'Do as I say and not as I do' has caught up with the 'establishment'
If you would like a good read as to why the old guard of the GOP keeps losing elections this piece is a good place to start.
The old guard has turned to mega-corporations, government contractors and special interests for more of their fund raising. Why? The rank and file, also known as the base of the party, is closing their wallets because the work is not getting done as the actions of the old guard do not resemble their campaign rhetoric.
To appease their new money men the old guard has been attacking the Republican base and calling Reaganite candidates horrible names. The have even openly invited Democrats to interfere in Republican primaries.
They say a house divided against itself cannot stand, the ones clamoring for unity a few weeks before the elections are the ones who did the dividing in the first place in order to preserve their own fund raising power at the expense of the party and the base who they expect to turn out for them.
Keli Carender at the American Spectator:
Should the Republicans fail to win the Senate in November, with their slate of Elder(ly) Statesmen and no icky tea party candidates, they need to find someone besides themselves and their liberal policies to blame. As we get closer to the election, we will see more and more of this sort of moaning and complaining. The establishment and their cronies need to make sure that the tea party gets blamed, even when our candidates aren’t running. So they’re already trying to advance the narrative that tea party, grassroots voters are going to sit out the election, causing the Republicans to lose (as though that’s the only way these candidates can lose).
Take note: Instead of working to get out the vote, educate voters, and advance Republican and conservative principles in key states, and fire up the base, the establishment has already thrown in the towel. They are trying to shape a narrative about why their candidates lost instead of making sure their candidates win. Their narrative is that tea partiers are… what were those words you used, David? Oh yes. Tea partiers are naïve, sophomoric, and stupid, and this trifecta of character flaws will cause us to behave like petulant children.
Actually, let’s take an inventory of recent establishment Republicans who lost their primaries and subsequently threw epic temper tantrums instead of supporting the primary winner.
Lisa Murkowski The Grand Dame of Alaska politics, a woman who was initially appointed to her US Senate seat by her own corrupt father who vacated the seat in order to take office as Governor, lost her primary bid to tea party candidate Joe Miller in 2010. Did Ms. Murkowski gracefully concede and throw her support behind her fellow Republican? Did she unite with Joe Miller to defeat the Democrat and ensure Republican control of the seat? Did she have, as Catronemphatically states, a grain of sense?
Oh no, no, no, no. If only. No. Lisa Murkowski took her voters for granted, got cocky and lazy, and forgot she needed to earn their votes. When she didn’t fight hard enough in the primary and lost, she claimed that somehow not enough Alaskans had a voice and were begging her to do… something. She launched a nasty write-in campaign, urging Democrats to unite behind her candidacy by marginalizing the actual Democrat candidate and demonizing the actual Republican candidate. By throwing a hissy fit and pulling the Democrats away from the Democrat candidate, Murkowski went on to win the election.
Charlie Crist Remember this guy? Charlie Crist is the perennial candidate and orange-tinted former Governor of Florida. Crist decided not to run for re-election as Governor and instead, in 2009 threw his hat in the ring for the open Senateseat up for grabs in 2010. He was the favorite and had a 30-point lead over some dude named Marco Rubio, a Florida state legislator. Fast forward to April 2010 when it was apparent that the tea party was going to carry Marco Rubio to victory, and Crist left the Republican Party to run as an independent in that Senate race.
This could have very well split the Republican vote, allowing the Democrat to win. However, due to Rubio’s tenacious and enthusiastic support from the grassroots tea party movement, he was able to handily defeat both Crist and the Democrat. Where was the handwringing when Crist jeopardized the seat by running as an independent? Since losing in 2010, Crist has gone on to such heights as becoming a Democrat, endorsing Barack Obama for re-election in 2012, and running for Florida Governor again this year, this time as a Democrat. Stay classy, Charlie!
Richard Lugar Thirty-six years in the U.S. Senate makes a man lazy as all get out. Just ask former Indiana Senator Dick Lugar. Long story short, Lugar took his voters for granted. He often voted against his own party’s platform, didn’t do the work it takes to win, and he faced an energetic, passionate opponent named Richard Mourdock, the Indiana State Treasurer. All of those facts led him to lose his primary in 2010. So what did Respectable Statesman Richard Lugar do when he lost? Why, he promptly endorsed Mourdock, and helped him campaign all across the state, and that’s how the GOP kept that seat and why Senator Mourdock — oh no, wait. That’s not what happened. Dick “Sour Grapes” Lugar refused to endorse or campaign for Richard Mourdock even though the GOP was desperately trying to win control of the Senate, and they needed the Indiana seat to remain in Republican hands.
While Lugar lost the primary fair and square, he had some very die-hard, loyal devotees. He could have asked them to give their support to Mourdock, for the good of the party and all that, but he did not. In fact, it’s an open secret in Indiana that Lugar was quietly undermining Mourdock and encouraging his supporters to cross over and vote for the Democrat. Lugar got his vengeance and the Democrat won the seat that should have gone to the Republicans. Dick’s “helpfulness” doesn’t end there. He is currently fundraising for Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn in her bid to win the open Senate seat in this critical year because he’s good friends with her daddy.
Ahhhh. Bipartisanship.