The Pink Flamingo: Conservatives & Ron Paul Bot Cost GOP House Seat In LA

NOTE: This brilliant commentary comes from one of the best McCain Bloggers - Cindy @ The Pink Flamingo:

Conservatives & Ron Paul Bot Cost GOP House Seat In LA Last Night
by SJ Reidhead at 08:02PM (MDT) on May 4, 2008 Permanent Link Cosmos

WAS JENKINS IMMIGRATION POSITION A LOSER?

Once again sore-headed LOOSER conservatives have triumphed. Last night, in Louisiana, Republican turned Independent, Ashley Casey, cost the Republicans yet another house seat. If her votes had gone to GOP candidate, Woody Jenkins, Jenkins would have had 50,459 votes to Democrat default winner, "Don" Cazayoux, who had an unofficial 49,702. I don't know if the 757 vote difference would have been enough to avoid a run-off, but it is enough to determine these outcast conservatives can do serious damage to the GOP. There's more: Randall T. Hayes, who received 402 votes is Constitution Party, the same as Chuck Baldwin. The other independent candidate, Peter J. Aranyosi, has no party affiliation or web presence to see just who he is. Ashley Casey, who cost the GOP the House seat, is a Ron Paul Bot.

OR - IS THERE ANOTHER STORY?

The MSM, political bloggers, and those determined to bury the GOP and John McCain in the fall are determined to present the LA-6 loss as a massive loss for the GOP. Unfortunately, when you read between the lines, the truth of the matter, is tomorrow we are going to be assaulted with yet another Rush Limbaugh barrage of the "conservative" Dem winning. While Cazayoux is not conservative, he is not liberal. There is another story here - maybe two. First, back to the winner. Conservatives are going to try to spin this as a triumph for conservative values, conservative Dem wins, when the winner is moderate, but not conservative. The second thing we need to mention is all those little conservative Dems who won in 2006 aren't much different from 'regular' Dems. They lack the courage of their convictions to stand up for their actual beliefs, if they have any. Second, the reason Cazayoux won is because Jenkins is such a you know what, perennial looser, I have a feeling most decent LA Republicans would just as soon see him defect to the other team. HOT LINE portrays this as a GOP loss. I portray it as something else entirely.

If nothing else is proof the GOP needs a better system for vetting candidates, I don't now what is.

Woody Jenkins lost because he is proof of four things

.1. Hard-line immigration reform is a LOSER for the GOP.

2. Republicans can be TOO conservative, as is Jenkins.

3. The even more conservative independents who entered the race cost him the election

4. Jenkins is proof-positive the GOP needs to come up with a way to vett candidates.

JENKINS KKK TIES?

Unfortunately, there's more. Woody Jenkins is a very flawed candidate. Once again the GOP has managed to blow an election by allowing someone like Jenkins to run. Unfortunately, he won a very hard-fought primary.

"...Jenkins' strident views on abortion and religion do not resonate with Republican voters in affluent parts of Baton Rouge and he has a track record of losing elections, Pinsonat said. Jenkins narrowly lost a bitter Senate race in 1996 to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and a 1999 race for state elections commissioner. His company, Great Oaks Broadcasting, has run into problems for not paying taxes on time. He's also been connected with polarizing characters.

In 2002, the Federal Elections Commission fined him for illegally concealing his purchase of a phone bank tied to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. In the 1980s, Jenkins was aligned with Iran-Contra figure Oliver North through a charity he operated, Friends of the Americas, which sent medical supplies to Central America. But Jenkins's campaign has adroitly sidestepped toxic issues such as the faltering economy, abysmal popularity ratings for Bush and the Iraq war, said Roy Fletcher, a Baton Rouge political consultant. Fletcher said Republicans "have made Cazayoux the issue instead of Jenkins."...

"HARD-LINE ANTI-IMMIGRATION"

Is it possible Jenkins' hard-line anti-immigration position cost him the election? I don't know of I could have voted for this man.

"...Woody opposes illegal immigration and favors the construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The wall must be adequately protected by Border Patrol agents and high-tech monitoring. Woody also strongly favors enforcing existing federal laws against hiring illegal aliens. Illegal aliens should be sent back to their home countries, and employers who knowingly hire them should be subject to serious penalties..."Evidently the NRCC pulled out of the race a few weeks ago. I wonder if there was a reason dealing with Jenkins' past?

It is a well known fact that he purchased David Duke's KKK phone list and then covered up the action. The man is a perennial looser, like those 3rd District SC candidates we would field until Lindsey came along. Jenkins is hard anti-immigration, also a proven loser for the GOP.

According to our favorite Louisiana blogger, The Opinionated Catholic, Jenkins' loss is something of a no-brainer. He's shocked Jenkins even won the primary in the first place.

"...I am not shocked and knew this could happen when Woody won the primary. National Dems will spin this as the Republicans having problems nationwide. However the reason Woody lost was because so many people just don't like him. I knew some very conservative folks that could not pull level for him because they just didn't want to deal with Woody again.It was a disaster waiting to happen. I remember when he ran against Mary Landrieu for Senate. I very much did not want to vote for him back then. When I was working in the Louisiana state legislature one of the most conservative republican country boy legislators from Alexandria went on a 20 minute speech against Woody and how he was plain ole mean spirited at times...."I suspect a CofCC background somewhere along the line.

Woody Jenkins is a cautionary tale that should scare the you know what out of the GOP, not because of this being a "Democrat year" but because he is the exact opposite of what the rank and file, decent, every-day Americans want in a GOP candidate. He is proof you can be too conservative. This is something we are seeing over and over again. He is proof the conservative "talk-show" candidate is an absolute disaster at the polls.

By the combination of the "conservative" party candidate and the Ron Paul Bot ganging up on Jenkins, it is also proof we have a very serious problem with NON-REPUBLICAN conservatives.

They are determined to spoil things.

If they can't win, they are going to destroy it for everyone else. If we cannot get a handle on these people and learn how to take them out, they are going to doom the GOP to minority status for many long years. I have this nasty feeling that is exactly what they want to do.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

On the other hand, maybe this bodes very well for John McCain.

Why?

Simple.

It is becoming more and more obvious the rank and file Republican and Independent voter wants someone who is not too liberal, not too conservative, but just right. "Just right" has always been someone who can appeal to most reasonable voting adults, someone like....maybe a John McCain. It is proof you can be too conservative.

Get it?