Who is your favorite living national Republican?
This is a thoughtful crowd. If there are any decent national Republicans out there, I’d expect DL readers to know about them. But as I see it, Republicanism is in sad shape. Even the so-called moderates are ideological zealots who want to trash the nation’s economy so that their candidate can have a better shot at winning the White House.
I can’t think of a single national Republican who acknowledges the fact that democracies require a fair evaluation of competing arguments by people of good will.
Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, whom I have admired for years. http://lugar.senate.gov/
If he were still registered as a Republican, it would be Lincoln Chafee.
Bruce Bartlett, but I’m not sure if he’s still a Republican.
I’d also add Robert Gates, despite his past with Iran Contra, he is the defense secretary who guided the end of DADT.
Bob Inglis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Inglis#Political_positions
Is Colin Powell still a Republican? Then him. Heck, I wanted him to be President–but he listened to Alma instead.
Despite his abysmal chapter in testifying about WMD in Iraq, I like Colin Powell. I heard him speak at a conference in the past year. He has a very nice self-deprecating manner that I always like.
I also heard Alan Simpson at a talk, accompanied by Bowles. Simpson had a nice no-nonsense manner, and chided his fellow Republicans for worshiping at the altar of ideology. He castigated them for focusing on earmarks–‘a sparrow burp in the midst of a typhoon’–calling on them to be serious.
Of course, Christine O’Donnell has done so much for Democrats, she has to be on the list.
Oh yeah, Bob Inglis. I forgot about him but I liked how he stood up to the teabaggers. He just couldn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.
Hmmm…nobody has mentioned Mike Castle.
Sandra Day O’Connor
Where’s Pat Buchanan when we need him? In these days of economic collapse in Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street; his economic platform and foreign policy might be more appealing to Dems and GOP alike.
he’s at a klan meeting.
William Cohen isn’t half bad.
Do you mean elected official?
Ron Paul is a republican…bwoooahhaaaahaaahaaa
but no, seriously, I wish I could say there is one but really off the top of my bald head one doesn’t jump out.
they all just bow so much to the right lately that it’s really disgusting. Coburn, seems seems to want to be a decent guy, but then he veers off into Old Grumpy Pants territory.
What about Walter Jones? He’s been one of the leaders in trying to end the wars.
UI–out of concern for jason’s neurological health, The Honorable Mike Castle isn’t mentioned. There are still 49 other states (and with quarters!) to draw from.
But if you choose to bring him into the fold–I think a great hometown DL question is which quarter is your favorite ? 🙂
“… –I think a great hometown DL question is which quarter is your favorite ?”
I’m reserving judgement until they produce quarters from states 51 thru 57.
They’re up to 56. Quarters representing the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa already have been minted.
Oh, wait. That was a joke, right?
Surprised you even got it.
Until then, I’ll take the DC quarter. One of my favorite places.
I love their license plates.
“Taxation without representation”
That’s the one.
Pete DuPont, he called us “Joe six pack” but was efficient at running the state, a bit un-dogmatic for a republican and had a genuine love for the state of Delaware, I,m sure many will find fault, he was after all a strict republican and very much and elitest but at least above board and honest about it.
Sorry guys, you can’t set me up like this.
Jon voight,Mitt Romney,Oliver North,Tom Selleck,Troy Aikman,Jean Claude Van Damne, Wayne Newton,Robert Duvall,Dennis Miller,David Spade,Gary Sinise, Denzel Washington,Clint Eastwood,Chuck Norris, Karl Malone,Mike Ditka,Steve Young,Steve Miller,Charles Barkley,Charlton Heston, Hal Holbrook,Matthew Macconauhey,Dr. Phil,Leslie Neilson,James Earl Jones,George Hamilton,John Malkovich, Alex Trebek, Dana Carvey, Jeff Foxworthey, Kevin Costner, Tom Berenger, Jim Belushi, Mickey Rooney, Dick Clark, Ben Stine, Shirley Temple, Ron Howard, Pat Sumerall, Pete Sampras, Wayne Gretzky, Lou Holtz, Dick Vermeil, Greg Norman, Gale Sayers, Pat Riley, Dick Butkus,Bill Belichick, Cal Ripkin Jr., Derek Jeter, Yogi Berra, John Elway, Joe Montana, Don Shula, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer, Brett Farve, Dan Marino, Joe Gibbs, Jerome Bettis, Nolan Rylan, Lou Dobbs, Marie Osmond, Jessica Simpson, Clint Black, Van Morrison, Alice Cooper, Pat Boone, Lee Ann Womack, Neil Armstrong, Kathy Ireland.
Wayne Newton is still alive? I thought Siegfried & Roy’s tiger ate him.
naw – the tiger only chewed on Roy. 🙂
Nice list, Rusty. A bunch of rich athletes and entertainers, spiked with the criminal Ollie North. And you might want to check your source — Van Morrison has lived in Ireland for the past 20 years.
Look at all the men on that list and almost all rich people. Oliver North isn’t someone admirable either.
A couple of them are dead too.
Learn to spell Ripken. MBNA shoveled many of its millions to him, even stuffed the ballot on his behalf in the MBNA-sponsored “most exciting moment in baseball history” contest.
Dick Clark nearly walked off Terry Gross when she asked him about his payola past.
Mike Huckabee
John C. Whitehead
Tom Gola
Chris Evert
Liane Sorensen
Mike Castle
Joe Morgan
Rusty loves the Beatles:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/imagine-all-morons.html
I should have taken the opportunity to mention Daniel Larison as one my favorite conservatives. Not so sure if he counts himself as a Republican, but I think that he does see himself as a paleoconservative. Writing from his blog, Eunomia, Mr. Larison writes on foreign affairs and national politics with great intelligence and erudition (and sometimes wit) firmly grounded in his own political principles, not in the talking points of the day. While I don’t always agree with his politics, it is always enlightening to engage his views — because unlike most of the rest of his colleagues, Larison is not engaged performance art.
comment to Geezer and unstable isotope. you called them rich, you forgot one thing to call the people on my list “successful”
Yes, Rusty, we forgot, as we stood agape at your adolescent hero worship of sports and entertainment stars, that they got rich because they were “successful.” Do you decorate your bedroom with posters?
I have to go with Liane Sorenson for supporting gay rights. A moderate Republican in a position of power, who doesn’t cave to the religious right – a rarity these days.
Yes, Rusty, we forgot, as we stood agape at your adolescent hero worship of sports and entertainment stars, that they got rich because they were “successful.” Do you decorate your bedroom with posters?
LOL. Geezer FTW!
I assume Rusty took that list from an old Wikipedia article or something because I know Charles Barkley pretty definitively broke with the GOP years ago. There was even talk of him running for governor (of Alabama?) as a Democrat, but that was years ago.
“I was a Republican until they lost their minds.” – Charles Barkley, 2006
My mother, but only because she can still cook my favorite meal.