Thrashings In A Vacuum
The trend of Republican senators wiping up the stage with their Donk challengers while Tim Russert looks helplessly on continued Sunday. This time it was meek & mild Mike DeWine making mincemeat outta that mouse (*ahem* Sorry, lapsed into my Klondike Cat persona for a moment) Dem congressman Sherrod Brown and his left-wing extremism on national security matters.
It was, in a word, wince-inducing. At least if you're sympathetic to Brown but have at least one foot planted outside the fever swamps. Every time he was asked a national security question, he hemmed and hawed and bobbed and weaved. On what Iraq would look like today if we had already cut and run from Iraq, as Brown voted to do a year ago; on his ten votes to cut intelligence funding after 9/11; on....
No, the next two are too good not to quote directly (h/t RCP):
Goodness, but Brown was desperate to get out of that trap. Hence the italicized portions above. Anybody who believes that Sherrod Brown thinks there were "a lot of good things" in the Patriot Act, stand on your head. If that were true, is it not logical to question why he voted against it anyway? Particularly in a post-9/11 atmosphere where most Democrats went along with tougher anti-terrorism measures out of political expediency? Looks to me like Brown was voting his detestable, misbegotten principles, and didn't want the dimmest light of public scrutiny shined upon it for fear that the embattled DeWine be thrown a lifeline.
But heck, it wasn't the only life preserver Brown threw; check out his John Kerry moment:
Oh, my dear LORD.
Brown had better be on his knees, or burning incense, or cutting himself and dancing around like a nut, or whatever the heck it is pagans do to offer up gratitude to their demon idols that this debate took place on the least-watched show on the least-watched network on the least-watched day this side of anyplace that points a TV camera at Keith Olbermann. Remember Rick Santorum making an absolute fool of Bob Casey on Press the Meat a month ago? Has it made even a blip in the polling of that race? And Brown's lead over DeWine is a lot narrower.
Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether Donks can weather the national security storm through the next five weeks if they can't fudge questions any better than this.
At least Brown has saved DeWine on his advertising budget. With those two quotes above, the incumbent senator just needs the MTP clips and the obligatory "I approve this message" bump to hoist his challenger on his own rhetorical petard right through November 7th.
UPDATE: George Allen is getting back on message, and the Webbies are crying foul.
It was, in a word, wince-inducing. At least if you're sympathetic to Brown but have at least one foot planted outside the fever swamps. Every time he was asked a national security question, he hemmed and hawed and bobbed and weaved. On what Iraq would look like today if we had already cut and run from Iraq, as Brown voted to do a year ago; on his ten votes to cut intelligence funding after 9/11; on....
No, the next two are too good not to quote directly (h/t RCP):
RUSSERT: All right. I'm going to give him thirty seconds to respond to that, then I want to move to the future.
BROWN: Well, the, the - again, the - on the intelligence, the intelligence...
RUSSERT: But you voted against the Patriot Act?
BROWN: I did vote against the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act had a lot of good things in it, but it, it, it went too far. And it's, it's not - the Patriot Act is law now, but we've not done what we should do in Afghanistan. [emphases added]
Goodness, but Brown was desperate to get out of that trap. Hence the italicized portions above. Anybody who believes that Sherrod Brown thinks there were "a lot of good things" in the Patriot Act, stand on your head. If that were true, is it not logical to question why he voted against it anyway? Particularly in a post-9/11 atmosphere where most Democrats went along with tougher anti-terrorism measures out of political expediency? Looks to me like Brown was voting his detestable, misbegotten principles, and didn't want the dimmest light of public scrutiny shined upon it for fear that the embattled DeWine be thrown a lifeline.
But heck, it wasn't the only life preserver Brown threw; check out his John Kerry moment:
RUSSERT: Back in October in '03, about six months into the war, you voted against $87 billion to fund the war. Would you consider, if the President does not change the course and you're elected to the U.S. Senate, measures to cut off funding for the war?
BROWN: No, I would not vote against the troops in the field.
RUSSERT: Why did you do that in '03?
BROWN: I voted against the $87 billion because there was a better way to do it.
Oh, my dear LORD.
Brown had better be on his knees, or burning incense, or cutting himself and dancing around like a nut, or whatever the heck it is pagans do to offer up gratitude to their demon idols that this debate took place on the least-watched show on the least-watched network on the least-watched day this side of anyplace that points a TV camera at Keith Olbermann. Remember Rick Santorum making an absolute fool of Bob Casey on Press the Meat a month ago? Has it made even a blip in the polling of that race? And Brown's lead over DeWine is a lot narrower.
Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether Donks can weather the national security storm through the next five weeks if they can't fudge questions any better than this.
At least Brown has saved DeWine on his advertising budget. With those two quotes above, the incumbent senator just needs the MTP clips and the obligatory "I approve this message" bump to hoist his challenger on his own rhetorical petard right through November 7th.
UPDATE: George Allen is getting back on message, and the Webbies are crying foul.
posted by JASmius at 8:26 AM
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