All of the Federal candidates were running against Obamacare, and then the Rogue Republicans in the NH State Senate decided to sponsor, legislate, and vote for implementing Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion. Hard to run against something when people in your own Party stab your campaign in the back (re: passed legislation) – and I bet that Frank Guinta, Dan Innis, Marilinda Garcia, Gary Lambert, Bob Smith, Jim Rubens, and Scott Brown were assuming that those chuckleheads would, you know, honor the NH GOP Platform during campaign season, right?
Yeah, how’d that work out for’em? Well, once again, the actions of NH State Senator Jeb Bradley, NH State Senator Bob Odell, and NH State Senator Nancy Stiles proved them wrong, didn’t they? Oh yeah, I forget the chief amongst them – NH State Senator Chuck Morse! Who made things tough for both of the NH GOP Governor candidates (at the time) Andrew Hemingway and Walt Havenstein. How’s that playing out for Havenstein? Dan Tuohy at the UL proves my point (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Republican challenger Walt Havenstein has redoubled his criticism of the budget, and state spending. And he was joined by Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, who accused Hassan of taking credit for the budget. He made his remarks this week as Havenstein signed a new “Pledge 2.0” to oppose an income tax and sales tax and “unfunded obligations.”
“The reality is in the New Hampshire Senate we are the firewall in the state of New Hampshire,” Morse said. “We didn’t raise any taxes and we didn’t put any new fees in the budget, and when this governor in New Hampshire says that she built the budget — good luck, folks — it was built by Republicans in the state of New Hampshire.”
Firewall? Glad to see you’re not in the building trades right about now. I don’t care what you SAID (or SAY) Morse, it is your ACTIONS that matter more. I’ve blogged this before – he claimed that he “protected” New Hampshire taxpayers by passing Medicaid Expansion even as most of us are ALSO FEDERAL TAXPAYERS. So thanks a bunch for making it more difficult for my family, Chuck! Not working fer me that you raised my taxes; after all, giving free stuff to 50,000 ain’t really free – just ask my wallet. But that wasn’t the tax hike that he sponsored that Walt was berating and Morse blaming the wrong person; Tuohy got this one right (after the fiasco of holding the Jim Foley material two weeks and making Drew Cline look like an idiot):
Didn’t raise any taxes, except maybe … that 4.2-cent increase per gallon in the state’s gas tax — the same tax Havenstein criticized as a tax on working-class families.
Yup – it must be rather frustrating for the Party’s nominee to rail against a tax that his Party members actually passed – Ray Buckley and Maggie “The Red” must have laughed so hard they must have had to use beach towels to wipe away their tears.
Consistency breeds Trust yields Votes
And now, the lack of Consistency in actions makes the candidates look like jerks (at best) and hypocrites (in light of the Party’s actual results) at worst. How’s that gonna work out? Right now, all of the Republican primary candidates are trying anything they can to reach out to the Liberty & Freedom wing TRYING to figure out how to bribe lure threaten persuade them to act as mouthpieces (and a dash (or much more) of accusal of betrayal when NO means NO is the answer). And it drives a lot of us crazy when some of “our folks” having said “I’m not doing this again – this is killing the Party long term” then turn around and decide that their own individual political futures matter more and head to that siren call of the Darker side (and wait until they learn that the “and we have COOKIES!”) turn out to be crap. Sorry folks, but thinking that holding up hope for the short term has NEVER worked – never. There are those in power in the NH GOP who will destroy it before letting anyone else into their Innermost Sanctum.
Nope, none of us in the L&F wing will be treated as equals until
- they need our votes
- they….oh wait, I can’t think of anything else
Wait, there is another thing – sellout. I had a rather long discussion with someone that used to agree with me and then upward as a Party appartchik. When they told me, in effect, that the Platform didn’t matter as elected Representatives could ignore it without reprisal, I visualized the 18 wheeler emptying its load of Kool-aid. Then when a promise that I would not do anything to screw up the meeting “because I have put too much time and effort into this” was demanded, and I said “I will not promise ANYTHING that I cannot deliver” and that person went ballistic! That’s when I knew the shift had gone from being Principled to being a “Republican Republican for the sake of the Republican Party” – the chasm brought near and up close personal. My saying that I would vote only for Champions because of the value I place on my vote spilled more rocket fuel. I even said that the remark of protecting the process instead of what was much more important said volumes – did not faze them (or did not “get it” – not sure which).
Again, I say:
I’ll follow the unwritten Principle of voting for the primary winner when our elected representatives follow all of the NH GOP Platform Principles
Again, I have made it clear – as a Citizen, one of the few things that these same politicians haven’t diluted YET is my vote. If anything, it has become more valuable so why should I just blithely spend it on people that refuse to be Champions?
