A Message to Republicans - It's Time to Lead

After the election of President Obama in 2008, the outlook for the Republican Party was not good.  They had just lost the Presidential election.  And to make it worse, they lost seats in both the House and the Senate.  The Democrats had written them off.  The media had written them off.  The Republicans had written themselves off, thinking that they would be a permanent minority party.  All they wanted to do was get along and maintain the seats in Congress that they already had.

Of course, with this attitude, there would be no hope.  The conservatives of the Republican Party were already upset with the out-of-control government spending and lack of leadership that had taken place during the previous Republican majority in Congress.  Because of their disenchantment with the National Republican Party, they either did not show up to vote in the 2008 Presidential election, or they chose to vote for a 3rd party candidate.  The Republicans had lost their base.  The elected Republicans thought it more prudent to compromise on principle rather than take a stand on it.  They had basically compromised their way into a minority.  In other words, they failed to lead.

Then, the President handed them a gift, and that gift was Obamacare.  The President, along with a Democrat-controlled Congress, pushed through a universal health care plan that no one had read, was going to cost the U.S. a lot of money that it did not have, and it would eventually put control of health care into the hands of bureaucrats.  This was not a popular bill, no matter what the media or politicians tried to tell us.  While most people agree that there are aspects of our health care system that need to be addressed and fixed, they knew that a government run system was definitely not the way to go.

Anyway, this bill helped to propel the recrudescence of conservatism in the U.S.  This conservatism was seen most prominently through the Tea Party.  People were finally stepping and saying "We've had enough of this!"  People were tired of the government stepping into their lives.  They were tired of the government spending money they did not have.  They were tired of the arrogance of elected officials telling them what is best for them.  People came to realize once again that the government is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."  They realized that we do not have to accept the status quo.

So the people began to act, and rally, and have their voice heard.  They elected candidates in their primaries that carried the same values that they had.  They elected people that had the same vision for America's future.  They took on many of the incumbents, and they were successful in unseating many of them.  The people were finally getting a chance to see real representation in Washington.  The Republicans won a resounding victory in the House, and they made tremendous gains in the Senate.

Alas, it seems that the Republican leadership has started to fail us again.  I realize that the leaders in the Senate are limited in what they can do, since they are the minority party in that chamber.  However, the leaders in the House have no such excuse.  They have a majority, yet they fail to lead.  Why is that?  Do they not know how to lead?  Are they afraid of confrontation?  Are they afraid that they might upset some people?

Well, this has frustrated me for some time now, so I have several suggestions for the Republican leadership to win back the people that voted for them.  If they lose these people again, they may never get them back.

1. You won because of yor agenda.  Now implement that agenda.  The Republicans need to realize that people voted for them because of the agenda that they ran on.  We voted for them because of that agenda.  We expect them implement that agenda when they get into office.
2. Compromise is not something you should want, or expect.  The Democrat idea of compromise is for the Republicans to agree to do things the Democrat way.  They do not expect to meet in the middle.  They want it their way, or nothing at all.  That is how the Republicans should be.  They won the election in an overwhelming manner.  People wanted your agenda, which is why they voted for you.  They did not vote for you so that you could compromise away the agenda.
3. You cannot make everyone happy.  This should be obvious.  There are people that did not vote for Republicans, and they never will vote for one.  So why even try to appease them?  No matter what you do, they will be against it.  So, you need to do what the people put you there to do - implement the agenda.
4. Don't become moderates.  This is what hurt the Republican party from about 1998-2009.  After they took the nation by storm in 1994, they started to stray from their fiscally conservative ways.  They started spending like the Democrats.  They thought they were undefeatable.  And because of that, they lost power.  The Republicans nominated a moderate for President in 2008.  If not for the conservative VP candidate that he picked, the Republicans would have lost by an even greater margin in the election.  For some reason, the establishment Republicans think that the party needs to be more moderate in order to win elections.  However, why would a Democrat vote for a Republican trying to be like a Democrat?  The answer is that they will not do that.  They already have a real Democrat running for their party.
5. Conservatism will win when it is tried.  When Republicans try to be like moderates, they lose elections.  However, when they run as conservatives, they win.  There is not much more to say here.  People want elected Republicans to be conservative.  When they are not, people will not show up to vote them back into office.
6. Continue to listen to the people that voted you into office.  This is something that no politician has been able to do.  The Democrats don't listen to their constituents, either, but that is their problem.  You are an elected official, put there by the people.  You need to listen to them.  You are to be there doing business for the people.
7. The seat belongs to the people, not the elected official.  When Sen. Ted Kennedy passed away, the media wondered what would happen to Kennedy's seat on the Senate.  The man that eventually took Kennedy's place (now Sen. Scott Brown) answered that (it is not Sen. Kennedy's seat.  It is the people's seat.)  Too often, elected officials forget that they are there to serve the people.  The people are not there to serve them.
8. We want leaders.  A leader makes tough decisions.  They take responsibility.  They take a stand on difficult issues.  They risk losing popularity in order to do what is right, not politically expedient.  All too often today, our elected officials make their decisions based on what is politically popular, not what is right.  We want leaders who do what is right, not necessarily what is popular.  One only needs to look at the state of Wisconsin.  The Republican Governor and Legislature made the principled decision and stood tall in the midst of adversity in order to get difficult legislation passed.  The were leaders, and they refused to be beaten down.
9. Democrats want the power that you now have.  Don't give them an excuse to get it back.  The Democrats will stop at nothing to get power back.
10. Don't start to look at the next election.  One of my biggest pet peeves is people that start to run for office the day after the elections.  These people need to leard that we elected you to enact an agenda, to pass bills that benefit the people.  We did not elect you so that you could spend your time running for office again (and youa re getting paid by us to do that).  People will vote for you if you do the right things while in office.  Concentrate on doing what is right, and the elections will turn out fine.

Americans want strong leaders.  They want people who can make the tough decisions, not just the popular ones.  We do not like it when our leaders compromise on principle in order to get along with others.  You were elected into office in order implement an agenda and represent the people.  And we expect you to do just that.

Why are the liberals and media elites scared of Sarah Palin?

I have been trying to figure out for some time why there is such hatred for Sarah Palin. This hatred comes from liberals, media elites, political know-nothings, and even from some inside the Republican party. The ironic thing here is that the same people that hate Sarah Palin are the same people who are telling us that partisanship is killing the country and that we should seek to find compromise.

Anyway, as I have tried to figure out this disdain and hatred, I kept coming up with the same answer - they are afraid of her. I know this does not seem to make sense at first, but after much deliberation in my own mind, this is the only conclusion that I could come to.

First, she is an attractive and successful woman, who is happily married with 5 children. She has not had an abortion, nor does she speak out for women's liberation groups. These are not characteristics that liberals admire in women. Also, I think liberals are jealous about her attractive nature. After all, who do they have on their side - Hillary Clinton and Barbara Streisand?

Second, she holds views that are popular amongst many Americans. The reason she connected with many Republicans and conservatives is that we share her views on many issues. She is sincere in her beliefs, and she does not change her views based on the political climate of the day. She holds the opinion that the government is not the answer to all of our problems, and this is something that resonates with many Americans of all different political persuasions.

Third, she says that she is a Christian. Granted, I can only go by what she says, because I do not know for sure. But she claims to be a Christian, and I will take her at her word. According to liberals, Christians need to discard their beliefs at the door and that their beliefs should have no impact on the decisions that are made legislatively. Sarah Palin is not going to do that, and this irritates the haters.

Fourth, she is popular, while the popularity of liberals is waning. This annoys the haters beyond measure. She is popular because her views resonate with the American people, while the liberals' views do not connect with the people. We are headed in the wrong direction, people know it, and Sarah Palin is not afraid to point that out. She is also not afraid to speak out against Republicans when they do something stupid (which is why some RINO's do not like her).

Fifth, she is not a Washington insider. Many liberals and media elite are upset that an outsider can come into the political scene and have this much of an impact. To them, there is no room for outsiders.

The haters continue to attack her, no matter what she does. They attacked her for making a speech with 4 or 5 different items written on the palm of her hand. Essentially, she had those topics written on her hand because those are the issues she wanted to speak about. And what do the haters do - they mock her. The President's press secretary mocked it. Liberal media elites mocked it. Yet, all she needed to make a speech was to make a list of the items she wanted to speak about and the passion with which to speak. She did not need a teleprompter (a la President Obama). She did not need a written speech. All she needed was a list of topics, and she was able to give an extemporaneous speech, and she did it passionately and eloquently. Should she have used an index card instead of her hand? Possibly. But if this is all that the haters can come up with, then they ought to be ashamed and embarrassed.

Liberals also insist that she is dumb, that she has no idea of how to be 'Presidential' (this from the same people that applaud our current President for being a big bully who lacks decorum). They underestimate her. 'We the people' are tired of these liberals and elites telling us what to think about people. We have enough information at our fingertips and are more than capable of making intelligent decisions on our own. Moreover, those of us who have an admiration for Palin are labeled is idiots or morons. This is another mark against the liberals. Rather than respect the opinions of a divergent viewpoint or have a debate on the merits, they resort to name-calling.

Because of all of this, I believe that it is a fear of Sarah Palin that causes these people to hate her. They are afraid that she will become popular and possibly win an election, and then their power over people will continue to diminish. If they did not fear her, then they would not ridicule her or mock her or continue to publish stories that try to bring her down. They would leave her alone, and she would just go away.

As for me, I do not know if she will run for President in 2012, and if she does, I do not know if I will vote for her. But I will give her consideration before I place my vote. Perhaps, many of these haters should stop hating and give her a chance to be heard.

A re-birth of conservatism?

The people of Massachusetts have finally awakened from their lengthy slumber. On Tuesday, Scott Brown was elected by the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to finish the Senatorial term of the now-deceased Ted Kennedy. This is quite a remarkable occurrence.

Ted Kennedy held this seat for 46 years. He was first elected in 1962, and the people of Massachusetts continued to send him back to the Senate every 6 years. He was a liberal stalwart in the Senate. Yet the people of Massachusetts chose to send a Republican to the Senate to take his place. In fact, his home town of Hyannis Port voted for Brown.

Kennedy was a spokesperson for many liberal ideas, including health care. Scott Brown spoke out against national health care in his campaign. It is almost a slap in the face to Ted Kennedy that the person taking his place campaigned against the main piece of legislation that he fought for over the last few years of his life. Also, it is worth noting that the people of Massachusetts, who have health care from the state, voted Brown into office. Are they now saying that they do not like (or want) government run insurance?

Anyway, there are a multitude of reasons that the Democrats lost this seat. 1) They took it for granted. Who would ever expect a Republican (much less one who is sort of conservative) to win in Massachusetts? 2) The Democrats chose a candidate that was not that remarkable and did not run a good campaign. She almost seemed not to care, as though she was going to win by default (see #1). 3) Democrats like to govern by polls, but still have no idea what the public sentiment actually is. They continued to push health care even though the majority of Americans do not want it. 4) Because of this, Democrats think that people do not really know what they want. The party insists on telling us that they know what we want.

But more than this, Democrats do not realize that when liberalism is up against conservatism in an election, conservatism will win. Whether it was Reagan, or Gingrich (The Contract With America), or George W. Bush (in 2000), conservatism wins when it faces liberalism. McCain's campaign was doing nothing against the Obama machine in 2008 until Sarah Palin got on board. Unfortunately, there were Republicans in the establishment that did not want Palin, because she was too conservative, so they tried to undercut her. They wanted the Republican party to be more moderate, to be more like Democrats and gain independent voters.

So, look what happened to the Republican Party: they became the minority party. People are not going to vote for Democrat-lite. Why bother voting to change parties in power when no real change will happen? It makes no sense. Conservatives did not show up to vote or they voted 3rd party because of the moderates that were nominated to represent the Republican party. Many of the Democrats in the house won because they were riding Obama's coattails, not necessarily because they were remarkable candidates. All people wanted was change - they did not care what it looked like.

Now, after a year in office, people are starting to see that Obama is not what he was built up to be. He made promises that he could not keep. In many cases, he lied. Unemployment is up. People are being taxed. The deficit is growing. Government is taking over businesses. And people are tired of all of this. They got their change, but it is not the type of change they wanted. And they are now suffering from buyer's remorse.

So, is the pendulum now swinging to the conservative side? In my opinion, it is too early to know for sure. But this election, along with the governor's race in New Jersey, are a good indicator that voter's sentiments seem to be in the middle of a paradigm shift right now.

We do know that when true conservatism is on the ballot, that it can, and usually does, win. People still do believe in conservative principles. However, I do caution conservative leaders to take nothing for granted. That is how the Democrats lost the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Conservatives cannot put the message on cruise control. They need to keep the foot on the accelerator and push their conservative agenda to the American people.

The Top Conservatives in America

For those who know me, I am a Republican. But I am not just a Republican, I am a conservative Republican. Conservative is the key word. There are many Republicans in this country, but only a portion of them are conservative. Anyway, I came across a list last week of the 100 most influential conservative voices in America today. I found it fascinating that this list is from the UK Telegraph. I am not sure why the Brits feel the need to make this list, but I do find this list amusing, given some of the names that they put on the list.

Here is this list (along with some of my thoughts):

1. Dick Cheney
2. Rush Limbaugh
3. Matt Drudge - Internet gossip guy - Don't know about this one, but he should not be ranked this high
4. Sarah Palin
5. Robert Gates - Defense Secretary - I have no idea how he made this list
6. Glenn Beck
7. Roger Ailes
8. David Petraeus
9. Paul Ryan - Wisconsin Congressman
10. Tim Pawlenty - Minnesota Governor
11. Mitt Romey
12. George W. Bush
13. John Roberts - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
14. Haley Barbour - Mississippi Governor and former head of the Republican Party
15. Eric Cantor - Virginia Congressman
16. John McCain - I cannot believe he is on this list, much less this high on the list. Where are his conservative credentials (in areas not associated with national defense)?
17. Mike Pence - Indiana Congressman
18. Bob McDonnell - Governor-elect of Virginia
19. Newt Gingrich - I don't think he should be this high on the list. He has strayed from true conservatism over the past couple of years.
20. Mike Huckabee - The Gomer Pyle of modern politics
21. Andrew Breitbart - Another internet news guy - He should be ranked above Drudge.
22. Bobby Jindal - Governor of Louisiana
23. Sean Hannity
24. Charles Krauthammer - Columnist and political commentator - He should be on the list, but this is too high of a ranking for him
25. David Brooks - NY Times columnist - He is the token Republican on the NY Times editorial staff. He is a Republican, not a conservative. He has no business being on this list.
26. Mark Levin - He should be rated much higher, especially after reading 2 of his books (Men in Black and Liberty and Tyranny) this past year.
27. Mitch McConnell - Senate Majority Leader
28. Laura Ingraham
29. Joe Lieberman - Conservative? Really? This is one reason the Brits are not a player on the world stage.
30. Antonin Scalia
31. John Boehner
32. Karl Rove
33. David Frum - Writer
34. Michael Steele
35. Edwin Feulner - President, Heritage Foundation
36. John Bolton - He should probably be higher up on this list
37. Tom Coburn - Oklahoma Senator
38. Rich Lowry - Editor, National Review Online
39. Mitch Daniels - Indiana Governor
40. John Thune - South Dakota Senator (and the guy who beat Tom Daschle)
41. Ron Paul - Texas Congressman - I do not believe he belongs on this list.
42. Michelle Malkin
43. George Will
44. Clarence Thomas
45. Grover Norquist - President, Americans for Tax Reform
46. Dick Morris - Strategist - I do not believe that Morris is a conservative. He is an excellent strategist with incredible insight and instincts, but not a conservative.
47. Michael Savage - This guy is an idiot.
48. Mary Matalin (the wife of James Carville, one of the most liberal idiots in the U.S.)
49. Richard Lugar - Indiana Senator - He is too friendly with liberals, including the current administration.
50. Carly Fiorina - Former head of HP and current contender for Barbara Boxer's senate seat - It is too early to tell on this one.
51. Rick Perry - Texas Governor
52. David Keene
53. Kevin McCarthy - California Congressman
54. Morton Blackwell
55. Arnold Schwarzenegger - Conservative? He threw out any and all conservatism a long time ago.
56. Alex Castellanos
57. Steve Schmidt
58. William Kristol
59. Rudy Giuliani - Conservative on national defense and fiscal areas, liberal on social issues.
60. Jon Voight - Actor
61. Jeff Flake - Arizona Congressman
62. Frank Luntz
63. Jim DeMint - South Carolina Senator
64. Chris Ruddy - Newsmax Founder and CEO
65. Erick Erickson
66. Victor Davis Hanson
67. Joe Scarborough - This guy is an insult to conservatives and Republicans. He has thrown us under the bus after joining MSNBC, and he tries to redefine conservatism in his book.
68. Paul Gigot
69. Olympia Snowe - This one is laughable. She is the most liberal Republican in the Senate. She is practically a Democrat vote.
70. Michael Barone - He has tremendous political insight. I do not think of him as a conservative, but rather a political wonk.
71. Dick Armey
72. Tucker Carlson
73. Judd Gregg - New Hampshire Senator
74. Ann Coulter
75. James Dobson
76. Jeb Bush
77. Joe Wilson - South Carolina Congressman, famous for the "You Lie!" comment (which, by the way, was right on target)
78. Meg Whitman - California gubernatorial candidate
79. Lou Dobbs - More of a populist than a conservative
80. Michelle Bachmann - Minnesota Congresswoman - She should probably be ranked higher, as she is one of the few Republicans who will actually stand up to the Democrat establishment.
81. Marco Rubio - Florida Senatorial candidate
82. Jack Keane
83. Lindsey Graham - South Carolina Senator - He has become very moderate, and he backs amnesty for illegal aliens. He should not be on this list.
84. Thomas Sowell
85. Bill O'Reilly - Like Lou Dobbs, he is a populist, not a conservative.
86. John Kasich - Ohio Gubernatorial candidate and former congressman
87. Eric Odom
88. Patriuck Ruffini
89. Fred Thompson
90. Tony Perkins
91. Peggy Noonan - She should not be on this list. Just because she was a speech writer for Reagan does not give her the credentials to be on this list.
92. Clifford May
93. Charlie Crist - Florida Governor - He is becoming too moderate in order to win Florida Governor race.
94. Jon Huntsman Jr.
95. Liz Cheney
96. R. Emmett Tyrrell
97. Mark Thiessen
98. Mike Murphy
99. Tom DeLay
100. Mark Sanford - South Carolina Governor - Really?

Democrats complete disregard for the electorate

Over the past week or two, there have been many news accounts of ordinary citizens attending town hall meetings, confronting their congressional representative with their objections to the Health Care Bill that Congress is trying to push on top of us. The complaints are many. It costs too much. It will do away with existing, private health care plans. It will give too much authority to the government. It will cause health care rationing. And the list goes on.

Now, all of these are very valid complaints. And after reading about this bill, as well as looking at examples of other countries that currently have this government-sponsored health care, these issues are very accurate.

Now we see that the Democrat leadership (both in Congress and the White House) is trying to fight back, to try to get a foothold in this debate, as they can now see that they are losing on this issue. They have done everything in their power to demean the people who are speaking out against this issue. They are trying to threaten those who speak out against them. They are being nothing more than playground bullies on this issue.

They have accused the 'protesters' of being organized by the Republican Party. I know this is not true. I would not give the Republican Party that much credit right now. Then, the liberals go to their playbook. They blame entities like Fox News and talk radio (esp. Rush Limbaugh).

Their argument goes something like this: Conservatives are too stupid to create their own opinions so they have to listen to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh in order to get the day's talking points. I find this viewpoint narrow-minded. Conservatives know what they believe and why they believe it. We do not like it when someone tells us what to think.

But there is an irony in all of this: Liberals can only argue in Democrat talking points. They do not have original thoughts of their own, as can be seen by their continual use of the Fox News/Rush Limbaugh argument. In fact, this argument is so popular amongst liberals that the President even uses it when he cannot get his way on something.

Now, the congressional leaders are saying that these protests are part of a small, lunatic fringe of the radical right. Barbara Boxer said that the protesters are too well dressed to be concerned citizens (as though, ordinary citizens do not dress neatly). Harry Reid said that these protesters are trying to destroy the democratic process. I am not sure how he arrives at that conclusion, as though speaking out on issues to your elected representative is a bad thing. I would think that trying to cram a bill through Congress that the overwhelming majority of Americans does not want and limiting debate on that bill is more responsible for the death of democracy. But who am I?

The same people that are decrying these opponents to the health care proposals are the same ones who spoke out against the Tea Parties earlier this year. They do not like that fact that we do not agree with them. To the elected representatives, power does not exist with the people. It exists with the government. They want the power for themselves, and they want to remove anyone that gets in their way, a la Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro.

The administration is doing their best to strong-arm everyone in their own party to get behind this bill. They are trying to bully the American people into getting behind this bill. And now they are getting physical with some of the protesters at these town hall meetings around the country. They want to beat us into submission. If they were really intent on getting the American people behind them, they would try to persuade us, not beat us. That tactic is just turning more people against them.

It is time we stand up and tell our elected representatives that they work for us. We put them there. If they are not going to listen to us, then we will vote for someone who will. We should not be living in fear of what they may do to us. They ought to be afraid of us and not voting based on the will of the people.

Why Arlen Specter must lose in 2010

As Sen. Arlen Specter is getting ready to run for the U.S. Senate (again), I can tell he is very nervous. The election is in November, 2010, yet he is already running ads in PA telling voters why they ought to vote for him and not for his opponents. This is not the sign of a confident candidate.

He is telling the Republican voter that they ought to nominate him (instead of one of the opponents) because he has a better chance of winning in a general election. He says that he can draw democrat votes. I will agree with him on this. He will draw an abundance of democrat votes, and he does stand a good chance of winning the general election if he makes it through the primary. He tells us that he has a better chance of keeping the democrats from winning a supermajority of the seats in the Senate (which would be 60 seats). This could be a very distinct possibility.

However, what Specter fails to realize is that the core conservative Republican is a principled person. He is not necessarily looking to vote simply for a political party so that the party can stay in power. This core conservative voter is looking to place his vote based on principle, based on those values that he holds dear. This is the very thing that has hurt the Republican Party over the last several elections. We became complacent and voted for people because of party affiliation and popularity, not based on what they stood for and what they were going to do once in office.

I am tired of prominent Republicans telling me that I should vote for someone simply due to party affiliation. I am tired of them telling me that we need Republicans willing to work with the other side. In other words, we need people in power who are willing to compromise on principle in order to remain in office. We are told by the leadership of our party, by the media, and by the other party that this is what we need to do in order to win elections.

But look where this line of thinking has taken the party. We ran a man for President in 2008 that shared very few conservative principles with those that he wanted to represent. He was more than willing to compromise principle for power. And he lost overwhelmingly. We have leaders in the House and Senate that have compromised their principles for some reason or another. And look where they are now. They are in a minority with no power to steer policy discussions away from the hard left.

Compromise of principles has not worked for our party. It never has, and it never will. It cannot change until we stand up and say that we have had enough. The leadership of the party is feckless. We need a recrudescence of conservative people, of conservative values, of American pride to lift this party out of the doldrums that we currently find ourselves sitting in.

Don’t listen to the media when they say conservatism cannot win. It has in the past, and it will win again. Look at Ronald Reagan. He had a very optimistic view of America with less government intervention in people’s lives. He won in a landslide. The Contract With America led to a conservative Republican revolution in the mid-90’s. Conservatism can win and will win, provided we send people out to run on those principles.

This is why Senator Specter must lose. He does not stand on conservative values. He does not cherish the right to life. He voted for the government overreach that we now call the bank bailouts. He will throw conservatives under the bus in order to advance his own progressive agenda. If he will not stand up for us, why should we vote for him?

Defeat Arlen Specter in 2010

Arlen Specter is the senior Senator from the state of Pennsylvania. He came to have that seat due to the untimely death of Sen. John Heinz in an airplane crash back in the 80's. Before that, we was a Congressman from the Philadelphia area.

Sen. Specter labels himself as a Republican. However, in practice, he is far from it. If you look up RINO in the dictionary, you will probably find his photo. He is pro-abortion. He was an opponent of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Anything that is conservative is everything that he is against.

The final straw for me was his backing of the President's stimulus package last week. He was one of the 3 Republicrat senators who helped to craft a 'compromise' bill. It did not matter to him how many of his constituents were against the bill (and we contacted him to let him know this). It did not matter to him that this is a bad bill and a bad idea. He was looking out for himself and what he thought he needed to do to be re-elected come November 2010.

Several months ago, it was rumored that Chris Matthews, the clown that hosts MSNBC's Hardball, would run against him for his Senate seat. However, Matthews chose not to do this. I think he knew he did not stand a chance, given Specter's liberal credentials.

In 2004, Specter was running for re-election. At that time, President Bush and Sen. Santorum (PA's junior Senator at the time) both stuck out their necks and supported him for re-election to the Senate, and he won. But at what cost? President Bush was not even sworn in for his second term when Senator Specter started taking shots at him. When Sen. Santorum ran for re-election in 2006, Specter did not support him with the same veracity that Santorum showed to Specter.

He continues to sell out the Republican Party (specifically, conservatives), as well as the people of Pennsylvania. Well, enough is enough. It is time for the Senator to be defeated by a conservative who has the best interests of the people of PA as his/her foremost priority. I do not care about bi-partisanship. I care about doing what is right. Should it happens that doing what is right is not politically correct or expedient, I do not care. I want someone who chooses to do what is right over what is expedient.

It is my hope and prayer that Pennsylvania has a good conservative candidate to run against Arlen Specter. In the coming months, we shall see who comes to the forefront of this race. I know that my energy will be spent trying to defeat our current Senator.

What do the Republicans need to do?

Many of the media elite and liberals, in general, think that the Republicans need to cater to the center, the moderates, in order to win elections. I do not think that this is true. Look at who our candidate was this year. It was John McCain, someone who would sell out his own mom if it benefited him politically. He was a media darling. Yet he did not win. It was not really even close.

The Republicans need to go back to their roots. They need to get rid of the moderates leading the parts and kick them to the curb and let them join the Democrat Party, as that is where their heart is anyway. The need is to return to the foundations of the Republican Party: low taxes, conservative principles, American exceptionalism, pro-life principles. That is what will re-invigorate the party. This is what we are looking for in our leaders.

It is time to bring out a new generation of Republicans to lead the party, not the same old people we have now who are selling out their priniciples in order to remain popular to those who never voted for them in the first place.