In 08 when the democrats had a filibuster proof majority and the presidency she pushed her far left agenda. While they were not able to get through everything on their wish list, they got health care, financial reform, and porkulus. Not everything they wished for, but enough. More than enough from my point of view. My point being that she worked over several years to get her majority where she needed it to be in order to get her agenda passed. When the tough votes were needed, she held her majority together, by hook or by crook.
This is what the tea party may be missing. The Tea Party is putting forth candidates that in some cases are a little out of the mainstream within certain districts. The Tea Party is having a very good effect in more republican strongholds, but that luck is not spreading to more democrat areas.
The Tea Party has spent a great deal of time going after the likes of Scott Brown on different occasions. Many are forgetting that Brown is being the senator that the majority of his voters want. He is polling higher than both Senator Kerry and President Obama.
The reality is we will not ever have 435 Michele Bachmans in the house and 100 Jim DeMints in the senate as good as they may sound to conservatives. What we need to work on is getting the numbers. Once you have the numbers you get a strong conservative leader in place and hold the majority together. A perfect example of what I am talking about is the California senate race. Chuck DeVore was the better conservative candidate, but Carly is the one that has the chance of giving "Call Me Senator" Boxer her long overdue pink slip. You then have a strong leader in the Senate to keep Carly in line.
By trying to force a district/state further right than they are comfortable in going you lose. Pelosi has proven you can get what you want by playing the numbers game. The Tea Party would be wise to take her lead.
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I think this election needs to be about cleaning up the Republican Party. It really does not matter if conservatives take congress. The legislative branch lost it's power years ago.
Trestin:
that may very well be true, but the only way to get it back is to get the numbers up and get strong leadership that will push back from the executive branch.
You said very well what I think many do not understand.
As much as I didn't want to see McCain win, he may just be as far right as AZ wants to go in statewide national politics.
Granted we have Jon Kyl, but Kyl spent years in the old AZ CD4 - what has now become CD3 (my district) - as the House Rep. and made a name for himself. Plus Kyl shifted in '94 - that was perfect timing on his part, as Shaddegg came in as his successor.
We have certain districts that are more right-leaning, like where I live, yet in the very same state we have the ridiculously left Raul Grijalva - you know, the jackass who suggested a boycott of his own home state because of SB 1070. He made those comments, yet will retain his seat virtually unchallenged.
In my opinion, the trick is to pick strong leaders, rather than pretty faces who will just go along to go along. Leaders are capable of not just reaching across the aisle - like a John McCain - but actually showing the opposition party why they need to come to "our" side of a position.
This is why Bachmann makes me nervous - as strong as she is speaking to the base, she's scary to the opposition. This is also why Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan are probably the real face of the future as far as Republican politics in DC is concerned. They're more well-reasoned, more amicable individuals with strong ideas, yet you'll never hear MSNBC refer to them as the "wingnuts" as they like to call Palin and Bachmann.
Sol:
I am a big believer in listening to the voters. Hayworth made his case - not very well in some cases - and the voters said no, pretty soundly in fact. These are republican voters, not a general. So, obviously this is what Arizona wants. The one thing you must give McCain credit for is that he does not spend recklessly nor does he sneak in earmarks.
His fiscal bonifides can't really be questioned, it is the social stuff that he goes off the rails on.
I think I disagree with you on Ryan not being called a wingnut. I troll liberal blogs on occassion and his name comes up from time to time. He is putting himself out there more and more, his time will come. I do think he will run for president once his kiddies get a little older.
But I agree with what you are saying about Bachmann. She is great for the base, but she may not be leadership material as she can be pretty divisive. That is why I don't ever see her running for the senate, I don't think she can win statewide in MN.
I know what you mean about certain districts. I live in one. My congressman could be on videotape shooting herion into a 10 year old and still get re-elected. They won't vote for republican here.
I'll agree with you in general about McCain and his spending, or lack thereof. And for that he does deserve credit. Perhaps his big piece of legislation on the way out will be something that stops or limits earmarking.. wouldn't that be an accomplishment??
And socially, his problem is the fact that he's been trying to "reach across the aisle" on some really big and important ones...
But he says he's learned his lesson about amnesty, and I don't see cap and tax happening any time soon - unless the leftists push it through during the lame-duck like they've threatened.
It's fair enough to say that Ryan is called a wingnut upon occasion, but he receives nothing like the treatment we see toward Palin, Bachmann, Kyl, Boehner, and a handful of others. Of course he's young too - and he has, like you said - stuck himself into the fray more frequently as of late.
His shellacking of Obama during that big "meeting with Republicans" event last year was classic, and certainly made him a target of the loons.
One fact you need to know, and I need to correct you on, for what it's worth: Arizona's primary is not closed.
An independent or even a registered Dem could have voted in the Republican primary. I made sure of this as I voted, as I asked directly the question, and the lady went to offer me a Dem card, even though I'm registered Republican.
Of course you only get one card, and it's for one side or the other. Therefore it is possible that some on the left crossed over and voted McCain just to protect themselves from JD - but that wasn't the big deciding factor.
There are many factors that led to McCain winning this primary, the most important of which is Hayworth's own gaffes. He screwed the pooch badly.
As I said in a comment thread on my page - I think Blago could have run a better campaign than Hayworth ran. I was (as you know) a pretty big JD supporter, and he almost lost my vote at one point. That's rough.
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