‘It is one of those rare defeats that will have many fathers’

October 20, 2006

To reiterate a point I raised the other day, if the midterm elections go as badly for the GOP as they could, the Republican Party is going to spend quite a bit of time in the aftermath tearing each other apart.

Tax-cutters are calling evangelicals bullies. Christian conservatives say Republicans in Congress have let them down. Hawks say President Bush is bungling the war in Iraq. And many conservatives blame Representative Mark Foley’s sexual messages to teenage pages.

With polls showing Republican control of Congress in jeopardy, conservative leaders are pointing fingers at one other in an increasingly testy circle of blame for potential Republican losses this fall.

“It is one of those rare defeats that will have many fathers,” said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, expressing the gloomy view of many conservatives about the outcome on Election Day. “And they will all be somebody else.”

We’re still 18 days away, and the factions are already getting started. Glenn Reynolds and Rush Limbaugh are in a feud; Dick Armey and James Dobson are in a feud; and Grover Norquist and Tony Perkins are getting started on one of their own.

How dire is it? Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid is going after Fox News. Seriously.

“It is pre-criminations,” said National Review’s Rich Lowry. “If a party looks like it is going to take a real pounding, this sort of debate is healthy. What is unusual is that it is happening beforehand.”

Obviously, a lot can happen in the next 18 days; the polls can be wrong; and there are obviously no guarantees. But if the cycle goes very poorly for the GOP, it’s worth considering what they’re prepared to do about it.

After 1992, Republicans shunned tax increases. After 1994, Democrats avoided gun control and health care reform. And 2004 led some Democrats to start quoting Scripture and rethinking abortion rights, while others opened an intraparty debate about the national security that is not yet resolved.

And what of the Republicans after 2006? Is it possible that a series of embarrassing defeats and losing control over at least one chamber could help the GOP realize that it’s time to take a few steps back from the right-wing cliff? I seriously doubt it.

As for the intra-party squabble, I suspect it’s going to get pretty ugly. The religious right will blame the establishment for not being theocratic enough; the establishment will blame Bush and Iraq; libertarians will blame Dobson and Schaivo, and activists will blame all of them for failing to deliver.

If they put all of the behind-the-scenes GOP smackdowns on pay-per-view, wouldn’t you want to tune it?

If they put all of the behind-the-scenes GOP smackdowns on pay-per-view, wouldn’t you want to tune it?

Ha! Yeah definitely. It would help if they had scantily clad ring girls too, but stll a good show.

Their Baboon dominance systems is breaking down. It’s going to be red butts and fangs from here on out.

  • Rush is calling disheartened republicans – cut and runners.

    Boortz just about says Bush sucks in so many words (but his one redeeming quality is that he will fight the terrorists however). He does agree with his callers that the Ds would be worse. And, by the way, he further goes on, “if the Ds win the house, everyone dies……”

  • This reminds me of a bloodier, nastier version of 1993.

    That year in Canada, the Cons or Progressive Conservatives were on the verge of a massive smackdown. Despite some aid from right wing media and polling, the Cons went from a majority government with 208 out of 301 seats to Two. Yes Two.

    What happened? The neoboob taxcutters and social cons that supported the Cons out in the Western Provinces broke off to form their own party which won 60 seats while the Quebec Sovereigntists who supported the Cons in Quebec formed their own party which took 48 seats leaving the well heeled with the remains.

    For the next 12 or so years, we had Liberal (centrist) rule because the right fragmented and did not form a government till this year. However, the right in Canada still hasn’t been the same because all they got was a minority government despite the fact that the Libs ran a pisspoor campaign and had several scandals to deal with all at the same time. In the old days, it would have been a majority.

    My suspicion is that the Repubs will fragment and it will take at least a decade before they have some semblance of being a national party.

  • I would wait on the victory party until there is clearly a victory on November 7, because you never know, exit polls have lied before. ;>

  • Ahem: couldn’t you have given a little credit for my post #7 on the ‘divided on Iraq” thread.

    I wouldn’t insist, except that after watching Beltran stand and stare at the Wainright curve, I NEED a little consolation.

  • CB: If they put all of the behind-the-scenes GOP smackdowns on pay-per-view, wouldn’t you want to tune it?

    fuck, yeah. 🙂 but i’m w/Meh–thanks to diebold et al., i have a bad feeling about next month and i hope i’m wrong.

  • I’d pay to see the smack downs, provided none of those slobs is wearing spandex. Yech.

    I’m not surprised the toilet of arrogant spoiled crack pots is going after each other. They each believe God tapped them on the noggin to lead the country in whatever direction the voices in their head are directing them. And of course since they are never wrong it must be the other guy’s fault. I’m just glad they’re doing it right out in the open where we can all watch.

  • Is the Unholy Alliance coming apart at the seams? Could it happen to a nicer party (well, every party that doesn’t have Communist or Baathist in it’s name is nicer than the Republican’ts)?

    The leaders of the various factions of the Republican’t party are going to be tearing at each other for causing each other’s Base to stay home on Tuesday. But in the end, they will miss the fact that they lost the middle of this country by unveiling the puss-rotted corpses that are the logical conclusions of their various policies (abandoment of the poor, abuse of children, enrichment of the already rich, and endless religious strife that arises from making religion a component of political life). America has shied away from the vision Boy George II and Dick Cheney have preached, and sought a cleaner, truer America.

    But, please, let them get it wrong. Mis-diagnosing their problems will extend their years in the wilderness.

  • It’s fun to see so much honor among thieves 🙂

    Seriously, now is a good time to remind our “Faith based” Republican friends not only that they’ve been had, but that the Democrats were never as anti-religion as the Republican liars made us out to be. Besides that, Democratic tax policies supported charitable giving far better than the Republicans have (to the tune of BILLIONS).

    To our Fiscal Conservative friends, remind them how the economy responded to Clinton’s tax policies. Ask them who balanced budgets. Ask them if the same morons who thought the Iraq war would only cost $1.7 billion should be trusted any further.

    Let’s siphon off some of the Republicans, once they’e tired of throwing chairs at each other.

  • “Let’s siphon off some of the Republicans, once they’e tired of throwing chairs at each other.” – RacerX

    Well, let’s siphon off their supporters. The leaders can all die in a cage match with chainsaws for all I care.

    Tonights entertainment, Richard Vigerie versus James Dobson to determine who lost the 2006 Midterm Elections. Richard is just off slaughtering Rush Limbaugh in an easy match, while Dobson only barely defeated Grover Norquist.

    Good times 😉

  • If done carefully Dems could benefit greatly from these splits in the GOP.

    1) The Religious Left – Why in the world are tax-cuts on the agenda for the religious groups but poverty, healthcare, and homelessness etc are not? Jesus would not choose lower taxes over helping the sick and poor. Dems can steal this group with a strong pitch. CB has good thought on this.

    2) Fiscal conservatives – There will be some differences betewwn any Demoratic government and the “don’t tax me no matter what” group. However, Dems could pick up the Balanced Budget amendment and the line item veto and run with them. Hell, Bush effectively vetos portions of bills with his signing statements anyway. A balanced budget would force deep program cuts or tax increased for thigs like, say, the war in Iraq. I think fiscal conservatives would get on board.

    If the Dems could convert moderates in these two camps through action the remaining GOP supporters would be radicalized and they would be swept out of the mainstream.

    A guy can dream, right?

  • It is a truly delightful spectacle. The only thing more sickening than when Republicans whine that the Democrats were mean to them is when they whine about each other.

    I’m not about to count the chickenhawks before they hatch, but I am “cautiously optimistic” about the mid-terms. Oh, how I’d like to see both House AND Senate in Democratic hands.

  • Hannibal Lechter meets…Hannibal Lechter! Someone needs to post the videos, though; I am NOT tuning in to FOX and helping them with their “ratings issues.”

    Has anyone thought of publishing a cookbook? “A Thousand and One Ways to Cook Neocon” could be a good follow-up to that road-kill recipe book that came out a while back….

  • Adios phony GOP conservatives. Good luck with your illegal constituents.

    Another Cut & Run Republican
    Third World, Texas

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