GOP senator: McCain betrayed Republican principles
"We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain," [Jim deMint] said.
DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain's record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.
"McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."
Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.
I could almost admire their loyalty to principle if it weren't just rigidity and lack of imagination. Seems he forgot Tom Delay. In fact, he's leaving out most of his party's recent history. Maybe it's too much to look back eight or so years, but George W. Bush was the culmanation of Republican politics from way back. The Republican Party searched long and hard for an avatar of the party and came up with George. W. Bush. They knew what they had. It just turned out to be the wrong thing for the times. And I haven't heard much to indicate Republican party leadership has actually gotten that message.
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