Skip

Cuomo had a secret re-election ‘pact’ with Republicans

The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.

We here at GraniteGrok get excoriated all the time by Establishment Republicans for supporting the NH GOP Platform,  our Constitutions, and the values espoused therein. Clearly there have been Republicans that we have not supported, but we would not do what this Republican did – or Doug Scammon (short version: conspired with Democrats to become the NH Speaker of the House years ago).  This disturbing story out of NY continues (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Read more

It’s intellectually weak, morally bankrupt, and self-delusion.  Selling oneself that way

Sidenote: which, tangentially, was the basic theme of Walt Havenstein’s campaign – “I can manage it better”.  Perhaps true.  But it also shows a complete acceptance of the status quo.  Voters across the nation said “not enough” to that, a complete rejection of the Leftist Progressive vision that the Dems brought.  Liberty, Freedom, less government, more choices that individuals can and should make their own decisions and not those in Govt usurping that role – that’s what the vote was about this past Tuesday.

is limiting, shallow, and trite.  Yesterday on Meet the Press – Chuck Todd was interviewing Scott Walker, the man that beat the Democrats three times in the last four years, in a DEEP BLUE State, to retain his governorship.  Here he talks, not about being timid and not making waves (which is the track that the NH GOP Establishment wants in its fervor to “control” the NH Speaker of the House in trying to “lock out” Bill O’Brien; emphasis mine) but in governing by the Republican ideals:

Read more

For as long as I’ve been part of the TEA Party movement (“Fiscal Frugality, Govt staying within Constitutional bounds, Free Markets” are the 3 TEA Party principles.  Period), it has undergone demonization by the Democrats at full roar.  THIS election cycle, we saw the Establishment Republicans (Mitch McConnell: “We will crush them!”) join them.  Thus, one WOULD have expected smiles all around between the Dems “Big Government” and the Establishment “Slightly lesser Big Govt” Rs – “Mission Accomplished”!

Uh-huh!  Sorry to explode that bubble, dudes and dudettes: More TEA Party folks in Congress, not less

11 to Watch: Meet the New Crop of Tea Party Conservatives in Congress

The incoming wave of Republicans who will shake up Washington’s political landscape includes some tea party candidates who promise to promote an agenda based on conservative principles such as limited government, traditional American values and a strong national defense. For those who’d like to get to know these fresh faces, The Daily Signal created a roundup of the newest tea party favorites in the House and Senate.

Read them and weep – the TEA Party is not dead as you can’t kill ideas.  As Glen Reynolds keeps saying: “ If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine”.  In the Senate, they listed:

Read more

The last couple of election cycles we’ve heard nothing but blathering about how much money there is in campaigning – billions! It is a lot of money but in our media driven culture, it is costly.  But I also remember that in our country’s infancy, the price paid by those anonymous pamphleteers were paying a high price to get their message out as well – yet they paid it.  Those papers were a force multiplier – it allowed them to get their viewpoint out faster and more efficiently compared to hauling around a soapbox from corner to corner.  It was the essence of free speech – but there was a cost.  Just like today.

Jim Rubens, who ran for US Senate from NH this past election cycle, stopped by Steve’s post “Democrat Priorities are Not America’s Priorities”  that spoke about campaign finance left a comment (here, in part):

Read more

And that seemingly has been the under-reported story of this election with all of the emphasis on the US Senate flipping to the GOP (and to a lesser degree, an additional 12 seats in the US House).  However, starting with the 2010 TEA Party election (face it, it was the TEA Party that dragged the GOP over the line in stopping the Progressive domination of both chambers in Congress and Obama), the Republicans started marching through the States – voters preferred their policies over the Progressive Democrats.  While here in NH there was a loss of the NH House (big time) and the NH Exec. Council, that was reversed this week.

But the magnitude of how much of the country the Democrats have lost is well shown by this graphic:

Two thirds of all of the chambers (upper and lower regardless of what they are called in each state) are now Republican controlled.  And voters put them there (regardless of what the Dems say otherwise) – the will of the People.  This means that the legislation coming from them should be more inline with traditional American values than not – but certainly not the socialistic Progressive ones (that of foreign origin and CERTAINLY not concerning American values).  And even with those crying out that the TEA Party movement has died, well, it still is working to bring the GOP NOT further to the right but back down to its roots.  This is not the mark of a “regional party” as Democrats & pundits alike have scornfully blathered.

“Combined with unexpected victories in gubernatorial races in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts, the Republicans are poised to control a higher percentage of state governments than at any point in the past 25 years.

Read more

Quote from Andrew Breitbart.  All a minimum wage uplift is Progressives / Liberals / Democrats demanding  that Government no longer has to provide welfare directly (and no hard votes to be faced later on raising welfare taxes).  Instead, you and I are obliged to do so and Progressives get to blame “capitalism”

Which it isn’t.  Italy in the 1930s perfected this form of Government control.  Unlike the outright Communism of the Soviet Union or the Socialism typified by Germany in that same period, they figured out that complete control of an entity (but not having to own that company) was sufficient.

Read more

This is really starting to get wicked bad – one of the most seminal events in our US history and it is clear that these “college” students don’t have the actual history knowledge that was required to be rock solid by the end of elementary school back in my day.  After all, how HARD is it to know that the Union / the North won the Civil War????   Seriously, only ONE knew (and that was after a lot of hesitation)?

And teachers unions believe they should be paid more – for turning out an absolutely horrible product as shown by this clip?  It would be one thing if this was a solitary event, but how many times have I put up similar ones all showing how badly prepared our students are to take their place in society as “well informed citizens”.  Year after year, clip after clip – at some point, the bony finger must be pointed at those to whom we PAY to prepare our students properly and say “enough of this nonsense – man up, do the job, or get away from our sons and daughters!”.

School choice – competition.

Read more

Some people do a lot of analytical work on figuring out their prognostication of past voting models and results, changes in demographics, and how to use that info to determine how that all should be altered for the current elections’ results.  I find it intriguing but I’m not going to spend my time doing it as it would take away from blogging.  So, I sift through others’ hard work (and it is indeed exactly that) and try to synthesize my own outlook.

• I called it on Walt Havenstein losing the NH Governor race – he did by 5.2%.  I was wrong in that I thought it would be closer to 7-10%.
• I called it on Scott Brown losing the US Senate race – he did by 3.2%.  I was wrong in that I thought that IF he won, it would be by the slimest of margins (e.g., recount) and if he lost, it would have been been about a 5 – 7% margin.

John Stark and John Langdon – the number of “scatters” that the NH SecState is showing is inline with what I thought – and also within the margins of the above loses as well.  Message sent – and done as a lark.  Lots of folks hammered us for it but I still hold fast to changing the voting paradigm: no longer will I allow an Establishment Republican Party Elite demand obedience and attempt to strong arm a vote simply BECAUSE.  No, you must earn it from the start of the Primary right up through me marking the final ballot.  My vote is too precious to casually throw the GOP way to lie about supporting a candidate who insults the L&F wing of the NH GOP Party.  Neither am I going to support candidates that violate core beliefs. Consistency breeds Trust yields Votes.  Neither Havenstein or Brown showed me (or a growing number of folks like me) that they were Consistent or that they had earned my Trust.  Deal with it.

• What does it say about a man’s character that knowing the Democrat name for TEA Party folks was a sexual slur could not find it in his heart to simply say “sorry”?  He deliberately alienated a large part of his base.  I can now tell the story – a meeting was set up, like back in 2010 with the leaders of the L&F wing of the Party with Papa Smurf (John Sununu Sr), for Havenstein.  Walt arrived – and only 4 people were there instead of the scores that had been invited.  Each and every one of them, including me, said “No apology, no support.  We will not be used as cover; we will not be there”.  It is my understanding that Havenstein was PISSED – he was the Nominee so how DARE he not get that support and stomped out redfaced when told the reasons.  He assumed that votes would be there – you know what “assumed” means. A lack of Consistency.

  Read more

Leon Wolf over at RedState also echoes what we at the ‘Grok are telling our newly elected Republicans (emphasis mine):

As the reality of a Republican wave became imminent last night, a dangerous narrative began to take hold among the conservative talking heads on cable news and in the victory speeches of the victorious Republicans. The narrative was that now that the Republicans have control of both chambers of Congress, it is incumbent upon them to work with Obama and the other Democrats in the service of “getting things done” and “fixing the broken system.”

My hope is that Republicans reject this patent nonsense for the poppycock that it is. Not only should Republicans not work closely with Democrats, they should instead keep them as far away as possible, preferably across a large moat filled with sharp stakes, acid, and alligators. That way, our side will be safer from friendly fire when we launch the flaming tar at the remaining Democrats in office.

No, the Proper Role of Government has already been laid out for us – it is just that our elected officials have either forgotten it – or have the hubris that they know better:

…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Get that – it is NOT to “do things” !  Yes, we made you beat The Won.  Now implement OUR agenda – not theirs.  And OURS had better be YOURS.

Read more

Eric Cantor – the highest ranking Republican to be kicked out by his base – the conventional wisdom was that he had lost touch with those that put him into office.  So they replaced him with a TEA Party guy: Dave Brat.  So, Cantor shows that he hasn’t learned his lesson even now – from an interview on CNBC (really, CNBC? Avoiding your former base and not on Fox?):

In a veiled warning to tea party lawmakers Wednesday, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called on Republicans to work with Democrats and President Barack Obama before the end of the year on lingering spending issues.

Er, wasn’t this one of the reasons why you LOST – that you had been seen to be too much DC and not enough “back home”?  And now you’re doubling down?  And taking a whack at those that put you into your proper place?

Cantor, a seven-term Republican congressman from Virginia, lost his GOP primary race in June to David Brat, a tea party-affiliated economics professor. Brat ended up winning in Tuesday’s midterm election, which saw Republicans widen their House majority and win control of the Senate.  In his first television interview since leaving Capitol Hill in August, Cantor said a “small minority” should not hold Republican leaders hostage like they’ve done in the past, “whether it was a fiscal cliff or whether it was a shutdown or the near approach to a debt default.”

Emblematic of the entire problem that the  base sees coming out of DC –

Read more