Get Rid of Them

I see the Senate knocked down a bill that would have allowed drilling in ANWAR. I for one am in favor of drilling there. Every drop of oil we can get from some place other than the middle east is certainly preferable to dependency on the ME. But this post is about what I think is the masochism of the Republican party. There seems to be a small band of Republican Senators who routinely oppose almost everything Bush and the party leadership wants.

So why does the party put up with them? If I were the party chairman I would hold a meeting of top party officials and advance the notion of inviting a few of these guys out of the party. An announcement that there would be no money coming from the RNC for the re-election campaign of say a Lincoln Chafee ought to do it. Mr. Chafee would probably be a Dem by noon next day. Maybe a few of his birds-of-a-feather friends would become irate and join him, (what a pleasent thought).

But it would do something the Republicans need right now: it would send a message to the electorate that the GOP intends to stand for GOP principles and will not tolerate subterfuge. The electorate however is presently getting the opposite message: that the Repubs will bend over backwards to enact the Dem's legislation.


To my way of thinking, the people elected the Republicans because they favored what they percieved to be Republican principles. (The fact that the issue of "what are those principles" is rather foggy right now, is beside the point.)For the Chafees and Hagels and Specters and others to resist their own party is to spit in the faces of the electorate. It is as if they are saying "We were just Kidding! We didn't mean the things we said we stood for. We actually think the Democrats are right and that's why we keep voting with them." I am not kidding here. Why would these gentlemen keep voting with the Dems if they didn't think the Dems were right and their own party wrong? Get rid of them!

As I said in my blog intro, I'm not a Dem or Rep. so I don't care if both parties self-destruct. But the Republicans remind me of that comercial I saw recently where two hockey players face off, the puck is dropped and the two players look at each other then say "Go ahead." "No you first." "Oh I wouldn't think of it. After you."
Sheesh! They're both republicans!

There's no spine, no ambition, no desire, no leadership atop the Republican party. Are you listening Mr. Mehlman? Get rid of them.