Thursday, December 22, 2011

Assault on Gingrich Shows GOP Establishment Wants Romney

In the last few weeks, Newt Gringrich rose rapidly in polls of Republicans regarding the GOP Presidential nomination.

Right on cue, the attacks from the usual suspects in the liberal media began. They went after Gingrich the way they had with each GOP contender who rose to the top.

But with Newt, there was another phenomenon. He was also attacked savagely from the GOP itself. The National Review, George Will, the Wall Street Journal, and Glenn Beck all opined about why Newt would be a bad choice. Even Rush Limbaugh warned listeners that they should not make a choice because they want a candidate who is articulate and will do well in debates.

I guess this all stems from the belief among mainstream Republicans that Mitt Romney has the best chance of beating Obama. And, as we all know, nothing is more important than beating Obama.

Well, I'm not so sure.

I want to see the President turned out of office as much as anyone on the right. He has been a disaster and four more years of Obama would be ruinous for the country. But would we really be better off with Mitt Romney as President? In some ways, the obvious answer is yes. Surely, a President Romney would take steps to cut government spending, slow the growth of government and restore many of the tenets of Capitalism.

So why don't I trust him? Why do I feel that he is a George H.W. Bush clone; a guy who will say "read my lips" but when push comes to shove, will cave in to "moderation"?

I think that Romney is just one more "go along, get along" Republican who will try to find "common ground" with the Democrats. In doing so, he may slow the runaway train that is our government, but he won't stop it. I fear that the politicians and pundits in Washington still don't get it. We are at the end of the line. The cliff is looming and we can't just slow down the train; we have to turn it around.

If that is the kind of President the GOP elects, the GOP may be finished, because the Tea Party will abandon the Republicans and start to nominate their own candidates. Romney could be the guy who turns the GOP into the 21st century version of the Whigs.

Democrat and Chronicle Continues to Sink

The reporting on the reasons behind Mike Green losing his Federal Judgeship display the D&C at its worst. They have made no effort to find out what really happened, but instead allow the implication to hang that local Republicans somehow caused it. They know better, but it serves their partisan purposes to protect Green from harm if the real story gets out.

Rumors abound regarding why the nomination was scuttled. It was not, as I initially thought, due to Republican Senators trying to tweak Chuck Schumer. Instead it appears that questions regarding green's personal conduct and ethics may have been raised. Certainly, if it was just normal D.C. politics, President Obama would be re-submitting the nomination. But Green's name will not be re-submitted.

In a city with a real newspaper, that would be a story that reporters would want to investigate. But not in Rochester, with our party organ paper.