May
21
The world is definitely coming to an end
May 21, 2009 | 2 Comments
In a day where I’ve already expressed agreement with Bill Maher, I suddenly find myself nodding in agreement with Howard Fineman.
Right now there are two RNCs here in Washington, side by side. The contrast is instructive.
One, the Republican National Committee, is a clueless self-parody. The other, the (R)ush-(N)ewt-(C)heney tag team, is providing the real muscle as the Republican right begins to build traction in taking on President Obama and the Democrats.The official RNC just spent the last two days wasting time and inviting ridicule—listening to a listless, empty speech by its chairman, Michael Steele, and debating the grand idea of calling the Democrats “socialists.” Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh hammers away at the Democrats and the president on radio every day; Newt Gingrich sarcastically attacks Nancy Pelosi on The Daily Show (and gets laughs for doing so); and Dick Cheney continues his high-profile, Iraq-star media tour.
Fineman concludes:
But even as Obama is speaking, who will be clearing his throat at a podium across town? Why, Dick Cheney, of course. The former vice president hasn’t singlehandedly created this situation, but he has adroitly capitalized on it. By relentlessly defending his record and promoting his views—keep Guantánamo open, use waterboarding, use all possible surveillance techniques—Cheney the Grim has helped create the fog of controversy now surrounding the White House.
That is what an opposition party does. Chairman Steele and the real RNC should take a look.
Fineman is absolutely right. I’m not sure I’d necessarily include Newt Gingrich in this list – I guess it would make for a less cutesy headline for Fineman – but Rush and Dick Cheney have done what an opposition party should do. The RNC and the national party in general have been completely inept. Either they have gone out of their way to be spineless idiots barely muttering their opposition to Obama’s policies, or they’ve gone the complete opposite way and made completely idiotic gestures like trying to brand the Democrats as socialists.
For some reason, Karl at Hot Air doesn’t like Fineman’s piece.
Should anyone connected to the GOP be asked about this sort of “analysis,” the response should be laughter, noting especially that it appears as part of the New Newsweek, re-invented as a house organ for the Obama administration.
After all, the notion that Rush Limbaugh is the face of the GOP is pushed by Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. The lapdog media immediately took up the meme, even though just 11% of GOP voters say the conservative radio commentator is the party�s leader. (Similarly, the Democrats have been trying to brand the GOP as the party of fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and fmr. VPOTUS Dick Cheney for at least a month.) When this first came up, Ace made this observation:
[T]he media controls the public discourse. This is an issue because they want it to be an issue, and they want it to be an issue because… well, guess. Hint: It’s not because it helps the conservative cause.
Ace also notes — with emphatic profanity — that it is merely an attempt to keep the Right fighting among itself, rather than focusing on the Left.
The Democratic campaign is easy to figure out — Limbaugh, Gingrich and Cheney all perform valuable roles for the Right, but they generally do so as pitbulls, not as the face of a party trying to appeal to a majority of Americans, including a generally apolitical middle that can be turned off by more aggressive figures.
Thus, Fineman is simply carrying water for Obama, Axelrod and Gibbs to even suggest that GOP chairman Michael Steele should be playing the role of a pitbull. His job is to try to present the GOP position without making himself the issue — and to raise money for the party. It turns out that the real RNC is doing pretty well at fundraising — so much so that Obama is having to take time from pushing his left-wing agenda to shake his moneymaker for fatcats in Hollywood and elsewhere.
I think Karl is vastly overstating his case. This is much different than Democrats and others on the left trying to insinuate that Rush is the actual face of the right. All Fineman is saying – and he’s correct – is that the RNC ought to be doing more of what people like Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney have been doing. They need to get themselves organized and aggressively counter-punch. After all, that is what an opposition party is supposed to do. Obviously it needs to be more circumspect in its criticism than a talk show host or former elected officials, but that is no excuse for the complete timidity and aloofness with which the party currently carries out its activities.
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[...] mentioning his name.” On his syndicated radio show, Schultz said he’d agree to Limbaugh’ The world is definitely coming to an end – crankycon.politicalbear.com 05/21/2009 In a day where I’ve already expressed agreement with [...]
The RNC needs to have a movie night. Let’s get them all together and have them watch Braveheart. Well really just one clip is needed, but the rest of the movie is good too.
Wallace to Robert Bruce:
“Men don’t follow titles, they follow courage…”
Show some backbone and get a few votes!