Ex-GOP senator unloads: A “total disconnect … between reality and Republican Party”

[DonViejo]

Former Republican senator and independent Gov. Lowell Weicker has harsh words for his party -- and his replacement

BY JOSH EIDELSON

Lowell Weicker served three terms in the U.S. Senate from Connecticut as a Republican, before being defeated by then-Democrat Joe Lieberman – with an assist from influential conservatives – in 1988. Two years later, in a rare feat, he won Connecticut’s gubernatorial election as a third-party candidate.

In a Friday interview, Weicker – now 82 – slammed the modern GOP, scorched his old foe Lieberman, and urged an upheaval in how America funds public schools. A condensed version of our conversation follows.

What went down in D.C. over the past month – has it told us anything about the Republican Party that we didn’t know?

I suppose the obvious answer is that the party is so far off to the right that it can’t even come to grips with reality in America today. Now, that’s the easy answer because it’s clear that the Republicans, through their most extreme members, are showing that tendency. But I think the time has come to focus the blame where it belongs, and that’s with the American people.

You cannot have a government where 46 percent vote for president, about 35 percent vote for Senate, about 25 percent for congressmen. When you get to those total local percentages, that means that any dedicated group within the percentage can have an enormous weight, way beyond their numbers, on policy.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/28/ex_gop_senator_unloads_a_total_disconnect_between_reality_and_republican_party/

[gopiscrap]

1. He's absolutely right