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Jeb's lame ultimatum: Are you with the sane Republicans or Not?

"In South Carolina this afternoon, TX Gov. Rick Perry held a press conference to detail his economic plans," writes PJ Media's Bryan Preston: "The very first reporter tried distracting him by bringing up the birther nonsense. Perry was having none of it; he cut the reporter off in mid sentence, said the issue is a 'distraction' and put the focus right back on his plan … Every reporter who brings this up from now on should be treated with equal or greater contempt." Good to see a potential POTUS refusing to let the lamestream media control the narrative spin.

"Are you with the sane Republicans or Not? GOP voters need to decide," writes the WaPo's Jennifer Rubin, reporting on the contents of an exclusive and perhaps unwittingly snotty e-mail statement from Jeb Bush regarding the recent Rick Perry "birtherism" flap:

Republican candidates should categorically reject the notion that President Obama was not born in the United States. It is a complete distraction from the failed economic policies of the President.

You need to get out more, Jeb. As we wrote in comments at Commentary's Facebook page in response to Peter Wehner's similar scolding of the Perry campaign for lacking "discipline":

Seems to me the pussyfooting advice of old-school campaign advisers cautioning against saying anything controversial drains the life out of the authentic — if sometimes unpolished — American voices of the Tea Party favorites whose vision has given us hope of regaining the Shining City.

It was Sarah Palin's fierce determination and authentic American voice that had energized us back when we were holding our nose at the prospect of voting for John McCain as the lesser of two evils in the 2008 presidential election. We used to like and admire Jeb as an effective and accomplished former Florida Governor but haven't been able to stomach his condescending brand of "sane" Republicanism since he "gratuitously dissed Sarah and thereby all her fans back in February of 2010" with this little gem:

I mean, I don't know what her deal is. My belief is in 2010 and 2012, public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity.

"What a pompous busybody," we wrote in a twitter exchange with protein wisdom, who caught the conscience of Jeb the would-be kingmaker in 140-or-fewer characters this afternoon:

Next up, he'll tell us how sane people are supposed to speak to the Hispanics. Complete with flow chart.

Update: Perry's poke on Obama's birth certificate has had the desired effect, explains Richard Viguerie:

Obama has ignored it and the blue-nosed gentry of the Republican establishment, such as Jeb Bush and Karl Rove, have all risen like cussed-out Sunday school teachers to chastise Perry. In the mean time, conservative voters in the upcoming primaries have been reminded that there’s only one good ol' boy running who gets the joke, and that’s Rick Perry.

Cross-posted at Riehl World View.

Sarah Palin, the GOP "blue bloods" and "The aristocracy of nature"

"There'll always be an England, And England shall be free If England means as much to you As England means to me," Canadian actress Deanna Durbin (above) melted hearts with her girl-next-door rendition of the British WWII classic in the 1941 American movie "Nice Girl."

"Even after Journolist, these guys don't get it. We see you. You're not even trying to hide it anymore," writes The Aged P, "an Englishman living in Sussex…married to the lovely Mrs P who has never aged at all." We were about to give the subject of The Aged P's latest post — the perennial Ruling Class "Blue Blood" Republicans' tired narrative to the effect that "Palin Must Get Off The GOP Bus" — another whirl around the dance floor when we fell in love with the "About" narrative at the eloquent UK gentleman's blog and realized why it may well be true "There will always be an England":

I have an inbuilt suspicion of anyone who claims he or she knows what is good for me. I usually distrust people with plans and schemes because, like Robbie Burns I tend to believe “that the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.” But I do have heroes, especially people like Oliver Cromwell, Michael Faraday and Margaret Thatcher because they came from obscurity and achieved greatness through their own effort and talent. They are members of what Thomas Jefferson called the “aristocracy of nature,” and their authority comes not from their social status but from who they were and what they achieved as individuals.

We love it when Tea Partiers turn up behind Ruling Class lines in Sussex. Back stateside, Patrick of Patrick's World USA was beating the drum in "The Powerful Palin Army Smacks Down the Media and Establishment … Again," a must read:

I'll trade you a Jonathan Martin and John F. Harris for Jedediah Bila and Dan Riehl. I'll even throw in a couple of draft picks or players to be named later. Earlier in the week, Martin and Harris (sounds like a comedy team, doesn't it?) produced a really sophomoric piece for the Alaska Dispatch that failed miserably at painting Sarah Palin as the Right's Al Sharpton. It was the flagship piece of a number of what appear to be coordinated attacks on Sarah Palin which came out earlier this week. Like the man who takes a whack and says, "thank you sir, may I have another," the media tried for the umpteenth time and failed. The response from the Palin army was swift, precise and dead on target.

As we wrote in Patrick's comments:

Great post, you rabble, rouser, you!

As Sarah herself said in her keynote at Young America's Foundation's "Reagan 100 celebration" last month:

"There's a whole army of patriotic Davids out there across this great country ready to stand up and to speak out in defense of liberty, and these Davids aren't afraid to tell Goliath 'don't tread on me.'"

With a nod to Mark Twain, reports of Sarah Palin's political death are much exaggerated. We'll give the last word to Dan Riehl, who says in a different but not unrelated context:

Most of the talk we're hearing now doesn't mean a thing.

Related must read: Jedediah Bila's "Managing the Left-Wing Elite":

Be real. Left-wing elitists revere pomposity, arrogance, and highbrow rhetoric. However, they fear humility, authenticity, and practical smarts. Those things disarm them and leave them reaching for baseless attacks. Don’t forget to keep smiling.

Update: Doug Ross links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

GOP Blue Bloods and the politics of envy

Our camera's eye caught Peter Ingemi — aka the "Blogfather of the Axis of Fedora" — of DaTechGuy's Blog in his element last spring, a self-contained social-networking hub sitting pretty on Boston Common at the Boston Tea Party with Sarah Palin April 14. Pete's the real thing, an internet-savvy shoe-leather reporter, "willing to ask questions to complete strangers," as his buddy Stacy McCain explained after appearing on the brand new "DaTechGuy on DaRadio" show on WCRN-AM 830 recently. We'll be making our own radio debut as "primary call-in guest" of the show this Saturday, December 5, at 5 p.m. Future guests include heavyweights Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Dan Riehl of Riehl World View. Awesome! Listen here day after tomorrow. We also appeared briefly about 2/3 of the way in during last week's show. Update: Sissy Talks!

Google "politics of envy" and you get a lot of ink from both sides of the aisle discussing class warfare. Together with identity politics, it's the left's weapon of choice. But are we witnessing a corresponding politics of envy on the right that turns the concept on its head as members of the GOP Ruling Class — the "blue bloods" called out by Sarah Palin this week in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham — awaken from their comfortable stupor to the sound of pitchfork-bearing members of the Country Class at the gates? We'll try to answer that in a moment, but first a nice little summary of the traditional concept from Todd Dittmann's American Thinker essay "The Dead-End Politics of Envy":

Class envy, albeit one of the two foundations of the modern Democratic Party's soul (identity politics being the other), is very divisive and fuels mob rule. It is a tool that exploits happy people who were previously neither aware of their forced group membership nor of their antipathy toward other groups. It is a tool used in previous tyrannies but one that should remain on the historical scrap heap.

Now turn that picture around so the "haves" are envying the "have-nots." That's the GOP powers that be, the Northeast Corridor Conservative fuddy-duddies like Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer we've been calling out since late summer of 2008 and, post November election, establishment figures like Barbara Bush and Alan Simpson, for their gratuitous dismissals of the likes of Sarah Palin and us Tea Partiers. "The key ingredients are arrogance and inertia," writes John Hayward in his masterful Human Events essay "The Blue Bloodbath":

“Blue blood” is a term that resonates with a frustrated nation, weary of serving at the pleasure of an insular ruling class. The inheritance of power, through family or party machinery, is of far greater concern to middle-class Americans than the inheritance of wealth.

As Sarah told Laura, the "haves" want to "pick their winners, instead of allowing competition to pick and choose the winners," but having had a taste of the power to choose in the recent primaries, the "have-nots" are going for blood. "There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes of the GOP than most grassroots conservatives suspect," cautions Stacy McCain, who gets us up to speed with some of the machinations behind the rhetoric:

I’ve long warned that there is a Jeb 2012 bandwagon geared up and ready to roll at a moment’s notice, if Jeb decides to take a shot at it. If that doesn’t happen, the Bushies are trying to keep their thumb on the scale, to make sure that whoever gets the 2012 nomination, it’s someone acceptable to them. But the Bushies know that, whatever else happens, it’s all over for them if Sarah Palin gets the 2012 nomination.

Then there's the Karl Rove angle, from Politico (h/t Dan Riehl):

Some of former President George W. Bush’s top allies and political hands are trying to regain control of the Republican National Committee, and so far they haven’t exactly been welcomed back.

A final word. As we were psyching up for our "primary call-in guest" appearance on "DaTechGuy on DaRadio" show this Saturday (see caption above), Pete Ingemi asked what we'd like to talk about:

The topic du jour around here seems to be the GOP old guard's extreme case of Palin Derangement Syndrome. They're picking up the left's tired meme of her being a quitter who's too dumb to be President and running with it at an alarming rate in the general direction of the dustbin of history.

The phenomenon may at bottom be what can be called "Green Journalism." I'm borrowing the term from twitter friend Whitney Pitcher of Conservatives 4 Palin, who coined it for GOPers who are recycling the anti-Palin narrative. As I was reading her headline before reading her post, a lightbulb went off: It's the Green Monster — JEALOUSY! — that's got the GOP fuddy-duddies' panties in a bunch.

Update: Maggie's links.

Update II: Diana Retriever links.

Update III: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds.

Update IV: Lots of thoughtful commenters upset at our apparent lumping together of Charles Krauthammer with Peggy Noonan. Here's our response:

I agree with you that unlike Peggy Noonan, Charles Krauthammer is a genuine conservative, a long-time favorite of mine till he came down with PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) in the late summer of 2008. Litmus tests were never my thing at all, by the way. My beef with Dr. Krauthammer is what I take to be a contempt for tea partiers like myself implied in his gratuitous dissing of Palin's intelligence. Please check out my July 2009 post "Newsbites and viewsbites and the power of crowd-sourced journalism" for more thoughts on the subject.

Cross-posted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

An unthinking Dittohead "juiced up with emotion, fear, guilt and racism"

Like flip-flopping establishment politicians clinging to their funding sources, certain seaweeds attach themselves to underwater ledges from where they may wave this way or that according to changing currents. But what happens when a violent storm uproots them, tossing their fluttering fronds to the vicissitudes of wind and tide? See below for more. (Seattle Aquarium on the waterfront photo)

"Hey, Doug. Thanks for the link!" we just wrote in the comments of Doug Mataconis's latest Outside the Beltway post, "Alan Simpson Fights Back Against Deficit Commission Critics." As one of those critics, we were delighted to see our own post "Alan Simpson suffers a 'Barbara Bush Moment'" linked there as an example of an unthinking Dittohead "juiced up with emotion, fear, guilt and racism," paired with fire-breathing FireDogLake as our counterpart on the left. First Doug's argument, then our response. Approvingly quoting Simpson's dissing of Rush as a far-right version of MSNBC's fringy leftist Olbermann and Maddow, here's Doug:

Much like the Commission itself, Simpson has been attacked by both the left and the right [Look, ma, no hands!] for some of the outspoken comments he’s made lately, but he’s absolutely right here. As I noted in my first piece about the Bowles-Simpson proposal, the nature of our political culture makes it unlikely that anyone will tackle the Deficit Commission’s proposals seriously, and Simpson recognizes the problem as well …

Unfortunately we now live in a world where many people seem to believe quite the opposite, and where the same event can be interpreted quite differently depending on where on the ideological spectrum you happen to fall. When that’s the case, it’s hard to see where the common ground for agreement can even be found.

What is our post-Thanksgiving turkey broth, aboil atop the stove even as we blog, doing in this post? A perfect metaphor for the Tea Party effect. Plunk the old, depleted carcass (the entrenched GOP) into a large pot, cover with water and toss in a few flavor enhancers like carrot, onion, rosemary sprigs, bay leaf and freshly ground pepper (tea party energizers). Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and cook a few hours till liquid is reduced by about 2/3. Strain through a sieve. Pick through the solids for meaty goodness and add back in to the clarified broth.

Indeed. We're not looking for an unprincipled common ground. Been there, done that. Our decidedly inexpert understanding is that Simpson & Company would "preserve both the Entitlement Economy and Big Government." If that is incorrect, we're ready to listen to reasoned argument, but specifics of the report are not our concern here. We're looking to clear out the effete establishment undergrowth to make way for robust new seedlings to take root. Our reply:

Speaking as a blowhard and demagogue of the right, I must say I continue to agree with myself that Simpson, once a favorite of mine, is suffering a "Barbara Bush Moment."

An image came to mind of current-tossed fronds of seaweed dislodged from the ledge that had always moored them by the swells — earthquake, tsunami? — of a great storm at sea, floating to the surface and washing up on the shore to die a slow, agonizing death in the clarifying sunlight of transparency. It's a Tea Party thing.

Then came this snarky response to our own comments from An Interested Party:

So … looks like “suffering” a “Barbara Bush Moment” means simply telling the truth … a pity more people can’t “suffer” from such moments…that probably wouldn’t be a Tea Party thing, though …

Well, no:

My criticism has mainly to do with Simpson's gratuitous dissing of Rush as just the opposite side of the extremist coin. How does that uninformed opinion equal "simply telling the truth"?

The final word goes to twitterfriend Rob Alloy IV:

It is obvious Simpson doesn't listen to Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh either from his remarks, which are Washington Double speak.

We heard the same thing used as a reason for all the entitlements that are breaking us today, but we are the cowardly generation.

Indeed. As we argued in our previous post, the establishment pols — of BOTH parties — aren't listening. They don't even know our language.

Update: Instalanche!

SISSY WILLIS: “We’re not looking for an unprincipled common ground."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Karl Rove in the doghouse? You betcha.

 

"Wha?" twittered Cubachi in response to a midmorning tweet on something we'd just seen on Fox:

FASCINATING. Karl Rove on Martha MacCallum's show is telegraphing free political advice to Christine O'Donnell & says he'd told RNSC to promise her funding.

"It must be the new social-networking thing," we tossed back. Hell hath no fury, and Rove's scorning of the freshly minted Delaware Republican Senate nominee on Hannity Tuesday night had loosed the Hounds of Hell amongst the candidates and their supporters. O'Donnell mentor Sarah Palin was the first among equals, the Mama Grizzly rearing up to face down the unteachable old dogs who would savage O'Donnell's reputation. In case you missed it, TPM has a handy blow-by-blow of this new kind of televised debate: 

O'Donnell's nomination has created deep divisions between the Republican Party and right-wing activists [TPM's tendentious term for Tea Partiers]. Last night, Rove bashed O'Donnell — and her chances of being elected — and insisted that she's said a lot of "nutty things." He was attacked by some right-wingers for those comments. O'Donnell whacked him back in a televised interview this morning. And then Rove responded to O'Donnell and his right-wing critics, daring them to 'prove me wrong.' Then Palin slammed Rove. Now it's Limbaugh's turn.

Rove tried to spin it in his favor on Fox this morning, not realizing a seismic shift had occurred while DC slept:

She's got a shot to win, but it's got to be passionate and factual and hard-hitting …

My job as a Fox analyst is to call it as I see it. My job is not to be a cheerleader for every Republican. Now I've got a different role outside my Fox role, and that's where I'm raising 50 million dollars to elect Republicans to the Senate.

Reportedly a behind-the-scenes consultant for O'Donnell's primary opponent Mike Castle, Rove was already limping badly last night when alpha grizzly Sarah went for the jugular: 

[Christine O'Donnell's] going to have to learn very quickly to dismiss what some of her handlers want. Remember what happened to me in the VP. Remember I used to have to sneak in my phone calls to you guys … She’s gonna have to dismiss that, go with her gut, get out there, speak to the American people, speak through FOX News and let the Independents who are tuning in to you, let them know what it is that she stands for, the principles behind her positions …

Some of these good old boys — and I have nothing against Karl Rove personally, yanno, he's the "expert" [finger gestures quotation marks] — but, Bill, some of these folks, they are saying that people like Christine O'Donnell and others, Tea Party Americans can't win because they don't want them to win. Because they know that a Christine O'Donnell, a Joe Miller from Alaska … These folks are gonna shake it up, and they are going to do what's right for America, not necessarily what's right for a political party machine.

This robust new form of political debate — spread out over days and weeks and months, disintermediating the moribund "gateway media" by exploiting the panoply of old and new media — will surely be the death knell of the stilted, you-will-each-have-five-minutes-for-your-reply affairs that still pass for televised debates.

The last word goes to our friend and sometime mentor Dan Riehl, who diagnosed the underlying cause of Karl Rove Syndrome last night on the Tammy Bruce Radio Podcast:

I think it's a combination of arrogance, ignorance and a lust for power and an egotism, that they believe they are so smart and so above everything that they can say and do whatever they want. 

Follow the money: O'Donnell raised over 1 million dollars online yesterday. Talk about disintermediating the powers that be through the internet! Go here to sweeten that pot.

Update: Scott Ott of Scrappleface and PJMTVs "Trifecta" in full disintermediation mode on Twitter:

Listening to DanRiehl interviewed by HeyTammyBruce on ChristineOD victory. Why do I enjoy this more than MSM?

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link.

Update III: Larwyn's Linx at Doug Ross Journal links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Delaware primary: Ruling Class vs Country Class

"Yes, that’s Christine O’Donnell beside the pool at the fabulous Venetian Resort Hotel. And, no, she wasn’t wearing a bikini. She did, however, agree to wear the famous fedora I borrowed from Da Tech Guy," Stacy McCain captioned the video of his interview last summer with the tea party favorite vying for Delaware's "Biden Seat" in a primary battle that has pitched Republican against Republican in a bitter clash of Ruling Class vs Country Class, establishment vs outsider (see below).

"This has been a complete out-of-state operation … It's not been a local campaign. It's not had local donations," keened Delaware Rep. Mike Castle as it began to dawn upon him that someone had changed the rules in the "closer-than-expected GOP Senate primary he's locked in against tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell": 

Castle, who last faced a primary election challenger in 1992, said the six-figure sums pumped into the state by the Tea Party Express, and the recent endorsements of O'Donnell by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, prove that his opposition is being powered by out-of-state forces.

And he's right. The usual suspects among the Northeast Corridor fuddy-duddy community were tut-tutting, The Right Scoop had the video, and 140-or-fewer-character reports like Rich Lowry's tweet about Charles Krauthammer's latest oracular pronouncement on Special Report were lighting up the 'sphere late afternoon:

charles k on palin and demint endorsements of o'donnell: "destructive, capricious, irresponsible"

Either you were for the party-sanctioned left-leaning candidate or you were flaunting (thanks to ms docweasel in the comments at RWV for the usage correction) flouting Bill Buckley's caveat about electability. The old-boys network's narrative of choice: A limited-government conservative could never win the general in deep-blue Delaware. How then to explain the fact that presumably limited-government candidate O'Donnell had been good enough for the GOP establishment in previous elections? Again, electability was the excuse for rewarding the faithful soldier and throwing the less-seasoned candidate under the bus with their "Nuts and Sluts" offensive. But the tea partiers weren't buying. We'd begun sending our dollars not to the RNC or NRSC or NRCC but to strategic small-government candidates both here in Taxachusetts and beyond, including Christine O'Donnell. Now, with lessons learned and skills acquired in earlier skirmishes of what we like to call The Brown Revolution, political outsiders were once again disintermediating the powers that be on the ground and via the internet. The poor old fuddy-duddies didn't know what hit them. As Steve Schippert twittered metaphorically:

The Republican Establishment has dug a protective moat around Castle. The problem is, we can swim.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

GOP powers that be are sowing the seeds of their own destruction

"There's something happening here. The anti-establishment protest song has been turned on its head as Tea Partiers find their voice," we captioned this image of Sarah in our post "Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties" back in October of 2009: "People speaking their minds/Getting so much resistance from behind/What a field-day for the heat/A thousand people in the street/Singing songs and carrying signs …" (Cover image of October 2008 "quickie paperback satire" Terminatrix,  co-authored by top Harper-Collins Editor Adam Bellow (Saul's boy), who most recently worked on Sarah Palin's forthcoming blockbuster autobiography Going Rogue).

"It's as if Rob Jesmer, the NRSC's Executive Director, is a Tea Party saboteur, intentionally destroying the NRSC," twittered Erick Erickson around ten last evening in a eureka moment that set off a tsunami of retweeting:

I think I like the NRSC. Because of their incompetence, we're blessed with Rubio, Toomey, Paul, Buck, Angle, Lee, and now Miller.

And now Miller, indeed. The darkhorse candidate's likely win — to be determined after absentee ballots are counted starting next week — caught incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and the effete elites of the NRSC off guard in Tuesday's Alaska primary. Shellshocked, Murkowski "lawyered up" in anticipation of the NRSC's doing whatever it took to assure the final count went her way. The will of the people was never on the table. As Johnny Rocco said in Key Largo (h/t TheRealMirCat on Twitter)":

How many of these guys in office owe everything to me? I made them.

Unfortunately for the Johnny Roccos of the GOP, the old way of doing business isn't working anymore. It happened in the Massachusetts special election that sent Mr. Brown to Washington, and it's happening again. The national GOP is being disintermediated via the Internet. No wonder they're upset. The people's choice, Joe Miller — endorsed by Sarah Palin and with major funding from the Tea Party Express — is battle ready:

Joe Miller … accused the National Republican Senatorial Committee of "meddling" in the contest while charging that his opponent was trying to "pull an Al Franken."

Speaking with Fox Business Network, Miller referred to reports that Murkowski had sought legal counsel from the national committee as the state prepares to count thousands of absentee ballots that could decide the race.

Miller said his campaign would have volunteers on the ground as well to ensure nothing improper happens. Echoing his message from the campaign, he portrayed any potential ballot dispute as one of the Washington establishment against real Alaskans.

"The Tea Party is about overthrowing the establishment," Rush told his listeners Wednesday:

You have to understand here: [Murkowski] is a ruling class Republican, and it's just like you didn't understand why Bush would endorse Specter — you didn't understand why the Republican Party would endorse Specter — over Pat Toomey? Politics is politics. It is a business; it has requirements. Lisa Murkowski is the Republican.

Click here to support Joe Miller.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update III: Instalanche! See also Dan's totally awesome exclusive linked in the same Glenn Reynolds post:

Related: Betrayal: AK GOP HQ Phone Banked For Murkowski On Election Day. “There are additional reasons why we may soon see what amounts to a civil war within the GOP in Alaska, one that could easily spill over nationally, infuriating the Republican base if the establishment attempts to steal this election for Murkowski. And Murkowski will do the GOP brand no good among the grassroots if she pulls a Sorry Charlie Crist and opts for another route.”

Update IV: ShrinkWrapped offers the talking cure:

Read the whole thing; it may be the most illuminating post of the summer.

Maybe we should start charging by the hour?

Update V: Stacy links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Where has Peggy Noonan been? The Sequel

Animated giff and caption from our October 2008 blogpost "Where has Peggy Noonan been?": "Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me," quipped a crowd-pleasing John McCain at last night's 63rd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner/Roast to benefit Catholic charities, pausing for maximum comic effect before turning with a melodramatic show of affection toward Senator Hillary's table to deliver a punchline that left HIllary (above) and assembled A-list guests rolling in the aisles:  "I'm delighted to see you here tonight Hillary." McCain's perfect comic timing and razor-sharp material left Obama's lame offering in the dust. Our fave joke of the night: "The press is really an independent-minded, civic-minded, non-partisan group … like Acorn."

In recognition of Peggy Noonan's coming of (old) age today in her WSJ column, "Youth Has Outlived Its Usefulness," we are republishing our prescient and timely blogpost "Where has Peggy Noonan been?" from election season 2008. There is sadness in watching the former Reagan speechwriter's "thousand points of light" go dim, but life goes on, and we can only be grateful for the eloquence of her parting words, a rallying cry for us new media types as we continue disintermediating the powers that be were via the internet:

Son, being an enraged, profane, unmoderated, unmediated, hit-loving, trash-talking rage monkey is no way to go through life.

October 17, 2008.  "More than ever on the campaign trail, the candidates are dropping their G's," writes an exasperated Peggy Noonan in the WSJ:

Hardworkin' families are strainin' and tryin'a get ahead. It's not only Sarah Palin but Mr. McCain, too, occasionally Mr. Obama, and, of course, George W. Bush when he darts out like the bird in a cuckoo clock to tell us we are in crisis. All of the candidates say "mom and dad": "our moms and dads who are struggling." This is Mr. Bush's former communications adviser Karen Hughes's contribution to our democratic life, that you cannot speak like an adult in politics now, that's too austere and detached, snobby. No one can say mothers and fathers, it's all now the faux down-home, patronizing — and infantilizing — moms and dads. Do politicians ever remember that in a nation obsessed with politics, our children — sorry, our kids — look to political figures for a model as to how adults sound?

We couldn't agree more re the toe-curling G-dropping, moms-and-dads infantilization of the language that pollutes the public square [Who knew it was all Karen Hughes's doing? … We would have said Oprah!), but political figures as a model for adult behavior? No, Peggy, no. Again the Northeast Corridor Conservative in her starts off on the right foot re Thursday's debate [cf. our own post, "Obama unmasked"]:

[McCain] also scored Mr. Obama on his eloquence, using it against him more effectively than Hillary Clinton ever did. When she said he was "just words," it sounded like a bitter complaint. Mr. McCain made it a change: Young man, you attempt to obscure truth with the mellifluous power of your words.

… but then goes off the track in her conclusions:

From Mrs. Clinton it sounded jealous, but when Mr. McCain said it, you looked at Mr. Obama and wondered if you'd just heard something that was true. For the first time, Mr. Obama's unruffled demeanor didn't really work for him. His cool made him seem hidden.

"For the first time"? Where has Peggy Noonan been? We had Barack Obama's number way back in December of 2006, when the smooth-talkin' hope-and-changester, in the wake of Oprah's ecstatic endorsement, got away with calling us a racist while our fellow Americans from the other side of the aisle and their media enablers were being distracted by "thrills up their legs."

Note: In googling to find this blogpost from the archives, we stumbled upon another Noonan clueless classic, "Palin's Failin.'"

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Too little too late? It's time to go, Michael Steele.

Look, Ma. We're mainstream! "What is the Tea Party? A growing state of mind," headlines a center-above-the-fold USA Today human-interest feature today. Caption: "The Tea Party movement is 'largely just independent groups fed up,' says Jim Sagray, 63, a retired high school teacher and Tea Party supporter. Sagray shows off the family Bible at his Roseville, Calif., home."

"Bone-headed," scoffed Karl Rove to Stuart Varney on Fox.

"Resign as chairman of the Republican party," implored Bill Kristol in a letter to the RNC chair.

"It's simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement," declared a delirious Democratic National Committee spokesman, Brad Woodhouse, in gleeful gotcha mode.

"Hmmm. Is this good for the GOP before the November elections?" pondered blogger Cubachi in a brief twitter exchange this afternoon.

"He every so often says sort of odd things," said Tuck.

"Why can't Michael Steele be more like Herman Cain?" we ourselves blogged in the afterglow of Republican rising star Herman Cain's speech at the SRLC last April.

"I didn't mean it like it came out [paraphrase]," said Michael Steele this afternoon.

Too little too late? It's time to go, Michael Steele. We've known he was all wrong to head our party from way back in March of 2009 when he went along to get along with a CNN interviewer's dissing of Rush Limbaugh:

We were horrified to find ourselves watching LIVE on CNN Saturday night as our own "Energizer-in-Chief," RNC Chair Michael Steele took the bait in response to a dig from Rahm Emanuel fellow traveler D.L. Hughley, host of a relatively new "comedic news show." When Hughley referred to Rush as "the de facto leader of the Republican party," Steele dutifully followed the MSM narrative, dismissing Rush as an "entertainer" whose show is "incendiary" and "ugly." He offered Limbaugh a lame apology next day, but Rush wasn't buying.

Dan Riehl, who has an insider's edge, begs to differ:

Perhaps Bill Kristol Should Resign, Instead.

Check out that one and "Additional Steele Statements On Afghanistan," and we'll talk.

Update: When you lie down with blogs? Dan twitters:

How DARE you disagree with me on my own blog. You trying to get AP to link Sisu?? ha ha ha

Update II: Our friend Boy Moto for the defense.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Rand Paul energizes Teabagger Derangement Syndrome sufferers

"Like babes they will go into battle," Mark Tapscott predicts for the "many Tea-Party-linked candidates whose inexperience in political combat with the media will spark … bloodbaths" like the one currently roiling the political waters as Kentucky senatorial primary winner Rand Paul makes it easy for Rachel Maddow (above) and fellow Teabagger Derangement Syndrome (TDS) sufferers to play gotcha over the candidate's clumsy commentary debating the merits of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. James Joyner encapsulates:

It’s fine for libertarian bloggers to debate this issue among themselves, but a politician can’t allow himself to be trapped into a debate where he ends up defending segregated lunch counters in an election in the South. The damage is done, and these clips will follow Paul from now to November, but he needs to put this issue behind him. Then, he needs to take a few days off.

Early out of the gate this morning, Dan Riehl's take was unnerving:

And spare me the whining over principles. The vast majority of voters don't take the time to consider these issues that deeply. And nothing Paul supporters say or do is going to change that. The Constitutional battle was fifty years ago. It was lost. But Paul doesn't have the good political sense to stop fighting it.

The question is, will the TDS sufferers manage to make the racism/fringe-element label stick this time? Among fellow travelers its a done deal, of course, confirming what they've wanted to believe all along:

If this is indicative of the intellectual depth of the Tea Party and their values, then democrats have nothing to worry about and republicans have more to worry about than Solomon.

A post-primary Rasmussen poll had Paul with a 25-point lead over Democrat Jack Conway, but if the Rachel Maddows have their way, will the Rand Paul narrative as bellwether for the Tea Party spin out of control, its toxic exudations smearing us all in the minds of Riehl's vast majority of voters who "don't take the time to consider these issues that deeply"?

Note: Our friend and sometime mentor Dan Riehl has invited us to join Melissa Clouthier and Lorie Byrd as guest blogger at Riehl World View. Awesome company on an awesome stage. We'll be crossposting there for the next period of time. Late arrival: NE Republican blogger Jazz Shaw joins the party.

Update: Michelle Malkin's "Buzzworthy" gives us a nod.

Crossposted at Liberty Pundits and Riehl World View.