If you can’t trust these feckless Republicans on a little thing like earmarks, you can’t trust them on a big, hard thing like balancing the budget. I hope the Tea Party guys are planning to primary these clowns:
Eight GOP senators voted to preserve earmark spending, including Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), James Inhofe (Okla.), Dick Lugar (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Richard Shelby (Ala.). Retiring Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) and defeated Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah) also voted against it.
Go get ’em.
And if anybody wanted an excuse to challenge Mitch McConnell, this is it.
Hmm...I seem to recall that Murkowski just had a challenger. Not that it made a difference.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBob Bennett has already been "tea-party primaried" and won't be returning in January. This kind of vote is why. And probably why fellow Utah Senator Hatch didn't vote with him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe usual Republican suspects voted against the earmark ban and one of them hails from my state. Senator Lugar is up for reelection in 2012, but apparently doesn't care about his reelection prospects. He's old and tired and needs a long overdue rest, which he's likely to get. Lugar became a "no" vote for me when the New York Times praised him as a maverick who has been voting his principles (i.e., with Democrats) for years.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Inhofe has guaranteed he will face well-funded opposition in the next republican primary in OK, 2014. He has it right on a number of issues, notably the climate hoax, but this is unacceptable.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"You cannot save dollars till you start saving pennies!" The most important rule yet to be learned by these R's and all D's is that you cannot borrow your way out of debt. And every earmark increases the debt. Get some challenger's for these seats now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLugar is the only one of these 8 up for possible re-election in 2012. We should make a coordinated attack on him with a strong primary challenger. I think we all know who that should be...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, Flambeaux, you don't always win on the first shot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePence for Senate!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusewell well NO surprise from that RINO MURCOwSKI
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAren't we on the right supposed to be discerning? Do we really want an earmark litmus test? For example, James Inhofe, a senator with a 97.66 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union (Tom Coburn scores an even 98) and everyone's favorite global-warming skeptic, votes against a symbolically important (but in practice probably less so) ban on earmarks and now the knives are out for this "clown." Give me a break.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe problem with challenging the Alaskan Pork Princess is that it appears to me that she _is_ representing her constituents with this vote. She managed to win handily over both a Republican and a Democrat despite the difficulties of running a write-in campaign. That suggests to me that either (a) She has some sterling quality that makes it unimaginable for Alaskans not to have her in the Senate despite these sorts of votes or (b) The voters of Alaska want her delivering earmarks to their state. I could be wrong, but (b) strikes me as the more likely option.
Either way, though, if we couldn't get her out this year, it seems unlikely that we'll have better luck 6 years down the road.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePence, Stutzman, Hostettler... who else will be running in Indiana's 2012 GOP senate primary? A bigger issue than finding a suitable challenger for Lugar is getting conservatives behind just one challenger. Otherwise, we end up with small plurality of Republicans once again voting for the moderate when any of the conservative candidates could win the general election.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot Pence. Mitch Daniels. But Pence should run for Governor after Mitch moves on. Both the Senate seat and Governor's office are up in 2012. This makes great sense and gives us two great leaders for 2012 and the future.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Zsuzsa: You forgot another possibility with Murkowski.
The Republican was damaged by vicious negative ads and late-season news hits. The Democrat was a non-entity. Murkowski won based on a combination of name recognition and not being either of the other two candidates in a three way where 40% of the vote total can be a big win. A better challenger - from the right or left - could have easily beaten her in a straight race.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRumors here in Indiana are that state Treasurer Richard Mourdock and state Sen. Mike Delph are considering challenging Lugar. Both are solid conservatives who were just re-elected and both would be formidable candidates both to beat Lugar and to hold the seat in the fall.
I think Mourdock especially would be a strong candidate. He was the top vote-getter on the GOP ticket this year. Best known for challenging the auto bailout in court due to its leapfrogging of union interests over bondholders that included two Indiana employee pension funds.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's not just that these clowns are wrong on the merits -- of course earmarks are corrupt and corrupting -- it's also that their tone deafness damages the Republican brand and thus the prospects of the party generally. I look forward to sending a shilling or two to each of their primary opponents.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMcConnell isn't up for four more years and why would you go after him. He is trying to herd cats and he can't always keep them contained. We need him to keep then in line for the really important issues.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's see, in 2012 Lugar will be 80 years old. Now in most normal brains, the person will say it's time to go home and enjoy the family in the time I have left. In these senate creatures, 80 seems to be the jumping off point for another 2-3 terms. After all, they are just so indispensable to the whole process. Who would do as good a job as they would?
Go home Old man. If Indiana re-elects this geezer, they are as bad as Alaska, going for Senator Renta Cowski.
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