“The American people have every right, and every reason, to blame a Republican president and a Republican Congress for the mess that confronted the Obama administration on January 20, 2009 “” let us be honest be about this.”
ThinkProgress filed this story of a conservative blurting out the truth from Costa Mesa, CA:
Speaking at an event last week in Orange County, CA, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) said he expected big gains for his party at this year’s election, but said he worried that Republicans would squander the victory, as they had in the past, by nominating a slew of “bad candidates” and having a lackluster commitment to conservative principles:
The American people are about to give Republicans a second chance that we know we don’t deserve, that we haven’t earned. “¦ The American people have every right, and every reason, to blame a Republican president and a Republican Congress for the mess that confronted the Obama administration on January 20, 2009 “” let us be honest be about this.
ThinkProgress attended the luncheon at the opulent Center Club in Costa Mesa, which was hosted by the Pacific Research Institute, an oil-funded right-wing think tank.
McClintock “” a tea party favorite with a strong libertarian streak “” had particularly harsh words for his party’s nominee for governor, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Asked about Whitman following his remarks, McClintock suggested she is not loyal to the “principles of the American Founders,” and said he agrees with her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown as much as he agrees with Whitman:
My loyalty is to the principles of the American Founders. My loyalty to the Republican party and to its candidates extends only so far as they are loyal to those principles. And I don’t see that in the current ticket. Two of the people on the Republican ticket were singularly responsible for biggest tax increase by any state in American history. These are Whitman’s handpicked running mates. [...]
I look at all of these things and I realize I agree with her maybe 20 percent of the time. I agree with Jerry Brown about 20 percent of the time. I agree with the libertarians about 80 percent of the time. So I’m not making an endorsement, particularly for that!
McClintock endorsed Whitman’s opponent during the GOP primary, and publicly criticized her during that time. “I’m afraid that if Whitman were the nominee, the Republican base would have no reason to turn out,” he said in April. His comments yesterday were unusually strong for fellow member of the same party so close to the general election.
And while McClintock expressed strong loyalty to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), he acknowledged that the Boehner’s “Pledge to America” governing agenda was somewhat lacking. During his speech, McClintock noted that conservatives were widely disappointed by the “Pledge,” and ThinkProgress asked him afterwards if there is any validity to their criticism. “There’s a lot of stuff I would have liked to see in it, and there are several things I didn’t like to see in it,” he said. And while saying the purpose of the pledge is to lay out “principles” and not necessarily specifics, McClintock admitted that one specific policy prescription “” bringing federal spending back to 2008 levels “” “doesn’t nearly anyway nearly far enough.”
Listen to a compilation of McClintock’s comments:
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Amen!
“Republicans don’t deserve a second chance” rings true as a very powerful and accurate sound bite.
Bleh. McClintock also said that Al Gore is Fat:
I think if you parse McClintock’s latest diatribe more carefully, you’ll find that McClintock is actually saying this: ‘yes, the Tea Party is crazy, but… they’re not crazy enough!‘
– frank
Para 5 line one – “harsh” is the word you were typing, methinks, unless the GOP has taken to the weed for inspiration (always possible)!
Cheers – John
John Mason: in view of the ‘Al Gore is Fat’ speech above, I think “hash” might be a more suitable word.
– frank
Tom is my congressman, well actually not my choice, but the elected GOP representative for my district. I’m surprised by his honest comments considering if you look into his votes he has towed the party line for the past two years. I wonder what’s up!
Someone needs to remind Tom that the dems took over congress with the 2006 elections.
Tom is a huge global warming denier and along with Dan Logue, unfortunately my representative in the CA legislature, has been a big supporter of Proposition 23, the initiative to stop the implementation of California’s climate change law. I agree with Frank’s comment that Tom’s little speech needs to be looked at carefully. Tom is not even from Northern California but moved in to the area for the purpose of getting elected. He is basically a mouthpiece for the Orange County Republicans.
THANKS FOR POSTING THIS MCCLINTOCK GARBAGE.
I have the misfortune in living in the district he is elected to represent (and that is something McClintock cannot say). Never has lived in the district and about 95% of campaign contributions (he was sitting on 1 1/2 million) come from elsewhere in the State and Country. Hardly any from here.
The only good thing about his publicity is hopefully people are not foolish enough to vote for him this time (he barely won last time).
Imagine having a congressperson representing you that does not live or pay the taxes YOU DO.
How screwed up is that?
“Dr. Rand Paul criticized the GOP for the big spending and budget deficits during the Bush years. “We as Republicans have taken the easy way out a lot of times. We vote to cut taxes, but we don’t ever vote to cut any spending.”
Well there’s two.