The GOP Establishment lost 11 US Senate races in 2012 (listed below). The team flamed out in 2006 and 2008 as well.
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11 2012 US Senate races backed and lost by the GOP E and its pals at the US Chamber of Commerce:
1. Florida,
- Chamber and Jeb Bush backed Connie Mack IV lost by 13 points.
Jeb Bush and Connie Mack IV
- In Montana, Romney beat Obama by 13.7 points. Chamber supported GOP Senate candidate Denny Rehberg still lost.
4. Nevada,
- Republican Dean Heller was the incumbent having been appointed to the seat after scandal-compromised Republican Senator John Ensign resigned. Heller lost by 1.2 points to a democrat under an ethics investigation.
- Heather Wilson lost an open seat to a democrat by 5.7 points.
- In North Dakota Romney beat Obama by 19.6 points. GOP establishment and Chamber supported Senate candidate Rick Berg still lost to a non-incumbent democrat.
- George Allen lost by 5.9 points. In 2006 Allen only lost by .3.
- Tommy Thompson lost to a non-incumbent democrat by 5.5 points. Tammy Baldwin “authored a provision included in the Affordable Care Act that allows young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance until age 26.”
- Angus King won by 22 points.
- The incumbent democrat beat Josh Mandel by 6 points.
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11. Massachusetts
- Incumbent Republican Scott Brown lost by 7.5 points to democrat Elizabeth Warren.
- “US Chamber calls Elizabeth Warren threat to free enterprise,” 8/15/12. Too bad Scott Brown lost after the Chamber helped him win his 2010 special election. Karl Rove robocalls obviously didn't help.
Karl Rove money usually elects Democrats:
“In the past two election cycles, he (Rove) and his acolytes have personally helped Barack Obama get elected and yet made millions in the process. You tell me who the dummy is—Rove or the people who keep listening to him and funding him?”…11/16/12
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Another Democrat secret weapon, George Bush: George Bush trashed Romney during the campaign:
“He (George Bush) gets a regular drip feed of political news from Karl Rove and others—he’s been critical of Romney’s campaign and skeptical of his chances.”...(p. 2)
10/14/12, “(Jeb) Bush in the Wilderness,” NY Magazine, Joe Hagen
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Speaking about the GOP in 2007, Peggy Noonan foreshadowed the demise of the US two party system and its implications:
“What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.”…
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The Chamber and the GOP don't seem on the same page on major issues such as ObamaCare:
The Chamber correctly opposes ObamaCare but its partner the GOP had no intention of impeding ObamaCare. First in 2009 with the stimulus vote, then by its silence and actions from Jan. 2011 to the present:
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1. 2009: Much of what we know today as ObamaCare was actually passed in the 2009 Obama stimulus. Republican Senators were fine with it. The Chamber of Commerce also endorsed the 2009 stimulus.
2. After the Nov. 2010 landslide: The historic victory wasn’t engineered by the GOP but by the grassroots and their desire to see O’Care defunded by the House. The Chamber should’ve known by early 2011 that the GOP would do whatever necessary to protect ObamaCare, and it couldn’t care less what the people wanted:
House Speaker John Boehner has never allowed a standalone ObamaCare defunding bill to come to the floor. A 10/2/13 article makes clear the GOP House has carefully avoided its clear legal right to defund which cannot be overridden by the Senate or even the President. An even larger issue is the Supreme Court disallowed ObamaCare as originally written, and said it was only legal as a tax. Speaker Boehner has never allowed a standalone vote to approve ObamaCare as a tax.
- The Court didn’t rule the House had to approve it as a tax, just that ObamaCare was not legal unless it was called a tax and treated as such.
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In 2011, apparently not wishing ObamaCare to be defunded, GOP House ‘leadership’ placed a defunding bill in the GOP controlled House Appropriations Committee where it remained “deadlocked” indefinitely:
9/29/11, “Draft spending bill would defund Obama healthcare law,” The Hill, Sam Baker
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“House Republicans released a draft spending bill Thursday that would cut off funding for many parts of the healthcare reform law, though the bill remains deadlocked in the Appropriations Committee.“…
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The following article describes the authority of the House to defund ObamaCare:
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10/2/13, “Obamacare can be defunded without Senate approval,“ Examiner, Christopher Collins
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Betsy McCaughey on ObamaCare in the 2009 stimulus:
“The (2009) stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The [2009 stimulus] bill allocates more funding for this [federal gov. healthcare] bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined. Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional.” The idea had been advocated by Tom Daschle, Obama’s first choice for head of HHS until he had a limo problem. The stimulus bill passed about 5 days after Ms. McCaughey’s article.
2/9/2009, “Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey,“ Bloomberg, Commentary
“Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
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Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.””…
NY Times, 2/15/2009, $1.1 billion in stimulus to be spent on federal health panel: “The bill creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate the research.”
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Comment: The Chamber endorsed the 2009 stimulus and therefore the basis of ObamaCare, then turned around in 2010 and said it opposed ObamaCare and spent heavily against it in 2012 campaign ads. The Chamber’s anti-ObamaCare advertising in support of 2012 GOP candidates was bound to fail. The GOP wasn’t against ObamaCare, even insisted ObamaCare’s architect Mitt Romney lead the ticket. Unfortunately, Romney didn’t want to run or win in the first place. Romney and the GOP knew democrats had much stronger ground forces but they made no attempt to compete. Too bad no one’s going to jail.
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Two citations for Chamber endorsing 2009 Obama stimulus:
2/14/2009,”US Congress passes economic stimulus bill,“ Patrick Martin, World Socialist Web Site
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“The US Chamber of Commerce and nearly every business lobby endorsed the stimulus bill, as corporate America expects to cash in on government contracts, business tax cuts, or both.”…
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Chamber supported TARP in 2008 and Obama stimulus in 2009, both the opposite of free markets:
10/4/2010, “U.S. Chamber of Commerce turns on past allies,” AP via Times-Picayune
“During the worst of the economic crisis, the nation’s most powerful business lobby pleaded with Congress to prop up financial institutions and stimulate the economy with hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed money.
“Make no mistake: When the aftermath of congressional inaction becomes clear, Americans will not tolerate those who stood by and let the calamity happen,” wrote Bruce Josten, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president in September 2008, who at the time pressed lawmakers before their vote on a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street.
A few months later, Congress faced a similar reckoning — whether to pass an $814 billion economic stimulus package consisting of about one-third tax breaks and two-thirds additional government spending. Again, Josten wrote to lawmakers: “The global economy is in uncharted and dangerous waters and inaction from Washington is not an option.“
Fast forward to the present. The chamber is now spending millions of dollars on ads trying to elect candidates whose campaigns are based on opposing the very bank rescue and stimulus law it once supported….
The chamber’s $75 million planned for campaign ads in this year’s elections will go, in part, to criticize candidates who voted for both measures.”…
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Comment: Yes, each race is different. But today’s GOP wants the same things democrats want: big government, crony capitalism, and permanent dependent voters. These are the opposite of "free markets."
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10/18/13, “Chamber of Commerce: Enough ‘silliness,’ we need Republicans who understand the free market,” rawstory.com, Travis Gettys
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8/15/12, “US Chamber calls Elizabeth Warren threat to free enterprise,” Boston Globe, Noah Bierman
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Two citations for Republican Party abandoning issue of repealing ObamaCare:
1. 11/28/11, “It’s the Obamacare, Stupid,” Jeffrey H. Anderson, Weekly Standard
“His (Obama’s) best hope is that Republicans will continue to join him in pretending that this will be a run-of-the-mill electioncentered around the economy, rather than a historic election in which the citizenry’s verdict (on ObamaCare) will largely determine the future course of the nation….
The Republicans’ core problem isn’t that they’re struggling to win the blame game on the economy (though they are). It’s that they’ve forgotten to ride the wave that brought them here.Republicans didn’t get elected in 2010 because of voters’ dissatisfaction with the Democrats’ handling of the economy. They got elected because the Democrats openly and arrogantly ignored the voters’ will in passing the monstrosity
that is Obamacare.”…
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2. In the 2012 election, “The Republican Party abandoned” the issue of repealing ObamaCare. “A majority of the people wanted to repeal Obamacare, [an issue that] the Republican Party abandoned,” Caddell noted.” Caddell spoke at CPAC:
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3/14/13, “Caddell Unloads on ‘Racketeering’ GOP Consultants,” Breitbart News, Leahy
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“The 2010 takeover of Congress by the Republicans, Caddell said, “was not engineered by the Washington Republican establishment. They [the establishment] then took that victory and threw it away….Pat Caddell, the Fox News Contributor and Democrat pollster who engineered Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential victory, blew the lid off CPAC on Wednesday with a blistering attack on “racketeering” Republican consultants who play wealthy donors like “marks.”
“I blame the donors who allow themselves to be played for marks. I blame the people in the grassroots for allowing themselves to be played for suckers....It’s time to stop being marks. It’s time to stop being suckers. It’s time for you people to get real,” he told the audience that included two top Republican consultants….
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“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.“ Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they’re interested in winning elections.
“Just follow the money,” Caddell told a rapt audience. “It’s all there in the newspaper. The way it works is this–ever since we centralized politics in Washington, the House campaign committee and the Senate campaign committee, they decide who they think should run. You hire these people on the accredited list [they say to candidates] otherwise we won’t give you money. You hire my friend or else.”
Financial corruption is a key component of the current process, according to Caddell. “There’s money passing under the table on both parties. Don’t kid yourself…
If you can’t see racketeering in front of you, God save you.”As a Democrat, Caddell said he could tell the truth about the failings of the Republicans 2012 campaign efforts since “I have no interest in the Republican Party.” He compared Republicans unfavorably to Democrats.
”In my party we play to win. We play for life and death.
You people play for a different kind of agenda…Your party has no problem playing the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters.””…
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Added: Karl Rove has delivered half a generation to the radical left by electing Obama twice. While a Republican President sat in the White House he flipped the House and Senate from Republican to Democrat. In 2012 Rove lost 11 GOP Senate races. It’s logical that Obama officials, the NY Times, and far left CBS News Political Director John Dickerson praise Rove:
10/22/10, “Karl Rove’s Flameout,” The Daily Beast, Matt Latimer
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“Political types tend to get suspicious when those on one side of the spectrum suddenly start complimenting their supposed worst enemies—the equivalent of Seinfeld hosting a testimonial for Newman or Eliot Ness carpooling with Al Capone.
Yet in the past few weeks, the White House and even The New York Times have done exactly that—heaping praise on their longtime nemesis, Karl Rove,
- and his protégé, Ed Gillespie.
- extolled Rove as a “master political strategist”
- ensuring them more republican support and donations….
A well-known Fox News personality said that the Bush-Rove influence was so strong at the network that he is constantly on guard to conceal his differences with them.”…
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11/16/12, “Republicans Allowed Karl Rove to Mislead Them Again,“ Daily Beast, Matt Latimer
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“This is not the first election cycle in which Republicans have been shell-shocked by reality. Six years earlier, Republicans across the country believed they would retain control of the House and Senate. That’s because Karl Rove and his acolytes in the Bush administration and the Republican Party told us so….In 2008, Republicans again preached the gospel of Rove and his allies—Ed Gillespie, Dana Perino, and basically everyone tied to American Crossroads.
- They told us that only John McCain could defeat this amateur, Barack Obama….
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the past two election cycles, he (Rove) and his acolytes have
personally helped Barack Obama get elected and yet made millions in the
process. You tell me who the dummy is—Rove or the people who keep listening to him and funding him. Come to think of it,
- who really deserves the blame for what’s befallen the GOP?…
Nobody forced Fox News to put him and his prognostications all across the network,
often to the exclusion of all others. Nobody told billionaires to throw
their money to a person someone marvelously described as a “GOP money
incinerator.” Nobody told the media to make a fallible person with a dubious electoral winning streak the “genius” behind the GOP. What if the culprits we are all seeking are right before us—in the mirror?…
The billion-dollar question is whether they will really do anything to change it. The danger of indulging delusions is that they always welcome you back.”
The billion-dollar question is whether they will really do anything to change it. The danger of indulging delusions is that they always welcome you back.”
2/8/13, “Karl Rove’s Courage,” Slate.com, by John Dickerson, “Why it was brave—and smart—for him to challenge the Tea Party.”
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12/22/12, “The story behind Mitt Romney’s loss in the presidential campaign to President Obama,“ Boston Globe, Michael Kranish
“Building on its 2008 field organization, Obama’s campaign had far more people on the ground, for longer periods, and backed by better data. In Florida, for example, the Romney campaign said it had fewer than 200 staff members on the ground, a huge commitment
of its total of 500 nationwide.
But the Obama campaign had 770 staff in Florida out of 3,000 or so nationwide….
Indeed, in swing state after swing state, the Obama field team was much bigger than the Romney troops.
Obama had 123 offices in Ohio, compared with Romney’s 40.
Obama had 59 offices in Colorado, compared with Romney’s 15,
according to statistics compiled by the Obama campaign.”…
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9/25/12, “Why doesn’t Mitt Romney contribute to his own campaign?” Reuters, Michael Waldman
“But Romney, for whatever reason, has failed to use his personal wealth to pay his campaign’s bills. His refusal to self-finance is one of the mysteries of this campaign.”…
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6/29/12, “Romneycare Architect: Individual Mandate ‘Very Similar’ In Obama, Romney Bills,“ Huffington Post, Sam Stein
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“One of the few individuals who worked on health care reform under both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama said on Friday that the controversial individual mandate provision was virtually identical in the bills signed into law by each of them.
“They are very similar,” said Jonathan Gruber, a professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview with The Huffington Post. “They aren’t the same exact mandate, but they have the same basic structure.”
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Gruber was a key architect of the sweeping health insurance reform legislation that Romney passed as governor of Massachusetts. In addition, he advised Democrats and the Obama administration on how to build the Affordable Care Act. As that 18-month process unfolded, Gruber famously unloaded on Romney for his attacks on Obamacare, arguing that the two were the “same fucking bill.”"…
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Regarding the much spun “default,” George Soros says it can’t happen in the US:
““A sovereign that can print the money can’t default, will never default.”“…
4/24/12, “Soros: ‘A sovereign that can print the money can’t default, will never default.’,” LibertyFeatures.com, Bill Wilson
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More hate speech from the Bush family about the GOP at the worst possible moment. The Bush family has done its best to help the democrat party keep winning:
7/29/12, “Editorial: Crowder over West in U.S. House District 18,” Palm Beach Post”
“A Republican Party that such luminaries as former Gov. Jeb Bush warn has become dangerously right wing and rigid.”…
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Comment: It would be nice if it were about “right wing” or “left wing.” The US no longer has a two party system. It needs to get it back.
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A few things really were Bush’s fault. In 2007 Peggy Noonan wrote that George Bush #1 and #2 casually destroyed the GOP:
6/2/2007, “Too bad,” Wall St. Journal column by Peggy Noonan
“One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance.
They throw it away as if they’d earned it and could do with it what they liked. Bush senior inherited a vibrant country and a party at peace with itself. He won the leadership of a party that had finally, at great cost, by 1980, fought itself through to unity and come together on shared principles. Mr. Bush won in 1988 by saying he would govern as Reagan had. Yet he did not understand he’d been elected to Reagan’s third term. He thought he’d been elected because they liked him. And so he raised taxes, sundered a hard-won coalition, and found himself shocked to lose the presidency, and for eight long and consequential years. He had many virtues, but he wasted his inheritance.
Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.
Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it’s time. It’s more than time.”
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Days after Obama’s Nov. 2012 re-election, Mr. Boehner declared to ABC News that “ObamaCare is the law of the land” simply by virtue of Obama’s re-election. NPR notes Obama’s re-election helped GOP House Speaker Boehner:
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11/8/12, “John Boehner: ‘Obamacare is the law of the land’,” Politico, David Nather
12/8/12, “Once Boxed-In, Boehner May Finally Be Master Of The House,” NPR, Frank James
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Comment: The IRS also helped Mr. Boehner and the entire GOP in 2012 by silencing and wasting valuable time of 500 Tea Party groups.
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Chief Justice Roberts says political problems aren’t his concern:
6/30/12,”John Roberts Does Conservatives Big Favor By Letting Obamacare Stand,” Forbes, Paul McWilliams
Justice Roberts: “”It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.””
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After his defeat, Romney’s son Tagg said his father had no desire to be president and never wanted to run in the first place (parag. 15). This may explain why Romney refused to loan any of his famous millions to his 2012 campaign when it desperately needed it.
The Chamber plans to double down in 2014 with the same GOP establishment adored by democrats.
At least democrats admit they're democrats.
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