This post is a discussion - starter on the Tea Party Republicans. It's made up of a few relatively short takes. Feel free to weigh - in and add your thoughts to or take issue with any of the points I make.
This Funny or Die video featuring Will Ferrell and the routinely hilarious Craig Robinson is about a bat fight. Ferrell's character's approach to the fight is all too familiar.
- The Citizen's United decision and Republican coddling of special interests.
Those poor giant corporate interests. Who will speak for them? GOP establishment favorite Mitt Romney, that's who.
Romney and the "Country Club First" Republicans are seriously out of touch.
- Student loan reform and help for homeowners.
- Accountability for Wall Street.
- Massive hypocrisy on the Recovery Act.
- Fair trade.
North Carolina Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, one of my favorites of this cycle, shows how it's done.
This is an easy issue for me to highlight because I agree with fair traders on policy. On the politics, it's undeniable that fair traders did very well in 2006 and 2008. Still, if a Dem candidate lines up more with "free" traders, they shouldn't fake it. A robust debate on this issue is badly overdue.
The outcome of the midterms will also depend on the Dem trifecta's ability to deliver.
Where Democrats Need To Take A Stand
- Strong jobs initiatives / Main Street recovery.
- The best possible health care reform.
- Meaningful labor law reform.
None of this will be easy. But if Congressional Democrats don't give it their all on these three issues, they will go a long way toward ensuring that November will be a disaster.
The GOP is more committed than ever to the very Middle Class - destroying ideas that got us into this mess. Congressional Democrats must make the winning contrast, both with their words and through their actions. Their jobs (possibly their majorities) and our country's future depend on it.
Greg Sargent has the details on the Cheney family's latest national security FAIL.
And only 35% adopt the Cheney clan's view that we should be curled up in the corner with our teeth chattering uncontrollably over lack of confidence in the Obama administration's ability to protect us. That's pretty remarkable, given that the Cheneys have been all over the airwaves making this case for months and months.
In other Republican national security surrogate news, Sarah Palin was even more confused than we thought, and Frank Gaffney has a bad memory.
C - SPAN is airing part of a recent "Taking the Poison Out of Partisanship" event organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center (sorry... wrong link).
Mark McKinnon, one of the Republican strategists on the panel, was playing the role of a "reasonable" Republican as usual when his posturing got the better of him and he claimed to be representing the view of a "progressive Republican."
Every once in a while, something happens in politics that keeps me up all night. Last night was one of those nights. The Republican Party should no longer be allowed to ignore the vile, escalating, and dangerous right - wing attacks on President Obama.
Billboards in Colorado and Missouri that cast the president as an existential threat to the country.
Mississippi Governor, former RNC Chairman, co - founder of lobbying giant BGR Group (Barbour, Griffith & Rogers), Mark Sanford's replacement as the leader of the Republican Governor Association, and potential 2012 presidential candidate Haley Barbour was just on Morning Joe.
Lindsey Graham and John McCain are considered to be voices for moderation in today's Republican Party. They both recently opposed the Franken Amendment, SCHIP, Equal Pay, and the new GI bill (McCain skipped the vote, but opposed it from the campaign trail). That says a lot about the GOP.
Graham doesn't like Glenn Beck, and McCain wants to expand the Labeled "Moderate" For No Good Reason Caucus. But before heaping praise on Graham and McCain, pundits should ask the Senators why they waited so long.
