Is Nevada now a red state?

I like optimism. But I also don't like to count my chickens before they hatch.  While this is good news, to claim Nevada is now a red state, may be a bit premature. I hope he's right longer term:

Pennsylvania Red

Pennsylvania is not a red state...yet.

Red state revenge

 Martha's Vineyard edition:

Halbig decision quote of the month

Dan McLaughlin at Red State had this to say about the specific criticism of good faith in the Halbig decision:

No, The Good Faith Of The Lawsuit Doesn’t Matter: One of the stranger arguments made against Halbig, not only by non-lawyers who don’t know any better but even in the opening lines of Judge Edwards’ dissent, is that the lawsuit is somehow illegitimate because the people filing it are not really trying to help the ACA, but are foes of the statute. Here’s a little secret: people who file lawsuits against federal laws are not usually big fans of those laws. Do you think the Guantanamo detainees who challenged the Military Commissions Act were really just disinterested scholars motivated by a concern for proper functioning of the military justice system? It’s the job of courts to determine the meaning of laws, not the motives of litigants.

BAM!

Just one question for Obama

According to a wonderfully wry RedState post today,

After Labor Day, Obama plans to unveil his highly unanticipated jobs plan. Much like his first jobs plan, this one will include massive stimulus handouts to special interests, prodigal infrastructure spending (as much as $556 billion), unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefits, and more welfare transfer payments. Concurrently, he will inveigh against “rich” job creators and offer a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform. However, there will be something new – something more appealing to the skeptical electorate; extending the one-year cut in payroll taxes.

It goes on about some brilliant maneuver to snooker Obama on his health care bill - blah, blah, blah.  [Actually, for the sarcasm impaired; read it, it's good]. But what stood out for me was this phrase;

'a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform'

Pragmatism and the Mark Kirk Win

There's a great post at RedState on the Mark Kirk primary win for the GOP in Illinois yesterday. It explains why, even though Kirk can't be classified as a true conservative, he should still garner GOP and conservatives' support up to and into the November 2010 mid-term elections.

A distilled version of the points Leon H. Wolf makes;

-Kirk was not selected by the RNC

-Kirk won more than 50% of the vote

-Kirk's positions reflect the GOP voters in Illinois

This despite his pro-abortion and Cap and Trade voting. He's by no means a perfect conservative candidate. But in the bigger scheme of things, he's better than a far left liberal Obama-clone, which is the alternative here.

As conservatives most would have issue with some of Kirk's positions. But in the grander scheme of things, pragmatism has to play a part in 2010 conservative strategy. If Kirk voted with conservatives only 50% of the time, it's still infinitely more than any Democrat would. As Wolf points out, there's also the signal of a Republican winning Obama's old seat.

I'd also add a couple of points of my own to reasons that Mark Kirk should be supported.

-he represents a major shift for Illinois if he wins, much as Scott Brown represented in Massachusetts

-if he has any sort of momentum in the state, he makes a better place to spend time and treasure than a more conservative candidate in say California, who is 20 points behind

-there's a momentum factor in politics. If winning a seat in Illinois with a weak conservative is possible, imagine what can be accomplished in 2012 and 2014

-I would take it one step further than Wolf on Kirk's abortion stance. While he is pro-choice, he is a Republican in a Democrat heartland. He will need GOP support in the future, and that means he may have to bite the bullet on some votes he doesn't want to do so on. Depending on his needs and the party's needs, abortion could be one of those issues. That's hard, cold cynicism on how Washington works, but despite our purity of intentions, politics was, is and will always be dirty business and hard ball

-There's always the remember who is on your team philosophy. A team mate needn't be team captain, or contribute as much as the other players, but they still are part of your team and deserve your support and encouragement

-Illinois will never be Texas, and the GOP will need less conservative candidates in some districts in order to compete. Better the fighting goes on within conservative leaning ranks than within a Democrat majority

-He's not that different from Scott Brown in Massachusetts and his win was important, so why not Kirk's? Every win is important, always. We can sort out the progress towards more conservative candidates in future cycles - the urgency of now, is indeed fierce.

Would I rather see a Barry Goldwater as the candidate in Illinois? Sure. But it didn't happen, and now Kirk is part of Team GOP. He deserves no less support than would any other candidate, even if it means you have to hold your nose while you help.

GOP Implosion

Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

The conservative website RedState is reporting that the GOP Senators are about to cave to Democrats on health care.  Damn if that don't make no sense!  [Yes, sic me.] The GOP was slow off the mark in embracing the Tea Party movement and the summer time town hall antipathy towards health care reform.  How do you miss an entire groundswell?  Is it even possible?  Sure, for the Democrats to view it through their own warped prism is one thing, but for the GOP to totally miss the mark on a conservative movement is beyond confounding. They are supposed to get this!

There's absolutely no reason for the GOP to cave on this.  Why would they - simply for the sake of bi-partisanship?  It's political suicide.  They don't gain a single Democrat vote by joining the Obama chorus.  They probably lose more independent voters than they gain and they would absolutely bleed conservative voters in a way that deserves a bleeding analogy too gore-filled to contemplate.

It makes ZERO sense.  Unless...

1) the GOP are as clueless and Democrat-lite as they purport not to be. OR

2) McCain has been successful in the behind the scenes effort to mold the party in his own 'centrist' image.  OR

3) RedState has the story wrong. OR

4) The word 'some' means Olympia Snowe.

The only likable option from the above choices is (3), although option (4) is conceivable and barely tolerable.

I've firmly held that the only way to defeat the march towards socialism is to support the GOP - for now at least.  Yes, they aren't pure but the alternative is far worse.  But if there are more than 2 GOP Senators who break ranks on a government option for health care, then I'm forced to concede that the party is in  shambles.  It would no longer be a force for conservative values.  And if that's the case, why the hell do they even exist?

The GOP has to get it's head right and get in the game - there's only 13 months to the mid-term elections.  By being slow off the mark - by trying to be too measured in their response to the 9/12 and earlier Tea Parties they squandered good will waiting to be showered upon them.  That's inertia.  Ironically, following the grassroots movement would have been a sign of leadership.  Unlike the rhetoric of the Obama change manifesto (radical change but the same old Washington), this would have been change Americans could believe in.  A truly responsive leadership team, willing to change things and react to the will of the people.  Obama's change is top down, though it was promised as a bottom up change to believe in.  The GOP has really not promised anything. Right now that's what they need to stick to - deliver nothing.  It's perversely a model that will work right now because it's a model that's needed.  That is, as opposed to 4 more Yea votes on a government option in health care.

I hope Red State has got this wrong.  But just in case you really should light up those Senators' phone lines.