Author: Blue Texan

Pictured: Tony Perkins is not a fan of teabagging.

My sense has always been that the Teabagger crowd is more glibertarian than fundie, but these comments from the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins–one of the most important right-wing Christian leaders in the Bush/Rove coalition–betray a real hostility brewing.

There’s no centralized tea party organization, and anecdotes suggest that many tea party participants hold socially conservative views. But those views have been little in evidence at movement gatherings or in public statements, and are sometimes deliberately excluded from the political agenda. The groups coordinating them eschew social issues, and a new Contract From America, has become an article of concern on the social right.

The contract, sponsored by the grass-roots Tea Party Patriots as well as Washington groups such as FreedomWorks and Americans for Tax Reform, asks supporters to choose the 10 most important issues from a menu of 21 choices that makes no mention of socially conservative priorities such as gay marriage and abortion.

“They’re free to do it, but they can’t say [the contract] represents America,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a veteran of the Christian right. “If they do it they’re lying.”

Woah.

Tony Perkins, who had veto power over Bush’s SCOTUS picks, just called the Teabaggers a bunch of un-American liars, while pissing all over their oh-so-awesome Contract.

And how do we know this is a serious problem for the Teabaggers? Because wingnut bloggers are freaking out over this piece. For example, after failing to note the scathing remarks by Perkins and Mike Huckabee, Teabagger-in-Chief Glenn Reynolds rushes to assure everyone that everything’s just peachy.

I think they’re afraid of this movement, and since marginalizing it hasn’t worked, they’re trying to divide it.

Smells like fear to me.

Tags: Glenn Reynolds, Religious Right, Tea Party, teabaggers, Tony Perkins, Wingnuttia

While Democrats fret over whether we should investigate BushCo torture, Republicans move to investigate teh gay.

The scandal around disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Massa rocked Capitol Hill again Thursday as Republicans forced ethics officials to take another look at sordid charges of sexual harassment – and how they were handled. […]

“Speaker Pelosi once promised the American people ‘the most open and ethical’ Congress in history, but she has broken that promise,” Boehner said.

And so it goes.

Tags: Early Morning Swim, Nancy Pelosi

Pictured: noted American hero and political philosopher Jefferson Davis.

It’s official. The Texas School Board is close to overtaking George W. Bush as the single most embarrassing thing about the state.

Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks.

In other words, Phyllis Schlafly, the Moral Majority and the NRA are now super important, while stuff like the Civil Rights movement and the New Deal–overrated. And since Texas buys a lot of school books, the state has a disproportionate effect on texts nationally, so everyone’s screwed.

Look away!

References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.

Now I was under the impression that Jefferson Davis’ central idea was to commit high treason against the United States and start a war that killed over 600,000 Americans–all in the defense of white supremacy and slavery.

But that’s probably a result of many years of librul brainwashing, which these new conservative texts will presumably correct.

Tags: conservatives, Texas School Board, Wingnuttia

Good.

Rep. Bart Stupak, the pro-life Democrat from Michigan who has made legislative language over abortion funding a flashpoint in the debate over health care reform, is now facing a primary challenger from the left. Connie Saltonstall, a former Charlevoix County commissioner and retired businesswoman from Charlevoix, Mich. who announced her primary challenge Tuesday.

“The main issue is he was willing to sacrifice health care reform because of abortion funding,” Saltonstall told CNN. “He’s been my congressman for many years. I have compromised voting for him because of his position on choice. Health care and choice are two issues I am especially concerned about.”

It’s great that she’s challenging him, but she shouldn’t reinforce his lies. It’s not about abortion funding, because that’s not in the bill.

It’s about Bart Stupak.

Tags: Bart Stupak, Early Morning Swim, Rachel Maddow

John Hagee, issuing a fatwa.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared the stage with extremist “Christian Zionist” John Hagee at a rally for “Christians United for Israel.”

Speaking to a roaring crowd of more than 1,000 members of Christians United for Israel at the Jerusalem Convention Center on Monday night, Pastor John Hagee reaffirmed his organization’s unwavering support for the Jewish state and Jewish people around the world, during the group’s annual Night to Honor Israel.

However, the San Antonio, Texas-based Hagee also warned the crowd about the threat of a nuclear Iran and labeled that country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the “Hitler of the Middle East.”

Remember, Hagee is the Texas-based whackjob who espouses such extreme and hateful views that the Republican candidate for president of the United States was forced to publicly reject in 2008.

And yet here he is, sharing the state with Israel’s Prime Minister.

As Netanyahu took the stage to a standing ovation, he returned the pastor’s warm words, telling him and the crowd, “I salute you, the people of Israel salute you, the Jewish people salute you.”

So Netanyahu “salutes” a religious extremist, right after of Israel publicly humiliates the Vice President of the United States by pursuing a policy opposed by every US president since Ronald Reagan.

Remind me: which country is the “threat to peace” in the Middle East again?

Tags: Christian Zionism, Christianism, Israel

• Republicans bash Roe v. Wade all the time, so Roberts can STFU.
• Obama > Democrats in Congress > Republicans in Congress.
• Mmmm-mmm, taste that pork.
• Nice way for an “ally” to act, eh?
• Always nice to see Beck get played for a fool.

Tags: Early Morning Swim, Glenn Beck

It’s pretty clear Marco Rubio is going to be the Republican candidate for US Senate in Florida. He’s crushing Charlie Crist, who was a popular Republican governor until he had the gall to support a black muslim’s generational theft the stimulus bill, the funds of which Rubio has admitted he would’ve accepted.

Anyway, Byron York’s sickening beat sweetener contains this little nugget about what Rubio thinks are the “central” issues of the times.

For Rubio, that means the economic issues — “national debt, job creation, how our tax code and government spending are discouraging job creation, and entitlement reform.”

This list could’ve been written on Sarah Palin’s hand. Let’s roll the tape, shall we?

The national debt doubled under George W. Bush and tripled under Reagan. George W. Bush had the worst job creation record in 60 years. Taxes are historically low and have been for twenty years.

But Rubio wants to continue the policies that produced all of those outcomes.

And notice: no mention about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their $4 trillion dollar price tag, and how that’s affecting the deficit. No mention of the spiraling costs of health care, and how that’s bankrupting the country. No mention of the annual $700B bill for “defense.”

Just a vague reference “entitlement reform” — which means “less money for poor and old people.” And of course, Rubio can’t mention Social Security by name in Florida, so he just punts.

What you see in Rubio is what you see with the Republican Party as a whole today — a complete pathological refusal to accept any responsibility for the failures of Republican policies, which produces an utter unseriousness in dealing with the country’s challenges.

It really is the perfect party for Sarah Palin.

Tags: Marco Rubio, Republicans, Senate

Doesn’t he realize that Rahm needs a “win”?

Kucinich’s objections are sincere. And Obama and Pelosi would be wise to listen to them — rather than simply try and “whip” the congressman to vote for legislation that can still be improved.

In particular, Kucinich has demanded that barriers to states developing single-payer “Medicare for All” programs be removed. Kucinich wants Congress to waive existing federal restrictions and to address federal laws that might be interpreted as supporting insurance company suits against states that provide more extensive coverage than is currently proposed by the president.

White House strategists and congressional leaders should know that Kucinich is not an outlier on this issue. The congressman has gained strong support for his practical proposals regarding state-based experimentation with “Medicare for All” initiatives — on key House committees, among members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and from real-reform backers such as the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Progressive Democrats of America and Physicians for a National Healthcare Program.

He doesn’t sound like he’s in the mood to compromise.

Tags: Dennis Kucinich, Early Morning Swim, Health care

The nation is suffering its worst economic slump since the 1930s. 10% of the country is out of work, many more have given up looking for a job, and even those Americans who are fortunate enough to be employed are struggling to make ends meet under the burden of higher medical costs.

Kind of an odd time to be worried about the Estate Tax.

Lobbyists for small businesses, construction companies, manufacturers and other trade groups are racing the clock to convince Congress to reinstate the federal estate tax they’ve fought for years to abolish. The National Federation of Independent Business and more than 40 business organizations wrote Senate and House leaders last week asking for quick action on a proposed 35 percent levy on inheritances worth more than $10 million per couple.

[…]

The groups have changed positions in a bid to head off higher taxes on the horizon: Unless Congress acts, current law would raise the tax next year to 55 percent on estates after they exceed $2 million per couple, from nothing this year.

Don’t you feel the urgency people?! There are desperate millionaires out there who will pay higher taxes UNLESS WE ACT NOW!!!11!1

Blanche to the rescue!

Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl and Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln have proposed setting the rate at 35 percent, retroactive to Jan. 1. The measure would apply to the portion of estates that exceed $10 million per couple, and would adjust that exemption for inflation in later years.

Extra style points for teaming up with Jon Kyl, there, Blanche.

And here’s the kicker.

The legislation pushed by Kyl and Lincoln, exempting $10 million per couple from taxation, would affect 3,030 taxpayers this year, including 310 business owners or farmers, according to Tax Policy Center estimates.

Don’t have a job? Don’t have health care? Tough shit. Got an estate worth $10M? Blanche is ready to help.

Donate to Bill Halter’s campaign.

Tags: Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, DINOs, estate tax, Senate

This again?

“I don’t care who you are, … this is funny.”

Thus began an e-mail that Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, sent to to a few friends, the president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and several members of the press.

It continues by comparing First Lady Michelle Obama to Tarzan’s chimpanzee sidekick Cheeta. There are two photos at the bottom — one of Obama with an awkward pursing of her lips and another of a chimp.

You think they would’ve learned their lesson by now.

St. Petersburg, FL.

The president-elect of the Pinellas County Medical Association stepped down Friday, apologizing profusely for forwarding an e-mail image that portrayed President Barack Obama as a witch doctor in a loin cloth and headdress with bones in his nose.

Inland Empire, California.

The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women’s group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles.

The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps — instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of “Obama Bucks” — a phony $10 bill featuring Obama’s face on a donkey’s body, labeled “United States Food Stamps.”

Arlington, Tennessee.

In the opinion of Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman, President Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday night on the war in Afghanistan was deliberately timed to block the Christian message of the “Peanuts” television Christmas special.

“Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’….”

St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Republican candidate for an open Minnesota Senate seat is apologizing for comments posted on his Twitter account about President Barack Obama and Democrats.

One of the posts on businessman Mike Parry’s account called Obama a “Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man,” while the other said “whats with the Dems and Pedophiles?” Both were dated in May.

Tampa, Florida.

Carol Carter resigned her post Thursday as a state Republican committeewoman after the St. Petersburg Times reported she forwarded a racist e-mail post. “I’m confused,” the e-mail read, contrasting President Obama’s inauguration with Hurricane Katrina. “How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, D.C., in one day in subzero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?”

Dallas, Texas.

Diann Jones, a vice chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, has apologized for an e-mail that some high-ranking judges denounced as racist. […]  The war of words began a week ago when Jones sent an e-mail to local Republican clubs, rallying support against a state bill that would have imposed a $50 tax on guns.

“Another terrific idea from the black house and its minions,” Jones wrote.

Orange County, CA.

The [Republican] mayor of Los Alamitos said he will resign after coming under fire for an e-mail depicting the White House lawn as a watermelon patch, saying the controversy over racism has made it difficult to lead the city. Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The announcement came less than a week after he sent the e-mail, which had a picture of the White House lawn planted with watermelons and the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

Tampa, FL.

Al Austin, a high-level Republican fundraiser from Tampa, sent an e-mail to his list of his political contacts Wednesday containing a joke that refers to the assassination of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

In an interview, Austin said it was a mistake and apologized, that he hadn’t fully read the e-mail and wouldn’t knowingly have circulated it.

Caldwell, Idaho.

A southwestern Idaho county commissioner has apologized for circulating an e-mail comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider.

Republican Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule received the e-mail from a family member on his county account, then forwarded it to 26 people earlier this month. […]

The e-mail read, “The female has a very wide backside, is black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her belly. You can find this spider in: Closets, wood piles, under beds and soon the White House.”

Columbia, South Carolina.

Indigo Journal, a liberal blog in South Carolina, reports that GOP operative Mike Green posted a racist joke about President Obama on his Twitter account over the weekend…Green posted this, then deleted it some time later: JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT’S WHITE AND IT WORKS.

Denver, Colorado.

State Sen. David Schultheis said he didn’t intend for a Twitter post accusing President Barack Obama of “flying the U.S. plane right into the ground” and ending with “let’s roll” as a threat or a reference to United Flight 93, which crashed during the 2001 terrorist attacks. […] Schultheis’ full tweet Tuesday was: “Don’t for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let’s roll.“

South Carolina.

A prominent S.C. Republican Party activist is in hot water after describing an escaped gorilla at a South Carolina zoo as an “ancestor” of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The exchange occurred after Trey Walker, an advisor to S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, posted an innocuous Facebook update about this morning’s escape of a Western Lowlands Gorilla from Columbia’s Riverbanks Zoo.

Walker’s harmless update, however was followed by a highly-questionable comment from longtime SCGOP activist and former State Senate candidate, Rusty DePass.

“I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless,” DePass wrote.

Nashville, TN.

The chairman of Tennessee’s Democratic Party wants a Republican legislative aide fired for sending out a “reprehensible” e-mail depicting President Obama as two cartoonish white eyes peering from a black background. Sherri Goforth, a Tennessee state senator’s aide, said she mistakenly sent the image “to the wrong list of people.”

Obama’s image is in the last square of a collage containing portraits of the previous 43 U.S. presidents. The e-mail, which was sent to other GOP staff members, was posted on the Internet Monday.

It appears that they just can’t help themselves.

Tags: Barack Obama, GOP, Michelle Obama, racism

Bill Halter’s campaign points out that Blanche Lincoln’s remarkably bad new spot — in which she rails against “money for Wall Street” — is misleading, to say the least.

In fact Senator Lincoln voted to fund a massive, no-strings-attached bailout for Wall Street on October 1, 2008 when she voted for H.R. 1424, the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, also known as TARP, Halter said in the statement.

“Senator Lincoln has received over a million dollars from the exact special interests she claims to be saying no to. Taking their money and claiming to fight for average Arkansans just doesn’t wash. That is not how Lieutenant Governor Halter does business,” said Halter spokesperson Bud Jackson.

So Blanche responds like she always does. She trashes the left.

“If we want to talk about misleading advertising, we might look at Bill’s first ad,” Patterson said. “It puts a football in his hands and highlights his humble roots when, in fact, he’s a multimillionaire who somehow talked labor unions into paying off a half-million-dollar campaign debt to himself with the union dues of their members so he can run for higher office.”

Uh-huh. AFL-CIO’s support of Halter has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Blanche screwed them on EFCA and screwed them on Craig Becker. It’s all because Bill Halter “somehow” talked them into it.

How many more traditional Democratic constituents Blanche can alienate before election day? She’s off to a great start.

Donate to Bill Halter’s campaign.

Tags: Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, DINOs, Labor, Senate

Idiot.

Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak (D) threatened Thursday to block health care reform (again) because it might allow federal money to subsidize abortion. Which has Democratic leaders cooking up Rube Goldberg-like schemes to supposedly assure that any abortions would be funded only out of the premium dollars people paid themselves for coverage in new insurance exchanges, not via any federal subsidy. But this entire debate is ridiculous, because the feds already subsidize abortions massively, via the giant tax subsidy for employer-provided care. Today the feds devote at least $250 billion a year to subsidizing employer-based coverage, a subsidy that skews incentives horribly (but which big business and big labor wouldn’t let the politicians touch this year). A Guttmacher Institute study says that 87 percent of typical employer plans cover abortion, and a Kaiser study found that 46 percent of covered workers had abortion coverage.

Heckuva job, Bart.

Tags: Bart Stupak, Early Morning Swim, health care bill

Take a look at this brand new Lincoln campaign spot. I’m trying to decide what the most tone-deaf aspect of it is.

Is it that:

• She brags about her opposition to the public option when 83% of Arkansas Democrats and 56% of Arkansans overall are in favor of it.
• She compares the public option, which would help middle and working class people have access to affordable health care, to TARP.
• She accuses the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress of literally throwing away the American people’s money.
• She claims to be accountable to “Arkansas” and not “her party” — which implies the Democratic Party doesn’t give a shit about Arkansas.

One Tough Lady? Let’s make Blanche One Former Senator.

Donate to Bill Halter’s campaign.

Tags: Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, Democrats, DINOs, Senate

Blanche Lincoln fires the opening shots of her primary battle with Bill Halter with a rather incoherent, rambling press release about his supposed wavering on the public option.

“Who does he think he’s fooling?” asked Lincoln’s campaign manager Steve Patterson.  “Bill is going to find he can’t have it both ways. Either he is with the majority of Arkansans and opposed to the public option, like Senator Lincoln, or he is with the national liberal establishment that is angry with her right now.“

Actually, the polls show that the majority of Arkansans favors a public option — including, wait for it — 81% of Arkansas Democrats. So Patterson is just lying there.

But then the press release goes on to criticize Halter’s support for the Medicare buy-in, noting that it’s “Not exactly the robust public option his supporters from the blogosphere are calling for and using to raise campaigns funds.”

Huh? As Max Brantley smartly points out,

Lincoln seems to be critical of Halter on health for 1) being for a “public option,” which she opposes in any form, and 2) not being for a suitably robust public option, as some liberal supporters prefer.

Strong start there, Blanche.

Donate to Bill Halter’s campaign.

Tags: Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, DINOs, health care reform, public option, Senate

This is literally the most nauseating episode of “Punch the Hippies” I’ve ever seen on cable news. Someone might remind Larry and Kent that it’s the “centrists” who are screwing the pooch.

Conservative Democrats are making it very clear that they’ll switch their vote and kill the bill down the line if the public option doesn’t get stripped out of it.

“Let me be perfectly clear,” Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said on the floor of the Senate. “I am opposed to a new government administered health care plan as a part of comprehensive health insurance reform, and I will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by Leader Reid as it is written…. I’ve already alerted the Leader and I’m promising my colleagues that I’m prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government-run public option is included.”

“Centrists” like Kent Conrad and Blanche Lincoln have been in total control of the Senate for a year. If Conrad doesn’t think they’re getting enough done, it’s on them. They own it.

Tags: DINOs, Early Morning Swim, Kent Conrad, Media

A couple weeks ago, I made the case that Texas Democrats should vote Hutchison in today’s Republican gubernatorial primary, and the latest Rasmussen poll offers more ammunition for that strategy.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Republican Primary voters finds Perry leading Senate Kay Bailey Hutchison 48% to 27%, with Tea Party activist Debra Medina earning 16% of the vote. Nine percent (9%) of Texas GOP voters remain undecided.

Again, we want Perry to finish under 50% today, triggering an automatic runoff between him and (presumably) Hutchison. He will then be forced to spend millions of dollars fighting off Hutchison’s negative attacks, thereby softening him up nicely for the excellent Democratic candidate Bill White.

White, who is the strongest candidate the Texas Democratic party has fielded for governor in years, is in absolutely no danger of losing to the erm, idiosyncratic Farouk Shami, who’s polling in the low teens.

Find your polling place here.

Tags: Bill White, primaries, Republicans, State politics, Texas Politics

It’s not about left, right and center, Mr. Chairman — it’s about accountability.

“Accountability is a good thing. People voted for change in ’08 and feel like they’re not getting the change they voted for,” said Steve Rosenthal, a veteran Democratic strategist and former top AFL-CIO official. “No doubt, some of these races are a reaction to the voters’ demand for change.”

[…]

“People really want [Lincoln] out. We really wanted a recruit,” said high-profile liberal blogger Jane Hamsher.

“This is Ned Lamont No. 2,” she said, referring to the progressive grass-roots-embraced candidate who defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in a 2006 Democratic primary, only to lose to the incumbent in November when Lieberman ran on a different ballot line.

Anyone out there think it was a bad idea to mount a primary against Lieberman?

Tags: Early Morning Swim

Here’s Blanche Lincoln’s response to the great news that Lt. Gov. Bill Halter of Arkansas is going to challenge her in the primary.

“I know that I am the target of both political extremes but that’s what makes this campaign so important to all of us. This Senate seat belongs to Arkansas, not to outside groups that are angry I don’t answer to them.“

Just so we’re clear: Bill Halter is a fourth-generation Arkansan, who grew up in North Little Rock, played high school football for Little Rock Catholic, is a trustee emeritus of Stanford University, and served in the Clinton administration’s OMB before serving as the state’s Lieutenant Governor. There’s nothing even a little bit “outside” or “extreme” about him.

But smearing Democratic activists is just what Blanche does. It’s who she is.

As I pointed out in January, do we really need a Democratic Senator who uses the word “liberal” as a pejorative?

Donate to Halter’s campaign here.

Tags: Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, DINOs, DLC, Senate

Would you pay $133 for this haircut?

“First Senator from the Tea Party” Marco Rubio got hammered last week when it came out that he ran up large personal expenses on the Florida GOP’s credit card — and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio admitted Friday that he double-billed state taxpayers and the Republican Party of Florida for eight plane tickets when he was speaker of the Florida House. Calling the billing “a mistake,” Rubio said in a written statement that he will personally repay the party about $3,000 to cover the flights because the trips in 2007 were for state business, not politics.

And Rubio still isn’t coming clean.

His campaign said Friday it had not identified any additional expenses that need to be repaid. The credit card records, however, indicate that at least some of Rubio’s personal expenses were covered by the party. […] Rubio’s campaign would not provide a list of all the personal expenses he repaid.

And here’s why. One tidbit that has emerged is that Rubio spends an embarassing amount of money on his hair.

Needless to say, Charlie Crist is having a lot of fun with that.

“What’s up with getting a $133 haircut? What is he a model? I don’t understand this kind of behavior and this is the guy that says he is going to spend less money? I spend $11 on a haircut,” said Crist.

George Will praised Rubio for his “spending restraint.” Guess that didn’t apply to his hair care.

Tags: Marco Rubio, Republican Hypocrisy, Tea Party, teabaggers, US Senate, Winguttia

photo by Gage Skidmore

I really can’t believe I’m writing this, but Michael Gerson hits the nail on the head this morning. Stopped clock, blind squirrel, etc., etc.

All those few, however, seemed to be in attendance at CPAC, determined to sharpen an ideological debate. In the name of constitutional purity, they propose a great undoing. Not just the undoing of Obamaism. Undo Medicare and Social Security. Undo the expansive American global commitments that proceeded from World War II and the Cold War. Undo progressive-era economic regulations. Undo the executive power grab that preserved the union. Undo it all — until America is left with a government appropriate to an isolated, 18th-century farming republic.

This is a proposal for time travel, not a policy agenda. The federal government could not shed these accumulated responsibilities without massive suffering and global instability — a decidedly radical, unconservative approach to governing.

Exactly. They are radicals. But this is exactly where the right is today — and not just the CPAC teabaggers.

Look at Paul Ryan’s plan to scrap Social Security and Medicare. Listen to Jim DeMint at CPAC, suggesting that the federal income tax is unconstitutional. Listen to Mike Huckabee, calling for the United States to withdraw from the UN. Look at Steve King’s efforts to repeal labor laws like Davis-Bacon. Consider the right’s decidedly unconstitutional zeal for torture. And remember, the John Birch Society was one of the sponsors of CPAC this year.

These aren’t fringe players in the Republican Party — they’re its leaders. And it’s a scandal that the national media still treat these people like they’re perfectly reasonable, responsible members of the opposition.

Tags: CPAC, Michael Gerson, Republicans, Tea Party, Wingnuttia