Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere…. The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble.
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- HAYWORTH & MCCAIN: Whatever else J.D. Hayworth may represent, to John McCain he represents the worst nightmare possible. Hayworth, as you may understand is running against John McCain for the Senate seat in Arizona. The most recent polls put John McCain up by a mere seven points. The movement away from ‘the maverick’ to a real conservative has long been needed there. We’ve been saying here for a long time… (years, in fact) … that McCain’s biggest problem is our too conciliatory attitude toward the left.That fact has apparently and finally become clear to him, with the angry noises that he’s started making about how this Healthcare monstrosity was rammed through the Congress, without a hint of bipartisanship being the clue there. He knows he’s in trouble and he’s at least partially figured out why. The fact of the matter is…( and if we take his statements of the last two days as indication…McCain is apparently just figuring this out…. ) that his calls for bipartisanship for the last however long, essentially gave the left a platform from which to launch this atrocity on the American people. In short, not only has McCain not been representing the interests of his district, or of conservatives for that matter, but he has in fact long been a big part of the problem. … the walking definition of a useful idiot.And, yes, before you start, I know about Hayworth the Jack Abramoff thing. Yet, I am unaware of anyone proving that he had done anything illegal. On the other hand, McCain is up to as eyeballs in the Keating scandal . And yes, I think it demonstrable that wrongdoing was done there by Mr. McCain.
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Don’t mistake me here… Make no mistake. J.D. Hayworth’s conservative record is far from perfect. Still, he is substantially better on conservative issues than is the McCain. I point to an example; I mentioned immigration amnesty yesterday. Hayworth has always vigorously opposed amnesty, whereas McCain has not only been championing the cause, [3]but doing so in a way that makes you wonder who side he’s really on certainly, he’s not on our side.
Anyone who has over the last several years watched a John McCain in action knows that at some point if reelected he will work against America on energy taxes beat restrictions on amnesty on border enforcement just to name a few positions he has taken that are contrary to what a real conservative would espouse . I endorsed John McCain over Obama in 2004, because in my view he was marginally better than what we ended up with. Given the events of the last 48 hours, I think that assessment still holds true. Still, isn’t it time that we had a real conservative in every position of power as opposed to one who will give up his principles so as to be seen as conciliatory?The Republican leadership has yet to get the message about campaigning real conservatives versus wafflers like John McCain. McCain obviously enjoys their continued support. I think it will be interesting to see how that Republican leadership reacts, when they discover that they no longer have support of the Conservative Republican base.Arizona at least in terms of conservative races, is the coal mine canary for the Republican party. The information that comes from that situation is vital to the survival of the Republican party. Frankly, I wonder if the republican leadership is smart enough to recognize that and react correctly to it.That beings to mind one additional point, here; that of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. I’m not sure of all of the reasons for her campaigning for McCain, and frankly I’m not sure I much care. McCain has the support of the republican leadership , and Palin is probably responding to requests from that leadership to throw in with McCain. Given the demonstrated animosity between the two over the months since the campaign, and during it, that seems to make more sense to me than any loyalty she might feel to McCain and his agenda. But it strikes me that in campaigning with McCain, she has damaged her credibility with conservatives.Whether not that damage is enough to have prevented her from running for president in the next cycle, I don’t know. Certainly, her success will be somewhat limited in that effort.
As a parting shot I’ll pass along a “BillyQuote”… [4]
I, for one, don’t give a damn in the world who is the black-hat on some simpleton’s scorecard in the wake of this. What I care about is what real, live individual human beings are going to have to live through under this atrocity. I don’t give a runny shit about the prospect of Republicans’ political profit at the polls: they can all go to hell unless and until they swear their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to ridding me of these commissars, and; I would not thank them for doing it, for it is only the right thing.
And there, to my mind, is the central issue with John McCain. He will most certainly worry about whether or not the Republicans gain anything out of this atrocity inflicted on the American people and yet not worry at all about conservative principles being advanced in that.
Think, now; at what point in the past has John McCain ever voted against an entitlement program? For that matter, who of the current crop of Republicans has done so? They have at best been supervisors of the infliction of these freedom killers. As Billy points up:
They have been passively complicit in this whole disaster every step of the way, in their spineless stupidity, and I wouldn’t care if they ended up painting Nancy Pelosi’s toenails and feeding her bon-bons for the rest of their worthless lives.
And OK, I understand that Billy will probably be a little uncomfortable with me for putting his quote into this context, but I do so to make the point that unless and until the Republicans start putting people willing to do as Billy suggests into positions of power they are not a conservative party. (Billy insists he’s no conservative, to which I’ve always responded that is dependent on what you’re trying to conserve. To wit; By today’s standards, Billy’s certainly correct in that statement. )
If they are not real conservative, they will not maintain any degree of popular support, past that of their ability to defeat the Democrats who are at the moment the larger enemy. That’s not enough however, as McCain’s defeat in ’08 should have shown clearly.
I have said it many times in these spaces; I am a Republican only insofar as I see them as the best tool to defeat the biggest enemy this country has; The left. Alas, far too often, the people that the Republican party has offered us far from being conservative have been a large part of the problem. John McCain is a prime example of that. It’s time for him…and all faux conservatives.. to leave.
- UNDOING THE HEALHCARE BILL: I will reiterate this, because it’s vitally important that you understand this. I keep hearing about how the Republicans are going to go ahead and once in power dismantle this socialist nightmare that Obama has constructed. First of all, even assuming that they were of a mind to do that, at what point in the past have Republicans ever managed to dismantle any entitlement program? The answer, of course, is “never”. I note that this includes periods of overwhelming Republican majority. It seems at least a little disingenuous for them to be making such a noise is now, particularly when the vast majority of them have been as Billy says passively complicit in creating our current situation. Getting this thing on done is going to require two things… A national will to see it undone and it’s going to require real conservatives in overwhelming numbers in positions of power. Short of that, this monstrosity is going to be around forever. That, my friends, is why there were so many smiles around the White House yesterday. They know what’s not going to be undone. Not without far more conservative representation than what we’ve been seeing.
- AMNESTY and VOTERS: Then too, in terms of our ability to toss this healthcare mess out, there’s the forthcoming change in the voter patterns, which Obama will bring about by way of Amnesty for illegal aliens. I mentioned this yesterday, but I will mention it again today for clarity.There’s been a good deal of discussion about the next step that Obama and company will take. I submit based on comments that he is made and other legislative efforts I see forthcoming that the next thing on the agenda will be what is laughingly known as “immigration reform” or Amnesty… (Yes, Amnesty as pushed by John McCain. Ah, yes, amnesty; one of the most potent examples of why “bipartisanship” is to be avoided at all cost. ) It is estimated that we will see something on the order of between 15 and 30 million new Democrat voters, which will effectively wipe out any backlash against the Democrats for the Healthcare monster Obama’s created. Is there anybody who seriously considers that such an honesty beneficiaries would not immediately become lifelong Democrats? so, even assuming that Republicans currently in power had any kind of will over removing this Healthcare monster from the books, such people would be overwhelmed by the huge number of freshly created Democrat party voters, by way of amnesty. The words “stacked deck” come to mind.
- BIRTHDAYS AND REALITY: Happy birthday yesterday to Jonah Goldberg, whose LA TIMES [5] column today [5] is a must read.
“Insurance companies are now heavily regulated government contractors. Way to get big business out of Washington! They will clear a small, government-approved profit on top of their government-approved fees. Then, when healthcare costs rise — and they will — Democrats will insist, yet again, that the profit motive is to blame and out from this Obamacare Trojan horse will pour another army of liberals demanding a more honest version of single-payer. The Obama administration has turned the insurance industry into the Blackwater of socialized medicine.”
Reynolds in noting this quote quips: [6]
I think that’s unfair to Blackwater
I think that’s right, but you get the point… Jonah is using black water in the Democrat mode… that of a scapegoat. Then again, wasn’t it you, Glenn, who made the favorable comparison of prostitutes to Congress? [7]Wasn’t that unfair to the prostitutes?
