Pants-Wetting Conservatives
I put together a nice post on this topic this afternoon and my internet connection cut out in mid-upload. Amazingly, the red haze didn't engulf me. I guess the Blogger server is the only entity with that power.
Here we go again....
A couple of dismaying items caught my eye today.
First, the burgeoning fratricide against FEMA director Michael Brown from Michelle Malkin and the Cornerites, particularly in the wake of his recall to Washington, D.C. today.
Reviewing the case Double-M builds against him, it basically amounts to several counts of public relations ineptitude as opposed to falling short in getting help to the Gulf Coast. And while I suppose it's true that PR is part of Brown's job description, I hardly think that's a terminatable offense. If it was, most of the Bush Administration would have to collect pink slips, including the President.
Still, it wouldn't turn me one way or the other if Brown departed for the next professional port of call - as, apparently, he was planning to do in another couple of months anyway. What does cause me to say, to quote Quickdraw McGraw, "Hoooooold on thar!" is the context in which axing him now would be taking place. If Brown wasn't, shall we say, politically savvy, this move would be a propaganda disaster for the Administration. Not only would it be an overreaction, but an admission of culpability that would vindicate every last scrap of the "unfair criticism" that the DisLoyal Opposition has been spewing at the President for the past week and a half. And it would only encourage the Dems to intensify their attacks. You think Brown would be the only scalp? Bullbleep - they'd go after HLS Secretary Michael Chertoff next (hell, Tim Russert already demanded his resignation to his face last Sunday). They'd try to overturn the entire Administration "boat" and work their way through the poor bastards in the water like the sharks did the crew of the USS Indianapolis after delivering the first atomic bomb to Tinian in 1945.
The middle of a political hurricane is not the time for "putting accountability over cronyism in a time of crisis." And the middle of a political war is not the time for shooting our own wounded.
Meanwhile, Brother Hinderaker broke a cardinal rule of right-wing political analysis - he paid attention to the most bogus of so-called public opinion polls, and has essentially written George Bush's political obituary:
John should think again, again. Just look at the sampling criteria, which Rocketman discloses without any apparent scrutinizing:
Even the casual political observer knows that the only surveys that can be relied upon in the slightest are ones that limit respondents to "likely voters." The reason is that theirs are the only opinions that are politically relevant. Not surprisingly, pollsters employ that limited scope in their sample populations during election years, when people are actually paying attention and pollsters' professional credibility is on the line. But in off-years, they don't have to bother with such precision, and particularly not when they have a partisan axe to grind, as the entire Extreme Media rabidly does against President Bush.
Consequently, in the prevailing political climate I would be astounded if "approval" surveys that are about as reliable as the Seattle Seahawks' defense in the fourth quarter didn't show Bush's numbers cratering, because it bolsters the propaganda meme his enemies are trying to put over.
That's not to claim that the President's public standing is "really" the mirror opposite. He's probably in the mid-to-high 40s, the direction in which other polls have shown him up-ticking. Not stellar or robust by any means, but not catastrophic either. And certainly not "damaged beyond repair" as Hinderaker bleakly eulogizes.
Rocketman is right about one thing, though - Republicans need to stop "turning the other cheek" and start punching Democrats in the face:
Bush will never drop "the New Tone," or he would have long before now. But lesser elected Republicans are under no such exasperating self-constraint. And they'd better get in those trenchs and start swinging, because every scrap of momentum that the Dems milk from Katrina will be poured into the Roberts hearings, and the hearings for Justice O'Connor's replacement, and the remaining items on the Bush agenda. If the GOP just rolls over now, and through these crucial next few months - or if the President bends over and grabs the ankles by firing Michael Brown and/or, far worse, knuckling under on his second SCOTUS pick by nominating a squish - they can kiss their Senate majority (at least) and perhaps both Houses goodbye next year, and the viable chapter of the Bush presidency along with it.
Am I wetting my pants? Nope; I'm pissing in the faces of the DisLoyal Opposition. If all 287 Pachyderms on Capitol Hill were to do that, just imagine the quantity of crap that could be washed away....
Here we go again....
A couple of dismaying items caught my eye today.
First, the burgeoning fratricide against FEMA director Michael Brown from Michelle Malkin and the Cornerites, particularly in the wake of his recall to Washington, D.C. today.
Reviewing the case Double-M builds against him, it basically amounts to several counts of public relations ineptitude as opposed to falling short in getting help to the Gulf Coast. And while I suppose it's true that PR is part of Brown's job description, I hardly think that's a terminatable offense. If it was, most of the Bush Administration would have to collect pink slips, including the President.
Still, it wouldn't turn me one way or the other if Brown departed for the next professional port of call - as, apparently, he was planning to do in another couple of months anyway. What does cause me to say, to quote Quickdraw McGraw, "Hoooooold on thar!" is the context in which axing him now would be taking place. If Brown wasn't, shall we say, politically savvy, this move would be a propaganda disaster for the Administration. Not only would it be an overreaction, but an admission of culpability that would vindicate every last scrap of the "unfair criticism" that the DisLoyal Opposition has been spewing at the President for the past week and a half. And it would only encourage the Dems to intensify their attacks. You think Brown would be the only scalp? Bullbleep - they'd go after HLS Secretary Michael Chertoff next (hell, Tim Russert already demanded his resignation to his face last Sunday). They'd try to overturn the entire Administration "boat" and work their way through the poor bastards in the water like the sharks did the crew of the USS Indianapolis after delivering the first atomic bomb to Tinian in 1945.
The middle of a political hurricane is not the time for "putting accountability over cronyism in a time of crisis." And the middle of a political war is not the time for shooting our own wounded.
Meanwhile, Brother Hinderaker broke a cardinal rule of right-wing political analysis - he paid attention to the most bogus of so-called public opinion polls, and has essentially written George Bush's political obituary:
Republicans have taken some comfort from the poll numbers that have come out so far on Hurricane Katrina, which have suggested that most Americans aren't buying the Democrats' unfair attacks.
Think again. The AP/Ipsos poll numbers that came out today, and can be accessed here, are horrible. President Bush's approval rating is down into Gingrichian territory at 39%, with "strong disapproval" at 40%.
John should think again, again. Just look at the sampling criteria, which Rocketman discloses without any apparent scrutinizing:
The AP/Ipsos poll has often been an outlier, and this one is a "random adults" survey in which only 76% claimed to be registered voters.
Even the casual political observer knows that the only surveys that can be relied upon in the slightest are ones that limit respondents to "likely voters." The reason is that theirs are the only opinions that are politically relevant. Not surprisingly, pollsters employ that limited scope in their sample populations during election years, when people are actually paying attention and pollsters' professional credibility is on the line. But in off-years, they don't have to bother with such precision, and particularly not when they have a partisan axe to grind, as the entire Extreme Media rabidly does against President Bush.
Consequently, in the prevailing political climate I would be astounded if "approval" surveys that are about as reliable as the Seattle Seahawks' defense in the fourth quarter didn't show Bush's numbers cratering, because it bolsters the propaganda meme his enemies are trying to put over.
That's not to claim that the President's public standing is "really" the mirror opposite. He's probably in the mid-to-high 40s, the direction in which other polls have shown him up-ticking. Not stellar or robust by any means, but not catastrophic either. And certainly not "damaged beyond repair" as Hinderaker bleakly eulogizes.
Rocketman is right about one thing, though - Republicans need to stop "turning the other cheek" and start punching Democrats in the face:
I see no evidence that the Democrats are paying a price for their dishonorable tactics. And they won't pay a price, unless the Republicans start defending themselves and attacking the Democrats the way they deserve to be attacked. The "turn the other cheek" approach that the Administration has followed for years - don't respond to attacks, no matter how unfair, just try to ride out the news cycle and move on - has resulted in one needless wound after another....
Bush will never drop "the New Tone," or he would have long before now. But lesser elected Republicans are under no such exasperating self-constraint. And they'd better get in those trenchs and start swinging, because every scrap of momentum that the Dems milk from Katrina will be poured into the Roberts hearings, and the hearings for Justice O'Connor's replacement, and the remaining items on the Bush agenda. If the GOP just rolls over now, and through these crucial next few months - or if the President bends over and grabs the ankles by firing Michael Brown and/or, far worse, knuckling under on his second SCOTUS pick by nominating a squish - they can kiss their Senate majority (at least) and perhaps both Houses goodbye next year, and the viable chapter of the Bush presidency along with it.
Am I wetting my pants? Nope; I'm pissing in the faces of the DisLoyal Opposition. If all 287 Pachyderms on Capitol Hill were to do that, just imagine the quantity of crap that could be washed away....
posted by JASmius at 6:27 PM
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