RE: If Anyone Wants To Know Why Good People Don't Go Into Public Service . . .
By Martin A. Knight Posted in Archived | borking | Democrat smear campaigns | GOP | masochists | spakovsky — Comments (35) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This is with regard to Pej's timely RedHot about Hans von Spakovsky's recent experience since he was nominated to the Federal Election Commission by President Bush. He withdrew his nomination after two years of waiting last week.
The reason why good people of Conservative bent do not go into public service is because of elected Republican cowardice and stupidity. They know when the time comes when they would have to face the character assassination campaigns the Democrats and their friends in the media would mount against them, Republicans would do absolutely nothing to help/defend them.
While even the lower order members of the animal kingdom (and I do include invertebrates) fight to defend themselves, Republicans have made an artform of quietly allowing themselves and their supporters to be mauled by the Left without any fear of repercussions.
I'm not a 100% certain, but the reason for it seems to be that we uniquely harbor a rather large masochist contingent that we can always rely on to start shrieking at Republicans to keep our own guns holstered when Democrats show up at knife fights with AK-47s.
Yesterday, this very same masochistic phenomenon showed up when Soren put up a frontpager challenging Barack Obama to fire an adviser who legally represented quite a few reprehensible characters in his legal career. This was in direct response to MoveOn.org challenging John McCain to fire an adviser with a similar set of characters in his client list.
Almost immediately we had folks waxing pathetic about the need to get beyond "tit for tat", that "two wrongs don't make a right", and worthless admonitions to the effect that we should stay on the high road and er ... not stoop to their level. In other words, we should just lay back and take whatever it is Democrats dish out. I do not mean to insult or disrespect the people who posted those comments, but I take strong exception to the making of weakness into a virtue.
Is anybody with an IQ above room temperature (in Celsius) under the impression that one day this will cause shame and get them to stop? Are we forgetting that the New York Times actually hired people to rifle through Chief Justice Roberts' children's adoption records(!) in a bid to torpedo his nomination to the Supreme Court? Does anybody here honestly believe that Chuck Schumer had absolutely no idea that his staffers had illicitly procured copies of Michael Steele's credit report ready to pass along to some activist "journalist" at the Baltimore Sun?
I'm far from saying that we should respond to this by also resorting to these same underhanded (and in the latter case, illegal) practices. That the bulk of the Democratic Party leadership and activist base often sees nothing wrong with crossing the line does not mean Republicans should respond by doing the same. However, make no mistake, we must respond. And respond in such a way as to make it a very high risk venture for the Democrats to continue to take the low road.
But we do not. We never do. And if indeed we try to, our contingent of masochists would be the first to rush forward and demand we stop making Democrats uncomfortable ... or else they would not be "bipartisan" with us, there would be no more "comity" and {gasp!} "bickering" would rule the day. While Democrats run ads featuring burning crosses about Republicans, we should just stick to policy, with bill numbers and sponsors ...
The brilliance of the MAD policy between the Soviet Union and the United States was the fact that it emphasized the consequences of crossing the line; both parties knew the other side would retaliate with equal or greater force and in the end, neither would win. Democrats are in the lucky position of knowing that there is nothing they cannot do - we would never respond.
And so it continues; Republicans continue to stand by silently, enablers in all but name, while Democrats and other Leftist groups (especially the media) Bork and savage the lives and reputations of good people whose only mistake was daring to answer the call to serve their fellow citizens without casting aside the beliefs and principles we supposedly share with them.
And yes, folks, this means that what happened to Hans von Spakovsky, Miguel Estrada, Henry Saad, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, John Bolton, John Ashcroft, Clarence Thomas, Peter Pace, etc. is going to happen to other Republican nominees for office for the foreseeable future.
I remember the aftermath of the 2000 campaign, the early 2001 confirmation hearings of John Ashcroft to be the next Attorney General of the United States. Barry Lynn's testimony objecting to the nomination consisted of nothing more than a barrage of falsehoods and calumny on Ashcroft, his life history and everything he had ever done in public service in Missouri and the Senate. (Ranking Member) Orrin Hatch's "question" for Barry Lynn afterwards was something along the lines of "I'm not dignifying that with a response."
Nice and dignified. And utterly forgettable - except for enraged political junkies like me. The proper response was for every single Republican on that committee to unleash the fires of hell on Lynn and his entire organization as mendacious bearers of false witness and a disgrace to their nation.
Unless Democrats and their allies are made to fear the consequences of doing this to our people, this sort of thing is not going to stop. Ever.
is that I would prefer to see republicans turn Washington DC (and various state capitols as necessary) into the political equivalent of "the killing fields". Every Democrat with a skeleton should know that it will be aired at every opportunity.
For instance, Dollar Bill Jefferson should be confronted evry time there is a Republican in shouting distance. Same for Harry Reid's real estate deals. And Diane Feinstein's husband's defense contracts. And Chris Dodd & Teddy Kennedy's "waitress sandwich".
No Democratic politician should be able to be comfortable in the company of good people.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Today in history (according to www.senate.gov):
This Week in Senate History:
May 22, 1856
In an act of great drama and national significance, Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) entered the Senate chamber, walked up to the desk of Senator Charles Sumner, and severely beat him with a light cane.
Please, please, please. Can I do it, too?
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
where there'd be calls for his apology, resignation, or even his being drawn and quartered, best I recall, Brooks resigned his seat and stood for it in the election to fill it and was overwhelmingly re-elected to it. He was also showered with canes as gifts from his admirers. Can't say much for Brooks' cause, but I certainly admire his ardor.
In Vino Veritas
Martin,
So let's say you're right, it is a war to the death, and Republicans need to hit back and hit back hard. So which one of the scandal plagued Republicans would you nominate to be the designated "toe cutter"?
Bring back Tom Delay?
Maybe get Larry Craig to give working on plans for his dance studio?
Mark Foley?
While you are probably right that the children from the Left are just that children without any sense of shame, decency or tack, it's darn hard to find someone to be the same sort over in the Republican ranks. I can't think of a single Republican of any stature that would be really good in the role of Republican scourge of the Left, or at least one that appeals to anyone other than the already converted.
That's the problem with the MAD approach from me, not that it shouldn't be done, it's just that I have a hard time thinking of any Republican being as just out and out nasty as Liberal Lefties are. If you're going to play their game, better have someone that can play just as rough as the Lefties, and I'm having a hard time figuring out who can be that nasty.
Who do you think could hit back and hit back hard all the time? Who can carry the war back to the enemy camp?
______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
I'm not sure there are a total of two partisan balls in all the Republicans in DC. Too many years of Bushes, Doles, etal.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
I just gave you an example of a missed opportunity to thoroughly ruin Barry Lynn's day that Orrin Hatch and his fellow Republicans on the SJC could have taken ... and didn't.
I can give you other examples like Senate Finance Committee Republicans agreeing to the Democrats' request to not ask Kathleen Blanco any questions about her response to Katrina as a gesture of bipartisanship™.
The entire Bush Administration is a story of one missed opportunity after another.
Who do you think could hit back and hit back hard all the time? Who can carry the war back to the enemy camp?
With a little work, I believe the RNC can fulfill that role.
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
It should focus on money and cultivating/identifying candidates and appointees. It also has to reflect the kind of personalities you're likely to find in those potential officeholders and appointees. In other words, it has to be nice. There needs to be some sort of adjunct group allied with, maybe wholly owned by, but separate from the RNC that is totally dedicated to strategy, tactics, and the "wet work" of politics. See my post below.
In Vino Veritas
You really should offer your services to some lucky b******d and start poking hot sticks at everything with a D behind its name.
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
I'm actually working mostly for a couple of R-leaning public employee unions. Generally, pretty, perky Sarah Palin and her minions don't want me around because I'm "not nice." They'll call one day though.
In Vino Veritas
Good one though ...
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
First, I think that the "hail fellow well met" type will be the archetype for Republican officeholders and high-level appointees; it's just how the Party is. That guy or gal has trouble going to a knife fight with a knife, not to speak of bringing the necessary AK-47. Republican officeholders don't just turn away from controversy, they run from it dropping their weapons and accouterment along the way and looking for a place to cower a while so they can compose their apology.
The Democrats have cornered the market on politically skilled harpies and a**holes. I'm reasonably certain that Democrat women are the single greatest cause of skyrocketing Viagra sales. They can even field officeholders and appointees with those destestable personalities in their safe districts and states. They have an endless store of skilled apparatchniks, word choice intentional, in the Party, the unions, and the left-wing interest groups. We could probably gather all the Republican skilled operatives and experienced bureaucrats in the Country in the ballroom of any hotel in a good-sized town. The reality is that the Republican constituency and potential officeholders and appointees aren't the sort of people who just always wanted to be an operative or a bureaucrat; they don't like it and, worse, they don't understand it and are made uncomfortable by it.
I'm a good example even on this board; I can cause practically every pair of eyes here to glaze over almost immediately by starting to talk about the way you actually get something done in a government rather than talking about the big philosophical and policy issues. Even here on my home turf in Alaska, I can set every nerve in a room full of Republicans to tingling because when it comes to strategy and tactics I'm completely amoral, irreverent, and ruthless. Even my friends, yes, I do have some, would prefer that they be able to keep me locked away somewhere and only turn me out when they need me to "take care of" something. Then they can put me away and apologize for whatever I did while they get to enjoy the benefits of my doing it. I don't care, I just make sure I get paid real well.
What we need is some Party adjunct like the Democratic Leadership Council once was that is totally focussed on strategy and tactics and on developing and deploying skilled operatives to act as the "hit men" and clean up crews that our officeholders and appointees are constitutionally incapable of being. Wouldn't be hard to set up and there is the core of the necessary talent out there. All it would take is the resolve to do it and the money to carry it out - lots of money to carry it out.
In Vino Veritas
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
we need a conservative Farm system for young talent, and a method to "keep them on the straight and narrow".
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
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Finrod's First Law of Bandwidth:
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it takes the bandwidth of ten thousand.
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Finrod's First Law of Bandwidth:
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it takes the bandwidth of ten thousand.
That's pretty crappy of you to dredge up names like Craig or Foley, as if chumps like that were somehow representative of the GOP.
Fred. Jeff Flake. Hensarling. Tom Coburn. All of them are highly credentialed, with some gravitas, and capable of ramming red-hot pokers in places the Dems do not want to feel pain.
Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO
I'm envisioning a GOP elephant with a red ball in his mouth being whipped by a donkey in black leather saying "oooh, it hurts so good!" That would be a fairly accurate caricature. Again, great post.
Tim Schieferecke
From what I can tell, those GOP Reps and Senators who are still on Capitol Hill are getting used to being in the minority. They're getting comfortable with the idea. (I suspect that the Dems are silently bribing them with promises of pork, in order to appeal to the inner Bob Michel and quell the inner Newt Gingrich in each of them).
If that's true, you won't want to bite the hand that fills your trough, will you?
I'm starting to think we might really have to clean house. I fear that not enough GOP Congressmen/women really want badly enough to be back in the majority.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
I am beyond tired of watching the GOP sit there, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, allow themselves to be pummeled. I don't know if they somehow think that the vultures in the media will somehow love them if they just play nicey-nice or what but how many times do you have to get your carcass handed to you before you figure out that's not gonna happen.
"All that need be done for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Martin, I got a diary about half-written that starts with the same FEC story that Pej Redhotted yesterday. I'd love to say this is great minds thinking alike, but that's pretty vain and self-flattering on my part.
All of which is to say
BAM!
You said it brother.
PS - I still might post my redundant diary anyway, even though all the O2 is gone - I call it "Republicans Need to learn to play Pit Bull Politics" - centering on the thought (inre Democrats) "diplomacy = saying 'nice doggy' while looking for a big rock".
Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO
... and put that diary up!
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO
of our own.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Politics is Dead
Without Activists working
Thank God for RedState
"Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper" Peter Griffin...Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity....or else!!!
Miguel Estrada. What they did to him was just shameless. He was rated "well qualified" by the ABA. Yet, those who oppossed him were really affraid that a Latino appointd by a Republican President would end up on the high court.
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
It seems to me that the failure of the von Spakovsky nomination is a particular pity, since fighting for it, loudly and publicly, would have provided the opportunity to address at least two larger issues:
1.) The meme that voter identification laws are a Republican plot to suppress the black vote and that of other groups. This is a despicable accusation, and untrue. A number of Republicans have been making concerted efforts to reach out to the black community, but it shouldn't be surprising that these efforts have had limited success if the GOP can't be bothered to contradict slanders like this. And the Democrats aren't going to stop spreading this meme until somebody makes them.
2.) The idea that there should be some sort of stigma attached to being a "political appointee" in Washington. Amongst the first objections to the von Spakovsky nomination was a letter written to the confirmation panel in the Senate by a number of his former civil service underlings in the Department of Justice, denouncing the fact that he acted against their recommendations on a number of instances, which was meant to seem outrageous.
But he was their boss. Political appointees are placed in charge of civil service employees because this is a democracy. Von Spakovsky was appointed to his position by someone elected by the people of the United States of America, and their job as civil servants was to obey the will of the American people as expressed through politics, right or wrong.
But few if any elected Republicans are inclined to make this case, and by failing to make it on behalf of von Spakovsky, they have made it clear to all political appointees—at least those appointed by Republicans—that their careers might someday be put in jeopardy if they ever dare contradict their underlings. Is it any wonder that the State Department is what it is?
I agree completely with this article. Every statement out of the mouth of National GOP leaders today sounds like it came from obsessive compulsive eunuchs.
The other issue is Republicans are easier targets, why? Because they attempt to stand for something. It's easier to be called out as a hypocrite when you stand for something.
Dems have it easier, they stand for very little. Say nothing in a class or in a meeting and you cannot be criticized for your contribution. Say something and its real easy for the armchair quarterbacks to knock it.
A Dem who violates some ethics clause gets support and a promotion, while being defended under the guise of "due process". A Rep gets forced to step down guilty until proven so.
There is so much talk about civil war in Iraq. The single most greatest civil war to be fought and won is right here in the US. The world hangs in the balance.
Ask not what I can do for my country, ask what my country can do for me. Washington Elected Elite
Politics is not for the weak-kneed. We have to be willing to get our hands a little dirty.
Now also found at The Minority Report