CBS News/AP: Mood of Republicans Worry GOP Activists

[PhilipShore]

CBS News
AP
Jan. 20, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/ap/politics/mainD8F88UP00.shtml

(AP) A growing number of Republican voters are frustrated by congressional spending and scandal, according to GOP leaders from across the country who worry that an "enthusiasm deficit" could cost the party control of Congress in November.

[LaPera]

1. Keep the Dems over confident?

While they put their republican owned electronic voting machines to work.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. You nailed it!

The fix has been in since 2000!

[soothsayer]

2. Let it be so!

Fingers crossed.

[Born Free]

6. BOO! is all they need to say...

and the democrats will run and hide showing how they can always manage to lose an election because they are afraid to stand up to the GOP for a better USA ,the current elected democrats would rather hide and point fingers then come out fighting and the American people will once again see this and decide to select the lesser of two evils, they will select the party that does the wrong thing over the one that does nothing.

I do wish the leaders of the democratic party would prove me wrong,we have so many patriotic heros in the ranks but can't seem to get a voice in the leadership.

[Catrina]

3. HERE THEY GO AGAIN!!

The investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to ensnare at least a half dozen members of Congress of both parties and Bush administration officials.

This is truly a freaking outrage. There is simply NO excuse anymore ~ so we have to educate CBS and their viewers also!! After a month of corrections!! This is deliberate! Who are they paying at CBS? They've got their plants everywhere, it seems. It's just going to take us a little longer to refute, debunk and expose the lies.

Okay, maybe we will have to simply do it person by person, with leaflets, with highway bloggers, with emails, letters, phonecalls (how about a phone bank that tells respondents the whole sordid story of the Republicans and Jack Abramoff and his gang of Republican criminals)?

Okay, going to get started, sending the article, just to demonstrate the lie, and how long it has been since the truth has been available. Actually, in a way, I am glad they are still doing it. IT proves my point that it is not just incompetence, as some have said to me. I will get to them now, with the WAPO debacle today, and now with this from CBS!

THE JACK ABRAMOFF CRIMINAL AFFAIRS ARE A REPUBLICAN SCANDAL.

[depakid]

4. I don't think there a limit to their lies

or to their concealment of truth or willful failure to report on important issues.

If the Dems EVER grow a spine and get back into power, they need to seriously re-regulate the media back to the pre-Reagan era. The vast majority of Americans would support that- and I doubt most would oppose heavy fines and yanking some broadcast licenses for abusive behavior or for programming entire weeks that never comport with their basic public interest requirements.

[KittyWampus]

14. Dealing with Media is a PRESENT problem. Personally, I'm tired of DU'ers

always putting solutions in the future.

Democrats need to confront the Mediawhores NOW, when they get face time on tv. Make statements that show the bias as unquestionable.

For instance, Dean could have said to wolf:

"an responsible journalist would KNOW this is soley a Republican scandal"

or

"an independant journalist would refuse to repeat GOP talking points when they are contrary to irrefutable FACTS"

[MrPrax]

17. Bravo!

Yeah rather than have people pimp for AA(whine about Al 'USO' Franken's sidekicknot being leftwing enough) or whatever the courts decide will be the name of Gore's cable outlet(ironic, no?), they should be really going after the Reps. that basically schmooze with the existing media.

Democrats should get more disgusted, more personal and much more dismissive with these 'celebrities propagandist' and start calling a spade a spade.

Say to their face, "I am not talking to YOU...your a lair"...let them edit a soundbyte from that...and then walk away. Push the MSM the other way--force them to explain WHY they don't have a democrat's POV on their shows. I believe that there are many that simply will NOT bother with cable news programs anymore.

[depakid]

20. I don't disagree with that at all

However, aside from getting in their faces, there's little they can do without power.

The problem is that the last time, Clinton sold us all out on media regulation- and it's cost EVERYONE dearly. Why he pandered to them- and strengthened their hand when they didn't give him a break from day one is one of the great mysteries of his presidency.

That cannot be allowed to happen again.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. ...

<<Griffin, Rath and several other Republican activists attending a two-day RNC meeting said GOP voters in their states still strongly support President Bush>>

That's their problem right there. Stop blindly supporting Bush* and maybe corrupt members of their party i.e. Delay, Cunningham, Frist, Ney, Hayworth, Santorium etc wouldn't slip by.

<<The investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to ensnare at least a half dozen members of Congress of both parties and Bush administration officials.>>

Wishful thinking on the part of these media whores!

[Peace Patriot]

7. OK, here's the deal. Republicans get an automatic 5% to 10% edge from

Diebold and ES&S central tabulators ("trade secret," proprietary programming code, virtually no audit/recount controls), depending on circumstances. It is that false edge that has created the illusion that the rightwing in this country is any bigger than it has ever been (30% to 40%)--an illusion bolstered by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies which give the rightwing a BIG TRUMPET to promulgate their views, way out of proportion to their numbers (thus, also, making the members of the great progressive American majority feel isolated, alone, powerless and easily hoodwinked into voting on Bushite-controlled voting machines).

But Diebold and ES&S can't just manufacture elections--not yet anyway. Candidates have to get SOME votes, for the voting to be tweaked--meaning they have to get SOME support, and have to pull in some small donations, not just corporate money, and have to at least playact at being serious in public, and put on a campaign.

One more fact, Bush/Cheney's support over the last year, since their supposed re-election, has fallen on the low end of the perennial rightwing minority percentage, especially if you average them together--say, Bush 40%, Cheney 20%. Both have spent a lot of time UNDER those numbers, but, let's just grant it, for the sake of round figures. The average is 30%. That must be the lowest support for any US regime, ever.

So, keeping all of this in mind, we have (according to this news report) "GOP leaders from across the country" worried about an "enthusiasm deficit" that "could cost the party control of Congress in November."

You do the math. These people cannot win, even with their Diebold/ES&S advantage. That's why they're so worried. The only thing they could do is to resort to truly blatant vote flipping, such as Diebold performed recently in Ohio. Four election reform initiatives on the ballot, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over into 60/40 LOSSES (!) on election day --the most audacious vote flipping we've seen yet.*

But I don't think they could get away with that in any place except the Republican tyranny of Ohio. Eyebrows would be raised. Even Republican eyebrows. AND, critically important, their election theft machines would be exposed on a more general, nationwide basis--and the election reform movement given a big boost. They need this fraudulent election system for the Big Banana in '08. They don't want it any more exposed than it already is. The movement is growing every day, but it's still at a level where they could muffle it, if we win some elections.

Upshot (and this is the first time I have said this): We may take Congress! And the main danger for us is that, if we do, we will grow complacent about this egregiously non-transparent, Bushite-controlled election system, and fail to...

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' --the moment we have the power to do so, quickly, on a national basis!

And just think of that. Imagine elections in which Republicans don't have their thumbs on the scale!

My God, we could have a leftist revolution! We could elect an FDR! We could elect a Hugo Chavez! We could have democracy again! We could see the will of the people actually DONE!


----------------

*(Note: Bob Koehler)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Wait'll February when Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling BEYOND

$8.8 TRILLION.

[sduncang]

9. Good Point!

In fact, an excellent point. How soon we forget...but Ronald Reagan and the "conservative" Republicans were actually proposing a constitutional amendment which would require a balanced budget. Of course, none of these "Conservatives" actually submitted a balanced budget.

A debt level of 8.8 TRILLION (with a "T") from a so-called "Conservative" Congress and President is beyond belief. What's worse a large part was supposed to go for the reconstruction of Iraq, which should have, by now, been well along, but hasn't even started. These folks are only conservative when it comes to things applying to other people, but very liberal when it comes to their own personal selves.

[Cobalt Violet]

11. I'm always frustrated too when I fall for a bait and switch.

Some probably feel real stupid right about now too.

They should.

[snippy]

12. But gay Iraqi terrorists want to get married and confiscate our guns.

The republican "enthusiasm deficit" will disappear when Bush and the RNC start reminding republican voters of that.

[MGKrebs]

19. I think those are the same guys that used to

go sifting through my trash here in Georgia for an old library card so that they can go vote.

[qanda]

13. There's a Republican on C-SPAN right now who just said...

I am a Republican and I have been a Republican all my life. However, I'm a fair-minded Christian person and I see an elephant in the room-- not a donkey. I have gone on the internet and researched and done a lot of things and what I would like to know is: The bills that are adversly affecting people (even like myself as far as this pharmaceutical bill is concerned) These kind of things hurt American people. And even as a Republican I'm an American first. I would like to know who wrote those bills and if you could come out with as comprehensive of a report as the one you have there on Mr. Blunt.

[AnneD]

15. The GOP has long since stopped representing the GOP rank and file,

let alone the American people. They have only represented themselves. It is all about how to get more power, keep the power, and with the power line their pockets with more of our (your) money.

[Straight Shooter]

16. I have a friend who is a Repub politician and she is mad as a hornet.

She is far from stupid and knows the party has been hijacked. She comes from a family of Repub politicians and has held political office herself. She supported Dean and then Kerry.

My accountant, a steadfast bush supporter ... (what can I say, he's very competent and honest in his profession and I'm educating him) ... has been showing much less support for bush lately, said he spends like a drunken sailor. I don't think the notion of going to war against Iran is going to sit too well with him, either.

Unfortunately, of these two friends, the accountant is more like the typical Repub. It takes a lot of destruction, a lot of deaths, a lot of debt for them to see the light.

[goclark]

18. Well how can Blackwell be doing so well in Ohio?

It really disappointed me to see that he is ahead in the polls.

Didn't they get the info about his scandels?

[Mountainman]

21. Do Repukes ever ask who is getting all the money that is spent ?

It almost always goes to Repukes who gave to the Bush Campaign. The repukes are milking the treasury and giving the money to themselves and yet they complain about all that spending. I don't get it.