washington insiders

We've seen an awful lot of nasty verbiage from the chattering classes in response to the Sarah Palin resignation. Upon reflection, it says a lot more about them and what they think about the people who really support the Republican party than it reflects on Palin.

Let me first preface that I'm assuming Palin isn't stepping down because she is running off to the tropics with Rosie O'Donnell or has converted the Alaska pension funds into gold bullion in a numbered Zurich account. Assuming that she simply thought "going with the flow" was what dead fish do; this move still could be as useful to her ambitions for elective office as Plaxico Burress's marksmanship was to his football career. It does appear the Republican base were understanding of the move; but that still won't win a general election.

I'll also preface that I respect the opinions of those who simply and dispassionately think Palin is not presently ready to run for President, and will not make the effort to attain that stature.  I'm willing to reserve judgment until I see what Palin 2.0 looks and sounds like.

But I think we ought to at least appreciate that Palin took on the thankless task of trying to derail the Barack Obama juggernaut.  Unfortunately, it seems the DC insiders are for the most part more interested in fragging their own troops than leading the counteroffensive.

Two in particular are Micks gone wrong---Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy. As for our party, it's like they've thrown away their rosaries and enlisted in the Black & Tans 

Peggy Noonan once used her "force" for good. Sadly, she seems to have slipped the surly bounds of both political reality and good taste in her latest columm.

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

Since I have no reason to believe Ms. Noonan actually interviewed Palin before this writing this diatribe the concept of "facts lacking evidence" seems to kick in. But then again, I was busy learning a profession when Peggy was writing feel good speeches for President Reagan.  

It also seems that the alternative--the election of Barack Obama--was less "horrifying" to Ms. Noonan. Jeez.

Noonan then goes on to disparage the Republicans who identify with Palin's background. You see she really isn't  that blue collar and we shouldn't identify with the "politics of resentment"  And you see    " She makes the party look stupid, a party of the easily manipulated."

If anything, the reaction of the Republican rank and file since her resignation announcement should demolish the lie that social conservatives and libertarians are "easy to command" . The entire media establishment  said the Palin decision was at the least "bizarre".  Evidently it was a bad thing now the Republican voter wasn't "easily manipulated" and reached their own conclusions.

You know Peg, I started in Brooklyn and you started there a decade earlier. I ended up at 'Cuse and you went to where, Fairleigh Ridiculous. The difference is my Irish folks don't put on the "lace curtain" airs, pretend we were like the Kennedys and trash the common folk for not being socially aware. Your loss.  

Then again, once you did work for CBS, maybe rooting for the MSM is like hardwired in your DNA. I dunno.  Never had that problem.

Now, for that other marksman of friendly fire, Mike Murphy.  Murphy is a Georgetown grad (one reason I, a Cuse grad, distrust him)  hailing from Grosse Pointe, MI, so there's little reason to think he's really encountered any appreciable number of working stiffs. And let's look at his resume. 

Murphy is a writer and Republican political consultant who has advised John McCain, Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jeb Bush.

(Yep, Arnold's been such a great Republican governor, Mike. Hope you aren't owed any IOU's. I hear Alaska still pays cash) 

Murphy's a bit less catty than Noonan, but still jumps all over someone whom he says he was an admirer of --McCain--for picking Palin.  And again, it's those terrible clueless people in Middle America who don't know what's good for them. 

 Palin profits mightily from a Republican blind spot. She has all the right smirking enemies in America's media elite. To them, Palin reeks of flyover America, that vast and corny collection of Nebraskas and Alabamas where the Army can always meet enlistment quotas and Tina Fey's private jet stops briefly to refuel. Red state Republicans see the snarky, elite attacks on Palin as an attack on them. And in some ways, they are.

I'm trying to figure out what Murphy's accomplishing here.  He can't be doing his buddy Mitt Romney any good by trashing the very people Mitt needs to get nominated. But then again, Murphy does MSNBC and is writing scripts in Hollywood. Maybe we just aren't that important to him anymore?

I may not be part of the meritocracy here, Mike, but, hmm, it's not like you haven't been associated with campaigns that crashed and burned----which you conveniently omit from the resume.  ( Hey, I never spent $42 million to lose what started as a dead-even statewide race to Hillary Clinton--by 12 points!)

I won;t even dignify the likes of John Weaver--last seen trying to get Huntsman in as the RINO hope after failing to get McCain to run as a Democrat--with a response. Nor Steve Chapman who thinks Palin's support is all due to looks, as if every Republican doesn;t have a gender gap.   

Lemme set this one up for ya, Peg and Mike. You guys have been running the Republican party from your little salons for over a decade. And running it into the ground while the both of you have personally done wonderfully.  And you think the rank-and-file weren't gonna notice?

You guys act like you are in the Omega House and we are the Delta House.

Let's see where a decade of poll tested, focus grouped, well researched, blow dried Republicanism got us from the professionals and party statesmen.  Sarah Palin's favorable rating is higher than that of the Republican party.  Hello, who's dragging who down?

Voters are turning against the center and that includes the professional consultant industry, K Street lobbyists, retread candidates (including the "heir force") and especially Republicans who'd rather attack their own party members instead of Obama.  Maybe we're tired of being told things like Arnold is pro-taxpayer or the GOP Congress was against wasteful spending.

I think we crave authenticity and the willingness to fight. And that's the last thing to expect from the old timers trying to keep their grip on the party. It's time for some "creative destruction" to the hackasaurses who can't see their way clear to respect the very people who are now the Republican Party 

I have a suggestion for any and all Republicans who do not want Sarah Palin to be our nominee in 2012.

How about....hmmmm....running a better candidate and explaining why he or she is better?

or isn't that haughty enough? 

For a guy out of office and not going to seek any, people are paying an awful lot of attention to Colin Powell.

And they shouldn't.

This puts me at odds with folks of the right who are irate at Powell and those who welcome his continued participation.

Hey, if Colin wants to stay a Republican that's fine. The bottom line is he never was a very partisan Republican and I don't think we should lose any sleep if he disagrees with much of what the party is doing. (as an aside, lets also not scream in horror everytime some Republican says he's not a Rush fan.   Makes us look rather thin skinned) 

Powell is one of those folks who although they emerge from humble beginnings are now firmly entrenched in the D.C. establishment. He has never sought elective office not campaigned much for others. and indeed suggested in 2000 he would have been willing to serve in a Gore administration. Nope, he's the inside guy to staff the less partisan levers of the federal government.  An establishment guy.

And from 1980 to 2008 that was usually a place where a Republican was pretty welcome, since we either held the White House or Congress for 26 of the 28 years.  And now it isn't.

Powell may use the rationalization that the party drifted to the right, though clearly it was more vocally conservative on many issues prior to George W. Bush's definition of the party. And using Sarah Palin as an excuse won't wash.  Evidently the equally derided Dan Quayle was insufficient reason for Powell to search for the exits back then.    

I also reject the charge by Limbaugh that Powell was solely motivated by racial kinship in his Obama endorsement.  Had Obama been unacceptable to the Beltway bramin, he'd have been unable to gain Powell's support.

Nope, this was all about Dr. Gallup. Powell is a symptom of much of what defines a moderate--they are dyed-in-the -wool frontrunners. Had McCain been leading Obama into the homestretch I have no doubt the General would have been side-by-side with Mac singing his praises.

The argument being made now by the Beltway establishment is that we need to cater to the interests of folks like Powell to gain back our path to elective success.  I'm not for RINO bashing as a path to power, but let's be real. This proposal is simply backasswards.

Moderates won;t come back to the ranks of the Republican party because we beg them. They will come back because we look like we are going to win some elections and we make the otther guys look extreme or incompetent. The DC press has cause and effect reversed.

Indeed consider this. If Powell was convinced that the GOP couldn't mount a comeback he wouldn't leave the door open to come back in.  A general always thinks strategically.

Colin Powell endorsed and worked for Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43, all of whom were to the right of John McCain..  It wasn;t the policies that drove him off in 2008, it was the popularity. Powell's influence would have sunk with the ship had he endorsed McCain.

I think the Republicans should be a "big tent" party. My point is the first thing to do is to build the tent, not worry so much about the folks who will always stand around the periphery waiting to be cajoled inside.