Republican principles | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Reps are about to do it to themselves again. Things seem to be going their way and then they shoot themselves in the foot - again... Pretty much all in the name of standing on principles.

    Some of them (I say "them" because I am an Independent- albeit with Libertarian leanings) seem to be so interested in "political purity" that they repeatedly lose sight of the targets. There are at least two very large targets.. The first is to take control of the Senate away from the despotic Harry Reid this November. The Second is to replace the Anointed One with a Rep in 2016.

    So how do they go about making those two things come true. They don't.. It seems as though as there are more interested in "principles" than they are in production. Some "purists'' get their backs up when a proposed piece of legislation doesn't track precisely with their philosophy and they revolt. They revolt even though there is nothing to be gained. The result is they embarrass themselves and the party when they force the Caucus to back away from a bill (as they did on "Illegal Immigration Bill the Thursday before their five week summer vacation). So the bill gets pulled. Re-calibrating the bill and voting on it a day later achieved nothing more that soothe a few egos and open the Caucus to great derision by the Dems aided and abetted by the MSM.. The party does not need derision from anyone - especially those two groups. Unfortunately, a lot of the public hears the Dems and their spokesmen, the mainstream press, and believes them.

    The Senate has already departed so there is no one over there to pass on the bill and send it to the Prez. for signature. And even if they were there the chances of it ever seeing the light of day in Harry Reid's Den of Iniquity (or is it House of Horrors??) is somewhere between zero and minus 3 on a scale of one to ten. and even if it did see the light of day and get a favorable vote, the Anointed One says he would veto it - likely in favor of more Executive Orders which tend to be more to his liking.. Hmmm... So just what could anyone with an ounce of sense think there is to be gained by blocking the bill in the House. Use your head. Let Harry Reid block it in the Senate and then hammer him over it. As it is, we hear precious little about all the bills that have been sent to the Senate where they have disappeared into the morass created by Harry Reid (maybe on his own or maybe at the behest of the Anointed One). The Reps should be reminding the public about all those - not in response to the charge that they are a "do nothing" group - but preemptively.. It needs to be a loud and continuing drumbeat.

    I truly believe the so called "Establishment Republicans" as well as many of the "Tea Party" activists have got it exactly backward. They need to get control of Congress in 2014 before they can do anything else. Get control of both houses in 2014 and then argue about what you consider the fine points of legislation. In the meantime, be careful not to commit political suicide before you even control the Congress. And, of course if you win in 2014, don't engage in too many stupid undertakings or 2016 will be lost.

    There are only two choices available. Win in 2016 or face life with either Hillary or that lady from Mass. who claims Indian ancestry. Good Grief!! If she should become President, surely Dan Snyder will lose the argument over the name of his Washington D.C. pro football team. But until then, it's, "Hail to the Redskins" ( Do you suppose that is some sort of sinister code denigrating American Indians??)

    In the meantime, the Reps need rather badly to learn to pick their battles. Not everything is worth fighting over.

    Here is the philosophy they need to think about adopting:

    If you go to war and win and the best thing that can happen is you break even, don't do it.

    If you go to war and lose and the worst thing that can happen to you is you break even, have at it...

    Some of the primary losers who will be siphoning off Rep. votes in the General Election (because their egos may have been bruised in the Primaries??) should also give those precepts some thought. It's time to get real..

    Really those things represent the ends of a continuum. And they do not mean that the Reps need to accept things they don't like. It means they should engage their brain before they go to war. It won't take many more idiotic tricks like some of them pulled on Thursday before their summer break until they might as well forget about taking congress away from Harry Reid - never mind winning in 2016.

    But sticking with 2014. I don't care what you say. Tillis is better than Hagan - if for no other reason that he could well be the Senator whose election causes Harry Reid to be deposed...

    D'ya Think??