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Queuing up to elect Democrats in November.

By: mbecker908 (Diary)  |  January 12th, 2010 at 10:36 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Starting in Tennessee, from the Nashville Post…

This past Saturday, Donn Janes, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 8th District spoke in Paris, TN, to an estimated 300 Tea Party activists from the West Tennessee area.

“As of today, I am no longer going to run for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican,” Janes announced. “We need to change the way we elect our representatives. We continue to rely on the two-party system to provide us with different choices; but thanks to this corrupt system, there is little difference between the two of them. Both parties voted to increase the size of our government; both parties voted to trade your freedoms for security; and both parties are responsible for our monstrous debt, our failing economy and the exporting of our jobs overseas. I will be running as an independent Tea Party Candidate, a candidate who doesn’t answer to or work for party leadership, but a candidate who will work for the people of West Tennessee.”

This is exactly the crap we’ve been talking about with the so-called Tea Party movement.
Now I’m at least as frustrated with the current crop of “leaders” in the Republican Party as anybody alive. I’ve been howling about the complete lack of leadership and principles since 2005. This, however, is not how the problem gets fixed. This will do nothing but elect Democrats in even bigger numbers.

I think the timing on this particular announcement is interesting, it’s coming from Nashville and as we’ve heard, there is going to be a Tea Party Convention – of sorts – in Nashville. And it appears that Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker. We may get to find out where she stands on third parties and I can’t wait to see what the theme of the convention really is.

COMMENTS

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  • http://stixblog.com Black River Wolf

    is absolutely the wrong way to go. I agree I am frustrated with the so-called leadership in the GOP, but to throw away your vote for a 3rdparty is a fools errand and will only lead to the Left controlling for a long time.

    I agree a lot with these people, but come on 3rd parties are not going to work.

    • bk

      Not that they need much excuse to do it anyway of course.

      • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com Beaglescout

        What kind of shot does Janes have anyway? I’d like to know how serious his candidacy is before I judge whether he should be in the Tea Party instead of a Republican.

        After all, maybe the local Republican Party already selected a Scozzafavabean for the position.

        • http://stixblog.com Black River Wolf

          I just do not see a 3rd party effecting anything. If is is another Scozzzafavabean situation I could see it, lie in NY23 .

    • i8bugs

      Sarah is NOT a fan of 3rd parties. I wasnt sure of this one myself til I watched Glenn Beck today. During his interview with Sarah Palin, she made it very clear that she’s not a huge advocate for 3rd parties. You can probably see the interview on the Fox News web site or maybe utube.

    • msspurlock

      And still working as a Dem block captain.

      It’s a Ross Perot-style kneecapping of the GOP, directed by the DNC.

  • AceInTX
    • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
      • AceInTX

        but they’re still following the same old strategy of running to the right..governing from the center left and they are ignoring small government tea party goers

        • itrytobenice

          The tea party agenda *is* the Republican agenda. 95% of the people at the tea party protests *were* Republicans and we have long been proponents of limited gov’t, low spending/low taxes.

          We just needs some standard bearers in office.

          What’s that? Yes, just like Mark Rubio.

          • AceInTX
          • itrytobenice

            I think you meant Marco (but right on anyway!) 8)

          • AceInTX

            especially when you spell as badly as I do…LOL

          • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com Fred Maidment

    …is to have patience and start at the lowest levels: local elections. Local victory gives support to state-wide offices. Let’s face it, 3rd party governors suck because neither party wants to work with them. Only by having a base of support in the state legislature can a governer effectively govern.

    These state-wide offices give support to congress-critters, who can then caucus together. Congress critters give support to an eventual 3rd party President.

    We’ll never do that in America. We’re too impatient, and we want our 3rd parties to win the Presidency and work its way down. And that dog just won’t hunt.

    Interestingly enough, starting at the local level inside the party does the same thing. Only difference is, with all the embedded support structure, it works a lot faster.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    I can see it here in Colorado. I’m not surprised it’s happening elsewhere. All passion, no street smarts.

  • Jim Tomasik

    Can you guess why he chose THAT location to do what he did?

    Most of the crowd was clapping for him but a few people got REALLY mad.

    • mbecker908

      could you please enlighten us about TN-8.

      What’s the makeup of the district, who are the candidates, what do you think this will do to the race in Nov. Also, is Janes a “L”ibertarian a RonPaulite or just stupid.

      • Jim Tomasik

        First, I’m not here promoting anything or anyone. I’m just answering your question.

        You know how the NRCC likes to find people who can self fund? They jumped in behind a guy named Fincher who Raised 300k in one quarter.

        He is one of there “Young Guns”. What a joke.

        They were SO happy to give him praise and they did not even care where his money was coming from. Then for some reason, Erick endorsed him. I am not saying anything about that… Its Erick’s business what he does on this site. I realize that I am merely a guest. Again, I am answering your question and that fact plays into it.) Erick said Fincher was active in TEA Party stuff and specificly pointed out the Paris TEA Party. That was not the case.

        Janes was attending a lot of TEA Party stuff and bucking against folks like the founder of ACORN and later the FCC thingy in Memphis. Where was Fincher? I had several people contact him to ask questions. He never even returns anyones emails and he has no phone listed. He also has a crap website (crappier than mine even!)and he seems to only finds freindly crowds to attend.

        Mr. Janes has been out there doing the right thing. He was a good little conservative republican. So I said, to him “Hey Man! What’s up with that Fincher dude? I’ve never heard of him and he comes out of nowhere and raises 300k overnight! Something is wrong here.” Janes says, “Look at where the money is coming from. I bet it’s his Farm subsidy buds.”

        So I started digging around. Sure enough, he had hit the nail on the head.

        It looks like nearly 90% of Finchers money came from other wealthy farm families kicking in the max.allowed by law. Those farmers are taking MILLIONS of dollars in farm subsidies. I’ve written a press release that goes through the numbers. Fincher never responded to that either. He could have told me if I was wrong but he didn’t. So now there is no chance of fixing that. The word is out.

        It looks like the Republican Party wants the people of the 8th dist to hire a FOX to come guard the HEN HOUSE.

        So Janes is not feeling very republicanish anymore. Do you blame him?

        Announcing at Paris was a direct result of Erick’s endorsement of Fincher because that was where Erick pointed to Finchers TEA Party activies.

        This farm subsidy thing stinks to high heaven of political corruption.

        Bailing out GM is bad. At least it is supposed to be repaid. We are in to GM for something like 50 billion dollars, right? Farm Subsidies are right at 62 billion dollars EVERY YEAR without a single penny coming back. Fincher running is going to expose a whole lot of people to the hypocracy of Republicans taking contributions from rich farmers on the dole while griping about bailing out the automakers.

        There are two lines of thought. Some of the die hard republicans think we need to come up with excuses for the farmer. Others think that we teaparty folks are getting scammed and our efforts are being used to put the same ole same ole republicans back in power.

        It looks like an all out civil war is brewing in Tennessee.

        If this all does not piss you off, drive over the little hill next to Fincher Farms and take a look at the two mansion to the right of the farm. Then go look up the addresses at the court house, compare the completion dates to the subsidy reports. It looks to me like our tax dollars are bulding mansions and funding campaigns.

        Man, I think I need to take up farming.

        Did I tell you that I was doing this while I was laid off from my job? Gives me time to drive around looking. Steel work has been off to much to work year around. There are no subsidies for steel workers so there is no government covering my paycheck ~ Not that I would want it. I’m back to work now if you are wondering. Still pretty pissed about it though.

        Don’t even get me started on that TEA Party Nation Convention mess.

        Hey Republicans, TEA Party people are REALLY LOOKING now. The Republican party is not going to be able to hide this crap.

        Oh, I almost forgot, one republican tried to defend Fincher in the meeting that night by telling me that “the steel industry gets bailed out too!”.

        • ZootSuit

          Literally just the other night I was talking to a friend about how when Republicans rail and rally against welfare (whose “beneficiaries are perceived to be mostly Minorities) and “big government” and the like while simultaneously dumping billions of dollars into things like farm subsidies (whose whose “beneficiaries are perceived to be mostly White), Republicans look like nothing more than big government, racist hypocrites. Indeed, I have made that argument here on RedState many times.

          Well, I honestly do not believe most Republicans are racist, but outside of that …

          As for the tea party movement fielding its own candidates, I am conflicted.

          One the one hand, it will result in more Democrats being elected.

          But on the other hand, I sometimes wonder if electing more Democrats would not be a net positive in the long run.

          The problem is that most Republicans are simply not conservative. And when I write most Repubicans, I am not just talking about the party leadership. Most Republicans like, no love, to talk a good game about limited government and conservatism but they rarely if ever actually deliver.

          Consider the last several years of Republicans in government. Can anyone here honestly claim that George W. Bush, Tom Delay, and Bill Frist were conservative?

          Indeed, you can honestly make the claim that of the major Republican candidates in 2008, John McCain was the most conservative. And I still do not like John McCain!

          But seriously, Romney had “RomneyCare” and was for auto bailouts before auto bailouts were cool. Mike Huckabee was … well, he was Mike Huckabee. Rudy Guiliani was for Federal Hurricane Insurance for Florida, was saying that stare decisis could mean that Roe v. Wade stands, and was willing to let McCain take the heat for supporting the Surge strategy. Quite frankly, as much as we hate McCain and looking at least one of the above as the “conservative alternative” to him, when you look at it, they were running to the LEFT of John McCain!

          Even Fred Thompson, and I say this as a former FredHead myself, can be questioned. Almost the only notable accomplishment of his while he was in the Senate was co-sponsoring McCain-Feingold.

          And during the entire campaign, I literally heard him questioned about his support and sponsorship of McCain-Feingold once. And his response was, “Well, it had consequencies that I did not expect.”

          Literally four-fifths of the members here on RedState understood the “consequencies” of McCain-Feingold: why couldn’t Fred Thompson, the supposedly “smart conservative” in the race?

          And we conservative, myself included, let him get away with that!

          Indeed, Michael Steele made a good comment recently on Sean Hannity’s show. Steele was saying (in response to a question from Hannity) that he tells Republicans officeholders that now is a good time to distinguish themselves from Democrats cutting back on government but they (the Republican officeholders) tell him (Steele) that they say that if they do it will hurt their re-election chances. That is, if the Republicans don’t supply their districts with “pork,” the Republican politicians fear that their (Republican) constituency will no longer support them.

          And being both honest and cynical, I don’t know if their fear is not unfounded.

          So in the long term, it just might be best if Republicans lose, Democrats win, and Republicans truly start practicing small government, free-market conservatism. The big question is, can the country survive Democratic liberalism?

          My reply is, in the long-term, I honestly don’t think the country could survive Republican liberalism, either.

          • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

            http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/wapoobamabudget1.jpgDeficit

          • ZootSuit

            but they seem to be heading in the same direction.

          • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

            nt

          • Maggie_in_Indiana

            at the 6 rallies and the 3 marches in Washington recently. wait could it be that is what americans are sick of. both parties are at fault and it’s time to clean it up .

            well said.

          • mbecker908

            No sale Zoot.

            Please list the programs that have been legislated by Democrats and eliminated later by Republicans. In point of fact, Democrats pass ‘em and Republicans expand ‘em.

          • ZootSuit

            … Democrats pass ?em and Republicans expand ?em.

            We’re heading down that dangerous pass as long as the “Republicans expand ?em.” THAT is what must stop!

            And yes, I admit to being conflicted. As bad as it is, sometimes I do think we may need a total liberal meltdown under the Democrats before conservatives will start fighting for and governing conservatively instead of simply as “liberal-lite.”

          • mbecker908

            The way to win is to follow ColdWarrior’s example and take the party back at the PC level, not to support a third party. As difficult as taking the party back may prove to be, that’s nothing compared to the obstacles that would have to be overcome to start a “new” party.

            Incidentally, that may be the track that RonPaul is pursuing as well. There’s a great post by “jwebb” somewhere here that I saw this morning about how Ronbots are challenging PC’s in TX. That same diary had a comment to the same effect about the Liberty whoevers (Libertarians going nowhere).

          • ZootSuit

            In fact, please note that I am not saying that conservatives need a third party, whether the Tea Party, Libertarians, or whatever.

            What I am saying is that Republicans losing to the Democrats — and losing because of challenges from the Right — might be the only way that the Republican Party becomes truly conservative again. Because right now, the Republican Party loves to mouth conservative principles but they don’t follow them.

            And I am talking about the “rank-and-file” just as much as the leadership. Truthfully, the “rank-and-file” likes to fool themselves into thinking that their GOP candidates are conservative and then act all surprised when they “lead” like liberals when if you actually look the candidate’s records, they really aren’t that conservative.

            Indeed, at the risk of starting an off-topic war in this thread, consider the example of Sarah Palin. Considering that her only real accomplishments in her two years of governor of Alaska was a windfall profits tax and a more than 30% increase in the size of government, what has she really done that is conservative?

            Yet and still, she is considered the “future of conservatism” by many conservatives.

            And yes, personally, I am following ColdWarrior’s example. But that still does not make me wonder if the Republicans in general don’t need a(nother) good shelacking by the Democrats before we cease to be “liberal-lite.”

          • mbecker908

            And that added comment wasn’t “aimed” at you or anything you said. I just quit typing too soon and needed to add it.

            I agree 100% with everything you’ve noted here.

          • ZootSuit

            Great minds run down the same sewers!

          • ZootSuit
          • mbecker908

            why Janes would bolt the party. I sort of get the impression that it’s a bad case of sour grapes, but I’ll be the first to say that I’m absolutely ignorant about TN-8 and the players.

            On the specifics he cites, I agree on farm subsidies, I would lump the USDA in with the DoE and kill ‘em all.

            With respect to Tea Party “Party”, I am very concerned that they are basically a disorganized rabble who are “ripe for the picking” by an organized group who “sounds good”, like the Campaign for Liberty folks.

            We’ll see.

          • ZootSuit

            I think Donn Janes would do better both for himself and the country if he ran in the Republican primary. If he really is conservative, then if he won in the primary he would have a better chance of being elected and even if he lost in the primary he could still hopefully move the GOP to the Right.

            Now, he just looks like some sort of “radical” on some sort of quixotic quest.

            Furthermore, despite my agreements with the sentiments expressed by the Tea Party movement, I have yet to see any firm evidence that they themselves will not turn out to be more of the “talk Right but govern Left” crowd (both leadership and “rank-and-file) that they protest against.

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

          Wish I could recommend it.

    • aesthete

      What does the Tea Party movement look like in TN, and why is Janes running as a T?

  • Scope

    has done it’s best to infiltrate the Republican party, because up until now, they knew third parties didn’t win. Since right after the 2008 Ron Paul campaign, they did not go away, they have beefed up. There is no question they are a large part of the Tea Parties, which started out as non-partisan. These people do not give up. They think that this year is their year, because so many are angry at both the D’s and the R’s. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised to see Ron Freakin’ Paul run again in 2012 on the Libertarian party ticket, or some other new third party they will name something like the Liberty party.

    http://www.campaignforliberty.com/usa.php

    Check out what they are doing in your state. I thought of ColdWarrior when in their training sessions, they advise their members to become Precinct Chairman. They are in your face obnoxius.

    • Jim Tomasik

      Absolutely nothing.

      • Scope

        and the possibility that some Tea Parties may be moving in that direction.

        Quoted directly from the diary-

        “This is exactly the crap we?ve been talking about with the so-called Tea Party movement.
        Now I?m at least as frustrated with the current crop of ?leaders? in the Republican Party as anybody alive. I?ve been howling about the complete lack of leadership and principles since 2005. This, however, is not how the problem gets fixed. This will do nothing but elect Democrats in even bigger numbers.”

        Also, please check some of the other comments that fear third party movements, that don’t have anything to do with Janes and Fincher.

        • jwebb

          Hey Scope,
          Here in TX CD14 RonPaul!RonPaul!RonPaul’s home district, the CFL people have mobilized like crazy. I’ve been a precinct chair for a bit over a year, been active for 3, and have a list of accomplishments for the local party as long as my arm. Many of the other PCs have been here for years organizing events, raising money and (very important here) running elections. We are a Conservative lot, but as I’m learning from my CFL contacts, we are actually evil neocons who hate the Constitution.

          Anyway, on the last executive meeting before the filing deadline, all the Ronulan CFLers showed up en mass to file for virtually every single precinct chair. About 80% of us now have opponents, must camaign for ur seats, and most importantly, are barred from working the polls in our precinct.
          Oh, and be 100% certain. Ron Paul will bolt the GOP to run for President in 2012.

          Let’s help give him the free time early… please support Tim Graney in TX CD14 to primary out Dr. No.

    • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

      they formed the Tea Party as an official party in florida nd are now threatening people in Florida who founded the originbal Tea Paty groups with lawsuits. I can only imageine they hope to sufficiently weaken the RPOF to take it over or creat a new third party under that moniker for Ron Paul (he who lives with L. Ron Hubbard on that yacht).

      They have been so disruptive to the GOP in Florida that a few of the RLC members have been officially sanctioned in Florida and suspende from participating in the GOP. These are the same ones involed in the “Tea Party” here in Florida.

      The RLC in Florida has gone so far afield tha they have decided to develop their own “pledge of Allegiance” they recite at their meetings, they no longer say the Pledge to the Flag.

      There are many in the RLC and Tea Party that I agree with. I have supported reaching ou tot them, we need to build bridges. However, to the disruptive, who sign oathsand then violate them and attemp to disrupt the smooth flow of operation sin the REC’s in a matter not befitting decorum and comity, stay in your sandbox over at the RLC.

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

    Many in the Tea Party movement see no real difference between the two major parties. And it’s the fault of conservatives who have stayed out of local politics within the Republican Party. The precinct committeemen elect the county leadership and electors for the state convention, who elect the state officers and the delegates to the RNC, who elect . . . “conservatives” like Michael Steele.

    The conservative precinct committeemen, in sufficient numbers, can be (if they do a little bit of get-out-the-vote work) instrumental in helping make sure conservative candidates win the the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections, rather than the RINO candidates.

    With half the precinct committeemen slots in our Party unfilled on Election Day, 2008, and those slots split ideologically about 50-50 between conservatives and moderates, no wonder a lot of RINOs end up on the general election ballot and in the leadership positions. In Maricopa County, AZ, we still have over half of our PC slots unfilled. There’s 694,000 registered Republicans in the county but only about 3,000 of them are engaged in party politics as precinct committeemen. I KNOW that out of the remaining 691,000 registered Republicans there’s at least 3,500 conservatives with enough time on their hands to spend an hour or two a month going to a monthly GOP meeting. But. They. Stay. Home.

    We are reaping the harvest of our non-participation in the nuts and bolts of local party politics. I’m guilty as charged — I did not become a PC until 2008.

    A couple of Tea Party activists named Carla Howell and Michael Cloud are embarking on a campaign to get all the Massachusetts Tea Partiers to vote for the “pristine” spoiler Kennedy. Following is an excerpt from a letter they have, allegedly, been sending out by e-mail to the leaders of the various Mass. Tea Party and other grass roots groups:

    >>>

    WARNING to Tea Party Activists and Supporters, Town Hall Meeting Protesters, and Tax Cutters living in Massachusetts who are even considering voting for Scott Brown for US Senate January 19th:

    Career politician Scott Brown is an 11-year Big Government Republican state legislator who regularly and repeatedly voted FOR bigger state government budgets, voted FOR expanded and new Big Government programs, voted FOR tax increases, and voted AGAINST tax cuts.

    Before you freak out, we do NOT want you to stay home – or vote for Martha Coakley. You have a far better choice – a choice that gives your vote 100 times its normal impact. What’s more, if you choose this option, you will dramatically strengthen the Tea Party Movement – and radically increase the number of TRUE tax cut and spending cut candidates on the ballot this November.

    We’ll go into Big Government legislator Scott Brown’s sorry record of the last 11 years, and offer you a powerful way to make the political establishment listen to the Tea Party movement, but first:

    Who are we? What have we done to earn your attention? Why should you take us seriously?

    We’re Carla Howell and Michael Cloud, Tea Party activists and the 2 most prominent Tax Cut activists in Massachusetts for the last 10 years. We co-sponsored and ran Ballot Question 1 to END the state income tax in 2002 and 2008. We are running this year’s Ballot Initiative to Roll Back the Sales Tax from 6.25% to 3%.

    [snip]

    Right now, the mainstream Republican Party loyalists are desperately trying to find even tiny differences between career Republican politician Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley.

    The “Republican Party Right-or-Wrong” Partisans are trying to scare and stampede you and us – Tea Party activists, Town Hall Meeting protesters, and tax cutters -into closing our eyes, holding our noses and voting for Brown – out of fear that the alternative is even worse.

    They are wrong. And we’ll tell you why.

    You have a radically better choice. A choice that will advance the Tea Party Cause. A choice that will give us REAL Tea Party candidates and allies in November.

    To Be Continued…..

    <<<

    If these two are successful in draining votes away from Scott Brown, we shouldn’t blame them. We should blame the conservative Republicans in Massachusetts who decided it was not worth a couple of hours a month to be precinct committeeman. I realize Massachusetts is a solid Democrat state, but I must assume sufficient numbers of conservatives must live there who could make a difference in the make up of the Party there but, of late, have chosen not to “bother.” I could be wrong.

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior
    No More Scozzafavas!

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior

    • Swamp_Yankee

      “Right now, the mainstream Republican Party loyalists are desperately trying to find even tiny differences between career Republican politician Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley”

      If that is true, then they are idiots and I’d prefer not to have anymore idiots in the party. They can go become Libertarians.

      Howell and Cloud are being jackasses. They are card carrying member of the “Libertarian Party”. They fight all Republicans. Nobody is pure enough for them. It doesn’t matter who runs the GOP, its still the GOP,.

      As long as the GOP has a realistic record of governing, doesn’t support the legalization of drugs, abortion on demand, gay marriage, isolationism, reducing the miltiary industrial complex, …. these jackasses are always going to whine, no matter who runs the party.

      This is what we fear. Everyone assumes they own the Tea Party.

      The Tea Party movement means whatever anyone wants it to mean, there’s about a thousand different anti-Obama factions who think they own it including clowns like Carla Howell.

      I’m declaring war on her. She’s a freaking traitor.

    • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister
      • Swamp_Yankee

        Big “L” libertarians causing trouble. I’m sickened by this.

        Brown:

        Opposes:

        Cap and Trade
        ObamaCare
        Tax Increases
        Partial Birth Abortion
        Giving Terrorists Constitutional rights
        Supports

        Coakley:

        Supports:

        Cap and Trade
        ObamaCare
        Tax Increases
        Partial Birth Abortion
        Giving Terrorists Constitutional rights
        Quitting the war on terror

        Only a Libertarian like Howell could say there is no difference

        By the way, Ive been a committe person in Massachusetts for fifteen years and I’ll remind people there are a million more registered Dems then Reps. Yet, there is still the holier-than-thou 2% Libertarians like Howell and Cloud, who have never won a seat and lob bombs and sabotage Republicans.

        Kill ObamaCare. Period. That’s the end game.

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

          Every seat we move to the right is a move in the right direction. The problem we had in 2000- wasn’t that we had squishes…it was that we didn’t continue to try to move those seats to the right.

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

            We must never let ourselves think we’re entitled to anything.

          • mbecker908

            for conservatives.

    • mbecker908

      NO Republican would satisfy these jackasses. People like this, whether they are just “libertarians” or acolytes of RonPaul, are not and will never be in the fight, any more than Ron Paul has ever been in the fight. They stand on the sidelines and jump onto the field when the offense is going for a first down on fourth and inches. Their presence on the field causes a five yard penalty and generally loses the game.

      • jwebb

        mbecker,

        The inflexibility of the Ronulan mind is a wonder to behold. While Conservatives like myself can see where the GOP should embrace at least some of the attitudes of the Ronulans, those cultists will never accept that there is anything worthwhile that is not 100% in lockstep with the Ronulan Master. These people are more zombie-like than even the Democrats.

        Oh, and they could screw up a free bowl of oatmeal, just like they are doing to TX CD14.

        • Richard Mullins

          …MattressMack aka Jim McInvale(SP?). All of there big things here in the Northern Part of the Houston Area seem to revolve around him. While he boisterous, seems quite genuine. I wonder sometimes about a cage match with him vs. RP. Thank goodness, Rick Perry and others were quick to seize on this. That kills the natural tendencies to align with RP.

  • bs

    Do these people not possess brains?

  • proudmarinemom

    any Third Party Movement, if there really is one, is too easy for impostors to hijack for nefarious purposes. One should proceed with extreme caution when it comes to any monetary contribution.

    And whoever is behind that Red Star publication is incredibly hate-filled and vicious. Their criticizing the lack of media coverage is ridiculous. This is not the legislature, it’s peaceful assembly of private citizens and none of their business.

    Why the heck should they care if a group of citizens, along with a few celebrity guest speakers, want to hold a conference?

  • Flagstaff

    from NY 23.

    A third party now is stupid. Your title is right on the mark.

    • Flagstaff

      Not that I said anything contrary to fact, but the comment by Jim Tomasik is enlightening. And disheartening. Looks like everybody’s wrong here, except maybe we could ascribe good motives to Janes, if Tomasik is right.

      This will be a recurring problem until Cold Warrior accomplishes his mission and we get rid of the fat, dumb, and happy Republicans in charge in some quarters.

      • aesthete
  • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

    On the one hand, forming a third party at this juncture in politics would be a disaster. Then, too, I’m taking into account the things Zoot has said about perhaps needing one more go at shoving the message home to our party.

    The tea party movement has some power. I don’t think anyone can deny that. But not near enough to make a go a of third party.

    In my mind, they would make better use of the power and energy they’ve captured endorsing the conservative in every race at every level. Instead of switching parties, Janes should have stayed in the fight with Fincher and let the Tea Party movement bolster him. The tea party movement has more power than the NRCC at the moment but only if they don’t let that power go to their collective heads. Like someone up thread said, he learned exactly the wrong lesson from NY23. Instead of using the movement in the best ways possible, he threw a tantrum and declared a third party run.

    Well, that’s my simplistic take on it, anyway.

    • mbecker908

      is to form a third party and elect Democrats.

      • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

        dedicated to creating churches so all Dems who don’t want to pay the Obamacare tax, can get an exemption….or…if that does not work…how about a new Indian Tribe or Union?

      • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

        Think about how the tea party people are polling ahead of Republicans or Democrats. If they’d take that poll approval and put it to good use endorsing solid conservatives it would be worth something. As a third party it will be just as you said… more Democrats elected.

  • The Pennsylvania Republican

    of including Tea Party talking points seamlessly into his dialogue is the example of how to do it – he’s apologetically Republican but communicating the new paradigm effectively.

    Brown/Rubio 2012…made you think!

  • http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

    I don’t think third party has much chance of winning but if the Establishment doesn’t get the message and embrace the Tea Party movement ideals of limited government, cutting spending and taxes, they aren’t going to win either. I think this is going to be a low tolerance year for foisted candidates. There will probably be a third party alternate with a significant voice in every race the Tea Partiers feel dissed by the establishment. The MSM will likely give them all the air time they need to sink the Republican Party choice and ensure a Democrat victory.
    It is unfortunate that the Republican Party needs to be encouraged to embrace its own stated ideals.

    People have gotten pumped up to an extreme not seen since perhaps, never and the Establishment response has been tepid at best. It makes it seem as though the Big guys in the party would rather see the uppity people go home and let the pros take care of it. As though they HAVE been taking care of it.

    This Nov could represent the perfect storm politically. Republicans could make gains unheard of well beyond 94. I hope they have the sense to do it but NY23, Kirk in IL, Crist in FL, etc. don’t have things looking promising. Even MA hasn’t been impressive with the national Republican response.

    I don’t know what the guy in TN is going this route for. Maybe the Local Establishment has selected a Scozza or maybe they just made it clear he ain’t welcome. Or maybe he is just a sorry loser.

    One can only hear echoes of vassar’s peripheral vision obscuration reference. (That was great btw)

    After Nov it is all going to be a numbers game. A Republican majority of 5 or 10 in the house will be meaningless because there are enough “squishes” to prevent serious action. A majority of 2 or 3 in the Senate would be even less useful. And yes obviously any majority is better than not. The only way the majorities will be larger is if the Republicans aren’t fighting with their natural allies.
    Right now those allies actually want a fight and the only way the Party can avoid one is by adopting an attitude of contrition and deference to the base. After all they did get us to this point; the least they could do is be sorry.