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View Full Version : Re-thinking my decision on supporting John Hostettler




Cowlesy
03-01-2010, 08:43 PM
To repost from another Hostettler thread

I just read W. James Antle IV's article in The American Conservative magazine, and I have to say, I really want Hostettler to win.

http://amconmag.com/article/2010/apr/01/00014/

Some forum members had pointed out his votes for the Patriot Act as dealbreakers (and personally I'm big on civil liberty, so this hurt his support with me), but Antle's article made me re-think my position on him given his strong views on foreign policy. Also in Antle's article, Hostettler was a very independent voter in the House of Representatives. To quote from the article:


Then there is the matter of Hostettler's independence. "I'm sure the NRSC called somebody up in the House leadership and asked about John," says a Hostettler-friendly conservative activist. "The answer they probably got was, "When I needed his vote, that son of a bitch wouldn't give it to me'."

Also from the article that is changing my opinion in the direction of supporting Hostettler. To quote at length from the article (which I would hope you will read in its entirety at the link):


Hostettler voted against the Medicare prescription-drug benefit and No Child Left Behind. He voted against the federal marriage amendment, preferring instead to preserve traditional marriage by stripping federal courts of jurisdiction over the issue. He was one of 11 Republicans to vote against the $51.8 billion Hurricane Katrina relief package. In 1996, he was one of 17 Republicans who voted against a budget compromise backed by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich that would have ended the federal government shutdown. Gingrich canceled a fundraiser for Hostettler as a result.

Hostettler’s biggest dissent, however, was on Iraq. He had opposed making regime change the official U.S. policy by voting against the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998. Then Hostettler was one of just six House Republicans to vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq, while Democrats like Bayh were still on board. At the time, Hostettler questioned the need for pre-emptive strikes and said he was not persuaded by the evidence the Bush administration offered for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. In the floor speech explaining his vote, he cited St. Augustine and Just War theory, as well as the Founding Fathers.

After leaving Congress, Hostettler stepped up his criticism of the war. He even wrote an antiwar book, Nothing for the Nation: Who Got What Out of Iraq. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a Republican who recanted his support for the war, praised the book: “Had we listened to Hostettler at the time, we would not have done it. … For years I have known I was wrong. Now I know why I was wrong.” Others, such as Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, have criticized the book’s references to Israeli security concerns and neoconservatives: “Hostettler’s reasoning is nothing new, following the line of attack in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by academics John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.”

Hostettler rejects this as a mischaracterization of his views, but is unapologetic about his disagreements with neoconservatives. “The neocons know what a Senator Hostettler would mean,” he says. “They would rather have Evan Bayh as the lead sponsor of sanctions against Iran, bringing us to the brink of war or a Republican who would do the same thing.” Hostettler argues, “They want to mold the Republican Party’s image on foreign policy, and I am not of that mold.”

It's pretty clear John Hostettler is an enemy of the neoconservatives, and especially anathema to Bill Kristol.

To me, that is a glowing reason why I would hope many skeptical forum members would reconsider their support.

The U.S. Senate would be thrown for a loop if we elected a bunch of Traditional Conservative Senators.

I am curious what you guys who are critical of Hostettler think, as well as those who are in support of him.

Right now he's got the best poll numbers versus his democratic contender.

Anti Federalist
03-01-2010, 08:51 PM
He's on Kristol's and Abe Foxman's shit list.

Good enough for me.

specsaregood
03-01-2010, 08:56 PM
I have to say, I really want Hostettler to win.

I too came to the same change of heart, prior to the article you just posted, but that just cemented it. I guess I'm gonna have to set aside a couple bucks for him too.

Cowlesy
03-01-2010, 09:01 PM
It seems that the power elite Republicans really fear tradition-cons re-populating the chambers of Congress.

I hope Hostettler can swallow his pride and get some fundraisers going on out there so that he can best his opponents in the primary.


From Rasmussen Reports of Thursday, February 18, 2010:

“A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Indiana voters shows former GOP Congressman John Hostettler leading [Democrat Congressman] Baron Hill 49% to 31% and [Democrat Congressman] Brad Ellsworth 46% to 27%.”

Rasmussen goes on to point out similar head-to-head results:

Former Senator Dan Coats 48% - Democrat Congressman Baron Hill 32%
Coats 46% - Democrat Congressman Brad Ellsworth 32%

Freshman State Senator Marlin Stutzman 41% - Hill 33%
Stutzman 40% - Ellsworth 30%

To see the entire report, click here.

http://www.johnhostettler.com/poll.htm

Cowlesy
03-02-2010, 07:00 AM
//

constituent
03-02-2010, 07:01 AM
flip-flopper.

johnrocks
03-02-2010, 07:29 AM
He's on Kristol's and Abe Foxman's shit list.

Good enough for me.

No doubt...or in this case...no shit!:p

TCE
03-02-2010, 10:16 AM
Hostettler needs money, and fast. His big problem was always that he could never raise money, well, now he might have a bit of a base to draw from. If he can win the primary, he wins the election. If you have even $20 to spare, send it over to him.

akforme
03-02-2010, 10:42 AM
If he's for the patriot act, then no thanks. I can't vote, support or give money to somebody who's for it. That is one of the deal breakers for me, maybe the biggest.

Cowlesy
03-02-2010, 12:50 PM
If he's for the patriot act, then no thanks. I can't vote, support or give money to somebody who's for it. That is one of the deal breakers for me, maybe the biggest.

I hear ya --- there are just so few with our view of foreign policy, and it grinds the gears of the neoconservatives so much, that I am going to hold my nose on this one.

John Taylor
03-02-2010, 01:01 PM
I hear ya --- there are just so few with our view of foreign policy, and it grinds the gears of the neoconservatives so much, that I am going to hold my nose on this one.

Yeah, I'm sending him some more money.

Did he upgrade from paypal yet though for his donations?

Brian4Liberty
03-02-2010, 01:30 PM
If he's for the patriot act, then no thanks. I can't vote, support or give money to somebody who's for it. That is one of the deal breakers for me, maybe the biggest.

Now that the excesses and unconstitutional portions have been identified, and the 9/11 hysteria has calmed, I wonder if he would have voted for the latest renewal?

Cowlesy
03-02-2010, 01:35 PM
Now that the excesses and unconstitutional portions have been identified, and the 9/11 hysteria has calmed, I wonder if he would have voted for the latest renewal?

Don't know, but I just sent him the question via his Contact Us. Rather than speculate, we might as well just ask.

Brian4Liberty
03-02-2010, 01:54 PM
Don't know, but I just sent him the question via his Contact Us. Rather than speculate, we might as well just ask.

Great idea!

erowe1
03-02-2010, 03:40 PM
I do know that he still defends his initial vote and the 2005 renewal (which included certain mitigating provisions and didn't make permanent the parts that were just renewed again a few days ago). But since the latest renewal was just for those particular parts and not the whole thing, I wouldn't presume either way on that.

I've been thinking a lot about this, since I'm in Indiana and made up my mind some time ago that I would support Hostettler (in fact I was working on drafting him to run almost a full year ago). I'm against the Patriot Act. But I've never ranked it up among the very worst, unconstitutional, anti-liberty laws the way a lot of people here do. If you asked me which was the more serious affront to liberty and the Constitution, the federal minimum wage or the Patriot Act, I wouldn't hesitate to say the minimum wage is. Of the bills Congress voted on when Hostettler was in the House, I'd rank at the very least the Iraq War and Medicare part D far ahead of the Patriot Act in their importance, and I could probably come up with others I would too. There are only two Republicans who voted No on both the Iraq War and Medicare part D in all of Congress, and those are Ron Paul and Hostettler.

I'm thinking of starting another thread to discuss the Patriot Act in more detail, since it would probably be too much of a rabbit trail to get into all of the details about it here.

KCIndy
03-02-2010, 05:39 PM
Hostettler's the best we've got going in the Indiana senate race, IMHO. That does NOT mean I'm wildly enthusiastic about the guy, but I will say he's the best of the mix.

I'm hoping with some pressure and some polite "education" he might come around to our side regarding the Patriot Act... And I can guarantee you that if Dan Coats gets in, we'll have nothing but a neocon Republican establishment lapdog in office for the next six years.

erowe1
03-02-2010, 05:54 PM
Hostettler's the best we've got going in the Indiana senate race, IMHO. That does NOT mean I'm wildly enthusiastic about the guy, but I will say he's the best of the mix.


He's better than that. He's not just some lesser-of-two evils slight improvement over the rest of the field in that race. Even if you count the Patriot Act vote as a huge mark against him (which I wouldn't fault anyone for doing), he's far better than anyone who's currently in the Senate. He and Rand would be great allies for one another on tons and tons of votes.

TCE
03-02-2010, 08:03 PM
On the plus side, his vote won't be needed one way or the other on the Patriot Act anyway. He is good on virtually everything else.