On Neil Cavuto’s “Your World” on Fox News Channel on Monday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin reacted to the pushback from prominent Republicans not on board with using the continuing resolution process as an instrument to attack Obamacare, calling them “French Republicans” who “don’t have big victories.”
“I have seen these French Republicans before,” Levin, the author of “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic, said. “I have fought them my entire career. Anybody who served Ronald Reagan has fought them their entire career. Margaret Thatcher fought the equivalent of the same in Britain all these years. These are people who are quite happy with the status quo. They want to timidly play around on the fringes but they like big government. Look at the past administration, prior to Obama — the Bush administration. Several of his staffers, as a matter of fact, are commentators on Fox [News] … they’re all over the place, as a matter of fact.”
“They’re not really troubled by any of this,” he continued. “The fact of the matter is George W. Bush bloated the debt — the second-highest in American history but for Barack Obama. So the problem is the Gerald Ford, John McCain, Romney wing of the Republican Party has the mantle, but the grassroots wants nothing to do with them. The tea party came to be not just because of Barack Obama, but because of the last days of Bush, with TARP, with massive spending, with subsidizing GM and Chrysler and so forth. The people have had enough, and when these people — when these moderates and RINOs — say ‘we need to be smart,’ when is the last time they were smart?”
As for moderate Republicans’ advice that if the GOP exercises discretion it can win the day, Levin said those Republicans don’t have a track record to make those sorts of pleas within the party.
“They can smell victory where?” Levin said. “I mean, where is the so-called mainstream Republican victory? They’ve had the nominees they wanted I can’t tell you how many times — when have we had great Republican victories? When the conservatives have been in charge: two massive Reagan victories, Newt Gingrich victories. And the next big victory will be with another conservative if we can manage to break through the inside-the-beltway Republican fortress there. They don’t have big victories.”
“They’ve had time and time — don’t you remember during the last Republican primary battle, the only guy who could win was who, Neil? Romney,” he continued. “He was the only guy who could win. And he lost. McCain, the only guy who can win, and he lost. The fact of the matter is conservatives are more conservative than Republicans. We’re not going to be dictated to by these former staffers and ex-politicians and current politicians telling us what they cannot do. You know, take another stand next year on Obamacare and so forth. They do not have a plan for liberty. They do not have a plan for re-establishing the Constitution. They are part of the muck that is Washington, D.C., and some of us have had enough of it.”
“There was Barry Goldwater and he set the stage for Ronald Reagan,” Levin added. “And so these are important things to remember. Who did John McCain set the stage for? Mitt Romney?”
Levin acknowledged winning this fight wouldn’t be easy for conservatives within the Republican Party and said those Republicas attacking Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz should be thrown out of the GOP.
“You know, politics is hard,” Levin said. “It’s like military victories — they’re hard. Things aren’t handed to you, there’s an opposition, there’s multiple elements to the opposition. You have to fight hard and you can’t call surrender being smart. With all due respect to Sen. [Bob] Corker, he is a back-bencher. He’s never been at the front of any battles, including conservative battles. He’s just more static, like 90 percent of the members of Congress right now. The fact is that these battles can be won. We have Ted Cruz, who has been there less than a year, who is stepping up as a leader. Mike Lee also. But you have the Republican leadership leaking stuff to Chris Wallace to kneecap our own side. And you know what? I wish we — Sarah Palin is right — I wish we would know their names of these quislings so we can throw them the hell out of the Republican Party.”