NRCC Chairman Tells GOP: Change Or Die

The Atlantic:

A fairly remarkable statement from the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole, about tonight's special election in Mississippi. He's warning his incumbents and challengers: change or die.

"We are disappointed in tonight's election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[Grannysue]

Let's see do the American people get a choice, I choose the later!

[AERO]

You can't fix stupid.

[speakyourmind]

If you listen closely, you can almost hear the fat lady singing...

[mediamarv]

Those eyes, those eyes! Looks like he has spent sleepness nights trying ot figure out how to avoid more politial disaster without disowning bush and having cheney on his ass.

My favorite type of soap opera: hypocrites burning in their own excrement (coming soon to a Fox station near you).

[HippieChick]

"He's warning his incumbents and challengers: change or die"

Since we now know that republicans are firmly in neocon mode and will not "change," then the only way we can save what is left of our nation is for them to "die." I hope to be reading republican "obituaries" on a daily basis.

[apoyo]

Change is good. But change to what. For the better or the worse?

[GerryS]

I think most Americans would agree, any change would be better than the last 4 years-

it would be very hard to NOT do better than W and uncle Dickie have!

[Hallucinocynic]

So, as much as Bill Clinton and the DLC skewed the Democratic Party to the right in order to get elected and reelected, the Republicants will have to skew to the left - e.g., social programs, tax advocacy, less $ for defense - if they want to get elected.

The pendulum swings both ways.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Right you are, their party is in serious need of EVOLUTION. I mean this both as coming forth from the chimpanzee war mongering, chest beating and dumping the lunatic Creationis­m/Anti-Lif­e Choice positions. There's only so many crazies in any society.

The US is the most Right Wing of any industrialized nation which isn't outright totalitarian. The Republicans HAVE to move toward catching up with the rest of the world or die. They may tout that we're #1 but the facts like #38 in health care according to the WHO disprove it.

[donballz]

Yes, our totalitarianism is more subtle. Boot on the shoulder as opposed to the neck

[GerryS]

By looking at Tom Cole's eyes, I would say he has some other hidden problems, and not the basic "gosh, he's a repunklican" kind of problems. The kind of problems he wouldn't want his GOP friends to find out-

[BassMent]

Too little too late.

The Neo-conservative movement has been exposed on the national stage as a lie, an utter failure in terms of moving the country forward for the good of the majority of Americans. The true believers, however, do not see this, and still cling to the policies that propelled Newt Gingrich and GWB into office.

Look at how they're treating McCain, who has been forced to retreat into neo-con platitudes on EVERY ISSUE except global warming. Expect him to backpedal on that once the general election starts... because of course every good neo-con knows that global warming is "fuzzy science" (and doing anything about it might cost big oil some of their mega-profits).

McCain is doomed because his party is not nimble enough to truly modify it's approch to governance. Anything they say that sounds "new" will be perceived by everyone outside of Appalachia as a total lie (sorry about the Appalachia thing, I couldn't resist).

[Binx101]

I think Mr. Cole may have more eloquently stated his point if he simply stated - the RepParty needs to change back. Back to before Reagan - back to when they were fighting Harry Truman in a much different set of circumstances. When the warts on both parties - Like Joe McCarthy - were visible.

The neocon coup of the Republican Party has been a gravy train for many and a road to prison for others. The ideologues like Rumsfeld, Perl, Krystoll, Feith, .......... have created tremendous pockets of political collateral. And the puppet beneficiaries like Bush family are like highly privileged aliens from another galaxy.

The neocons are the insurgency in America. Perhaps political death is a better alternative and kill this two party -only system. We'll be talking about this soon.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[Felicty]

Better yet, just die.

[oogabooga]

This guy's still missing the mark. The Republic Party has to jettison the NeoCons, who have controlled the Republic Party for around 35 years, dating back to Cheney and Rumsfeld in the 70s under Nixon. Bush ran Reagan's presidency, and ironically, Cheney runs Bush Jr's. The problem is the Republic Party candidates in the hinterlands mouth the traditional Republic Party stances (small government, balanced budgets, maximum personal freedom, keep government out of people's lives), but it's the authoritarian NeoCons who run the national party and government. The NeoCons despise the traditional Republic Party beliefs. Now the base voters of the Republic Party are seeking an alternative. Obama might pick some of those. Others will stay home. And still others will vote for Barr.

[djthedj]

Barr is a neocon. He's just lying (as he has throughout his career) to try to hold on to some tiny shred of his political life. If the LP is dumb enough to nominate him, they will prove that they are just as worthless as the main 2 parties.

[mellene]

The republicans may fear extinction, but it is hard to kill a tarantula so I'm not worried about them facing extinction at all.

[SShaw490]

Tom Cole's problem is that all he can offer America is promises that the Republican party will change. In other words, he's left to do the same things they did in '00, '04, '06 and so on - and he's left with making the same promises they've broken for 8 straight years. Nobody with a functioning brain believes the Republican party will ever change.

The best evidence I can find is this: The 02 version of John McCain was the kind of Republican that people would like to see. He opposed tax cuts that led to deficit spending, he opposed the religious right, he was pro-choice, he was fairly pro-environment, he was anti-lobbyist; now he's the nominee of his party, but in order to get there, he's done an about face on all those issues. In other words, rather than the Republican party changing their ways and adopting his, he had to change himself to their position. So why would anyone think they're all of a sudden going to start keeping their promises to change?

[S1m0n]

The GOP has thrived on voters not actually expecting anything to change. They vote for the republicans because that party at least bothers to mouth the right words, so voting for them's less of an insult.

[dadw5boys]

THREE CHEERS FOR NEWT GINGRICH!!!!!!

OR AS THE TAXPAYERS KNOW HIM NEWT GETRICH!

His line-o-crap combined with the gang from Let's Steal the Public's Equity Group lead by Freidman and the New World Order have finally driven a stake into the heart of the beast that is the Republican Party.
A Politicial Party that holds meeting on how to destory the very system of government worked to balance the rights of the citizens to that of the Corporate World.
They meet to design ways of creating a servant class of Americans. Zero population growth really cut the number of Native Born Citizens so they could bring in the immigrants who fear questioning the authorities. All the research, think tanks and study groups started just to WRITE LAWS for the Republican (SO CALLED) Lawmakers made them lazy so they seldom even bothered to reasd the bills they submitted and could have cared less what was hidden in the stacks of paper that GAVE AWAY THE CITIZENS RIGHTS. Why should they? Less than 5 % of Republicans ever served in the Military and of that 5% few did more than hide in the Reserves!