GOP Rep Thomas Davis III: Bush "Has Killed The Republican Brand"

Washington Post :

While all eyes were on the presidential campaign and the demise of New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer (D) last week, Republicans on Capitol Hill were suffering a run of bad news that could hold dire implications for the campaign season.

It started with the loss last weekend of the seat held for two decades by former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). It got worse when Republicans lost potentially strong challengers to Democratic senators in South Dakota and New Jersey, and failed to field anyone to oppose the reelection bid of Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

The latest blow came with the revelation that the former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) had allegedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- from the organization's depleted coffers to his own bank accounts.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[robertlockwoodmills]

What is the Republican brand, after all? It once meant responsible fiscal/budget policy. No more. It once stood for a strong dollar. No more. It once meant providing our soldiers with adequate equipment and decent health care afterward. No more. It once meant cordial relationships with foreign countries and pride in our standing in the world. No more. It once meant high ethical standards. No more

The disappearance of the Republican brand isn't only Bush's fault. Republicans controlled Congress for the first six years of his presidency. Bush just made everything worse by being the most inept and dishonest president in history. His failures are those of character, not politics.

[BWonka]

Bush "Has Killed The Republican Brand"

Along with 4000 troops and several hundred thousand Iraqi civilians.
Along with the economy.
Along with conservatism.

Some legacy, eh, George? Kiss your elephant goodbye, dumbass.

[exile]

i think bush inhaled one too many times.

[AmericanNation]

Frankly, I have some very good friends who are self-described republicans, indepents, and even a few anarchists. And so, personally, I have always found sweeping generalizations the province of an unreasoned position. But, the controlling hierarchy of the Republican Party under the control of President GW Bush, Vice President Cheney, and their respective inner circle, have not merely damaged (not deystroyed) the name of the GOP but also and more importantly the nation's image internationaly due to their egregious foreign policies and decisions throught the last eight years. It would be imprudent for anyone to seriously discount the Republican Party in the upcoming Presidential election, the Clinton campaign has substianly reduced (if eliminated) the likelyhood of Senator Obama being able to defeat Senator McCain in November 2008. President and Senator Clinton (and the Carville styled) political machinery attacked Senator Obama with everything from the stealth Muslim and Tony Rezko to Senator Clinton's assertion that Senator McCain is ready to be Commander-In-Chief but that Senator Obama is not. And, it is now irrelevant that all the candidates have made some form of private arrangement on the floor of the Senate to not utilize negative campaigning, the reality is that 13% of Americans now believe that Senator Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number of white Americans are also siding with Ms. Ferraro (a Clinton campaign insider) that Senator Obama has somehow received preferential treatment due to his race. To that end, that leaves a logical general election between Senator Clinton and Senator McCain both of whom have more detractors than supporters and so it will be a very close election, if only Florida and Michigan had followed the rules of the DNC, the Clintons would not have gotten into panic mode and utilized such negative racial and religious campaign techniques to try to win at all costs. This was such a positive year Senator McCain, Senator Obama, Senator Edwards - there was so much hope - and then came the Clintons.

[research]

You don't think those 13% are mostly part of the 33% who still approve of Bush's presidential job?

37% no correctly identify Obama as a Christian up from 18% a year ago.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ-20080312-poll.pdf

[RoseMerry]

I guess he did one good thing in seven years.

[Danny]

Yes, he did one good thing in seven years -- destroy the republican/conservative/neocon brand. But at what price? Untold hardship and ill-will here and abroad. It's quite a legacy, not to be proud of. I hope Paraguay still has that non-extradition arrangement. Otherwise, there'll be hell to pay.

[A Meat Beetle]

Rose:

Actually, it may be the only good thing he's done in his entire life. What a complete waste of oxygen and DNA!

[darker]

Journalist Gail Collins writes: " it’s a Freudian trip. Now that he’s [BUSH} mucked up the world and the country, he can finally stop rebelling against his dad and relax in the certainty that the Bush name will forever be associated with crash-and-burn presidencies."

It's time to DUMP REPUBLICANS. They helped Bush create the "nanny state for the rich", corporate welfare queens, war-mongering war profiteers, greedy Big Oil, deregulated mortgage bankers that
are crashing the USA Economy and making middle-income Americans PAY FOR IT.

"

[postedby]

Bush "Has Killed The Republican Brand"

As a Repub, I agree this may be true. However, he hasn't killed conservatism. If anything, he's pissed off conservatives and who knows what that may cause. So don't all cum in your panties too soon.

[research]

The conservative agenda is and always has been the agenda of wannabe robber barons and despot kings, at least as far back a Hooverville.

The glorious fruit of that conservative agenda was BushCo when he was popular. BushCo is Corporatist fascist.

Conservative=corporatist=fascist=GOP=BushCo=McCain=Bankruptcy.

Bankrupt morally, intellectually, politically.

Bankrupt financially unless you are one of the few chosen cronies.

The Permanent republican fascist majority is still moving forward toward a Hoover depression, so they can further dominate the peasants and avoid prosecution.

Impeach!

[doug108]

First off, I don't wear any underwear at all.

Secondly, what MIGHT come of this Republican meltdown? What are "conservatives" going to do, make their policies and goals even more extreme? The death of the GOP brand is the death of crazy-ass conservative policy. That means the modern conservative movement is dead. The only thing that's going to rise from those ashes is a tempered, more liberal conservatism. I'll take that.

[doug108]

First off, I don't wear any underwear at all.

Secondly, what MIGHT come of this Republican meltdown? What are "conservatives" going to do, make their policies and goals even more extreme? The death of the GOP brand is the death of crazy-ass conservative policy. That means the modern conservative movement is dead. The only thing that's going to rise from those ashes is a tempered, more liberal conservatism. I'll take that.

[ghostsofamerica]

"What kind of peace do we seek? Not a PAX Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time."

John F. Kennedy (1963)


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Urgent: This Is Serious Folks, Admiral Fallon Fired To Clear Way For WW3

http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttroop/message/29885

[Danny]

John F Kennedy's vision would have been possible if the zero population growth movement had taken hold during his era, as it was trying to do. Now it's a bleak future for the planet because of the shortsightedness of our most recent executives and religious leaders imposing their cancerous capitalism views (babies, more babies as consumers, ad infinitum) on the world. These policies are counting on cataclysms, global warming, and plagues to even out what the planet can comfortably accommodate. It's not just the Republican/Conservative/Neocon brand that has been destroyed. It's the children's future.

[AmericaIsATerroist]

Obama is America's ONLY hope of regaining ANY kind of respectable standing in the world today. You may disagree with that choice, but you can't deny that America ranks somewhere in between Satan and eating steaming piles of dog shit on the list of popular things.

[chronic]

AMEN!

[AguynamedWayne]

And are you american? Why would you retain your citizenship here? Why not move to somewhere else? Maybe because America is the "Land of the Free". Get some pride , or get out. Why stay if you hate it soooo much. Hypocrite.

[Duncan77]

As Bill Hicks said when confronted by the "love it or leave it" crowd. "What, and be a victim of US foreign policy."

You do know that most countries in the world also claim to be the "Land of the Free" and their claim is just as much based in reality as yours is.

[tjmurphy]

That sounds like the motto of the john birch society.." Love It Or Leave it."
NO, you stay and right the wrongs and make this again the great country
it was and will be again.

[whimsicalpig]

I don't blieve he said he hates America, he just despises what the republicans have made of it.

this country without :

richard nixon, ronald reagan(irancontra stuff) dick cheny, donald rumsfeld, jesse helms orin hatch, strom thrumond, newt gingrich.topm delay, ..I could go on and on,...

what a much better place it would be and how much better the world would like us.

that's what he meant.

[chinacatsunflower]

And the "Land of the Free" has more of its citizens locked up in prison than any other country, many of them for non-violent crimes. Just Great.

[WorkingClass]

This is a has-been country. Living here sux. When you're living in the street, foraging for acorns and insects, maybe you will admit it.

[AKJM]

Who/what do you support? The Progressive movement? A personality? I've never Obama personally, I only point out that his chance of winning the general are slim, slimmer than Clinton's slim chance.

Hillary is not a witch, Obama is not our savior. The media chose this "white woman v black man" scenario to sell press not to change America, these two are not the answer.

[BWonka]

So you just push aside the high numbers of people supporting the two (Obama and Clinton)? Pusha aside all those who have voted in the Primaries for the first time in their lives? Push aside all the money collected vs. the little the Rethugs have collected?You think it is all a ploy by the MSM?

That sure sounds like Fox-speak.

[tbone99]

Was it it the press? or was it the elite party elders , so intent on making history they forgot about winning?

[BatedBreath]

[Bush] "Has Killed The Republican Brand"

And he's been laughing and dancing on the grave, or shufflin' off to the ranch. Don't worry, repubs, he's happy.

And isn't it just like a repub to blame it all on someone else. Bush was bad, but he had help.

[ArchAngel]

Hey reviewer this is directly for you:

Well I see as usual this website has come to almost a complete halt as it now does every weekend.

Either the people working on the weekends are spoiled immature lazy snot noses or there is only one greatly over worked person.

I suspect that most of the reviewers are young and have no real idea about what people are writing about - though I am sure that they are completely full of themselves and think that they already know everything worth knowing.

Either way it really sucks and has destroyed much of what made this a good website.

[DavidAF]

No Shit!

[GeorgeKaplan]

"Bush has killed the Republican brand." Not news anymore.

[Mauiloa]

How can any true American not love this headline? Oh that it were true.

Virtually every Republican in this country was in lock-step with the Bushies over everything from taxes to the "war on terror". They hitched their wagon to a train heading toward disaster. And now they're lamenting the results.

I still maintain that it is only through the most inept administration possible of this war that we are even talking about the resurgence of the Democratic Party. Like the millions of people who live and breathe the Super Bowl game, Americans have wanted only one thing from this government:: that our team win.

Well, our "team" is losing this game. It's one that we never should have started, but when the decision was made by Congress and the American people to back it, all we wanted was to win. It wasn't about morality or justice or lies or rightness. It was just about winning.

It still is, which is why even the Democrats aren't saying anything that could upset the "fans". The fans consist of most of America. And the fans still want to win.

Over 4200 Americans and other Coalition soliders have died, officially almost 30,000 (probably many more) have been wounded and an estimated 90,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since this began in 2003. And the war goes on and on.

And still, all we want in this country is TO WIN!

[MrKnuckles]

Ah yes, Bushie & Company has indeed killed the Party's party, too effing bad eh? But for how many years will this wizen coven of carpetbaggers stay dead? How many more election cycles will these Neo-Con zombies molder before they rise from their self dug graves? How long before they pose themselves once again as defenders of morality before they happily resuming their wanton destruction of the security and welfare of our children's children, children, children? My bet is eight years before the publics attention span fails and the gross atrocities perpetrated by these perverse used car salesmen fades from the national memory. Let's hope our collective financial house and International standing is up off its knees by then because, as sure as Nixon was a crook, these slimy undead buggers will once again start devouring our government for their business buddies while calling patriotism.

[gcallaghan]

You know, the thing that will rid us of neocons is the very thing they hate most- daylight. The the retarded codpieceboy is banished from the white house investigations should resume into who ordered what during the last 8 years. Once light shines on one of these rats after Bush leaves office and presidential pardons are off the table, they'll turn on each other in an instant. Honor and valor aren't exactly their strong suit, you know.

[RAStewart]

"My bet is eight years before the publics attention span fails and the gross atrocities perpetrated by these perverse used car salesmen fades from the national memory."

Eight whole years? You are an optimist, sir.