Posted: March 11, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Conservative Scorecard Sparks Latest Battle in Internal GOP Fight
A recent report ranking legislators on conservatism has rankled social conservatives, who are upset that social bills are excluded from the recent conservative scorecard put out by former legislator Roger Koopman and the Montana Conservative Alliance–even though social bills dominate the discussion this session. The omission occurs on the heels of a series of GOP Guest Editorials and public statements attempting to mitigate the damage caused by the GOP focus on social bills instead of jobs this session.
Social conservative activist Dallas D. Erickson, from Montana Citizens for Decency through Law urges.
Don’t believe this [Koopman] report for a minute. This only takes into account fiscal bills.
Any moral issues bills would be considered by this group as “more government”. The repeal of the marijuana law would probably be a “more government” bill. Any bill to regulate and control the killing of the unborn would be considered “more government”. This is a one sided report of two sides of a true conservative. Anyone getting high scores on this probably has a Libertarian bent. Libertarians believe that drugs and alcohol should have a free reign, no matter the impact it would have on the family so any bill to clamp down on drunk drivers or other crimes would be considered “more government”.
Erickson is only the latest among GOP social conservatives to hamper the GOP’s desparate attempts portray this session as focused on jobs.
Whichever side you believe will win, one thing is clear. Republicans on both sides of the debate are spending a whole lot of energy on things other than getting other Republicans elected next cycle.
Stumbling around for evidence of complicity among Republican state legislatures revealed this manifesto on incrementalism at the Koch-funded Cato Institution: http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/02/11/nancy-rosenblum/responses-on-political-theory-idealism-and-extremism/
The mass insanity is no accident.
Here’s the deal, these folks aren’t going to let the GOP run away from their stone age social agenda, they’ll dog the Republicans every step they try to take away from this back woods morality. And that’s what I LOVE about this session. The repubs own this, and they can’t escape. hahahaha I would love to be at the staff meetings at the GOP headquarters as this is discussed. I bet they try to say “we’re a big tent party” problem is, the social conservatives have crowded everyone else out.
Bad as Koopman’s thinking is, Erickson’s insistence that we regulate our live according to the superstitions current three or four millenia ago strikes me as more dangerous by far.
On the other hand Bob’s insisting that our only purposes in legislation are jobs is just an errant worship of that new great religion THE ECONOMY!”
Sorry, dude. But I was BORN….IN….THE U.S.A! I don’t go in for all that Judeo Middle Eastern two thousand year old Jewish crappola. What the hell do I have in common with some Jewish dude runnin’ round in the desert? Nuthin’ I’d say! AMERICAN spirituality is just fine for me. (can’t you feel it in our land? touch the earth. just reach down and touch it!) Oh sure, like Ghandi, I think Jesus was an OK dude. But MOST of his followers are dumb as dogshit! Need proof? ie. see keeth reeger. Or maybe Wendy Warpburpin’. Or the Round Mound of Knoxious Pounds Jumbo Jimmy Knox. Or the evil Kock bros.! Or ANY of the Teawankers in the Lege! Them are sum SORRY sumbitches! And anti-American! Time to seperate their sorry asses from OUR state! It’s in the Constitution, seperation of sorry asses from the state!….or at LEAST it should be! We’re workin’ on it.
I thought you were gonna quit drinking before posting, doglap.
Jed, where have you been? I thought maybe you hopped the twig, you old fart! Hell, we could’a USED you in these threads. But glad to see you’re still kickin’. Join the fun with your special insights and erudition. I’m formin’ the Gray Panthers. Wanna join up?
I normally wouldn’t be making a post like this but it seems like all the investigative reporting I normally see on various Montana Blogs seems to have fallen short when reporting on the bill to restrict rights in Missoula of all places.
My area Rep. Miz Hansen seems to be going for the old Right wing bait and switch game of being completely disingenuous about her personal politics. One can usually bet that when a Repub champions a cause that restricts someone’s freedom, there is usually a hidden agenda involved. Miz Hansen seems to to have fallen into her own trap by trying to renounce the very community that that she herself belongs to. Her extra ciricular activities have already resulted in one broken marriage (in Helena) and yet she will be testifying for her bill to take rights away from people in the hopes that this tactic will immunize her somehow from herself? If that is the mindset that we are dealing with here with these “teabaggers” then the rest of us are in what I will call DEEP SHIT.
I am a live and let live kinda guy but when this much hypocracy rears it’s ugly head I feel that it should at least not go unnoticed and it would be my hope that others would have the decency to feel the same.