Tag: republicans

I reserve the right for *my* political party to wreck the day of *your* political party.

Reading this and this is more or less forcing me to remind folks of something: it is, in point of fact, perfectly legitimate for a political party to use its control of a state legislature to screw over the opposition party.  Note the use of the term ‘legitimate.’ I’m not saying that it’s nice or decent or even smart; merely that this is the life that we have chosen.

Case in point: Illinois legislature was, and is, heavily Democratic.  In 2010 the Republicans gained four federal Congressional seats, kept a fifth that they were expected to lose.  In 2011 the state legislature, having to redraw the maps anyway because Illinois was losing a seat*, engaged in ruthless redistricting.  In 2012 the Republicans lost five federal Congressional seats**  And that is how it works.  Partisan affiliation is not a protected class. You identify with a political party, you take the political party’s lumps.  Simple as that.   Don’t like that particular set of lumps?  Switch parties: maybe the new set of lumps will be more to your liking. Continue reading I reserve the right for *my* political party to wreck the day of *your* political party.

IRS rank-and-file STILL not getting it?

The first step in fixing a problem is to admit that you have one*.

Oh, pity this poor, poor, put-upon Cincinnati office anonymous IRS lawyer. S/he wrote in to Robert Anderson’s Witnesseth blog after Anderson noted that campaign contributions among IRS lawyers skewed heavily towards Democrats (government lawyers in general do, really).  After complaining a bit about that awful Republican party, and its hostility towards government lawyers, the government lawyer finished up:

…if there is a lack of political diversity among federal government attorneys, it can be attributed almost entirely to the Republican Party agenda.  That agenda makes me, and other federal government attorneys, very uneasy.

Hey!  You know what makes me uneasy?  IRS lawyers who go around and deliberately target conservative groups and individuals in order to further a partisan agenda that originated in Washington, DC.  Guess which one of us has a trail of evidence justifying said unease. Continue reading IRS rank-and-file STILL not getting it?

Charlie Cook: GOP should (air quotes) ‘start’ leaking dirt on Obama to press.

Charlie Cook has some very nasty, very vicious, and very enterta… I mean, cruel… advice for Republicans:

…as much as congressional Republicans are enjoying their schadenfreude, they would be well advised to think long and hard about their next steps. Even the most cursory look at opinion polls or focus groups reveals that the public is convinced we have an ineffectual and out-of-touch Congress that spends too much time backbiting, grandstanding, and Monday-morning quarterbacking while the country’s problems fester. Arguably, showboating for the cameras and holding hearings are what Congress does best; the temptation is unavoidable.

Republicans would be much wiser to pursue a third option: Dig up as much damaging information as they can about the Obama administration and leak it to reporters they know will write tough stories that won’t be traced back to the source. That way, the public won’t see the GOP as being obsessed with attacking the other side and playing gotcha at the expense of the big issues facing the country—the ones voters really care about.

Mind you, Charlie probably knows that this is highly redundant advice, too. NTIWKAAT, of course.

Moe Lane

BTW: The GOP just took control of Washington’s state Senate.

SURPRISE!

Democratic State Sens. Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon announced they would create a majority power-sharing coalition with Senate Republicans, throwing control of the chamber into question.

While the new coalition pledged to start preparing for next month’s session, Democratic leaders who now hold a slim majority signaled they will fight the proposal.

One wonders how, given that the existing plan has been signed off on by the entire incoming GOP state Senate Caucus.  The way the deal goes: Tom and Sheldon get to be in charge.  The Republicans get to control crucial committees like Ways and Means, Commerce and Labor, Health Care* – and, here’s the fun one: they get to pick the majority floor leader.  That’s the person who decides which bill goes to which committee, which is another way of saying “the person who can kill or save bills.”  The Democrats get… to play with the parks and beaches, of which I understand Washington state has some very nice examples.

So, basically, nobody you care about is getting hammered on this one. Continue reading BTW: The GOP just took control of Washington’s state Senate.

#rsrh I do not object to the Libertarians becoming Louisiana’s opposition party.

Because it’s starting to look like that might happen:

Subtract the results of the Second Congressional District, and it is possible that the votes for Libertarian and no party candidates in all of the other U.S. House contests will exceed those cast for Democrats across the rest of Louisiana, belying the notion that state Democrats are anywhere near a sustained and successful rebuilding effort.

The final qualifying statistics registered Republicans having one or more candidates in all six districts, in five of which they are favored overwhelmingly, Libertarians contesting all but the First, and Democrats competing in just three, and in the Second their Rep. Cedric Richmond is the heavy reelection favorite.

Continue reading #rsrh I do not object to the Libertarians becoming Louisiana’s opposition party.

Fast Eddie Rendell lays down markers for consideration by a Romney administration.

Business is business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hTa6Sfi2xRQ

 

Continue reading Fast Eddie Rendell lays down markers for consideration by a Romney administration.

Three predictions about the House’s post-Obamacare plans.

In order:

  • If Obamacare is overthrown, the House GOP will not receive any ungrudging positive press from the Media over having contingency plans in place for that result; but if Obamacare is upheld, they will be endlessly criticized for it.
  • The Democrats will make no real contingency plans whatsoever.
  • If Obamacare is overthrown, the lack of said contingency plans will not be held against the Democrats by the Media, despite the fact that ‘hope for the best, plan for the worst*’ is a cliche for a reason.

Just saying. Continue reading Three predictions about the House’s post-Obamacare plans.

Ten Media Truths for Conservative/Republican Legislators.

[UPDATE: Hi, Instapundit readers! The bad news is, I’m retired from politics (I’m concentrating on writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror: subscribe to my Patreon!).  The good news is, I still stand behind every word of this.  Which is one major reason why I’m retired: see Rules 2, 3, & particularly 4.]

This is the result of roughly ten years’ worth of looking on – sometimes horrified; sometimes amused; sometimes just bewildered – at our current Media environment.  Note that capital, by the way: I’m pretty much describing the Media as a singular and monolithic institution, mostly because on a practical level that’s pretty much how it acts towards conservatives/Republicans. Also,  I’m really not interested if individual Media-units feel bad about the more unsavory aspects of the paradigm that they’re supporting, either; guilt, like gratitude, is worth its weight in gold.

So let’s go. One final note: if you need a quick summary of this list… well, just remember the first truth and you’ll be fine. Continue reading Ten Media Truths for Conservative/Republican Legislators.

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.