Posted on 06/06/2014 5:51:26 AM PDT by cotton1706
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) chose a military metaphor to his approach: “My strategy was the same as Norman Schwarzkopf’s in Desert Storm: overwhelming force. We didn’t want to have a fair fight.”
For Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the key is a constant presence all over his state. “The most important thing to do is stay connected to the voters,” Alexander said.
After five long years of experimentation, veteran Senate Republicans now say there are a few clear paths for easily beating back a tea party challenge. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) took a separate route and now finds himself in a desperate three-week sprint against a GOP state senator, hoping that the Republican establishment will prop him up against an onslaught of money from Washington-based conservative groups.
Cochran was thrown into a June 24 runoff against Chris McDaniel after both men fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win a primary in Mississippi. If Cochran loses, it will happen at least in part because of a campaign that bears all the hallmarks of a veteran who had no feel for modern political combat or a full grasp of insurgent challenges to the GOP establishment. He would be the fourth Senate Republican to lose in a primary since 2010.
Publicly and privately, Republicans are bemoaning the incumbent’s campaign operation, from the candidate’s own stumbles on the stump to his lack of preparation for the race. Cochran would be the first incumbent senator to fall in the 2014 primary season, and, despite conservative activists fielding an unprecedented number of challengers, no other GOP incumbent is imperiled.
As Cornyn, Alexander and other Republicans demonstrated this spring, it did not have to be this way for Cochran.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Alexander? Not so quick! Give us time.
Cochran feels entitled to win after all these years. He didn’t even have the common courtesy to show up and thank his supporters. I hope that showed how he feels about them and they go for Chris.
Comes down to one thing - money. Do *not* donate to any GOPe-affiliated entity. Give to vetted Constitutional conservative orgs only, if moved so to do.
“...and, despite conservative activists fielding an unprecedented number of challengers, no other GOP incumbent is imperiled. ...”
No other incumbent imperiled, huh?
Not until the election day write-in campaign that is, any way.
They should contain their smugness.
Never occurred to these guys that maybe, they aren’t representing the base of the party. No mention of not realizing they are out of step with their base, just how to beat the base. This is why conservatives holding their noses and voting Liberal(R) over Liberal(D) is doing more to destroy the party and the country than simply not voting. Anyone wants to know what the GOPe thinks of the base, this is it. This is why I will never go to the polls for another rino.
The article happens to be useful for Democrats as well for defeating Tea Party opponents. Just a coincidence I’m sure.
MS Ping
I HATE PLAID!!!
Hello?????
That's what I see in McDaniels and Ernst. When confronted, they got better, much better at articulating their views. When Bevin and Chicarelli (as two examples) were put to the test, they just didn't know how to win.
Quite telling that Cornyn considers his primary opponents as an enemy that needs to be crushed.
Go Joe Carr! Go Tennessee! Beat Lamar(!)
Alexander? Not so quick! Give us time.
______________________________
Hubby and I will NOT vote for Alexander this time. Although we are not “fired up” at all about Carr...we’ll vote for him as a protest against Lamar.
Tennesseans should be ashamed. They are capable of much better.
Money and a complicit media.
“Did you notice there’s nary a mention of South Carolina?”
As you know, I do a daily search for stories. It seems there has been a media blackout on the South Carolina race unless it’s a positive story about Graham or a favorable poll.
We’ll see what happens on Tuesday but as of the latest poll, Graham (despite all his ad bombardment) is STILL under 50%! And with Texas and Mississippi wind at our backs, we’re moving on to South Carolina.
I hope we prevail in taking out this vile oligarch.
Really, it’s a fair criticism of Cochran and he does seem to have had some ambivalence regarding his own desire to run. An incumbent has some distinct advantages and if they have tons of money it is very hard to defeat them - yet not impossible. I would love to see Canter and Graham defeated. It would be a political earthquake of Biblical proportions but the chances of it happening are not in our favor. The problems in America come down to a crisis of morals and demographics. The further into the future we go the greater these two issues work against us. At some point our side is going to be overwhelmed. It’s why these primaries and the 2016 elections are so hugh. In the past when our country faced hardships there was often a return to faith in God and a dependence and submission to him. In the future the product of real hardships seem more likely to be anger, resentment and rebellion - giving government an even greater role. Christians, Jews and Tea Party types will very likely be in the crosshairs to an even greater extent.
Agreed.
Part of the problem is that Conservatives are so disillusioned that they’ll quickly flock to anyone who is challenging a GOPe incumbent.
This is what happened with Bevin. I heard very few arguments based on what he stood for; most were revenge-centered on taking out McConnell and teaching the GOPe a lesson. Which is actually the same thing I saw with Mourdock going after Lugar last cycle.
There’s a great old saying that you will never get ahead by getting even. Outsiders like Cruz, Paul, etc ran and won on the strength of their policy and ideological positions. Not because they were promising to stick it to interparty rivals. That’s a very good lesson for us Conservatives to learn in choosing what candidates to support.
If one of them had to go, I wish it was Cornyn, an evil man.
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