{"id":14606,"date":"2008-02-16T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14606.html"},"modified":"2008-02-16T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T16:30:00","slug":"the-gop-closes-ranks-it-always-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-gop-closes-ranks-it-always-does\/","title":{"rendered":"The GOP closes ranks; it always does"},"content":{"rendered":"

As recently as a few weeks ago, disgraced former congressman Tom DeLay clearly positioned himself in the “no McCain, no way<\/a>” contingent of the Republican Party, alongside luminaries such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, James Dobson, and Rick Santorum.<\/p>\n

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) lambasted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday for “betraying” the conservative movement.<\/p>\n

During a private luncheon with Republican chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill, DeLay — who has criticized McCain for years — stepped up his attacks in the wake of the senator’s reemergence as a top presidential contender. DeLay said McCain has no principles and indicated he would not endorse the senator if he won the GOP primary.<\/p>\n

“If McCain gets the nomination, I don’t know what I’ll do,” DeLay said at the Capitol Hill Club, according to a source in the room. “I might have to sit this one out.”<\/p>\n

He added that a McCain triumph for the GOP nomination would destroy the Republican Party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This came a few days after DeLay told Fox News, “There’s nothing redeeming about John McCain.”<\/p>\n

That was last month. This week, DeLay was in Arizona dropped in on a McCain fundraiser and said he would support McCain<\/a> once he secured the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

In the end, they come around. They always do.
\n
\nDeLay is hardly the only one.<\/p>\n

Before<\/a>…<\/p>\n

As late as last month, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) asked former senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), an emissary of McCain’s, why he should not be physically ill at the prospect of McCain at the top of the GOP ticket.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and after<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, McHenry — apparently feeling fine — joined the chorus of voices calling for conservatives to unify around McCain as the likely Republican nominee, and he accused former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee of waging a pointless nomination battle because he is “in there for himself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before<\/a>…<\/p>\n

“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said about McCain. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and after<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am supporting John McCain for the Republican nomination for president,\u201d Cochran, R-Miss., said in a statement released Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t doubt the sincerity of some of the far-right anti-McCain sentiment. For some of the hard-core Republican activists, McCain’s conservative agenda isn’t quite unhinged enough. When they say they can’t vote for him, they probably mean it.<\/p>\n

But it’s worth remembering that much of this contingent doesn’t, and the whole narrative has probably been exaggerated a bit. They were saber-rattling during the primaries, hoping to see the party nomination someone else. Now that McCain is poised to be the nominee, they’ll close ranks and disregard all of the comments they made before.<\/p>\n

It was as predictable as the sunrise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As recently as a few weeks ago, disgraced former congressman Tom DeLay clearly positioned himself in the “no McCain, no way” contingent of the Republican Party, alongside luminaries such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, James Dobson, and Rick Santorum. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) lambasted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday for “betraying” the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}