This post is designed for Democrats to use to soundly reason with and convince moderate Republicans about why it is clearly in their best interest for the current extremist Republican leadership to lose power in Congress in this election!
Democrats trying to keep moderate and disillusioned Republicans at home on Election Day if they will not vote for a Democrat when there are so many upset Republicans out there is key to Democrats winning back at least one branch of Congress along with Democratic Get Out The Vote efforts in my opinion!
Please see the three articles below from Rush Limbaugh titled "Moderate RINOS Undermine the GOP," "It's Time To Defeat Lincoln Chafee," and "Rush Limbaugh Endorses Tom Kean, Jr." where he gives a Kean a mock endorsement for being a "valued independent or moderate vote!"
Rush Limbaugh and people like him are fully representative of the arrogant, intolerant, and ideological mindset of the current Republican leadership that is in power and are officially used by the Republican leadership to broadcast their message:
CALL TALK RADIO STATIONS
DOCUMENTATION & ANALYSIS: Bush met with Sean Hannity & Media to Firm Up Support!
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006 4:00 p.m. EDT
Bush Advisers Fuel Talk Radio Blitz
As long as extremist Republican leaders with this kind of a mindset are in power, moderate Republicans will NEVER have any kind of a real voice in the Republican Party. This extremist Republican leadership has nothing but scorn and contempt for moderate Republicans and they hate the ground that moderates walk on as the three articles by Rush Limbaugh below clearly show!
If those articles are not enough to convince a sincere moderate Republican, then here are even more examples of this arrogant attitude that extremist Republicans have toward moderate Republicans!
The extremist Neoconservative wing of the Republican Party has no room for even people like Senators Chuck Hagel and John McCain:
ANALYSIS: Good points disillusioned Republicans should consider from Chuck Hagel
June 30, 2005, 9:42 a.m.
Chuck Hagel MovesOn
Meet the antiwar groupGÇÖs new spokesman on Iraq.
"The Left-wing antiwar group MoveOn, a key Democratic support, has found a new spokesman in Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (R., France)."
Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006 1:00 p.m. EDT
Sen. Hagel Says GOP Has Lost its Way
ANALYSIS: John McCain has virtually no chance to become President in 2008!
President's Big Problem Is with Republicans
June 30, 2005
RUSH: "But you've got Republicans -- and you know who they are. They're Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham and McCain, you know, and they're off the reservation doing their own thing, and it's that lack of unity on the Republican side that is causing there not to be a forceful defense of our policy on the Republican side and a proper definition of our enemy."
The extremist Neoconservative wing of the Republican Party does not even recognize the legitimate existence of centrists, moderates, or a political middle:
Ann Coulter
Top Secret Interview Exposed!
by Ann Coulter
Posted Jul 05, 2006
NY POST: Do you believe there is a political middle? If so, how would you define it?
A: There is no more a "political middle" than there is a family in America with 2.3 children. People with opinions take sides. Contrary to what you've heard, it's actually more important to stand for something than it is for everybody to "just get along."
Transcript: Rush Limbaugh on 'Your World'
Thursday, February 09, 2006
LIMBAUGH: "Well, no. How do you triangulate the war? Are there centrists and moderates? This is a bugaboo of mine anyway.
I have gotten so tired over the years. Republicans are the ones that anger me the most about this, talking about how we must move to the center. We must get the great unwashed, the undecideds, the moderates.
I say, screw them. I want people that are passionate. Conservatives win when they are conservative, when they campaign as conservative, and then when they govern as GÇö that's when they win. They don't win by moderating and...
CAVUTO: But what do you think, though, that maybe it's gotten too extreme on both sides? The red states have never been redder. The blue states have never been bluer. And maybe the candidate that wins in 2008 is the guy, woman, who can bridge that.
LIMBAUGH: That may be. I have no clue.
But I doubt it, because I think people today are hungry for ideology... Most people, when it comes to the issues that matter, there is no middle ground on the war. There is no middle ground on terrorism. You acknowledge it or you don't. But there is no middle there to finesse."
I definitely believe that this extremist wing of the Republican Party has got to lose power in at least one branch of Congress in 2006 in order for moderate Republicans to have any kind of a real voice in the GOP and eventually take back control of the Republican Party from the ideological Neoconservatives who have hijacked it (as Pat Buchanan said in his book "WHERE THE RIGHT WENT WRONG, How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency):"
ANALYSIS: Pat Buchanan's hypocrisy "what the alternative is if you throw us out"
That means moderate Republicans either voting for a Democrat, definitely not voting for extremist Republican candidates (such as George Allen in Virginia), or at least staying at home on election day on purpose if they just cannot vote for a Democrat!
There is absolutely nothing at all to fear about this happening from a moderate or a disillusioned Republican standpoint. Democrats will not have enough power to carry out any major agenda if they narrowly control one or both branches of Congress with Bush still in the White House with his veto pen, with Congress still being almost very evenly split, and with the many red state Democrats in Congress who know that they will lose their next election if they do something that is inappropriate:
ANALYSIS: Direct answers to the GOP using fear to scare their base to the polls!
Yet if moderate Republicans vote for extremist Republicans on November 7 and this current GOP leadership stays in power in both branches of Congress after 2006, then moderates are just asking for "more of the same" of what they are upset about now and they will never see any of the changes that they want and are looking for!
The bottom line is that the extremist wing of the Republican Party and the Rush Limbaugh crowd have got to lose some power in the 2006 elections if moderate Republicans are going to have any kind of say in the GOP and to help restore some kind of real accountability back to this government before 2008 which is very badly missing now!
I really like how Robert Zimmerman put this on CNN in what I consider to be a nonpartisan appeal:
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
America Votes 2006: War on the Middle Class
Aired October 18, 2006 - 19:00 ET
ZIMMERMAN: "You know one of my great frustrations in our government, and it really doesn't matter what party you're in, but the system of checks and balances, having a Congress that can ask the tough questions, that can provide the checks and balances on the White House is an inherit important constitutional responsibility.
And this Republican Congress by their own admission has not been asking the tough questions. This Republican Congress has been giving this White House a blank check. I think the most important aspect of this election is restoring the checks and balances by having a Democratic Congress that's going to hold the hearings, ask the tough questions and stand up when they think the White House is wrong."
While I know what I am saying may be difficult for some moderates who are life long Republicans to hear, I definitely think that it is best in the long run for the Republican Party and for the country. It is putting "Country ahead of Party" in my opinion!
If moderate Republicans do not do this and if they vote for Republican Congressional candidates on November 7 who will keep this extremist GOP leadership in power, then moderates will have nothing to complain about when they have no say in the Republican Party, when the Rush Limbaugh crowd continually attacks them, and if an extremist Republican poster boy such as George Allen is nominated by the GOP for President in 2008!
These two excellent links explain and articulate very well what went wrong with the Republican Party and why the extremist Neoconservative GOP leadership MUST lose power in Congress in this election:
Time For Us To Go
Conservatives on why the GOP should lose in 2006.
CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL
Broken Government: Where the Right Went Wrong
Aired October 27, 2006 - 20:00 ET
I have also practiced what I am preaching being a former Republican voter back to 1984!
Here is the link to my media interview from 10/25/04 about why a Republican would support Kerry over Bush in 2004 when I was representing "Republicans for Kerry" as a media spokesperson (scroll almost all the way down to "A Phone Call to Mitch Dworkin"):
Here is my Lone Star Iconoclast interview (this is the Crawford, TX newspaper that endorsed John Kerry in 2004) titled "Republican Stumps For Kerry In Crawford:"
There has to be many moderate Republican national figures who will publicly stand up to Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, and to the extremist wing of the Republican Party if moderate Republicans ever want to take back control of the GOP from them, heal the bitter division that is infecting this country, and see some real accountability restored back to this government!
I would even go on to say that moderate Republicans would have much more in common with center-left and moderate Democrats than they would with extremist Republicans like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Senator George Allen (who Limbaugh and Hannity are supporting for President in 2008)!
Please forward this on for every moderate Republican who you know to seriously think this over before they vote in November 7!
Moderate Republicans have got to understand that a vote for ANY Republican candidate for Congress is just a vote for "more of the same" to keep this extremist GOP leadership in power which will only make the entire Republican Party "stay the course" with Bush and his rubber stamp leadership for at least the next two years if not longer!
Democratic candidates and Democrats in the grassroots also need to be specifically asking for the votes of ALL the disillusioned and moderate Republicans who they talk with. You can get more votes from these people if you specifically ask for them and talk to these people!
Mitch Dworkin
http://securingameri...
ANALYSIS: The 2006 Elections are "An Accountability Moment!
http://www.securinga...
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda which will help our local candidates to win their races!
http://securingameri...
Gen. Wes Clark's endorsement of Jim Webb against George Allen
--------------------
Moderate RINOS Undermine the GOP
November 11, 2005
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Well, now the White House has fought back. Will the congressional Republicans get their acts in gear? It looks like they're falling part. This gang of moderates under the tutelage of George Soros that killed the ANWR drilling project-- (interruption) You are unaware that the Republican mainstream partnership is funded by George Soros? I kid you not. It's on Michelle Malkin's website. I pulled it down last night. Here we go. She writes, "Many of you were asking for the list of the anti-drilling Republicans. The group who succeeded in pressuring the Republicans to cave in calls itself the 'Republican Mainstream Partnership.' They're holding a press conference at 1:30 in Washington yesterday to bray about their victory... Guess who is funding the mainstream moderates? George Soros and friends." This is on Michelle Malkin's website. I have the names of the Republicans who voted against ANWR, the Republicans against ANWR. You want to hear some of the names?
Charles Bass of New Hampshire; Sherwood Boehlert, New York; Jeb Bradley, New Hampshire; Mike Castle, Delaware; Vernon Ehlers, Michigan; Mike Ferguson, New Jersey; Mike Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania; Rod Frelinghuysen, New Jersey; Jim Gerlach, Pennsylvania; Wayne Gilcrest, Montana; Bob Inglis, South Carolina; Nancy Johnson, Connecticut; Tim Johnson, Illinois; Sue Kelly, New York; Mark Kennedy, Minnesota; Mark Kirk, Illinois; Jim Leach, Iowa; Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey; Jim Ramstad, Minnesota; Dave Reichert, Washington; Jim Saxton, New Jersey; James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin; Christopher Shays, Connecticut; Robert Simmons, Connecticut; James Walsh, New York.
These are basically a bunch of New York McCain Republicans. They used to be called "Rockefeller Republicans." It may be better to start calling them "McCain Republicans," the McCain wing of the party, because there are some exceptions, but you heard a lot of New Jerseys, Connecticuts, and Pennsylvanias in there, and some New Yorks. Northeastern, "moderate" Republicans basically threw it out. In the Senate Olympia Snowe from Maine helped to scuttle even a single year extension of the current 15% tax rate on dividends and capital gains. That's due to expire in 2008. So the finance committee chairman Chuck Grassley was forced to postpone a committee vote on extending a tax cut that has been crucial to an economic rebound that since mid-2003 has been marked by ten straight quarters of nearly 4% average growth. Tell us why, again, Republicans need 55 senators? Why do we need 55 senators when we have so many malcontents and traitors in the bunch? And they all happen to be from the northeast and they all happen to be moderates, they all happen to be liberals -- well, not all, there are some exceptions -- but the great percentage of them are.
So the White House has responded now to all of these history revisions and these mindless personal attacks, these lies on lying about prewar intelligence. Let's see if the congressional Republicans, including the Senate, will get in gear, because I'll tell you what's going on here, folks. This has been an amazing thing to watch this week, and I've been sitting back and I've been eyeing it, and it almost looks to me like there is a sort of a civil war right now in Congress between conservative Republicans, which represent about 90 to 95% of the Republicans in Congress, and the RINO Republicans, these Republicans in name only, who are using what they perceive to be the president's weakness to gut the conservative agenda, and this is what I have been worried about when I've discussed the fact the president is not leading a movement. When he's not out making the case for conservatism with every address and speech he makes, it only empowers these moderates. The moderates basically have been tamed. They had been cowering over there in the corner. They hadn't been able to stop anything. So now along with the Democrats, these RINO Republicans, Republicans in name only, surface in an atmosphere of what they think is presidential weakness. Their rear their heads and show us who they really are. They're anti-tax cut. They are anti-drilling for oil in ANWR. They are anti the conservative agenda.
Let me paint this with a broad brush, and say the Republicans are advancing our agenda is to be simplistic. We have a relative handful of Republicans who are cutting and running in hopes of advancing themselves. I mean, to say the Republicans are advancing our agenda is not true because all of them aren't. Conservative Republicans are trying to advance the agenda, which is why there has been a desperate cry for conservative leadership, politically, not just in the media. Conservatism has plenty of voices in the media. But it needs these voices and leaders elsewhere, where other votes can be shepherded, where weak minded can be strengthened and be taught to follow or motivated to follow, and people look to the president for that, and people look to congressional leaders in the House and Senate to do that. It's been very frustrating, all the silence that we've gotten, and some of you have been upset by the silence in the White House. So have I, but I'm just as upset, if not more so, than the silence from the House and Senate where we hold distinct margins. And I know that not all of the members of the Republican Senate or the House are conservative, as we are now learning, but they are a smaller minority than the Democrats are.
It's one thing to have a sizable minority like the Democrats stand in your way, but it is just unacceptable when a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of Republicans in Congress also rear up in opposition and join the liberal Democrats to derail an agenda. At some point that has to be faced. It has to be faced because these RINOs, these moderates, are undermining our agenda on taxes; they are undermining our agenda on spending; they are undermining our agenda on oil drilling, and they are undermining the war on terror -- and I'll give you some names. You want some names? Here they are: Olympia Snowe, John McCain, George Voinovich, Mike Castle, Christopher Shays, and about 30 to 35 others. Now the Democrats don't do this. They are disciplined. They punish those who dare to cross them, not so on our side. We don't have any party discipline. "Well, Rush, we're the party of ideas! You always say we're the party of ideas. We have free and open debate." Yes, we do, but when it comes to... Your family is your family, and when you go to battle with other families, folks, you want your family on your side, not joining the family across the street firing back at you -- and that's what's happening here, and it's because liberals hate conservatives and liberals fear conservatives.
I don't care if they're Republican liberals or Democrat liberals, they're still liberals. They're not "moderates." Don't hit me with that. There's no such thing as a moderate. A moderate is just a liberal disguise, and they are doing everything they can to derail the conservative agenda, and they've been frustrated, they haven't been able to do anything about it because conservatism has been so strong. This propaganda attack on the president has weakened him. They're looking at the polls. "All right, the president's finished, he's weak, we can stand up now and defeat the rest of these conservatives," and so forth. Nancy Pelosi has a -- I forget what this is called, a "loyalty oath" that she's sworn all of her members to. They cannot vote against the leadership position. The Democrats in the House of Representatives have been forced to sign a loyalty oath.
Now, you can say what you want about that, but the point is they end up unified on these battles that are crucial. These ideological battles are the battles of the future of the country, and members of our side have no desire to be unified. In fact, they want to join the other side in derailing conservatism, and the reason conservatism is so feared is because it works. Conservatism is so feared because it cannot be defeated with ideas. So it has to be defeated with other tactics. We're told to invite liberals and moderates into our party. We're told to extend our arms in welcome, extend our hands in friendship. We're told to be nice and try to make them like us, and every time that happens we only see them stab the president or stab the majority in Congress in the back. It's really not a civil war; it's almost part of a civil war, but this is the Rockefeller wing of the party which has been down and out since the 1980s with Ronald Reagan's ascendance. The Rockefeller wing, now the McCain wing, of the party rearing -- actually, he thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, by the way, not Nelson Rockefeller, but we'll call it the McCain-Rockefeller wing, what have you, rearing its head.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Articles...
(Michelle Malkin: Letters to the GOP)
(The Hill: House drops ANWR drilling)
(WT: GOP hopefuls still seek appearances with Bush)
-------------------------------------------------------------
It's Time To Defeat Lincoln Chafee
July 19, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: A couple sound bites I want to play for you here this morning, MSNBC live, David Gregory interviewed Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island who has fallen five points behind in polling. He's up for reelection; he's a RINO Republican in Rhode Island. Gregory says, "In effect the United States wants to allow Israel to have more time to complete what they see as a vital operation. Is that how you see it, Senator Chafee? Is that an important way and the right way to proceed?"
CHAFEE: I disagree with the president on the root cause of what's occurring here. I see the root cause of what's occurring in the failure of the road map. And the president talked the last four years about "a viable, contiguous Palestinian state living side by side with Israel," and the road map was supposed to lead in that direction. And so many missed opportunities I see. The summer of 2003 when we had a great opportunity to push the ceasefire that occurred then, in the summer of 2001. Then with the death of Yasser Arafat and the election, overwhelming majority of Palestinians voting for Abu Mazen on a platform of peace. These were opportunities that we didn't take advantage of.
RUSH: And the next question is: "Do you think that the US is wrong at this pointed to allow Israel to steno?"
CHAFEE: I think there should be a ceasefire and I disagree with the administration on that. I think immediate ceasefire and as this spreads, has the danger of going throughout the Muslim world, uh -- and that's from Morocco to Indonesia, having this unrest spread in the Muslim world.
RUSH: Where has this guy been?
CHAFEE: I think we need a ceasefire immediately.
RUSH: Where's this guy been? We need a ceasefire? All this is Bush's fault? He needs to be defeated. It's about time we get rid of these -- whatever you want to characterize Linc Chafee as being -- out of the Senate. This is absurd. It's Bush's fault! Bush missed the opportunities? There needs to be a ceasefire? All a ceasefire is is a period of time for the bad guys to arm up again and come back with even bigger and stronger and more weapons than they were using before the first time. It's like Bolton said: Ceasefire with terrorists? How in the world do you negotiate that? You don't! All the while, by the way, George Bush is helping Linc Chafee in his reelection effort just as he helped Arlen Specter. But Chafee's fallen five points behind in Rhode Island, and feels he has to come out and bite the hand that feeds him in order to boost his poll numbers up. This is not exactly the display of the execution of core principles.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
(NRO: Chafee Trailing Whitehouse by 5)
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Rush Limbaugh Endorses Tom Kean, Jr.
October 25, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk to you for just a second about Republican Senate candidate Thomas Kean, Jr. in New Jersey. This is a brave man. This is a man who deserves your attention and your support. This is a man who in the midst of the war on terror and the war in Iraq, has demanded the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld.
That's so courageous!
I was so moved when I heard this demand from this Republican. It's not many Republicans that have this kind of courage and have these guts -- and he wasn't through there! He then demanded the resignation of Speaker of the House Denny Hastert and any of the Republican leadership -- just off the top.
This is courage!
This is political leadership that the Republican Party has long needed! This is the kind of foresight, this is the kind of vision, this is the kind of independence that the Republican Party needs: to join with others in making sure that the Republicans in power quit. Few Republicans have the kind of guts here being exhibited by Republican senatorial candidate Tom Kean, Jr. in New Jersey, but then he did something yesterday that really impressed me and really demonstrated his bravery and his encourage under fire. Without being asked, folks, he issued a statement denouncing me over "press reports" he had heard -- he had not heard me; he had heard press reports -- regarding my reaction to the Michael J. Fox ad.
He said, "There's no reason for this in our politics, and I don't subscribe to it," and he wanted no part of it, and then spent a lot of last night trying to get himself invited on television shows to announce his distance from me. This is the kind of man we need in the United States Senate! I rarely see this kind of backbone and courage! This is a man whose two feet are firmly planted in the air. He will end up wherever he needs to end up to protect himself, and that's what we need in American politics is more self interest, more politicians and senators on the Republican side who care about themselves than they care about issues or their party or anything else. This is true independence, ladies and gentlemen! People like Tom Kean, Jr., may hold the key to Republicans securing that valued independent or moderate vote!
Thomas Kean, Jr.!
I sent his staff a note last night, to which I've not gotten a reply. I said, "I can certainly understand the panicked, reactionary and opportunistic stance of politicians and their seizing on any chance to distance themselves from what they think is harmful to them, but I thought you might want to see what a actually said on my program as opposed to what's being reported. Here's a link to my website. In the meantime let me know if you'd like me to endorse either you or Senator Menendez in my efforts to help the Republicans hold the majority in the United States Senate, which is not something you seem to be interested in yourself," and that's what we need. We need Republicans in the Senate who don't care about whether Republicans run the place. We need Republicans in the Senate like Thomas Kean, Jr. who have no interest in the party or causes or issues. We need the selfish self-interest of Tom Kean, Jr -- and so today, ladies and gentlemen, I, Rush Limbaugh, officially and proudly endorse Thomas Kean, Jr. for Senate in New Jersey.
We need another Lincoln Chafee.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material (Unless You're a Senate Candidate Who Cannot Read)...
(Michael J. Fox Is Not Infallible; He's Just the Latest Victim Used by the Democrats)
(Rush Is Right: Was Michael J. Fox Duped?)
(America's Anchorman: Michael J. Fox: Democrat October Surprise)
(America's Anchorman: Ben Cardin Voted Against Stem Cell Research)
(Stop the Tape: Democrats Exploit Michael J. Fox's Illness)
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.