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As a typical egotistical, arrogant, columnist/blogger, I usually think I can express my viewpoints better than anyone else. But when it comes to summing up the Ron Paul situation, the conservative blogger Erick Erikson says everything anyone needs to know.
This is from Erick's column today in www.redstate.com:
"Let me get this straight.
Twenty years ago someone put some crazy, racist stuff in newsletters bearing Ron Paul's name and written in the first person as if they were from Ron Paul.
Ron Paul never read them.
Ten years ago, when confronted with some of the crazy stuff (I'm trying really hard not to use "crazy s**t" here), Ron Paul says he wrote them, but they must be taken in their whole context to understand them.
Fast forward to the present and Ron Paul never wrote them, does not know who wrote them, cannot recall the names of anyone who worked for him who might have written them, is shocked to learn he made big money off them, and people think this guy has the qualifications to be President of the United States?
Letting someone write bat crap crazy stuff under your name, not knowing who they are or what they are doing, profiting from them, then taking responsibility before denying responsibility is credible?!
If we're to take Ron Paul at his word, maybe we need to get him an Alzheimer's test. he is old. Hell, if pigs did fly and he did get elected President, he'd be 81 at the end of his first term."
Eric may normally be wrong about, well, everything, but he sure nails this perfectly
The debate was a bit of a mixed bag with no clear-cut winners or losers.
Here is the breakdown:
Newt Gingrich-Newt had horrible moments and great moments. When Newt goes on and on explaining why he was paid $1.6 million by a federal entity to NOT be a lobbyist, he doesn't pass the laugh test. And when he prattles on about what a celebrity he is and how he can make $60,000 a speech he makes Mitt Romney look like a full-time homeless advocate. But Newt also had great moments. Let's face it; there is no one better in the Republican field at expressing contempt for Obama, Liberals and the judiciary than Newt. There is a huge faction of the GOP that feels contempt for all things Democratic and Newt oozes their contempt better than Oprah exudes empathy for housewives. Newt held his own for the evening.
Mitt Romney-Mitt was Mitt, calm, cool and collected. He didn't make any $10,000 betting blunders but he also didn't land any strong blows toward Gingrich. Romney's worst moment was when Fox's Chris Wallace read chapter and verse on all the liberal positions Romney has expressed, specifically on gay rights. Watching Romney dance away from his past while claiming to not be dancing away from his past is always a fun show, and it's a reminder why the majority of the conservative party does not trust or like Romney.
Jon Huntsman-Jon opened really strongly. He gave a nice slam against Donald Trump and not turning himself into a pretzel by pandering to interest groups or The Donald. It was a clever jab at both Newt and Romney. Huntsman also gave a great message on banking reform that was both conservative and populist and courageous. He didn't do or say much of anytime else of interest in the debate. Still, more and more eyes are looking at Huntsman as party leaders hope and pray that Gingrich will collapse and the Party will have to move on to the next non-Mitt.
Ron Paul-Ron was consistent, as always. Yes, Paul had some of the biggest applause lines of the night. And he also had people gasping at his foreign policy views. Paul was audacious and honest when he labeled Gingrich's cashing in on Freddie Mac as "Fascism." Every liberal Democrat and moderate in the country fell in love with Paul when he labeled Gingrich's money-making escapades "Fascism." Unfortunately for Paul, they don't get to vote in Republican primaries or caucuses.
Rick Perry-Rick has a good night anytime he can remember his name. Perry had some sprightly moments and got in the sound bite of the night claiming he wants to be like "Tim Tebow." Had Perry debated like this in his first few debates, chances are he'd still be the front-runner. But now, Perry just seems like a "Forrest Gump" character, albeit one who doesn't like gays.
Michele Bachmann-Michelle had a good night and fired off some great shots against Newt. Her problem is that both the high brow and the low brow wings of the Republican Party have written her off. She's never recovered from earlier demagogic stumbles and it just doesn't matter what she does in debates any longer.
Rick Santorum-Rick still looks and sounds like a 2-term congressman. On paper, Santorum could and should be a frontrunner (at least for 3 weeks) but he has all the charisma of a three-week old tuna fish sandwich.
Keeping President Obama from succeeding at getting people back to work and turning the country around is the goal of the Republican Party just as it is to break the institutions of government so they then can say government is broken. A Republican staffer has come clean:
It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages.
snip
It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.
The next section is a good reminder that while I disagree with many of our state's Democrats in office on many issues, it is important not to lump them all together because that only helps the long-term goals of the Republicans to tear down the institution of a democratically elected government itself:
A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters' confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that "they are all crooks," and that "government is no good," further leading them to think, "a plague on both your houses" and "the parties are like two kids in a school yard." This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ("Government is the problem," declared Ronald Reagan in 1980).
Emphasis throughout mine.
James Fallows at The Atlantic sums up the GOP staffer's essay well how fragile democracy is when a determined minority seeks to use the very institutions to undermine it instead of governing in good faith:
More fundamentally, Lofgren argues that today's Republicans believe they are better off if government as a whole is shown to fail, not just this Democratic Administration. Republican hard-liners might seem to have "lost" the debt-ceiling showdown, in that they wound up even less popular than the Democrats are. But in the long view, Lofgren says, unpopularity for anyone in Congress, including their party's leaders, helps the Republicans: "Undermining Americans' belief in their own institutions of self-government remains a prime GOP electoral strategy," because it buildings a nihilistic suspicion of any public effort, from road-building to Medicare to schools. (Except defense.)
Fallows also publishes an email from a Democratic staffer:
Privately, many of us who have worked in Congress since before the Clinton Administration have been complaining about the loss of the respect for the institution by the Members who were elected to serve their constituents through the institution. I don't think people realize how fragile democracy really is. The 2012 campaign is currently looking to be the final nail in the coffin unless people start to understand what is going on.
One thing that especially resonated with me about Mike's piece is the importance of "low information" voters. The mainstream media absolutely fails to understand how little attention average Americans really pay to what goes on in all forms of government. During our 2008 race, our pollster taught me (hard to believe it took me 24 years to learn this) that the average voter spends only 5 minutes thinking about for whom to vote for Congress. All the millions of dollars of TV ads, all the thousands of robo-calls and door-knocks, and it all comes down to having a message that will stick in the voters' minds during the 5 minutes before they walk into the voting booth.
The media likes to call this group "independents," which implies that they think so long and deeply about issues that they refuse to be constrained by the philosophy of either party. There may be a couple of people out there who fit that definition, but those are not the persuadable voters campaigns are trying to capture.
The CBO score of the GOP Medicare plan shows that elderly Americans would be responsible for 68% of their Medicare costs. Considering the low incomes of most people in WV over 65, this plan would prove catatrophic for the Mountain State.
Democrats, the GOP cannot overcome this issue as long as we hold the line. The recent congressional election in NY foreshadows a big swing for Democrats this coming election and for good reason. The GOP are unwilling to end tax breaks for millionaires but more than willing to pass the bill onto people that have worked their entire lives to make this country what it is. The American people will not stand for it.
We must find solutions to bring under control the nation's debt, but we can't do it on the backs of the elderly.
GOP Chairman Mike Stuart stated in a MetroNews interview Monday that he would target House Republicans in the 2012 primary that voted in support of a resolution passed Saturday in support of Wisconsin public employees. The four House Republicans were Bill Hamilton, Ray Canterbury, John Ellem, and Erika Storch.
The situation in WI has inspired Democrats all over the country to draw a line in the sand and promises to reinvigorate the Democratic base. WI Republicans have stripped collective bargaining rights from public employees there even after public employee unions agreed to severe cutbacks in benefits and pay. AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue stated in a Gazette article:
Around our country ... politicians are giving huge tax breaks to corporations and the very rich -- and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response and vital human services.
Stuart's remarks lend credence to rumors that he had threatened Republican House members on several votes in the last week of the tumultuous Legislative Session. It appears that Stuart is willing to run his moderate members out of the WVGOP as he pushes his radical anti-worker agenda in West Virginia.
With their unwillingness to continue funding the federal government at current levels, the House GOP seems intent on shutting down the federal government.
There are many reasons why the cuts that House GOP passed are a bad idea. Broadly speaking, they cut government programs that help people most in need and give yet more breaks for those who have already have theirs.
Just as concerning, the budget the House GOP passed is bad for the economy. Here's an analysis from Goldman Sachs:
Spending cuts approved by House Republicans would act as a drag on the U.S. economy, according to a Wall Street analysis that put new pressure on the political debate in Washington. The report by the investment firm Goldman Sachs said the cuts would reduce the growth in gross domestic product by up to 2 percentage points this year, essentially cutting in half the nation's projected economic growth for 2011.
It's hard to pick just one thing, but I'd say the most dangerous trait of today's Tea Party-infused Republican Party is its complete and total disregard for reason and truth.
A growing number of Republicans want to tie the hands of the Federal Reserve, choking off perhaps the last best hope for a speedier economic recovery.
The American people care about jobs. But Republicans don't want the economy to improve because that hurts their election chances in 2012. The Republicans are again putting partisan politics ahead of the needs of the country.
Someone ought to ask the chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party if his organization has ever denied an expense reimbursement request for meals at a venue featuring exotic dancers.
::
Via BarbinMD - RNC Denies Steele Expensed Trip to X-Rated Club
Pelosi, in an e-mail from spokesman Nadeam Elshami, pointed out Thursday that the legislation gave 282,000 of Minority Whip Eric Cantor's constituents tax cuts, in addition to providing tax breaks to Republican Reps. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Scott Garrett of New Jersey and Tom Rooney of Florida.
and:
Pelosi on Wednesday pointed out that Republicans have been to "ribbon cuttings" related to stimulus projects.
As this site and others have pointed out, Capito has tried to take credit for projects funded by the same recovery act that she opposed in lockstep with the House GOP.
If I was Rep. Alan Mollohan hearing the GOP noise machine winding up, I'd be thinking: "Oh, please don't remind anyone of all those appropriations I've brought home to West Virginia."
"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
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