Bush era Big Government types vying for 2016 limelight are like visitors from a past life. Their failures have resulted in a transformed country and a transformed Republican Party that has passed them by-Noah Rothman, Hot Air

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1/12/15, "Big government Republicans battle for the soul of the GOP," Noah Rothman, Hot Air

"From Jeb Bush to Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee to Mitt Romney, the field of prospective 2016 candidates is shockingly unreflective of the vibrant and reinvigorated base of Republican voters. The Obama era has revitalized the GOP in a manner that only a few years in the wilderness can provide. It would be a rejection of those years of internal deliberation and reform for the party to nominate a retread burdened with the baggage of support for a decade of big government Republicanism. 
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The Republican Party has undergone fundamental changes over the last six years, and it deserves leaders who reflect those adjustments. To endorse the statist vision espoused by the party’s “compassionate” members would be a rejection of the new course upon which the GOP embarked in 2009. If 2016 is to be a referendum on the direction of the country over the last decade, the GOP would only legitimize Barack Obama’s presidency if they nominated a figure representative of 

the brand of Republicanism

that led to his ascension....

Last month, Ed Morrissey submitted the astute observation that the Republican Party is nearing a crossroads....

The most defined distinctions, he contends, will be drawn by the Republicans of the Bush era and those who rose to prominence under Obama....

“We have a bench that didn’t exist in 2012 that could make the GOP the party looking to the future rather than the past in 2016,” he concluded. “That will be a tremendous advantage--if only the GOP realizes it.”

The GOP, or at least the party’s grassroots, does realize this is an advantage. It is the political class that has been slow to catch on. 

The latest example of the failure by Republican officeholders of the last decade to discern the changing mood of the party they seek to lead is evident in the nascent feud brewing between two of the Republican Party’s staunchest big government proponents: Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee."...via Free Rep.


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Comment: I put the last two paragraphs of the above article at the top because they summarized the big picture. I don't know if "the battle for the soul of the GOP" still exists as the headline suggests. When we give Republicans massive election victories, we're still given the Democrat agenda. Winners are controlled by the permanent Bush family Establishment, Fox News, and others who are very happy Obama was elected twice and want the same things Democrats do. Ted Cruz is the only one who can make a difference. I've checked out "the bench" they talk about, and no thanks. A younger group of Bush types some of whom have gone to great lengths to hide the fact. Most politicians sell out eventually, it's not a surprise.

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Codevilla on the GOP Establishment advancing the Democrat agenda:

9/17/2013, "The Obama-Boehner Project," Angelo Codevilla, Liberty Lawsite

"The Republican Party owes its majority in the House of Representatives – and John Boehner his speakership thereof – to the American people’s dislike of Obamacare. Because the US Constitution is explicit that the US government may expend only funds appropriated by Congress, Obamacare has existed strictly at the sufferance of the House leadership since that majority took office in January 2011.

But John Boehner and his chosen band have thwarted the majority of Republican congressmen’s desire to use the constitutional power they have to refuse to appropriate money for Obamacare. In this, Boehner and co. have worked in bipartisan coordination with the ruling class, including the media, including Fox News.

By September 2013, spurred by the Party’s constituent groups, Republican congressmen and senators had vowed to exclude Obamacare from the omnibus spending bill that funds government operations. (the existence of such bills, which neuter Congress’ constitutional authority over spending, will be the subject of another column). Boehner and his band responded with a proposal to vote on the omnibus spending bill, twice: once without Obamacare, so as to allow Congressmen to feign evidence of faithfulness to the principles for which they were elected, and another with Obamacare. 

The latter would pass with the votes of all Democrats and just enough of the Republican leadership to put it over the top. It would become law, and satisfy the ruling class’ constituent groups: the insurance companies, the hospital lobby, as well as left wing ideologues.

Boehner’s plan was more transparently fraudulent than Obama’s, and its assumption that his audience would see it as anything else was an even more flagrant insult of that audience’s intelligence....
 
Support for Obamacare was dwindling daily to the ruling class’ inner core as the membership of organizations whose leaders had supported its passage now demanded that these leaders lobby for exemptions from it. The labor movement, one of the ruling class’ key constituencies, was turning against it as vehemently as the Republican rank-and-file. Hence Boehner’s continued fidelity to Obamacare was especially boneheaded.

The ruling class’ foolishness and insincerity, its willingness to insult the American people’s intelligence, are no joke. But we can take comfort in its transparent ineptitude."

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Obama's re-election helped Boehner:

12/8/2012, “Once Boxed-In, Boehner May Finally Be Master Of The House,” NPR, Frank James

"In a paradoxical way, Obama's re-election victory coupled with congressional Democrats adding to their numbers 

may have helped Boehner.

Some of those wins came at the expense of the Tea Party, the conservative movement whose affiliated House members have been very willing to stand up to Boehner....

"It is somewhat unprecedented, though, to see speakers starting off their tenure at a severe disadvantage and then cementing their power later, 

which appears to be happening right now with Boehner."...

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PS. Hot Air, the site that published the article at the top is an Establishment Republican site which I therefore usually avoid. I saw the above article because it was linked on another site I go to. The article wasn't at all sympathetic to the Establishment which was a great shock to me for a Hot Air article. 

Sure enough, one day later, the same Hot Air author, Noah Rothman, publishes a hateful piece of Establishment stenography reeking of trademark Boehner weirdness. Hot Air hasn't changed, it remains a lobbyist outlet, and I'll resume avoiding it:

1/13/15, "House conservatives plot to blow up Republican Study Committee over feud with leadership," Hot Air, Noah Rothman




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