Seaspook and Front Page Magazine give some interesting descriptions of what to expect if cut and run Republicans stay home on November 7th.
Sean Hannity keeps warning us about the spector of ‘Speaker’ Polosi if this election goes wrong, but the implications are far worse than just a hard core Socialist dingbat as leader of the House.
Now imagine for an instant Alcee Hastings as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Here is a man who was appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter in 1979, and whose outright corruption was so egregious that his own party saw fit to impeach him ten years later.
Judge Hastings was one of just six federal judges since the beginning of the Republic to be impeached by Congress and removed from office by the United States Senate.
After his impeachment and removal from office in 1989 – on charges of corruption and perjury – Hastings did not retreat in a corner. He did not beg forgiveness. He made no public display of repentence.
On the contrary. Judge Hastings played the Jesse Jackson race card. He was a victim. He had been wronged – not the people of Florida, to whom he had lied and from whom he had stolen (such is the meaning of perjury and corruption, after all).
In November 1992, Hastings ran successfully in the newly-created 23rd district of Florida, an overwhelmingly Democrat district created by the Florida legislature after the 1990 census as a safe Democratic seat.
Since then, Hastings has been re-elected with comfortable margins every two years. His official biography makes no mention of the untidy fact of his impeachment and removal as a federal judge. I guess he figures it’s not something potential voters in Broward and Palm Beach County need to know.
And that’s just for starters.
I have to agree with Joe (linked to above) that it will not be the end of the world if the Republicans lose, but I hardly think that is a reason to welcome the left-wing moonbats like Pelosi, Hastings, Kennedy, Reid, Conyers, and Rangel to take control of the war on terror, taxes, social security, and the other big issues of the day. The reasoning becomes even less reasoned when one considers that the next two years will be spent doing little more than raising taxes and impeaching Bush.
Those who are promoting the cut and run Republican mentality remind me of the parent that would stand by and allow their kid to slice open their hand when they pick up Dad’s pocket knife. The kid isn’t likely to die, they’ll need a few stitches and the tendon damage might require physio and impair their future motor functions, but they’ll sure learn a valuable lesson about playing with knives. And isn’t that really the most important thing when it is all said and done – that you ensured they were “taught a lesson”?
Where I come from it seems a much better idea to educate the child and avoid the damage and pain. In the same way, it might be better to get involved with your chosen party and change things in the primaries, rather than pulling this ‘let’s cut our fingers off’ / ‘Republicans deserve to lose‘ stupidity.
You’re not going to teach anyone on the Republican side anything if you sit out the mid-term elections. You will, however, teach the fringe left that it is the driving force behind the Democrat Party and that its ideas are “mainstream;” you will empower the Soros inspired MoveOn.org raving. Even worse, despite what you have told yourself, you will not be able to ensure that the Reagan conservatives will return, renewed and strengthened in ’08. Sitting out this election could usher in another decade plus of Democrat rule.
But I guess that, in the end, you know better – don’t you.
