Posts Tagged → RINO
RINO factor could make Massachusetts moot
The RINO factor could make today’s Senate special election moot, even if Republican Scott Brown wins the seat. Why? Because even with only 40 seats in the Senate currently, at least eight of them are still in the hands of RINOs.
These fake Republicans who consistently vote with the Democrats have tenuously held together so far in opposing ObamaCare, but once the Dems lose their filibuster-proof majority, any one of them could be a legit threat to jump ship and vote with the Dems, even if they remain in the GOP.
They include, in no particular order, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, John McCain, George Voinovich, Lisa Murkowski, Richard Lugar, Robert Bennett and Thad Cocharan.
It doesn’t require an online degrees to see that even if Brown is elected – and he a potential RINO himself – it may not be as big a deal as some conservatives are hoping it is.
“Open” primaries and caucuses must end!
How can someone as liberal as John McCain or Mike Huckabee win in a GOP primary or caucus? Are they perhaps bribing caucus-goers to abandon principal in favor of, say, gold jewelry?
No, I believe a far different dynamic is at stake.
Most notably in Iowa and New Hampshire, but prevalent in many of the early primary and caucus states is a set of rules, established by the GOP and Democratic parties at the state level, that allow anyone to vote in the primary (or attend the caucus) of their choice without so much as even having to declare a party preference or even prove they are a resident of the state in question.
This policy, called “open participation” or “open attendance,” skews the results of such primaries away from the wishes of actual party members. This was most noticeable in New Hampshire and Iowa, where all a person had to do in say they hoped to live in those states someday soon, and they would be allowed to attend and participate in a caucus (in the case of Iowa) or vote in the primary in question (in the case of New Hampshire).
This means that Hollywood liberals with time to burn thanks to the writers strike could conceivably have attended the Iowa caucuses to vote for Huckabee, then voted in the New Hampshire primary for John McCain, just to prevent a more conservative candidate, like Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson, from gaining traction. It also means that the traveling staff of each campaign could conceivably do likewise, leaving a multiple-vote trail behind them as the primary and caucus season advances.
This open policy needs to end.
It should be the business of Republicans – and Republicans only – to select who they want to lead their party in a presidential contest; it should be the business of Democrats – and Democrats only – to select who they want to lead their party in a presidential contest.
The media admits the truth of the current situation when they report how well McCain is doing by drawing his support from Democrats and independents. Yet the bottom line is, they should have no say in who fronts the Republican ticket, since they are not Republicans.
WonderfulPessimist.com suggests that both parties pass new rules for 2012 and going forward that require proof of residency and, hopefully, a declaration of party preference, prior to allowing anyone in any state to participate in a state caucus or primary. Until then, the whole process is a joke.
So what should independents do during primary season, you ask? Simple.
Either choose a side or stay home.
A Romneyic Victory
Mitt Romney won the Ames straw poll for presidential preference among Iowa Republicans this past weekend, proving nothing.
Well, at least he showed up. Absent were the real campaign heavyweights. Missing in action were RINO favorites like Rudy Guiliani and the candidate destined to hawk incontinence supplies on late-night TV ads, Sen. John McCain, as well as the still-not-quite-fully-declared faves, Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich.
So, again, Mitt Romney won an Ames, IA, straw poll, proving nothing.
It’s like naming Sneezy the best of the Seven Dwarves. The only sane response to that is to say, “OK. Sure. So when do the REAL candidates get here?” Until he really goes up against Guiliani, Thompson and Gingrich, Romney’s becoming the new poster boy to have his name define a meaningless win. Forget Pyhrric victories; from now on, they ought to be known as Romneyic victories.
But hey… at least Romney’s win drove one other RINO candidate out of the race. That OTHER Thompson… Tommy, best known for his four terms as governor of Wisconsin… finally dropped out of the race when it became clear he couldn’t even beat Mitt Romney, let alone any of the big boys.
So at least there’s that.
For the hard-of-thinking: Mitt Romney won a presidential poll no other serious candidate showed up for, accomplishing nothing.
Governor calls for Lamboughini of high school systems
In his state of the state address, RINO Gov. Tim Pawlenty laid out a new plan that, despite his RINO status, makes common sense on the topic of education.
Calling Minnesota’s schools “obsolete,” Gov. Pawlenty called for an overhaul of secondary education that emphasizes rigor, relevance and results, an agenda that includes transforming some (not all) of the state’s high schools into “rigorous academies” that would deliver private school results from public institutions.
That high-performance high school agenda includes requiring four years of a second language, as well as a boosted emphasis on math, science, technology and engineering. The new agenda would also have high school graduates completing the equivalent of their first year of college prior to getting their high school diploma.
While such an aggressive agenda is sure to upset all the usual suspects – especially teacher’s unions – it is a forward-looking agenda designed to help Minnesota students compete better not only in the US, but with students from other top-performing academic countries.
Of course, the Red Star and Sickle immediately leaped into action to criticize an agenda that, had it been uttered by a Dmeocrat, they would have immediately embraced, seeking out the most outspoken liberal students and teachers, just to get their agenda across.
The usual suspects answered the call of Pravda Minneapolis with the predictable comments about being insulted that the governor called their schools “obsolete,” citing Minnesota’s rank near the top of the US in test scores and graduation rates.
But the truth is, RINO Gov. Pawlenty is right for once; to stay on top, Minnesota can’t compare itself just to other US states in academic performance, when nationally academic performance is falling off and can’t even meet the demands of No Child Left Behind in many cases.
One ought not wait until Minnesota falls to the academic standard level of Arkansas before calling for changes and improvements. After all, what offers a better return on investment: a graduating class ready to start degrees in technology and prepared for high-tech jobs at IBM and other top firms, or graduating classes that, after four years of high school and a college degree to their credit, can only manage to hold down a retail job selling Christian gifts?
While there’s nothing wrong with working retail, it’s not a career track to supporting a family.
Pawlenty exposes RINO sympathies
For those not already “in the know,” RINO means “Republican In Name Only.” The term was coined to characterize folks like former Republican Senator “Jumpin’” Jim Jeffords and, most notably, Senator John McCain of Arizona.
While the media would like to pretend that the GOP is nothing but a bunch of Rush Limbaugh dittoheads and members of the religious right, the truth of the matter is that few of the Republicans seeking to replace George W. Bush in the White House in 2008 are even close to being conservative in the traditional, Reagan sense of the word.
Whether we are talking about Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, former NYC mayor Rudolph Guiliani or the aforementioned Sen. McCain, none of them are traditional conservatives. And Senator McCain, who has sponsored such anti-free speech, liberal legislation as the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill, has actually been talked about as John Kerry’s Democratic running mate, prior to John Edwards being chosen. McCain is the very reason the term RINO was invented; he runs as a Republican but votes like a liberal Democrat.
Now, anyone with any political wisdom at all knows that McCain can’t win. He won’t attract enough of the GOP’s base to the polls, and Democrats are going to vote for real Dems, not McCain. The only real reason he’s running is because it’s “his turn,” and frankly, we all remember how Bob Dole fared against Bill Clinton on that logic. And, like Dole, we all know that if he wins the nomination, the closest McCain will get to the White House is starring in a Cialis commercial, drooling over Britney Spears like Dole did.
But now, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has finally exposed his true RINO roots for everyone to see. Rather than hop on board with at least a potential RINO winner like Rudy Guiliani or at least search for a conservative candidate to support, T-Paw has agreed to co-chair McCain’s presidential exploratory committee.
Prediction: Don’t expect Gov. T-Paw to hold the line on anything the new Dem-controlled MN state house and senate want to do.
