Doctor Zero on the two Republican Parties

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From Hot Air's Green Room, the good Doctor sees two Republican parties. The old one is dying, long live the new:

There are two Republican parties, and both had a candidate on the 2008 presidential ticket. John McCain was the candidate of the thin-blooded aristocracy, tired men who dislike certain elements of their nominal constituency far more intensely than their political opposition. They have no strenuous objection to the premises of the Left, as could be seen from McCain’s swift acceptance of the freedom-has-failed spin pushed by the Democrats during the 2008 financial crisis. Many of them believe opposition to the Left’s emotional narrative is electoral suicide. This also makes them reluctant to criticize Democrat candidates in harsh terms… which they have no reluctance to deploy against conservative primary opponents. They might speak up against its worst excesses, but they have no serious argument with the basic concept of Big Government – remember “National Greatness Conservatism?” They offer themselves as wiser, perhaps slightly more frugal drivers of the vast federal sandworm. They invest great effort in cultivating relationships with the dinosaur media, which they perceive as an irresistible force dominating American politics. They always look honestly surprised when these relationships disintegrate at crucial moments during national campaigns.

The other Republican party is young and vital. On the 2008 ticket, its banner was carried by Sarah Palin. It’s the yeoman wing of the party, composed of people with middle-class backgrounds and real-world business experience. These people are appalled at the bloated mess in Washington, and the smaller but equally fatal tumors infecting many state capitols. They see a government speeding toward systemic collapse, its doom spelled out in the simple math of unsustainable entitlements and economy-crushing taxation. They’re in love with the American people, a sincere passion that rings from every speech Palin delivers. Their idealism and energy leads them to stumble occasionally, and some veteran political operatives of the old Republican gentry are eager to give them a firm shove from behind. They correctly view the dinosaur media as an implacable opponent, and sometimes waste energy complaining about it… but the evolution of Palin’s media presence demonstrates they are learning to control the media, instead of fighting it.

The yeoman wing of the Republican Party had a very good night on Tuesday...

Read the rest of Doctor Zero's latest op-ed here.

- JP

Pence: Sarah Palin is a "valued leader" in the GOP

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Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), considered by some to be a potential Republican presidential candidate in his own right for 2012, was asked by National Journal's Siddhartha Mahanta in a recent interview if Sarah Palin is the leader of the Tea Party movement, responded:

"Sarah Palin is a valued leader in the Republican Party. But I think one of the most compelling aspects of the Tea Party movement, and of the awakening you see across the country, is that it has no leader. It is genuinely a bottom-up movement that is simply an expression of I believe the broad mainstream of the American public that wants to see some fiscal sanity, some commonsense return to governance in Washington, D.C., and really has been fed up with runaway federal spending under both political parties."

Pence opined that the Tea Party movement "doesn't need organization" because is is a grassroots phenomenon rooted in the "common values of the American people."

Sarah Palin has said that she believes that Tea Party movement and the Republican Party need to merge.

- JP

What Conservatives Achieved in NY-23

The Democrats are still crowing over the fact that Bill Owens will be going to Washington to represent the 23rd Congressional District of New York. Owens is only guaranteed to be in the nation's capitol for a year, however, as he is filling out an unexpired term and must stand for reelection in 2010. That's when he will have to face Doug Hoffman again, only there will be no Dede Scozzafava in that race to siphon off Republican votes. Hoffman will be much better prepared, not to mention better funded, for the next battle, and the accountant from Lake Placid has some time to become at least a bit more comfortable in front of television cameras.

But what conservatives achieved with their support of Hoffman is much more important to their cause than a one-year lease on a seat in the U.S. House. Erick Erickson points to two major accomplishments of national significance conservatives made by standing firm on the ground of NY-23. The first is nothing less than groundbreaking:

We did exactly what we set out to do — crush the establishment backed GOP candidate.

[...]

So we have demonstrated to the GOP that it must not take conservatives for granted. The GOP spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.

Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable.

Erickson sees NY-23 as a dress rehearsal for Florida, but in the Sunshine State, unlike in NY-23, there will be a Republican primary, and the conservative candidate is working from inside the GOP instead of being on the outside, as Hoffman was forced to operate. 

Pointing out that the GOP had better pay attention, Erickson advises:

If John Cornyn and the NRSC do not want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, they better stand down.

And indeed, shortly after Erickson's diary was published on RedState.com, Cornyn got the word out:

He made sure to tell a reporter that the NRSC will not spend any money in Florida for Crist or against Rubio.

So conservatives finally have the attention of the Republican establishment inside the beltway, and it's been demonstrated that the GOP, not third parties, offers the best opportunity for the movement to advance. For helping to get this accomplished, Sarah Palin deserves her share of the credit, as do Dick Armey, Fred and Jeri Thompson and a number of other conservatives.

- JP

IBD Editorial: McCain Vs. Palin For The GOP's Soul

Ring Announcer: "Lay-dees and genamin! Our main event is a 12-round champ-peon-ship match for the heart and soul of the Gee-Oh-Pee." 

"In the reigning chump's... er champ's corner, the senile... er, make that senior Senator from Air-uh-zonah":

Sen. John McCain is, as Politico noted last week, "working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image." The loser of last year's run for the White House is recruiting candidates, raising money and campaigning for them, and even taking sides in GOP Senate, House and gubernatorial primaries.

Some people apparently need a hook to exit the stage. 

"And in the challenger's corner, the Thrill-ah from Wasill-ah":

The former Alaska governor, already popular among grass-roots Republicans, is growing in credibility. Her much-criticized decision to resign the governorship is beginning to look like a move that made perfect sense — not just for herself but for Alaskans — in the face of the long knives the Democrats had ready for her as a sitting chief executive.

Palin is becoming a bold, principled voice on issues ranging from the global war on terror to financial markets.

"Also in the challenger's corner":

Randy Scheunemann... has been a foreign policy and national security adviser to prominent Republicans... He has also represented and advised the pro-free market government of the Republic of Georgia, which is struggling against Russian aggression.

[...]

Ford Motor Co. executive Stephen Biegun... was chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under the late Sen. Jesse Helms.

Cue the theme from "Rocky"...

- JP

There they go again... making more things up

In her final speech as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin asked the drive-by media to "quit making things up." They weren't up to the challenge.

Posting on the Chicago Tribune's blog The Swamp, Mark Silva shows that he is able to leap to tall conclusions in a single bound:

Palin is talking about "real change." And, she says, "you don't need a title to do it." Judging from her remarks in Hong Kong, one wonders if she feels she needs a party to do it -- or one of the big-two parties.

This talk has the feel of a Ross Perot 2.0 -- while we remain mindful of the fact that, while Perot captured one fifth of the vote his first time out, he also helped get Bill Clinton elected president.

"There is suddenly a growing sentiment to just "throw the bums out" of Washington, D.C. - and by bums they mean the Republicans and the Democrats," Palin suggested in her address to the CLSA investors conference.

Silva so doesn't get it. He doesn't get Sarah Palin, and he doesn't get the grassroots movement. Yes, we want to throw the bums out, but we have to replace them with someone, don't we? Who does he think we have in mind to replace them with, imaginary candidates representing a third party that doesn't even exist? 

As we stated here over a month ago:

Sarah Palin has never advocated forming a new political party, nor has she ever said anything about joining an existing minor party. She's a Reagan Republican, and as such, she is no doubt aware of Reagan's warning about third parties and has taken it to heart. Many have misinterpreted her pledge to campaign for conservative candidates regardless of their party affiliation. In our opinion, that is just a hint at what is yet to come from the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate.

Ronald Reagan drafted the blueprints for conservative electoral success years ago. Just because the Republican Party has forgotten how to follow them is no reason to give up on the GOP. The answer is to rebuild the Reagan coalition of conservatives of all stripes, and then bring libertarians, independents and blue collar Democrats on board. Once the troops are assembled, Sarah Palin can lead them into battle to take back the Republican Party. The GOP has the database of voter lists, donors and precinct workers. It has the connections to the volunteers who man the phone banks, canvass their neighborhoods and put the yard signs on their lawns. The Republican Party is already registered and organized in all 50 states and 3,143 counties, parishes (Louisiana), boroughs (Alaska) or independent cities in the nation. It is just plain foolish to think for even a moment that reinventing all of those wheels would be any quicker or easier than taking back the GOP 

Such third party talk as Silva is trying to start up is sheer nonsense, and we question his motives for doing so. It's not to difficult tell which way he leans. Silva has referred to Hanna Giles and James O'Keefe as "a pair of conservative vigilantes" and has criticized our "gun-happy culture which encourages the resolution of simple domestic disputes with the pulling of a trigger."

This is the same liberal media which, according to a recent poll by St. Mary University, played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama, according to a whopping 89.3 percent of respondents, and appear to be coordinating efforts to diminish Sarah Palin's record, according to a 57.6 percent majority of those surveyed. Who do they think they are fooling?

- JP

Quote of the Day (August 28, 2009)

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Rev. Paul at Way Up North:

"Gov. Palin is a conservative first, and a Republican second. She's not trying to resurrect the Republican party per se, except insofar as it's the best current candidate for a party that at least used to represent what she is."

- JP

Want a Palin presidency? Then get serious about it.

Posting at Renew America and quoting Confucius, Neil Brian Goldberg envisions the grassroots propelling Sarah Palin into a presidential run:

Confucius say: "It is often following crowd who push leader forward."

...and so the Sarah Palin for President campaign begins...

How does he propose to launch this campaign?

Next, being sure of what we want, we simply begin this "Sarah for President" campaign.

If it were only that simple. What Goldberg is proposing here is nothing new. We have to wonder if he's aware that others have been -- as the Chris Rea song goes -- Working On It. There are a number of PACs, committees and blogs already dedicated to drafting Sarah Palin, and they weren't born yesterday.

Where Goldberg's bandwagon really becomes unhitched, however, is with the following:

There is talk that Sarah will run on a third party — what shall it be called — why of course — THE TEA PARTY.

Goldberg quotes Confucius, but he should be studying up on Ronald Reagan. A good starting place would be the 1977 Reason magazine interview:

Well, third parties have been notoriously unsuccessful; they usually wind up dividing the very people that should be united. And then we elect the wrong kind–the side we’re out to defeat wins. I have been doing my best to try to revitalize the Republican Party groups that I’ve spoken to, on the basis that the time has come to repudiate those in our midst who would blur the Republican image by saying we should be all things to all people in order to triumph. Lately, we find that of the 26 percent of the people who didn’t vote, more than half of them now say they didn’t vote because they don’t see any difference between the parties. I’ve been urging Republicans to raise a banner and put the things we stand for on that banner and don’t compromise, but don’t try to enlarge the party by being all things to everyone when you can’t keep all the promises. Put up a banner and then count on the fact that if you’ve got the proper things on that banner the people will rally round.

Then there's Reagan's CPAC speech from the same year:

I have to say I cannot agree with some of my friends -- perhaps including some of you here tonight -- who have answered that question by saying this nation needs a new political party.

I respect that view and I know that those who have reached it have done so after long hours of study. But I believe that political success of the principles we believe in can best be achieved in the Republican Party. I believe the Republican Party can hold and should provide the political mechanism through which the goals of the majority of Americans can be achieved. For one thing, the biggest single grouping of conservatives is to be found in that party. It makes more sense to build on that grouping than to break it up and start over. Rather than a third party, we can have a new first party made up of people who share our principles. I have said before that if a formal change in name proves desirable, then so be it. But tonight, for purpose of discussion, I’m going to refer to it simply as the New Republican Party.

And let me say so there can be no mistakes as to what I mean: The New Republican Party I envision will not be, and cannot, be one limited to the country club-big business image that, for reasons both fair and unfair, it is burdened with today. The New Republican Party I am speaking about is going to have room for the man and the woman in the factories, for the farmer, for the cop on the beat and the millions of Americans who may never have thought of joining our party before, but whose interests coincide with those represented by principled Republicanism. If we are to attract more working men and women of this country, we will do so not by simply "making room" for them, but by making certain they have a say in what goes on in the party.

Sarah Palin has never advocated forming a new political party, nor has she ever said anything about joining an existing minor party. She's a Reagan Republican, and as such, she is no doubt aware of Reagan's warning about third parties and has taken it to heart. Many have misinterpreted her pledge to campaign for conservative candidates regardless of their party affiliation. In our opinion, that is just a hint at what is yet to come from the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate.

Ronald Reagan drafted the blueprints for conservative electoral success years ago. Just because the Republican Party has forgotten how to follow them is no reason to give up on the GOP. The answer is to rebuild the Reagan coalition of conservatives of all stripes, and then bring libertarians, independents and blue collar Democrats on board. Once the troops are assembled, Sarah Palin can lead them into battle to take back the Republican Party. The GOP has the database of voter lists, donors and precinct workers. It has the connections to the volunteers who man the phone banks, canvass their neighborhoods and put the yard signs on their lawns. The Republican Party is already registered and organized in all 50 states and 3,143 counties, parishes (Louisiana), boroughs (Alaska) or independent cities in the nation. It is just plain foolish to think for even a moment that reinventing all of those wheels would be any quicker or easier than taking back the GOP.  

We admire Goldberg's desire to do something to get Sarah Palin into the White House, and we echo his call to donate to SarahPAC while still putting something aside for the big "money bomb" fundraiser which is sure to come.  But the first step toward being witness to a history-making inauguration of former Gov. Palin as the first woman to be president of the U. S. is  to get the stars out of one's eyes and the foolish notions out of one's head. Then we can talk some real world political organizing.

- JP

Waiting for the GOP or something like it

Day by Day is the only Palin-friendly 100% reader-supported political comic strip.
Please support DBD creator Chris Muir and his work for a Day By Day, every day.  

- JP

Chris Adamo blasts GOP establishment for not embracing Palin

Christopher G. Adamo, freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance, takes the GOP establishment on in his latest posting:

The Republican Party continues to amass expertise in losing elections. Its current reticence in getting behind the momentum of Sarah Palin, now the former Governor of Alaska, unequivocally proves the point.

According to Adamo, though Palin excites the party's grassroots, the GOP's inner circle couldn't care less:

When measured against the current "ruling class," Palin's faults, or more precisely, those qualities about her which critics attempt to manufacture into faults, are trivial at worst. More pertinently, the derisive commentary is far more reflective of truly serious character defects on their own part. Sadly, many of them claim to lean to the political right.

Among the Republican Party's anti-Palin elites, Adamo cites two of the usual suspects who have been far more tolerant of opposition party figures than of Sarah Palin:

Of course, no discussion of Palin's detractors would be complete without a mention of the Republican Party's menopausal wing, as epitomized by former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and Washington Post token conservative "pundit" Kathleen Parker. In their incessant efforts to derail Palin, Noonan and Parker have descended to a level of discourse rife with shallow catcalls and jeers. In telling contrast, Noonan had heaped accolades on Barack Obama while Parker supports the elevation of judicial activist Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and excoriates the GOP for refusing to follow along.

Adamo warns the GOP hierarchy that if it wants to win another election, it had better get back in touch with its conservative roots:

A recent Rasmussen poll shows that Americans still overwhelmingly consider themselves conservative. Sarah Palin can connect with that segment of the population, motivate and inspire it to action. In such a political climate, no excuses suffice for a party that professes to be conservative, yet is devastated at the ballot box as badly as was the case last November.

But is it listening? Hello? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

- JP

Sen. Jim DeMint: Palin will really help the GOP

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in an interview with U.S. News, commented on Sarah Palin's future in the Republic Party. Bypass the gross misrepresentation by Washington Whispers left-biased Paul Bedard, and go right to the money quote:

"I think she'll be an outspoken spokesperson for the principles of freedom and conservatism, and I think she will really help the Republican Party, just like Newt Gingrich. I don't know if Sarah Palin will be running for office again or not. "The landscape's going to be totally different."

- JP

Media 3rd Party Palin meme: There's no there there

Newsday's Spin Cycle blog finds it curious that Frank MacKay will be visiting Alaska at the same time that Gov. Sarah Palin will be officially resigning her office at the July 26 Governor's Annual Picnic.

MacKay, you see, is national chair of the Independence Party of America (IP) -- not to be confused with Alan Keyes' American Independent Party (AIP), which is a different political animal altogether. MacKay's party is, according to Politics 1, a leftover splinter from Ross Perot's broken Reform Party of the 1990s:

After two years of openly feuding with Ross Perot's allies in the Reform Party, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and his supporters bolted from the party to launch the new Independence Party in 2000. While this splinter party shared the Reform Party's call for campaign finance and other political reforms, the IP shared Ventura disagreement with the more social conservative and trade protectionist views espoused by the Reform Party. The IP -- which describes itself as "Socially Inclusive and Fiscally Responsible" -- is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-medical marijuana, pro-gun rights and fiscally moderate.

[...]

As for a national party organization, the Independence Party essentially doesn't have one. It seemingly consists of separately organized state affiliates with no central national leadership or organization to coordinate activities. Thus, each state entity goes its own way -- and support (even in Minnesota) is clearly dwindling.

Spin Cycle quotes MacKay as saying that he will be in Arkansas Alaska at the time of the governor's resignation is "just a bizarre coincidence." Yet the blogger seems to be intrigued that Wasilla is on MacKay's itinerary. We tend to believe Mackay, who also says that his travel plans were made before Gov. Palin made her announcement.

But the best reason to take him at his word is the fact that MacKay is a close ally of Jesse Ventura, the ex-wrestling ex-governnor of Minnesota. Ventura is not a Palin supporter,  nor is he even an admirer. On CNN's Larry King Show earlier this week, Ventura call Gov. Palin "a quitter" and said that she could never make it as a Navy Seal. Seeing as how only men are eligible for that elite Navy unit, Ventura is only half right.

Also, while Sarah Palin is not the extreme right wing idealogue the hard left claims that she is, we doubt that her social conservatism is soft enough to abide the Independence Party's socially libertarian views. Plus, we don't believe that Mackay's party is sufficiently conservative on fiscal matters for Sarah Palin.

None of this logic matters one whit to the media, which will continue to push the third party Palin meme. But that might just be what the governor wants the mediacrats to do. It certainly will get the attention of the GOP establishment. And Sarah Palin has a few things she would like to tell them.

- JP

Sarah Barracuda can teach the GOP how to fight

Examiner.com's George Copeland has some food for thought for the Republican Party. The GOP, he points out, tends to avoid controversy and allows The Left to club it unmercifully. But Sarah Palin marches to the beat of a different drummer than most of her fellow Republicans:

In the view of many of her supporters, not only did Palin excel in her handling of this controversy, she dragged Letterman down by his neck, kicked his butt, and then squashed his head like a tick. Some might wish that somebody had dared to attempt such tactics when Newt Gingrich was being hounded out of the House.

The GOP, at its lowest point since Ronald Reagan left the White House at the end of his second term as president, should pick up the cadence from its 2008 vice presidential candidate:

In today’s era of heavily slanted MSM coverage, of vicious partisan attacks on GOP leaders, and of sniggering and baseless contempt from the left-wing punditry, should the GOP stay true to its shopworn and ineffective tactics? Or, should a new course be charted, one along the lines so ably demonstrated by Sarah Palin?

Copeland concludes by asking what the Republicans have to lose. I honestly think that there are some in the party who have become so accustomed to losing that they are afraid to try to win. As strange as that may sound, it makes a lot more sense than the conspiracy theory which holds that those same people are all Democrat moles seeking to sabotage the Grand Old Party from within.

Sarah Palin is a fighter. For those in the Stupid Party who have forgotten how to fight or have simply lost the nerve to do so, the daughter of two teachers is uniquely qualified to instruct them in the art of political combat and will even help them find their own lost backbones.

- JP

Liz Cheney or Meghan McCain?

The daughters of two famous Republican politicians have been getting some serious face time in the media lately. Meghan McCain has a head start, thanks to her blog, her father's campaign for the presidency last year and a set of beliefs which the Obama-loving drive-by media finds very close to their own. So she has been given a wealth of video footage and column inches to get out her message that even her father's GOP is still not sufficiently Democrat Lite to successfully suck up to the generation she assumes to speak for.

McCain The Daughter has gotten so much media exposure that she's starting to wear thin, even on the mellow nerves of crunchy cons, conservatives who are okay with some of the ways of liberalism. Meghan's ways, especially her attitudes about sex, are not those aspects of liberalism that the crunchies are comfortable with. Rod Dreher, in his latest BeliefNet blog post, calls her "moronic" and "a useful idiot for the media left."

On the other side of the Republican coin, there is Liz Cheney, whom Washington Whispers blogger Paul Bedard calls "the hottest Republican property out there." A growing number of conservatives including her close friends are pushing Liz Cheney to run for public office.

Bedard doesn't hold back on the praise for the elder Cheney daughter:

A forceful defender of the [Bush] administration and her dad, Liz Cheney has been appearing on TV with greater regularity. She brings to the screen a combination of her dad's steely focus and her mom's softer touch. "It's a two-fer. She comes off a bit better than he does sometimes," a conservative consultant said.

Allahpundit captured a fine example of that combination showing Liz Cheney easily pushing Lawrence O'Donnell into meltdown. In all fairness, however, O'Donnell has repeatedly proven that it's not that difficult a feat to accomplish.

Dick Cheney's daughter also did a fine job of pwning another O'Donnell - MSDNC's Nora - in a televised appearance late last month. On the same network's Morning Joe program, Liz reduced the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal columnist Eugene Robinson to sputtering, stuttering ineffectiveness.

Without question, Liz Cheney has inherited her father's ability to drive the Left into derangement mode, a characteristic both share with Alaska's Sarah Palin. On Gov. Palin, Megahn McCain has consistently said, "No comment," when the question inevitably comes up in interviews. She has obviously been admonished by her father not to directly attack his former running mate. But that hasn't stopped Megahn from going after the governor's daughter Bristol. Liz Cheney, on the other hand, says Sarah Palin is "terrific."

So the answer to the question posed by the title of this post is "Liz Cheney." It's a no-brainer. Liz Cheney, like the grown-up she is, calmly and effectively makes her argument, while Meghan McCain, in Rod Dreher's words, is "making a national fool of herself." The future of the GOP is found not in the valley girl foolishness of Meghan McCain, but rather in the clear-headed reasoning of Liz Cheney. 

Update: More on Liz Cheney from Rush here. Meanwhile, Carlos Echevarria suggests an interesting ticket for 2012.

- JP

Liz Cheney: Sarah Palin is "terrific"

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- JP