Simple Question Trifecta
A paraphrase of Jim Geraghty's offering today:
How will it "teach the Republicans a lesson" and "make them more conservative" for right-wingers to sit out the 2006 mid-term elections and let the Democrats have the country back without a fight when no Senate RINO outside of Lincoln Chafee is even up for re-election, and the GOP in the meantime stands to lose such conservative stalwarts as Rick Santorum, Jim Talent, and Conrad Burns (plus Bill Frist's seat), and not get rising stars like Mark Kennedy of Minnesota and Michael Steele of Maryland? And remember that the House GOP is markedly more conservative than their Senate counterparts, and thus it is the Right that has the most to lose there.
Also, how will it make conservatives more influential in the GOP if the GOP loses its majorities because right-wingers ran out on the Party when it counted the most? Will not the Extreme Media spin it just the opposite, that Republicans lost because they pandered too much to the "far right"? And won't the GOP's scattered and fearful survivors imbibe that propaganda just like their Rockefelleroid forefathers and flee leftward even faster?
To quote J-Ger directly:
It's like I've always said: You never win by losing. The last time the Right tried this was 1992. That led inexorably to 9/11. Be careful what you wish for.
Particularly since a restored Democrat congressional hegemony would stack the deck and rig the system so thoroughly against Republicans that America would become, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state. Really, does anybody doubt that after the last five years of unprecedented extremist caterwauling the Dems would take ANY chances on EVER losing power again?
Geraghty's finish is devastating:
Better now than six months from now.
How will it "teach the Republicans a lesson" and "make them more conservative" for right-wingers to sit out the 2006 mid-term elections and let the Democrats have the country back without a fight when no Senate RINO outside of Lincoln Chafee is even up for re-election, and the GOP in the meantime stands to lose such conservative stalwarts as Rick Santorum, Jim Talent, and Conrad Burns (plus Bill Frist's seat), and not get rising stars like Mark Kennedy of Minnesota and Michael Steele of Maryland? And remember that the House GOP is markedly more conservative than their Senate counterparts, and thus it is the Right that has the most to lose there.
Also, how will it make conservatives more influential in the GOP if the GOP loses its majorities because right-wingers ran out on the Party when it counted the most? Will not the Extreme Media spin it just the opposite, that Republicans lost because they pandered too much to the "far right"? And won't the GOP's scattered and fearful survivors imbibe that propaganda just like their Rockefelleroid forefathers and flee leftward even faster?
To quote J-Ger directly:
Nice job, guys. Your effort to re-conservativize the Republican Party in Washington by staying home this year will have the effect of massacring the actual conservatives and empowering the moderates who you disdain. Perhaps we can call this counterproductive maneuver “RINO-plasty.”
It's like I've always said: You never win by losing. The last time the Right tried this was 1992. That led inexorably to 9/11. Be careful what you wish for.
Particularly since a restored Democrat congressional hegemony would stack the deck and rig the system so thoroughly against Republicans that America would become, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state. Really, does anybody doubt that after the last five years of unprecedented extremist caterwauling the Dems would take ANY chances on EVER losing power again?
Geraghty's finish is devastating:
We usually like looking at the Daily Kos crowd insisting for an immediate pullout of the troops or impeachment hearings right this second and we laugh at them for their ludicrously unrealistic expectations.Ouch. Break out the smelling salts.
But apparently the Kos are not the only ones with an all-or-nothing mentality.
Better now than six months from now.
posted by JASmius at 11:30 AM
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