“It seems like a lot of Republicans including, uh, some in leadership… umm… have expressed some doubts or said that doubts exist. And it seems to us that people are kind of beholden, they’re captive to kind of a crazy base, where Democrats kind of marginalize Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan, it seems like Republicans, maybe because of electoral prospects are forced to embrace them and WE THINK [here at Firedog Lake] the country is better off when WE MARGINALIZE ALL THE EXTREMISTS.” [as in birthers, Mike, Cindy, etc.]

Yeah, I’d say that was a bit inartful.

This needs to be rehearsed so the delivery is smooth, no stuttering trying to make a point, just say things to put them on the defensive right away and keep them there.

I do not agree with making a comparison with Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore, two people I admire very much. Again, good work.

“Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby.” (P.J. O’Rourke)

…and close with another:

“The more money that has been spent on government-run healthcare, the less healthcare we have gotten. This kind of result is generally true of all government bureaucracies because of the absence of any market feedback mechanism. Since there are no profits in an accounting sense, by definition, in government, there is no mechanism for rewarding good performance and penalizing bad performance. In fact, in all government enterprises, exactly the opposite is true: bad performance (failure to achieve ostensible goals, or satisfy ‘customers’) is typically rewarded with larger budgets. Failure to educate children leads to more money for government schools. Failure to reduce poverty leads to larger budgets for welfare state bureaucracies. This is guaranteed to happen with healthcare socialism as well.” (Thomas J. DiLorenzo, at http://www.lewrockwell.com/dil…..zo175.html )

but i must agree w/the others, whether you meant to imply that michael moore and cindy sheehan were loonies, you came off as such. you said that the republicans are “captive to a kind of crazy base where democrats marginalize michael moore and cindy sheehan…”

that’s equivalency by implication, i’m afraid.

i know you were operating on the fly, but an even bigger criticism of that particular moment: you got mclintock to agree w/you, you didn’t need to give a speech afterwards. you should have just given him major props for telling the truth.

just my two cents…but please keep up the good work.

Maybe I made the point inartfully – and for that I am prepared to apologize to two of my heros – both Moore and Sheehan… But I had to use two people that Blunt would recognize.

Doing my best out here. And I don’t think Michael or Cindy really mind a friend using them as rhetorical devices if it makes Republicans uncomfortable.

Maybe you should have watched Michael Moore when you were in grade school, Mike. You might have picked up how to actually not sandbag your own peeps.

mike @ michealmoore.com