That’s what Michelle Malkin is.
Apparently, loyalty is a one way virtue within the Republican party and if one does not sing the hymn of “War without end-amen!”-the only correct response is to immediately abandon one’s fellow republicans. It does not matter how much work these same Republicans have done, or what their voting record is-in the topsy turvy world that passes for informed discussion within the Washington DC these days, it is clear that “Dissent equals treason”.
That’s what the Town Hall Harlot wants you believe. Its also what a whole host of milbloggers and political bloggers on the right want you to think too.
Actual words matter not.
Reasoned thought matters not.
A track record of doing distasteful work for the President matters not one wit. Its only, “What have done for me lately?” that matters to this crowd.
Consider how quickly the cheerleader branded Trent Lott as a surrender monkey, for having the effrontery to suggest that maybe, just maybe, after 4 years of pissing away opportunity after opportunity, Americans have a right to be impatient with the Iraqis.
Now mind you, Lott never said anything about leaving or withdrawing-synonymous in this crowd with the word surrender-he simply said that:
Lott’s comment Monday put a fine point on what Senate Republican stalwarts have been discussing quietly for weeks. It also echoed remarks made this weekend by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, indicating the GOP’s limited patience on the war. “I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas,” Lott, R-Miss., told reporters. Lott declined to say what he thinks should happen if Congress does not see improvement in the security situation by then. But he said lawmakers have time before they must decide.Bush announced in January that he planned to send to Iraq 21,500 more combat troops, plus several thousand more support troops, in an attempt to tamp down violence in Baghdad and the western Anbar province. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said he could give a better assessment in September of whether the strategy is working.
Yea baby, that’s really waving the old white flag that is…………….funny thing though, Lott has consistently voted with the White House and never mentioned the “W” word once. But the little bitch still wants him to get a White Feather.
And now comes a new object for their scorn. The delegation of 11 Republicans who are guilty of the cardinal sin of being “moderate” in a party of extremists are being taken to task for having the audacity to go to the White House and tell the President what 72% of the country already knows: That people are sick and tired of seeing Americans get killed in Iraq for a bunch of Arabs who won’t help themselves. And that the public’s patience with Iraq, the Iraqis and the whole stupid mess is pretty well used up.
Plus, the solutions that are being offered by the Bush administration just don’t make any sense. Reza Aslan explains it
You can go here, here, here, here, and here to read bloggers who are unhappy that Congressional Representatives would actually dare to go tell the President the truth.
Seems the President is not too happy with them either. John Cole sums it up well:
While I am glad members of the GOP are finally beginning to come to terms with the fact that we are in a bloody version of Groundhog Day in Iraq, it is a little infuriating that it took political pressure in their home districts to drive home the point. Have they not been watching the news, reading the briefings, and, you know, paying attention?Regardless, let me be the
firstsecond to tell the poor dears: BUSH DOES
NOT CARE.He doesn’t care about your plight. Loyalty, to this administration, is a one way street. You simply need to understand that we are going to be in Iraq until the Decider/Commander Guy and his folks can figure out a way to blame the Democrats prior to the 2008 election.
Lets see. They voted with the President to oppose the most recent version of the war funding supplemental. They voted with the President to support previous funding bills. They say all the right things in public.
Their reward for all that work-to be cast into the outer darkness. That’s what Republicans do to people who deviate from the party’s script.
As for that contentious meeting with moderate House Republicans so widely reported yesterday (see yesterday’s column, Bush’s Bubble Breached), signs are that Bush and his aides were furious, rather than chastened, by the brutal reality check — and by the fact that it was made
public.Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post: “White House political adviser Karl Rove, furious that Republican moderates had divulged a confrontational meeting they had on Tuesday with Bush on the war, started yesterday with an angry conversation with the meeting’s organizer, Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.), according to several GOP lawmakers. Dan Meyer, the White House’s chief lobbyist, called the other participants to express the administration’s unhappiness.”
Karl does not just get mad, he gets even. Ask the Attorney General about that. You will be lucky to see dime one from the RNC next year guys. Besides when Dick Cheney gets back there will be hell to pay. And not one of these people has EVER, EVER actually voted against the President:
Cheney was even more dismissive of the moderates and their plea for an exit strategy: “We didn’t get elected to be popular,” he said. “We didn’t get elected to worry just about the fate of the Republican Party. Our mission is to do everything we can to prevail on what is now, we believe, a global conflict, a fundamental test of the character of the American people.”
Translation: You bastards are really going to pay for this.
Bob Alexander: Share? Share? You don’t call a press conference. I call a press conference. You’re nothing. Do you understand? You’re nobody.
Like Cheney has any credibility anymore. But he’s still dangerous for at least 18 more months. Especially as the scramble goes on for deck chairs here:
And the band plays on!
In the Republican party, unlike in life, moderation is not a virtue.
