The award for turning catastrophic defeat into victory in one's own mind goes to a blogger at Firedoglake, who extended her thanks to the Tea Party movement for permitting the election of a Democrat as governor in Minnesota, and keeping the U.S. Senate blue, Come Saturday Morning: Thanks, Teabaggers!:
... we lost control of our legislature to the GOP (after only having had both houses for four years), and one of our best US congressmembers, Jim Oberstar.Wait a second. She sounds just like David Frum and the other lost-in-the wilderness Republicans who are complaining about being rescued by the Tea Party movement.
But we didn’t lose our state constitutional officers, our key judges, and — most importantly — the governor’s race....
The same scenario has played itself out across the country. Races that were locks for the Republicans before the primaries suddenly became ones in which Democrats had at least fighting chances once teabaggers won those primaries. Nevada’s Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, was expected to lose by double-digit margins to any of his establishment Republican foes, but instead he faced Sharron Angle of the Tea Party wing, and managed to use his excellent ground game to put together a solid win. Conversely, Delaware Republican Senator Mike Castle, who was a lock to win in the general election, lost his primary to the notoriously batty Christine O’Donnell, allowing Democratic candidate Chris Coons to cruise to an easy victory.
The teabagger failure at the ballot box is so profound that I had to laugh when Michele Bachmann tried to brandish them at John Boehner in an effort to shake him down for a leadership role in the new Republican-controlled House. It’s why the word of the Tea Party wing’s election losses has been spread far and wide by establishment Republican types as a way of undercutting teabagger leverage, real or imagined.
New post title: "Establishment Republicans Declare Defeat in WWII, Victory In 2008, and Defeat in Mid-Terms.
Update: Doug Ross on How The NRSC Cost The GOP 5 Seats, which shows that the math works both ways.
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Note that the people who suddenly discovered that civility in political discourse is a virtue still use the pejorative "teabaggers" to describe their fellow Americans exercising their constitutional rights to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances. As with a lot of leftist principles, "hypocrisy" isn't really the right word. A hypocrite knows he's not practicing what he preaches. The left's lack of self-awareness really requires a different word; I can't think of one at the moment.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, not every Democrat lost last Tuesday; claiming victory in such a circumstance reminds me, mentioning World War II, of Hirohito's capitulation speech. I think it set the world record for understatement: "The war has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."
Peggy Noonan's latest is also a classic example of obtuseness and people lacking "in tunedness". Yeah Peggy, we need yet another lecture about the "unqualified" candidates the Tea Party "lost" with. The alternative is to vote for a Democrat running as a Republican. We don't vote for uniforms Peggy. We vote for members of "the team". Choosing between a Democrat or a democrat is NOT an acceptable alternative to choosing between a liberal or a conservative. Keep holding your nose Peggy. It helps dull the taste of those crap sandwiches you keep eating (a little anyway).
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703805704575594772776292394.html
And then there is Graydon Carter's insanely insulting and condescending lecture at Vanity Fair. Best example of Ann Coulter's mocking comment that "we are ALL racists now".
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2010/12/graydon-201012
These are our "betters". These people are smarter and more moral than we ignorant sh*t eaters.
Notice in my last comment how it doesn't matter whether you follow the advice of the uber-liberal elites like Firedoglake or Vanity Fair or the advice of Republican establishment elites like Peggy Noonan or Karl Rove? Both camps are leading us to the same place. For now, we need to concentrate on replacing GOP leadership as our first priority. Their stated first priority of making sure that Obama is a one-term president will come as a natural consequence of reaching our goal. There is no point in replacing Obama with yet another RINO. A train wreck is a train wreck regardless of who is driving. We need to avoid the train wreck.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of WWII and unreality, I'd say that authoress is the present-day equivalent of the Japanese soldier still fighting the war in the hidden interior of Guam circa 1972. Clueless.
ReplyDeleteShe sounds like she just saw the fairytale "Alice in Wonderland" where up is down and down is up. Keep living the dream and 2012 is ours.
ReplyDelete"From AAA first-class temperment to ZZZee well-creased pants" by Peggy Noonan and David Brooks.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans won HUNDREDS of seats across the country. We control the House, Governorships, and the message at the moment. Not bad at all. The next step is:
ReplyDelete1) Cut taxes.
2) Cut spending.
3) Repeal Obamacare.
4) Military to borders. Build fence immediately.
5) Defund PBS.
Some of those above are easier than others. All are critical. Fail on these and forget 2012 support from many on the Right.