(cross posted at kickin it with cg)
If you are a Republican its been a busy week. First, David Frum weighed in on everyone’s favourite political analyst Rush Limbaugh and basically… tore him a new one…
On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of “responsibility,” and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.
And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.
Oh snap.
Some conservatives felt Frum’s piece didn’t go far enough.
“He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise…”
Respect your closet cases, if you want to. As long as you need the yahoos, you won’t be able to hide them.
David, you are capable of better political strategy than this. How about open disavowal of the yahoos and an attempt to make the GOP into something relevant to America’s future, rather than a refuge for plutocrats and snake-handling fundamentalists.
The GOP, like the Liberals, have tarnished their brand for at least a decade. You need to write off the true believers who think you lost because you were betrayed, or that the last election was a vast con job, and try to reestablish contact with the American people.
Heh.
Then if that weren’t enough RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared that abortion is an “individual choice.”
L: How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your catholic faith, but by the fact that you were adopted?
M: Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that. I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it, uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.
L: Explain that.
M: The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.
L: Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
M: Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.
L: You do?
M: Yeah. Absolutely.
L: Are you saying you don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade?
M: I think Roe v. Wade–as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.
L: Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?
M: The states should make that choice: that’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.
Wow.
If you missed SNL this past weekend – here’s a bit of awesomeness that you should be sure to check out (not sure if the clip works – damn Canadian IP)
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