gop – Page 3 – Moe Lane

Democrats still not quite grokking that #shutdown is a tool for the GOP.

The rebels ultimately hope to push Democrats to accept some sort of compromise that delays or in some way limits Obamacare. But if they fail — and Democrats have remained rock-solid on Obamacare to this point — they envision a situation in which, for as long as the shutdown goes on, they are able to fund popular government programs while leaving some key Democrat-friendly outposts shuttered. For example, while they want to fund the Pentagon, are the Republican rebels OK with the fact that most of the Environmental Protection Agency is shut down? They are. Are they worried about furloughs at the National Labor Relations Board? Not particularly.

This is much more fun if it’s a surprise.

Moe Lane

PS: Seriously, someone did consider the possibility that the GOP would not exactly be weeping over the idea of demonstrating just how much of the federal government can be sent home in case of an alien invasion or something? I swear to God, I should be a consultant.

So, the Shedite* that preys on Republican candidate’s brains…

…and make them go out and insult roughly 80% of the party seems to have jumped from Jon Huntsman to Peter King. And thank God for that: Huntsman was actually more or less all right, before he went nuts and started screaming about the political views of the half of the country that he presumably wanted to vote for him.

King, on the other hand, is… well. I’m sure that he will have an exciting media career ahead of him.

Moe Lane

*Oh, sorry, my bad: I’m using technical jargon. Imaginary type of demon that invades people’s minds and makes them do more and more awful things, then jumps to another host when things get too hot. Classic Monster In My Head, in other words. See also the roleplaying game In Nomine… no, not Fallen: well, yes, see Fallen, but if anything ripped off anything else it was the movie ripping off the game, not the other way around.

I… do not care if the Iowa GOP is unhappy that it may lose influence in the 2016 election.

You should have seen what I wrote originally. Swear words were involved. Anyway, Iowa’s worried that it may not have the influence that it once had over the Republican primaries:

On the surface, Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses seem healthier than ever: would-be candidates are flocking here mere months after the last White House race ended, drawing sizable crowds and ample news coverage. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania were in this central Iowa college town for a Christian conservative conference this month, and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has come to the state twice since May.

But Iowa’s political leaders, always looking ahead to the next campaign, worry that looks can be deceiving and that the prized role of the Republican caucuses is in jeopardy.

Of course, the NYT gets it precisely backward: they think that Iowa’s travails are, wait for it, wait for it… due to the conservatives taking over the nomination process! In reality, what propels a lot of national Republican disgust towards the Iowa caucuses is the way that they require Republican candidates to pretend that propping up fuel ethanol production is not a poor-person-killing abomination before the Lord, if said candidates want to compete in that state. That would be bad enough, except that Iowa has also turned out for the Democrat in the last two elections, and the last three out of four. It’s bad enough that we have to betray good, conservative free-market principles; it’s kind of infuriating that we don’t even get good value for our souls. Continue reading I… do not care if the Iowa GOP is unhappy that it may lose influence in the 2016 election.

Evergreen title: “The rumors of the GOP’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

I’m going to use a bit of Sean’s quote here, because I know that he’ll forgive me:

The story buried by the national media’s fixation with Hillary Clinton’s next move is the solid bench that Republicans have been efficiently building – not just in Democrat-blue Pennsylvania, but across the country – since her husband left office in 2000.

[snip]

“The presidency is one election, and Democrats and Republicans have basically been alternating it for the better part of a decade now,” said Sean Trende, elections analyst at RealClearPolitics. “But it is the GOP that is ascendant down-ballot.”

Trende explains that, in 2010, Republicans won around 54 percent of state house and senate seats nationally; the number fell slightly in 2012, to 53 percent of state senate and 52 percent of state house seats.

“Part of the disparity comes from the fact that not all the state senate seats were up in 2012,” he said. “But overall, Democrats pay the same penalty in state legislative districts that they pay in congressional districts” – their coalition has become too geographically concentrated to function well in legislative races.

Continue reading Evergreen title: “The rumors of the GOP’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

Attention, Republican Senators planning any random pushback against the administration…

…and/or any public spectacles along those lines: April 10th is your target date. I repeat: April 10th is your target date.

President Barack Obama will launch a new round of schmoozing with his political opponents when he sits down to dinner with a dozen Republican senators on April 10.

Obama has been trying to gain Republican cooperation on a host of items on his second-term agenda including a deficit-reduction package, an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws and a tightening of gun regulations.

(Via Instapundit) Now, Senator Paul’s filibuster was genuinely spontaneous and genuinely compelling, so I would recommend that any Senators that are aiming to misbehave not try to reproduce it; instead, they should try to come up with something new. Perhaps someone could put together a… no, wait, this is a public forum. Any Congressional staffers interested in tactical suggestions or ideas should feel free to contact me privately. Continue reading Attention, Republican Senators planning any random pushback against the administration…

#rsrh Joe Biden To Open His Mouth in Tampa during GOP convention.

Five bucks says Joe Biden shows up at said convention, somehow gets up on the podium, and introduces Tim Scott (R, SC-01) as the President of the United States. By accident.

See also Hot Air and AoSHQ for more mockery.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Joe Biden To Open His Mouth in Tampa during GOP convention.

#rsrh Kevin Dewine resigns as OH GOP chairman.

A rather nasty war in Ohio is now over:

Under unrelenting pressure from Gov. John Kasich and his political aides, Kevin DeWine will announce his resignation tonight as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party.

DeWine, 44, has prepared a letter to the 66 members of the GOP state central committee, saying he will step down when the party’s governing body meets to reorganize on April 13.

And that’s more or less everything that I’m going to say on the subject, past the obligatory “Thank God it’s over.” It was… a bit of a mess.

#rsrh On the not-really-odd Romney/Paul supposed Grand Alliance.

I think that a lot of people may be over-analyzing the supposed strategic alliance between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. It’s pretty simple, I think:

Ron Paul would like to have some influence over the GOP. Particularly since his son’s now a US Senator, and probably will be one for a while.
Ron Paul cannot get a direct position of power, because when it comes to foreign policy he’s nuts. That means the best that he can hope for is influence.
Ron Paul cannot hope for influence with Rick Santorum. Paul is rumored to be somewhat… well, I hear that he’s got libertarian leanings; and Santorum despises libertarians*.
Ron Paul cannot hope for influence with Newt Gingrich. Gingrich will find it impossible to tolerate Paul’s commentary on foreign policy for any length of time.
Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are actually friends, and Romney would very much like to have support from a portion of the GOP base that’s, well, enthusiastic.
And there aren’t any more viable candidates at this point.

So. Seems obvious enough. Paul needs access; Romney needs energy. Deals may be made, under such circumstances.

Moe Lane

*To be fair, they’re happy to return the favor.

#rsrh ‘Zounds*! Frum threatens to leave the GOP!

This is staggering!

Any other nominee [besides Romney or Huntsman] would gravely test my commitment to the political party I’ve supported since I entered the United States as a college student in the fall of 1978.

Continue reading #rsrh ‘Zounds*! Frum threatens to leave the GOP!

Debt & Jobs dominate GOP FoxNews/Google debate question requests.

Let me explain this one: there’s a debate Thursday that’s being sponsored by FoxNews & Google. Google is letting people submit questions via YouTube – frankly, this has more than a slight whiff of gimmick about it, but let’s roll with the notion for a moment. The preliminary survey of submitted questions indicate that the top two categories of questions submitted are “Government Spending” and Debt (17%) and “Jobs & Economy” (16%), with “Social Issues” (12%) and “Energy and Environment” (9%) being the next two. By my calculations, that means that roughly 54% of the questions being submitted involve one of those four topics, which I think that we can all agree are legitimately of interest to Republican voters, yes?

Well, WE HAVE YET TO HAVE A 2012 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY DEBATE WHERE FIFTY-FOUR PERCENT OF THE QUESTIONS WERE LEGITIMATELY OF INTEREST TO REPUBLICAN VOTERS. We have, instead, had inane questions at worst and invitations to intra-debate sniping at best. I for one am getting tired of it. And, apparently, I’m not the only one, either. Continue reading Debt & Jobs dominate GOP FoxNews/Google debate question requests.