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Revolt of the Elders

Disagreeable

Well-known member
Links below; my emphasis.

"THE REVOLT OF THE ELDERS
What is a Revolt of the Elders, who are they and what can some self-appointed retirees do that might make a difference politically?
Our Revolt stems from the recent attempt by the House Republican leadership to gut its rules of ethical responsibility, but this is only a symptom of a far more serious situation in the House.
The Revolt is a bi-partisan effort, between now and November, 2006, to help throw out of the U.S. House of Representatives a select group of Republicans who represent everything that is bad about the Republican party’s drift into radicalism and its rejection of decades of bi-partisan progress in America. The Elders are primarily Republicans or former Republicans disgusted with the direction their party is taking and Democrats disappointed with the inability of their party to as yet provide a positive alternative. The Elders propose to bring to public attention over the next two years to the goals and conduct of Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his top disciples in the House. We intend to find and support first class Republican and Democrat candidates to run against and defeat those that can be defeated.
The members of this group share a common perspective on the positive direction of American policy in the post World War II era. We see key Republicans now rejecting the values of that era, an era in which we came out of military service to become active in public affairs. We are proud of the advances in civil rights, women’s rights, protection of the environment, progressive taxation, fiscal responsibility, and much more that are the great achievements of that era. We think both Democrats and Republicans can take credit for those achievements. A southern Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, pushed through the Civil Rights Act; a Republican President, Richard Nixon, created the Environmental Protection Administration and opened the door to Red China; a bi-partisan coalition in Congress impeached Nixon for his political crimes; a Democrat President, Bill Clinton, helped make the Republicans’ goal of fiscal responsibility a reality and created the first large budget surpluses. Presidents in both parties have proposed national health insurance, expansion of Social Security and the strengthening of the welfare system. Both parties, while differing on the level of taxes, have shared the value that the wealthiest taxpayers should pay at the highest rates. Through all the heated debate on domestic policy, until the last ten years or so there has been a level of civility and respect that, though often sorely tested, made bi-partisanship possible.
With the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich to Speaker of the House in 1994, the Republican leadership began a junkyard dog attack on the advances of previous decades. While Gingrich and some of his appointed successors left office under a cloud of ethical concerns, their spiritual and ethical heir Tom Delay has planted allies in key committee positions, like Richard Pombo, Chair of the Resources Committee and John Doolittle on the Republican Steering Committee. All of this has happened in concert with a Bush White House that shares their goals – the dismantling of environmental protection, tax breaks for the rich, weakening of civil rights protections and, contrary to prior Republican dogma, a fiscally irresponsible spend-but-don’t-tax policy and an attack on states’ rights on issues such as medical care. To support their policies they have cleverly inserted into the debate new terms like “death taxes”, “partial birth abortion”, “clean skies”, “faith-based organizations”, “healthy forests” and the like. And with Democrat incumbents as willing participants, they have gerrymandered districts to make unseating them as difficult as possible. This is politics at its worst. It is inherently undemocratic in spirit and practice and makes hypocritical American efforts to encourage the spread of democracy in the world.
Our goal is to help stop this reversal of hard-won progress.
The Republican party has already started national soliciting funds from all Republicans to re-elect Republican House Members to whom they refer to as “Bush-led Republicans.”
To counter this, we propose to identify first-rate Republicans and Democrats willing to challenge these leaders in the 2006 primaries and general election. We intend to make sure they have the funds needed for an effective campaign and the research on the incumbent’s record that will expose his weaknesses and ethical shortcomings. In an ideal situation, where a bad incumbent is defeated in the primary, it will lead to a good Republican running against a good Democrat. If the Republican falls short in the primary, his supporters will be encouraged to back the Democrat, whom we will support, and vice versa. The short-term goal will be to give House Democrats, supported by like-minded Republicans, the power to thwart the current DeLay and Bush Administration efforts. The long-term goal will be to see the leadership of both parties return to their core values and compete fairly for the support of the American people.
One doesn’t need to be on Social Security to join our revolt. We appreciate the need for new young blood to make this effort succeed.

We hope you will join us.
THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF
“THE REVOLT OF THE ELDERS”
Paul N. McCloskey, Jr.,
Member of Congress, 1967-82 (R. Calif.)
Lewis H. Butler,
Former Assistant Secretary of HEW, 1969-71
Charles U. Daly,
White House Assistant to President John F. Kennedy
John A. Hooper,
Defense Advisor to Ambassador to NATO, 1958-67
Malcolm McLane,
New Hampshire Executive Council, 1977-82
Mayor, City of Concord, 1970-76
Dr. Susan Farmer,
Secretary of State, State of Rhode Island, 1983-1987
Nan McEvoy,
Former Publisher, San Francisco Chronicle,

(Plus Any Other Notorious Americans Willing to Participate)


And McCloskey's Statement of Candidacy

http://www.petemccloskey.com/print/PDF/mccloskey_announce.pdf
http://www.poe-news.com/features.php?feat=44660
 
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