I also see that no matter how many conservative programs initiated and actions he has made, it is never good enough. If we cannot get a majority in the Senate and hold the house, we are in real danger of seeing funding cut from defense and a bogging down of the war. This is unacceptable.
There are a whole lot of supposed conservatives living in a fool's paradise. The major goal politically is to regain the Senate, so that we can get those judges and also get some decent legislation, like further tax cuts and social security reform and vouchers. Staying home will not help get the Senate and will endanger President Bush's second term, giving us possibly someone like Hillary or Gore. This is also unacceptable.
People keep saying they want a Reagan. Reagan signed a farm bill. Reagan signed a larger budget than he wanted. Reagan signed an amnesty bill. I could list a hundred things Reagan did out of compromise and the desire to advance his main goals.
The main goal for President Bush is to win the war and to take back the Senate in order to get the judicial appointments. All of the rest of this stuff can be rescinded and re-done at a later date.
But, if we lose the war, we don't have a second chance.Nothing else will matter.
If we can't get the judicial appointments, we will have 20 years of liberal judges, and maybe never again will we have the opportunity to shape national policy.
Therefore, hold your nose and vote Republican, even if it is Arlen Specter or Olympia Snowe. They will give us the two things we most need and which cannot be reversed. The other things can be changed, but the war and the judiciary are permanent.
Those are good things, but I would add to them a ban on partial-birth abortion, passage of nation-wide parental notification, and the adding of a few staunch pro-life judges on the SC and circuit courts. I would also add an across-the-board reduction in federal spending. (But that will never happen as the parties are presently constructed, no matter how many Republicans there are in the House and Senate.)
Therefore, hold your nose and vote Republican, even if it is Arlen Specter or Olympia Snowe.
Never under any circumstances would my conscience allow me to vote for those two. They are viciously pro-abortion, and Specter voted against Clinton's conviction. (Snowe may have too, I am not sure.) I have my doubts as to whether either of them would vote for a pro-life SC appointment.
I am blessed, I think, to live in a state (Texas) where I only occasionally have a conflict between my conscience and political expediency. If I lived in the Northeast I would probably never vote Republican for federal offices. I would almost be a man without a party.
I won't be staying home, and I don't think many others will be either. I don't agree with the strategy of giving the Dems everything they want as the way to get more Republicans in congress but I could be wrong. So as you say, I will hold my nose and vote a republican ticket, this time.
If the Rebublicans don't get a majority in the Senate, quit spending money, and quit kissing the Dems butts after this fall, then they have no one to blame but themselves if they lose in 2004. Myself, I will vote Libertarian.
PS. I'll never stay home. Always vote.
Zell Miller (D-GA) -- 60
Nelson (D-NE) -- 56
John Breaux (D-LA) -- 48
Now for our most liberal Senators from the Republican Party:
Susan Collins (R-ME) -- 64
Olymia Snowe (R-ME) -- 60
Alen Spectre (R-PA) -- 56
John McCain (R-AZ) -- 68
You can now see that only Zell Miller beats Spectre for voting Conservative by 4 points and no one else on the Republican side! And folks on here consider Miller a "true" conservative. Well you and I both know that Miller is not a conservative and this says it all. My two cents worth!