Business as usual
Wednesday November 15, 2006
Conservatives like me hoped that the GOP would lose the House, not only because it hugely deserved to, but because we thought that was the only thing that would cause it to repent of its big-spending, lobbyist-loving, corrupt ways, get...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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The most hilarious part, or saddest depending on your mood, is Tom DeLay's recent posting on Red State.
I don't know which is more pathetic, what Tom DeLay wrote, or the fact that Red State seems to be super thrilled that this albatross to Conservatism would write a post for them.
Either way the movement's in alot of trouble.
A few things:
In his posting, Tom castigates Republicans for failing to live up to the promise of 1994.
WHAT???
It somehow doesn't dawn on Mr. DeLay that perhaps given the fact that:
1) He served as Majority Whip and Leader
2) His war against Newt is what partially led to Newt's resignation.
3) His handpicked minions controlled the leadership, from Hastert (a former DeLay deputy whip) to Blunt to Cantor etc....
Perhaps, HE WAS NOT AN INDIFFERENT OBSERVER TO THE REPUBLICAN SELLOUT.
Perhaps Mr. Delay had you not taken so many golfiing trips with your friend Jack, you would have paid a tad more attention to the fact that you were selling out practically every possible Conservative idea etc.
I also find it amusing that Rush, Hewitt, NRO are now claiming to be liberated, to be able to speak truth to the GOP and yet, once the old gang is re-elected to the leadership etc, you can bet that these "Conservative" pundits will quickly let them get away with anything, as long as they have an R next to their name.
It makes me sick!>
Truer words have not been spoken.>
Yes and no. Re: DeLay and such: I think you are right. But re: Rush and such: I'd let Rush off the hook on this one. He was always criticizing the congress and the president for their profligate ways, while supporting them politically for (justified) fear that liberals in power would be much worse.
I am hopeful, however, that we'll have less spending with some possible if nominal gridlock and an ostensibly more conservative congress.
shameless plug: pomoconservative.blogspot.com. Trying to get it off the ground. Please visit!>
Well, Rod, didn't so many of us warn you that the toilet would simply fill back up with even stinkier excrement?>
Speaking of business as usual: Trent Lott is now the number 2 person in the Senate after McConnell. Neither Lott or McConnell has ever passed up an opportunity to feed from the special-interest money trough, and Lott is an apologist for segregationists to boot.
So much for listening to voters and learning lessons.>
Isn't McConnell the Senator from Tobacco? (And sometimes the Senator from Money).>
Lott's ouster as Majority Leader for his comments praising Strom Thurmond was a gross overreaction by conservative bloggers and Senate Republicans. Apparently some think it should have been a life sentence.
On the Democratic side, Pelosi is actively trying to surround herself with an Abscam crook and an impeached corrupt judge. So much for ethics.>
So Simon. We forgive comments made four years ago, but not decades old unindicted co-conspirators and impeached judges?>
Lott's bizarre, twice-expressed view that Strom could've solved all those problems had he been elected is in the past now; but his career-long record of fighting for pork is tough to escape from.
As to the Dems, ugh.
Look, it's great that Murtha is standing up for the troops-- and that is what's motivating him, even if you disagree with him. But he's too conservative, too much of a porker to clean up Congress, and frankly too undistinguished a legislator to be leader.
Harman is well-respected on both sides-- an ideal chair for the Intel Committee-- and Pelosi seems to be passing her over purely out of personal pique. Maybe _this_ is why chicks shouldn't be Speaker.
Kidding, kidding.
I don't think any of these people-- Harman, Hastings, Murtha, Hoyer-- are much loved by the Democratic rank and file, for whatever that's worth.>
I noticed Andrew Sullivan seems to share your view on the Republican leadership. For the nothing it's worth so do I. Which leads me to wonder, is it time for fed-up conservatives, both secular (such as Sullivan) and religous (such as Dreher) to put aside what policy differences they may have and form some kind of popular front against GOP business as usual?
Certainly Cruchy Con and the (for lack of a better phrase) the Sullivanistas will never agree on an issue like gay marriage but given the current brand of Republican "conservativism" it's time we all work together to rebuild a conservative movement that is, well, conservative. The details and factions will sort themselves out as time progresses.
Given the choice between Trent Lott Republicans building bridges to no where is Alaska and sending our troops to die in foolish wars and the prospect of conservative movement that embraces secular recognition of gay unions...I'll choose the later.
At least my future children's education won't be financially impractical nor will they get blown up in Iraq because gays in New Jersey are getting hitched at the courthouse.
Enough is enough is enough.>
Sullivan is not secular. He speaks about his faith and religion more profoundly and openly than almost any other conservative writing. He just doesn't happen to believe it should overtake all public policy, as opposed to just informing public policy.>
So Simon. We forgive comments made four years ago, but not decades old unindicted co-conspirators and impeached judges?
Lott's comments about Strom were substance-free backslapping at a 100th birthday banquet. As regretable as they were, no serious person believed Lott was endorsing (or even thinking about) the segregationist 1948 Dixiecrat platform.
Murtha showed himself open to, and with no moral reservations about, taking BRIBES. Have you seen the video?
Alcee Hastings was sufficiently corrupt that a Democratic Congress impeached him and removed him from the Federal bench.
Which category of conduct -- the over the top remark, or record of using public office to enrich oneself illegally -- should permanently disqualify a person from leading roles in American public life?>
Sullivan is not secular.
Neither is he conservative.
I'd bet anything his blog -- and certainly his book -- is read almost exclusively by liberal Democrats. The rest of the country tuned him out years ago.>
Today it's being reported that Jack Abramoff is singing to the Feds about the reasons behind the $30,000 his clients gave to the new Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
These clowns aren't even in power yet, and already they're doing their best to match the GOP for ethically troubled members.
And we haven't even touched on the fact that Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) will be competing shortly in a runoff election to retain his seat along with, presumably, the freezer in which he stuffed the bribe money.>
Anyone other than MoveOn.orgers who think that the Democrats will embrace a morally sound platform have only to look at Massachusetts.
Ted Kennedy re-electeed again and again and again.
I cannot wait for '08. I'm moving from Indie to GOP in the next couple of days. My dad was a lifelong Democrat but luckily for him he is in a better place, having passed away before his party turned Gomorrah. No not a red state, and certainly not a blue one. Men like him don't wait long at the Pearly Gates.
He was proud to be an American. No place for him now in the Dem party.>
We also elected the apostate Mitt Romney. We sure love evil and hate good in Massachusetts, eh Donny?>
The biggest crook in Congress not named William Jefferson is about to become House Majority Leader. Rep. Murtha (D-Abscam) now claims he has the votes.
http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009248
I thought these Dems would at least wait 6 months or so before showing their true colors. What an embarassment.>
At least my future children's education won't be financially impractical nor will they get blown up in Iraq because gays in New Jersey are getting hitched at the courthouse.
What Jeff said, above.>
Mitt Romney is not an apostate. He is a heretic. Precision, please ;-)>
Why is any of this a surprise?
Not that any of it will matter in two years anyway.>
At least my future children's education won't be financially impractical nor will they get blown up in Iraq because gays in New Jersey are getting hitched at the courthouse.
I love the way our liberal friends respond to the immediate triumph of the Corrupticrats within the Democratic House and Senate caucuses by .... just changing the subject.>
Hey Simon, Sean Hannity called. He has some fresh talking points for you to bleet on about.
Susan S,
I actually agree that Sullivan isn't secular but his politics are more rooted in a secular tradition, then say Rod Drehers. I don't think his faith matches neatly with the faith(s) of the Crunchy Cons. Maybe I'm wrong.
At the very least, his audience is certainly more secular than the Crunchy Cons.
My point is I think we all need to reach across the conservative spectrum to find allies who will stand with, athwart history yelling STOP! to folks like Ted Stevens and Trent Lott.>
Hey Simon, Sean Hannity called. He has some fresh talking points for you to bleet on about.
I am among the few Americans who has never even heard this Sean Hannity. Not once. No cable TV in this household.
And to preempt another oh-so-clever-and-original leftwing barb, it so happens I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh or any other talk radio shows, either. From time to time, I do tune in NPR, mostly for a good laugh at their superficiality and pretentiousness.
You lose all credibility when you single out Ted Stevens and Trent Lott. Those guys, along with dozens of other Republicans, are certainly pork dealers of a high order. But note the title of this thread is "Business as Usual." There's a fair argument to be made that the Republicans needed their "thumpin'" to get their house in order. Anybody who expected a Democratic Congress to produce less pork or higher ethical standards, however, was a fool and is now a laughingstock.>
What did I say to suggest that I believe the Democratic Congress is going to deal with pork?
That Trent Lott is returned to leadership and Ted Stevens is allowed in the caucus to begin with just show's we are damned with the Democrats and damned with the mainline Republican Party. Stevens defense of that bridge was a national embarassment. God bless the Senator from Oklahoma for standing up to business as usual.
My solution remains the same throughout this spread, a popular front of renegade conservative and small government, small society groups. Crunchy Cons, Sullivan conservatives, libertarians, smart-growthers, urbanists, whomever we can cobble together to say enough is enough.
Right now the Republican Party offers no answers. The party has evolved into a buffet of Sinclair Lewis characters...George Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, Buzz Windrip. The GOp is the party of middle-brow slobs.>
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