Sen. Lugar: Tea Party The Reason That GOP Has Minority In Senate

Posted by Brian

Sen. Lugar is illustrative of the entrenched mindset in Washington that only 'Party approved' candidates need apply for national office. Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union with Candy Crowley", Sen. Lugar (R-IN) blames the Tea Party for the GOP minority in the Senate.  He ignores the fact that it was the establishment Republicans who withheld support from numerous candidates who were in striking distance of Democrat incumbents in the 2010 midterm elections - most notably, Sharon Angle, who had a legitimate shot at upending Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware who was knee-capped by Karl Rove on the night she won the GOP primary in that state. Both of those candidates were virtually ignored by the RNC financially, and were in many cases, especially O'Donnell, viciously attacked by so-called conservative pundits and politicians, undermining their campaigns.



The current state of the GOP is what it is precisely because those who are currently entrenched in the upper reaches of the party apparatus are threatened by the current tide of conservatives, who are fed up with the "play along to get along" brand of politicians who currently reside in the august halls of Congress.  They throw around words and phrases meant to marginalize conservatives, saying they are not "statesman-like", or they don't have the proper "temperament". Conservatives are called "right-wing bomb throwers" if they call out Democrats who spew some of the most vile, despicable charges against Republicans. A Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, or any other Democrat, can go before the cameras and accuse Republicans, without an inkling of shame, of wanting to kill seniors, starve children, lynch blacks, et. al., with no impunity or facts, and according to GOP leaders we are supposed to bend over, grab the ankles, and take it.  To speak up and call them out on these incendiary charges, as Rep. Allen West (R-FL) did with Wasserman-Schultz is not, according to the GOP leadership, "statesman-like". In fact, in West's case, he was expected to apologize to her. To his credit, he said not only no, but hell no, he wouldn't apologize.
The state of our country is what it is precisely because we, as conservatives have chosen to take the "high road" in our debates with liberals, while they have made careers of getting down into, and staying, in the muck. President Obama was correct when he said that "you can put lipstick on a pig, but in the end it is still a pig". What was lost on people was that the illustration was more descriptive of Wasserman-Schultz, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and their ilk, rather than his intended target of Sarah Palin.
Senator Lugar has it wrong, as do so many in the GOP leadership. The problem is not in the Tea Party. The Tea Party does not need to moderate. Does he think that the Democrats are going to suddenly "moderate" their message? The answer is no! Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of the leftists in the Democrat Party, haven't moderated in the past, and they certainly aren't going to suddenly moderate in the future.  The vast majority of their positions are anathema to those who cherish freedom. There is no compromise with their positions.  There is only defeat.  The current GOP leadership is not equipped, intellectually or ideologically, to deal with the current crop of leftists which now hold the reins of power in the Democrat Party.  Boehner, McConnell, and the rest of the GOP leadership show, no ooze, weakness and the Democrats take advantage of that every chance they get. The GOP leadership are afraid to get their hands dirty, let alone get down in the mud with these pigs.
No, Senator Lugar, the problem is not the Tea Party.  The problem is you, and the other weak-kneed career politicians like you.  This country got into the shape it is in on your watch, not the Tea Party's. It's time for you and the rest of the GOP establishment dinosaurs to step aside.