20M immigrants felons scared the center. This does not reflect my opinion on immigration, but I think it is true."
Yikes! It doesnt reflect what the *Republican* provision was either. The Democrats were the ones who defeated an amendment to not have the felon provision, and then the Dems after wilfully making the bill more extreme, demagogued it and what it would do.
Political theatre that worked but only hides the fact that *IF THEY DID IT RIGHT, THE GOP COULD HAVE MADE IMMIGRATION A MASSIVE WINNING ISSUE* by simply getting the Demos out in left field and coming up with a reasonable middle-ground answer:
- border security first
- strict employer sanctions etc.
"If this was a referendum on Iraq, we would have lost 40 seats by wide margins."
Disagree. IMHO, the weakness shows more about corruption than Iraq. Put another way, if this was about Iraq only, the GOP would have kept the House. Why? Because if you looked at generic polls, when they asked the question "who would do a better job in Iraq?" the results were tied. Sure Iraq isn't going great but people are too smart to think the Dems have a silver bullet.
"We lost 20 some by narrow margins to conservatives come Democrats, i.e. Blue Dogs."
Yes, a clear sign this was not an ideological election so much as a rejection of incumbents who got out of touch or did something wrong. Taylor of NC is a good example. Sherwood of PA another. Weldon of PA. We lost Pombo? And Ney's seat, etc.
We will win with good, honest, principled conservatives running.
Yeah..kinda piss's yas off when ya lose those multibillion dollar gubermint contracts.
Actually, I think it was both... a detestation for H.W. and a perceived promise of $$ from the toon camp...upon election.
He fooled a lot of people.
Ross was not an honest man. Perhaps, not even a sane man. His real agenda was not the one he was espousing.
I voted for him in '92. But it taught me a lesson. I'll never throw my vote away like that again.
Don't feel bad. My wife and daughter both voted their consciences and Perot...and they're a hell of a lot smarter than me.
But, like you say, fool me once....
When he ran again in 96, I think he only got 7 or 8%. Still a significant amount to steal from the pubbie candidate but not the 20% he got in 92.
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