Posted on 04/29/2009 10:29:38 AM PDT by PurpleMan
In all its iterations, American conservatism is about matters of conviction on all manner of subjects from the role of the United States in the world to the role of government in our lives to the role of moral questions in political life. The Republican party is not about these things. It is a political vehicle, and as such it represents not a worldview but a tendency. That tendency can be summed up very simply–smaller rather than larger government; a stronger rather than a weaker America; and traditional rather than evolutionary values.
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WRong. Had Bush and Santorum not knifed conservatives (and the GOP as a whole), Specter would not have won the nomination in 2004 and we would have a reliable conservative. In fact, Santorum might conceivably have won re-election had he shown dedication to principle and state above party.
The old "Just lay back and enjoy it" attitude. No thanks.
I’m not a Specter fan but if he had not voted for Thomas, he wouldn’t be on SCOTUS.
Santorum wasn’t going to be elected dog catcher
I like John, but he is dead wrong here.
The left would love to frame this as a stupid act by the right. “Oh look, you’re driving away your own.” No we’re not. We’re driving away a person who voices support for leftist policy most of the time, and votes all too often for the left’s pipe dreams when they come to a vote.
I wouldn’t play into the left’s war strategy like Podhertz is here. It’s just not productive.
Sure we’re taking a short term loss here. IMO, we need to take a few more. Snowe, McCain, Graham, a few others, just take their committee seats away, and send them off on their merry little way to the Democrats.
Look folks, after they’ve moved over, are they going to vote any worse than they are today? No. They’ll continue to do just what they have been doing. They’ll voice support for leftist policy, and vote for leftist policy.
John McCain was willing to join forces with George Soros, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and other leftists, to create bills. Right now he’s happy to support transitioning illegal immigrants to citizenship. So who are we kidding, by thinking this guy is a Republican to begin with?
John Podhertz, you know better than this. Open your eyes. It’s time to clean house and rebuild our party. And as for the values the Conservatives cling to, you would do good to revisit them and try to understand why they do.
The Republican Party is finished, if not for the Conservatives. With that in mind, the party better get it’s act in gear, or it will simply die.
Okay, that being said, if Specter is who you believe him to be, he will continue to vote for people like Thomas. Otherwise what was your reasoning for thinking he should stay in our party?
I don’t he think he “should.”
It would have been interesting to have him and use him. (Funding)
But the stupid party doesn’t believe in using carrott and stick. They just give out ice cream cones.
Why shouldn’t conservatives challenge liberal Reoublicans? Of course, term (service) limits are the far superior option, one of the few mistakes the founding fathers made, IMO.
Now we don’t even have to pretend to play the game. The Democrats have total control and are running up insurmountable debts. If the Republicans can’t make gains against that then all is lost anyway.
We’ve used the carrot and stick approach with Specter for decades. If a tactic ever failed, that one sure did.
Santorum had a pretty good string of wins in Pennsylvania although he stuck to his principles. He was too conservative for many voters, but they voted for him anyway because he was pro-life and because he was clearly an honorable guy.
I think that when Rove twisted his arm and persuaded him to endorse Specter, that was what lost him his seat. So, basically, Rove knifed Santorum in favor of Specter. Great trade-off.
I know there were a lot of people here in FR at the time who said they wouldn’t vote for Rick because of the endorsement. They were in a snit. And probably when the time came a lot of his supporters were convinced to throw their support to Casey, who ran as a pro-lifer. He pretended to be his father. He lied.
The same damned thing happened in New Jersey, and in California with Simon and Arnold. Very, very stupid. We’ve probably lost California for good now.
I like Podhoretz, and enjoyed reading his books. But he’s wrong about this.
And I'm not convinced Specter is a shoe-in to win as a Dem in 2010. A lot of events are gonna happen in between.
Before his betrayal, i was going to donate to santorum and i’m in florida!
i really thought he was presidential material .
You’ve got to be kidding!
show me one stick.
“if Specter is who you believe him to be, he will continue to vote for people like Thomas.”
There will be no more conservative nominees to vote on, and although Specter might still vote for one he is just as happy to vote for a leftist.
Arlen Specter was perfectly fine with the GOP’s move to the right, just as long as those right-wing nuts were voting for him. He was perfectly willing to be judged by Pennsylvania’s Republican voters, just as long as he liked the judgment they were passing. Now that he doesn’t...he left. This didn’t happen because the mean old Club for Growth found a better candidate than him. (How dare they!) This happened, ultimately, because Arlen Specter is a selfish douche. Good riddance.
Well, you may have a point there. But if we had used a stick, I think it’s completely obvious at this point what that would have resulted in. I believe he was urged to vote the right way, but just thumbed his nose in the party’s face. I’m very glad to see that guy gone.
There wouldn’t have been Conservative nominees anyway. That’s not going to change.
When we get the White House back, there will be, and we’ll hopefully have a party that has enough manhood to vote for them.
Overall, I agree. You've got the right of it in what his response would have been. Nevertheless, that response was predicated on past performance from the party leadership.
I maintain the way the democrats can hold together such a wide divergence of factions is because those factions must pay a real and painful price for rebelling against the party platform.
The democrats are like the mafia; there are tremendous benefits to belonging, but you go rogue at your own peril.
Our factions are fed the exact opposite diet. We are warned the party can't win unless we drop our principles.
After thirty years of waiting on the Republicans to grow a spine, I say no more. There is no reason for me to be a Republican if being a Republican means letting the Democrats frame the debate.
Well that’s pretty much to truth of it isn’t it.
I hear ya.
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