I Say Give Them More Rope!
By Frank Antenori
February 25, 2007
Strange things happened this past election cycle. One of the strangest was the large number of Democrats running as “moderates” and “conservatives.” We saw Rep. Raum Emmanuel (DCCC) and Sen. Charles Schumer (DSCC) skillfully guide their respective candidates to avoid those far left issues that almost two-thirds of main stream Americans simply can’t accept. Gun control, abortion on demand, raising taxes, amnesty for illegal aliens and cutting funding to our troops in the field were taboo subjects on the Democrat campaign trail; unless of course you took a conservative tone when discussing them.
Numerous Democrats, including Arizona’s own Gabrielle Giffords sounded more like Republicans with their get tough on illegal immigration and strong talk on national security. The media facilitated the facade by casting the image of these Democrat candidates as soft and cuddly moderates; while at the same time, vilifying their Republican opponents as harsh, right wing ideologues.
During the candidate forums before both the primary and general elections, Ms. Giffords skillfully avoided answering specific questions related to those sensitive topics by interjecting little stories of her days shoveling horse crap or changing tires in Daddy’s tire shop. Numerous times I sat amazed, knowing she clearly dodged the question, as her Kool-aid drinking minions applauded and the dumbfounded moderator refused to hold her accountable. Ms. Giffords was truly the queen of the “gray area.”
Since the November election, Democrats have tried to maintain this gray area by proposing a worthless and meaningless “non-binding resolution” on Iraq. Instead of showing leadership by exercising their Constitutional authority to cut off funding or offering a specific plan for dealing with Iraq, they continued with the tactics that they believe brought them to power; attacking the President. After all, why show leadership and possibly do something that voters might hold you accountable for when you could slap around the President a few more times?
Speaker Pelosi, so far, has done a masterful job keeping the “lefty” inside of her party from rearing its ugly head, knowing if it does it will be a disaster for the ’08 Congressional and Presidential elections.
But the Dems can’t help it. The “want America to fail” socialist and communist inside them just begs to escape. In the past few weeks, more and more left wing Democrats have submitted legislation that has begun to bring down the Democrat’s “Moderate” House of Cards.
Rep. McCarthy (D-NY) introduced H.R. 1022, a bill with the stated purpose, "to reauthorize the assault weapons ban, and for other purposes" a.k.a. “take your guns.” Legislation identical to the same legislation Bill Clinton himself said cost them control of the House in 1994.
This past week, AZ Reps. Pastor, Grijalva and Mitchell stood beside Nancy Pelosi and bragged how the Democrat’s “comprehensive” immigration reform bill would overturn Proposition 300, the Arizona initiative passed overwhelmingly by voters that requires illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition to attend college and prohibits state aid.
Pastor and Grijalva bragged their legislation will include provisions that would allow “undocumented” students who grow up in the United States and graduate from high school to pay in-state college tuition and be eligible for Pell grants. Strangely, only three of the four Arizona Democrats were present at the event. Hmmm… anyone see Ms. Giffords? I guess she’s still in the incumbent protection program and trying to stay in the gray on the immigration issue.
Rep. John Murtha couldn’t be kept at bay any longer either and has announced the Democrat’s "second step" against President Bush's Iraq policy will be to cut funding for the war in Iraq, and essentially starve our troops into a withdrawal from the region. Murtha’s policy of slowly “bleeding” the Pentagon dry by imposing specific restrictions on defense spending will have no effect other than to deny our troops in harms needed supplies and equipment. In essence, the only “bleeding” Murtha’s plan will accomplish will be the blood from brave men and women the Democratic Party plans to abandon once again.
Republicans in both the House and the Senate have said they will try every parliamentary tactic available to stop the Democrats from bringing this legislation to the floor of either body for a vote. I ask why?
Why not let them bring it to a vote. Ardently oppose it during the debate process, but give ‘em all the rope they want and let them vote.
No more gray area for Ms. Giffords. She’ll be unable to come back here to Arizona and put on this facade that she’s tough on illegal immigration and strong on national security. She’ll be forced to place her vote in history.
How will she explain her vote to give amnesty and our tax dollars to illegal aliens so they can go to college when most tax paying Arizonans will have to dig into their own pockets if they want to send their kids to the University of Arizona?
She’ll have to come back here and defend her vote for cutting funds to our troops and supporting the cut and run policy of her party. She’ll have a hard time doing it too with the large number of veterans, active duty military and defense contractors in her district. Not to mention that myself and the recently returned from Iraq, Jonathan Paton will be here with our real world experience and first hand knowledge to point out how wrong she and her party are when it comes to the war on terror.
So once again I say give them as much rope as they want and let them vote. Let them show their true colors, let the American people see them for what they are. A party that hates the President more than the enemy we are fighting, a party that favors illegal aliens over the taxpayers and a party that favors taking your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms while giving Constitutional rights to terrorists held at Gitmo.
So I say to my fellow Republicans and our GOP leaders in Washington, keep giving them rope and we’ll see who wins the next election.
Frank Antenori is a retired Special Forces Soldier and veteran of Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq. He is also a former candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in Congressional District Eight.
4 comments:
Right on Frank! Like leaving a bait car with the keys in it to catch a car thief...let them vote their manifesto.
Did anyone see the opinion piece that Congresswoman Giffords wrote in Sunday's Daily Star? 613 words and outside of the motherhood and apple pie she only said two things:
1) she thinks that the President's plan is not "smart". This would imply that she has a different plan that is smart. Unless the best she can offer is the "W-is-dumb" strategy.
2) she thinks that any plan should include political and economic considerations. The President's proposal does tie future support to the Iraqi government's ability to step up to the plate and take greater control of economics and the insurgency. So either she called the President's plan "smart" or she called her strategy "not smart" I'm not sure. In any event, it's like reading the musings of Paris Hilton.
Sirocco...Enjoyed your accurate 'sifting' of Antenori's usual puffed up/smoke blowing rhetoric. So many seem to go "with the blow" rather than factual flow! Hey, Frank, whose job are you after?
Good article Frank. Regardless of the usual banter and tirades, you are accurate in your assessment. I agree that Republicans should let the votes occur and let the chips fall where they may. If the public agrees, so be it. However, I’m confident they won’t. As for the “dissecting” of your article, at least Sirocco tried to use facts in his tirade. Romel just threw some rocks and went and hid. Regardless of how people feel about the war, I don’t know of anyone (other than the two responders above) that has no problem with our troops having their funding, and thus, their security, cut. Even my liberal friends (yes there are liberals who will actually talk, debate, etc. with me) don’t agree with funding cuts. The next election should prove interesting, especially if McCain gets the nomination. We will probably get back the two seats we lost here in Arizona, partly because of his “coat tails” and partly because of the Democrats’ voting record. Of course, if Tim Bee or Jonathan Paton will agree to run, it won’t matter who the Presidential nominee is, either one would run over Giffords with ease.
Sirocco,
Slanderer :), I believe we have been rather even handed with McCain on this particular site. We even have his Southern Arizona Rep as a guest blogger.
We are in fact waiting on his next contribution right now.
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