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Toomey: GOP Is A Big Tent For Freedom -- And Arlen Specter Didn't Fit
Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA), whose conservative primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter triggered Specter's switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party, has a new op-ed piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, arguing that the GOP is in fact a big tent for people who believe in freedom. But, he says, it's Arlen Specter who doesn't fit in with this overarching theme of freedom:
Arlen Specter never believed in limiting the power of government and defending the freedom of the individual. As long as he is wielding the levers of power, he wants that power to grow. His active cooperation with the current regime's massive expansion of government power was the straw that broke the camel's back for Pennsylvania Republicans. Or perhaps the last tearing of the fabric of freedom of the Republican tent.
That's the reason Mr. Specter fit so uncomfortably in the Republican tent. But for all of those out there who share the desire for more personal freedom and a less intrusive and growing government in Washington, the Republican Party's tent has the welcome mat out for you.
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Eric
Arlen Specter was against wiretapping when it first came out. Against Freedom? I don't think that word means what he thinks it means.
May 13, 2009 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
> Arlen Specter never believed in limiting the
> power of government and defending the freedom of
> the individual.
Yeah, like the right of the individual to oppress gays and lesbians. What about that?
May 13, 2009 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's weird about this whole Freedom Tent dynamic is that the Republicans are saying the same wacky crap from 2002, but the American people have finally tuned them out over the past two years.
To paraphrase Dick Polman, the R's really are the marching band from the final scenes in "Animal House" -- playing the same tune despite being at a dead end and recklessly bumping into each other.
May 13, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
A pup tent would be a more accurate description of the Republican tent; purification of the party has diminished it to a tent that very few fit in.
May 13, 2009 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
This "Big Tent for Freedom" must be a Republican talking point, because this isn't the first time it was mentioned. I first heard it during a CNN interview, I can't remember which GOP politician was being interviewed but when he mentioned it Rick Sanchez remarked "What in the hell are you talking about?"
May 13, 2009 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad Toomey and the repugs have finally come around to supporting gay rights and choice. After all, that's the epitome of personal freedom.
May 13, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well said! I was about to post the same thing. The list of gross Republican hypocrisy and lies is astoundingly long. How anyone including their fellow Republicans believe them is amazing. Nate Silver hit the nail on the head: The Republicans have lost all sense of intellectualism. With Rush, Palin, and Jindal jockeying for to be head Repub, it is quite a laugh!
And how's that Embarrassing Eric Cantor-led Republican "reform" group going? Oh, it isn't, after just a few weeks. Gotta love it!
May 13, 2009 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh they haven't given up yet. The RNC is actually going to have a special meeting to vote on a formal resolution calling on GOPers to start referring to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Socialist Party,
Ed Kilgore has an excellent post at The Democratic Strategist. My comments are posted their so I won't repeat here.
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/2009/05/the_gops_new_evil_empire.php
May 13, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Toomey is crazy. Specter ain't much better though he's nuts in a different way. Let's make sure Specter gets dumped in the primary and a real Democrat takes that seat after the next election.
May 13, 2009 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Freedom" -- a concept so vacuous that it justifies illegal wiretapping, torture, suspension of habeus corpus, and indefinite detainment without charges or trial.
They are taking away our rights and liberties to protect them.
Sort of like "we had to destroy the village to save it".
May 13, 2009 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent.
I like to reference Joplin's version.
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose."
May 13, 2009 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, we hate them for their freedoms. That's the ticket.
May 13, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans believe in "freedom" so much that they'll howl for booting out anyone who says or does anything contrary to the party line!
May 13, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is very right. Gingrich was out chastising Notre Dame for hosting Obama -- how *dare* they? Raped woman wants an abortion? Hell no! Guy with a Muslim middle name wants to run a campaign? Shut him down, how dare he?! Nominate an Interior secretary? Filibuster him! S.Ct. justice should have empathy? Block the nominee! 18,000,000 Americans enjoy their freedom not to drink alcohol in http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/controversies/1140551076.html drry counties , almost all Republican strongholds.
May 13, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wingnuts are wingnuts, whether left or right--they're all about giving people freedom to do exactly what they want them to do and not so much on freedom to do things they disapprove of. The difference is that the nuttiest people on our party's far left are considered annoying dogmatic cranks while the nuttiest people on their right are indistinguishable from the rest of the party.
But that said, if we let them do one of their patented Orwellian redefinitions on the word "freedom," we'll regret it.
May 13, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think "tent" is a poor metaphor for the current Republican party. Toomey should have entitled his piece "Welcome to our Bunker."
May 13, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I think that will keep me ROFL all day :)
We expect Dick Cheney is hosting the party, keeping order with the shotgun...
The GOP mentality in a nutshell.
May 13, 2009 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink