I understand that politics loves heros. When there is a Reagan or a Ventura, or any other hero, people will flock to them. That’s going to happen. But there is a lot of time in politics when there are no heros around.

I guess the temptation is show up when there is a hero, to ride them out, and then sit on the couch until the next hero sweeps you off the couch again. It’s not enough, you go from the high of having a hero, then years of being in the wilderness waiting for the next hero to lead you out.

It’s hard to accept the premise that true conservatives “can’t lose.” Joe Repya couldn’t beat Ron Carey for the state chair seat. Some conservative he is.

Consider Senator Spector. Not a conservative or probably even a moderate by any stretch of the imaginage. Couldn’t even be defeated in a primary be a challenge by Pat Toomey, presumably a true conservative. Rick Santorum, the conservative Senator from PA, couldn’t even win reelection in the general election.

This is not unusual results. If you look at all the incumbent Republican Senators not to win reelect in 2006, I believe that every single one of the them was *more* conservative then the Republican partner they served alongside of and undoubtedly will be found to more conservative then the Senator elected to serve in their seat. Even Chafee wasn’t able to be defeated in a primary battle even though Laffey was supposed to be a “true” conservative.

If getting a “true conservative” elected is a sure fire thing, I’m not seeing it. Or buying it. I suspect that next fall there will be a number of great moderates winning elections. Maybe it’s because conservatives are sitting on the couch, maybe not.
Brent

Again, back to the couch issue. Even if Joe does run, if his supporters sit on the couch hoping that someone else does the work of getting him on the general election ballot, his campaign will be short-lived. Regardless their excuse, they need to overcome the number of supporters that Coleman will have go to the caucus and on as delegates up to the state convention.

If you (Kevin) are going to complain that it is hard to get conservatives fired up with Senator Coleman’s voting record, well, then it is going to be hard to get a stronger conservative endorsed against him. It requires action to create change, and if you say that there needs to be change to create action, well, it’s a self-deprecating cycle.

Not that it bothers me much. As I said earlier, it’s their loss if they chose to sit on the couch. That just means that there is less competition for the delegate slots, so that I can continue to vote to endorse Coleman and the other candidates of *my* choice. It’s not that I don’t want a competitive race for available delegate slots, but if I don’t have to bother competing, that just makes it easier. I’m not a sore loser either, and I’m not afraid of competition. I just don’t see conservatives fighting very hard for control of the MNGOP.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Moderate Republicans across the country have very HIGH poll numbers right now. With conservatives on the couch, I’m sure that more Republicans will be interested in capitalizing on those poll numbers going into next year.

Brent

On a more serious note, Coleman just lost another point on the support meter, as near as I can read such small numbers, by voting FOR shamnesty AGAIN. So here’s the $64 question: Wasn’t Joe Repya going to challenge Norm, once upon a time? I confess to having been against it when it was suggested, but I’ve had to reconsider. How about Joe?

So what some seem to be telling me is so long as it isn’t bad, it won’t getworse, well sorry, it is bad.

Republicans are the door to door salesman on liberal issues, why? because they feel they need to be to stay in power. (Read: so long as they are electable or “can win”

And that’s the problem. For far too many nowadays, what their paid strategists and advisors tell them is that it is their conservative principles are what are the problem. I am one of many scores that believe that they are wrong. The more moderate (read: liberal) the Republican incumbents get, the worse it gets.

it may not be Democrats that gives what we need to get this Country ready for another Reagan revolution. Nope this time it may be Republicans. Not all of them, but far too many.

So, yeah. I’ll do something as a Republican activist. It will likely be local, and if someone doesn’t step up soon, I may run for the state house myself.

the only person that can represent you 100% of the time is yourself.

I don’t care whether you put all your time, money and effort into one good candidate or spread it across the whole field, just do SOMETHING or the disaster to come will be all your fault. Personally, I find it easier to work for the whole ticket, if the campaigns are coordinated, as they should be. You can also serve just be “getting out the conservative message,” and letting the candidates benefit as they can.

That’s fine, make choices then. But the options in this thread seem limited to support Coleman or sit on the couch.

We all have limited time and have to make choices, I’ll grant that. However, if conservatives sit on the couch and let moderates make all the decisions on who to support, we’ll end up with more Colemans, not less!

I for one will probably be able to volunteer for only one candidate next year. I can’t help everyone, so I’ll pick one candidate that I really believe in and I think can make a difference. That means that hundreds of worthy candidates won’t get my support. There is nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong is if a conservative who might support Kline or Bachmann decides that it is more effective to sit on the couch and support neither because they don’t like Senator Coleman. That doesn’t acheive anything at all of value for them.

Sure, I understand that every conservative might not care that Senator Reid is running the Senator, or that their state represenative is a DFL’er. But there are a lot of campaigns next year, and there has to be at least one campaign that any particular person can support.

Or they can sit on the couch and let candidates they agree with be beaten by more moderates and liberals. I don’t care, it’s their loss.

Brent