After years in which prominent Republicans courted her to run for the Senate, the popular Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) announced today that she will run for the Senate in 2014, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) may retire. She has statewide name recognition and a 70.27 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.
But lo and behold the Club for Growth — which backed such stellar (not!) Senate candidates as Richard Mourdock in 2012 and Sharron Angle in 2010 and losers like Mark Neumann (who did a good job beating up eventual nominee Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin Senate primary) and Don Stenberg of Nebraska — comes out to blast Capito for voting for "big government."
Oh my, a whole 70.27 lifetime rating from the ACU?!? Clearly the Club for Growth doesn't know what they are talking about as she is clearly a principled conservative! Or maybe they do. John McCain, who was a darling of the left at times and is by no means a small government Republican, has a lifetime rating of 82.52. So Shelley Capito is by far more liberal than John McCain. The worst thing is that in 2011, her rating was only 60!
I also love how Jennifer Rubin brings up Richard Mourdock and Sharron Angle (while skipping Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who the Club for Growth also supported). Oh the establishment has never backed candidates who have lost general elections. Ha! Mitt Romney was essentially crammed down our throats under the guise of electability. Fox News, National Review and hacks like Jennifer Rubin would constantly nitpick over everything in a conservatives history but would leave Romney, who had Romneycare and other skeletons completely alone. Remember when they made an issue about what was written on a rock on land that Rick Perry leased? Or Newt's consultant contracts? Jennifer Rubin even attacked Herman Cain's 999 plan because it made the tax system less progressive (as if that was a bad thing!). Then they screamed socialism when Newt attacked Romney's Bain history, attacks that might have prepared Romney for the general if his lackeys hadn't done all the heavy lifting for him in the primaries. I also love the fact that she seems to assail the conservative candidate for "beating up" the establishment candidate, Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin Senate primary, as if that is what cost him the election. See, conservatives should just take what we get in those back room deals. If the establishment has been courting someone for years to run, well they just know better. We only cause trouble when we try to have a say. Guess what? Thompson lost mainly because the establishment candidate at the top of the ticket didn't get the base to come out. Romney's received 46.1% of the vote in Wisconsin and Thompson got 45.9% with his percentage only being lower because of the 2% that went for the Libertarian candidate. 2 lame establishment candidates lose in the general and somehow the establishment can't possibly be to blame. Nope, it's the conservatives fault!
Anyway, here is more from Jennifer Rubin:
Among her supposed sins are voting for the budget of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), rather than the Republican Study Committee's budget, and No Child Left Behind legislation, which numerous conservative Republicans supported.
Oh see, we are just being unreasonable now. It can't possibly be a sin to vote for Paul Ryan's budget can it? That nonsensical budget that reformed little and would have raised taxes on the middle class. And No Child Left Behind? Everyone was doing it, it couldn't possibly be wrong! Oh yes it could. Irresponsible Republicans are as much or even more at fault for the mess we are in than Democrats because Republicans are supposed to know better and campaigned on smaller government, not more federal government largesse. And of course Jennifer Rubin is, as usual, being dishonest about Shelley Capito's voting record. There are far more problems than just those two. As I mentioned before, her ACU rating in 2011 was only 60%. That means that 40% of the time, she voted either for liberal legislation or against conservative legislation. The ACU rating is based on 25 votes, so her 60% score means that she voted the wrong way on 10 of them. Let's take a look at how she voted:
- Voted against cutting funding for the wasteful Legal Services Corporation
- Against expanding the federal pay freeze to raises due to seniority, meaning she is in the pocket of SEIU and government workers at the expense of the rest of us
- Against a measure that would have limited funding for enforcement of "prevailing wage" requirements on federal projects, which always inflate the cost of these projects. Again, she is clearly in the pocket of the unions and government employees.
- Against the conservative Republican Study Committee Budget
- Against barring funds for abortion training
- Against forcing the government to try terrorists before military commissions
- Against eliminating the Foreign Agricultural Service
- Against eliminating wasteful electric car subsidies
- For raising the debt limit and for the omnibus appropriations bills which were negotiated in secret
Jennifer Rubin finished her piece by quoting a Republican insider who used to work for Cantor, supporting Capito and criticizing the Club for Growth. Oh my, she found an inside the beltway type that supports her way of thinking. Shocking.
The battle for the soul of the Republican Party is clearly on. The establishment wants to move the party even further to the left by nominating more RINO's and by attacking conservatives (like Rand Paul who was criticized recently by one of Jennifer Rubin's former colleagues for not attending a speech by Bibi because he was busy filibustering legislation and for not disavowing his own father).
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