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Neocon Nuttery
See other Neocon Nuttery Articles

Title: Palin, Limbaugh, Beck … Now It’s Republicans Seeing The Downside
Source: Christian Science Monitor
URL Source: http://features.csmonitor.com/polit ... publicans-seeing-the-downside/
Published: Oct 3, 2009
Author: Brad Knickerbocker
Post Date: 2009-10-03 14:40:37 by Brian S
Ping List: *Sarah Palin 2012*     Subscribe to *Sarah Palin 2012*
Keywords: None
Views: 437
Comments: 8

Some moderate conservatives see danger in the vociferous right, especially among broadcast pot-stirrers. They want to advance the GOP by changing the tone.

“I am not a member of any organized party,” Will Rogers famously quipped. “I am a Democrat.” Then there were those old jokes about Democrats forming “circular firing squads.”

But these days, it seems like Republicans are the ones duking it out with each other … or at least examining where they are and where they should be headed after recent electoral drubbings.

Mainstream Republicans are looking at the loudest of the conservative voices — Sarah Palin and the most prominent of the talk-show types (Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al) — and concluding that the GOP needs to do something different if it’s to succeed.

Steve Schmidt, former campaign strategist for John McCain, said Friday that nominating former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for president in 2012 would be “catastrophic” for the party.

“In the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond the base,” Schmidt said at a forum sponsored by The Atlantic magazine and web site.

“The independent vote is going to be up for grabs in 2012,” he said. “That middle of the electorate is going to be determinative of the outcome of the elections. I just don’t see that if you look at the things she has done over the year … that she is going to expand that base in the middle.”

Meanwhile, Schmidt’s old boss “is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image,” reports politico.com. That means recruiting candidates, raising money, and campaigning on their behalf.

“Those familiar with McCain’s thinking say he has expressed serious concern about the direction of the party and is actively seeking out and supporting candidates who can broaden the party’s reach. In McCain’s case, that means backing conservative pragmatists and moderates.”

Speaking at the same two-day Atlantic event as Schmidt, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina said party leaders need to call out “birthers” and other conspiracy theorists on the right. “Say, ‘You’re crazy.’ In a respectful way.”

Graham dismissed Rush Limbaugh as someone who “makes hundreds of millions of dollars being able to talk on the radio.” And of today’s hottest conservative/libertarian phenomenon he said, “Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party as far as I can tell. He’s aligned with cynicism, and there’s always been a market for cynicism.”

But perhaps the most devastating critique of the vociferous right — from the right — comes from David Brooks, resident conservative columnist at The New York Times.

Referring to them as “media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party,” Brooks wrote this week:

“The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the GOP. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time.”

Is this tug toward the center by prominent middle-of-the-road conservatives likely to succeed?

“Much of the party is fonder of Palin than of McCain, and thinks that the catastrophe was in nominating him; in their version of events, going with McCain meant selling out conservatism and inviting disaster,” writes Gabriel Winant at salon.com. “This kind of thinking sends a party into a downward spiral. The GOP base is likely to view McCain’s current efforts, and Schmidt’s comments, not as healthy argument, but as a corrupting influence.”

No surprise in Rush Limbaugh’s response to the current hoo-hah.

“I think it’s time for the McCain crowd to acknowledge they are losers and pack it in,” he emailed political blogger Greg Sargent. “They’ve done enough damage to the Republican Party. Move aside and let a brighter, more principled, and more competent generation of people clean up the mess they helped create.” Subscribe to *Sarah Palin 2012*

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#1. To: Brian S (#0)

The Republicans are nothing more than Democrats other than a time lag of initiatives to make the USA a third world nation. The next Republican that discusses a "better and bright future" shall only move forward with Obama's already enacted false promises and hopes.

It is a Marxist dialectic phenomena wherein the major parties have no principles; this is proof positive America is being thrown to the wayside based upon tyranny, corruption and deceit by everyone that elected to office.

“Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves.”

buckeroo  posted on  2009-10-03   14:51:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Brian S. all (#0)

Here's the NewsMax ad that we were all awaiting -

Newsmax.com

Breaking from Newsmax.com Sarah Palin’s New Book Hits #1 on Amazon

Sarah Palin's upcoming memoir is already the top bestselling book on the shopping sites of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, a month and a half before the book goes on sale.

The memoir from last year's Republican vice-presidential candidate, titled "Going Rogue: An American Life," is scheduled for release on November 17, four months after the book deal was announced and much earlier than planned. [The book immediately hit the #1 spot on Amazon’s non-fiction bestseller list and has consistently remained there.]

Special: Get Sarah Palin’s New Book with Newsmax’s Incredible FREE Offer — Click Here Now.

Iran Truth Now!

Lod  posted on  2009-10-03   14:51:28 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Brian S (#0)

The "moderate conservatives" (or "lib'ruls" as Limbaugh would call them) have nowhere to go. They don't have enough people themselves to form a new party and they can't stand "the base" (aka GOP Al Qaeda).

The U.S. is finished as a major power. There is no political solution coming from the left, right or center. Brushing up on survivalist skills is about all one can do at this point.

“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston

Sam Houston  posted on  2009-10-03   15:13:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Lod (#2)

[The book immediately hit the #1 spot on Amazon’s non-fiction bestseller list and has consistently remained there.]

I'm not surprised. If you remember, the stupid people in this nation bought Pet Rocks and even gave them funerals when they got tired of them. There seems to be a lot of those kind of people here on forum.

LACUMO  posted on  2009-10-03   15:23:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Brian S (#0) (Edited)

Meanwhile, Schmidt’s old boss “is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image,”

That's what killed the party to start with. So in order to save the party they want to do more of the same and call it change. Where have I heard that one before?

“The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the GOP.

Correlation is not causation.


"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute." --Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

farmfriend  posted on  2009-10-03   15:28:08 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Brian S (#0)

Steve Schmidt, former campaign strategist for John McCain,

How can this even be uttered at all. "Strategist" has lost all meaning.

Party Politics is wasting the nation's wealth.

The U.S. Govt is a tyrannical butcher; U.S. taxpayers are accomplices to international murder and mayhem. If you satisfy your fears by bowing to this butcher, you forfeit your humanity and possibly your soul.

noone222  posted on  2009-10-04   8:30:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: noone222 (#6)

How can this even be uttered at all. "Strategist" has lost all meaning.

Party Politics is wasting the nation's wealth.

Right on!

The only strategist and the only time it should be mentioned is when the citizens militia is up and taking back America.

LACUMO  posted on  2009-10-04   8:59:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Lod (#2)

"Going Rogue: An American Life,"

The title seems almost suggestive of an indy run for prez.

TooConservative  posted on  2009-10-04   11:01:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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