It tuns out I was rather timely.

Yesterday, I blogged about the needs of the Republican Party to first find their core principals, since they seem to have none, and second, to embrace the brilliance and historically effective conservative principals. I lamented the moves of the party to Socialist Lite. 

I hadn't read too much news yesterday. I was working all weekend, and first thing Monday Morning, I listened to a bit of local radio, but otherwise was actively engaged in a time consuming project after I got off of work in the morning. I finally got to bed after a rather long day, or night, and when I woke, was depressed to find that the Republicans were going to give this stimulus package legs enough to pass the Senate. So my post was made in response to the actions of the Republicans, more than the opinions of other pundits. 

So late last night, I finally got around to glancing at Rush's website, after ordering more canned food to help get my family through the pending bi-partisan depression that we're facing, and what do I see, but a link to a smarmy little formerly powerful staffer to those who actually won elections who is sneeringly demanding that Rush, as the leader of the Republican Party according to the press, give his plan to help the party gain in the polls and at election time. 

Gee. That would appear to be a no brainer for most of us. First, embrace the Conservative values, but to an inside the beltway cocktail circuit dolt who is desperately trying to be liked, that probably seems too complex. 

Back to our Smarmy little genius. John Feehery is a former Washington Staffer who worked for the Republican Leadership from the 90's. He was there in Washington when the Contract with America, an often blogged topic here, helped the Republicans gain the majority. He was there when the Republicans continued elective and legislative success by embracing conservative principals, and actually governed by those principals. 

Now, the obvious question is what in the world can you do when a genius like this, who saw the success of conservative principals in action now wonders what we can do to get the Republican party back into power. OK, so you now tell us that either you have no clue what you saw, or you refuse to believe that the people actually put the Republicans in the majority. 

Part of the reason George W. Bush won in 2000 was the success of the Republican Party to exercise fiscal discipline during the 1990's. Part of the reason was that the predicted results of the Republicans, for example, Welfare Reform, actually came out right and dandy on the nose. Yet John the joke wonders what we can do to bring the party back into power. 

No John, the first question is not how do you get the power. The first question is what do you do with it when you get it? Simply grabbing power for the sake of grabbing it is not a good enough reason to go after it. Going for it because you think the other side is going to be worse than you would be, not a great reason either. Then we're left with two choices. Both bad, and if you give me two bad choices, I'm not going to participate. 

John, the reason the Republicans are in trouble now, is they threw those principals that we all supported out the window in favor of moderate populist ideals. So John, what did embracing the moderate ideals get us? Oh yeah. Republicans get not one bit of input in the House of Representatives. I'm sure that is going to be a big Re-election help for Republicans in the house. We now have a Senate that is spending trillions of dollars more stupidly than can easily be believed. Yeah, that's a real close thing to what the people want.

Educate the people John. Tell them what you believe, and why. Don't just kiss their butts and grudgingly decide after you can't get your way, as John McCain did, pretend to understand what they are saying. If you have no firmly held beliefs, if you have no core principals, than you shouldn't be in power in the first place. Simply running as Democrat Lite didn't work out all that well did it. Because the people were left with the impression that the Republicans didn't know what the hell they stood for, and if you don't know, and can't communicate to us, what you believe, why should we vote for you?

I'm watching one of the two political parties in my nation, the one that for the most part represented my beliefs at one time, dying from success poisoning. They were successful, and we found out that they didn't know how to win. They didn't know that we actually expected them to govern as they had been for years during the Clinton era. They didn't understand that the election and campaign rhetoric wasn't just empty words to us, the people. They are our core beliefs, and our beloved principals. 

We aren't conservative because it's popular, we're conservative because we truly believe in the conservative ideals. It's a shame we don't have politicians, or even pundits in Washington who understand that.

John, I'm not angry at you. I'm not going to be sarcastic as I say this. I honestly feel sorry for you, and for our country. Because now it is apparent that no one inside the beltway honestly believed the principals outlined in the Contract with America. When you were helping our Representatives push Conservative legislative policies through President Clinton, and having successes, you weren't doing it because you believed it was true, and correct. You were doing it to obstruct and counter the President. 

I'm not angry John, I'm disgusted. If I was a member of the Republican Party, I would resign that membership. I'll make a prediction for you John, I bet that the Republicans lose seats in the House and Senate this next election. The reason isn't because they aren't embracing the single women voters. The reason is they don't have anything to point to that they can say "I believe in this with all my heart" and actually mean it.