The GOP & Iraq
Like the latter, the former is not in nearly so bad a shape as we are being led to believe.
Case in point:
Not that this matters much anymore since DeLay threw in the towel instead of standing and fighting Ronnie Earle's nakedly partisan witchhunt. But it does go to illustrate once more that Donk scandalmongering will invariably fail if Republicans will only impose and stick to a zero-tolerance policy against it. Just as it shows that GOP defeat this November is a prophecy that can only be self-fulfilling, and then only to the degree that 'Pubbies stupidly cooperate.
Just as with the vast, and vastly untold, story of successes in Iraq, so the areas that justify Pachyderm optimism are out there and simply ignored - by both sides.
***Michael Steele is becoming the odds-on favorite to take Paul Sarbanes' Senate seat in Maryland, and Donk racism may be one of his biggest assets in that triumph.
***For the insatiable left-wing obsession with refighting the war over the war in Iraq and how it is "inevitable" that the war will dominate all other issues this fall, it was not a significant factor in the special election for Duke Cunningham's CA-50 House seat. Why is this noteworthy? Because that seat was considered to be in the "swing" category, and therefore on the Dems' pickoff list of the minimum fifteen seats they'd have to net to regain a majority in the lower chamber. Now if Iraq is such a hot-button issue, and such a liability for Republicans, one would have thought that Francine Busby would have beaten the crap out of it to win the former "Top Gun's" seat in a walk. But not only did Busby not win, and consequently become a long-shot in the June runoffagainst former three-term GOP congressman Brian Bilbray (who supports the war), but she hardly mentioned the issue at all.
That suggests one of two things: either CA-50 isn't really a swing seat, or Iraq is a gargantuan bugaboo only in the left-wing/media echo chamber. Or both.
Illegal immigration and federal spending were two hot-buttons, though. Something else for Pachyderms elsewhere to keep firmly inmind.
***Michael Barone, who knows American politics like my son knows Pokemon arcana, believes a Dem recapture of either house of Congress this November is highly unlikely.
The question is, at it always remains, can Republicans be intimidated and browbeaten and brainwashed into beating themselves by running away from their strengths and embracing their weaknesses? Will the eight-year doom cycle (1974, 1982, 1990, 1998....) of self-inflicted setback come 'round again? Will the GOP again hand its foes the victory the latter is incapable of seizing on its own? Or will the party learn anew the lesson of the Clinton impeachment, that sometimes you have to say, "Screw the Democrats, screw the media, we're going to do what we know is right, and the people will follow us"?
If they'd done that a month or so earlier in late 1998, they'd almost certainly have done a lot better in those mid-terms - and Harry Reid would be a forgotten old man sitting in a park somewhere in Lighthouse, Nevada, feeding pidgeons, or maybe cutting Jack Abramoff''s grass on alternate Tuesdays. What they need to keep that history from repeating itself is something similar to what their leader needs to reanimate his presidency, as I teased at yesterday.
Don't worry, I'll break the suspense eventually....
Case in point:
An appeals court Wednesday upheld a judge's ruling throwing out a conspiracy charge against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Not that this matters much anymore since DeLay threw in the towel instead of standing and fighting Ronnie Earle's nakedly partisan witchhunt. But it does go to illustrate once more that Donk scandalmongering will invariably fail if Republicans will only impose and stick to a zero-tolerance policy against it. Just as it shows that GOP defeat this November is a prophecy that can only be self-fulfilling, and then only to the degree that 'Pubbies stupidly cooperate.
Just as with the vast, and vastly untold, story of successes in Iraq, so the areas that justify Pachyderm optimism are out there and simply ignored - by both sides.
***Michael Steele is becoming the odds-on favorite to take Paul Sarbanes' Senate seat in Maryland, and Donk racism may be one of his biggest assets in that triumph.
***For the insatiable left-wing obsession with refighting the war over the war in Iraq and how it is "inevitable" that the war will dominate all other issues this fall, it was not a significant factor in the special election for Duke Cunningham's CA-50 House seat. Why is this noteworthy? Because that seat was considered to be in the "swing" category, and therefore on the Dems' pickoff list of the minimum fifteen seats they'd have to net to regain a majority in the lower chamber. Now if Iraq is such a hot-button issue, and such a liability for Republicans, one would have thought that Francine Busby would have beaten the crap out of it to win the former "Top Gun's" seat in a walk. But not only did Busby not win, and consequently become a long-shot in the June runoffagainst former three-term GOP congressman Brian Bilbray (who supports the war), but she hardly mentioned the issue at all.
That suggests one of two things: either CA-50 isn't really a swing seat, or Iraq is a gargantuan bugaboo only in the left-wing/media echo chamber. Or both.
Illegal immigration and federal spending were two hot-buttons, though. Something else for Pachyderms elsewhere to keep firmly inmind.
***Michael Barone, who knows American politics like my son knows Pokemon arcana, believes a Dem recapture of either house of Congress this November is highly unlikely.
The question is, at it always remains, can Republicans be intimidated and browbeaten and brainwashed into beating themselves by running away from their strengths and embracing their weaknesses? Will the eight-year doom cycle (1974, 1982, 1990, 1998....) of self-inflicted setback come 'round again? Will the GOP again hand its foes the victory the latter is incapable of seizing on its own? Or will the party learn anew the lesson of the Clinton impeachment, that sometimes you have to say, "Screw the Democrats, screw the media, we're going to do what we know is right, and the people will follow us"?
If they'd done that a month or so earlier in late 1998, they'd almost certainly have done a lot better in those mid-terms - and Harry Reid would be a forgotten old man sitting in a park somewhere in Lighthouse, Nevada, feeding pidgeons, or maybe cutting Jack Abramoff''s grass on alternate Tuesdays. What they need to keep that history from repeating itself is something similar to what their leader needs to reanimate his presidency, as I teased at yesterday.
Don't worry, I'll break the suspense eventually....
posted by JASmius at 10:35 PM
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