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Political Hay
Advice from the Ledge
Kindly Democrat pundits go out of their way to advise the right.
It’s really not a great time to be a Democrat. The economy remains, for the most part, as depressed as the millions of Americans who cannot find work, while scandal has engulfed the Party, with key, ranking members under indictment. Taking fire from both friend and foe, the president is mired in trouble, primarily of his own making. And probably most distressing of all, the latest Rasmussen Generic Congressional Ballot poll has them nine points behind their rivals. Things are so glum that they’re even begging George W. Bush — noted liar and warmonger — to come to the aid of his successor and make peace. No, things are not looking good for Barack Obama and friends.
So, faced with all of this adversity, what is the donkey party to do, you ask? Well, unless you have been in a cave for the last two decades or so, you know that their game plan calls for them to go on offense. Now in the past, Friends of Bill gathered in the War Room to plot their forays; sometimes vicious character assassination against mild-mannered targets like Henry Hyde or Ken Starr, while other events caused the bimbo eruption squad to swing into action to defame historical figures, pointing out that “everybody does it.” More often than not, though, the playbook called for a few simple talking-point salvos aimed at the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to do the trick.
But since the last election cycle, a new device has made its way into the left-wing arsenal. They give advice to the enemy. Yes, out of the goodness of their socialist little hearts, they seek to help us poor conservatives who have so lost our way that we may soon control Congress again. To be fair, this worked so well for them in 2008 that they somehow managed to select for us the only candidate who could be defeated by the teleprompter-reading empty suit who has become our 44th president. And so they continue.
Over at Time, Mark Halperin, the notoriously fair and balanced political analyst, kindly advised the GOP not to use “President Obama’s measured words” in support of the Ground Zero mosque against him and his party. Why? Because — I’m not making this up — if they do, the terrorists will have won. If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The Democrats’ continued confusion of religious tolerance with a declaration of war by violent ideologues is not an invitation to make peace, but a suicide pact. My advice to Halperin: try and sell the Islamists on the concept of separation of church and state.
Another little ditty, from Steve Benen in the New York Daily News, nearly made me choke on my ham and eggs at a diner the other day. It most clearly demonstrates the twisted way in which the left views the rest of the country. The gist of the piece suggests that after losses in 2006 and 2008, Republicans — much to the dismay and bewilderment of liberals — have moved “aggressively to the hard right, while catering exclusively to a reactionary, right-wing base.” Translated from Columbia J-School speak, this means that the GOP has finally decided to run on their platform, one that aligns itself with the views of a more and more conservative nation. More of the piece, with interjectory comments by yours truly:
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Parties seeking comebacks after devastating failures invariably follow a model with a strong track record: push the ideological envelope, lose, tack back to the middle, reap the rewards. [This only works when moving from the left to the middle, as when Democrats successfully ran “conservative” candidates like Bob Casey and Heath Shuler.]
To wash off the stench of failure, the GOP would have to distance itself from a discredited agenda and reconsider the value of the mainstream. [The value of the mainstream media, I suppose; from which wafts a considerable stench of its own.] Republicans chose to do the opposite. Ideas and tactics that have long been considered beyond the pale, even for Republicans, are suddenly an integral part of the party’s election-year message. [Woe be to those whose tactics include reflecting the values and desires of the electorate, and telling the truth.]
On areas of public policy, the approach has been even more dramatic. Many GOP leaders have inexplicably vowed not to deviate from the failures of the Bush-Cheney era. [Here he must be referring to five per cent unemployment and no post/911 terror attacks on our shores.]
If that happens — if their bad behavior is rewarded — Republicans will interpret the results as exoneration. [As did the Democrats in 2008.] Winning by backing away from the ideological cliff will be seen as a quaint, antiquated ideal. [Hopefully, the demolition of this quaint idea will send a few more folks over the edge.]
Letter to the Editor View all comments (43) | Leave a comment
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Mattled| 8.25.10 @ 7:51AM
Mr. Ferrara ,
Would you please start a media campaign against the media? Expose them as hypocrites and liars. I'll contribute.
Let's start with Perky Katie. Then move on to Stephapologist and then Matt Liar.
Mattled| 8.25.10 @ 7:54AM
Sorry Ms. Fabrizio,
Thought I was on Ferraras post.
Curly Smith| 8.25.10 @ 8:01AM
If "Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan", then Obama has enough failures to fill an orphanage. Conventional DC wisdom would have had the GOP joining the Democrats in the failure-fest but, sadly, McCain had to run for re-election this year and was not available to Maverick. Is it just a case of bad timing or has the GOP learned a lesson from the PorkBusters and Tea Partiers?
Anthony| 8.25.10 @ 11:37AM
Curley, Unfortunately, McCain managed to fool the voter of Arizona one last time for his final political swan song. God knows what damage this arrogant and hot headed superiorist has in store for America now.
McCain's faux lurch to the right will now become a Charlie Crist pirouette back to the left. How long after Nov. 2nd will it take McCain to be back to calling conservatives nativists and bigots. We'll see if mighty McCain gets that wall built.
McCain's victory does not portend well for America's future. This one was a huge setback for taking back America, chalk up another ally for Obama.
Erica Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 9:18AM
I knew it! It isn't that the GOP is made up of gutless turds who can't fashion a message or who seem ready and responsible to take back the reigns of the country! It's that they need Canada Goose Jackets! It was so simple all along.
Eric Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 9:22AM
Hey, sis! This is my blog - go find your own. Jeeze, you find a place to blog and your sister comes along and ruins it. MOM! Sister is - wait, I don't have a sister. . .
Pops Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 9:29AM
Uh, son, we've got to talk.....
Hoss Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 4:53PM
Shoot, I ain't got no Goose Jacket, but I got this swell 10 gallon hat!
Dan Hirsch| 8.25.10 @ 8:41AM
Uh, yeah. Like the Democrats "ran to the middle" under candidate Obama; lying their asses off the whole time, they were. The Democrats have become far more doctrinaire and far-less interested in the welfare of our country's citizenry than at any time in the last forty years that I've been watching.
The "hard right" swing of late is about as conservative as JFK. We will not go back to "hard right" until we end the EPA, OSHA, DOE (Education and Energy) farm subsidies, everything Obama ever supported and return prayer to the schools. That might be almost as far to the right as the Democrats' Obama care, Stimulus, financial re-regulation, private industry takeovers are to the Left.
If you think today's conservatives are Conservative, you do not know history and we've lost the country.
Sorry, Founding Fathers, the Baby Boom was spoiled rotten and blew the whole thing.
Dan Hirsch| 8.25.10 @ 8:46AM
Ever notice how the trolls don't really start up operations until after 9:00 AM Eastern?
Do they need that much time to get their Starbucks, get to the NGO office, get their talking points straight and then start their patrols?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.25.10 @ 10:58AM
What makes you believe it's NGO? Most likely White House consultants (NGO contractors) or government employees themselves using computers paid for by the taxpayer.
JmsA| 8.25.10 @ 1:21PM
Dan Hirsch,
I've also often wondered about that.
Petronius| 8.25.10 @ 11:43AM
Dan
What you call the hard Right is the welterweight Right. Bring back the Knights of Calatrava and the Holy Inquisition. That's where the Right is.
Howard| 8.25.10 @ 8:58AM
Another liberal who freely dispenses advice to Conservatives is E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post. In essence he wants the GOP to be a Democrat "Lite" party. Sort of like, we are not quite adults yet, so we should start out with training wheels and emulate the Democrats until we have matured enough to grasp all of their wondrous ideas.
canuckistani| 8.25.10 @ 10:49AM
I just want the GOP to be a little more nuanced in their populist flailings we have seen in the last 19 months.
The Dems will lead us further down the fiscal slope, but unless the GOP can clearly articulate a positive fiscal agenda (see Boehner's speech as an example of nothingness), we are doomed to another period like we saw between 04 and 08. No plan, raiding lobbyists popping in and out of the spotlight, and a net loss for the public.
I want them to take a position, explain it and stick to it. That's a winner, even if it requires some discomfort in the near term.
TURK| 8.25.10 @ 9:13AM
Sorry Ms. Fabrisio, you speak of a "new device" that is NOT new. Journalists of the left/democrats, have been giving Repubs advice calculated to preclude such repubs from being REAL opponents of their party---for decades. If you can get your hands on M. Stanton Evans 1968 book THE FUTURE of CONSERVATISM, he provides numerous quotes of liberals tsk tsking the republicans, especially when they cast off the N.E. repub libs like Rockefeller/Javits et al. Not only did the media trash Goldwater/Reagan et al but the Repub libs did also. In '64 they (Rockefeller, Scranton, Romney-yes ROMNEY) speechified and published trash calculated to make sure Goldwater had no chance against the Dem scumbag Johnson. The media then, as the media now LOVE repubs who beneath their skin are dems (i.e. Lindsay then; McCain now) It is plain to see, that the media will always agonize when the repubs produce a winning candidate or position on an issue. The little dears just HATE to see repubs lose.
Eric Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 9:30AM
Not so fast dismissing the idea of George Bush helping Obama with the GZ Muslim Terror Training and Bomb Making Facility (GZMTTBMF). W is the Amnesty King, remember. I wouldn't put it past him. Isn't Laura and Michelle the Moocher doing some 9/11 deal together? I say Laura will be asked about the GZMTTBMF and will side with Obummer and say her Georgie does too. Any takers?
JmsA| 8.25.10 @ 1:22PM
I believe Laura Bush is a registered democrat, or at least she used to be.
megapotamus| 8.25.10 @ 2:18PM
I think if W were going to do this he would have done it by now. Perhaps even Mr Ecumenical can see the GZM for what it is, a trophy. The chronological response from W to O is I think obviously the op-ed from Karen Hughes. This could be safely distilled into the headling: W to Obama.... Drop Dead.
Clinton nee Publius | 8.25.10 @ 9:45AM
Ms. Fabrizio is (of course) a textbook example of naivetus femfemalicus - the naive female who thinks she is somehow entitled to criticize the liberal-progressive movement's work towards world socialism and the new world we all share.
Liberal-progressives really BELIEVE their views are the mainstream/middle ground that is occupied and accepted by Americans and that anything that doesn't jive with that is extremist.
I'm sorry Ms. Fabrizio you get a failing grade for your studies of the pathology of the liberal-progressive disease.
Radioman777| 8.25.10 @ 9:49AM
Only idiots take advice from their enemies.
George True| 8.25.10 @ 9:58AM
Ms Fabrizio invalidated her entire article when she started by labeling George W Bush as a "liar and warmonger". He was far from ideal, and he frustrated the hell out of me by not counter-attacking against the leftist smear campaign. He also signed too much ill-conceived legislation such as campaign finance "reform" and Medicare part D. But to call him a noted liar and warmonger is neither an accurate nor an honest characterization of GWB.
Eric Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 10:23AM
Um, I think she was just parroting what the Lefties always called Bush, not what she thinks of him (she loved his idea of amnesty, remember). What she means is that the Left now wants their always hated, war mongering, lying, stumble-bum Bush to help them (Obama) out with their Islamic Bomb Manufacturing and Woman Stoning Facility (IBMWSF) in New York - which Bush will gladly do, I'm betting.
George True| 8.25.10 @ 10:28AM
Oh. My bad.
Lisa Fab| 8.25.10 @ 10:28AM
I don't think GWB is liar and a warmonger, but those who are hypocritically asking him to help Obama sure as heck do!
JmsA| 8.25.10 @ 1:23PM
Hear, Hear!
scotchieguy| 8.25.10 @ 8:36PM
How about just an idiot?
davelnaf| 8.25.10 @ 10:07AM
Whenever some of the real ideologues on the American political landscape willingly offer ‘helpful’ advice it means they have become temporarily masochistic in order to cheer themselves up about the likely and disastrous results of an upcoming election. Or, if the advice is merely malevolent—which it usually is—it is a reflection of their self-perception that they will always be the smartest people in the room and can still fool anyone into doing or saying whatever they want.
It would be nice to be like that, to be a liberal. But, then, one would have to unlearn everything of value one has ever known, accept wholesale distortions of reality as gospel, and lose more than a few brain cells along the way. How to do that? Sigh, one fears it is impossible. But what a wonderful world liberals live in. Those of us left out in the cold cruel world can only look into liberal world and wonder…if only…
martin j smith| 8.25.10 @ 10:48AM
Eric Cartman: You are right on about the Bush's or is it Bushes ? I have to wonder if all that Bushbashing was a political skit for a play called the 2008 Eelections ? Many on the Right love or think well of Bush but in retrospect I get more and more suspiscious of his behavior especially in his second term. He backpeddled on the War on terrorism, and he did not defend himself or his supposed friends. He was silent--too much so. Laura Bush's kumbaya with Michelle Obama is really a problem for me. Think about with Cheney --not Bush spoke out against Obama.. Do you recall the image of Bush with the bullhorn shortly after 9/11 on the rubble of the WTC site. ?
Well it looks like he has "forgotten". This very troubling for me but on the other hands answers or explains a lot of my frustaration with Bush
Eric Cartman| 8.25.10 @ 11:37AM
Yeah, Bush just failed me and millions of others. I was wishing beyond hope he wasn't like his dad. But, the saying was proven right once again: The apple doesn't rot far from the tree. I'm just waiting for the Laura Bush/Mini the Moocher hoedown for Laura to annouce her and W's support for the Muslim Outreach/Chop Off the Infidel's Arm Then Their Head and Camel Sex Parlor Facility in Lower Manhattan(MOCOIATTHCSPF-NYC). Should be fun.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.25.10 @ 11:07AM
One fine point of distinction. It's not that "millions of Americans can't find work."
It's that there are no jobs and more are being destroyed every day. Stupid laws like the Lily Ledbetter law, a health care seizure by Obama, bailouts ad infinitum have the job creators skittish.
In effect, you don't take advice from idiots and I think a majority of the public sees the Democrats who what they are or are not. Many in the public love the hand outs and will continue on their merry path no matter who runs.
In the meantime, real income continues to slide and that's the part that will bring it all down. The tax schemes, the handouts and the entitlements in all forms depend on the income producers.
They are the ones not being listened to and in fact are being crushed by idiotic policy wonks from both parties.
scotchieguy| 8.25.10 @ 8:34PM
So in other words, we're f*cked! Can't disagree w/ that...when the producers are the culprits, it is just a matter of time...tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Anthony| 8.25.10 @ 11:19AM
Nature is ruthless; it culls out the weak, the feable and the intellectual deadenders.
Hence, Leftists, like the Dodo bird, will soon become extinct.
We'll need a museum the size of the Vatican to put all the stuffed bodies of the Leftist intelligencia on display, afterall, there are thousands of future inductees, such as Halperin and Chris Matthews to make room for.
Oh, and some wax figures for some departed loonies such as Ted Kennedy, Howard Zinn, Saul Alinsky et al.
Petronius| 8.25.10 @ 11:48AM
Are you trying to spoil my fun? I just put a down payment on a wood chipper.
Anthony| 8.25.10 @ 11:54AM
No problem Petronius, you can wood chip the thousands of leftist drones who don't deserve museum status. We'll need them for the decorative plantings around the museum.
Eric Cartman for Pet-Ant, Inc.| 8.25.10 @ 12:11PM
Another brilliant idea from Pet-Ant Inc! Don't just go green! Go green with Green Mulch! Mulch made from millions of sandal wearing, Prius driving, Obama loving, country destroying hippies! Just insert your screaming hippie here, and out shoots Green Hippie Mulch over there . . . and there, and there, and over there. Get rid of all those stinky hippies and Democrats while you and your family have hours of fun greening your garden! Yes, you and your family can take pride in you beautiful garden and rich, thick lawn while saving America. So get started today!
Just send $19.95 to No More Hippie Democrats, Paramus, N.J. 07653 and you'll start enjoying a hippie-free lifestyle today!
Anthony| 8.25.10 @ 2:37PM
Dear loyal & faithful employee Mr. Cartman, Congratulations!!! Mr.Petronius and I, during our 3 martini and steak lunch, just promoted you to V.P. of marketing. Please also know that along with this promotion, you will no longer be making minimun wage. With this also comes a corner office, if you can find the corner of our building. No matter,we recognize talented employees and will do whatever it takes to keep you on the team.
But given the huge demand for our product, don't you think we need to raise prices a bit? Please email me at corporate H Qs, but after my afternoon golf game. Your Boss, Anthony
Luis Jenkins| 8.25.10 @ 12:08PM
"not to use "President Obama's measured words" in support of the Ground Zero mosque against him and his party. "
That's the problem. The Leftist are calling the shots including Mr. Halepirn. They always have. Meanwhile, Bohenir, Lott, et al, keep thinking they will co-0p the New Right and water it down til its nothing. We've all said it. The Republicans need to get a pair and go for the throat. So much has been made easy for us yet we hear nothing. What's wrong with this bunch? And now McCain is back in power. Well, the ruse worked for about eight months, and soon it will be back to business. McCain the Rogue, the Maverick, who will work with Leftists when needed. What a bunch of floatsum! While I wasn't in love with JD Hayworth, at least he'd been fairly fresh.
dw| 8.25.10 @ 12:35PM
By even aknowledging the socialist democrat position we continue to play into the overall Alinsky strategy that has, starting decades ago, moved the center line of American political philosophy further and further to the left. This is not JFK's democrat party it is now Obama"s democrat party and there is little resemblance between them. The constant meme of compromise by the Republicans over the years has resulted in eroding our unique heritage as a representative republic based on a free market capitalistic economy. The left has more than succeeded in growing government control over the private sector over the decades and by characterizing the current call for a return to conservative values and those who support it as a radical, unamerican venture, the left merely continues its purposeful push towards communism.
Compromise with these socialist has and is the problem, not the solution. The problem remains that too many republican politicians and many of those who would support true conservative values still succumb to that Alinsky siren song that deludes people of good intention into the myth that civil behavior requires acceptance of the other sides ideas, even when those ideas will result in an erosion what is right.
It has taken many years and many bad politicians to arrive to this point where a socialist, statist is running our country into the ground as obama is doing. There can be no further negotiation or compromise with these enemies of the state, including all these pundits who have long ago given up their integrity as Americans.
Michele San Pietro| 8.25.10 @ 5:38PM
I don't give a damn for what those pundits say.
Brian| 8.26.10 @ 1:36AM
I have a great plan for Repubs. Divert the attention of the ppl with talk of "entitlement reform" that will never pass while increasing the massive bureaucracy and its millions of high paid employees.
Yosemeti Sam| 8.26.10 @ 4:12AM
Yo, LBSM PEN1 (aka Democrat party propaganda franchises) imparts cynical political Marquis of Queensberry Rules for the LOYAL OPPOSITION GOP to asymmetrically
observe. For their own good, mind y'all!
Yeah, no harm no foul - like they're simply kibitzing.
Uh-huh!