Steve Scalise Quotes
There are going to be times when we disagree with our leadership, but ultimately, we've got to work hard to pull our leadership to the right and to move a conservative agenda forward and unite as conservatives if we're going to get things done.
Scalise, Steve. Interview. National Review, 18 Jun. 2014.
The Evangelicals and other social conservatives had much more influence over the Republican candidate since without the social conservatives voting in large numbers for the Republican Presidential candidate, at the time, it would be hard to win the general election, but Democrats had won without them. However, at the time, the social conservatives had a virtual veto over the Republican candidate selection.
Liberal Republican U.S. Senator, Lowell P. Weiker Jr., was about to be nominated by the Connecticut party convention for a fourth term as U. S. Senator:
In 2010 there was a very conservative populist movement that not only took a very right wing position for traditional Republicans, but attracted many of the racists, Nazis, and extreme fringe movements that embarrassed many of the Tea Party members who, because it was a movement and not a disciplined party hierarchy, claimed that they could not be responsible for the hateful signs and slogans of a minority of people who would show up at a Tea Party rally. At the same time, the Tea Party endorsed some candidates who were not very well vetted and were so extreme or quirky (one had been into witchcraft) that orthodox Republicans didn’t want to be associated with them. The moderate Republicans especially were placed in an awkward position as some of the Tea Party candidates unseated incumbent Republicans in primary elections and then some made very weak candidates in the general elections while others were more successful. Palin, already at the populist and quirky wing of the Republican Party warned and threatened the moderates.
At the time Congress was gridlocked in bitter hyperpartisan conflict. Most people called for more comity and bipartisanship and most politicians wanted more bipartisanship but blamed the other party for the rift. Mourdock,arguing for less bipartisanship and no compromise defeated Richard Lugar in the Republican Senatorial Primary election. Lugar, one of the most respected and effective Senators was a statesman who worked with any and all to find effective compromises to reach national solutions. The nation was so politically polarized that the Republican Indiana voters ousted one of their most senior senators because he was effective at developing national solutions. See {626717} and {302706} for other Mourdock outrageous comments. While this rhetoric won in the Primary, it lost him the general election in a state where Republicans had a strong majority and should have had the seat.
Stephen Joseph Scalise is an American politician who is the United States House of Representatives minority whip and representative for Louisiana's 1st congressional district, serving since 2008. The district includes most of New Orleans's suburbs, such as Metarie, Kenner and Slidell, as well as a sliver of New Orleans itself. He is a member of the Republican Party and was the chair of the conservative House Republican Study Committee.
