GOP Facing Extinction?

[Mark E. Smith]

BerkshireEagle.com
Sunday November 19

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Lincoln D. Chafee moved quietly through the capitol on
Thursday, accepting condolences and grappling with his Election Day defeat.

A moderate Republican from Rhode Island who questioned the war in Iraq before the
invasion and who still clashed with the White House on conservative appointees, Chafee is
a measurement of New England's transition away from a transforming Republican Party.

"We're in danger of the Republican Party losing balance," Chafee said outside the Senate
chamber, navigated by his father John Chafee until his death in 1999. "Hopefully the
pendulum will swing back, and the party agenda won't have such an edge to it."

That conservative edge prompted New England voters to purge Republican lawmakers
from Congress two weeks ago, leaving just one GOP House member in the six-state region
and marking the near completion of a decades-long transition that experts believe will
soon extinguish Republican politicians in the Northeast.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_4687612

A Republican-free New England. Now there's good news.

[Ninja Jordan]

1. Charlie Rangel is doing his best to assure that doesn't happen (nm)

[Mark E. Smith]

4. I personally think Rangel is on the right track

Put the little darlings of the GOP in jeopardy of having to fight in places
such as Iraq and we'll be out of there so quick your head will spin.

That the military has become a responsibility relegated to the most
impoverished and underprivileged segments of our society is a travesty.
That these people are forced to fight the economic vanity wars of the
likes of the Bush family is economic genocide.

That so many people who regard themselves as being Democrats and
liberals would support this status quo is a sickening disgrace.

That so many DUers are missing the point on this makes me despair for
this place.

[Ninja Jordan]

7. I "see" the point, but voters will NOT...

and then bye bye majority. It's just dumb to do this right now. Give it a rest, Rangel.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. You say that you see the point ....

... why do you think others won't?

[Ninja Jordan]

12. With all respect, most do not have the time

to look at this from all sides. They simply see DRAFT coming from a democrat.

[jgraz]

11. I'm starting to think that "the voters" aren't as stupid as we think they are

As long as we make sure their votes count in 2008, we really don't need to stress so much about minor distractions like this.

[Xipe Totec]

5. We should cut Charlie some slack

He's not saying anything now, that he didn't say before we went in to Iraq.

Truth be told, if we had a draft, this war would already be over.

Perhaps it would have never even started.

I know that people are uncomfortable with the idea of involuntary military service.

They should be uncomfortable with the thought; that's Charlie Rangel's point.

The reason the chimp felt comfortable putting our troops in harm's way, is that most of America didn't have a dog in the fight. Most of us thought that putting a bumper sticker on our cars and waving the flag every now and then was enough.

Well, it isn't enough.

If we are not willing to sacrifice our own flesh and blood for this war, then the war is not worth fighting.

What the fuck do I care about freedom in Iraq? Absolutely nothing.

But I do care a hell of a lot about freedom in this country.

So far, this war has been a net loss of freedom and democracy for Iraq, for our country, and for the world.

[Ninja Jordan]

Uncomfortable with the thought--and voters' association of it with Dems

[KingFlorez]

16. Give me a break

What nonsense

[MannyGoldstein]

2. They've Just Changed Their Name

They're called the DLC now. Same philosophy as the old GOP, other than not hating sex.

(The current GOP is what we used to call "the monarchy")

[William769]

3. Not facing Extinction.

But is on the endangered species list.

[election_2004]

6. Nope, Hillary's "inevitable" rise to the presidency will put them back in business

They are banking on Hillary to become the new face of the Democratic Party, so that neocons and fundies will have a common enemy to rally against for the next 4-8.

The MSM whores are rubbing their hands together gleefully, relishing the thought of covering it.

The GOP will be back as a force to be reckoned with...WITHOUT the moderates in charge, unfortunately.

[Ninja Jordan]

8. So true.

John Kerry as the nominee could be a consolation prize for them.

[yourout]

9. When were the moderates in charge of the Republicans?

I guess I missed that.
:shrug:

[AZBlue]

13. Not the GOP, just the Bush cabal. We often forget there's actually a huge difference.

eom

[lcordero2]

14. He was probably the only thing the GOP had

that even resembled Presidential material.

[LeftishBrit]

15. I doubt that they're permanently extinct...

but he's making a good point. I am always amazed at how the Republicans describe Democrats as loony lefties driving their party to the left, etc. when it's THEM who have driven THEIR party way to the right; e.g. Bush is far to the right of Gerald Ford. Barry Goldwater was massively defeated 40 years ago, because he was seen as a right-wing nut, and now people who are to his right get elected routinely. The Republican right have this obsession with attacking 'activist' judges, many of whom were Republican appointees in the first place. Etc.

In Britain, Thatcher managed to move the Conservative party horrendously to the right, and this made it possible for the Labour party also to do so; so I hope that the Republican rightward shift doesn't lead to a Democratic rightward shift.

[Alcibiades]

17. If Bush can do for the Republicans

what Thatcher did for the Tories, I'm all for it. The Democratic Party has already drifted rightward a little bit, but that's OK. Whenever we have been in the majority, the average officeholder has always been to the right of the progressive wing of the party. I can live with that, it's the price of getting some of the progressive agenda through. I like moderate Democrats much better than the murderous monsters who now govern this country in the name of an elitist and apocalyptic coalition of plutocrats, Protestant Torquemadas and racist nutjobs.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Blair is to the right of Thatcher's immediate Tory predecessors, so it's quite a huge shift

And even if that weren't the case, I don't think that the recent (and probably not permanent) Tory implosion makes up for the effects of 11 years of Thatcher and 7 more of a regime that she essentially installed. Damage was done to the country, its industry and its whole atmosphere that may never be repaired, certainly not by Blair et al.

Hope you can get rid of the Bushies, before they do any more damage than they've done already, which I realize is quite a lot!

[leftofthedial]

19. we can hope

[geek tragedy]

20. Weren't Democrats facing extinction two years

ago?

Jesus, this shit is stupid.

[Odin2005]

21. Moderate? This site I found labels Chaffee as a liberal!

http://www.issues2000.org/Senate/Lincoln_Chafee.htm



:wow:

[slackmaster]

22. The GOP has been powerless and meaningless since Nixon resigned

They've only bothered us a couple of times since then.