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Jewish World Review Dec. 23, 2010 / 16 Teves, 5771 Which Republicans Sold Out? By Dick Morris And Eileen McGann
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | With the new Republican power in Washington, it is doubly important to keep a close eye on the doings of GOP senators and congressmen to spot those who are straying from orthodoxy, seduced by power and the insider clubiness that characterizes Washington. In the lame-duck session, we want to draw attention to six Republican U.S. senators who voted with the Democrats on a key issue. We should all bear their apostasy in mind and, in particular, make them mindful of the possibility of primary challenges to their renomination. Two senators, in particular, deserve to have primary challengers take them on in 2012 — Tennessee's Bob Corker and Mississippi's Thad Cochran. Both men voted for the START Treaty, which conceded a permanent edge in nuclear weaponry to Russia. While the treaty provided for equal and reduced stockpiles of strategic warheads, it did nothing to address the vast piles of tactical nuclear warheads held by the Russians. The Russians have 10,000 of these battlefield nuclear weapons piled up in the stockpile, while we have only a few hundred. In addition, START's preamble blocks the U.S. from developing missile defenses, now especially important in light of North Korea's and Iran's expanding capacities. Both Corker and Cochran face re-election in 2012. They should both be challenged for the nomination by men who put our need for national security above appeasing the Russians. Having suppressed democracy, wiped out free speech, taken over all the media, nationalized their oil and energy industry, invaded Georgia, enabled the Iranian nuclear program and tried to establish a natural gas monopoly in Europe, what else does Vladimir Putin need to do before Corker and Cochran realize that appeasement won't work? Corker's vote for START probably stems from the insider-old boy network on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on which he sits. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who also voted for START, sits alongside him on the Republican minority on the committee. Led by Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking GOP member on the panel, all three voted for START. Unfortunately, Isakson is not up for re-election until 2016. When he does come up for re-election, we hope that the citizens of Georgia's Republican Party hold him to account. Lamar Alexander, also of Tennessee, backed START and faces re-election in 2014. In a previous column, we called attention to the defections of Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mike Crapo of Idaho from the ranks of fiscal conservatives. Both Coburn and Crapo voted for the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction Commission plan, which recommended cutting the deductions for home mortgages and charitable contributions by two-thirds for most taxpayers and urged the enactment of almost $1 trillion in new taxes. Coburn and Crapo only announced their intention to endorse the commission report after they had been re-elected on Nov. 2, 2010. Now they are safe in their seats until 2016. But we hope to be still writing columns by then and will remind the voters of those two conservative states how ill served they were by their Republican senators. So, who sold out? Thad Cochran, Mississippi Bob Corker, Tennessee Mike Crapo, Idaho Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Johnny Isakson, Georgia Let's remember.
These are the grounds for our battles in 2011-2012. It is on this turf that the Republican House majority must fight. The fearful "moderate" Democratic senators will cave in. And then Obama will be forced to surrender because the Force — public opinion — is not with him. You can govern by ignoring what Americans think if you have a majority. But not if you don't. And with each surrender — over his desire to raise the debt limit without mandated spending cuts, over his support for bailing out states in trouble, and over his demand to raise taxes in the 2012 budget — Obama will get weaker and weaker. His inability to fight and win the war on terror and his choice to become mired in Afghanistan with no real plan for winning will contribute to the image of weakness. In 2012, he will face America, denuded of all the programs he passed in 2009-2010, with an economy only slightly improved but with at least 7 percent to 8 percent unemployment, and with a manifest inability to measure up to the job of president. Most presidents face a challenge of weakness. With Dwight Eisenhower, it was his refusal to stand up to Joe McCarthy. With John Kennedy, it was his inability to pass legislation. With Richard Nixon, it was his inability to get ahead of the Watergate scandal. With Gerald Ford, it was his helplessness in the face of inflation. With Jimmy Carter, it was the hostage crisis. With Ronald Reagan, it was his failure to control the Iran-Contra affair. With George Bush-41, it was his passivity on the economy. With Bill Clinton, it was the flip-flopping early in his presidency. With Barack Obama, it will be his retreat in the face of the Republican counter-attack of 2011.
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© 2009, Dick Morris
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