Tag Archives: GOP

Never Forget the Dream

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published on The Hill.

Two analyses of the current political environment recently caught my eye and caused me to rethink the GOP’s current positioning on the economy.

The first, put out by the nonprofit group American Principles in Action, aggressively challenged the conclusion reached by a so-called “autopsy” put out by the Republican National Committee, which basically said that the Republican Party needed to appeal to more moderate voters by being less offensive to minority groups.

Instead, according to this group, “Republicans urgently need to construct a conservative economic message that connects to working and middle-class voters’ present economic concerns.” Continue reading →

Don’t Focus on Only Scandal

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Can they walk and chew gum at the same time?

That will be the question for congressional Republicans as they navigate the next year and a half before the 2014 elections.

The scandals that have dogged the Obama administration at the beginning of its second term have presented the House GOP with a seemingly golden opportunity. But all that glitters is not gold, and the temptation to put all of the political eggs in the scandal basket might be overwhelming but should be resisted.

The conservative advocacy group Heritage Action has sent a warning letter to congressional Republicans telling them to stop walking toward legislative accomplishments and focus only on chewing up the administration on the scandal front.

Continue reading →

Republican’s RINO Problem

BY MICKEY EDWARDS

It has become common in recent years for self-described Republican “conservatives” to target for defeat in party primaries those candidates (including incumbent officeholders) whom they consider Republicans In Name Only (“RINOs).

This purification process is based on the rational view that if one believes in party-based governance, Republican voters should elect those candidates who most accurately reflect what the party stands for. It’s a view that confuses America’s constituent-based governing system with the parliamentary systems the Founders rejected (for good reason) but I’m willing to accept the anti-RINO logic even if based on a faulty premise. Continue reading →

Time to Purge

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheHill.com

If the vote for Speaker on opening day confirmed anything, it confirmed that simple fact. By having a dozen of his Republican colleagues either vote against him or not vote at all, John Boehner just barely squeaked by in his bid for a second term for Speaker.

The vote against Boehner wasn’t a vote against the Speaker’s actual performance. By all accounts, Boehner has done yeoman’s work leading the House under what can only be called difficult circumstances.

The vote against Boehner was really a vote against the Republican Party. It was a protest against Republican policies and against the Republican establishment. Continue reading →

Chamber of Commerce Republican

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

I consider myself a Chamber of Commerce Republican.

By that I mean I generally support where the Chamber of Commerce is coming from when it comes to the functioning of the free market system. And my politics tends to reflect that worldview.

According to the Chamber’s own website, it all started: “The idea of a national institution to represent the unified interests of U.S. business first took shape when President William Howard Taft, in a message to Congress on December 7, 1911, addressed the need for a “central organization in touch with associations and chambers of commerce throughout the country and able to keep purely American interests in a closer touch with different phases of commercial affairs.” Four months later, on April 22, 1912, President Taft’s vision became a reality when a group of 700 delegates from various commercial and trade organizations came together to create a unified body of business interest that today is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

The Chamber of Commerce is a pragmatic institution. Continue reading →

Praising Romney’s Flip-Flopping Ways

BY TONY BLANKLEY
Reprinted from the Washington Times
October 3, 2011

William F. Buckley Jr., founding father of the modern conservative movement, famously asserted his doctrine of voting for the most conservative candidate who is electable. Let me presume to add an analytic codicil: The GOP and the conservative movement have tended to support the most conservative policies only when they are understood to be conservative and are plausibly supportable by the conservative half of the electorate.

As the ideological center of gravity on various issues has shifted back and forth across the conservative-liberal spectrum over the decades, so inevitably has conservative policy support. I have in mind four examples: abortion, federal aid to education, “cap-and-trade” and individual health mandates.

As a campaigner for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in all his campaigns, starting in his 1966 campaign for governor of California, I can vividly recall that in 1964, Goldwater and the conservative movement were against federal aid to education in its entirety. Continue reading →

Perry, Paul, & Romney

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com & Townhall.com

I was in Las Vegas Friday night as the guest of the conservative Citizen Outreach organization. We got to talking about the importance which may be visited upon the Nevada caucuses this year which, on the GOP side of the ledger has never been that big a deal.

A couple of weeks ago Florida decided to move its GOP primary up by about a month to January 31. That set all the other early states into a frenzy trying to figure out when they should hold their caucuses (Iowa and Nevada) or primaries (New Hampshire and South Carolina).

As of this writing the guessing is, Iowa will move its caucuses up to January 3; New Hampshire to January 7; Nevada to the 14th; and, South Carolina to January 21.

That means, the week between Christmas and New Year will be spent in places like Red Oak and Clear Lake, Iowa; and Claremont and Gottstown, New Hampshire.

As Mullfave Ed Rollins pointed out last week, “you can’t live off the land in Florida like you can in the other early states.”

Nevada’s population is centered around Clark County (Las Vegas and its environs) and Washoe County (Reno) so you can organize there pretty easily. South Carolina’s population is more than four million and spread out throughout the state, but SC is geographically the 10th smallest state so driving from point A to point M (or wherever) is not much of a challenge.

Florida is a different kettle of alligators. Continue reading →

GOP’s Silent Majority

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from the FeeheryTheory.com

“And so tonight — to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans — I ask for your support.”

In November of 1969, Richard Nixon uttered this line in a televised address to the nation, explaining his plans in Vietnam.

At the time, the nation was enveloped in social, economic and racial turmoil. Nixon was speaking to the folks in the country who were respectful of authority, preferred order to chaos, disdained the revolutionaries and distrusted the intellectual elite who were attacking the pillars of American society.

The silent majority came to mean the white middle and lower middle class of America, and Nixon’s phrase came to be seen as a way to polarize an already polarized society. Continue reading →

The Man Behind The Last Balanced Budgets We Will Ever See

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus

I had the distinct honor and privilege recently to introduce two talented men with high levels of expertise in the private sector who willingly straddled the line between private and public life early in their political careers and then devoted themselves completely later to serve our state and nation, former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin and Congressman Alex McMillan.

The event was the First Annual Mecklenburg GOP Martin-McMillan Day which is a fitting title given that both men served on the Mecklenburg County Commission before Mr. McMillan followed Mr. Martin as the Representative of the 9th Congressional District when Martin ran for Governor in 1984 and served for 2 successful terms.

The lists of the accumulated achievements of both men would take too long to recount here. Suffice it to say: ‘We were all fortunate they chose to take their private sector expertise into the political arena and serve us in the public trust.’ Continue reading →

Obama’s Double-Dip Learning Curve

BY TONY BLANKLEY
Reprinted from The Washington Times

In one of the least-needed reassurances in modern political history, President Obama’s top political man, David Plouffe, “told Democrats late last week that the White House would not suffer from overconfidence. ‘What I don’t want to suggest is that we’re sitting around and thinking everything is great,’ he said.”

With the White House’s own economists predicting 9 percent or worse unemployment on Election Day, the president at about 39 percent job approval, college graduates unable to find jobs, a quarter of American homes under water, no credible White House policy or strategy for changing things – and with most non-institutionalized Americans convinced we are in a recession that is going to get much worse – it is surpassingly odd that Mr. Plouffe, as The Washington Post said, was worried that his fellow Democrats might think the president and his men think everything to be hunky-dory. Continue reading →

308,745,538 of Us

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

The U.S. Census Bureau announced yesterday that as of April 1, 2010 there were 308,745,538 people living in the United States – the result of the 2010 census which is required by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2:

Continue reading →

Energy & Commerce Chair Critical Call

BY GARY ANDRES

Intra-party fights for political spoils are one of the dark sides of legislative politics.

These battles are divisive and unproductive. They destroy party morale, political efficacy and even lifelong friendships.  Fortunately, the incoming Republican House majority kept most of these internal squabbles to a minimum when it came to selecting their new leadership team.

Continue reading →

Five Concerns for Each Party

BY GARY ANDRES

Reprinted from the weeklystandard.com

Never mind the talk of tsunamis and tidal waves, last Tuesday’s results revealed some storm clouds ahead for both parties. (Okay, I promise to stop sounding like the political Weather Channel.)

Continue reading →

Employ Power of the Purse

BY TONY BLANKLEY

 Reprinted from the Washington Times

 House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, center, accompanied by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, right, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. takes questions on the sweeping GOP victory in the 2010 midterm elections, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Continue reading →