Walt Jones isn’t wrong about this:

Republicans lost their congressional majority by losing their way, Jones said.

“I regret that we lost the majority,” Jones said. “But the reason that we lost the majority was the unpopularity of George Bush and the fact that we did not stick to our principles. Republicans are not supposed to be big spenders.”

The Daily Reflector

But take note of the paragraph right before his statement:

Working in a Congress run by Democrats hasn’t been hard for Jones, who said he largely gets along with members of the other party. He noted that his staff has had productive talks with Democratic leaders about a proposal to raise health standards on imported seafood. Another Jones initiative — construction of a national monument honoring military dogs that served in Vietnam — has made its way into a defense bill, he added.

A monument honoring dogs …………

Certainly that’s an expenditure of great importance to our nation’s defense because the good Congressman wouldn’t be lecturing his party on frivolous spending while partaking in the fray, would he?

It’s not often I agree with Senator McCain, but he is spot on with this one.  I just wish the guy wasn’t such a wash on other issues.  Fiscal conservatism is the number issue for me when choosing a candidate I will get behind and McCain has been hawkish in that area, but such a flop on too many others.

Republicans spent their way into losing control of Congress, presidential candidate John McCain said yesterday.

“The reason why we lost that election, my dear friends, was because we let spending get out of control,” the Republican senator from Arizona told a breakfast crowd in Conway. “We came to power in 1994 to change government and government changed us.”

Boston Globe 

The Democratic Leaders in the Senate continue to do their best to abandon all campaign promises of reigning in wasteful spending. This time it’s over Sen. Judd Gregg’s presidential rescission amendment to the Senate Ethics bill.
I’m not really going to go into it, because RedState has everything you need to know.

HUMAN EVENTS also has a good roundup with more links, including some more Republican amendments to be considered from Senators Coburn (but of course), Cornyn, and Vitter.

“You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance.”

“They do?”

Of course, this isn’t The Mummy and Rachel Weisz wasn’t really speaking to John Perzel, but he sure could have used the advice. To elaborate further on Mark’s post, the now former Pennsylvania House Speaker, John Perzel, met a long awaited demise today as he was replaced as House Speaker by Republican Dennis O’Brien, R-Philadelphia.

Perzel was the master architect of the now infamous Pennsylvania payraise of 2005, in which our state legislators voted themselves an egragarious 16 to 54 percent pay raise for raising our taxes, driving more of our jobs away, and steadfastly running our state into the crapper. Most of the payraise conspirators met their maker at polls in last year’s May primary and November general elections, including former Senate President, Bob Jubilirer, and former Senate Majority Leader, Chip Brightbill. However, it was predicted, correctly so, that Perzel would skate by the voters wrath being that he represents a very liberal elitist district in Philadelphia. Perzel knew his constituency would keep him around and his arrogance knew no limits. But in an unexpected turn of events today, his penance was handed down.

Although the Democrats regained the majority in the State House, it was by a mere one seat. Perzel was insistent on remaining Speaker despite the one seat difference and was convinced he could get a Democrat to defect from supporting his opponent, Democrat William DeWeese. Perzel was correct, a Reading Democrat did cross sides to support him, but what he didn’t expect were the handful of Republicans that defected from him, refusing their support in the name of government reform. Being that a minimum of 50% of the vote is required to be elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House, neither Perzel nor DeWeese could garner the votes and so the compromise candidate was created and won.

And so what was dubbed a year and a half ago by former Bob Jubilirer Chief of Staff, Mike Long, as the “Stupid Mission” closes out 2006 with a colossal success. Most of the House and Senate leadership were either removed from their posts or kicked out of Harrisburg altogether and many of their payjacking pawns also paid the ultimate price for their dirty deeds.

Congratulations to all of us who made this possible. It was a job well done.

O’Brien new speaker of PA House.

A Republican from Philly the Speaker of the House of a Democratic Majority. Things in PA only get odder…

UPDATE: O’Brien will be shortly holding a press conference with two Democrats, likely to switch parties, which would be a devestating blow to Republicans who backed O’Brien over Perzel (who would’ve remained an R)

UPDATE: O’Brien did not switch parties, though its not sure whats going on with committees yet.

This is not the way I would like for the Republicans to regain control of the Senate, but this morning it is looking like an almost sure thing now.

This is pretty serious……

Associated Press

House Republicans Choose Rep. John Boehner as Minority Leader. No word yet on other leadership positions. The GOP missed a chance to make real change.

So I sent my former Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA11) a note urging him to support Mike Pence for Minority Leader. I say “former” because I was gerrymandered out of the 11th and into the 13th last session which is represented by Democrat David Scott. This was his response:

Thank you for contacting me in regards to the House Republican leadership elections. I appreciate the opportunity to learn of and respond to your views on this matter.

I believe that this decision is crucial in reaffirming our commitment as a party to less government, traditional family values, and a strong national defense. The next leaders of the House Republicans will have a responsibility to unify our conference and convince conservative democrats to join us in defense of these principles.

Like you, I believe this decision must be made with great deliberation. Therefore, I have joined with most of my colleagues in supporting an election date later than November 15th. While we needed additional time to consider who will be best to lead our conference, we cannot wait too long because we need our team in place to serve as a check to the democrat leadership.

With regard to the candidates for House leadership, rest assured that I will give each individual running due consideration. I have approached this election with an open mind and a very strong desire to see leaders elected who will defend our conservative values and principles and set forth a plan to enact these principles. I feel very confident that House Republicans will make the best and most informed choice in whomever they choose for their leaders because we all recognize that the American people depend upon us to keep taxes low, keep government small, keep America safe, and keep the democrats in check.

This is the kind of the non-committal answers I have received from Gingrey in the past. I am disappointed because I believe he will ultimately support Boehner for Minority Leader.

There was some good news last night. My home state of Georgia continued to push further into the red. Sonny Perdue won in a landslide and Casey Cagle (whom this blog endorsed) won convincingly. Cagle is the First Republican Lt. Governor in Georgia history. The GOP almost had 2 pickups in the House (not that it would have made any difference) in Georgia’s 8th and 12th districts. Collins and Burns lost because of failures in the GOP at the National level.

But what is lost in all the hype of the Democratic takeover is the victory of property owners in the wake of the disastrous Kelo Supreme Court decision. 9 states passed provisions to restrict eminent domain. Voters in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, and South Carolina all voted to restrict the use of eminent domain. The measure passed here in Georgia with 83% of the vote.

H/T: Boortz

Mike Pence:

Some will argue that we lost our majority because of scandals at home and challenges abroad. I say, we did not just lose our majority, we lost our way.

While the scandals of the 109th Congress harmed our cause, the greatest scandal in Washington, D.C. is runaway federal spending.

After 1994, we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government. In recent years, our majority voted to expand the federal government’s role in education, entitlements and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt.

This was not in the Contract with America and Republican voters said, ‘enough is enough.

Our opponents will say that the American people rejected our Republican vision. I say the American people didn’t quit on the Contract with America, we did. And in so doing, we severed the bonds of trust between our party and millions of our most ardent supporters.

As the 110th Congress convenes next year, Republicans must cordially accept defeat and dedicate ourselves to advancing our cause as the loyal opposition knowing that the only way to retake our natural, governing majority, is to renew our commitment to limited government, national defense, traditional values and reform.

Now will the rest of the GOP wake up and get back to its core principles? One can only hope.

H/T: The Blogfather

Despite this people are still running around trying to scare me. If I don’t vote GOP then Nancy Pelosi will become Speak of the House, the Cubbies will win it all and the world will end!

I would encourage everyone to vote tomorrow. Vote for the Republicans, vote for the Democrats, vote for the Libertarians, or vote for some good local independents. Whatever you do though, don’t vote out of fear. Don’t vote for a RINO you hate because you are afraid of the Democrats taking control and ruining this country. The tactics being used by the GOP and their proxies to GOTV this election cycle are bordering on obscene. Vote out of love for your country, not fear of liberals.

If I have to be coerced with terror tactics to go to the polls and vote for the GOP, a party that fights tooth and nail against everything I believe in, then I don’t have much of a choice do I? I sincerely hope what the GOP is saying about this election is not true, that if you care about this country and its future then you must vote Republican. If it is then we are living in a tyranny. If I cannot vote out of office Republicans that are corrupt and abuse the Constitution because it means that an even worse sort of politician could take control then what the hell does that say about GOP management of this nation for the last six years?

Let the Republicans lose and watch what happens . . . the world will keep turning. The sun will come up on Wednesday. The real question is what will the Republicans do to get their base back? Will they actually run conservative candidates? We’ll see I guess. If all of the horrible things that could happen do happen under Democratic leadership then it just may rouse the American people from their slumber. And that alone would be worth a thousand GOP victories at the polls.

Seriously, the next person who walks up to me and tells me to vote Republican because I don’t really have another choice is going to get unloaded on.

Even though Republicans in Washington deserve a drubbing, the Poodle may have given us a much needed boost in the final days leading up to the election.

We are one week out now and I am making my final predictions for what I believe the result of next Tuesday’s Senate elections will be. Let’s see how close I come:

I think we can now officially say that it’s done, finished, kaput. It’s over.

The reports showed Rendell with a balance of $5.7 million, while Swann had only $318,777 on hand for the last two weeks of the race.http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15870822.htm

A lot of us knew from day one that Swann’s candidacy was doomed. He was chosen, not elected, to be our Republican candidate for this year’s governor’s race by the corrupt Republican political machine here in Pennsylvania. The party leaders under the guidance of National Republican Committeeman and convicted felon, Bob Asher, saw it fit to deny Pennsylvania Republicans our spring primary by annointing Swann on their own and muscling out the other candidates. He stood behind our equally corrupt Legislative leaders who lost their primaries in landslides to actual conservative candidates. Furthermore, he allowed his campaign to be run by a guy who completely blundered what was supposed to be a definite Republican State Senate seat pickup early last year.

Don’t get me wrong. Lynn Swann is a nice guy, but this was not his cup of tea. This isn’t California. It takes more than celebrity status to become Governor of Pennsylvania. It takes actual ideas and knowledge of the issues and a campaign with a strong grassroots effort, not butchered by a bunch of establishment hacks.

So, Pennsylvania can look forward to four more years of tax raising, nanny stater Ed Rendell. Thank God I’m moving out of the state next year. Pennsylvania is going to have a long road to recover from the coming mess that man will leave the state with.

Apparently, Jim Webb, Democrat Senate candidate running against George Allen, writes novels that describe in quite a bit of detail sexual acts involving underage children.

[EDIT: Not appropriate for the front page, you can view the rest of the post by clicking below - Alex]

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Stanley Kurtz, writing for NRO has written a thoughtful article on what is wrong with Republicans not voting for their own come Nov. 7th. He seems pretty fired up about the idea that the Democrats might win the House and/or Senate and blames conservatives who can’t see the big picture.

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The Corner at NRO has a video up of Santorum’s great interview with Chris Mathews. It seems to me like he is trying to appeal to the pro-war base with the legislation he mentions passing. He is also clearly one of the most well spoken politicians in DC.

This isn’t a race that has been on the radar really at all because I think everyone really underestimated the challenger. Republican Ron Saxton is challenging incumbent Ted Kulongoski to be Governor of Oregon. For most of the campaign season the polls looked pretty dismal for Saxton as he consistently trailed by double digits, but suddenly for the past month his popularity seems to be spreading like wildfire. The latest Zogby had him down by only 3 and a Riley Research poll from the end of September had him up by 2.

Like everyone else, I really didn’t pay attention to this race until now so I don’t know much about Saxton. I checked out his Web site and he looks pretty good.

This race is now a toss up. Good luck, Ron!