Armey: ‘When we’re like us we win, when we’re not like us, we lose’

MINNEAPOLIS -- Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) told Oregon’s Republican delegation that when Republicans stick to who they are, what they stand for and what they believe in, they win their races every single time.

“When we’re like us, we win,” Armey told the Oregon delegation when he addressed them at their Thursday morning breakfast at the Republican National Convention. “When we’re not like us, we lose.”

Armey evaded the question as to how that advice might apply to U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton). Smith has spent the election cycle touting his ties to Democrats, including former presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

“I don’t know Gordon Smith, and I don’t know much about his campaign,” Armey said. “If you talk about the disposition of the electorate in Oregon, I think that it’s slightly to the left of the nation’s norm.”

That must be disheartening news for the Oregon delegates that have been optimistic all week about the possibility of swinging the Beaver State’s seven electoral votes toward Republican presidential nominee John McCain. But Armey said that if McCain and his vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin are honest with the Oregon people, they will win their trust and their votes.

“Oregon  voters will respect them if they go out there and show them who they really are,” Armey said. “They will take comfort in knowing at least that is who they are. Some of my best friends in Congress were bleeding liberals. But at least I could count on them for that.”