Friday, February 16, 2007

Suicide Pills for Republicans

Destroying Conservative Government. President Bush is quoted in today's Lexington Herald-Leader as saying that the House anti-surge resolution "won't change his plans no matter how many Republicans support it." In 2008 terms, Bush's refusal to acknowledge his own unpopularity means that "he won't change his plans" no matter how many seats Republicans lose in the next election. It may be that George Bush's biggest accomplishment as president might be setting back the Republican Party and the conservative movement for a generation. For that, he would have my undying gratitude, but I'm surprised that I haven't seen any Republicans calling for his impeachment.

The Newt Threat: RSI's Feb. 14 post on Newt Gingrich's brightening prospects for the GOP nomination scooped Dick Morris of Fox and the New York Post by a day. Morris quotes a Jan. 31 Fox Poll that has Newt at 16% nationwide with Mitt Romney at 3%. I neglected to mention that nominating Newt Gingrich would be the equivalent of taking a suicide pill. Gingrich might be the single most unpopular politician in American not named Bush or Cheney. The last time I checked his negatives, Newt was disliked by a landslide of 58% of the voters. If nominated by the presidency, Newt Gingrich would be a sure loser and his massive ego, grandiloquent gestures, and whiny immaturity would drag a lot of other GOP candidates down with him.

Flat Earth Follow-Up. Today's Talking Points Memo notes that a Georgia state senator named Ben Bridges has been circulating a letter claiming that evolutionary theory derives concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.” Fortunately for the world of political humor, that's not all. Barnes' memo points to a web site called fixedearth.com which also denies that the earth revolves around the sun or that the earth rotates. Unfortunately for the right wing, the principled ignorance of the flat-earth crowd is even less popular than the endless failures of the Bush administration.

Conservatives used to talk about a "new dawn" in American history. As the right-wing lines up to take their suicide pills, it looks like we might be getting that new dawn indeed.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate to tell you this. But you didn't "scoop" anyone. Wired Conservatives have known that Newt is going to run for over a year now. He has been posturing for a run and it has been very obvious. At the Conservative Political Action Conference last year, Newt's interns were handing out "victory New Hapshire" flyers before his key note speech. He has probably been assessing getting into the race later and will avoid the early media scrutiny due to his political baggage. He may wait too late and decide against it, but he's been setting himself up for years now. Stating the obvious is not a "scoop"

Ric Caric said...

You've got me wrong here. I wasn't claiming to be the first to say that Newt Gingrich was running. Newt himself has been hinting around about that. What I got out before Dick Morris was that Newt actually has a shot at winning the Republican nomination. Of course, it goes without saying that nominating Newt would be the biggest disaster for the Republicans since Goldwater.

Anonymous said...

I understand now. Alot of conservatives are looking for a conservative candidate, because the current conservative field contains none

Ric Caric said...

It would be more accurate to say that conservatives are looking for a "viable" right-wing candidate. Sam Brownback, James Gilmore, and Duncan Hunter are all conservative enough. It's just that none of them has a chance to win the Republican nomination. That's why conservatives are thinking about swallowing the Gingrich pill.

Anonymous said...

Kinda like how so many libs are swallowing the Hillary pill. I am surprised, given your far left position and your opposition to the war, that you are so pro-hillary. She vigorously defended her position on the war back when we were first going into Iraq and then when things went bad and she wanted to run for prez, she started to nuance her position. She's having a tough time with some on the left who notice the nuance. Except you.

Ric Caric said...

Wrong on two counts here. Hillary is not a poison pill at all. I think she'd beat any Republican candidate easily and has a potential to be a landslide winner. Likewise, she's not the choice of liberals. Liberals view her with enormous suspicion and I don't know of any liberal bloggers or mainstream media figures who are positive about Hillary Clinton at all.

But you're right. I am positive about Hillary's candidacy. Most important, I think Hillary is the best choice for the tough job of being president as the country cleans up after the Bush mess. I also like the fact that Hillary has been through the wars with the American right and has emerged stronger and more popular as a result. The right-wing attack media would declare war on any Democratic president and would stay on the attack every day they were in office. Hillary is the candidate best qualified to work within that kind of contentious atmosphere.

I'm not negative about Obama though. He's already shown that he is very talented politician and his views are closer to mine. Right now though, I think it's important to elect somebody who is willing to slug it out in the trenches.

Anonymous said...

You did not address Hillary's nuanced position on Iraq. Where do you stand on that. Do you care about it at all, or is the fact that she can slug it out in the trenches enough for you?

Obama will fizzle out. I think that if he was such a suave politician that he would have quit smoking before he went out on the campaign trail. Instead he's been snippy with people while he's been out. poor guy. Also, I have already heard a few rumblings from the black community that he is not black.