Rep. Spencer Bachus: 'Sarah Palin Cost Us Control Of The Senate'

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), recently tapped to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, believes that despite the GOP's monumental electoral gains last week, the party left some vital Senate seats on the playing field thanks primarily to the work of Sarah Palin.

This from the Shelby County Reporter over the weekend:

"The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Bachus said. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate."

He said Tea Party candidates did well in U.S. House races, but in the U.S. Senate races, "They didn't do well at all."

While many have questioned claims by some, including self-proclaimed Tea Partiers such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), that the conservative movement is to thank for Tuesday night's GOP gains, few have been so bold as to outright dish blame on party heavyweights such as Sarah Palin.

As the Associated Press recently reported:

Republican leaders and strategists are muttering that the same tea party activists who elevated Speaker-to-be John Boehner and the party to power in the House simultaneously hobbled the GOP's outside shot of running the Senate. Tea partiers largely spurned establishment candidates in the GOP primaries and helped nominate Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado.

Though Sarah Palin's endorsement record indeed flourished through its win-loss record in House races, it is also becoming increasingly apparent that some Republicans can't help but focus on the former Alaska governor's pushing of ultra-conservative candidates that many considered to be beyond the pale.

Such a tone appears to be the symptom of an ongoing inter-party power struggle that has pervaded much of the talk of the GOP's political strategy, both pre- and post-election. And while stories about this growing rift vary -- from Republican strategist Karl Rove speaking fast and loose about the sophistication of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party she has come to stand for, to Rep. Bachmann's (R-Minn.) current uphill climb against establishment-backed Rep. Hensarling (R-Texas) for a GOP leadership post -- conservative standard-bearers such as Jim DeMint continue to insist that the Tea Party has not complicated Republican matters.

As HuffPost's Elyse Siegel noted on Monday:

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" over the weekend, DeMint dismissed the criticism that the candidacies of O'Donnell and other losing contenders he backed -- like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado -- were to blame for the inability of Republicans to seize Senate control. "The Tea Party is responsible for just about every Republican elected around the country," he said.

Comments

[sottott]

10:37 AM on 11/11/2010

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010
Sarah Palin: Happy Veterans Day
*
As posted on Gov. Palin's Facebook Notes page:
Happy Veterans Day

On this Veterans Day, please take a moment to remember all those who served in uniform past and present. Though the words in this famous poem are about a soldier, they apply to every member of our armed services. God bless them all. May we never forget the sacrifices made to secure our liberty.

It’s the Soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us the freedom of the press.

It’s the Soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us the freedom of speech.

It’s the Soldier, not the politicians,
Who ensures our right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

It’s the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag.
- JP

[BdoMcGregor]

04:40 AM on 11/13/2010

Did she write this before "liking" the church that believes Obama is a Kenyan terrorist? Or after?

[Steve Rockett]

10:39 PM on 11/10/2010

Oh, Sarah, where are the jobs?

[Steve Rockett]

10:38 PM on 11/10/2010

Tea gaggers are anarchists. Fortunately, they are too cowardly and opportunistic to carry out their plans.

[Vegan Girl]

05:29 PM on 11/11/2010

Not in the traditional sense of anarchism. Like Chomsky claims to be an anarchist.

[Elias Maxwell]

10:33 AM on 11/10/2010

"I am so proud to be an American quitter", Sarah said as she went to the bank.

[Wombaticus]

08:31 AM on 11/10/2010

Partially wrecking the GOP takeover is the biggest public service Palin has ever done. One can only shudder while imagining what she would do if she were in an important office where her words would become law.

[Sabine Atwell]

01:45 PM on 11/10/2010

I hope that day never arrives. We need to reform our school system as only people without critical thinking skills could vote for such an airhead. My monther-in-law who is 98 always has a one word description for these types of people " no substance" Apart form the failed governorship, where would this woman ever work ???? Maybe at Target in an entry-level position.

[spindok]

06:02 PM on 11/10/2010

O MyGosh Yes!!!

F&F. I dont even know why these types of people who could work at Target even get to vote, let alone get paid oodles of dollars just to talk.

Seriously, listen first talk second. You sound as if you think you are smarter. You are certainly not more successful than the person you deride as possibly working at Target. Something wrong with that anyway?

Anyway far from wrecking the GOP, the crudish dolten teaparty baggers have given it life. That is reality.

Spindok

[Wombaticus]

11:32 PM on 11/10/2010

I always pictured Bush as a guy who walks out of the gas station office wearing a shirt with Junior name tag, wiping his hands and asking if you need a fill up.
And Palin as the cel phone talking soccer mom who darts in to steal your parking place and then laughs in your face about it.

[Steve Rockett]

10:16 PM on 11/10/2010

She would quit, of course.

[Wombaticus]

11:29 PM on 11/10/2010

:D

spot on funny, but I think she would hang in there baby because that seat is as big a spotlight as she could ever hope to hog. And clearly she can simply ignore inconvenient problems for a mere 4 years.

[Rose Anderson]

10:26 PM on 11/09/2010

Bacus is another old line Republican that needs to go the way of the Blue dog, to the dog house.

[Yikes11]

09:52 PM on 11/09/2010

The half wit p i m p e d you Alaska, big time.

[kaptaintripps]

08:03 PM on 11/09/2010

She cost us all a "whole lot more than a ReThug Senate." Duh.

My gawd. My gawd. May McCan't be cursed forever for unleashing this plague on this country. What a failure. What a pathetic piece of cr@p she is.

What a waste.

[loudneighbor]

07:49 PM on 11/09/2010

Palin is the Face of Failure, from the Past, to the Present and to the Future.

[StopYourYelling]

07:46 PM on 11/09/2010

Is this man honestly blaming Sarah Palin for the loss of Delaware? Republicans shouldn't have been elected to a house majority any way. He should be grateful his party fared so well during this election cycle.

[TruthFinderToo]

07:01 PM on 11/09/2010

And so begins the long walk o the divorce courts....................

[gwilder]

05:46 PM on 11/09/2010

if only Palin would listen and take her toys and go home and stay there. Fame and money were her ultimate goals, not Alaska.

[Frog in a pot]

03:47 PM on 11/09/2010

A few statistics from the Department of Labor

All Employees: Hourly compensation costs in manufacturing in 32 countries in U.S. dollars
Year: 2007

Germany $50.73
Denmark $47.54
Canada $31.91
Australia $34.75
Austria $43.17
Belgium $38.75
Finland $39.74
France $37.68
United Kingdom $36.66
Ireland $35.62
Italy $32.19
Norway $55.03
Spain $24.55
Japan $23.95
Korea $18.63
Singapore $15.43
Netherlands $39.47
USA $30.56

Average wage in countries using the Euro: $40.71
Average wage in Europe: $39.41

Now, unemployment in Germany, for example, is far lower than in the U.S. because they paid companies NOT to lay off workers. Germany's economy depends on manufacturing exports and they're going great guns again.

Automation has reduced the number of people involved in manufacturing, there is no avoiding that. But how can all these countries with similar living standards to ours, manage to pay people working in factory jobs more, in most cases, than companies pay in the USA? China can sell goodies to them too!

You do not have to lower the standard of living for your people via lower wages to remain competitive in the world market. Labor, is only 10% of the cost of making a car, for example.

What's the difference? One is that the average CEO earns 25 times the average worker's wages in Europe. Here, it's 300 times.

High labor costs is a straw man. Just not true.

Via dawgspiell

[KWHOO]

04:18 PM on 11/09/2010

Great comment. The US constituency are corporatists, the working people in America are becoming little more then wage slaves.

[BdoMcGregor]

04:44 AM on 11/13/2010

I know so many Americans who work well over 40 hours a week and do not claim overtime because they are afraid of being laid off. It's sad. We get less vacation time. Less time wiht our families and yet so many working people direct their anger at unions and progressives instead of directing their anger to the big businesses that give them the shaft.

[rcampbell]

04:42 PM on 11/09/2010

And EVERY country on that list, except the US, provides universal health care to every citizen working or not.

[senatortruth]

03:43 PM on 11/09/2010

dcbarton  

November 2nd indicates that we could run Donald Duck against him and win.
********************************************
Donald Duck would be your ONLY choice to beat President Obama.

Everyone else in your party is a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR and TRAITTOR against the USA...

[Easy Goer]

10:20 PM on 11/09/2010

calm down and take your meds

[Luna C666]

03:15 PM on 11/09/2010

TimTheWizard   4 hours ago (10:49 AM) 373 Fans Become a fan Unfan You got what I meant.    

Democrats are still racists.  They're not going to vote for a black person that doesn't act like them.   They'll vote for, what was it Biden called Obama again?  

Colin Powell was voting like most blacks, for a black President.  It's okay when racism counts *for* someone, apparently.    Either that, or Powell is incredibly naive, like all the other crossover voters.     But you can look at the numbers.    By far, most black people voted with racist beliefs.   I can't say that I blame them, but they you can clearly see that they voted for Obama because of his skin color, as did many guilty white liberals.  

I've dated more black women and have lived with more black men in college than we've had black Presidents.

I don't know what he's trying to say here, other than "I'm a bigot"
Anyone care to help me make sense of this?

[Frog in a pot]

03:50 PM on 11/09/2010

Hes not only a bigot but not very bright?

[KWHOO]

04:23 PM on 11/09/2010

I suspect this can only make sense if one has a warped and racist perspective. Even if someone tries hard to deny their racial bigotry by implying some of my best friends are... doesn't belay the facts gleaned from his previous comments. Perhaps TimTheWizard's pseudonym is appropriate, at least the Wizard part.

[Eris23Skidoo]

05:54 PM on 11/09/2010

As in "grand wizard", right?