Get ready for the all new GOP, under the lead of Mitt Romney.
It’s a GOP where the Tea Party won’t be welcome, where the federal government will continue to bailout out banks and unions and everyone who’s anyone will continue to make money- except of course you and me.
We’ll just continue to get stuck with the 100 year mortgage payment, as the GOP continues to be the “tax collector for the welfare state,” in the WSJ’s apt phrase.
That’s the takeaway from Florida where Florida Representative Will Weatherford, a Romney proxy, helped redistrict Tea Party favorite Congressman and retired Col. Allen West into a much more liberal district than he previously represented.
I guess Tea Party ideas of limited government and fiscal responsibility aren't wanted in the GOP under Mitt.
Writes the Florida political blog the Shark Tank:
West’s congressional district inexplicably sheds the most out support as compared to all other incumbent Republican and Democrat Congressman. A few weeks back we quoted an unnamed legislator saying that, “Allen West was screwed”, a statement which was originally made about made five months before the purposed maps were made public, leading insiders to believe that the fix was in against Allen West. But in light of Weatherford’s comment, it is increasingly clear that this is a fait accompli.
Republicans control both houses of the Florida state legislature plus the governor’s office and could have written the new congressional districts however they wanted. But they decided to throw a bone to liberals in the state by redistricting Allen West out of a job.
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Why should that surprise anyone?
Throwing a bone to liberals is the thing that Romney, McCain, Dole, Bush and company do best. They recoil under the assault of the left-wing media in this country, seeking refuge in the “bipartisan” label, reaching across the aisle to “get things done” so that they can hit the cocktail circuit and make jokes about guys like Col. West…oh, and you too.
This is the same GOP gang that gave us Charlie Crist, Romneycare, real estate bailouts, automaker bailouts, abortion bailouts, assault weapon bans.
Yeah, yeah, Obama is the Devil, but Mitt and company have been willing accomplices.
And because of that complicity, conservatives will under-vote for president in 2012 rather than support another Bush-Dole-Bush clone in the White House. Heck, there are lots of positive things to say about the Bushes and the Doles, but little good to say about Romney.
He’s Bush-Dole without character.
But give him this: The guy really, really wants to be president. Toward that end, he’ll say anything you want to hear just as soon as he knows what you want to hear. So don’t believe anything that comes out of Romney’s mouth. When he says “read my lips,” you should plug your ears- and just imagine Mitt saying whatever you want to hear.
It won’t matter anyway.
As Romney advisor, former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman- you know, the guy who lost to Al Freakin’ Franken?- admitted recently, Romney is not going to repeal Obamacare no matter what he says on the campaign trail.
Observes the Wall Street Journal:
It was a remarkable admission, especially given the aspiring Republican President whose ear Mr. Coleman happens to have. Then again, it may also be evidence of his kind of crack political thinking that couldn't outwit Al Franken of all people in the 2008 race and again in the 2009 recount and thus provided the 60th Senate vote for ObamaCare.
The larger point is that the path of least political resistance for the GOP would be to revert to its historic minority role as tax collectors for the welfare state, and this temptation is especially strong for health care. No one doubts that repealing and replacing ObamaCare will be a hard slog if the party does take the White House and Senate in 2012, namely because the American political system is designed to make change hard (even if those controls failed in 2010 amid Democratic abuses). Mr. Coleman's advice is, essentially, why bother trying.
But that hasn’t stopped Romney from bravely telling us that Obamacare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, while Romenycare’s individual mandate is not.
The Obamacare repeal will be Mitt’s 0-97 vote in the Senate, just the way Obama’s budget was an oh-fer in 2011.
Oh-well-they-tried.
And here it is: Romney is lying to you one way or another.
He’ll keep one big, fat Obamacare or he’ll try to foist on you 57 varieties of Romneycare that add up to the same thing.
But in either case, like Allen West, the rest of us will pay the price for Romney’s intellectual inconsistencies in pursuit of the great, white house.
Because if Romney wins the nomination, expect neither hope nor change for the GOP.
Expect four more for Obama or in the best case scenario, Obama lite.PS- If you friend me on Facebook you get sneak peeks of columns! Act now, because I'll only keep this offer open for a short period ;-)
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