Respectable Republicans

[Howey]

Here's an example, courtesy of Scott Maxwell (Since I know you're reading this - Thanks for the birthday wishes, Scott!)

Make no mistake: This is not about liberals vs. conservatives — or Republicans vs.  Democrats; it’s about what is right and what is wrong. The legislation and policies of the governor and legislative leadership are wrong.
 
It’s about shouting a warning to Floridians that their elected leaders are selling them down the river, saying one thing, but doing another.
 
In my 16 years in the Florida House, state Senate and Public Service Commission, I have tried to inform people about what was going on in their government and provided the inside scoop that political leaders did not want you to know about. I have been warning for years, and providing examples of our representative government/democracy being sold to the highest contributors, the slush funds, the corruption — that it really is about money.

I have been a Republican, and believe in the Republican principles of long ago: Less government in my private life; don’t tax us to death; personal freedom; personal responsibility; the right to protect myself and family; and for allowing business to do what it does best — do business, without excessive or unnecessary regulations.
 
But, contrary to the current crop of Republican leaders, I do not want Halliburton in charge of the Pentagon, BP heading up the Department of Environmental Protection, or Enron making energy policy.
 
In recent years I have seen much corruption; so much so that a grand jury ranked Florida No. 1 in corruption.
 
I have a problem with those who have hijacked the Republican Party to use it for their own self gain; those who wouldn’t have a clue what a Republican platform is and who have mutated the “R” philosophy beyond recognition. 
 
I take offense that they use the hard-working grassroots level Republicans to help promote a philosophy that they do not practice. Many good Republicans who worked hard for this party have written books telling us what was happening, apparently to no avail. It cannot be that all that matters is that our side wins at any cost. I refuse to believe anyone could not see the harm in doing that.
 
Seems that anytime an elected Republican official would not go along with the crooks that stole the party, they were labeled as Republicans in name only (RINO’s) and that tactic worked for a while. This has brought the “R” party to the sad place where I see it is now: Fractured.

(Continued at the link. Must read!)

[Howey]

Bump.

Dammit.

Republican Pete Dominici:

“The debt’s coming due, and they say it isn’t coming due,” Domenici said in a recent interview. “They’re wrong.”
 
He expressed frustration that his party may be willing to let the debt limit be ruptured. “Who do we get?” he asked. “Bring God down, Christ” to make the case against doing so? […]

The current standoff, he added, “is absolutely beyond my comprehension.”

Republican Alan Simpson"

“We’re at 15 percent revenue, and historically it’s been closer to 20 percent,” says Simpson. “We’ve never had a war without a tax, and now we’ve got two,” he says. “Absolute bullshit.”

Republican John Danforth:

“If Dick Lugar,” Danforth said, “having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.”

h/t Steve Benen