Close But No Cigar

Timothy P. Carney got his title all wrong in his Washington Examiners post.  He wrote The Republican divide: K Street vs. Tea Partiers.  It should have been titled The You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours Club vs. The Newbies.  Carney writes:

Bob Dole, once the standard-bearer of the Republican Party, parlayed his political clout into personal wealth, and now he’s putting that wealth to work against a conservative Republican Senate candidate in a general election. Dole, now a lobbyist at Alston Bird, contributed $1,000 on Aug. 11 to the independent Senate campaign of Charlie Crist, who left the GOP in April.

Dole’s may be an extreme case — because he’s actually backing a non-Republican — but it epitomizes the fundamental split within the Republican Party.

Ya think, really?

The Old Boy's Club, AKA the You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours Club is nothing new.  It isn't Republican or Democrat, it is simply business as usual.  Its the whole reason that Stacy McCain started Not One Red Cent.

The Tea Party, if anything, is a revolt against the political establishment and the political class which for too long has taken the electorate for granted.  The idea that the voters will sit back and pull the (R) lever or the (D) lever while their hard earned tax dollars get swooshed down the political drain only to pop out of the sewer to fill some career politician's pockets are gone.  The voters want some bang for their buck and putting The Hon. Sen. Joe "High and Mighty" Blow's name on a building will no longer cut it.

The pendulum has swung too far.  Career politicians may be looking for the quick buck but we, the people, are looking at the long term health of the Nation.  For us it is no longer about "what is in it for me" but "how is this going to effect my children and grandchildren?" 

It isn't about K Street vs. Tea Partiers.  It is about who cares about the short vs. those who care about the long term.  Two words:  term limits.