Wednesday, August 30th 2006
Party over principle?
This year’s midterm election is shaping up to be pretty interesting. I could care less if the Democrats take control of Congress. One could even argue that the Republicans deserve to lose… But we’ll save that for when we’re a little closer to voting.
What I’m really interested in are the races with strange circumstances. Most interesting of all would be Tom DeLay’s old district in Texas. After his fall from grace (and the position of House Majority Leader), he decided he would try and get reelected. He faced a primary and prevailed. Then he decided not to run, but the Dems took advantage and forced his name to stay on the ballot. DeLay didn’t want to run, and the GOP couldn’t replace his name, so the party was left without a candidate! In an overwhelmingly Republican district!
The only candidates on their ballot will be Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither. If elected, Smither would be the first Libertarian in Congress. He has already promised to caucus with the Republicans and would probably be a closer match to the conservative district than Lampson. The choice is between your average Democrat and a person who is probably more conservative and principled than 95% of Congress. Any Republican with a brain can immediately see what the answer is to a question we shouldn’t even have to ask. If I lived in that district, I know how this Republican would be voting.
Of course, we’re assuming that people go with principle over party. Isntad, the GOP will be running a write-in candidate: Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. For those able to remember her name, they’ll have fun trying to enter it in on the voting machines that have no dash. I think it’s poetic justice. Why does the party want to lose to the Democrat rather than supporting the Libertarian? The local GOP chair said this to Hammer of Truth:
I think it’s safe to say that Republican leadership is promoting the Republican who was the preference of the grassroots Republican leadership, who voted in the Republican Primary, and attended the Republican Precinct, Senatorial, and State Conventions OVER someone who identifies himself with another Party.
Just because a third Party candidate considers himself more of a Republican than a Democrat and will therefore caucus with the Republicans, that does not mean he would represent my views or vote like a Republican.
Can’t do it in good conscience.
And you know what, that’s perfectly fine. Party members should vote for party candidates. Seems fair.
Oh wait, what’s this about Republicans supporting former Democrat Joseph Lieberman over their own Republican candidate in Connecticut? Alan Schlesinger, the GOP candidate, is polling at 2.1%; support so low that a third party candidate would laugh hysterically. Where’s the conscience now?
In the latter case, one could argue that the Republicans are choosing principle over party, in a twisted sort of way. The principle happens to be (1) War over all else, (2) Big government over all else, or (3) both.
If I hear more Lieberman-boosting from so-called conservative Republicans, I think I’ll be sick. Give me a straight answer about why Republicans voting for Lieberman is a good thing, but Republicans voting for Libertarians is bad. I want to know, as it’ll explain a lot about the current state of the GOP.
This should be good. And sad.
I think Lieberman is party over principle, too. In this case, though, it’s not so much “For the Republican Party” as “Against the Democratic Party.”
Comment by Beetle — 8/30/2006 @ 4:50 pm
repubs look like they will lose 25 House seats. Then what? This country is going down anyway.
“Any Republican with a brain”
What y’talki’ about?
The people with brains are republicans. the rest take refuge in that other party.
Comment by Anonymous — 8/30/2006 @ 5:04 pm
FWIW from Texas: The author of that quote from the GOP leadership is Kathy Haigler. For those who don’t know her, Haigler is a close member of Texas Republican Party chairman Tina Benkiser’s inner circle. Benkiser is the one directly responsible for bungling the whole DeLay court case that got the GOP into this situation, and Haigler tied herself to Benkiser’s sinking ship a long time ago. You can’t trust anything she says on this because she’s looking out for #1: herself and the Benkiser administration that she’s a part of.
Unfortunately this means Haigler is willing to lose the seat to a Democrat in order to save face personally by saying “at least we tried” and pushing a write-in. Two weeks ago BEFORE they even picked a write in candidate, several key Republican leaders like Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson (a statewide elected constitutional officer in Texas) were trying to rally everybody behind Smither.
Haigler caught wind of it and began poisoning the well against Smither. She led a vicious lie campaign against him on a very personal level and began spreading anti-Smither rumors to Republican precinct chairmen. The rumor was essentially about this: 9 years ago Bob Smither’s daughter Laura was abducted on a street in her neighborhood. The case got national attention and led to a nationwide search until they found out she had been murdered. Nick Lampson was the congressman in Smither’s district at the time, and he sponsored legislation with dozens of other members both GOP and Dem to establish a missing child search system after Laura Smither’s murder.
Haigler googled this information and began claiming that Nick Lampson personally recruited Smither to run in order to dillute the vote against Tom DeLay. I’ve seen emails from her in which she claims that Smither was paying back a favor to Lampson by running. Aside from being in bad taste this was all a vicious lie by her designed to discredit Patterson’s efforts to rally the GOP behind Smither.
Around the time they picked the write-in candidate Haigler stopped pushing this lie. I suspect that somebody called her out on it and told her how nasty she was being. She changed to a new tune and sent out an email all around the district claiming that Smither was being backed by Republicans who don’t really belong in our party, and should just leave and join the Libertarians.
So take her word with a grain of salt. There’s an agenda behind what she says, and know that REAL republicans in CD 22 are firmly behind Smither instead of this Shelley-of-many-names lunacy.
Comment by Republican_inTX22 — 8/30/2006 @ 9:50 pm
Lieberman is as big government as they come. I think he’s second only to Tipper Gore in the effort to censor video games (because evidently the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America only applies when it’s convenient and you’re not a gamer, eh Joe?)
Comment by Crotch Gangstaz — 9/9/2006 @ 4:26 pm