I just can’t get over how much Republicans are absolutely crowing about how the Ned Lamont victory in Connecticut (once again) spells doom for the Democrats this election cycle.
According to the GOP talking points, when a record setting quarter-million people voted in the Democratic primary last Tuesday and picked Ned Lamont as their candidate for the US Senate, the terrorists will be emboldened (according to VP Cheney), the Democrats are ‘anti-security’ (another new one, anti-american and anti-war must have run the course), and the ‘angry liberal bloggers’ now control everything.
Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s own resident token conservative Patrick McIlheran has jumped into the fray with his own angry blogger posting today where he tries to make another unsuccessful point, this time that Democrats only have room for ‘hatred’ and he compares the democratic election that took place in Connecticut to a “jihad”.
He writes for a major American daily newspaper, and he’s comparing a religious jihad to a democratic election. It’s no wonder the Journal Sentinel is held in such high regard around the country.
What a joke.
Anyways, what this all comes down to is the fact that Republicans are very scared about the upcoming election. So much so, that they’re trying to claim that the “anti-war liberals” are out of touch with mainstream America at the same time that the latest polls show opposition to the war in Iraq approaching 2/3rd’s of the American public.
As I said on another weblog last night, the Republicans have used Iraq and “Terror” as a crutch for so long, that when they can’t lean on that crutch anymore, they have nothing to actually run on.
They’ve had five years in power now. When they can’t scare people into voting anti-Democrat anymore, they have nothing left to run on, except an out of control budget and deficit, sky high insurance and gasoline prices, corruption in every corner of the government, a completely failed foreign policy with Iran and North Korea even more powerful than they were five years ago, and most importantly, no plan for the future on how to fix any of those problems.
Some of those 2/3rds who don’t agree with the Democratic plan to leave Iraq in a year might not agree with it, but at least they know we have a plan beyond ‘Stay and Pray’.
So keep in mind, that the more you hear the talking heads on TV talk about how much the Democrats are in trouble this Fall, the more that it’s really the Republicans who realize they’re in trouble. Sadly, the only thing they’ve got left to run on is a campaign of fear.
And seriously, the Journal Sentinel needs to replace their token conservative with someone who can at least articulate a point once in a while instead of tossing verbal hand grenades like “jihad”. It’s that kind of writing that makes me wonder if McIlheran has been trapped in a McBride journalism ‘lecture’ for the past two years.
It’s not only embarrassing to them as an organization, but to residents of Milwaukee as well.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
My gran had a saying, “Even a stopped clock is right, twice a day.” I don’t have any more affection for McIlheran than you, but before you dump on him, read this.
My family has Democratic connections going way back, and frankly I was ashamed at some of the crap I’ve seen going on lately in the name of the Democratic party. The howler monkeys on both sides of the aisle are making it nigh-unto impossible to get anything done anymore.
There’s an excellent opening here, but the kind of shrill yammering I’ve heard from several Democratic quarters is going to close the door, and quickly.
About that article, there’s a big difference between “McCarthyism” of the 40′s and 50′s and random samplings of comments from weblogs on the Internet.
The thing I get a kick out of right now is the GOP trying to suddenly label the Democratic support of Lamont as the ‘end of bipartisanship’. Hello!? Bipartisanship has been dead for the last five years, but all the sudden, it’s the fault of the Democrats?
It’s classic GOP tactics. Blame the other side for what they’ve been doing all along, and get defesnsive when we start playing the same game they are. Democrats tried being avoid with the ‘partisan’ label for the past five years, and we got our collective asses handed to us as a result. Forgive me if we take a different approach and start playing on the same level the Republicans have been for that timeframe :)
BTW Arlen, time to update your sites blogroll.. I don’t have my old domain anymore :)
The howler monkeys on both sides of the aisle are making it nigh-unto impossible to get anything done anymore.
Amen.
So now that Democrats are even starting to play by the rules Republicans have been for 5 years, it’s time to get outraged?
“So now that Democrats are even starting to play by the rules Republicans have been for 5 years, it’s time to get outraged?”
No actualy, I’ve been outraged for years. My heritage is Democratic (in my younger days I started to set up a campaign for Assembly from my district, going so far as speaking with then-Gov. Pat Lucey about supporting me — he refused and supported my opponent, a major reason why I shelved the bid) but I’ve gone cantankerously independent for the last decade or so. The days of real leaders like Mike Mansfield and Bill Proxmire are gone. In their place we have political parties who don’t stand on principal, but rather take polls and do market research to find out what stands they should take in order to attract the most voters. Blecch. A pox on both their houses.
In this particular instance I could quote Aaron Sorkin: “You’re supposed to be the Good Guys. You should act like it.”
And yes, my blogroll is way out of date. For example, I dropped the Haydens from my reading list long ago, back when they agreed with Kos that it was more important to be fast than factual and further, that this was a satisfactory justification to harass school officials. (Just one more exaple of the shrillness that drove me out of the Democrats.) I’m doing a lot of revamping, and the blog will be moving to its own domain shortly. I’ve been freeloading long enough; it’s time for Theodicius to stand on his own two feet.I’ll catch up with you then.
Arlen … you are a voice of reason.
In their place we have political parties who don’t stand on principal, but rather take polls and do market research to find out what stands they should take in order to attract the most voters
Exactly.