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Bradley in DC
05-27-2008, 06:57 AM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121184690228421415.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Republicans Are in Denial
By TOM COBURN
May 27, 2008; Page A21

As congressional Republicans contemplate the prospect of an electoral disaster this November, much is being written about the supposed soul-searching in the Republican Party. A more accurate description of our state is paralysis and denial.

Many Republicans are waiting for a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets. But the burning bush, so to speak, is delivering a blindingly simple message: Behave like Republicans.

Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we are being told our message must be deficient because, after all, we should be winning in certain areas just by being Republicans. Yet being a Republican isn't good enough anymore. Voters are tired of buying a GOP package and finding a big-government liberal agenda inside. What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising.

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.

Compassionate conservatism's starting point had merit. The essential argument that Republicans should orient policy around how our ideas will affect the poor, the widow, the orphan, the forgotten and the "other" is indisputable – particularly for those who claim, as I do, to submit to an authority higher than government. Yet conservatives are conservatives because our policies promote deliverance from poverty rather than dependence on government.

Compassionate conservatism's next step – its implicit claim that charity or compassion translates into a particular style of activist government involving massive spending increases and entitlement expansion – was its undoing. Common sense and the Scriptures show that true giving and compassion require sacrifice by the giver. This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell his possessions, not his neighbor's possessions. Spending other people's money is not compassionate.

Regaining our brand as the party of fiscal discipline will require us to rejoin Americans in the real world of budget choices and priorities, and to leave behind the fantasyland of borrowing without limits. Instead of adopting earmarks, each Republican can adopt examples of government waste, largess and fraud, and restart the permanent campaign against big government.

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.

Regaining our brand is not about "messaging." It's about action. It's about courage. It's about priorities. Most of all, it's about being willing to give up our political careers so our grandkids don't have to grow up in a debtor's prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can't defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion.

John McCain, for all his faults, is the one Republican candidate who can lead us through our wilderness. Mr. McCain is not running on a messianic platform or as a great healer of dysfunctional Republicans who refuse to help themselves. His humility is one of his great strengths. In his heart, he's a soldier who sees one more hill to charge, one more mission to complete.

Mr. Coburn is a Republican U.S. senator from Oklahoma.

Thor
05-27-2008, 08:12 AM
Good article, until the misguided last paragraph.

With Barr the official LP candidate and speculation in the press that it will take votes from McCain (the Nader effect), the only hope the GOP has at winning is to nominate someone who can take the vote back from Barr and even perhaps beat Obama.... but who could that be?

Who could be "a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets."

I have no idea.... oh, wait, yes I do... the good Dr has some medicine for this country (and the GOP) that will fix what ails it. But the GOP is so sick that it is not seeing the prescription before it.... It is almost comical to watch the GOP self implode, but deeply disturbing as well.

Carehn
05-27-2008, 08:26 AM
McCain! lol

dvdrink
05-27-2008, 08:32 AM
McCain's safest choice is a black or latino conservative.

even in a million years it would not be Ron Paul. Ron Paul's faction is insignificant within the GOP.

However, if his numbers are mobilized *outside* of the GOP to where it could do some damage to McCain in the general, then it becomes relevant again.

Thor
05-27-2008, 08:36 AM
McCain's safest choice is a black or latino conservative.

even in a million years it would not be Ron Paul. Ron Paul's faction is insignificant within the GOP.

However, if his numbers are mobilized *outside* of the GOP to where it could do some damage to McCain in the general, then it becomes relevant again.

I don't think the article was about a VP choice for McCain. It was about a GOP salvation leader. And Coburn was saying McCain is that savior of the GOP.... Ha.

TruthisTreason
05-27-2008, 08:42 AM
Global Warming will help McCain cut some $ ... LMAO!>:D

youngbuck
05-27-2008, 09:09 AM
[url]

John McCain, for all his faults, is the one Republican candidate who can lead us through our wilderness. Mr. McCain is not running on a messianic platform or as a great healer of dysfunctional Republicans who refuse to help themselves. His humility is one of his great strengths. In his heart, he's a soldier who sees one more hill to charge, one more mission to complete.



HOGWASH!

More like war with Iran, amnesty, signing of another AWB, and probably socialized health care. Yes, Republicans (including him) are in denial. If he wasn't, he'd be for Ron Paul.

Bradley in DC
05-27-2008, 09:21 AM
HOGWASH!

More like war with Iran, amnesty, signing of another AWB, and probably socialized health care. Yes, Republicans (including him) are in denial. If he wasn't, he'd be for Ron Paul.

Just to clarify, *I* wasn't arguing for McCain. But to be honest, if he chose Dr. Paul or Coburn or Sanford as his veep, Dr. Paul endorsed them, AND McCain announced a terminal medical condition with a short time to live, then I would consider it.

speciallyblend
06-01-2008, 04:33 PM
sorry not buying that BULLSHIT

pcosmar
06-01-2008, 04:41 PM
McCain's safest choice is a black or latino conservative.

even in a million years it would not be Ron Paul. Ron Paul's faction is insignificant within the GOP.

However, if his numbers are mobilized *outside* of the GOP to where it could do some damage to McCain in the general, then it becomes relevant again.

McCain has no chance. He never did.
He was pushed to the front and declared the candidate, but he never had any chance of winning the Presidency.