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A party that has over the years been the home of a series of optimistic figures in American politics — from Ronald Reagan to Jack Kemp… to (at times) George W. Bush — is increasingly coming across as downbeat or angry….
(…)
[T]he Republican Party in general — and leaders like Mr. Cheney in particular — are viewed unfavorably by a significant majority of Americans…. And it can become a spiral: going on the attack typically has the effect of making Americans sour on the attacker as well.
Professional Republican wanker and Lieutenant-Dan-for-President booster Nicolle Wallace agrees!
Wallace… said there’s only so much soul-searching the Republican party can do without the next great leader, someone like President Obama “who matches the moment and transcends the narrow debates about ideology” while moving the political discourse “away from the past.”
What party do they think they’re talking about? If you take away backward-looking mean-spiritedness, the Republicans have nothing left. You might as well ask the Green Party to give up environmentalism, or the Whigs to give up… whatever it was the Whigs did.
And how is the GOP’s shiny happy rebranding coming along? Here’s ousted former Republican congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, describing what her Votes Have Consequences group will do to the Democrats:
We will spread the truth about their destructive agendas, drag down their approval ratings, force them to publicly defend socialism, authoritarian gun-grabbing, gay marriage, infanticide and everything else they vote for in Washington, and ultimately, on November 2, 2010, we will take their jobs away from them.
She also helpfully explained that she got crushed last year because “the radical homosexual lobby, abortionists, gun-grabbers and all the rest of the extremists finally spent enough money, spread enough lies, and fooled enough voters to defeat me.” Oh yeah, that’s just the kind of grace and sportsmanship the new GOP needs.
Then there’s the conservative bloggers up in arms over the NRSC backing moderate Charlie Crist for Mel Martinez’s Senate seat, and Liz Cheney explaining that her dad simply has to speak out against Obama because he is Endangering America and besides, Al Gore criticized Dubya from Day One (um, riiight). And this was a pretty slow day.
Yes, I suppose it’s a positive step forward that some Republicans are starting to realize that decades of sneering, snarling and sucking have given them a wee image problem, but they can’t do anything about it because they can’t – or won’t – stop out-of-touch assholes like Rush, Cheney, Rove, Gingrich, and Palin from defining them. The American people will continue to recoil, but the Republicans just can’t help themselves.
Oh well. At least they’ll always be welcome in Woodward, Oklahoma. Probably.
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The upside of the Rs in disarray: daily laughs.
The Grinch!
Oh, can we make Harold Ford switch to R? Please?
Fine with me. They can have Specter back, too.
eCAHN – Oh that’s fruitful. Who would we like to send over the fence?
Eli I assume you didn’t think I meant you as The Grinch. Just checking.
Only because you haven’t met me.
Summers & Geithner.
Geithner is actually an Independent and not a Democrat. Although I’m skeptical of that as well.
Love when the Rs throw around phrases like “radical homosexual lobby.” Gives them an air of… what’s the opposite of credibility?
Didn’t know that. Did it come out in his confirmation hearing?
I love it when they call other people extremists.
Nice hair though.
And really, if you were invited to a party of Republicans, and a party of the “radical homosexual lobby,” which would you rather attend?
I don’ know. I will admit to getting it from Wikipedia, but it’s said that for months, apparently without challenge.
Who is likely to throw a better party, Gay Street or K Street?
Just took a look at his wiki, which doesn’t reveal his political affliation, on quick look. However, I did notice that he went to Camp Becket in the Berkshires. After the regular camp season ended, there was a one-week camp for square dancing families. My parents took me for several years (maybe 3), and I had a great time with the other kids. I was in high school at the time. I have a very fond spot in my heart for that camp.
It’s on the right sidebar.
Ooops. Missed that box while reading the text.
Like this line about the impending Bush visit to Woodward, OK. Somebody fetch the former president a watermelon and a lamppost.
Thanks. I needed a laugh.
Whigs were socialists, so that won’t fly for the modern GOP. They wanted internal improvements (aka infrastructure) and government assistance for modernization (including canals and railroads aka SUPERTRAINS!).
They saw themselves as heirs to Hamilton (socialist, and who wanted the blacks to vote), and Clay (notorious compromiser).
Krazy Train Joe Biden could be a Whig. He likes SUPERTRAINS! and he likes deals.
I think the Know Nothing Party spot on the ballot is open, though.
Some military jerk sez you shouldn’t measure success in Afghanistan by violence, which will increase significantly in the next year.
but the Republicans just can’t help themselves.
bless their hearts….
Doncha love these open-ended commitments? No exit strategy in sight. Why learn from history when it’s so much fun to repeat it?
No matter how many times you replace the stall partitions in public restrooms by the next morning Republicana have drilled holes in them.
He did say that you should measure success by decline in civilian deaths. Don’t know how that happens since it is the U.S. who is killing most of the Afghans. And I don’t suppose he wants to count the Pak civilians that the U.S. kills.
“We know they’re destroying the party, but they’re ROCK STARS!”
It’s like a football team refusing to get rid of Pacman Jones.
Sounds too Keynsian to me: drilling holes & filling them up.
Claiming that he was water-boarded as part of Navy Seal training he received during the Vietnam War era, Ventura says:
[Water-boarding] is torture… It’s drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you — I’ll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
I’m pissed at Rachel. I’m tired of serious stuff and want to flip channels, but she’s gonna interview Spitzer and I have to see that. She shoulda put that interview at the top, to accomodate me.
He’s assuming that Cheney is *not* guilty of the Sharon Tate murders.
our problem right now eli is the fact that the corporatists know the repukkkes are out of power and will be for some time
they are now buying democrats and the democrats WILL be just as corrupt as the repukkks
we really need campaigh reform if our country is to survive, we will NOT survive a corporate bought democratic party
the tubes will support us only a short while, soon they will give our tubes to the corporate world and organize we will do no more
if we don’t get campaign finance reform we’re in trouble, if we do get the reform we need then believe me, the republican party will offer good alternatives and we will be able to once again pick and choose politicians rather then party
Being so fond of ego fluffing self-deception, I suspect they make the holes a a lot larger than required.
the country longs for that day
If you saw Wilkerson’s interview, you might reconsider. He literally took Cheney apart at the joints. It was all we could ask Democrats to proclaim and more, and Wilkerson is no Democrat.
Powell is avenged. Period.
In any event, Cheney is responsible for the premature death of thousands. Makes Chuck and crew look like rank amateurs.
snark?
I will accomodate you to keep you from being pissed at me
Powell only appears reasonable when contrasted with other members of the Bush Gang. He (also) has a lot of blood on his hands.
This is my greatest fear. There are an awful lot of corrupt and wanky Democrats.
The problem with trying to pass real, substantive campaign finance reform is that only incumbents get to vote.
ventura was great, it would have been better if he came up with;
“you give me cheney, an hour, a cloth and a glass of water and I will get cheney to admit he blew up the world trade center”
that would have been a little too close to home though
Sorry for being off topic, but WOW.
Spitzer is saying all the right things.
franken is all about public financing of elections, I hope he has the persuasive skilz needed to do the job
Yeah, I caught that, but that’s old news. Wilkerson suffers from the military retiree syndrome: that useless group of military pooh-bahs who don’t speak out until it’s too late for them to do anything.
You betcha.
No argument. But I’ve been toying with this idea the last few days:
Powell’s repudiation of Limbaugh couldn’t have been more astute and on point if it had been written by Barack Obama. I think he’s doing Obama’s bidding here, and while that’s not enough to excuse, I do find the idea amusing.
That said, Wilkerson’s blast at Cheney taken alone, is priceless.
Perhaps a variation on the witch test. Drop Cheney in a swimming pool. If he sinks he’s a patriot, if he floats he’s a war criminal.
Spitzer’s a nasty guy; just the kind I like. He’s much better criticizing from the outside than being a gov.
That’s nearly always the case. Part of the reason Paul Krugman is so much more valuable as a private citizen than as a member of the Obama team
Danger! Danger! the R’s are promising more tea bagging. But the Rethuglican Governors Sanford and Perry have a brand new plan for saving America from Islamic socialism and infanticide.
Rick Perry supports State Soveriengnty because it is critical of the Federal Stimulus. What?
But Perry has discovered that the Federal Government now intrudes and interferes with citizens. This happened during the last four months. Although the previous eight years were a celebration of citizen rights. The previous eight years of neo-con soverientity were so fiscally sound, with a surplus!
you know, if I wanted to run as a republican I would pull it off, I would run on;
“lower taxes”, then I would lower them back to the rate before reagan redistributed middle class assets to the wealthy
I would run on a strong military, then I would fund the vets, I would defund private contractors, I would fund education for those who serve
I would run on “government out of our lives” and mean it
I would run on “more efficient government” and mean it
I would run on “protecting business” then I would give credits to those who manufactured using living wage labor no matter what country that was and I would punish those who used slave labor or poverty labor no matter what country that was
that would be a “labor proteciton” AND a “industry protection” without being national protectionism
I would run on “reducing entitlement programs” then I would reduce those that cost us the most, corporate wellfare
I would run on “concervative values” then concerve the envirnment, our economy, our future
I could really run as a republican, be true to their ideals and still get progressive votes
True to their *stated* ideals, you mean. Their messaging sounds great, but their actual goals and policies are terrible.
If Krugman were on the team, it might be doing the right thing and we wouldn’t need him on the outside criticizing. Spitzer’s a different item. He proved he’s much too devisive & mean to run a political team, let alone be on one.
they’re liars and have been for quite some time eli. their stated ideology has nothing to do with their actual agenda
I really wish every one would stop calling these Rs. My late father hated these people and was a Republican. Please just call it what it really is Nazism. I’m of the far left and have some great friends of the R & L group and man do we have some great conversation but none of this my way or the hiway.
jo6pac
Everything is on schedule, please move along.
The guy in the other stall says, “I thought you said you were glad to see me.”
Or, “I thought I recognized those wing-tips.”
You might look into Bob Edgar’s group, Common Cause, which has advocated for campaign finance and election reform for a long time.
The only difference from Cheney is he washes his hands more often.
Hey, that’s a cheap shot against the Whigs. It’s true that the Whigs did not acquit themselves well in dealing with the all-important question of slavery. But they were strong proponents of protecting American manufactures and promoting public investments (in those days rails, canals, &c), and they opposed that era’s American expansionism, whether into Texas, or Mexico, or Cuba.
There are many more parallels to be drawn between the Whigs of the early 19th century and the progressive wing of today’s Democratic party, than between the Democratic party of that era and today’s Democratic party.
Don’t diss the Whigs!