When Republicans Attack:Circular Firing Squad!

Another amusing day in GOPosaur politics.........

Huck: Hard not ‘laughing’ at Cantor’s group
By ANDY BARR | 5/12/09 12:09 PM EDT

Mike Huckabee says he is having trouble not “laughing out loud” at the National Council for a New America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) effort to rebrand the Republican Party.

“A new group was recently formed that is calling itself a group of experts for the purpose of making the Republican Party attractive to voters again,” the former Republican presidential candidate wrote in a column posted Monday on the Fox News website. “The strategy is supposedly to go on a listening tour so they can talk to the American people and hear what people are concerned about.”

“It's hard to keep from laughing out loud when people living in the bubble of the Beltway suddenly wake up one day and think they ought to have a listening tour; even funnier when their first earful expedition takes them all the way to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.”

Huckabee has been critical of the group since its formation, saying in a statement last week that it represents a “sad day” in Republican politics.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22414.html

In TV Appearance, Powell Plans To Answer Right-Wing Critics
By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Under intense fire from the right, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is preparing to answer his Republican critics this weekend in a television appearance that is likely to add fuel to his long-standing feud with top conservatives in his party.

The appearance will come just days after Powell, one of the country's leading black political figures, told an audience in Boston that a new Republican Party is "waiting to emerge." Earlier this month, he said the party is in "deep trouble" because "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

Powell's turn will come this weekend. He is scheduled to appear on CBS's "Face the Nation" tomorrow and has told associates that he plans to answer his critics. Whether he will make an announcement about his party affiliation is unclear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052203555_pf.html

Enjoy

Teabagger DeMint to challenge McConnell for Senate GOP leadership?

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What would a DeMint-run Senate look like? Here's a hint -- after bragging about helping push out Specter, he said:

I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.

Artie60438 wrote:

Teabagger DeMint to challenge McConnell for Senate GOP leadership?

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What would a DeMint-run Senate look like? Here's a hint -- after bragging about helping push out Specter, he said:

I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.

yay DeMint? lol

I always looked up to General Powell, and had real high hopes he would run for President. I have higher respect for him than any general since that took over.

That guy has brains.


As far as Republicans/Democrats go, just read how the race for mayor is heating up in Orland. Don't pay attention to the location, pay attention to my point:


A Republican candidate, considered a JoeBlow, spent tons of time going to the Metra station in Tinley Park, and other stations, the ordinary citizen, as a Republican gathering 1,200 signatures, talking to people in the and around the area in which he lives.

Armed with many more than the amount needed signatures, JoeBlow goes an files for his candidacy for Mayor Orland. Mayor of Orland right now is DEMOCRAT.

Amazingly, without even so much as consulting neighbors, businesses, or knocking on doors as JoeBlow did, a woman files against him in the race for mayor, collecting a couple hundred more than JoeBlow. Southstar news reported today they traced those signatures. She voted straight Democrat, and since in reality she was a democrat, she apparently didn't have to step outside her door for signatures on her petition. She had the backing of old time Democrats that served her brother for years, saying she is now a Republican. Amazing.
This is to thwart off the Republican voters, while under her mask she is really helping the mayor of Orland win as a Democrat.

The moral of this story is: it's not whether you are Repo or Demo, the integrity of both parties are gone. No longer do the peope, for the people count. The politicians now have discovered how to go through the loopholes to get what they want, Repo or Demo.

The fact is..if you want a really good job, with the greatest benefits in the world, all you have to do is stay in the political limelight, holding a state, local or federal job, and make sure you have returned the favors to those who worked hard to help them retain their position. In return, you get patronage jobs. Isn't that great?

Let's all use our connections, have no ethics, no conscious on what's right or wrong with this country, and assure ourselves of a steady job, multiple pensions, and a guaranteed job until you are ninety-three years old, with multiple pensions. We all in the U.S., instead of being jobless country can just join them, hire our relatives and friends.

Why work for them, when they can work for you?

I sent my re-instatement form to the FEDS to be considered for a job I qualify for, and since I worked the allotted years, by Federal regulations, they can't pass me up because I was a former Federal employee. All others will be at the bottom of the totem pole. I thought, "Why not?" I want my job back, and if there's any openings, I apply, they have to hire me over them as long as it's a position that requires what I already did at a certain GS grade.

I have priority to get hired, or sue them for looking me over. So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I promise you if I get back in, I'll hire my favorite posters.

The fun begins As Charles Johnson of the conservative blog "Little Green Footballs" just said

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what a ridiculous bunch of Republican candidates; it’s a three ring circus of loons, extremists, and cynical creeps.

GOP Rep. Ryan swipes at Gingrich: 'With allies like that, who needs the left?'

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took a swipe Monday at Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich after the former House Speaker criticized his proposed Medicare reforms.

"With allies like that, who needs the left?" Ryan told guest host Raymond Arroyo on conservative talker Laura Ingraham's radio show.

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, defended his 2012 budget proposal that includes significant reforms to Medicare.

Gingrich on Sunday distanced himself from Ryan's plan, which would transform the program into a voucher-based system for Americans under the age of 55.

"I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering," Gingrich said of Ryan's plan on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate."

House GOP fires back at Gingrich

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Newt Gingrich’s scathing criticism of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget has House Republicans peeved, with several lawmakers saying Gingrich is taking cheap shots at his fellow Republicans without putting out a Medicare plan himself.

A chorus of boos, critical emails and outright dismissals came Monday after Gingrich claimed that the Republican plan to reform Medicare was “right-wing social engineering.”

“I was not thrilled when I read that in the Wall Street Journal this morning,” said Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), a member of the House Budget Committee, who like most other Republicans, voted to pass the ambitious 2012 spending plan written by Ryan. “… I was not thrilled with those remarks, and was rather disappointed with those remarks. Obviously completely disagree with those remarks.”

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a freshman on the Budget Committee, said that “typically, you’ll find people in a presidential campaign running against the current president of another party, rather than running against his own party.”

Several Republicans chalked it up, essentially, to Newt being Newt.

That Republicans in the House are speaking publicly about a GOP presidential candidate and former House speaker indicates the frustration lawmakers have about someone with Gingrich’s stature knocking down a plan that they labored hard to pass, and sell.

Ryan shot back on the Laura Ingraham show Monday, saying, “with allies like that, who needs the left?”

Republicans say they were largely blindsided by the comment, which came on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. But some in Congress said they’ve heard Gingrich say this before. Campbell, a staunch conservative, said that the Georgian told a group of Republicans in a closed meeting earlier this year that they shouldn’t “be messing with entitlements.”

Former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), a Gingrich leadership partner turned rival, told POLITICO that it fits Gingrich’s track record of being “confused and conflicted” on health care policy.

It also showed once again that there can be serious divisions between Republican 2012 hopefuls and the House GOP majority.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, for example, called Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) budget deal last month “not serious” and added that “the more we learn about the budget deal, the worse it looks.” Not to mention Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), who frequently vote against their leadership as they seek the Republican nod.

But as Republicans face a tenuous political environment that’s largely controlled by the Democratic Senate and White House, harsh criticism of GOP policy could hurt as candidates seek congressional support.

“I’m not inclined to support somebody that makes our jobs harder rather than easier, personally,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the Budget Committee and former Republican National Committee chief of staff who considers Gingrich a serious candidate. “I don’t know what other people think.”

Some in the young set, like Lankford, even say they don’t have much in common with the speaker.

“Newt was the voice of the 1995 Congress, and he was out a lot and up in front of the cameras a lot and has a lot of ideas, and a lot of ideas are great,” Lankford told POLITICO. “But I don’t believe in all of his ideas.”

Cole, who has known Gingrich for more than 20 years, called Gingrich’s comments this time around “not helpful.”

“[Ryan] has the only real plan out there that achieves the stated goals, saves the system, gets us back on a fiscally sustainable course,” Cole said. “With all due respect to the speaker, he hasn’t laid out a plan like that. As far as I know, none of the Republican presidential candidate have and the president of the United States hasn’t, so Paul Ryan looks more like a leader than all of them put together.”

Gingrich’s criticism of the Ryan budget comes at a bad time for House Republicans, who are already taking some heat on the home front at town hall events for their vote to overhaul Medicare. In fact, Ryan was in Chicago Monday giving a speech to an economic club there defending the plan.

Gingrich, though, is holding firm to the critique. His camp clarified the part of his statement that seemed to have him embracing an individual mandate for health care, but they’re not letting up on the Medicare piece..

Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, told POLITICO in a phone interview from Iowa that the Georgian “has the most credibility in getting large-scale change” considering he led the GOP into the majority, balanced the budget, instituted welfare reform and passed tax cuts.

“So people can criticize him that he’s offering advice, but if I were Republicans, with a track record like [Gingrich’s], I would listen to Newt’s advice,” Tyler said.

This isn’t the first time Gingrich has reared his head in House Republican politics.

During the first debate over government funding, Gingrich sent Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) a note that made its way to the leadership-appointed Rules Committee, expressing support for a measure that would allow King to offer an amendment to defund the Democrats’ health care law. It put off many in House Republican leadership, as they were opposed to King’s amendment.

He also spoke to the House Republican freshmen in a closed meeting in the heat of the latest government funding debate. In fact, he emerged to tell reporters that he supported Ryan’s budget.

“We are in a period of very big challenges, and we need very big solutions, and we walked through the smart ways to get a balanced budget, which fits the general direction of Paul Ryan,” Gingrich told reporters, detailing the talk in the well-attended meeting.

Armey said his former House leadership colleague doesn’t move votes in the chamber when he opines on the issues of the day, but “just annoys [leadership] because, I think, with Newt it’s the fear that somebody might listen to him.”

“It’s typical of Newt to be whimsical,” Armey said in a phone interview with POLITICO Monday. “We always say: Newt always has so many great ideas. Well yeah, but then he shifts between them at such a rate it’s pretty hard to track it let alone keep up with it.”

Of course, Armey, who now runs the conservative FreedomWorks group, is hardly neutral. He was suspected to be part of a group that plotted a coup that failed to oust Gingrich from leadership.

“My view right now is he has joined the ‘don’t care’ crowd, “Armey said. “It isn’t about the nation’s health care — the nation’s fiscal health care — it’s about [Newt’s] presidential race.”

Pawlenty Attacks Bachmann, Says She Has 'Nonexistent' Record

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Republican presidential contender and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has again taken to national television to deliver a barely veiled attack against one of his Republican colleagues. On NBC's "Meet The Press," Pawlenty said that although he admired Rep. Michele Bachmann, she had no record of accomplishment.

"I like Congresswoman Bachmann," the former governor said. "I've campaigned for her. I respect her. But her record of accomplishment in Congress is nonexistent."

Pawlenty, who has launched a political ad campaign noting it was "Time For The Truth," said Bachmann gave good speeches, but she had done little else while in public office.

"We're not looking for folks who just have speech capabilities," he told "Meet The Press" today. "We're looking for people who can lead a large enterprise in a public setting and drive it to conclusion. I have done that, she hasn't."

But the efficacy of that conclusion can be debated. The people of Minnesota were rather unhappy with their two-term governor by the time he left office in early 2011. A Public Policy Polling survey from Dec. 26, just a week before Pawlenty left office, saw him with a disapproval rate of 53 percent (as opposed to a 43 percent approval rate). A Rasmussen poll taken in mid-October showed his approval-disapproval rating even at 49 percent.

Part of the problem was Pawlenty's policies that somehow balanced the budget while increasing the overall state debt, leaving Minnesota with a debt of $5 billion.

Yet, Pawlenty might have a point. Bachmann's most important piece of sponsored legislation seems to be a bill designed to protect incandescent light bulbs from being phased out of existence by green legislation.

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If the Republican ticket loses in November, the rush by Mr. Ryan and other 2016 hopefuls to position themselves for the Iowa caucuses “is going to look like Best Buy the night after Thanksgiving,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa.

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“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/us/politics/conservatives-want-ryan-to-campaign-more-aggressively.html?pagewanted=all