Tories Take Page From Establishment GOP’s Book

In America, the Republicans have to worry about that pesky Tea Party, while in the UK, the Tories (and everyone else, it seems) has to worry about that pesky UKIP. Both the Tea Party (which is a movement, not a party) and UKIP (which is both) are on the rise due to under-representation of a large block of voters in both countries. But much like the superior Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back,” the establishment powers are doing just that.

Many political news stories in America this year have been about a Tea Party on the ropes. What has happened? Well, it’s pretty simple. The establishment GOP, even though they have a majority in the House thanks to the Tea Party, are pissed off that some of their long-time members are getting bumped off, i.e. Richard Lugar, Bob Bennett, et al and decided to enact revenge in the only way they know how…spending more money. The MSM feigned shock that the Tea Party candidates had a rough go of it this year when it was as simple as the fact that they got outspent and vilified in the press by Republicans. Again…simple, easy.

Across the pond, UKIP just had their watershed moment in the recent by-elections and took from every party: Tories, Labour, Liberal-Democrats. Needless to say, the Tories are pissed and have upped their game:

With just two days to go until the by-election in Newark, the Nottinghamshire town has faced a deluge of politicians across every party.

It is the Conservatives who have gone all out, however – nervous of the damage a win for Ukip would do, the party has reportedly ordered every single one of its MPs to visit the constituency at least three times before Thursday’s ballot.

On David Cameron’s fourth trip he spoke to a group of workers, and told them: “A dog is for life not just for Christmas, it’s a bit the same with your Member of Parliament.”

All the canvassing has prompted something of a local backlash, with one quick-witted businessman setting up an offer of 50p per “single egg for throwing” – encouraging market-goers to “pick a politician”.

But all the activity seems to have paid off, with a poll from Lord Ashcroft suggesting the Tories now have a significant lead among prospective voters.

Interestingly, the Tories haven’t taken the tack of becoming more like UKIP to win back voters but instead have considered a deal with the devil:

An unholy alliance between the Conservative and Labour parties is emerging, with party members in Thurrock, Essex, deliberating on how best to keep Nigel Farage’s new UKIP councillors out of decision-making processes.
Last year, Conservative Party activists slammed UKIP for considering a coalition to keep the Tories out of power in Norfolk, but the Conservatives seem to have adopted these very same tactics as animosity between the two parties shows no sign of relenting.

The Thurrock Gazette reports that in the Essex town where UKIP picked up five seats (three Conservative, two Labour), the Tories and Labour are now in talks over a “grand coalition” which seeks to lock UKIP’s six councillors out of the decision-making process.

It had been noted when the results came in last week that UKIP may now hold ‘kingmaker’ status in the council. But representatives of the 23 Labour and 18 Conservatives members “had anticipated a Ukip surge and were discussing the prospect of teaming up ahead of last week’s vote, which left both Thurrock’s main parties a lot lighter.”

One source told the local paper: “I’d lay my money on a grand coalition between Labour and the Conservatives. Talks have already taken place and more are planned.”

This scheme didn’t pan out, but it shows you just how far the establishment types are willing to go to protect their turf. Imagine, the Democrats and Republicans in America forming an alliance to keep the Tea Party down. Well, we don’t have to imagine it. It happens every day.

Turning to Mississippi, we have an establishment Republican incumbent being challenged by a Tea Party candidate and all hands are on deck to maintain the staus quo, even if it means delaying retirement:

The Abramoff connection is another reminder for Mississippi voters that Cochran’s real address isn’t his cabin in Oxford or his phantom apartment at Webber’s crib. It’s on K Street.

In fact, in a Washington Post interview over the weekend, Cochran said he had intended to leave the Senate after this current term, but he changed his mind:

Cochran said he is running because others encouraged him to seek another term. “I thought it was time for me to retire,” he said. “I thought I’d served long enough. …But people were saying, what are we going to do without you?”

 

Crush the establishment.

RNC Floor Battles And Other Observations

So yesterday there was a big floor battle over the changing of some RNC rules that some say would squelch the grassroots and give more power to the beltway insiders of the party. Many were shocked (shocked!) at this power-grab the establishment wing of the party at a time when unity is needed to defeat Obama. To me, it’s not much of a surprise.

Erick Erickson over at RedState floated an interesting theory.

I’ve been talking to some of the older delegates who have been around for a while. They have a theory that only people who’ve been in politics at this level for a very long time could come up with.

Back in 1992, John Sununu had been pushed out of the White House as Chief of Staff, but was still a committed partisan for George H. W. Bush. Ben Ginsberg was a lawyer with the Republican Party.

In 1992, Pat Buchanan challenged George H. W. Bush, forced his way into the convention as a speaker, and lots of conservatives rallied to him. It was a very bad year for Team George H. W. Bush and to this day social conservatives and Pat Buchanan get blamed.

This year, John Sununu and Ben Ginsberg are with Mitt Romney. They saw an upstart campaign from Rick Santorum, who rallied social conservatives like Pat Buchanan did in 1992. He got himself onto the convention stage with a speech, tonight, on welfare that a number of prominent Republicans are worried about.

The Republican Party has been in a state of civil war for at least 50 years. Back in Goldwater’s day he was fighting a Republican establishment that was “New Deal Light” thus leading to his campaign slogan “A Choice, Not An Echo.” And like those Republicans in the 1960s that weren’t overly concerned about LBJ, many of them today are not as concerned about Obama as they might let on. And why should they be? They are part of the elite and when you’re in that club the rules don’t apply to you. For them, it’s about the game, having a seat at the table. Even if our worst fears are realized with Barack Obama, John Sununu and Ben Ginsberg aren’t going to have to worry about losing their house(s) or standing in an unemployment line. They’re concerned about having a piece of the action and the prestige that comes with it and in some cases, yes, about settling scores. Sununu has been an excellent surrogate in the media for Mitt Romney but many of us will never forget that he is the one responsible for Supreme Court Justice David Souter; a mistake that has had lasting effects. I’m sure Sununu associates the Tea Party with the Pat Buchanan crowd of yesteryear, but the Tea Party isn’t just social-cons; it’s also libertarians like myself who have eyes and know what they’re for.

Bottom line, the GOP civil war is not going to be won or lost by the changing of minds; it’s all about the numbers. Until there’s more of us than there are of them, we don’t have a chance of controlling the party. We’ve made inroads but you see how people like Senator Ron Johnson, who refuse to tow the elitist’s line, get punished with stories planted in the press about “difficulty” and the like. So, to combat this we have to send more Ron Johnsons to Washington. It’s as simple as that. Until we send enough of the right people to Washington, guys like John Boehner will run the party. Don’t get mad, get to work.

Morgan Freeman Hates You

I don’t begrudge Hollywood stars having their own political views or expressing them. It’s their right as Americans (try that in your beloved Cuba geniuses!), but you have to wonder about the rationality of a person whose livelihood depends on the movie-going public telling the movie-going public that he hates 50% of them.

Morgan Freeman is a liberal. No surprise, I assumed it. It’s cool. It never bothered me. I enjoyed Shawshank Redemption as did millions of others. Freeman’s role in that film is one for the ages, parodied in pop culture to the point that even if you haven’t seen the film, you at least know the gist. Yet, Freeman seems to believe that while millions of people enjoy his work in countless films (and the “Electric Company”), they also kinda wish he would hang from a tree.

Puzzling, to say the least. There are countless theories on why Hollywood celebrities think the way they do. One strong theory is that it all comes down to guilt. You make millions of dollars pretending to be someone else on camera, you live the high-life, so you feel you must become a warrior for the downtrodden, the environment, anyone that seems to be in opposition to America, etc. Another theory is that when you live in a pretend world, you lose all sense of reality. Or maybe to be a good actor, you just need to be a elitist jerk.

Whatever the case, it’s gonna be hard for me to take Freeman seriously in his future endeavors. It’s one thing to know that the actors you watch on screen don’t agree with you politically, it’s quite another to know that they hate your guts.

A New Logo For 2012

Via Lexington Green:

Possible Voter Fraud In Nevada

And it’s favoring Harry Reid. Election officials are lucky I wasn’t there when this happened or I’d still be screaming. This is why turnout is so important this year. They’re gonna try and slip a few past us. It won’t matter if we crush them with large numbers. Stay tuned.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

McConnell And Corker Flirt With Disaster

If these establishment Republicans think we’re taking our ball and going home on November 3rd, they’ve got another thing coming. Bad move, gentlemen.

The junior senator from Tennessee told the gathering of donors not to worry about the incoming class of “crazier Republicans” because the majority of Senate Republicans, especially minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had no intention of repealing the president’s health care bill. They instead planned to fix only the “bad parts” of the law, Corker reportedly told the group.

Sic semper tyrannis.

Obama Admits There Are No Shovel-Ready Jobs

In fact, they’re a myth, like unicorns and free love:

While proud of his record, Obama has already begun thinking about what went wrong — and what he needs to do to change course for the next two years. He has spent what one aide called “a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0” with his new interim chief of staff, Pete Rouse, and his deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina. During our hour together, Obama told me he had no regrets about the broad direction of his presidency. But he did identify what he called “tactical lessons.” He let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat.” He realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works. Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise.

The RNC and the Tea Party should run this in every TV, radio, online and print ad from here to November.

NRSC Pulls A Kerry

After dissing Christine O’Donnell as she was giving her victory speech last night by announcing they would not back her nor spend one dime on her campaign, the NRSC and Senator John Cornyn have flip-flopped:

Let there be no mistake: The National Republican Senatorial Committee – and I personally as the committee’s chairman – strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

Funny what a little grassroots pushback can do.

The Tyranny Of The Ruling Class

The talk of the day thanks to Rush is a lengthy article at The American Spectator about Washington, D.C.’s ruling class which includes members of both parties and the MSM.

In a nutshell, this reality has become crystal clear lately thanks to the Tea Party. Career politicians in the Republican Party have shown their true colors thanks to the populist uprising. Former Utah Senator Bob Bennett has pretty much admitted he’s routing for Harry Reid to win this November, while former Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott, who’s now a lobbyist, said this when asked about the anti-establishment Republican candidates:

“We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”

What’s all the more frightening about this statement is who it comes from. Lott was once the leader of the Senate Republicans and for all intents and purposes, leader of the entire party for a time. Is it no wonder the Party has spent the last two-to-four years in the wilderness?

Specter: "You Better Watch Out"

You better not cry…you better not pout I’m telling you why…Tea Parties are coming to town!

Okay, that was hokey, but it had to be said.

So Arlen Specter is overheard talking to Orrin Hatch and basically telling him, the Tea Partiers are coming after you next, pal. Hatch replied that it’s “vicious out there.”

The conversation is very telling. Their reaction to the political winds is not, “the people have spoken,” it’s “how dare they?” They see the electorate as a group that needs to be fought and outsmarted, not listened to. This is why the targeting of Bob Bennett was key. He may have been a good conservative for the most-part, but he had become entrenched in Washington elitism. We need new blood in Washington, even if it means replacing fairly solid conservatives. We need politicians that don’t see the public as an impediment.