Conservative Ron Johnson or Establishment Roy Blunt?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by dsm in Articles

Erick Erickson at RedState correctly identifies this coming week’s Senate Republican leadership vote as the Most Important Fight For Conservatives in America. It pits Wisconsin Republican Ron Johson who boasts a Heritage Action for America score of 91% against the Show Me State’s Roy Blunt who has a respectable, but lower 64% on the Heritage scale.

Erickson notes:

Ron Johnson is also one of the very unique bridge builders between conservatives and the establishment. He was the one Senate candidate in 2010 that both the GOP Establishment and Tea Party agreed on. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund, and RedState all aligned behind Senator Johnson in the primary.

In contrast, Roy Blunt is the establishment candidate.  Blunt has prior experience in Republican leadership. In 2008 he served as the Republican whip in the House of Representatives:

The representative in charge of making sure that party backbenchers adhere to the wishes of party leaders is called the whip; in the case of the current Congress, those positions are held by Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina, and Roy Blunt of Missouri.

In his capacity as Republican whip, Roy Blunt was responsible for finding the votes necessary to pass the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP in early October of 2008.

The vote confronting Senate Republicans this week is a decision between conservative Ron Johnson and establishment Roy Blunt. The question that constituents of GOP Senators should be asking is: why would Senate Republicans elect the guy who whipped the GOP votes necessary to pass TARP? That’s simply embarrassing.

Roy Blunt did a wonderful job beating Robin Carnahan in Missouri’s 2010 US Senate race, but there’s a more conservative candidate in this Senate Republican leadership race. FreedomWorks has taken up the cause of conservative Senator Ron Johnson. They provide a convenient list of Senators and their phone numbers. Call your Republican Senators and ask them to vote for conservative Ron Johnson for Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference.

Obama And His Supporters Need Another Remedial History Lesson

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Brooks Bayne in Articles

Right behind the flub where Obama confused Kansas with Texas, this was one of the funniest parts of his speech in Kansas today:

1. Obama cites “Republican” president, Teddy Roosevelt, as doing great things that his party didn’t like.
2. Obama says people called Teddy a “communist” back in the day. <pause> (the dramatic pause is implying that he and Teddy had to deal with the same types of evil people calling them communists) <laughter from his supporters>
3. Obama says Teddy helped enact a progressive income tax.
4. Obama stood oblivious to the fact that plank #2 of “The Communist Manifesto” is “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax”, and by pointing it out, he proved Teddy Roosevelt was supportive of communist ideology. Sadly, all the Obama supporters who laughed, proved that they too don’t know history.

How much of a socialist was Teddy Roosevelt? The title of the 1913 New York Times piece about Roosevelt’s socialist policies should provide some insight: “Roosevelt’s Super Socialism”. Read it below.

(Ever since the founders of the Marxist Frankfurt School realized their desired effect on the Grey Lady’s current occupants, a New York Times writer would get fired over such words.)