Scarborough excoriates the conservative wing of the current GOP who are gathering at CPAC. Their faults include being "sick and insular" by excluding Chris Christie and, most especially, sticking to their principles. Scarborough really struggles to understand the principles thing, as to him all that matters is winning apparently.
The first Republicans who created the party as an anti-slavery vehicle, and who lost their first presidential election, apparently didn't worry about the 'winning" thing otherwise they wouldn't have taken on the seemingly impossible task of creating a new party.
However, things have changed for Establishment Republicans it seems and the priority, above all else, is getting elected. Not only being elected, but utterly destroying ones opponent in the process "so that their own dog won't look them in the eye". The latter is not to hard a task by the way, as most dogs will avert their gaze whether their owner wins or loses-being loyal above all else.
Scarborough is just one more Rockefeller Republican who is adding fuel to the fire which is, bit by bit, and seemingly inexorably, leading to a full split in the Republican ranks. He calls CPAC "a turning point"
and it may be so, more than he thinks, and he may be the fulcrum for the tipping point rather than the conservatives whom he so excoriates.
Here's another log added to the fire today.
"House majority leader Eric Cantor is increasingly frustrated with a group of House Republicans who are working against the leadership, and he’s not afraid of voicing his dismay.
In a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, Cantor told one GOP member that if they blocked the Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) from coming to the floor, they’d cause “civil war” in the ranks."
The split is obvious and, unless there is a genuine conservative seen to be the nominee as election year approaches, it will be irreparable-perhaps as soon as the mid-terms according to Prof. Codavilla. CPAC will be interesting particularly if indications of how deep the split is emerge, and if someone grasps the nettle of openly declaring it to be irreparable and takes leadership of a New Party.
If another in the mould of Dole/McCain/Romney is forced on the rank and file in 2016, then it might as well be self declared RINO Scarborough. He would exemplify why the split has occurred, and with him as candidate it can never be healed. A genuine conservative party in 2016 would most likely lose, but victory is not impossible (the rump Republican party would struggle to do as well as Taft in 1912) but if principles are held to, victory will come, perhaps sooner than expected.
Here's Scarborough's take on political ethics on the Morning Joe program:
“Apparently these days being a Republican is not about winning,” host Joe Scarborough remarked. “Maybe I should call myself a Republican In Name Only because do you know what I like to do? I like to win. I like to destroy my political opponents.”
V
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