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Hurricane Katrina

While You Were at CPAC

Submitted by Patrick Ruffini on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 01:25
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In case you've been living in a cave or something, the left has lately gotten good at campaigns to delegitimize and destroy up-and-coming Republicans long before they have a chance at running for President.

For Sarah Palin, the nutroots-ginned-up stories ranged from the fabulist notion that she wasn't the mother of her own child or blowing up stories like questioning her role in the Bridge to Nowhere -- stories that to date generated little controversy even among her local enemies -- into national firestorms.

More often than not, the process goes something like this: a Daily Kos diarist posts something, which is then on Olbermann the next night. Pseudo-journalistic outfits like TPM start making phone calls, which gives the guys at Politico just enough cover to start get in on the action, making it an MSM story, embroling the targeted Republican and forcing them to respond. In Palin's case, sick Daily Kos rumors were given enough credence to precipitate the disclosure of her daughter's pregnancy, which itself became a pretty big national story.

The left's latest search-and-destroy mission is against Bobby Jindal, centering on the segment in Jindal's speech where he talked about commisserating with the late Sheriff Harry Lee about bureaucratic bungling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

It started with a Daily Kos diary shortly after Jindal wrapped up his speech on Tuesday night, the 24th.

This prompted Keith Olbermann to declare Jindal's story of talking to Sheriff Harry Lee "apparently not true" on the Wednesday night's broadcast.

By Thursday, a Zachary Roth piece in TPM Muckraker poured gasoline on the fire, keying off the original Daily Kos diary and adding in some Nexis searches. Roth calls the Governor's office to ask for comment.

On Thursday night, Erick Erickson is the first to push back in Jindal's defense, noting accounts from Sheriff Lee's deputies. There is also a YouTube video of Lee, at the time in question, recounting visits from Jindal.

By Friday morning, the story is all consumming. Politico's Ben Smith, going on Roth's TPM piece, is on the phone for multiple rounds with Jindal's office. That day, Roth files two more dispatches, again based on first-hand reporting.

Legitimate Issues for Republican Mea Culpa

Submitted by Cahnman on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 21:34
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On the main page, Jon Henke offers a template for Republican mea culpa that should allow us to move forward.  I agree with the assessment that we owe the American people an explanation of where we went wrong AND (let's not forget) where we went right over the past eight years.  That said, such a mea culpa has to concentrate on the issues where we actually WENT WRONG as opposed to the one major issue where George W. Bush sacrificed his personal popularity to lead the United States (and the entire world) to a better tomorrow.

On that note, these are the seven legitmate issues for a Republican Mea Culpa:

1) Terri Schivao

2) Harriet Miers

3) TARP and Bailout Nation.

4) 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills

5) Duke Cunningham, et. al.

6) 2005 Highway Bill

7) Continuing and expanding Carter/Clinton "affordable housing" policies.

Things that have NO PLACE on this list: IRAQ, Medicare Part D, Katrina, Missle Defense, or ANYTHING related to the War on Terror.

Agnostic: No Child Left Behind, Immigration.

Thoughts/Suggestions?!?

An out of the box veep choice for Mac

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 05:56
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The current preoccupation among political junkies is trying to determine who will be McCain's Vice Presidential pick, and perhaps more importantly, who should be. Hence the floating of such non-household names at sites like RedState like RI Governor Don Carcieri or Congressman Mike Pence.   
 
Thinking things through. John McCain needs to make a VP pick that accomplishes a few things:
 
a) Passes the test of sufficient experience to credibly serve as President
b) Distances himself from failures of the Bush Administration
 
a third consideration is also the nominee preferably:
 
c) Does not have a record that would require fence mending with conservatives
 
As a result, such usual suspects as Lieberman, Ridge and Rice have one or more deficiency on this list; while newbies like Jindal and Palin fail the first test.
 
I also think despite the "rules" of "Baseball Crank" http://baseballcrank.com/archives2/2008/05/politics_the_mc_1.php     there is a huge desire for a nonpolitician in the electorate--not just a non DC politician---but a desire for someone who has never stood for office.  Such a person might enhance McCain's image as being over the petty partisanship which we can be assured the Obamatons will descend to, and attract many of the "swamp yankee" independents who are of conservative temperament but think the current edition of Republicans have flopped..
 
Thinking along these lines I had earlier thought Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard,  would work . But the more I think about it, there is someone who could neutralize much of Obama's alleged "post-racial" positive qualities and also run rings around Obama's credentials to serve as commander-in-chief.
 
He has no known positions irritating to conservative activists and clearly breaks from one of Bush's most notorious failures. And he strongly reinforces the national security theme of Mac's campaign.
 
This is waaaay out of the box, but this would also be the sort of surprise pick that would capture the public's interest.
 
Why not recently retired General Russel Honore?
 

 

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