And, EPU, I know you already know everything that follows. Just laying it out for the new people here at Redstate.

I blame the conservatives in their respective districts who are too damn lazy to get involved as precinct committeemen. Until sufficient numbers of conservatives in their districts actually get into the Party and change it at the grass roots level as precinct committeemen, these two have no reason to change.

As long as Boehner Cantor have no fear that the status quo is changing in their respective districts, they have no incentive to stiffen their spines and “act really conservative.”

I suspect there’s been no significant increase in the PC ranks in their respective districts since the 2008 election. With no significant increase in the number of conservatives, they know that they’ll never be challenged by a “more conservative” conservative in the primary. Besides, their primaries have already happened and I suspect there was no threat of a “more conservative” challenger to either of them. So, why call attention to themselves? Keith Overbite and Chrissie Matthews might call them a bad name!

Until the grass roots ranks of the Party become “more conservative;” that is, until conservatives flock into the Party, and fill up that HALF of the party precinct committeeman slots nationwide that are currently VACANT, you can expect the same jelly-spined “leadership” in the Party.

I wrote about this earlier tonight here as well.

I blame all the conservatives in their districts who have not become active, voting members of the Party. If we conservatives don’t learn, and engage in, basic civics, NOW, I believe we will lose this country after Nov. 2. We need to make Get Out The Vote, as never before, for the best conservatives in the Republican primaries, and all Republicans in the general elections, our highest priorities now, and the BEST way to do that, in my humble opinion, is in conjunction with the Republican Party, boots on the ground, in our own local precincts. All the while “learning the ropes” of your local GOP committee (the bylaws, rules, getting to know the existing leaders/officers) so that you’re not a PC yet, you can figure out how to become one. (Voter turnout in the 2008 presidential election was about 65 per cent. It was around 22 per cent in the first special election in NY (the one for Gillibrand’s seat) for Republicans and I seem to recall reading that it was only 25 per cent in the recent Nevada primary. That’s just pathetic.)

Because HALF the PC slots are vacant nationwide, the Party is there for the taking. We have sufficient numbers of conservatives nationwide, we just don’t have enough of them actually involved in the real ball game of politics — party politics.

For Liberty,
ColdWarrior, PC (that’s “precinct committeeman,” not “political child!”)
Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (137 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

Honestly, what Barton said was indefensible. However Bart Stupak has unmasked the escrow account as a slash fund for entitlements (Via Ace Of Spades):

Stupak: “Legitimate” For BP Escrow Account To Fund Health Care

That Escrow Fund is there to pay damages cased by the oil damnage, it is not an entitlement.

What Barton said is right (except most of us would not go so far as to *apoliogize* to BP). His defense is BEING RIGHT.

Oh, and Stupak, the life-traitor, can go DIAFF. Funny that after he’s done his damage, he’s crying foul over the administration’s shady business.

through the back door and tell us just what his plan is, if what Barton said was so wrong. Actually, “slush fund” was more damning that “shakedown” and I’m not sure he backed off of that accusation. A lot of GOP members want his head so I’m not sure whp’s doing what right now.

This is just not a good time for the right-leaning GOP in the House to make war on itself, or its most fervent conservative backers out here. I think Boehner should see the necessity AND DUTY to fix this quietly by making sure people like EE (and thru him, us) are in on the game plan. This is not the time for a bloodletting.

\Me? I liked what Barton said, because 1) it’s out there, and will be the talk of the town for awhile, even if he does lose his job 2) it was true.

I also don’t like Cantor, but we gotta play with the cards we’re dealt

without apologizing. He should have exposed the shakedown/slush fund without the apology to BP. Obama is already twisting it and using it for fundraising.

Barton had it pegged.

He maybe should have prefaced it somehow in that BP is rightfully on the hook for damages, but that is no excuse for the Obama administration to unlawfully “demand” anything. Interesting that Obama’s demand was something BP said they were going to do several weeks ago.

That’d be like me demanding you post at Redstate, wouldn’t it?

Barton had it pegged.

He maybe should have prefaced it somehow in that BP is rightfully on the hook for damages, but that is no excuse for the Obama administration to unlawfully “demand” anything. Interesting that Obama’s demand was something BP said they were going to do several weeks ago.

That’d be like me demanding you post at Redstate, wouldn’t it?

I winced. Not because it wasn’t true, but because it is perfect to twist to suit the Dems’ purposes. And they did. But our guys should have come back with something along the lines of:

“We agree with Rep. Joe Barton’s characterization of the $20 billion fund as both a shakedown AND a slush fund. Let us be clear on one point, however, and that is that BP deserves no apology from United States citizens. If any apology is owing to this business entity, it is solely owed from the Obama Administration who solicited this fund in the first place. For our part, we demand to know who will be administering this fund and under what regulations the money will be apportioned. We also demand in the name of the American people to see full and transparent accounting of where the money goes.

Recent history with this administration has taught all of us that regardless of what they promise, any money they come in possession of is seldom used for the purpose for which it was set aside.”

that Barton should not have apologized to BP. He was apologizing on behalf of his country. This is not how the United States is supposed to operate under the Constitution! BP was the one being shaken down. To whom should he have apologized – a company not being shaken down? He was quite clear that he felt BP was responsible for damages. BP was planning to pay for damages. I think I would have done the same thing. I have never seen an administration go after its citizenry, states, and companies like this one. It is appalling and scares the daylights out of me.

I’m very disappointed in Barton – he set his conservative principles aside in order to secure a seat on a committee. I’m not surprised at Boehner – to me, he is a career politician and has shown zero leadership except when safe, and how dare he engage in the very thug tactics that the Obama administration is engaging in! I used to like Cantor, but it seems Washington, D.C. has gotten into his veins, and he has lost his true conservative roots.

I understand the argument that we should not have any in-fighting. That is a valid argument. But when we conservatives are fighting for the future of this country, we have to call out our own. Not doing so is what got us into this place.

you kinda have to call for Pence to resign. And I don’t want any part of anything that trends in that direction. Circular firing squads are for Democrats.

I’m interested in someone linking me to how Pence has his fingerprints on the misdeed. I don’t doubt your veracity, I just want to weigh his wording.

I agree completely it was wrong of the leadership to do what they did. Having said that, we aren’t going to get our way 100% of the time. It doesn’t make sense to nuke the Republican leadership over their pressure to walkback a comment during a sensitive time when Obama is destroying his party’s chances of retaining the Senate (the House is long since gone no matter what) with his handling of the oil spell quite effectively without our help, thank you.

Thus I would modify this to demanding that the current crew resign from their posts and allow DeMint and other fighters to take charge. Boehner, Cantor, and crew are more than welcome to man the back benches so long as they will follow the new leaders.

Unfortunately, I’d rate the chances of this happening voluntarily somewhere in the range of that proverbial NYC snowstorm in July.

for saying Minority Speaker instead of Minority Leader. When one has the Speaker of the House in the forefront of one’s brain, that tends to interfere with the fingers that do the typing.

.

They need to have some light shone into their dim little life spaces.

The danger posed by the oil disaster is minor compared to the danger posed by the unconstitutional measures being taken by Obama using whatever happens as an excuse.

The oil will dissipate. The water will clear. But if we will abdicate our defense of the rule of law because we’re mad at a company, it doesn’t even matter that the company was acting at our behest in the first place. There are legal ways to hold a miscreant responsible, but they don’t include standing in front of them, brandishing a billy club and saying, “You vill giff us money. You vill do vat ve say, und you vill not complain. Ve haf vays uff making you agree mit us.”

My gosh, folks, you lefties who might read this have been blowing your tops because people already being questioned by the police are asked to show identification as part of the process. This is a case of a company which is under threat of criminal investigation being told by the Attorney General and his boss that they have to turn over $20 billion, even though there is no legal, moral, or ethical right for them to demand it.

In the first case, that is normal minimal procedure under every law in the world. In the second case, that is called extortion or a shakedown, and it should severely compromise any criminal or even civil case the government might try to bring at a later date.

Further, the idea that it’s being administered by an “impartial third party” is ridiculous on the face of it. Ken Feinberg works for the President as a “czar.” Why hasn’t anybody except Rush Limbaugh noticed that? Obama now has a $20 billion fund to “distribute” as he sees fit. If a dollar goes to pay health insurance for somebody that Obama’s policies (shut down the Gulf) have caused to lose his job, it’s a dollar that can’t go to somebody who really was damaged by the oil. This IS a slush fund.

Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES. GET ON THE BALL. At least, FIGURE OUT WHAT A BALL LOOKS LIKE! You’re a bunch of friggin’ idiots.

I’m new to politics but I’m doing the best I can to figure it all out. Everything you said here seems to be right on the money. Some of these so called conservatives need to grow a spine.

Handprop

Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell might not light the base on fire, but I’ve been pleased with how good they’ve been at keeping the party from straying.

No Republican votes on Porkulus.
No Public Option and great delay on Obamacare which destroyed Obama’s credibility.
McConell has kept Cap and Tax from the floor.

These guys are in a small minority against thugs with no respect for the rule of law, and they’ve stymied Obama and the Democrats more often than not.

They don’t need to resign. President Obama should resign.

As for Joe Barton. I don’t think it is virtuous to denounce, if that condemnation enables the very crooks you are denouncing.

Joe Barton can both be right on substance and wrong in his timing.There is a time and a place for everything. Make no mistake. Going to the public right now and expressing sympathy for BP in any way is a disaster politically.

We are in an election year with higher stakes than we’ve had since 2000 when we kept Gore from turning the country into a socialist slide show for Global Warming. This election is more important than in 1994 when we killed Clinton’s legacy.

And Joe Barton was unwise in his choice of words and his timing for saying them. This was not the time and not the place. Boehner and Cantor can’t have the luxury of speaking unwisely or backing the play of an obvious gaffe.

If we want Republican majorities in Congress to stop this thuggery we have to play the game as it is right now. When we win we can change the game, but Joe Barton has done a fantastic job in handing Democrats a political talking point to slam us with.

For that, I think Joe Barton is the problem. For ignoring the larger stakes of this election for an unwise statement that helped our enemies and hurt us. Barton is the problem because he made a statement that not only helped our enemies and hurt us, but his statement had no political upside which basically meant he hurt us, helped them, and did nothing positive in the mean time.

This is the time to be wise. We need to draw an inside straight and keep all the attention on this awful administration. Not having loose-lipped congressmen grabbing headlines and doing the party no good.

O’Reilly insists on pronouncing the word “di-vi-siv” rather than the correct “di-vice-ive.” Hannity says he will be on “tore” this summer instead of on “ture.”

Tonight’s Hannity report on British soldiers returning from the war to Islamic protesters’ violence. One guest asks, “When did the British Army run out of bullets?” Then Hannity, “Does this happen in America?”

Yes, Sean, it does. Every day at the border, which we don’t defend with arms, only with water stations.

More big-picture seriously, O’Reilly, earlier:

Talking Points (O’Reilly) believes that President Obama should be applauded for getting BP to pony up $20 billion dollars, in fact, that is the best thing the President has done in the whole mess. A voluntary action on that scale by BP only helps the suffering people on the Gulf coast. And that’s the bottom line.

Bill, that’s far from the bottom line.

Later, interviewing Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN, R), his comment on her previously recorded statement that “it’s all about extortion” was

Whoa! I mean (heh heh) extortion, shakedown, look: If the executive branch, the Presidency, isn’t going to force BP to pony up the money, who will, who would?

She got tied up in a “who will run the fund answer,” forgetting her principled objection to the shakedown.

O’Reilly: I think Obama did absolutely the right thing by putting the maximum amount of pressure on these weasels–And you saw this Hayward yesterday, is this the biggest weasel in the world, this guy, is there a bigger weasel on the planet than him?… I’d go in there with a machine gun if I were President…. I’m OK with it.

Of course, we know who the biggest weasel on the planet is, and he was in that room yesterday, but without a British accent. He was articulate and he was clean. But I digress. When Bachmann pointed out that there was no investigation yet as to the government’s involvement in the accident, Bill essentially blew her off.

O: Do you think Obama “shook down” BP?

B: I think they put pressure on when, remember, he previously said that he wanted a criminal investigation, so the people that were around that table were thinking that they might end up in the slammer.

O: …Is that wrong to put that kind of pressure on them? I think you’d do it. Wouldn’t you do it?

B: You think about it…. Here you have the President of the United States threatening criminal action, they could end up in the slammer, so are they going to take money from the shareholders, to give to the President, maybe to keep themselves out of jail?

O: I hope so

B: I’m just asking. I’m just asking.

O: But I’m OK with it. Are you OK with it? I’m OK with it.

[snip]

O: I don’t mind Obama looking at these guys saying, “You better do the right thing, or we’re coming after you with everything we have.” I want him to do that!

[snip]

B: …The point is, is he putting pressure on with the threat of a criminal trial, which is the force of government, so that they’ll give him money?

O: I hope so!

B: That’s crossing lines that we have to be very careful about.

If it happened as these two geniuses described, O’Reilly is OK with Obama encouraging Hayworth to abandon his fiduciary duty to his shareholders to keep his own butt out of jail. It’s natural for Hayworth to do it, but it could make Obama an accessory to a financial crime, definitely more criminal than anything Scooter Libby did.

And now Geraldo will be on this weekend, examining Joe Barton’s shocking apology!

Is there no place to get the news without listening to morons as part of the deal?

In between the continuum, is what is considered hardball.

When the phrase shakedown is used, it typically refers to organized crime threatening to do something ILLEGAL, like break your legs, hurt your family etc.

When the phrase leverage is used, it typically refers to non-controversial situations like, I am your lendor, the contract says that if you miss a payment, X happens, etc.

Hardball is something in between. If Obama threatened BP with bogus criminal action, then I agree its a shakedown. However, for all we know, it was BP’s idea in the first place. BP was taking heat for making slow comp payments, and this way, that stuff is off their plate.

Would it make sense for BP to want to focus on the cleanup and not on administering the payment of claims? Yes it does. Moreover, by specifically spreading out the escrow payments, it buys BP time in which things can cool off, particularly from a legal perspective.

BP has neither accused the WH of a shakedown or volunteered that the $20B was BP’s idea. This might be implicit evidence in support of a shakedown, but it is hardly conclusive.

Joe Barton was 100% correct in his comments. Yet he should not have made them at that hearing. The place for it is in a long thoughtful analysis of the whole issue. Like it or not. we have become a nation of soundbites. Both sides are constantly damaged by minor gaffes or careless wording. Look at how Rand Paul let himself get trapped by that lefty babe on msnbc into a soundbite that sounded like he wanted segregation. Words count.

As far as Boehner and Cantor go, they have held the GOP together on some pretty tough votes. They are entitled to some party discipline.Apparently at RedState, there is zero tolerance for leaders who fail to meet the standards of perfection that have been established , even on the smallest issue.

Cantor is right on economic and fiscal issues, right on defense and foreign policy, right on social issues. I’d be thrilled to see a person with his views in the White House—even if I sometimes disagreed with him.

I have quickly skimmed through the above comments, and can agree with several writers that one reason for Boehner’s and Cantor’s actions was that it makes a Republican look like he is defending a “big foreign oil company.”

It therefore opens up the party to the usual “defending BIG BUSINESS” class-warfare attacks from the Dems.

The other reason, the elephant in the room, is the charge of racism: was Barton hinting that an angry Afro-American was “shaking down” The Man?

We live in unsubtle times: the legality vs. the appropriateness of such presidential pressure can be debated only with a proper amount of consideration, which too many people cannot handle because they are either ignorant or unthoughtful to begin with, or because they are unwilling to spend the time on such a debate.

This is where the R’s missed the boat/barges entirely. They should have demanded that the money should be directly administered by the affected states. Yeah, I know the answer. The D’s would never give Rep. Gov. the chance to look good or give up the chance to steal 20B $.

First, nothing in Barton’s statement defended a “big oil company”. He said they were in the wrong. Of course the Democrats would distort and lie about what he said. They always distort and lie. It was the apology that made it a big deal. Republicans should never apologize to Democrats. It means you agree with their position. Democrats know this. When is the last time we got an apology from a Democrat? Remember we’re talking about a criminal organization that regularly lies, reneges on legislative deals, issues “false flag” flyers in elections, registers non-existent and dead voters, destroys ballots, won’t let voters be identified, counts more votes than people registered, uses corrupt courts to steal elections and openly gives taxpayer money to their political supporters.

Now GC, you don’t mind BP being “shaken down” given “all the facts and circumstances”. The facts are that after an accident that killed 11 men, BP has accepted full financial responsibility and, not once, refused any request from the government. 23,000 out of 51,000 claims (to date) have been settled. This has been done at a cost of about $60 million. An appeals process is setup for any unsatisfied claimant. What would you have the executives do? Kill themselves? You think they weren’t coerced? The AG had already threatened criminal prosecution. They went into a room with Obama and the AG and came out agreeing to halt all dividend payments, an act that will harm literally millions of people. $20 billion is an amount equal to their net over the last year and a half. But it’s only a down payment. They agreed to an open-ended commitment. They have no control over the legitimacy of any payouts, including for losses due to Obama’s political halt to deep-water drilling for which they bear no responsibility. Sure, they did this voluntarily. The money will now be doled out to political cronies as with everything BHO touches.

To use threats to compel someone to do something against their will is a crime whether we like the victim or not. Government officials must be held to a higher standard not a lower. Giving them a pass on criminal transgressions is a sure route to tyranny. Very fuzzy thinking this morning GC. Maybe more coffee.

Fox News operation has the same sort of reporters as everyone else. It’s only slightly less biased. The big difference with the others is a reporter isn’t fired for letting a conservative bias show as well as liberal bias. Bill O’s father was a petroleum jobber. Being at the mercy of his suppliers, he naturally had a low opinion of oil companies. BO inherited this disdain. He’s completely irrational on the subject of oil.

of the bank executives, the auto people, the hospitals and now the oil companies, it appears they already have the fear of God. When Paulson first threatened the banks, it is incredible that not one stood up and announced he was going outside to call a news conference to repeat what he’d just heard. What kind of creatures are these to fold so readily to thuggish behavior?

I am NOT in agreement that Barton picked the right time to talk about the shakedown. I also think this was a shakedown, and that in itself does not bother me. I wish that the shakedown deal had been set up for a private third party entity set up by the Governors of the gulf states to administer the escrow account instead of the White House. Shakedown deals are simply a political reality. What is really bad is that Obama and his minions don’t have the stones to shakedown North Korea and Iran. The rest of the world sees this of course.

---

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Jaw-boning.

Arm-twisting.

Knee-capping.

Those of you calling for a more “conservative” candidate to replace Boehner please consider the following.

Ohio existed under the senatorial liberal weight of Glenn and Metzenbaum (G&M) for decades. We finally, voted in DeWine and Voinovich. Both drifted to the middle once hitting D.C. but they were and are a vast improvement over G&M. Unfortunately DeWine lost his seat. V is retiring.

At the state level, the governor’s mansion has traded hands back and forth between centrist Rs and liberal Ls. Voinovich finally established a foothold in Columbus. Sadly, he was replaced by Robert Taft, a corrupt, moderate R. Taft’s corruption undermined the entire party. We lost all the state level offices (governor, treasurer, secretary, etc…).

We also lost quality conservatives in the U.S. House. 2006 to 2008 was a tough stretch for Republicans in Ohio.

Fast forward to 2010.

The state offices are up for election. Voinovich’s U.S. Senate seat is up for election. Many quality conservatives are attempting to reclaim their house seats and could use your help!

http://www.stevechabot.com

So is this the time for Boehner resign? Snicker, chuckle, guffaw, belly laugh. Get a clue. The answer is NO.

We need to maintain what we, while recouping our losses. The Ohio Republican Party is NOT in a position to toss aside incumbents, over a silly spat in D.C.

Let’s focus on kicking the libs out of office (like Steve Driehaus) by supporting quality conservatives, like Steve Chabot.

http://www.stevechabot.com

Unfortunately, too many Republicans fail to “walk the walk” but persist in “talking the talk”. While I observe it in our esteemed politicians, it has been commonplace in the “politically correct” world of policing for many years dating back to the 70′s and since. Maybe that’s when it started in politics but I fear its’ seed was sown long before the 70′s.

As a strongly conservative Republican living in the South (Florida) it’s time that is not held against me. My message to the “good old boys” of this party is your time came and it has now gone. You all didn’t do what you were supposed to do after 1988 and look how great things are now. That is why I heeded the call and became involved in my country’s living document, the Constitution which is being twisted and distorted by the “good old politicians” of both parties.

I am terribly tired of the rhetoric, yes rhetoric of the Cantors and Boehners and the pretentiousness of their reported “leadership”. Where I come from , leaders are those who “walk the walk” to justify their “talking the talk”.

Boehner, Cantor, and the NRCC, you are .losing many of us by just “talking the talk” and then “jaywalking”.

EPU —

Barton did something stupid and it may be the one thing that will get some traction for the Democrats. I have seen a ton of articles that say GOP supports BP against Obama quoting this incident.

Barton should have to pay a price for it. This isn’t a court of law, it’s politics … when you do and say stupid things that can be used against you and your party, there is a price to pay.

There may be other reasons that we should have new leadership in the house, but this doesn’t seem to rise to that issue.

So in summary the answer to your “Well I don’t know why” would be: for giving the Democrats a sound bite that resonates with people when we’re in the middle of being on a roll.

I’m right with you on the Boehner and Cantor thing. I hate a spineless Republican almost as much as a communist Democrat. Some of the Republicans have definitely got their heads up their you-know-what’s.

And I think we all agree that the BP thing was a shakedown. I think where Barton went wrong was in apologizing to BP. He should have skipped that part and apologized to Americans for such a corrupt Congress and prez administration…and the farce of a show trial that was going on.

And to Cold Warrior…As far as the whole precinct committeeman thing goes, on what basis do you say that we’re lazy not out here taking our party back? I am a GRAPHIC DESIGNER, for God’s sake, and I’m running to be a delegate in my district. There are four openings and six of us are running. I’ve been to several candidate forums and the delegate candidates from all the districts are drilling them on what they stand for. I am not going to blankly endorse the people my county office likes. I will endorse who I believe in. I will tell people in my district the truth and relay the information that I discover about the candidates. I have sent out postcards at my own expense and started a FB page. I have already begun doing the job I’m not even elected to do yet – informing people in my district about their candidates. I will call or personally go door-to-door to meet the rest of the people who weren’t contacted by postcard (the older Republicans). I will make my own homemade signs, once again at my own expense. And I only make about $14.50 an hour so don’t think I’m made of money to be doing this. I also volunteered several years ago to do the web design for the local county office (for free) because theirs sucked at the time. Don’t tell ME we’re not doing anything out here. The current Republican party is a joke, but there are many of in the trenches willing to do what we can to change it. My motto is PUT UP OR SHUT UP. Action, not just words.

I must be a masochist, EPU. I’m watching O’Reilly, which is bad enough. But now Newt Gingrich is on saying that Joe Barton made a mistake. One more reason to say to the Newtster, “Your day in the sun is over. Stop talking and slither away.”

It is unfortunate that Gingrich is invited to speak anywhere. Again he makes a bad situation worse and creates a halo for himself. The main reason this is being spoken of is because so-called republican leaders attacked Mr. Barton and Mr.Barton gave an intense apology. Obstacles to right of center people now are immense. Gingrich does nothing but kick us back down the hill every chance he gets. I heard Rush today too. Gingrich is a different story. He stands with Beltway elites, not the people.

Some gulf-state R’s (LeMieux and Cao) were actually pushing the idea with BP before Obama ever thought of it. Of course, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a shakedown, but it does mean that folks were thinking it made sense from an efficiency/PR perspective, and that the idea was not per se an Obama grab (i.e. that there were good faith reasons to support it)

That makes the entire PR fiasco of Barton’s statement and subsequent reprimand by the leadership even more sad.

Obviously BP and Obama have combined to do an incredibly horrible job. The Democrats environmental agenda is to tax and regulate, but you can’t tax or regulate an oil spill, so they’re simply clueless. BP of course caused this mess in the first place, likely because they didn’t want to spend the money necessary for proper safety measures. I don’t see a logical reason for saying anything positive about either group.

If we’re going to talk about Boehner and the need for better leadership, I’m totally for that, I’ve been for that for a MIGHTY long time, this is a guy who supported the Bush bailout and then opposed the Obama bailout. It was nice that he opposed the second one, but after having supported the first one he just looked totally like a hypocrite, which of course he was. We don’t need leaders who support things and oppose things based on the party of the guy proposing them, instead of on the merits of the ideas themselves. We need principled leadership, Conservative leadership, real leadership who will stand for what is right and oppose what is wrong, and not care one bit who proposed it in the first place.

I would love to see somebody like a Bachman or a Scott (should he win the runoff in SC tomorrow) be made the new GOP Leader (and likely House Speaker, since the GOP will probably control the House next year), somebody who is a true blue Conservative, you know where they stand and they don’t back down, and they don’t care about party, they care about right and wrong. Thats the type of person we need in there, not a career politician who has proven himself to be a ‘party first, Country second’ kind of guy. We need someone we can point to with pride, and say ‘this is our leader, this is why I’m proud to be a Republican and this is why you should be a Republican too’. Our current crop of leadership is, sadly, the complete opposite of that. So I agree with the Diarist, we need new and improved leadership, and hopefully after the midterms we will get it.