As we pointed out over a month ago, when one of the many Tea Party groups announced its endorsement of Nebraska Republican Attorney General Jon Bruning for the current U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, such backing may not have been the kind of boost that outsiders may have thought it was.
In our travels since that announcement was made, we've heard more than a few comments from conservative readers - and even read a few letters to the editor at different newspapers - that support our claim that Mr. Bruning's choice to side with the insane right will only hurt his chances against Ben Nelson.
It's quite obvious the Attorney General/Senate Hopeful hasn't paid heed to the voices we've been hearing. Last week he signed the ridiculously named "Contract from America" that a second, different Tea Party group is promoting.
That Bruning signed a document pushed by an opposing Tea Party group from the one that previously endorsed him only shows us that he's clueless about the differences between the two factions. It also displays to us - as well as his opponents in the Republican primary race - that he feels desperate enough to "prove" his current supposedly conservative credentials that he's willing to beg for the approval of nearly any far-right political group. That Mr. Bruning has a history that proves his less-than extreme conservatism may also have something to do with his maneuvers.
No one is being fooled by the actions of candidates like Mr. Bruning, or the actions of candidates like Mitt Romney, who facetiously claimed last week that he was unemployed. Their actions are pure pandering, and in a party that claims to be the bastion of general ethics, personal morals, and family values, those kinds of actions are a certain sign of being a complete and total hypocrite.
We have yet to figure out how a candidate from ANY political party, who claims to be representing a large group of people with high ethics and deep moral codes, will actually be able to win a general election in the fall of 2012 with a performance like this now, before the primary events.
The political atmosphere around the country is not what many in the major mainstream corporate media on either the right or left seem to have been pushing forth lately. Sadly, it was comedian Jon Stewart once again pointing out the media's bias this weekend on Fox - not that it has a liberal bias, but that it has a bias in favor of sensationalism. We saw that in the stories surrounding the Anthony Weiner media fiasco over the last three weeks.
What we also saw in the more legitimate stories about "WeinerGate" - more than once - was that some voters don't really seem to care about scandalous but not illegal actions by their elected officials. When asked many times, if they would vote for him again, or if he should step down, the majority of Mr. Weiner's constituents consistently said the same thing: that they didn't care what he did on his own time. He did his job for them better than anyone else, and he got them results.
That's what anyone who truly wants to run government like a business would say about the people they hire - that while they're at work, if they get the right results, they should be able to stay.
Meanwhile, likely Republican voters have made it clear in other polls; they don't really care what the beliefs of their 2012 presidential candidate are - just as long as he or she beats President Obama.
For a group of people who want to claim the mantle of the party of values, we've got to say: if that's the way you're going, your train is not heading in the right direction, in any way - politically, ethically, or on the track to winning it all in 2012 and beyond.
Leaders don't need to beg.
