Republicans have much to celebrate after the YUGE win November 8th. Grassroots groups, TEA Partiers and conservative activists everywhere are getting even higher as President-elect Trump shows with (most of) his choices for cabinet positions that he will be doing exactly what he promised on the campaign trail.
Can this be? Yes, it could, since The Donald is not really a politician, he’s a business man getting down to business.
So it’s time for Virginia Republicans to celebrate the future possibilities and come together behind the man who has promised to “Drain the Swamp.” It’s a perfect time for the Republican Party of Virginia to put our shoulders to the dredge and man the pumps. And what better place to send the signal to all that the RPV is behind the effort than the 2016 Advance!! Right?
Well, not so much. It has been pounded into my head that politics is very much about “the optics.” So, what is the first thing those of us who purchased tickets in support of our party will see to kick off the celebration of a bright future for Virginia Republicans?
5:00pm – 6:30pm Cocktail Reception Honoring Bob McDonnell- Potomac Room
Speakers: Congressman Eric Cantor and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie
Here are three sterling examples of why Trump beat out 16 other opponents in a raucous primary and then whupped the establishment Democrat candidate and the Main Stream Media against all odds.
Everybody loves Bob and we are all glad he beat the rap and will not serve jail time. But if we are honest, we all know he brought that whole sordid affair upon himself. And many of the conservative activists who are now blowing up my phone cannot get over his leadership of the $5.9 billion tax increase after his campaign statement, “I have no plans to raise taxes.”
Add to that, the “leader” of the Republican Party was, in the opinion of many, a major reason Ken Cuccinelli did not beat the awful McAuliffe in his race for Governor. If you recall, as my callers did, when the 2013 campaign geared up, McDonnell was embroiled in the revelations of the acceptance of $170,000.00 in pay-for-play allegations and the aforementioned tax increase, making him unable to assist any Republican candidate for office.
Chris Christie, once a favorite of President-Elect Trump, was unceremoniously removed from the key position of Chair of the Transition Team. Not only was he declared missing in action by his transition staffers, it has been widely reported that he was attempting to load up the candidate pipeline with lobbyists, many with close ties with Christie.
But the crown jewel of this optical illusion is Eric Cantor, the very symbol of what Donald Trump ran against: a Washington insider who Congressman Dave Brat and my fellow conservative activists had previously drained from the swamp.
But I am happy to say, there is some good news in all of this. There will be an open bar for all who attend this reception. I’m just not sure which of the possibilities for having the open bar best fits. Is it the only way to draw a crowd for this group? Or is it that the attendees will need a good stiff drink to make this all go down well? Or both??
Rick Buchanan is a small businessman and activist in Fauquier County. He currently serves as Chairman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation, and as Vice Chairman of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee.
54 comments
Cantor had, early on, predicted that Trump would not win one state in the primary.
Hey Eric, have a couple of drinks at the soirée, announce your retirement from politics, and get a talk show on NPR.
Well, Bearing Drift, Virginia’s Voice of the Swamp, is a good place to witness the swamp dwellers first hand. They hate Brat more than McAuliffe because he derailed their Sugar Daddy, Eric Cantor. I don’t read their garbage website, but if you are interested in following how the Swamp will react to Trump, it is informative.
Bearing Drift, Virginia’s Voice of the Swamp https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c29768edd65032bd91a057ea675deb7bbfa00510309d334ca9d6f8e1dbff007b.jpg
I was banned from BD by the way. about a week after I posted that the Donald would win the Republican nomination. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d96498c668f4537adfa91b8fb33b2f1ed63567b6326f57f0b5aaa60e65bd6cf4.jpg
Banned by BD is a badge of honor.
Thanks Rick for shedding light on this Cocktail Party!
This cocktail party sends a clear message to most that NOTHING has changed in Virginia .WE will continue to put forth people like Cantor who was constantly repositioning himself: from immigration reform opponent, to staunch supporter, to opponent once again; from the combative conservative voice at the leadership table, to a walled-off leader and people like Chris Christie who continues to have a cloud of suspicion about bridge gate, embodies cronyism politics, and has been recently dropped from the Trump transition team presumably for including special interests. I ask you, is this the direction WE want the republican party of Virginia to go and what kind of a message does this send to the people that just voted for president elect Donald Trump?
I wonder if the TEA party faction will bring Trump in to support their side of the argument ? That would be really funny if a Cantor styled insider had to run against a Brat styled outsider with Trump at his/her side lol. I don’t see that happening, but it would be funny!
I don’t see anything funny about Donald Trump supporting someone like Dave Brat . Maybe you are not a conservative.
Maybe you don’t have a sense of humor and irony ? Of course he might support someone like Brat, but what I think would be funny is how Cantor and company would react to it lol.
Got it! Sorry with all the crap the establishment has been pulling lately I’ve lost my since of humor.
We are happy warriors!
Real question is why isn’t Brat the headliner instead of Cantor?
As long as you have a tea party organization you will fail — if you have a GOP that is controlled by values that overlap Trump and tea party, you will win.
The party establishment wants to radiate business as usual and celebrate our electoral failures. They can only succeed as they keep us splintered into tea party, fuzzythinking libertarians, conservative unconscience, etc. Get in the party, throw some elbows, back the nominee, rinse, repeat.
They do not, and will not, go quietly into the night.
Fight for your party and take it back!!!
Ryan was unavailable for this RINO feed?
This is something the Left would do. What would be great is if no one attended, not one single person, but Virginians are too stupid, they will attend, schmooze, and spread the cooties.
But, but, but it is Open Bar !?!?!?
There is not enough liquor, or money, to get me to be in a room w/Cantor and Christie. The VA GOP is really, really, sick.
I’ll drink to that!
Oh No I di’nt!
Opening Reception, Rowdy Republicans won’t settle, chastised more than twice by a very loud lady.
Sean Spicer talking about transition. He must think the R in RPV must stand for Rude.
Raspberry Velvet Whitbeck was not pleased, while Cardinal Findlay was making notes and taking names.
Take back Tacky
I’ve been catfished! There is no open bar at the McDonnell Cantor Christie Reception!!
But strangely enough, the lights flicker in a ‘Cantor for Senate’ pattern. For some reason, that makes sense… He does know Washington…. And Chris Christie seems presidential…. And Bob McDonnell was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was Fake Prosecution….. so…. very…. tired.
Gah! Failure theater! What’s the point?
Christie gets a pass, he stood up for the party.
To reward that side for their fine work supporting the nominee?
I’m expecting ‘Carrie’ moments, with glitterbombs.
Eh, Christie was trying to save his own butt with that one. Now he’s scrambling for relevancy, even as more interesting tidbits about his tenure as Governor are coming out.
Nearly three-quarters of registered voters think Governor Christie should have been a defendant in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial, according to a new poll that also showed Christie’s job approval at yet another low and tied for the second-worst in recent history. See http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2016/12/06/christie-should-have-been-bridgegate-defendant-poll-finds/95019602/.
Republicans are not as good as Democrat party with slime and hardball.
To win as Republican in NJ does imply ‘not your Fathers’ GOP.
Might we finally see the Michigan mischief coming to an end? http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/12/07/federal-judge-halts-michigan-election-recount/95110008/
,,,,, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3ef727831875ced863ac33b2f5e381ce40c09e63b123b25d3bcfd68614d537d.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f73123e4b14a8dfcff5ace04b1fa4b4ef17c5ff3fbf7134d8e9f00505d8ffc7.jpg
Will somebody please remind Gov. Christie of what the Donald told him, “Get on the plane…” Virginia doesn’t need NJ style politics at the Advance or is it a retreat this year? Send the swamp creatures packing…
Here’s an idea – Perhaps more money would have been raised by people willing to pay to keep Cantor away? I just wonder who the big money special interest donor was who bought the spotlight for Cantor. I guess we’ll never know?
A Cantor dunk tank?
A celebration of losers is an example as well as a warning.
We lost Virginia. Trump won despite our GOP, we needed an outsider to have electoral success. Many of our leaders and electeds behaved as spoiled children and millennials.
I see this as Whitbeck punishing us and rubbing our snouts on our failure.
I know there are people who disagree, but I don’t see Virginia has suddenly being some Blue state that Republicans can’t win. We’ve had a LOT of arguments going on inside the GOP and it has caused a lot the troubles Republicans have had.
Seriously, look back at the last few election cycles. Most of those elections could have been won, the GOP didn’t lose them because of some seismic shift in the electorate, they lost them because of self-inflicted wounds and infighting.
Now Democrats get to do that, let them fight over whether they should remain the party of identity politics or reach out to the country for new voters. It’ll be clear soon enough, if Kaine gets a challenger from the Warren branch of the party you’ll know it is going to get ugly.
The electorate has indeed undergone a seismic shift. I ride the Silver Line everyday. The passengers look like various delegations from the UN. We have also imported hundreds of thousands of Yankees (e.g. me) from big cities in NY, PA, MA, NJ, and CT. And they bring down their big-city Yankee politics with them. Wake up and smell the Starbucks. This ain’t your daddy’s Virginia no more. At the state-level, we need to run people such as Barbara Comstock, who have proven that they can survive in Northern Virginia. And speaking of northern Virginia, I would like you to ponder these figures. In 1984 Ronald Reagan carried Fairfax County by a margin of 180K to 100K over Walter Mondale. This year, Hillary Clinton carried it by a WHOPPING 355K to 155K vote. No seismic shift? Yeah, right.
Maybe after getting liquored up, some folks will give Cantor a piece of their mind 🙂
Was that a flight of boo-birds I hear crowing.
We all need to keep the celebrating in check as we LOST Virginia folks and the Cantor loyalist are trying to join forces with #EstablishmentEd to circumvent the will of the people in 2017. Sounds like the Swamp in Richmond needs a good cleaning as well.
What he said!
.., https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27b0012b7c46ad37204e9561868302684b75e7c1adb28c98d7d3427bf837c0ac.png
Are we going to drain the swamp or drink from it? That’s all this lineup offers. If RPV has to bribe for attendance….. Although I do believe the drinks may help ease the nails on the chalkboard when these guys start speaking.
Drain the bar, then drain the swamp!
.,., https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1acab565764c59aa05e0d32c9ba38684895effe57a7dfc48e4f2cf9b8d7c9cb0.png
That is the map of shame right there.
Nah, the county-by-county map is the map of shame.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/countymaprb1024.png
2016 election results, Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/
That is also, coincidentally, almost exactly what the distribution of wealth looks like in this country.
Also an easy way to find the large cities in this country since they all reside in the blue areas.
Trump flipped 217 counties that voted for Obama in 2012.
I want the Virginia version of that shirt.
You never fail to make me laugh RINO… thanks buddy.
The Trumpster (rhymes with Dumpster) told you he would drain the swamp. He did not tell you he would save all the slimy creatures in the swamp and install them in his Cabinet.
You elected him. Live with it.
2018 will have 33 new Senators elected.
23 of those are currently Democrats, and 2 are Independents who vote with Democrats, many from states Trump won in 2016.
8 are safely in the hands of Republicans in places Trump won easily.
If Republicans take enough of those seats they could have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
2016 could end up being the year Republicans got the majorities they’ve always wanted, the majorities they need to pass whatever tax reform they want (including a flat tax if they choose to), etc, they could do anything they want at that time. They could do whatever they want with abortion, education, taxes, anything they want.
Maybe you should focus on getting your candidates elected.
Speaking of which, Virginia has a Senator up for election in 2018, one that just lost an election.
Kancel Kaine 2018
Are you familiar with an adage about counting chickens before they hatch?
You might want to be a bit cautious, because —
1. In 2016, Republicans had to defend 20-plus Senate seats. Many of my Democratic friends sounded the same as you do now, predicting all year that we would “take back the Senate,” predicting Democrats would win 6, 7, 8, 9 seats. We picked up . . . what was it . . . 2? 3? 2018 is a lo-o-o-n-g way off.
2. The party in power typically loses seats in the mid-terms.
3. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2.5 million and climbing. Senate races are decided by popular votes, not by the electoral college.
4. Republicans are hooting and tooting about how you are going to slash taxes on the wealthy, repeal the Affordable Care Act, turn over social security to the stock market, abolish Medicare.
Read this article about what happened in one state, governed by Republicans, that adopted expanded Medicaid.
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2015/06/25/two-years-later-how-kynect-has-impacted-kentuckys-healthcare-system/
Meanwhile, study after study has shown, in states that adopted Medicaid expansion: (1) medical insurance premiums are increasing at less than half the rate of states that did not adopt; (2) hospitals are in better financial shape than in non-adopting states; and (3) the cost of medical care is rising at less than half the rate of non-adopting states. Medicaid expansion . . . an important element of the ACA . . . is a success.
And your people are planning to kill the ACA, which is what led to these very popular and favorable results. Do you think we Democrats will not beat your Senators over the head with their vote to take away medical insurance from millions of people? Apparently you are not aware that already several key Republican senators are telling Ryan and McConnell to STFD and STFU about repealing the ACA.
4. Every tax plan floated by Republicans will explode the national debt and drive us into a deep recession. Try explaining that to all the “white working class voters” who are still waiting for that job coming back from China.
5. No doubt sometime in the next two years there will be one or more spectacular terrorist attacks either here at home or on US interests abroad. You won’t have the Kenyan Usurper or Hillary to blame it on. It’ll be all yours . . . and we won’t let you forget it.
6. Then, there’s The Trumpster (rhymes with Dumpster) himself. His schtick already is wearing thin. He’s flip-flopping and backpedaling and hasn’t even been sworn in yet.
So — go to Richmond this weekend, enjoy your victory. But sleep with one eye open.
I agree Republicans could totally mess it up, I also agree that midterms with one party in power tend to favor the other party.
You said “Are you familiar with an adage about counting chickens before they hatch?” – answer, yes, Hillary Clinton taught it to us all.
On the ACA, I am so glad Republicans finally have a say in this. Even you have to admit that it has been fundamentally UNFAIR that Republicans, for the past 8 years, have not been able to put their 2 cents in on this law. Now, FINALLY, they have that chance. They have been denied that chance all along. I, for one, will be glad to see it repealed, because I lost my insurance when the law took hold. Democrats have every reason to fear what Republicans are going to do this law because they passed it on a party line vote, denied Republicans any means of changing the law, and now, finally, they can’t stop the changes from coming. This country wasn’t designed to pass such massive life changing legislation on a party line vote, it just isn’t supposed to work that way, and now we see that eventually it works itself out. It was EXTREMELY short-sighted of the President to take a “my way or the highway” route on this law, because he had to know that eventually Republicans would be back in power and that they would show the law no mercy. Today is that day.
The biggest thing I see in your post is, again, that you aren’t arguing FOR Democrats to do anything, only the same that Clinton argued, to stop Republicans from doing what they’re going to do. I see no vision for a way forward in what you wrote for Democrats, just more of the same – Republicans are evil, do anything you can to stop them, same message different day.
That message is not going to win you the Senate, House, or anything else. Only reaching out to voters who no longer support you is going to fix Democrats problems.
I will be there for the draining of the swamp of the VRP when that occurs and even furnish the cocktails for that.
Wish there was a way to throw a bone to the Cantorites without making him a headliner. He was the poster boy for arrogantly neglectful constituent service.