Page 6 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Froma Harrop
Grand Old Party is breaking up When traditional Republicans tell their tea party wing that they have to negotiate with Democrats, the radicals’ frequent response is: No, they don’t. One side has to win. But before that fistfight at the edge of the falls can take place, one side has to win within the Republican Party. Civil wars are not pretty. The tea party movement has become the dead bad-luck bird hanging around the GOP establishment’s neck. Its anger-fueled energy has forced moderate Republicans off ballots in places where moderates tend to win. It has burdened otherwise centrist Republicans with radical positions that don’t go well with a general electorate. The Grand Old Party is being taken over by an ideological fringe with unclear motives, a loose grasp on reality and little interest in actually governing. The most recent victim is Ohio Republican Steven LaTourette, who says that he’s had it after 18 years in the House. The uncompromising partisanship drove him out. “Anybody that doesn’t understand that in a split government, you’ve got to find a common-ground way out of it, it’s not going to be your way or the highway, is nuts,” he said. But suppose the right wing is nuts. Or suppose it isn’t nuts but doesn’t quite understand that pushing the United States to the brink of default, as it did last summer, is bad for the world, the United States and even itself. Or perhaps the radicals think that grown-ups somewhere will attend to the details while they play. The right wing so badgered Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe that the Republican moderate — and shooin for re-election — has decided to leave the Senate. Now the party may lose her Senate seat to a Democrat. In Indiana, longtime Republican statesman Sen. Richard Lugar lost the primary to Richard Mourdock, a tea party favorite. That seat is now up in the air as Mourdock and Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly battle it out. Donnelly has turned his opponent’s tea party ties into a campaign issue. Poor Mitt Romney is unable to pick sides — among fellow Repub-
licans, that is. He says one thing in swing state Colorado, another in usually Republican Indiana. His socially moderate record as governor of Massachusetts would play well with most independents, who will ultimately decide the election. But he can’t go there for fear of losing a right wing that does not like him. Speaking of Massachusetts, Republican Sen. Scott Brown is now running neck and neck with Democrat Elizabeth Warren. He’s done this in a generally liberal state by talking up his independent stands and how he wants to work with Democrats. But suppose he’s reelected and his fellow Republicans won’t work with him, a likelihood, given the increasing demonization of moderates within the party. And suppose — a real consideration for Massachusetts voters — Brown becomes a neutered outcast, while his re-election sends control of the closely divided Senate to the right-wingers. Do centrists in Massachusetts or anywhere else want tea party activist Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, controlling the powerful Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee? And with the pragmatic Republican establishment under ideological attack, its moderates may no longer feel free to be themselves. Snowe voted to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which the right opposed. But with the Maine tea party later breathing down her neck, she only voted “present” during a filibuster of the appointee to run the bureau, the unobjectionable Richard Cordray, former attorney general of Ohio. One’s rooting for traditional Republicans to retake control of the asylum and restore a normal brand of politics. That would be very good for the country, a not-small consideration. The only side winning so far is the Democrats’. (A member of the Providence Journal editorial board, Froma Harrop writes a nationally syndicated column from that city. She has written for such diverse publications as The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Institutional Investor.)
Are there any citizens’ rights Bill Grimm would stand for? To the editor, What does Bill Grimm have against our rights? A few weeks ago I saw Bill Grimm on WMUR’s Close Up, and after watching his interview I really wonder, are there any rights Mr. Grimm would defend? He goes out of his way to say he counts himself a “fiscal conservative” but a “moderate on everything else”; implying he is will to compromise our 2nd amendment and educational choice
unborn children. On these issues, Mr. Grimm professes himself “moderate”. Yet he then interrupts his opponent to let us know he is against the freedom to marry whomever one chooses to, just to clarify that he is in favor of restricting everyone’s rights equally. Which leads me back to my original question, Is there any citizens’ right Mr Grimm would stand for? Jay Smith Franklin
LETTERS Why would anyone vote for 4 more years of Obama’s policies? To the editor, Why, would anyone vote for four more years of Obama’s failed policies? He has raised our countries debt by $5-trillion in less than four years. That’s more than all our previous presidents combined. Can they deny his many failed policy plans like “cash for clunkers,” and his $800-billion stimulus plan, that he admitted failed when he stated that “I guess our shovel ready jobs weren’t as shovel ready as we thought.” Then he had the audacity to chuckle about it! Our president finds this amusing! Add to his failures the numerous “green energy companies” like Solyndra that he threw 500 million of our tax dollars at, after being told it was a risky investment, just to see them fail! Can they not see how he has divided our country through his fabricated “racial warfare” bull and his so-called made up “war against women?” I especially detest the “rich against the poor war” he’s got going, which is actually a war on all successful hard working Americans. He ran on being a great uniter, but has been the greatest divider our country has seen. It was alarming how he and his administration were in full support of the” Occupy Wall Street” thugs, the “left’s” answer to the peaceful, family orientated “Tea Party” movement. What a contrast! Many of Obamas’ biggest supporters, like his pals George Soros and Michael Moore and his big union friends, gave thousands of dollars to feed and keep these protesters going even though they were aware that were doing drugs, destroying public property and raping women. That’s a real war against women; where was the president’s outrage then? They held protests all across our country that cost our taxpayers, millions of dollars! Did you hear that in the mainstream media? Why did our president rally around this group? Obviously, to make them believe it’s the fault of the rich 1-percent, who are responsible for all their problems that he, lacks the knowledge to fix. He is great at the blame game! It’s quite ironic and hypocritical of him to hobnob with his millionaire Hollywood buddies, who throw him lavish fundraisers in their mansions and their multi-million dollar brownstones in Manhattan, when they are that 1-percent that he blames for his failures! In reality, it his failed economic poli-
What happened to his promise to get the unemployment rate under 8-percent in three years? There are now 12.7-million people unemployed! As we have witnessed for the past four years, his lack of experience and knowledge on how to lead our great country has been disastrous. Why in the world would anyone want to give him four more years, unless of course, they want to see the demise of our country or maybe it’s that they are truly unaware of the real facts of his failed presidency? This would not surprise me in the least. It is a proven and documented, that the liberal media newspapers and news stations do not report the facts, unless of course it is in the president’s favor. He can also take credit for alienating some of our biggest allies, along with the fact that his administration is responsible for one of our country’s biggest security leaks known. They are up to their eyeballs in the cover up of the “fast and furious” debacle, which has resulted in the death of two Americans. Why do they refuse to release all the records, what are they trying to cover up? It must be very serious! Then, he has the gall to demand that Mitt Romney release more past tax returns. Why does our president refuse to produce his college transcripts? You can bet your bottom dollar it’s not because his grade point average was great! It was after 10 years of continuous, dedicated investigative activity by our Armed Forces, the CIA and the FBI that led to the whereabouts of Bin Laden when our president was asked to give the red light for our Navy Seals to go in for the kill. Any president in office at the time would not have hesitated to do the same. Only this president would have the audacity to take full credit for it, which was exactly what he did! As we have learned, it takes much more than a “community organizer” to run a country! Please, it is up to us to save the future of our country by voting for an honest, hardworking successful businessman like Mitt Romney, who has the expertise and knowledge to get our economy going! He will not play the blame game and he will lead our country back to prosperity and to the great country that we have all known and loved! Linda Dupere