Right is as right does: One of my favorite crackpot right-wingers, Richard Viguerie, who thinks Barry Goldwater was almost conservative enough, has issued a broadside maligning the Republican “leadership” on Capitol Hill. Under the headline, “GOP Definition of Insanity — Keep the Same Leaders and Expect Different Results,” he writes:
House Republicans have decided to reward failure.
Republicans are like the Biblical Jews who had to wander through the desert for 40 years until that generation of corrupt and immoral leaders had passed from the scene.Republicans are like the Biblical Jews who had to wander through the desert for 40 years until that generation of corrupt and immoral leaders had passed from the scene.
And Republicans are not going to get to the political Promised Land until they get new leaders who are principled conservatives.
President Bush and congressional Republican leaders in recent years seemed to have adopted a one-word strategy for governing — BRIBERY.
In essence they’ve said to the voters — we’ve got money, you’ve got votes — let’s talk.
But the House Republicans who today selected John Boehner and Roy Blunt as their leaders clearly haven’t gotten the message that the voters sent them November 7: We will not reward Republicans who engage in bribery, expand government and ignore social issues.
Boehner and Blunt’s close ties to big government lobbyists indicates that the Republican Party will continue to represent Corporate America over the interests of Main Street America.
As television psychologist Dr. Phil would say, How’s that working for you, Republicans?
Much as I think Viguerie is as full of it as a port-o-potty at a chili cook-off, I kind of agree with him, though not for the same reasons. Viguerie’s view is that real conservatives — as opposed to Bushco’s neocon lites — would bring back Christian values and disciplined principles to the political process.
To me, it’s about losing losers lost in la-la land. I mean, here are the Repugs, less than a fortnight after getting soundly trounced in the midterms, putting into place the same old leaders who lost the House and Senate. Trent Lott’s “rehabilitation” is a prime example that the elephant party plans to stick with what doesn’t work, and public opinion be damned. If they can just keep that up for the next couple of years ….
