The Republican Revolution: Real This Time?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

"Whenever you hear an euphemism, it means somebody is lying; and or is cowardly."

Fareed Zakaria's comments after the mid-term elections are challenging ones for Republicans. Last Friday, as a panelist on Bill Maher's show Real Time, Mr. Zakaira indirectly called Representative Darrell Issa (R - CA) a coward, when Issa danced around specifics on how Republicans could keep their promises of reducing the deficit by extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (which would cost the Treasury nearly 700 billion dollars over the next decade)*, and no cuts to the defense budget or entitlement programs such as Social Security or Medicare. Representative Issa never directly answered the question, and instead talked about working for a flatter tax code that would close "loop-holes," prompting Mr. Zakaira had to interject that really means you're raising taxes. The exchange starts around four minutes into the clip.

( More behind here. )

Of course the Republicans are already in some sense kicking the football already to 2012, and soft pedaling on their non-specific campaign promises, and instead doing everything not to work with President Obama or compromise on anything.

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*Dick Armey, chairman of the Tea Party affiliate FreedomWorks, say they would eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, whose budget is $167.5 million, approximately 0.01% of the federal deficit.

some thoughts on the Tea Party

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

"The challenge for these Tea Party people is to turn this into something constructive. Everybody knows what they are against, but what are they for? Have they got any constructive alternative to offer? Those same people who are mad also have a whole bunch of ideas on how to fix the problem." -Preston Manning

Tea Party types are quick to point out that there is no one Tea Party. There is no leadership. There is no platform. They are deliberately elusive on specifics because views are so varied. However there is a strong general sense of fiscal conservatism and strict constitutionality.

The story of the Tea Party, of course, is still unfolding. It would seem we're still just into the beginning chapters and the story is intriguing. Whether this populist movement grows into a third party with leadership, competitive funding, a caucus, and a platform has yet to be seen. But it seems this is the natural path that a movement with such momentum ought to take, er, will take.
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Sean Hannity's Idea of a Great American

[paft.livejournal.com]

No, not this guy:

Democratic Congrssional Candidate Bob Filner minutes after being harassed by a mob of his opponent’s suppoerters:

I’ve been through worse violence than this. I was in the Civil Rights movement in the 50s and 60s, I’ve been attacked with clubs and sticks by far better people than these. They really don’t understand what civil discourse and politics means. Politics has to be a civil discourse…

( Read more )

Stop me if you've heard this one

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Three men are in a small row-boat. The man on the right leans far out over the side. The man in the front, senses that the boat is about to capsize, and advises the man on the left to move to the center.

For years I've been hearing people complain that the representatives of "Party _____" are not Left/Right enough and thus do not represent the true views of thier constituents, so I'm going to ask a question that borders on blasphemy.

"Is partisan infighting really such a bad thing?" (assuming of course that it doesn't turn into actual fighting)

Afterall, what's the point of voting if there's no real differance between the canidates. Maybe gridlock and obstructionism are not bugs but features.