May 16, 2008
Noonan to GOP: Sucks to be you
Peggy Noonan takes a stab at what's ailing the Republican Party, reeling after losing a series of Congressional special elections, an ill portent of things to come in the Fall.
Noonan titles her piece, "Pity Party." Clever. I'd paraphrase: GOP? Sucks to be you.
These were the standout paragraphs:
"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.
The Bush White House, faced with the series of losses from 2005 through '08, has long claimed the problem is Republicans on the Hill and running for office. They have scandals, bad personalities, don't stand for anything. That's why Republicans are losing: because they're losers.
All true enough!
But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. "Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.
The party, Mr. Davis told me, is "an airplane flying right into a mountain." Analyses of its predicament reflect an "investment in the Bush presidency," but "the public has just moved so far past that." "Our leaders go up to the second floor of the White House and they get a case of White House-itis." Mr. Bush has left the party at a disadvantage in terms of communications: "He can't articulate. The only asset we have now is the big microphone, and he swallowed it." The party, said Mr. Davis, must admit its predicament, act independently of the White House, and force Democrats to define themselves. "They should have some ownership for what's going on. They control the budget. They pay no price. . . . Obama has all happy talk, but it's from 30,000 feet. Energy, immigration, what is he gonna do?"
What a train wreck. The GOP offers voters a magnificent choice: Vote for us, because we're not quite as bad as the other guys.
Which is true, as far as it goes, at least when it comes to the pols on the margins like Kennedy, Schumer, Bloviating Joe Biden. But the great mass of Republicans in Congress have accomplished nothing in the last decade that stands out as hewing to classic small-government principles.
"Compassionate conservatism" -- perhaps Pres. Bush's worst contribution to the political lexicon -- gave us greater governmental control of Americans' lives, especially in health care and education, as the president's congressional compatriots worked just as hard to shovel taxpayer dollars into the eager, gaping maws of whatever special interests squealed the loudest.
Honestly, the GOP seemed to be engaged in a competition with the Dems: Who can squander the mostest the fastest.
"Hooray! We won!"
Then they started losing.
And losing.
And losing.
Movement conservatives have a hard time getting motivated to turn out and support the current crop of candidates, from McCain, at the top of the ticket, to the generic, feckless crapweasel RINO running for his twenty-second term in Congress.
Thank goodness the California Supreme Court reminded everyone that it doesn't really matter who we elect to represent us; it's the imperial judiciary that runs the show, rewriting the law to say what the legislature was really trying to say, throwing out statutes when they don't satisfy the policy preferences of our black-robed rulers, telling the People to take their voter initiatives, propositions and Constitutional Amendments and cram them where the sun don't shine.
Happy days.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 16, 2008 06:14 AM
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Comments
Mike - I think I read Noonan's column the same day McCain was making me want to sit out in November as he sucked every bit of oxygen out of his campaign cavorting with the global warmists.
The GOP is in serious trouble. Where it was once the party of new, serious, and GOOD ideas, it has now become something else. I wish I knew what that "something else" was.
And, the standard bearer isn't helping with crap like this global warming tour and his reemergence on immigration. Maybe the GOP has a death wish and it's time for a real Conservative Party to emerge.
I dunno.
Posted by: jay at May 17, 2008 02:58 PM
Teddy,
You write:
"Thank goodness the California Supreme Court reminded everyone that it doesn't really matter who we elect to represent us; it's the imperial judiciary that runs the show, rewriting the law to say what the legislature was really trying to say, throwing out statutes when they don't satisfy the policy preferences of our black-robed rulers, telling the People to take their voter initiatives, propositions and Constitutional Amendments and cram them where the sun don't shine."
Wow! That's a bold statement without any explanation of how this week's gay marriage cases did anything other than interpret the CA Constitution in such a way that found that the voter initiative that amended a statute violates the CA Constitution. This isn't an originalist vs. living constitution debate. This is a case which simply says that the way an initiative amended a statute is unconstitutional. Unless you're saying that Marbury v. Madison was wrongly decided and justices shouldn't decide whether statutes are constitutional or not.
I realize the 120+ pages it takes to get to this analysis is intolerable reading, but this case is not evidence of judical legislation imposed based on the justices policy views.
By the way, note who appointed the justices in the majority and dissent.
Majority
George: Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson in 1991
Kennard: Appointed by Governor George Deukmejian in 1989
Moreno: Appointed by Governor Gray Davis in 2001
Werdegar: Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson in 1994
Dissent
Chin: Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson in 1996
Baxter: Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson in 1991
Corrigan: Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005
Seems like your GOP govs are at least as bad as the one dem.
Posted by: BullButtz at May 18, 2008 04:53 PM