Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), has an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that the GOP faces electoral disaster in November because the party is in denial of the simple fact that its officeholders have stopped acting like Republicans:
Becoming Republicans again will require us to come to grips with what has ailed our party – namely, the triumph of big-government Republicanism and failed experiments like the K Street Project and “compassionate conservatism.” If the goal of the K Street Project was to earmark and fund raise our way to a filibuster-proof “governing” majority, the goal of “compassionate conservatism” was to spend our way to a governing majority.
The fruit of these efforts is not the hoped-for Republican governing majority, but the real prospect of a filibuster-proof Democrat majority in 2009. While the K Street Project decimated our brand as the party of reform and limited government, compassionate conservatism convinced the American people to elect the party that was truly skilled at activist government: the Democrats.
That is a fairly decent diagnosis from the doctor. But that analysis also contains some lingering symptoms of denial. The 2006 exit poll data suggests that the GOP lost control of Congress because: (a) about half of the electorate had a bad opinion of the economy; (b) the Iraq mission was unpopular; and (c) voters did not see the GOP as particularly ethical. Those overarching dynamics had as much to do with the result as GOP policy, though it can be argued that leaders like Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain also helped drive down conservative turnout with efforts like their push for so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” and in the case of Bush (though not really McCain) a cavalier attitude to federal spending.
Elsewhere, Coburn slides completely into denial:
Republicans can tear up the “emergency spending” credit card and refuse to accept any new spending whatsoever, including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending. The federal budget contains a vast unexplored area of offsets. My office alone has identified $300 billion in annual waste. Borrowing from the next generation when we haven’t done our job of oversight is unconscionable.
Filibustering war funding with troops in the field, on the premise that doing so will eliminate wasteful spending of the sort that has plagued the Republic for many, many, many generations, would be an electoral disaster, particularly with most Republicans already having voted for the bloated farm bill. If Coburn wrote this to angle for the veep slot on the McCain ticket, he may have just blown it.
Hey, Tom:
Earmarks.
Any questions?
Everyone wants to be the guy that says that though. Me I can still raise a glass to Lincoln Chafee’s defeat. And John Warner will retire and die and have an open casket cause he’s such a pretty man. And poor Arlen is rotting away from the inside. Somewhere Chuckie Hagel is making a frowny face. This is how he will be remembered. All this is momentum, and is a lot cheering.
Even the ones that act like they get it really do not get it.
Republicans can tear up the “emergency spending†credit card and refuse to accept any new spending whatsoever, including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending.
Fellow Republicans, I urge you to begin biting your noses.
Me too. It helps to wash away thoughts of Senator Whitehouse. In this land of dumb and dumberer, I take comfort in the fact that Patrick Kennedy can only hold one office at a time. And there are rumblings that he’ll move his ass back to MA and run for Daddy’s seat. Hope springs eternal.
So Senator Coburn, is this your Jean Dixon impersonation. I predict the New York Times will print an anti-war article. Ta-da! Start calling out your fraternity brothers in the Senate, Senator. It must be gratifying to unburden yourself with such candor. Name names. Let’s hear it. Tell us who is responsible for the earmarks, and not some nebulous unnamed adversary. Quit short-arming your shots. I respect the stands you have taken on some of the legislation in the senate, but what about the whole truth. The one thing Obrack Barama has right is that this is the United States of America(all 57 of them).
Sen. Coburn forgot a couple of things the GOP congressional delegation could do: (1) keep their pants on, and (2) live on their salaries.
Yeah I know – I’m such a dreamer.
That’s a good point about Coburn not naming names, but he wants to be an actual leader someday probably. Mr. Coburn is a white hat for real. nishi probably doesn’t think so though. It would definitely be more better if he moved to figure out a way to get the stem cell issue off the table instead of being so weird about it. I think it’s really weird to keep making an argument that stem cell research has no proven benefits cause if he really thought it was feckless then the quickest way to put it to bed would be to allow the research to play out. That’s science. I don’t know why I’m channeling nishi this morning, just mostly that it’s sad that Mr. Coburn is sort of very good in certain circumstances and he gets all heralded but he’s so not the future.
An actual leader for who? The Republican Party that he just trashed? It’s easy to spout platitudes and blame his party in general, but that just gives cover to the entrenched encumbents who will load up the next farm bill, war funding bill, etc., with the earmarks he says he doesn’t like. Typical politician. The Senate already has a Majority leader without the stones to do anything. Is that what he aspires to? Time to retire and become a lobbyist-they’re the ones who actually write the legislation.
That’s more cynicaller than I can really do I think. Politicians are fags. There’s no reason to get all raise-the-bar with them. Mostly as long as they make some attempt to not be complete perfumed eunuchs I think they’re pretty much being the best we can hope for.
I’m unwilling to settle happyfeet. Write your Senators and Congressmen. I’ve been doing it daily, letting them know exactly how I feel. After the BS immigration bill they tried to pass without regard to the majorities’ wishes, I decided there was no way I’d sit by and listen to pansy-assed, watered-down blather trotted out during an election year. How do you think people like Obamalamadingdong get the nomination of the Democratic Party? People are swooning over this charlatan, mesmerized by the sound of his voice rather than what he actually stands for.
It’s just that I have ennui. Way bad ennui. It’s like Noonanesque.
Noo….shudder.
Wait, Obama stands for something? I was pretty sure he was against actually taking a stand on something. Live and learn I guess.
Sen. Obama stands for waffels…fragrant, flaky waffles, with real butter and real maple syrup.
And there are rumblings that he’ll move his ass back to MA and run for Daddy’s seat.
I figured Ted would just leave it to him in his will.
Mrs. Buttersworth for the Obamarator! I smell a new demographic, the syrupy mom waffle lovers. Bill Clinton got the fellating kneepaded blue dress wearing moms. Got to play to the base!
Well now wait a minute. Tom DeLay was the K Street guy, not George Bush. As for trashing compassionate conservatism, keep in mind that the much maligned drug prescription plan was actually popular with the voters. They did not jump and down and scream “No, not another government program to help Mom buy her meds. I will not stand for it. Quick, let’s vote Democrat and get some fiscal sanity up there in Washington”.
The denial is on the part of people who really think that refusing to fund troops in the field because of pork is something that makes some kind of sense. It is stupid.
And it is also worth noting while Republicans go through all this angst that the country is very close to electing a liberal Democrat Senator who will be soft on illegal immigration, nationalize health care and pander to every tin pot dictator on the planet. So obviously piling on illegal immigration is not that big a deal to that many people. Not now anyway. And it is also obvious that a lot of people are not freaked out at the idea of bigger government or they would not even think about voting for Obama.
Republicans need to show restraint fiscally and they need to be strong on national security issues, but most of all they need to keep center right. This is not the time to go hard right.
“Fellow Republicans, I urge you to begin biting your noses.”
MayBee
I think your a few years late with this suggestion. They have been bitten off, chewed, a swallowed for quite some time now. To the point that they get pissed if anyone dares suggest that they “cool it’, and maybe pretend at Republican principles, oh, say, at least three times a year.
“Sen. Coburn forgot a couple of things the GOP congressional delegation could do: (1) keep their pants on, and (2) live on their salaries.
Yeah I know – I’m such a dreamer.”
Mikey NTH,
You forgot this:
(3) Quit telling your constitutents to fuck off.
Terrye,
I somewhat agree with the first part, the Medicare drug add-on being a good example. But other than Iraq, I doubt most people on the street could tell much of anything about O!’s positions.
“#11 = Comment by Rob O’Connor on 5/27 @ 11:57 am #”
Obama is not only a liar, but if George Bush said anything half as stupid as Obamalamadingdong (love that one) belches out daily, he would be run out of town on a rail.
The proggs are going all out with lies and innuendo about Bush and McCain, meanwhile ignoring just how absolutely brainless and empty headed their own candidate is. Every day he proves his ignorance of our constitution, history, and what misery socialism invariably leads to. Anyone who says that the individual is subservient to society should be banned from running for president. I swear this man is so stupid that he has no clue about history – especially American history. And every day, he proves his stupidity in a more convincing way.
His uncle was there when Auschwitz was liberated? Obama never told us that anyone in his family was Russian – at least that I know of. What a twisted and changing set of limbs his family tree has!
Or is there something else twisted about a Messiah who is revealing himself as a bigger, and much stupider, liar than Hillary?
And the press IGNORES his absolutely sophomoric idiocy. If nobody knows what he says, he will still be the Messiah. So the MSM just ignores his moron quotient.
I think my favorite thing about Obama, though, is how he so sincerely uses phrases straight out of the 1930’s Communist Party manifesto.
Oh well. Public school feel-good education. The new opiate of the masses.
Karl:
Considering the fact that Obama is rather fickle on the subject of his beliefs and all, it is likely they do not really know what he is about. However, he has been defined as a liberal big spending Democrat by all sorts of conservatives and that just does not scare people the way it used to. I think people distrust government and expect a great deal from it all at the same time. A recipe for disappointment and disillusionment.
BTW. I work in health care and that program saved money. People forget that the people who could get it were already on Medicare. They pay a small amount in and get a discount. If they do not take their meds, you pay for it. If they go broke trying to buy their meds, they go on medicaid, you pay for it. It is cheaper if they take their meds.
See also 1960, 1976, 1992.
I think people distrust government and expect a great deal from it all at the same time.
This was the paradox that drove me from the clutches of progressivism, and I think is the reason for the rabid partisanship you see on the left these days. A weak government isn’t that threatening, or that enticing for the power-hungry. The more power you give the government, however, the more imperative it is that your party maintain control.
Karl:
Truer words and all that. But maybe people are getting a little premature with the doom and gloom. Republicans have lost only one election, they might lose another. But I have always thought that politics was cyclical. After all, look at how the Conservatives are coming back in Britain after years in the wilderness. Maybe people need to stop being so pessimistic.
As for 1992, it should be remembered that if people had not gotten pissed off and voted for Ross Perot who had not one chance in hell of winning, Bill Clinton would not have been elected president with 43% of the vote. More of that biting off your nose to spite your face mentality.
But Terrye, if a politician understands the reason why people got pissed in 1992, you’d think they’d avoid the same pitfalls. Unfortunately, we end up in the same place we were 16 years ago. Senator Coburn, while rightfully stating the obvious, doesn’t get to the root of the problem, senators and congressmen who sell out our national interest. Name names, and let the chips fall where they may. No more of this, “well my colleagues…”, doesn’t cut it. Otherwise, nothing will change, and we won’t get an energy policy, healthcare reform, or anything else of consequence. It’ll be like the idiot here in Florida who sponsored a bill to recognize a “National Watermelon Month” or Week or some ridiculous nonsense.
Newt Gingrinch won on the “Contract with America” and then blew it on hubris and ego.
Rob:
By the same token if deciding you are going to throw an election away hands the White House to the likes of Bill Clinton for two terms, who are you to pass judgment?
Do you see my point?
I mean let’s think about this. Do you really think that the American taxpayers are considering voting for Obama because they are pissed off about big spenders? Do you think that handing the government to people who would make Bush look like Scrooge is a smart thing for people trying to make a point about fiscal restraint to do?
Bush tries to veto a farm bill and he is a meanie who hates farmers. I actually heard someone say that.
I don’t have any particular lurv for farmers. Hey you thanks for the peas and all. Um, ok. See you around then.
I like farmers just fine, but that farm bill was a real piece of work. Bush should have vetoed it. McCain said he would have done the same thing.
There was so much stuff in that bill that had nothing to do with regular farmers it is just ridiculous to even call it a farm bill.
Bush for real did veto it. He vetoed it really hard. I blame Chuck Grassley, who is creepy and does weird things with corn.
By the way, does anyone know if they actually straightened out that “oops – we didn’t send you the bill we passed” mess?
terrye, I don’t believe I said anything about voting for Obrack Barama. I want Senator Coburn to start naming names, instead of this mealy mouth lispy drivel. What courage does it show when you lamely state, “Republicans need to act like republicans”. How profound! How about acting like a statesman, and let his “good friends” in the Senate know that he’ll expose those who don’t act in the national interest, regardless of their political affiliation. We hear bi-partisan this, and bi-partisan that, and what do we get, no meaningful legislation. Half the time we don’t even get a debate! It’s time American politicians start acting like Americans!