Quote of the Day
Nobody cuts brutally to the quick quite like Vanity Fair’s James Wolcott. On the wingnuts who drove Specter out of the Republican Party, he writes:
Many of them appear defiantly resigned to the Republican Party becoming a regional bastion of true believers, the Branch Davidian compound of the Confederate Jesus.
The Beast Who Slumbers wishes he were capable of writing such a line.
As long as they are not abusing the children in their care, I say build a wall around Waco and let them stew in their own irrelevance.
Resigned? They’re thrilled. At least the 21% who are left are thrilled. Our motto may be “more and better Democrats.” Their motto is now “less and purer Republicans.”
They love the litmus test. It’s their nature. And, even if they succeed in getting rid of their moderates they won’t stop purging. Next, they’ll move on to who’s christian enough.
Republicans are walking happily into extinction.
Great quote!
Indeed, listening to Michael Smerconish this morning, a caller said Smerconish and Specter were weak because they were not conservatives, which set Smerconish off on a tirade, in which he said the Republican Party will not win an election in his lifetime if it is only composed of conservative true believers.
I don’t understand why it is a big deal to get Specter. Dem’s ALREADY HAVE A FUCKING MAJORITY. This super majority being the new MAJORITY is pissing me off.
I’m with you DV. Every time I hear a newsperson say that 60 votes is needed to pass legislation in the Senate I get a bit angry. That is absolutely not true. Only when the Republicans became obstructionists did this occur.
The “more and purer Republicans” to me is just reinforcing that Republicans aren’t interested in governing. Why should they be when their preference is the status quo?
No one can write an insult quite like James Wolcott. I’m just happy that he’s not mad at me!
Wolcott’s kinda the spiritual heir to Dorothy Parker, who once described an actor as running “the gamut of emotions from A to B”.
Maybe she was talking about Don Ameche…
The parties remind me of two religions. The Dem’s out looking for converts, and the Repuks conducting whitch hunts drive them out .
And as far as tourture goes we all know it works look how many Whitches were exposed in Salem Mass.
A majority is often not enough–it is overrated. We only have to look at the state senate in Dover. A majority of senators isn’t enough to get HB1 (stuck in Adams’ committee since March 25th) or HB5 (stuck in the same committee since April 7th) to the senate floor for a vote (sure it is enough on paper, but not in Dover).
Democrats had a majority in the Senate in 2007 and 2008, but with W in the White House, they were unable to reverse course, on Iraq or other major items that the country elected them to correct.
W stacked the Supreme Court deck. We need balance there, and that means truly liberal justices, ones that make Southern Republicans (but I repeat myself) apoplectic. A Democratic majority in the Senate is not be enough to make that happen. 60 isn’t a guarantee, but it gives President Obama the ability to aim high for the high court.
Paul makes a couple of great points — a majority doesn’t mean much if they use their majority for excessive self-protection and bad policy.
I was thinking about what the Specter defection might mean for the Supreme Court. At minimum it looks much better for the kind of picks Obama might make — who aren’t going to be liberal ideologues….
“On the wingnuts who drove Specter out of the Republican Party, he writes:”
He wasn’t driven out of the party you dope. He just knew he had no chance of winning in a Republican Primary because of Toomey’s popularity.