Guest
10-31-2008, 01:08 PM
I received the following message in an e-mail from a close friend who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia...
We were in the parking lot of the grocery store and saw a Lexus SUV pull in next to us with a sticker "I am an Independent. Vote Obama" The driver was getting out of his car as we were getting in so we greeted him and commented on his car sticker. He was an elderly, respectable looking gentleman.
He went on and on about his "disappointment" with the Republican party and that they need to reinvent themsevles or we need a new party. "I was a lifelong Republican and a retired Republican Senator and worked all my whole life for the party...", he said.
Whoa! We introduced ourselves and he graciously introduced himself as Lowell Weicker, a retired U.S. Senator from Connecticut. He went on and on about the substantial fall-off from Republican ranks as the result of the Bush-Cheney administration and now John McCain's substantial support of Bush programs. Listening to him was eye-opening.
When we got back home, we were even more surprised after we Googled Senator Weicker to find that he spent his entire career in elected office as a Republican. After some time in Connecticut politics, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for one term. He then was elected to three terms as a Senator from Connecticut. He was defeated in a bid for his fourth term by Joe Lieberman but then was elected to one term as Governor of Connecticut. Later he was unsuccessful in seeking the Republican nomination for President in the 1980 elections.
In reading his bio, he sounded a lot like John McCain. His bio says he "was always regarded as somewhat of a maverick, and a liberal voice in an increasingly conservative Republican Party".
I found it interesting that a politician who blood lines have been so Republican for so long is now supporting Barack Obama. But from what my friend said, he's not becoming a Democrat. Rather, he seems to think that a "new" Republican party is needed--one less wedded to the far right social and religious neocon movement.
We were in the parking lot of the grocery store and saw a Lexus SUV pull in next to us with a sticker "I am an Independent. Vote Obama" The driver was getting out of his car as we were getting in so we greeted him and commented on his car sticker. He was an elderly, respectable looking gentleman.
He went on and on about his "disappointment" with the Republican party and that they need to reinvent themsevles or we need a new party. "I was a lifelong Republican and a retired Republican Senator and worked all my whole life for the party...", he said.
Whoa! We introduced ourselves and he graciously introduced himself as Lowell Weicker, a retired U.S. Senator from Connecticut. He went on and on about the substantial fall-off from Republican ranks as the result of the Bush-Cheney administration and now John McCain's substantial support of Bush programs. Listening to him was eye-opening.
When we got back home, we were even more surprised after we Googled Senator Weicker to find that he spent his entire career in elected office as a Republican. After some time in Connecticut politics, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for one term. He then was elected to three terms as a Senator from Connecticut. He was defeated in a bid for his fourth term by Joe Lieberman but then was elected to one term as Governor of Connecticut. Later he was unsuccessful in seeking the Republican nomination for President in the 1980 elections.
In reading his bio, he sounded a lot like John McCain. His bio says he "was always regarded as somewhat of a maverick, and a liberal voice in an increasingly conservative Republican Party".
I found it interesting that a politician who blood lines have been so Republican for so long is now supporting Barack Obama. But from what my friend said, he's not becoming a Democrat. Rather, he seems to think that a "new" Republican party is needed--one less wedded to the far right social and religious neocon movement.