Have you ever wondered where all those RINOs go to scheme and subvert the goals of Conservatives in the Republican Party and how they maintain "Centrist", (read Liberal), control of a center right party? Ever wonder what ever happened to the Gingrich Revolution when the GOP stormed Washington and gained control of the for the first time in 40 years? Have you ever wanted to know why we weren’t able to complete the Contract with America or how the losses of 2006 were engineered and who engineered them?
Well...look no farther. I stumbled upon The Republican Main Street Project while researching information for another article about RINOS who have been or are about to be primaried this year and the losses by Chaffee and other RINOS in 2006 because Conservatives stayed home and refused to vote for them!
I've heard of the Republican Main Street Project but never paid any attention to who they were or what they were about over the years since the Republican sweeps in the 1994 elections. Well...Today I got an answer to that and many questions I've asked myself since 1994.
From their Web Site:
The November 1994 mid-term elections were commonly referred to as the "Republican Revolution." Given the great gains made by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, a group of moderate House Republicans began informal meetings to discuss ways to further a centrist, pragmatic Republican agenda -- one that could accommodate bipartisan legislative results. At that time, there was great concern that a dramatic shift to the right was quickly approaching, given the new congressional leadership. The discussion group began to craft a moderate Republican agenda with a fiscally conservative background.
What began as a congressional discussion group started by Reps. Nancy Johnson, Steve Gunderson and Fred Upton has evolved into a national gathering of leaders from government, business and education who share a commitment to conservative, pragmatic approaches to business in a global context; to compassion in our communities and character in our national leaders.
Many of the original participants are now leaders of Main Street. The Chairman of the Board is John "Jock" McKernan, a former member of Congress, and two-term Governor of Maine. An original founder of the Partnership is former Rep. Amo Houghton of New York, who is the only former corporate CEO of a Fortune 500 company to have served in the House of Representatives. The other members of the Board of Directors can be found here.
Addressing a broad spectrum of issues, the Partnership reaches out to disenfranchised Republicans-- people who are distressed by the stridency too-often associated with the Party, and to others attracted by a thoughtful, centrist approach to Republican politics. The Partnership demonstrates inclusion, respect, reason and compassion.
In the words of Gov. McKernan, the message of the Partnership is "one of quiet diplomacy, rather than wedge politics."
Say what? "Given the great gains made by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate" These guys, by their own words, written on their own web site, were so overcome by a "great concern that a dramatic shift to the right was quickly approaching, given the new congressional leadership" that they formed an organization of RINOS to undercut and subvert everything that had been done by grass roots activists, (what the preamble to the Constitution calls “We The People”), to return this government to sanity!
You got it...we returned the Congress to Republican Rule for the first time in 40 years, and they couldn't stand it! How dare we stand up for anything and how dare we steal the Congress from its rightful owners in the Democrat Party?
To add insult to injury, they want to "bring in people who are distressed by the stridency too-often associated with the Party, and to others attracted by a thoughtful, centrist approach to Republican politics. The Partnership demonstrates inclusion, respect, reason and compassion"?
As opposed to those strident un-thoughtful non-inclusive, disrespectful, unreasoning and uncompassionate knuckle dragging Neanderthals who call themselves Conservatives?
Who are these RINOS who have taken it upon themselves to stomp out the uneducated and ignorant cavemen on the right who would dare to win elections for the Republican Party?
Let's begin with the most high profile and most recognized name among the many who have subverted our Party to their way of doing things.
Let me introduce to you all, John Sydney McCain!
What's that you ask? That foot soldier of the Reagan Revolution? Yup...That would be him...Foot soldier my ruby red A**. Our boy John happened to be around when Reagan swept us to victory the same way he was around when Newt Gingrich brought us to power...so that makes him a soldier in the Reagan Revolution?
Well, Imagine that.
I'll add a list of the rest of these squishes from their web site after I've said the following:
Hey Main Street Project and the RINOS you represent!!!
This is our Party. We’ve done the work to put this Party in the majority. In fact we did something that hadn’t been done in 60 to 80 years and that was to return all three branches of this government to Republican Control…We walked the streets. We manned the phone banks. We knocked on doors and passed out literature across this great country. We gave our hard earned dollars to see you all in the majority!
The Republican Party is a big tent…but it is OUR tent! WE we built it. You are welcome to come in, in fact WE invited you in and did all the things I mentioned and put you in office. But having entered in, you have NO RIGHT to take over and freeze out the very people who brought you in! So, how did you return our hospitality? I think 2006 and the crushing landslide facing us in 2008 speaks for its self!
Conservatives, Fredheads and SoCons need to sit up and take note. Copy this list of RINOS and post it where you will see it every day. Put it on you mirror where you will see it every morning. Post it in your office so you will see it all day long. Put it on your night stand and memorize the names of the treasonous pit vipers before you go to sleep and keep your powder dry. Whether McCain wins this election or not...one thing needs to be taken to heart by all of us...there are already RINO incumbents losing primary battles across this country in 2008 and many more lost in 2006 in primaries and the general election because Conservatives stayed home...We need to have challengers to each and every member of the “Main Street Project” and work our behinds off to send the to their K street Cronies and give the power we can provide them to someone more deserving!
The bloodletting has already begun and I hope to tell you all about what I and my ILK have planned in the years to come if we can make it work...We will be counting on you to pick up your pitchforks and clubs and storm the RINO’s Ivory ramparts in the elections to come. Lat your rage and indignation boil and let the blue blood flow across the Ivory Towers of our RINO masters and LET FREEDOM RING!!
Let this be a beginning...In the spirit of our maverick leader let us resolve here and now to join together and repay this treacherous organization and those it represents for it's treachery and return blow for blow it's strikes at the hearts Conservatives across this country!
U.S. Senate
Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine
Sen. Gordon Smith, Oregon
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
U.S. House
Rep. Judy Biggert, Illinois
Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
Rep. Mary Bono, California
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida
Rep. Ken Calvert, California
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia
Rep. Michael Castle, Delaware
Rep. Thomas Davis, III, Virginia
Rep. Charlie Dent, Pennsylvania
Rep. David Dreier, California
Rep. Vernon Ehlers, Michigan
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
Rep. Phil English, Pennsylvania
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Rep. Jim Gerlach, Pennsylvania
Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, Maryland
Rep. David Hobson, Ohio
Rep. Timothy Johnson, Illinois
Rep. Mark Kirk, Illinois
Rep. John R. Kuhl, New York
Rep. Ray LaHood, Illinois
Rep. Steven LaTourette, Ohio
Rep. Jerry Lewis, California
Rep. Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey
Rep. Jim McCrery, Louisiana
Rep. Thomas Petri, Wisconsin
Rep. Todd Platts, Pennsylvania
Rep. Jon Porter, Nevada
Rep. Deborah Pryce, Ohio
Rep. Jim Ramstad, Minnesota
Rep. Ralph Regula, Ohio
Rep. Dave Reichert, Washington
Rep. Jim Saxton, New Jersey
Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut
Rep. Patrick Tiberi, Ohio
Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan
Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon
Rep. James Walsh, New York
Rep. Jerry Weller, Illinois
Rep. Heather Wilson, New Mexico
Governors
Gov. Linda Lingle, Hawaii
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California
Talk about chickens coming home to roost. Here we are in 2008 with just about all the gains of the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 stripped away and gone. Not beaten by the left -- in the arena of ideas. Beaten by our own lily-livered squishy centrist brethren.
Better that they all change their affiliation to Democrat -- and they achieve their dominant majority NOW, so that the Republican Party can search for grassroots conservatives to run against them.