Saturday, May 02, 2009
Getting "Real" With The GOP
Surrounding Obama's 100th day, the bottom appeared to fall out of the Republican Party over the last 10 days: It lost a special election -- and a senator -- and saw the RNC get into a civil war between its members and chairman while elected officials created their own "alternate" party structure. Paging Mark "Survivor" Burnett and Simon "American Idol" Cowell)!
We may have your new reality TV smash!
Forget Rod Blagojevich! -- he's basically a one-trick pony (based on the hair -- one of the Shetland variety at that). The real action is in the Republican side of the ledger.
This week, one liberal Republican senator jumped to the Democrats, starting an internecine party battle over whether moderates should be welcomed, tolerated or expunged; a liberal Republican Supreme Court Justice retired (at 69, relatively young for high court justices) allowing a Democratic president to replace him;Republican National Committee members launched a procedural move to restrain their own recently elected party chairman from making decisions on how to spend the party money; that chairman blamed any possible money problems at the committee on his predecessor; and a former GOP speaker of the House mocked those members as "precious" spoiled individuals.
And that doesn't even touch on the family part of it: While Meghan McCain got into a Twitter fight with Karl Rove (just writing that shows how insane this has gotten), daddy John McCain signed onto a new GOP group designed to "rebrand the party" (which will undoubtedly raise money that might otherwise go to the RNC -- wonderful)! Making things even more interesting is that one of the members of this National Council For A New America is Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour -- himself a former RNC Chairman.
Notably, neither Newt Gingrich nor Michael Steele were invited to be part of this new NCNA organization..
So, already it looks like some form of "Survivor"-like alliance has been created within the GOP structure, so a talking-head C-SPAN type-show would be awful. Instead, it should be a vote-off, like "Survivor" or "American Idol." Either have a Tribal Council (perhaps made up of folks like Grover Norquist orthe Club For Growth -- who took credit for driving Specter out of the party) or a panel of judges (including Robert Bork, who Specter famously helped vote down two decades ago) who decide who stays, who goes, and who gets electoral "immunity."
It's got hit written all over it. Spike TV, perhaps? Or, appropriately enough -- the USA Network!
Alas, Peggy Noonan insists on being all responsible and serious abut the collapse of the GOP. Sorry, Peggy, I think maturity went out the window sometime ago.
Labels: Destruction of the GOP, Republican National Committee, Republican Party
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
SPECTER Beats (GOP) Bond
Could Barack Obama have wanted a better headline to wake up to Wednesday morning than some variation of the following?
"Will the last Republican east of the Mississippi please turn out the lights?"
With Arlen Specter's jump to the Democrats, that shrinking roll call include the Maine Senate femme fatales -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe -- Delaware Rep. Mike Castle and just three out of the 29-member New York House delegation. Except for the aforementioned Collins, Snowe and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, there are no elected members of Congress in New England. The blue trend of New York was consolidated last Friday when Republican Jim Tedisco (a long-time state assemblyman) conceded the 20th district congressional seat to newbie Scott Murphy. The Democratic National Committee wasted no time in gloating over the win -- and the importance that RNC Chairman Michael Steele place on winning the seat.
With a party deteriorating, it's not exactly wise for its chairman to further that trend. After suggesting that the RNC might support a primary challenger to Specter and two other stimulus-supporting Republicans, Chairman Steele sort-of backed down. Understandably, he unleashed a bucket of venom on Specter after this switch -- referring to Specter's "left-wing" votes. But, does Steele really believe that having an ideologically "pure" party is really in his best interests? Even worse, the party is also just about as geographically isolated as it is philosophically. As has been noted elsewhere, the Specter switch puts Democrats within a hairsbreath of a spot where no party has been in the Senate in thirty years -- with a filibuster-breaking 60-vote majority.
Even Patrick Buchanan realizes that the demographic lines aren't favorable to the Republicans. The party doesn't have to become an echo of the Democrats, but it should realize that it needs flexibility and diversity within its ranks. Not-so-subtly suggesting that an Arlen Specter shouldn't be in the party -- or urging, as Rush Limbaugh did Tuesday, that John McCain should also leave -- is a prescription for continued disaster. Unlike Specter, McCain didn't vote against the stimulus package. Just because his daughter has been expressing more liberal views than the rest of the party, why should a man who has served the party well be a target for expulsion?
It's statements like this that underscore why it's a disaster for Limbaugh to even be considered a "leader" of the party. Leaders try to expand their constituency -- not reduce it. Sure, Limbaugh is expanding his "constituency" -- his listeners. But based on recent polls, fewer Americans than ever are identify with the Republican Party. Those are trends going in two different directions.
Specter's leap -- and Limbaugh's response to it -- says all that one needs to know about the state of the Republican Party after 100 days of Barack Obama. The party is grasping for true leadership, direction and vision -- and showing little signs of that any are in sight.
Labels: Arlen Specter, Destruction of the GOP, Republican Party
Saturday, October 04, 2008
The Bush Legacy?
Both the Washington Post and Politico report on increasing GOP fears of a congressional bloodbath come next week. And no, John McCain is not the cause of the party's problem, but just another symptom. The cause is the increasing economic turmoil, accoriding to Politico:
A poll out Friday shows Sen. Norm Coleman could now easily lose his Minnesota seat to comedian-turned-candidate Al Franken. A Colorado race that initially looked like a nail-biter has now broken decisively for the Democrats. A top official in the McCain camp told us Sen. Elizabeth Dole is virtually certain to lose in conservative North Carolina.Though McCain's recent tactics (strategy?) has contributed to the problem, the Post notes:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has seen his race tighten dangerously close over the past week — and Democrats are considering moving more money into the state very soon. And there is even talk that Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is beatable in conservative Georgia after backing the economic bailout package opposed by many voters.
“Before the economic crisis, we had a number of races moving our way,” said Matthew Miller, communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “But now we’re seeing Republican numbers plummet.” GOP officials largely agree.
GOP operatives said the party's declining fortunes are rooted in a series of events over the past two weeks, including McCain's decision to suspend his campaign in order to help broker a deal on the rescue plan and Republican opposition that doomed the bill in a House vote on Monday. Those incidents helped reinforce voter impressions that Washington is broken and that Republicans bear the brunt of the blame, the party insiders said.In the most recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, more than half of all voters said they were "very concerned" that the failure of the first bailout vote would cause a "severe economic decline." By a ratio of 2 to 1, they blamed the legislations' defeat on Republicans.
Neil Newhouse, a partner in the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, echoed van Lohuizen's sentiment. "The bailout crisis has had a corrosive effect on the national political environment, and that impacts not just John McCain, but GOP candidates up and down the ticket," he said.
The proximity to the election added to the chaos on Capitol Hill this week as lawmakers sought to pass a $700 billion package to stabilize banks and financial markets. In the House, most vulnerable Republicans opposed the version that failed on Monday, as well as the revamped legislation that passed easily yesterday. But in the Senate, which voted Wednesday, just two vulnerable Republicans, Sens. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.), opposed the bill (along with the only Democrat who is seen as endangered, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu).
Seven Republicans who are being targeted for defeat by Democrats backed the plan: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), and Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Ted Stevens (Alaska); Norm Coleman (Minn.); Gordon Smith (Ore.), Susan CollinsJohn E. Sununu (N.H.). (Maine) and
Some states that have been hit particularly hard economically saw fractures within their delegations. In Michigan, Knollenberg switched his vote from no on Monday to yes on Friday, while Walberg voted no both times. Asked whether he changed his mind out of concern for his reelection, Knollenberg shrugged and responded, "This is politics." But he added that supporting the bailout "is really what's best for the community."
Of course, in an environment like this, Democrats can have it both ways: Their party passes the bailout (er, "rescue" as it is now politically correct to call it), with most Republicans in the House voting against it. But Democratic challengers can either run in support of the bailout or against it, depending on their GOP opponent. Either way, the Republican gets stuck with the "Bush economic legacy" tag and is painted as out of touch.
Not so good times.
Labels: Destruction of the GOP, Republicans
Monday, October 15, 2007
Blue Days For The Red Party
Meanwhile, the Wall St. Journal chastises both Democrats and conservatives over the manipulation of children in the SCHIP debate. Alas, as the aforementioned Hill Republicans note, the bad PR will only accrue to the GOP brand. Well, they only have themselves to blame. If they had bothered to keep an eye on spending over the last six years, they wouldn't seem like Scrooges now by declaring that "children's health" is where they need to draw the line (understanding that the debate isn't really about "children's" health).
Labels: Destruction of the GOP, Republicans
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
The Love That Dare Not Take a Wide Stance (Cont'd)
Apparently, RAG's favorite Republican candidate's campaign now has a simmering same-sex scandal of its own.
To tie this all in with another of RAG's favorite pastimes, I always imagined that if Giuliani were an X-Man villain that I would see him crashing through the walls of Prof. Xavier's (or Dr. Paul's) home screaming, "DO YOU know WHO I am? I'M the 9/11 MAYOR, B*TCH!!"
Labels: Destruction of the GOP, Rudy Giuliani, sex scandal
Friday, June 01, 2007
High Noonan
Sometimes, you don't say anything about a truly great work. You just stand back and admire it. Peggy Noonan's latest editorial in America's greatest paper says just about everything you need to know about the Post-Reagan Republican Party, the Bush Legacy, and the sad few years we will probably face thanks to our national l'enfant terrible. So I have nothing to say other than please read it!
To quote Stan Lee as a former true believer in the Red State party, "'Nuff said."
UPDATE: Oh crap, I should have known RAG would have beat me to the punch on such an obvious pun for a headline.
Labels: Destruction of the GOP, Peggy Noonan, The Bush Legacy
