Republican Jesse Kelly, who is seeking to unseat Democratic Congresswoman in Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 8, said this morning that he hadn’t had time to completely review the GOP’s new Pledge to America, but he liked what he had seen so far.
“I’m a bit shocked by how outstanding it is,” Kelly says.
Others are less charitable. Andrew Sullivan has a round-up of reaction here and here. His own thoughts on the “fiscal fraudulence” here.
David Frum, the former Bush administration speechwriter who has been critical of the GOP’s direction, calls it “a pledge to do nothing”:
Here is the GOP cruising to a handsome election victory. Did you seriously imagine that they would jeopardize the prospect of victory and chairmanships by issuing big, bold promises to do deadly unpopular things?
But if the document is unsurprising, it’s also unsurprising that Erickson and those who think like him would find it enraging. The “Pledge to America” is a repudiation of the central, foundational idea behind the Tea Party. Tea Party activists have been claiming all year that there exists in the United States a potential voting majority for radically more limited government.
The Republican “Pledge to America” declares: Sorry, we don’t believe that. We shall cut spending where we can — reform the legislative process in important ways — and sever the federal guarantee for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Republicans will redirect the federal government to a new path that is less expensive and intrusive than the status quo. But if you want promises of radical change? No. Too risky. We don’t think the voters want that — not the smaller, older, richer, whiter electorate that votes in non-presidential years, much less the bigger, younger, poorer, less white electorate of presidential years. And even that smaller, older, richer, whiter electorate is highly wary of cuts to programs that benefit them, Medicare above all.
But the real news is this: You can primary a Bob Bennett, you can nominate a Sharron Angle, you can balk Karl Rove and Mike Castle — but when decision hour arrives, the leadership of the party rejects the assessment of the American electorate offered by Rush Limbaugh, Dick Armey and for that matter Erick Erickson.
Sounds like Jesse Kelly might be losing that revolutionary spirit as the general election draws closer.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.
Yes, shallow and fraudulent – the Bush tax cuts made sense when there was a surplus – but that was then squandered no only with the tax cuts but on unfunded prescription drug coverage, unfunded and an UNnecessary war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. The lowest tax rates do not translate into prosperity – look at the state of AZ – one of the lowest tax states with high poverty and failing schools. If that’s how you want to whole country to look like ( a third world country where Walmart is the largest employer) go with the Republican’s phoney pledge that does nothing about the deficit! If we can’t ask the most affluent Americans to chip in now when unemployment is 10% – when can we ask them to chip in?