Smitty, I don’t know that Democratic voters are as smart as you give them credit for being with your suggestion that they could play shenanigans in GOP primaries. Except, of course, for the fact that the only way John McCain got nominated for president . . . Well, I credit that more to Republican stupidity than to Democratic genius.

I don’t mean to accuse Democratic voters of being smart. They voted for Obama, after all, modulo the PUMA crowd.

No, I mean the MoveOn.org brains behind all the purple muscle.

I have no doubt that part of the left’s strategy is to demonize the “Tea Party Movement” in a futile attempt to convince other less committed ordinary Americans that they are loonatic fringe. IMHO it’s too late for that. I don’t think that those who have fallen for Social Democrats spiel are reachable particularly as I have some saddening personal knowledge of this but for those whose minds haven’t been trapped in the leftist echo chambers covering the cities on both coasts I don’t think Tea Partiers are the only path to awareness. I believe the Tea Party Movement are the “tip of the spear”.

Time to revise this ditty…

“There is no way to bribe or twist
Thank God the British Journalist.
But seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there’s no occasion to”
– Humbert Wolfe

“attempting to fragment Tea Partiers to be loyal to specific candidates, instead of supporting the GOP candidate, however odious.”

It is the GOP that will be the death of the Tea Party. The beginning of political freedom and independence today is freedom and independence from the dictatorship of the Democratic-Republican two-party state.

GOP hacks, like their Democrat counterparts, will stop at nothing to ensure to ensure that Americans continue to support the ruling, Democratic-Republican, criminal political class.

@de.eris,
Sure, but if you repeat 1992 with Perot, you get Clinton.
So what do you do?

I’m with you on this one, Smitty.

I’ve been known to announce that I’m giving the Republican Party one more chance. If they can supply people who are at least reasonably Conservative, (IE, no more John McCain or Lindsey Graham, or that ilk, at least in Red districts,) I’ll play along.

Once more.

But only once more. If they go squish again, it’s time for a replacement Party, or a new secession, or whatever else seems appropriate at that juncture.

If all I get is RINO’s, I don’t need the “R” anyway. Do any of us?

Smitty,
We’ve got to take the Party from the inside… makes judo a whole lot more equal.

Once again, THIS IS A VOTE AGAINST INCUMBENCY. That the GOP is slightly less bad than the Democrats is not a selling point.

Vote against the incumbent, GOP or Dem, in your primary and then follow your conscience in the election…

Managing GOP House members should be fairly simple as they’re reelected every 2 years. The key is to constantly remind them of whom they serve and that we’re awake. The hard part is the Senate. Does the Senate have rules against constituents equipped with cattle prods accompaning them where ever they go? I’m sure some sort of rotation could be worked out.

“….in the case Rand Paul has to run as an Independent in Kentucky, and splits the conservative vote….”

Rand Paul does not HAVE to do any such thing. Nobody is pointing a gun at him forcing him to help elect a Democrat. He has not been possessed by the Spirit of Ralph Nader. If he screws us over by dividing the vote to make a meaningless point or over sour grapes, it is his CHOICE to do so.

richard mcenroe: “Vote against the incumbent, GOP or Dem, in your primary and then follow your conscience in the election…”

So, if my incumbent, a conservative who has voted exactly the way I wanted him/her to during his/her term, is running against a RINO challenger, I should vote for the RINO in the primary?

Or if my incumbent is the only viable candidate who might beat the Democratic challenger, a Lefty who makes Fidel Castro look moderate by comparison, I should vote against the incumbent thus guaranteeing that the Castro-clone will be representing me in Congress this time next year?

People voting based on that type of knee-jerk reaction, rather than investigating and understanding the relative merits of the candidates and making an informed decision, is what got us BARACK OBAMA in the White House! (McCain was a proxy for the incumbent Bush, people voted for notBush)

Stacy – the Left most definitely play at Republican shennanigans – especially during the primaries. Look at the Hawkeye Cauci: More political cross-dressers there than at Roy Cohn’s birthday party.

It is critical – existentially critical – that Republicans wrest control of their own nominations processes and primary-season from the influence of liberal poseurs.

I’m amazed at what passes for strategic thinking here. The Tea Party is a collection of fringe conspiracy theorists with plenty of anger and rhetoric, but clueless about policy. If they are mainstreamed and civilized, then either they’ll blend into the shrinking GOP base, or they’ll split the GOP into low/high education and low/high net worth camps.

The smartest plan for the Democrats is to do whatever it takes to give the Tea Party legitimacy and, if possible, to make it the face of the GOP. Or the butthole of the GOP.

Sure, but if you repeat 1992 with Perot, you get Clinton.

Clinton’s domestic policy was to the right of GWB’s, so that example doesn’t prove anything. And Rand Paul will win outright as a Republican.

McCain has stood up to this administration when it matters most. he has fought hard for our Nation’s Security, fought against the government-run joke of a healthcare reform, and he continues to fight hard against earmarks & big spending. THAT is why Arizona needs him for the re-elect!

Rand Paul run as an Independent? That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Where did that come from?

@Lisa Graas:
“in the case Rand Paul has to run as an Independent”
It’s a hypothetical.

I still object to the phrase “*has* to run” (see my previous remarks). Or are we hypothetically assuming that terrorists have kidnapped his family and are forcing him to run as an Independent (thereby handing the Dumbocrats an easy victory)?

“@de.eris, Sure, but if you repeat 1992 with Perot, you get Clinton. So what do you do?”

Don’t split the vote by not voting Republican.

How many more times will folks tell themselves this is the last time?