A first(?) thread on 2008: McCain,Giuliani & the Republicans

I dont think the Dems need to do 3)

Avant le deluge, Bush might have taken comfort in the notion that his critics on the right were nothing more than pointy-headed purists. Now he's confronted with poll numbers showing that 58 percent of Republicans disapprove of his policy. It's those poll numbers that tell you all you need to know about the stances adopted by Allen, Frist, et al. They also demonstrate unequivocally that the era of GOP blind loyalty to Bush is now officially over.

There was, however, one notable holdout whose loyalty remained, if not blind, at least stubbornly persistent: John McCain, who declared that Bush had "earned our trust" and "deserves the presumption" that he "would not sell our security short."

Now, it's been apparent for some time that McCain has no intention of "making the same mistakes he made in 2000," as David Keene puts it. That he's made his peace with Bush and intends to run as his ally, not his foe. That the days of McCain the vaunted maverick are coming to an end. Yet the ports imbroglio may prove a harbinger of a more surprising dynamic in the 2008 race: a dynamic whereby McCain, out of fear of alienating the Republican base, plays the Bush loyalist, while his rival, Allen, driven by a sense that the base is shifting, plays the Bush apostate.

It's still a long way until 2008, and any number of scenarios might yet unfold. Before Allen can turn his attention fully to the presidential contest, he must stand for reelection this November, and with the entry of former Navy secretary James Webb into the Democratic field, that may prove tougher than expected. Guided by Karl Rove, Bush may tack sharply back to the right and regain his footing with conservatives. And no one should underestimate the star power of McCain, or the role that primogeniture plays in the GOP. In the end, it may simply be McCain's turn.

But weirder things have happened than a charming, incurious, pseudo-southern pol filling a Republican vacuum and becoming the consensus candidate. It would be ironic if someone so Bush-like emerged triumphant by fashioning himself as the anti-Bush. Ironic, but not unthinkable.

I dont think the Dems need to do 3) ... the current administration has been doing the job of pissing them off enough to go vote quite well enough by itself.

Fox, in that article this struck me:

Quote:

On an emotional level, many blacks will hear Hillary's remark as follows: "I say Republicans run the House like a plantation because I am speaking to Negroes--the wretched of the earth, a slave people--who will surely know all about plantations." Is this a tin ear or a Freudian slip, blacks will wonder? Does she really see us as she projects us--as a people so backward that our support can be won with a simple plantation reference, and the implication that Republicans are racist?

Interesting to see how the editors of the Wall Street Journal project and interpret how "many blacks" surely must hear Hillary's words. Strikes me as highly condescending itself, personally (ah yes - the WSJ editors, who could be more in tune with what blacks wonder about?). But have we actually had many blacks saying anything of what is projected onto them here, in response to Hillary's remarks?

I have seen him, but don't know anything about him.

He has politician hair. Ew. Like Trent Lott. That can't be real!

"I clearly fascinate them," Gingrich said of the Democrats. "I'm much more intense, much more persistent, much more willing to take risks to get it done. Since they think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion." [Washington Post, 10/20/94]

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," Clinton, D-N.Y., told the crowd at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. "It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."

OMG, he's a commie!

<lol!!!>

You must have missed the part where the quote was quoted by a black man who is echoing what many black people have said in various ways on the radio and television.

Foxfyre wrote:

You must have missed the part where the quote was quoted by a black man who is echoing what many black people have said in various ways on the radio and television.

Yes, I did see that one actual black person was quoted in the editorial. But otherwise the "many black people" that are allegedly "echoed" in remarks from angry white Republicans like this remain conspicuously anonymous.

Also saying Newt did it is the same as the "Clinton did it" defense.

Didn't mean to tread on any toes, don't have too many Kentuckians on these threads. For that matter I bet it would hard to find that many Kentuckians who don't buy into the whole Bush agenda hook line and sinker.

(also didn't mean the awful pun, just noticed it)

This was not an editorial and was not written by the WSJ staff.

It is an essay contributed by Dr. Steele; the quote is his; and he is no angry white Republican. [..]

Start here:
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=172

revel wrote:

Also saying Newt did it is the same as the "Clinton did it" defense.

you're right. it is. and i pointed it out simply because of the selective memory loss that is constantly in play.

and here's another one....

for alla the kvetching about "slick willie", "monica and her cigar trick", etc.

there seems to be a lack of memory about bob packwood and the young congressional page.

ouch!

Justice Department closes case on Packwood

July 23, 1996
Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EDT

PORTLAND, Oregon (CNN) -- The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to prosecute former Sen. Bob Packwood on charges that he altered his diaries to obstruct an investigation into alleged sexual and official misconduct.

Packwood resigned in September 1995 after the Senate Ethics Committee unanimously recommended expelling him and released more than 10,000 pages of his diary to support its decision. Packwood, an Oregon Republican, had been accused of sexual misconduct with 17 women, trying to use his influence to obtain a job for his wife, and altering the diary to hide his misconduct.

He was notified last week of the Justice Department's decision not to prosecute in a one-sentence letter, his lawyers said Monday.

"This will inform you that the Public Integrity Section has declined prosecution and closed its investigation of allegations that your client, Robert Packwood, obstructed Congress ... ," the letter read.

Packwood now has a business and political consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He said the investigation was the last unresolved issue from the events leading to his resignation. "The letter just speaks for itself," Packwood said. "It does wrap up everything."

Betty Roberts, a former Oregon Supreme Court justice who helped lead efforts to oust him, said the decision meant little. His resignation had already closed the book on the case, she said.

"What's the point now? Everything's been done. Why go through all that expense of more investigation and a trial?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Packwood wrote: "But I said wait a minute. You and I have made love maybe six or seven times. She says, 'At the most.' I said, 'Well, six or seven times, and you were telling me then that you maybe made love once a year. I was feeling sorry for you and thinking I was doing my Christian duty by making love to you."

When Packwood was asked on the CBS News program "Face The Nation" about his sexual misconduct in 1995, he said, "In some cases, I was very frankly so drunk that I cannot remember the evening."