Beware DC Establishment in Campaigns

Beware of the Republican Establishment
by Bay Buchanan

Between the town hall meetings and the tea party rallies, millions of Americans are taking to the streets to protest a government gone berserk. They are angry and determined to take their country back. But there are snakes in the grass intent on using this movement to return to power, not the people, but the Republican establishment. If this happens we lose everything, including our country.

To succeed, the rebellion must produce candidates with fresh faces--populists who share our outrage for the arrogance of Washington, individuals who will fight for American workers and American families. We need primaries to nominate candidates that aren't owned by party leaders, powerful special interests, nor Corporate America.

Last year, seventy-five percent of Americans believed the country was headed in the wrong direction and they threw out the bums -- Republican bums. Obama and his comrades misinterpreted the victory, believing it was all about them, and proceeded to impose a big government leftist agenda on a conservative nation. Now voters are ready to throw out this new set of bums.

Enter the Republican establishment. They sold this country out when they were in power and can't ever be trusted again. But they see an opening and are setting the stage for their own return. They are handpicking candidates -- Bush-likes and Bush-lites -- to run against conservatives in primaries. Many are retreads, all are available for purchase. Then the party elite endorses their candidate early in the primary, fills their coffers with millions from corporate PACs and special interests, pressures party regulars to get in line, and sends word to the grassroots candidates: "Drop out -- you can't win".

Their game plan: shut out the conservative populists. But if candidates running for office because of love of country are marginalized by the party elite, in favor of career politicians beholden to party leaders, we are lost -- and so is America.

Look at the Senate races. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), led by Sen. John Cornyn, has already endorsed in half a dozen Republican primaries, with more to come. Solid conservatives with great credentials -- new faces, future leaders, threats to the party elite -- were already announced candidates in many of these races. But Cornyn and his cronies aren't about to let the rank and file choose the candidates -- too risky. A man of the people might slip through and too many of them could lead to government by the people.

In Florida, the NRSC endorsed Gov. Charlie Crist, an Arlen Specter Republican, who is running against a young conservative Cuban-American Marco Rubio. Rubio was a long shot but the NRSC endorsement so outraged conservatives nationwide it breathed new life into his campaign.

In Colorado, District Attorney Ken Buck, a tough prosecutor of illegal aliens, was gaining traction in his campaign for U.S. Senate. Enter John McCain. He calls Jane Norton, former Lt Governor and state chairman of his presidential bid, and convinces her to run against Buck, promising the NRSC endorsement, plenty of money, and a lock on the nomination. Le Moine Dowd, a grassroots activist, summed it up perfectly: "Do we want the NRSC deciding our candidate? Does this action by the NRSC make the primary election irrelevant? Does it make the Colorado Republican Party irrelevant?"

In Ohio, Rob Portman, a former pro-amnesty congressman and Bush trade rep, announced his bid for the U.S. Senate earlier this year. Then Tom Ganley, a conservative businessman from Cleveland infuriated by the massive uncontrolled spending of Washington, decided to run. Mortal sin, declared the party, which told this self-made successful businessman to get out of the race, that "the U.S. Senate isn't an entry level position." The NRSC endorsed Portman and are in full campaign mode. (Do these nitwits really think one of the architects of the Bush policy that sent our jobs overseas is going to win the general election in a state with 11% unemployment?)

This same scenario is being repeated in a dozen other states. The political bosses are adamant that our candidates look and talk like them -- the kind that will get in line behind them. Leaders that rise up out of the rebellion and run for office will be a problem for them. So the snakes are out to stop them.

The rebellion must start to focus on producing candidates that will do represent the American people in Washington -- then we must rally behind them and defeat the establishment candidates in the primaries. If that doesn't work, we must field candidates to run as independents in the general. The country is too important to let the establishment of either party continue to have their way with her.