There is a big debate in the Republican Party about it's direction and whether candidates are conservative enough to get the conservative voter's support.  Some say that only RINOs lost their seats in '06.  Sadly, we lost many good conservative Congressmen in the sweep of Congress.

Let's look back at the Newt Revolution of 1994.  After winning the Congress and the Senate for the first time in 40 or so years, the Newt Congress went to work trying to implement his agenda of cutting government. 

They started by trying to slow the growth of government.  All government programs have percentage increases each year.  What the '94 Congress did was to propose cutting those increases to a more realistic level.

The media and the Democrats went wild, accusing Republicans of "taking food out of the mouths of children" and causing "old people to eat dog food."  Republicans argued that these were cuts in growth only, that programs were not being cut back.  But Democrats and the media called Newt "the Gingrich that stole Christmas."

Also, the Democrat minority immediately started filing ethical complaints against Newt. Meanwhile the Clinton administration had all kinds of corruption scandals going on, but the focus was all on Newt, the most evil man in America.

By 1996, not much had gotten done, so conservative voters decided to throw most of them out.  In their minds Newt had utterly failed.  So, the Republican Party lost many seats that year. The losses continued in 1998.  By then Newt had resigned because of an affair.

Today, many conservative voters are holding Newt up to be their conservative hero.  But they forget that they did not support him when he had a chance to really change things.  They punished him and his Congress for not cutting government enough.  They ignored the many good things that the Republican Congress had done.  It had not been perfect, so that was reason enough to stay home and let the Democrats win.  In their minds the Republican Party and the Democrat Party were now one and the same.

Can we learn from the past and realize that we will never win by punishing the party when it doesn't meet our every expectation?

Sandra Lea Wise

A GOP friendly site.

I’ve been on Townhall since August of ‘06 and recently I’ve noticed a new trend in the townhall neighborhood. Several bloggers have started acting like the neighborhood bullies.

They’ve decided that their opinions are the only valid ones, and they go around to other blogs, bullying the hosts and even attacking guests who have made comments on the other person’s blog.  I love good natured fun and kidding back and forth.  But these attacks have gotten personal and ugly.    

The offender then encourages others to do the same thing.  For example, this conversation occurred on a person’s blog, who had visited my blog and acted like a bully.  

After mentioning a visit to "Sandra’s blog" on his blog, one of his visitors asks him: "OK, Brian, where is Sandra’s blog?" 

Lynne later says: " I checked out her blog. I’m not sure where she’s coming from."

Brian responds:

"Sandra's good at heart, and means well, but basically she's a GOP sheep. Her blog is home for a lot of folks of like mind.

Party uber alles, a Hillary presidency is the anti-Christ's ascension to power, War on Terror trumps any and all other considerations, domestic issues are secondary, blah, blah, blah."

Lynne: "So she can’t hang out with the big boys?"

Brian: "Ya know, that made me think. She used to. You'd see her comment on the columns, visit other blogs, participate.

Very little recently. She seems to have withdrawn, and pretty much seems to hide out at her place with a few buds. That never occurred to me until you asked."

Lynne: "I really don't recall seeing her on any columns or blogs since I've been on TH... a few months now.

I just didn't think there was much substance in the one article I read, so I couldn't figure out what her point was... or even IF she had a point. I even read it twice..."

Brian: "Well, I'm not sure. I'm not one to ascribe motives to people, as my crystal ball functionality is spotty at best. All I do know is that she used to have a much higher profile and presence. Now, as I wrote, she seems to just kind of hunker into her blog where she doesn't have to deal with much conflict as for the most part she talks only with people of like mind. Many of whom also, interestingly, seem to show up nowhere else. They've kind of created a bunker mentality there. Take on one, and be prepared to take them all on.

That's what makes it kinda fun to go in and rattle the cages. Pasadena Phil, Cyne, occasionally Marc of CA, others of us, will go in and shake things up. You should bop in and join the fray."

Anyone who wishes to, can check out the many blogs that I have written.  The discussions have been interesting and challenging.  All opinions are welcome.  Until this new trend broke out, people were polite and respected each other's opinions.  My blogs have consistently been in the Top Five of "What’s Hot" just about every week.  

I believe that this practice of bullying is not becoming to Townhall.  Several of my readers were offended by it.  Those who are bullying don’t even bother to read the current blog. They just make their own points no matter what the topic is.  And, from the above conversation, it is clear that this is deliberate.

Sandra Lea Wise

A GOP friendly site

For years conservatives fought over the abortion issue. The Supreme Court was the focus of countless years of anxiety for conservatives. Every election cycle centered around abortion.

During the conventions, when the platform of the party would be discussed, the conservative wing of the party drew a line in the sand. The GOP is the party that is pro-life.

Finally, during the Bush administration we get two Supreme Court nominations. Other Republican presidents made disappointing decisions.  President Bush gave us the two appointments that have made a difference.

Last week when the decision on "Partial birth abortion" came down, conservatives barely looked up to acknowledge something good the President had done.  Many now have chosen new issues to stand on.

Meanwhile the hard left has taken over the Democrat Party.  If a Democrat is elected, and right now it looks pretty probable, there will be more vacancies on the Supreme Court.

Will we blow it again and go back to where we started?  Can we look up once from battling over the new issues that divide us just long enough to acknowledge that what happened last week is good, and that President Bush gave us that win?

Sandra Lea Wise

I haven' t been able to post answers to your comments on my last blog since last night.  So, I'll answer here:

BrianR and Pasadena Phil:

Chuck Schumer said it all this morning on Fox News Sunday. Chris asked him why the Democrats are being so silent about gun control after Virginia Tech. He said: "We don’t have the votes to override a Presidential veto. So we will get what we can now, a bill that will stop guys like this one from getting guns. Later we can get more. The perfect is the enemy of the good."

Do you all get it? The Democrats understand that you can’t get it all at once. They are patient and will wait until they get the numbers to accomplish what they want. They never lose their seats. While we get rid of our guys for "not being perfect" they wait.  Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Kennedy, Rangel, Murtha, Kerry, Obama, Hillary, et al won’t lose their seats unless one of them is elected president.

When they finally get back into complete power they will take away our guns, give amnesty to all illegals, stop the war on terror, take away our free speech (shut down talk radio, etc.) raise our taxes to pay for everyone’s health care, and America will finally be just like Europe, which is what they aspire to.

They understand that the "perfect is the enemy of the good" and wait.
 
Sandra Lea Wise

Every time there is a bombing in Iraq, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or one of the Democrat leaders goes before the cameras claiming that we are losing the War in Iraq and that we need to bring our troops home.

This is exactly what the terrorists love to hear, and they will continue to kill until the Democrats get their way.

I got this in an email forward recently:

Willard Gibbs <will.swoffordpond@gmail.com> wrote:

"Anyone who remembers anything about World War II, or has studied
anything about World War II, will understand and remember that during
World War II, the Japanese developed a way to demoralize the American
forces. The Japanese psychological warfare experts developed a message
they felt would work.

They gave their psychological warfare script to their famous
broadcaster "Tokyo Rose" and every day she would broadcast this same
message packaged in different ways, hoping it would have a negative
impact on American and GI's morale. What was that demoralizing
message?

It had three main points: 1. Your President is lying to you. 2. This
war is illegal. 3. You cannot win the war.

Does this sound familiar?

Is it because--- Tokyo Hillary, Tokyo Harry, Tokyo Teddy, Tokyo Nancy,
Tokyo Durbin, Tokyo Kerry, Tokyo Murtha, Tokyo Barack Hussein Obama
Jr, etc. have all learned from the former enemies of our country and
have picked up the same message and are broadcasting it on: Tokyo
CNN, Wolf Blitzer, Tokyo ABC, Charles Gibson, Tokyo CBS, Katie
Couric, Tokyo NBC, Brian Williams / Tim Russert etc., to our troops?

The only difference is that they claim to support our troops before
they try to demoralize them. Come to think of it... Tokyo Rose told
the American troops she was on their side, also."

Amen to that!

Sandra Lea Wise

It saddens me when I see the daily attacks on our great President.  This humble Christian man doesn't deserve this from the MSM, from the newly elected Democrat majority and from many here on Townhall.

President Bush is criticized for not going after his political enemies.  However, he is a man of God and he will not change to satisfy those who have hate in their hearts. 

We always say that we want a President who is truly dedicated to serving his country and not to his own aggrandizement.   The contrast between George and Laura and Hillary and Bill is amazing.  Mrs. Clinton claimed at a recent fundraiser that she needs to be President so that she and Bill can return the United States to respect around the world.  She said that she will appoint Bill as Ambassador to the World.  What incredible egos they have!   I cringe to think that they will probably be back in the White House.  

See the link below for a look at our humble and great President.  May God bless him and keep him safe.

http://www.hinzsightreport.com/dave/dave-040207.html

Sandra Lea Wise