"RINO" Label Used Too Flippantly By Conservatives

[Valin]

Townhall:

Matt Towery
12/24/10

Here's both my qualifier and my bona fides for the opinion that follows: I earned my Republican stripes working for a GOP U.S. senator, for Ronald Reagan's first successful presidential campaign and for Newt Gingrich.

Since those days, I've occasionally branched out and suggested some policy or position that doesn't reflexively mirror some bedrock conservative outlook. Often some readers of this column, whom I deeply respect and appreciate, will call me out for this or that view by dismissing me as a "RINO" -- a "Republican in Name Only."

Of late, some of my friends are being labeled RINOs because they voted to approve the START anti-nuclear weapons pact with Russia. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did so following private briefings the rest of us weren't privileged to hear.

(Snip)

As for those who like to use the label "RINO" like a political bludgeon, allow me to ask this question: Have you ever been pelted by rotten fruit and eggs as you rode in a parade, only because you were a Republican? Have you ever been an active Republican in a state overrun by little else but Democrats? I have. So has Johnny Isakson.

Sometimes it seems the only way to shed the dreaded "RINO" label is to forget about pragmatic lawmaking and instead just appear on radio or TV, selling CDs, books or other trinkets, and telling everybody only what they want to hear. And that's too bad, for conservatives and everybody else.

[pollyannaish]

Amen. (And I haven't even read the whole article yet.)

 

I have absolutely now doubt that the sainted President Reagan would have been labled the worst kind of RINO.

 

I mean, he said nice things about Tip O'Neill!

[kevindavis]

I hope 2011 is when RINO label is done for.

[Valin]

I hope 2011 is when RINO label is done for.

 

 

From your lips to Gods ear!

 

I'm thinking of posting this at a Certain Other Site, just to watch the fun!

[Valin]

In Praise of Mitch McConnell

Legal Insurrection

12/22/10

 

This is not the post you probably were expecting from me given my harsh — and as always prescient — criticism of Republicans in the lame duck session. I was screaming “capitulation!” before screaming “capitulation!” was fashionable.

 

Notwithstanding the lame duck session, give Mitch McConnell some credit for the war which has been fought the past two years.

 

When Obama took office, Republicans had been routed in two consecutive elections. With Democrats having an overwhelming majority in the House, and a near filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, there was not much the Republican leadership could do.

 

As I noted before, in my post Some of Our Finest Hours, a variety of players and people fought valiant political battles to slow down the Obama onslaught. Those battles, particularly over Obamacare, created the landscape which led to victories in 2010.

 

But there was only so much McConnell could do.

 

All Obama had to do was flip one or two Republicans on an issue, and the filibuster was meaningless. Yet, McConnell managed to keep Republicans on the same page as to Obamacare (as did John Boehner and Eric Cantor in the House), so that Democrats owned Obamacare completely.

 

(Snip)

 

For his role in prepping the 2010 political battlefield, for getting Obama and Democrats stuck in the mud of their own creating, and for giving us the possibility of significant gains in the coming years, Mitch McConnell deserves our praise.

 

________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes it really helps to have a pro at the wheel!

 

 

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

I hope 2011 is when RINO label is done for.

 

 

From your lips to Gods ear!

 

I'm thinking of posting this at a Certain Other Site, just to watch the fun!

 

 

No Need

[Sabre86]

And it is often correct too, such as with Murkowski who voted for every Democrat piece of legislation in the lame duck.

[Sanguine]

Who is this Towery person? He says he worked for a senator, but I can't find out which one. Odd.

 

He seems to be best known for his lack of conservative beliefs.

[Argyle58]

Who is this Towery person? He says he worked for a senator, but I can't find out which one. Odd.

 

He seems to be best known for his lack of conservative beliefs.

 

Funny...he names every other politician that he has been associated with, from Nixon through Newt, but I cannot find anywhere where he gives the name of the Senator for which he was a staffer.

[SrWoodchuck]

Legislators like "Murky," "Brownie," McCain & "Gramnesty" are more "ELIFINO's."

 

Everything I've heard or read about START, says it's not good for the US. Maybe I've been hearing the wrong things?

 

I can't imagine O-Bow-ma, with the appeasement policies of his One-World-View government, executing a good treaty in terms of our interests. It was a feather in his dunce cap, though.

[Evad]

heh...my personal favorite

"Y’know, if it walks like a RINO, sounds like a RINO, and VOTES like a RINO, then IT’S A RINO!"

[Pepper]

So what do you call Murkowski besides a gaunt figure with a mouth full of teeth - if you can't call her a Rino?

[pinz]

My hackles rose as he rattled off his bona fides, then decided that his whining bored me. There are half a gazillion ways TPTB in DC are dismantling the country and the Constitution, not to mention our very lives, and this guy wastes a precious column complaining about name calling.

 

Good grief, man! Focus and grow a pair!

[Ghost]

I hope 2011 is when RINO label is done for.

 

 

From your lips to Gods ear!

 

I'm thinking of posting this at a Certain Other Site, just to watch the fun!

The first "act of fun" would probably be a banned Valin after extreme chastisement

[NCTexan]

I'm fine with defining someone as a RINO when their overall political actions fall out of line with mainstream Republican principles and beliefs. Like has been said, what else would you call a Murkowski or pre-DEM Specter? ... or someone who calls themselves a Republican but spends an inordinate amount of time bashing "Conservatives" or the Tea Party?

 

However, I object to its mindless use by mindless people as we've seen recently on OSNTBN (Other Sites Not To Be Named).

[righteousmomma]

Towery's bio says:

An attorney, Towery began his career in politics and later in the media after having won the National Bicentennial Debate Championship and becoming a member of the staff of a United States Senator, and a debate and campaign strategist for Newt Gingrich in the early 1980s. He served, over the next two decades, as a strategist in numerous political campaigns. He was a nominee for Lt. Governor of Georgia, is a former nationally recognized state legislator, and was chairman of former House Speaker Gingrich’s political organization in the 1990s. He is a graduate of England’s Cambridge University (M. Phil International Relations) as well as Florida’s oldest law school, Stetson University’s College of Law (Cum Laude). He is the author of several books including the groundbreaking Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America. In 2007 he was nominated for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his work to free a young African American student who was sentenced to jail under what Towery argued was a misinterpretation of a law he helped enact.

Mr. Towery served as the chairman of former Speaker Newt Gingrich's political organization from 1992 until Gingrich left Congress. He is a former Georgia state representative, the author of several books and currently heads the polling and political information firm

[Sanguine]

In the interest of accuracy the headline should be: "Conservative" Label Used Too Flippantly By RINOs.

[NCTexan]

In the interest of accuracy the headline should be: "Conservative" Label Used Too Flippantly By RINOs.

Sanguine! Once again, you nailed it.

[pinz]

Thanks for the info, RM. Wonder if he's wound up to do pre-emptive damage control for Sen. Graham, whose closet door is about to opened...