Fred Barnes has another great piece, this time in the Journal: The recipe for Republicans is to stop acting like, well, Republicans–that is, Republicans of recent vintage. In Congress, they’ve been soft on earmarks, the source of so much corruption. They practically invited Democrats to trump them on ethics and Read more…
The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes compares the Democrat’s losing (the war and the voters) position to Iraq to immigration: Yet Republicans are doing the same thing on another issue, trading away long-term gain for the immediate joy of pleasing voters who may (or may not) decide the winner of the Read more…
Yesterday, I wrote a response to Peter Beinart’s op-ed about the Republican Party and the conservative movement. I got some very positive feedback. My friend Patrick Hynes wrote on a related topic. Patrick’s thesis is basically: First, let’s be clear, American conservatism has devolved from a movement into an identity Read more…
Peter Beinart, fomerly of The New Republic and a victim of the anti-war online left, wrote an interesting op-ed in today’s WaPo. Basically, he compares the state of the GOP with the state of the Democrats in the 80s: Imitation may be flattering, but in this case, it comes with Read more…
Granite Grok has an important corrective to the discussion about Ames: I recognize that Mitt Romney gobbled up a lot of the hardcore GOP stalwarts early in the game. I have seen this for myself here in the Granite State. In an independently-orientating state like ours where more and more people are less Read more…
Open Left’s Matt Stoller argues here and here that there is an operative "conservative majority" in Congress right now. His basic thesis is summarized here: In particular, this comment by Paul Rosenberg is I think accurate, as he argues that we are facing a conservative but not right-wing Blue Dog/DLC Read more…
Patrick Ruffini wants a "Movement 2.0." While I agree with the sentiment, I want some specifics. Ruffini starts with: A common thread is that the other shoe won’t likely drop until we have Hillary to unite against. I’d like to pick apart that assumption. The basic assumption is sound. The Read more…
Eric Pfieffer from the Washington Times says, basically, that the Save the Debate coalition has won: The majority of Republican presidential candidates are backing off their objections to participating in the unconventional YouTube debate. Candidates’ reservations about the seriousness of the format, which features videotaped questions from voters, and the Read more…
Ultimately, politics comes done to winning two kinds of votes: elections and legislative votes. So when I see discussions about comparing the right and the left online, especially the current flavor du jour about a right’s YearlyKos, I want to make sure that a question is asked: what is it Read more…
And, perhaps, well he should. From the Sac(ramento) Bee: But in a telephone news conference Monday, NRCC Chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., indicated that the political ground has a way of shifting. "There’s a factor outside of normal politics that needs to be resolved," Cole said. "We’re keeping a close Read more…