Mel Martinez's Approval Rating Sinks to 37%
He was at a high of 48% before immigration bill
By Bluey Posted in Featured Stories | Immigration — Comments (41) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
President Bush isn't the only Republican suffering as a result of the immigration bill. A Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey reveals that just 37% of Floridians view Sen. Mel Martinez favorably, his lowest score ever. The sharp decline for the pro-amnesty Martinez is notable because he's also chairman of the Republican National Committee, which had to fire all 65 of its telephone solicitors due to a grassroots revolt over the immigration bill.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Martinez hit a high of 48% in February. Martinez's selection by Bush to lead the RNC inspired a rebellion in January, but until the immigration bill took center stage, he did little to stir the pot.
Martinez, meanwhile, says he's shrugging off the poll numbers. And according to Bloomberg, he wants Bush to "roll his sleeves up and get to work" to revive the stalled immigration bill.
« Republican Moderates May Walk Away From Veto Threat — Comments (17) | Four Senators Who Deserve Our Thanks — Comments (27) »
Mel Martinez's Approval Rating Sinks to 37% 41 Comments (0 topical, 41 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
or Animal Farm?
I can't shake loose the image of the pigs on the Farm starting to walk upright and carry whips. The resemblance to our Congress is uncanny.
And this, the most memorable phrase from the book: "All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others."
An Hispanic Senator in a state dominated by Hispanic voters is suffering low approval ratings over the Amnesty Bill! One would think that this would send a message to our Congressional Leaders and our President that "legal immingrants" are just as opposed to illegal immigration as everyone else.
But then again, if you want to send a message to Washington, use Western Union!
BRM (that's business reply mail to those unfamiliar with direct mail lingo). The RNC sent me another donation request this week. Needless to say they are not receiving any money from me or Mrs. Crow until their position on illegal immigration is changed.
====
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
My American of Cuban extraction friends are adamantly opposed to illegal immigration.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
I hope this bill is hung around his neck like the albatross it is in his next election, can they get a recall on this guy? I sympathize with the electorate down there in Florida and hope they can get some relief from this idiot and oh by the way he is the perfect reason not to donate to the RNC. I say lets show he is not only not popular in FL but not popular around the country.
The Republican party is ready for the undertaker. If the above doesn't work, they're liable to miss, they can clasp hands and all go over the cliff together.
Martinez joins the Miers/Gonzalez club of Bush's Shrewed Picks, related to the Get Along With Democrats club, both landmarks to Bush's political acuity.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Hell you can't tell them apart! The President and Graham and Specter and Martinez are the Democrat Party, the melding is complete.
his talking points were indistinguishable from Kennedy's and the Dems. He's an embarrassment to the Party.
====
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
or ripe for revolution. I think the core of the party will opt for the latter, before watching its only vehicile for change sink to the bottom of a mucky lake.
In case any of you haven't seen this, it is from Mel's campaign website. It has mysteriously been taken down, but you can still find it if you know the words to use to search for it. (My emphasis in bold)
Meeting the immigration challenges of the 21st century:
We are nation of immigrants. The hard work and contributions of millions of legal immigrants are an important part of our America’s history. Our immigration policy, however, must first and foremost ensure the security of our great nation and its citizens. Especially during these treacherous times, our focus must be on preventing those who would harm us from entering our country and in providing the resources our border agents need in order to accomplish this. I oppose amnesty for illegal aliens. I support a plan that matches workers with needy employers without providing a path to citizenship. Immigration to this country must always be done through legal means.
Received the request to renew my annual membership, sent back a letter asking the RNC to withdraw it. I hope there are others out there who are doing the same thing. I am going to send my money to conservatives and conservative causes.
What bewilders me is how the RNC and its leadership can be so out of touch with basic conservative philosoph.
"Blue State by Birth, Red State by Choice"
The big business wing of the GOP has made an alliance with Democrats. The only solution is for the conservative wing to threaten to make their own alliance with Democrats to exact their own pound of flesh. It's absurd for us to remain commited to an alliance which the other side has already dissolved. Find the CoC peoples pressure points and kick them with steel-toed boots. That is the ONLY language they understand.
is import tariffs. They have outsourced much of their production capacity for cheap labor and they would take a serious hit if they had to pay to sell into the USA.
The Democrats never saw a tax they didn't like so they would go along. The question is, would we?
If a credible threat exists it lessens the likelyhood that it will need to be used. I doubt that mere import tariffs would be enough to get the desired result though.
Would we? I don't know the answer to that. Should we? No question about it, we should. The alternative is to meekly acquiesce to our own elimination.
The GOP has proven itself vastly more committed to the big-business wing of the party than to conservatives or libertarians. It pushed through CAFTA as a high priority item, despite the lack of any public demand for such a bill. And conservatives supported such measures as part of being in a coalition. If our coalition partners now wish to dissolve the coalition then that is their decision, and they have to live with the consequences. A repealing of CAFTA would not cause me to lose a seconds sleep.
I think it is viable.
CAFTA is too small.
NAFTA is not.
I've gamed this out a pretty far. All the way, really. The solution space is monsterous, but it's there.
E-mail me to discuss.
It would co-opt a monsterous portion of the democratic base. It would smack WallStreet up side the head.
I get results:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102007/postopinion/postopbooks/dumb_decisi...
Post Arguing that tariffs are bad for the Country.
Anyway, the link is nonsense. Both Hoover and FDR made mistakes restricting internal market mechanisms. This argument would have to overcome the current exportation of production and the importation of labor.
The only way you can get around that is by arguing that the entire planet can be reduced to a two member equilibrium between labor and capital. That we should just eliminate the nation-state. That reduction is nonsense. And frankly, one that I would bear arms to prevent.
Plus, while a great deal of productivity increase during the 20's was due to new business models, the crash was legitimately caused by self-reinforcing irrational exuberance.
As far as I'm concerned, it's time for the players who partake in the irrational exuberance to pay for the irrational exuberance.
Post and Times, playing both sides against the middle.
They even mention an immigrant who fought against something or other.
Seriously, this article is a preemtion against the tariff lever in the sovereign border battle.
That would really put the business community's panties in a knot. And it would get some pretty big support amongst the white collar community, since it is hitting more educated, higher-paying jobs now.
That I am NOT advocating.
But as long as the Journal is going to care only about an completely reductive equilibrium.
Well, this is an equilibrium
http://www.star-telegram.com/448/story/130503.html
Though it appears they are going to try to only stop the weapons flow but not the labor flow.
This administration and the Journal are insane. The externalities WILL reach right to their location and WILL very soon start impacting them directly. And don't crawl up my *** but for saying it. It's just reality.
I have told the Senator's office, the Florida Republican Party, the RNC, the RSCC, and the county party:
I will work as hard as possible to defeat this man in the primary, if he still survives I will work just as hard to defeat him in the general election no matter who the Democrat is. Mel Martinez is a LIAR. Case closed.
Republican for forty years - no more.
You might want to try campaigning against democratic congress critters before then.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Is a little over three years away.... Time to get ready. As for campaigning against Democrat critters....been there done that and all I got was a fracken T-shirt. We should have been paying more attention to our own party. What we have now is a bunch of corrupt elitist running the GOP.
"Revenge is a dish best served cold"
...letters to ALL of the above organizations AND MR. Martinez stating explicitly that my contributions will stop until and unless the "official position of the party" is reversed.
Too bad Martinez has four more years...he needs to be marginalized! Recall anyone?
Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
I think many of you are correct to assume that Mel Martinez will lose in the GOP primary in 2010. I also think McCain and Lindsey Graham are DOA in their respective GOP primaries in 2008. Throw EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN who supported this bill out and replace them with conservatives. Every single person who supports this bill is an American-hating leftist. I WILL NEVER VOTE AGAIN; our country is doomed because the Democrats will be the only party left. George W. Bush is actively trying to actively destroy the party but the country as well through trying to put Harriet Miers (and wanting to put Alberto Gonzalez) on the Supreme Court, putting unqualified cronies in high positions defying Federalist 76, signing McCain-Feingold, spending like a drunk (oh wait-he is!), Medicare prescription drug bill; prosecuting the innocent border agents who were convicted for protecting the country (and then not pardoning them, the immigration bill, etc. I cannot support the GOP any more, I'm done-FOREVER. I will NEVER vote again. Staying home in 2008 is the least I can do. I cannot imagine Bush having any support outside his inner circle (which is getting smaller nd smaller.)
Although you should have been tossed for the earlier "ALL those in favor of this bill are American-hating leftists" garbage, frankly. Ach, well.
Sheesh. They're Mexicans, not orcs. Grow the Hell up.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
.....anyone who has spent more than 3 years in the 3rd grade could see that the Republican Party has severly alienated it's base constituents. The post above is illustrative of the many, many who feel effectively marginalized by the party they trusted to further the conservative agenda. Certainly there are the die hards who will go down with the sinking ship and I must admire their optimism. Some have simply said to those leaving the GOP, "don't let the door smack you on the way out!" Do question how they will maintain any type of power position while losing so many party members.
I've voted Republican for over 50 years, and just recently changed my registration to "un-affiliated". Not a knee jerk reaction nor one arrived at without considerable thought as I try to use that approach to most major decisions in my life. Perhaps someone, yet to appear, can resusitate the GOP and if I see that the return to conservatism is genuine, I would probably return. Although not the only issue I have strong feelings about, but the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill of 2007 was simply the straw that broke the camels back. And trust me, my state senator, John Kyle has heard from me loud and clear on that issue.
I now simply watch from the sidelines as all this political drama unfolds. The machinations on both sides are really something to behold. America has strength. Perhaps it can weather this storm also.
Moe was right. Whether that post came from the DemMagic Blog Posterizer Software or a reworked Uncle Mommar machine, I recognize the stringing together of unfelt epithets as the work of someone who doesn't care about them. Having used the Uncle Mommar machine to amuse friends in college, I'm very familiar with the way they work.
who managed to give the Dems a Senate seat by running the most inanely silly campaign imaginable last year. The Repubs tried desperately to get Scarborough or even the House Speaker to run, but she hijacked the nomination.
So Florida, a state which has been veering strongly Repub over the last decade, has two Senators who are for all intents and purposes liberals.
___________________
THE DEMOCRAT'S LITMUS-TEST STARTER KIT 1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by lack of Federal funding. 2. You have to believe that the school system that can't teach a fourth grader how to read is some how the best qualified to teach those same children all about sex. 3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law abiding Americans, are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese communists. 4. You have to believe there was no art before Federal funding. 5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by Americans driving SUVs. 6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural. 7. You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand. 8. You have to believe that business creates oppression and governments create prosperity. 9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists from Seattle do. 10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it. 11. You have to believe that the U.S. Military, not evil and tyrannical regimes, start wars. 12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
For every conservative that leaves the GOP, you insure that conservatives will become more marginalized. You can only retake the party by fighting from with. Did Reagan quit the party after losing to Ford in 1976? No, conservatives just became more determined, and in 1980 took control of the party.
While I am just as angry as most here, I believe we must fight from within. Since I live in a "closed" primary state, I can only hope to get conservatives on the ballot as a registered R.
Leaving the party reminds me of the kid who takes his ball and goes home when he can't get his way.
_____
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake - Napoleon
You may want to read why Ronald Reagan left the Democratic Party and became a Republican. Ben "Nighthorse" Campbell of Colorado was another. If you want to criticize those who are currently choosing a similar path, then certainly one of the Republican Party's icons need to be included in the "take my ball and leave" admonition. It is that kind absolute Party loyalty that, regardless of circumstance, that you reflect. It is the old saw "if you can't lick 'em, join 'em," Some can think beyond simple party politics and make the choice based on personal integrity, principle, and dare I say, patriotism. When one's party morphs into the very reflection of the things you abhore, it is time to move on and if no other viable choice is available, simply refuse to put your fingerprints on the knife driven into the heart of the America you grew up in.
Having at one time been involved in negotiations between a governmental entity and labor unions, I know a small bit about compromise and negotiations. I appreciate your "fight from within for final solution" approach, and it has it's merits. But at some point in that approach you will be asked to compromise those principles you hold most dear. At that time, only you can know if you can distain your principles and accept the alternatives. Many have had to make that choice and live with the results of the compromise. John Kyle and John McCain know that only too well. Their choice, your choice and my choice. I would hope we may disagree on the merits, but not about the right to make that choice.
I knew he wasn't a conservative at the time, but he was an "R" and we did pick up a seat to replace Bob Graham. But he's slapped me in the face for the last time.
It's not too early to start looking for and encouraging a primary opponent for our wayward senator. Off the top of my head, Congressman Adam Putnam from the Lakeland area may be an candidate I can support. But I'm sure that Martinez, having the party muscle behind him will make sure that any viable party member will be "persuaded" not to run against him.
OK fellow Floridians... Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now.... Who's with me?
With any luck the party machinery will be in Fred's hands. And as an early supporter, why not Putnam?
Lying is not an endearing quality. Poor old Mel, before he won his Florida Senate seat he said there was no way he would support AMNESTY. And now look at him. I remember going to one of his campaign speeches, so I have first hand information.
Did he think for one minute that the ruse of renaming AMNESTY would fix it with Florida voters for him? Not a chance, the Florida retirees heard the Heritage Foundation and the $2.5 Trillion giveaway to illegals. In Florida these ads are running, "give an illegal a Mustang convertible every year" ... I think they get it in Florida.
Take back the party, don't give a dime to AMNESTY Mel's RNC, give your donations to the conservative of choice. Remember you don't have to limit your donations to just your Senator or Representative -- If they are turkeys, pick some from other states to give to.
But whatever you do, not one Dime to AMNESTY Mel.
I quoted this previously:
Look at this link to his old campaign promise.
Nothing and I mean nothing will stop this as well as actually recalling or defeating a couple of these guys. Graham, Martinez, Hagel, Kyl (try not to have a hissy) etc. Some (McCain, Specter) are basically invulnerable and we have to face that.
They are leading the party over the cliff.
I'd like to see some group, formal or informal, get involved with candidate recruitment and do a high quality political analysis of who is most vulnerable in primaries or to a recall and then focus on getting a couple of "wins" over the next couple years.
I also am responding with "not a dime while amnesty is being pushed down our throats" to all the RNC/RNCC etc solicitation. But over time, that hurts the party and is too blunt an instrument. IMO we need a sharper instrument that identifies some key targets and knocks them off. Outrage is one thing. Actual results is what we need.
Like many who feel betrayed by the Republican leadership,I took a rather drastic approach in attempting to get their attention,ie. dropped my Republican Party registration. It's similar to the "donkey motivation" approach. When you are confronted with a stubborn donkey that will not respond to your directions, first order of business is to get his attention. Take a couple of bricks and smash his gonads between the bricks. You will definately get his attention! Next time he refuses to listen simply showing him you are fixing to use the bricks is more than sufficient motivation to get him to respond in a proper fashion. I know it sounds trite and simplistic, but there really is little option available to us in the short term.
Next election cycle we can possibly make some changes, but right now in the "right now" they simply are not listening and it takes a somewhat unorthodox approach to get them to listen. If that doesn't do it then the prognosticators will be proven correct, and the Republican Party will be doomed to minority status for another 40 years.
If his approval rating in FloriDUH is 37%, I wonder just how low it would be nationally.
... is the scene from Animal House where the college fraternities were doing their initiation rights. The preppy guy fraternity had the paddles and the new pledges were on the floor in their underwear being spanked, and were ritually saying, "thank you sir, may I have another".
I now see that Senator Martinez is down on the floor in his underwear in that scene.
Forgive me, but that is what came to mind.
"Wubbies World" aka: Brian; MSgt, U.S. Air Force (Retired): An argument is a sequence of statements aimed at demonstrating the truth of an assertion.