Are there any Republicans that you like?

[Capt. Obvious]

I'm reading Double Down and I just started the chapter where Jon Huntsman was going to check out of the primary and run as an Independent (I haven't finished the chapter, so no spoilers please!). He was courted heavily by Americans Elect. According to the guys whose book I shouldn't be reading, he was disgusted by what his party had become and his family was pushing him heavily to drop out and run 3rd party.

I remember the rumors at the time about him running for Americans Elect and I thought the rumor laughable.

If he had run as 3rd party I believe he would have siphoned votes from Obama (and close to none from Republican votes for Romney save for the inter-religion war that was raging at the time) as he would have picked off Independent votes as well as Democrats who are more apt to vote outside of party (though his stance on abortion would have lessened the amount, it still would have hurt I believe).

Are there any Republicans you like? Local elections tend to erase party lines as a) they usually don't run as party affiliates, and b) people usually throw party out the window in those elections as Candidate A coached my son in Little League and so forth.

But are there any "national" Republicans that you like? Whether you may vote for them or not.

Reading the chapter made me think of two Republicans who left their party, became Independents and eventually Democrats (for political expediency).

Lincoln Chafee - I like him.

Charlie Christ - Fuck him.

ps: typing those two out made me think of Arlen Specter - fuck him too.

pps: Reading the book is getting my juices flowing for 2016. No idea who the Dems will be but the book confirms my view of who the top R candidates will be (topic for another day).

[Glassunion]

1. Lincoln

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Another vote for Lincoln Chafee

[Blanket Statements]

3. The ones who lose in November

[Laurian]

4. Huntsman seemed like a reasonable person.

That's why he was unsuccessful in the republican primary.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Only dead ones.*

And yes, I'm serious.


*People who are no longer living. In case my meaning wasn't clear.

[pangaia]

8. I'm with you. Only dead ones.

And LONG, LONG dead.. like, TR and Abe.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Exactly!

[Historic NY]

18. Yup.........

[BlueToTheBone]

11. Personally, I was thinking

not even the dead ones.

[cherokeeprogressive]

35. Dearest Peg... You don't have any living Family members or Friends whose affiliation you'd

overlook because you know the "deep-down" person?

"Only dead ones" doesn't sound like a comment made by the Peg I know in answer to that question.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

36. I wrote that because it was the first thing to pop into my head...

I am capable of snark, though I don't usually show it here.

[cherokeeprogressive]

37. Understood. n/t

[DisgustipatedinCA]

6. Lincoln Chafee

Beyond him, I've got nothing.

[Proud Public Servant]

7. Lincoln Chafee isn't a Republican

He shed his party affiliation when he ran for RI gov as an independent in 2010, then became a Dem earlier this year.

The two national GOP figures who come to mind for this question are both has-beens: Richard Lugar and Christine Todd Whitman. Those are the only two I can think of.

[Capt. Obvious]

49. I should have mentioned that in the OP

[LumosMaxima]

10. I liked Olympia Snowe.

But Republicans as a group are so wrong on so many issues that I can't imagine liking one again. At this point, just affiliating with the GOP is a fatal flaw that would make me question a politician's rationality and character.

[TeamPooka]

12. I had a neighbor named Susan who was a Republican town councilperson. She was nice.

She was an "Eisenhower" Republican, old school, but that's about all.

[Nye Bevan]

13. Dwight D. Eisenhower (nt)

[demosincebirth]

32. Ike said that appointing Earl Warren, to the Supreme Court, was the worst mistake he ever made.

[quinnox]

14. Funny you should mention Huntsman, yea, I really liked him

He was the only republican who I liked who ran in 2012. He stood apart from all those other typical GOP scumbags.

[tabbycat31]

15. I am also reading Double Down

And I actually did like Huntsman as the GOP candidate. Not sure if I would have voted for him but I could have lived with him.

I'm more moderate than most of DU (and I've shifted over the last few years) from working in so many Blue Dog districts and red areas and any Republican not associated with the crazies (which is not many these days).

I would probably vote for a party switcher if they were the Democratic nominee in the general. In the primary, I vote for the most electable candidate (the one with the best chance of beating the GOP in November).

[Capt. Obvious]

48. Do you like the book?

I can't get enough of the political gossip books.

[tabbycat31]

71. So far I do

I also really enjoyed Game Change. I liked that it was a political book that read like a novel.

If you know of other political gossip books let me know.

[hobbit709]

16. Deceased ones

[HereSince1628]

20. Yes, but not because they are dead

Abraham Lincoln was ok, for a repuke.

Teddy Roosevelt was a riot!

As a kid I really like Evret Dirkson's gravely voice.

[hootinholler]

17. Sure

But they're all dead.

[Agnosticsherbet]

19. My brother

but he is family.

[RC]

21. Robert G. Ingersoll

Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a lawyer, a Civil War veteran, political leader, and orator of United States during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll

Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
Robert Green Ingersoll

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
Robert Green Ingersoll

A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie.
Robert Green Ingersoll

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_green_ingersoll.html

http://www.robertgreeningersoll.org/8-2/

And yes he was a Republican.

[Skittles]

22. no

they can be as affable as they want but deep down if they're still supporting these corrupt bastards they are sickening

[northoftheborder]

23. Gerald Ford

Just watched the CSpan Documentary about Betty Ford, who was very outspoken - was for the ERA and abortion rights. Gerald Ford was a decent, kind man; he stepped into the presidency in a very difficult time. He never had the ambition to become the Vice-President, much less the Presidency. He wanted to become the Speaker of the House if the Republicans ever came into the majority. (He wouldn't have made it.)

I've watched only 3 of the First Lady documentaries, but intend to watch the earlier ones online at the CSpan site. They are very interesting.

I can't think of a single Republican presently in office that I would say I "liked" much less support. Huntsman was the only sane one on that ticket. The rest were all nuts and embarrassing to our country. Huntsman's daughter is on the Cycle, and is watchable; not shrill like so many pundit Republican women. She's a moderate, and seemingly smart, and attractive. Fits well with the other three on that show.

Olympia Snowe is likable and reasonable.

[Capt. Obvious]

47. I'll have to keep an eye out for the documentaries

I actually don't know much about Ford's presidency other than Whip Inflation Now.
And falling down.

[ismnotwasm]

24. Nope

There a a few people that vote Republican I like-- I look at them as deluded--but no politicians I an think of.

[Aristus]

25. My wife.

I've been a good influence on her. Last year, she voted for President Obama! I think she's still trying to atone for voting for McCain in 2008. She despises Sarah Palin, and I had to remind her that voting for McCain dragged Palin along, too. So we dodged a bullet there.

She'll never admit it, coming from a right-wing evangelical family like she does, but she is steadily becoming more liberal. She used to be seriously homophobic. Now she has a good friend who is a lesbian, and she is fiercely protective of her.

And don't ask why I married a Republican. I didn't. I married a beautiful, staggeringly intelligent, good-hearted woman whose politics just needed fixing...

[mountain grammy]

61. My husband too. Still a registered Republican but hasn't voted that way for years

He's solid blue but keeps his party affiliation for the mail. He says he likes to know what they're up to and loves filling out the questionnaires. He writes in his own answers. Someone must be reading that crap because we haven't received one for a while.. or maybe they're running out of money.

[Blue_In_AK]

26. I can't think of one national Republican at this time

whom I respect. There are just a couple here in the state. I have admired some R's in the past, but they're all dead.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

27. There were those comedians...

...the father and son act. The son looked a bit like Johnny Carson. Think their name was Bush.

[Whiskeytide]

70. I was gonna say...

...Stephen Cobert. I kinda like him.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

74. He's funny

Google tells me both of those Bush characters got elected president which explains how they got so much airtime. They were okay as comedians but it seems not so good in politics.

[Dems to Win]

28. Ron Unz, Republican former candidate for Governor of CA

On Tuesday, Unz submitted paperwork in California to get a relatively aggressive minimum wage hike on the ballot that would raise the state's minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2016.

He reasons that there's at least one big conservative reason Republicans should back his proposal: It ends corporate welfare for large companies like Walmart and McDonalds by ending the low wages that force many of their employees onto the food stamp rolls.
.....

Another important factor: "One of the strange things in our society right now is that we have all these low-wage workers who are getting $7.50, $8 or $9 an hour, and because they earn such small wages, the government subsidizes them with billions or tens of billions of dollars of social welfare spending that comes from the taxpayer.

It's a classic example of businesses' privatizing the benefits of their workers while socializing the costs. Forcing the taxpayers to supplement the salary of their own employees. "

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/conservative-millionaires-quest-raise-californias-minimum-wage-12/story?id=21034525

[Capt. Obvious]

46. He's right

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. Dan Evans n/t

[doc03]

30. Bob Ney former Ohio Congressman involved in the

Abramoff Scandal, he is almost a liberal since serving his time in prison. I also like Lincoln, TR and Eisenhower but today they would considered wild eyed liberals by the Republican party.

[BainsBane]

31. I only like the ones that watch porn.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

33. A realtor friend I see every couple of months

but we don't discuss politics. She worked in the Nixon White House and interfaced with Rosemary Woods on many occasions. And yet a very funny and generous person. So, guess she acts like a Democrat, but votes Repub.

[BlueJazz]

34. I like Charlie Christ

[Ikonoklast]

54. I never knew Jesus had a brother named Charlie.

[Art_from_Ark]

38. Well, let's see... There's Everett Dirksen,

Winthrop Rockefeller, Margaret Chase Smith...

But they were all liberal Republicans from the '60s. I think that today, they might all be a bit toward the left side of the Democratic Party.

[Lucinda]

39. Olympia Snowe

[AverageJoe90]

40. I got a few:

Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, Ted Stevens, Sonny Bono, Nelson Rockefeller, Ed Brooke, Eisenhower, Harold Stassen, Robert LaFollette, Teddy Roosevelt, John C. Fremont.....and don't forget Lincoln of course!

[Tom Rinaldo]

52. Robert Gates, sort of

He's a Republican, and George W. Bush picked him to run the Defense Department to replace Rumsfeld. Obama kept him in his cabinet when he was elected in 2008. Gates is a real patriot in that he clearly puts service to his nation over partisan politics. He also restored a measure of sanity to our foreign policy after the neo-cons had run away with it with schemes of conquest. Gates was a brake on Cheney wanting to go to war with Iran for example.

There have been plenty of decent, even good Republicans who have held elected office. Honorable people even when I often disagreed with them. The hard part is coming up with any who are still alive and holding important positions in government. I always used to name Pete McCloskey as my favorite living Republicans. He was a Republican Congressman from California who ran against Richard Nixon for the 1972 Republican Presidential nomination on an anti-war platform. I still respect the hell out of that guy, but he switched to being a Democrat in 2007.

[MrScorpio]

41. William Milliken

He's both a Republican and a decent human being and one of the best governors Michigan has ever had.

He's up around Traverse City in retirement with his wife.

On occasion we hear from him and it's usually something telling the MI-GOP that they're fucking up.

We'll never see the likes of this great man again.

[B Calm]

42. I hate them all! Republicans are crooks and only care

about the bastards who fill their pockets with gold.

[Savannahmann]

43. Jim Jeffords.

[Capt. Obvious]

45. Good choice

[CorrectOfCenter]

44. Not any Republicans elected to office. nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

50. Lincoln, Frederick Douglass

[LWolf]

51. I liked Ben Westlund when he was alive.

Of course, in the last years of his life, he switched. He didn't die a Republican. I liked him even before the switch, though.

I've got Republican friends that I like; three of them.

Nationally? No.

[Raine]

53. No politicians that are alive now, only a few of my relatives and

I'm not even so sure about them, I have a "love/hate" relationship with them mostly.

[Burma Jones]

55. A few, but they're long retired or dead; Connie Morella, Mac Mathias, Gilbert Gude

Old Fashioned Maryland Republicans.....

Oh well, there are no "national" Republicans these days for whom I'd vote.

[rock]

56. No

Let's no belabor the point.

[Puglover]

57. No.

[charmay]

58. I kinda liked Bette Ford back in the day.

[Major Hogwash]

59. No, the House Rethuglicans have become a joke.

And all the Senate Rethuglicans have joined the KKK.

There's not one of them that I like.

[Iggo]

60. The ones who never vote as a block to bring the country down...

...because we have a black president.

Which ones are those?

[mountain grammy]

62. My husband's family, but they're family..

I'm pretty sure they feel the same way about us.

[rurallib]

63. not alive today

I had Jim Leach as a representative. When the Gingrich took over, rather than offer an alternative, Leach went and hid. He sat there and watched it all happen. Many look at Leach and claim he is a reasonable republican. I look at him and see a coward who could have made a difference and chose to hide. Plus he is the Leach of Graham-Leach-Bliley fame.

Eisenhower would probably be the last true moderate republican.

[PeteSelman]

64. Chafee is a Democrat.

I can't think of a single national Republican that I like. They're all assholes.

[Capt. Obvious]

65. I should have mentioned that in the OP

[Bjorn Against]

66. I love my Grandma and she is a Republican

[northoftheborder]

67. Colin Powell

[treestar]

68. A few personal friends/relatives

But national office holders, none.

[Seeking Serenity]

69. My husband.

I love you, baby!

[Paladin]

72. Not any more. (nt)

[Orsino]

73. None in office.

Any devotion to that party's platform sufficient to get elected would tend to disqualify people.