Last week this website ran a press release from Tennessee in which a group of Tea Party groups urged U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander – a fiscally liberal “Republican in Name Only” – to retire rather than seek another six-year term.
Alexander responded this week with a column in The (Nashville) Tennessean. Not only is he rejecting their request, he portrayed those calling on him to step down as ideologues who don’t really care about solving the nation’s problems.
“?I learned to count in Maryville City Schools,” Alexander wrote. “So I know that if you only have 45 votes and you need 60 senators to get something important done like balancing the budget and fixing the debt, then you have to work with other people ? that is, IF you really care about solving the problem, IF you really want to get a result, instead of just making a speech.”
Wow …
Alexander’s screed was praised by the liberal media – most notably Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post.
“That’s as good an explanation of the philosophy that animates the pragmatist wing of the Republican party as we have read,” Cillizza wrote. “It’s based on the belief that the goal of governing is to address – via legislation – the problems facing the country.”
Really? We’re confused … exactly what part of the 2011 debt dereliction deal addressed “the problems facing the country?”
Ditto with the so-called “fiscal cliff” deal?
Last time we checked these measures did nothing but add massive amounts of new government spending and new taxes, respectively … in exchange for a pittance of “cuts.” Yet to politicians like Alexander – and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham – these “deals” (and countless other betrayals) deserve our praise.
Again … we’re back to the whole notion of reaching across the aisle for the sake of reaching across the aisle, not to actually better the country’s predicament.
“This ‘myth of consensus’ is yet another example of everything that’s wrong with this country,” we wrote recently. “For starters, it presumes that the end result of compromise – i.e. government doing something – is a good thing. Also, when political compromises involve dollars and cents, as they are wont to do, it typically means that Republicans have caved on their fiscal commitment to taxpayers.”
Alexander is no stranger to that. In fact he was the lead sponsor of a $23 billion internet sales tax hike which passed the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
And while he brags in his column about “standing up to President Obama at the White House health-care summit,” he has refused to join U.S. Sen. Mike Lee in committing to the defunding of Obamacare in the upcoming appropriations bill debate.
Politicians like Alexander are a joke. They run to the left to curry favor with liberal reporters like Cillizza – then lecture us fiscal conservatives about how they are the principled ones who truly care about our country (and we are nothing but mouth-foaming who apparently can’t count).
And this is just a suggestion, but perhaps if Alexander really cared about this county he’d stop bankrupting it.
21 comments
Yes, if Lamar simply tried harder, we’d have the 60 votes we needed. If he were “tougher,” liberals would wilt in the face of our ideas. If he voted to defund Obama’s only “achievement,” Obama would cave. The saying goes, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” The hard right has gone into the racket of trying to beat conservatives because no one else gives a shit about what they say. THAT is a joke.
It’s funny how time alters folks’ memories. Reagan, a darling now in most conservatives’ memories (mine included), took ass-whipping after ass-whipping while in office for working with the “other side” and getting things done. This was especially the case as he whipped the Soviet Union’s ass over and over again, but would occasionally throw them a bone here and there. Reagan knew that, in the long run, we could wear the soviets down dollar-by-dollar, but every time he released a little pressure (to keep them in the game), the far right howled. “Hh look at him…he’s gone soft!” Conservatives – we are often our own worst enemy.
This is excellent. Thank you.
It’s that way too many conservatives are just con men.
Well,he does play a pretty good piano.
Alexander knows a bit about winning Tennessee elections. HIs record attests to it. Others in the US Senate know about it, too, a few numbnuts not withstanding and a number of equally neutered wannabes left on the sideline.
Democracy ain’t pretty, but it’s the next thing to it.
Yeah, Richard Lugar knew a bit about winning elections too. He won lots of them, including a record number of terms (for Indiana) to the Senate.
That didn’t save him from a Tea revolt !!
Mike Castle from Delaware won lots of elections too! He got beat by the ‘not witch’.
Well Alexander could adopt the stance of Sic Willie’s icon Ron Paul. Lets see, his legislative accomplishments were………??????
Excellent point that needs to be hammered home every time Ol’Willie mentions the pointless Congressman from Texas’ 14th District
Blocking countless trillions of dollars that otherwise would have been spent.
evidence please. one person does not stop 434 others.
Nor does the murder of innocent babies save the life of another.
Frank, you need to put down the crack pipe. The question concerns your claim that Ron Paul blocked countless trillions of dollars from being spent.
No, the question is in fact, when will libitards such as yourself quit trying to say Republicrats are bad and Demlicans are good. The question is when will the likes of you realize that they are two sides of the same coin.
You can’t prove a double negative or positive. It’s impossible. Your little quip for proof is sophomoric at best.
When there is NO proof, none can be provided. Your attempt at obfuscation falls flat. You KNOW you can’t back up your statements with facts. Remind me when I specifically said “Republicrats are bad and Demlicans are good”.
GAWD DAMNED… It’s like talking to my eight year old. See ? post below. No Car, No Job, No Money, No Car, REPEAT.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Never met your eight year old but they have my sympathy. When your BS statements are questioned this seems to be your normal reaction.Obviously you have no concept of the term “trillions”.
You still haven’t figured out why you can’t get a contractor’s license?
However, “welfare benefits continue to outpace the income that most recipients can expect to earn from an entry-level job,” the study authors said. “And the balance between welfare and work may actually have grown worse in recent years.”
Among the other findings is that welfare in 13 states pays more than $15 an hour, compared with the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25.
The disparity was even higher in nine states in which welfare pays more than the average first-year teacher’s salary and in the six most-generous states, which pay more than the entry-level salary for a computer programmer.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/21/study-in-most-states-welfare-pays-more-than-minimum-wage-job/?test=latestnews#ixzz2chTtsSOH
“IF you really care about solving the problem, IF you really want to get a result, instead of just making a speech.”
The pure folly of politics on full display….the crowing over a “results” oriented approach that has yielded the country in multiple undeclared wars and an unsolvable debt burden.
It’s a perfect example of doublethink.
Results are expensive. :)
lol…for some reason George Thorogood/Johnny LeeHooker popped into my head for your response:
“The landlady said, “You got the rent money yet?”,
I said, “No, can’t find no job,
Therefore I ain’t got no money to pay the rent”
She said “I don’t believe you’re tryin’ to find no job”
Said “I seen you today you was standin’ on a corner,
Leaning up against a post”
I said “But I’m tired, I’ve been walkin’ all day.”
Pols remind me of the dude narrating this song.