GOP establishment in panic mode as Roy Moore leads Alabama senate polls

[William Tell]

Alabama Senate race is a test case for GOP divide

The Republican establishment in at or near panic mode about the upcoming Alabama Senate race. There is a primary August 15 and the establishment favorite -- Sen. Luther Strange -- is trailing.

There is little fear among Republicans that Democrats could win the seat. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is among the establishment figures alarmed that former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is ahead in polls. Moore drew national attention for recommending that Alabama judges ignore the Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex marriage.

Strange was appointed to the seat after Jeff Sessions resigned to become attorney general, and has the Washington party leadership's backing as he now runs for the seat.

McConnell, who has a narrow 52-48 majority, has made clear he does not want a conservative rebel in a GOP conference already difficult to manage.

Now, after polling showing Moore opening a lead with six weeks to go, the establishment is trying to rally financial and other support for Strange.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/02/politics/inside-politics-forecast-trump-tweets-fundraising/index.html

[Dr.3D]

I hope people are wising up to the fact there is an establishment and if it gets it's way, nothing will change for the better.

[dannno]

Looks like we gotta tame the strange.

[Brian4Liberty]

Sen. Luther Strange

LOL. I didn't know the establishment was running a guy with a comic book villain name.

[William Tell]

LOL. I didn't know the establishment was running a guy with a comic book villain name.
Appointed by a corrupt governor who Strange delayed the impeachment proceedings against. It really is comical stuff.

[Krugminator2]

Just looking at the polls, Strange has to be an underdog. Mo Brooks is in the race and he is pulling double digit support so there will be a runoff Brooks and Moore are going to have similar supporters. Those two combined are over 50% in the polls. Strange will need a lot financial help.

[DGambler]

McConnell, who has a narrow 52-48 majority, has made clear he does not want a conservative rebel in a GOP conference already difficult to manage.

Oh boofuckinghoo, cry me a river asshole.

[angelatc]

I'm certainly not a fan of the evangelicals, but I still find myself cheering for him just because the GOP doesn't want him.

[William Tell]

Just looking at the polls, Strange has to be an underdog. Mo Brooks is in the race and he is pulling double digit support so there will be a runoff Brooks and Moore are going to have similar supporters. Those two combined are over 50% in the polls. Strange will need a lot financial help.
It's a strange race.:p Moore has a cult following which makes up a good 30% of the electorate. Brooks is conservative as well but not a bomb thrower, he would be more conservative than most senators but I don't think the country club boys hate him that much. If Moore and Brooks both make the runoff and cut strange out, the establishment will rally around Brooks.

There are anybody but Strange voters and anybody but Moore voters, Brooks is everyone's backup though. If somehow Brooks beats cuts Moore out and makes the runoff you would think Moore's supporters would go for Brooks. But its hard to get people to turn out for you in a runoff, and in that scenario with Moore under performing it would probably mean Strange is in a good place.

Of course if things stay as they are it will be Moore vs Strange. Even though the establishment usually wins I think I'd bank on someone viewed as too conservative over someone viewed as too corrupt in Alabama. I don't think there's been any runoff polling yet. One thing that's not clear yet is how good at fundraising Moore is, on the one hand he didn't need money to get where he is but on the other you need it to target voters in a runoff.

Bottom line though, I've never seen polls look this bad for the establishment in a Senate race. Their boy might not even make the runoff.

[William Tell]

I'm certainly not a fan of the evangelicals, but I still find myself cheering for him just because the GOP doesn't want him. Well, one thing about Moore is he's his own man, he's not a damn fraud like Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum. He really does care more about what he feels is right than what is popular, and that's almost unheard of among successful politicians. Moore isn't a tow the line Republican either, he's close to and has come close to running Constitution Party.

I've been following this race pretty closely and he's actually talked about cutting foreign aid, nobody besides the Pauls ever do. I'm hoping Moore wins. He's not a libertarian of course, but he is a sincere Constitutionalist. He's strongly against war without congressional authorization. He wants the feds completely out of healthcare and education. And he's hardcore, he isn't a talking points guy.

I think on some issues he'll make everyone else in the senate look like moderates. The guy doesn't play games. Brooks isn't a bad congressman but he would be Mike Lee light at the best, Ted Cruz lite at the worst.

[parocks]

LOL. I didn't know the establishment was running a guy with a comic book villain name.

Yup, was going to say something like that. Bad name.

[William Tell]

lol


A fundraising email sent by the Strange campaign on June 29 urged contributions to fight “special interests who want to derail our conservative agenda and humiliate President Trump.” On Saturday, Strange called Trump’s elevation to the presidency a “biblical miracle (http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/07/seven_gop_candidates_pitch_the.html).”


And in case the message wasn’t clear, one of the Alabama senator’s Twitter avatars (https://twitter.com/lutherstrange) is the back of the president’s head.




“My guess is (Strange) is very, very scared of Roy Moore,” said Natalie Davis, a longtime political science professor at Birmingham-Southern College. “Can you out-populist a real populist?” http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/southunionstreet/2017/07/10/alabama-senate-race-luther-strange-ties-his-fortunes-donald-trumps/465033001/

[H. E. Panqui]

I'm certainly not a fan of the evangelicals, but I still find myself cheering for him just because the GOP doesn't want him.

:rolleyes:

..the republican party inc. has sucked a lot of dumbasses into their fold with this stinking '(tea-baggers) good cop, (establishment) bad cop' routine...ugh...

...in reality, both 'the good :rolleyes: republican' and 'the bad republican' are, generally, stinking warmongers/interventionists and UNIVERSALLY, monetary ignoramuses...to name just a couple of hideous things...

...republicans...UGH!!...vomit-worthy!..:mad:

...if we had some honest OPEN debate instead of this phony/controlled 'competition :rolleyes: of ideas' republicrats call 'politics', the republicrat fools would go down in a hurry...but too many brain-dead people are apparently incapable of understanding this '$election fraud' and they continue to affirm these republicrat skunks with their vote...validating this bizarre and HIDEOUS republicrat circu$...ugh....

[William Tell]

Turns out state senator Trip Pittman who is running was a Ron Paul supporter in 2012.




I remembered that he ran as a Ron Paul delegate back in 2012 – the first time I’d ever seen his name on a ballot, since I live on the other side of the state. I asked him if he saw himself as being in the philosophically libertarian wing of the Republican Party.

“I do,” he responded. “The libertarians came from the Republican Party in the early 70s when Nixon put on price controls and took us off the gold standard,” he continued. “Philosophically, I align with Dr. Paul and what he believes in. Now, I’m also a realist, as a businessman, and as someone that’s been involved in governing. […] I would submit to people that you don’t get more conservative after you get elected. I have shown that I have stayed true to my values by standing up against unfair advantages and tax credits – even though I’ve agreed to some, under certain conditions, because I thought they were needed in order to jump-start certain sectors. But I’ve always believed that incentives need to be limited, they need to be sunset, and they need to be targeted. I believe in serving the military, certainly, so I believe in the need for a strong defense. But I think we need to be a lot more careful in terms of what we do and how we do it. I was opposed to the Iraqi war. I felt like, at the end of the day, that we needed to go into Afghanistan to kill the terrorists, but what we did in Iraq was under false pretenses. We’ve got ourselves involved in a lot of wars under less than total facts. […] I believe that we should be careful. In fact, I believe that, beyond the War Powers Act, we should not be putting our men and women in uniform into harm’s way for extended periods of time without a declaration of war.”

This philosophy applies to all aspect of policies for Pittman:

“If you want to know my philosophy, I grew up reading the Foundation of Economic Education… I’m an Austrian. I believe in the free markets. That’s my base. That’s my core values. That’s who Trip Pittman is. At the end of the day, that’s what I’m running as. You know, I want to win, I’m running to win… but we need to have a debate about this.”

“Compassion can be exhibited in a lot of ways, but a nation that has people that are successful can take care of the environment. A nation that is successful can take care of people that have maladies or have problems.”

“The idea that socialism works is absurd, it’s a race to the bottom. If you want to look at examples – people like to look at islands like Madagascar and Easter Island and the Galapagos, and Australia. Look at Taiwan. Look at Cuba. Look at where those countries have come in the last 40 years. Look at a satellite view of North Korea versus South Korea. Look at the lights. Look at the economy. Let’s see what works and what doesn’t work. It’s self evident. […] Free enterprise is the tide that lifts all boats.” http://theresurgent.com/trip-pittman-on-philosophy-and-running-for-the-us-senate-liberty-requires-responsibility/