I enthusiastically celebrate the defeat of liberal Republican Congressman Joe Schwarz at the hands of a more conservative Republican last night in Michigan. I participated in the funding of the independent campaign by Club For Growth and am proud of it – and will most certainly do it again.
The bar has moved over the years. The GOP used to define liberal Republicans based on one or two issues – usually on abortion. That has changed due to the leftward move of the GOP Congress almost continuously since 1998. The budget deficit, new entitlements such as Medicare part D, a lack of leadership on border security, failure to extend the tax rate cuts, and a general concern for re-election over problem solving puts a TON of Republican incumbents into the RINO category – as measured against the Party’s stated platform and icons such as President Ronald Reagan.
For two years, because of the way Congressional Districts were rigged in the last gerrymandering, I’ve been writing and opining on local talk radio here in the Central Valley that the REAL problem for Congressional Republicans would not be general elections losses but stiff and well funded primary campaigns. The Pennsylvania massacre last spring was a great indicator of things to come. Some of my friends in Congress need to look long and hard at this loss by Joe Schwarz last night and decide where they stand on the core issues afflicting our Party and political base.
For now, I’ve added RINO Hunting on my list of favored activities.