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I have a column in today’s London Times. It’s behind the Times paywall, but some extracts here:
‘I don’t know what effect they will have on the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.’ So Arthur Wellesley is reputed to have said on meeting the army he would lead through Spain. Republican leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell may be thinking the same thought as they assess the influx of new Republican representatives and senators. …
Again and again, right-wing insurgents contested – and bested – the party leadership.
In the battle for the Republican Senate nomination in Colorado, the candidate endorsed by the US Chamber of Commerce lost.
In the Delaware Senate contest, the candidate preferred by Karl Rove and the Republican National Committee lost.
In Nevada, the candidate supported almost unanimously by the state party leadership lost.
In Utah, a well-entrenched incumbent endorsed by Mitt Romney lost.
Most amazing of all was the contest in Kentucky ….
[where Senator Jim] DeMint’s candidate prevailed in the primary, brutally humiliating [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell.
If the winners of these party nomination contests — and others like them — prevail in Tuesday’s general election, they will arrive to reinforce an informal, unelected parallel leadership structure.
John Boehner may be Speaker of the House – but flamethrowing Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann raised more money for her political action committee this cycle than Boehner raised for his.
Likewise, Jim DeMint has $5 million cash on hand – and a much better win-loss record than Mitch McConnell.
Bachmann and DeMint may be content to leave Boehner and McConnell their titles and offices. But the latent power of Bachmann and DeMint shapes the environment in which Boehner and McConnell operate. And behind both Bachmann and DeMint are even more powerful forces: the big radio talk show hosts and Fox News – media organizations that thrive on anger and conflict.
When you hear John Boehner announce there can be “no compromise” with President Obama – when Mitch McConnell declares that his supreme legislative priority is to make Obama a one-term president – you are not hearing the voice of authentic radicalism. You are hearing the voice of second-hand radicalism. …
There is a rainbow stew of tones in the Republican Party. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are incapable of making the tones coherent. This election is about tossing sand in the gears of the Obama machine and little more.
“There is a rainbow stew of tones in the Republican Party”
Boehner is definitely in the bright Orange end of the spectrum! It’s always been about screwing the Democrats and never helping the country. Why do they hate Merica?
So the country will suffer but the entertainment will be off the charts. Maybe if Linda McMahon wins she’ll put it all on pay-per-view to help with the deficit.
“When you hear John Boehner announce there can be “no compromise” with President Obama – when Mitch McConnell declares that his supreme legislative priority is to make Obama a one-term president – you are not hearing the voice of authentic radicalism. You are hearing the voice of second-hand radicalism. …”
You are hearing the agenda of a party with zero intent to govern or help the country recover, you hear the voices of people whose only aim is to get elected never legislate in good faith.
As someone said on another thread. If the GOP and Fox put as much effort into governing and finding solutions as they do in fighting elections and trying to paint their opponents as enemies of America the country would be a far better place.
At least Jon Stewart’s writers will have an easy two years.
Nobody is leading the GOP because they aren’t going anywhere. They either want to be stagnant or go in reverse. No new ideas and failed old ones so thus no need for a leader, everyone on that team knows the playbook.
Maybe someone can explain to me why everyone is so afraid of the right wing fringe. I didn’t understand it when the GOP pandered to the religious right in presidential elections, I do not understand it now, especially when they pay lip service to Palin.
Palin has said, “the GOP is nothing without the Tea Party”. Well, guess what, the Tea Party is nothing without the Republican Party! When I heard Romney and Pawlenty came out publically to say they were not among those who want Palin out of the picture, I had to wonder: why? Do they really want her followers to vote for them? Run with her on a ticket?
If that is the only way they can win, what have they won? They are no longer Republicans I recognize.
I would have told Palin to start her own party; it’s not something she can put together over night even with Dick Armey commanding all her forces — and I do think he and the other “elites” who have paid for the productions put on by the tea partiers get far too little attention and credit. I sometimes think the internal wars are really between him and Rove and their respective donors.
Tangentially, it just occurs to me that the person who has been most successful overall — IRONICALLY — is Jim deMint, ironically because he lost his Waterloo . . . or did he? He may have been denied his wish to use Healthcare as Obama’s “Waterloo” but wasn’t he behind the whole notion to obstruct without negotiation in the first place? If Mitch McConnell is repeating it secondhand, who did it come from?
Who leads the GOP?
Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck.
Republicans won but they did nothing, literally, to earn it. Republicans are even less popular than the Dems and thier time worn ideas about tax cuts, deregulation and trickling down on people will come up against the harsh lessons of recent years. In short Americans looked for something that does not exist: A government solution for the economy. Fox News and all the rest will not change that.
Michelle Bachmann needs to be brought out into the sunlight. I think that when you do so – instead of turning bright orange like a tangerine or John Boehner – she’ll shrivel up and blow away like a movie bloodsucker. Her empty-headed wackiness needs to be put front and center, before a national audience.
Obama’s faces a rocky road to 2012… « Slugger O'Toole // Nov 3, 2010 at 10:02 am
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