More GOP Candidates Agree: "We Suck!"

One day after Republican Governor Dave Heineman's admonishment of Tom Osborne and the spend-happy Republican Congress, two of Nebraska's three Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate stated their own dissatisfaction and disappointment with the direction this country is headed.

The Omaha World-Herald reports:

Frustration over spending by the Republican-controlled Congress and White House is becoming a key issue in the GOP Senate race in Nebraska.

Two of the three Republican candidates - David Kramer and Don Stenberg - have been critical of their GOP colleagues in Washington for what they believe is out-of-control spending.

Kramer received a hefty round of applause recently in Gering, Neb., when he questioned Congress' ability to rein in spending and whether Republicans were forsaking their claim as the "party of fiscal responsibility."

"I'm worried that we've become those people (Democrats) we were so gleeful to get rid of in 1994," Kramer said Thursday.

Stenberg, who campaigned in 2000, his last Senate race, as part of George W. Bush's team, also has distanced himself from national Republicans. In a statewide tour he criticized Bush and congressional Republicans for "skyrocketing" spending.

"The Republicans in Washington have lost their way on spending issues," Stenberg said Thursday.

The third candidate, Pete Ricketts, has said repeatedly that he supports Bush and his conservative agenda. He said that he is concerned about federal spending but that he would not play the "blame game"....

It is clear that Kramer and Stenberg are tapping into what appears to be growing concern among rank-and-file Republicans about record federal budget deficits.

It is projected that the deficit could hit $500 billion this year, while the federal debt grows to almost $8 trillion....

The talk in the Senate race about big-spending Republicans has some Democrats feeling vindicated.

"The last time I checked, a Democrat president was the last one to balance the budget," said Barry Rubin, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

"I think the Republicans have started to realize that President Bush couldn't lead a Cub Scout troop out of a phone booth."

Kramer and Stenberg say electing Democrats is not the solution.

How bad must things be for President Bush, Tom DeLay & company when even in Nebraska we have Republicans looking to win by attacking their own party? Of course, what choice do they have as people wake-up to the Republican incompetence and corruption that has left a mere 28% of Americans believing this county is headed in the right direction?

And Kramer and Stenberg think electing more Republicans is the solution. Oh, please.

The problem is not that Republicans have lost their way...it's that the Republican way doesn't work. And guess what, the American people - even the people of Nebraska - have noticed.

Mr. Ricketts, I wouldn't want to play "the blame game" either: not in 2006, not with an "R" by my name, not with the miserable leadership that little letter has come to represent. Good luck with the whole "head in the sand"-routine. If that's how you're going to play it the next 13 months, I'm sure that beautiful bald head of yours will come in very handy.