I’m not the least bit surprised by this. This is what happens when a party loses its way.

Perhaps more precisely, the nation appears to be trending away from Republicans. During the month of July, Just 32.8% of Americans identified themselves as Republicans. That’s down from 33.5% the month before and just a tenth-of-a-point above the lowest level recorded over the past two-and-a-half years. These results come from Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys of 15,000 voters per month and have a margin of sampling error smaller than a percentage point.

The number of Democrats remained essentially stable—36.8% in July compared to 37.0% in June. The ranks of the unaffiliated grew to 30.4%. That’s the second highest figure since January 2004.

The number of Democrats has been consistent all year. The total range has been less than a single percentage point from a low of 36.1% in January to a high of 37.0% in June.

Republicans have suffered a loss of 1.7 percentage points since the beginning of the year.

Rasmussen Reports

The Republican Party has proven for several years now they only give lip service to the causes they supposedly support. There is no limited government under today’s GOP. Spending and debt have increased to historical levels. Billions of dollars have been thrown away into a failed MediCare system, the No Child Left Behind Act which is not the answer to solving America’s education woes, and to abuses of post Hurricane Katrina funds.

Bush promised to fix the solvency of Social Security to avoid its inevitable collapse, and yet, today we hear nothing. Bush promised to fix the tax code and make it simpler for all Americans, and yet, we have seen nothing. Amendment after amendment have been put up in the Congress by the few true Republicans that are still around to cut out the wasteful pork spending and they have been defeated overwhelmingly by a Republican controlled Congress. While North Korea and Iran get stronger and more of a threat every day the Republican administration does a song and dance, fearing any action that would not be PC. Yet, they wasted little time tearing through Iraq, a country that is certainly not a threat on the level of the Iranian regime.

To try and take peoples’ minds off of their indescretions, they shamelessly pander to the people with Constitutional amendments that would prevent homosexual marriage and flag burning, issues that are minor problems in our country and whose timing is nothing more than sucking up to the base. If only they went after the aforementioned problems with the same fierociousness.

People respect those who stand solidly on principles and are of an honest character. You may not agree with where they stand, but you will respect their honest convictions. The Republicans are no longer an honest party and their future vitality depends on those who believe in their true message to save it.

Daily Kos user “sandlapper” has a diary that has been “rescued” (i.e. showcased on the front page of DKos) attacking Howard Rich’s “reach into our states and into our lives” (Roe v. Wade, anyone?) in his work in getting TABOR (the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights) on ballots in states around the nation. The first thing that struck me was: “Holy cow, you mean national Democratic activists have an issue with a conservative policy activist mounting a nationwide effort, yet the DKos involvement in Connecticut, et al is somehow ok with them?” (I also had thoughts like, maybe I should walk the dog, and I want to take my socks off, but I digress).

So what’s sandlapper’s beef with Howard Rich? Here’s an excerpt from his screed:

Howard Rich poured money into 12 states this year to get his Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the ballot. Grassroots initiative? Yeah, right. His ESTIMATED contribution - because he’s hidden behind shell groups and his own mask, Americans for Limited Government - and ANOTHER organization he runs, called U.S Term Limits - is $7.3 million.

TABOR is one of two ballot initiatives that qualified for the November ballot in Oregon, and 85 percent of the funds to pay signature gatherers came from? Give you one guess. Howard Rich.

Nation-wide efforts of Daily Kos? Who cares! MoveOn.org? George Soros? Hey, as long as they are progressives they can pour their money into any issue whatsoever! Sandlapper also imitates Emeril (Bam!) for added theatric effects and describe the effort to do the sinister act of protecting taxpayer revenues as “Conspiracy, not coincidence. Agenda, not mere generosity.”

So what does this “conspiracy” entail? The National Conferance of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan nationwide network aiding legislators and their staffs in policy and issues, has a nice rundown of the TABOR law in Colorado. Here are the highlights:

1. TABOR is a set of constitutional provisions Colorado voters adopted in 1992 to limit revenue growth for state and local governments in Colorado and to require that any tax increase in any state or local government (counties, cities, towns, school districts and special districts) must be approved by the voters of the affected government.
2. TABOR is principally a revenue limit, not a spending limit. It limits revenue the state government can retain from all sources except federal funds in a year to the previous year’s allowed collections (not actual collections) plus a percentage adjustment equal to the percentage growth in population plus the inflation rate. Any revenues received in excess of this limit must be refunded to the voters. In this paragraph, allowed collections means the amount that the Tabor Amendment allowed state government to retain in the previous year.

More info: The voters may allow the states to keep excess revenues, the voters may vote to exempt the legislature from provisions of TABOR for a certain number of years, and the voters have approved an amendment to allow the legislature to keep as much of revenue excesses as desirable for K-12 education. Life sucks when the big bad voters can have such control over their hard earned tax dollars, doesn’t it, Kos readers?

So here’s what sandlapper and the rest of the “people powered movement” (because if they say it it MUST be true!) are telling us: liberals can coordinate national efforts for their causes, but for conservatives to do so must be a “conspiracy.” Markos Moulitsas (the man who said “screw ‘em” when several American workers in Iraq died) must not be questioned, but Howard Rich is an eeeevil conservative activist who must be stopped at all accounts. Moreover, allowing voters to have some control over their state’s purse strings will bring about chaos, liberal betwetting, and the injury of puppies.

I’m so glad that they decided to “rescue” this diary. It provides a laughable look into the blatant hypocrisy of the left and their outright disgust for taxpayer control of money. Maybe Howard Dean can “rescue” his party with his 50 state strategy.

In other news: Joe Lieberman is now an Independent, the Democratic Party feels it must sacrifice any semblance of support for national security for their own electoral hopes, and remember guys - there is no war on terror! The foiled terrorist plot in the UK today was just a coincidence. Or wait, was it a conspiracy? An agenda maybe?

The entirety of my political and campaign experience has been in primaries and until last night, all the races were defeats. It was discouraging watching the establishment betray the conservative cause and put elitist RINOs into power. The Herman Cain race was probably the hardest pill to swallow of them all. 2006 is a different story. Lee Hawkins won the state senate seat being vacated by Casey Cagle who also won his race to become the next Lt. Governor. As I have mentioned before, the biggest threat to the GOP is not just from RINOs. To truly save the GOP and the conservative movement, we must reject the careerists and elitists who are willing to sell their souls for their personal gain. We need citizen legislators who put the conservative cause above their personal interests. Lee Hawkins exemplifies what a true citizen legislator in the mold our founding fathers envisioned.

Lee Hawkins won his race because he and a dedicated group of volunteers walked neighborhoods every Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and talked to fellow citizens on their front porches about the issues.
He ran on eliminating the state income tax and implementing the Georgia Fairtax and a Tax Payer’s Bill of Rights. I have to say, it sure feels great to finally see all the hard work pay off and the good guys like Mark Harris, Lee Hawkins and Casey Cagle winning elections. We must keep up the fight to Save The GOP. As Herman Cain would always say, “the only way for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.” Keep up the fight.

I had my doubts about Johnny Isackson when he decided to run for Senate from Georigia back in 2004. I supported Herman Cain in the primary because he was easily the more conservative candidate. Isackson went on to win and I must admit he has surprised me with his voting record in the Senate. But he appears to be going back to his moderate roots. Senator Johnny Isackson has joined the Republican Main Street Partnership.. A group dedicated to pushing the centrist agenda.

Every month or so I decide to put myself on edge by checking in on the web edition of “The Nation”, that proud standard bearer of everything that has made life generally unhappy in America. This is a banner week for the limousine liberal croud, and the content shows. Hit pieces on evangelical Christians that like baseball, advocates of marriage, and what I can only call a “Lamontgasm” splashed on the front page.

Y’all enjoy.

Having trailed Jeff Crank since the last update, Doug Lamborn holds a narrow lead of 14,020 votes to Crank’s 12,845 in the Colorado 05 open Republican Primary.

414 out of 424 precincts reporting.

Did the Club for Growth endorse Lamborn? I don’t see anything on the Club’s Web site.

The other four GOP challengers have 48.5% of the vote so far.

UPDATE:

With all precints but one reporting, Crank almost beat Lamborn. Lamborn’s total holds at 14,997 compared to Crank’s 14,076. Lamborn squeaks by with just 27% of the vote.

From DailyKos:

The conventional wisdom for tonight’s Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994.

That was the election year when the most conservative wing of the GOP took over the party and swept into power in the US Congress. None would have predicted that outcome just two years earlier.

George Bush’s loss to Bill Clinton in 1992 had put Republican operatives and strategists in a panic. They feared that Bush had been beaten like a drum because radical conservatives like Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Shaffley and Pat Robertson had hijacked the GOP Convention. So while Bill Clinton spent the next two years moving left, the Republican National Committee desperately sought moderate candidates that would talk, walk and vote like, say, Joe Lieberman. The goal was to blur all differences between Republicans and Democrats.

Because of that logic, I spent most of 1994 fighting Republican bureaucrats on the local, state and federal level who did everything in their power to elect my very moderate opponent in the GOP primary. A week before the primary, the Republican Congressional Committee campaign director let me know that I might as well give up. 1994 would be the year of the Moderate.

Yeah, right.

Within a few months of that conversation, scores of right-wing, knuckle-dragging, spear-carrying conservative barbarians like myself ran through our moderate Democratic opponents like Barry Bonds through a bottle of roids. It was ugly. Darting to the base was the ticket to victory for the Party of Reagan.

Fast forward twelve years and now we find many making the same misguided arguments, except this time they are giving their stupid advice to Democrats generally and Connecticut voters specifically.

Ned Lamont may be a pencil-necked geek, as Imus claims, but he is the type of candidate that will bring out the Democratic base in an off-year election. That is especially true this year because George W. Bush is even more unpopular than Clinton was when the GOP swept into power.

My advice to Democratic voters this year is “Go left, young man!”

There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.

Scarryyy…..

SaveTheGOP Contest, what are your predictions for today’s primary winners, as follows:
*denotes incumbent
CT-Sen:
Lieberman*
Lamont

GA-4:
McKinney*
Johnson

MI-Sen:
Bouchard
Butler

MI-7:
Schwarz*
Walberg

CO-5:
Anderson
Bremmer
Crank
Lamborn
Rayburn
Rivera

My ballot as follows: Lamont (God help us all), Johnson (alleluia!), Bouchard, Walberg (alleluia!), and Lamborn (alleluia!)

The Congressman who is running to replace retiring Bill Frist as Senator from Tennessee has voted to outlaw gay marriage and to repeal the estate tax, and wants to amend the Constitution to ban flag burning. He supports getting rid of the handgun ban in the nation’s capital and says the Ten Commandments should be posted in courtrooms around his state. He favors school prayer, argues that more troops should have been sent to Iraq and wants to seal the border with Mexico. He likes to tell a story about the time he campaigned at a bar called the Little Rebel, which had a Confederate flag and a parking lot full of pickup trucks adorned with National Rifle Association bumper stickers.

This description would leave you with a mental image of another one of those evil, mean spirited, religious zealot conservatives, right? And even worse, ::gasp:: he must be a racist too, I mean, campaigning in a bar with a Confederate flag. Just another whacko, gun-toting, right wing looney from the South. But, you couldn’t be more wrong.

That is Harold Ford, Jr., the Democrat Senate candidate to replace the seat being vacated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

The most moderate of the three contenders in the primary, Corker won in large part by raising $6.6 million and adding more than $2 million of his own money, which could be a sign of things to come. His opponents spent much of the race questioning his conservative credentials, pointing out, for instance, that his abortion-rights stance (he’s now against) has shifted over the years.

Corker’s more centrist image gives him a better shot at wooing conservative Democrats and independents away from Ford. But it also raises the question of whether the conservative base will be excited enough about Corker’s candidacy to turn up at the polls in sufficient numbers come November.

This was the best the GOP could do? In the attempt of trying to create a more conservative Senate, it doesn’t seem that Corker will be of much help. As a matter of fact, he could actually be a set back being that Frist, while weak and spineless, is certainly more conservative than his wanna-be GOP successor.

Hence, the problem with today’s Republican Party. If I was living in Tennessee I would be a liar if I said I wouldn’t be thinking long and hard about voting for Ford. After all, based on those descriptions who would you choose?

More fall out from Abramoff.

U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, under scrutiny in a corruption scandal involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, announced Monday that he will not seek re-election.

The Georgia GOP plans to go after the tag tax in the next session.

House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) is the main force behind the tag tax proposal and a series of five study committee hearings, the first of which takes place at 7 p.m. today at the Alpharetta Marriott Hotel.

“We’re not unrealistic enough to think we can [eliminate] it all at once,” Burkhalter said. “But we’re certainly going to explore eliminating it over a period of time — and shorter [rather] than later.”

Burkhalter said drivers in Georgia are taxed at too many turns. They pay a sales tax when they buy their vehicles, state and federal taxes at each fill-up, and even a disposal fee when they trade in their worn tires for new ones.

“This is also one of the most noticeable taxes they pay” since it’s due annually on their birthdays, he said.

The tax is based on 40 percent of a vehicle’s value and the local tax millage.

This proposal would cut taxes for 90% of Georgians. But not everyone is happy about the idea.

The idea of cutting the tag tax doesn’t strike Eric Lyons, a 43-year-old Atlanta artist, as fair. “I feel it is wrong because it would let owners of more expensive cars opt out of paying their ‘fair share’ of taxes,” Lyons said.

You just can’t please everyone.

There have been several articles of late talking about the death of conservatism in America with an almost giddy tone from the main stream media. EJ Dionne wrote a piece in the WaPo about the end of the ascendancy of the right. Now, granted, this year isn’t looking good for Republicans, but the mistake being made by the media is confusing conservatives with Republicans.

The media wants to believe the end is nigh for the conservative movement but that belies serious indicators that show otherwise. Some wise conservatives in the 50s, 60s, and 70s built institutions that did not rely on holding power in Washington. The Heritage Foundation, LI, YAF, ACU, etc all were built not only when the Republicans didn’t control every aspect of Washington, but moreover, when they controlled really no power in Washington. The conservative movement has built a base of power and support that is seperate from the electoral success of Republicans. Even if, and I don’t believe this will happen, but even if the GOP were to lose the House and the Senate this year, the future of the conservative movement is still bright.

Just take a look at the up and coming stars in both the House and the Senate. They are, with the exception of Barack Obama and maybe Harold Ford, all conservative Republicans (DeMint, Thune, Vitter, Pence, etc). The democrats certainly have some bench power in the governor’s mansions (Rendell, Schweitzer, Warner) but just a look at a blueish state like Pennsylvania belies the strength of the conservative movement.

In Pennsylvania, the rising stars are almost all Republicans and mostly conservative. The congressional delegation makes this abundantly clear as the Republicans in the delegation almost all having upwards mobility for future races: Hart, Dent, and Murphy specifically whereas the Democrat delegation lacks anyone with upballot appeal besides possibly Alyson Schwartz or Holden (though both have serious baggage that would make a statewide run hard). Moreover there are conservative institutions being built or already existing in PA (YCOP, PMA, Club for Growth, Right to Work, etc) that have no counterpart on the left save the unions.

All this is to say that things are not nearly so bleak for conservatives as the media would have you believe. Unlike liberals, conservatives have built their movement to survive outside of the halls of government, so even a worse case scenario doesn’t impinge on the future of the movement as heavily as the media wants to believe.

But we can certainly do better, and I want to open the comments thread to comments on how the conservative movement can better itself…

An interesting political storm is brewing in Pennsylvania politics. Sen. Rick Santorum is the #1 democratic Senate target in the country and the Dems scored a huge coup by getting State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr (who authorized all the pay raise checks btw) to run against him in the election.

The rest of the story I am sure most of you know about how Casey jumped out to an early lead and the problems with DC piled ontop of Santorum, but what is happeing in PA today is interesting. The Green candidate for Senate submitted 90,000 signatures to get on the ballot, he needs only 67,000 valid signaturs to make it. The Casey people reacted as expected, viciously attacking Romanelli (green candidate) as a mere pawn for the Republican Party and Rick Santorum.

A new poll due out Sunday supposedly shows Rick well within single digits and within striking digits of Casey. This is the same Bob Casey that blew a 20+ pt lead to Ed Rendell in 2002. This is still a hard fight for Rick, but to put it bluntly fighting hard is what Rick does best.

Help her out, she’s running a great campaign but needs your help to win.