The Tea Party Express shed credibility this week by throwing a life preserver to failing and only faintly Tea-flavored Republican candidate Mike Rounds. Reasonable Republican John Tsitrian finds that endorsement laughable and incompatible with good government for South Dakota. Arch-conservative Bob Ellis finds it horrible... or should I say whore-able?
...the Tea Party Express, a national Tea Party group, has decided to whore itself out, selling its values and virtue in a quest for a seat at the table of power [Bob Ellis, "Tea Party Express Whores Itself to RINO Establishment," American Clarion, 2014.10.15].
Ellis is incensed (Ellis is always incensed, but this time he's right) that anyone could mistake Mike Rounds for Ted Cruz or Rand Paul or Sarah Palin or whoever represents this amorphous group of do-nothing, tax-nobody anarcho-conservatives:
The guy who kicked the can of a $127 million structural deficit down the road for his successor Dennis Daugaard and the legislature to deal with…is “not something Mike Rounds is going to do”? Give me a break!
The guy who lacked the guts to sign South Dakota’s first attempt to ban abortion in 2004–and instead vetoed it–is “going to confront the problems”? Spare me!
The guy who grew the size of state government, who supports government health care schemes, amnesty, Marxist minimum wage increases and a host of other liberal ideas can be relied on for “getting America back on track”? Please!
According to Mike Rounds record–not his lying rhetoric, but his record–he isn’t even a good Republican, much less a good Tea Party candidate [Ellis, 2014.10.15].
Gordon Howie is the only true Tea Partier in the Senate race and the only one besides Lora Hubbel on South Dakota's statewide ballot. Government by Howie, Hubbel, and Ellis evokes terrifying visions of theocratic tyranny. But if you drink that Tea, that's what you dig, and you cannot in good conscience dig Mike Rounds.
Endorsing Mike Rounds is capitulation. If you really believe the Republican Party is filled with pragmatists, opportunists, and fakers who trade principles for raw power, you don't vote for Mike Rounds just to preserve a Republican majority in the Senate. You vote en masse for Howie. You either win the Senate seat or, if you can't quite beat Weiland or Pressler, you knock the legs out from under the RINO establishment, prove that fakers like Rounds are no longer viable, and set the stage for full-tilt Tea-volution in 2016, when you run Howie for Thune's Senate seat, Bill Napoli for House, and Stacey Victor Nelson for President.
http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2010/07/ip-had-sex-with-bob-ellis-and-bob.html
Gotta be especially painful for Howie, who founded the Tea Party-affiliated Citizens For Liberty in SD in '09. Meantime, how on earth does Rounds think an endorsement from this bunch of zealots is an asset to his campaign? Must be that old South Dakota "common sense" kicking in again.
http://madvilletimes.blogspot.com/2010/01/gordon-howie-campaigning-to-stop.html
Mike Rounds took federal transportation ca$h and bought an airplane for his own use: now Pierre is begging for an air service subsidy.
That is what bothers me the most about Rounds, he contributed to the federal debt by accepting an airplane paid for by the feds, used it for his personal use, and now complains about the federal debt.
Sounds like being a hypocrite.
The Tea party express has been an astroturf group only interested in power and money from the beginning. It only took Bob Ellis five years to figure out what liberals knew all along.
I watched PP's video of Rounds and Huckabee, and if I were a Tea Partier, I would be deeply insulted. It was as though Gordon Howie didn't even exist. They didn't just throw him under the bus, they backed up and ran over hom about a dozen times. Make no mistake, The Huck and Santorum aren't coming here to woo votes away from Weiland or Pressler, they're specifically here to claw back the meager 3-5% Howie's been polling, and to persuade them from voting their conscience. Rounds has absolutely no tea party street cred and he knows it? But he also knows that without them, he's sunk, because his own polls say the race is that close.
Bill did Huck come to attempt to bail Mike out of the mess he created?
Lynn, I don't think so. I think he came specifically to pull votes away from Howie. Huckabee doesn't have any credibility with the establishment GOP. If Rounds, Inc. was looking for a general fixer, they wold have brought in Mitt Romney or maybe Jeb Bush. Or a well known and respected GOP senator (ummm... like maybe John Thune?) See what I mean? Huck is there to swipe Gordo's Tea Party votes. Period. (Anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it ;-)
Bill,
Wow! That's funny!
Bill,
Agreed, suddenly Mike Rounds needs to take that 3-5% from Howie as the race tightens, those can be life saving numbers for Rounds, it can also inspire Howie to get serious and start kicking Rounds butt. I hope the latter.
Meanwhile, Rounds is also attempting to link Weiland and Pressler together on a few issues. Gun control?
Rounds is still attacking Pressler as he sees him as the greater of the other two Republicans in the race.
When I saw that Huckabee is supporting Rounds, I figured that because if I recall correctly, Rounds was willing and able (while he was governor,) to manage Huckabee's re-election campaign.
"You scratch mine, I'll scratch yours." :)
The true and genuine Tea Party members are probably smarter than to be swayed by the big money it must have cost to bring in Santorum and Huckabee.
They will remember the disrespect that the Rounds establishment Republicans treated Stace and the other members.
They will remember that Mike Rounds is one of the founders of Common Core.
I'm also guessing that they know that if Mike Rounds wins and Howie doesn't get a significant number of votes, that their credibility and influence in the state is for all intents and purposes...gone...zip...nada.
I can't believe that they aren't smart enough to see that stark reality.
JeniW, maybe so, but Huck didn't even place in SD when he ran in the 2008 Primary. He's not exactly the SDGOP's cup of tea: http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/primary-caucus-results-2008.html
This could be the only time I ever agree with Bob Ellis, so I hope he doesn't read this blog, but it does seam to me that the only legitimate vote for a Tea Partyier in this race is a vote for Howie, because he really is the only one running on their ideology.
Plus, unlike Ellis, Howie can actually carry on a civil conversation with people who disagree with him. :-)
Rounds was going to manage Hauckabee's re-election campaign in Arkansas.
Rounds apparently thought that even though he was being a governor, he had enough time to manage Huckabee's re-election.
The amusing part of the tea party endorsing Mike Rounds is that suddenly Pat Powers at DWC is having to love them, and we know he loathes the tea party.
Now he's puckering up and kissing butt.
I share Bill's queasiness at agreeing with Bob Ellis.
Jana, I suspect the Howie hard core, the 5% who will show for him no matter what, will not be swayed by Huckabee and Santorum. But Huckabee, Santorum, and the Tea Party Express are useful for containing the damage, for keeping the casual voters who fancy themselves conservatives just confident enough in Rounds's conservatism to not consider Howie's claims to true conservatism.
Roger, I enjoy any chance to see Powers squirm, but remember that his patron Jason Gant was a big Santorum supporter. Pat's daughter Meredith was on the Santorum delegate list. So that aspect of the endorsements won't gall him too much. If I were Powers, I'd blog that the Tea Party is coming to its senses, recognizing that Rounds can get things done, and showing the SDGOP's true big tent nature.
Roger, yes, hilarious. The Tea Party people need to suck it up and take a lesson from the Democrats. We know going in that the chances of our winning an election in a right-of-center Republican state are less than optimum, but we still vote for the candidates that best represent our values.
If the TP's don't vote for Howie, it tells everyone in SD that when push comes to shove, they aren't really serious enough to walk their talk, and that there's really no reason to ever take what they have to say seriously.
Same goes for any Dems throwing their vote down Pressler's rabbit hole this year, BTW.
Rick and the Dems don't have the luxury of letting the Blue Dog vote slide right now. If you're a Democrat, this is the year that it's critically important to vote for the Democrat. The only one in the race, dammit: Rick Weiland.
Cory, all anyone needs to remember about Santorum is that he opposes ALL forms of birth control.
How to get out the white vote. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x285syy_he-teaches-democrats-on-how-to-get-get-the-white-vote_news
Is it just me, or does those quotes from Ellis sound a lot like our lovable Steve Sibson? Hahahaha
On a more serious note, if Pressler was running as the republican he is, and Rounds wasn't in the picture, Rick would be having a much harder time of it. A couple more weeks and we will know. Weiland is the only one that even comes close to what I support, still hoping for the best.
I hope some reporter asks Rounds if he agrees with this, because, as the current House has proven, these are the kinds of things we can expect with an R controlled congress:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/laura-chapin/2012/01/06/rick-santorum-even-opposes-birth-control
Remember too that Rounds just didn't get the endorsement from Huckabee, he got the FOX "News" endorsement.
That pretty much says it all.
We know what Bill Napoli would say about this.
Howie is a rape victim, brutally raped and savaged. He was politically nieve, he was religious. He planned on showing his true intelligence in the US Senate. He was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, by the SDGOP and by his own tea baggers. He has lost his religious mojo and needs your vote to regain his stand against the evildoers.
He could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child, I mean not voting for Gordon could very well threaten his and your life.
I absolutely hate admitting that I would agree with anything that Big Wheel Bob says, but he's right.
Now I have to find something to rinse this taste out of my mouth.
The Blindman
Alas, as we've seen, Bill D., the complaints of Howie, Napoli, et al. appear to have very little impact on elections...
...except when five percentage points could make the difference between Senator Weiland, Senator Pressler, or Senator Rounds.
I am troubled by Ellis' use of the misogynist term "whore." This term typically denigrates women and is evidence of an underlying fear of women who do not submit the commands of men.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna%E2%80%93whore_complex
I equate "whore" to the "N" word as an evil and insulting term used to describe women who are unwilling to remain subservient to men in the same manner that Blacks refuse to submit. I wonder how our daughters, wives and mothers would feel if the Washington "Redskins" changed their name to the Washington "Whores." I wish Ellis and like thinkers would clean up their language.