More brilliance from the Stupid Party

[makattak]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/31/gop-wary-health-law-repeal-push-fall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Text+-+Politics%29

I will not quote the whole article, but:

GOP Sees Risks in Push to Repeal Health Law
WASHINGTON -- Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall might be burned by a fire that's roaring through the conservative base: demand for the repeal of President Barack Obama's new health care law.

It's fine to criticize the health law and the way Democrats pushed it through Congress without a single GOP vote, these party leaders say. But focusing on its outright repeal carries two big risks.

Repeal is politically and legally unlikely, and grass-roots activists may feel disillusioned by a failed crusade. More important, say strategists from both parties, a fiercely repeal-the-bill stance might prove far less popular in a general election than in a conservative-dominated GOP primary, especially in states such as Illinois and California.

Here's your risk morons:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/march_2010/55_favor_repeal_of_health_care_bill

55% Favor Repeal of Health Care Bill

If the Stupid Party doesn't run on a repeal platform or runs away from repeal, they are through. Tea partiers work with the republicans because they believe that they will stop and remove this crap.

If the Republicans decide that's too hard, a third party will result. That won't be pretty.

[zahc]

But if they run on a repeal platform, they might be embarassed on the news.

[MicroBalrog]

If they run away from repeal, they deserve to be destroyed.

[Fjolnirsson]

HA! I was just coming here to post this:http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/31/republicans-refocus-criticism-of-obama-health-bills-effect-on-jobs-and-financial-cost-to-businesses/2/#ixzz0jlcnIRmd

Republicans shift focus from repeal to Obama health law’s impact on jobs and cost to businesses

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/31/republicans-refocus-criticism-of-obama-health-bills-effect-on-jobs-and-financial-cost-to-businesses/2/#ixzz0jmF5kHcf

[Monkeyleg]

Let's see...we start paying taxes for the entitlement before most of the entitlement kicks in, it's already unpopular and will become more so once the taxes hit, the unsavory process by which the law was passed would make for great campaign commercials and terrific campaign fodder...

Yep. It's probably too risky to run on that platform. Dolts.

[mtnbkr]

Nah, the party faithful will always return because they are the "lesser of two evils" and are "slowing the rate of decline".

Chris

[HankB]

It's also likely that a good part of the GOP leadership doesn't want to repeal Obamacare . . . they actually like it.   

Oh, that RINOs truly were an endangered species . . .

[longeyes]

No one here should be surprised; most aren't.  The real issue with "health care reform" isn't health care or even sound economics, though those are both important, it's individual liberty, and the GOP stopped really believing in that a long time ago.

[mtnbkr]

It's also likely that a good part of the GOP leadership doesn't want  to repeal Obamacare . . . they actually like it.

True dat.  They voted against it secure in the knowledge it was going to pass.  The party faithfull will make noise about how the fearless and brave Republican party will work to defund, slow, or otherwise break the bill even while it is the law.  The claim will be made that this is a slower decline and we should be thankful it isn't getting worse faster.  It won't get repealed and it will be business as usual.

Have I covered all the typical excuses?

Chris

[sanglant]

looks like i might get the Christmas present i've been hoping for this year, the gob becoming the left wing party and a brand spanking new conservative party. woohoo.

[lee n. field]

"Teh Stupid Party"

Why do I suspect that some diabolically clever strategist in the Evil Party wants the Devilcrats to take a beating this coming November.  The Stupids will then be in power and take the blame when everything falls apart.

Aaron Zelman of JPFO has some scary observations

With a few laudable exceptions, Senators and Representatives in Washington D.C. do not seem to care about the upcoming elections in November of this year. With a less than eleven percent approval rating from their constituency, these politicians, in normal times, would be cringing at the thought of going home to their own States and Districts to face the wrath of a furious American public.

But look how these arrogant politicians are behaving. They don’t seem to care. Were elections held tomorrow the bums would be tossed out … by the truckload.

And so, the question must be asked: Are there even going to be elections in 2010? And, if there are, will they be honest?

Are there even going to be elections in 2010?

[mellestad]

Looks like it is more compicated.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/29/cnn-poll-americans-divided-on-repealing-health-care-law/?fbid=ZJIEOCje6-_

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/03/29/rel6a.pdf

Congress should leave the bill as it is 23%
Congress should make additional changes to increase the
government's involvement in the nation's health care system 27%
Congress should repeal most of the major provisions in that bill
and replace them with a completely different set of proposals 47%
No opinion 3%

So according to that poll 47% support repeal and 50% support leaving it as is or expanding it.  I googled around and it seems polls are all over the place.  Have to wait for things to settle down and see where the actual consensus is.  I imagine we won't know for a while.

[Waitone]

Crystal clear example of how the political ratchet works.  R's huff and puff about the evils of <insert issue of choice> but fail to prevent passage.  Then when the dust settles some R dim-bulb (in this case, Cornyn of TX) says "not so fast.  We gotta be careuful yada, yada, yada."   In about a week the polls show up along with op-ed pieces demonstrating how bad an idea it is to back off the ratchet.  Nooo, can't do that.  Can't have any change in direction.

It is nut crackin' time for spinelessrepublicans.  Someone, somewhere has to stand up.  If spinelessrepublicans can't then I would think alternatives will appear in numbers directly proportional to popular outrage.

[Balog]

I'm always amazed anyone pays attention to polls. I'd think even the R's would catch on that this is really, really unpopular with anyone who is not so vehemently left that voting for an R wouldn't be a possibility anyway.

[AZRedhawk44]

I've already decided they (GOP) are complicit in this.

If the 3rd party can siphon off from Evil and Stupid, leaving them both at 40% each of a particular house of Congress, and the 3rd party has 20% of the votes... Oh, a fella can dream, can't he?

If left to their own devices, the GOP will allow Obamacare to go into effect and somehow claim a "victory" by pulling about 2% of its total spending out of the final package.

War against Incumbents is the only solution right now... give the Tea Party some time to practice electioneering in 2010 for something more substantive in 2012 or 2014.

[roo_ster]

Cornyn in my Senator.  Just sent him the following:

Just read about you going weak in the knees about repealing Obamacare.  You'd best look around DC and find your spine, because it looks like you lost it somewhere.  I'm not feeling too tolerant for Stupid Party Stupid RINO tricks, so you & your fellow policritters best man up and get ready to battle.

Or, we can send someone younger, with more fire in their belly, and with a surer grasp of conservative principles than you possess.

Grow a Pair,

jfruser

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Wait, so some liberal journalist at the AP sez Republicans need to be careful about repeal, and everyone here jumps up and down decrying the Reps as if they've done something wrong?

 

[roo_ster]

Wait, so some liberal journalist at the AP sez Republicans need to be careful about repeal, and everyone here jumps up and down decrying the Reps as if they've done something wrong?

 

No, the head of the GOP senator's campaign committee (Cornyn) releases a long-*expletive deleted*ss memo that pooh-poohs repeal and goes all squish in an interview on the same subject.

Now, he can be motivated.  He was pro-"comprehensive immigration refprm" back in 2007, but enough constituents gave him a piece of their mind that he was "born again hard" and eventually opposed hte amnesty.

I'd say it is a fine time to give them a motivational kick in the *expletive deleted*ss.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Have you seen said memo, or are you simply relying on the misleading description of it given by the journalist?

And 1,260 words isn't exactly "long *expletive deleted*ss".  In terms of political strategy that's pretty brief.

And what interview are you talking about?

All Cornyn is quoted in the article as saying is that Obama's wrongness extends farther than just health care (absolutely true), that the economy is as important or more (also absolutely true), and that Reps should highlight the financial impact of the bill as a way to link Obama's health care bill to the failing economy (again, absolutely true).  Various others are quoted as saying that campaigning on repeal alone isn't enough (also true), that they need to have something that they're for, not merely something they're against.

What I see is a reporter selectively presenting facts in a way that's carefully calibrated to get potential Republican sympathizers pissed off at Republicans who could beat back Obama in November.

Well, look around.  It worked beautifully.  

[Waitone]

It begins: GOP inching away from campaign to repeal ObamaCare

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/31/it-begins-gop-inching-away-from-campaign-to-repeal-obamacare/

[MicroBalrog]

One of two things can happen.

Either the GOP will push for, run on, advocate, repeal of the health care bill in the next election. Winning, it will move on to either defund or derail parts of the bill legislatively (not being able to repeal it altogether). While success will be mixed at first, parts of the bill will fall and the rest will be finished off within the next few election cycles.

Based on what we know from experience, another scenario is more likely:

1.The GOP will gradually retreat from repeal, beginning now and culminating November.

2.Opponents of the bill will first be outraged. Many will threaten to either vote for a third party or abstain from voting altogether.

3.As the 2010 election approaches, people will.slowly become more  and more afraid of the Democrats winning again – some because they want to see their team win, others because they have genuine concerns about the Democrats winning. People will say – nay, persuade themselves – that this election is too important to let the Democrats win, that the Democrats will completely ruin America if they win, that it is childish and insane and whatnot to hold out over the one issue, and so on, and so forth. People will hold their nose and vote Republican again. In a few years, repeal will become unthinkable.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Think it through, folks.  They're setting you down a path.  If you continue on it, you're hosed.

Republicans can't repeal any of the bill until at least 2012, and even then only if Obama is defeated at the polls.  They cannot override a veto.  You cannot honestly blame the Republicans for this fact, yet I know many of you will blame them anyway.  This is what the Dems are counting on.

Furthermore, Republicans can't run on a platform of repeal alone.  Campaigning only against something does not work, candidates must be able to offer something that they are for.  Cornyn knows this.  So does the AP staff behind this article, so does Obama, so does basically everyone who's savvy and involved in the process.  That's why Cornyn proposes to run on a platform of repeal and replace, and also on the economy that Republican ideals can fix.

But y'all will not stand for a platform any larger than repeal alone.  This puts the Repubs right where Obama and the Dems want them.  Repubs can't win at the polls on the only strategy you will tolerate, and even if they somehow win anyway, they can't repeal the bill over an Obama veto.  And when they inevitably fail to repeal the bill, most of you will wrongly blame the Republicans and not Obama.  Obamacare will stand, Democrat single party rule will stand, and we'll all be borked.

Think long and hard about whether this is the route y'all really wanna take.  They are setting you up for failure, and you're playing along with it.  

Please, please, think this one through!

[MicroBalrog]

Republicans can't repeal any of the bill until at least 2012, and even then only if Obama is defeated at the polls. 

This is true, but they are capable of derailing a variety of its provisions by defunding them, or by refusing to vote for funding for other projects. Obama can veto, but he can't make Congress vote for stuff he wants funded. This is exactly the strategy proposed by a variety of conservative analysts and insiders.

[roo_ster]

Think it through, folks.  They're setting you down a path.  If you continue on it, you're hosed.

Republicans can't repeal any of the bill until at least 2012, and even then only if Obama is defeated at the polls.  They cannot override a veto.  You cannot honestly blame the Republicans for this fact, yet I know many of you will blame them anyway.  This is what the Dems are counting on.

Furthermore, Republicans can't run on a platform of repeal alone.  Campaigning only against something does not work, candidates must be able to offer something that they are for.  Cornyn knows this.  So does the AP staff behind this article, so does Obama, so does basically everyone who's savvy and involved in the process.  That's why Cornyn proposes to run on a platform of repeal and replace, and also on the economy that Republican ideals can fix.

But y'all will not stand for a platform any larger than repeal alone.  This puts the Repubs right where Obama and the Dems want them.  Repubs can't win at the polls on the only strategy you will tolerate, and even if they somehow win anyway, they can't repeal the bill over an Obama veto.  And when they inevitably fail to repeal the bill, most of you will wrongly blame the Republicans and not Obama.  Obamacare will stand, Democrat single party rule will stand, and we'll all be borked.

Think long and hard about whether this is the route y'all really wanna take.  They are setting you up for failure, and you're playing along with it.  

Please, please, think this one through!

Cornyn is testing the waters for accommodation with Obamacare, because that will be easier than plucking up courage and opposing the mess.   

The Stupid Party, being stupid, has difficulty understanding anything beyond fear for their own well-being.  As with amnesty, we must make our wishes known and that the consequences of turning their backs on the base will be derailment of their gravy train.

We don't need any Medvedian/Hewittian GOP tools to pave the way for RINO ascendancy, the culmination of which was the glorious campaign of McCain. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Cornyn is testing the waters for accommodation with Obamacare, because that will be easier than plucking up courage and opposing the mess.  

The Stupid Party, being stupid, has difficulty understanding anything beyond fear for their own well-being.  As with amnesty, we must make our wishes known and that the consequences of turning their backs on the base will be derailment of their gravy train.

We don't need any Medvedian/Hewittian GOP tools to pave the way for RINO ascendancy, the culmination of which was the glorious campaign of McCain.  

For the last year ALL Republicans have had the courage to oppose this health care refprm.  The Reps have given you 110% in opposing this mess, from the leaders in Washington all the way down to the grassroots base people like me.  And all you can say afterwards is that we don't have any courage, that we don't care about opposing Obamacare.  

You need to get real.  

And do you really believe that repealing Obamacare is simply a matter of having enough courage, after all that's happened this past year?