……………… but I’ll bet it’s not the last.
The Washington Post confirmed today that the Democrats will not enact all of the 9.11 Commission’s recommendations in the first 100 hours. This is, of course, a direct and explicit repudiation of a major campaign theme that was pounded into the body politic.
The Democrats didn’t make many, actually almost no, explicit policy statements of promised action if elected. If the congressional Ds will run from something this explicit, and run this fast and early, can you imagine the craziness to come?
So what can we do to ensure that people in Iowa know about this about face? How do we best expose this major disingenuity to people in Iowa who don’t read the Washington Post? I sure think the average voter should become aware of such a significant broken promise, don’t you. So Republicans, lets hear how you think we should exploit this opportunity to provide the public with a glimpse of the real Democrat agenda!
The Washington Post confirmed today that the Democrats will not enact all of the 9.11 Commission’s recommendations in the first 100 hours. This is, of course, a direct and explicit repudiation of a major campaign theme that was pounded into the body politic.
The Democrats didn’t make many, actually almost no, explicit policy statements of promised action if elected. If the congressional Ds will run from something this explicit, and run this fast and early, can you imagine the craziness to come?
So what can we do to ensure that people in Iowa know about this about face? How do we best expose this major disingenuity to people in Iowa who don’t read the Washington Post? I sure think the average voter should become aware of such a significant broken promise, don’t you. So Republicans, lets hear how you think we should exploit this opportunity to provide the public with a glimpse of the real Democrat agenda!
13 comments:
I think the question you should ask before exploring how to exploit the about face is, "Does the general public care?"
I really don't think the independent and turncoat Republicans back home in Iowa voted Democrat in the hopes that the Dems would implement the 9-11 commission recommendations, do you? Seriously, do you?
Pointing fingers and ooh - oohing like Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter" is not the way to regain the public's trust and confidence. Address the issues that matter most - illegal immigration and the strain it puts on our health care system, our schools, our law enforcement - and demonstrate how Democrats just don't get it. Get back to the basics of homeland security and demonstrate how Democrats just don't get it (see Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's comments on the MNPLS airport/imam incident).
Demonstrate competence, humility, leadership and a concern for what matters most. I for one am tired of the finger pointing and stagnation. Stop thinking like a partisan politico and start thinking like an Iowan/American.
the Is may not care, but its saying something that i bet Hoffman is learning about this from Sporer's blog.
Right on, Hawkeyegirl! If this is going to be the R strategy for the next two years, 2008 will be another good year for D's.
Thanks rf. I'm not trying to be critical of our host's post - I always enjoy them and appreciate the opportunity to participate in the dialogue. I just think it's important to focus on the issues. Afterall, the Dems wasted a lot of time attacking the GOP (luckily for us) instead of giving voters an alternative. Again this cycle they didn't necessarily stand for anything but cut and run, but we failed to fulfil our end of the bargain. We handed the majority to them on a cracked plate.
I ran in the Army 10 Miler back in October 2004. There were all these "smurfs" running in blue shirts that said, "Running Against Bush." At about the 7 mile mark I finally asked one of them, "Why don't you stand FOR something instead of just opposing President Bush?" No response. We need to stand FOR something - and stand strong.
The 9-11 Commission was a joke.
Hawkeyegirl,
Again, you are right. As you probably know, I'm a D. However, I hope both your party and my party follow your advice. I would rather have two good, or at least decent, parties that stand for something to choose from. I hate voting for someone just because they suck less than the other guy and have no agenda. Personally, I think I've even reached a point that I would vote for a good R over a bad D. Your point about many D's only having an anti-Bush agenda has a lot of validity. It was enough this time around, but I think it can only carry us so far.
We need two messages-one has to be positive and one a clear negative contrast.
The only way to outflank the media's devotion to Democrat propoganda is to place a spotlight on some of the very very bad policies and practices that Democrats advocate.
RF-I think you are well intentioned, and you actually give me some hope that we can return to a more civil level of discourse. Hawkeye Girl is also right to a certain extent. Think about the outrageous statements of HOward Dean, John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi etc... about the President of the United States, during war time for God's sake.
But we Republicans have walked the high road for far too long. Now, its time for the Ds to find out what an attack really is like.
The problem is that pointing out this particular shortcoming doesn’t really serve our cause in any meaningful way. Mohammed is right for the most part, the 9/11 commission report was a joke. But that is to be expected of the findings of any commission made up of Politicians and Bureaucrats when you ask them to sit down and figure out why politics and bureaucracy failed.
Sure the Democrats hit us a lot for not implementing all of the 9/11 commissions findings, but I don’t think that most people who voter Democrat this year did so based on that. So to answer Ted’s question of what do we do with the fact the Democrats will also ignore parts of the 9/11 commission? My answer is nothing … At least for now. We could jump up and down screaming “liar, liar pants on fire.” But that only makes us look like a party of jackasses with no vision for the future, just the same old politics of the past. Hell, the Democrats did it for years (there still doing it) and it took them 12 years, and a Republican congress that simply ran out of ideas and refused to adapt before that paid off.
Our best strategy for 2008 is to stop pointing finger, devise a new “Contract with America.” We need to give voters reasons to vote for us, not reasons to vote against the Democrats. The problem in 2006 was that both parties only provided voters with reasons to vote against the other party. With all of the scandals, conflicts around the world, and instability of our own borders I think voters were simply voting for something other than what they saw as a party that had failed them.
sporer for state chair!!!
Hawkeyegirl,
So are you a runner? I plan on running FOR one of the D '08 contenders in the Dam to Dam race on June 2. It was going to be for Warner, but now I have to find someone else. You wanna come back to Iowa to race my D self? Which one of the R '08 contenders would you run for?
It seems the Democrats like the idea of any commission as long as it results in their preordained decsion. Once it finds otherwise they decide we need more commissions. They are a party of cowards and turncoats agreeing only on matters to raid the treasury for more votes. As to national security, they last about one round in a 15 round bout because they don't care about America which is of course the heart of the matter.
They gave the President support in the short time period after 9-11 because they wanted revenge (except for the Michael Moore wing as that flavor of Democrat thought we deserved the attack).
We just had a group of Muslim "scholars" get on a plane only 4 hr's drive from DSM shouting "Allah Akbar" and speaking about Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein while changing seats, making strange requests, failing to talk to fellow passengers and other things that basically alarmed the crap out of everyone esle on the plane. Yet, a Democratic Party Congresswoman has already taken up their cause claiming it looks like racism.
We do need a new Contract with America and to start playing hard ball with the pathelogically deluded Democrats or our entire world history coud take a very bad turn. We need better party action and get rid of our own party hacks unwilling to do the hard work to get our people elected.
Ted Sporer as State Chair would be a good start.......
Democrats have been the Tax and spend party and now the republicans have become the borrow and spend party.
I suggest we move to a party and have a think tank examine the philosophy of governmet spending and the effect up on the economy. Republicans have justifyed their spending by saying that it improves the economy. I would say it controls the economy from growing. It allows growth but only limited growth. As we tighten the reins on our economy the chinese are lossening their reins on their economy. What is wrong here I ask?
So much for Democrats being fiscally responsible. Hey Gordo - I remember you never ever did respond to what you plan to do as you criticized Republican spending as irresponsible.
Harkin is your hero. Hang onto your wallets.
...“I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly,” said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. Harkin takes pride in the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s funneled through the Department of Defense for breast cancer research.
“Now, was that bad?” Harkin asked the Times. “If you left it to the Defense Department, they never would have done it.”
That’s probably true, because the Defense Department’s primary function is fighting and winning wars, not curing breast cancer. There are more appropriate federal agencies for conducting such research, but the Defense Department became a conduit for Harkin’s earmarks because of the senator’s committee assignments.
Harkin declines to use the term “earmark.” He prefers the euphemism “congressional directed funding.”
But whatever one calls it, it’s a scandal — and one that isn’t going to end with Democrats in charge of Congress."
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