GOP Retreat Marked by Anxiety and Uncertainty: 'We are in trouble'

[Rose Siding]

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — "We are in trouble."

Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) made that comment a week ago, discussing his party's political fortunes. And his remark aptly summarized the attitude here Friday at a gathering of House Republicans.

In years past — especially since President Bush took office — these annual retreats have been celebratory affairs, with Republicans reveling in their success and plotting an aggressive legislative agenda.

This meeting, however, was marked by anxiety and uncertainty. The GOP House members, fresh from a leadership battle within their ranks, are divided over how the party should respond to ethics scandals roiling Capitol Hill.
....
"House Republicans are at some risk of losing their majority," said John J. Pitney, a professor at Claremont McKenna College. "The Democrats don't need a huge tide. A few good ripples could do the trick."

Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, a midlevel House GOP leader, said that to stem Democratic advances, Republicans intended to spotlight issues that connected "with the American dinner table." These include extending tax cuts enacted during Bush's first term that are due to expire this decade, and addressing energy prices.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-retreat11feb11,0,2088242.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Oh yes, please! Let's do spotlight issues that connect with "the American dinner table" - Health care, schools, the general distrust of corporate America, unnecessary wars that increase energy prices and cause ungodly deficits -of which most of us disapprove- and, oh yeah, kill us. Spotlight THOSE issues.

You only THINK you're in trouble now. ;)

[bluestateguy]

1. I just wish we could vote now

These Republicans in Congress always seem to save their asses in October before the election.

[MissWaverly]

3. Me too, you realize that by tax cuts

they must mean even more tax breaks for their largest donors, as if the pump needs any
more oil, or are they hinting at another $200.00 refund for those Americans at
the bottom of trickle down economics, the ones that they protected from price gouging
from the oil companies this winter (not).

[janx]

4. Not this time. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Democrats need to retaliate and show what the Republicans are willing

to destroy in order to give them tax cuts:

1) Sell-off of public lands.
2) Weak response to federal disasters.
3) Cut-back in State assistance.
3) Cut back in medical programs.

[converted_democrat]

20. Right on target...n/t

[Botany]

5. The repugs have blown the war against terror, sold the note to

our house to Red China, been taken over by fundy dumb ass shits & the
super rich, as their congress and elected officials have been on the
take from the likes of Noe & Abramoff. Just wait till that repug grand dad
gets his medicare cut & the "upper middle class Episcopal family" has to shell
out big bucks and cut into their nest eggs because of cuts to pell grants and
that all schools are having to raise student costs due to cuts from federal
and state funds. Let alone the white southern family whose son is now permanently
on vacation because he left part of his brains on some road in Iraq ..... and now his VA
funds are cut.

These are facts .... and they will kill the republican party.

A clean vote and these bastards are toast.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Remember what Eisenhower said

In his farewell address he told about a group of people who would try to get rid of Social Security and if they ever did you'd never see them again. One can hope!

[RazzleDazzle]

31. Ah, there's the rub, isnt it?

A clean vote and these bastards are toast.

[saltpoint]

6. The GOP is in a trouble of its own making.

If you plant poison ivy, you GET poison ivy.

And a lot of folks are itching to vote blue next time. It could be a real bad year for pro-Bush Republicans, and that would be great news for the rest of us.

[antonialee839]

7. Extending tax cuts? Who's dinner table are they trying to

connect with Paris Hilton's?

[NCarolinawoman]

9. Well, you beat me to it. We need to call this:

The "PARIS HILTON TAX CUT"

[Joanne98]

8. I talked to my pharmacist two days ago, she said the drug plan..

WAS A DIASTER! She said it's way too confusing and is actually throwing seniors off private plans that were better and costed LESS! Me thinketh this election could be "revenge of the seniors". I'm not listening to the cowardly dem talking points which I know will be useless. I've made up my own already.
"The Republicans are trying to KILL YOU!" I figure by November so many seniors will have died from Bush "drug plan" that they'll believe me.

[CatholicEdHead]

16. This is the most dangerous part for Repubs

That age group votes in heavy, heavy numbers. POed seniors is bad news for the GOP.

[Joanne98]

21. Bush is cutting off their box lunches too. More proof he's trying..

TO KILL THEM! I'm going to have a whole list of murder plots by September to use at the phone bank.

[MrBenchley]

10. LOL! I bet having Chimpy tell them "off the record"

that all he had to justify his law-breaking was the same unconvincing bullshit he can't sell ON the record was mighty comforting.

By the way, wonder which issue that connects with "the American dinner table" they HAVE to spotlight? How much they hate gay aunt Jane? How much Paris Hilton needs a permanent tax giveaway?

[Rose Siding]

11. And how 'bout those record profits at the oil companies, huh?

Pass the beans, please.

[MrBenchley]

12. It's because of YOUR shameful addiction to oil....

and your inability to behave properly at funerals...(snicker)

Yeah, I think those issues are really going to resonate around the old dinner table, all righty....

[Rose Siding]

14. Hey! YOU'RE the one who said Mom wouldn't want to live that way

and didn't I spot you 20 for gas last week? *chucks spam loaf*

[MrBenchley]

17. LOL!!!

FOOD FIGHT!!

[Rose Siding]

18. Ugh

Ya got me. Will that stain?


http://www.clipartheaven.com.nyud.net:8090/clipart/entertainment/miscellaneous/pie_in_the_face.gif

As American diners collectively agree, "Let's only vote for Democrats from now on, k?"

[MrBenchley]

22. Your lips to God's ear....

As American diners collectively agree, "Let's only vote for Democrats from now on, k?"

[Tsiyu]

13. Kingston's comments chill me

It's all about strategy and "winning."

Uhhhh....Duhhhhhhhh.....fake religion worked but we can only milk that so far. Now what can we try?"

How about trying to solve problems rather than creating more just so you can have more?

How about viewing every child- even the inner city child and the migrant worker's child - as worthy to educate?

How about viewing each elderly person as deserving of adequate medical care?

It's just like watching a bunch of beer-swilling, Hooter's-wings-eating Bubbas work out a football game. Where are the STATESMEN who care about their COUNTRY?

[Joanne98]

23. It's the corperate culture, it's corrupted everything.......

It's not a lie, it's just a marketing tool!

[OzarkDem]

19. No wonder they're rolling out "gay marriage" already

They're already trying to exploit one of their more popular wedge issues.

[unblock]

24. repeal the tax hike in 5 years today!repeal the tax hike in 5 years today!

yeah, that sounds like a great rallying cry for banana republicans.

i'm sure it's all the rage at dinner tables across the heartland: tax policy in 2011.

[tulsakatz]

25. in 2000, they proclaimed that they would bring......

....honor & integrity to DC. After what we've all seen from these guys in the past 5 yrs, they don't have the right to speak about anything that relates to the common man.

ALL of their policies favor corporations over the common population. They cut all kinds of programs that benefit the individual and give it to the tax cuts for the very rich......the last group who actually deserves a tax break.

They abandoned the Katrina victims and continue to abandon them even today!! They've outed a CIA agent who was working on WMDs in a time of war, they've lied us into a war of choice and have been accepting bribes and lying about it for yrs!!!

No, these people don't have the right nor the authority to speak about ethics nor values that the average American cares about.

It's a pretty bad sign when people overwhelmingly believe a crooked lobbyist like Abramoff over Bush!!

[buddysmellgood]

26. People who eat at family dinner tables didn't get tax cuts. People who eat

mustard in limos did.

[Straight Shooter]

28. Some people had to sell their dinner table to buy food. n/t

[bvar22]

27. This is how the Democrats need to respond:

In recent polls by the Pew Research Group, the Opinion Research Corporation, the Wall Street Journal, and CBS News, the American majority has made clear how it feels. Look at how the majority feels about some of the issues that you'd think would be gospel to a real Democratic party:
1. 65 percent say the government should guarantee health insurance for everyone -- even if it means raising taxes.

2. 86 percent favor raising the minimum wage (including 79 percent of selfdescribed "social conservatives").

3. 60 percent favor repealing either all of Bush's tax cuts or at least those cuts that went to the rich.

4. 66 percent would reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

5. 77 percent believe the country should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

6. 87 percent think big oil corporations are gouging consumers, and 80 percent (including 76 percent of Republicans) would support a windfall profits tax on the oil giants if the revenues went for more research on alternative fuels.

7. 69 percent agree that corporate offshoring of jobs is bad for the U.S. economy (78 percent of "disaffected" voters think this), and only 22% believe offshoring is good because "it keeps costs down."

8. 69 percent believe America is on the wrong track, with only 26 percent saying it's headed in the right direction…


This should be the Democratic Party Platform for '06 and '08!
The ONLY thing that is preventing the Democratic Party from adopting these positions is their dependence on BIG CORPORATE MONEY!

BTW: Do the Democrats ever have these kinds of "Retreats"?
Sounds like they would be good for getting everyone on the same page.

[Harper_is_Bush]

29. "American dinnertable". Pass the peas please,

and get rid of these fucking assholes.

[sellitman]

30. They aren't in trouble

Not until the voting machines are accountable. Don't make me laugh!

[Kurovski]

32. If the polls show a landslide for Dems and yet the Repubs get in,

will the public fall for the excuses this time?

Gay marriage? Bush is saving us from mad bombers? What will be the excuse next time if the election is stolen, if election fraud once again wins it for Repubs when all prior indicators show a huge win for Dems?

[hootinholler]

33. "The Democrats don't need a huge tide. A few good ripples could do"

Fuck that! I want to see them storm surged out of there! A 30 foot high wave of new democratic faces to shake the foundations of that building.

-Hoot

[MichiganVote]

34. So this means more shit on a shingle from republicans?