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The New RINO Central Online: “Republicans United”

By: Martin Knight (Diary)  |  November 30th, 2009 at 06:59 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Anyone here remember GOPProgress? Supposedly the “moderate” and “progressive” Republicans’ answer to RedState, it’s proprietress was Liz Mair, formerly the Republican National Committee’s Online Communications Director and now one of the contributors at the sarahphobic FrumForum.

I believe she was the only person on RedState who was excited about Lincoln Chafee, who according to her and the folks who frequented her site was the sort of “… mild-mannered, independent-minded, and definitively centrist” politician Republicans would do well to have more of.

Apart from boosting politicians like Chafee and the other members of the Republican Main Street Partnership such as Arlen Specter, Nancy Johnson, Jim Leach and John McCain, GOPProgress’s bandwidth was mostly expended on launching broadsides against other (conservative) Republicans. The echoing of terms (“Extremist”, “theocrats”, “haters”, “Far Right”, “Fascist”) one would think would only occur to Kossacks in describing conservative Republicans was extremely common.

I had a very memorable back and forth with the folks at GOPProgress where I was known as “Martin the Extremist!” {cue lightning, thunder and maniacal laughter} for this post. It was fun.

Well, GOPProgress went dark some months after that and that special breed of Republicans who despise Republicans lost one of their most high-profile online homes.

Until now, perhaps.

I just discovered (H/T: Erick) “Republicans United” – a website for Republicans who think the Republican Party should become “progressive”, and while at it, boot out the “Far Right” and open the doors to liberals – which sort of belies all the talk of unity. As is to be expected, they strongly supported DeDe Scozzafava and have nothing but contempt for Sarah Palin, Marco Rubio, Jim DeMint and Michelle Bachmann (who they seem to have made a hate-figure), and like GOPProgress before them have bought hook, line and sinker, into the Anthropogenic Global Warming theory.

Against all this, they claim to stand for;

  • More efficient, less intrusive government;
  • Devolution of Federal actions to states and localities;
  • Fiscal policy which encourages the American entrepreneurial spirit;
  • Individual freedom and individual responsibility;
  • A strong military and diplomatic corps dedicated to defending America’s interests;
  • A strong and secure American family; and
  • No matter where they live or were born, all Americans have the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their children.

… while supporting candidates who say things like this;

I am a Keynesian. I believe in government spending us out of a crises.

Anyway, for those of us who might be curious about the thought processes of those Republicans who pine for the days of Bob Michel and believe that the GOP was doing well until Reagan came along and ruined everything – and it would appear, seem to know everything they know about Conservative Republicans from the New York Times’ editorial page – it might be worthwhile to take a look.

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COMMENTS

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  • Scope

    These are exactly the same kind of people who keep doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different outcome-Insanity. They would think that McCain lost because he wasn’t moderate enough. Apparently they listen to the population as much as Pelosi and Obama do. They need to change their name to Republicans United to lose more elections.

    • farstar99

      Just like the third party sites out there.

      “Tired of the blame game in Washington, ladies? Then throw your vote away and send a message to those entrenched, right-wing bureaucrats!”

      • Section9

        …were funded by a left wing gay Democratic activist?

        I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this wasn’t more of that Ripon Society kind of crapola: divide and rule stuff from Axelrod Central.

        • farstar99

          The Democrats have all sorts of “false flag” operations.

          Like the vandalism in Colorado last year.

          They know the press won’t catch them, and if they’re caught, the press will cover it up.

          So the RNC just rolls over and takes it.

          • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

            Is that about the extent of it?

    • Flagstaff

      folks that this is not a true Republican site, but a stealth Progressive site in Republican clothing. It is a fraud, to put it bluntly. What is its point? To make us waste time?

  • Scope

    These are exactly the same kind of people who keep doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different outcome-Insanity. They would think that McCain lost because he wasn’t moderate enough. Apparently they listen to the population as much as Pelosi and Obama do. They need to change their name to Republicans United to lose more elections.

  • http://jessehathaway.blogspot.com athensrunaway

    “Republicans United… With Obama”

    I guess they are the leftovers from all those “Obamapublicans” we heard about last year.

  • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

    supporting the Obmacare bill they cite Politifact as “Laudably Non-Partisan”. Politifact is owned by the St. Pete Times whose goal in life is to channel Anita Dunns favorite philosopher (no, not Mother Teresa).

  • janis

    but I couldn’t bring myself to say something in a civil manner. These are the people who continually sabotage the R party with their habit of looking for “consensus.” The doofus, Dennis Sanders, who wrote the article about our outrage over KSM being tried in civilian criminal courts in NYC, “What are We Afraid Of?”, could not sound more stupid if we had written his article as a parody. He imagines that the whole world will then view radical Islam as the poison it is if we just let good old KSM rant and rave to his heart’s delight on the witness stand? Yeah, there’s a good idea.

    As for the “candidate” from Montana, I had an almost insatiable desire to eat granola and weave my own wool from my organically raised sheep after reading the “interview” with her. I’ll have to trot over to Ace of Spades for a palate cleansing round of profanity from their commenters. Let’s hope this site also manages to wither on the vine very shortly.

    • aesthete

      The lead singer crooning the ridiculously clich?d line, “Both extremes have gone too far” tethered to a tacky piano diddy had me struggling to stifle a laugh in my ECON class.

    • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

      tolerating diversity of opinion. The comments dissaappeared. They are pushing a Diablo running for Congress in MT.

      http://otjenforcongress.com/Issues.html

      I did not think anyone could make Max Baucus look right wing.

    • farstar99

      I’ve tried to tell the RNC repeatedly that the GOP command structure here in Montana has either been completely infiltrated or is dead from the neck up.

      We can’t even get campaign signs for GOP candidates here. It’s like they’ve given up on the state entirely.

      Imagine where the ObamaCare travesty would be now if we had thrown Baucus out on his can when we had the chance and if we still had Conrad Burns in office.

  • Joe_Cor

    “Relentlessly crusading for the prime seats in the back of the bus.”

  • aesthete

    looking at “moderate” Otjen’s site is equal parts hilarious and painful. On education (http://otjenforcongress.com/Issues.html):

    “I am not for performance based pay for teachers… Teachers should not compete against each other but instead continue to appreciate the collegial nature of academia.”

    “And academia is more liberal for a reason. It is the one environment in our society that is supposed to have more liberal or open thought. It is not reality?it is practice?.that is why it is called academic.”

    On Natl. Security:

    “I don?t like death and destruction.” (Uh… duh?)

    (This next one’s painful… ya ready?)

    “We should transform our economy, to one that is no longer based on a the military and dependent on the consumption or demand for weapons and war and death. We should transform our economy to be based on innovation and technology industries that depend on the consumption of green energy, and health, and education.”

    On health care:

    “…the big health care cost is profit.”

    To be fair, she does come across as a nice, though very ditzy, person, and she wasn’t bad on some issues, like guns (though that’s pretty much par for the course in Montana), but she’s such a lightweight and indulges in using so many of the clich?d “moderate” conventions, that I’d almost call it parody.

  • tazzmax

    ColOn Powell and Juan McScamnesty happy.

  • edintexas

    Martin, your youth is showing. The Rockefeller Blue Bloods who ran the party (and would love to have it back again as a sub-set of the Democrat party) lost the party in 1964 when Barry Goldwater put together the coalition of Conservatives and Libertarians which provided for the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan. Reagan almost took the “crown” away from What’s His Name. You know, the memorable centrist Republican from Michigan who Jimmy Carter, the unknown Governor of GA and alleged peanut farmer (well, he was in the business end of peanut farming), beat in 1976. Oh yeah, President Gerald Ford. Nice guy who proved the validity of the old saw about nice guys and finishing.

    The Demcrats managed to paint Goldwater as a danger to society, but failed when they tried that with Reagan. Thank God.

  • Scope

    He was being sarcastic in his last paragraph. He was saying the old RINO Republicans, who wanted to move the party more to the center thought that Reagan ruined the party. Martin is not saying that he believes that.

    Reply to this is not working.

    • edintexas

      You misunderstood me. I was not saying Martin believes Reagan ruined the party. In fact I’m sure he doesn’t believe that at all. I was just saying that his historical time frame was a little off. The Northeastern Republicans, typified by Nelson Rockefeller and usually called the Rockefeller wing of the party (at least by those of us old enough to remember when Nelson Rockefeller was a serious contender for the Republican Presidential nomination), and are now often called RINOs, and also Blue Bloods, Country Club, etc.) lost the party 16 years before Reagan won the nomination. Since the 1964 party convention, and until 2008, no Republican has been able to run for the Presidential nomination by boasting about his liberal record. And McCain wasn’t truly Liberal, he was just confused and blinded by the need to be liked by the MSM. I’m sure he’s still somewhat confused, but no longer blinded about the possibility of the MSM liking him.

  • Scope

    He was being sarcastic in his last paragraph. He was saying the old RINO Republicans, who wanted to move the party more to the center thought that Reagan ruined the party. Martin is not saying that he believes that.

    Reply to this is not working.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    She keeps crashing, keeps burning, yet always reappears. THere was GOPProgress, the congressional misadventure in NC, and now this laughable enterprise. Yeesh.

    • Section9

      Any questions?

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Just a word to the wise.

    The solutions to our party’s ills, in my humble opinion, are not going to come from the existing RNC. Or the Republican Party congresscritter incumbents.

    Rather, the real, conservative solutions will come, only, if they DO come, from we the conservative people who get involved in party politics and INVADE and TAKE BACK the Republican Party leadership by becoming precinct committeeman at the grass roots, precinct level. If you who are reading this do not get involved in party politics as voting members of the Republican Party, if you country and civilization are not worth a few hours a month devoted to actual involvement in GOP meetings, then welcome to the next Dark Ages. I am not trying to be overly dramatic. Look at the empty suit in the White House and those who write his speeches. He gave a surrender speech tonight at my alma mater because they told him to.

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior
    www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

    • Section9

      “Arise and be ye men of valor…”

    • nessa

      ?Private and public life are subject to the same rules– truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better then policy or tact or expediency or other words that were devised to conceal a deviation from a straight line.?
      General Robert E. Lee

      Obama may have spoke from there but you know as well as I, the cadets in those seats noted the lack of both truth and manliness.

  • Flagstaff

    (at least Richie claims to believe) that a tenet of Republicanism is

    A belief that the Constitution is a living, breathing document with timeless values that must be made relevant in a modern age

    There is nothing Republican about that.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Either these people are relevant, or they’re not.

    If they are not relevant, every drop of energy that has been spent on this topic is a drop of energy not spent on something useful, like hammering a Democrat poaching one of our seats.

    If they are relevant, they will not become less relevant through the mechanism of making rude comments about them in Republican weblogs. You want to be helpful? Do this.

    :Moderator hat back on.:

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      The left wing of our party isn’t going to stop showing up. It’s up to us to start.

  • republicansunited

    Hi there, fellow Republicans.

    I’m Travis Johnson, the founder of Republicans United, and I just thought I’d stop by and clear a few things up:… See More

    (1) I founded this site. There is no “Liz Mair” anywhere to be found within Republicans United. I am not Liz Mair. I’ve never heard of Liz Mair. According to my wife, I’m even a man. So, hopefully that puts that to rest.

    (2) Ripon Society funding, It took a while for me to not laugh at that. We have no funding from anyone except the people who pay me for my day job. In fact, I do a quarterly fundraising call and the most I’ve gotten out of it is a few new writers (who are very valuable, nonetheless).

    (3) We want the party to become more progressive.Not entirely true. The Republican Party is and should remain the Party of the Right in this country. Our only aim is for people to understand the Republican party is a key part of the Two Party system in America. The Democrats are an umbrella organization for the left wing of the American political spectrum, and the Republicans are, ostensibly, the party of the right wing of the political spectrum. The ENTIRE right wing of the political spectrum. Not just the far right conservatives, but the moderates, and even liberals (as you can see from our site there are still some liberal Republicans) as well. We think that in order for the Republican Party to be a majority party in the country (Federal, state AND local offices), we need to be more respectful of those within the party who may not agree with everything we, as individuals stand up for. . We think calls for a purity are really calls for a mulrtiparty system in America, not really an effort to make the Party strong again.

    (4) We only have liberals/moderates on our site. Well, that’s not true. Until a dispute over the purity cause one of our writers to leave, 30% of them were conservative, maybe more conservatiuve than many of you. Heck, on the Republican Purity being circulated, I get an 8 out of 10. And we’re always looking for more conservatives. I WANT the site to be more balanced. If you are interested in blogging, drop me a line via our Facebook goup http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32087079787&ref=ts All we ask is that you follow the “Where We Stand” Guidelines referenced above.

    If you’re interested n making the Party stronger, please come join our effort. If you just want to create a Conservative Boys and Girls Club, then, well, at least thanks for the opportunity to come chat with y’all.

    See ya around! :)