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‘Grok friend John Hawkins has a new column over at Townhall that outlines the 10 most essential rules that you have to follow if you want to be an “Establishment Republican” (other than blue blazers for men and pearl necklaces for women):

1) There is nothing ever worth fighting for except Democrat policies: If you’re going to fight for something, make sure you’re fighting your own base to help the Democrats achieve some policy goal that makes Tea Partiers want to stab themselves in their eyes…

2) You must systematically destroy any person, place, or thing that excites conservatives: Nothing good ever comes from conservatives getting excited; so make sure to target anything and anyone that gets them fired up…

3) You’re a winner just by virtue of being an establishment Republican: When Tea Partiers rally behind a candidate who loses, it’s because those guys don’t know what they’re doing…

4) Trash conservatives, but hold your fire against Democrats: There’s a reason that both John McCain and Mitt Romney fought harder against their Republican primary opponents than they did against Barack Obama…

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Well, this micro-saga started when a Merrimack County Republican Committee (“MCRC”) meeting turned out to be rather short for me (“An NH GOP State Committee Member, computer bag, and tripod walk into a Merrimack County Repub meeting“):

…Only if one believes the meme of “anybody with an R next to their name IS a good Republican” and that NEVER should one Republican attack another? Sorry, we don’t believe that – for if you believe that anything is possible, well, you may find Rs voting like Ds and acting AGAINST the Republican Party Principles (and too bad if it is your friend).  Well, it certainly felt like was a bit of payback time for our pitchfork times by some who haven’t like the idea that we at the ‘Grok don’t accept that meme.

Yes,the camera was voted out and given that the tripod legs were “frozen in fear” afterwards, I had to carry it out of The Draft.

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Oh, Sidenote first (because it IS just that kind of day): OK, Landrigan, you and DiStaso are a pair today.  He can’t tell a TEA Partier from shinola and you can’t even get the names straight: “Bragdon goes on offense in offering defense”.  Even as we are castigated as mere bloggers, all I keep hearing is layers upon layers of factcheckers and editors.  Really – can’t even fact check your own headline?  And you two are supposed to be the “experts”?

Finally, a high level Republican actually knows the meaning of the word that one hardly NEVER sees in Politics: Loyalty.  From the Telegraph, we see Bill O’Brien showing the loyalty to subordinate.  He didn’t have to – he just did the right thing.  He gains nothing politically by doing this (more later on this line of thinking).   He put someone else before his own well-being.  He’s trying to not leave anyone behind that is under attack and calls out those that should be the cavalry coming over the hill, pennants waving and guns blazing to protect their own: the NH GOP.

Once again, though, the Chair lowers its behavior well under my extremely low expectations – giving into that just WONDERFUL Democrat trap called Political Correctness.  It is like the Chair is OBSESSED with using that tool of Marxist Culturalists everywhere.  Only problem is that it IS gonna bite her, too:

“The first is that Democrats have turned their tried and true Alinskyite demonization campaign on Pete. No surprise there. But, the second thing? In likewise tried and true fashion, the Republican state party is threatening to withdraw support from Pete. They want him to validate the Dems’ libelous narrative by running from his beliefs and, it seems to me, apologize for having offended the liberals.”

Once again, we see the Party willing to put additional sacrificial lambs on the altar of Political Correctness – seeking some small measure of approval from….umm, 

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I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on – unless you are a very committed Socialist that wants America to collapse entirely (to give you a chance of rebuilding it in a Socialist society), this ought to be having you say “Oh Crap!”:

Yet when a conservative hesitates before raising the debt ceiling, he’s portrayed as a madman. When Paul Ryan offers a thoughtful plan to reduce the debt over decades, he’s pushing grannies into the Grand Canyon and pantsing park rangers on the way out.

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Progressivism is nothing more than a euphemism for “Slow Communism” or, if you like, “incremental Socialism”.  Communism is the result of a quick “BANG!” while incremental Socialism is the proverbial hand torquing up the water temperature under the frog.  All it takes is an uninvolved electorate and people that think like this:

• NH State Rep Kris Roberts (D): “Government has to protect us from our own stupidity.”
• NH State Rep Leigh Webb (D): “The role of government is to legislate behavior“

And there is no opting out with these people either; it’s “one for all” whether you want to play along or not.  Progressivism knows no “aisle” – there are some Republicans that believe in this same vein as the chuckleheads above.  Some permanently and some wig-wag back and forth.  To that latter group, we can now add NH State Rep Steve Vaillancourt (R) – the self-professed Libertarian (e.g., “Let people choose for themselves”) in joining the Progressive totalitarian spectrum (“Iss verboten!”; emphasis mine and reformatted):

CONCORD — Legislative efforts to ban smoking used to draw huge crowds to lengthy public hearings where heavy hitters testified for or against prohibition.  Eventually, smoking bans were approved at restaurants, bars, public buildings such as the State House and some private buildings.  Social, fraternal or religious organizations have continued to welcome smokers because (1) they have restricted memberships and (2) some key lawmakers — including former state Sen. Jack Barnes, R-Raymond — did not want to restrict World War II veterans’ activities after they had served and sacrificed for their country.  Two bills will be introduced in the 2014 session that may change things, however. A House bill will be sponsored by Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, R-Manchester, and a Senate bill will be sponsored by Sen. Lou D’Allesandro. “I’ve always felt that if secondhand smoke will kill you in a restaurant, it will kill you in a social club,” Vaillancourt said, noting the exemption has been debated before.

Right – so social clubs can make their own decisions as – in essence, the Freedom to decide if they were to allow smoking or not. 

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 EVERY PARENT AND GRANDPARENT

NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT

the

COMMON CORE CURRICULUM

CONTROVERSY IN EDUCATION

The Seacoast Republican Women

Hosts a MUST-HEAR program for anyone concerned

about the education of our children!

Monday, October 21, 2013

6:30 p.m.

At the Portsmouth Public Library

Levenson Room

175 Parrot Avenue, Portsmouth

Panelists:

His story on Kelly Ayotte had this line in it:

Ayotte had been successfully straddling the line between Tea Party favorite and establishment Republican — until the shutdown occurred.

This is pretty much the same level of “journalism” we see from a lot of these ink-stained (he’s old enough for that phrase) “reporters” lately when they try to report on Second Amendment issues and plunge into talking about calibers, cartridges, rounds, ammo, automatics, semi-automatics, muzzle loaders….and of course, assault weapons vs assault rifles.  Concealed carry, open carry, law abiding, criminals, gun show loophole vs private sales – often they are a disaster because they don’t know what they’re talking about.

DiStaso, being one of the “Political Reporters” in the state, should know far better.  He knows that the TEA Party supported Ovide Lamontagne – to the hilt and given 2, maybe three more weeks in the primary, might have eliminated that 1600 vote advantage she ended up with.  But let’s be clear (sorry for the Obama-ism) here – Kelly was NEVER a “Tea Party favorite” – not then and certainly not now.  Yeah, we voted for her, but given her opponent, who wouldn’t have? She was “EStablishment” from the get-go; she knew it, they knew it, and we certainly knew.

But it shows that DiStaso is showing the rest of us one of two things: 

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The conservative base is looking for STRONG candidates – those that know the issues, those that have actual stances of granite built on solid philosophy (instead of dingleberry type positions that flapped in every political wind / event that comes along), and those can inspire them that they will do what they say and keep their promises.  Love’em or hate’em, folks like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee certainly know the issues and have crafted their stances.

And NO ONE can say that they are, or have, failed to keep their promises to those that “brung them to the dance”.  They said what they would do and they are doing in.  Bold, Bright Colors.

New Hampshire conservative voters should be so lucky!  Looking at this headline from Pindell’s site is not giving me confidence – are we damned with only faintness (and take that anyway you want):

“GOP candidates for House, Senate avoiding standing with Cruz or Ayotte on debt deal”

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…slim and none.  Methinks Pindell might have just been looking for a word count:

Jack Kimball/Jeff Chidester: If this pair of friends decides to publicly get behind someone in a Republican primary, it will serve as a clear signal to tea party activists of which way to go. Kimball is the former state Republican Party chair. Chidester is a radio talk-show host and the former state director for Michele Bachmann’s campaign. Guinta won the 2010 primary because of the inroads he made with the tea party, but that segment grew disappointed with some of his votes when he got into office. Innis might be too moderate for some of them, but if he earns their trust on national security and privacy issues — which he mentioned in his campaign announcement video — things could get very interesting. This assumes, of course, that Chidester isn’t running for the seat himself, something he is considering.

Knowing both well, I highly doubt that Guinta or Innis will get an endorsement here. Why?  Here’s some history and points Pindel left out:

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This is from Pindell: “Ayotte is now acting like the person people thought they voted for.”  James, let me remind you that I’m not the only one – and they were LOUD.  He continues:

However, during the shutdown, Ayotte came into her own politically. She was no longer following the lead of mentors like U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham. When she reportedly confronted Republican colleague Ted Cruz on his shutdown tactics, even Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was suddenly following her lead.

Really?  Tell me – what was she saying contraposed to Maverick and Grahamnesty? Neither of them have fight left in them – expect to fight those actually fighting FOR real Republican values (Grokster Scott has a great article on this – go read it or go read it AGAIN if you already have).  Neither of them were supportive of the Cruz / Lee movement in saying “no mas” to a larger government, more debt, and most wrongly – letting Obama now further subvert the Constitution (Article I Section 8) having no limiting authority to increase the debt to what ever he wants.

What she told her base was “I will not fight for the values that are most important to you”.

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The vision that Progressives / incremental socialists is that we should be overjoyed to have technocrats run an “ordered” society – where all of us would know our place in society and that things would be ever so “efficient” under the wise gaze of of absolutely non-partisan bureaucrats who only care about “good” outcomes regardless of ideology.  Well, that last part has been blown out the door with the IRS scandel where citizens were targeted multiple ways simply because they disagreed with the current Administration and advocated for, well, a more limited government.  Thus, we saw the retaliation by these same folks that Progressives said we were to trust!

Not only that, we were to trust that their policies AND their procedures, having been created and deployed by EXPERTS!.  Umm, haven’t we heard this before with respect to Obamacare?

It’s worth revisiting some of the assurances from administration officials over the summer that the technology to support the federal health-care exchanges would be ready for the October rollout:

Despite concerns that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are behind schedule in preparing to implement the Affordable Care Act, leaders from CMS and the Internal Revenue Service testified before Congress on July 17 that their technologies will be ready for the data-sharing that will commence Oct. 1.

“The ACA designates HHS as the conduit for information being shared with the marketplace,” said Daniel Werfel, the principal deputy commissioner of the IRS. “The taxpayer data supplied by the IRS will be transmitted over secure, encrypted channels to the HHS data hub, which was developed to facilitate these data transfers.”

Werfel was emphatic: “We are on target to have these systems ready when open enrollment in the marketplace starts on October 1 of this year.”

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From Big Journalism, the set up graf:

Fox News political analyst Brit Hume conceded that Republicans that grew the federal government while they were in power the last decade may have ultimately been responsible for the recent standoff over the budget because their actions helped create the Tea Party that now stands fiercely opposed to their goals.

…Hume, along with those like Charles Krauthammer and George Will in the veteran punditocracy, has fiercely criticized Cruz during the fight to defund Obamacare. And he acknowledged that though “in conventional terms, it seems inexplicable,” Cruz “and his adherents do not view things in conventional terms.”

Indeed.  And it is, writ small, what my talk at the Merrimack County Republican Committee was about.  It ISN’T about “conventional terms” – and not “conventional politics”.  It is not about “progress”, it isn’t about “moving forward”, it isn’t about “doing something”, and it isn’t certainly NOT about conducting business as usual.  Thus, they (Democrats, Progressives, and Establishment Republicans) just don’t get it.  They don’t understand that what has been the historical process of how things work is not what is important.

The key grafs – glad to see someone gets it right (emphasis mine, reformatting):

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A very disturbing, but not unsurprising, story out of Utah (via The Blaze) where it seems that both Democrats AND Republicans are saying “its for the children”, they have no problem in taking it from YOUR children – really (Emphasis mine, with some reformatting)!

‘Put Up or Be Quiet’: Large Families in This State May Soon Be Paying More for Education

Utah parents may be footing a tax hike amounting to roughly $400 million in total if State Senator Patricia Jones’ proposed legislation goes through.  The state lawmaker has reportedly been pushing an end to the state’s child tax credit, saying the state should put the money into public education instead.  “I think it’s tax fairness at its best,” Jones is quoted as saying. “It is bold, but our students deserve bold.”

Not so much, parents who are, you know, RAISING those kids that you consider to be “our students” (yes, once again, we hear from the village idiots). As opposed to, you know, the hard working families keeping their own money for their own families?  “Bold” – since when has it been bold for a Democrat to propose a new tax on the productive?  Proposing more taxes on non-entitlement families?  Happens all the time – you know, these greedy politicians couldn’t smile at all if some “Bold” new tax idea didn’t pop into existence in that evil vacuum on top of their shoulders (I was going to say heart, but that seems to be as black and dense as a burnt out star – no compassion for the working families can find even a miniscule pinhole to land there).

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As I reported from the First Annual Strong New Hampshire Conference, I was not expecting the reaction that the crowd had when Howie Carr asked them what they thought of Kelly Ayotte’s behavior lately.  Go here if you have forgotten.  One of our loyal readers sent this Letter to Ayotte’ s office and gave us permission to post (emphasis mine):

Senator Ayotte:

One of the primary reasons I voted to send you to Washington was to promote fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, you have failed me on this.

The way I was taught the Constitution, spending originates in the House. Budgets are spending. When was the last time the Senate even had a vote on a budget? Budgets are one of your duties; the House has duly passed a budget every year, yet I have not heard you trying to force Senator Reid to bring one up for a vote.

Not passing a budget that has been negotiated has allowed the Republican caucus to play into the hands of the Democrats, one manufactured crisis to another. The Continuing Resolutions, fake crisis. The only reason they are being used is that the Senate has not even tried to vote and reconcile with the budgets passed by the House.

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