RiNO’s are NOT the Enemy

“What the GOP needs is not a unified message but political entrepreneurs.” - Bill Kristol

I hear a lot of people bitching and complaining offering thought full dissent aboot RiNO’s, which for those of you in the cheap seats it’s an acronym for Republican’s In Name Only. The definition for exactly who is “a RiNO” fluctuates. For some it’s simply a liberal who pretends to be a Republican for the sake of winning an election (think Mike Bloomberg). Others consider a “RiNO” anyone who disagrees with Rush Limbaugh on a single issue.

Some people might even consider me a RiNO, because while I’m anti-bailout and pro-brutalizing terrorists, I also don’t think screaming “they don’t belong here” is an effective way to fight illegal immigration and don’t think the fate of a Republic lies in the hands of whether or not two gay people can form a civil union. Cest la vie.

What makes me roll my eyes is the attitude from some that the key to our success is to exterminate all “RiNO’s” from the party. There are some people who think the best way to reach out to new voters is to limit who we allow in the party. Other’s have a slightly different opinion. Consider Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chair Haley Barbour who a) is no “RiNO,” and b) was chairman in 1994 when we WON seats…

“There’s a temptation after a loss like this, he continues ‘to purify our party by running off the people who aren’t with us 100% of the time, or the people who aren’t social conservatives, or the people who aren’t this or the people who aren’t that.’ He says party purges like that would be catastrophic. ‘This is a time for the party to be figuring out how to multiply. Politics is about addition and multiplication, not division and subtraction.’ He fumes that efforts to evict moderate Republicans in primaries are counterproductive…His view is that Republicans need to elect a lot more moderates from the Northeast to regain operating majorities.”

Bill Kristol (who also is no “RiNO,” even though he ate Obama’s lamb chops) has some thoughts on growing the party as well…

Republicans, newly liberated, need to resist calls to shackle themselves to prematurely announced agendas and already anointed leaders. This is the time for a thousand Republicans to bloom. Congressmen used to looking to the White House for guidance or approval–or fearing disapprobation–should show some healthy ambition and unleash their inner policy entrepreneur. Backbenchers need to come forward with heterodox ideas. There should be vigorous debate. Disharmonious disarray is in the short term much less of a danger than a false and stultifying unity.

So what does this all have to do with the price of tea in China? Let’s not start off what most agree is a “rebuilding period” by narrowing who we let to join us in rebuilding. No one is going to drink the full glass of Kool-aid, if we did we’d be liberals (case in point: the people on the Left saying that Kirsten Gillibrand still needs to be “educated” and “enlightened”). If you disagree with an idea from a “RINO,” that’s great. Debate it. Try to convince them why you’re right, and give them the opportunity to convince you.

RiNO’s are not the enemy. ACORN, the 2009 Fiscal Suicide Act, and the Democrat controlled Congress are.

UPDATE: Point of Fact, thirty-four people who voted against Tim Geithner include Sens. McCain, Specter, and Collins…three people that are  frequently accused of being RiNO’s, and Specter is the one most holding up Eric Holder.  The R’s who voted for him include Sens. Corker, Shelby, and Ensign…three cats we were singing the praises of for holding up Grand Theft Auto Bailout.  It’s ain’t all black and white, folks.

UPDATE DEUX: Um, aboot Specter…

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