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Showing posts with label Erick Erickson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erick Erickson. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Establishment’s Near Sexual Advances on Ted Cruz Are About to Begin

Ted Cruz Victory 7-31-12
The Dems and the MSM have been propagandizing for some time that the Tea Party Movement is dead.

Imagine that basketball buzzer at the end of a game – EHH-EHH-EHHHH!

Ted Cruz’s defeat of Dewhurst in the Texas runoff for the GOP nominee for Senate and a number of other recent victories demonstrate that the Left Wing Dems should be fearful or they are relying on the delusion that voters are pleased the Dem agenda for America.

JRH 8/1/12
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The Establishment’s Near Sexual Advances on Ted Cruz Are About to Begin

August 1st at 4:47AM EDT

It turned into an atrociously nasty runoff. The same crew who failed Governor Rick Perry’s Presidential bid has now also sunk David Dewhurst’s bid for the Senate and spent tens of millions of dollars in the process. Along the way they damaged Governor Perry’s credibility with the tea party and picked every scab possible to make Ted Cruz’s election as painful as possible.

Who knows — maybe they’ll cut Dewhurst a deal on a gubernatorial bid in two years.

Despite all the barbs and lies and dirty tricks, including phone calls to Cruz voters during yesterday’s primary telling them to vote today, Ted Cruz won.

It is a very satisfying victory. Ted has spoken at every RedState Gathering and will be the first speaker at this year’s Gathering too. He will make a fine Senator.

A lot of people are going to give lots of credit to lots of people for Ted Cruz’s win. Success has many fathers. A lot of people will also make a lot of wild claims about what it means for the GOP and its supposed radical drift right — a drift right that in 2010 saw it pick up more electoral victories than any time since the late 1800′s.

One thing a lot of people will fail to comment on is that the Tea Party victories of 2010 have morphed into anti-establishment victories in 2012. On both the left and right, the base hates its leaders. It has moved beyond distrust to contempt.

In Georgia last night Republican voters across the state rejected Republican proposals for infrastructure taxes and spending and, in the process, threw out a number of incumbent Republicans in retribution. In Texas, several strong conservatives got the nod over candidates backed by Republican leaders. In Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Arizona, as the primaries get closer, voters are rallying to the outsiders, the real small government conservatives, and the people most likely to pick a fight with their own party.

The media views these races as the “fringe” taking over. But the media has been and is as much a part of the problem as the people being thrown on the ash heap of history in these primaries. The media likes the “smart” guys who sit in the room and make deals. Voters increasingly want people to say not just “no” but “hell no.”

Should Ted Cruz win the general election, and the odds are in his favor, he will join Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, and Ron Johnson as yet another Senator who owed his nomination more to Jim DeMint than the Republican leaders in Congress.

Already, as the sun rises this morning, there is a great game of co-opting happening. Republican leaders and conservative establishmentarians are already whispering that Ted is a “reasonable” and “smart” conservative. “He won’t be like Jim DeMint.”

Ted Cruz established himself by being like Jim DeMint. He better remember that as the great fellating of his ego by Washington insiders begins. The Republicans in Washington aim to co-opt him, to pacify him, and to make him an ally in preservation of the status quo. They will use conservative editorialists, fundraisers, and others to do the dirty work. They will try to surround him with staff who can “tame” him and “show him the ropes.” They will push conservative think tankers on him who know the game and where their real allegiance is. They will try to undermine him while building him up.

Washington insiders always try to bring outsiders to the inside. Jim DeMint remains a hero to the antiestablishment crowd because that crowd knows he won’t be bought off. Ted Cruz will, we can all hope and expect, be a Texas version of Jim DeMint, and not just another go along to get along Republican on the way past $16 trillion in debt.


The message of this election is that the trend continues — the base is tired of politics and usual and back room compromises that keep growing government. The base wants Ted Cruz to fight.

One parting point worth reiterating – the Perry-Dewhurst shared campaign team spent $50 million in the past year to ruin the reputations of Rick Perry and Ted Cruz. That’s just sad.
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© 2012 Redstate, Inc., 2008 Eagle Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.


On July 11, 2004, Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky turned on the lights at RedState, then RedState.org.

Shortly thereafter, Erick Erickson and Clayton Wagar signed on to help out and the site took off as the singular hub of conservative grassroots collaboration on the right.

Today, RedState is the most widely read right of center blog on Capitol Hill, is the most often cited right of center blog in the media, and is widely considered one of the most influential voices of the grassroots on the right.

RedState was the first national political site to tout and endorse Marco Rubio for his Senate bid in Florida. We put Doug Hoffman on the national conservative radar in New York. Across the country we find grassroots candidates and work hard to get them elected.

At RedState, we are conservatives in primaries and Republican in general elections and we aim to win.

RedState’s day to day efforts are led by its Editor, Erick Erickson, and a talented and largely volunteer team of front page contributors. Anyone, however, can write at RedState. That makes RedState unique among right of center sites. Sign up for an account and you too can engage in the comments and post your own user diaries. The best stuff gets voted on by the community and the best of the best gets put on the front page for the world to see.

Welcome to RedState. We’re happy warriors and we’re glad to have you in the fight.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

John Roberts - I’m Not Down on John Roberts

Swearing in of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Erick Erickson of RedState.com defends Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the Leftist Justices as part of a greater political/Constitutional chess match concerning the future of Obamacare. Then Erickson qualifies his reasoning.

This is how I am going to present Erickson’s thoughts. I am posting the email then the post that is linked to within the email. Both the emails are a near match but the minor differences deserve to be read. I would not be surprised if the RedState.com post is edited to bring some clarity to Erickson’s thoughts.

JRH 6/28/12
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John Roberts

By Erick Erickson
Sent: June 28, 2012 11:14 AM
Sent by RedState.com

Dear RedState Reader,

As you have no doubt heard by now, the Supreme Court largely upheld Obamacare with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority 5 to 4 decision.  Even Justice Kennedy called for the whole law to be thrown out, but John Roberts saved it.

Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points. John Roberts is playing at a different game than the rest of us. We’re on poker. He’s on chess.

First, I get the strong sense from a few anecdotal stories about Roberts over the past few months and the way he has written this opinion that he very, very much was concerned about keeping the Supreme Court above the partisan fray and damaging the reputation of the Court long term. It seems to me the left was smart to make a full frontal assault on the Court as it persuaded Roberts.

Second, in writing his opinion, Roberts forces everyone to deal with the issue as a political, not a legal issue. In the past twenty years, Republicans have punted a number of issues to the Supreme Court asking the Court to save us from ourselves. They can’t do that with Roberts. They tried with McCain-Feingold, which was originally upheld. This case is a timely reminder to the GOP that five votes are not a sure thing.

Third, while Roberts has expanded the taxation power, which I don’t really think is a massive expansion from what it was, Roberts has curtailed the commerce clause as an avenue for Congressional overreach. In so doing, he has affirmed the Democrats are massive taxers. In fact, I would argue that this may prevent future mandates in that no one is going to go around campaigning on new massive tax increases. On the upside, I guess we can tax the hell out of abortion now. Likewise, in a 7 to 2 decision, the Court shows a strong majority still recognize the concept of federalism and the restrains of Congress in forcing states to adhere to the whims of the federal government.

Fourth, in forcing us to deal with this politically, the Democrats are going to have a hard time running to November claiming the American people need to vote for them to preserve Obamacare. It remains deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people. If they want to make a vote for them a vote for keeping a massive tax increase, let them try.

Fifth, the decision totally removes a growing left-wing talking point that suddenly they must vote for Obama because of judges. The Supreme Court as a November issue for the left is gone. For the right? That sound you hear is the marching of libertarians into Camp Romney, with noses held, knowing that the libertarian and conservative coalitions must unite to defeat Obama and Obamacare.

Finally, while I am not down on John Roberts like many of you are today, I will be very down on Congressional Republicans if they do not now try to shut down the individual mandate. Force the Democrats on the record about the mandate. Defund Obamacare. This now, by necessity, is a political fight and the GOP sure as hell should fight.

60% of Americans agree with them on the issue. And guess what? The Democrats have been saying for a while that individual pieces of Obamacare are quite popular. With John Roberts’ opinion, the repeal fight takes place on GOP turf, not Democrat turf. The all or nothing repeal has always been better ground for the GOP and now John Roberts has forced everyone onto that ground.

It seems very, very clear to me in reviewing John Roberts’ decision that he is playing a much longer game than us and can afford to with a life tenure. And he probably just handed Mitt Romney the White House.

*A friend points out one other thing — go back to 2009. Olympia Snowe was the deciding vote to get Obamacare out of the Senate Committee. Had she voted no, we’d not be here now.


Sincerely yours,

Erick Erickson
Editor,
RedState.com
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I’m Not Down on John Roberts

By Erick Erickson (Diary)
June 28th at 11:35AM EDT

Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points.

First, I get the strong sense from a few anecdotal stories about Roberts over the past few months and the way he has written this opinion that he very, very much was concerned about keeping the Supreme Court above the partisan fray and damaging the reputation of the Court long term. It seems to me the left was smart to make a full frontal assault on the Court as it persuaded Roberts.

Second, in writing his case, Roberts forces everyone to deal with the issue as a political, not a legal issue. In the past twenty years, Republicans have punted a number of issues to the Supreme Court asking the Court to save us from ourselves. They can’t do that with Roberts. They tried with McCain-Feingold, which was originally upheld. This case is a timely reminder to the GOP that five votes are not a sure thing.

Third, while Roberts has expanded the taxation power, which I don’t really think is a massive expansion from what it was, Roberts has curtailed the commerce clause as an avenue for Congressional overreach. In so doing, he has affirmed the Democrats are massive taxers. In fact, I would argue that this may prevent future mandates in that no one is going to go around campaigning on new massive tax increases. On the upside, I guess we can tax the hell out of abortion now. Likewise, in a 7 to 2 decision, the Court shows a strong majority still recognize the concept of federalism and the restrains of Congress in forcing states to adhere to the whims of the federal government.

Fourth, in forcing us to deal with this politically, the Democrats are going to have a hard time running to November claiming the American people need to vote for them to preserve Obamacare. It remains deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people. If they want to make a vote for them a vote for keeping a massive tax increase, let them try.

Fifth, the decision totally removes a growing left-wing talking point that suddenly they must vote for Obama because of judges. The Supreme Court as a November issue is gone.

Finally, while I am not down on John Roberts like many of you are today, I will be very down on Congressional Republicans if they do not now try to shut down the individual mandate. Force the Democrats on the record about the mandate. Defund Obamacare. This now, by necessity, is a political fight and the GOP sure as hell should fight.

60% of Americans agree with them on the issue. And guess what? The Democrats have been saying for a while that individual pieces of Obamacare are quite popular. With John Roberts’ opinion, the repeal fight takes place on GOP turf, not Democrat turf. The all or nothing repeal has always been better ground for the GOP and now John Roberts has forced everyone onto that ground. Oh, and as I mentioned earlier, because John Roberts concluded it was a tax, the Democrats cannot filibuster its repeal because of the same reconciliation procedure the Democrats used to pass it.

It seems very, very clear to me in reviewing John Roberts’ decision that he is playing a much longer game than us and can afford to with a life tenure. And he probably just handed Mitt Romney the White House.

*A friend points out one other thing — go back to 2009. Olympia Snowe was the deciding vote to get Obamacare out of the Senate Committee. Had she voted no, we’d not be here now. Snowe gave it bipartisan cover coming out of committee, but she actually wasn’t the deciding vote.
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© 2012 Redstate, Inc., 2008 Eagle Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

About

On July 11, 2004, Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky turned on the lights at RedState, then RedState.org.

Shortly thereafter, Erick Erickson and Clayton Wagar signed on to help out and the site took off as the singular hub of conservative grassroots collaboration on the right.

Today, RedState is the most widely read right of center blog on Capitol Hill, is the most often cited right of center blog in the media, and is widely considered one of the most influential voices of the grassroots on the right.

RedState was the first national political site to tout and endorse Marco Rubio for his Senate bid in Florida. We put Doug Hoffman on the national conservative radar in New York. Across the country we find grassroots candidates and work hard to get them elected.

At RedState, we are conservatives in primaries and Republican in general elections and we aim to win.

RedState’s day to day efforts are READ THE REST